Why Men Do Not Receive the Truth of God

Introduction: The Practical Question of Unbelief

0:02 I'll address myself and direct your thoughts to a very practical question this morning. The question being, why men do not understand the saving truth of God? I'm sure there are many of you, if not all of you, who have heard people talk along these lines. I read the Bible, but it's all kind of double-dutch to me.

0:30 In the Old Testament, there's all those bloody wars and those long genealogies. And in the New Testament, there's an awful lot that it's kind of hard to swallow, walking on water and raising the dead. And when you read the writings of Paul and Peter, they use such high-sounding language, justification, sanctification. It's all kind of confusing to me.

0:58 Or perhaps you've heard someone talk along these lines. Yeah, I've heard that business about God and sin and Christ, but it just plain doesn't make sense to me. It just must be that I'm not cut out to be the religious type, to be a Christian. It's all right for you, but it's not my cup of tea.

1:20 Or perhaps you've heard others say, if the gospel you say you believe is the truth and the only truth, why is it that there are so few who believe it? Now, let's face up to it. You're in a minority. And it just doesn't make sense to me to believe that if something is absolute truth, there'd only be a small handful, and usually not a pretty significant bunch, who believe it.

1:43 Usually kind of the riffraff of society. Not many noble, not many mighty. Well, when you hear that kind of talk, what's your response to it? Why is it that men do not understand the saving truth of God and voice their inability in the ways that I have already done?

The Text and Its Context

2:01 Well, our text this morning addresses itself to that question and answers it with great clarity and with divine authority. The text is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 14.

2:25 Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged. Now, before we begin to take the text apart phrase by phrase to understand its teaching, it's necessary that we spend just a few moments considering the context of this verse. I hope you have some acquaintance with the first five verses since I expounded them a few weeks ago. And you remember in those verses, the Apostle Paul declared that his essential role was that of a witness. He says, I came unto you proclaiming the testimony of God. What I speak, he says, is God's testimony. Now in verses 6 to 9, he says that though this testimony does not suit the world's idea of wisdom, it is indeed God's wisdom, a wisdom made known, by divine revelation.

3:37 That's the essential teaching of verses 6 through 9. Men have not conceived of these things, but God has revealed them. So the Apostle says, My role is the role of a witness, and I bear witness to that which God has revealed. Then in verses 12 through 13, he tells us how that testimony is revealed, namely, by the person of the Holy Spirit.

4:05 It is the Spirit who knows the deep things of God, and therefore has revealed them. And Paul says in verse 12, We've received the Spirit, and He has given us to know the things that are freely given to us of God. And furthermore, he says, that same Holy Spirit has directed us in the very choice of words by which we express the mysteries of God. But now there's a problem.

4:33 Though Paul comes, it's merely bearing testimony to God's revealed truth, truth revealed by the Spirit in words which the Spirit gave him, men do not receive it. Men do not understand it. Men count it foolishness. And it's that particular problem to which Paul addresses himself now in verse 14, when he says, For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.

5:04 So a distillation of Paul's argument is this. God has revealed His truth. That truth is embodied in verbal statements of apostolic authority. Now found, of course, in Scripture.

The Natural Man Defined

5:21 Yet men don't understand that truth. Why? Now with that background of the context, look at the text, and as we do, we'll consider first of all, that person defined. The person who cannot understand God's truth, God defines him in this text.

5:41 Secondly, God then describes his actions. So we have not only his person defined, but his actions described. He receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. And thirdly, his condition declared.

5:59 He cannot know them. A condition of spiritual, impotence. First of all, then, that person defined. How does God define the man or woman, fellow or girl, who hears divine truth, but cannot understand it, and because he cannot understand it, he does not receive it?

6:23 Well, Paul uses a term called here, the natural man. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. What, then, is this natural man? Well, let me state negatively, it has nothing to do with any of the human factors which divide men into various categories.

6:49 Male, female, culture, cultured, uncultured, wise, ignorant, high, low, black, white. It has absolutely nothing to do with any of these distinctions. Rather, it has to do with the fact that, it has to do with the person who has never received the Holy Spirit. The opposite of the natural man, in the context, is the spiritual man.

7:17 Verse 15, But he that is spiritual judges all things. And how does a man become spiritual? Verse 12, Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God. That which constitutes a person a spiritual man, as opposed to a natural man, is that the Holy Spirit has regenerated him, has taken up his abode in him, has thus made him spiritual.

7:54 Now, natural men have marvelous bodies. The Scripture says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. The natural man has a marvelous faculty called the mind that can think and can reason. He has a faculty called the soul.

8:12 Non-regenerate men have souls. That's why the Lord said, Don't fear those that can kill merely the body, but fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. And the natural man, then, is man with all that he has by virtue of his natural birth, but he has nothing more. Nothing more.

8:35 He is a natural man. And added to this thing of his naturalness, having what all men have by nature, he has inherited from Adam a sinful, depraved nature, so that our Lord says in John 3 and verse 6, That which is born of the flesh is flesh. The totality of his being has been radically affected by sin. Not only his deeds, but his heart, his affections, and his mind.

9:15 So God then defines this person who cannot understand the Gospel, who cannot embrace the things of the Spirit of God as a natural man, a man devoid of the Holy Spirit. Whatever else he may have, in the way of intellectual development, in the way of social development, in the way of culture, whatever he may not have, this is the common denominator of all men who reject the Gospel. They are natural men. His unbelief and his impenitence are not rooted in the fact that he is too brilliant for these things, that he is too sophisticated for these things, or that these things are too obtuse. No, no. The problem is he is a natural man. So much then for his person defined.

The Action of the Natural Man: Receives Not

10:12 Now notice his action described. And there are two parts of this description. The essence of his action, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, and then secondly, the reason for his action. For they are foolishness unto him.

10:34 What is the essence of the action of unregenerate men with reference to the truth of God? Paul says they receive not the things of the Spirit of God. We've got to define these words. Receive not and the things of the Spirit of God.

10:55 What are the things of the Spirit of God? Well, in the context, the things of the Spirit of God are the things that the Holy Spirit has revealed. Verse 12. We received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God, which things we speak.

The Things of the Spirit of God

11:19 Well, what are those things? Well, Paul has told us in the previous chapter and a half. He summarizes those things in chapter 2 and in verse 2. I determine not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

11:40 The things of the Spirit of God are the truths which cluster around the person and work of Jesus Christ. Hence, the things of the Spirit are essentially the doctrines of the incarnation of the Son of God who was constituted God's Christ. You remember Peter's confession? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

12:09 And our Lord said, Flesh and blood is not revealed unto you, but my Father who is in heaven. The things of the Spirit of God are the truths that cluster around the doctrine of the incarnation. The truths that cluster around the doctrine of the satisfaction for sin made by Christ's death. The things of the Spirit are those things which point to Christ's death, not as the death of a martyr, not as the death of a weak religious teacher who could influence men by his words but had no power to influence governments by the sword.

12:48 No, no. The truth that in dying he died the just for the unjust. Or in the words of Corinthians 5, God made him to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Those are the things of the Spirit of God that in this picture of absolute weakness and defeat, the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, given up by the will of this puppet court and this spineless man of whom we read this morning, given up to jeering, to spittle, given up to all of this treatment of men, that in all of that God is weaving the fabric of a perfect righteousness which he will give to all who repent and believe the gospel. That's the things of the Spirit of God, the things that relate to the incarnation, to the satisfaction of Christ, to the imputation of his righteousness to all who believe, the regenerating work of the Spirit imparting life. These are the things of the Spirit of God. Now, the essence of the action of that natural man is that he does not receive these things.

14:11 And this word receive means to give a hearty welcome, to embrace with delight. Now, we use the term very loosely. We say, so and so received banking from his parents. Well, that's not the way the word is received here.

14:28 No one welcomes with delight a spanking from his parents, at least not if it's the kind of spankings I give. We use the term loosely when we say that so and so received a demotion at work. Well, he didn't receive it in this sense. He didn't, when the boss came and said, now, Henry, I've got bad news for you.

14:50 Things are going rough and we've got to tighten the belt here and we've got to... He didn't just say, oh, this is wonderful and receive it.

14:57 No, this word has the connotation of an open-armed welcome, charity reception. It's the word our Lord uses twice in Matthew 10 when he says, he that receiveth you receiveth me. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. What is it to receive a prophet?

15:20 It's to welcome him from the heart, to welcome his person and the message which he brings. There's a very tender use of the word in the second chapter of Luke where it speaks of Simeon receiving the babe into his arms. Now, how do you hold an eight-year-old? Don't just pick it up.

15:40 You've received. You see some awkward father. I always like to watch those who are pappies for the first time and there's this little bundle and they're so afraid they're going to break something. They receive that child.

15:51 There's the picture. To welcome tenderly, to receive as something precious. Now, it's that word that is used here. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.

16:07 That is, he does not believe them with a divine faith. He does not love them with a divine love. He does not conform his life to them by a divine power. And to receive the things of the Spirit of God means nothing less than that.

16:26 To receive them is to believe them with a divine faith. Notice how Paul underscores that principle in 1 Thessalonians 2.13. He says, We thank God that when ye received and that's the word, when ye received the word of God from us, ye received it not as the word of men but as the word of God, but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh in them that believe.

16:57 That's the perspective of that verse. He says, You people receive the things of the Spirit of God effectually working in you. Now what does he say? Now you are to be praised that you exercised your common faith towards you believe would warn the righteousness exercise that same faith to these objects and you're saved.

17:40 To receive that's why Paul said that you receive the word. He didn't say you be he said God. God was the author of that faith. For by grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourselves.

18:10 It is the gift of God not of worse lest any man should boast. That's why Luke off the cuff can say that they helped them much who had believed. That's how he describes the believers in Acts. I believe that's Acts 18.

18:26 Helped them much who had believed. That's what it means to receive the word. To believe it with a divine faith. To love it with a divine love.

18:42 To conform the life to it by a divine love. Paul in Romans 6, 17 says, God be thanked that ye who were the servants of sin have obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine the King James says which was delivered you. That's the wrong translation. It's the other way around.

19:04 God be the doctrine unto which you were delivered. That these people were delivered unto the truth. Not that the truth was delivered unto them. Granted the truth is delivered to men.

19:21 But Paul says when you've truly received it God is to be thanked because something happened. In fact, in receiving the truth were under the grip and the power and the mold were delivered unto the truth. And if God has begun to shape you and then he goes on to say what happened. You were the servants of sin change of masters change of life and practice.

19:53 This is what it means to receive the things of the Spirit. Paul says natural men do this. They do not let truth be leaving it with a divine faith with a divine conforming to it Now in some men that receiving not takes on the manifestation of absolute hostility. They say look none of this Christ business none of this gospel business.

20:29 Some people they hear it they say yes so what? Other people that makes sense to me that's nice and in a sense they receive things intellectually but this they have in common if they are natural men if they've never been born of the Spirit they receive them not. There is this kind of a welcome of God. Therefore natural men are described by this activity they receive not the things of the Spirit of God.

21:11 They don't receive Christ for what they really are. They are precious divine truths. If you receive something that is a precious divine truth you'll receive it for what it is. Therefore you don't quarrel with it.

21:28 It's divine. Therefore you must give yourself up to the power of it. It is precious. Therefore you cannot be indifferent to it.

The Reason for Non-Reception: Foolishness

21:37 Now what's the reason for this action? Paul not only gives the essence of their action they receive not but he says this is the reason for foolishness unto Now it's interesting the word he uses for foolishness is the one he's been using in this context 118 the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness chapter 1 verse 21 23 again in chapter 3 in verse 19 and it's the Greek word from which we get our English word moron exactly the same word you tell a man and he looks at you and he says are you kidding only a moron would believe that that's absolute what foolishness that's moronic his mental powers and Paul says that's why natural men don't receive the things of the spirit of God they are morons to them they say you kid have to commit some kind of of mental torture embrace that you mean to

22:53 truly believe the virgin's womb a certain man didn't say complicated than that to be issues of life and Paul said this is why he doesn't receive them his non-reception is rooted in his non-perception it's because he doesn't perceive them to be the wisdom of God foolishness this is why he rejects them suppose we could go out and round up a PhD this morning a natural man who's a PhD and we say to him sir all wisdom of the ages is bound to Christ Christ

24:19 as the incarnate God the crucified Lord of the exalted Savior at the right hand of the Father Christ as the sender of the Holy Spirit and he says come off it now I've come to see in my studies that life is much more complicated than to have its basic issues resolved simple little trivia to talk about Christ incarnate Christ crucified Christ exalted and you tell me that all will end up in that no no I'm sorry sir and Paul's words are fulfilled the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God why they are foolishness unto him but then we go out to the street and we tell him we say sir of sin and we tell him about Christ incarnate crucified and what's his objection he says ah that's all too complicated for me I'm just a simple man I'm just a simple woman and you talk about all the imputed righteousness and regeneration it's all what does the PhD and the common labor have in common they both regard it foolishness and that's why they don't receive it or you come

25:47 to the young person of Christian parents that's why they don't receive the things of the Spirit of God the truth and that life alone can be understood in him and Christ is presented to you the things of the Spirit of God are held before you urged upon you and what I just can't get excited about it I don't deny it and I see it seems to help mom and dad but you don't receive those things oh you don't openly deny them or blaspheme them but you don't receive them you haven't embraced and given yourself up this text tells us they're foolishness to you you probably think this fella here has just gone loco plum loco before his years far as any warrant to what in the world he gets so excited about foolishness yes sure you can go out and whoop and holler at the Mets and that's not foolishness why because you understand what's going on out there you know what a home run is you know what a double play is you know what a strike out is and you know the thrill of winning you can receive of a ball park full of people whooping and hollering for the Mets why because as a natural man that's in the realm where you can be right at home that's not foolishness to you man that's living if you let someone

The Condition Declared: Spiritual Impotence

27:16 get excited about the Savior someone get carried out of himself about the work of Christ and the work of the Spirit yes it is I'm not surprised that as God says it would be the reason we see is because you do not perceive their accounted foolishness so much then for the person who does not believe you can't see their actions described now notice in the third place his condition declared what condition does God say such a person is in He says neither they are first of all of the helplessness of such a person and secondly the reason for that helplessness the fact of the helplessness neither can if you want this thing to come through with greater power translate in your own mind the word can into the word neither it doesn't say he will not in this part of the text it says he cannot and i've often emphasized as you know the difference between can and the word may is a word of permission

28:39 may i have a glass of water the word can is a word of ability and the apostle paul says that the natural man not only actions to see certain condition which makes thing of them from the heart

29:24 this is one of the most pointed statements on human inability to be found anywhere in the word of god neither can he know them notice the relationship until he knows them perceives them in their proper light he'll never receive them there must be perception before there will be reception and what's the reason for this helplessness notice the words they are spiritually judged or spiritually discerned that is the thing the spirit the issues of the gospel demand a spiritual faculty to understand them and see them and natural man that which is born of the flesh that's why jesus said don't be amazed that i say unto you nicodemus except a man be born anew he cannot see he cannot understand he cannot perceive as well as he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven suppose we were to bring into our midst today a man who was blind whose retinas had become detached or whose optic nerves had been absolutely destroyed as far as their usefulness by cataracts and we say to him sir

30:49 do you see the beautiful sun that shines upon the trees here on runnymede road in essex veldt looking out through sightless eyes in what he feels to be the direction where the sun should be and he says i see nothing and if we have it in our power to turn up the intensity of the light of the sun to bring it some thousands of miles intensified heat began to make the trees to wither and made the brightness such that none of us could look out except through the tiniest slits between our fingers and we gently take the face of the blind man and we put it up in the direction of the sun we say do you see it now he says i don't see it if we could bring the sun closer until its light was such we'd be able to see it much better than what we see now we wouldn't be able to see it by our own eyes as we got older and our eyes changed it doesn't look like that until we're in our room in the garden we could not stand it until its heat was such that it began to consume the earth.

31:53 It's a facetious, sightless eye. It only makes more profound the inability of those eyes to see.

32:10 It's exactly what Paul says in this text. Need can he know that he has no spirit was not more light the ability to see. Take the deaf man. His optic nerves are dead.

32:34 Or where there's been some severance of the mechanism that takes the vibrations from the ears and transmits them to the inner ear and then to the auditory nerves and to the brain. Something has been short-circuited. We take him into Symphony Hall in Newark. Or if we've got a little more money, want to do a little more high class, we take him in to the new fancy place for concerts in New York.

33:04 We take him in there to what's the new place called? Well, you all know I've been there, but it slipped my mind.

33:11 Philharmonic Hall. Thank you.

33:14 And we're sitting there in the first row of the box seats. The orchestra blended together and played a symphony and they come to a part where everything is triple forte and the timpani are going away. Feel the vibrations through the whole thing.

33:35 And we nudge our deaf and we say, isn't that beautiful? Isn't that magnificent? It's as though we were nudging a stone pillar. And the man takes out his paper and says, what do you want?

33:52 And we write on it and say, isn't this thrilling? And he writes back, I'm sorry, I cannot hear. And so we say, well, maybe we can resolve the problem if we can get special permission from the conductor to get him right smack down in the orchestra pit. We see the conductor between the intermissions and during the intermission and we get permission for a special chair to be set up right smack in the middle of the orchestra pit.

34:14 And there he is. And in the next piece, the thing rises to tremendous crescendo. And oh, symphony orchestra! What about your deaf friend?

34:26 Does he hear? No, no, he doesn't need an intensification of sound. He needs to have some repair work done on the ear. Now Paul says, that's the problem.

34:36 That's the problem. This is the problem. Man does not need an intensification of the sound. He doesn't need the volume of the spirit turned up.

34:47 He needs to have ears given to him. He needs to have eyes given to him.

34:53 To change the analogy, suppose we were to go out and find a toad this morning and take this toad into one of the local art museums and put down that toad in the face of a beautiful, magnificent work of art that captures the fancy of those who have an appreciation for art. The toad sees something in front of him. If he starts to run in the direction of the picture, he'll know enough to stop. Something's there.

35:21 He sees a picture, but he doesn't see a picture.

35:29 He takes a human being, with an appreciation of art, to see the painting. The toad, but he doesn't see it. Do you see what I'm driving at?

35:43 And in that sense, as a natural man, you can see the panorama of the truths of the gospel. The things of the spirit of God can be splashed upon the canvas of biblical preaching. And you say, yes, there's Christ and there's the incarnation and there's the cross and the resurrection and all the rest, but you see it. Upon a magnificent painting.

36:10 It doesn't enter.

36:17 You just see it, but you don't see it. You see, before that toad will ever appreciate that work of art, a miracle has to happen. The toad's got to be made into an intelligent man. And my friend, it's no less a miracle that has to occur before you, as a natural man or woman, will ever be ravaged by the beauty that's on the canvas of the panorama of the gospel.

36:48 Of the things of the spirit of God. You've got no faculty to see it. Oh, you may gaze upon it with your toad-like eyes and see the form, but fail to perceive its beauty. Right here this morning, this very building is not only filled with the sounds that are coming up from my larynx and being articulated by my lips and my tongue, but right now, this room is full of pictures.

37:23 Full of sounds. If I had a little portable TV with no outside connections, operated by batteries, I'd flip the switch. All of a sudden, pictures would start flashing on that screen. This room is full of those pictures right now.

37:39 Why is it that there's no picture on my forehead about the size of some of those small screens on those portable TVs? What would happen if all of a sudden pictures started flashing on my forehead? Well, you'd all get spooked and run out of here, I think. If I didn't get spooked first and beat you to the door, why is it that no pictures show up on my forehead?

38:03 Pictures are here.

38:06 It's because, you see, I don't have a TV tube and the proper diodes and everything else in my head to receive the pictures that are transmitted from the TV station. But if I put a little portable TV here, a little instrument that has the right tubes, the right transistors, what happens? They are able to receive the pictures.

38:34 And if you're going to get TV pictures on my forehead, you've got to perform a miracle and get TV tubes into my head to give me an organ of reception. That's exactly, exactly what must happen before men will see and thence receive the gospel. Well, I've used a lot of illustrations and I normally don't do this, but I feel this element of truth is so essential that I wanted to enforce it from every aspect possible that we might understand that the reason for this helplessness, they cannot know them, is because there is no faculty to know them in natural man and God must put it there. So Paul answers our question.

39:17 Why don't men receive the saving truth of God? He tells us they are natural men. Their action, they receive them not. Why?

39:27 Their foolishness unto them. Their condition, totally unable to receive them because they have no faculty. And as we bring our thoughts to a conclusion this morning, I want to bring some practical applications of all of this. Of what use is this teaching?

Application 1: Humility for the Unsaved

39:47 Why in the world would I take up your time on a hot Sunday morning, take up my own time late into the night in preparation, and give myself to preaching this truth? What use is all this to us? May I suggest three or four uses of the doctrine as the old Puritan divines would say. Use number one is to humble every unsaved person in this building this morning.

40:13 You sit here, some of you saying all of this is absolute foolishness to me because I'm of a superior mind than to think that business makes sense. My friend, it's not your superiority of mind. It's your absolute blindness.

40:35 For minds far more profound than yours have received these things and have spent their days reveling in them. The Apostle Paul had a mind that makes any mind here look like a kindergarten mind. Jonathan Edwards and Saint Augustine and Knox and Calvin and we could string out the list for minutes if not hours. Men with great minds.

41:03 Prodigious mental powers and yet they not only receive these things they said these things were life itself. My unsaved friend, young old visitor, member of this assembly, son or daughter of a Christian mother, father, this doctrine is calculated to bring home to your heart how absolutely unable you are to grasp the very thing you must grasp if you're ever to be saved.

41:40 That's why Jesus said accept ye be converted and become as little children. You'll in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said I thank thee Father Lord of heaven and earth thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent and thou hast revealed them unto babes.

42:02 Listen, if you want to go on strutting my friend you'll go strutting right into hell.

42:07 That's the price you'll pay for your strut. Your mental strut that refuses to bow in humility saying oh God I'm a sinner. Sin has not only perverted my affections warped my life it's blinded my mind. Oh God perform the miracle.

42:30 Make this toad-like disposition into that which can appreciate all the beauty that surrounds your beloved son. And which is inherent in his everlasting gospel. You better take the place of that beggar in the gospels. When the Lord said what wilt thou that I should do unto you?

42:54 You remember what his answer was? Lord that I may receive my sight.

43:03 Jesus ministers to blind beggars who acknowledge their blindness.

Application 2: Gratitude for the Saints

43:11 And so the first use of this doctrine is to humble the unconverted amongst us. Secondly it is calculated to fill the saints of God with gratitude.

43:24 If you are spiritual that is if you've received the spirit it's because God has been pleased to call you. Why is this no longer foolishness to you? Why is it that you no longer receive not the things of the spirit of God? As natural men do?

43:48 Well it's because God has been pleased to impart light to you. As Jesus said to his disciples blessed are your eyes for they see. He didn't say wiser more powerful. He said blessed are your eyes for they see.

Application 3: Confidence in Witness

44:04 They have received a divine operation external to themselves. So my friend if you see this morning it should fill you with humility and with gratitude that you're no longer a natural man but that you're a spiritual man. And thirdly this truth is calculated to fill the saints with confidence in their witness. You sometimes sort of feel bullied around when people say oh come off it if what you've got is true why aren't there more of the world's important people who believe it?

44:44 You sort of feel bullied by those accusations? No don't be bullied. I've had people tell me look preacher something must be wrong I read the Bible and I can't understand it. I say that doesn't surprise me.

44:57 I tell them that I say that doesn't surprise me. I'd be surprised if you said you did understand it and they look at you turn them to a passage like this. Why there's no need for you as a believer to power and to shrivel in some kind of self-imposed feeling of inferiority that we've got some kind of a contraband product here that we dare not bring out into the open and blaze abroad. Oh no child of God this should fill you with confidence glory in the fact that this gospel will be foolishness unless God is pleased to open men's eyes.

Application 4: Dependence on the Spirit

45:41 That's the very genius of the gospel that God has ordered both its content and the manner of its proclamation in such a way that it's not the way that he leaves in its train the slain pride. That's the way the gospel triumphs all are trailed and that blood as it were is man's pride and it's life being squeezed out of it that no flesh should what? Glory is present. And then last of all this truth should move us as the people of God and to deep conscious dependence upon the Holy Spirit. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness unto him and if he cannot know them because there is no spiritual faculty in him to grasp what is our hope in witnessing the man.

46:55 You've never been born of the Spirit will be foolishness to you. What is my hope? My hope that is is that even as I preach and my conscious dependence that God the Holy God will save you from unnatural manhood. into a spiritual man.

47:15 Even as he did for Lydia while Paul is who says whose heart the Lord attended to the things that were spoken by the Apostle Paul so that the focus of true biblical witness and teaching and preaching is not method today. We've got to get the right method. We've got to get a right gimmick. We've got to focus of the true child of a spirit of dependence upon God that squares up with a passage like this. The natural man receives not but thank God. God makes natural men into spiritual men. And he does so in a way that I do not understand that is bound up in some measure with the prayers of his people.

48:22 And so we must seek as God's people if we claim to believe this truth to cultivate that spirit of prayer that is a constant monument to the genuineness of that belief. For a man to say oh yes I believe everything preachers talked about there he's expounded the text rightly that's true I can see it all there that's true and if you don't pray and if you don't plead you give lie to what you say you believe you don't believe it. If you believe that and there's any measure of divine compassion in your heart it drives you to cry out to God to give sight to the blind change toads into men make natural men into spiritual men and having prayed when you go out to witness and you go out to contact those unsaved people you do so not praying the posture of prayer but though your body comes out of the closet of prayer the disposition that framed your prayer moves you as you witness and there is that inner sense of looking unto the living God that he would be pleased to bless your witness and make it effectual to the hearts of men conscious that if he doesn't it never will be done. Why don't people receive the saving truth of God? God's answer

Conclusion

49:51 in this text is the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually deserved. May God grant that the truth of this text and its implications will be written upon our hearts and worked out in our lives. Let us pray.