The Role of the Spirit

1 Cor 2:6-16

The truth of this text was hammered home by a person I met several years ago. She was a teacher in the public schools who taught Bible as Literature. In our discussions, I could tell she knew what the Bible said very well. What I could also tell was that while she knew what was written down on the pages, none of it was written in her heart. She was a very good lady, but the truths of the Bible didn’t sink into her life.

There are so many people like that. Some of the best debaters in atheist circles can quote all kinds of passages in the Bible. Others are people who have been raised for a great part of their lives in a church, know all the stories, understand the teachings, but it doesn’t have any impact in their lives.

There are two spirits that can work in our lives, the spirit of this world or the Spirit of God. One or the other will be there. The choice is yours.

PRAYER

I. The Two Spirits

A. The spirit of the world

1. As I mentioned there are two spirits that will be in our daily lives.

2. Vs 12 points the two out READ

3. Man without God can only have the spirit of this world

a) that spirit is Satan

b) READ Eph 2:1-3

4. Our text implies that it is Satan that gives man the wisdom of this age.

a) Boy, how true that is. Just look at our society and it’s wisdom!

b) As long as it’s a committed relationship people of the same sex should be seen as married.

c) Living together is just another alternative lifestyle.

d) Killing a baby before he or she is born is a woman’s choice. A woman’s right.

e) self esteem is the only thing that matters. Don’t do anything to make a person feel bad about themselves.

f) There is no sin, only mistakes.

B. The spirit of God

1. The wisdom of God is very different from the wisdom of the world because the Spirit of God is very different than the spirit of the world.

2. Spiritual wisdom is built around God’s will not our desires.

3. The spirit helps us to know and understand God’s will

II. The Role of the Spirit

A. How does he work in our Christian lives?

1. In January, we will be doing a detailed study on the Holy Spirit on Wednesday evenings here at the building, so I am not going take all of Ron’s material.

2. What I want us to understand this morning is what Paul says about the H.S. in our walk with God.

B. Reveals the Wisdom of God

1. READ vs 9-10

2. Man’s wisdom is not God’s as we have already pointed out.

3. God thinks in ways man, cannot even begin to imagine

4. The Holy Spirit helps us see and understand that wisdom.

a) The Holy Spirit make plain to us the plan of salvation God prepared for man since Adam and Eve sinned and separated man from God in the garden of Eden.

b) The Jews had all kinds of foreshadowing, but never saw the truth when God revealed it to them first.

c) The Gentiles rarely accepted God at any time.

d) After Christ died and the Holy Spirit came into the lives of Christians, we were able to see God’s plan for our salvation so clearly it almost screams out of the pages of scripture.

C. The spirit searches all things - vs 10ff

1. Paul goes on to talk about only I really know what goes on in my heart. No one else really knows.

2. The same goes for God. No one can really know what is in God’s heart except by it being revealed to us by the Spirit.

3. What we forget is that natural man cannot see the gospel as plainly as we do.

a) They don’t have the Holy Spirit making it clear for them as we do.

b) 1 Corinthians 2:13-15 (NLT) When we tell you this, we do not use words of human wisdom. We speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. ¹⁴ But people who aren’t Christians can’t understand these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them because only those who have the Spirit can understand what the Spirit means. ¹⁵ We who have the Spirit understand these things, but others can’t understand us at all.

4. That needs to impact our evangelism.

a) Simply, retelling the gospel isn’t going to effect the worldly person, we need to find ways that help them open their hearts to the Holy Spirit and then they will begin to see the gospel for what it is.

b) Once they see a need for God, the Holy Spirit reveals the truth of the gospel to them.

c) It quits beings simply words in a book, but a whole new understanding of life now and later.

III. Concl.

A. If the gospel doesn’t affect your life, is it because the gospel is irrelevant or that you haven’t opened your life to the work of Holy Spirit?

1. The gospel will always seem irrelevant to those who aren’t searching for spiritual truths.

2. We need to realize that is why man scoff at what we believe.

3. They aren’t rejecting us, they simply cannot see the relevance of God in their lives because they are looking for human wisdom rather than spiritual wisdom.

4. We need to show them why they need to open their lives to God.

5. Then stand back and be amazed at the transformation of their understanding!

B. understand that God’s understanding is different than man’s understanding.

1. In our own lives, we need to be careful about trying to prove our faith by science all the time.

2. Some things are great to prove scientifically, but others are a matter of God’s understanding that goes way beyond man’s understanding.

3. You can’t always explain it, you can only know in your heart it’s true.

C. The gospel of the cross is the most true fact there is.

1. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. That whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life.

Jn 3:16

2. But the truth of the gospel is more than just believing in Christ, it is obeying him.

3. In Jn 3:36 you see the translators bias to faith only in the NIV and KJV most other versions translate this scripture like the NASB 36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him

4. You believe in him or you probably wouldn’t be here. Are you ready to obey him?

5. If you are, come now as we stand and sing.