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Chapter 2.
We could begin at verse nine, or perhaps.
The brethren have had the thought to include another passage this morning.
And I would suggest, if time permits, this last reading you could dip down into a few verses of three, remembering this wasn't written by chapters.
Beginning at chapter 2, verse 9.
But as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard.
Neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.
But God has revealed him unto us by His Spirit.
For the Spirit searches all things, yeah, the deep things of God.
For what men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man, which is in him. Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God.
That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
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Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teaches.
But which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But 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 discerned.
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?
But we have the mind of Christ.
Chapter 3. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual.
But as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
I have fed you with milk and not with meat.
For hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able, for ye are yet carnal.
For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men?
For a while one says I am appalled and another I am of Apollo. Are ye not carnal?
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollo? But ministers by whom he believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
I've planted Apollo's watered, but God gave the increase.
So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.
Now he that planets and he that water us are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.
We are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry. Ye are God's building.
According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another build us there on.
But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ.
Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble.
Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire.
And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he has built, thereupon he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Let no man deceive himself.
If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men.
For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours. And ye are Christ, and Christ is God's.
This world.
Unless they're the Lords know what we know.
And what we know is so marvelous, so deep, that we can't even fathom the truth of it. On Lords Day morning tomorrow, we have a loaf in the cup.
But as long as I've been gathered, I've not reached the bottom of either. I mean, they're inexhaustible. And so this is beyond the most knowledgeable of the world. They can't understand it. And I think it's so precious at that moment when we have the simplicity that is of Christ, the Spirit undertakes for us and we worship. It's precious, is it not?
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Worship.
There is true worship. I won't get into that.
John 423 and four by the Spirit according to the word. That's it very simple. But we have something that they can't know and that's why he says don't throw pearls to swine. They need Christ. They don't need the pearls. You know, we we don't do that. They just trample it under feet, but they need Christ and then they can take the pearls.
Which we're going to have this morning. It's beautiful, isn't it? We don't look down on them because, but for the grace of God, there we are. If we can't look at them with that thought, we can't look at them properly. I mean those who are lost yet.
At any rate, it's nice that the rulers of this world can't know what we know.
Not patient from the 64th of Isaiah and 64 and four with a slight difference.
Isaiah 64 and four, Since the beginning of the world, men hath not heard or perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye see no God beside thee. What He has prepared for him that waiteth for Him, but in our verse it has loved him.
Because we're not waiting.
It's interesting in the first chapter of Genesis, in the first verse you get in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, but it was not until the 4th day that the sun and the moon and the stars appeared. And John could say that is the true light that coming into the world lightest every man. It wasn't until 4000 years into the history of this world that the sun appeared, the Son of God appeared.
And so all the Old Testament Saints waited for the Lord, and He became manifest.
But not just as a man here in this world, but Paul was caught up into the third up to the 3rd heaven and he saw things. He saw that man now in the glory which is where the believers place is. And he saw things that he have been revealed. Now we have truth revealed to us, but it's only revealed by the Spirit of God.
And we'll see often in Scripture through the gospel, we often say the Lord gave no offense, but he often was an offense to people because man would seek to lay hold of the truth of God by human means and by human understanding. And as we were saying yesterday, there's like a rock at the end of the road that says, don't enter here because God is not going to let man lay hold of these things by his human intelligence. We have that. God has revealed them by his Spirit. And then our chapter goes on to stay. They're communicated by spiritual means, not by carnal means.
The Old Testament Saints and I don't know how to use that word there, but I'm thinking of Joel and you know he's one of the oldest. He was contemporary, of course, with Moses and Abraham leather end of Abraham, beginning of Moses. He didn't know him, but notice how prophetic he speaks in verse chapter 16 of Job verse 10.
They have gaped upon me with their mouth.
They have threatened me upon the cheek reproachfully. They have gathered themselves.
Together against me, God has delivered me to the ungodly.
And turned me over into the hands of the wicked. Well we know what he's talking about his so-called friends, but it's so prophetic of Christ. And then notice the truth he knew in chapter 19. This goes way back and you know it says.
Verse 23 Oh, that my words were now written all that they were printed in a book, that they were graven with an iron pen.
And LED in the rock forever. For I know that my Redeemer liveth isn't that beautiful, and he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet is my in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall be behold.
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He had wonderful faith.
He didn't have all the truth, but he had wonderful faith, and faith brings more truth. In the end, Job prophesied beautifully, but through his daughters. But that's another story. God uses these ones through the Spirit work.
Isaiah D5 and verse 9 says as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Our thoughts, brethren, are so confined and we are so confined in our thinking to our senses. I have not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man. It's it's the senses that we learn things down here and we're taught and we think, but God's thoughts are so far above our thoughts.
Who could have ever imagined that the everlasting God?
Made flesh in the person of the Lord Jesus would be hung.
By his creatures on a cross and that that awful.
Most awful crime. God would turn it around to make it the basis.
Of eternal blessings for mankind and the display.
Of his glory. Who could have ever thought of that? It's impossible. It's just not in us, but that's the way we learn, brethren, and it's wonderful to begin to apprehend these precious things. What is called in verse 10 the deep things of God, his revelation now that we have in the New Testament, things like has been brought out.
That the Old Testament believers who understood Job understood some wonderful things.
Abraham, the friend of God, must have understood some things too, at least the Lord Jesus said.
Abraham, your father saw my day and rejoice, though he understood some wonderful things. But, brethren, the revelation of truth that we have by the Spirit of God, this has often been called this dispensation, the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is down here in this world for the purpose of saving souls.
And sealing them like we heard yesterday, indwelling them. The unction brings us into God's thoughts. Isn't that wonderful that we can share God's thoughts?
This is a college here. If you want man's thoughts, I think they're probably having some classes over there right now. But oh, to be in a meeting like this where we trust brother and I trust. It's the exercise of each one to give the Spirit of God liberty to use whom He will. It's not a democracy, but it's the Spirit of God that should guide in the ministry of His Word.
To lead us into God's thoughts. How wonderful it is, those deep things of God, those eternal blessings that were purpose in Christ before the foundation of the world, brethren, when God was thinking about you and me.
And purposing to bring us into place of eternal blessing in union with Christ.
There wasn't any universe in existence yet.
It was all to be formed in due season, but the time came when it all came into His purposes and His works, and He formed this universe. He put the world in its place. He put man on this earth, and now we brought into God's thoughts about His eternal purposes. What a wonderful thing to enjoy, brethren, and it's something that we cannot lay hold of merely by the senses.
Thank God, God has given His Spirit in our hearts to lead us into the understanding of all things. Our brother is speaking about the Holy Spirit yesterday in the address and some of the supposed manifestations of the Spirit of God. It's interesting, brethren, that the Spirit of God in the believer is connected with understanding in that same chapter where you have the exhortation.
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To be filled with the Spirit, it says.
It says.
Be not, I'm going to have to read it. Ephesians 5 that was.
Says.
Be wherefore be ye, not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
And I just like to challenge our hearts, especially our dear young people who look forward in life to perhaps a job and to as to what the Lord might want you to occupy yourself in. Remember, it's not what you purpose in life that's so important. It is determining. It is seeking the Lord's face to understand his eternal purpose. And if you can.
Guide your life in agreement with what God has in His purposes for you. You're going to find your life tremendous meaning in every step. It really is important because we're living in a day when you're encouraged to do your own thing, to have your own purposes and purposes. Many times that people have are not wrong in themselves, but sometimes they are formed without any knowledge of what God's eternal purpose was.
What are his thoughts? That's what we need to know. And then?
Our lives can be directed in line with that.
Understanding and you know, that's in Proverbs so often and it's really what we need, understanding of God's mind and his purpose. That's what we have the the young people and children get a formula in math. I know algebra and so on. But there's a formula for us for understanding. And you know in Proverbs it does say in the 4th chapter, wisdom is the principle thing.
Get wisdom and with by getting get understanding. Now the formula is in the 10th chapter of Proverbs and it's very beautiful. Verse 10.
It's K + W = U. You know. I'll give it to you this way. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding. You know it says knowledge. You'll have to have knowledge. It's the Word of God you'll have to feed before the Spirit can really work in your heart and give you understanding. But knowledge plus Wiz.
That's the West is understanding. Without the wisdom, the Spirit guiding, you can read it all you want, you will not have knowledge or understanding both of the same understanding God's mind.
Passes. What's really being said here is let us read that tenth verse. I think the ninth verse speaks of the Old Testament like we've had. They didn't have that revelation, but in verse 10 it says that God hath revealed them unto us. Who is the US?
US Apostles.
He hasn't revealed anything to us. He's not revealing things anymore, but he's revealed them under the apostles. All these great truths about how God has blessed us with believers in this dispensation, so by his Spirit.
Before the Spirit searches all things, yay, the deep things of God. And so that's how the Word of God has come to us by revelation, right from God to these men and then you.
You get.
Inspiration.
In the in the scriptures which things also we speak in the 13th verse and then you need something more than that. When it was in the mind or spoken by the apostle, it was inspired, it was revealed to them, then it was inspired either writing or oral ministry. But in order to understand that.
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We need something more. We need illumination, and you get illumination in the 14th verse.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can they know them, because they are.
Spiritually discerned. So we need the Spirit to be understand, to understand the things which God has revealed to the prophets and are written in the word of God and are inspired and then it goes on to speak. But he that is spiritual judge of all things, not Spirit, not the ones that are indwelt with the Spirit, but what are spiritual, those who are walking with the Lord.
And it's available to all. We have the mind of Christ, but not all. It's the spiritual. It has the mind of Christ. And so I think that that this helps to understand what's being said here.
Apostle is trying to get across to the Corinthians in 14 there is a natural man. We were natural men and women before brought to Christ and 15 there is a spiritual man. But you know, it's leading into our next chapter, which we're not trying to rush ahead, but there is a carnal man, whether he's natural or spiritual.
He's carnal, and that's the problem with the Corinthians. So he's leading into it in a beautiful way. The portion we're in now, I have not seen in all that. They got this beautiful depth. He can't minister to them. They're carnal. They're babes yet in Christ.
Apostle revealed a mystery of the Church.
These beloved Saints who were involved in things that caused the deadening of the Spirit, its work within their hearts, we find that in the book of Ephesians, do we not The mystery. So he deals with them according to their state, beloved brethren, So the Spirit of God deals with us according to our state too. The deep things of God here perhaps could apply to the glory of God.
His Majesty.
His Holiness.
His love.
God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
In what the face of Jesus Christ?
We can, as believers, behold by faith the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
We gaze upon that blessed one day by day, and it's that that will change our lives. Our brother Bruce brought out yesterday, we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. There is nothing that would ever compare beloved Saints in this world like gazing into the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There we see the deep things of God shining out.
The glory of God shining up His Majesty, his love, His Holiness, His righteousness, his beauties, He is altogether lovely. It's that which will take our hearts out of this world and transport them into His presence. There is no faculty in man, even the best taught men in this campus, that could ever bring them into the presence of the Lord to enjoy such glories. And another thought. Here perhaps, too, is the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
Even the youngest child in this audience perhaps can enjoy John 14 verse 3.
In my father's house are many mansions.
I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. Those mansions were prepared for you. Beloved child of God, no matter how young you are, no matter how young you are, when the Lord comes and takes us home, you have a destiny of glory. You are in the purposes of God. We are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. Our brother Bob brought out before the world was ever formed.
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He had you and I in his heart of compassion and love, and He chose us in Christ before the foundations of the world. And those places, those mansions, were they not prepared in a past eternity? They were part of the uncreated glory. We might say that is where we're going to spend eternity with Him forever. You know that children sometimes say well.
I know my own have, said. Grandpa, what are we going to do in heaven?
We're going to have things to play with and other occupations to enjoy. You know, that's how children think. And they're true believers. They have sincere hearts. And sometimes we're at a loss to answer our children or grandchildren appropriately. But can we not say, dear child, your heart is going to be so filled when you get there. You're not going to think about the things that you enjoyed here in this world. There, it will be complete.
Fulfillment and joy and enjoyment.
So that your heart will be running over with praise and Thanksgiving to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Forever and you will not wish for the things, nor will I either, that we had here that were just trinkets and toys compared to what we're going to have there.
Steve, it says, and drive.
My father's house or many mansions or abodes. I go to prepare a place for you.
Is that we're going to find everything that's going to satisfy the heart there. We're going to be fit for the place and the place is going to be fit for us. We feel like fish out of water here but in heaven we're going to we're going to belong and whatever age a person is now we were talking about that yesterday. We're going to be fit for that place and the place is going to be absolutely fit for us but I was thinking of this 11Th 1St in connection with the Lord Jesus it says.
For what man knoweth the things of a man, say the spirit which is in him.
To me, it's the most blessed thing that the Son of God became a man and he knew what it was to be a man.
He learned obedience through the things that he suffered. He said I was alone as a Sparrow upon a housetop. We were talking about that. He knew what it was like. He had the spirit of a man. He came sin apart, but he came into this world and he said, You gave me no water for my feet.
He felt and he appreciated the love of people. He became a real man. And now there's a man in the glory.
And he sent down his Spirit to reveal the things of God.
After that, man went back to the glory spent down the Spirit of God, that he might now communicate to us as men the deep things of God.
He became obedient to the he learned obedience through the things that he suffered in becoming a man. He can now appreciate what it is for us to be man and as sending down his spirit. Now he wants to fill us with God's thoughts as men for God to us.
Now he gets into the and as her brother was speaking yesterday about the carnal impediments to that later. But I really believe that what we have here is that he's set up this situation so that we can really know the things of God that they could only wait for in the Old Testament.
Pleasant enjoyment that is emphasized here, isn't it? The present enjoyment of those things, verse nine has sometimes been applied to the future.
And no doubt that is true, and we'll enjoy those things of God in a fuller and better way up there.
But the emphasis here is on present enjoyment. And what is so beautiful here is that it brings out what I suppose we all realize, and that is that Christianity is objective, not subjective. That is, the Spirit of God never occupies me with his work in me, so that it's not so much for me to be saying, well, how well am I doing, How much of the Spirit is?
Operating in me, so to speak. How much am I filled with the Spirit or all these things?
That's not the thought here, but rather Christianity occupies me through the Spirit with Christ, and then the emphasis here is on the enjoyment presently of all those things.
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The deep things of God. We've been speaking a little about guidance in the Christian life, and I suppose others would agree with me that one of the most frequent questions that arises among believers is how can I know for sure?
The mind of God in a particular question that arises in my life, wouldn't we like to be able to just turn on the computer and be able to find something that would give us the mind of God, or perhaps have a definite scripture that would say this is the way to go? Well, in the Old Testament they had the written word and they obeyed it. We might say, simply because it was God's word.
But think of it this way. Supposing I had a textbook, and I read the textbook, and as far as it went, it told me how to understand a certain subject in school. That would be good, but wouldn't it be so far superior if I had the author of the textbook right beside me all the time? What a difference that would make. How easy it would be to put to him a question perhaps, that dealt with something that wasn't perhaps as clear as I thought it should be in the textbook. It would be all the difference in the world.
And that's, I believe, what Christianity is like today. It's his brother Bob was saying we are in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, but we can't put the cart before the horse if we want to have guidance in our Christian pathway. We can't talk about that without bringing our state of soul into the picture. And here the emphasis is not so much on guidance, but on the enjoyment of the deep things of God.
And I say most of all to my own heart, if that is what is before me.
And if I really want to enjoy what God has revealed to me by His Spirit.
Then I suggest that guidance as to the particular situation that may arise in my life will not be so difficult. I don't mean there won't be exercise. I don't mean there won't be times when perhaps things aren't clear and I have to wait on the Lord. I have to leave it for a while until the Lord makes it clear. But the emphasis here is on the enjoyment presently of the deep things of God. Well, that's a privilege they never had before the Day of Pentecost. And it's a privilege in that same sense that they won't even have during the Millennium because the Spirit of God doesn't dwell.
On Earth in the Millennium, in that sense.
Someone will say, well, didn't they have the Spirit of God occasionally in the Old Testament? Yes, they did. And there were individuals who were inspired by the Spirit, wrote the Old Testament Scriptures. There were those who gave out the mind of God, but they weren't in dwelt with the Spirit of God in the way that we are, were they? And so someone has made the remark that the Old Testament was somewhat like a dark night during which occasional flashes of lightning suddenly illuminated the whole countryside for a few moments.
And then all was dark again. But now you and I, as it says here, have the Spirit of God first of all dwelling within us individually, then dwelling in among believers as the House of God collectively. It's a a truth that was never true before and will not be true after the Lord comes. So it's, you might say, a unique time in which you and I live. And perhaps if I could say it, it's one of the most neglected things.
The most neglected truth in the Word of God in the New Testament, isn't it?
How it's come to us in.
So much is it that it's just come to us like this from a revelation from God to these apostles. Now we have it in the Scripture. He's telling us how it came to us.
And then he's telling us that.
You know that it was inspired when the pin touched the page or the words came out of their mouth. That was inspired ministry. And then it was that we need illumination to be able to take it in.
And.
So it gives us confidence that what we have in our hands is a revelation from God. But he doesn't give it to us anymore. He's written down here in this book for our enjoyment. Maybe I'm not seeing something.
It comes by the Spirit of God, but I think what Bill was saying that the proper home of the truth of God is the heart and the soul and it doesn't get there. We really don't have it until it gets there. And I I'd like to say too, that it's interesting in the Scriptures, it never speaks per Southeast.
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Never says study the scriptures.
It says, Meditate these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear unto all. The truth of God for us, brethren, comes by meditation. Study is the effort of the human mind to understand something in an unsaved person can put study. Pick up this book and study it.
That's not the way the truth of God comes home. It's the Spirit of God dwells in the believer and he is there. The unction is to make it understood to us. And sometimes, like Bill says, there are things we don't see clearly right at the moment. Don't force it.
It's like a piece of meat you put in your mouth. You don't swallow it straight down, you are chewing on it for quite a while. In fact, that's the big year in the Old Testament that the Lord gives us of a clean animal was one who chewed the cud and divided the hoof. He chewed the cud means that that's the figure of meditation. It's not so much the effort of the human mind, it involves the mind.
But it's not the effort of the human mind to understand the things of God. It's allowing the Spirit of God to take the Word of God, compare one scripture with another, and there is the way that understanding comes in the things of God. It's wonderful, brother. And I think what Bill said was so important that we walk that be our exercise to walk in the power of an ungrieved spirit as soon as sin comes in.
The Spirit of God has to occupy us with that sin so that we will judge it. He's grieved. But as soon as that happens, if there's that in my life, get it out. Judge it immediately. Then the Spirit of God can take up what He's properly sent to occupy us with Christ and these deep things of God.
He's given us His spirit and we can understand because his spirit dwells within. It's interesting.
You can talk to a dog, but a dog is not going to ever understand what it means. 2 + 2 is 4. They will never get it why they don't have the spirit of a man. And to be able to get that communication across, I have to talk to someone that has a spirit of a man. Now God has communicated His truth by His spirit and so that we will understand He's given us His spirit.
What a wonderful privilege to be able to sit here to read this, to let it come to light and life before our eyes read in. What a privilege.
That in connection with the remarks, seeing I was the one that made the remark, I I agree with what you say. I think the emphasis here tends to be more on the understanding, the knowledge of what God has given us. I just suggest the thought that in Scripture when the Spirit of God is brought in.
You can't separate knowledge from enjoyment. The 2GO together and it's meant to be that way.
If there is knowledge, as Brother Bob has said, in the sense of studying naturally.
And it's there without the, you might say, the enjoyment. It can cause difficulties, and I suppose it's all right to mention it, but I can well remember reading in the letters of JN Darby. It was evidently a younger brother that had addressed him. From the questions you're asking, I suggest you have been studying your Bible too much and not reading it enough.
Well, I think we see the point. Obviously the dear brother, perhaps unintentionally, was approaching the word of God in a.
An unnatural way, trying to grab hold of truth there rather than letting the word of God.
Used by the spirit of God reach his heart and his conscience, and thus he was wrestling with certain lines of truth that were all right in their way, but the moral effect on him was lost because it was not being done, you might say, with the sense of.
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This is something that is sent to me for my heart and my conscience. This is not just merely getting a body of knowledge so that I can say I'm intelligent. Now that's necessary. But the enjoyment of Christ and all that he is is connected with the truth as the Spirit of God brings it out. And that was that was only what I was bringing out. But I I thoroughly agree. The emphasis here is on the understanding of those things as opposed to the natural man who.
As Bob says, like a dog, he hasn't got the capacity to understand it. There's a word here that we.
12K NOW that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. And you know, in John's Gospel, the theme and the word there is believe or believing. I believe almost 100 times in the Gospel, but it's to the loss. Basically, we who are the Lords get deeper truths than the laws do. But in the epistle the Word is.
KNOW.
40 times in the first epistle, plus one for good measure in the 3rd. So it's it's without a doubt we know here it is. And Paul coming with the first important thing, salvation uses that word. I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he's able and so on. Isn't that beautiful? So let's not say we don't have the word.
By the Spirit, because that's what He wants us to do, to know these things. One of the beautiful ones in first John. We know we passed from death unto life. We love the brethren, all of the brethren. That's a test, brother, and it's a good test, you know. We know we're on our way to glory. We love the brethren. Haven't we prayed for them for two days now?
We feel it, you know, we have a concern for our brethren.
The natural man does not understand receive the things of the Spirit of God. It's not in his capacity. Bill was mentioning their foolishness unto him. He cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned. And so often you hear people say, I try to read the Bible, but it doesn't make a bit of sense to me.
And that's the way it is until there is new life by the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God to make it known that's the way it's going to be. But brethren, I think it is beautiful just simply to give the Word. I remember a man in Bolivia who said that to me, gave him a New Testament. He says. That book doesn't make any sense once you come over and explain it to me, he said.
Well, I just went over and we started in John's Gospel and chapter one and I can still remember.
He got down to verse four. In him was life and the light was the light of men.
I said what is light?
And he sat there for a long time. It just seemed like something penetrated in his soul. That word got into his soul. And it was evident from his life afterwards that the Lord had worked in his soul and given him new life by receiving the word of God. But it's wonderful. Then he said to me, the next time I went to his shop, he says, you know that book you gave me? It makes sense now.
I understand it. Why the Spirit of God? That's the whole difference.
But without that.
They can't understand anything and I think it's brethren, we need to be encouraged just simply to give the word of God in simplicity to souls like that. That's what God uses to impart new life through the Spirit and the water, which is the word. New life is produced, souls are born again.
With simplicity. But in the 13 first here it says which things also we speak, not which the words which man's wisdom teaches, but words which the Holy Ghost teaches.
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And we're living in a society where man is completely engrossed in natural, fleshly things. And so he's discarded out of the vocabulary like a mechanic who an auto mechanic who takes up carpentry. There's all kinds of tools in his box that he doesn't need anymore. That man has discarded words out of the vocabulary that he doesn't need any more because it takes God communicates by words and their words, which the Holy Ghost teaches.
And so.
We need to understand what the Spirit of God is teaching. Explain it in simplicity. But man doesn't understand what the word redemption, propitiation, justification, what resurrection means. He doesn't understand what these words mean. He is salvation. He doesn't understand what these words mean. I read a book once by a man who was a friend of mine and he was how to give away your faith. He said don't use the word saved. People don't understand what that word means anymore.
And I got taken up with that little sort of train of thoughts after a while, and I'm glad I abandoned it, but I was.
Speaking to a student at the college and he said you sound like my brother. He says he got saved. What does he mean?
And I said, well there's 600,000 words in your English language. I said tell me what happened to your brother. And he said, well he used to be a regular guy, his life was in a masters, wife was leaving him. And then he started reading the Bible and I said, well how is it now? He said, well his kids are back, they're happy and everything. I said you can pick one word out of the 600,000 in the English language to describe what happened to your brother. And he said, well I guess you'd have to say God saved.
And the word we take up words and man let's, I understand why people say they have trouble reading certain versions of the Bible and so on. But we have to realize that there's words which the Holy Ghost uses to communicate spiritual thoughts that cannot be communicated in the language of this world because the world simply has no interest in the things of God. And it's like, as I said, taking a box of mechanics tools to do a carpentry job.
And that is why he's saying this. And so the spirit of the world, and more and more as we see the spirit of the world growing, we need to be taught of the Holy Ghost.
There's two sides of it. The teacher ought to breakdown things. Brother Bob speaks Spanish, I speak French. There would be no point in US speaking in Spanish and French in this meeting.
There's no point in speaking words that people can't understand. But if you don't understand something, ask. Get into the word read ministry. There's been helpful ministry written and these words describe precious things.
Yeah, these large words in telling us how the world doesn't understand them. But don't forget the average word is 5 letters. They don't understand those either. Grace, faith, mercy and so on. They don't understand those little words.
Syllable words.
That's right, they don't understand it. They can't.
There's a little, if the brethren would allow a little.
A practical addition to what our brother Neil has been mentioning.
And it's something that has.
Very much solemnized me lately for myself and if I could be allowed and loved to say it for all of us. Brethren, in view of this thought about the words and not understanding them. This is going a little bit from our passage, but I'd like to share this. Could you turn with me to Nehemiah chapter 13?
Nehemiah chapter 13 there is to me one of the most chilling and sobering verses.
I, I, I should be careful about that because all the scripture is inspired and for our good and blessing. But I just say in view of the world in which we live, the parents that are here raising your families, the dear young people and those of us who are older too.
In view of the thoughts of enjoying the words of Scripture that have been given and not losing that.
In Nehemiah chapter 13, I'm going to read verse 23 and 24.
Nehemiah is speaking.
In those days also I saw Jews, when we read that word in this passage, just think the people of God, the people of God. In those days I saw Jews that had married wives of Ashdod. That would be the from the Philistines, the enemy that was in the land that they were given to inherit of Ammon and Moab. Those were those that had a relationship or would claim a relationship through Lot.
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But really, we're enemies of the blessings and the joys and all that God had given to the Jews. So anyway, here's a situation where among the people of God they had married wives from these Tri or from these peoples. Here's the result.
Their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod.
And then listen to this and could not speak in the Jews language. What was the other half of the speech they spoke in according to the language of each of the people. I'm going to suggest I'd be corrected on this. I'm going to suggest that the language of the speech of Ashdod was particularly in character, a very immoral, corrupted way of communicating the speech of the each of the people would be a speech that did not carry with it, nor did it nor did it have.
The beauties and the wonders and all that had been revealed, at least to the people of God in that day and the children that came from this alliance, this affection that was shown for the world, if I can say it that way, the people of God's hearts got taken up and caught up in affection for the world. And the result was their children couldn't understand the one language it was worth speaking.
The language of the Jews, the people of God. May we be very careful, brethren.
As parents and as older brethren who are to be giving guides to our children.
That our hearts not be captured, the affections of our hearts by this world in its corruption, its violence, which you say, well, brother Doug, I'm not into that. You know, you can't walk into the into the aisles of a grocery store in Walla Walla, WA without being assailed by corruption and violence on the on the shelves of the magazines that are being sold there. It's everywhere. It permeates this, this world.
And brethren, if we're not careful, our heart's affections can get caught up in this world. And the result is very solemn. We teach our children a language that cannot communicate these beautiful truths of the Word of God. They don't mean anything anymore. And sometimes I have said, and I've been guilty of going overboard. Let's be careful in our reading meetings of using, and I say this carefully, $25 brethren, words.
And I still believe that we need to speak simply the the deep truths of God so it can be understood. But you know what? Those $25 brethren words are beautiful words. And they're a language that can only be enjoyed if my heart is enjoying Christ and if that's where my affections are. So let's not give them up. Let's allow our hearts to be taken up with these things and to pass on brethren, the richest heritage.
That we have to pass on the language of the people of God.
What a question of education either. I was in Egypt and the dear brethren were there, and a young man came with a translation of the Bible that said, You are my son today. I've become, I've become your father. That's blasphemy, that thought. God never became the father of the Son of God. He's eternal Son of God.
The fountain of Christianity's joy is that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. But man said they have to give dynamic equivalence because people don't understand.
What the word begotten means. And I was a little bit troubled by seeing them there with this. And I kind of witnessed how they handled the situation. They noticed it too. And they walked up to him and they said, oh, dear brother, they said, you don't have a holy Bible.
And they gently took it out of his hands and they read that verse in the second Psalm. They said, when did God ever become the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ? And he kind of blushed. And they said, we'll get you a Holy Bible. And they dispatched one of the brethren off to the Bible bookstore and brought him back a lovely leather Bible. And they said, we'll trade you.
And we need wisdom and grace in how to handle the situation. It was with such love and tenderness. But if, if.
You're tempted by those things, and I think we all were to try to communicate spiritual truths by unspiritual means. The Lord would have us to grow in intelligence and to learn what some of these things mean. And I think it was a long time before I even began to understand what the Word begotten meant. And yet don't throw something away because you don't understand what it means.
01:00:20
Just we grow, we learn line upon line, precept upon precept, and as our brother Doug was encouraging us, has learned the language.
If, brethren, who right backwards can sufficiently learn the language, so can we.
Something that I think is important in that connection with translations, brethren, because there is you mentioned that dynamic equivalence in which they take the original language in which the Scriptures were written and they translated not the word by word, but they translate the general idea. And in that there is a danger that man's ideas.
Get involved because as you read the original, maybe you don't understand it.
Totally. So if I'm going to understand, if I'm going to translate my idea of what it says, then there is danger that my idea, my wrong idea, will get translated. But if I translate the words, even though they may not be very easy to understand, then the Spirit of God can communicate His thoughts through those words. And that's called verbal equivalence. There's two different forms in which scriptures are translated.
Verbal equivalents, but notice this in verse 13. Brethren, I think it's important to get ahold of it that Scripture teaches verbal equivalents, which I'm going to read it in the new translation, which also we speak not in words.
Taught by human wisdom, but in those means, those words.
Taught by the Spirit, communicating spiritual things by spiritual means, so the very words of Scripture are inspired.
Could I pass on?
Do that I remember Brother Armstead Barry gave some of us younger ones. I suppose it must be 40 years ago or more now. I thought it was very good. He said. You know, when you translate from one language to another and everyone here who knows another language will appreciate this. Sometimes it becomes difficult to adhere to strict verbal equivalents because sometimes there just isn't a word in another language that.
Totally carries the thought in the language from which you're translating. And sometimes if you translate with verbal equivalents from one language to another, the construction of the sentence becomes so awkward that it just doesn't flow very well in the second language. And our brother said he suggested it to young people. He said get yourself a Darby translation.
Preferably one with the footnotes, because if there is an awkward situation translating from the Hebrew to the English or from the Greek to the English.
Invariably, and it's so nice, J&D will put a footnote there explaining the problem, and he'll explain how that he perhaps has had to use the the you might say the best words possible under the circumstances, but realizing that they don't totally convey the thought. And sometimes it takes a whole sentence to explain a particular word that may have no direct verbal equivalence going, we'll say, from Greek to English.
And so it's a big help because sometimes you run across, for example, our brother Bob Bauman was mentioning the word no. Well, in the Greek language, as anyone can look up, there are two words that are translated no in our English translation, but they're different in Greek. And Jay and Darby puts.
Makes that clear. There is the the situation with other words where perhaps it becomes a little difficult to make direct verbal equivalents, but then there's an explanation of it so you can get the sense of the passage.
And I can say from my own experience, it was a tremendous help once in a while when you ran across a difficult verse in the King James simply to go to the Derby. And you would find most of the time that it became much, much clearer simply by reading it. I know there are others here that are much more students of language than I am, but I think they would agree with that.
01:05:15
If you read their last part of the 13th 1St and Mr. Darby's translation because it says comparing spiritual with spiritual and I think it helps, could you read it for us in his translation since you have it there?
Communicating instead of comparing, right?
Communicating spiritual things by spiritual means.
Doesn't really come across in the King James, and I wasn't trying to imply yesterday in referring to this first, that we never use object lessons. The Lord said show me a penny. And he wrote in the earth with his finger. And sometimes some simple objects can be used to communicate truths.
But we need to really realize that truths are the truth of God is going to be communicated by spiritual means.
And so God, and there is the tendency of our hearts to want to get into communicating spiritual things by unspiritual means. And so we know, you know what I'm talking about by plays and puppet shows and videos and all kinds of things. And this is not really the way that God intended the truth of God to be communicated by rock'n'roll music even, and all kinds of things, because it can't be communicated that way.
And so you can't. And so the Spirit of God would desire that we learn to communicate those things. And so if you want to bring a lesson, if I want to bring a lesson before the children, then pray about it. And the Lord will give you a story in the Word of God, a scripture or something in the Word of God to teach something, to communicate a truth. I really appreciate it at home, the way the young men have stood up and taken the Sunday school and brought out lessons from the life of Joseph and the life of Moses and so on. There's wonderful illustrations there.
That no other way true, that could no other way be communicated than by taking them right out of the word of God.
When you try to communicate that by some worldly means, the idea is, well, you'll get the world that way. Is a message is lost and corrupted, you don't have the message anymore.
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you 2 Channels seen in the hearing. And Peter also, he says we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty, and he also says in that same place this voice we heard. So it's the hearing and the scene that God uses to communicate the message.
The love.
He wrote a letter to Moody criticizing the means he was using to bring the gospel, and he didn't pull any punches either. But he still loved Moody, prayed for him, but he was using things that were not spiritual to bring out the gospel.
Background things and singing and I guess Sankey and all the others.
But that was not communicating spiritual things by the Spirit it was bringing in.
Fleshly things to entertain as what happens today, of course. But I think we all can confess, though, brethren, that we are at times use fleshly things. And so may the Lord grant us to pray for those, like you say, and leave them with the Lord, because the Lord, they're his servants to his own Master. Every man stands or falls, and we thank the Lord that the gospel is preached, don't we? And.
And leave them there. Like you say, we may not be totally in agreement with them.
To pray for him, we need to pray for him. I prefix that Darby loved Moody. I didn't think I had to say anymore.
But Brother Bob, maybe I've been guilty, or you have been guilty of communicating spiritual truth by angry words, and that's not a spiritual thing.
I plead guilty.
The natural tendency too, brethren, as it has been in my life in times past, when we don't understand the Word of God.
01:10:03
We may tend to lean towards another translation.
Or even a paraphrase that would simplify the language so that we could more easily understand it.
One of the most popular translations of the day all around us that is being used.
Is deficient and in error concerning.
The eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It may be accurate in many other areas, which it is, and helpful in some things that may help you and me to understand things better.
But I found I found that most of my problem in times past and even now.
Is perhaps the Spirit is grieved within me.
I'm not walking in the Spirit, living in the Spirit, being led by the Spirit.
How can I be taught as these Corinthian Saints likewise, who were glorying in their own intellect, in their own gift and human intelligence? How could they receive the teaching of the Spirit?
And be communicated by the Spirit, the things of the Word of God, which is inspired.
So if there is a heart that is in communion with Christ, walking with him close to him, the Lord will reveal those things to you, and you will have a desire to open up the Word of God and be fed with them. You will grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And beloved brethren, I don't think I speak alone.
There are many beloved brethren who are no longer gathered.
To the name.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Very dear to the hearts of many of us.
Who have taken up with those translations, as sincere as they may have been?
That has caused a ripple.
And schools of opinion within the Assembly.
And it has caused a landslide of souls that have departed from the Lords Table.
And we pray for them, but I have to say my heart is no different. May we be preserved and kept close to the Lord Jesus Christ and let His truth be revealed to us as we walk close to Him. We cannot walk in the world and indulge ourselves in the world. Beloved brethren, I speak of my own experience and have the joy of the Lord in my heart and have an appetite for the things of God. And when we get into that frame or state we tend to lean towards.
The study of Scripture rather than the searching of Scripture and the meditation of the Word of God and the enjoyment of it.
And it becomes more of an intellectual process. I just say those things for my own heart as well as all.
Thought of the natural man and the carnal man, doesn't it? The natural man is perhaps more the emphasis on what man is in himself, in his soul, naturally. And of course we know that the natural man is sinful, but he doesn't know it. He doesn't look at it that way. He simply approaches things with his natural intelligence. And of course, as we've already remarked, he can't understand them. But the believer can be carnal, can't he?
The believer knows the Lord, the believer is has a new life in Christ. But as you say, if there's the allowance of those things, which the word carnal, of course, we know has the thought of fleshly and sometimes in Scripture, it simply means the body. But Scripture also uses it to bring before us that old sinful self that still is there, doesn't it? There's a moral side to it. And if we allow that carnality, if we allow those things in our lives and as you say, brother Dave, we won't be able.
To enjoy the things of Christ, the Spirit of God is grieved. And instead of being able to bring before me the deep things of God, instead of the enjoyment of Christ, instead of the knowledge of those things, instead of the light from my pathway, the Spirit of God has to take me up with the.
Unjudged sin that is in my life and it may not always be some specific thing you might say some great thing thank our brother Bruce mentioned it yesterday It can just be a lifestyle that leaves God out and that sort of thing which one of us can say we're not guilty. Very very sad isn't it and and so we need to remember that it kind of leads us into the third chapter here and maybe others have comments on that too but it's important to see that there is the.
01:15:18
Natural man, the spiritual man and the carnal man. And we need to be careful of all of those, don't we?
Paul has been contrasting human wisdom in the things of God and then divine wisdom in the second chapter, and he has LED us down through to the end, the logical end of both. And you see in the second chapter that human wisdom has really led to the most preposterous mistake in all of human history, and that is the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus. That is what it's led to.
And then he has shown us divine wisdom.
And how it comes to us and what it leads to is that we have in the very last verse of the chapter, verse 16, the mind of Christ. This is what divine wisdom brings us into the knowledge of the things of Christ and the councils and the purposes of God. And then in the third chapter, it's interesting to see that he shows the Corinthians what effect human wisdom has had upon them as a company, as an assembly.
And we find that they were dwarfed first of all in the first few verses, and then there was a state of division in the middle verses of the third chapter, and then lastly.
It defiled the House of God by bringing in those things that were not according to God, that is the wood hitting the stubble.
So we have three things at least that we see in this third chapter that human wisdom has produced, and its effect among the Corinthians dwarfs the Saints, divides the Saints, defiles the House of God.
Did you say that the mind of Christ is available to all believers but it's only close to the spiritual? That habit, those that are given the floor to place in their life. The Spirit of God reveals the mind of God.
Those who put the Lord, it's available for all.
Explain a little bit more, Brother Vern. What is a spiritual person?
I think you've been been brought out and it's the one who is bringing the Lord in to fallen situations in his life to overcome her.
That you might be.
Going along in a in an outward way, but there's no contact with them.
To the person, all of their ministry.
But have one eye. So when we leave this place, it's not that we might know more, but it's that we want to spend more time in the presence of all art. And if that's not, if that is not accomplished in our life, there is no going on.
You know, just just knowing things is not going to keep us, but it's knowing these things and meditating upon them in the presence of the Lord so that the Spirit of God can give us the enjoyment of it.
That's what I think a spiritual man is, one whose thoughts are formed by the Word of God, isn't it? And the revelation that we have. The problem, like you were mentioning with the Corinthians, is that they tried to bring in human wisdom, and that was carnality that made them 10 to one person or another person. If I have those tendencies to one person or another person, it's carnality. But to have our thoughts formed.
By the word of God, that's what a spiritual person is.
First part of chapter 3 is what we need daily, what Paul remembered always I know that in me that is my flesh is no good thing, and it's what the Lord told Nicodemus. And that's chapter 3 of John and verse six. That which is born of the pledge is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.
The flesh is never improved. Can't be. And of course, I'll bring in Moody again. He was written to by a village of ladies who wanted to have three nights of gospel and asked him if he'd come. And he and they said I would like you to send me a brief sketch of your life so we can put something in the paper. And he wrote them the brief sketch. He said I was born in the flesh in 1837.
01:20:27
And I was born in the Spirit in 1857. And that which is born of the flesh dies, but that which is born of the Spirit lives on forever with Christ. Was a very good history of his life.
We got to remember, brethren, the flesh is never improved.
We might say too, that in that verse that we have the 22nd of the third chapter because we're running out of.
It says whether fall or a Falleth, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, for things to come, all are yours. And I I think he's mainly speaking when he says in the 21St verse, Therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours.
The gifts, they belong to the Saints. So it's not we shouldn't aggrandize men if the Spirit of God uses them, but there is a a tremendous tendency.
I speak if one can project his own experiences and other there there is a great.
Tendency to try to impress our brethren and I think being spiritual you ask what that was. I think it's living before the Lord. The Lord sees you all the time, but there is a tremendous.
Tendency when we get together like this, we we want to impress our brother. You know, we want to have a place and so that the Lord is not going to bless that that stops growth in your life.
Our, we have one to please and that's the war. And so if we're, if we're not real with God, he knows that. And so I, I think that's a, there's a, there's a great tendency, you know, to, to want to impress each other. Do you think that's true? That's the flesh. We always, we can say, you know, that the flesh isn't there and the flesh is dead and that is the flesh.
That's not that's not trying to exalt the Lord, which it's trying to exalt myself.
Brother, may I say that all around us, and perhaps we're affected by this because of association and young people primarily today in schools and places of education.
Are in touch with those.
Who are in establishments, fundamental groups, very sincere people and brethren elsewhere that are establishments that are set up to accommodate.
The flesh in the world.
I know I'm directly associated with family members.
That have to do with these places and they feel that everything, to a point, is OK as long as it's within the walls of this institution.
And the allowances of things that come in.
And.
The lack of discipline, of course, in these places defile and grieve the Holy Spirit.
And these things affect us. The Spirit of God has come to guide us into all truth. John 1613. He does not speak of himself. He will show you things to come, and He shall glorify me. And the Spirit of God is grieved because of the association, whether it's here or elsewhere in our lives personally, there can be no growth. The Spirit of God does not occupy us with himself, but with that One blessed.
And supreme object, as our brother Byrne said, we live in the presence of the Lord. With Him as the object, we should go away with Christ before us. The Spirit of God does not speak of Himself and occupy it. We don't sing to the Spirit, we don't worship the Spirit, we worship the One.
Whom the Spirit speaks of who came to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
24 in the appendix.
01:25:08
Nothing but Christ that all sweet dreams.
The gifts and pride God play.
Every.
All day.
Where we go through our way.
Nothing.
Good.
Race our race our resource.
Right, our blessed God and Father Jesus Christ, and we would just cry the Lamb of God still.