1 CORINTHIANS 22004 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Corinthians 2

AI Andrew [00:00:00]:
You are listening to FerventWord, an online bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2004.

Jerry Simmons [00:00:13]:
1st Corinthians chapter 2. We've been looking at the book of 1st Corinthians the last couple weeks now, and you might remember we've been talking about sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we looked at 2 weeks ago, Paul said, hey, I wasn't sent to baptize, but to preach the gospel, to share the message of the cross. And that's what we looked at last week as well, the simplicity of the gospel, and that it's just all about Jesus Christ being crucified. And it's very simple. It's so simple that a child can hear, can understand, and accept Jesus Christ as their savior and lord. There's no wisdom that you have to attain. There's no nothing that you have to work up to, but it's simple.

Jerry Simmons [00:00:51]:
God made it so simple. And as a result, the wisdom of man, the wisdom of this world is destroyed because it's not necessary, it's not even useful in salvation to be saved. You don't need the wisdom of this world. All you need to do is believe on Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. And as we've been looking at that, I've been encouraging you to share with others and take advantage of the opportunities that God has been giving you, and I hope that you have been doing that. That is God brings you in contact with your family and co workers and friends, that God I know has given you opportunities, and I pray that you're taking those, but you know, if you're not, continue to to press forward. And and this week, man, take those opportunities and see what god wants to do. It's interesting as I share, you know, these messages and share with you, then the lord also gives me opportunities too.

Jerry Simmons [00:01:36]:
And it was such a blessing in that, when I was in New York, I was on business for for my work for my company paychecks, and I was there for a couple days. But as I was there, I had a roommate, and I was there for a couple days. And so we just hung out together, and And, it was interesting because the guy had no knowledge of religion or whatsoever, so I don't know who paired us up. But he is like, you know, totally ignorant, but he was interested. And so man, every time I try to study, the Lord just changed it and changed the directions, and he gave me opportunities to share with him instead. And so pray for him, his name is Michael, and he's a good guy man, young guy, and God wants to speak to him and he's seeking the Lord. And God wants to bring the same kind of people into your life as well, that you administer to their heart, that you would be able to share the gospel with them. And so, take those opportunities, man.

Jerry Simmons [00:02:24]:
Be bold and remember that Jesus does it naturally. It doesn't have to be, you know, you don't have to stand at a pulpit or anything like that, but you just share what God has done in your heart, and answer questions that people have because they have a lot of questions. Well, as we continue on in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul kind of continues that train of thought, and we see that here Let's read together first Corinthians chapter 2 starting in verse 1. It says this. And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Jerry Simmons [00:03:18]:
Verse 6. However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing, but we speak the wisdom of god in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which god ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew for had they known they would not have crucified the lord of glory. But as it is written, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed them to us through his spirit, For the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that we have or that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

Jerry Simmons [00:04:37]:
But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. Here in 1st Corinthians chapter 2, Paul starts out, like I said, continuing the train of thought that we left off last week, the message of the cross of Christ, the simplicity of the gospel. And Paul says in verse 1 that when I came to you, I didn't come with excellence of speech. I didn't come with lofty words or or human wisdom, but I I came with a simple message. And and that's important for us as well as we have opportunities to share with others and share with one another in the body of Christ. That is not about the words that we use. You know, we kinda get the impression from Paul's letters that he was an eloquent, speaker.

Jerry Simmons [00:05:29]:
Right? He was probably a powerful speaker. And and looking at his the the books that he wrote in the New Testament, we kinda get that impression. But sometimes I wonder if that's true. In 1st Corinthians chapter 10 verses 12, it tells us that there were people there that were saying, in the church of Corinth, they were saying that, you know, hey, Paul, you know, he's real bold and and very, you know, kind of blunt and to the point, very powerful when he's away and he's writing letters, but in person, yeah, he's not very impressive. And so I wonder, you know, was the apostle Paul the eloquent speaker that we imagine, the powerful orator that that we like to think? I don't know. But Paul's point was, hey, I didn't come with my eloquence. I didn't come with excellence of speech. Instead, I came with a simple message.

Jerry Simmons [00:06:13]:
The word excellence is literally the word to overhang. And so basically, he's saying, hey. I didn't give you a message or or words that were over your head, but I brought it right to your level. I brought it right to the point of what you needed to hear, the message of the gospel, the cross of Jesus Christ. Paul probably had learned much like we learned today that when we try to impress, when we try to use our lofty arguments or words, they just come to nothing, because they're not of God. But when we bring it to the level of the person that we're sharing with, then God takes that and uses it, the simplicity of the gospel as we talked about last week. Now that doesn't mean that Paul couldn't or he wasn't able to be a powerful speaker. We look at Acts chapter 17, and many take that portion of scripture and model that is the ideal message as he spoke with the philosophers of the age in Athens, and talked about the unknown God which they worshiped.

Jerry Simmons [00:07:08]:
And seminaries and Bible colleges take that, and they analyze that as the perfect message as he just formulate formulated it perfectly and his arguments were really sound and they were great. But Paul says, hey, the point is it's not about excellence of speech. It's not about how well you put together your presentation or anything like that. It's the simplicity of the gospel. I didn't come to you with excellence of speech or of wisdom, he says. But instead, in verse 2, it tells us I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and whom crucified. Paul says, hey. I came to you.

Jerry Simmons [00:07:44]:
I shared you the testimony of God, not in superior words, but I just stuck to one point. I kept it simple, and I said, hey. I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And how important that is? You know, you can imagine the apostle Paul as he went to the church of Corinth, and it was a pagan city as there was many temples and many different, types of worship as we talked about a couple weeks ago, that there was probably many things that Paul could preach on and Paul could preach against. But he said, I'm not gonna talk about the side issues. I'm not gonna talk about the things that are irrelevant, but I'm gonna talk about the things of Jesus Christ. I determined to not to know anything among you except for Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Have you ever seen anybody walk determinedly? They're just they're on a mission.

Jerry Simmons [00:08:32]:
They're going, and you're not gonna distract them. You're not gonna, you know, sway them or take them off course, but they're determined. They're they're going that way, and they're gonna continue to go that way, and they're gonna reach their goal because they're determined. And that's how Paul said he was. I was determined. Yeah. You tried to talk to me about this. You tried to talk to me about that.

Jerry Simmons [00:08:48]:
Self esteem, you know, whether or not there's a hell or whatever it might be that you get involved in arguments with. But Paul says, hey. I just determined to know Jesus Christ. And whatever side issues, well, those all revolve around the core. The most important, the essential part of the gospel message is Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's that's the gospel. You might remember this portion of scripture from, probably a year or 2 ago when I when I shared on this, and I taught, And and I asked you the question, you know, how do you share the gospel? What's the gospel in 3 words or less? You guys remember? You remember? Jesus Christ crucified. Right? Jesus Christ crucified tells the whole gospel.

Jerry Simmons [00:09:30]:
That's all that you need. That's what you need to know to be saved. It's so simple the way that God designed it. You just gotta believe that Jesus Christ came. He died on the cross for your sins, and you can be saved by receiving that free gift that he gives to you, the forgiveness of your sins. It's incredible. And so Paul says, hey. I just determined I'm not gonna know anything else among you except for Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Jerry Simmons [00:09:53]:
That's it. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. And that's important for us too as we have opportunities to share the gospel with others that we'd be determined not to know anything else. You know, as we run into those who do not know Jesus Christ as our savior and lord, God will give us opportunities to bring the discussions, the conversations, the topics, the focus back to himself, back to Jesus Christ. And we need to do that. We need to take that. You know, if you're determined to go somewhere, hey, no matter what route you end up at, no matter what corner you end up at, determine to get back determine to get back.

Jerry Simmons [00:10:31]:
And so no matter what the conversation is, no matter where it goes, determine to get back to the root issue, the root cause, which is Jesus Christ and him crucified. And that's the main thing. That's what our lives need to be focused around and centered around. Our conversations, our lifestyles, everything about us needs to be centered and focused on Jesus Christ and him crucified. That should be our determination to know him and to serve him above all else, to share him with all those we come in contact with. Well, I'm gonna share a little bit more about this verse and being determined to know nothing, but I'm gonna save it to the end. So keep your notes and your thoughts on, verse 2, being determined to know nothing else but Jesus Christ and him crucified. But as we go on in verse 3, he says, I was with you in weakness and or in fear and in much trembling.

Jerry Simmons [00:11:21]:
Now this is again a picture that we don't really see of the apostle Paul, like, what do you mean you're in weakness, you're in fear and much trembling? I I would have never imagined the apostle Paul to be trembling when he spoke or when he was with them. But Paul says, hey, I came in humility, and this speaks to me a lot because Paul wasn't trying to be a politician. You know, a politician gets up and and they're very, polished. Right? And they've got everything together. They've got their teleprompter, so they know exactly what to say, and it seems like it's coming right from them. And and everything's all put together perfectly so that you can believe and you can trust what they're saying. And that's what a politician wants to do, a politician selling themselves. Right? But Paul says, hey, I wasn't a politician.

Jerry Simmons [00:12:02]:
I didn't come promoting myself and standing up there and being all polished, but I came as I am. I I came in weakness and fear. I came trembling. Why would you do that, Paul? Why would you expose yourself or allow yourself to be that way? Why wouldn't you put up the front and be bold like we've seen you be bold? Why wouldn't you put on the mask and and be happy or or be, you know, the person that that we might expect you to be? Well Paul says, hey, because I don't want you to focus on me. Where does he say this? In verse 5, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Paul says, hey, I could probably use eloquent words, I could probably use the excellent speech like I did in Athens, but I came to you in fear and in trembling that your faith would not be in me, in the words that I use, in the wisdom of men, in arguments or anything like that, but your faith would be in the power of God. And that was Paul's goal. That was his focus that people would see Jesus and that God would use that.

Jerry Simmons [00:12:58]:
The power of God would be revealed and manifest in that. We often think, you know, if we're gonna share with someone, we need to have the right argument, the right introduction, the right conclusion, the right way to say, hey, do you wanna accept Jesus Christ as your savior and Lord? But that doesn't matter so much as the fact that are you sharing the gospel? Are you sharing about Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Are you just presenting yourself as who you are, or are you putting up this front, this mask, trying to be someone you're not? Because it doesn't work. If we try to come in persuasive words and try to come in excellence of speech, trust me, guys, if I try to stand up here and teach with excellent words and superior speech and wisdom, I I'm just gonna stumble over my own words. The Lord's gonna say, hey. I gave you that tongue, and you're using it for the wrong reason, and I'll just stumble over my words, and I'll look like a fool, which is what we are. That's what we talked about last week. God uses the foolish things. It's not about our wisdom or our words, but it's about the simple message of the cross and that we share it.

Jerry Simmons [00:13:56]:
Because when we share it, then the power of God takes effect. The power of God doesn't say, okay, I'm gonna empower you, and you're gonna have all the right arguments and all the right things. No no no. You just simply share about Jesus Christ, and let God do the rest. And that's all you gotta do. That's all we gotta do. And so Paul said, I was determined that nothing else was gonna come out of my lips. Nothing else was I gonna share with you except for Jesus Christ.

Jerry Simmons [00:14:18]:
And, yeah, I was in weakness. I was in fear. I was trembling, because I didn't want you to be trusting in me or in my wisdom or any kind of wisdom of man, but in the power of God and what God can do with your life and my life. Heavy stuff, the apostle Paul encourages us, because men will fail you. If I teach you to put your faith in me or in men, then you're gonna be disappointed because men will fail you. In fact, look at the person next to you. They probably failed you at some point in some way. We fail one another.

Jerry Simmons [00:14:50]:
We're we're we're sinful people. But if we teach people to put their trust in god and to look at and see Jesus Christ and the power of God, they will not be disappointed, because Jesus Christ does not fail. He will never fail us. He will never leave us. He will never forsake us. He always comes through according to his will. Sometimes, you know, according to our will, and maybe he doesn't come through, but according to his will because he knows best. He's got the eternal perspective, and so we need to point people to Jesus Christ, and not to ourselves, not to wisdom, not to arguments, but simply to Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Jerry Simmons [00:15:27]:
The root of the gospel, the core of the gospel, the simple message of salvation. In verse 6, he goes on and he says: However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature. He kind of changes direction a little bit here, and he's drawing us a contrast, right? He says: I've determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ, the simplicity of the gospel. However, however, in contrast, there is wisdom. We do speak wisdom, but only among those who are mature. So he says the simplicity of the gospel and what we need man, we need to stick to that, the message of the cross. But he says there is a message of wisdom. There is teaching on wisdom or of wisdom, but it's only for those who are mature, Paul says.

Jerry Simmons [00:16:16]:
And so I ask you, are you mature this morning? Are you a mature believer? It was funny. I was, talking with Michael Ochoa in the back before service this morning, and I was writing down a couple of extra notes. And I said, hey, Michael, are you mature? And he's all, you know, of course, he's thinking, this is Jerry. I'm asking some kind of trick question. Right? He's all, I think so. How do you know? And he's waiting for me to try to chop him, right, with my words. And you know, I like to do that to challenge people in their walk with the Lord. But are you mature this morning? How do you know if you're a mature person, if you're a mature believer? Well, the word mature means to be a full grown adult as opposed to like a little child.

Jerry Simmons [00:16:58]:
Right? Full grown as opposed to a little child. So are you a a full grown Christian? Are you a full blown Christian, but also are you a full grown Christian? Yeah. You might be saved, but are you fully grown? Are you mature as a believer in Jesus Christ? Well, how do you know what is a mature believer? Well, from the context and as we continue to study, I think that you'll see that a mature believer that Paul is talking about is one that has learned to hear and to learn from the Holy Spirit, one who has learned to hear and to learn to be instructed by the Holy Spirit. If we think of it in kinda, in our normal world ideas, what's the difference between an adult and a child? Well, an adult is able to care for themselves, whereas a child needs to be cared for. For an adult, things have a different perspective because they're an adult, but a child has a different perspective because they're a child. There's many different contrast there. Paul says in 1st Corinthians chapter 3, verses 12, which we'll look at next week, Paul told the Corinthians, hey, you guys are babes in Christ. I was there, and I just fed you with milk.

Jerry Simmons [00:18:15]:
I just gave you the basics because that's all you could take. He says, even now, you're not really able to take the the meat or the the solid food, the solid things of Christianity of what I need to share with you. Paul said, hey, you guys are just babes. You're not able to care for yourselves. You're not able to hear and be instructed by the Holy Spirit. You know, we never grow beyond needing to hear and to be taught God's word. We never know grow beyond needing to be fed by teachers and pastors within our lives. Every one of us, pastor Tom, pastor Rick who's with us this morning, we all need to be taught and fed the word of God.

Jerry Simmons [00:18:55]:
But we do need to grow beyond being only able to be fed when we're taught by others, to being only being able to be fed by others. In other words, we need to grow to the point that we can also prepare our own meals spiritually, That we could prepare our own time in the word of God and spend time and hear and be spoken to by God out of our devotions, out of our study of God's word on our own time, not just on Sundays and Wednesdays when God speaks to us corporately, but also personally God wants to speak to us. And a mature believer is one who has learned, Paul says, to hear the things of the spirit of God as they spend time with God to be instructed by God that they might know him more. That's a mature believer. In Hebrews chapter 5, you can turn there if you'd like, or I'll read it to you if you don't like. Hebrews chapter 5 starting in verse 12, it says this. Hebrews 5 starting in verse 12. Couple people are turning there.

Jerry Simmons [00:19:57]:
You can hear. Hebrews 5 12, it says this. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. The writer of Hebrews here says, hey. Many of you ought to be teachers by now. You should be able to share the gospel, to share the truths of God's word with other people.

Jerry Simmons [00:20:43]:
You ought to be teachers, but you're not. Well, why not? Well, because you're just babes. You're just taking in the milk. You're unskilled, it says, in the word of righteousness, in the word of God. Does that describe you this morning? Would you classify yourself as unskilled in the Bible and the word of God? Paul says if that's true, that you're not mature. He goes on to say in verse 14, but solid food, the meals belong to those who notice are of full age, who are full grown, who are adults, who are mature. That is, those who notice this by reason of use. What does that mean? Well, the reason is because they've used it a lot, they've been fully grown, and they have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Jerry Simmons [00:21:31]:
It's those who have discerned or or used the word of God so that they've learned to discern what's of God and what's not of God, to discern between good and evil, to understand the things that are of God and the things that aren't. Are you a mature believer this morning? Are you able to hear from the Holy Spirit? To understand, to be instructed, to be led, to be guided. We need to be mature believers. Paul says, however, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, I'm sorry, back in 1st Corinthians 2:6, who are coming to nothing, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory. Paul says we don't speak we do speak wisdom, there is a message of wisdom, but it's not, wisdom of this world, it's not a wisdom of man, but it's a wisdom of God. And the only way to get that, the only way to understand that is to be able to receive and to hear from the Holy Spirit. And that's why we need to be on our own, spending time in God's word and receiving the Holy Spirit, receiving that message of wisdom. I'm married.

Jerry Simmons [00:22:44]:
Right? There's a ring. Boom. I'm married. It's a month 4 days now. It's cool. And, you know, it's interesting as, you know, Kim and I are getting used to to living together and being married, and and she's beginning to to, prepare meals and stuff. And I love it, man. She prepares dinner.

Jerry Simmons [00:23:02]:
Oh, it's wonderful. It's great. And I appreciate it. I appreciate it when she does. But you know what? In some ways, I am mature in the sense that if she doesn't cook me dinner, that doesn't mean that I don't eat. She's in the service, so I'm withholding some information. I'm just kidding. Just kidding.

Jerry Simmons [00:23:25]:
Just kidding. But if she doesn't cook, I can still prepare food for myself. There's always frozen burritos and frozen pot pies and frozen pizzas. Right? That's what the microwave is for. I can prepare my own food. I don't rely upon her completely. Yeah. If she does, oh, I appreciate it.

Jerry Simmons [00:23:43]:
It's great. But you know what? I I can feed myself as well. And and that's the place that we need to come to as Christians, that we are able to prepare our own meals. And that's why, man, the inductive Bible study that went on, this weekend on Friday Saturday is so important. It's so important because we need to learn to dig in to understand the word of God. And I was blessed to hear, you know, I was in New York, so I couldn't come. But I was blessed to hear that, you know, like, 25 people are came, and and I'm, like, oh, that's awesome. People wanna know and understand the word of God.

Jerry Simmons [00:24:14]:
But my question is too is where's everybody else? Are you already mature? Is that what you're saying? I don't need to worry about that. I don't need to understand God's word. I learn to dig in or inductively study it, you know, whatever. I just get fed on Sundays and Wednesdays, and that's good enough. No. We need to learn, guys. We need to learn to get into God's word. We need to learn to spend time with Jesus every day to hear from his Holy Spirit, so that we can grow.

Jerry Simmons [00:24:39]:
We can grow. I challenge you, if you think you can just make do on being fed on Sundays and Wednesdays, try that physically. Try it in the real world. Only eat on Sundays Wednesdays and see what happens. Your body begins to be weak, you can't fend for yourself, you can't you'll begin to waste away. And the same is true spiritually. If we only get fed when other people feed us, spiritually, we'll begin to waste away, we'll begin to decay. And we need to come back to hearing from Jesus Christ on a daily basis.

Jerry Simmons [00:25:10]:
And maybe you say, well, I don't know how to do that. I don't understand. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. You can ask people, you know, it's okay. You can ask someone, hey, I don't know how to prepare my own meal like Jerry's talking about. I don't even know most of what he's saying, but I know that there's something there, and I want to learn to hear from God's spirit. I want to hear from God's word. And you can ask the person next to you, you can ask your spiritual leaders, you can ask those who are, the the heads of the ministry that you're involved in, you can ask the pastors of this fellowship.

Jerry Simmons [00:25:39]:
Man, we'd love to share with you how to spend time with Jesus, because it's so important, and it's necessary for each and every one of us that we are growing, that we're spending time with Jesus Christ. Well, Paul says in verse 7, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. What does he mean in a mystery? Well, that means you're not supposed to know it. No. It doesn't mean that you're not supposed to know it. It doesn't mean it's beyond finding out. It means it's hidden so that you can dig for it because God doesn't want just this shallow surface relationship, but he wants you to dig for it. He wants you to dig in to do those cross references, to do those word studies, to spend time meditating on the scriptures so that you could understand it.

Jerry Simmons [00:26:20]:
You know, many times if you come across a portion of scripture that you don't understand, it's not because God doesn't want you to know but because God says, hey, you don't understand that portion of scripture, stay there. Meditate on it. Study it. Do some research. Do whatever it takes. Find out what that means because there's something there that I wanna show you. There's something there that I wanna speak to you. There's something there that I'm gonna use to change your life.

Jerry Simmons [00:26:43]:
God has those things within his word for us for each and every one of us. It's not just for the leaders or the pastors or teachers, but it's for you and for me that we might know and understand God better, that we might grow up into maturity. He says we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Paul says, hey, if those guys, if the religious leaders, the Jewish leaders, the Roman leaders had known the things of God, if they had known the mysteries of God, the hidden wisdom, if they had spent time in God's word and received from it, they wouldn't have crucified Jesus because he would have known he was the king of kings and lord of lords. Now obviously it was God's will that Jesus Christ be crucified, but he used the ignorance of man not knowing. Jesus, man, he wept over Jerusalem and he said, oh, Jerusalem, man, if only you had known this day, your day, the day that God has given you when the messiah was coming in to the city of Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders I mean, the scriptures are there in the old testament. You can look and study and see that Jesus Christ was proclaimed coming to set up not just a physical kingdom, you know, that is to come, but more importantly to save his people from their sins, and the Jews were not looking.

Jerry Simmons [00:28:10]:
The Israelites were not looking for that. The people of of Jesus' time were not looking for someone to save them from their sins. They were secure in their sins. They like them. They were secure in their rituals and their religion, but instead they were looking for an earthly kingdom. But Jesus said, no. I'm not here for that. I'm here to save you from your sins, and they missed it because it was a mystery.

Jerry Simmons [00:28:32]:
It was a hidden wisdom that they need needed to dig for to understand God's word. And there's those things in our lives as well that we need to dig for, to understand. Hindsight is 2020, Man, you look back at some things, oh, if only I'd understood beforehand, I wouldn't have done those things. If we get into the word of God and spend time, God will direct us around those things so that we don't have to make those bad decisions. No. We still do. We still blunder, but God will lead us and guide us. It's a mystery, something he wants you to dig in and find out.

Jerry Simmons [00:29:08]:
In verse 9, he says, but as it is written, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. But notice this, but God has revealed them unto us through his spirit, for the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. Paul here quotes from Isaiah chapter 64 verse 4, and he says, eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. I believe that God has prepared wonderful things for each and every one of you. I believe that that he's prepared you and he's prepared things for you that he would be glorified, that he would use you to minister to other people. What are those things? I don't know. I just believe that He's prepared them for you. But I do also believe that He wants to reveal them to you.

Jerry Simmons [00:30:02]:
He's not gonna show me what He wants to do with your life. No. He speaks to me about my life and the things that I need to change and the ways that I need to walk, the areas that I need to go. But he also wants to speak to you about those very same things. And you can ask your friends and you can ask your family, what do you think I should do? What do you think god wants me to do? You know, you can ask them all you want, but god ultimately wants to speak to you personally 1 on 1 and show you those things. And he doesn't want to use other people usually, he wants to use just you and him, spend time with him, and he'll show you those things. You can't even imagine, he says eye has not seen, ear has not heard, the things that God has prepared for those who love him. God wants to do an amazing work just as the people back in Jesus' time weren't expecting that, they weren't looking for what Jesus was doing, but he did a work beyond their comprehension.

Jerry Simmons [00:30:59]:
And he wants to do the same thing in your heart and my heart. They're hidden. They're they're not seen. They're not heard. But in verse 10, it says, but God has revealed them to us through His spirit. And that's why I said the wisdom or the mature person is one who can receive from the spirit of God, the one who the spirit is revealing things to. Now the word reveal means to unveil. If I unveil something, if I was covering this pulpit, I could unveil it by removing the cover.

Jerry Simmons [00:31:32]:
And the pulpit was always there when it was covered, but it was just veiled, it was hidden. So maybe you could see the form, you could kind of get a sense of what it was, but it was hidden, you couldn't see the details. But it says: God has revealed them or unveiled them, pulled it away so that you can see clearly the things that He is saying. Man, there's so many things in the New Testament, in the Old Testament, in our lives that we look and go, I I kinda see a form of something, I kinda understand the general sense of what God is saying or what God is doing, but what God wants us to do is go beyond the understanding of the general and have a clear understanding of what He wants to do in our lives and through our lives. He wants to unveil those things and reveal us, to us the things that are found in His word. Not that, well, I kinda understand, but He wants to speak to you and show you those things. Notice it's through His spirit that it's not, well, what you need to do is you, you know, need to read the book that I've just written, which I haven't written a book, I'm just kidding, but you know, you need to do this, or you need to do that, or go to school, or do this or do that. No no no.

Jerry Simmons [00:32:36]:
What you need to do is learn to listen to God's spirit. Learn to listen to the Holy Spirit that He would reveal those things to you. They're spiritually revealed. It's not anything you can do physically or carnally or in your flesh or naturally, it's something that has to be done spiritually. He says for the spirit of God searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. The spirit of God searches all things, everything, even the hidden mysteries, even the things that we don't understand, the Spirit of God searches out those things and knows those things and wants to reveal them to us. Verse 11 says: For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. Who knows the things of God? Only the spirit, which means that the only way you can get to know God is through the Holy Spirit.

Jerry Simmons [00:33:29]:
The only way that you can get closer to God is through the Holy Spirit. You can try whatever method you want, but the only way is through the Spirit of God. He alone knows the things of God, and if you want to understand and know God's word, you need to be listening to the Holy Spirit. He says in verse 12: Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God. Notice, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us. We haven't been given the spirit of the world, the wisdom or the knowledge of the world, but the spirit of God. You guys, as Christians, remember and understand, when you accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, he gives you the holy spirit to teach you, to encourage you, to equip you for everything that you need, to reveal to you and speak to you out of his word. And you haven't received the spirit of the world, but you have received the spirit of god because he wants to speak to you.

Jerry Simmons [00:34:29]:
That we might know, he says, the things that have been freely given to us by God. What things have been freely given to us by God? Pretty much everything. There's nothing that we earned or deserved. Everything. He gave us Jesus Christ and him crucified as we talked about earlier. He gives us the Holy Spirit as we're talking about right now. He gives us the gifts of the spirit, the talents and abilities that he's given us to to edify and to minister to the body of Christ. He gives us the peace that passes all understanding.

Jerry Simmons [00:35:01]:
He gives us the revelation or the revealing, the understanding of his word. He gives us direction. He gives us guidance. He gives us joy. He gives us forgiveness. There's so many things that Jesus Christ gives us. As a result of Jesus Christ, we have a whole new relationship with the God almighty of the universe, and it's freely given to us. And we're not called just to simply accept it and and believe it, although we are called to that.

Jerry Simmons [00:35:31]:
But he says that you might know, that you might understand the things which are given to you. Yes. We are called to believe that Jesus Christ came and was crucified for our sins, but are also called to move on to maturity that we might understand better the things of God. And we don't stay in that infant state. We don't stay in the state of a babe, but we move forward into the things of God, to the hidden wisdom, the things that are a little bit deep that you gotta dig for, you gotta spend time with Jesus and hear from His Holy Spirit. Verse 13, he goes on to say, these things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but notice again, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. It's not words of wisdom, but it's spiritual things. He goes on in verse 14, but the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

Jerry Simmons [00:36:31]:
We have a natural man, don't we? And when we rely upon the natural man, not a whole lot of Christianity makes sense. These things can only be revealed to us by Jesus Christ, by God Himself, by the Holy Spirit. Even Christianity, as we talked about last week, even just accepting Jesus Christ, we can't do that on our own, but we need the Holy Spirit to give us the strength and ability to be able to do that. We can't do it on our own. The natural man does not understand the things of the spirit, And so we need to be spiritual people that we would be able to understand the things of the spirit, not the things that make sense logically that we can comprehend, but the things that we know to be true because God's spirit is speaking to us, and that he's revealed it to us. You know, revelation doesn't necessarily mean that you have to understand it. It's just been revealed to you. And God wants to show you those things.

Jerry Simmons [00:37:34]:
Not that you necessarily understand everything, we're never gonna understand everything about God or know God, but he's gonna reveal things to us about him and about ourselves as we come to him. He says in verse 15, but he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? Notice, but we have the mind of Christ. Do you have the mind of Christ this morning? Do you have the mind of Christ? It's a spiritual mind. It's not something that you get on your own or you have naturally, but it's something that God gives you, the mind of Christ. Remember the bracelets that were really popular a while back? The What Would Jesus Do? WWJD? What would Jesus do? I I have the mind of Christ. Let me stop and think. What would Jesus do? Paul says, hey, He who is spiritual judges all things.

Jerry Simmons [00:38:30]:
He can discern, as we talked about, between good and evil, what's right and what's wrong, what's of God and what's not of God. But are we using that? Do we have the mind of Christ? Are we hearing from the Holy Spirit about the things that we're involved in in our lives personally? You know, there's a lot of junk out there. And as I was in New York, and my roommate was watching TV, I learned again that there's a lot of junk out there, man. There's just a lot of junk that we don't need to be watching, and we need to understand and go, that is not of God. Why would I wanna be involved in that? Why would I wanna watch that? Why would I wanna subject myself to that? We need to be spiritual people, able to discern between good and evil, between right and wrong. Are you mature? Are you mature this morning as we talk about hearing from the Spirit of God? Let me ask you. When's the last time you've heard from the spirit? When is the last time that you've sat down maybe in your devotions or in your time in the word on your own, and God's spirit has spoken to you, and you've listened, you've received it, and you've followed through, and you've watched God do an amazing work. God wants to do those things.

Jerry Simmons [00:39:41]:
It's not just for the pastors, the teachers, the spiritual leaders, but it's for each and every one of us that god wants to speak to us. Many of us this morning, I believe, need to come back to Jesus Christ because I think what happens to us as Christians and maybe it's just me and maybe it's not you, but you know what? I I think that God wants to speak to you guys as well as myself. Because I started out, and we talked about knowing Jesus Christ and him crucified. And and our lives need to center on that, and we need to come and and to focus and center our lives around Jesus Christ and him crucified. Everything revolves around that. And as we do that, as we revolve around Jesus Christ, remember when you get saved or maybe you go on a retreat or man, the Lord just speaks to you powerfully and and you're really convicted. You really, man, you really just wanna get to know Jesus Christ. You fall in love with Him again.

Jerry Simmons [00:40:48]:
You spend time with Him. You're there with him. And then as time goes on, things begin to fade. Why does it begin to fade out? Why what happens? Well, you know, we're just naturally torn and tossed by the world. We're pulled away by our flesh and the worldly things, but there's other situations too where I believe that we run from God. Because what happens is as we're getting close to Jesus Christ, as He's speaking to us out of His word, He's revealing Himself to us through His Holy Spirit that we come to the point where God says, look. I'm not just revealing cool things about me, and I'm not just blessing you, you know, incredibly, but also look at this area in your life that you need to change. Look at this area of sin that you're involved in.

Jerry Simmons [00:41:28]:
Look at this thing. I wanna deal with this. I wanna work in this situation. I wanna rid you or cleanse you of this sin. Or maybe He reveals to you something like, hey, this is the calling that I have for you. This is the ministry that I want you to be involved in. And as Christians, even though we're Christians, even though we walk with the Lord, we go: Oh, man, that's uncomfortable. That's hard.

Jerry Simmons [00:41:50]:
Oh, that's gonna be painful. I'm not gonna like that. And so what happens is we stop being close to Jesus. It doesn't mean we completely walk away and turn our backs on Him, but what we end up doing is we stop getting close to the cross. Even though maybe we're doing our devotions, maybe we're spending time in the Word, we're not engaging spiritually, we're not giving our hearts completely, We're not asking to be spoken to by his Holy Spirit because we know what the spirit has said already, and we don't wanna deal with it. We don't wanna have to cleanse out that area. We don't wanna have to change. We don't wanna have to move on in ministry or the things that God has called us to do.

Jerry Simmons [00:42:26]:
We don't wanna step out of our comfort zone, and so we disengage. Yeah, we do the work maybe, but we disengage, and our heart's not in it. And what happens is we go from maturity to immaturity because we stop hearing from the Holy Spirit, and we're afraid to go back because, man, if we go back, I know God's been wanting to deal with this area. I know he's been wanting to work with this area, and I know he's been wanting to do something. And so we've not been determined to hold on to Jesus Christ. Instead, we're holding on to religion. We're holding on to the things that we just kinda do as a as a habit or our works. We're not holding on to Jesus Christ.

Jerry Simmons [00:43:07]:
We're not close to Jesus Christ anymore, but now it's different. It's changed. We've become immature again, unable to hear the things of God. I think there's people here this morning who have been running from Jesus Christ, running from the work that he wants to do in their hearts. But remember this, guys. God is a loving father. He's a gentle father, and He only asks us to do things that are in our best interest. If He wants to clean out an area of our lives or have us release it, let it go, it's for our best interest eternally.

Jerry Simmons [00:43:47]:
God wants to do something because he knows it's not good for us. It's gonna harm us. If he wants us to move on in the area of ministry or share with someone, do something outside of our comfort zone, he knows it's for our best interest because he wants us to go. He wants us to walk in his blessings and his love. And we've been running. Have you been running this morning? Have you been running maybe the past week or couple weeks or couple months or couple years? Have you been running from Jesus Christ because he wants to do a work in your heart? Oh, man. Stop running. Determined to know nothing else but the cross of Christ.

Jerry Simmons [00:44:27]:
And no matter how much it hurts, no matter what it requires, hold on to Jesus Christ and stay close. Stop running. You know, waiting and running does not help any. It doesn't help at all. Think about it in your own life or or practical situation is think about washing the dishes. Does it help to wait to wash the dishes? No. It doesn't help. I mean, the stuff that's on there just kinda gets hard and junky and crodes.

Jerry Simmons [00:44:52]:
And and eventually, I mean, I I don't know about you guys, but I just throw away the the container because I don't wanna wash it. I can't imagine ever eating out of that thing again. So I just throw it away. I discard it. It's useless. I should've washed it right away. When we hear from the spirit of God and he speaks to us about an area and we don't follow through, we don't obey, we step back, we disengage, our heart begins to get hard. And if we come back and the spirit speaks to us, and we disengage again, our heart gets harder and harder and harder, and we become like a crusted food on a plate, man.

Jerry Simmons [00:45:33]:
God wants to deal with those things. He can cleanse us, He can wash us, He can make us new again. And waiting doesn't help. We have to stop running and let Jesus cleanse us now. What is the spirit of God revealing to you? You know, we're gonna spend some time in worship now as the worship team comes back up. And as we spend time in worship, I I want you to pray to spend time with Jesus Christ because it's not about the things that we do. You might say, well, I'm a mature Christian because I've been going to church for 20 years. Well, that doesn't matter.

Jerry Simmons [00:46:08]:
Have you heard from God's spirit recently? Have you spent time with him? Is he speaking to you? Is he guiding you and leading you? That's the question. Are you close to Jesus Christ? Have you been determined in your life to know nothing else but Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Is that the central purpose? Is that the goal of your life, to know Him and Him crucified? God wants to do a work in each and every one of us this morning, and I challenge you, I ask you, I beg you, allow God's spirit to speak to you as you worship the Lord, and spend time at the foot of the cross looking up to Jesus and coming back to him. Allow the spirit to reveal to you things that he wants to say. It might be good things, it might be a little bit hard things, but remember, it's for your best interest because god loves you with all of his heart, and god wants to do a work in your heart. Are you willing to hear from the spirit? Are you willing to listen and obey? Are you willing to go on to maturity and to determine that no matter what, no matter how hard it is, no matter what it takes, I'm gonna hold on to Jesus Christ and him crucified, and that's gonna be the focus of my life. I challenge you. Pray about that. Seek the Lord.

Jerry Simmons [00:47:23]:
Allow him to speak to you and change you as you worship him. High and lifted up, he is exalted, and he is worthy of our praise. Let's worship the Lord.

AI Andrew [00:47:37]:
We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit FerventWord.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.