The Mind of God! Part 2 of 2

Hey, this is Mike Zwick from If Not For God Podcast, our show.

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Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, a local triangle ministry glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Now let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious.

This is part two of a special two-part episode. Man's wisdom believes that bad people should never be to go to heaven. Only good church-going people should be allowed into heaven, right? Wrong. The fact that a murderer can confess his sins on death row and receive total forgiveness makes no sense to the world. And that's why Paul writes, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. The natural man cannot understand spiritual matters.

It's impossible. It's like listening to someone speak a foreign language. Exactly who is the natural man? Well, the natural man is the man without the Spirit. Look at 1 Corinthians 2.14, the man without the Spirit, again that's the natural man, that's the non-believer, does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God for they're foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they're spiritually discerned. You see, the natural man is the man or woman who is not indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

He's the man or woman who has never been born again. Do you know what the technical definition of a Christian is? Technically speaking, it's simply a person who has been indwelt by the Holy Spirit. It's 1st Corinthians, excuse me, Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, you've been sealed with the Holy Spirit. When you hear the Gospel and you believe it. Romans 8 and 9 makes this even more clear, and if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

So you get the point. The man without the Spirit, the natural man, is not a Christian, even if he or she's been going to church his or her entire life, even if he or she is the person in the pulpit. If you're not indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you do not belong to God and you're not his child. In spite of the fact that I was in a church yesterday where the priest declared that everyone in there was a child of God.

Not so. Not unless they've all been born again. See the pinnacle of God's wisdom is the cross. The cross is the means by which God in eternity past planned to rescue mankind from this lost condition. But this is nonsense to the world. MacArthur puts it like this, that one could die on a piece of wood on a nondescript hill in a nondescript part of the world and thereby determine the destiny of every person who's every person who's ever lived seems stupid.

You know why? It's because he says it allows no place for man's merit, man's attainment, man's understanding or man's pride. Human logic cannot understand God's ways.

It's simply impossible. Isaiah 55 9, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. And a former ACC coach who's considered one of the greatest tacticians of all time once said something like this when asked about his faith, I don't know what relevance a man who died on a cross 2,000 years ago has to do with me today.

And this man has been going to church his entire life. I got into a discussion with a friend of mine years ago about spiritual issues. We were talking about salvation. I probably prompted the conversation and I think I asked him, you know, how do you think a person gets to go to heaven?

And this is what he told me. He says that when a man dies his good deeds and his bad deeds are placed on the scales of justice and whichever way they tilt determine whether or not you enter heaven. If your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds then you're okay.

See that's what most the world thinks. They think if you go, in fact I told somebody the other day this, if you go poll most people who go to church, now I'm not talking about solid churches, but I'm talking primarily about liberal churches where they, you know what I'm talking about. If you were to poll them and ask them how you get to go to heaven I would be willing to wager, even though I'm not a betting man, that 85 to 90 percent would say well you have to be a good person. You have to live your life and be good to others. The golden rule.

I'm serious. That's what they believe. You know why they believe that?

Because that's what they've been taught from the pulpit. You see my friend believed what modern psychologists teach that man is basically good. But you know what God says about our goodness? That even our righteous deeds are what?

Filthy rags. I knew you'd know Jeff. And see my friend believed that when his time came that his good deeds would outweigh his bad deeds because he viewed himself as a pretty good moral person compared to everyone else.

You know what? He was right. Compared to everyone else he is a good moral person. I never really heard him curse. I don't think he, I never saw him tell a lie.

He was totally honest. You see that's, we're not compared to everyone else. Who do we compare to?

Jesus Christ. In Romans 3, 23 it says that for all have, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We fall short of God's perfect standard.

There's no one who's good when you're measured next to Jesus Christ. But see like most people he was just using his own human reasoning to try to understand the ways of God. But God could not be understood by the natural man.

His wisdom is beyond human understanding. See we know from the Bible that the gospel is veiled to the natural man. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 15. Paul writes, Even to this day when Moses read, a veil covers their hearts.

Why is this? It's the work of Satan. The God of this age, 2 Corinthians 4, 4 states, has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Satan works to blind those who are lost and keep them in a state of blindness. This explains why you get strange looks when you try to explain spiritual things to some of your friends who don't know the Lord. They just don't get it. You share your testimony with them and they don't understand what you're talking about. They think you're a fool. You tell them that you're going to a Bible study on Monday or Tuesday night.

They're going, Why are you doing that when you could be doing some of the other fun things like watching Monday Night Football or The Bachelorette. You see they are blind and they don't know that they're blind and they can't help themselves. And so the wisdom of God remains hidden from them. The wisdom of the world will come to nothing. God's wisdom remains hidden to the natural man because God's wisdom is revealed only to His children. Now how does God do this? How does God reveal this secret wisdom to His true children?

Well that leads to the second truth in this text and here it is. God's wisdom is revealed by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Look at verses 11 and 12, For who among men knows the thoughts of man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the Spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God that we may understand what God has fully given us. Now think about this. It's impossible for me to know what any of you are thinking but somehow if I could get your spirit to indwell my spirit then I would know what you are thinking and what you believe about any and everything.

Why is that? It's because your spirit knows your thoughts just like the Spirit of God knows His thoughts and so if I could get your spirit to indwell my spirit then your spirit would communicate to my spirit exactly what you're thinking. If I could get Jeff's spirit into my spirit I would know Jeff exactly what you're thinking on any and every subject and what he believes about everything because his spirit would communicate with my spirit. See the Bible informs us that we were all created in God's image and God is spirit and we were all born with a spirit too. So like God we are spiritual beings. In fact if you look at 1st Corinthians 2 the word spirit or spiritual is used 12 times in the NIV but unfortunately because of sin when we are all born we're born with a spirit that is dead from the moment we are born. See that dead spirit wants to be given life.

In fact think about this from the moment a person is born that dead spirit longs to come alive. It's kind of like the lawnmower that you've had in your basement for years that you haven't used in maybe 10 or 15 years. The spark plug is dead and the fuel tank is empty. You see that lawnmower longs to be cut in grass because that is what it was created to do. The only way for that mower to come alive is with a new spark plug and a full tank. So one day you decide to go pull that little lawnmower out and you replace that spark plug with a new spark plug and you put a fresh tank of gas in that tank and then you begin to pull on the cord and all of a sudden that lawnmower comes alive and then you take it and begin to push it and that lawnmower if it could smile it would smile because it's doing what God created to do.

It's cutting grass and that lawnmower experiences peace and joy and contentment. You see that is what happens the moment a man or woman hears the word of God and believes. It's kind of like the word of God is the gasoline and the spirit is the spark plug. When a man hears the gospel and truly believes God's spirit invades his spirit, his spirit comes alive. It's in that moment of true belief that a man or woman is born again and you come to know God as your Lord and Savior and you begin to study God's Word and you begin to worship God which is what you were created to do and then you begin to understand when the Bible talks about peace and joy and contentment what it's all about. In John chapter 3 when Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, he was nothing more than a very religious man with a dead spirit and this is why Jesus said to him, Nicodemus, unless a man or woman is born again, he cannot see. That means you cannot understand. To see means to understand something.

I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he's born again. Once a man believes, he's indwelt by the Spirit of Jesus and when the Holy Spirit lives in a man's heart, he begins to lift the veil from your spiritual eyes so that you can see and you can hear him speak to you. That's why Jesus was always saying, let him who has ears hear.

They all had ears but he's talking about the ears of your heart and the eyes of your heart. To so many of the people that we know, family members and friends, they have so many questions about spiritual things but they refuse to believe until they get the questions answered and so they're in a big dilemma. Do you know why? Because until you believe, you won't understand.

That's the way God has ordered things. Anselm of Canterbury, I've quoted in him before but around 1100 AD, he was the Archbishop of Canterbury, I think he was studying 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and he made a statement that has become a very famous quote and one of my favorite ones. He said, I do not seek to understand so that I might believe but I believe so that I might understand for this also I believe that unless I have believed, I cannot understand. See, he understood that faith precedes understanding. It's kind of like riding a bike. You think about when you learn how to ride a bike. You didn't understand that you could ride it even though that you could but your dad believed you could do it and you believed your dad and so he got you on that bike and then he pushed you and he was right there with you running beside you and you started pedaling. Next thing you know, you're riding that bike and he's a half a block behind you and all of a sudden you understand, hey, I can ride this but you had to believe first. That's the way faith works.

That's the way God has ordered things. Chet Hinton is a good friend of mine and he told me that he went to Bible study fellowship for three years and he would listen to, I think Joe Knight was the teacher then, he would listen to Joe Knight teach and he would go home and do his homework and he would read the Bible. He says, Russ, I just didn't understand. I just didn't get it and then one summer he met with a co-worker of his who explained to Chet, Chet, you've got to accept Jesus and you've got to receive him into your heart by faith and Chet did that and now Chet would tell you that when he reads the Bible, he understands it. The veil has been lifted and so let me ask as you sit here this morning, do you really understand the Bible when you read it? When someone shares their testimony with you, do you understand what they are describing?

Answer this question. Have you really placed your trust in Jesus? Have you received him into your heart by faith? Do you know for sure that you've been born again? Do you belong to God?

Do you know that you're one of his children? Have you heard the Holy Spirit whisper to your heart, you are my child, you are my son? One of the evidences of belonging to God and being one of his children is spiritual understanding. That is when you read the Bible, it makes sense. When you hear the word of God proclaimed in a sermon, you understand it. Spiritual understanding is one of the evidences of true conversion.

So what have we learned this morning? Truth number one, God's wisdom is revealed only to his true children. God's wisdom is revealed by the indwelling Holy Spirit and truth number three is kind of an attachment to truth number two. God's wisdom is the product of the Spirit plus the Word.

Look at verse 13. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. You see, true wisdom does not come from mankind.

True wisdom comes from God and is contained in the Word of God, the Bible. And so listen, when you pick up your Bible to read it, do you know what you're doing? You're delving into the mind of God. You're actually able to see what God thinks and knows and believes and says is true about anything to do with life, salvation, all those questions God answers in His Word.

He does more than that. He tells you how to live your life. But you need the Holy Spirit to help you understand what you're reading. And this is why Jesus said in John 14 26, but the counselor, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things.

The Book of Common Prayer says all the Word of God is given by the Spirit of God, so each word must be interpreted to us by that same Spirit. Do you want to know the mind of God? Do you want to see things from God's perspective? Do you want to understand the mysteries of life, like why am I here? What is my purpose?

Is it really life after death? What does God want me to do in certain situations? How can I know God's will for my life?

I want you to understand this truth. If you are a child of God, that means you've been sealed by the Holy Spirit, so the Holy Spirit lives in you. And the Spirit will take the Word of God and will transform your whole way of thinking. You will begin to look at everything from the eternal perspective. You will gradually come to understand what God's plan is for your life. Your desires will change. You will become less interested in things of this world because you will see that they don't, and you'll learn this that they don't satisfy.

And you will begin to live for eternal things as opposed to temporal things. You see, that's how Christians are going to be judged one day. We're going to stand not at the great white throne judgment to be condemned.

Did you know that? That's another sermon. We're going to be at the judgment seat of Christ, which is an award ceremony. Your works are going to pass through the fire. They'll either wood, hay, and stubble or gold and silver and precious stones. And if you've been living for temporal things, they're going to be like wood and hay, and they're going to just be consumed. And you'll be in heaven, but don't just want to escape into the flames. But if you're living for the world to come, if you're trying to live your life to please God and not to pad your bank account, if you're living to be in His perfect will, then one day you will stand before Him, and you will have works of gold and silver and precious stones, and they will pass through the fire, and they will be even more glorious, and you will be greatly rewarded.

That's how we should be living. Paul challenges us to live with a different mindset. Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2, two of my favorite verses, he writes, Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the path of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will.

You see what he's saying there? As you spend time in God's Word every day, you begin to take on the mind of God, and you can actually begin to know what His good, pleasing, and perfect will is for your life every time you come to a crossroads. You need to keep on praying, but at some point, there's some things that you don't even have to pray about because you have His wisdom. You know instantly this is what Jesus would do, and the Holy Spirit gives you the strength to do it. When you come to a fork in the road, you will hear an inner voice within you, the Holy Spirit, who will say, This is the way. Walk in it. Isaiah 30 21 states, Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way.

Walk in it. This is what true wisdom is all about. It's knowing the mind of God. So let me ask you, how much time do you spend reading the Bible, God's Word? Do you realize that when you pick up the Bible and begin to read it, it's the same thing as if you picked up your cell phone, and God is talking to you from His cell phone.

It's literally that current and that powerful, even though that book was written, you know, 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. It's like it was just written, and God is speaking to you from His cell phone, literally. He'll take verses off the page and show how they apply to what you're going through.

At every stage of life, whether you're in elementary school or college or whether you're in retirement, God will speak to you. Philip Brooks said, The Bible is like a telescope. If a man looks through his telescope, then he sees worlds beyond.

But if he looks at his telescope, then he does not see anything but that. The Bible is the thing to be looked through, to see that which is beyond. Henry Ward Beecher said, The Bible is God's chart for you to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, and to show you where the harbor is and how to reach it without running on rocks and bars. I was talking to a friend of mine before I came in here this morning, who's getting ready to graduate from seminary, and he's not sure what he's going to do. So I said, Well, stay tuned, because I'm going to tell you how God led me from His Word to do what I do now today.

I'll take you back in time. It was the summer of 2003, and I'd just graduated from Southeastern, and I really wasn't sure. I really had no idea what God wanted me to do. I'd been in seminary for four years, and I kind of looked back and said, God, what was that all about? I thought you led me to seminary.

All I see right now is just nothing. What do you want me to do? And so I decided that I would either, I kind of came up with two options. I would either join this local ministry that had been established.

I knew all the men in it. It was a marketplace ministry, great ministry, part of Campus Crusade, or I began to get all these ideas in my mind of things I could do if I started my own ministry. And so one night, I went to bed, kind of tossed and turned. I woke up about 4.35 in the morning.

It was still dark outside. I kind of slipped out of bed and went into my study. I got on my knees. I said, Lord, I need you to tell me from your word what you want me to do. Do you want me to join this ministry, which would have been a good choice, or do you want me to do these things that I have in my mind? Now, I don't play Russian roulette with the Bible. I don't go, you know. See, what does he say right there?

Well, that would have been the commentary, so that wouldn't have worked anyway. So what I do is I just pick up my Bible where I left off the day before, because God knows where I am. And so I had just finished 2 Samuel, chapter 6. So I picked up and began with 2 Samuel, chapter 7. And this is what verse 3 says, whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you. And God, He didn't always speak that clear. But in that moment, the ministry of finding purpose was born. I remember I went in there and I woke Chris up and said, guess what? I'm going to start that ministry you want me to start. And we didn't have a name for it.

She came up with a name. See, God was wise and decided not to let the people of this world use their wisdom to learn about Him. Instead, God chose to save only those who believed the foolish message we preach. If you have believed the foolish message of the Gospel, and you know that you have been indwelt by the Spirit of God, then that means that you're a child of God. Therefore, I challenge you as I challenge myself, open up your Bible and spend much time in it. Because in so doing, you will literally take on the mind of God, and you can begin to live your life in His perfect will, and know that He will guide your path. And as Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says, that when you Exactly. Trust the Lord with all your heart, and lay not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your path, what?

Straight. Let's pray. Dear my Father, thank you so much for your Word. I thank you dear God that we live in a country where we can still freely worship you. We don't have to worry about the Gestapo breaking in and arresting us.

Lord, help us not to take our freedom for granted. And Lord, we live in a country where we've got Bibles galore. We can walk into a bookstore where they've got two or three hundred Bibles, and we can buy all different kinds of translations, and commentaries on your Word, and devotional books. We have so much.

And there's some countries that have nothing. They would give their right arm for one chapter in the Bible. And yet, we treat the Bible like it's People Magazine. Dear God, put an urgency in us to spend time with you in your Word. Help us to cherish your Word. And Lord, I pray that beginning with me, that you would help us to be strong in the Lord, that we would live a life worthy of your calling. And I pray this morning that if there's someone sitting here that does not have spiritual understanding, that they feel like they're like Lon Solomon before he received it, that maybe they're lost, and they've still got questions about life. I pray that they'll come up after the service and talk to either me or Leon or one of our deacons or elders, and just pray with us that they might come to know you. They might receive you in their heart by faith, and know that you actually indwell them. What a privilege to know that, Lord, that all we have to do is believe in your Son and place our trust in your work on the cross, and you tell us in that moment that you seal us.

It's like you take your signet ring and stamp us and claim us as one of your children, and you write our name in the Lamb's Book of Life when it can never be erased. And one day, you're coming back to claim those who belong to you, and you're going to give the kingdom to those whom you chose, those who are poor and weak, those who are not the things that the world says they should be. Now pray for that person this morning, Lord, who feels like they're unqualified, that you're looking for the unqualified. I pray that you would encourage that person, that they will leave you today knowing that they are a child of God, and that with you, they can do anything. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Lord, we love you. Help us to live according to your Word. Give us the power to do it. It's in Jesus' name that I pray.

Amen. Being a Christian is not about being religious, but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, a local triangle ministry glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at findingpurpose.net or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local triangle men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at findingpurpose.net.