Your Frame of Reference

Introduction

Said I needed to hurry up and get home, or I’d be without a job. I’d hate to become a case of benevolence for this group. Appreciate Jared’s good work in my absence. Good song leading today. Speaking of song leaders, oh, one more thing before I get to song leaders. The latest word that I heard was that Cynthia would be coming home from the hospital perhaps as soon as today. Not the case. She’s here. So earlier than expected, and I’m glad to hear that as I was hearing about your travails while I was in Luffkin, Texas last week. Not many churches still do Sunday through Friday meetings. But I know why they do at Timberland Drive in Luffkin. And that is to give all of their song leaders an opportunity to lead singing.

I have never seen such a wealth of song leading talent in a congregation. At the end I said, well, I don’t know about the preaching. I preached eight sermons. I don’t know if I went eight for eight, but the song leaders went seven for seven. And they were amazing. So it was a wonderful week of worship, and I enjoyed my time at Timberland Drive in Luffkin. I was preaching a series that I just put together just for them called Your Play in God’s Great Plan. And I loved it. I’m going to have to do it again if I get another week long deal somewhere. It just went over really well. They advertised. There was a banner across Highway 69 in downtown Lufkin. Your place in God’s Great Plan.

And so I appreciate all the work that they did. Such a fine church. Good elders, solid members. Some of them know some of you. And they sent greetings to you.

And on Tuesday night, I spoke on Jesus Savior Pilate Me, a sermon that you’ve heard. And I get up in the pulpit on Thursday night, and I look down, and here’s what I see.

Sign look familiar. Steve Bergman, a lot of our young people know who he is, camp counselor of the past, provided this for me as a little bit of humor. It’s not the first time something like that has happened in a meeting. They always want to try to pull pranks on the preacher. So you just roll with it. But anyway, it was a super week, and I don’t know. It’s like everybody who’s worth his salt as a preacher has spent some time in Lufkin. I got to visit this past week with two great soldiers of the cross, Dean Bullock and James Adams. James Adams in his mid-90s, his body has failed him terribly, but his mind is sharp as attack. And so I’m going to have to move to Lufkin.

If all great preachers go to Lufkin, but not anytime soon.

And I’m only three years into it. And Christina, 20 years. So hopefully, I don’t know if I can survive here 20 years, but that’s how long the project is. We’re just Christine. I wish Gary could have been here for that. So I hope you’ll put up with me a little bit longer before I have to move to Lufkin. It’s great to be home and to be with you. I want to talk to you this morning about your frame of reference. If I can get this thing to work, it’s a little sluggish today. There we go. Your frame of reference. Men assess things differently on the basis of where they are coming from. Where are you coming from? For example, if you are a fitness fanatic, you might struggle to appreciate sedentary pursuits like playing a game of chess.

Am I right? Yeah, Joe’s shaking his head, yes. The man who has time only for making money might consider holidays a waste of time, unless, of course, he’s being paid. And the man who drinks may have a difficult time appreciating an occasion such as this, where we offer the heart’s devotion, the spirit’s devotion to the God of heaven, our creator. You see, it all depends on your frame of reference. And so too. The natural man of 1 Corinthians chapter 2 appreciate spiritual things because he judges everything by worldly wisdom and spiritual things are ridiculed as a result. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, in the context of this letter written to a very troubled church, Paul is explaining to Corinth the source of his message. The things that are going to fix the problems in Corinth and to truly make them God’s people, spiritual people of whom he approves.

And he wants them to know that this does not issue from himself as a human being. But God is using him as an instrument.

1. Paul's Heavenly Message: The Source of His Message

This, therefore, is Paul’s heavenly message, divine solutions for a troubled church. And whether your church is troubled or not, we must understand that the source of instruction that we need to be that all God wants us to be God Himself, the Holy Spirit, as he delivers God’s instruction to us. Paul would say later in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, in the midst of a series of fixes for the church at Corinth, the things I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. So he wants to emphasize in 1 Corinthians the source of his message. And I just want to share this chapter with you so that you can appreciate this point that Paul is making about the source of his message. You can either read the New American Standard here or read along in your Bible.

And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. It’s not about the apostle Paul. Remember, some were saying, I am a Paul in chapter 1, and the church at Corinth is divided. He said, It’s not about me, it’s about the message that I delivered. It’s not about me being an eloquent speaker. I don’t know how eloquent he was, but I sure would have loved to have heard Paul preach. But it’s not about eloquent delivery or even powerful delivery. It is about the message itself being powerful, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Young people don’t ever forget, as we talk about all of these issues that pertain to Jesus Christ, that pertain to his message, that at the core of everything is the fact that Jesus, a real historical figure, died on the cross, paid the price of redemption, and made salvation possible, and rose from the dead.

It’s at the very core of this message. Don’t ever lose sight of that. I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. I’m just a frail human being that needs someone greater than himself, the living God. And sometimes our circumstances are difficult and challenging and hurt. I’m just a man. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom. Now, Paul is not saying by this, he was trying to be as boring as possible. Perhaps some preachers were to take that approach. But we really shouldn’t. This is a powerful message. But it’s not about me being a persuasive speaker, Paul is saying, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power.

2. God's Wisdom in a Mystery

Again, my message comes from a divine source. It was attended, Paul says, with miracles. It was miraculously conveyed to you. The gifts of the Holy Spirit were present in Corinth, and they were not lacking in any gift themselves, Paul says in chapter 1. That your faith, verse 5, that your faith should not rest in the wisdom of men. And I might just throw in natural men. But your faith should not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Now, verses 6 through 9. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature. A wisdom, however, not of this age, not like the wisdom of men, a wisdom not of this age. Its source is not human, not of the rulers of this age who are passing away.

They’re very temporary. But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery. The hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory. And don’t ever forget that. This message that we talk about every first day of the week, and when we have Bible studies on Wednesday night is a message that God predestined before the ages. That’s how long ago he planned it. And he did it to our glory. And that’s something you don’t want to miss. All the glory that God has planned, not just for the lives that we’re living now, but certainly for our eternity in the presence of his glory. The wisdom, this wisdom whose source is heaven, this wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood. For if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Well, I could take the last 20 minutes and talk about that verse. But I’ve talked about that verse on many occasions with you. The rulers of this age did not have any idea that by putting Jesus to death that they were actually sealing God’s plan of redemption. God overpowered his enemies, even used them to accomplish his great purposes for us. If the rulers of this age had understood, if the devil had understood who was using these rulers, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. You see, it was beyond even the devil to know what God was planning. It was beyond the thoughts of every single man. No one knew it. And that’s the point in verse 9. Things which I has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man.

All that God has prepared for those who love him. And I want to take just a moment to talk about verse 9 because sometimes people will go to 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9 and then start talking about heaven. I have not seen, an ear has not heard, nor has entered the heart of man. The glories of heaven are so far beyond description, we can’t begin to imagine how glorious it’s going to be. And the answer to that is absolutely yes, but that’s not what the first part of this verse is saying. That is found in the latter part of the verse. And so I want to talk for a moment just about the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard. Yes, it is included in the last part, all that God has prepared for those that love him.

That certainly includes heaven. And yes, heaven’s bliss exceeds description. But what he’s saying here, I hath not seen and ear has not heard, nor has entered into the heart of man, is that again no one could have known what God was planning. Just by looking around, using your senses and the best of intellect. You could not perceive, you could not comprehend, you could not tell others what God was up to in providing all that God has prepared for those that love him. And so here’s the point that natural man could not discover, uncover, or even conceive what God was going to do. Now I keep talking about natural man because ultimately in this text, natural man is going to be named. And I wanted you to understand what he’s saying in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, that only by revelation, demonstration of the Spirit and of power that Paul mentioned, only by revelation through the member of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, could we come to know what I hath not seen and ear has not heard, nor has entered into the heart of man, the hidden wisdom, the mystery.

3. God Revealed Them Through the Spirit

That’s the only way it could be discovered. It’s almost like the movies that are made of how many movies, about a long lost treasure, and somebody’s found the map. And because they found the map, they search and search, and somebody else is always looking for the map when they are. And then somebody they get to the end of the road, and they’re supposed to be the treasure. The treasure, the greatest treasure of all. God’s plan to redeem man. The map to it can only be brought to us by the Holy Spirit. Only through revelation. I hath not seen, and ear has not heard. The only way to know God’s mind. Look at verse 10. For to us God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

Well, that was necessary because, as he illustrates, for who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the Spirit of the man, which is in it. The only way you can know my thoughts, and I can know your thoughts, is if you tell them to me. We all have thoughts all the time that we don’t share with other people, and they cannot know them because we have not shared them. And so he uses that as an illustration, and he says, even so the thoughts of God, no one knows except God himself. And so God has these thoughts, these things that he’s conceived, all that he has prepared for those that love him. How are we going to know about it? Well, the Spirit of God knows them.

He’s also a member of the Godhead. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, human wisdom, but the Spirit who is from God that we might know. The things freely given to us by God. The things that God has prepared for those who love him. Which things also we speak. Paul says, that’s what I’m telling you about. The things the Spirit searched in the deep, in the mind of God, the deep things of God, and has revealed those things to us, taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. And that’s what we have in our possessions this morning, in whatever form, book, smartphone, these words come from a divine source. The Holy Spirit has revealed them to us. But then this warning comes in regard to Paul’s heavenly message versus another source that should be rejected.

4. The Natural Man Does Not Accept the Spirit

And that’s the natural man, the one who could not even conceive what God was planning. He says, but the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. And let’s just look at that at face value. He’s ruled that out. He can’t accept it. He doesn’t acknowledge it. He refuses it. Here is a man who does not walk by faith, but indeed walks by sight. As Paul talks about that in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 11. Only by what he sees. Only by what he perceives in this world, he rejects the spirit realm. So they are foolishness to him. Now that takes us back to chapter 1. To the Gentiles, the message of the cross is foolishness. In verses 21 and 23, but the foolishness of God is wiser than men.

So you really have to tie in some thoughts from chapter 1 as to where Paul is going with all of this. He cannot understand them. These things that come from the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually appraised. If you don’t acknowledge the spiritual, this is going to be nonsense to you. If your frame of reference is completely natural, if your frame of reference is completely this world in what one can see, walking completely by sight, then you’re not going to get it. Because these things are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he will instruct him. Only God knows his mind. And God has revealed that mind to us.

No one’s in a position to instruct him about anything. But Paul says, we have the mind of Christ. Now, this natural man in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. It’s the only place you’re going to find this in the New Testament. The only time you see a reference to natural man. Now there’s carnal men, and he’s going to address the Corinthians as carnal in chapter 3. Who is this natural man? Again. As Paul is talking about the resurrection later in 1 Corinthians, he uses the same word natural, such in the Greek. And it simply refers to your physical body. And that’s going to be sowed in the earth. This natural part of us is going to be sowed in the earth. And something really glorious is going to come out of that.

A glorious, spiritual, eternal body. And so the natural is going to decay. He says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. There is a natural or sensual wisdom in James chapter 3 that James warns us about and uses this term such in Jude 19. Jude is warning about false teachers who have crept in unnoticed and challenges us to contend earnestly for the faith that is once for all delivered. He says, watch these guys who are rocks in your love beasts. And all the graphic description in the book of Jude that we studied just recently. And he says, let me tell you what they are. Verse 19. This is good. Suki kos is found in verse 19. They are worldly minded and devoid of the spirit. So that’s who the natural man is.

He rejects the spiritual.

Because the carne, the meat, the physical, is all he’s ever going to think about and pursue. But this natural man is devoid of the spirit. He rejects the spirit. He cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. Have you ever heard the term humanist? Here’s the classic humanist in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, who rejects the spirit realm, that’s his frame of reference. This message can do him no good at all. And the point in 1 Corinthians is you Christians don’t be listening to this man. Don’t listen to the worldly wisdom. The Greeks who reject the wisdom of God and think the message of the cross is foolishness. If you buy into what they’re saying, that there’s nothing to the message of the cross that was revealed from the mind of God by the Holy Spirit, if you reject that and listen to them, you’re following the wrong source.

5. Let Us Be Spiritual

So let’s not be influenced or like the natural man. Let us be spiritual.

Because he who is spiritual appraises all things, and yet he himself is appraised by no one.

You see, here is the spiritual man’s frame of reference. He is able to judge and properly assess all things for what they really are. You know, when Asaph says in Psalm 73, I was struggling with the fact that the wicked were prospering and the righteous were suffering, and he says, and then when I came to the sanctuary of God, then I perceived their end. That’s when it all started to make sense. When he came to the sanctuary of God, when he brought a spiritual reference to the table. He says, that man who seems to have the world by the tail, he’s going to be destroyed in a moment. God’s going to take care of him. His collapse is going to be utter and sudden and not to be envied.

The righteous are the ones that really have it going on. You see? And the wicked could look at Asaph and he said, oh. Intellectually shallow. Emotional crutch, he believes in God. Doesn’t matter. What the natural man says. It doesn’t matter what the natural man appraises, because you see, this guy’s in the know. He’s in the know because he gets his message from God and from the Holy Spirit. And thus we are able, as spiritual men and women to judge all things. Don’t take that for granted. Have you noticed everybody dies? Have you noticed that? But you already knew that. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 27. It’s appointed a man once to die. But after this, the judgment. You know how many people don’t even know that?

Spiritual people do. They’ve listened to the Spirit. And so they can order their lives going, yeah, I’m not going to escape death. I’m not going to be the one exception to the rule. Well, there was another exception, perhaps, Enoch in the Old Testament. But that one exception, that’s because you have that spiritual frame of reference you can rely on. Don’t be expecting to be Enoch. Who was translated that he should not see death. It is appointed a man once to die, but after this, the judgment. And that can affect our whole lives positively. Because we have a spiritual frame of reference. And so I want to talk to you about how blessed we are to have this spiritual man’s frame of reference for our lives. We judge all things by the will and mind of God.

We’re in position to judge all things. And God’s mind makes things plain and understandable. Do you realize how privileged we are to be in the know about why we’re here? And what this temporary sojourn here really means and where it’s all going, where it’s all headed. Pretty plain, isn’t it? We’re here to serve God and do his will, our creator. And to know one day all that God has prepared for those who love him. And we understand that this blessed condition is the work of God. We have the mind of Christ. This is a great quote from Eugene Peterson I wanted to share with you in conclusion this morning. Ben prayed. We need to get our minds right for the week. And that’s why we’re here.

Conclusion

I love this. Worship is the strategy by which we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves and attend to the presence of God. Worship is the time and place that we assign for deliberate attentiveness to God. Not because he’s confined to time and place, but because our self-importance is so insidiously relentless. I love the way he says that. Our self-importance is so insidiously relentless that if we don’t deliberately interrupt ourselves regularly, we have no chance of attending to him at all other times and in other places. That’s a wow. We need the interruption. Don’t self-importance and self-consumption is so infidiously relentless. We need to dedicate ourselves to having a spiritual mind. So that we will be able to judge all things. And we will assess things like we should.

You know, if you don’t interrupt this selfishness in your life, you’re going to become the carnal man. You’re going to listen to the wisdom of the natural man, which is no wisdom at all. And you’re going to live for yourself, eat, drink, and be merry. And the emptiness of such a life. What is your frame of reference? That’s what this sermon’s been about today. Would you say as you go up? This isn’t just a Sunday thing. This is so our minds can be right, so that we can possess the mind of Christ as we live day after day. Are we going to go out there this afternoon and the rest of this week, Lord willing, with a spiritual frame of reference? Are we going to allow the Holy Spirit to govern our thinking and our conduct?

And isn’t that what Paul says to the church at Ephesus when he says, Do not get drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. Have a spiritual frame of reference. Work on developing the fruit of the Spirit. Listen to God. We need his wisdom. Or, as I was teaching, we need a pilot car. And we needed Jesus, the Savior, to pilot our course, because that’s who the Holy Spirit teaches us about. I came to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and that’s at the core of everything that I say from this book to you on a weekly basis. Did he die on the cross or didn’t he? We know that he did. And that message gives us hope and gives us cleansing from our sins.

And have you been washed in his blood? We talked about baptism with Mike this morning in the Bible class. Have you been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ? Submitting to baptism? Some people look at that as foolishness. If you’re the natural man. But if you’re the spiritual man, you understand the power of this act and the faith that prompts it. And you understand because you’re a spiritual person. That when you come up out of the water, that you have come into a right relationship with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. That’s Matthew 28, verse 19 says. And so if there’s somebody who is subject to this message, this heavenly message that Paul spoke and has been recorded for us in this book, do you need to respond while there’s time and opportunity?

Be a spiritual person. Let’s stand and say.