Love Worth Finding

Adrian Rogers: A map is not of much value to you unless you know one thing: where you are now. But if you know where you are now, you can say, "I'm here, and this is where I need to get to." So what I want you to do is to find out where you are in order to help you get to where you need to be.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring the biblical lessons and insights of acclaimed pastor and Bible teacher Adrian Rogers. It's important to know where we are in our spiritual maturity in order to grow into what we could be.

The Bible places men and women in three different categories: natural, spiritual, or carnal. As Christians, we want to be spiritual men and women, but in order to get there, we need to begin to see the Bible as a roadmap to maturity. If you have your Bible, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 as Adrian Rogers begins part one of "The Roadmap to Maturity."

Adrian Rogers: Everybody here is in one of three categories, one of three classes. I want to point them out. In chapter 2 verse 14, look at the first part of verse 14: "But the natural man." Do you see it? I don't want to read the rest of that verse. All I want to show you is the category. There are some here in the category of the natural man or the natural woman.

Now let your eye go down to verse 15 and look in verse 15: "But he that is spiritual." That's the second category of persons here today. He that is spiritual. Now go right on through chapter 3 to verse 1: "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal." Underscore the phrase, the word carnal.

There you have the three categories of persons. There is the natural man, there is the spiritual man, and there is the carnal man. Either you are a natural man, a spiritual man, or a carnal man. You are a natural woman, a spiritual woman, or a carnal woman.

We divide people into different categories. We say there is upper class, middle class, lower class, there is this or that. But it is not the blue book of society or the bank book of finance, but it is God's book, the Bible, that puts us into these categories.

Why do you want me to categorize myself? Well, obviously I want you to be a spiritual person. But you see, the Bible is like a roadmap to guide you to get to where you need to be. There is one thing important about any map, no matter what map it is. A map is not of much value to you unless you know one thing: where you are now.

If you don't know where you are now, what good is the map? But if you know where you are now, you can say, "I am here, and this is where I need to get to." You have been to big buildings and they will have a schematic of that building, then there will be a little red dot and it will say, "You are here."

So what I want you to do is to find out where you are in order to help you get to where you need to be. The first question asked a man in the Garden of Eden was this: "Adam, where are you?" Now God was not asking for information. God knew where Adam was. God wanted Adam to know where Adam was and to know the predicament that Adam was in.

Here is what I want us to do. I want us to ask three questions. The first question I want to ask, and I want you to answer it: are you a natural man doing what comes naturally? Well, you say, that sounds pretty good to me to do what comes naturally.

The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 3, you are by nature the children of wrath. Let me tell you about the natural man and what he is like. I want to give you three marks of the natural man. First of all, he is born into the natural world. He is born just like anybody else. He has a natural birth.

He is born once. He is born into the natural world. We had a former Vice President of the United States who said this when he heard that one of the other Presidents said he had been born again. This Vice President said this openly and publicly. They asked him, "Have you been born twice?"

He said, "No, I haven't been born twice. I count myself lucky to have been born once. But I certainly haven't been born twice." Friend, the day will come when he will not count himself lucky to be born once if he hasn't been born twice.

If you are born once, you die twice. The first death is the physical death; the second death is eternal death. But if you are born twice, you can only die once. You may die physically, but that which is born again goes on and on.

The problem with man is what he received by his first birth. He is born into the natural world. I have reminded you before that if you have an apple and see a wormhole in that apple, don't worry about the worm having come in through that hole. He didn't come in through that hole; he went out through that hole.

The wormhole didn't let the worm in; it let the worm out. How did the worm get in the apple? He was born in the blossom. He was hatched in the blossom. The egg was laid in the blossom, and that worm came out of the heart of that apple to the outer extremity.

Jesus says that all of the sins that are in mankind come out of the heart. You never have to teach a baby to steal; you have to teach a baby not to steal. Isn't that true? You never have to teach a baby to be selfish; you have to teach a baby not to be selfish. You never have to teach a baby to tell lies; you have to teach a baby not to tell lies.

The Bible says the wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray speaking lies as soon as they are born. The natural man is born into the natural world. He has only had one birth. The very best quality in every individual, if combined into one individual, there would not be enough goodness in that one individual to save his one soul.

He would have to bow at the cross and receive Jesus Christ. The Bible says in our own nature there is nothing good. We are by nature children of wrath. The natural man is born into the natural world and therefore he is blind to the spiritual world.

Look in verse 14: "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him." Now watch this: "Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." That is, they are spiritually understood.

Look at the word "receive" in verse 14. "The natural man receiveth not." That word "receive" literally means to welcome. He does not welcome spiritual things. He has no appreciation for spiritual things.

You put a natural man in a church service like this. There are a lot of things that a natural man could appreciate. A natural man could enjoy this choir. A natural man could enjoy handshaking. He says, "I like that. Those are friendly folks."

A natural man could enjoy hearing a message. He would say, "That makes sense. I can understand what that fellow is saying." A natural man can get excited about a Sunday school attendance campaign, meeting a budget, or building a building. He can understand those things.

But he does not understand the things of the Spirit of God. Go back to chapter 1 and look in verse 18: "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness." It is foolishness. Look again in verse 14: "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him."

He doesn't understand what we were talking about when we were saying, "Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!" that Jesus died for our sins. "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." He doesn't understand that. "Why are these folks so excited?"

He is born in the natural world and he is blind to the spiritual world. He doesn't enjoy the true things of God. He can enjoy the externals. You put a natural man in heaven and he would be miserable. He would be miserable unless he gets born again.

There are people who think they want to live forever. They don't even know what to do on a rainy afternoon. What will they do in eternity, not being able to say, "Hallelujah, praise the Lord"? That is what they are going to do through all eternity—worship and praise the Lord Jesus Christ.

The natural man is born into the natural world. He is blind to the spiritual world. He has no appreciation and no understanding. Look in verse 14 again. It says, "Neither can he know them." He couldn't figure it out if he wanted to.

Don't get the idea that you can bring your intellect to this book and say, "I'm going to rip truth out of this book." You can't do it. Until you get born again, you will never understand this book. You will know the words, but you will never get the music.

The Bible says, "neither can he know them, they are spiritually discerned, they're spiritually understood." Let me give you a modern-day illustration. If you had a little monitor, you could pick up Gilligan's Island, a replay of yesterday's sports, or this thing or that thing. All of those things are there. But you would have to have a tuner to bring that out of the air so you could see it and receive it.

Your great-great-grandfather would not believe that all these things were in the air if you were to bring him into this generation. But we know that is true. There is an unseen world, a spiritual world, broadcasting on station WORD, the Word of God.

But unless you have the receiver, you can't hear it. The problem with a natural man is he has no antenna. The Bible says he does not welcome the things of God, and neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned.

Nicodemus was a master in Israel, but Jesus said, "Are you a master in Israel and you don't understand these things?" He had all of this education, but he could not understand. When you talk to an unsaved man about Jesus and he says, "I just don't see it," don't argue with him. Friend, he doesn't see it. He is telling the truth.

He is born to the natural world and he is blind to the spiritual world. Therefore, he is bound to the material world. I'm talking about the natural man. He is born in the natural world, blind to the spiritual world, and therefore he is bound to the material world. This world is the only world that he knows. He is a materialist, pure and simple.

He has no capacity for spiritual things. The Bible speaks of these in Jude verse 19 as sensual, having not the Spirit. Sensual, having not the Spirit. The word sensual is the same word translated here as natural. It is the same word in the Greek language. Natural or sensual—he lives by senses.

I had the privilege to go to Moscow. In Moscow, I was invited into the Mayor's office. We went up those marble stairs, over that red carpet, into that boardroom, and sat there with the people who administrate that great city.

I said several things to them. I wanted them to understand who we are and what we believe. I said to them, "I hope in this revolution and this renaissance that you're having here, as you look toward the West, that you don't try to emulate everything in the West. And that you don't think that the secret of the West is capitalism."

I said very frankly, I believe in capitalism. I believe it is far better than communism. But I said, "I want you to learn this: capitalism and communism are two forms of materialism. Both capitalism and communism."

I said to those men, "Let me tell you what capitalism can provide for you. The very best it can provide for you is what I would call a good dog's life." I said, "If you give a dog a warm place to sleep, adequate food to eat, give a dog some affection—rub his head, scratch him behind the ears—and give a dog a sense of achievement, maybe a Frisbee to catch."

One time I said a cat to chase, and a lady wrote me a message like I was in favor of dogs chasing cats and she was very irate. So, a Frisbee to catch. I don't want you to miss the point. Give that dog creature comforts, affection, and a sense of achievement, and he will be a happy dog.

Man is more than an animal. He has a capacity for God. If all he has is just those four things—a place to sleep, something to eat, affection, and a sense of achievement—all he has is what a dog could expect. He is more than that. He is a spiritual creature.

I told those men that the crisis in the world today is a spiritual crisis, and the hunger of men's hearts is for God. Augustine said there is a God-shaped vacuum in every man's heart, and man will never be satisfied until he knows the Lord.

What about the natural man? He is born into the natural world, he is blind to the spiritual world, and he is bound to the material world. He cannot know God; he cannot fellowship with God. He must be born again in order for that to happen.

That is the first category. Let's move to the second category of persons. The first category is the natural man. Now, the second category: there's the spiritual man. Verse 15: "But he that is spiritual."

The natural man does what is natural. The spiritual man does what comes supernaturally. The spiritual man has not been born only once; he has been born twice. Look in verses 11 and 12: "For what man knows the things of a man, save or except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God."

Notice verse 12: "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God." The spiritual man lives by the Spirit. Verse 12 says he has received the Spirit of God. This man has been born twice. He has been born of the Spirit.

Salvation is not merely getting man out of earth into heaven. It is getting God out of heaven into man. He receives the Spirit of God. He has been born again. Christians are not just natural people who decide to do better. Christians have been radically, dramatically, supernaturally changed by something called a new birth.

He receives the Spirit of God. God moves into him. God inhabits his humanity. Don't get the idea that a Christian therefore is like a tadpole who becomes a frog. There is a frog in every tadpole and if he just keeps maturing, he will become a frog.

That's the kind of Christianity some people believe in. They think, "I'll go to church and learn to do better." A Christian is not like a tadpole who has become a frog. A Christian is like a frog who has become a prince by the kiss of grace.

It is a miracle. It is not just simply a gradual change becoming more what we are by nature. It is becoming what we could never be by nature. He is a person who lives by the Spirit. He has received a new life. Because he lives by the Spirit, he learns from the Spirit.

Look in verse 12: "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God. That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." When you receive the Spirit, you receive the organ of spiritual knowledge that you might know God.

Remember the natural man in verse 14. He doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him. He can't know them because they are spiritually discerned. So when a man receives God, he receives life from the Spirit. He lives by the Spirit and he learns by the Spirit.

When you get saved, even if you are a little child, God turns the light on in your soul. The Bible says the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. When God wants to illuminate you, He takes your human spirit, He puts the oil of His Holy Spirit in that human lamp, and God illuminates you.

The spiritual man lives by the Spirit, he learns from the Spirit, and he is liberated through the Spirit. Look now in verse 15: "But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man." What does that mean, "judges all things"?

It is talking about inward discernment. Some translations give it this way: "The spiritual man discerns all things." He has a different value system. He sees things through a different lens.

Actually, this word "discern" is a legal word. It means to make an examination and on the basis of that examination, make moral and spiritual judgment. He that is spiritual makes an examination, and on the basis of that examination, he makes a moral and spiritual judgment.

What is the difference between the natural man and the spiritual man? The spiritual man sees with the mind of Christ. When a man receives the Spirit of God, he learns through the Spirit, he lives through the Spirit, and he is liberated through the Spirit.

This world system doesn't squeeze him into its mold. He sees through things. He sees what is happening in today's world. He's not like the marching millions that are going on to oblivion and going on to hell. He has a value system that is completely different.

He sees things from God's viewpoint. He has the mind of Christ and he sees through this world. He's not bound to the material world. He is liberated by the Spirit of God. The Bible says he discerns all things, he judges all things, but no man judges him.

It means he understands the unsaved man, but the unsaved man doesn't understand him. They say, "What makes him tick? Boy, is he weird." Folks, might as well face it. Those folks out there think we are Looney Tunes. They really do.

They think that somehow we have jumped the track. The Bible says they think it strange that we don't run with them and their excess of riot. They think that we are the funny ones. Like that woman who went to the psychiatrist with a fried egg on her head and two strips of bacon over each ear, and she said, "I came to see you about my brother."

They really think that we are the funny ones. He who is spiritual discerns all things, but no man judges him. They don't understand him. They don't know what makes him tick. I had a preacher friend who was a drummer in a nightclub band in Miami.

The Spirit of God got hold of Hugh Beasley and he got saved. He knew he was in the wrong place. He knew he was doing the wrong thing. He became a mighty pastor and an evangelist. But he took his drumsticks on one night and just rammed them through his drum.

Somebody said to him, "Hugh, what's wrong with you? You sick?" He said, "No, I just got well. I just got well." Everybody else thought he was crazy. You see, he discerns all things, but he cannot be understood. No one understands him. The marks of a spiritual man are: he lives by the Spirit, he learns from the Spirit, and he is liberated through the Spirit.

Guest (Male): Again, a spiritual man lives by the Spirit, learns from the Spirit, and is liberated through the Spirit. Coming up tomorrow, we'll hear part two of this vital message, but today, if you have questions about who Jesus is or what he means to you, how to begin a relationship with God through Christ, go to our website and click on our "Find God's Love" page.

There you'll discover resources and materials that will answer questions you may have. Again, go to the "Find God's Love" page at lwf.org/radio. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD and mention the title "The Roadmap to Maturity."

This message is also part of the insightful "Back to the Basics" series. For that complete collection, all 18 powerful messages, call 877-LOVEGOD or you can order online at lwf.org/radio or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183.

Many of the messages in this series are also featured in our new resource, the "What Every Christian Ought to Know" study. You can find out more about that at the website lwf.org/radio. Thanks for studying with us in God's Word today.

Take time to prayerfully figure out where you are in your relationship with Christ. Do you have the markings of a spiritual man or woman? Live by the Spirit, learn, and be liberated by it. Make sure you join us tomorrow for part two of "The Roadmap to Maturity" right here on Love Worth Finding.

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