Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: I think it's really important that when you talk to people, be clear concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not about church; it's about a relationship that can only come through Jesus Christ personally. Anything else apart from Jesus Christ is of no value. The only thing that will last is what you do for Christ, period, bottom line, nothing else.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. As we return to 1 Corinthians today, Raul will encourage us to continually seek wisdom and discernment from God as we live in obedience to His word. You'll see that if you want to really enjoy a thriving relationship with the Lord, basic head knowledge of the Bible isn't enough. You need to allow the word to speak to your heart. Let's join Raul Ries in 1 Corinthians chapter two, beginning in verse six with the lesson, "God's Wisdom Unites."

Raul Ries: The whole message here in chapter one and two, Paul is dealing with these Corinthians that were really sold out to the world's wisdom. For the Greeks, they were into all these different gods that they worshipped. At the same time, Paul, being not only a rabbi in the word of God and the law of God, comes to them and to the Christians and begins to share with them in such a simple way. They expected him to use a great big vocabulary to speak to them because that's what the Greeks would do. But when Paul came, he didn't come with men's wisdom; he came with God's wisdom, which is totally different.

Look what he says again in verse six as we pick it up. In verses six through 16, we're going to look at God's wisdom uniting. He says, "However," in verse six, "we speak wisdom among those who are mature." Now, notice what he says. Who is he speaking wisdom to? Those that are mature in the Lord, not the immature. The immature do not know what you're talking about. Why? Because they haven't studied God's word. They're not mature in the Lord. They don't know what they're talking about.

Watch what he says. "Yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing." Paul is pointing out to them that all these philosophers that were there in Corinth, yes, they had a lot of secular knowledge, but really and truly the knowledge of God is greater than the knowledge of this world. You're a greater educated person if you've never been to college and maybe you dropped out of high school, but to know God's word, you probably will get more knowledge than those that go even into seminary and into college. They may have the knowledge of this world, but you'll have the knowledge of God by studying God's word. You'll be able to give an answer to those that ask you the questions.

Paul here is being very clear concerning the wisdom that is given to us by God, not by the secular world. I love this because in Paul's disclaimer here in verse six, he's speaking about the brilliance of those that really thought they were brilliant people. There were people in Greece and also in Corinth that thought that knowledge was their god. They studied day and night. They would listen to all these philosophers. They would sit down for hours and hours listening to them.

When Paul came, he started to study these guys in Athens, and he saw that they were worshipping the unknown god. So what Paul did in chapter 18 of Acts, he says, "Okay, you guys, I see that you're standing here and you're actually praying to an unknown god. Well, let me tell you about the unknown god that I know." And he began to preach to them Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected. The Bible says that many were skeptics, but many came with an interest, and many of them got saved when Paul revealed to them the knowledge of the truth.

It's really important for us to understand that there is a wisdom that God gives to us, and that wisdom comes and it is taught by who? By the Holy Spirit of God. This is what Paul wanted his readers to actually grasp firmly, that it's the wisdom of God and not of this world. Yet there are people that trust in the wisdom of this world more than the wisdom of God. It's just amazing how God speaks to our hearts.

Paul knew how to meet the Lord and how God spoke to his heart through the scriptures. He didn't have a Bible like we have with 66 books. The New Testament was being written at this particular time. They had the Old Testament scriptures, but not the New Testament. So when they would speak to the Jews or to people, they would quote the Old Testament scriptures. Paul at this particular moment was writing 14 letters that became his epistles to the church and to the believer.

The same with Peter, the same with James, then the four gospels that we have, and the book of Acts that Luke gave to us after he wrote the Gospel of Luke. It's really important that we understand that the New Testament has been given to us so that we can learn and we can understand that we have redemption through Jesus Christ our Lord. Through that redemption, we have forgiveness of our sins once and for all. It's a done deal. God forgives me and cleanses me from all my sins.

This is why in 1 Peter chapter one, verse 18, he says, "Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct or your manner of life received by traditions of your fathers, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." We've been redeemed. And then he says this: "For He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you." So the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses me from all my sins.

The death of Jesus Christ was ordained by God. The wisdom results from the glory of God's people. Three times Paul the Apostle in this passage explains that all this was done to God's glory, not the glory of Paul or Peter, James, or John. All the glory and the honor goes to who? To Jesus Christ. He gets it all. None of us get any glory.

Ephesians 1:6 says, "To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved, Jesus Christ." Ephesians 1:12: "That we who first trusted in Jesus Christ should be to the praise of His glory." Notice that: His glory, not our glory. Verse 14: "Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory." Notice how many times: to the praise of His glory, to the praise of His glory. All praise and glory and honor belong to Jesus Christ.

We can never take the credit for anything that's happened in our lives. It's the Lord. It's the Lord that does everything in my life. Yes, I stepped out by faith to receive Christ as my Lord and Savior, but from that point on, by reading and praying and seeking God and waiting upon God, God answers prayer. God directs my path every single day as I spend time with Him. I need to know the heartbeat of God in this world today because the world's getting so terrible. We need the wisdom and the knowledge of God in our own personal lives, fully and completely.

Look at verse eight. He says, "Which none of the rulers of this world knew; for had they known it, they would have never have crucified the Lord of glory." If they would have really, truly understood the wisdom of God, they would have never killed Jesus. Notice that. They would have never killed Jesus. But because the wisdom of this world is devilish—remember Paul said, "devilish"—what did they do? They took Jesus and they beat Him, and they gave Him a trial, and they accused Him, and they found Him guilty, and they hung Him on a cross. But He went to the cross for the sins of the world.

The world doesn't really understand that. They think that preaching is foolishness. To them, it is foolishness. But to us, it is the power of God unto salvation. The wisdom of God is hidden from the world, from the unsaved. They can't understand it. And yet, it could be here that Paul is referring to also that persecution that was going on with the Romans. And yet the world would look at that, and the world was saying, "Caesar is Lord." But the Christians, they couldn't say that. They had to say, "Jesus Christ is Lord." If not, if they would say "Caesar is Lord," then their relationship with God would be done.

Because they were not going to get killed. But because they were afraid, they would wimp out and they would say Caesar is Lord. But hundreds and thousands and millions—male and female, children—went to the lions' dens. They were crucified. They were cut in half for the gospel of Jesus Christ. They died for the gospel of Jesus Christ. They never took a back track. And yet think today how the church today has become weak concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because the gospel, again, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone and anyone who believes in Him.

So I think it's really important that when you talk to people, be clear concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not about church; it's about a relationship that can only come through Jesus Christ personally. And anything else apart from Jesus Christ is of no value. The only thing that will last is what you do for Christ, period, bottom line, nothing else. And then what he does here, notice in verse nine, he's going to quote from the book of Isaiah 64:4. He says, "But as it is written: 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'"

This has been a misquoted scripture by many people. They'll tell you this: that the Christian cannot really know what God really is saying. But in the next verse, he tells you: "But God has revealed them to us through His Holy Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, even the deep things of God." Isn't that cool? The deep things of God.

This quote in verse nine is from Isaiah 64:4, and the verse is in reference to the captivity of Israel in the Old Testament and speaks of God's deliverance for them. So when you look at an Old Testament scripture, you have to know the background to the scripture, otherwise it'll be misquoted. So what people have done is they've taken that verse nine and they've misquoted it with verse ten and saying that God has not revealed to us anything. But God says, "Yes, I revealed it to those that are born again of the Holy Spirit through my Holy Spirit." We can know because we have the Spirit of God in our lives. A natural man does not understand the things of God. They're stupidity to him. But the spiritual man discerns all things that is of the Spirit of God.

Guest (Male): This is Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Don't forget, we're here anytime to support your daily walk with the Lord. Visit somebodylovesyou.com for Bible-rich resources, including Raul's 11-part series, "Unity, Holiness, and Love." It's available on CD and USB, and we'll tell you how you can get your copy in just a few moments. But first, here's more with Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: So here again, Paul says, "But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God." So the gospel is revealed by the Holy Spirit of God. Now think about this. Our salvation involves three persons: the God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our salvation.

In Ephesians chapter one, verse three, what did Paul say? "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He made us accepted in the Beloved," Jesus Christ. Wow, accepted in the Beloved.

The Holy Spirit choosing us and accepting us to become sons and daughters of God because of Jesus Christ. Verse 11: "For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so now, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God." Isn't that cool? Except the Spirit of God.

Paul here is illustrating how the world, when they talk to you, sometimes they look at you like, "What are you talking about?" They don't understand. They have a natural mind. But then think about you when you come to church or you're at home reading the Bible, and all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit reveals something to you or he clarifies the scripture and you've never seen it before like that. And all of a sudden, the scripture is speaking to your own heart. And what is he doing? He's changing your life.

Nobody had to tell me that I had to change my life. The Holy Spirit did that when I came to Christ. First thing the Holy Spirit told me to do is go buy a Bible. I went and bought a Bible. And when I start reading the Bible, I would always start out, "Okay, God, I don't know how to read the Bible, but you need to teach me how to read the Bible. And whenever you want to stop me in some passage, stop me and explain to me and teach me what it means."

And I never, ever read a commentary for a long time until I went to the Shepherd School because I didn't know commentaries were available. And I remember God speaking to me through the old King James Bible, which is a hard Bible to read. Now we have the New King James. But the old King James, the "thees" and the "thous"—that's all we read, all of us. And yet God was speaking directly to each one of us individually through the word of God.

The word of God is powerful because it's anointed by the Holy Spirit of God. You know, when you go to college, they have these literature classes you can take, biblical literature classes. I remember at Citrus I had one when I was there. I was not a Christian. And you would go into this class and learn the Bible, but the Bible would be read as literature, like when you take an English class. It had no meaning.

But when you come to Christ and you take a true literature class in the Bible—and you have one every day when you read your Bible—what does it do? Everything speaks to your heart. Why? Because it's inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. You have the Spirit of God in you. The person that is not a Christian has not the Spirit of God. He is the son and daughter of Satan. Satan controls their lives. But we have the Spirit of God to give us discernment, warnings, and then to open our ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church even this very night.

The Spirit of God is so important. This is why in the book of Acts, when the church, remember, came into power, they were sitting in the city of Jerusalem in the upper room—120 including the mother of Jesus. And what's the first thing Jesus does? He says, "You guys go and wait for ten days and the Holy Spirit's going to come. When I leave, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit."

So they went up to the upper room, they waited, and then all of a sudden, like a wind came through the room. And all of a sudden, like cloven tongues on top of their heads, and every one of them were baptized with the Holy Spirit and they were speaking in tongues. That's what the Bible says.

And when they heard them in the upper room speaking in tongues, everyone outside that was an unbeliever spoke—they came up and they said they heard them speaking in their own dialecta in the Greek, in their own dialect. And what were they saying? Praising God, glorifying God. That very same day when they were baptized, remember, if you read on in chapter two, 3,000 people were saved when Peter got up and gave his first sermon. If you go through the book of Acts, in every chapter you'll find the Spirit of God. Every chapter. Look it up when you go home. When you read the book of Acts, look for the Spirit of God. In every chapter, you'll find it.

And what's incredible is that's what Paul is saying here, that the Spirit of God is so powerful when it comes into our lives. Then, becoming a natural man in the world, then coming into Jesus Christ, we become now a spiritual person where we now have the knowledge and understanding what the Spirit is saying to the church through the power of the word of God, the scriptures, as we open our Bibles and we meditate and we wait on the Lord for Him to speak to our hearts. And that's what these guys did in the Old Testament, and that's what they did in the New Testament: reading the scriptures.

So Paul again, notice verse 11: "For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of that man which is in him? Even so now, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God." Verse 12: "Now we have received not the spirit of the world." See, we didn't receive the spirit of the world. "But," notice, "the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God."

What is he saying? That the Holy Spirit was given to us so that we can have a knowledge through the gifts of the Holy Spirit when we read the word of God. Everything that has to do with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is leading, guiding, and providing for us. It's so cool. Providing for us those things that we need to have.

Verse 13: "These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches us, but with the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." You see, he's making a difference between the natural and the spiritual. We are being led by the Holy Spirit of God. So we need to discern, is this of God or is this of the devil? Which one is it? And we need to have discernment.

And discernment comes as you not only read before God, as you pray and as you keep yourself and you give yourself to God, then God will begin to use you as a vessel of honor in the kingdom of God for His gets all the glory and the honor for what He sends you to do. So Paul is so cool in writing this letter and in chapter two telling us so much about the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer and what God wants to do and what He intends to do.

Even further, again verse 13: "The things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches us, but the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with the spiritual." And then verse 14: "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God." Now, who's the natural man? A guy or a person that is not a Christian. That's the majority of the world, the natural man.

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. Isn't that cool? Satan keeps them blind. I mean, think of how many people you try to witness to, and they go, "Hey, listen, I don't want to hear that. I don't believe that." The natural man does not understand the things of God.

But you talk to another believer, and they get excited. "Oh, really? Hey, tell me some more." They want to know more. Why? Because you're in the same page. But the unbeliever's not in the same page. He's way out there, man. He's worshipping Satan. He worships himself. He lives in this world. He loves this world. And that's why he says we're not of this world. Our world is to come in heaven when we get to heaven. So it's really important that we understand the basis of the natural through the spiritual.

Now watch this. This is the spiritual, verse 15: "But he who is spiritual judges all things." Is this of God or is this of Satan? You need to judge. He says, "But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one." Note this: On the other hand, a person possessing the Spirit of God is guided by the Holy Spirit and is able to evaluate and apply everything that the Spirit is sharing in your heart. That's how you become a spiritual man or a spiritual woman, why? Because the Holy Spirit is revealing, unveiling to you the truths of God.

Guest (Male): With worldly voices bombarding you on all sides, true spiritual discernment and direction can feel hard to come by. So we hope you've been encouraged to give God daily opportunities to speak to your heart through the pages of His word. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. If you'd like to review today's lesson, "God's Wisdom Unites," we'll be happy to send a complete copy to you for a donation of five dollars or more. Just call 800-634-9165.

We'd also like to offer you Raul's 11-part series, "Unity, Holiness, and Love." It's available on CD and USB. You'll find that when you seek the Bible's wisdom and obey the leading of the Holy Spirit, every aspect of your life can reflect your personal relationship with God. You'll also be an effective witness to those who don't yet know the Lord. Visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165. We'll send you the "Unity, Holiness, and Love" CD set for 23 dollars, or if you prefer the flash drive for just 14. That's 800-634-9165. Or write to Somebody Loves You Radio, PO Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California 91765.

Be sure to take advantage of our convenient selection of free resources. You can access them at home, at work, or as you travel this summer. Download our Somebody Loves You app for live-streamed Bible teaching, digital Bible studies, and an online Bible reading group. For podcasts of all of these programs, browse iTunes and Spotify. Thank you for coming alongside us in a tangible way as we share the good news of Jesus with the world. Every gift is tax-deductible. Next time on Somebody Loves You Radio, we'll continue in 1 Corinthians with a call to avoid complacency in our spiritual walk. We'll see that our maturity in the Lord directly influences how He can use us in the building of His kingdom. Now here's Raul with a closing comment.

Raul Ries: Look how he concludes in verse 16: "'For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?'" And check this out. Here's the answer: "But we have the mind of Jesus Christ." Isn't that cool? We have the mind of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God lives in me and is working through my life. So he's talking here about the spiritual man judging, judging and discerning what's good, what's bad.

And at the same time, the unregenerated person, the worldly person, man, they're lost. They're way out in left field. They don't even know what's going on, and when they die, they're done. That's why it's important for us as believers, man, to pray for your loved ones and your friends before they die. And if you get an opportunity by the Holy Spirit of God to share with them, don't compromise; give them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Give them the hope and the love of God in their life. Because if not, they're going to die and go to hell.

Guest (Male): This program is sponsored by Somebody Loves You Radio in Diamond Bar, California.