“The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God”  (1 Corinthians 2)

 

Have you ever tried explaining spiritual or theological matters to the unsaved?  Did tehy understand you?  Probably not.  Why can the unsaved not understand these matters?  The answer is simple and it is given in 1 Corninthians 2, The natural, the unsaved, the unconverted, the unregenerated person does not, can not understand the truths of the Spirit of God. It matters not how easily you make things or how clearly you explain truths, they will not get them.  Our Lord said it best when He was explaining the new birth to the religious leader Nicodemus when he said, “If you cannot understand earthly truhs how can you explain heavenly truths?”  This is why the only spiritual truth to deal with when discussing the Scriptures with the natural man is the fact that he is a sinner and that Christ died for sinners and rose again offering the repentant and believing sinner forgiveness and eternal life.

Every person understands sin and the meaning of forgiveness.  Every sinner understands the punishment of crime and or sin.  Every person can understand death and they can understand the fact of someone taking blame for someone else.  This is the Goepsel in the proverbial nut shell..  If the Spirit makes this Gospel real to them they can be saved. The real test of whether or not they have understood this truth fully is when they believe the above but also the resurrection of Christ.  They can understand the first part of the gospel but if they understand and believe the gospel, it is because the spirit has intervened and shined the gospel light unto them.

 

In an article i saw on Youtube news there is a writer writing about Mike Pence saying God tells him what to say.  George W. Bush said years ago that Christ is his hero and that he believed it was God’s will that he be president.  Reader, the natural man cannot understand these simple spiritual matters.  Whenever a believer says God speaks to them, the unbeliever hears something the believer did not mean.  The unsaved hears, “God came to me in Person and said X to me, this morning over coffee and doughnuts.”  If aa believer actually meant that even the most believing of believerswould not accept this as truth. Whenever a believer says to a lost person, “I believe the Bible,”  the lost person hears, “I believe witches should be killed and smart mouthed children should be stoned to death,”

Many an unbeliever thinks the Bible is a book of fairie tales.  They believe the Bible is simply a book written by human thought and philosophy.  I have even heard of persons believing the Bible is added to every year.  When we say that the natural man does not receive or understand the spiritual truths of Scripture, we do not mean that no unsaved man can understand the letter of these truths. We mean they cannot understand the spirit of these truth.  There is many a person that can recite the Gospel but they have not understood it in it’s spiritual meaning, they have not internalized it and made it true to and for themselves.  A lost person may understand that a spiritual man is strongest when he is at his weakest, but they do not understand it for themselves.  A natural man understands the concept of prayer but they have never entered into the spirit of prayer and had God incline His fatherly ears to a prayer.  They know not what it means to know God has “heard my prayers.”  To these persons a prayer and an answer to that prayer is simple coincidental.  They cannot understand these basic spiritual prayers and they will not understand these prayers…they simply do not want to.  We have alll experience it…we have been in a two (2) way discussion and the moment we bring God into it we begin a monologe.  I have stood at a cash register, had a nice and friendly exchange with the clerk and the moment I say, “God bless you” to that previously friendly clerk everything changes…the dark cloud appears and a wall comes up and there is an unfriendly wall built in seconds.

Reader and Christ-ian witness, never be concerned with how you explained the message from Heaven, never doubt your clarity and if you hit all the points well enough.  If the person did not believe you, it is because they do not want to, “neither can they.”  the god of this world has blinded the eyes of them that believe not,” and the only thing that can allow them to understand and can cause their desire to understand is the “light of the glorious gospel shining upon them.”  Augustine explained it well,  You can point to a star for someone but you cannot make them see it.  Christ also expained it, “Marvel not, the wind bloweyh where it listeth.”  In other words, the Spirit of God blows upon whom He wills, when He wills, and how He wills.  We do not know where He comes from nor do we know where He is going or to whom He is going.

When we as a Christ-ian witness speak to a lost person, keep it simple, All men are sinners because of what they do and what they are.  Every man has broken the law of God and the wrath of God abides upon that sinner, lest that sinner hears and obeys, the Gospel of Christ, which states, Christ lived a holy and sinnless Life in the place of all sinners who will turn from their sins and believe Christ died in their place after living a sinless life and rose again to offer sinners the forgiveness of God and His acceptance into the kingdom of God forever.  When they bring up other points of disagreement, stick to the simplicity of the Gospel.

When the virgin birth is brought up or evolution is brought up or stoning children is brought up, stick to the Gospel.  Tell them, “Friend, we could discuss those topics but they are secondary to Christ, His Life, death and resurrection and your sins and their forgiveness.”  No man has ever been saved by belief in the virgin birth, a non belief in evolution and understanding the stoning of children.   By the way, there is not an example of any children being stoned in Scripture, sometime the Word of God and His warnings act as a deterrent.  The virgin birth is certainly an essential doctrine and can be discussed with a genuinely intersted person, but when you have precious little time, stick with the Gospel and it’s simplicity.  There are many persons that believe in intelligent design who are not saved and will not be saved.  Stick to the simplicity of the Gospel for no man has ever, or will ever be saved without believing this.

We have a rubber bracelet that has an arrow pointing down, a cross next to the arrow, an open tomb next, another arrow pointing up and finally another arrow pointing down. These five (5) simple expressions or drawing say it all…Christ came down, Christ died on the Cross, rose from the dead, retruned to Heaven and is coming again someday.  The only thing it is missing is an arrow pointing sideways declaring the sinless life He lived and an arrow pointing outward with a question mark and a table of God’s law being broken at the beginning.

Reader, there are of couse so many truths to understand, the existence of God, creation/evolution, the virgin birth, the incarnation, the error of non Christ-ian belief systems, the letter and the spirit of God’s Law, Aliens, hypocrisy, etc. etc. etc.  What we have seen is when a person understand and believes Solus Christus or Christ Alone, all these other things fall into place.  I have seen persons who are pro alien (outer space), pro-abortion, and pro evolution change these beliefs instantly once they get Christ and His Gospel right.  It is not brainwashing, but it is.  It’s not a mindless brainwash of a weak-minded person but a divine washing of the mind and heart or rather a replacement of the heart of stone with a heart of flesh with the law written upon it and the placement of a soundness in the believing mind.

Paul, in writing to Timothy, charged him not to get wrapped up in fables, fallacies, wives tales, science falsely so-called, etc.  One can answer every single charge of the atheist, and all persons that do not believe the Gospel and have Christ as their Lord and Saviour are atheists in a technical sense, and the atheist still will not and cannot believe unless the Spirit of God gives this belief to them along wih the gifts of repentance and faith.

The great wall of disbelief and atheism can only come tumbling down by the blast of the Gospel trumpet.  The giant Goliath of unbelief and atheism can only be killed and be headed by the single smooth Rock of Christ and His Gospel. The promised land can be taken only by the spiritual violence of a radical repentance and belief.  The only way to avoid the anger and wrath of God over taking you like a flood is the Divine call to enter the Ark, the Ark that is Christ.

 

One reason…probably the main reason Christ-ians fail to share Christ is their belief in their ability to share Christ properly.  They do not think they can explain everything in Scripture to the unbeliever.  Reader, you cannot fail and you need not explain everything in Scripture…goodness, many preachers i hear do not undertsnad much of ehat they are speaking of!!!  Keep it simple, Beloved.  Everyone is a sinner/God’s broken law and God’s anger, Christ and a perfectly sinless life in the believing sinner’s place, the death of Christ in the sinner’s place, the victorious resurrection in the sinner’s place, repentance and belief based upon the previous truths, and the forgiveness of a longsuffering and loving God, and then a home in heaven purchased by Christ.

An analogy,  There are two (2) brothers. The younger brother breaks an expensive vase after being warned not to throw a ball in the area around the vase.  The younger brother disobeys and the vase is broken.  The father comes home and is greatly angered, he has warned the younger son not to play around the vase many, many times and the younger boy is sentenced to discipline at the hand of the angered and tried father.  But the older brother steps up and says, Father, i will take the chastening at you hand…my younger brother cannot bear your whippings..but I can. Discipline me in his place.  The father therefore disciplines the elder brother.  Instead of the elder brother being angry with the younger brother the elder goes to the bedroom and tells the younger, who is heart broken, “I love you and I always will.”

Of course the analogy does not fit the Gospel perfectly, but it demonstrates the simpicity thereof.  Some may say the analogy doesn’t make realistic sense, but it explains the Love of our elder Brother, His ways and thoughts are not our ways and thoughts.