1 Corinthians 2:11

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I Corinthians 2:11-12
Excerpted from: Satan (Part 3)

You see now the comparison. The reason the rulers of the world did not understand—did not put into the proper perspective; did not grasp what they saw in the Lord of glory—was because God had not revealed to them who Jesus was, what He was doing, or why He was doing what He was doing. The reason is because those things cannot be discerned by physical means—eye, ear, nose, mouth, the senses—but rather these things have to be revealed. There has to be a spiritual miracle that takes place for a person to understand and to see these spiritual things.

God created us physical and mortal. He created us very good, but He also placed within us a spirit. That is really the key to this entire sermon. We are building on the understanding that we have been given a spirit. That spirit is not an immortal soul. It is not the man. It is a non-material element within the man that imparts to the man the power of intellect so that he is able to grasp, to understand, the physical things of this world. It is what separates man from an animal. Though an animal may have a brain that is similar to man's, the animal does not have a spirit. It did not have imparted to it a spirit giving it the intelligence, the intellectual capacity, which a man has. Man is different from those other physical beings that also have life.

This non-material element does not possess life of itself. The Bible very clearly says that our life is in the blood. (It says that a couple of different times.) The spirit did not impart life to us—the spirit is dependent upon the body for use or for carrying out its functions.

The spirit cannot see on its own. It cannot hear on its own. It needs the eyes, it needs the ears, and it needs the brain to sort all of these signals out in order to make use of them.

There is a very simple way this can be proved. If a person's eyes do not work, the spirit cannot see. If a person's ears do not work, the spirit cannot hear. This is necessary in order to carry out the other functions of the spirit as well as we are able to understand it.

The illustrations that I use here may not be entirely adequate to the situation, but the spirit does impart to the human brain the power of intellect, but it needs the brain. It cannot function without it. But it has an additional capacity in that it is able to use the brain to be a receptacle for the information that it processes—and apparently also be of use to draw upon that information—that is, our memory—and then use it.

I have read in news magazines, other publications—things entirely apart from the church of God—that seem to indicate (at least this was the conclusion that these experimenters reached) that by prodding different areas of the brain with small charges of electricity they were able to induce the person to recall things that were stored in the person's memory. Their conclusion was that the brain never forgets a single thing that ever happened in your life.

We see two clear functions that apparently are functions of the spirit in man. One is to impart the power of intellect using the human brain and the other organs of the body; and the second is to facilitate the brain in recording the experiences of life so that they can be recalled. We need desperately to be able to recall. If we cannot recall, what good is information? Both functions are absolutely necessary.

God therefore not only created us mortal, but He also created us with a spiritual capacity. In fact, understanding this in the light of Genesis 1, we can begin to understand another angle why He used the term "very good" and that is that we were incomplete. We were good as far as we went, but there was much more to come. We were incomplete because we understand from other parts of the Bible that man needs another spirit joining with his spirit so that he can then have the capacity to make use of, to see, to comprehend spiritual things as well as the things of a man.

This is what I Corinthians 2 is explaining as … . . .

I Corinthians 2:9-13
Excerpted from: Reconciliation and the Day of Atonement

Because of the action God took upon the sin of Adam and Eve—Adam and Eve being cut off from the Holy Spirit—all of the cultures of mankind have been built on reasoning that is apart from God's Holy Spirit. You might say that man has been doomed to produce those kinds of cultures that are based on his own reasoning, because access to the Holy Spirit was cut off, and therefore there was a dimension missing in mankind's reasoning processes.

Therefore, the separation can only get wider, unless God acts to heal the breach. Unless God bridges the gap, mankind is unable to do it because (as we just read in I Corinthians 2) spiritual things are not physically discerned; eyes, ears, nose, mouth—they do not discern spiritual things. So mankind is trapped—he is doomed in that regard. Even though mankind was created with a spiritual capacity, it is so limited that it cannot find the true things of God, and therefore man is very easily overpowered by Satan.

I Corinthians 2:10-12
Excerpted from: Do You See God?

If it is seen and if it is understood, then life begins to make sense. We begin to be able to see ourselves - this single, unique individual, us, I, me - as a part of the whole, the awesome plan and purpose that God is working out! Then, being able to see God gives direction to our life. So your eye has seen and your ear has heard, and it has entered into your heart the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

Those three verses prove that we are predisposed by God's calling to see Him. Not only to know His truth, but to know who His servants are, as well. So we can know. We may not know perfectly; but what we know is a great source of comfort, security, hope, and direction.

Articles
A Woman's World
Born Again or Begotten? (Part Two)
Do You See God? (Part Two)
Eternal Torment?
Judgment, Tolerance, and Correction
Parables and a Pearl
Parables and Prophecy
Parables and Prophecy
Religious Confusion and You
Seeing Is Not Believing
The Final Harvest
The First Prophecy (Part One)
The Fruit of the Spirit
The Gift of Discerning Spirits
Time and Life
What Did Jesus Do?
What Is the Holy Spirit?
Who Is Doing the Work of God?
Y2K: You-2-the-Kingdom

Bible Studies
Self-Control
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit
The Miracles of Jesus Christ: Healing a Deaf-Mute (Part One)
The Model Prayer (Part Five): Your Will Be Done
The Model Prayer (Part Two): Our Father in Heaven

Booklets
Preparing the Bride

Essays
All About Attitude
Are These Your Feasts? (Part One)
Character and Reputation (Part Two)
Citizens of Heaven
Jesus, Nathanael, and Jacob's Ladder
Knowledge and the Truth (Part Two)
Listen Carefully (Part One)
Man's Natural Spirituality
No Works Is No Good!
Our Awesome Calling
The Bible's Claims About Itself
The True Gospel (Part 6)
Trust the Bible (Part One)
We Persuade Men
What Is Real Conversion? (Part Five)
What Is Truth?

Sermons
The Three Angels
Limiting the Holy One of Israel (Part 1)
Sin And Overcoming (Part 1): If Anyone Sins!
Themes of I Corinthians (Part 3)
Testing the Spirits (Part 1)
Who Was Herbert W. Armstrong?
Developing Discernment
God the Father (Part 3)
Immutable Scientific Laws
Powerful Effects of the Holy Spirit
The Law's Purpose and Intent
Why We Do Not Vote
Christ Our Wisdom
Holiness of God (Part 3)
Hope!
Marriage and the Bride of Christ (Part 9)
Teach Us To Pray! (Part 1)
Without a Parable
Re-Embracing the Berean Model
Self-Government
Who Are You?
Tests of True Knowledge
The Post-Resurrection Last Words of Christ (Part One)
Back to Life (Part Five)
Discerning Truth and Applying Wisdom
Spiritual Renewal
Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness
Teaching Us to Think (Part Two)
Faith (Part Five)
Psalm 51 (Part Three): Verses 5-12
Self-Examination, Not Self-Preoccupation
Strategies for Interfacing with Babylon without Becoming Assimilated (Part Five)
Ecclesiastes Resumed (Part Thirty-Two): Ecclesiastes 8:1-9
The Father's Promise of Power!
Discern and Distinguish Between Spirits
The Unleavened Sinless Life!
Good, Good, Good Vibrations
Strategies for Escaping Babylon (Part Two)
Recognizing the Intents of the Heart
Lessons From First-Century Christianity
'But I Say To You' (Part One)
The Pure in Heart
Grace, Unleavened Bread, and the Holy Spirit
Going On to Perfection
The Purpose of the Ministry
Unleavened Bread and Pentecost
The Handwriting Is on the Wall (1994)
Narrow Is the Way
The Needed Dimension
Elements of Motivation (Part 2)
The Handwriting Is on the Wall (1996)
Benefits of the Third Resurrection
Keeping God's Standards
The Christian and the World (Part Two)
Jesus in the Feasts (Part One): Unleavened Bread
How the Human Mind Shapes What We Believe

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