Listen:  119.6

Let’s read 1 Corinthians 2:14-15, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.”  The natural man is the unsaved man.  He has no ability to understand the things of the Lord.  They are foolishness to him because he does not have the indwelling Spirit of God to reveal the precious truths of the Lord to him.  Before His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples in John 14:16-17, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”  Then, the Lord went on to say in John 14:26, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

It is by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit that true believers can understand the truths of the Word of God.  To the Christian, the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 3:4, “…when ye read, ye may understand…”  Listen again to the words of the Lord in John 16:13, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”  When we rely upon the Lord, He will open up the scriptures to us in a way that the unsaved just cannot understand.

In verse 15, the word ‘judge’ is more correctly translated as ‘discern’ or ‘understand’.  Those of us who are saved, or spiritual have the ability to discern God’s truths by the Spirit that dwells inside us.  By the same token, the unsaved cannot understand us.  They cannot understand how we can be joyous in the face of despair.  They cannot understand how we can have hope when all seems hopeless.  They cannot understand how we can put our faith in one who died so many years ago.  They do not understand that the One who died on that cross of Calvary, and rose again, was the very Son of God who gave Himself to pay our sin debt and to make us the children of God through faith in Him.  The unsaved cannot see what we see when we study the Word of God.  To them, we are a mystery.  (119.6)