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The Spirit in Man: The Mystery of the Ages

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The Spirit in Man

The Mystery of the Ages

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The Spirit in Man: The Mystery of the Ages

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The spirit in man is the center of all human knowledge because it enables us understand for the first time true spiritual knowledge and the solution to man's problems. 

Transcript

 

Sermon presented by Roy Holladay on June 21, 2014 in the Cincinnati East, Ohio congregation.

 

You know, today I was struck by some of the songs picked out by our song leader because they touch on – or his comments put it that way – and some of the songs touch on what I wanted to cover. 

Today we have evolutionist material that atheists and most non-religious people who believe that human beings are fully, wholly physical, that we're merely an animal.  If we evolved from a slime pit or from the oceans, then truly we are just physical and we are no different than the animals.  We're just like them.  We, according to the evolutionists, are just the highest form of animals.  We've made it to the top and eventually there'll be somebody who will surpass us and then we'll be pushed down.  Now, they say the reason this can take place is because the process has taken millions and billions of years.  Given enough time, is always the refrain, these type of things will occur.  Now, as a side note, there are always some questions that the evolutionists never really come to grips with, don't have answers to.  Where did matter come from?  Where does energy come from?  Where does life come from?  Where do all of these things come from?  Have we just climbed from slime?  And who created the slime pit?  You see, they don't answer those particular questions.  The answer from those who are evolutionists is that given enough time, all of this just took place naturally, that there was no God involved.  There was no creator.  This just all happened. 

Actually one evolutionist did admit indirectly that God existed even though he doesn't realize it.   He poopooed the idea that God existed, created everything.  How did he think the universe formed when he was asked that question, he explained that there was a small amount of energy that existed.  There was an explosion which he would refer to as the 'big bang' and it hurled all of this energy, all of this into space and it has continued to expand since that time.  Somehow this energy condenses, solidifies and we have stars and planets and so on.  When he was asked where did the energy come from, he stated it has always existed.  Now, notice the conundrum here.  The evolutionist, this particular individual, was willing to say that something has existed forever only they won't accept an intelligent God.  They will accept energy has existed forever, but not God has existed.  Why?  Because energy doesn't tell them what to do, how to live, doesn't give them directions in life, doesn't say this is a sin, this is righteousness. 

Is man wholly physical?  Is he merely an animal or is there something more to man?  Is there a non-physical part to man?  I think this question is very vital as we will see in the sermon today because if man is wholly physical, then humanity had better get busy and solve its problems because if man is wholly physical, there is no spiritual dimension, no spiritual laws involved, then the only hope that man has is that he can come up with a solution on the physical level to solve all of his problems.  He must acknowledge that he's going to be able to do this.  Physical solutions, as we're going to see today, will never solve spiritual problems.  Spiritual problems must be resolved by spiritual understanding, spiritual laws and they're not going to be solved by just a physical, natural, normal approach.  Now, an evolutionist would not agree with that.  He would not agree that there are spiritual principles that govern human relationships.  He would simply say that, you know, each one – your opinion is no better than my opinion - and it's true when it comes to opinions.  But they will not acknowledge that there are any eternal laws or values. 
But look at all of the problems that man is faced with.  How do we solve these, the threat of annihilation?  Right now we're facing in this world a very dangerous time, I think, as we all realize.  How do we solve wars?  How do we bring about peace?  You look at the Mid-East right now, what about Syria?  What's going on there?  Egypt?  Iran?  Iraq?  Afghanistan?  North Korea?  They have missiles that they claim that they can hit the west coast of the United States.  So, how are we going to solve these problems?  How do you deal with human beings who have their own agendas, their own ideas, their own philosophies, their own approach on how to deal with all these problems – and they're totally the antitheses of what you think or somebody else might think.  How do we come up with the right government?  Why do great nations come and go?  Why can't we have good health, sound minds, happy marriages, cooperation, less crime, less violence, less murder if all it takes is for human beings to come up with a solution and everybody agree, yeah, that's right?  Look at the myriad of problems that humans truly are faced with. 

Let's go over to Matthew 24 because I think the Bible – beginning to read in verse 21 – directly addresses what we're talking about here.  Matthew 24:21 we read that here in the soon future not too far off that ...there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.   Vs 22 - And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.   Now, who are the elect?  That's you.  That's me.  That's those who have been chosen by God.  The Bible says many are called but few are chosen (Matthew 20:16).  So God has chosen some to be a part of His body, His church today.

Notice the Contemporary English Version of the Bible, how it translates verses 21 and 22.  It says - This will be the worst time of suffering since the beginning of the world, and nothing this terrible will ever happen again.  If God doesn't make the time shorter...  in other words, if God doesn't intervene  ...no one will be left alive. But because of God's chosen ones...  that's what the word elect means, those who have been chosen  ...he will make the time shorter.

And then notice what the Good News translation says, verse 22But He has already reduced the number of days; had he not done so, nobody would survive.  So this isn't talking about just spiritual salvation, it's talking about human life being erased from the earth. 

In one final Living Bible paraphrase, it says, In fact, unless those days are shortened, all mankind will perish.

So, the end result of man thinking that he can solve all of his own problems is what?  Coming to the point to where all life would be erased from the face of the earth.  No one would be left alive.  But for the elect - the chosen's - sake, God's going to cut things short and He will intervene. 

The answer to all of this is that physical answers will never solve spiritual problems, will never solve the spiritual dimension.  When you look at human beings, the activities of the human mind are unmeasurably more advanced than the activities of animal brains.  However, when you look at the anatomy, the physiology, the biochemistry of the human brain, it's just barely more complex than the anatomy, physiology, biochemistry of whales, dolphins and ape brains.  What's the difference?  Why is there such a gap?  Why is there such a gulf between humans and animals?  Animals receive physical information the same way that we as human beings do, but they do not comprehend it the same way.  They do not understand it the same way.  They do not absorb it in the same manner.  They have five senses – they see, they hear, they smell, they touch, they taste just like we do.  And so they receive knowledge through those senses. 

How can you explain this?  Only by realizing that the human mind does contain a spiritual factor.  Now, I think most of us are aware of that, but there is a spiritual factor.  Those people who believe purely in materialism don't seek spiritual solutions to their problems.  In fact, when you come up and say, “Now, the Bible says...”  they want to throw that away.  That's just, you know, a book based upon some ancient people.  Doesn't carry any weight, any authority so they do away with the source – the Bible - the source of true understanding.  The Bible is the source of spiritual understanding.  They don't understand, they don't comprehend the underpinning that we have that the Word of God is the foundation of all knowledge.  So, God's Word is that foundation. 

So today we want to take a look at what the Bible has to say about the human mind, about your mind – how you function.  Why do we humans have a mind and animals operate basically from instinct?  We will see that if you reject God, if you reject the spirit realm, if you reject the possibility that God has added something to our brains that give us a mind to help us to think, we will always come up with the wrong solution, the wrong answers.  We will not know how to solve our problems and the Bible predicts that it will ultimately end in annihilation.  It could be a mixture of right and wrong, but that's still not the right way. 

Let's begin by acknowledging what the Bible tells us.  Let's go over to 1st Corinthians, chapter 1 and verse 18.  Let me tell you a simple yardstick, simple evaluation of how you can tell is something just a humanly devised approach or is it Biblical.  What does the Bible say on a given topic?  You see, that's the yardstick if you want to use it.  What does the Bible say?  And if somebody's solution is not in accordance with what the Bible says, then it's not right.  The Bible is what we measure it by.  Let's notice in verse 18 here.

1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross...  talking about Christ, salvation through Christ, there is a God and God's planned purpose  ...is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.   So God's way, His principles, His laws, His way of life, the Ten Commandments, all of these things are foolishness to mankind.   Vs. 19 - For it is written: "I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND BRING TO NOTHING THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRUDENT."   Vs. 20 - Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?   Mankind in his exalted vanity and human intellect thinks that he is so smart, and God says we are nothing.  All nations are as a drop in a bucket.  We're all like the dust on a scale.  God Almighty says the wisdom of this world is foolishness with Him.  His wisdom, His knowledge, His understanding is so far superior to what man has come up with.  Notice Vs. 23 - but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness...   The Jews stumbled over Christ, the Greeks thought it was utter foolishness.  And so many today think that the Bible, the Ten Commandments and these principles are utter foolishness.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 13, notice.  1 Corinthians 2:13 -  These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.   So notice, there are spiritual things, there are spiritual solutions, spiritual understanding.  Vs. 14 - But the natural man...  the physical 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.   And if he doesn't believe there's a spiritual component, there is a spiritual law, he is not going to go that way.  He's going to look for answers in some other way.  Spiritual truths are foolishness to man cut off from God, it takes the spirit of God to reveal spiritual understanding. 

Spiritual solutions are folly to man such as laws governing marriage.  Now if you and I want to know how to have a happy marriage, what do you do?  Well, you go to Ephesians 5.  You look at other scriptures in the Bible, talks about submission, mutual submission, wives submitting to her husband.  You get out and preach that today in public and see what kind of response you receive.  It talks about how marriage is based upon love, how you obey.  There's government in the home.  All of these things are looked upon as being impractical or out of date or simply male domination.  You know, this is the way it's looked upon. 

What about laws governing how you rear your children?  Somebody comes out with a new book on how to rear your children and they totally negate what the Bible says, know what?  Something wrong with that approach because the Bible is the foundation of  knowledge.  Doesn't contain all knowledge.  Now, if what they write amplifies the scriptures, maybe makes it clearer, that's fine.  But if it's totally contrary to what scriptures say,  now you've got a problem. 

The evolutionists and the materialists are wrong in saying that there's no spirit, but what about religion today – the response of religion?  What do theologians today say?  How do they explain this conundrum?  Well, false Christianity today teaches the immortality of the soul.  That's basically how they explain it.  Notice that the origin of the immortality of the soul is not Biblically based.  I hope all of us have read the articles, the information that we have written on this because we have a ton of things out there that you can study.  The immortal soul does not come from the body.  Where did the Judeo/Christian find it?  Notice the Jewish Encyclopedia, what they freely admit.  It says, “The belief that the soul continues its existence after the dissolution of the body is speculation, nowhere expressly taught in the Holy Scriptures.  The belief in the immortality of the soul came to the Jews from contact with Greek thought...” Greek idea, “...and chiefly through the philosophies of Plato, its principal exponent, who was led to it through Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries in which Babylonian and Egyptian views were strangely blended...”  not out of the Bible and that's so clearly understood.  Plato is also the authoritative source for the Christian fathers like Origen and Tertullian who, two centuries after the death of Jesus Christ first introduced the immortality phisolophy into a rapidly paganizing Christianity as it began to develop.  There was also a heavy Gnostic influence on this – Gnosticism also believed this.  You know, Gnostics teach – or the Gnostic approach was that there were immortal souls or beings that were with God and they wanted to come down to this earth.  There are different ways that it is approached.  Some say they sinned and were cast down to the earth and then they want to get back to God so they have to go through human beings and be tried and tested and then they come back one at a time, a stage at a time.  They've got all of these ideas about the soul. 

Most people in society have assumed that the doctrines of traditional Christianity come from the Bible.  That's because many of them don't study the Bible.  You know, they may have a Bible on a doily, somewhere in a bookcase, on top of the piano, card table, but they don't study it.  You've got to study the Bible, you've got to know what it says.  So both the purely material approach and the philosophy of the immortality of the soul are wrong.  There is a Bible solution to what I'm talking about – about a question of the human mind.  That is, man is not wholly physically. There must be a difference in our mind that gives us the capability of human understanding that we humans possess.  The human mind does contain a non-physical essence that transforms the brain or the mind that a human being has – a brain - and gives us the human mind.  But what is this spiritual mind component?  If it's not the fabled immortality of the soul, what is it?  Well, let's go over to Job 32 and verse 8 and let's begin to clearly see what the Bible tells us. 

Job, chapter 32 and verse 8 we read:  Job 32:8 – we read  ...there is a spirit in man...  so the Bible says there is a spirit in man.  That is the spiritual component that's there.  We call it 'the spirit in man'.  Why?  Because that's what the Bible calls it.  There is a spirit in man.  ...And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.   Another translation says it this way:  It is the spirit in man that gives him understanding...  that helps to understand.  The spirit in man then is that essence that imparts human mind power to physical brain tissue.  The spirit in man is not a soul, it's not an immortal soul.  It has absolutely no consciousness apart from the brain.  It needs the brain to be able to function.  The human spirit does not reveal or teach material knowledge.  Such knowledge enters the mind through the five senses.  Such knowledge may enter the brain of a chicken or a cow.  You know, a cow can be standing by a fence and a beautiful brand new Mercedes drives by and guess what?  They won't comprehend.  They may see it, they may be terrified by it, who knows.  But they don't stop and say to the chicken, “You know, this year's model of the Mercedes is beautiful.  I wonder what kind of engine it has?  Maybe I wonder the RPM's?  Does it have surround sound in there?  What music are they playing?  Does it have a sunroof?  How big are the tires?”  No.  It sees the same thing we do, but we process it differently, don't we?  We may not ask all those questions either, but they don't understand.  They don't have the capacity to even understand to the degree that we do.  The human spirit imparts to the brain the cognitive power to think, the cognitive power to know, to reason and to make decisions. 

You might remember back in Genesis 1 – we might turn there – and verse 26 that God told Adam and Eve in Genesis 1, verse 26 that they were made, or the Bible reveals that they were made in God's image.  No notice in verse 26:

Genesis 1:26 – The Lord God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."   So man was given dominion over all of the animals.  Vs. 27 - So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Physically we look like God.  That's what this is saying, we are made in His likeness.  But is that the only way that we're made like God?  Is that the only way we are made in God's image?  Our minds, talents, abilities and gifts have come to us from God.  Someone like Mr. Schmidt here can get up and sing.  God has given to some of us certain talents, certain abilities.  And so these things come from God.  God created all in His likeness to have a mind, to be able to think, to be able to reason, to be able to plan, to have memory, to have a record. 

Where does this spirit in man come from?  Where does it come from?  Well, the Bible clearly tells us.  Ecclesiastes 12.  Go back to the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12 and we'll begin to read in verse 7.  We read this:  Ecclesiastes 12:7 - The dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

God is the One who imparts the spirit in man – to mankind.  He gave it.  So this explains where it came from.  It came from God, when a person dies it goes back to God. 

Now, the question is, when does it enter a human being, a person?  My answer, no one really knows precisely.  Over the years we've had various ideas from the time of birth to the time of conception and everywhere in between.  So my answer is it's somewhere in there – conception to birth it is given.  We'll find out more about that when we are in the other dimension, you know, the resurrection and we'll be able to see and to understand. 

Now, at death the spirit returns to God.  How is that possible?   You know, how can that be possible?  What are we talking about – it returns to God?  Let's go over to Hebrews 12, verse 22 here.  Notice the writer of Hebrews describing what we find in heaven before the throne of God now.  It says Hebrews 12:22 - You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,   Vs. 23 - to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven...  in other words, our names are written there in the Book of Life  ...to God the Judge of all...  and notice  ...to the spirits of just men made perfect.   The spirits of just men made perfect.  So it is possible for us to go through the conversion process with God's Spirit being added to our spirit and to become perfect.  And when the writer of Hebrews wrote this, I don't know exactly what he saw.  May have been a vault, you know, different categories, that said spirits of men made perfect.  I don't know exactly how all of this was revealed, but you find that it is possible.  How is it possible?  Well, the Bible says it's possible that all who have died will live again.  In John chapter 5 and verse 28, the basic scripture that many of you may have memorized is John 5:28.  Notice here:

John 5:28 - Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice...  So all who have died, those who are in the grave will hear His voice.  Vs. 29 - and come forth— those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation...  or judgment.  So everyone who has ever lived will come forth out of the grave.  All will be made alive. 

Now I want you to notice a very interesting scripture in Ezekiel 37 if you'll turn back there to Ezekiel 37.  Here is a chapter – the first part of it – that deals with the second resurrection or what we call the Great White Throne Judgment if you go back to Revelation 20.  But beginning here is Ezekiel 37 and verse 3 a question is asked. 

Ezekiel 37:3 – He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"...  And these bones are the whole house of Israel who have died.  ...So I answered, "O Lord GOD, You know."   John asked the question, can they live?  And in verse 6, you can read verses 4 through 6, you will notice that God says yes they can and you find described how the process is going to take place.  And vs. 6 - I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live...  And then notice this sentence:  ...Then you shall know that I am the LORD."  Notice, they would be resurrected and they would have knowledge, they would have understanding, they would know something, they would be able to comprehend that God is God, that He resurrected them, that there truly is a God.  They will have a brain and a mind again.  Now verses 13 through 14 says:  vs. 13 Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.   Vs. 14 – and I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it," says the LORD.   So they are resurrected and they receive the Holy Spirit. 

What is it that one must do to receive the Holy Spirit?  Repent, be baptized, have hands laid on you and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  That's the process that you have to go through.  Now if these people have repented and they've never sinned and then God just gives them the Holy Spirit, what about all their past sins?  You know, they did sin in their former life before they are resurrected, did they not?  Talking about people who have lived in this six thousand year period.  Well, they have to repent.  In order to repent, guess what?  They must remember what they did wrong.  They must remember their past.  They must be able to remember things that had gone on when they were alive before.  So they remember their former life in sin.  So that means their memory is restored to them.  Where is that memory kept?  Where is it stored?  Well, part of the answer is the spirit in man. 

Let's go over to 1 Corinthians 15 and we'll read here in verse 35.  1 Corinthians 15:35  - But someone will say, "How are the dead raised? What body do they come?"   Vs. 36 - Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.   Put a seed in the ground – let's say you put a kernel of corn in the ground.  Does it grow another kernel of corn?  Well, it does, but is the plant that grows, does it look like a kernel of corn?  No, it's a corn plant and it has ears of corn that grow out on it.  And so he says, look, what you sow is not what is made alive unless it dies.    Vs. 37 - And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain... Now this is talking about the resurrection to eternal life here, to immortality, but the principle applies in one way to both.  If the body that dies is not the body that comes up in the resurrection, how can the precise image – appearance, memory, character - be preserved and translated into the body that is to come – either the second resurrection or the first resurrection? 

Well, let me give you an analogy and this is something over the years that we have used to try to help explain this and that is the analogy of a tape in a tape recorder.  A tape recorder houses all of the required machinery and wiring for its particular operation, which is sound production.  You put a tape in, it plays it.  You put a dvd in a dvd player, Blue Ray player, and it plays it.  Everything is in that tape recorder to be able to reproduce the sound.  But where is the sound?  Well, it's on the tape or it's on the dvd or the cd.  Likewise the human brain contains all of the necessary structure and circuits for its manifold responsibilities, which are sensations, memory, motions, creativity, self-awareness, consciousness, intellect – all of these.  The recording tape imparts the capacity of auditory reproduction to the tape recorder.  Stick it in the tape recorder, sound is produced.  But at the same time, you can use the tape recorder to tape or to record.  It does both functions.  It can record, you have a microphone and you can record onto the tape or you can listen to it.  It does both of those functions.  At death, the spirit in man, which is compared to the tape, is complete.  It contains, at that time, every nuance of life of that human being – his thoughts, his personality, his character - what made us us, what made us different from others, it's what made us a singular individual.  The tape can then be filed until it's ready to insert into another body.  In the first resurrection your spirit body is put back in.  Second resurrection, the physical body – the spirit in man is put back into that until needed again for reactivation.  And the reactivation is called the resurrection.  We are reactivated at that time and come to life again. 

Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and verse 5 tells us this:  Ecclesiastes 9:5 - For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing...  the dead don't know anything.  ...And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten.   Now the New Century version says this, verses 5 and 6.  It says:  vs. 5 - The living know they will die, but the dead know nothing.  Dead people have no more reward and people forget them.  Guess what?  You and I can die, the body passes away, they are no longer here, the memory of us is virtually forgotten.  And then he goes on to say in verse 6 – After people are dead, they can no longer love or hate or envy.  You know, you are in the grave.  You're not hating, loving and envying.  They will never again share in what happens here on the earth.  Their physical life at this time has ended.  There is no consciousness to the human tape.  In order to reconstitute the specific person's conscious awareness from the 'spirit in man tape', the spirit in man must be reinserted into a brain once again.  Therefore, a reorganized brain and body, whether it is spiritual or physical -  spiritual brain or physical – are necessary adjuncts to the spirit in man.  Those who will be in the resurrection into eternal life will be there because God has begotten us, you and me, all of those who truly repented with His Spirit, and gives to our mind an added dimension that the average person in society does not have to comprehend spiritual matters.  And when it's combined with the spirit in man, it gives us the capacity for spiritual understanding and contact with God.  God imparts to us through His Spirit - that's the channel, the vehicle - He can impart to our minds His attributes, His motivations, His desire and to develop His character within us.  This spirit we're talking about here, just men made perfect that the book of Hebrews describes. 

Notice back here in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9.  The Bible reveals about this Spirit of God.  It says, 1 Corinthians 2:9 - For as it is written: "EYE HAS NOT SEEN, NOR EAR HEARD, NOR HAVE ENTERED INTO THE HEART OF MAN THE THINGS THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."   Vs. 10 - But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit...  So, as we're all aware and know it takes the Spirit of God to reveal spiritual awareness and understanding.  ...For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.   There are deep mysteries of God and understanding that God opens to us.  But now, verse 11.  As you will find, there are three spirits mentioned here in about the space of three or four verses.   Vs. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?...  The spirit of man, notice, is 'in' him.  So it's in us.  It's in our mind, our brain.  You cannot know the things of man without the spirit in man.  Animals cannot know the things of the man because they do not have the spirit in man.  You and I do, we're men and women, mankind.  The spirit in man empowers the human brain with intellect.  You cannot understand and apply spiritual things without the Spirit of God working with you or in you.  Spiritual principles and the things of God, man naturally does not know.  It takes seeking God and the imparting of the Holy Spirit. 

I want you to notice Romans 8:16.  We'll come back here.  But Romans 8:16 to just quote that, The Spirit Himself …  or Itself  ...bears witness with our spirit...  so the Spirit of God and our spirit are different.  But The Spirit Itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.  How do you know you are converted?  Can you look at yourself, you see a change in your mind, in your heart, your attitude, your approach, your understanding, your motivation?  Should be able to.  Should be able to.  So God's Spirit bears witness with our spirit.  They work together to create a spiritual character. 

Now, coming back to 1 Corinthians 2:12 again, notice this.  1 Corinthians 2:12 – ...Now we have received, not the spirit of the world...  now I said there were three spirits.  Notice, there is what is called 'the spirit of this world'.  This is the unseen influence that dominates what is called 'this present evil age' - Satan, the devil, his influence.  He broadcasts.  He sends out signals.  He influences nations.  So it says,  ...we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God...  God's Spirit  ...that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God...  So God gives us awareness and understanding freely if we repent.  Now vs. 13 - These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.   And as we read earlier, vs. 14 - The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.  Why?  Because he doesn't have the Spirit of God connected with the spirit in man.  ...nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.  And as we find in vs. 16, it says, - For "WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD THAT HE MAY INSTRUCT HIM?" But we have the mind of Christ.   So the Spirit of God imparts to us the very mind of Jesus Christ. 

So if you wanted to summarize what we've been talking about, the human mind even though it is so great yet it is so helpless, so limited, it cannot solve its own problems.  Consider what the spirit in man, the significance that the human mind operates within a world where we're confronted with all kinds of problems that need spiritual solutions.  And man rejects the spiritual and just goes about accepting his own thoughts and ideas.  That means that man is faced with spiritual problems.  As we all should know, all human relationships are governed by spiritual laws.  I'll say that again.  All human relationships are governed by spiritual laws.  So the crux of the problem is this, that mankind is planning his own extinction, human beings have spiritual difficulties, but they only have physical solutions.  They don't know how to solve man's problems.  You and I have not known and it's going to take Jesus Christ coming back to this earth to set up His government to solve man's problems.  Physical solutions just will not solve spiritual problems.  We can choose today any variation in this world that you want.  Stop and think about it.  Capitalism to socialism/communism, conservative to liberalism/libertarianism, isolation to internationalism, monarchy to anarchy, self help to government handouts, tariffs to foreign aid, segregation to integration.  And the end result will always be the same.  You see, every four years we have this political circus that goes on and people get behind some human leader.  “He knows how to solve my problems.”  No, he does not know how to solve your problems.  No human being does.  Now he may be more conservative, moral than somebody else, but he doesn't know and it is only those who are willing to listen to God – be influenced by God – who will know.

So for the lack of solutions, humanity is headed for self-destruction.  Physical solutions cannot solve problems that are governed by spiritual laws.  This is why the spirit in man becomes the focal of all human knowledge – you know, the center – because it enables us understand for the first time true spiritual knowledge and the solution to man's problems. 

As I mentioned earlier, somebody comes along propounding an approach that is contrary to what scriptures say, don't listen to it.  Follow what God says.  He knows.  He made us, He knows.  We understand because the Spirit of God works with our mind to reveal the spiritual solution, likewise to give us the strength and the motivation to obey God.  So, brethren, spiritual answers are needed to solve spiritual problems.