“My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith would not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” vs4-5

God’s power is necessary, if we will believe the gospel; it cannot happen in the flesh, and no amount of education can accomplish it.

Here is the sorrow: Men have learned in the flesh and minister just as emptily! There is no heart, no comfort, and no peace; it is just intellectualism with no fruit of the Spirit; it is barren, dry, and dead.

Yes, people may be impressed with the wisdom of words and high sounding teaching, but they don’t have the ability to die for Christ: they’ve never been comforted, so they go out and LIVE FOR THEMSELVES!

We need a spiritual ministry to produce spiritual people. We cannot be led by the flesh with a head full of knowledge.

Come back to the fundamentals of the gospel. Get something that makes you worship, and speak in reliance upon God.

Secondly, here is the key: We express spiritual things in a spiritual way [vs13].

“And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.”

The ministry is spiritual; it cannot be taught carnally and produce the results!

Paul was as smart as anybody, but he didn’t rely on his own words. He waited on the Spirit and said what He said, comparing spiritual things (the gospel of God’s free grace) with an entirely spiritual ministry (the Holy Spirit.)

This is how the Apostles taught: they rested in Christ. They were not forcing it in the flesh, agitated at the carnality of their hearers! Even Steven ministered spiritually, “they could not stand up to his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke [Acts 6:10].”

You cannot do this: it is the gift of God. We can rely upon Him for it, and He will give us words, according to the measure of our faith [Rom 12:6].

Cast off the carnal ministry. Be ashamed of yourself and mourn!

Finally, you have to have the mind of Christ to understand this ministry [vs14-16].

“The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment. ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”

I was speaking to a preacher recently about the Spirit’s work in Ezekiel 37, how He delivers us from death and dead words. The man became AMAZINGLY SLEEPY, and I said to myself, “He is not getting it. If we were talking about money and programs, then he’d be excited. He wants to build his church and his ministry.”

Spiritual people, however, love the things of the Spirit, because they are fed. They rely upon God, and He meets their heart with cleansing - He forgives and gives power over sin.