1 Corinthians (Session 2) Chapter 2

well good evening and welcome to our monday night study of first corinthians and we are in the second session where we're going to explore chapter 2 of first corinthians corinth was like a combination of new york las vegas and hollywood all wrapped up in one in the previous session we covered the whole geopolitical thing but also the word corinthian and the word fornicator became synonymous so a corinth to call someone a corinthian is an epithet and it's because of that usage there to get that across i often call this first californians chapter one uh i mean the session two chapter two so uh that's my tongue in my cheek of course but to someone from america it communicates it gives you a feeling with corinth corinth was very blessed geopolitically and that made it very prosperous but along with that came all the rest of it so we in the in the previous session we went through the whole geopolitical background so i invite you to review your notes on that but we'll focus on the occasion of this particular letter you need to understand that there were actually four letters and three visits and it gets confused unless you really study it there are four letters the first visit was when the church of course was founded then there was a letter that's alluded to but has been lost which is known as the previous letter it's alluded to but we lost it then we get to this letter which we know as first corinthians you say technically it's the second one because we've lost the first one but i don't it's going to get confusing enough even as it is that was followed by what's called the painful visit because of the disruptions and things that led to the first letter there was what was called the painful visit and that followed that what followed that was the severe letter again a letter that was lost and then we finally get to the second corinthians and uh which was followed by a visit after second corinthians had been sent so we actually have a series of four letters that are alluded to but we're exploring first corinthians in this particular session and the household of chloe brought paul news of clicks in the church and the church wrote him a letter presumably brought by uh to ephesus by stefanos and fortunas and archaeas and they probably added their own comments but it was that that news that caused paul to write this letter the situation was very serious and so paul's responding to this letter that we know as first corinthians but there's a history that precedes it obviously we covered all that in the first session this is why by way of review but one of the main topics that occurred in chapter one that i wanted us to be have in focus is this what i like to call the ultimate oxymoron paul uses the term the foolishness of god you wonder how you could put those two words together you can't think of god as being foolish but he alludes to the foolishness of god what is he talking about it's strange but we need to notice that god seems to go out of his way to do things in a strange way noah is going to have the flood he hasn't no bill have spent 120 years building this barge right genesis uh uh and we have the uh uh samson and the jawbone of an ass in judges 15. we have elisha in the name in the leper this strange event in second kings five and moses and the brazen serpent you've heard me speak of that many times and of course jonah and the big fish god seems to choose strange metaphors yet we discover almost every one of these really points to the messiah in some way another but the ultimate foolishness the ultimate of all of these things is that the entire universe would be resolved by a wooden cross erected in judea that becomes the central fulcrum of the history of the entire universe and that's why we titled our study of isaiah 53 just that way and so but we're in chapter two and the first five verses really pick up on where we left off last time with the foolishness of god it summarizes and completes that foolishness discourse that that paul indulges in so in second corinthians chapter 2 verse 1 and i brethren when i came to you came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of god and so he's he is not making an exception of himself he learned his lesson in athens if you will back in acts 17 and uh the uh he he had conformed to what he had been saying about the foolishness of the god here to the corinthians preaching the gospel is not delivering edifying discourses beautifully put together it is bearing witness to what god has done in christ for our salvation that's a very important distinction we don't strive for eloquency we strive for the declaration of what god has done very very important he's going to hammer that pretty hard in these verses here paul continues for i determined not to know anything among you save jesus christ and have crucified now that's rather startling because here's a guy that was probably one of the most educated people on the planet earth at the time he was schooled in tarsus tarsus was a a uh literary center that rivaled alexandria in those days that's where he learned his greek he also learned his hebrew from gamaliel mcmahon himself so he he was probably the most credentialed guy in his family was wealthy they were freeman the he was actually a roman citizen that come this got you discover that later on comes as a big surprise to the roman soldiers here's a guy with resources and very very educated and yet it's interesting to see his focus because he's going to hammer this in this letter for i determine not to know anything among you save jesus christ and him crucified and so he excluded everything but the one great central truth which he calls the gospel fair enough i often attempted with a class to have you take out a piece of paper and you tell me what is the gospel define it for me someone will say what's the good news that's a cop-out answer now what is the gospel and so that's the question that i want us to consider because i suspect that probably one christian and 10 would get it right paul defines the gospel for us in the first four verses of a later chapter first corinthians chapter 15. it's a chapter which god would argue i should say jesus would argue is the most essential chapter to the christian of all the chapters there but here he defines the gospel it says moreover brethren i declare unto you the gospel see he's declaring it in this passage which i preached unto you which also ye have received and wherein ye stand by which also ye are saved if you keep in memory what i preached unto you unless you have believed in vain that's a disturbing phrase can you believe in vain apparently apparently and that's what the overcomer passage is the seven jesus refers to that seven times in his epistles but moving on here he continues now to define the gospel for our benefit for i delivered unto you first of all that which i also received how that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried that he rose again the third day according to scriptures now don't let the familiarity of that hide the significance of that that's the gospel three things that he died for our sins according to the scriptures he didn't disappear he didn't just die most documented death on the planet earth and he fulfilled dozens of precise specifications in that death even though the manner of death hadn't been invented back then until i mean until several seven centuries later that he was buried and that he rose again the third day again according to the scriptures everything about his about the gospel was pre-specified when when was the pre-specified the answer is before the foundation of the world this was an arrangement between the father and the son before the foundation of the world three things that he died for us in the scriptures that he's buried rose again the third day and of course he died in the most documented execution in history and we've mentioned that it's interesting that even such details like not a bonus to be broken to the passover land remember that john the baptist introduces jesus at the beginning of his ministry as the lamb the passover lamb that died for the sins of the world but not a bonus to be broken you find that in exodus 12 numbers 9 psalm 34 and other illusions a roman soldier actually violated his orders he didn't follow through if he did what he was ordered to do that wouldn't have happened that would have been it would have been broken interesting i don't think the roman soldier was realizing that he was fulfilling prophecy by disobeying his supervision and he was buried now here again only paul emphasizes that as the gospel he was very again fulfilling precise requirements it startled me to discover when i was doing my homework for my leviticus commentary among the many commentaries that this the pivotal one in that world is one by andrew bonar andrew bonar in his classic work on the book of leviticus describes the burial requirements for the messiah but what's astonishing when you read andrew bonar's details you may overlook the fact that his his commentary was published in 1840 that's 43 years before general charles gordon in uh discovers the garden tomb in 1883. when you read bonar and if you've visited visited israel seen the garden tomb it fits amazingly well and it's astonishing to realize that bonar sp described it strictly from the biblical text interestingly enough and uh so uh and if you've been there it's it's it's really amazing i happen to believe that it really is the tomb they don't sell it that way they don't want to oversell it but there's about 18 specific scriptural tie-ins to the thing but it's interesting that uh uh this chapter that we're dealing with here chapter 15 is the very chapter that paul regards as the most important chapter in the bible and you think it's exaggerating that in chapter 15 of first corinthians from verses 13 to 19 he says as much that without this chapter we have nothing it's a very interesting form of emphasis but then of course of the three things we now get to the capstone that he rose from the dead again fulfilling numerous specifications that embroider the entire old testament you find that laced all through the old testament by the way and this third element he died buried now he rose again the third day from the scripture is the very capstone of what paul defines as the gospel and i think it's important to know because one of the shocking things you discover as you travel especially in america but i think elsewhere too how hard it is to find a church that preaches the gospel they get all wrapped up in social issues worthwhile issues abortion same-sex marriage all kinds of issues but that's not the gospel and pursuing those issues can be at the expense of our calling which is to make him the person known the person of christ and so this third day thing is interesting where in in the old testament does it describe see it says he he rose again the third day according to the scriptures the quiz question that you should imagine being confronted with is where in the old testament does it require the three days the tomb and most of you will quickly remember that matthew 12 40 jesus himself identifies it for you the story of jonah as jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so shall the son of man spend three days and three nights in the belly of the earth jesus's own words very specific and there are three days and three nights we're not after counting hours we're not playing games it's very very forthright but is that the only place and my challenge to my classes is find six more in the old testament well there's the yakida it turns out when you study genesis 22 isaac was dead to abraham when the commandment came according to hebrews 11 19. and so uh the akidah turns out to portray that also and abraham knew he was acting out prophecy that's why he names the place in the mount of the lord shall be seen you can spend a whole session just studying that chapter in the way it anticipates the lord jesus christ noah's new beginning the holy spirit tells you in genesis the fourth verse of genesis 8 that the ark came to rest on the 17th day of the seventh month and and when you get into all of that you discover you have to get in the calendar discover that know that noah's new beginning is on the anniversary in advance of our new beginning in christ and the orchestration of that is worth chasing down it's really quite interesting rahab's chords in joshua chapter two there's another one the uh the whole idea that when she meant speaks of the chords to the two spires she used the word hebel which means chord but it also can mean pain suffering and so on when they respond to her they use the term tikvah another word that means cord but the word it means hope hotikva is the national anthem israel the hope between those two verses from verse 15 and 18 she tells them to go hide for three days before going back why three days why not four why not two because there are three days between the trauma of golgotha and the exhilaration of the empty tomb and so it's it's tucked away in in the you say chuck you're making something out that's up to you you check it out when jesus hangs on the cross according to psalm 22 6 he says i am a worm and he uses the word tola well you need to under go into a biology test and understand the total worm and how it operates the larva is attached to a tree it provides the red dye that they that's where the up the red dye and it's that way for three days when it turns white and flakes off and you're reminded of isaiah 1 18 though your sins be as scarlet it will be his wool and there's a handful of others and they'll be in your notes in genesis 40 20 exodus 19 leviticus 7 hosea 6 are just a number of others i'll leave it to you there six times apparently in the in luke okay what's amazing to me is what jesus what paul does not include in the gospel what does he not include he makes no mention of the lord's teachings i'm not disparaging him but that's not the gospel doesn't mention as miracles can you imagine makes no mentions of his example these are not the gospel i'm not disparaging don't misunderstand me i'm trying to elevate the core issues that paul is focusing on our basic calling yours and mine is to declare the gospel you're not there to sell anything you're not there to convince anything you declare the gospel the saving of the person is the job of the holy spirit not yours it's amazing how a few people realize that our basic knowledge declare the gospel and this differentiates us from pending social issues of the day i'm not saying that those issues shouldn't be addressed but realize that when you address those issues you may be doing it at the expense of the gospel paul and the disciples did not try to eliminate slavery in the roman empire there are all kinds of abuses and things that should have been corrected they could deal with but they didn't they focused on the declaring the person that we call the messiah and that's that was their focus and in today's world it's very easy for these other issues to derail us from what we're called to do now that's a very controversial point of view that's very this is not a popular view but this is the primary calling for us and it may be our focus on this that causes us to get persecuted by the denominational churches as j vernon mcgee and others have have prophesied for i determine not to know anything among you save jesus christ and him crucified in other words it's jesus and the fact that he was crucified and we exclude everything but this great central truth but then he continues as i was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling or the phillips translation because i was feeling far from strong i was nervous and rather shaky is the way philip surrenders it which is descriptive see paul had much to discourage him before he arrived at corinth and even the lord himself encouraged him he endured physical ailments he endured punishment and affliction and that's detailed in second corinthians 11 that there's a whole chronicle of all of that in there that we'll get it in a subsequent session he was ill in galatia iv probably having to do with his eyes we suspect of he was a small stature we gathered and he had very poor eyesight again we think that may be tied to his his some people speculate that it might be an aftermath of his damascus road experience but there is some records that suggest that he was not impressive in appearance a man of smaller stature a bald head and crooked legs and a good stated body with eyebrows meeting and a nose somewhat crooked and that's extracted from people who feel that they've had some insights there i'll i'll leave that up to you i don't i wouldn't push it hard verse 4 and paul continues and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power now the word spirit here appears for the first time and it'll it the the last word is always power always associated with the spirit and uh and non-enticing words now the word there in the greek means persuasive demonstration the most rigorous proof he says my preaching was not persuasive demonstrations not at all paul's very defects had afforded the most convincing demonstration of the power of the spirit is his point and the notes the the references will be in your notes there and the expositional teaching preaching of the word of course is the emphasis that he gives his protege timothy in his final letter to timothy he emphasizes that that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of god paul's intention had been to ground his converts in the divine power and to make them independent of human wisdom see the fallacies if you win some by a clever argument there's also another more clever argument then can disconnect him if that's your basis no he didn't he didn't want to do that at all faith that depends upon clever reasoning can be demolished by a more acute argument faith produced by the power of god can never be overthrown so you don't base your argument on man's wizard man's logic but on the power of god very very important emphasis here and the more you study it the more surprising it really is how be it we speak wisdom among them that are perfect now the word perfect here means mature it's an old use of the the of the king james thing poor full development growth in the maturities we're speaking we speak among them that are complete or mature yet not the wisdom of this world nor of the prince of this world that come to naught see paul distinguishes between christians who have accepted the wisdom of the cross and outsiders who have not okay he's going to make that distinction very emphatic as we continue here now this perfect means to mature spiritual maturity is the moment by moment acceptance of god's wise provision even if the world sees it as folly the world will see us as fools the new testament writers do not envisage grades of christians all believers should grow to maturity failing to grow to maturity is the real burden of the whole epistle of hebrews many people misunderstand paul's epistle to the hebrews because they don't understand what the real issue there that's to go to maturity hobby we speak wisdom among them that are perfect not of the wisdom of this world uh nor of the princes of this world and the rulers of this age the unseen world found in paul's writings you see that all through in romans 8 colossians 2 and in the second corinthian letter also however this reference may not be demonic it may be rulers of this world in the in the more common sense as in the failure of human wisdom the crucifiers of christ and so i'm not denying it maybe also including demonic but it may not even be reaching that far ignorance is not ascribed to demons so don't make that mistake but we speak the wisdom of god in a mystery even the hidden wisdom which god ordained before the world unto our glory now god it was ordained before the ages what it says the gospel was not an afterthought it was planned before time began you can find that emphasizing ephesians 1 4. that's when did god first start thinking about you personally before he created the world he had you on his mind and that's echoed in ephesians 1 ephesians 3 colossians 1 elsewhere and this word ordained or destined if you will means foreign by god not by man and for our glory has supernatural destiny of course and he and paul picks that up in romans 8 18 which none of the princes of this world knew for had they known it they would not have crucified the lord of christ that's the reason i think the princes of this world he refers to people not demons because demons are not ignorant so to speak that's why i i leaned that way into interpreting that previous verse which none of the prince's world knew for had they known it they would not have crucified the lord of god and jesus himself verifies that they know not what they do he declares right and jesus himself said so in luke 23 they would not have crucified the lord of glory that's quite a title the loftiest title ever applied only here by the way james two has a very similar label the mysteries of god are hidden from the unsaved world let that sink in for a minute we overlook that so often when we're talking to someone who's not saved we need to understand that the mysteries of god are hidden from them until they're saved in other words it's not an intellectual process going on it's a spiritual process that's going on it's so easy to forget in our enthusiasm and whatever no the mysteries of god are hidden from the unsaved world that's a reality we need to grasp and he's going to deal with that here in the next handful of verses he says but as it is written i have not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which god hath prepared for them that love him now we always see that verse in the positive sense as a declaration of wonderfulness and indeed it is don't misunderstand me but there's a dark side of that too you see because we can't see or hear from our own heart what god has prepared it's it's a supernatural process that takes place if you will and that's all through the old testament the spirit's wisdom applies to the believer's life today and you neither have entered into the heart of man and the word there in the greek is cardia it's not heart in the in the muscular sense it's a mind or inner life term referring to the the the inner life if you will probably the best way to express it and but god hath revealed them unto us by his spirit for the spirit searches all things yeah the deep things of god and so the spirit's been mentioned so far uh but in the next few verses it'll be six more times for a total of seven not that's a big deal but it's provocative to me and uh the deep things the deep things of god what do you mean by deep unfathomable they're beyond our measuring its depth the only person who can tell us about god is the spirit of god anything else is spurious how easy it is to forget that that god he revealed to them unto his spirit that takes away all suggestion of superiority there is no room for pride in that sentence it is god's initiative and his completion it was god hath revealed them to us by a spirit we didn't do it he did it and he did all of it we didn't add anything to it he's setting a case here because he's going to take them to task for their pride and their their the cliches the divisions that they're that are prevalent in the corinthian church he's going to deal with what we call the transfer process from verses 9 through 15 we have described the process by which a truth passes from the mind of god to the mind of his people wow that's heavy stuff and so it's undiscoverable by natural man how is how easy it is for us to forget that we may know it intellectually but we don't apply it spirit taught words are an infallible guide for what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him even so the things of god knoweth no man but the spirit of god and full deity is given to the spirit here by the way but there's no you know issue there and there's an analogy drawn here from the nature of man if you will and so that's fine now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of god that we might know the things that are freely given to us of god and again we notice the plural there and speaking of we christians have received not the spirit of the world and that's the that's that's what's in opposition to god's spirit the name is satan the spirit of this world is in opposition to the spirit of god there's a tension between them we need to understand that too the holy spirit and one of the things you should do in your studies is set aside some space and collect your notes to really understand the holy spirit we won't try to exhaust that here we'll give you just a couple of touch places the holy spirit indwells us and makes us his temple first corinthians 6 we'll elaborate that when we get there the holy spirit baptized us into what we call the body of christ and that'll be expanded in first corinthians 12. he seals us and this is the perhaps the most exciting aspect of the holy spirit it's an aspect that paul did not learn from godel from from gamilio the from the old testament because in the old testament he was they weren't sealed one of the things he is was privileged to reveal in ephesians 3 he points out that it was his privilege to discover and describe that the holy spirit has a relationship with us that is unique to us it it started after john the baptist and it goes until the harpazzo the rapture that we are sealed and he's given without repentance staggering steps and we've encountered in ephesians 1 and following and the holy spirit will remain with us and jesus announces that in john 14 in fact he has to be jesus had to leave in order to make that fully uh implemented and it's freely given to us that speaks of liberty in this second corinthians and not of bondage so we could go on and on and on about the holy spirit and it's not an easy thing because the holy spirit rarely testifies of himself you have to draw that out from from the text verse 13 which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth but which the holy ghost teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual comparing spiritual with spiritual it's amazing how you can get nonsensical comparisons if you're not cautious and to give you a silly example is it colder in alaska or in november i'm speaking northern hemisphere here i apologize see i mean obviously those are non-sequiturs because you're not comparing like with light and we should go you want to compare spiritual things with spiritualism the spirit makes all the difference and because the holy spirit is the one that makes the difference that's one reason we have here bold use of the subjective genitive we are to pass on not by worldly words but those words taught by the spirit not based on human thinking man's wisdom and so forth and that's the reason see paul's style vocabulary addiction syntax were all vehicles of the truth that the spirit taught him okay that's the reason we used a flame over the word in our logo for the publishing activity that's where that came from but then verse 14 is one of your memory verses you know as you go through these chapters there will be something that leaps out that you want to make a key verse this is one of them first corinthians 2 14 the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of god for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them why because they are spiritually discerned you know it's interesting that uh the uh in fact let's just go look at this another way spiritual things are meaningless irrelevant foolish and have no place in a life that's limited to the present world unbelievers are unable to judge spirituality especially because they themselves are dead in trespasses and sins ephesians 2 1. okay before conversion you can look at scriptures and you can admire the grandeur you can feel the charm of the history you can wonder at the majesty of the language but you'll miss the intent don't miss the intent that's before conversion after you have the holy spirit divine life quickens each page to illuminate the inner meaning shining forth and that's something you've got to experience and when you experience it you'll know it and so we could go on and on on that thing now this leads this implies a couple of special topics those of you that are regulars to our study this may be old news those who may be new to this study there's a couple of pla areas that you want to sort of backfill a little bit i want to talk a little bit about the natural man a little bit about the geometry of eternity and a little bit about the physics of software because this is all tangled up in what we're talking about here the natural man we speak we have a vocabulary we speak of the soul and the spirit and such we use those words very sloppily okay but essentially in the epistle of hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 there's a huge insight that we want to extract for ourselves it says for the word of god is quick and powerful and sharper than any 200 sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints of morrow and the discerner of the thoughts and tense of the heart that gives you a huge insight that only the word of god can discern the distinction between soul and spirit we may use those terms loosely sloppily but they are different the spirit and the soul and spirit are different things only the word of god can make that discernment and that leads to another insight dividing asunder and soul and spirit and only the word of god can differentiate between these two the soul in the spirit that means that psychology is doomed to frustration because psychology can only deal with the symptoms not the cause they have they do not have the ability to discern the difference between the soul and the spirit and see the heart itself is part of the issue here it can't be known we're told from jeremiah 17 9. let's realize that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately the word is actually incurably wicked who can know it see these things are software not hardware problems that gets to something else once again no matter how much you may know about a computer hardware you have no insight into its behavior with the exception of a physical problem of some kind and that's the natural that's a software issue no matter how much you know about neurophysiology you don't have the knowledge to predict behavior that's a software issue not a hardware issue in an infant and we know from turing and now from johnson neumann and alan turing's work that an infinite state machine you cannot predict the behavior or infra infer the design architecture from the external operation an infinite state machine cannot be inferred from the outside you have to know the design and that's a fundamental that's why that's a computer is by definition an infinite state machine that's why a software industry is feasible you can use the software but you can't gain the design insights you can go from high-level compilers to machine code but not the other way around normally and so this is one of the reasons that the field of psychology is doomed to frustration they're trying to infer the internal system design while being restricted to its external behavior that's the final fundamental dilemma of the psychology of a psychiatrist is they can only guess there is part of you that is not physical the real you is software not hardware you are temporarily resident in a hardware environment but it transcends the limitation of that environment that gets into the geometry of eternity we want to rid ourselves of some misconceptions i think it will help time is neither linear nor absolute time is a physical property we now recognize thanks to dr einstein's general theory of relativity that we exist in a four-dimensional continuum known as space-time and a time-measurement device in a weaker gravitational field runs faster than one in a stronger field near the surface of the earth the frequency increases about 1 part and 10 to the 16th per meter a clock 100 meters higher than the second clock will have a frequency higher by one part and 10 to 40. not very much but it's measurable it's predictable and been confirmed time the point is time varies with mass acceleration and gravity is god subject to time mass acceleration gravity the answer is no god eternity is not having lots of time eternity attorneys being outside the restrictions of time altogether big difference the other makes a nice poetry but it's wrong bad physics god is outside time so he alone knows the end from the beginning and he uses that aspect to authenticate his messages by proving that they originate from outside time not by divination divination was prohibited in the torah divination is trying to predict the future we want to understand it to understand god's plan and his program but we want to understand it so that when it occurs we celebrate who he is because he's anticipated it that's why the lord can tell nicodemus that as moses raised this serpent in the wilderness so will the son of man be raised up because that ties together the reality that christ's mission was anticipated more than a thousand years before in numbers 21 the tie together and so forth and the dilation of time can be dramatized by considering two hypothetical current obstacles one remains on the earth the other undertakes a space mission in which the vehicle retains the speed at half the speed of light and route to say alpha centauri which is the nearest star yet go to alpha centauri and back and when our traveler returns to earth he will be more than two years younger than his twin brother that that if that doesn't bother you you weren't listening carefully okay these examples simply highlight that time itself is a physical property in our material world once you understand that it really simplifies some of your your bible insights issues software by the way has no mass it's embodiment may the light switch whether it's on or off doesn't weigh any different okay software doesn't have any massive the information of the ones and zeros itself has no weight its embodiment may you take a blank diskette you can load it with over a million bytes of software costing hundreds of dollars and it'll still weigh only seven tenths of an ounce doesn't change the weight of it in fact i can even take that software and transmit it through the air software has no mass why is that relevant uh because it's part of you that's not physical the real you is software not hardware you can call it what you will give soul spirit use what vocabulary you like since it has no mass it has no time dimension oh that means you are eternal whether you're saved or not the problem is where are you going to spend it if you're without defect you can be in the presence of god other than that you've got a big problem i'll let you think about that a while psychology doesn't deal with sin only with one of its symptoms called guilt and guilt is corrosive guilt is worth understanding the literature that focuses on is not not waste of time the role of guilt in our person and in our substance behavior is well but maybe not completely understood it's a very very corrosive factor in our makeup but psychology can only deal with the symptoms not the root cause the root cause is a genetic imperfection called sin psychology does not have the vocabulary or the tools the resources or even the the perspective to deal with the cause fortunately our genetic imperfections that we inherited from adam have been dealt with by a love story a love story written in blood on a wooden cross erected in judea some 2000 years ago taking our place jesus substituted his eligibility for our own and that eligibility is now available for the asking and this may sound awfully basic how we because this is the roots that that paul is going to lean on very heavily as we go forward here so we'll continue in verse 15 he that is spiritual judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man and so see much of this epistle is going to be a criticism of spiritual men but we must however not become spiritual dictators in the lives of god's people he's going to deal with that as we go forward too the source of wisdom is god according to james 1 5 and his word psalm 199 105 119 they are spiritually discerned the speed of spirit judges how many things all things and by the way that opens the door to what i think is one of the most interesting experiments you can conduct in your life we like to think if we scientifically like to conduct an experiment and and test the hypothesis i'm going to suggest an exercise that if you haven't done i encourage you to give it a try and that's to go to a stationery store and buy a journal a blank book it's not loose leave it sealed and make it a commitment that it's very very private nobody is going to see what's in that journal but yourself you do that so you can be candid with yourself there's no pride here and when you come across something in the bible you don't understand praise god for that confusion because i want you to go to that journal put down the date and the reference and try to put down in ink not pencil why it is you find that passage confusing and try to capture your predicament that you don't understand the apparent contradiction or whatever is bothering you make a record of it then once you've done that you've recorded that on that page you take it to the lord well father i don't understand this particular passage take what you don't understand to him and ask him to clarify it for you and petition that to the in the name of the glory of jesus christ and then watch what happens it isn't going to happen necessarily in the next 10 seconds it might not even be that day but what is going to happen is you'll be reading somewhere something unrelated and the insight will come or you may hear something on the radio or you may overhear a conversation and arrest something will happen in your life that will cause that problem that you put in prayer to be suddenly clear i want you to go back to your journal find that page put the date and describe how god what how god revealed to you the key that unlocked that thing for you you say gee that i i see what you're saying chairman why all the paperwork i'll tell you why as you go through and you encounter contradictions or confusions or things you don't understand and you make that log that will become a private treasure chest for you because the day will come when you'll go through the valley of doubt the day will come when it'll get dark the day will come when you'll wonder have we gotten carried away with it all and i want you to go back to that journal and you can see the footprints of the holy spirit as he carried you through those previous experiences it will be a treasure chest unique to you alone and something you don't share with others they won't really they really won't understand but it'll be a treasure that is indescribable anyway i challenge you to give that some thought and can you be taught the holy spirit that's the question and so the idea of a private journal of your spiritual walk um and then just watch him reveal himself and i encourage you if you're diligent and keeping a record it will be a an asset beyond measure let's move on who hath known the mind of the lord that he may instruct him but we have the mind of christ wow my wife has an eight session study on this very issue on be transformed is that the book title and it's gone all over the world it's been one of the most treasured publications we have isaiah 40 13 the mind of you yo is the way it says the mind of christ is the wisdom and power of god but shifting here now jesus the point is there's not a concept he is a living person and he is yearning you know i i one of the strangest uh experiences i've had in recent months is coming to terms with the idea that jesus has yearnings i can't get over that how can the son of god the all-powerful one that rules the the universe how can he have unfulfilled yearnings the idea of that puzzles me but he has yearnings we know that from john 17. and his yearning is to have us with him that's what he's yearning for and by the way when he does that he has scheduled an audit oh ooh he scheduled an audit of our accounting of his calling for each of us ouch ouch we're all talking about the harpazzo the rapture call it what you will aye here's the rub what's the first thing that happens not on the earth with us up there there's going to be a meeting everyone there is saved only saved are there are you ready for second corinthians 5 10. that's a final exam ouch the procedure that will be used it by the way it's announced in 2nd 5 10 that we're all going to appear before the bema seat of christ and the bema seat is exactly what you think it is it's the seat that herod used it's the seat the pilot used it's a it's the authoritative throne people say it's just for rewards it is this time here but that's not the point it's the it's it's the authoritative throne of the king are you ready for that audit he's going to have an audit and we are all going to have a final exam our salvation is not the issue jesus took care of that on a cross 2000 years ago our salvation the fact that we're there demonstrates that we were saved well then what's the issue something that's not taught in church generally most churches don't talk about rewards jesus talked a lot about rewards we talk about inheritance we don't talk much about that except in very fuzzy terms that's what's the issue here and one of the questions does your church teach and prepare you for that final exam you're going to a final exam are you cramming for it i am the procedure that will be used will be detailed in our next session we're going to get into the detail and by the way they're widely misunderstood it's very clear in the text but it's amazing how many people are confused about that whole issue we're going to look at that in first corinthians 3. so but be careful as you study for next time don't confuse our responsibilities for proof bearing with jesus complete work at golgotha our salvation was paid 100 percent by our messiah you can't add to that to try to add to that is blasphemy what are we being measured by our fruit bearing i'll use that term rather than works because works as a fuzzy misused term no the fruit bearing have you born fruit the fruit that you've borne won't count the fruit that the holy spirit was able to produce through you will count and there's a difference many people teach about this have little lists of things you should be doing note to they miss the point anything you come up to do is human works no no no no i go to sunday school every for 20 years arrange the chairs that's what he's talking about what has the holy spirit been able to do through you it's the issue because the only fruit that counts is his fruit that he was able to accomplish through you we need to understand that distinction because the works are divided into two categories that which is burned up and that which isn't and the people that have works that survive are rewarded wow i thought everybody in heaven is equal that's another myth that floats around the body of christ that's just not true there are lots of jesus's parables that shred that idea and he draws distinctions of all kinds we want to understand that so that's our thing for the next session i want you to read the entire epistle it's not that long make that your goal between now and our next meeting but study carefully chapter three that is a rich and yet widely misunderstood passage get into that what are the key lessons in chapter 3 for us personally is the question who is president of the bema seat of christ and what is involved and when does that occur that's your challenge to consider for next time so with that let's borrow our hearts for a word of prayer

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Length: 53min 48sec (3228 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020