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Today's Reading 1 Corinthians 2 This is part of our daily New Testament reading. Follow along with us by downloading our PDF at: http://www.sgfcjax.org/uncategorized/2020-reading-plan/
Good morning again and welcome back to our daily Bible reading.
My name is Keith Foskey And I'm the pastor of Sovereign Grace Family Church in Jacksonville, Florida Today we're going to be reading from 1st Corinthians chapter 2 and each day We read one chapter and then I make a few devotional comments about something in that chapter Just as part of your daily Bible reading and Bible study.
So today we're looking at 1st Corinthians chapter 2 It says and I This is the Apostle Paul speaking and I when I came to you brothers Did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified and I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling and My speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom But in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men But in the power of God Yet among the mature we do not impart wisdom Although it is not no, excuse me yet among the mature We do impart wisdom although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God which God decreed before the ages for our glory None of the rulers of this age understood this for if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of glory But as it is written what no eye has seen nor ear heard Nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit for the Spirit searches everything even the depths of God For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given us by God and We impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit Interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God For they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned The spiritual person judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one for who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ and so ends the reading of this chapter in the book of 1st Corinthians Now yesterday I mentioned that the book of 1st Corinthians is written by the Apostle Paul It's to a church that he himself had planted in the city of Corinth and this is a church that had many problems and Many of the problems I mentioned yesterday such as we noticed in chapter 1 There is divisions among the people some were following one leader.
Some were following another some were seeing themselves as followers of Paul some as followers of Peter some as Followers of Apollos and each one of those would have represented a different A different segment of the population that the people following Peter would have probably been those who are more associated with their Jewish heritage the people following Apollos probably because of his Oratory skills and so we see this as a division that had broken out in the church And Paul is addressing this division and in the second chapter.
He's dealing with the issue of The wisdom that comes from God and the wisdom that comes by way of the Holy Spirit of God the Holy Spirit of God is the one who gives us our ability to understand the word if we are Not born again Then we will not truly be able to understand what the Bible says Now that being said let me let me clarify one thing the Bible is a book and It's read as a book nouns or nouns verbs or verbs adjectives or adjectives and so an unbelieving person can read the Bible and Know what it says and in a sense what it means But what the unbelieving person cannot do is they cannot receive the things that are in the book Until such time as God gives them eyes to see and ears to hear Notice again in verse 14 It says the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God For they are folly to him and he's not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned That reminds us that the person who is not born again.
The natural person is Not going to understand Nor accept what the Bible has to say about his condition About his need for Christ about the desperate situation that he's in headed for hell outside of Jesus Christ He's not going to be able to understand and accept those things until God gives him the eyes to see and the ears to hear So what does this tell us? Well, this tells us that when we're sharing the gospel with our neighbors or when we're sharing the gospel with our relatives That we should always remember that we're giving them something that in their natural state They are not going to accept and we should not be surprised when the natural man responds as a natural man We should not be surprised when sinners act like sinners and they don't want to hear what the Word of God has to say What should be a great blessing and and and and should come to a come to us not as a surprise But as a as a as a as a joyful welcoming Situation is whenever we do see someone who the scales fall from their eyes and it seems as if the plugs fall out of their ears and they do begin to hear and they do begin to see because We know that that is a work of the Spirit of God We cannot cause a person's heart to be changed No matter how hard we preach no matter how much passion is in our preaching The only thing that can change the heart of men is the Holy Spirit of God And so we need to be reminded of that in our evangelism We need to be reminded of that when we are thinking about our families and friends who are not yet saved Yes, we need to be taking the gospel to them.
Yes, we need to be appealing to them and passionately So but we need to understand at the end of the day The only person who can change a heart is the Holy Spirit of God and when we begin to think that we can do that Then we might use tactics of manipulation to try to change men's Minds in a way that is ungodly we should simply preach the gospel and Allow the Holy Spirit to be who only he is Only the Holy Spirit of God can change the heart of man and make the one who is unable to accept and understand the things Of God able to accept them and able to understand them.