Book of 1 Corinthians - Ch. 1, Vs. 26-Ch. 2, Vs. 6 (10/15/2000)

The Point of the Picture and Finding Jesus in the Text

How many of you found Jesus in your picture last week? Found it all over the picture. Did anybody one and I'm surprised how many look. Yes. That's not the point. The whole point was this. We get so enamored by things.

And we look at the beautiful mountains and the trees and the rocks and the beautiful church building. And we look at things. But within those things is Jesus. And I Printed that picture especially with Jesus in it not a picture of him.

But he's there in word and That's what I was wanting you to find. Was the word Jesus in that picture? So work on it another week as everyone understand now. Of course Pat doesn't have to she's already found it.

Does anyone not understand? Well good. All right, first Corinthians 1 26 for ye see. Your calling brethren. How that not many wise men after the flesh. Not many mighty or many noble are called. Now that is just backwards to the world.

Dennis why do you think this is so does anyone in? What state? Does all people come to Christ. I don't mean Texas when what state of condition. Well sinful and lost. Broken great. With nothing. Thank you.

No matter how noble you are how rich you are how important how intelligent or how dumb. Everybody comes with nothing. That means that if you're an expertise on some Project or some particular talent you have.

Do not ever say that I'm going to take my talent now and use it for God. Now Dennis, why can you not say that? All right? We come to him with nothing. I want to be sure everyone understands so many times we hear that some singer perhaps has been converted and They make a statement.

Similar to the fact that they're now going to use their voice for Christ. Well, that's a good sentiment and a good idea. But it won't work. You come to him with nothing. You think you're going to improve him with your voice.

No now if He has ordained that your voice be used for him. It will be doesn't mean you won't quit singing. But we have to come with the idea that we are bankrupt. We're poor without anything. We bring nothing to Christ.

Any questions. You yourself know that because you are among the called you see that there are not very many wise and noble and rich and Mighty as was stated in verse 26 27 but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

And God hath chosen the weak things of the world. To confound the things which are mighty now. Bill get your mind in gear for me. It says here that God has chosen the foolish things of the world.

The foolish things. In regard to what. Well, you've confused me a little bit.

Verse 27, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world. What makes them foolish in the world? Therefore. No, you still haven't Matched gears yet in the world, and I know it's difficult to think as a worldly person.

That's understandable. But All right, but what I'm after is in the world we categorize things as brilliant wise sophisticated foolish. What makes us think things are foolish in the world. And other things are wise.

I guess I'm not in gear. But oh you said you said pride.

All right, David. No, that's all true and you're all getting closer. But now pretend I hate to go into that field but just pretend you're not saved. You're back in the world and you're working hard. You're Either using your head or you're in real estate or something else and Some things in your field seem foolish to you.

Why do they seem foolish to you? Why would you say? Well, that's foolish. I'm not gonna do that. All right. So you're what you're saying is that I can't make any money by doing that. So I won't. Everything is tied to money in the world.

You're either foolish or wise depending on how much money you can make. Now it is not so in the Christian world. But I didn't want us to forget verge from where we come. We used to think the bottom line was profit money and The television is full of evangelists that are teaching that.

That God intends for you to be rich if you're not sure you don't have enough faith. All right. God has chosen the foolish things of the world. So now we're tying the two together as The world looks at certain things bill they consider to be foolish.

God has chosen those very things that seem foolish to the world and they would have nothing to do with it. He's chosen those things to proclaim himself and it goes back to everything you've said, I'm not Not saying you were not answering, right?

He just wasn't Accentuating the worldly side that it is money that drives the world. We say power but power equates to money. So God has chosen these very foolish Insignificant unwanted Objects or opportunities from the world's viewpoint.

To confound the wise of the world. They cannot understand. Take it back to the Apostles. The Pharisees were amazed. Because here's Peter speaking so eloquently. So distinctly so correctly and they know that he hasn't traveled any foreign country.

They know he has very very little education. How can he do that? Peter was a simple man. So they're confounded. They they just could not understand how that man never having been to the seminary. Never having finished high school let alone college.

How can he expound upon the Word of the Lord? So that'd be foolish to the world. But God has chosen those very things To confound those people and does pretty good job. Chose the weak things of the world to confound things which are mighty.

There's lots of power in the world. God has ordained the things that seem foolish to the world. Those very things do confound the worldly wise and the strong mighty men of this world are confused by the things of God verse 28 and Base things of the world and things which are despised.

Hath God chosen? Yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things that are. Now let's think about this base things Greg. First of all, what does it mean base? Okay unimportant. So they're unimportant to the world and things which are despised by who?

By the world God has chosen. Which is just repeating what he's already said, but the last statement and things which are not Joy, what does he mean by things which are not and he used? Okay. In other words, there's an unseen force and power that stops a lot of wise wisdom of the world.

And they don't understand that. But It isn't to the world all my life. I've Heard in a scientific world of the missing link. How many of you have heard of the missing link that phrase that statement? You know the problem with that verge.

It's missing. Just that simple God has decreed the common things of the world things which are hated to be his choosing for his purpose. God can and does have unseen power to bring to nothing the things that do exist 29 that no flesh should glory in his presence.

No flesh again, Greg. To what does flesh refer? Things of the world sinful. That no flesh we don't have to say sinful flesh because that's redundant. That no flesh should glory in his presence. Greg his refers to.

To God, I'm so glad you're sitting on the front that no flesh. David how much does that exempt that no flesh should or would or could? Glory. Enjoy the word glory here means what? Well, well, it says that no flesh.

There's a flesh glory David. How can the flesh grow glory? Well, they think it does. Pride goes back to what die and said pride. Can be prideful in his presence. There is no creature with life therein.

That can attain any degree of praise in the presence of the father, it's impossible. Sure. That's right. If we do we shouldn't 30 but of him are ye in Christ Jesus. Now build a stop right there, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus?

Explain it, but we belong to who? Either one, but how did we become. How did we gain the status of belonging to Christ?

All right, just a minute joy. Say it again. All right joy. Yes. Say we belong to God the father and he made a gift of us to Jesus. He gave us to Jesus Christ. Now bill we belong to Christ, but simply because the father gave us to him.

So in this verse of him him is God the father. Are you in Christ? In other words it is by the father himself that has Resulted in your being placed into Christ. Well, it was the The act. The act of our being placed was by the agent Holy Spirit.

We belong to the Heavenly Father and He decreed that his spirit would place us into Jesus Christ.

A vacuum the vacuum the vacuum is where of who?

We'll come back to that. But not right now All right, but of him of God the father. By his spirit you are placed into Christ Jesus. Romans 6 and 3. Who of God is made unto us wisdom. Now the who refers to who?

Jesus who. Jesus of God. Jesus is of God and it is by the power of God that Made Jesus wisdom to us. That's how we got our wisdom was being in Jesus and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

It was God the father himself That placed us into Jesus. It was God the father himself That made us righteous That gave us redemption That Sanctified us. It was God the father that did all of this in his son Jesus Christ Did it to us in Christ because we're placed into Christ.

Therefore. We're part of Christ. Yes any comments questions. Do you see how it mechanically worked? Not the right term perhaps talking about spiritual God, but the mechanics of salvation is very important.

It was by the power of the Heavenly Father that everything happened 31 that according as it is written He that glorieth and let him glory in the Lord now. Of all the rabble rousing we see on TV today God Wants people to be rich and money and things is the same thinking of the people of Paul's time.

Only they had to do it without the privilege of television. Only the wise and well to do are to be saved and this goes back to what Bill said. I think at the beginning. This is their thinking. It was wrong then and is it still wrong today?

Absolutely. God is no respecter of any man's face. David what's that mean? That's exactly what it means the face is The index to the rest of the person and It literally says he is no respecter of any man's face meaning any person.

Study, Trials, and Prayer as Marks of Christian Growth

All right. Let's move along now to chapter 2. First of all, I want you to know that it takes three items to make a good Christian. Let's see if we can figure out what they are. Someone tell me what. One of the items would be in order to make you a good Christian and by good Christian I mean God fearing and walking in the spirit doing everything the very best, you know.

How to be that kind of a Christian what does it take? All Right, but now you're already called and you're already placed into Christ and Now you want to improve your condition. All right, that's. That's one.

Let's hold right there. Joy. How do you get that? All right, so it takes. I'll just ask for one. That's All right. It takes study. Would you agree Dennis that it takes study? Would you take? The fact that it takes trials or testings and It takes prayer.

You leave any one of them out and you don't amount to much study trials and prayer. Now the trials is what we try to Avoid, isn't it? We don't want any problems. Well, we don't want anything go wrong at all.

Why do we think like that. Because it hurts. It hurts what part of you ourself. Okay, it hurts the physical fleshly part.

Not spiritual because it is a spiritual trial. I've often thought that I could start that maybe get rich.

All of you send in your nickels and dimes. Let's keep this ministry going. But we believe in faith in God. Sure. Sure. Talk about it now if you want to. Okay well we understand that there first of all, we come with nothing and Everything we have is given to us even before we come.

But we must understand that and that he is no respecter of any one person whatsoever. In order to be the kind of Christian that you think you are It requires study trials and prayer. Verse one. And I brethren when I came to you came not with excellence of speech or of wisdom.

Declaring unto you the testimony of God. In other words, I spoke to you with simple words. I Did not try to impress you with words for fear of detracting from the Holy Word of God. This is what spawned the picture picture last week.

There's plenty of preaching in the today's world, but not much of it's done in demonstration of the Spirit and power. For I determined and not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.

I didn't want to know all about the latest gossip. I didn't want to know who married who and how many grandchildren they had. He said I didn't want to talk about anything except the Heavenly Father. It's good most of the time for a teacher or a lecturer to not know Very much about his audience.

Why? Then what are you say has Come straight from the Holy Spirit not from your fear of someone. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Now, this doesn't sound like the Paul that I know.

He says I was weak. Fearful and trembling. Bill how could that be Paul? I Died and resurrected. I Remember. The weeks had been I was gone and I had asked Bill and Greg to fill in for me. And I had the privilege of being around Bill some for a couple weeks before we left Bill you had weakness fear and trembling.

But it was not Because you did not think you could do it. You were afraid you'd do something wrong. He was afraid you'd say something wrong. And I will say this anytime a teacher or preacher gets up in front of a crowd.

Or even to one person and is expounding upon the word. He better have some fear in the pit of his stomach. If he's completely comfortable. Then he needs to check things because everybody is susceptible to saying something wrong and Being misinterpreted even though they said it correctly.

Someone's going to misunderstand and the very best that a teacher can do is go over and over and over To help eliminate anybody from Misunderstanding what is said? So I think that the weakness here Was of that area in Paul's life, it was so serious That he felt inadequate even though he knew he could do all things through Christ.

He trembled. Internally he didn't shake outside. But he was trembling which is akin to the fearfulness. And I think that he was doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing and that he should have had some fear.

I think every teacher and preacher should have and sure. That's right if he feels absolutely 100 comfortable. I doubt if he talks very much about God Sincerely and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in Demonstration of the spirit of power and this is it goes goes on with what he had just said.

He said I didn't come and try to impress you with my ability to speak. So that would lead me to say this be very careful of methods and styles when proclaiming the holy word. There's lots of methods. There's lots of people made a lot of money selling methods of how to teach how to preach.

You don't need that just pray have trials and study a Very wonderful Pastor told me once He said Otis, you don't need to go to seminary if you have access to a good library. You have a good concordance and dictionary and at least one good Bible teacher.

Besides the Holy Spirit if human wisdom is used to win a man then that man's faith stands upon what? Human wisdom. Absolutely That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men. But in the power of God too many times.

Christians are so impressed.

By the oratory of a speaker that I cannot hear the words of God. Oh Yes Yes Yes Yes, that's good. A world person will be won back by saving the service. Yes, that's good. The point is that we really forget the power that's in just the word of God.

That we need not add anything to it. And if you just read the word of God Then the power which is there is evident in the word of God. Does the work that it's supposed to do. You don't have to embellish or add to.

Just look at what the word is saying. That's it. That's it.

That's it I have lots of times thought about. Instead of teaching as I do. Of just reading the word some morning. Just read the word And say nothing. But I'll have to be led by the Holy Spirit to do that.

The Wisdom of God Versus the Wisdom of the World

How be it we speak wisdom among them that are perfect. Yet not the wisdom of this world. Nor of princes of this world That come to naught. We speak wisdom among them that are perfect. This word perfect causes lots of confusion Among them that are perfect, them that are Christians.

Perfect wisdom is that which is revealed by God. How many remember the definition of perfect? Anyone? Well, slowly you're putting up hands. Debbie, tell us. Mature? Alright. Dennis? Complete. Complete?

David? That's. That is it. A perfect peach Can be perfect at any time through its growth If it is developed to the point it's supposed to be. It cannot be a perfectly finished peach When it is only half grown.

But it could be exactly where it's supposed to be. So we would say that is a perfect peach. Has nothing to do with the final product. Means right now. And all of you are right where you're supposed to be.

This moment, at this time, in this day. Both in your presence and in your thinking. This is where you're supposed to be. Trying to gain more knowledge And become more adult.

In the word So Brother Otis, if you time this back To complete this book We came to you in expressing just the various We've said in which state Where you were supposed to be at that time. And then those greater mysteries.

Can be revealed. That's right, absolutely. Do you remember, how many of you remember when you were saved? It's not that you have to, may not. But can you remember back to that time. I know for some of you it would be a long trip.

But go back if you can And recall the joyful feeling you had Immediately after that. Can you do that? Do you ever think why that was so. That would be good if we could. But there are several people That I know That there was no traumatic Incident Even though they know they were saved.

Let me get back to the point I was leading to. If you can remember The wonderful feeling you had Immediately after you realized you belonged to him Is because you hadn't had time to sin yet. So you see what it would be like If we could get rid of all the sin in our life.

The more you can eliminate The happier you become. And at that particular moment He just removed everything. But we have to move on. And I guess we'll have to stop here. We'll begin with verse 7 of the 2nd chapter.

Next week. Anything concerning the lesson. Well, we will next week. Then you didn't hear anything that was said. Yes, just a moment. Or you want it on tape. Let the tapeologist get back there.