1 Corinthians 2:10-14 (The Spirit Of Illumination)

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1 Corinthians 2:10-14 (The Spirit Of Illumination)

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Last week pastor Kendall taught us about The divine judgment of God that rests on the man in his spiritual that remains in his spiritual blindness
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If you remember from John Chapter 9 verse 39 we read and Jesus said for judgment
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I came into this world so that those who do not see may see and that those who see may become blind
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Jesus is telling his disciples and the Pharisees that are gathered around him that those who in their self -righteousness
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Do not recognize their spiritual blindness and need for redemption have brought upon themselves the divine judgment of God That will leave them in their blindness and hardness of heart into eternal reprobation and Damnation and now today by God's providence while we won't be continuing through the gospel of John This morning we will be considering the other side of this very same concept as we continue in Paul's first letter to the
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Corinthians Again, last week. We saw the judgment of God in the reprobate today. We'll see the how of God's gracious provision to the redeemed
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And so let's look at our text this morning from 1st Corinthians chapter 2 and it's beginning in verse 6 and through verse 14
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Paul writes yet. We do speak wisdom among those who are mature a wisdom However, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away, but we speak
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God's wisdom in a mystery The hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory
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The wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood for if they had understood it They would not have crucified the
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Lord of Glory But just as it is written things which I has not seen an ear has not heard
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And which have not entered the heart of man all that God has prepared for those who love him For to us
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God revealed them through the Spirit for the Spirit searches all things even the depths of God For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him even so the thoughts of God No one knows except the
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Spirit of God Now we have received not the spirit of the world But the Spirit who is from God so that we may know the things freely given to us by God Which things we also speak not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the
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Spirit Combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words But a natural man does not accept the things of the
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Spirit of God They are foolishness and and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised
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Father we thank you for your word God we thank you that you have not left us to Figure out everything that we need to figure out on our own
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Lord, but instead you have given to your church Apostles Lord and you gave to those
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Apostles divine revelation by the power of your spirit for them to write down That we today 2 ,000 years later could be the recipients of such a grace
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Or that we can receive the oracles of God We can learn from it or we could be taught by it
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And this time we do pray that you would help us by your spirit to understand the things that you would have us to learn today in particular or I pray for it for grace and mercy to myself as I handle your word
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Lord as we Sit under your teaching this morning. May you be glorified in all things Lord, we do ask again that your spirit would work powerfully in this place to help us to encourage us as we worship you
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We pray in Christ's name Amen Now it's been a few months since our last visit to this letter letter of 1st
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Corinthians and in that last visit we discussed the First few verses of the passage. We just read in verses 6 through 9 of chapter 2.
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We saw that Paul demonstrated to the idolatrous Corinthians that the great wisdom they coveted and boasted of having was a counterfeit one
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That they were rejoicing over the wisdom of the age and they were they were coveting the wisdom of the age
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As if it were on par with the true wisdom of God, but Paul is clear In those verses of 6 through 9 that the wisdom of the age doesn't compare to the wisdom of God that they should have been yearning for Paul demonstrates to us that this wisdom of God is not like the wisdom of the age at all
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In fact, and he shows us that God's wisdom is eternal He tells us in verses 6 and 7 yet.
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We do speak wisdom among those who are mature a wisdom However, not of this age nor the rulers of this age who are passing away
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But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory
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And second he tells us that God's wisdom is supernatural in verses 7 and 8 Paul refers to it as God's wisdom
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It's not something that is natural or found in nature and that none of the rulers of this age has understood it
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Third he tells us that the wisdom of God is mysterious Again in verse 7 he writes, but we speak
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God's wisdom in a mystery That doesn't mean that they say it in such a way that no one can understand it on purpose, but that it is a mystery
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It's the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory and in verse 9
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He says but just as it is written things Which I has not seen an ear has not heard in which have not entered the heart of man all that God has prepared for those who love him and Fourth and finally
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Paul tells us that God's wisdom unlike the wisdom of the age is glorious Unlike the passing wisdom of the world
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God's eternal Supernatural mysterious wisdom points to a peculiar glory that the world cannot comprehend
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Looking at verse 8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood for if they had understood it
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They would not have crucified the Lord of Glory They cannot comprehend the glory of God and thus they cannot comprehend the glory that this wisdom is leading us towards Again in verse 9, but just as it is written things
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Which I has not seen an ear has not heard in which have not entered the heart of man all that God has prepared
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For those who love him God's wisdom has always served to point us towards himself and the gloriousness of His redemptive plan which is manifested in Christ the
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Son Now if only we would believe this right this is it seems really great almost too good to be true
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I mean you have to wonder given how amazing it is. What could possibly be stopping us and others from grabbing hold of this wisdom?
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All right. Why do people not embrace the beauty and glory of God's great wisdom revealed to us in the gospel of Christ Why do the people we love and care about?
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So deeply the people we plead with to understand the people we explain the gospel to in clear terms and Make plain
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God's offer to them of salvation. Why don't they respond in the same awe to the gospel as we hopefully do?
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And often we'll blame ourselves for a lack of response, right? I know I'm guilty of this many in this room have probably shared the gospel many times with friends and siblings and parents your children strangers
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Only to have them reject God in his wisdom and in those times we can be tempted to believe that we did something wrong
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I wasn't clear enough or I wasn't gentle enough or the other side of that. I wasn't assertive enough. I wasn't loving enough
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I didn't relate to them enough. I didn't speak into or deal with their felt issues enough
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Anyone else ever struggle with these with these thoughts These could be real areas and improvement for us all certainly right?
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We could all serve to improve in these areas as we share our faith with others and we should take care
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Right to be improving in those things But let's not forget that our inability to persuade is not unique to us you know, let's remember that the
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Apostle Paul one of the smartest most eloquent men in the history of the church is Writing this letter even because the people he preached to in Corinth just a few years earlier have so lost their way before God If the
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Apostle Paul's record is not perfect, I think it's okay for ours not to be so perfect either and to be lacking in some way
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So, how do we cope with this imperfection? How do we navigate this? Disappointment of seeing the seeds of our gospel labor fall beside the road and get snatched up by the birds
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Or have them fall in the rocky places with little soil only to sprout up quickly But then die in the scorching heat of the
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Sun because they have no root Or have them fall among the thorns and be choked out by the cares of the world
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These are incredibly difficult disappointments that we have to work through and with every day that passes the people that we love
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This is when it especially is difficult These are people that we care about and love who have not thrown themselves upon the rock of Christ for salvation
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Are they are day closer to their first death? The work is an urgent one certainly
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And The results are terrifying for those who don't respond in faith and yet I think what the
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Apostle Paul lays out for us in the next few verses gives us great hope in The midst of these difficulties the doctrine that Paul will lay out for us in verses 10 through 14 of 1st
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Corinthians 2 were a comfort from God to him They were a balm to his soul as he labored in gospel ministry to the point of death and I would say that this doctrine
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Should absolutely serve the same purpose for us So there are many implications of it
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Among them is this beautiful comfort that's extended from God to his people as we walk through the disappointment of the rejection
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Around us. So let's look again First Corinthians 2 10 through 14 where we'll spend most of our time this morning
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For to us God revealed them and them is referring to the glories of his wisdom, which is Christ. We learn this in chapter 1
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For to us God revealed them through the Spirit For the Spirit searches all things even the depths of God For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him
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Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God Now we have received not the
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Spirit of the world But the Spirit who is from God so that we may know the things freely given to us by God Which things we also speak not in words taught by human wisdom
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But in those taught by the Spirit combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words But a natural man does not accept the things of the
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Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him And he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised.
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And so what is our comfort in the midst of disappointment due to rejection? Our comfort is
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God himself Through the person of the Holy Spirit who we trust to be the one to be the divine illuminator of truth for us and for all
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Who would repent of their sin and cling to Christ for salvation and so in the rest of our time this morning
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I want us to really dive into our understanding of the Holy Spirit as Paul has outlined here We're gonna go through these five verses together and really again dive into who the
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Spirit is and how he ministers to us according to these verses And the first thing
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I want us to see here is in verses 10 and 11 And while it may seem minor to us today in the 21st century the question of the deity of the
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Holy Spirit or the godness Of the Holy Spirit was a major debate in the early days of the
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Christian Church Today Christianity is fairly settled on the point that God is triune Meaning that the three persons of God Father Son and Spirit are co -equal and co -eternal as God But the depths of the
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Trinity remain a mystery to our finite minds, right? So I'm not going to Dare before God this morning to give a failing analogy to describe the
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Trinity But I will say with the Westminster Confession This I don't want to leave anything cloudy either as far as what we understand it through the truth who
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God is as Trinity with the Westminster Confession Chapter 2 verse 3 says in the unity of the
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God or not verse 3 chapter 2 article 3 in the unity of the God had there be three persons Of one substance power and eternity
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God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit The Father is of none neither begotten nor proceeding the
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Son is eternally begotten of the Father the Holy Spirit eternally proceeding from the Father and the
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Son Now again, this this position wasn't always as settled in Orthodox Christianity as it is today however, we know today that the the
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Holy Spirit is And always has the excuse me. The divinity of the Holy Spirit is and always has been
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Biblical and we don't need to look any further. I'd say then verses 10 and 11 here to see that For to us
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God revealed them through the Spirit for the Spirit searches all things even the depths of God For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him even so the thoughts of God No one knows except the
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Spirit of God And so quite clearly here Paul is telling us that God's Holy Spirit is in fact
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God He's not a separate being from God created later on to be sent into the world But rather just as we cannot look at ourselves as two separate things a person in the
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Spirit God's Spirit is God and it is this spirit that searches even the depths of God verse 10 and reveals
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The glories of God to us. This is one of the spirits most important ministries to us the ministry of illumination ministry of illumination and many today think of the
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Holy Spirit as the one who gives us certain gifts or abilities like speaking in tongues or Healing people or prophesying in the sense of telling the future
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But the Bible does not reduce the ministry of the Spirit to such a purely temporal level
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In fact, we've seen in Scripture at least 28 ministries of the Spirit by my count in my research over the past week or two
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And I'll list them for us, but I won't go too deeply into any of them except for the ones applicable to our text at hand We don't have a 28 point message today
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Although if Kendall were preaching this passage we might But This is an important because Again, we cheapen the ministry of the
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Spirit among us, you know, people will often say to myself What's the candle? I know he's received this question before and I'm sure many of you have as well but do you still believe in the whole you believe in the
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Holy Spirit to believe in the ministry of the Holy Spirit and People in the aspect much on a certain thing in mind when they do
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But we do certainly believe in the ministry of the Spirit when you go through what those ministries are to us So I'm just gonna list these off and I'll list them off quickly
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If you'd like to hear any references to these afterwards, you can certainly let me know and I'd be happy to share those cross references with you so the
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Spirit adopts He assures he baptizes. He bears witness.
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He calls to ministry. He convicts He empowers he fills he guarantees he guards he helps or comforts
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He illuminates he indwells he intercedes he leads he produces fruit he provides spiritual character he regenerates
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He reminds he restrains or convicts of sin He resurrects he reveals truth.
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He sanctifies he seals he selects overseers He sends he strengthens and he teaches
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All these things the Holy Spirit does for us every day and our tendency to cheapen
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God's work is truly grievous when we consider this Right when we consider that the
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Holy Spirit is actively doing these things in us and through us and for us and yet we tend to cheapen it and distill it down to a few gifts that we can see
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And this is precisely the error of the Corinthians as we we've explored in the past to cheapen God's work by creating
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Counterfeit proofs of God among them through the manifestations of certain spiritual gifts that we read about in chapters 12 through 14
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And as well as through their emphasis on human wisdom that we've read about in chapters 1 & 2 And I've heard people say things like I just don't see the passion from you
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You know, I just don't see the emotion from you There's just something off You know, we're not we're not right about your lack of emotional response to these things
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And what a sad state of things it is that we reduce God's work To something so easily manipulated as human emotions that gets me emotional
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But again, we witness here Paul showing us that the Spirit of God is far greater than those cheaper things
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He starts off in verse 12 Now we have received We can stop there for a moment that this this phrase is is critical
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Critical to our understanding of not only the the plight of the Corinthian Church But also to our own natural tendency to exalt ourselves to the throne on which only
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God is worthy to sit We've discussed in the past the pridefulness of the Corinthian Church as they claim
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Authorship really for things happening among them as opposed to giving God the glory for his work
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This is why when Paul writes in chapter 1 verses 4 through 6 of the grace and gifts among them.
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He grammatically demonstrates them Not as the source of anything but the indirect object of all these things that they were boasting of in verse 4
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He says it's the grace of God which was given you This is again first Corinthians chapter 1 in verse 5.
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It's and everything you were enriched in him in Verse 6 the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you
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Right, and so they are recipients There is no authorship belonging to them
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And while the Corinthians naturally saw themselves as the reason for these things they saw themselves as the source of these things
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Paul has made clear that they are merely recipients of grace unmerited favor
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And now again here in chapter 2 Paul is more deeply Exploring the same concept that God is the source of our understanding and all the benefits of knowing him
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So how how is this so how does God impart to us an understanding of who he is that we may Somehow be in relationship with him.
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How does he impart grace and gifts to us that we may grow in these things? Again, last week.
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We saw the the destiny of the spiritually blind reprobate today. We see how God saves his people
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From that same faith and again verse 12 now we have received Not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God So that we may know the things freely given to us by God How does the
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Christian know God? How does God save his people? You may say through the preaching of the gospel
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You're not wrong. That's that's not the wrong answer. That's at all That's only what we see or hear
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Right. There's more happening than meets the eye when God saves his people The preaching of the gospel is a vehicle
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But God hasn't only given us his written word to read it and to memorize it to understand it better than other people
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He's given us the Holy Spirit He's given us himself
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To illuminate our minds to comprehend the divine nature of God and and to understand his redemptive plan
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Made manifest in the person of his son Christ We've received the spirit
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Right, this is how God saved us We've received the spirit who is from God so that we may know the things freely given to us by God If not for God's spirit, we cannot know
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God This isn't some human philosophy that we can learn from a book and be taught by Mere human teachers like Kendall or myself the truth of God can't be discerned in that way
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We can't even learn this from people like John MacArthur or Paul Walsh or R .T. Sproul All right, we need God in his spirit to teach us these things
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Remember his eternal wisdom is hidden from the rulers of this age and because it's supernatural
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It can only be discerned can only be understood in supernatural ways And again, that is through the illumination of the
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Holy Spirit who searches all things even the depths of God And this doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit is searching through the person of God to get to know him better so that he can now
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Show it to us He's not learning about who God is That's not what that's not what searches all things even the depths of God means rather when we say the spirit searches all things
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We mean he is putting a searchlight as it were on the truth of God, which is revealed to us in his word
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So that we can finally comprehend what was once veiled The Holy Spirit is bringing Light for the darkness that once blinded us to the reality of God in the world and our sin
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Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6 that though darkness clouded us before just as the darkness
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Remains over the unbelieving that this is no longer the case for the Christian And why?
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He says for God who said light shall shine out of darkness is the one Who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ God the
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Holy Spirit has opened the eyes of God's elect And he has shown his light upon the truth of God revealed in Christ This is amazing.
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This is amazing thing that God has saved us in this way And some will say that this this is not true, right that these things
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I'm talking about This doctrine of elimination is not true that this is the theology of Paul and some of the
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Apostles It's a type of determinism right that that just doesn't properly represent the Christianity of Jesus You know where it's really up to us to choose to follow him
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And of course, we can know this is wrong based first off a wrong doctrine of Scripture All right, we aren't red -letter
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Christians here You know what? I mean by that is some Bibles, you know print the words spoken by Jesus in the
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Gospels and red letters and nothing wrong with That necessarily my Bible does that As opposed to the normal black font, right?
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What will often happen is some people will believe that because Jesus spoke those words That they must be more important more from God than the rest of the
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Bible is But we aren't red -letter Christians not because we don't love Jesus, but because we do love
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Jesus We have a high view of the whole of Scripture because Jesus had a high view of Scripture because Jesus chose to build his church through the ministry of certain
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Apostles whom he chose to receive the divine revelation and To write it down as a testimony of the new covenant in his blood
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And so we have a high view of all of God's Word Which those who would claim
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Paul's teachings are not divinely inspired obviously do not That's not our only defense against a charge against the necessity of divine illumination
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Which is what we're seeing here in 1st Corinthians 2. In fact, we look to the teachings of Jesus himself for support in this regard
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Kendall's covered this in the past But the text like 1st Corinthians 2 find ample again doesn't need it but it finds ample support in a place like John 6 44 and 45 when we consider how it is that God drew us or dragged us or drugged us in Kendall's vernacular to himself
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Jesus Jesus in John 6 44 and 45 says no one can come to me Unless the
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Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day It is written in the prophets and they shall all be taught of God Everyone who has heard and learned from the
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Father comes to me And we see the Trinity at work in light of 1st Corinthians 2 12 when we think of how the three distinct persons of God display
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Such perfect unity in oneness in their substance and in their purpose of salvation the
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Father draws Through the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit to bring the church to a bridegroom
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Christ the Son First Peter 1 2 says of this same concept around our salvation
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It's according to the foreknowledge of God the Father By the sanctifying work of the
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Spirit to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure
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We see another example of this need for divine illumination in the Old Testament Looking at the book of Job, which if you're familiar is the story of a man righteous before God by faith
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And yet he has incredible suffering brought upon him As many of us do in the midst of suffering we search for answers
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We asked why you know, why is this happening to me and Job was no different in chapter 28 of the book of Job he goes on on about the treasures of Earth and what where they come from and how to find them how valuable they are in verses 1 through 11 of chapter 28 and in Verse 12 of the chapter.
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He turns his attention to wisdom Again as he navigates the time of tremendous loss and disappointment and he says
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But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its value nor is it found in the land of the living the deep says it is not me
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The sea says it is not with me Pure gold cannot be given in exchange for it nor can silver be weighed as its price
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It cannot be valued valued in the gold of offer and precious onyx or sapphire Gold or glass cannot equal it nor can it be exchanged for articles of fine gold
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Coral and crystal are not to be mentioned and the acquisition of wisdom is above that of pearls The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it nor can it be valued in pure gold
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Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the sky
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Abaddon and death say with our ears. We have heard a report of it in verse 23. God understands its way
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He knows its place God's wisdom who is Christ we've learned this is so precious in the eyes of Job yet.
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He says that man does not know its value Man doesn't understand how important this wisdom is
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And such as their lack of comprehension that this wisdom is essentially hidden from them in the darkness
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And the language of first Corinthians this wisdom is foolishness to them And we even see this strange statement in verse 22 that Abaddon This is there's some interesting commentary on who this is referring to but for today
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We can look at this as some other translations see it as destruction Verse 22 says so destruction and death say with our ears.
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We have heard a report of it Very reported it of this wisdom Such as the blindness of man and those living under the curse of destruction and death that they cannot even say they've seen with them before But only that they've heard rumors about it
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They've heard that there's something called wisdom out there. It's never Given it much care to learn more
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This reveals to us something incredibly important about illumination or Understanding of the wisdom of God of the gospel of Christ that it cannot be purchased
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With any amount of treasure and it cannot be tracked or found because it's inaccessible
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To the natural man, but God understands its way
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He knows the place of wisdom and because no one else understands its value or knows where to find it
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He must be the one to make us see Again 2nd
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Corinthians 4 6 for God who said light shall shine out of darkness is the one Who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ?
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You know, what's the point of this am I desperately trying to prove your Arminian friends wrong today
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My desperately trying to show that salvation isn't a freewill choice that we make in response to God No, praise the
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Lord. He's brought me out of that phase of my life Interesting times But the point is this and it's it's a critically important one no one seeks for God Paul tells us in Romans 3 and again
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That's not just Paul. He's quoting directly from Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 and he says that But God in his great mercy and grace to us while we were dead in our trespasses and sins has made us alive
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Together with him in Christ through the Holy Spirit who regenerates us
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That's the makes us alive part He regenerates us and he illuminates to us the truth of the glorious Gospel of Christ that we may repent and believe and be saved
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This is an important to know because it helps us to win an argument. That's not why we learn these things It's important to know because once we lose this truth that God is the one who enables and quickens us
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To understand then we begin to lose our grip on the gospel and you may say I'm overdoing it there by saying that but that's
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Paul's point Here throughout this stretch of his letter. Remember verse 2 of this chapter He writes for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified
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What we're talking about here is not the obscurities of the Christian religion You've heard the expression when it comes to matter of faith major in the majors minor in the minors and they'll say that this
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Topic is a minor issue Paul's telling us that Christ and him crucified as the majors and this idea of illumination is so Intrinsically tied to that message of Christ crucified and that it's the only way to understand
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It's through the spirits revealing of it to us by illumination. We can't lose the importance here.
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This is the majors We can't lose the importance of our understanding of the
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Holy Spirit of God just because we're hesitant to get into arguments with people Believe me.
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I've been there. I'm there but some people trust me The gospel isn't only that Jesus died for our sins as a sacrifice that's not it
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This is Christ's death sacrifice death is central to it. This is the means by which right but it's more nuanced and more beautiful When we better understand what
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God has done for us the gospel the good news of God's salvation for his people is best understood Trinitarily and again first Peter 1 2 is a great summary here
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According to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit This is a sanctifying setting setting apart work of the
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Spirit to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood God the Father in love predestines the elect to glory
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Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5 God the Son in love Lays his life down for his friends
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John 15 verse 13 and God the Spirit in love sanctifies us He sets us apart as God's own possession as the adoption of God as Romans 8 14 through 17
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These are critical. It's critical to understand This isn't the minors. This isn't just some secondary issue
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Now it's not to say that we can't have fellowship with people who maybe are have different understandings or different conclusions
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Right, but that these are important things that can't be taken lightly It can't be considered secondary and not talked about because we don't want people to disagree
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There there are one there one in one together. They need to be taken together. This is Paul presents them together
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And so now as we prepare to close this morning We'll spend the remainder of our time considering a few important implications of our text
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Of this important doctrine of illumination and this understanding of who the Holy Spirit is and what he does for us
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And so the first implication we'll look at is for the church Let's look and I mean the Big C Church, not just the
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Shepherd's Church, but certainly inclusive, of course Let's look at verses 12 and 13 again in 1st
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Corinthians 2 Now we have received not the spirit of the world But the Spirit who is from God so that we may know the things freely given to us by God Which things we also speak not in words taught by human wisdom
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But in those taught by the Spirit can bear combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words
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Again God does not give us the doctrine of illumination just so we can learn it He has decreed that this is how things are to be for his glory and for our good
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He wants us to be totally reliant upon him for understanding and for teaching
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Jonathan Edwards says there is another that has made you and Preserves you and provides for you and on whom you are dependent and he has made you for himself
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We are utterly dependent on God and God wants for us to understand this That we may understand his glory his worthiness and consider the alternative if the illumination of the gospel to us was not a
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God -wrought thing, but How might we be tempted in that way? How might we as a church be tempted?
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How do many churches today in throughout history? How have they succumbed to this temptation because of a misunderstanding of divine illumination?
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you know, we would be tempted to twist and to manipulate and repackage the gospel in such a way that You know, we begin to think that it will make it so that people finally understand
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Let's just say it this way until that'll they'll find that'll get them They'll finally get it at this point is it the problem all along the reason why people are leaving churches is because we speak
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Christian is too often That's why one of the things that drives me crazy. I'm gonna go a little bit of a tangent here I won't go too long.
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That's never well, but as you can already tell but the Christian ease will say oh don't speak
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Christian. That just drives me up a wall Drives me up a wall. I'll stop there emotion. See it's there
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The problem isn't too much Christian language, right?
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That's not the problem in churches today. That's not why people are leaving People are leaving because they don't know
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God Right, and they don't know God because pastors and teachers and churches today are more concerned with meeting you where you are
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Than with pointing you to Christ They're more interested in meeting felt needs through their messages and speaking in a timely message
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And I mean that in contextually culturally and also in the length of time Right that then delivering the type of preaching that magnifies the beauty of God in Christ And that the
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Holy Spirit has promised to accompany in power This is why it's such a critical implication for the church that we trust in this doctrine of illumination at the
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Holy Spirit of God Is the one who brings wisdom? And in this context the first 1st
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Corinthians 2 we know that wisdom is the gospel the Holy Spirit is the one who brings Understanding because when people point to the statistics of people leaving in particular young people for young people here
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Think about this people will point to young people leaving the church See And They'll say well the church needs to do more to minister to those people
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Church does need to do more. It needs to do more preaching of the gospel that the spirit would work through it
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Trusting that the spirit would work through it The young people take care to heed the warnings of Scripture and hear the words of Scripture Because you don't want to be the statistic that shows that people were just walking away from the church when they leave their parents house
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Lord willing will remain a faithful church here. This is a place to learn in safety And to come to the knowledge of God in Christ That you could not depart from it as you grow older We want to be able to say we want to be a people that can say before God That we didn't look at the statistics, but rather we trusted him
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Right, we can say to him or we trusted you and your eternal redemptive wisdom We we know that the prerogative has not been given to us
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To distract the focus off of Christ and him crucified And we labored in that faithfully we didn't look the things of the world people may have left right people people
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Maybe didn't like what we had to say Young people grew up and left potentially right, but we didn't look to them to know if we were walking faithfully
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That's not the measure that God's given us. We look to him. We look to his word And we trust and rejoice in the truth that God's sheep have come
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They've heard his voice and they follow him. They were drawn by him and they were awakened illuminated by him not by us not by our ability and Not by how well we we can run a service or preach a sermon or how welcoming we can be to somebody
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We want to do all those things. Well That's not that's not going to save them That's not what we put our trust in that's not the measure of success for us measure of success is faithfulness to God into his word
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And this is why we have preaching every week have you ever wondered why churches do what they do every week
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Every week we do the same order of service here. Have you ever wondered why the church does that? Preaching in particular became especially important again within the church in the days of the
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Protestant Reformation because the understanding of God's illuminating power Was coming back into focus
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After having been lost for a long time within the church and the Church of Rome in particular And this remains important today to the ministry of a faithful church preaching does because preaching is
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Absolutely central to what we do because it is God's Word speaking to us And because the
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Holy Spirit has promised to minister to us through God's Word Jesus says in John chapter 17
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Sank as he prays to the Father for his people sanctify them in the truth set them apart
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And we know the Holy Spirit is the one who sanctifies us 1st Peter chapter 1 Sanctify them in the truth your word
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God has promised to minister to his people through the preaching of the word in his final sermon
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Speaking on the power of the gospel Martin Luther talked about the propensity of people to seek out relics for worship
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Or to worship things like hair from the from John the Baptist beard and there are other things too.
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They're just as silly And why do they do this? Why do what drives us to look to things like that?
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I Read this in a book written by R .C. Stoll and he says as an answer for that question that we look for power in these things
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Because we sense a lack of it in our spiritual lives And and I think that's true of the church today because the church has forsaken the power that God has given us in his word
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For things like getting slain in the spirit. And so understanding that what we have received from God is the
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Spirit who is from God Understanding that we the gathered church we speak the words
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Taught by the Spirit combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words because we know that this is
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God ministering To his church by the power of the Spirit through the preaching of the word
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That's the key phrase there in the middle God ministers to his church through the preaching of his word
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As I said before this isn't important because it gives us the right answers for a test It's important because it helps us to understand the great love and care
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That our glorious God has for us that he ministers to us directly by his
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Spirit through the preach word God of all creation Ministers to each of his people directly
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Through his spirit under the preaching of the word That's incredible That's incredible an incredibly important implication
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The second place we'll look for an implication of the Holy Spirit's illumination is to us as individuals the first has obviously individual implications to but we'll separate them for the reasons of my outline so we looked at So I looked at the implication for the church that God has assured us
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That our trust in his ability to save is a measure of success Not in our ability to convince others to believe us.
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That's not how we measure success now for the Christian the implication provides Just as much assurance and while the church's hope is an ecclesiological one meaning pertaining to how
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To our theology of the gathered church and how we do things as a gathered church The Christians hope is a soteriological one meaning the theology of how we are saved
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So let's look at verse 14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the
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Spirit of God for their foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because They are spiritually appraised
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And I won't spend too much time on this one because this really has been the main thrust of the message today
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But I'll reiterate only that this truth is not meant to be a bludgeon That we show the we use to show the world that we're better because we're chosen
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Because they're natural or not It really serves two purposes one to each type of person that exists in the economy of God God doesn't see us on a spectrum of Races or genders and sexualities
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God sees the world as sheep and goats spiritual natural his people not sons of Christ sons of Adam Right, but this is a important thing for us to understand that in the economy of God the natural
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There are two types of people the natural man and the spiritual man So there's one purpose I would say for each type of person and again
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Neither is meant to be a bludgeon used by the church over other people First the natural man this again pastor
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Kendall covered thoroughly last week But let's be reminded that Paul here is warning the Corinthians in us
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Right that if we have been left in our purely natural condition That is without the illumination of the
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Spirit Then we have no claim to sonship before God if we remain in our spiritual blindness
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Our destiny is clear if the gospel the wisdom of God is foolishness to us
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If it's a bunch of interesting stories, but no real power It doesn't quite make sense to us and really get how all this kind of works out
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You know, we've heard about how great it's been for some people and we're really happy for them. But you know, not really for me
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Then we should be terrified We should be terrified. This is Paul's warning to the
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Corinthians and to us It's perfectly clear in the statement that if we do not accept the things of the Spirit of God the truth of the gospel, then we remain in our natural state and Again if I if that's you this morning,
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I plead with you Humble yourself before God Plead for mercy plead that his spirit would regenerate you
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To new life you make you alive and that he would illuminate the gospel of Christ and him crucified that you would understand and believe unto salvation
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So again, this is not a bludgeon not meant to be something that we use in arguments To prove people wrong and beat over the head with it's a warning
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This is a warning to the natural man and to the spiritual man
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This truth doesn't provide warning or invoke terror, of course but It provides joy and peace and hope doesn't provide feelings of Elitism, you know, we're better than other people because of this because we're spiritual.
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No, it provides Breath and comfort before God It's meant to be like the soft elephant nighty that my youngest son had him clings to as he sleeps
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You know, I think by like he's totally powerless as he sleeps, you know a baby in a dark room can't see anything around him
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Can't even see the elephant night. Can't even see him. But when he feels for his only And when he closes his grip around it
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And he can pull it in close to his chest and to his face And he can fall back to rest not every time unfortunately, but he can fall back to sleep
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That's what God is teaching us here So when things are difficult and you feel powerless you feel weak
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These truths give us confidence and give us strength because we know that this faith that we have is not of ourselves is the gift of God And given to us freely
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Yet apart from him not only were we unwilling We were unable because this great gospel is spiritually spiritually appraised is spiritually here
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How much more so then More than a baby who clings to his only how much more so then should we as we powerlessly walk through this life
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As we watch a society around us, you know seemingly fall into moral decay, right?
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How much more so should we cling to the knowledge that God has so perfectly saved us How much more so then should we hold tightly to the father's predestinating love for his people the son's?
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Sacrificial work for his bride in the spirits regeneration and illumination knowing that it's through these things
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That God brings us closer to himself so that the Bible says to the Christian so close
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Are we to God the Bible says to us that we are in him? And we look forward with hope to the day that when our faithfully made sight will enjoy
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Our Savior God forever. This is meant to be a comfort to God's people It's not the right answer to the test
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It doesn't make us better than anybody else It's a comfort to his people so we may rejoice in him
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And glorify him forever Let's pray Father we thank you again for your word where we are in utter need at all times for your spirit within us to give us comfort and To help us know to be assured
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Where that we belong to you that we are your children Where we thank you that you have given us the knowledge that before the foundations of the world in love you predestined us to glory with your son
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Where we thank you for the knowledge that we can know God. We don't have to wonder or be Concerned about or question these things or that we can know that it's your
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Holy Spirit Who ministers to us who sets us apart
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Saints sanctifies us Where we can know
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That your son Christ has died for us a sacrificial death That by faith which is not of ourselves that is the gift of God We can rest in and trust in that sacrifice to be the covering that we need that we may be sprinkled by His blood washed clean of our sin forevermore that we may beginning today
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Look forward to an eternity Of it glorifying you and enjoying you forever