Book of 1 Corinthians - Ch. 2, Vs. 7-Ch. 3, Vs. 2 (10/22/2000)

All right, if you'll take your Bibles and turn to 1

Corinthians, we're in the second chapter and the seventh verse. Paul is speaking, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden mystery which

God ordained before the world unto our glory. We speak the wisdom of God.

We being the apostles, those that laid the foundation, wisdom of God in a mystery.

So the wisdom now is in a form that is mysterious.

John, what does the word mystery mean to you?

Agatha Christie? No, that I don't know.

All right. Tell me, John, what is a mystery?

It's something that you don't know. All right.

Greg, what's a mystery? It's something that's not understood until it's revealed to you.

All right. So the wisdom of God, Bill, this wisdom that God possesses, how extensive is it?

It's all encompassed. So you and I could not come up with a subject that he could not handle.

We couldn't come up with a subject, but he didn't have to tell them. All right.

So Paul is telling us that he speaks the wisdom of God in a mystery.

Bill, what does he really mean? He speaks the wisdom in a mystery.

Are you asking what is the mystery? No, I'm asking you what Paul meant when he made that statement.

As Greg said, it's going to be the things, the spiritual things of God. We're not going to understand them all in the beginning.

And as our need for understanding arises, God will at that time reveal to us the truth.

All right. Then the wisdom is in a mysterious form until it is revealed.

Is that right? I think so. So Paul is saying, we're giving you wisdom.

We're speaking to you wisdom. You're listening to wisdom. And you do not understand this wisdom.

It is as though Paul said, I cannot explain the wisdom to you. The Holy Spirit will explain it.

And as Bill pointed out, it'll be when it's needed and not beforehand. So that brings up the next question,

Joy. Why does he not just give us all of the wisdom right now that we need or are ever going to need?

There is wisdom, all of the wisdom right now. I think it's kindness and love and mercy that he reveals to us.

And this particular wisdom is being revealed by the prophets and the apostles.

So the time is now for this wisdom to be revealed. All right.

Fred. Well, we are far from full disclosure of the wisdom at the stage of our development at the time.

For example, a small child can understand up to a certain point. And God will not go beyond that point for that small child.

But it is perfect for him at the time. All right. Diane, don't you think also that if we had wisdom ahead of time, we'd tend to forget it?

That's right. That's one big drawback

I had in school. I was learning so much and reading and studying so much before I ever used it that I forgot it all.

So, Paul is saying we are teaching this wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden mystery.

What? The hidden wisdom. Even the hidden wisdom.

David, where was this wisdom hidden?

It was, I think, the primary concept of the church.

It was given, it was alluded to in the

Old Testament. But they didn't have enough light to understand what it meant. That's exactly right.

It was hidden throughout the Old Testament. It is now being revealed. Which God ordained before the world unto our glory.

Now, the fact that he ordained it... Is there some reason you're staying back there?

Okay. He ordained this wisdom before the world began.

Before the world, which would put it where, Virg? Before time.

Is there some other way of expressing that, Greg? Okay. Remember to hold your hand up so I'll know who's talking.

And just one at a time. In the infinity of eternity past.

How far back does it go, David? Well, from our vantage point, it goes forever.

Forever. All right. The last two words, before the world began.

And unto means what, Jesse? Unto. If I do something unto you, what have

I done? All right. So, before the world began, unto our glory.

Now, Virg, it seems like he's telling us that we have glory.

But, Clarence, in many, many other places, it makes it very clear that we, ourselves, have no glory of ourselves.

What's he talking about? It's our glory. All right. Our glory.

We, as Christians, have no glory, save that which belongs to the Lord. How could we have glory if it were not for the

Lord? Could not.

Yes, but that's not. Now, let's get something straight.

You're supposed to raise your hand before you speak. All right.

So, it is the wisdom hidden from the world that will be the glory of Christ, namely, you and I.

We are the glory of Christ. Verse 8. Which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the

Lord of glory. How is it? How is it possible?

Is that Russell back there? How is it possible, Russell, that our grandparents, great -grandparents now, existed without air conditioning?

I didn't exist without air conditioning. Yes. Well, they didn't know any different. They didn't know any different.

The same with these princes of the world. They didn't know it. Didn't know about it.

Didn't know this mystery. Didn't know there was a mystery. They knew there was

God, but that's as far as their knowledge extended. They just did not know.

There are things coming in our world of which we know nothing right now.

All right. Verse 9. But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which

God hath prepared for them that love him. Let's start at the back end of it.

Which God hath prepared. Greg, is that future? Then, is it finished tense?

Yes. Absolutely. It's already prepared. He's not making it up as he goes along now.

He doesn't do things dependent upon how we act or what we do.

It's already prepared, set aside, reserved for each individual.

So, I hath not seen. Our eyes have not seen what is yet to come, even tomorrow.

Our ear has not heard about it. We have not read it. We haven't heard about it.

We wouldn't understand it if we did. And it has not entered into the heart of man.

David, what's it mean in this context when he's talking about it hasn't entered into the heart of man?

He hasn't even thought about it. Alright. His imagination has not played any part yet in this.

So, there are things. Now, usually we hear this connected with a funeral.

And that's alright. But I maintain that it belongs to us right now.

How many of you know what's coming tomorrow? How many of you know what's coming the next hour?

Would it surprise you if this verse applied to you right now?

You have not seen it. You have not heard it. You cannot even imagine what it's going to be tomorrow, this next week, or in the years to come while we're here on this earth.

Have you ever stopped to think about an 80 -year -old man today? How many changes he has experienced in his lifetime?

Think about it. From the horse and buggy to the moon and to outer space.

No 80 -year -old man at any time in history has seen the, and I hesitate to call it advancements, but the experience that that man has today.

So, we'll be held more responsible than 80 years ago. So, he's prepared it for those that love him.

Burge, who is it he's talking about? The believers. If it surpasses the capacity of men, how can it be understood by any man?

Or how can you declare and preach it if it surpasses your capacity to understand it?

Can you? No. You must understand.

First you must believe, then understand. It must come by a spiritual enlightening by the

Spirit of God. You can get it nowhere else. Diane, can you study long enough to understand all of the

Bible? No. Kay, what if you just memorized all the

Bible? Wouldn't that be sufficient? Jesse, can you ever in this life understand all of the

Bible? Well, if I memorize it, wouldn't that suffice?

Why is it, Jesse, that we can study a portion of the Scripture and see how it applies to my life, and then a year later study exactly the same portion and find something new?

What makes it? All right.

Now there's one other thing upon which it depends. Greg? The Scripture doesn't change.

Is that true? Well, wouldn't you say something has to change in order for me to see something new?

Your what? All right. All right.

That's it. You're involved in things today that you were not a year ago.

Therefore, because of the circumstances, and who controls the circumstances? God. That's the way he enlightens us.

You know, you'll come on Sunday, and you sit here, and we study, and we talk, and each of us learns something.

And then, more than likely, throughout this week sometime, the Lord will bring you an exercise that will reinforce what you learned here today.

That's the way he does. The school I attended was a head, heart, and hand.

You went to class four hours a week. You worked at your, what do you call it?

Your what? Your major.

You worked at your major four hours a week. And then we also attended church.

Working helped you understand what you had been in the classroom learning.

God does nothing different. He has us in a classroom. We learn things.

We do not totally learn until we experience it. So I would urge you, whatever you take away from the class this morning, put it to practice this week, and see that it works, because then you won't forget it.

This special enlightening of God's Spirit, with which whosoever is inspired can enter into the very secrets of God.

There is nothing so secret and hidden in God, but the Spirit of God penetrates it.

That doesn't mean we are privileged to know all of the secrets of God, but the

Holy Spirit does. And it will be conveyed to us when it's necessary.

Verse 10. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. And there's the answer.

For the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.

Greg, what are the deep things of God? All right.

Things that would not appear unless you did some concentrated study. The inspiration of thoughts makes the

Christian. 11. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in the man?

Can you understand that, John? You can? Then explain it to me.

All right. I have known a few that didn't know what they were thinking. For what man knoweth the things of a man, except the spirit of that man which is in him?

Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. A man knows what is in his own mind, whether it's good or bad.

The same with the Spirit of God. He knows all things that are in the mind of God, and no one can find out unless it is revealed to that man.

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.

We have not received the Spirit of the world. David, help me out there.

What is the Spirit of the world? Satan is called God of this world, a little

G. And so the whole world system, from the universities to the political system, to just about the music, just about the culture, everything that's out there is part of this world system that Satan has put together to try to meet his end.

We don't have, our spirit doesn't identify with that. That's right.

In years past, even before you knew that you were ordained of God to be his, did you ever experience a situation in which you felt uncomfortable?

Can you remember that far back? Don't you suppose that it was the

Spirit of God making you even then uncomfortable? I know it was.

If my teaching does not sound foolish to an unsaved person, then either he is saved or I'm not.

Let me repeat that. If my teaching does not sound foolish to an unsaved person, then either he is saved or I'm not, one or the other.

Thirteen. Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him.

Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Blindness is just judgment for the carnally minded.

But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

Now, don't get bogged down in this. He that is spiritual is her. Who is it?

That's us. And they is us. He that is born of the

Spirit. He that is spiritual judgeth all things. He that is born of the

Spirit, and therefore minds the things of the Spirit, discerneth aright all spiritual things.

He loves their excellency, and judges correctly concerning them.

He himself is judged of no man. Why? That's right.

There's no way I can judge any one of you. All I have is to see what you do.

And too many times, June, we try to judge people's salvation by what they do.

That's saying that I believe in salvation by works when I do that. He himself is judged of no man.

They who are not enlightened by the Holy Ghost do not judge correctly concerning him.

They can't. They do not have the advantage of the

Holy Spirit. He acts from principles with which they are unacquainted.

For who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Who is it that can instruct God? You sure?

Absolutely. Absolutely, perfectly sure. But we have the mind of Christ.

What's that mean? Don't second guess yourself.

All right. We have the mind of Christ. If we did not, we would not understand. Now, if that which we have learned from that master could be reproved by any man, then that man would have to be what?

God. He'd have to be wiser than God. Whereupon it follows that they are not only foolish but also wicked who think that they can devise something that is either more perfect or that they can teach the wisdom of God a better way, improve upon it.

All right. Go ahead. If you go back to the beginning when that one got slain, which

I'll begin with, wanting to be wiser than God. Yes. He wanted to be worshipped as God.

That was self -pride. Well, I think your point there triggered my mind.

It makes me think that sometimes we constantly try to paraphrase and add to or clarify

God's Word. And it's so foolish of us to do that, because if we just say and read

His Word and go from there, how could it be better than what He has said? There's no way that we can clarify or make it clearer than what

He currently said. That's true. But I also would have to add this, that because of the language in which the translation is written and because of the changing of some of the words,

I think it's necessary that someone help guide us through the

Scripture to make it more meaningful to us.

Not changing anything. You don't ever, ever change the truth.

You cannot. It would not be true. Brothers, it's almost as if we have to find, at some point, somebody has to teach us to read.

And we have to learn the English language to read. And then we've got to learn this amphibian

English in order to really understand it. And we've got to see how that relates back to the other.

So that we need a guide to help us through, to help to reveal to us what the truths are in the

Bible to be revealed by the Holy Spirit. It doesn't mean that we're trying to have it taken away from us. It just means that we're trying to help one another to read.

And I think that's the kind of thing that needs to be made clear. So we want to paraphrase the

Bible to make it better. No. I would say this.

That if every one of you, and I know you don't all have time, and I don't mean to give you an excuse, but if every one of you would study the

Word every day, you wouldn't need a teacher. I wouldn't need to be here. Joy?

What I was going to say, because of where we are, we, as Christians and as believers, we need to be sure that we have a teacher who has taught a long time and who we can trust and know that he is interpreting the

Word properly. Yes, we do need teachers. And I think we also gather together to study the

Word because it enlarges the understanding for all of us. We study together.

I'm a student just like you. But I would ask you to do this. I think the one thing that pleases a teacher more than anything is to have students that do not have to unlearn something before they can learn something.

And the way the Church has gone over the last hundred years, there's a whole lot we have to unlearn every day.

And the more we study, the more obvious that becomes. But if, if by some miracle, every one of us could sit down and earnestly, constantly study the

Word and what the words mean in a prayerful attitude, then we'd come together and discuss it.

You would need no leader. And Brother, one more thing. Going back to what

Clarence said, you as a teacher need to be very careful that you don't stray too far from the actual

Word itself because we as humans do tend to stray away. We have a part of the truth and as we explain it, we start straying away from it.

But my, and my responsibility as a student is to take what it is that you say but then realize that it's not you that's the one that's breaking the truth.

It is the Bible. And go back and, and, and re -study that over and over again because it's there where the actual revelation is going to come out of what you tell me.

That's right. And I questioned the statement that you said

I as a teacher cannot stray too far away from the truth. I can't stray any.

Well, but, but Brothers, I know you don't intend to stray from the truth but we as, as human beings, as we try to explain things,

I think there is a possibility that we, that we stray from the truth.

And by stray I don't mean intentionally. Everything, I can, when

I do, when I do the best I can do toward understanding a particular idea, I don't have a perfect grasp of it.

So if I present my idea to you, it's not going to be a perfect revelation of what is the truth.

And at the same time, when you, when you present something to me, it's not going to be a perfect revelation either.

And so your endeavor is to stay as close to the truth as you can. And my job as a student is to stay as close to the truth as I can.

And I should continue to check you against the scripture. And that's all I'm saying.

I didn't mean that to imply anything. No, I knew what you meant. Fred? But Brother Otis, isn't that the time when if you have strayed, the

Lord's going to set you on fire. You're, you're going to be so upset by what you've said is contrary to what you mean to believe.

If you haven't let your guard down. I think he'll set me on fire by you people. David? One of the reasons

Paul started this whole passage out is that he didn't speak with the wisdom of the world, but by the power of the

Holy Spirit. And I listened to a couple of tapes lately, just recently, that somebody gave me.

One of you listen to them. A big evangelist here in the country. And I'd say 75 % of the material on the tape was him talking about himself.

His own experiences of one of the things the Lord had taught him in his life. This thing, that thing.

I think that's where you can begin to stray. Oh, you can. You stick with the word like in the Old Testament prophets when they had some of those revivals that we've studied lately they would find the word

God and it says that the man of God would give the sense of it and would teach the proper sense of the word

God. They would teach the people basically what the ground meant and what the words meant.

It didn't mean that they came in and gave flowery speeches and tried to get people's emotions all geared up and all that.

They just taught the sense of what the Bible said was written. That's the difference.

I would say this, that any God -called teacher will know immediately when he has stepped off on the wrong path.

Roger, you want to say something? Yes, sir. We have, Julia, some of the tens of thousands of churches and Sunday schools that are meeting today.

They are coming so that they might be taught by somebody in how they ought to think.

Whereas, I know here and what you have done is you're not teaching us what to think but help us to better understand what

God has for us. We come together and we always need a leader because we may have all learned something, 20 different things that we did not know so we need a director.

We need somebody to guide our work and that is apparently what we see in this congregation which is not, it's peculiar because in most places people come together not thinking of anything because they don't know.

And they go away thinking of nothing. That's exactly right. I used to check the

Bible daily. I would call you Bereans. But the words may be better understood like this from what he was just talking about.

How can the animal man know the mind of the Lord? It's impossible.

And how can any man communicate that knowledge which he has never acquired and which is foolishness to him because it is spiritual and he is animal.

We don't have any animals here that I know of. Alright, we'll get the next chapter opened briefly.

Was that all of that chapter? Chapter 3.

And I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual uh oh but as unto carnal.

What's he mean David? I don't think he means they're lost.

I think he means they are God's children. But he says I can't speak to you.

He says I have to speak to you as if you were carnal because you're walking in the flesh.

You're babes in Christ. And don't be alarmed by that. Everybody is born a babe.

Whether it's physically or spiritually. Let me give you three divisions of man.

The first one I've entitled natural man. He's lost.

Comes into the world speaking lies. The natural man is lost.

The unnatural man is saved but he's still carnal.

The spiritual man is an adult in the understanding of God's word.

Progress. Example of carnal Christians. They will use worldly methods to claim that they obtain spiritual goals.

They won't work. Such as banquets to get people to come to church.

Have big musicals theater productions. Have large orchestras have contests and so on and so forth.

Anything that the world does and seems to be successful the carnal

Christian will adopt that and adapt it into the spiritual.

And Greg it won't work. Carnality cannot influence spirituality.

Now the spirituality can influence the carnal but not the other way. I have fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto you were not able to bear it neither yet now are you able.

What he's saying is you're still a number two. Go to the book of Hebrews to the sixth chapter please.

We'll finish with this in Hebrews. Greg I'd like for you to read verses one two and three of the sixth chapter of Hebrews.

We have to remember Greg's been sick he had an operation he also told me that he was getting a semi facelift because of this operation.

They cut out a chunk of his scalp and pulled it all back together. One two and three.

Therefore even the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ does go on in faith with God of the doctrine of baptisms laying on of hands the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment and this we will do if God permits.

Wherever there is strife and hurt feelings there is carnality in or out of the church.

If you get your feelings hurt you're not it's not your Christianity that's doing it. I know we like to lay clean to the fact that it is.

It was my Christianity that made me rebel. No. Sorry to say it isn't.

Alright. We'll start right there next time. Anything now from anyone? Anyone who want to put up their hand?

Well I guess not. Yes. Is that the things that would be done would affect this body?

Is that a sense of being your feelings being hurt? Now say it again.

When Christ grieved or or Paul grieved feelings being hurt and that which was that which was happening is that a sense of your feelings being hurt?

No. Grieving and feelings being hurt are two different things. If your feelings are hurt it's because of your pride.

That's what I was going to say. A long time ago a lady said that if your feelings ever get hurt then examine yourself because you might have some of what they're saying.

Like if someone says to you that you know well you did that wrong you've got pride in your life well if your feelings got hurt then you need to look at yourself it might take you a while you might not want to do it then but you need to look at yourself because if your feelings are hurt then you have a tendency to have some of whatever they're calling that.

That's right. If someone says something to you makes you angry it's usually because you're guilty of it to some extent.

That's good Trudy. I like your showing the three divisions of man or man because we see here that we are form first Yes.

He calls us that and it's Holy Spirit that is growing us spiritually nothing else so we grow slower if we're not listening or studying

That's right. He gives us Excuse me. I just said that's a wonderful growth.

He gives us the desire and if we ignore it which we can then we won't grow.

Yes. One way to go back when your feelings hurt is argue them against the person that hurts the feeling that gets through their ignorance and break part of it.

Well, I think that would be more grieving than it would be in having your feelings hurt.

Alright, let's stand and we'll be dismissed. Jesse, would you dismiss us today, please?