1Co 2:13 We don't have to rely on the world's guesses and opinions. We didn't learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we're passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way.
Which also we speak - As well as know. In words taught by the Holy Spirit - Such are all the words of scripture. How high a regard ought we, then, to retain for them! Explaining spiritual things by spiritual words; or, adapting spiritual words to spiritual things - Being taught of the Spirit to express the things of the Spirit.
1Co 2:14 The un-spiritual self, just as it is by nature, can't receive the gifts of God's Spirit. There's no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit--God's Spirit and our spirits in open communion.
But the natural man - That is, every man who hath not the Spirit; who has no other way of obtaining knowledge, but by his senses and natural understanding.
Receives not - Does not understand or conceive. The things of the Spirit - The things revealed by the Spirit of God, whether relating to his nature or his kingdom. For they are foolishness to him - He is so far from understanding, that he utterly despises, them Neither can he know them - As he has not the will, so neither has he the power.
Because they are spiritually discerned - They can only be discerned by the aid of that Spirit, and by those spiritual senses, which he has not.
1 Corinthians 2:6-16
I. The redemption of Jesus Christ is a great mystery of the Divine thought and heart.
The Apostle uses a singular term to designate those to whom the revelation is made. "We speak wisdom," he says, "among them that are perfect,"—among those who have qualifications for receiving the wisdom. Spiritual religion is utterly incomprehensible to many intelligent people. They can understand theology as a science of God; they can understand religion as a theory, but they have no conception of its spiritual character; they have no conception of it as a spiritual sentiment, as a passionate affection, as a fellowship with God, a yearning and joy of the man’s whole consciousness. This is what St. Paul means when he says—"The natural man discerns not the things of the spirit"; they are discerned only by a spiritual faculty.
This, then, is what is meant when it is said that the gospel of Christ is wisdom unto the perfect—that is, to the spiritual, to the susceptible, to the spiritual man with spiritual faculties.
II. The mission of Christ and the purpose of Christian teaching are to reveal this mystery to men—to men of spiritual faculty, to men whom the Spirit of God touches and teaches. Our poor human thoughts cannot compass infinite things.
All religion runs up into the mysterious, and must do so. Apart from Christianity, the mystery of the Divine Being is just as inscrutable as the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Instead of adding to the mystery of God, Jesus Christ gives us our highest understanding of God.
We understand more of God through Jesus Christ than we can on any other theory. And yet even so, how much remains that is impenetrable!
Who can fathom the mystery of the incarnation, the mystery of the atonement, the mystery of the quickening of spiritual life in men, the mystery even of moral feeling, moral principle, the working of moral life, the mystery of conscience, which is the consciousness of God?
In the love of Christ, in the love of God, there are heights and depths that pass knowledge.
1 Corinthians 2:6-16
The Gospel and the Intellect.
I. The natural man in Paul’s eyes is like an undeveloped organism. A man as he grows, in the true sense of growing, as he attains his full stature or perfection, becomes spiritual. The natural man is stunted; growth has been in some abnormal way arrested. The natural man only exists to become the spiritual man, just as a chrysalis only exists to become a butterfly. Who are the natural men nowadays?
(1) Those who tell us that matter can explain spirit—the people whom we call Materialists. They cannot apprehend the wisdom of the gospel.
(2) Those who speak as of the understanding could answer all the questions and meet all the needs of the human spirit.
II. The wisdom which Paul speaks among the perfect is nothing less than the indwelling of the Spirit of God in the spirit of the Christian man. Just as consciousness alone can be aware of our own inward life, so God’s consciousness alone can understand the depths of God; and only by being made partakers of God’s consciousness can we search those depths. But we, as believers in Christ, are partakers of that consciousness. A Spirit of God given to a man through faith in the incarnate Son of God takes all the things of the revealing Christ—His person, His word, His work—and slowly unveils them to the amazed and enraptured heart. He who is the Savior is also the key to creation.
III. Paul found in the good news of the gospel a wisdom far surpassing the wisdom of this world. Many Christians do not exercise the reason, and have no special desire for its satisfaction. But those who dare not in honesty suppress or violate that master-faculty are permitted to have the thirst quenched, the reason satisfied.
In Christ, the manifestation of God, they find certain things which are revealed, they find a clue to God, a clue to life, a clue to the world. The mystery is an open mystery, though losing none of its charm.
1 Corinthians 2:16
I. What is the mind of Christ? Is it some high intellectual attainment? Or is it some great moral victory over the affections? The expression is evidently a very full one; for you may take the words of a man and you may take the actions of a man, and still fall short of the mind of that man. For the mind of a man is the spirit of a man. It is the motive which actuates him; it is the feeling which is unconsciously molding his conduct every moment; it is the inner life which is continually giving the tone and the character to his outer being.
II. The believer is always striving after the mind of Christ. Nothing less will satisfy him, because nothing less will satisfy God. The soul of Jesus, infinitely stored with the Holy Spirit, becomes a fountain from whence again that Spirit is always pouring out into His own people; so that if ever we receive any grace of the Spirit, we are actually receiving a portion, however small, of the mind of Jesus Christ.
III. See, then, the way by which you are to obtain the mind of Christ. Every way you can, live close to Him, think of Him, meditate upon Him, hold communion with Him, lie at His feet, do constantly acts for His sake, suffer for Him, laud Him; talk of Him, lean upon Him, realise communion with Him, and invariably as you do this you are catching His mind.
IV. Note some of the advantages which belong to those who really have the mind of Christ.
(1) No man can really understand the Bible who does not bring to the study of it the mind of Christ.
(2) The possession of the mind of Christ is a wonderful clue to bear with us in the intricate windings of the daily labyrinth of life.
(3) They have the benefit of the mind of Christ who wish to pray rightly. Those who bring Christ in them to their knees, having the mind of Christian asking, know what is the mind of Christ in giving.
1Co 2:16 Isaiah's question, "Is there anyone around who knows God's Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?" has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ's Spirit.
I urge you to reach out to your heavenly Father and pray from your heart the prayer(at the bottom of the page) to the Son of God, the One who died to take away your sins.
1. COME to Him confessing your sins. He has said, "Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out."
John 6:37. Repentance is absolutely necessary for Salvation.
2. TRUST Him to forgive your sins through the merits of His atonement for your sins on the cross at Calvary.
His word says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
3. You may be tempted to think that your sins are too great for God to forgive you. Do not look at your sins or your feelings. Look only to the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe what God has said, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
4. Then in simple faith TRUST Him to be your Savior, John 1:12, "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." RECEIVE Him as your Savior by simple trust in His promise.
5. The next step is to CONFESS to someone that you are now a Christian - that the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior, and that you belong to Him. When you do this sincerely, you will find assurance, and peace
and joy coming into your heart. Read Rom 10: 9,10.
6. READ your Bible every day. Have regularly times for prayer every day (this prayer is simple talking to your loving Savior and Lord, communicating your love and need of Him in your life and He will reveal more
of Himself to you in your new found relationship). Go to services where you will meet other Christians who have done the same as you repented and confessed and have received the Lord Jesus into their Hearts and lives. Also you can find their friendship and help in your new life in Jesus.
HOW TO BE SURE OF HELL
Deceive yourself by pretending or arguing that there is no such place.
Neglect making preparation for Heaven.
Try to get to Heaven by any other way than God's way.
John 6:37. Repentance is absolutely necessary for Salvation.
2. TRUST Him to forgive your sins through the merits of His atonement for your sins on the cross at Calvary.
His word says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
3. You may be tempted to think that your sins are too great for God to forgive you. Do not look at your sins or your feelings. Look only to the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe what God has said, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
4. Then in simple faith TRUST Him to be your Savior, John 1:12, "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." RECEIVE Him as your Savior by simple trust in His promise.
"GOD BE MERCIFUL TO ME A SINNER. I REPENT NOW OF ALL MY SINS AND TURN FROM THEM AND I PLACE MY TRUST ALONE IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST FOR SALVATION.
MAKE ME A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST JESUS AND GIVE ME POWER IN MY LIFE TO LIVE FOR THEE AND SERVE THEE. IN JESUS NAME I PRAY. AMEN"
5. The next step is to CONFESS to someone that you are now a Christian - that the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior, and that you belong to Him. When you do this sincerely, you will find assurance, and peace
and joy coming into your heart. Read Rom 10: 9,10.
6. READ your Bible every day. Have regularly times for prayer every day (this prayer is simple talking to your loving Savior and Lord, communicating your love and need of Him in your life and He will reveal more
of Himself to you in your new found relationship). Go to services where you will meet other Christians who have done the same as you repented and confessed and have received the Lord Jesus into their Hearts and lives. Also you can find their friendship and help in your new life in Jesus.
HOW TO BE SURE OF HELL
Deceive yourself by pretending or arguing that there is no such place.
Neglect making preparation for Heaven.
Try to get to Heaven by any other way than God's way.
If you haven't asked the Lord into your heart yet, see below the sinners prayer to help you in your decision'
Pray from your heart and cry out to God as your life depends on it;
"GOD BE MERCIFUL TO ME A SINNER. I REPENT NOW OF ALL MY SINS AND TURN FROM THEM AND I PLACE MY TRUST ALONE IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST FOR SALVATION.
MAKE ME A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST JESUS AND GIVE ME POWER IN MY LIFE TO LIVE FOR THEE AND SERVE THEE. IN JESUS NAME I PRAY. AMEN"
"The Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin". (1 John 1:7)
To View: Contacts, Testimonies, We Believe, Sermons, MEF Fellowship,
To View: Contacts, Testimonies, We Believe, Sermons, MEF Fellowship,
No comments:
Post a Comment