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172.
Will teach us more of thy blessed ways, Thou holy Lamb of God, and fix and root us in Thy grace as those redeemed by blood. 172.
Teach us more.
I must pray. Oh bring my heart and my Lord.
And I have to do it.
And I love you.
It's my heart.
Four days ago, Wisdom praying in the rain.
On my heart and I come on.
Here, and I want an arrogance of life on my heart.
To price.
So we carry on with First Corinthians 2.
Nice to finish the chapter I think.
Maybe we could read from verse 12 if that would be all right, although we did talk about it, but it leads into verse 13 and I would just suggest perhaps reading the 1St 8 verses of the next chapter. You probably won't get into it, but it ties together a little and there are some thoughts in the early verses of chapter 3 that could be brought into the end of chapter 2. Is that all right?
First Corinthians chapter 2, verse 12.
Now we have received not the sphere of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord?
That he may instruct him. But we have the mind of Christ and I.
Brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for his or two ye were not able to bear it neither yet now are you able, for ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith I am appalled, and another I am Apollo of Apollos, Are you not carnal? Who then is Paul? And who is Apollo's but ministers by whom he believes, even as the Lord gave every man?
I have planted, Apollo's watered. But God gave the increase, so that neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one. And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.
00:05:13
There are most wonderful things that are freely given to us of God, as we remarked yesterday.
We read in Ephesians 1 where it's developed more fully that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, and then they're detailed there for us in the 1St and 2nd chapters of Ephesians.
But here it's just alluded to. But the point that is made here again is seeking to turn those dear Corinthian believers away from man's wisdom, which always has an A tendency to intrude into the things of God. And so Paul says, even those things that we speak to you, we don't use the words of man's wisdom. It's the words which the Holy Ghost teach us.
Very, very important.
It's the Word of God used by the Spirit of God that imparts new life to the believer, that is, to the command and the man who is lost, I should say it imparts new life and makes him into a believer. But it is all a work of God. And God uses his word. You and I might say, well, what does it matter what words we use? Well, if it's the word of God that's used, he gets the glory and that's what counts. And man's wisdom can never improve on the words which.
God's wisdom uses, and so it says here, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.
And in that respect?
While words have a specific meaning for us.
In the particular language in which we are speaking. Yet when we speak according to Scripture, we have to attach the meaning to that word that Scripture gives it. We've already had that pointed out where the word perfect in the context of this chapter does not mean absolutely without fault. It means full grown or mature. And there are other words in Scripture that have to be taken that way and used in the way that the Spirit of God uses them.
And so how necessary to communicate spiritual things. That's really the sense of the last clause of the verse. Comparing isn't the best word. It probably is better to read. And the Darby, I think, uses this expression.
Communicating spiritual things by spiritual means.
Man's wisdom can never add anything to the revelation of God.
Is that right Tim? Is that have I got it right?
I would take it. So I was just looking back in verse 12 of the, uh, word spirit there now we have received not the spirit of the world, small S, but the spirit which is of God and small S and our King James. I don't think it should be. That's the Spirit of God, isn't it? There we have received the Spirit of God as you're talking about the last meeting. Umm, I think it's worth just going back and, and mentioning that because some of us were talking earlier about the same difficulty in, uh, second Corinthians chapter 3.
The, uh, original.
I understand was written all in in capitals, so you can't really determine from the original Greek whether it was.
Smaller S or capital S and it has to be determined by the context. But here it's the Spirit of God that is being referred to. It's not that we've gotten a spirit that can discern this even though we get a new life, but it really is the Spirit of God Himself that we have indwelling to teach us of these things, isn't it? Hmm.
I know this has been said before, but it bears repeating. That is why it is so important to be very, very careful when using a particular translation of the Word of God.
There is such a thing as dynamic equivalence, which means that some men and maybe even believers, and doesn't matter who they are or whether they're men or women, but.
In picking up those things that are written in the Word of God and seeking to translate them.
They would say, well, this is really what it means. This is what we would say today. And so instead of a direct equivalence to the original wording, it's really what someone's understanding of that scripture is. And the moment I do that, I no longer have the pure Word of God. I've got what someone else thinks that it means. Well, if they're right, that's one thing, but maybe they're not right. Maybe they're wrong.
00:10:07
And then the reader can never get beyond that wrong thought. And also the breadth of what is in the Word of God and what some have called the finer points of Scripture do not come out in that dynamic equivalent.
Now God can use those translations and He does, and we bless God for it. As my late father-in-law once said, I have never yet seen a Bible, no matter how someone had butchered the translation, where several things weren't clear and definite.
That is, first of all, the utter ruin of math. Can't get around that unless you destroy the Bible.
The fact that God loved this world and sent his son to die for.
Lost, guilty sinners can't get that out of the Bible unless you do a Thomas Jefferson and start cutting pieces out to make a Bible of your own. That there is an eternal consequence of blessing for those who believe and an eternal consequence of judgment for those that do not believe. Since you can't get that out of the Word of God, even with a bad translation and so on, he said. Those things are clear and definite and God can use that, but how much better to have?
The pure Word of God, the way the Spirit of God inspired it to be written. And then the Spirit of God can bring out from it what he wants us to know from it. And there's, as we've often said, one interpretation of a Scripture, but many different applications of it. But that's the work of the Spirit of God to do that, not for man to stick his hand into things and try and say, well, I know what it means. So here's how we'll say it.
Realizing, of course, that there is always a difficulty.
In translating from one language to another because often there isn't a real equivalent equivalent. And for example, and this is well known, the word that Scripture uses to describe the Spirit of God. Translated Comforter in John's Gospel, translated Advocate in first John. As those who know Greek tell us, there is no one English word that encompasses the entire thought in the Greek word. But wise translators then put in a footnote.
Explaining what it really means in a sentence and then using perhaps the best word that they could get in, in our case in English for that, but clearly making it out to the reader that it is not really conveying the whole thought that is always necessary going for one language to another. But just the same, what you and I want is the pure Word of God, which then the Spirit of God can use because that is communicating spiritual things by spiritual means.
And when Paul communicated the gospel, and when he communicated the truth to the believers, I believe he used the words which the wisdom of God which the Holy Ghost teacheth.
That's so important because.
Another way of maybe just restating what you said was that.
In order to have the.
Proper translation and do it in terms of dynamic equivalence. It means that I must have in my mind the meaning of the author and who can do that with the word of God? And we can understand some part of it, but it's absolutely presumptuous to think that we're going to.
Comprehend the meaning of even these words and be able to pass on all of that meaning in our own words.
He says in John 12 verse 49 for I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. I don't think that's the same thing. What I should say, I understand this right, is the substance of the message that was the message to be delivered, but what I should speak with the very words with which to deliver that message. And so when we take the Word of God and we get away from the very words.
00:15:11
If we couldn't, we couldn't even attempt to teach, could we? But to go to comprehend it and to pass it on in its fullness is presumption, nothing more.
And we shouldn't be surprised, as we get in the next verse, if the natural man can't understand it. God hasn't written His word in such a way that a brilliant intellect can pick up this book and understand it. And man makes a mockery of it. He tries to understand it. He thinks that with his intellect he can understand it, but he makes a mockery of it because he doesn't understand the word of God. The natural man UN receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him.
The natural man is simply an unbeliever. He's a man that doesn't have the spirit of God. He's not saved.
In the next chapter we read about a carnal man and a.
Carnal man is a believer who is not walking with the Lord. He's walking in a fleshly way. That's where the word carnal comes from.
The root word of it is Latin and it means meat. And so it's carnal, it's fleshly. That's that's referring to a believer that is fleshly. So you have three kinds of men. You have the natural man, a carnal man, and the spiritual man.
The spiritual man is the one who was walking with the Lord, where the Spirit of God is free to minister to him.
The things of Christ and to lead and guide. And as we said earlier, it is the Spirit of God who is here to make this precious book good to us. Doesn't come all at once as we get in Isaiah's line upon line here a little and there a little precept upon precept and so on. We get it slowly. But nevertheless it is the Spirit of God which is here to make it clear to us. But don't be surprised if the world doesn't understand it as well as not even wanting it and.
Yet there comes a point.
Sometimes in that unbeliever, when the Spirit of God through the word of God imparts new life, then what a difference, what a difference there is, then there's a a desire for it. Then there's an appetite for it. I want to hear more.
The individual gets saved and there may be a little period of time between when that new life is communicated by the Lord, and we won't go into that subject here, but that's spoken of as quickening. God by His Spirit uses the Word of God to impart new life. But then sometimes, very quickly, sometimes it is a period of time that individual realizes that the finished work of Christ has settled everything. He accepts Christ as his Savior.
He receives the Spirit of God. Then he's spoken of as being truly saved. Now he has an appetite for it. Now it begins to make sense to him. Now he wants to hear it, but not before.
I could just go back for a moment to have.
How we treat this?
I think there's a practical side to this with any of us. Umm, many years ago in Christendom.
There were those who didn't have the word of thought. It was hard to get copies of it, and they started to bring in passion plays. I understand the history of it, and the thought was, well, we can make the Word of God available in some form to everyone. And so they did. But the effect of it wasn't to draw people to the mind of God or to know the word of God better. The effect ended up being, as I recall from history, that.
One of the things is we have have so-called Christian movies that are presenting things from the Bible, all kinds of things from the Bible, from the death of our Lord to the flood to you name it. I, I don't even know what they all are. Umm.
00:20:07
My exercises, they go nowhere near any of it, but we need to consider each one of us for ourselves. Are those things communicating, uh, spiritual things by spiritual means? I don't believe that they are, but I know there's often a criticism. How far do you go with that? And so I don't know that I want to try to make a rule about it. I don't think we can. There's a child story book that's illustrating Bible stories. Is that communicating spiritual things by spiritual means? It's a question that I've been hit and I, I haven't quite known what to say. I haven't had a problem with that, but what's the difference? I think there's somewhat of a spectrum there.
And this isn't a robot. We need to read what this says and each one of us for ourselves we exercise is what I'm doing is what I'm the way I'm taking in something about the word of God. Is that truly what the Lord has for me? Is that something that's communicating a spiritual thing by spiritual means or not?
And we'll have to answer each one of us to the Lord for how we answer that question.
Is there a boss here in the progression of these verses? There's, uh, maybe like a change from God down to man at at every step on this chain is the spirit of God that makes the factory. Now, if you mercy first time we have God has revealed things by the spirit, the revelation. And then we have the fact that verse 13, which things also we speak common words which management can teach us, but which the Holy Ghost is. So we have the God reveal things by his spirit and we have that that God gives men to speak those things that he had revealed by his spirit and to put them into words. That would be inspiration.
God has this change and you know by which his thoughts come into our hearts, and that every step of the way is the spirit of time, and how wonderful that is that you have to be left unless they link so to see where a man comes in and he fills in the gas all the way through the Spirit of God.
Yes, that's very good, Josh. And uh, I heartily agree with that. And it's a wonder if we think about it for a few minutes, it's an absolute miracle that God can write a book because here it is in our hands. And in so far as, uh, it is written in, in our particular case, in the English language, it's written in words that you and I can read and the words convey a meaning to us. And yet what does this book give us? It gives us infinite truth from an infinite God.
But given.
To creatures who are finite, it's an absolute miracle, isn't it? And so it has to be God all the way through if there's going to be anything that you and I can get from it. And the minute a man puts his hand to it, he only spoils it. In any of those steps that you talked about, man can never come up with revelation of anything. He can only see what is of himself. He can't go beyond himself and what he discovers, nor can he speak anything to do with God except.
By the power of God, if he's going to communicate it in the right way, nor can he receive it unless he has the Spirit of God. And so it's a work of God all along the way. And it is, as I say, an absolute miracle. And that's why it says here they are foolishness under him. And there's almost no limit to which man so-called intelligence can go in utter foolishness in the things of God.
Brother called my attention to a piece he saw on the Internet some some years ago where a man, an unbeliever, was commenting on the 11Th chapter of Daniel. And of course, being an unbeliever, he was very sure that Daniel had written it as history and not his prophecy because it's so accurate. But then he made a comment that was almost laughable. He said I don't know what happened to the for profit or the poor historian because he got to verse 35 and then he just seems to have lost it because everything up to that point makes perfect sense.
And everything from verse 36 on is just doesn't make any sense at all and there's never been any history that even remotely corresponds to it, he said. I, I don't know what happened to him.
Well, we know very well what happened to him. He didn't understand that between verses 35 and 36 is the church period and everything from verse 36 on his future natural man can't get that. He has to understand the word of God to know that. But he thought he was being ever so smart and criticizing Daniel and making fun of the poor man that somehow could write something plausible and then just lose it and write nonsense for a while at the end of it and so.
00:25:26
That's just one example of man getting into absolute foolishness when he tries to understand the things of God. What he needs to understand is what the gospel preaches and the lost guilty Sinner, and he needs a Savior. Would it be correct to say that what you just described Bill as an incident would be an example of?
The end of verse 14 that these things are spiritually discerned.
Yes, go ahead, enlarge a bit on that. So it's an interesting thing to think about.
Yesterday the subject of God's sovereignty and men's responsibility came out, and I think so far this afternoon we've been talking mostly about how God, as you mentioned, it's a miraculous thing, what God has given us in His Word.
And it's a work of the Spirit of God to teach us at the same time. And so as you've been mentioning in your example Build that man doesn't have a hope of understanding because he doesn't have the Spirit of God as his teacher to help him understand. Now as a Christian, I have the Spirit of God indwelling me, and we have the opportunity to go to the author of the book and ask him what it means. That's how we get the sermon and understanding. And that's particularly how God uses his Spirit to make sure even if we are using a translation, that's not so good.
To help us understand.
But uh, what I'm leading to is.
What I have right now in my own heart, my practical experience from the Word of God, I didn't get that by strictly miracle.
I had to open the Word of God and when the Spirit of God laid something on my heart that needed to change in my life, I needed to do it.
And so that's the human responsibility side that I have, as you're mentioning your address this afternoon, Is it my desire, do I will, to do what the Spirit of God is trying to teach me from his work? Because that's one of the key places to learn it. And so when it comes down to discernment and understanding what in the Word of God, I need to have a willing heart to learn it and be submissive.
But I also need the Spirit of God to help me to understand what its meaning is. If I'm just using my own intellect, I won't get it.
That were discerned at the end of verse 14 is really the same word as is translated. Judge it in the next verse. The next verse could read. He that is spiritual discerns all things.
What a wonderful thing it is to have one, and I thought I think you put it very well, Rob, the author of the book Indwelling You and Me.
He discerns all things for us. So one who is spiritual, he discerns when error is being taught. He may not in every case be able to put his finger on it and explain exactly what the error is, but he deserves that something's wrong with it.
He discerns all things he can look around in this world and intelligent in the word of God. He says, oh, I know where things are heading. I see what's happening. I see where all this is going. He doesn't get all upset because a bad leader, at least in his view, is elected. He recognizes that God is overall and is working out his purposes. He doesn't look around at the rampant evil in the world and say I've got to do something about it. He has the word of God that says I'm going to look after that in the coming day. That's my job. Vengeance is mine, said the Lord.
Not that he's oblivious to the evil, but he knows where it's going to end and so on. The spiritual man, he deserves all things. And the result of that is a walk of peace before the Lord. He doesn't get all worked up over this and that that's happening.
I've seen people who were in business and they turn on the computer. Oh, oh, look what happened now. And there's a scramble to try and do something because of a certain turn in the stock market or a certain event that's happened. Or, and I can well imagine in this case, the president of this country, every morning he has to digest news and decide how to react to it, hopefully in an appropriate way. And you and I, as believers, we should be intelligent observers.
But the Word of God tells us how to react to it, what to expect. We have intelligence in the things of God. Either spiritual discerns all things. That's a wonderful thing.
00:30:04
Then the last part of the verse says He himself is deserved of no man.
Again, we say the world doesn't understand the Christian How can you be so calm and relaxed when you see what is happening? You realize what kind of a government we've got now? Do you realize what somebody else in another nation is going to do? Do you realize what may happen tomorrow, or whatever else it might be?
He himself is discerned of no man.
The world doesn't understand the believer because he's a heavenly man, but he walks through this world and is here to witness for Christ.
On the word discerning, it might be worthwhile just looking for a moment at Hebrews 4 and verse 12.
Says the Word of God, is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dis dividing asunder of soul and spirit of the joints in marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. We understand the two edged sword and its ability to go in and separate things that need to be separated even though they're very intimately joined. Use a sharp knife to cut apart meat. Dissect.
An animal or.
If you're a surgeon, know how to cut this exactly apart in the right way. And then, uh, at the end of the verse, it talks about a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and.
When you're talking about discerning, I don't know if this is a good illustration or not, but somebody who's a Baker who understands cooking, maybe some of the wives in this room can take a cookie and they take a little bite and they're doing a little sniff test and they're figuring out what the list of ingredients is in that, uh, in that particular cookie. And I think that that's part of, uh, what the Spirit of God can do, discern the thoughts and intents. What's the motivation?
For example, behind this translation of this verse, is it to detract from the glory of the Lord Jesus and remove from him some of his defined glory or some is there some other motive? And then, uh, over in our chapter when we're talking about discerning, umm.
The same thing if there's somebody that comes in the Word of God and the Spirit of God working with an individual in communion with the Lord to be able to discern what the thought is or the motive of somebody to be able to understand.
What's driving them? So for example, I remember a story, uh, of one, I think it was a person who received some literature from the Jehovah's Witness organization and they read a little bit of it and somebody asked them why they stopped. And their answer was that's not the shepherd's voice in that literature. Not necessarily a well instructed person in the word of God, but the spirit of God help them to discern that there was something wrong with that literature. Maybe somebody could expand a little bit more or a little more clearly on that thought of that, what it means to be able to discern.
Well, I believe you've covered it pretty well, Rob. It means to separate things that differ and to see everything in its right light according to God's view of it, the Spirit.
Spirit of God enables you and me to look at everything as God sees it. They didn't have that in the Old Testament except from time to time. The Spirit of God came on people and as we know, inspired them to write the Old Testament books and inspired.
Certain ones at various times to give out the mind of God for the time, but no one was, if we could say it indwelt perpetually with the Spirit of God. But now you and I are, and that enables us to have God's thoughts about everything.
So that whatever I see, whether it's in my own life or in the assembly in the world around me, in the place where I work, something that someone's trying to teach me, I can look at that and with the Spirit of God, I can have God's thoughts about it. What a privilege that is absolutely beyond our understanding, isn't it? Now, we haven't time to go into it, but yes, there are words like, uh, in Ephesians we're told not to grieve the Spirit. And Thessalonians we're told.
Not to quench the Spirit, definitely there are things we can do which hinder the Spirit of God from giving us that discernment. But what a wonderful thing it is to have within us that which is able to give us God's thoughts on everything that we encounter in our lives.
00:35:05
And it echoes your thought, Tim, in the next verse, verse 16. Who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?
Who is going to instruct the spiritual man that has the mind of the Lord? You were pointing out that sometimes men think they can, by dynamically changing the word of God to make it say what they think it means. As you rightly pointed out, in order to do that I would have to know the mind of God perfectly. And who has that? No, Who is known in the mind of the Lord?
That he may instruct him.
But then it's very interesting to me here what the last clause is in verse 16. It doesn't say, but we have the mind of the Spirit. Now. Scripture uses that expression in Romans 8, for example.
The mind of the Spirit. So there is such a thing, But here it says we have the mind of Christ. I.
I would just suggest that thought and I would be glad to hear the thoughts of others, but I'd suggest this thought that God would not have us in enjoying the presence of the Spirit of God, to focus on the Spirit of God in a way that detracts from the honor and glory of Christ. Because the work of the Spirit of God here and it tells us in John's gospel, he shall not speak of himself. The Spirit of God is here to glorify Christ.
To minister Christ to your soul and mind. And so properly understood, yes, the Spirit of God gives me intelligence to discern all things, but in order what? In order that Christ might be before me. So here it says I have them, we have the mind of Christ. There was one that walked through this world that always perfectly walked in the power of the Spirit of God, always perfectly did the will of God.
And that was our Lord Jesus Christ. And now you and I are called to follow in his footsteps. And it says here we have the mind of Christ, the perfect dependent man who walked through this world, not if we could say it reverently using his divine intelligences, God, but rather, and it was brought before us earlier. He did whatever the Father gave him to do. And the Son can do nothing of himself but what he see if the Father do. That's John 5.
And so I would suggest that expression is, uh, is simply showing us that while it is the Spirit of God that does all these things, ultimately his work is to point us to Christ.
Is that is that a right thought? I'd be glad to hear it if others have something different on it.
I would agree with that thought and would link it with the portion we had this morning during the breaking of bread in Philippians 2.
The whole verse that we started with this morning is that let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, and I'm sure most of you know by heart the rest.
How he humbles himself was a willing to go to the death of a cross. And I think that that's significant in this passage because if you're just thinking about the mind of the spirit, you're thinking about intelligence and knowledge and discerning things.
That that can be a point maybe that you can get some pride leaping off of. But what are we taking up in the next part of this book of Corinthians? In the third chapter, we're talking about that root issue that they're having verse three, envy strike divisions.
And so we need to look at the life of Christ and realize that inside the Godhead there is absolutely no jealousy, complete unity. It's not a question of the Spirit of God not getting the credit He deserves. There's no jealousy between them. But what we have to learn is the need for humility, right? Yes.
And there's no thought of seeking a place in this world where he had none.
That's not the time yet that we get in chapter 4 and we see the complete contrast there in verse eight. He says you're full now, you're rich. You have reigned as kings without us and I would cause you did reign, but we may also reign with you. That's the mind. Spiritual mind knows that that's coming. But their mind wasn't set on that. It was on glory now and they were puffed up and they were glorying in things that they had and were really interested in.
What they could get here the apostle said that they had something quite different. Verse nine I think that God has set forth us, the apostles lacked is that we're appointed to death, for we are made a spectacle into the world to angels, to men. We are fools for Christ's sake.
The year wise in Christ we are weak but you are strong we are honorable you are honorable we are and he goes on to speak more about where they were they he was sharing and the lock that the Lord Jesus had here and they were going on to living in a different way in this world and so that really is a part of what I believe what we have here neighbor Cardinal and their thoughts so they weren't entering into the deep things of God and that's why he takes us up and they.
00:40:26
The first part of Chapter 3, because it applied to them and it applies to us equally well today. If we're going to go on and take up with things that are around us that are flesh, the flesh at every one of us has.
Wants to enjoy, and I know it's got a tremendous pull on me. Then to that measure. We're not going to enter into these spiritual things. We're going to lose out on the greater things that the Lord has for us.
That must have been a very humbling thing for those Corinthians, so proud of their natural ability and their intellect and knowledge and wealth and so on, to have to be told they had plenty of gifts there too. Uh, uh, there was real gifts there.
And there's been quite a work the Lord had told Paul when he went to court. I have much people in this city, and we know that Paul stayed there. What was it? A year and a half, uh, preaching the word. So there was a lot of blessing, but he has to tell them. And it would have been very humbling. You're still babies. You're still not big enough to chew good meat. You're still having to be fed with milk. Well, in the sense in which Peter uses the term, uh, we never outgrow the need for the pure.
Milk of the word, but.
At the same time, the contrast is given here and Paul reassume. It's Paul who wrote the Hebrew says the same thing to them. They were carnal and they weren't ready for that which was strong meat. Paul wanted to give it to them, but they were in shape for it. Why? Because they weren't intelligent? No, because they didn't have gift. No, because they were allowing that in their lives, which stood in the way of the blessing that the Lord wanted to give them.
And it's interesting and it's humbling to us today to realize that the sin that he lays on them more than anything else is the envy and strife and the tendency toward divisions. I believe the word here is schism. It's not a full blown division. It's an inward disconnect. If I could use that word. It's not like the word enrollment 16 and 17 mark them which cause divisions. That's a much stronger word.
But there was that which existed. Were there plenty of other things wrong in Corinth? Indeed there were. There was wicked immorality going on. And Paul has to take that up in chapter 5. They were taking one another to court. And Paul has to take that up in chapter 6. They were getting drunk when they came together to have a, a meal together and to break bread. And he has to take that up in Chapter 11 and so on. But what is the thing that he mentions first Strike.
And ending and the tendency to divisions.
Why does he say that? Oh, I believe because in many ways that has wreaked more havoc among believers than the overt sin that we might recoil from.
Those things that are mentioned in First Corinthians 5, for the most part, are sins that can be identified and sad to say, they have to be dealt with by the assembly. Drunkenness can be identified and dealt with.
Taking someone to court with strife and envy, those things are inside, aren't they? And maybe my feelings are there, but I don't say them overtly. But there's a undercurrent that runs through things and it spreads and causes trouble, and it's fatal, causes more trouble among believers. And I don't lay this on anyone else but my own heart, because we can all be guilty of it. But it's a word to which we need to pay attention, I would suggest.
There is a difference between the umm.
I think there is, yes. I was just making a comparison, but tell us the difference. Well, they're the same as the way you said that they both hindered growth. So they both have that problem. But the one in Hebrews, if I understand correctly, has more to do with not going on the Christian doctrine to being stuck in Judaism and not living, leaving as the apostle places the principles of the beginning of the Christ, the beginning of his ministry, while as a man here on earth. It had more to do with those things of Judaism in the future day.
When he would take off with those people again, they hadn't gone on to the perfection of Christianity. And so it stunted their growth. They weren't ready for the meat. But here it's carnality, isn't it? It's a walk more than the doctrine. And so either way, we can take off with bad drop doctrine or that which isn't for us as Christians. Uh, that's the really the thought of Hebrews as I understand it. Or we can take up with, uh, fleshly living bad walk as Christians and the same way be stunted in our group in our Christian growth. And that's what we have here.
00:45:44
It would appear here in the beginning of the third chapter.
Is that if we look at verse, uh verse four, they were saying I am a call and another says I am of Apollos.
And so on. They were getting their eyes on men. They were looking for men as, uh, as spiritual as those men might have been. They were looking to mend, to give them the answers.
Or, uh, any questions that might come up?
And you might say, well, what was wrong with what would be wrong with saying I am appalled. I if I take Paul's side of of a question that must be right because Paul was an apostle sent to the Lord to teach.
But I believe, brethren, that when we get our eyes too much upon one brother, no matter how spiritually gifted he might have been, we might be, we might make a mistake if we just follow that brother.
Over a certain question that might come up, you might be making a mistake to just follow him without going to the Lord and say asking the Lord to show us his mind. We've been talking in the end of the of chapter 2, but knowing the mind of the Lord well, the Spirit of God.
Is always going to have and be able to give us and show us the mind of the Lord.
It it would be impossible for him not to do that. And uh, so if we, if the question comes up.
We need to get the mind of the Lord and we can only get that on our knees praying for the Lord's, the Lord to show us his mind by His Spirit to be looking at men, no matter how godly they might have been up to that point, how much gift they have. It could be making a mistake to follow that that brother.
Well, that is so good, Robert and.
Maybe I could take a moment and tell another short story.
I mentioned the name of James Buchanan Dunlap when I was speaking.
And I can still remember, this is reminiscing a little our late brother Armstead Barry, whom some here will remember. And he told me personally, he said I almost missed the path at the time of the Tunbridge Wells division. That was over 100 years ago now. And he said everybody was asking around here in certain circles in North America, referring to those who were.
Prominent and perhaps full time quote in the work of the Lord. They were asking, well, what do you think he'll do or which way do you think he'll go or what do you think he'll do in that situation?
And I can still remember Armstead, Barry said. Somebody raised the name of Mr. Dunlop and said, what do you think he'll do?
And somebody intended it as a derogatory comment, but they paid him the highest compliment they could have paid. They said, oh, he'll just pray his way through it as usual.
That was the way to handle it. He didn't have his eye on men. He didn't have his eye on well thought people or influential brothers. He prayed his way through it. And you're absolutely right.
We should never put our brethren between ourselves and the Lord. Do it the other way round. Put the Lord between us and our brethren. Then if our brethren are a help to us in ministering Christ, we can rejoice. But if they go wrong, then it only makes the Lord more precious to us.
And as you say, there's only one way to have the mind of the Lord, and that is to be in His presence.
What does it mean when it says I have fed you with milk? I think Paul certainly was assessing their spiritual state.
00:50:01
Found them wanting, found them to be carnal, he says. I fed you with milk. So clearly he adjusted the spiritual food he was giving them.
Not from meat down to milk. What what exactly does that look like called with Milky and then coming along with it. How does that help deal with the question of parties in an assembly, lines of groups of thought all coming together? How does that that reduce diet for a sick group or an I'll group or a carnal group? How does that help?
Well, I would suggest at least a partial answer when there's a ministry in the assembly.
I don't believe that everything has to be geared to one level of understanding. For those who need milk, there should be milk. For those who can handle strong meat, there should be meat.
But I believe if the Spirit of God is guiding us, as you say, and it's, it's Paul adapted himself to the condition of the Saints and the Spirit of God, if we have the mind of Christ, adapts the ministry to suit those to whom we're speaking. And if I can say it kindly, some of us have had the experience of doing that in foreign lands. I remember 1 Country that I visited quite a few years ago for the first time.
And I had a burning desire to bring before them the precious truth of gathering to the Lord's name.
But very rapidly I found out that that wasn't really what they mainly needed because some of them and many of them were mixed up on far more basic things like eternal security and what the meaning of baptism was and so on. Yes, we did minister the truth of gathering, but we had to emphasize more basic things that they had gotten wrong teaching on before we could start bringing out the truth of gathering to the Lord's name. But I believe the Lord helps us in this and the Spirit of God can show us.
How to?
Discern that, I don't know, Tim Roach or Tim Ruger. Have you had that experience and had to adjust your ministry accordingly in some cases without wanting to put down any particular place, But is that, is that right almost every time?
And I would only say too that if I am in a meeting at.
And I find myself capable only of milk and someone starts ministering strong meat.
Don't immediately get upset.
Ask yourself why you're not ready for the meat now. Yes, a new believer needs milk, no question. And we shouldn't deliberately and willfully minister the strong meat to a believer that hasn't gotten grounded in the basics, if we could use that term. But at the same time, well, I'm going to use an illustration. I can well remember talking to someone, uh, quite a few years ago now. And, uh, she was having trouble with what was being ministered in her local assembly.
And she made the comment, and I've heard it more than once from people since. Well.
I'm on a spiritual journey, you know.
I should have said it, but I didn't. I wanted to say to her, well, tell me something. You are 60 years old or thereabouts and you've been gathered to the Lord's name for 30 or 40 years. Is there a reason why you're still on a spiritual journey that can't understand some of these things? Yes, there are death heights and depths in Scripture that none of us will understand down here for sure. But what she was complaining about was not anything that difficult.
She needed to search her own heart the way the Corinthians did. Why was it that the appetite for strong meat wasn't there?
She was still on a spiritual journey even though she had been gathered for that many years and still found the strong meat a little bit hard to handle. Well, in her case, I don't think it was the fault of the ministering brothers.
I would add that as a relatively younger brother, sometimes you can conferences that we hear things that we do understand as we pointed out before. But I also have to accept in my own heart, am I just am I have I allowed things in my life that would?
Hinder me from growing, for example, I remember you're a young person. I'll be honest, I would drive development conferences with those young people and the music we listen to in the car was not glorifying to the Lord. And then you show up for the Congress and you say, oh, well, there was nothing for me there. It was dry. And the conversations and the patriots discussed were not glorifying the Lord either. And then you wonder why there's nothing there for you. So I would think it's a challenge to my to my peers or go to our younger as well. When you go to a conference, what are you listening to? What are you discussing with your friends? Have you come with a prepared heart or are you just expecting a good food fed TV? Umm, I recently joined the gym and if I only work with a 5 LB weight, I'm never going to get in shape if you're not willing to.
00:55:21
Dig down and try to put a bit of effort into careful what you eat or be careful how you train. You're never going to improve.
And it's gonna take effort and it might be hard if you're the only one in your group of friends that that don't that I think you wanna go on for that, to take courage and take out godly friends or godly habits that'll help you in your life.
Maybe to add to that example, if you go to the gym and you don't lift any weights at all, umm, you're not going to get any stronger either. And if we're not studying in our own personal time, uh, we don't even know what questions to ask what we don't even know what food we need to be fed. We are reading ourselves and ask questions ourselves. We've had here that this, this book we hold in our hands is some directly from God. The spirit is revealed all this truth. God has purposed this for us, work in US, provided everything.
The question is, are we eating?
Well, I believe this is one meeting we need to close right on time, am I right? Yes, I think it's.
Just about time for the gospel.