Witnessing Versus Apologetics

1.       When we witness, do not argue with unbelievers. Don’t try to dazzle them with your logical skills.

2.       Our responsibility is to present the gospel of Jesus Christ.

3.       We are not witnessing to win a debate.

4.       Present the gospel and let the Holy Spirit do his job. As a part of common grace, the Holy Spirit will make the gospel real to the unbeliever. We plant the seed to the Holy Spirit can use this information either then or the next time. Our job is not to win souls for Christ but to present information. Pastors were asked in a survey asked how are you saved? They could not present a straightforward gospel. We need to be able to present the gospel in a precise way. The gospel of Jesus Christ is all about grace and the work of Jesus Christ. We should be able to give the gospel in about ten sentences. Therefore, we need to learn a good presentation of the gospel.

5.       Stick to the issue. Do not get sidetracked; evolution or what about the heathen.

6.       There is nothing wrong with apologetics; but it may be used as an opener, not as the main body of your presentation. People may reject it. It is not our job to argue them into the kingdom of God.

7.       Don’t continue to argue things like, is the Bible the Word of God? Or, is evolution true? Or, why is there evil in the world? These are smokescreens.

8.       When faced with a diversion from the gospel, use your best judgment.

9.       We may be forced to give an explanation about a peripheral issue. Don’t forget your mission. You are not there to argue, but to present the gospel.

10.     Make your argument short, concise, and then return to the issue of salvation. Bobby was faced with what about evolution? And they want to argue about this bone here or that one there.

          a.       Go back to the beginning of evolution. No one has any idea as to how that got started.

          b.       Here is your premise, this pulpit, given billions of years, becomes you. Do you believe that? It takes blind faith to believe that, no one has ever seen it happen.

          c.        This allowed you to introduce faith. “I believe in Jesus Christ by faith.” But He was an historical person who witnessed to thousands of people. It is witnessed to by Scripture.

          d.       You have moved from a side issue back to the gospel.

Water Baptism

1.       Paul in his mission was baptizing.

2.       In the pre-canon area, water baptism was a visual confirmation, a witness to faith in Christ. This was important in the pre-canon era. What he did was a public profession, and the entire synagogue got the message, as did many others.

3.       This is why water baptism even in the post canon period is not wrong. It is not a mandate like the communion. Nothing wrong with it, as long as you know what it means.

4.       If you are immersed today (which is the proper way to do it), it must be understood that it is merely a witness by the believer. This is how you tell your friends about this. This attests to your faith alone in Christ alone. Some Baptist churches present baptismal regeneration.

5.       Water baptism is never a means of salvation or a requirement of salvation. This is completely un-biblical and anti-grace.

6.       Immersion, the believer makes the profession that he was identified with Jesus Christ.

7.       He is identified in Christ’s deaths and burial.

8.       This is called retroactive positional truth.

9.       When we believe in Christ, the sin nature was crucified with Him. The sin nature is no longer an issue. We still have an old sin nature, but we have a way to deal with it.

10.     This identifies us retroactively with His death and resurrection.

11.     Christian water baptism in the early church was also a testimony to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That is am important baptism.

12.     The ritual of water baptism before the canon was written, before it had been distributed, there had to be other ways to learn doctrine. This was a visual aid. This explained doctrine to these people. Paul would explain this as he did it.

13.     Once the canon was completed, one the pastor teacher had something to teach his congregation, then it was no longer necessary. Communion is a way of worship, a way of celebrating and remembering what Jesus Christ did for us. Baptism is a testimony and a teaching tool.

14.     The explanation for the baptism of the Spirit is now in writing, so it is no longer mandated for us in the Church Age. It is not wrong, as long as it is done with the correct meaning understood. This is why it isn’t done at Berachah. We know what it is.

Application to Us: Fear and Discouragement

1.       These are sins and defeat in the Angelic Conflict.

2.       You must be very cognizant of this pitfall. It sneaks up on you. You get your eyes on yourself. You see yourself and not in a very good light. Fear and discouragement will weigh us down like a huge amount of baggage.

3.       You lose sight of your spiritual life and Jesus Christ. Your life is just superficial when your eyes are on yourself.

4.       When you have fear and discouragement, your life becomes a quagmire of self-pity.

5.       The solution, of course, is to rebound, and then get back on track with doctrine. You must have a different perspective. There is no other solution.

6.       Then after you have rebounded, focus your eyes on the Lord and off yourself and your problems. In the scope of things, your problems are not much. When you have divine viewpoint, the light of eternity far outshines your personal problems. Your problems are minuscule to God.

7.       Keeping your eyes on the Lord relieves you from those ubiquitous personal (ever-present) problems.

8.       Fear and discouragement are insidious and recurring. However, they can be overcome with divine viewpoint. Γνäσις doesn’t get it. You can know more doctrine than anyone in your city, but if you can’t apply doctrine, it is not good to you.

Religious Zealots and Legalisms Versus Grace

1.       Jews of the synagogue were out of control, and they got upset easily.

2.       Self righteousness religion opposes grace and they use unrighteous means to get rid of their opposition.

3.       Our Lord exposed this pharisaical hypocrisy time and again in his earthly ministry. They Jews were so mad at Paul for being so exposed.

4.       It was a religious mob which dragged Paul in front of the judgment seat, and there was a similar mob that hauled Jesus before the Sanhedrin. They hauled Paul to the highest court.

Gallio

1.       He was fair-minded with an excellent understanding of law. He did not let things get out of hand. He was in charge. And no one else would take over.

2.       He did not believe that the state should interfere in matters of religion. That was not his business.

3.       Gallio recognized the privacy and right of citizens to accept or reject a religion.

4.       He was not taken in by these vicious attacks on Paul and Roman justice. They wanted to distort Roman law to gain their own purposes. Jewish religious law would not usurp Roman law.

What did the Greeks See Here?

1.       They saw a Roman proconsul who would rule in a just way. He would not bend the law.

2.       The privacy and liberty of the Greeks would be respected. Law is a protection for all citizens.

3.       Gallio was not going to force any religion down the throats of anyone in Corinth. Our courts are not designed to force Christianity on anyone. Our job is to present the gospel; not the courts.

4.       In this way, Gallio preserved freedom and protected the rights of individuals in the matters of religion.

The Corinthians

1.       They loved philosophy. Greeks enjoyed philosophy. They liked debate.

2.       They were vain and lovers of pleasure.

3.       There was an infusion of Jewish converts to this area, although the Greeks will predominate this area. Some Jews took leadership roles in the church.

4.       The church was then surrounded by Greek excesses.

5.       To them, pleasure was the greatest good. It was all about fun and all about a good time. Philosophers said that pleasure was the greatest good.

6.       This pleasure philosophy was the message of their religious teachers. Possibly a backlash to Stoicism? Greek dualism, dark and light, good and evil. Some elements of truth, but human viewpoint for the most part.

7.       They tended to split into factions. They could be upset with one another in a heartbeat and divide and fight. These are characteristics of this church described in this epistle. They are a lot like us.

8.       In four years since Paul had gotten there (56 a.d.), not many had advanced spiritually. That was Paul’s great concern.

9.       Most of them failed to take in doctrine and they remained in an immature status.

10.     They were, to say the least, sexually active. Incest, adultery, and homosexuality.

11.     It was not unknown for them to make a few side trips to the Temple of Aphrodite now and again. This was up the hill, and there were temple prostitutes available there. They retained a lot of these old ways.

12.     The problem with this is, this activity is so ingrained in their thinking, and that they had not advanced spiritually, that they did not really consider this to be immoral. Like some religious homosexuals today. When they get out of church, they go out for a little fun. They led two lives and lived them.

13.     They were just continuing their old customs and habits. They knew no different. They just had not advanced. They are eternally saved, but they were the biggest bunch of rounders in the ancient world. They did not have the information with which they could advance.

14.     They began to split their church. They began to identify with different pastors and leaders. They were totally divided. It was not about doctrine, but it was about influence. Often, they liked someone that they could push around and influence. This is almost denominationalism.

15.     They took each other to court. They sued each other all the time. Their aired their dirty laundry in public. To those on the outside, these believers seemed no different. They sued each other just like unbelievers did. This nullified their witness of Jesus Christ in their community.

16.     These guys misused their spiritual gifts, including tongues. They made a mess of it, and they became further divide. There were an abundance of spiritual gifts in this church, and they messed these gifts all up.

17.     They were drunk at the communion table; they got loaded and went to the Communion Table. You do not approach the Lord’s Table out of fellowship. You keep Him in mind and you meditate on what He has done for you.

18.     If all of this were not enough, some were into legalism. That definitely caused factions as well. The lascivious group and the legalists hated one another.

19.     Interestingly enough, this was a flourishing church. There was great positive volition in Corinth. Their sin natures were in charge. They hadn’t rebounded. This would become a great church in the ancient world. They will keep the church together.

20.     This shows how doctrine occurs among believers.

          a.       Advance does not occur overnight. This is a process and it is a grind. It occurs day after day after day. There were many ways that they could go.

          b.       Becoming a believer does not change one’s soul and immediately battle evil or sin. Except, those who grow, it does change their souls and they do battle evil and sin.

21.     These Corinthians have the same foibles as we do. This book directly relates to us and all of our weaknesses. This is a very practical book and it is all about us.

Outline of the Book

1.       Various cliques in the church (chapters 1–4).

2.       Lack of discipline. Chapter 5

3.       Litigation 6:1_11

4.       Chapter 6:12–end

5.       Marriage chapter 7

6.       Liberty or license. Chapters 8–10

7.       Regulation of Christian churches 11:3–16

8.       Order of communion: 11:17–34

9.       Nature and use of spiritual gifts. Chapters 12–14

10.     The resurrection. Chapter 15.

The Chain of Events Leading up to the Writing of this Book

1.       Paul learned tent making, and he left with Priscilla and Aquila. Paul organized he church and its leadership.

2.       Paul chose Apollos as a pastor. He was a very good orator; but he did not know the full realm of doctrine. Acts 18:25–26. Corinth needed strong authority and an excellent teacher; good oratory did not hold the church together.

3.       The factions found in the church.

          a.       Jealous people. They got jealous over spiritual gifts. They want the gift that someone else had.

          b.       There was a lot of gossip going on as well. They even made things up.

          c.        There was a lot of bullying. Some thought they were better than others in the congregation.

          d.       There was a strong legalistic clique. When you have Jews from the synagogue, you will have legalism. This group could be very critical of doctrine and grace. They were conspicuous and self righteous.

          e.       There were Greeks who had a strong bend toward licentiousness as well.

          f.        Right in between all of these factions is the grace group. It takes spiritual maturity to maintain that spiritual perspective. Bobby uses the apex of a house to illustrate those in grace; the others were on either side of the slope. The attacks are always against grace. As long as you stick with grace, you will not become part of the faction. Legalism is probably the greatest opponent of grace:

                     i.         The legalism thinks he knows best for everyone. He is the person with the plan and his plan is always the best. Inference, what is God’s plan compared to my plan?

                     ii.        His blind arrogance says, no one knows better than me how to run a church or a ministry.

                     iii.       This is how the legalists in Corinth thought. The church did need to change, but they were wrong on how to do it. Where legalism exists, grace is absent. They do not co-exist.

          g.       Some use grace to rationalize their behavior.

                     i.         God knows I am a sinner. This gives them an excuse. The self righteousness person does not necessarily admit this.

                     ii.        God’s grace has provided for my condition. So far, they are accurate.

                     iii.       Even though I am undeserving, grace will cover my weakness. God has provided for a way to deal with my weakness.

                     iv.       Therefore, I won’t worry about my weakness; I will indulge it. Don’t worry about it. Sin now, rebound later. This is the wrong understanding of grace. Grace doesn’t provide for your sins, but it makes provisions for the sinner.

4.       Apollos took off. He deserted his post. He was not interested in returning either. I Cor. 16:12

5.       This left a vacuum which was filled by those who were not friendly to Paul or Timothy.

6.       Paul was in Ephesus, so he took a side trip to Corinth. He was unable to change things and he had other places he had to go (3^rd missionary journey). He got back to Ephesus and wrote a letter, which was lost.

7.       Chloe brought Paul a letter, and Paul wrote the Corinthians another letter. This is 1Corinthians.

Apostle

1.       Apostolos means the sent one. Paul is called, meaning he is a commissioned emissary. 1Cor. 1:1

2.       Paul was an Apostle of the Apostles. This is how Peter referred to him. Without the definite article, the high quality of the noun is emphasized. 1Cor.

3.       Apostolos was a 500 year old term. A high ranking admiral or general. Such an officer was chosen by a counsel.

4.       The word connotes authority and command responsibilities.

5.       Apostleship was a gift of super authority, beyond the local church level. Highest level today in churches today is the pastor teacher. Paul had authority over all of the churches at that time.

6.       This super-authority was for the purpose of communicating the mystery doctrine of the Church Age before it appeared in writing in the canon of Scripture, and Paul communicated more doctrine than anyone who had ever lived. There was nothing by way of mystery doctrine written at that time, except for the epistles as they began to b written.

7.       This applies only to the immediate messenger or called one. This was not an appointment by any human being. This means the apostles were directly appointed by God, and not by anyone else. There was no election by people or an appointment by some other person. Unlike the pope in Rome. The Roman Catholic church was a good church at one point in time. When they split, there were two popes in the 14^th century. They tried to kill each other and overthrow each other. Nothing to do with the gift of apostleship. There are saved Catholics and some priests teach salvation correctly.

8.       The qualifications of an apostle:

          a.       An apostle is appointed by the Holy Spirit directly. 1Cor. 15:8, 11

          b.       To be an apostle, you had to be an eyewitness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul saw Jesus Christ on the road of Damascus. 1Cor. 15:8–9 Acts

          c.        Apostles had great powers; they had all the gifts. Acts 5:15 19:11–12 28:8–9

9.       Purpose of the apostolic gift

          a.       To provide leadership in the pre-canon period of the Church Age.

          b.       They had the authority to establish of local churches.

          c.        Teaching and clarification of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age.

          d.       The maintenance of a true systematic theology with a true dispensational doctrine.

          e.       They were to train pastors; apostles were roving seminaries. Intensive training of pastors.

          f.        They were also administrative men. They established church policy and it was not followed. They put together the local church constitutions.

          g.       Responsible for sending out colonial apostles, super missionaries. They went out to various locations and they were beholden to the Apostles.

10.     There were no apostles appointed until after the ascension of Jesus Christ. They were disciples. Eph. 4:8–11 Peter was not an apostle in Matthew. This gift came with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

11.     Apostles were recipients of direct revelation of God. 1Peter 1:21. They were inspired to write Scripture. Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

12.     Roster of Apostles;

          a.       Some were active and some were almost honorary in their function.

          b.       Simon Peter, who wrote two epistles. James and John (James wrote the book of James?); John was one of the most active.

          c.        The other Apostles are known only through extra-Biblical sources:

                     i.         Andrew, Peter’s brother, short life.

                     ii.        Philip; gift of evangelism.

                     iii.       Bartholomew.

                     iv.       Thomas (Doubting Thomas). Didymus, which means twin. Extra Biblical sources tell us that he went as far as India.

                     v.        Matthew or Levi.

                     vi.       Simon the Zealot or the Canadian; least known of the Apostles.

                     vii.      James, son of Althaus. Disappears almost immediately into history and his is called James the Lessor, only because we know so little about him.

                     viii.     Thaddius, also known as Jude, who wrote the book of Jude.

                     ix.       Matthias was elected, but he disappears. He got a mediate appointment, which does not qualify him as an Apostle.

13.     The Office of Apostleship:

          a.       Those who held the office do not have the spiritual gift of Apostleship. They are called Apostles in the sense of being pioneer missionaries.

          b.       The pioneer missionaries are colonial or delegated Apostles. Missionary leaders of the early church.

          c.        Colonial Apostles had lessor spiritual gifts; they had the authority to establish local churches, the gift of pastor teacher. Not the sign gifts, however.

          d.       They are the patterns for missionaries today.

          e.       Colonial Apostles included men such as Barnabas (Acts 14:14 Gal. 2:9); James (1Cor. 15:7); Apollos, Silas and Timothy (1Thess. 1:1 2:6); Andronicas and Julia; two others.

14.     Additional spiritual gifts of Apostles:

          a.       Miracles, tongues and healing. Also prophecy and interpretation of tongues (Acts 5:15 28:8–9).

          b.       These gifts were used as credit cards to establish that these men had the authority.

          c.        Once the authority was established, and once they were clearly identified in the Roman empire, his credit card was revoked. Acts 19:11–12 Paul could heal at one time, but not Philip. 2:7 (Epaphrodites).

15.     The Apostles prophesied the details of the eschatological dispensation: Tribulation and the Millennium.

16.     Any claim of Apostleship today is bogus, phoney, heresy and blasphemy.

17.     Once the canon of Scripture was completed, the gift was no longer necessary. John was the last apostle. He died around 96 a.d.

Dia + the Genitive

1.       This phrase emphasizes the exclusive call of 12 men.

2.       It means that Paul is called by direct divine authority.

3.       Such authority is necessary to solve the problems of the Corinthian church.

4.       When problems exist in the local church, they must be resolved by the use of divinely given authority. The pastor can solve many of the problems by teaching and continuing to teach. No pastor today can claim authority as Paul had.

5.       Paul states his rank and authoritative credentials before dealing with the problems of Corinth.

Adelphos

1.       This word makes an important distinction between Paul and his associates.

2.       Wherever Paul in his epistles has a partner or a companion, this person does not have equal authority. They are not Apostles.

3.       He always distinguishes between himself and these other men by title. These are believers who accompany Paul.

4.       These are mentioned in the greeting of the epistle, but not in the body of the letter.

5.       This is an important distinction and an indicator of the uniqueness of the gift of Apostleship.

Ekklêsia

1.       Never used in the New Testament for a building.

2.       A collective term for the universal church.

3.       A collection of believers in any one location. Where 2 or more meet to listen to doctrine. There was the church in Philemon’s home was an example. Rom. 16:5 the home of Priscilla and Aquila.

Positional Sanctification

1.       Paul tells these Corinthians that they are sanctified. Positional sanctification refers to one of the 40 things given to us at salvation. It is one of the 39 irrevocable absolutes given to us at salvation. Paul addresses Corinthians, who are not saintly as we think of it.

2.       Sanctification is the Greek word hagiasmos; we have the verb here: hagiazô, which means to set apart, to make holy, to set apart for holiness, set apart as a saint. They are not experientially holy.

3.       Hagiazô is a perfect passive participle. Perfect tense means that we are sanctified in the past with the result that we are sanctified forever. Passive means the Corinthians received sanctification.

4.       The believer is positionally sanctified in the past, at the moment of salvation with the result that he is sanctified forever.

5.       This is solely the work of God. We do not earn or deserve this.

6.       Fundamental idea here is belonging to Christ at the moment of salvation, which carries on into eternity. It is an unassailable position. We are set apart to Christ at salvation and this is a status we retain forever.

7.       Positional sanctification identifies us with the person of Jesus Christ in two ways:

          a.       Retroactive Positional Truth:

                     i.         This is the meaning of retroactive positional truth identifies the believer with Christ in His Substitutionary spiritual death, His physical death, and His burial.

                     ii.        The believer acquires at salvation, a status of separation. Sin and death, rulership of Satan, and his sovereignty over us are what we are freed from (positionally).

                     iii.       Id with Christ places the believer in a position to break free from the power of the old sin nature and from Satan’s influence of corruption and depravity. Rom. 6:4–14 We are in a position to break free and we can progressively do so (experiential sanctification). We are in a position to break the power of the old sin nature.

                     iv.       This is the basis for us being experientially separated.

          b.       Current Positional Truth:

                     i.         Identification with Christ in His resurrection, ascension and session, which is current positional truth. Hundreds of believers saw Jesus Christ in His resurrection body and testify to that in the Scriptures.

                     ii.        Identification with a new spiritual life; all things have become new.

                     iii.       This means that the believer now has a permanent relationship with the King of Kings and that he is a new creature in Christ and the old things have passed away. We have the position and the opportunity to advance. The rulership of Satan and the old sin nature are broken as status quo in the life of the believer because of current positional truth.

          c.        When God takes away the old by retroactive positional truth, He substitutes in the new, which is current positional truth; this is the equivalent of positional sanctification. We are set apart unto Christ.

          d.       We are positioned now to live the spiritual life. The two together are positional truth.

8.       Positional sanctification qualifies the believer to live forever with God.

9.       Positional sanctification separates us from the judgment that this world lives under. This forms the royal family of God and creates a new spiritual species.

10.     Positional sanctification separates us from the judgment to come.

11.     Positional sanctification puts us in a position to utilize the equal opportunity to utilize the assets give us by God and to execute the plan of God in time.

12.     Positional sanctification belongs to all believers, winners or losers experientially; we cannot lose it. 1Cor. 1:2, 30

13.     Positional sanctification has nothing to do with your experience as a believer. It is not the same as spiritual advance. It is simply a status which God gives us at salvation.

14.     This is the guarantee of being separated from eternal judgment of all unbelievers when they are cast into the Lake of Fire.

15.     The believer is separated by...mechanics to be given Sunday AM.

Positional Sanctification

15.     How is this done? What are the mechanics?

          a.       At the moment of salvation, you are baptized by the Holy Spirit and put into union with Christ.

          b.       At the moment that you are put into union with Christ, we share all that He is and all that He has.

          c.        We share His perfection. This does not mean that we are sinless. His +R is imputed to us simply because we believed in Jesus Christ. 2Cor. 5:21

          d.       We share His eternal life immediately, which is the guarantee of our eternal life. Advancement in the spiritual life has nothing to do with this.

          e.       We share His election; we are called to privilege. Eph. 1:4

          f.        The Corinthians and we share the destiny of Jesus Christ. John 1:12 Eph. 1:5

          g.       Since we share His destiny, we are heirs of Christ. He left a will and we are in it. In order to be a recipient of things in a will, the person who gives it to us must die. Rom. 8:16–17

          h.       We share His kingdom. We will rule with Him in the Millennium. 2Peter 1:11.

          i.         We share His priesthood. He was appointed as a royal High Priest as a part of the priesthood of Melchizedek.

          j.         Levitical priesthood came by birth; ours comes by the new birth and each one of us are priests. In Israel, only a few were priests, and everyone had to go through the priests; we represent ourselves. We have more than the average Old Testament believer, as we share the priesthood of Christ. Heb. 10:10–14.

16.     Summary; characteristics of positional sanctification:

          a.       You never experience positional sanctification; it is the status quo of every believer. It is just there; you don’t feel it, you don’t experience it; it is just there. As are all of the 39 irrevocable absolutes.

          b.       Positional sanctification is not progressive and it cannot be improved upon.

          c.        Do not forget that your positional sanctification does not relate to human merit. Not in any way.

          d.       We are not positionally sanctified by what we do, but only because we have believed in Christ.

          e.       God the Holy Spirit did the work which sanctified us in Jesus Christ. He did the work through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit baptism, positional sanctification, and justification are all related.

          f.        Too many people mean that sanctified means that these are better people. And therefore, many think that when you believe in Christ, you become a better person. This is Catholic theology. They do not understand the difference between a status and an experience. So few people understand this. This does not mean you are experientially a better person immediately and automatically. We are simply identified with Christ. This word hagiazô should really jolt this people. No matter how good or bad you are, you are positionally sanctified.

          g.       Justification and positional sanctification are both conditions at salvation, and not experiential.

          h.       We are positionally sanctified just like the Corinthian believers. Paul reminds them of this. They have the potential to advance.

17.     Positional sanctification is given at the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

18.     Positional sanctification is eternal and it cannot be changed by any person or any angel.

Hyper-Calvinism/Election

1.       It is not a call for a few to be believers and for all others to be condemned.

2.       This is Calvinism taken to extreme lengths. This is not how Calvin thought.

3.       Electing a few people would be a choice of God, regardless of volition—this is a mistaken notion about election. If this is true, then God simply chose us to be a believer and others to be condemned.

4.       That negates the free will of man. We have no real choice here. We will either be saved or not, but it is not our choice.

5.       God’s sovereignty is the only determining factor when this understanding is held. We should feel fortunate that God chose us and too bad for the other poor fools.

6.       The sovereignty of God elects us to privilege. Election properly is applied only to the believer.

7.       The book of Esther teaches us the importance of free will and the sovereignty of God and how they coexisted. In spite of our free will, Jesus Christ still controls history.

8.       Now we are dealing with the importance of free will in salvation.

9.       Without free will, believing in Christ would simply be a formality, a foregone conclusion. When we finally to believe, it is simply a formality. God did foresee that we would make that decision and He elected us to privilege based upon His foreknowledge.

10.     If God elected us to be saved (which is wrong), then the outcome would have been decided by His sovereignty alone. Our belief is not enough to save us; but the work of God the Holy Spirit to place us in Christ, and what Jesus Christ did on the cross. Christ did the work and the Holy Spirit places us in Him.

11.     Election does not mean that God simply chose us in advance to be elected.

What is Paul Reminding these Corinthians

1.       They must look to grace solutions. This is what Paul is reminding them of.

2.       The Corinthians need to realize that God’s grace towards them (salvation, spiritual life and eternity) transcends their squabbles and scandals.

3.       Graciousness is the opposite of fractiousness.

4.       Review your own perspective on life. We are part of a congregation that can go south in a minute. We must have sound judgment from doctrine and grace orientation.

Paul’s Focus

1.       His focus is on God, not about the Corinthians.

2.       He is not thinking about divisiveness or divisive people.

3.       God is the object of all true thanks giving. With people, you may feel thankful, but you will eventually change your mind.

4.       People can be objects of thanksgiving, but not with the consistency found here. This includes the closest relationships. Somehow, we always manage to make ourselves less than objects of thanksgiving.

Problems with Eyes on People:

1.       Eyes on people always precludes us from being occupied with Christ.

2.       When your eyes are on people, you feel envy, bitterness, despair, inordinate ambition and competition, etc.

3.       Ultimately, even the best and most promising relationships will disappoint you. When it happens, you will react in one of those eyes on people ways. When you are disappointed, get down, out of fellowship, these things will happen. These things did not get Paul down. His focus was on God, not on the Corinthians. Half of us were probably in a fight before we got here.

4.       So instead of getting your eyes on people, concentrate on doctrine and how it relates to you. Concentrate on doctrine and how it relates to you. This is where thanksgiving comes from.

5.       Then regardless of the relationship, no matter how bad it is, you will be at peace, which is what Paul has recommended to the Corinthians. Grace orientation leads to peace. When the Corinthians look at each other, they get out of fellowship.

6.       When our eyes are off God, we will fail people testing (or circumstance testing). Paul can be thankful for what God has done for the Corinthians, not for what they are doing to one another.

Paul’s Thanksgiving

1.       Grace and grace orientation always precedes thanksgiving.

2.       Thanksgiving results in praise for grace.

3.       This is associated with positional truth: retroactive and current positional truth.

4.       That makes it nonmeritorious.

In What are They and We Enriched?

1.       This is an abundance of spiritual wealth.

2.       The Corinthians were greatly blessed as a local church in many, many ways. Spectacular spiritual gifts.

3.       So Paul then uses two words to desire their wealth. En closely connects speech and knowledge. This is doctrine. The Corinthians had been richly endowed with divine truth.

Γνώσις

1.       Γνäσις is not just knowledge but a clear comprehension of knowledge in the left lobe.

2.       These Corinthians had a clear understanding of the doctrines which they had been taught. They had no excuse. They understood. They had a clear and concise look at the doctrine which Paul taught.

3.       However, this information was only γνäσις. It was only academic. They heard it, they took it in, they may have taken notes. But they did not believe it.

4.       It was not being applied in their lives, as Paul will make totally clear. No application; it is just γνäσις. Bobby can only teach knowledge. He cannot teach ἑπίγνωσις. They understood, but they did not apply it. We need to be able to apply it to the circumstances of our lives. We can hear it over and over, but it doesn’t work unless we believe and apply it. This leads us to realize that doctrine in and of itself cannot solve our problems.

Doctrine in and of Itself Does not Solve our Problems

1.       Doctrine is information. It is our source of spiritual growth; it is the path of our understanding, and it is the resource that you we use to cover that plan. Doctrine is everything.

2.       Doctrine reveals the heart and soul of the spiritual life. Without doctrine, we have no clue as to what the spiritual life is and how to solve our problems.

3.       Knowledge of doctrine in and of itself does not translate into a spiritual life. If it is not used, then it cannot solve problems.

4.       Spiritual growth, a thriving spiritual life and application of doctrine to the circumstances of life all come from faith and confidence in the truth. Faith is metabolizing doctrine and confidence is application of doctrine. God’s promises will be fulfilled. Every time we use one aspect, we have confidence that they will work. When you are confident, you then relax. Hard to be confident in anything; people change, circumstances change; but God’s truth does not change.

What is Bobby talking about?

1.       You must first accept doctrine as truth as the very words of God. These words are written by men, but inspired by God. We must first accept what we have as truth.

2.       Some of Berachah say, “I know it is the truth” but there is no relief from your lousy circumstances and no peace in their soul.

3.       Believing is not applying. Believing that something is truth is not applying it. Doctrine must be transferred to the right lobe and then it must permeate your thinking. If you don’t think it, of course it will not work for you.

4.       What is doctrine? Doctrine must be our scale of values. It is what happens when we think it. It must evaluate everything that moves into our consciousness of soul.

5.       Applying doctrine boils down to human viewpoint vs. divine viewpoint. Which one to you fall back on during the crisis.

6.       It is so easy to allow human viewpoint to creep into our thinking. It is everywhere. The advice you get, tv, movies, whenever you talk to someone. It is always there. You must discriminate, human viewpoint from divine viewpoint.

7.       You might block out doctrine because it conflicts with the views or advice of your friends. They can’t wait to tell you how to handle everything. This often comes from envious friends who don’t have a doctrinal frame of reference. How does their advice line up with doctrine. You can solve your own problems when you have divine viewpoint in your soul.

8.       You may rely on the power of positive thinking, which is a common problem in churches because it is taught on so many Christian shows or in some many churches as doctrine.

9.       Common sense tells me that... Common sense is okay; it is sad to be ditzy all the time. It is never a real substitute for real divine viewpoint. When you examine something which appears to be common sense, look at it from the perspective of doctrine.

10.     We are thinking about doctrine, but then we don’t actually use doctrine under pressure.

11.     If you don’t use it, you will fall back on your old ways of thinking and problem-solving. They were not permanent solutions then and they are not permanent solutions now.

12.     Without the application of γνäσις as ἑπίγνωσις, we will fall prey to the subtleties of human viewpoint every time. They can be subtle. The longer you associate with human viewpoint, the easier it is to allow it to become a part of your life. If you have a relationship with people with no doctrinal scale of values, they will more often bring you to their level than vice versa. You need the compatibility of doctrine in your souls.

13.     Anger, bitterness, self pity, arrogance, etc. all open the pipeline to human viewpoint. When these mental attitude sins are there, you are vulnerable to human viewpoint.

14.     The more you attach yourself to human viewpoint, especially when it is disguised as doctrine, the more frustrated you will get. The more your emotions revolt when you operate on human viewpoint. You will get frustrated and your emotions will go off like a sky rocket. This is the problem of the Corinthian church; they are completely permeated with human viewpoint.

Mechanics of How they Became Firmly established in Christ

1.       They were justified when they believed in Christ. One of the 39. Justification is just one of the them.

2.       Then they had justification, so the righteousness of God was imputed to them. This was a necessary condition for being firmly established by faith.

3.       Paul is making it clear to them that justification has already happened. Paul wanted them to know that the gospel was firmly established in their soul.

4.       Paul wants them to know that they are justified. Therefore, their status in Christ is set once and for all.

5.       That means it is firmly established. God Himself cannot revoke this justification. All that is required is faith in Christ. It cannot be revoked.

6.       Since they were justified, they would stand before the judgment seat of Christ blameless. These Corinthians were thoroughly to blame for all sorts of things, but Paul tells them that they will stand before Jesus Christ at His judgment seat fully justified. Their responsibility is to grow in grace; not to kill one another.

7.       Paul came to Corinth to minister the gospel and doctrine. In telling them this, he has firmly established that these Corinthians are saved. He needs to start from this position.

Summary

1.       Paul confirms that these Corinthians have an abundance of spiritual gifts. This means they are saved.

2.       If they were not saved, they would not have a spiritual gift or any sort.

3.       These Corinthians have definitely believed, and they began to grow a little, but things began to happen. They got a lot of human viewpoint. Judaizers; legalists came in; then the lascivious crowd came in. Pretty soon, there were all sorts of factions based on human viewpoint. The Corinthians did begin to use their spiritual gifts. Their gifts were substituted for the spiritual life. We got a lot of these things; look at what we can do. They were caught up in the spectacular.

George and Erica Mueller — missionary in Africa

 

His Work in Africa and Europe is not finished yet. Many hungry believers. Began 40 years as missionaries ago at Berachah. The struggle on this earth is against the powers of this dark world. We are responsible to keep Christianity from being a religion.

 

The less Moslems know about their religion, the better for them. A Moslem tried to sell life insurance to Mueller. He prayed daily to be accepted by God. He used sex to get closer to Allah. It is a Satanic program to prey on our lusts. The Moslems in the planes on 9-11 have gone straight to hell, no virgins waiting, and it is too hot to have sex.

 

Sept. 11, 1663 the Muslims were beaten in Germany. Another victory a few years later on the same date. 1600 a.d. is when Moslem began. When Moslems won in 1600 a.d., they beheaded 600 Jews. They took children and women as slaves. Islam does not mean peace; it means submission to this dark religion.

 

This Satanic religion continues to kill Christians in Africa and Jews in the Middle East. Reagan dropped a bomb to stop Kadafy.

 

They learned anti-Semitic songs in Germany in 1942. Prayer was answered on D-Day. Mueller thanked Robert O’Neil for liberating him. He said it was the first time he had been asked.

 

During Hitler, the quality of the Christian churches. Some could be manipulated by Hitler; the Lutheran and the Roman Catholic. When there was an attempt on Hitler’s life, he got a telegram praising that he was not killed from a Baptism organization.

 

There were some believers that Hitler could not control. He tried to set them up for the gas chambers. Americans are not always welcome in Germany today.

 

John Emory and Peter Mueller started something in Germany a year ago. John recently went to Kuwait and Peter to Afghanistan. He encourages us to pray for these.

 

March 11, 2004 a meeting, the same day that the Muslims attacked Spain. Encouragement from Romania, Baltic Russian, etc. Positive volition changes in history. Every missionary needs a pastor teacher so that they use the right weapons for their warfare.

 

His son is leaving soon with a large container which will be taken to Africa.

 

There can be no correct thinking unless there is correct information.

 

He began in America in 1964. It was proposed that he sign a blank sheet of paper and let him fill in the details. He changed his German passport for an American one; and then got introduced to Berachah church. Returned to Germany in 1965. A whole load of Bibles and such when they entered the middle east. Not allowed to cross Sudan territory. Stayed in Libya at that time. North African missions open at that time. There was an American air force base at that time, and that was a center for missionary activity. Apparently, it was removed and Kadafy took it over.

 

Middle of the Saharan desert, the oasis.

The Corinthians and Justification

1.       When the Corinthians believed in Christ, they were justified.

2.       They had the imputation of God’s righteousness, which was a necessary condition for being firmly established in the gospel.

3.       Paul is making it very clear to them that their justification had already happened.

4.       Paul is reminding them that they are justified in the Lord.

5.       It is firmly established and it cannot be revoked.

6.       Since they were justified, then would then stand before the judgment seat of Christ blameless. This should strike a cord with these people. “We are going to stand before God blameless, because God declared us righteous.” Your responsibility before the Lord to advance; not to fight and argue and impose your will on everyone else.

Miraculous gifts:

1.       Tongues, interpretations of tongues, miracles, prophecies, healing.

2.       People believed that these gifts needed to be more in evidence in the church. This is proof to them of a great spiritual life. They were connecting their miraculous spiritual gift with service to the Lord.

3.       Growing in grace and knowledge is the impetus for service to Christ. This is true of any gift. It is utilized for service.

4.       The sad part for the Corinthians is that these gifts are no longer necessary in the post canon period of the Church Age.

5.       Spiritual gifts, whether spectacular or not, were and are never the key to the spiritual life. Some cannot wait to figure out what their gift is so they can know what they will be doing. Your spiritual gift will operate whether you know what it is or not, as long as you advance.

6.       One may be gifted with a great spiritual gift, but be carnal. You could have a spectacular spiritual gift; however, without those are worthless apart from spiritual advance. The Corinthians are a great example of those with fantastic gifts, but they are not really used.

The Doctrine of Spiritual Gifts

1.       Spiritual gifts are talents, ability or aptitude, sovereignly bestowed upon every believer in the Church Age for the purpose of performing a particular service in the body of Christ. Every believer has a spiritual gift. Rom. 12:6–8 1Cor. 12 Eph. 4:11 Heb. 2:4. This is not a natural ability, e.g., sports, business acumen, etc. There may be a relation between them.

The Doctrine of Spiritual Gifts con’t

2.       The Greek noun is charisma (Χαρισμα) are based upon the grace of God.

          a.       All spiritual gifts are a matter of grace and they are never earned or deserved.

          b.       No gift is given based upon God’s foreknowledge of the merits of a believer. That is, even though God knows how far you would advance in the spiritual life, He does not give a gift appropriate to that advance.

          c.        Spiritual gifts and not developed through any form of emotional experience. They are not developed in the first place,

          d.       Charisma is primarily a Pauline expression. Only he uses this expression. 1Peter 4:10 is the only other place we find this. 1Cor. is where this is mostly addressed.

3.       Jesus Christ made the first distribution of spiritual gifts and it took place at the moment of His ascension. Eph. 4:7–8

4.       Heb. 2:4 1Cor. 12:11 this is the Holy Spirit’s job now.

5.       Our gift is based upon the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. He gives this gift because He is eternally wise.

          a.       The Holy Spirit does not give more visible gifts (pastor-teacher or evangelist) in anticipation that one believer will be more spiritual than another or more mature.

          b.       A man may be given the gift of pastor teacher or evangelist and fail miserably in the spiritual life and never operate under this spiritual gift. The person with this gift has double the responsibility to advance.

          c.        The Holy Spirit does not give more invisible gifts because He knows you won’t turn out to be much anyway. They are not lessor gifts.

          d.       The Holy Spirit does not play favorites. He gives gifts commensurate with your aptitude and abilities. He probably takes into account our innate abilities.

          e.       Don’t ever object to your own gift.

6.       All spiritual gifts depend upon two factors for their function: the filling of the Holy Spirit, which is the power to function and the intake of Bible doctrine, which is the momentum of spiritual growth. The further you advance, the more effective your gift is.

7.       Spiritual gifts are not earned or deserved. They are a product of grace. They are not acquired through begging or pleading with God the Holy Spirit. God will not change your gift in midstream.

8.       You identify your spiritual gift as you continue to advance. Even those who advance to spiritual maturity may never fully identify your spiritual gift. You may be partially certain or partially uncertain. The advancing believer will advance under his gift.

9.       Every believer has equal privilege and opportunity in the spiritual life; but there are distinctions between believers. Some are feet and some are hands. Spiritual growth stage is a distinction and the gift we have is a difference.

          a.       God the Holy Spirit has decided to give different spiritual gifts to different people.

          b.       Some differences in modus operandi exist in the body of Christ. Different functions are assigned to different portions of the body. They all function together.

          c.        The gift you have does not make you inferior to superior to another.

10.     Spiritual gifts only function inside the friendly confines of the spiritual life. You cannot function outside this realm.

          a.       You won’t use your spiritual gift by accident; it will only be the enabling power of the Holy Spirit and spiritual growth.

          b.       This is totally apart from emotion.

          c.        As you gain momentum from doctrine, your spiritual gift will function.

          d.       You will find yourself as you continue to advance finding yourself in activities where your spiritual gift functions.

          e.       Don’t be afraid to take up an opportunity to serve in some capacity. You may find you are gifted in that area. You may have a gift of teaching.

          f.        You may find out that you have no ability or gift in this area, and you move on to other areas. Your spiritual gift may function wherever you are in life. You can pray anywhere and that could be your gift. You could do this at anytime and for any length of time. There are various ways that your spiritual gift may function.

          g.       Your gift falls within the realm of your capacities. If you have the gift of pastor teacher, but you have no aptitude for studying and teaching, then forget it—you do not have that gift.

11.     Spiritual gifts are the Father’s witness to the saving work of Jesus Christ and to the strategic victory of our Lord in the angelic conflict.

          a.       As you know, Jesus Christ bestowed the first gifts to believers after the cross and at His ascension, when the disciples became Apostles.

          b.       Church was initiated by the Holy Spirit.

          c.        Today, the Holy Spirit bestows gifts to us which reflect Christ’s past victory and continue the function of the body, and provide a means of serving Him in the rebuttal phase of the angelic conflict.

12.     Two categories of spiritual gifts: temporary and permanent.

          a.       Permanent spiritual gifts function from the completion of the canon of Scripture until the rapture of the church (96 a.d. to whenever).

          b.       Temporary spiritual gifts only functioned during the pre-canon period. This is between the ascension of Christ to 96 a.d. During that time, these temporary gifts began to disappear. They progressively disappeared. Paul had he gift of healing, but he could not fix Epaphrodites.

          c.        On the day that the Church Age began, there was no New Testament. There was nothing; not even the gospels had been written. It needed to be in writing; this is the only way we know anything.

          d.       The temporary spiritual gifts were used to fill in the gap of Church Age doctrine.

          e.       But only until the New Testament canon was complete and circulated.

          f.        Temporary spiritual gifts were designed to function before the completion of the canon of Scripture; they took of the slack for the lack of the use of the Bible.

          g.       Permanent spiritual gifts exist throughout the Church Age.

13.     Spectacular gifts did not imply spiritual growth, superior Christian experience or spiritual greatness. The Corinthians did have these gifts, but they functioned improperly in the Corinth church.

14.     The team concept: every team has certain positions and certain functions, so the body of Christ has certain spiritual gifts and every gift is a part of the advance of the team. When the line blocks and the quarterback passes, and the tight end receives the ball, this is an illustration of a team working together. No one in Corinth functioned as a team. Spiritual gifts must work together as a team.

15.     The abuse of spiritual gifts:

          a.       The attempts to perpetuate pre-canon gifts into the post canon period. This is found throughout the world. One of the greatest problems are charismatics. After the gospel, if they have that straight, then everything else is screwed up.

          b.       There is also a problem of arrogance or inferiority. Some worry that no one sees their gift operate and they don’t receive any praise. Don’t feel inferior if no one compliments you on your gift.

          c.        Occupational hazard in the ministry: the evangelist, pastor-teacher or missionary become arrogant.

          d.       Others feel that they are in a state of inferiority, thinking because their spiritual gift is not obvious that they are second class believers. They are neck deep in most of these abuses at Corinth. Yet, these Corinthians are blessed with incredible spiritual gifts.

What the Corinthians Needed to Know

1.       These believers at the church in Corinth need to know that they are saved.

2.       They need to know that they are righteous before the supreme court of heaven.

3.       As justified and as believers, they needed to remember what their purpose is here on earth.

4.       If they can recall their purpose, then they can learn to live their lives as unto the Lord.

5.       Instead of each faction competing to be dominant in the church, they must grow spiritually and be unified in the body of Christ.

Paul’s Points to the Corinthians

1.       Paul states that these Christians have a large number of spiritual gifts. Paul could say they were firmly established as believers in Christ. So he is continuing his same approach; he is convincing them that they are saved.

2.       They have spiritual gifts; therefore, they are saved.

3.       You do possess gifts in abundance, so you are firmly established in Christ.

4.       They were definitely believers and they had begun to grow spiritually. That is your purpose on earth.

5.       It did not take long for these Corinthians to get off track.

6.       They needed to return to doctrine and get with the plan of God as individuals and corporately as a church.

7.       But, instead, the Corinthians emphasized and glorified spiritual gifts and substituting the function of those gifts for their spiritual life. It is spiritual growth and then the function of spiritual gifts, not vice versa (which was their approach).

8.       They were so preoccupied with themselves, that they were vying for the most gifts per faction.

9.       Their eyes left occupation with Christ and their eyes on themselves.

10.     They needed to keep the gift subordinate to spiritual growth and occupation with Jesus Christ.

How Does One Prepare for the Return of Jesus Christ

1.       Expressing divine viewpoint from your soul.

2.       This means you look at life in light of the return of Jesus Christ.

3.       The return of Christ should always be a source of encouragement. This is only for the believer who understands his ultimate destiny in God’s plan.

4.       We have an incredible inheritance in Christ. We expect this inheritance.

5.       This should always be a great source of confidence in our future. This description is continued in v. 8.

Words of Encouragement for Us

1.       When we stand before Jesus Christ, we will not have to answer for each and every one of our sins.

2.       We can only be found innocent; not guilty.

3.       We are innocent because our sins have already been paid for. Salvation is not at risk.

4.       V. 6 tells us that the gospel was firmly established in the soul of the believer at the point of salvation.

5.       The Corinthian believers are justified, just as we are.

6.       As justified, our status in Christ is assured.

7.       We will be evaluated based upon our works or deeds that we have accomplished.

The Corinthians are Guaranteed to be at the Judgment Seat of Christ

1.       Some of the Corinthians do not care one way or the other, even though Paul assures them that they will all be there on the Day of the Lord. His immutability guarantees that he will not change it. He cannot change it.

2.       Paul states with no equivocation that he has no doubt that those who believe in Christ will appear in heaven.

3.       These people are kept by the power of God; ready to be revealed at the bama seat of Christ.

4.       This is one of the greatest reasons for security. All of this is positional.

Doctrine of Election

1.       Election is the expression of the sovereign will of God in eternity past before the universe existed and before man lived on this earth.

2.       Election puts a stamp of approval upon what God has decreed. Election, Divine Decrees, being called—all of these come into play.

3.       Election is the plan of God for believers (Eph. 1:4).

4.       God elected ro called believers, knowing that they would freely choose to believe in Christ.

          a.       God knew ahead of time, if given free will, that we would choose to believe in Christ.

          b.       They God decreed that call would take place. It confirms what we have decided will happen.

          c.        God agreed that no only would our positive volition would occur at a certain point but that all the blessings of salvation would be our possession.

5.       Election, or to be called means the sovereignty of God wills the highest and best for us all.

6.       The called are selected for privilege. Because God knew we would believe, he selected us for privilege; because He knew when faced with the gospel, we would believe.

7.       As called, we have equal privilege and equal opportunity to live the spiritual life.

8.       Being called does not mean that we were selected to be a believer, and others would not be selected to not believe. God does not decide that we would not believe.

Doctrine of Election–Revised

1.       Election is the expression of the sovereign will of God in eternity past before the universe existed and before man lived on this earth before anything existed; the sovereign will of God elected us. This is when and how we were called; in eternity past; how: by the sovereignty of God.

2.       Election puts a stamp of approval upon what God has decreed. Election, Divine Decrees, being called—all of these come into play. God decreed our calling.

3.       We are called to salvation and into the plan of God as believers. Election is the plan of God for believers (Eph. 1:4).

4.       God elected or called believers, knowing that they would freely choose to believe in Christ. This is done knowing that we have free will and that we would choose Him in a moment of time.

5.       God decreed that a call would take place. He does not leave out our free will.

6.       Not only would the positive volition would occur, but then, for those who believe, all the blessings of salvation would be their possession.

7.       What is the call?

          a.       The call is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

          b.       Then, when you hear the gospel, the Holy Spirit makes the gospel comprehensible to you. You cannot understand spiritual phenomena without the Holy Spirit making it real to you.

          c.        Positive volition accepts the gospel or believes the gospel. It is not our volition which makes it efficacious for salvation; it is the Holy Spirit which places us into Christ. God makes our volition effective. Our free choice in and of itself means nothing. It is non meritorious.

          d.       We are in a state of union with Christ by God the Holy Spirit.

          e.       We have then been selected for equal privilege and equal opportunity.

          f.        Being called or elected does not mean that we were selected to be a believer regardless of our volition. Some believers believe that positive volition occurs only because God elected us; and He elected others for damnation. It is backwards and it negates free will.

          g.       We are elected or called because God knew before hand that given the opportunity to hear the gospel, positive volition would be expressed. He allowed it also to be truly free. Positive volition is integral to the call. God did not elect us making us believe in Him. Election deals only with believers. If we are elected in eternity past, this means He foresaw our free will.

8.       Election, or to be called means the sovereignty of God wills the highest and best for us all.

9.       The called are selected for privilege. Because God knew we would believe, he selected us for privilege; because He knew when faced with the gospel, we would believe.

10.     As called, we have equal privilege and equal opportunity to live the spiritual life.

11.     Being called does not mean that we were selected to be a believer, and others would not be selected to not believe. God does not decide that we would not believe.

Koinnonia

1.       Koinnonia includes sharing His glory in eternity.

2.       Because believers share His glory, Paul was assured that even the Corinthians would not perish eternally. They cannot perish because they were destined to share His glory.

3.       Paul ends the verse with our Lord; we belong to Him eternally.

4.       He is our possessor; He possesses us; He is our sovereign, our king our Creator; and our protector forever.

5.       No one can perish who stands in such a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

6.       This is the great comfort of eternal security. There is none other like it. Some see marriage, success, money as security; both those things are nothing. Christ is secure.

What Will Paul Do About It?

1.       Paul challenges them first to grace in rebound.

2.       Paul’s thanksgiving is a reminder of God’s grace to us; he is reminding the Corinthians of the same thing. The Corinthians must realize that Paul is commending God grace to them.

3.       Paul has given thanks for spiritual wealth, for spiritual gifts, for positional sanctification; and for the divine faithfulness of God.

4.       As Paul reviews God’s grace, his challenge to them is to use it. God has given you grace in your salvation. He has supplied them with everything that they needed in the spiritual life.

Justification for Denominations

1.       Each denomination represents a different regiment in war. We are al working for the same spiritual victory.

2.       So the justification goes, we have these denominations who chose for themselves what branch of service they are in. This intimates that this is the choice of the Holy Spirit.

3.       This does not represent the reality of this situation.

4.       It is not ever the Holy Spirit Who divides believers. He is the unifying factor; especially where Biblical theology is compromised. Even today, many denominations have even departed from the gospel.

5.       In spite of man’s divisions, there remains one body of Christ. No matter how far they get off doctrinally; there is still just one body of Christ. There is the positional unity.

6.       The divisions are caused by the failures of believers in Biblical fundamentals. Fundamental doctrines. They depart from Scripture. Therefore, we have schisms and divisions. Many start with the gospel and doctrine being cranked out. But they get astray at some point. In Corinth, there are people ignoring Bible doctrine. This is the problem with denominations today.

Parakalô

1.       It is much stronger here than normally found.

2.       Paul is using his authority to urge them; not to appeal to them. Urge is just short of a command.

3.       Paul will not pull any punches with these guys; he cannot afford to.

4.       Paul wants them to change their minds about internal divisiveness. They must change their minds about doctrine.

5.       He couches his tremendous authority and concern in a inoffensive approach. Paul is a great leader and he urges them to do something. This factious group will take offense if he tells them what to do.

6.       He does not command; he urges them

7.       He urges them in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul had the authority to do this. They knew he was serious.

To Speak the Same Thing

1.       Speak the same thing is a synonym for unity.

2.       Legô means to speak. Present active subjunctive.

3.       It is a progressive present; an ongoing state of affairs. This is an ongoing problem.

4.       Subjunctive means that this state of affairs is on a potential. They will be united only with spiritual growth.

5.       They are unified positionally; now they must live this unity. Paul doesn’t want them to mouth the same words; but Paul wants them to express divine viewpoint. They must have the same viewpoint in their souls. It is impossible to express the same spiritual viewpoint without knowledge of doctrine.

How Do we Express the Same Spiritual Viewpoint

1.       From thought comes speech.

2.       This verse anticipates speech that lacks divine viewpoint. They should be thinking divine viewpoint, and that is how they would speak the same thing.

3.       They have no true divine viewpoint, carnality creeps in. Paul’s exhortation here is anticipating something here.

4.       They talk about one another, which causes them to further split apart. Don’t do that, no matter what you see or hear.

Application: What Does Is Mean Not to Have Divisions?

1.       You may think in one way and I may think in another. This does not disqualify us for being in harmony.

2.       If we both possess the mind of Christ, and we think with divine viewpoint, then we are not going to split or fight.

3.       We have differences in opinion, but not about important things. Grace is the key. We are unified by positional sanctification.

4.       With doctrine, we get along in the fellowship of God’s Word. After Paul left, they went in different directions.

5.       The Corinthians had not fellowship and they became sneaky little back stabbers of each other.

6.       Not only is the fellowship of the Word of God involved here; however, impersonal love is also required.

Application: You Fall for Anything if it Seems to have Biblical Backing

1.       Without doctrine, you cannot have discernment.

2.       You listen to all kinds of teaching without discernment and you back away from a careful study of the Word of God. There are very few out there who carefully handle the Word of God.

3.       An example: you can’t discern, you will go for a devotional which will carry you for maybe an hour; your spiritual blood sugar crashes.

4.       I listen all over and I get a little from everyone. You cannot go everywhere and listen to everyone and get fed.

5.       This is a recipe for spiritual disaster.

6.       When you fall for those things that seem to have Biblical backing, you will be unable to discern between the truth and falsehood.

7.       You have opened up the floodgates for human viewpoint. It is subtle, insidious and it can happen to any one of us.

8.       Here is what happens: you become spiritually incoherent. You become a superficial Christian with a superficial vocabulary, but without substance. The devotional is rolling, but it doesn’t work.

9.       You will be full of contradictions and full of confusion.

10.     The result: in a crisis, you will begin to doubt God’s care and keeping. You will wonder where is God now; why is He not taking care of me now?

11.     This happens because you try to get spiritual nourishment out of sawdust instead of true spiritual food.

12.     That sawdust will not carry you in the spiritual doctrine.

13.     In short, you have no discernment.

How Do You Discern?

1.       You apply Bible doctrine from your soul.

2.       Application of divine viewpoint from your soul.

3.       Sometimes these problems cannot be totally solved. There are differences between human beings that cannot be solved. But doctrine has the answer to butting heads. You may not like one another, but you can resolves the friction. If we don’t deal with it, God may solve it. You don’t want God to solve your problems.

4.       So, you get into these situations, then don’t drag the rest of the church into these petty differences.

5.       When you do this, people choose sides; they like you or the other person. The result is a church split. This happens so often, you cannot imagine. Envy, hypersensitivity. You react and you can’t help but talk about them; or you get involved in power lust. Or there is greed. Sometimes, it can be arrogance in general. When these things happen, the result is a church problem in the church or in the church organization. We are unified in the body of Christ.

State of Affairs at Corinth

1.       There is strong division in the Corinthian church.

2.       There are four factions, and he will tell us what is wrong with them.

3.       Each party had their favorite teacher. They were focused on the man but not the message. Nothing wrong with having a favorite pastor. Don’t get your eyes on the man, but keep it on the message.

The Pauline Faction

1.       Those who were allied with Paul, the doctrinal party. These were mostly Gentiles. This does not mean that they are the correct party. They fought about everything. This first group places Paul on a pedestal. Paul is the greatest.

2.       This group recognizes Paul as a great doctrinal teacher.

3.       These people were not metabolizing the doctrine. There was γνäσις in their left lobe, but they had not believed it. It is not real; it is only information.

4.       How do they use it? They arrogant use this doctrine to lord it over another faction. We love doctrine, so we are better than you are.

5.       It is sad, because even the bedrock of Christianity, which is doctrine, becomes a means of strife and arrogance in the hands of these reversionists. They are talking the talk, but they are not walking the walk.

6.       They are phonies. They are far from divine viewpoint. Doctrine has no meaning for them. It is just a word.

7.       The cite the source of their divine viewpoint, in order to justify their lack of doctrine.

Application of the Pauline Party

1.       These have placed Paul on a pedestal; they are the doctrinal party; but not as we think of it.

2.       They use doctrine to beat up on the other parties.

3.       There is no application from their souls; they are misusing that.

4.       Even doctrine becomes a means fo strife and arrogance in this faction.

5.       They cite the source of divine viewpoint (Paul) to cover up the lack in themselves (review points) .

6.       No one wants to be in the shoes of those who make the very source of the great spiritual life to be a source of strife. This seems to be the worst, but there will be another which is worse.

7.       They quote pious phrases of doctrine, but they have little meaning. They blast those they see as being below you. You can quote the phrases but you cannot wait to blast those who are not in your group.

8.       Outside the church, these same people castigate others in other churches for their lack of doctrinal teaching.

9.       These other churches may lack doctrine; many do not teach doctrine. It is not up to us to straighten them out; we have no right to belittle another church because they don’t get doctrine.

10.     These are not mature believers, no matter how good they sound. People will say exactly what you want to hear, but they have no real meaning.

11.     Beware of the Trojan horse believer. They look and sound good, but is about to let the evil of reversionism spill out of their souls. That is divisive.

12.     You who have doctrine understand the means of spiritual growth; others don’t. You have no right to blast them for that. You might speak doctrine to them. Do not attack them or their church.

13.     You know the means of spiritual growth and the source of the spiritual life; do not use this to stir up strife.

The Emotional Party

1.       Review points: Apollo did not know enough doctrine.

2.       A great orator

3.       He could captivate his audience. He was spell-bounding.

4.       He motivated this group. End of this review.

5.       Apollos was the first real pastor of Corinth. Paul left him behind to teach them.

6.       He was an eloquent orator.

7.       There was a problem with him. He was not very well versed in doctrine. He originally only taught the baptism of John, meaning he was behind in his theology. Aquila and Priscilla had to teach him doctrine. Acts 18:25–26.

8.       This emotional faction loved a great speaker. They liked someone who was a great orator. He did not stumble; he never got tongue-tied. He could really get his audience going. He was an excellent speaker.

9.       Apollos stayed to water what Paul had planted. 1Cor. 3:6. None of them encouraged this sort of fighting. He did not want to be placed on a pedestal. However, he walked out on this church. 1Cor. 16:12. He just wanted to speak.

The Legalistic Party: the Petrine Party

1.       Review: Peter was an emotional type.

2.       Peter was an Apostle to the Jews.

3.       This made Peter more attractive to the Jews there.

4.       Peter had never come to Corinth, but they still attached themselves to him.

5.       The Jews here were small in number, so they naturally gravitated to Peter.

6.       As a Jew, Peter had a tendency to return to the Mosaic Law; Peter could get off track from time to time.

7.       This played into the hands of the legalists, who wanted to blend the Mosaic Law with the Church Age doctrine.

8.       The legalist’s purpose was to undermine the authority of Paul. They knew Paul well and they didn’t like him necessarily. He wrote Christ is the end of the Law in Rom. 10:4.

9.       This faction was encouraged by Jewish false teachers who came into Corinth after Paul left. They stirred up criticism of grace; they often showed up after Paul.

10.     Therefore, the 3^rd faction thought that Peter must somehow be connected to the legalistic faction.

11.     Their hero was the Apostle Peter.

12.     Why Peter? 2Peter 1:18: I will stir you up

13.     Peter was the Apostle to the Jews.

14.     He was attractive to those of Jewish origin in the church. There is no evidence that Peter never visited Corinth.

15.     His race and place in Christ’s early ministry is why he appealed to them.

16.     As a Jew, Peter had a tendency to return to the Mosaic Law. He was a great Apostle, but he deferred to Paul as a great man of doctrine.

17.     This played into the hands of these legalists, who wanted in inject the Mosaic Law into Church Age doctrine. They wanted a little bit of the Law with their grace.

18.     Their purpose was to undermine the authority of Paul and his Apostolic gift; and they wanted to undermine grace. These Judaizers had not quite gotten with the Church Age.

19.     This faction was encouraged by false teachers. 1Cor. 11:21–22

20.     The third faction thought that Peter must be connected with the legalistic doctrine. When the Judaizers showed up in Corinth, they associated them with Peter.

The Holier-than-thou Party

1.       They cited their leader as the Lord Jesus Christ.

2.       These are the ones who are name droppers. The rest of you are really nothing. You can talk about the Law, and about Paul, but we are the real deal.

3.       This faction did anything but follow Christ. They disregarded many of Paul’s essential doctrines. To claim it was pure blasphemy.

4.       They saw themselves as godly people. They claimed His name as a mantra; they said it over and over. His name had no meaning or substance.

5.       They touted themselves as having this special relationship with God.

6.       In claiming Christ, they said every other faction as being second rate. They may have even asserted the others were not believers.

7.       These were the most independent and least authority-oriented.

8.       They would not bend to any Apostolic authority.

9.       In the name of Christ, they became laws under themselves.

10.     Anytime they could, they puffed out their chests and injected God’s name into their conversation. Total arrogance; calling on the name of Jesus.

11.     Here is the real problem: they touted themselves as having some special relationship with Christ that no one else has. “We have it and you don’t.”

12.     Christ belonged to them and not to the followers of others. They had a special relationship. Total arrogance.

13.     In making this claim, they put all other factions down as not even Christian.

14.     We are the ones following Jesus Christ. You had better get with us.

15.     Only they were the holiest of holy people.

16.     They were right that following Christ was necessary, but they were wrong in their outlook. It was all lip service and arrogance.

17.     They were the most independent group and the least authority-oriented.

18.     By citing Christ as their leader, they had to bow to no apostolic authority. They could always claim to defer to Jesus Christ. They forgot there was a body of Christ; they just wanted to claim the name of Christ.

19.     They saw no authority over them, as they are of Christ.

20.     That is taking the name of Jesus in vain. They were probably Judaizers who were even more legalistic than the Petrine group.

What was Really Going on in the Church?

1.       Each faction needed a respectable front for their agendas.

2.       This always happens when hidden agendas and less than honorable intentions permeate a group of dissenters. They have to claim something to indicate that they know more and should be in charge.

3.       Each of these factions hid their evil behind the names of great Christian leaders. We’ve been called Thiemites.

4.       These leaders in no way sanctioned this strife. These are leaders and teachers who were not there to break the church up into groups.

What is Paul Saying?

1.       The logical outcome is a human leader supercedes Christ as the head of the church.

2.       Paul says, “Why are you following me? I’m not your savior.”

3.       The Corinthians are not redeemed by Paul...he is the messenger, nothing more.

4.       Even being baptized by Paul does not make the Corinthians identified with Paul in his burial, death or resurrection. Paul did not save anyone nor did anyone confess him as their savior when they were baptized.

Paul’s Points

1.       Believer’s bear a spiritual relationship to Christ only.

2.       We are united with Christ, and not with any teacher. Paul was a great teacher and he revealed to us an incredible amount of theology. He wrote more of the New Testament than anyone else (well, I think Luke did). But Paul was not crucified for us.

3.       The only one a believer is to recognize as head of the church is Jesus Christ. Believers are not to invoke the names of human saints for help. Nor do we pray to Mary.

4.       The pastor teacher has the authority to teach doctrine; but not to lead some clique. Bobby does not teach certain small groups, but he is responsible for the whole congregation. Bobby talks about Thiemites and all of Bobby’s professors knew his father by name, although they did not like him. This made his stay there interesting. Bobby made an attempt to show them at that seminary just what a person from Berachah is like; and a professor complimented him in the end.

5.       Going on from this:

          a.       This does not mean that learning from any pastor teacher will do.

          b.       Each of us learns best from one man with a gift whose teaching style and content you best respond to.

          c.        If you listen to many different pastors, confusion can result.

          d.       There can be and often is subtle differences in nuances of theology and sometimes not so subtle; and if you don’t detect them, you cannot put these together into a coherent theology, which can confuse you.

          e.       All orthodox pastors have the basics of the faith down.

          f.        Some teaching is pablum and some lack spiritual mechanics. Some groups have no clue about mechanics.

          g.       Exegesis and advanced doctrine. Bobby spent a year at Trinity someplace. Great theologians there. Head of Christianity Today magazine. Bobby lists many brilliant men in his field and he had classes with many of them. Dispensationalists, closet dispensationalists, and covenant theologians...and it is impossible to build a coherent theology from those different positions. In seminary, you should already have a framework to build from. You need a framework in order to discern error.

          h.       There will be contradictions if you listen to several different pastors. However, with several ministries, you can become confused. There are different brands of dispensationalists and different brands of covenant theologists.

6.       There is a definite tendency by some people to glorify powerful Christian leaders; to idolize them; to glorify them. They do this because of their brilliance or speaking ability or for whatever reasons.

          a.       Entertaining speakers and charismatic leaders fascinate the sheep. They are engaging; they tell jokes, they fascinate others. There is no stigma with being a great speaker.

          b.       The problem comes when the man is celebrated for his art and the message is lost.

          c.        Pastor teachers are conduits for communicating doctrine. PT’s have a gift and all of them have different abilities. Our loyalty belongs to doctrine and not to the messenger.

          d.       That does not mean that you should not respect the gift or the one who exercises it. It doesn’t matter if they are your pastor or not.

          e.       Keep it all in perspective. It is not the man, it is the message.

Baptism Problems and the Corinthian Church

1.       Some Corinthians had attached erroneous value to baptism.

2.       They thought the person who baptized them was more important than their confession of faith.

3.       Some thought they were superior Christians based on the importance of the one who baptized them. “I am more important than you because Peter baptized me.” They had established a baptismal pecking order.

4.       Consequently, Paul is delighted that he did not baptize many of them, because they cannot say that of him. He could escape their name dropping.

5.       Paul by saying this was short stopping another power play by those who would use ritual baptism to gain ascendancy over others.

Paul and Baptism

1.       Paul doesn’t mention water baptism very often; this is one of the only times that he does.

2.       Paul let others do the baptizing. Baptizing required no special gift to perform. Evangelism and teaching the mystery doctrine of the Church Age did require a specialized gift.

3.       In the early Church age, special communication gifts required an Apostle; and therefore, there were only 12, and they were quite busy.

4.       Paul was not going to detract from his special gift or be distracted from his mission by performing baptisms that his followers could do.

5.       Baptism represents positional truth and retroactive positional truth. It can be a meaningful ceremony, as long as we know what it represents.

Paul’s Emphasis is Upon the Gospel

1.       No one has been saved by baptismal regeneration.

2.       So baptism takes a distant second to teaching the gospel.

3.       The true purpose of baptism is a testimony to salvation and a recognition of positional truth.

4.       Ritual is no good without the reality of salvation.

5.       Paul emphasizes the reality of the gospel rather than the ritual of baptism.

6.       Paul went out and preached the gospel and when anyone believed, they were baptized...but probably not by Paul. Orthodox churches or high churches indulge in much ritual and the sprinkle a lot of infants. It confuses the issue of faith alone in Christ alone.

Content of the Gospel as Paul Sees It

1.       It was not Paul’s purpose to teach human wisdom but truth revealed by God.

2.       Paul does not use the eloquence of speech as a come on or a sale’s pitch.

3.       The Greeks idolized persuasive words and cleaver speech. Paul idolized the power of the gospel.

4.       Paul never depend upon human oratory prowess but upon the power of God the Holy Spirit.

5.       Then, when people believed and took in doctrine and became occupied Christ, that is what unifies them. Only occupation with Christ unifies people.

6.       They will not be unified by eloquent speech or philosophical or logical speech. These are not the power of doctrine.

What Does this Mean?

1.       Philosophical and logical arguments describe what Paul tried to use in the synagogue in Athens.

2.       Paul found that these argument convinced no one. Only a few and the rest wanted him killed.

3.       Paul realized that the straightforward message of the cross and the grace of God presented in the power of the Holy Spirit is the power of God unto salvation.

4.       The cross is always the true issue; not how eloquent you are.

5.       Whatever obscures the message of the cross deprives the gospel of its very essence and power. That includes how it is presented.

6.       Paul did not want people to listen to him with admiration. He could care less whether people walked away talking about his logic and great ability to speak.

7.       Paul did not want people to listen to him just for his speaking ability.

8.       That would put the focus on him rather than upon the message.

9.       Instead, Paul wanted them to hear the gospel and understand its meaning. He wants them to know, “I’m a sinner with no hope of reaching God; but Jesus Christ came and died for my sins.” There is nothing wrong with eloquence, as long as it does not obscure the message. Eloquence is not what is important.

10.     If Paul has substituted human wisdom and oratory for the doctrine of the cross, his presentation would have been empty. Had he used human wisdom instead of the cross, it would have been empty.

Moria

1.       This reflects the unbelievers utter hardness of heart and utter rejection of grace. That is foolishness, childishness and stupidity.

2.       These people see the gospel as foolish, childish and stupid; for simple minds.

3.       It is too simple.

4.       It is illogical that a man dying on the cross is the solution to the human condition. What sense does that make? I reject it.

5.       The empiricist; you can’t prove any of this to me; if I cannot witness it and see it, I refuse to believe it.

6.       Christianity is just a crutch for the weak.

Sozô

1.       It is not correct to take this meaning of this as those who are in the cause of being saved. It sounds like this is a process.

2.       Salvation is the certain result of a relationship with the Lord. Paul has made it clear that they are justified.

3.       This relationship has a beginning, which is a moment in time. It is a fact which continues forever, and it characterizes their present state of salvation.

4.       The passive voice means that the believer receives the action of sozô. God does the action and we receive it.

5.       No one earns or deserves salvation. He just has it.

Morea

1.       Morea reflects an utter hardness of heart and total rejection of God’s grace.

2.       Those who are perishing see the gospel as foolish; childish; stupid. Fit only for simple minds.

3.       The skeptical approach of those who reject the gospel: I am too sophisticated to believe that gospel nonsense;

4.       Logical approach: it is illogical that a man dying on the cross is a solution to the human condition.

5.       Empirical approach: you cannot prove any of this gospel to me, therefore I reject it. If I cannot see it, I will not believe it.

6.       Psychological approach: Christianity is simply a crutch for the weak. Those who are already lost; separated from God and eternity.

7.       This is the human viewpoint involved in the rejection of Christ.

The Gospel is the Power of God

1.       Nothing human can convert people to believers.

2.       Eph. 2:8–9 document this.

3.       “I was converted to Christ by so and so” or “So and so led me to the Lord.” Truly, this is an inaccurate statement.

4.       It is not the word of someone else who saves us. In that strict sense, no one converted you.

5.       It is the Word of the Cross which is the power of God.

6.       Words can bring understanding; someone speaks the gospel to you and you understand it. To reveal grace; to convict a person of their hopelessly lost condition, to regenerate a soul; to sanctify a lost soul—these are things that no human can do. People do not seek the gospel. The gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ and His work and person.

Why the Background?

1.       This caused a city of debaters and philosophers steeps in the guile of human viewpoint and wisdom.

2.       The Corinthian believers could not refute this abstract human viewpoint. They were mental digits and they panicked.

3.       These believers could not out think or out debate their unbelieving opposition.

4.       From their failure their erroneously assumed that divine viewpoint was no match for human viewpoint (when human viewpoint was articulated by shrewd and difficult arguments.

5.       These philosophers were interesting and they had some good arguments. Much of these, Bobby observed in college. Middle of Viet Nam was and a lot going on at UT. It was all there and espoused by strange people. However, some could state their position well. Bobby saw that some believers could not answer the mail on these arguments. Head of SDS could argue for the truth of Communism and that we did not belong in Vietnam, and he defeated many believers who went there and talked with

Human Thinking and the Search for Salvation

1.       There is no philosophy, or brilliant skills which will discovered the mess for the cross.

2.       Rationalism cannot explain why only through the death of Christ can man be saved. How rational is it to do nothing to gain the greater thing on this earth.

3.       Human reason is insufficient to lead people to the knowledge.

4.       Reason is nothing more than the folly of human viewpoint in searching for Salvation. It is useless.

Human viewpoint and Human Wisdom

1.       Isa. 29:13–14; they spoke words of human wisdom; the honor God with lip service but they removed their hearts far from God. They gave witness to the

2.       Human wisdom is not an absolute. Human wisdom and the gospel are antithetical.

3.       Rationalism (reality through reasoning and empiricism); the latter is what you can prove by what you see, touch, and hear. This come from the mind of man and these are meritorious. There are degrees of rationalism.

4.       Faith is a nonmeritorious system of discernment and attainment. We cannot apprehend the infinite. We are incapable to understand the gospel on our own. Designed to apprehend the infinite God.

5.       How can human systems of perception understand the infinite absoluteness of God. The finite cannot understand the infinite. Faith perception allows each of us to be wiser than the unbeliever with the highest IQ.

6.       Faith allows each of us to discern divine viewpoint. That is infinitely wiser than the human wisdom that the person with the highest IQ. Faith allows those even with the lower IQ’s to discern divine viewpoint. This divine viewpoint is infinite greater than the person who has the highest IQ. The highest IQ is dumber than us, as they cannot understand the infinite.

7.       God could have discredited the wisdom of the world; and Jesus did speak only divine viewpoint.

8.       Instead, God placed in every person the system of perception or of discernment. The weak could put to shame the wise.

9.       This is just another aspect for being witnesses for the prosecution of the phase of the angelic conflict. We all have the grace apparatus for perception. This makes us wiser than the wisest human being.

10.     Regardless of human IQ, the believer is never hindered in perceiving divine wisdom and applying it. God has made this possible to perceive and apply it to his life. Job is an illustration of this. He went from a large family to no family; from great wealth to poverty. The world did not have the capability.

11.     No matter how brilliant an unbeliever is, his human wisdom will pass from the scene.

12.     Divine wisdom from doctrine can never fade or fail.

13.     1Peter 1:24–25: All flesh is like grass; it withers and the flowers fall off (or, it goes away). The Word of the Lord abides forever.

14.     The Lord never sanctions worldly wisdom as a way of finding favor with Himself. Human viewpoint cannot; only divine viewpoint.

15.     No matter how hard he tries, the brilliant intellectual unbeliever cannot understand God; he has no way to perceive God. God gives this ability to understand Him. The unbeliever cannot do this. He is incapable. The most brilliant unbeliever cannot understand God. He can never have ἑπίγνωσις. The brilliant intellectual cannot understand God; we understand God through Bible doctrine. Therefore, who is the wiser of the two? We may not understand quantum physics, but we have wisdom about the infinite in our soul.

16.     New points: the evil cosmos will be utterly destroyed at the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ.

          a.       Poverty will be abolished, something that man has never been able to do; nor will he ever abolish poverty.

          b.       War will be abolished; something man is unable to do as well. Man constantly attempts to end war. 50-70 wars going on upon this earth at all times.

          c.        The Lord Jesus Christ will reign on the earth for a thousand years and divine wisdom will be available to all.

          d.       At that time, we will see first hand the capacity of divine wisdom and what it can accomplish.

17.     We have access at this moment to the same wisdom which will turn the wisdom of the world upside down in the millennium. Col. 1:9–10: For this cause we also, since the day we heard, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, being fruitful in every work and increasing in the knowledge of God,

18.     When man uses human viewpoint to approach God, his heart is far removed from God.

19.     Human viewpoint no matter how brilliantly is it packaged, can never solve man’s most basic problem, which is spiritual death. Only faith alone in Christ alone solves that problem.

20.     At the cross, God made the greatest display of divine wisdom for salvation. The unbeliever displays his absolutely foolishness in rejecting the grace of God.

Jewish Scholar

1.       Scribe originally was applied to secretaries whose business it was to issue decrees on behalf of the king. Several passages given.

2.       In the New Testament, this word was used for those who were well versed in the Law.

3.       They transcribed the Law; they made copies of it. This is how the Law was preserved. Copies came and went. There was no printing press at that time.

4.       They were responsible for the exposition of the Law. They interpreted the Law.

5.       Even on occasion, these scholars were required to administer the Law to others. They wrongly interpreted and applied the Mosaic Law to Jesus and to Paul.

6.       Timothy 3:7: Always learning and never coming to the epigosis knowledge of the truth.

7.       They used legal systems and memorization in order to be saved. The wisest of the wise were fools. Do not envy the brilliant unbeliever. They will end up in hell.

Sudsatêtês

1.       This is the Greek who wanted to dispute every issue and solve it with human reasoning.

2.       This is the questioner; the inquirer. The sophist; he could be the philosopher. He questioned everything; he reasoned everything. He claimed superior intelligence.

3.       Much like attorneys today, the disputer could take either side of an argument and win. It did not matter which side he was on. You simply take a side and defend it.

4.       When they ran into the dogmatism of the gospel and doctrine, it was a threat to that method of logic. Dogmatism is foreign to him. He would argue either side of a case and win.

5.       He could not understand divine truth because his mind is mired in relative truth.

Human and Divine Systems of Thinking

1.       All men are not born equal; physically or mentally.

2.       While no two people have the same perceptive ability; this is changed at the moment of regeneration.

3.       At salvation, the believer is born into the family of God, and that includes a new system of grace perception and access to the new system of thinking.

4.       Human IQ or lack thereof does not hinder learning Bible doctrine.

5.       Hence the grace system of ascertaining divine viewpoint makes the discernment of the cosmos foolish. They are foolish in their discernment.

6.       Rom. 1:22–23: Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things.

          a.       They have become fools because they have rejected doctrine; they have no way of understanding doctrine. They worship their own wisdom, birds, crawling creatures. They cannot understand God; and they have a very imperfect understanding of nature. The universe has generated itself; the universe is therefore God because it created itself. They cannot understand the God of the universe, but they can understand the universe making itself.

          b.       They understand so much and they understand nothing. They understand a number of subjects, but they do not understand divine viewpoint. They are left with separation from God for eternity.

          c.        These unbelievers are so steeped in their own knowledge that they do not care that they truly do not understand God.

          d.       They can only explain the universe and its workings in terms of human wisdom. The facts of evolution change with those who profess it. Every new discovery changes what they knew before. Divine wisdom never changes.

          e.       They became fools; the wisest of the world became fools. Human wisdom cannot regenerate anyone; it cannot understand the cross. No one understand human wisdom as well as Paul. So it is well for him to make these points.

The Gospel is Foolishness

1.       God refutes the whole system.

2.       The gospel is foolishness to the world, but it offers salvation to these same people who find it foolish. When the gospel is ridiculed by someone, they are rejecting it.

3.       When people reject the gospel, their foolishness will be revealed to them when it is too late.

4.       These unbelievers are doomed because they reject divine revelation, which they saw as foolishness. This is the stupidity of human thinking. They reject the most profound wisdom of the world and call it foolish.

What Does All this Wisdom do for the Unbeliever?

1.       He sees the tremendous creation of God. Incredible and impressive.

2.       In gathering all of these facts and knowledge, he misses the point. He sees the beauty of it, the marvel of it, but can’t put it altogether. The universe creates itself. It explodes and then it becomes what we find today.

3.       Man’s wisdom and knowledge cannot and will never fathom divine power behind creation; and more importantly, the divine power of salvation.

4.       Only divine revelation reveals the truth about creation and Christ on the cross. There are some things in creation which will point us toward God; but nothing more than that. It does not give us the gospel.

5.       When man depends upon human wisdom, he cannot understand. There are different degrees of wisdom.

6.       All then they can do is to reject divine wisdom revealed by the gospel. It makes no logical sense. Their only option is to reject the gospel.

7.       Observation: this is the sad end to human wisdom. It leads nowhere. It has no eternal meaning. In the end, that wisdom comes to nothing. It is dust. Divine wisdom never fades; human wisdom goes by the wayside.

What is Faith Perception and How It Works

1.       Operation Z. You present to gospel to someone. The gospel goes to your human spirit. The unbeliever lacks the human spirit. The Holy Spirit acts as the unbeliever’s human spirit, allowing him to understand the gospel. That is GAP. At this point, with positive volition, the unbeliever believes. Left lobe = the soul. The information is transferred there by the Holy Spirit. It is internalized. However, it is not assimilated as it is not believed. Then we believe it. The Holy Spirit made it real and we believe. We don’t have to be a genius to get it. Even a brain damaged child can get it. An unbeliever is dichotomous and now he becomes trichotomous when he believes in Jesus Christ.

2.       The key is positive volition. The rationalist and empiricist reject it. At the point where it is presented, they can say no. GAP is the great leveler of this life. It gives everyone equal footing.

Summation

1.       There is no human merit in this.

2.       Compatible with God’s grace.

3.       Faith is common to all members of the human race which is non-meritorious. This is the only system which levels the playing field of perception.

4.       No one is born with the same human IQ. There is a huge range of cognitive abilities in the human race. Some intellects have a superior abilities through rationalism and empiricism.

5.       All believers have equal abilities to utilize faith as a system of perception. This is equal for us believers.

6.       Therefore, faith is non-meritorious...always. It is never something that we do. Faith is a way of appropriating what God has prepared for us. The Holy Spirit is the great leveler

Faith System of Salvation

1.       The Holy Spirit convicts the unbeliever of sin, righteousness and judgement (John 16:8). This is called common grace.

2.       The Spirit functions as a human spirit, which was lost at the fall of Adam. We are born spiritually dead; we gain the spirit back at salvation. The spirit makes the gospel comprehensible to us. The Holy Spirit must act as a human spirit for us, as we lack this human spirit.

3.       The gospel is comprehensible to all that hear it. For unbelievers, they could understand the words; it is, however, just γνäσις. Just as doctrine is simply γνäσις to us; the gospel is γνäσις to the person with positive volition.

4.       Common grace insures that the gospel is no longer just academic knowledge.

5.       The gospel has confirmation beyond rationalism and empiricism. Once common grace has done its work, and the person expresses positive volition, the Holy Spirit makes that faith efficacious or effective. That is efficacious grace.

Efficacious Grace

1.       The Holy Spirit acknowledges and transforms the faith of a spiritually dead person. The Holy Spirit must take this faith and make it effective.

2.       The necessary condition is to respond with positive volition, which is faith in Christ. Faith perception is a necessary choice for salvation.

3.       The Holy Spirit must have something to work with. Our faith in itself does not sanctify us, does not save us, does not put us into union with Christ.

4.       That is the importance of the ministry of efficacious grace. The Holy Spirit takes that faith and makes it effective for salvation. That is grace. We don’t do it by faith; He does it when we express faith.

5.       Without the work of the Holy Spirit, the positive response of the unbeliever could never result in salvation.

Empirical Perception

1.       Even empirical signs had to be believed. They had to be taken as faith.

2.       Empirical signs must be believed by empiricism. Even if you have believed the signs, you still have not come to God.

3.       His miracles satisfied faith-perception, and they believed.

4.       But the same signs which those who expressed faith did not satisfy those who were religious. They were a stumbling block to the religious types.

5.       They could not accept these miracles as empirically true, even though they witnessed them. You’d think that these miracles that they saw time after time after time would eventually click.

6.       The empiricist had already rejected Christ because of his presupposition.

7.       When presented with the evidence that Christ was the Messiah, they did not express faith in Him. That is negative volition from a hardened heart.

8.       Empiricism failed to convert the religious Jews to Christ. They already had an idea of what the Messiah should be.

9.       Empiricism is even more futile today when it comes to approaching Jesus Christ. There are no legitimate signs to satisfy the demands of empiricism. The signs and wonders movement, the vineyard movement, tried to capitalize on this. There is only the gospel message at the end; only that has the power.

10.     This is why faith is the only means of perception which brings us to Christ. His life and miracles were witnessed to by thousands of witnesses. Four gospels are four independent gospels of four witnesses (or material collected from eyewitnesses). This is not blind faith, as we have their witness. The empiricist does not want to believe this. Evolution is based upon a theory based upon facts not in evidence. What passes for evidence is often disputed. And this evidence changes from time to time. When a few bones are found, we hear the theories and the official view of it;; you don’t get the alternate theories, the other possibilities.

Election

1.       Called refers to believers only. They have been effectually called.

2.       In eternity past, God decreed this call.

3.       All members of the human race are potentially called.

4.       The call was only decreed for those whom God foreknew would believe. He saw our positive volition and decreed the call.

5.       Those who were called would be the recipients of common grace. They would believe and then their choice would be made efficacious for salvation. He knew they would believe at gospel hearing.

6.       God’s decree made certain futurition of the call of every believer. A marvelous concept, although difficult to understand. The Jews who were called abandoned empiricism to believe in Christ. Christ, the power of God.

7.       The doctrine of Christ crucified produces effects that nothing short of divine power can reveal.

Problems that Pharisees Had

1.       Even Biblical signs must be understood and believed.

2.       Once the sign is presented and empirically accepted, it must still be accepted as true using faith-perception.

3.       When our Lord’s miracles satisfied the questions of the observers, then they expressed faith-perception and then they believed.

4.       Those same signs that the pharisees refused to believe never satisfied the empirical demands of the religious types. Jesus Christ was a stumbling block to them.

Doctrine of Election

1.       Called always refers to believer. Common grace is part of the call. The gospel is made comprehensible when the Holy Spirit functions as the human spirit for the person, so they can respond with faith in Jesus Christ at understanding the gospel.

2.       Called also refers to common and efficacious grace. Faith does not make you spiritually alive; it puts you into Christ and the Holy Spirit regenerates us.

3.       In eternity past, God decreed the call. This was before we were born and before even earth as created.

4.       All members of the human race are potentially called. Christ died for all mankind. That is what unlimited atonement means. Not all are called.

5.       God agreed to save those who believed. Jesus Christ knew those who would believe in Him.

6.       Christ is the power of God. His death produces the salvation that we need.

The Meaning of the Foolishness of God

1.       God is perfect and His plan is perfect; He is never foolish.

2.       Man is imperfect and his plans are imperfect and sinful; and unable to reach God in any way.

3.       Man is the moron, while contending that God is the moron. This is man’s viewpoint.

A Summary of the Previous Points

1.       The foolishness that man assigns to God is infinitely wiser than the brilliance of man.

2.       The gentiles regarded the cross as childish.

3.       The grace of God is infinitely beyond all the genius machinations of the mind of man.

4.       Only God with His foolishness can save man through Jesus Christ.

5.       God has ordained the nonmeritorious systems of grace.

Application

1.       The Church Age is free from miracles because the Jews were not impressed or swayed by miracles.

2.       The life of the believer depends upon perspicacity by grace through faith.

3.       The believer who hopes for and leans on miracles rejects God’s plan for perspicacity by grace.

4.       The believer who must see God’s work through some sign or supernatural act, then we are relying on empiricism.

5.       The believer who tries to make logical sense of God’s grace through rationalism, then you are a loser. Faith-perception is lost on you. We are a success if we grown by grace orientation and doctrinal intake through faith perception. Rationalism has trouble with grace, as nothing in this life is free.

6.       The believer becomes strong through faith-perception and the Holy Spirit and transferring doctrine to our right lobe by the Holy Spirit.

7.       Epignôsis is the power of God.

8.       God has provided the mechanism for transfer.

9.       False systems of perception in spiritual matters leads to false doctrine.

10.     Scar tissue in the soul is the by-product for failure to use God’s system of spiritual advance.

Summation

1.       Not many of these categories are elected to privilege. God looks after me because I am the downtrodden and under privileged.

2.       What this actually means, is that not many of these types believed in Christ when Paul was in Corinth.

3.       These types did not believe in Christ because their thinking was stuck in rationalism and empiricism. High intelligent types have difficulty understanding grace.

4.       Paul wants the Corinthian believers to think about this. “What do you mean some of these categories cannot believe in Christ. This should suggest, “Who are you, Corinthians? And why are you suddenly so high and mighty?”

5.       God called us to privilege. “You are nothing on your own.”

6.       And now, Corinthians, you have become like the arrogant unbelievers, falling back on human viewpoint and fighting for power in a small pond, the church. “Why are you here? Consider the purpose of your calling.”

Summary

1.       Paul means not many of the intellectual class, or of those having power, or those having great power, or those with great abilities are elected to privilege.

2.       They were tuck in rationalism and empiricism; and they were also tied up with lust and materialism.

3.       Such people as these are impressed with their own IQ’s. they are full of human wisdom and arrogant self-importance.

4.       Paul’s purpose in writing this section is for the Corinthian believer’s to examine themselves. As believers, we should do that now and again. We should evaluate ourselves as far as the spiritual life goes. Doctrine is for these purposes.

5.       The things which elevate people in this world, like knowledge, influence, power and rank, and not things which lead to salvation nor do they impress Him.

6.       What pleases God is His own grace, and those who respond to it by faith alone. Human distinctions are insignificant to God. There might be people around you who wish they were you; but God is not impressed.

 Why it is harder for the rich or wealthy to enter in the Kingdom of God

1.       They were depending upon their wealth, or high station to make themselves commendable to God.

2.       They had proof that they were commendable to God; they had all this wealth and power.

3.       They already had what they needed; grace was for those who were have nots. “I am successful; people look up to me; therefore God must look up at me.” How humans perceive you is meaningless.

4.       They thought they were already acceptable to God because of their merit. They deserved the affirmation of God; weren’t they holy and righteous; didn’t God smile on them?

5.       This was typical of the pharisees, who were impressed with their own self righteousness. They were never impressed with God; they were impressed with themselves.

Now let’s get back to the paradox.

1.       Paul is using paradox to make his point about divine versus human perception.

2.       In other words, grace and faith are foolishness to human viewpoint. This is how people view grace and faith.

3.       Believers who utilize faith perception and grace are incomprehensible in the eyes of the world. Studying the Bible, to the rest of the world, is foolishness to them.

4.       People who are saved by grace through faith out of the Devil’s kingdom, out of his world; you are anathema to those who see human merit as the highest good. So many people see human merit or human achievement as the highest good. Do nothing and God blesses you? That is foolish; this is ridiculous.

5.       This is a huge reason why Christians are persecuted in the devil’s world.

6.       To the rich, the powerful and the famous who are full of arrogance and rejection of the gospel, the foolishness of grace and the childishness of faith preclude their participation. It is foolish and childish in their eyes; I’m not going to take part in that.

7.       Here is the point of paradox; that which the world calls foolish is the absolute grace and wisdom of God.

Paul reflects God’s sense of Humor with Irony

8.       God could have destroyed the strong, to show His strength; He chose instead to discredit them with what they saw as weakness and foolishness. God wanted the grace principles reflected in this teaching.

9.       His grace operates in the weak to discredit the strong.

10.     Without the grace of God, even the strongest human is weak. If you don’t have salvation through utilizing the grace of God, you are weak.

11.     Applied to the circumstances of life. Paul later wrote: For when I am weak, then I am strong; this is a quick summation of 1Cor. 1.

Principles of Application

1.       Every local church should be a training ground for believers executing the spiritual life. It is like lifting weights for explosive power for serious situations. You need to apply doctrine to every aspect of our life.

2.       The strength of every believer is not his human achievement. Bobby suggests that we think about what our greatest personal achievement is. However, our strength is what we have received; not what we do.

3.       Every believer has an obligation to grow in grace. That is our strength. Utilize the grace apparatus for perception.

4.       Every believer possesses this grace apparatus for perception.

5.       Every believer has a spiritual IQ. This is the doctrine in our soul. This develops problem solving devices in the soul. Bible doctrine is our strength. It is all grace. It is always our doing.

6.       Problem solving devices, e.g. grace orientation, discredit the might things of human wisdom. When we are grace oriented, we have a world view which is greater than any unbeliever. The more you think about God’s grace, the stronger we are. The more we stand back and understand what God is doing for us, the stronger we are. What has God done for me in order to handle this situation. What is the divine viewpoint for this situation? Think grace in everything that we do. Put our life together with grace. Grace is our strength.

7.       Doctrine is stronger and wiser than any human intellectual system. It is divine viewpoint; and no man is a match for that. We are smarter than those with human wisdom. Inside of our soul is the absolute wisdom of God.

8.       ἑπίγνωσις must be firmly implanted in the right lobe of the soul in order to provide the application of divine viewpoint that by comparison shows human strength to be weakness. You will be able to see where the faults of human logic lie.

Overview

1.       These base things (people; individuals and their qualities); these are the low-born people and they are contrasted with the well-born unbeliever with all the human advantages. The lowest born believer is greater than the highest born unbeliever.

2.       Most of the disciples of Christ were tax collectors, fishermen, prostitutes. Paul reverses conventional wisdom. The advantage is in the spiritual life. Believers who do not utilize their spiritual resources.

Low Born and High Born

1.       People are not born equal.

2.       There is not equality at the point of physical birth. There is no such thing as equality in the human realm.

3.       All men are created equal means that all are equal under the law (ideally).

4.       No two are born equal. Some attractive; some not; some

5.       This will not change.

6.       The paradox is strength and weakness. Then we have κοσμος. We live in the devil’s world until the return of our Lord. Inequality will be with us always. Genetic tampering cannot bring physical equality. Legislated cannot bring equal justice.

7.       In regeneration, God accomplishes in that moment what man cannot accomplish ever.

8.       This equality begins with union in Christ. Nowhere else do we find that sort of equality.

9.       Grace found a way for equality. Regeneration is the key.

10.     Our volition bring inequality even into the spiritual realm. Everyone at Berachah has some positive volition, accounting for the inequalities. We all have the option of moving forward or not.

11.     We are positioned for equality, and we are all positioned to go forward. Only we can hold ourselves back.

12.     This is why the Lord mandates that we grow in grace.

Low-Born People and Despised People

1.       Believers are despised by the world.

2.       In our faith, we have rejected human systems of perspicacity, empiricism and rationalism, which causes the world to hate you.

3.       Those who are rejected and despised by the world are lifted up by God.

Concluding Points

1.       God has clearly called lowly people.

2.       He has elected objects of contempt.

3.       God has even called those who are below contempt; the lowest of the low. Those who are not even considered.

4.       The world system rejects us as contemptible and inconsequential. However, we are not seen that way by God.

A Summary of the Egotist

1.       The man of learning, of human wisdom, of power, of influence, of wealth often glorifies himself.

2.       He sees himself as someone who should be emulated, even worshiped.

3.       Extreme egotist, who thinks of himself as first, last and always.

4.       This type of person is brought to nothing, because he rejects the grace of God.

Principles of v. 29

1.       If even one Jew can get into heaven by keeping the Law, he could boast before God and negate God’s grace. “I did it; I kept the Law; I made it.”

2.       If even one Gentile could get into heaven with his superior intellect and logic, then he could boast before God and negate God’s grace.

3.       Grace excludes any system of human achievement; rationalism, empiricism, legalism. The most brilliant person cannot get into heaven. Paul had every right to be arrogant, as he was brilliant.

4.       No unbeliever can stand in the presence of God at the last judgment to boast that he has done something to merit God’s favor. It does not matter where we stand in human estimation. Not by wisdom, intelligence, birth, etc.; none of these things matter.

5.       Conclusion and application:

          a.       If anyone could boast before God, this would give the power of flesh in the eyes of men. If God accepted the power and success of mankind, then God’s grace would be obscured.

          b.       When God chose the weak things in the eyes of the world, He could then manifest His own power and glory to the maximum. God chose the weak things of this world so that He could manifest His own power and glory.

          c.        In his own power, man can not accomplish anything toward the plan of God; however, in grace provision, he can accomplish great things to the glory of God. The example of the Cathedrals, which are really monuments to the glory of man, to the architects and artisans; and not to God.

          d.       The glory belonging to God is the principle of grace.

          e.       God said in Isa. 42:8: “I am Jehovah; that is My name; I will not give My glory to another.” Grace will not be subverted to another. It was the grace of God that told Moses Who He was. The duplication of the verb to be. God in His grace gave Moses the Law.

          f.        God cannot relinquish His glory or His grace to any human being so that they can boast of their own merit. If they do, His grace is totally discredited.

Summary of v. 28

1.       God has called lowly people; He has called objects of contempt and even those who are below contempt.

2.       The world’s system of the cosmos reject such people as contemptible and inconsequential.

3.       Ironically, the utterly rejected ones, these are the ones God has chosen, to make kings and royal priests. All of us who are lowly in the eyes of the world are the one’s whom God has chosen to make kings, as we share His kingship. We are royal priests.

4.       The low-born and the despised things are believers who have exercised the grace means of perception for salvation. These believers have rejected rationalism and empiricism as systems by which to attain favor with God.

5.       So the lowest are the highest, not in the sight of the world, but in the sight of God. What we are doing right now is a 100X more important than what any unbeliever is doing; yet they view this as foolish.

Summation of v. 29

1.       This would give the power of the flesh a prominent place in the eyes of man and God would never allow that to be obscured. God would never allow that to be obscured by giving any prominent place to the power of the flesh.

2.       No one can boast that they have accomplished something for salvation or something in the spiritual life, apart from the grace of God.

3.       By choosing the weak things, God could manifest His own power and his own glory through what He has provided these weak things in His grace. When God provides grace, it glorifies Him.

4.       We cannot earn or deserve anything. That is our weakness. What God provides for us becomes our strength. Our sole purpose in life is to glorify God. When we exercise the spiritual assets given us, we glorify God. We glorify God by staying in fellowship and acting in accordance with doctrine.

5.       The glory belonging to God is the principle of grace. God’s grace is His glory. Our using His grace glorifies Him.

6.       God cannot relinquish any of His glory or any of His grace to any human being.

7.       No human could before God boast of his human virtue and worth because no matter how humanly worthy he is, he is unacceptable. No matter how good you are, you aren’t good enough for God. The only thing that impresses God is what do you do with His grace assets.

What is Δικαιοσυνη here?

1.       It means much more than simply being good.

2.       It means righteousness in the sense of God’s standards. God’s +R is perfect.

3.       Man cannot ever meet the righteous standards of God on his own.

4.       If you are going to live with God forever, and have expressed faith alone in Christ alone, then you must be as good as God is.

5.       Therefore, you must possess the righteousness of God. You have no other choice. You must have perfect righteousness. However, you cannot. Or do you?

6.       Christ has had to become (γινομαιν) in order for us to meet God’s standards. God became righteousness for us that we might have the +R of God.

7.       When Christ took on the sins of the world, God the Father’s righteous demands, that we have God’s +R, were satisfied (propitiation). That is the substitution, Christ for us. Christ satisfied the wrath and demands of God’s justice by His death.

8.       When we express faith alone in Christ alone, we become the righteousness of God in Him (2Cor. 5:21).

9.       So at the moment of salvation, God is now free to impute the +R of Christ to us. He just gives it to us. We all have perfect righteousness. It was given to us; imputed to us the moment that we were saved. Justice has been served by Christ. We have the righteousness of God imputed to each one of us.

10.     Δικαιοσυνη refers to imputed righteousness. It is what is given to us at the moment of salvation.

11.     This is the same +R that Christ possesses as part of His essence. However, we are still as much a sinner as we have ever been. However, we have perfect +R.

3 great blessings based upon our imputed +R:

1.       We are justified.

2.       We are beneficiaries of God’s personal love. When we have His +R, God can love us personally.. However, before, He could only love us impersonally, based upon His character. John 4:10–11.

3.       Beneficiaries of grace blessings and logistical support for spiritual advance.

Results of Imputed Righteousness

1.       It excludes human righteousness and legalistic systems and legitimate Christian service as a means of receiving blessing from God.

2.       Blessing is God’s grace that comes through what has been called the grace pipeline. God has perfect +R, perfect +J and are very close and sometimes under the title of δικαιοσυνη. The third one is personal love, which can function because His perfect justice and righteousness have been met. This grace blessings must have a target in us, which is imputed righteousness. God gives us blessing because of His righteousness in us. It is all His grace.

3.       Sharing His +R is the foundation for building a system of experiential virtue, also based upon grace. Part of the blessings which come down the grace pipeline is equal privilege and equal opportunity in the Christian life to advance. Attaining this virtue means that you maintain your fellowship and you advance to the high ground.

4.       When this happens, this engenders what could be called a capacity righteousness. Capacity righteousness means you can grow in righteousness, and it is a potential and it is based upon the utilization of our spiritual skills.

5.       As you gain capacity righteousness, you can always be relaxed about the failure, sinfulness and evil which is around you and not become self-righteous.

Missionary from Brazil Tim L. He is a missionary’s son. 187 million people in Brazil. His father died in 2002 and stayed in a place where there were Italians. Returned to the US was something which this guy experienced once every 5 years. He found it to be a really nice place to hang out. He studied in Brazilian schools. His studies and college all in Portugese. He came in contact with Berachah in his college days, and at that time, had to decide whether he was going to take Christianity seriously. He always had to be in church as a child at home. When he was in college, he had to choose for himself. It is when he came in contact with Berachah when it put a lot of things together for him. He always taught a lot.

 

He took on the work of a camp of his father. The people were not supporting it. He wanted the Brazilians to feel it was theirs. They were only concerned with what happens to the assets when it was abandoned. People were charged to stay there and it became self-supporting. He is moving away from the camp and his son is taking over the camp. He had the opportunity to teach there as well. Most of his teaching was a one-shot deal. There is so much more to Christianity than avoiding hell. There is so much more when it comes to the blessing we are given here on earth. When he was invited back to various places, he would be able to teach a lot more.

 

His father was skeptical of Berachah. He stopped teaching and went to a church and stopped being a front man, and he was up front with them and said, “I study under a guy who is very controversial.” It turns out that there was someone who was there who was also turned onto the Thieme. They had the faith-rest book. He worked there for 17 years as a teacher.

 

Of course, they also translate. He is asked, where do you get this or that? After many people showed interest, he organized a translation. Brazilians are not great readers. Some did read them. Started classes where the basic doctrines were taught. Many of Bob’s books are rendered into Portugese. More people in the world who speak Portugese in the world than Spanish, even though this language is found only in Brazil in South America (I believe). Also in Africa, Angola, Mozambique, and a few other places. Beautiful beaches and coast land. Most have settled along the coast land. Just recently that cities on the interior have begun to grow a great deal. 20 years ago, these were just groups of shacks and huts. Now there are lights and asphalt and electricity.

 

His father was one of the founders of the Brethren churches. If you walk in with a Bible, they ask, do you teach? And then they say, “The pulpit is yours.” Not a lot of sound doctrine is taught, therefore. A lot of singing, and they like that. When someone begins teaching, the members wander about and get water, etc. 50% maybe pay attention. Many ask, are you sure about that? Most are from a Catholic background and they concentrate on the literal blood of Christ. Some of that is found in the Brethren and Protestant churches.

 

Isa. 53:10: His soul was put as expiation for us.

 

He just moved to a place in Brazil. You’ll be invited all over the place for the novelty. Most of the churches were started by groups of people, without pastors. They do evangelize and they are not charismatic and they do value the word of God. They don’t get all these open messages. However, they don’t have pastors. 75 churches in this state, and he has taught in about 8 of them. In about 2 years, only a handful will continue to invite you back.

Conclusion of Chapter 1

1.       Paul has clearly presented grace in the form of the grace apparatus for perception. In the paradox, Paul teaches great things. You may be foolish in the eyes of the world, but you are everything in the eyes of God.

2.       The reality of God’s blessings and our nonexistent part of procuring them.

3.       All human machinations of wisdom and power and wealth are foolishness in the face of divine wisdom, power and resources and eternity.

          a.       How hard we strive in this life for a short amount of time. We have more riches than we can possibly imagine.

4.       No one is saved or grows to maturity using human wisdom, strength, or worldly position (influence or power). One is only saved through God’s wise plan via the cross.

5.       Paul is now ready to continue his defense of grace and his method of teaching to the Corinthians. These people need grace. They want to be on top. They want to dictate to the others policy. They want the power. Paul will show us in chapter 2 that his own wisdom would never save others. Paul came to Corinth as an orator, but he did not use oratory. He could have discussed philosophy with the best of them, but he did not approach them from that standpoint. He approached the Corinthians as a witness. Your powers of persuasion will not be enough to convince anyone else. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ which reaches other people. True wisdom is God’s viewpoint.

Election Review

1.       The sovereignty of God willed the highest and best for every believer.

2.       Election is the plan of God for believers only.

3.       God elected believers in the sense that, He knew ahead of time, if given free will and given the choice, that they would freely choose to believe in Christ, uncoerced by God.

4.       Then God decreed in eternity past that such an act of faith would take place. He made certain that an offer of salvation would occur. He did not make us believe.

5.       He decreed that salvation would occur and that all of the gracious advantages would be given to those who believe in Jesus Christ.

Witnessing

1.       Exhale of επιγνωσις from the right lobe of the soul. This means that you must inhale something first to exhale. You begin to understand more and more about God’s grace and what occurred in order for you to be saved. That is your inhale. Then you can clearly present the gospel. You can only exhale when you have something in your soul to exhale. It is our responsibility to give the gospel to the unbelieving world. Have you ever practiced giving the gospel? Can you make it clear and precise to the unbeliever. 10 or 12 pastors were asked to give the gospel and most of them were very confusing. In our congregation, we should have no excuse. That is our responsibility. This type of επιγνωσις is absolutely critical in order to present the gospel.

2.       The content that Paul preached was from his ἑπίγνωσις understanding of grace that is necessary to make the gospel lucid.

3.       Paul communicated from his spiritual IQ and not from his human IQ.

4.       The Holy Spirit brings to mind at just the right time with just the right approach. You might spend years with a personal who is an unbeliever. However, there may be the one moment when the door is open. The Holy Spirit is intimately involved in timing.

5.       This is when the unbeliever is most open to the message and when you are ready to give them the message. If you are ready, the Holy Spirit will provide the opportunity.

6.       Since this was Paul’s approach in Corinth, he was very successful; he was not successful in Athens.

A Summation of Paul’s Argument and the Gospel

1.       God produced a system of perception by grace rather than use the persuasive abilities of man.

2.       Since God’s plan is grace, no one can be saved because of human intelligence or brilliant rhetoric.

3.       People are saved because of the grace apparatus for perceiving the gospel.

4.       God does not ever use human resources as part of His plan for salvation. It is not us, it is the grace of God. If you forget this, the grace of God is lost in your presentation. We do not have to do anything; nor for salvation; not for the presentation of the gospel. You must drive home the point of grace. God does use people in order to communicate His gospel. We communicate via the power of the Holy Spirit; we communicate His grace message; and we communicate in order to receive a grace response.

5.       Therefore, human intelligence and human eloquence are never the means of witnessing. A good salesperson would have trouble with this. He is used to closing the sale. We have that tendency, but we have to fight that.

6.       It is presenting the grace message of the gospel and allowing the Holy Spirit to do the rest. Practice in the mirror and then present it.

Grace Under Pressure

1.       There is never a moment when a believer has a greater affect than we he is under pressure and he handles it with poise and grace.

2.       Grace under pressure—here, this is something for the world to see and it is obvious.

3.       Grace under pressure is a believer who responds to a crisis with eyes on the Lord rather than reacts with eyes o self.

4.       The one who exhibits grace under pressure keeps the bigger picture of God’s plan in mind when all hell breaks loose all around them. You must look at the wider picture.

5.       This is one of the greatest witnesses of the spiritual life in action; that is proof of the gospel. That is attractive.

Testimony of the Life

1.       Practical application definition: parents should remember that your children will follow your example instead of your advice. You can talk until you are blue in the face, and it makes no difference.

2.       The testimony of your life can be a hang up for the unbeliever. Your spiritual life may not match your words. The unbeliever is obviously not grace oriented. Mature believer can overlook your faults; unbelievers will not.

3.       The Holy Spirit can do His work in spite of you; even if you are a hang up for someone. If you present your words, they may plant the seat for someone else. The message of grace has power. The Word of God is alive and powerful.

4.       The testimony of the life is the personal condition of the life exhibited by the believer which cause the unbeliever to want to know about Jesus Christ.

5.       Once in the circumstances, the unbeliever will receive the verbal proof from the gospel. You can s