December 2012

Paul! Apollos! Cephas! - Part Two

 

Yesterday's lesson pointed out two opposing views about regenerate people. When you put this dispute between the two camps in the context of what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 3, it is not all that difficult to reconcile them. First, what Paul is saying is that these Christians in Corinth were acting like unbelievers. I ask the question: don't you know of Christians who act like unbelievers? Of course you do. They are worldly; they act in a carnal way. That doesn't mean that there is a second, separate category of Christians, consisting of those who act in a way they should not be acting. What they have to do is get out of that. They do have to change, and if they are really born again, they will change.

Paul! Apollos! Cephas! - Part One

 

In my Bible, the section heading to 1 Corinthians 3 is called "On Divisions in the Church." That is what this chapter is all about. There are two themes in this chapter that have divided Christians: one theme is this matter of the carnal or worldly Christian, and the other is this matter of being saved, yet so as by fire. In both of these passages, there are significant divisions.

Deep Things of God - Part Five

 

All week we have been examining 1 Corinthians 2:6-16. Have you discovered the main point that Paul is making? He stresses that the basis of all communication, the basis on which regeneration takes place, and the point at which we have illumination by the Spirit is the Word of God, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

Deep Things of God - Part Four

 

Some six years after receiving that letter, I did a men’s luncheon series on Scripture: what it is, how we received it, how we understand it, and such questions. In one of the sessions I was to give an address on dealing with Bible difficulties. One of the illustrations I prepared for this question about Bible difficulties quoted this man from western Canada. I made the point that it is not really a question of overwhelming difficulties; it is a question of how you approach the Word of God. Will you give it the benefit of the doubt? Will you try to understand it? Or will you come to it first of all with the question, Are there difficulties?

Deep Things of God - Part Three

 

Some years ago, I received a letter from a pastor out in western Canada who was asking a number of questions about what he perceived to be contradictions in the pages of the Word of God. I could not tell from his letter whether this was a genuine question or whether he was one of those people who already have their mind made up and was just giving, in the form of questions, the reason why he would not believe that the Bible is the Word of God. But I took his questions seriously and I answered them at some length.

Deep Things of God - Part Two

 

In 1 Corinthians Paul is talking about how people suppress the knowledge of God in nature. He says the result is what he quotes from the Old Testament: "No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him." Is that because there is nothing to be seen? No, it is there to be seen. We just do not see it. Is that because God has not spoken? No, he has spoken, but we do not hear. Is that because the Gospel cannot be understood by the operation of the human mind? No, the Gospel is the great wisdom of God. But although we have minds, we do not put them to task.

Deep Things of God - Part One

 

"But God because of the great love he has for us has made us alive in Christ." Those are Paul’s words as they are written in the second chapter of Ephesians (v. 4). In this verse, and in many others like it, there is a great contrast highlighted in the words "but God." Those two words also occur in the fifth chapter of Romans. There, Paul says that for the love of a good man, someone might be bold enough to die. Then in the next verse we read, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). On one hand, you have what is possible with man. Then the God of the impossible is brought in.

Not Many Wise - Part Five

 

Yesterday we looked at how the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans were all offended by Paul’s message of the cross. So what did Paul do when faced with this opposition? When he preached to the Romans, he preached Christ crucified in weakness, but in the power of God. When he preached to the Jews, he preached Christ, who came not as a sign, but to die and give his life as a ransom for many in the power of God. When he preached to the Greeks, he did not preach Christ, the wisdom of man, but Christ, the simple Gospel, the simple Savior who died in order that we might be saved. And that was the power of God to the Greeks, as well as to the Jews, as well as to the Romans.

Not Many Wise - Part Four

 

Theories will come and go. Today's theory about psychology, or sociology, or science is very quickly superseded by another theory. We know perfectly well how passing all of that is. Yet, there is the Gospel, which endures, which is based on the very nature of God (who is reality himself) and which changes not. The world says, "Oh, all that is foolishness."

Not Many Wise - Part Three

 

Yesterday’s lesson mentioned Carl Sagan’s book and television series on evolution, Cosmos. Today I want to point out the great errors in Sagan’s approach to things. Let me suggest a few. The first is the error of supposing that all there is can be observed by the human eye. I cannot see anything spiritual, but I can see planets, and atoms, and the relationships between those things. So I assume that that is all there is. If all I can imagine is only what I can see - and that is what Sagan is talking about - that is utter foolishness because at the beginning, in a most unscientific way, it excludes the possibility of the existence of a God who stands over and beyond the creation.