Epistle of First Corinthians V

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Let's continue on in 1-Cor. 2, and what I want to do is cover and expound a little bit more of this particular section concerning God's Spirit and God's Spirit revealing things to us.

1-Corinthians 2:10: "But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit…" The 'us' in this case refers to the Apostle Paul and the ministers. Someone will surely say that God isn't going to reveal it to church members. That's not the case! God will reveal it to church members, and this is not in any way meant to be a ministerial noose around church members. 'How dare you say or do anything because you'll be against the ministry.' We're talking about God's Spirit has revealed things to us!

"…for the Spirit searches all things—eventhe deep things of God. For who among men understands the things of man except by the spirit of man which is in him? In the same way also, the things of God no one understands except by the Spirit of God" (vs 10-11).

I tell you, after seeing all these political things going on, I am so glad that we understand God's Word and have His Spirit to understand. We don't fully understand what it's going to be like when we rule in the Kingdom of God, but I tell you we can learn an awful lot by seeing the mistakes that these people are making so that we know that that's not going to be in the Kingdom of God. It won't be that way!

Verse 12: "Now, we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is of God, so that we might know the things graciously given to us by God; which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit in order to communicate spiritual things by spiritual means" (vs 12-13).

The Holy Spirit of God

Let's understand about the Spirit of God. I have probably about two inches of articles on the Holy Spirit that we could get into, but I'm not going to do a long thing on the Spirit of God.

The Spirit of God is the Power of God—not a trinity. Not a third person in the Godhead. Let's see where it's talking about the Spirit of God. Isn't it interesting, as you follow through on this, Gen. 1:1 reveals God, and v 2 reveals the Spirit of God.

Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters…. [hovered or moved. What happened then? God spoke and the Spirit of God performed it! That was the power, the actuating power to do it.] …And God said, 'Let there be light.' And there was light." (vs 1-3)—and so forth.

We're going to see how the Holy Spirit is the power of God! Luke 1—this is talking about the time when Mary was to be conceived by the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:35: "And the angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit…'"

Unfortunately, the King James has 'ghost.' All the Pentecostals make a big thing out 'ghost.' It's sad, there are so many things that could be done with radio and television, but it's awfully hard to get the Truth out on those media. Every once in a while on Sunday I flip through and see some of these preachers and ministers that are there it's just something else; it's incredible! They are all part of the world, and they're allowing more and more of the Pentecostals on—'baptism of the Holy Ghost.' They go on and on about the 'Holy Ghost.'

The Greek word for Spirit is 'pneuma' and the Greek word for Holy is 'hagios'; and 'pneuma' is the word that is used by the King James translators for 'ghost.' It should be Spirit.

Verse 35: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you…" Very simple deductive argument: IF the Holy Spirit were a person: Who was the Father of Jesus Christ? God the Father? or the Holy Spirit? It would be the Holy Spirit IF it were a person! Since we know that is not true and God the Father is the Father; the Holy Spirit then is the power by which God does things, and it says so right here:

"…the power of the Highest shall overshadow you…" (v 35)—showing that it is the power of God!

Luke 3:22: "And the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in a bodily form like a dove…"—upon Christ.

• Why did it do that?
• Does this mean that the Holy Spirit is a dove?
• Does this mean that the Holy Spirit has a body form?

There would people who would read that and say so; claim that the Holy Spirit has a bodily shape. How can it be a person in a dove? We'll take them in their own reasoning.

What it really says is 'if the Holy Spirit descended—which it did—in a bodily shape—which it did—that tells us that most of the time it's not in a bodily shape; and like a dove, came upon Christ.

• Why did it do that?
• Why did the Holy Spirit manifest itself in this particular fashion, in a bodily form like a dove when it came upon Jesus Christ?
• So the ones around could see it!
• Who was told He would see it?
• John the Baptist!

The reason it did was not because it was a dove, or not because it has a body, but because God said how John would be able to identify Who the Messiah was. Very simple!

If the Holy Spirit is supposed to be a person, and it is also supposed to be a dove, how on earth then can it be a fire? Those are hard questions people haven't asked. It is the power of God!

Luke 4:1 "And Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit…" If it's fire, then Jesus had to be full of fire—right? If it's a dove, then He had to eat all kinds of doves—right? If it's a person, then Christ was possessed—right? All of those you would have to say 'NO' because it is the power of God! Can a person be filled with the power of God? Yes! That's what it's talking about.

Luke 8:43[corrected]—here's how the Holy Spirit works: "And a woman who had been afflicted with a flow of blood for twelve years, and had spent her whole living on physicians, but could not be cured by anyone, came behind Him and touched the border of His garment; and immediately the flow of her blood stopped. And Jesus said, 'Who touched Me?'…. [just the border of His garment] …And as everyone began to deny it, Peter and those with Him said, 'Master, the multitudes are thronging and pressing You, and You ask, "Who touched Me?"' But Jesus said, 'Someone touched Me, because I know that power went out from Me'" (vs 43-46). The Greek word for power is 'dunamis.' We have the English word dynamite that comes from this Greek word 'dunamis.' This means it was power.

Let's look at the Greek word for 'the power of the Highest will come upon you' (Luke 1:35)—the word for power is 'dunamis'—which means power or force. The other word for power is 'exousia'—which means the power of authority, the right to do something, the authority to do something. You may have 'exousia'—authority to do something; but if you do not have 'dunamis' you don't have the power to do it. You may have authority from the state to build a house on this location, but you have to remove this huge rock first. If you don't have the power—the 'dunamis'—to get rid of this rock, you're not going to be able to exercise your authority—'exousia'—to put the house there.

So, when Jesus said in Luke 8:46: "But Jesus said, 'Someone touched Me, because I know that power went out from Me.'" Did a dove go out of Him? No! Did another person go out of Him? No! It was power—the power of the Holy Spirit. That's how He did everything that He did.

By this time the woman was scared to death, but probably thrilled to life, v 47: "Then the woman, seeing that her act was not concealed, came trembling; and after falling down in front of Him before all the people, she declared for what cause she had touched Him, and how she had immediately been healed. And He said to her, 'Be of good courage, daughter; your faith has healed you. Go in peace'" (vs 47-48). Sometimes when it looks like correction is going to come, maybe there's going to be a blessing that's going to come.

This woman was probably scared to death—in that terminology—just saying, 'I don't want to bother Him. If I can just get up to Him and just touch His garment, I'll be healed.' Jesus did this, not to correct anybody, but to confound even His disciples that He knew when things were done and the power came from Him!

That's really something—isn't it? The closest I can come to really comprehending this is what we call static electricity. I think twice I've kissed my wife with static electricity and boy we both got zapped on our lips.

In this section of 1-Cor. 2 we're going to see that there is a combination of three things:

• the Spirit of God
• the spirit of man
• the spirit of Satan

Titus 3:5—here again, we're going to be talking about the Holy Spirit as the power of God: "Not by works of righteousness which we practiced… [for salvation] …but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration… [baptism] …and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which He richly poured out upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior" (vs 5-6). Once again showing that it is the power of God. He sheds it upon us! I have yet to see a person shed. It won't happen. It is a commodity that God gives us—a spiritual commodity.
2-Timothy 1:6: "For this reason, I admonish you to stir up the gift of God…" The Holy Spirit is a gift; Jesus called it a gift of God. You cannot buy it. Remember what happened when Simon Magus tried to buy it? Peter said, 'You cannot buy the gift of God with money.'

"…that is in you by the laying on of my hands…. [It's something that comes with the laying on of hands.] …For God has not given us a spirit of fear… [there is a spirit of fear and we'll see who that comes from] …but of power, and of love, and of sound-mindedness" (vs 6-7). That's what the Holy Spirit is supposed to do for us—give us these things.

1-Peter 1:12: "To whom it was revealed that, not for themselves, but to us they were ministering these things, which now have been announced to you by those who have preached the Gospel to you by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven—into which things the angels desire to look."

One other verse in the book of Acts, and this will tie in concerning how God reveals things to us. Acts 5:29—this is when the apostles were preaching and the priests told them not to preach in His name, do not fill Jerusalem with this weird thing that they're doing.

Acts 5:29: "But Peter and the apostles answered and said, 'We are obligated to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus Whom you killed by hanging Him on a tree. Him has God exalted by His right hand to be a Prince and Savior, to give repentance and remission of sins to Israel. And we are His witnesses of these things, as is also the Holy Spirit, which God has given to those who obey Him.'" (vs 29-32). So, the Holy Spirit can only be given when a person is obeying God.

• You cannot buy it!
• You cannot merchandize it!

It's a power that comes from God and you have to be obedient and loving God and submissive to God to receive and to keep the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of Man

It says, 'What things knows a man save the spirit of man that is in him.' There will be some people who may be confused that the soul is the same as the spirit. It's not!

1-Thessalonians 5:23: "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your entire spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." It's showing that there is:

• the body—the 'corpus nephesh'
• the soul—the physical life of the body
• the spirit—also part of the life, but it is mostly the intellect and motivating power in the mind to give you conscious thought

James 2:26: "For as the body without the spirit is dead…" If you don't have the spirit, the body is dead! Can they keep a dead person alive, even though the spirit may not be there? They can keep them alive for a while by keeping the physical soul in the blood! That's where the power of physical life is, in the blood. They can keep the body a vegetable existence, even though it is dead.

That's what they did with this woman who was four months pregnant and she had a brain tumor and she died. She was dead! But they kept her physical body alive for 12 weeks or so, and the baby was born. That's a difference between body and soul and spirit.

The spirit in man gives us the knowledge of the things of human beings. That's what we think with. That's what activates the physical part of our brain to make it think. Much like a computer. The computer will be able to think and memorize and do things if it has a program and electricity. Just like with our physical brain—liken that to a computer—education is to a program that you put into a computer, but it isn't going to do any good unless you have the electricity—or the spirit of man—to make it work; so we'll work.

You hear many times about people who have a spiritual quality about them. Sometimes it may be a little more than just human spirit. Is it the Spirit of God? or the spirit of Satan? How can you know? You will know them by their fruits!

Job 32:1: "And these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes…. [even more righteous than God] …Then was kindled the anger of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram. His wrath burned against Job, because he had justified himself rather than God. Also his wrath was kindled against his three friends, because they had found no answer, and yet, had condemned Job" (vs 1-3).

At the end of this is Elihu did not have a sacrifice offered for him on his behalf. But Job had to have one for himself, and one for his three friends, but not Elihu.

Verse 4: "Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were older than he in days. When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath was kindled. And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, 'I am young, and you are very old; therefore I was afraid, and dared not show you my opinion. I said, "The aged should speak, and the multitude of years should teach wisdom."…. [supposed to—right?] …But there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty gives them understanding. Great men are not always wise; neither do the aged understand justice" (vs 4-9). It is how you think, not the fact that you can think.

That's what's so important. That's why whenever you're discussing something about the Bible, it is how you arrive at your conclusion. Always remember this: Always begin with what you know, what is clear! That is easy to understand! Then you take the next step and make sure that it verifies back and forth! There are two major kinds of reasoning and decisions making:

• deductive reasoning—goes upon proven facts that you know and you move to the next step and then you double check back where you came from and ask: Does it still hold up?

In other words, does A always equal B. If you go to C, does C equal A and B, and so forth. Example:

• God is good—which He is
• God is love—which He is
• God's laws are right and good—which they are

Therefore, the laws of God are good for us. That's deductive reasoning.

• inductive reasoning—by parallel or analogy.

You have to prove the existence of God by deductive and inductive reasoning—both.

Here is inductive reasoning: You come to work one morning and you see there's a hole in the glass and it's jagged. You walk up to the door and you move it and it's open. So, you walk inside and you find that all of the desk drawers have been pilfered, everything turned upside down. You find that there are muddy footprints, money is gone, many valuables out of the office are missing—the computer, typewriter—and you conclude from what you observe that a thief had broken and stolen these things. But you do not have absolute proof because you haven't seen him. That is inductive reasoning.

This is the whole thing that they have with a lot of these murder mysteries and things on television. You can change that a little bit.

When the investigation of this thing is finished, you find out that a thief was not there, rather it was really the boss and he had been stealing money and embezzling it from the company and he had a girlfriend on the side and was in trouble. So, he had to make it appear that a thief was there, but it wasn't the kind of thief that you thought it was. That's where inductive reasoning breaks down when it comes to proving absolute things.

That's where people get themselves in trouble in reasoning with the Bible—when they use inductive reasoning rather than deductive reasoning. They come to the wrong conclusions.

It is the spirit in man that gives us the mental ability, "…and the inspiration of the Almighty gives them understanding" (v 8). We're going to see that this is very, very important concerning how God reveals things to us. We're also going to see that this is very important concerning what God is going to reveal and not reveal and that a person does not necessarily have to be converted to have something of God revealed to them by His Spirit. God will reveal certain things.

Genesis 41—this is the account of where the Pharaoh had the dream and he couldn't understand the dream. Have you ever had a time when you've been working on a problem, or thinking on something, or something has just been bothering you?

Genesis 41:8: "And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dream, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh."

• Did God inspire the dream? Yes, he did!
• Was Pharaoh converted? No, he wasn't!

Notice what happened when he didn't get this resolved in his mind: "…his spirit was troubled…" Whenever you have something that is bothering you or that you're thinking on, that you cannot get resolved, what happens? You can't sleep! You can't think of anything else! Your mind is obsessed with it!

That's what happened here. The intellectual spiritual power of your mind is so intent on solving that, that your spirit is troubled. When someone goes wacky, what happens? Everything gets short-circuited! They can't reason correctly and the spirit tries to work, but it doesn't. And there is such a thing as demon-possession.

Of course, there are a lot of people who see demons behind everything: there's a smoking demon, there's a drinking demon, there's a speed demon, and they go around and rebuke demons everywhere. That's part of the Pentecostal thing, which keeps them locked into their own demonism.

Numbers 11:16: "And the LORD said to Moses, 'Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and the officers over them. And bring them to the tabernacle of the congregation so that they may stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take of the Spirit, which is upon you, and will put it upon them… [Here God is adding an extra amount of His Holy Spirit to be with these men] …and they shall bear the burden of the people with you so that you do not bear it yourself alone'" (vs 16-17).

Again, how the Holy Spirit is interacting and working with someone who is not necessarily converted. Moses was, but certainly some of the elders weren't. Remember the man who did all of the gold work and carvings for the tabernacle—listed in the book of Genesis? He had a spirit of wisdom from God to do that.

Psalm 32:2: "Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile." That's quite an interesting little verse—isn't it? Maybe this will help us understand about what can happen to the spirit of a person. It's given to you for intellect and reasoning—right? But what happens when it's used for deceitfulness so much and so long something happens to it that it cannot function correctly. It's called guile here.

You've heard of people who have told lies so long that they can't tell the truth even when the truth is better. Something's wrong in the mind. And until they repent and they are healed of God, guess what? They're in trouble with God!

Psalm 51:10: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me…. [In other words, make right, anew] …Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and let Your free spirit uphold me" (vs 10-12). There again, the interaction of God's Spirit with the spirit of man.

Proverbs 16:18: "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." It's talking about how this spirit of man can be perverted and twisted.

Verse 32: "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit is better than he who takes a city." It's something you have to rule and control.

What happens when it becomes all haughty and perverse. There's such a thing as a perverse spirit. It talks about it here in the book of Proverbs.

Proverbs 18:14: "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a broken spirit who can bear?" It can become wounded. People can become hurt. The spirit can become wounded to the point that it's almost impossible for them to recover out of it.

You've heard of 'breaking the spirit' of people. Break the spirit of your children; break the spirit of an animal. It really is, it's never the same. If you break the spirit of a horse, it's never the same. It is worthless; it is no good. Same way if you break the spirit of a person. You can do that. They call that 'brainwashing.' You can actually 'break the spirit.' That means that you put such a strain on the mind, in the spirit, that it becomes perverted, twisted, incapable of working properly. They need to be healed. So, you can actually destroy a person, ruin their spirit—break their spirit.

There's such a thing as a 'bitter spirit.' Not just an attitude. What gives the attitude? How you use your spirit! This also shows that you, in your own free moral agency, are responsible for what you do to this spirit that you have. If you have authority over others, you're also responsible for what you do to others that have that spirit.

We're going to talk a little bit about one of the things that I was concerned about when I was in Worldwide (Church of God). It was said, 'The Catholics may be all wrong in everything, but they have the right form of government from the top down.' They don't have the right form of government! They do not! What happens is when you read about the Churches there in Rev. 2 & 3? They all have their problems! What was instilled in the Church was not a spirit of love, but a spirit of fear, which preyed upon the carnalities of the people. They were never able to go any further.

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The Spirit of Satan/Spirit of the World

1-Corinthians 2:12: "Now, we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is of God…"

I was listening to a talk show and this woman called in and she says, 'I love Christmas. I love everything about it. It makes me feel so good. I get all these gifts and I do all of these things.' There's a perfect example of a person is caught up in the spirit of this world. The word for spirit is 'pneuma.'

Who is the god of this world? Satan! Let's see how the spirit of this world—and I imagine that there were people saying, 'Oh, Baal is wonderful!' You know they would!

2-Corinthians 4:1: "Therefore, having this ministry, according as we have received mercy, we are not fainthearted. For we have personally renounced the hidden things of dishonest gain, not walking in cunning craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the Truth, we are commending ourselves to every man's conscience before God. But if our Gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those who are perishing; in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe…" (vs 1-4).

The spirit of this world comes from Satan the devil who is the 'god of this world,' who is able to do something with the minds of people; and he does it by spiritual power. Plus nowadays he has everything else to go along with that.

"…lest the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should shine unto them" (v 4).

Let's just carry this one step further. Satan does not have to do it by possession—I'm not talking about Satan possession. Satan possession is something else.

Ephesians 2:1: "Now you were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you walked in times past according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air…" The Greek here is not 'dunamis'; in this particular case it is authority.

Satan has certain powers, but they are limited. He has certain powers to do certain things, but he cannot be everywhere all at once. He can only be in one place at one time. But he has powers that reach out beyond him, but not clear around the whole world. He's called "…the prince of the power of the air…"

"…the spirit… ['pneuma'—called the spirit of the world] …that is now working within the children of disobedience" (v 2). Can there be people who are not Satan-possessed, but are nevertheless spiritually controlled by Satan? In tune with him? Yes! Yes, indeed, there can be! Especially those who are dedicated to his worship.

Verse 3: "Among whom also we all once had our conduct in the lusts of our flesh, doing the things willed by the flesh and by the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as the rest of the world."

That's not to say that everyone who does not have the Spirit of God necessarily has the spirit of Satan. We know that every human being has the spirit of man that is in them, which God has given. That is the little bit of light that lights all men. That comes from God. What you do then with that is what we're talking about here: the spirit of the world, the spirit of the prince of the power of the air.

Let's see how he does this, Ephesians 6:10: "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the might of His strength. Put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, because we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against powers, against the world rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual power of wickednessin high places" (vs 10-12). Is it any wonder that international politics, by nature, are deceitful? There it is right there!

That's why when Herbert Armstrong went to the various world leaders on the basis that he did, he wasn't preaching the Gospel; he was not! He was going to visit them on their terms, and what happened? It got all involved in lust, deceit, sin and downfall! That's what you're up against.

Verse 16: "Besides all these, take up the shield of the faith, with which you will have the power to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." That's how Satan works. You could actually translate 'fiery darts' from the Greek as fiery missiles of passion. So, it's not constant, it comes like throwing darts.

We have this cute little thing in the world showing cupids and when someone is in love, what happens? They're supposed to have a bow and arrow and shoot you with love. Well, it's not little cupid dolls sending the little arrows. We have seen:

• the spirit of the power of the air
• the spirit of the world
• the spirit of fear

When you use the tactics of Satan within the Church of God, you're going to have the results of Satan's work. We're to fear God, but should we all run around in trepidation and fear of ministers and be fearful of authority. This is what happened—isn't it? That is a device of Satan the devil.

When I first heard this thing where it was said that the Catholics have it right because they have government from the top down. I thought to myself, why does the Church of God have to use the devices of Satan to do the work of God. It didn't make any sense to me. That's when I woke up to what was really the true facts in it.

Romans 8:14: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Now, you have not received a spirit of bondage again unto fear…" The spirit of bondage is the attitude of sin. It is also a spirit of fear.

When you take and you control people with fear, you're using a device of Satan the devil, which is going to result in the same problems and difficulties that you find with other organizations that use that. It won't work! God being merciful may not let the effects come out completely, as it would with Satan, but just that tactic of using it isn't right.

• Why should we be fearful?
• What is it that all great people in the world must do?
• They must isolate themselves so people don't get to know them!

You do this by mystique, you do it by fear—many different ways. I go back and look what happened in Worldwide—this is the first time I've talked about it in a long time, so please forgive me. We're supposed to learn lessons from what we've gone through, so I'll just mention it here. When the spirit of fear of authority is used, it is generally used to cover up the sins of the hierarchy—nine times out of ten! 'How dare you question…'

First of all, they need to be above reproach and not be involved in those things. So, there doesn't have to be that kind of fear. There doesn't have to be that at all. I'm glad that we don't have any of it here. Fear can be a substitute for faith. You do things out of fear rather than out of faith!

If you have faith, God is going to do it; He will do it! And He will do it in ways that many times you won't even think. Many times you won't even know. He'll provide for us, with faith, in a way that we don't expect. That is terrific! That's all a part of faith.

We're going to see that all of these things work together with the next thing that we find, that works together with this automatically.

1-Corinthians 2:10: "But God has revealed them… [we're going to talk about how God makes it possible for us to know things] …to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things—eventhe deep things of God." The word for reveal comes from the Greek 'apokalupto'—verb, and the noun form is 'apokalupsis'—which is manifestation, revelation, coming, appearing. The verb form is to reveal, to show, to manifest, or to make known.

• How does God do it?
• Is it possible for God to reveal something to someone who is not even in the Church?
• Who is not even being called of God?

Romans 1:17: "For therein the righteousness of God is revealed from faith unto faith, according as it is written: 'The just shall live by faith.'" That's how the revelation is going to take place. It is a revealing!

Verse 18: "Indeed, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the Truth in unrighteousness." God reveals certain things. He can reveal it to people not in the Church. He can reveal His anger. That's what He's doing here:

Verse 19: "Because that which may be known of God is manifest… [revealed] …among them, for God has manifested it to them; for the invisible things of Him are perceived from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that were made…" (vs 19-20).

God has revealed that He is Creator, by the things that He has made. It's so astounding; it's almost beyond belief the things that God has revealed concerning His creation. Yet, men turn around and they just completely reject God. But He has revealed it to them. In other words, to reveal to a carnal-minded person, what do you do? You present physical evidence! You have the physical evidence of the earth; that's quite a revealing—isn't it? Yes, it is! It is there—physical evidence. It is there!

Verse 20: "For the invisible things of Him are perceived from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that were made—both His eternal power and Godhead—so that they are without excuse."

Let's carry this one step further. Let's see how the Spirit of God can reveal things to those who are not converted, yet. In this particular place the disciples were not yet converted.

John 14:17: "Even the Spirit of the Truth, which the world cannot receive because it perceives it not, nor knows it; but you know it because it dwells with you… [When we first talked about the Spirit of God, how it hovers (Gen. 1), God's Spirit can with someone] …and shall be within you." God can reveal things to people with His Spirit being with them. When it becomes in them, then they have the sonship, which comes from God. God can reveal those things.

Let's see how this works; we'll see what Jesus said, Matthew 16:13: "Now after coming into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus questioned His disciples, saying, 'Whom do men declare Me, the Son of man, to be?' And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.' He said to them, 'But you, whom do you declare Me to be?' Then Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus answered and said to him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona [son of John], for flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but My Father, Who is in heaven'" (vs 13-17).

So, the Spirit of God being with Peter—not in him—worked upon his mind and revealed this to him, that Jesus was, indeed, the Son of God.

I can't tell you how many times I've had this happen to me, when God was calling me, before I was baptized. Different things, out of the Bible, being able to see things clearly for the first time. Like having the shades lifted. I'm sure that's happened to you!

Matthew 11:25—this ties right in with the whole theme of 1-Cor., about the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of this world: "At that time Jesus answered and said, 'I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to babes.'" Remember, it's the Spirit of God that reveals these things to us.

Verse 26: "'Yes, Father, for it was well pleasing in Your sight to do this. All things were delivered to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son personally chooses to reveal Him'" (vs 26-27). Has to be a supernatural Divine revelation for you to understand about Jesus Christ.

I think if we really get this in mind and really appreciate what God has done, how much more we can love God, thank God, love each other and be the way that we ought to be with each other.

As we continue on with 1-Cor. we're going to see that the Apostle Paul had some pretty hard things to say to them. He was making it abundantly clear of

• how much God loved them
• how much God did to reveal these things to them

Very, very important!

It's like anything else in human endeavor or that you do. The first time is fantastic! After that it becomes routine. Spiritually speaking we run all the way—if you go through all the churches—from the Church at Ephesus down to the Church at Laodicea, and by the time you come down to Laodicea, it's just routine.

But, if we do like the Apostle Paul told Timothy, 'to stir up the Spirit that is in you'; rekindle those things and realize that this has come from God. It says right here, v 25: "At that time Jesus answered and said, 'I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to babes.'" God has revealed these things to us!

That is a tremendous thing to think on! This is tremendous thing to really think on: To understand that the God Who has made everything that there is, has reached down into my life—into your life—and has given us of His Holy Spirit, and has given us of His Son that we can understand!

That is absolutely marvelous! The words fail me to express it correctly! I hope that with God's Spirit I can express it a little more correctly when we continue on next time.

All Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version by Fred R. Coulter

Scriptural References:

• 1 Corinthians 2:10-13
• Genesis 1:1-3
• Luke 1:35
• Luke 3:22
• Luke 4:1
• Luke 8:43-48
• Titus 3:5-6
• 2 Timothy 1:6-7
• 1 Peter 1:12
• Acts 5:29-32
• 1 Thessalonians 5:23
• James 2:26
• Job 32:1-8
• Genesis 41:8
• Numbers 11:16-17
• Psalm 32:2
• Psalm 51:10-12
• Proverbs 16:18, 32
• Proverbs 18:14
• 1 Corinthians 2:12
• 2 Corinthians 4:1-4
• Ephesians 2:1-3
• Ephesians 6:10-12, 16
• Romans 8:14-15
• 1 Corinthians 2:10
• Romans 1:17-20
• John 14:17
• Matthew 16:13-17
• Matthew 11:25-27, 25

Scriptures referenced, not quoted: Revelation 2; 3

FRC:bo
Transcribed: 3-3-13