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Noon Day Bible Study
Rev. Dr. Howard L. Woods, Jr.
Rev. Dr. Howard L. Woods, Jr.
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
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Demonstrate A Fully Obedient Faith 

Develop a Mature Faith

1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

The processes of revelation, inspiration, and illumination are described in verses 9–16. They tell us how these wonderful truths were made known to the apostles by the Holy Spirit, how they in turn passed on these truths to us by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and how we understand them by the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

The quotation in verse 9 from Isaiah 64:4 is a prophecy that God had treasured up wonderful truths which could not be discovered by the natural senses but which in due time He would reveal to those who love Him

Three faculties (eye and ear and heart, or mind) by which we learn earthly things, are listed, but these are not sufficient for the reception of divine truths, for there the Spirit of God is necessary.

Paul is really speaking here about the truths that have been revealed for the first time in the NT.

Men could never have arrived at these truths through scientific investigations or philosophical inquiries.

The human mind, left to itself, could never discover the wonderful mysteries which were made known at the beginning of the gospel era. 

Human reason is totally inadequate to find the truth of God.

1 Corinthians 2:10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

In other words, these truths foretold in the OT were made known to the apostles of the NT era. The us refers to the writers of the NT.

It was by the Spirit of God that the apostles and prophets were enlightened, because the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

The Spirit of God, one of the members of the Godhead, is infinite in wisdom and understands all the truths of God and is able to impart them to others.

1 Corinthians 2:11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

Even in human affairs no one knows what a man is thinking but he himself.

No one else can possibly find out unless the man himself chooses to make it known.

Even then, in order to understand a man, a person must have the spirit of a man. An animal could not fully understand our thinking. So it is with God. The only one who can understand the things of God is the Spirit of God.

1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

The we of verse 12 refers to the writers of the NT, although it is equally true of all the Bible writers.

Since the apostles and prophets had received the Holy Spirit, He was able to share with them the deep truths of God.

That is what the apostle means when he says in this verse: “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” Apart from the Spirit who is from God, the apostles could never have received the divine truths of which Paul is speaking and which are preserved for us in the NT.

1 Corinthians 2:13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

Having described the process of revelation by which the writers of Sacred Scripture received truth from God, Paul now goes on to describe the process of inspiration, by which that truth was communicated to us. 

Verse 13 is one of the strongest passages in the word of God on the subject of verbal inspiration. The Apostle Paul clearly states that in conveying these truths to us, the apostles did not use words of their own choosing or words dictated by man’s wisdom. 

Rather, they used the very words which the Holy Spirit taught them to use. And so we believe that the actual words of Scripture, as found in the original autographs, were the very words of God (and that the Bible in its present form is entirely trustworthy).

The expression comparing spiritual things with spiritual can be explained in several ways. It may mean

(1) teaching spiritual truths with Spirit-given words; 

(2) communicating spiritual truths to spiritual men; 

(3) comparing spiritual truths in one section of the Bible with those in another. 

Paul is saying that the process of inspiration involves the conveying of divine truth with words that are especially chosen for that purpose by the Holy Spirit. Thus we could paraphrase: “presenting spiritual truths in spiritual words.”

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 

Not only is the gospel divine in its revelation and divine in its inspiration, but now we learn that it can only be received by the power of the Spirit of God

Unaided, the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.

They are foolishness to him. He cannot possibly understand them because they can only be spiritually understood.

The colorful Vance Havner advises: The wise Christian wastes no time trying to explain God’s program to unregenerate men; it would be casting pearls before swine. He might as well try to describe a sunset to a blind man or discuss nuclear physics with a monument in the city park. The natural man cannot receive such things. One might as well try to catch sunbeams with a fishhook as to lay hold of God’s revelation unassisted by the Holy Spirit. Unless one is born of the Spirit and taught by Him, all this is utterly foreign to him. Being a Ph. D. does not help, for in this realm it could mean ‘Phenomenal Dud!’ What are your thoughts?

1 Corinthians 2:15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 

On the other hand, the man who is illuminated by the Spirit of God can discern these wonderful truths even though he himself cannot be rightly judged by the unconverted.

Perhaps he is a carpenter, or plumber, or fisherman; yet he is an able student of the Holy Scriptures.

“The Spirit-controlled Christian investigates, inquires into, and scrutinizes the Bible and comes to an appreciation and understanding of its contents” (KSW).

To the world he is an enigma. He may never have been to college or seminary, yet he can understand the deep mysteries of the word of God and perhaps even teach them to others.

1 Corinthians 2:16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 

 

Macdonald, Farstad Grady Scott, Hindson, E.E.