What the Holy Spirit Reveals to Believers - 1 Corinthians 2:9-13 Explained

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, good to have everybody back with us again. We're going to go right back and pick up where we left off after our last program, 1 Corinthians 2. We just commented on verse 9, so we're ready to go into verse 10. Again, we'd like to welcome our television audience, and for those of you who have just caught us maybe once or twice, we're just an informal Bible study group. We are not denominationally affiliated. I have no idea where a lot of these folks come from denominationally, and that's not the point. We're just here to teach the Word, and after all, God is not going to have a special set of requirements for one group and another one for another group. There is only one Word, and as Paul says in Ephesians, there is one faith, one baptism, one spirit. And so we trust that as we teach, we can reach into the hearts of whoever you are, and whatever your background, and get into the Book. All right, let's go right back without any further announcements to 1 Corinthians 2. And let's read again verse 9 where we stopped, where Paul says that, "...as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." And then verse 10 starts with that other word that we use all the time, but again there has to be a flip side, doesn't there? So if it has not been revealed to the heart of man, to whom have these things been revealed? To the believer. We do have a concept of what eternity holds in store. We do know that there is a great city of gold in which we are one day going to live. We do know that there is a glorious reign of Christ on this earth in which we are going to take part. We do know that there are all of these good things awaiting us, but for the unbelieving world, they have no idea. They don't know what they're missing, and they certainly don't want to know where they're going, so they just don't know. But God says that He has revealed these things to us, and He's speaking on behalf of the believers, by His Spirit, the Holy Spirit. He is the one who communicates to us these things from the Word of God. Now again, I'm concerned because of what I hear from people all across the land, is that they're not getting in-depth preaching or teaching from the Word. It's all so shallow, and I've felt that way for years. Too much Sunday School material, as good as it may be, is still so shallow. It doesn't get into the deep things, and Paul is admonishing here that we have to let the Holy Spirit take us into the deep things of God's Word. Now verse 11, we want to move on quickly. Now that goes into the secular world doesn't it? How can a child function in the secular world if he isn't taught the things he needs to know to function? Now of course that's why we're decrying our education system today. We're bringing kids out of high school and even out of college who can't read or write. They can't fill out an employment form, they can't write a check. What's happened? They haven't even been taught the rudimentary things of the secular world, and they can't function. Alright, now bring it into the spiritual realm. Is it any different? No. And see, this is what Paul is going to be dealing with as soon as we get to chapter 3. This was the Corinthians problem. Remember I told you in one of our previous programs that Corinth was the church that had more problems than any of the other congregations Paul dealt with. Then as we get into chapter 3, and you'll know what I'm talking about. 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. Paul says, "...and I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual." In other words, they hadn't gone into the deep things. Of course granted, they haven't had that long an opportunity yet, but nevertheless I always have to reflect on the Thessalonians. How long was Paul up in Thessalonica? Just a very short period of time, and yet he wrote in chapter 2 of that letter, "...you know these things." Why? Because he'd covered the whole gamut from the rudimentary to the very deep things, and but the Corinthians didn't. 2 Corinthians 3. So he says, "...I couldn't speak to you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal." Now we looked at that word rather in depth in our class last night down at Wilberton. The word carnal here is speaking of believers who have not really come out of the fleshly experience, and are still under control of the Old Adam rather than the Holy Spirit. Now of course when the word is used in Romans chapter 8, there Paul uses the word carnal all, as applied to the unsaved individual. He is carnal because he is still of the flesh, but here he is speaking of believers who are saved, they are in Christ, but they are still so weak spiritually that he speaks of them even as babes. He said, I have fed you with milk. Now this is an analogy of course with the human, isn't it? You don't give that newborn baby solid food, you start with milk. It's the same way with a believer. I think that's one thing the Lord has given me is patience with new believers. I don't expect them to all of a sudden comprehend all the deep things of God's Word. They don't have to, but you know what I look for? I want growth. I tell my classes, if you aren't more steeped in the Word now than you were a year ago, then I've failed, and you've failed. God expects growth from His children. But the Corinthians, and this is what got Paul all uptight in this first and second letter, is that they were still so steeped in the flesh, and he calls them believers. Don't ever lose sight of that. They are believers. They've been born again, and they've been placed into the Body of Christ, but they are still so fleshly minded. Now if you'll come back to where we were in chapter 2. Verse 11, "...for what man knoweth the things of a man, say the Spirit of man, who is in him." I've alluded to that, that's our whole system of secular education. Even so, I think we could also say in English, in like manner, the things of God know no man, not even the most intellectual, not the most brilliant, not the most highly educated can really know the things of God, unless the Spirit reveals it. I've said it before in this program, I've had people in my classes and they say, Les I just don't get what you're driving at. You're just going over my head. Well you know, I'm kind of blunt sometimes, and I say, well once you come to know the Lord, you won't have that problem. And that's basically it. The unsaved person can't comprehend these things. They are a closed book, but once we enter into a salvation experience and we've been born again by the Spirit of God, the book opens up. Nothing thrills me more than when someone writes or calls and says, Les, it's just like you turned on a huge light bulb. Well I didn't turn it on, the Spirit did, and then of course these things become so understandable. Now I'm reading on now in the text here, verse 12. Now we have received, past tense, and he's not speaking of himself only, he's speaking of those to whom he's writing. Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world. Paul didn't put them through grade school and high school and college, did he? He took these people and he began to teach them, as he says later in the letter of Corinthians, the preaching of the cross. That's all Paul knew, Christ crucified and risen from the dead. But the Spirit which is of God, verse 12, that we might know the things that are freely given to us, not by Paul, but by whom? God! See? Oh the Creator, Sovereign God is the One who reveals these things to us. And we have to look at it in that light, that we are not attaining this knowledge in the energy of the flesh. It's all as the Holy Spirit works, of course coming through the Word, and then He reveals it freely. Now verse 13, and then we're going to go through the board for a little bit. Which things also we speak? What things? The things that are of the Spirit of God, which man's, or not in the words, which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth. And how does Paul teach? Comparing spiritual with spiritual. Now what does that mean? Your whole eternal destiny, where you and I will spend eternity, is it going to be in this glorious place that Paul has alluded to, or is it going to be the opposite? Well how are we going to know? You and I can't look at someone and say, oh yeah, you're a Christian. I can't. No one can look at me and say, yeah, you're a Christian. They don't really know. That's only that God can discern. But I've always maintained, I know what I am, you know what you are. How? By lining ourselves up with the Word of God. Now I learned this years and years ago when a young lady came bouncing into one of my home Bible classes, and she said, Les Feldick, do you teach such and such a heresy? And I said, well, that's what I teach, but I didn't realize it was a heresy. And boy, I mean, she just lambasted me for a few minutes, and I said, now wait a minute, wait a minute. On what basis do you think you're going to go to God's heaven? Well, she said, I've done this, I've done that, and I've done that. I said, well that's great. Can you show me from the Word? Well, no, not really, except that Jesus did say, suffer these little ones to come unto me, and forbid them not. And I said, that's it? Well, she said, I think there's a verse that says, go into all the world and baptize them. I said, that's it? Well, yeah, that's pretty much it. In other words, you're basing your whole eternal destiny on bits and pieces of just two verses? Boy, I had her backed into the corner, you know I did. I said, all right, now let me tell you why I have the hope that I have. And boy, I showed her verse after verse after verse, and it was for the benefit of the whole class. And we just compared Scripture with Scripture. Well, now all the wind was out of her sails, and you know what she said? Well, she said, if I had a salvation like that, I guess I could be as sure as you are. Sad, isn't it? But yet, that's where multitudes are tonight. They have settled on something that is just bits and pieces here and there, and they really don't even know where that's at. And I maintain, you have to know what you are, where you're going based on comparing Scripture with Scripture. And then you're on solid ground. All right, let's show that for a moment. Turn back with me to 2 Peter chapter 1, and we're just going to give you an example of what we mean by comparing Scripture with Scripture. 2 Peter chapter 1, and let's go over to verse 19, and then of course we'll use 20 and 21 as well. 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 19, 20, and 21. Now remember what we're going to do. We're going to compare Scripture with Scripture. Now Peter writes in verse 19, "...we have also a more sure, or a more certain word of prophecy." And I don't think he's dealing here with telling the future, he's dealing here with the word as it means to speak forth, the Word of God. "...we also have a more sure, or a certain word of prophecy, whereunder ye do well, that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star rise in your hearts." Now you want to remember, the day star I think is that reference in Revelation that Christ is the bright and morning star, and He is going to appear in all of His glory at the very beginning of the Millennium, and that's back there in Revelation, which will be the end of time and human history as we know it, and He is going to be the bright and morning star, and I think that's also what the Holy Spirit is implying here from the pen of Peter. That very onset then of eternity, and the day star rises in your hearts. Now verse 20, "...knowing this first." Better get one thing straight, no prophecy, now again I'm not using the word as it speaks of telling the future, but rather as the Word is being set out. That's what the gift of prophecy was back there in the early church. It was gifted men who simply gave forth the Word of God. Now he says that no giving forth of the Word, of the Scripture, is of any private, is of any private, and that's the interpretation. Now I know this is a little hard to understand. When you speak of something private, what do you speak of? That which pertains to one person, that which is yours, that's your privacy. All right, carry it over into the Scriptures. Nothing that God has sent forth to us of the human race is all wrapped up in just one verse. This is why a lot of people get hung up on the Bible. They say, well why didn't God make it a little plainer? Why didn't He make it simpler? Well you see, God knew He wasn't dealing with third graders. For the most part God is dealing with adults, and so what does He know we have the ability to do? Search the Scriptures. And how are you going to search the Scriptures? Comparing Scripture with Scripture. And when you compare Scripture with Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, you're on as solid a rock as you can get. And that's all I beg people to do. Search the Scriptures. Don't go by what I say. And so Peter is making it so plain. Don't build your eternal destiny on one verse. You're going to end up in the wrong place. But you build your eternal destiny on a series of doctrines and teachings that fit from cover to cover. Then verse 21, "...for the prophecy, or again the speaking forth of God's Word, came not in the old time." And of course that goes back to the Old Testament writers. It didn't come in the old time by the will of man. Now I've alluded to this on the program years ago, not recently. I have read the skeptics and the scoffers, and they will attribute especially the Old Testament to nothing more than stories that came up around the old ancient campfires of Israel, and as they began to compare stories, and after generations and generations of verbalizing, somebody finally said, well we should be writing this stuff down. And so that's how they got the Old Testament. Well that's ridiculous. Peter says nothing even in the Old Testament came by men dreaming it up. None of this came by men going out and researching, well what did the people up in the tribe of Dan think about this? Or maybe we should go check with those down in Benjamin. No, that isn't what they did. But as the Holy Spirit caused them to write, Moses wrote, David wrote, Elijah wrote, Jeremiah wrote, see? And then of course you get in the New Testament, it's the same thing. All right, but Peter says, they didn't come by the will of man, but as holy or separated, set apart men of God, spoke as they were what? Moved, or today we use the word inspired by the Holy Spirit. Now then, if the Holy Spirit is the author of this book, then you know there is no confusion. See that's the first thing the scoffer says, well it's a book of contradictions. No it isn't. Everything fits if you'll just compare Scripture with Scripture. All right, let's go back, and let's go all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Let's go back to Genesis, chapter 3. Genesis, chapter 3. Now we're going to compare Scripture with Scripture. You all with me? Verse 3, Eve is being confronted by the serpent, the devil, and verse 3 she continues, that of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, and God has said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, that of course she added, but whatever. What would be the result? Lest you die. Now I always call this the very first law of man's dealing with the Holy God, is that if he's going to disobey the revealed will of God, it's sin, and he's going to die because of his sin, a spiritual death as well as physical. All right, now let's move on up to the book of Ezekiel, and let's see what Ezekiel says. Verse 4, he repeats it again I think down in verse 20, but we'll look at verse 4 first. Ezekiel 18, I didn't give the chapter, did I? Ezekiel 18, verse 4, "...Behold, all souls are mine, as the soul of the Father, so also the soul of the Son is mine." But here's the part I really want you to underline or take note of. The soul that's sinning, disobeys God, what's the result? It will die. No ifs, ands, buts about it. What did he tell Eve? Maybe I should put this on the board. Back in Genesis 3, he said to Eve, "...the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Now here in Ezekiel 14, 18, verse 4, he says basically the same thing, doesn't he? "...the soul that sinneth shall surely die." All right, now go all the way up, if you will, to Romans chapter 3, and we'll look at various verses there. Romans chapter 3, now this is comparing Scripture with Scripture. Did Ezekiel disagree with Eve? Not one iota. Now will Paul disagree with Eve and Ezekiel? Not one iota. Romans chapter 3, let's look at verse 9 first. What then? Paul says, "...are we Jews better than they, those Gentiles? No, in no wise. For we have before been proved that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin." In other words, every Jew that has ever lived, every non-Jew that has ever lived, has been guilty of disobeying the revealed will of God, and that is what? Sin. See how it all fits? All right, now then he goes on up into these verses from 12, 13 on down through 20. Horrible description of the human race, as bad as you can paint it, and then the conclusion of course is always wrapped up in chapter 3, verse 23. Here's the conclusion, "...for all Jews and Gentiles, black and white, rich and poor, they have all sinned." Now remember my definition of sin is real simple. It isn't the adulterer alone, it isn't the drunkard alone, but it's anyone who has disobeyed the revealed will of God, and that's sin in any of its colors. And Paul says, "...all have done that." Every one of us are guilty of having gone against the revealed will of God, and so now just in three sections, and there are many, many more, I've been able to show you that in Romans 3.9-23, we find that all have sinned, all have sinned consequently. Now turn to II Corinthians chapter 5. So all have died spiritually again, is what we're referring to, although they're also going to die physically. Now I said II Corinthians chapter 5, verses 14-15. Now I'm just doing this to show what we mean, like Paul said in II Corinthians chapter 2, to compare Scripture with Scripture, and then there's no alluding it, or eluding it, there is no compromising it, because it all fits. Now I'm going to read from II Corinthians chapter 5, verses 14-15. For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then they must have all been dead. See that? Like I remember one of my pastors years ago, he Folks, do you realize we are living in a world of dead people? Now that kind of slaps us in the face for the moment, but that's exactly true. We are living in a world full of spiritually dead people. Ephesians 2.4 Now let's read on. Ephesians 2.4 Now turn a little further in your New Testament to Ephesians chapter 2, a verse that is well known. Now let's go to Ephesians chapter 2, and we'll look at verse 1. I think that'll be sufficient for this line of thought. We've only got 30 seconds left, so let's go fast. Chapter 2, verse 1. Ephesians 2.1 Paul says as he writes to the Ephesian believers, "...and you he hath made alive spiritually now as a result of their salvation, you who were dead in trespasses and sin." How did we get there? We were born in it. Adam, the federal head of the human race, plunged every one of us into that kind of a state, and so we're born spiritually dead. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer -supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.