WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.459 Our Father, thank you that you are the speaking God. We couldn't know you by ourselves, but 00:00:04.459 --> 00:00:10.060 in your grace, you speak to us, you speak to us in your words, you speak to us into our hearts 00:00:10.060 --> 00:00:16.120 by your spirit. So please, would you do that now? Take my words, and would they be your words in 00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:21.199 all our hearts, and would we be changed and encouraged and see your glory? In Jesus' name 00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:26.600 we pray. Amen. And CK is going to come and read from 1 Corinthians. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:40.880 Good morning, Watermark. Yeah, let us turn our pamphlets and Bible to 1 Corinthians 2, 00:00:41.759 --> 00:00:47.219 and then we can read about the encouraging passage talking about the wisdom from the Spirit. 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:53.219 Great. In verse 6, we read, 00:00:53.219 --> 00:01:02.700 Yet among the mature, we do not impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of 00:01:02.700 --> 00:01:10.460 the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, 00:01:10.460 --> 00:01:18.060 which God decreed before the ages of our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, 00:01:18.060 --> 00:01:25.700 for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But it is written, 00:01:26.540 --> 00:01:35.560 what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of men imagined, what God has prepared for those who 00:01:35.560 --> 00:01:42.200 love him. These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches 00:01:42.200 --> 00:01:51.000 everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the Spirit of that person 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:58.680 which is in him? So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 00:01:59.480 --> 00:02:04.579 Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, 00:02:04.579 --> 00:02:13.300 that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by 00:02:13.300 --> 00:02:20.099 human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:27.060 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:32.219 and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 00:02:32.219 --> 00:02:39.060 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 00:02:40.020 --> 00:02:46.860 For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. 00:02:47.180 --> 00:02:48.219 This is the Word of God. 00:02:56.699 --> 00:02:59.719 Okay, great. Well, thanks, CK, for reading. Yeah, 00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:06.319 continuing One Corinthians in our series. Now here at Watermark, we often say we don't want to be a big 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:12.219 church or a fancy church. Although, to be honest, we'd love to be a big church, right? If that means 00:03:12.219 --> 00:03:18.180 people are being saved and people are hearing the gospel and, right, God is at work. In that sense, 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:22.699 we'd love to be a big church. I mean, maybe not as big as this one, biggest church in the world, 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:29.699 Yoido, full gospel church in South Korea. But, you know, in the Bible, think of Acts 2 and 3,000, 00:03:29.719 --> 00:03:34.599 people putting their trust in Jesus in one go, right? Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing? 00:03:35.159 --> 00:03:41.020 That's what we want. But how do we become big? How do we get so many people saved? 00:03:41.780 --> 00:03:46.280 And I guess many of us, yeah, many churches, we look for the silver bullet, right? What is the one 00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:53.340 thing that if we do this, then we can reach people? And usually people think, well, if we just become 00:03:53.340 --> 00:03:57.719 like the world, if we do what the world does, then the world will come and they'll be attracted. 00:03:57.719 --> 00:04:04.099 In some ways, that's what the Corinthians were doing, right? They lived in a world where, well, 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:11.000 it's the philosophers and the public speakers who are these great, who are so popular. And so, 00:04:11.060 --> 00:04:15.340 they loved Apollos because he was such a great speaker. I mean, someone that was selfish, right? 00:04:15.400 --> 00:04:20.839 If Apollos is such a great speaker and I follow him, then, well, clearly I'm also great, I'm popular. 00:04:21.579 --> 00:04:26.839 But some of it, I think, is just a good desire, right? If we have a great speaker, people will come and 00:04:26.839 --> 00:04:31.500 people will be saved. And that's what we want, right? We'd love more people to be saved. 00:04:32.919 --> 00:04:38.139 But does it work like that? That's the thing. As we've seen in the past few weeks, Paul says, 00:04:38.219 --> 00:04:43.759 well, you've got it all wrong. The gospel is rather upside down. The gospel is unimpressive. 00:04:45.459 --> 00:04:52.459 Sound okay? Yeah. The gospel is unimpressive. The church is unimpressive. Guys, you've got it all wrong. 00:04:52.459 --> 00:04:57.459 The church isn't meant to be impressive. God is meant to be impressive. And actually, 00:04:57.539 --> 00:05:03.799 that goes even further down as he continues on the same theme. Now, he's not saying, hey, 00:05:03.979 --> 00:05:11.120 the gospel really is foolish. It is wisdom. Verse 6, yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom. 00:05:11.879 --> 00:05:17.839 Right? I mean, the gospel, it's super sophisticated. It makes sense of everything. Right? 00:05:17.839 --> 00:05:21.439 Right? We've been reading in the Bible reading plan. We've been reading Romans. It's one of the 00:05:21.439 --> 00:05:27.359 greatest letters ever written. Right? The truth of God. It's wonderful. And yet, 00:05:27.839 --> 00:05:36.079 we study it. But actually, we misunderstand if we think, look how great and impressive this is. 00:05:36.479 --> 00:05:42.439 And that is what this passage is about. Because Paul writes this contrast between, well, 00:05:42.439 --> 00:05:48.839 the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God. And there's one important thing that I hope you can 00:05:48.839 --> 00:05:56.220 pick up as I read verses 6 to 10. Well, what is the contrast? Well, yet among the mature, we do impart 00:05:56.220 --> 00:06:02.519 wisdom. Although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away, 00:06:03.300 --> 00:06:09.199 but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:15.379 None of the rulers of this age understood this. For if they had, they would not have crucified the 00:06:15.379 --> 00:06:21.699 Lord of glory. But as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man 00:06:21.699 --> 00:06:27.879 imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him, these things God has revealed to us through the 00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:34.879 Spirit. It's not just the source, the world, and God. I mean, well, what is the big thing about, 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:41.459 you know, this? It is revealed by the Spirit, right? The gospel is revealed by the Spirit. 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:48.379 That's what he says. Look, this is something that is hidden and secret, verse 7. And no one understood 00:06:48.379 --> 00:06:52.579 it. You know, none of the elites back then understood it, right? Otherwise, they wouldn't have crucified 00:06:52.579 --> 00:07:00.319 Jesus, but they did. They didn't get who Jesus was. They didn't see the gospel. And so they crucified 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:06.219 him. No, it's hidden and secret, but it's now revealed, right? Verse 10, it's revealed by the 00:07:06.219 --> 00:07:12.500 Spirit. And of course, in some ways, that must be true, right? The truth about God, the truth about 00:07:12.500 --> 00:07:21.259 eternity and God's plans. I mean, how can a human being know that? We are so small, we are so limited 00:07:21.259 --> 00:07:28.039 and so finite. How can we ever know the truth about God? We're talking about the infinite creator. 00:07:28.040 --> 00:07:33.620 I mean, Paul makes that point, right? Who can do this? Well, again, in verse 10, 00:07:33.780 --> 00:07:39.800 for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's faults 00:07:39.800 --> 00:07:45.840 except the spirit of that person which is in him? So also no one comprehends the faults of God except 00:07:45.840 --> 00:07:52.860 the Spirit of God. It makes a lot of sense, right? Only, you know, only someone inside me knows what's 00:07:52.860 --> 00:07:58.939 going on inside me. You know, only the Spirit knows what God's plans are. And so if we want to 00:07:58.939 --> 00:08:05.800 know God's plans, well, it needs, the Spirit needs to reveal that. We don't know it. It's just too much 00:08:05.800 --> 00:08:12.600 for us. Of course, they are wonderful plans, right? That's what he says. Verse 9, what God has 00:08:12.600 --> 00:08:19.500 prepared for those who love him, right? It's no eye has seen it. We can't even imagine it. God, 00:08:19.879 --> 00:08:26.060 you know, he has an incredible plan. He has this amazing salvation and that he's revealed that. 00:08:26.920 --> 00:08:32.139 You know, sometimes you watch a movie and you kind of, you know where it's going, right? It's very 00:08:32.139 --> 00:08:37.800 predictable. And then it happens. Yeah, I could see that coming. It was a bit boring. Imagine standing 00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:43.959 before Jesus one day, the new creation. No one will say, ah, I saw that coming. That is a bit boring, 00:08:44.039 --> 00:08:51.219 right? This will be so wonderful. That is what God has revealed. And he didn't need to, right? God 00:08:51.219 --> 00:08:58.079 could have just told us nothing. And yet he has revealed it. The gospel, you know, the truth, 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:07.559 it's being revealed by the Spirit. But why is that important? So we have this now, verse 12. Now we 00:09:07.559 --> 00:09:12.799 have not received the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand 00:09:12.799 --> 00:09:17.719 the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but 00:09:17.719 --> 00:09:23.299 taught by the Spirit. And we have the Spirit and he's revealed and we understand and now we teach it. 00:09:24.459 --> 00:09:30.659 So what? Why is that important? Well, we need to bring this back to the Corinthian situation. 00:09:30.659 --> 00:09:36.439 But to do that, first a little question, who is this about? Who is verses 12 and 13 about? 00:09:38.259 --> 00:09:43.079 It says, we have received the Spirit that we might understand what God has given us. 00:09:44.319 --> 00:09:49.799 Who is that speaking about? All Christians have the Spirit. The thing is, sometimes we need to think, 00:09:49.899 --> 00:09:57.620 okay, we, who is we? Because we, you can use in two meanings, right? If I say, we will have coffee 00:09:57.620 --> 00:10:04.659 after the service, that is me and you. But if I say, we have three daughters, I don't mean all of us, 00:10:04.700 --> 00:10:11.659 right? That's just me and my wife. So if Paul says, hey, we have received the Spirit and God has revealed 00:10:11.659 --> 00:10:19.159 it to us, who is he talking about? Well, if you read through these chapters, actually, let's look at 00:10:19.159 --> 00:10:26.719 some of these verses, right? Who is here in this passage. Well, what does, what do we do? Verse 6, 00:10:26.839 --> 00:10:34.079 we impart wisdom. Verse 7, we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God. Verse 13, we impart this in 00:10:34.079 --> 00:10:41.339 words not taught by human wisdom. So this is people who impart words. They're their teachers, right? 00:10:41.340 --> 00:10:50.740 Other places in the passage. 1 verse 23, we preach Christ crucified. 3 verse 9, we are God's fellow 00:10:50.740 --> 00:10:58.460 workers. You are God's building. 4 verse 1, this is how people should regard us as servants of Christ 00:10:58.460 --> 00:11:05.639 and stewards of the mysteries of God. And so he's talking, we, who is we? We is the apostles. We are, 00:11:06.400 --> 00:11:10.420 is the leaders, right? Because after all, that's what the Corinthians were about, right? 00:11:10.419 --> 00:11:18.779 I follow Paul. I follow Apollos. And just to be, and what do they do? The apostles, they have the 00:11:18.779 --> 00:11:24.459 Spirit. That God has revealed the truth to them. And then verse 13, well, we impart this in words 00:11:24.459 --> 00:11:30.439 taught by the Spirit. And just to be clear, so this is not about Christian experience. This is about, 00:11:30.939 --> 00:11:37.120 you know, the apostles having the truth about God. So it's about what people call the doctrine of 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:44.299 inspiration. The fact that the apostles, you know, how can we trust these guys? How can we, 00:11:44.580 --> 00:11:50.600 how can they tell us about God? Well, when they're just people, well, God gave them the Spirit to 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:56.820 reveal that to them. Here's a definition from someone, a supernatural influence exerted on the 00:11:56.820 --> 00:12:04.100 sacred writers by the Spirit of God, by virtue of which their writings are given divine trustworthiness. 00:12:04.100 --> 00:12:10.759 And the apostles, they have the Spirit. And that's how they can, you know, how they can know the 00:12:10.759 --> 00:12:15.340 truth, how they can communicate the truth. And of course, we no longer have the apostles these days. 00:12:15.740 --> 00:12:20.420 Instead, if we want to listen to Paul, we have one Corinthians here, right? That's the idea. 00:12:20.659 --> 00:12:24.740 They didn't, back then they didn't have the New Testament yet. So they have the apostles kind of 00:12:24.740 --> 00:12:32.460 live in person. And we have it now in the Bible. It's actually the same as Jesus said in John 14. 00:12:32.460 --> 00:12:37.680 I don't know if you know this verse. It's the same idea. The helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father 00:12:37.680 --> 00:12:43.920 will send in my name, he will remind you, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all 00:12:43.920 --> 00:12:47.920 that I've said to you. It's the same idea, right? I'm going to give you the Spirit so you know everything. 00:12:49.379 --> 00:12:53.900 That's important because it means we can trust the Bible, right? Maybe you're here, you're not a 00:12:53.900 --> 00:13:00.480 Christian. How can we trust this book? How can we trust this book written by a bunch of humans? 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:06.680 Well, the Bible would say, well, because they had the Holy Spirit. God made sure that they wrote 00:13:06.680 --> 00:13:11.120 exactly what's true, that it's got divine trustworthiness. It's just as reliable as 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:18.940 what God would say, right? So, you know, we have a reason to believe it. It doesn't make it true, 00:13:19.159 --> 00:13:25.440 but at least, you know, they could write the truth. But this is about Christian leaders, right? 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:32.240 Just to go back to what Paul was talking about. Hey, Christian leaders, they just have the Spirit. 00:13:32.360 --> 00:13:37.380 It's been revealed to them by the Spirit. But why does that matter? Paul is not here just to 00:13:37.380 --> 00:13:43.240 explain inspiration. That's not his point. Why does Paul tell them, hey, you need to know, 00:13:43.400 --> 00:13:49.460 you know, that this is revealed? Well, the thing is, something that's revealed is very different from 00:13:49.460 --> 00:13:54.879 human wisdom. Because what is the thing about human wisdom? It's something that we discover, 00:13:55.060 --> 00:14:00.540 right? It's something that we work out. So like the philosophers, they are these really smart people 00:14:00.540 --> 00:14:06.840 who kind of put things together and work things out, right? But they are the clever ones. Or 00:14:06.840 --> 00:14:12.620 quantum mechanics. That's something that humans discover. And so that kind of wisdom makes you 00:14:12.620 --> 00:14:19.759 impressive. And that's what they wanted. You know, we want someone impressive, right? But someone 00:14:19.759 --> 00:14:26.580 that's revealed is very different. I mean, what did you do to have something revealed to you? 00:14:27.159 --> 00:14:33.679 Nothing, right? Revelation doesn't make you special. I mean, just to give a silly example, 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:42.100 how many of you know what my wife's least favorite soup is? Right? No one, right? 00:14:42.620 --> 00:14:48.159 I think there's only a handful of people in the whole universe who know this. I know it. I know 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:52.919 it very well. Because she told me. And I forgot. And a few months later, I made it for her. And she 00:14:52.919 --> 00:15:02.740 reminded me. So I won't forget it again. But how do I know that? Well, she just told me, right? It's not 00:15:02.740 --> 00:15:08.299 that I made this amazing mathematical equation in five dimensions. And I worked out that she doesn't 00:15:08.299 --> 00:15:15.039 like tomato soup, right? She just told me. And so it doesn't make me special. There's nothing 00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:21.740 impressive about knowing this. And that is the thing. You know, you've got the wrong idea about 00:15:21.740 --> 00:15:26.919 Christian leaders. They're not these really impressive, smart guys. It's just people that 00:15:26.919 --> 00:15:32.279 God chose and gave the spirit and told the truth. There's nothing impressive about Apollos. I mean, 00:15:32.279 --> 00:15:37.779 Apollos tells these amazing things. But that doesn't come from him. You've got the whole wrong idea about 00:15:37.779 --> 00:15:46.279 Christian truth and Christian leaders. It's just revealed. When you, revelation is a gift. 00:15:46.959 --> 00:15:54.059 And the special one is the giver, the Holy Spirit. It's not the recipient. The Christian isn't special. 00:15:54.179 --> 00:15:59.699 The Christian leader isn't special. And so if you're trying to go after impressive leaders, 00:15:59.700 --> 00:16:05.060 you've got the whole wrong idea about how Christian truth works. It won't connect to people 00:16:05.060 --> 00:16:11.580 because it doesn't make you impressive if you think about it. Now, what does that mean for us? 00:16:12.780 --> 00:16:19.200 I think one big thing, I think Christians should be really humble about our beliefs, right? If it is a 00:16:19.200 --> 00:16:27.200 gift, you know, be humble. Now, of course, as a Christian, you know the truth. You know how the 00:16:27.200 --> 00:16:33.040 universe works. You know the life and purpose and meaning of everything, right? Because God has 00:16:33.040 --> 00:16:37.800 revealed it to you, right? You have more wisdom than all the professors in the world. 00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:44.500 Except that that's not because you are smarter than anyone. You're just more blessed than everyone, 00:16:45.500 --> 00:16:52.000 right? And so you should be humble and thankful, certainly not arrogant. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:57.759 The thing is, Christians sometimes get that wrong, right? Especially if you go online, 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:04.619 social media, there's so much arguing, especially sometimes atheists and Christians, 00:17:04.740 --> 00:17:09.059 and they're arguing. And atheists, yeah, they always play the intelligence card, right? 00:17:09.299 --> 00:17:14.599 Hey, we follow the evidence, and we're the smart ones. And you Christians, well, either you don't 00:17:14.599 --> 00:17:19.720 understand the evidence or you ignore the evidence. That's why you believe your Christian things, 00:17:19.720 --> 00:17:23.640 right? Despite all the evidence, you believe this. Well, you must be stupid, and we are smart. 00:17:24.100 --> 00:17:28.240 That's basically their message. No wonder they're so popular, right? Everyone wants to be an atheist, 00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:33.860 because they're seen as the smart people. But some Christians, they go against that. And no, no, no, 00:17:33.980 --> 00:17:40.299 we are the smart ones, right? You haven't considered this evidence. And, you know, science has Christian 00:17:40.299 --> 00:17:45.920 foundations. Without God, you can't do science, right? So, you know, we are the smart ones, 00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:53.220 basically. And that's true. You can't do science without God and everything. But the whole attitude 00:17:53.220 --> 00:17:57.820 is wrong, right? The whole attitude is basically, well, if you are really smart, then you'll be like 00:17:57.820 --> 00:18:05.860 us. As if, you know, you're a Christian by your smartness, by your works. Actually, we are Christians 00:18:05.860 --> 00:18:13.700 by grace, right? Everything we know, all the truth we know, it's just a gift. And so we should be humble. 00:18:13.700 --> 00:18:19.059 And I think it should be reflected in how we talk to people and our attitudes, right? 00:18:20.759 --> 00:18:26.039 That makes sense. It just grace is the opposite of human achievement, right? 00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:33.600 More than that, what other ways we can apply this? Certainly, if this is a revelation, 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:40.700 it means it needs to be shared. I mean, of course, it was revealed to the apostles. We have it now in the 00:18:40.700 --> 00:18:46.240 Bible. But the only way other people are going to get to know it is if we tell them about it, right? 00:18:46.259 --> 00:18:52.660 If we show them the Bible. Even the smartest people in Paul's day, they couldn't work out the truth. 00:18:53.319 --> 00:18:58.039 Nowadays, again, no one can work it out if it wasn't for Christians telling them. 00:18:59.519 --> 00:19:05.220 So, hey, Father's Day, one of the things you should be doing is telling your kids the gospel, 00:19:05.220 --> 00:19:09.279 right? Because they're not going to work it out by themselves. They can go to the best school in Hong 00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:16.019 Kong and to go to the best university and they'll get seven PhDs. They can't work out the gospel by 00:19:16.019 --> 00:19:22.420 themselves, right? No one can understand God apart from the spirit of God, right? So they need you to 00:19:22.420 --> 00:19:29.860 tell them about Jesus. I think that's a very simple application. Of course, with humility, 00:19:29.859 --> 00:19:36.159 humility, right? It's so easy to tell your kids, hey, we are better because we know the truth. 00:19:36.500 --> 00:19:43.919 No, with humility, with grace, with the gospel. But we need to tell them. And that's even more so as 00:19:43.919 --> 00:19:50.299 we look at later, at the rest of this passage. Because the passage, it does talk about normal 00:19:50.299 --> 00:19:55.199 Christians too, not just the apostles. Where are normal Christians? Well, they're at the end of verse 13. 00:19:55.200 --> 00:20:01.080 We impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit, 00:20:02.059 --> 00:20:08.000 interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. Those who are spiritual. It's a whole 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:14.259 chain, right? The spirit reveals and then the spirit helps them teach. And then it goes to people 00:20:14.259 --> 00:20:18.880 who listen, who have the spirit. It's all the spirit doing all the communication in a way, 00:20:19.660 --> 00:20:25.180 using humans. But the gospel is for spiritual people. And what he's saying is the gospel 00:20:25.180 --> 00:20:30.799 is only understood by the spirit. It's not just revealed by the spirit. It's only understood 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:39.539 by the spirit. Let's read verses 14, 15. The natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of 00:20:39.539 --> 00:20:45.539 God, for they are folly to him. And he's not able to understand them because they're spiritually 00:20:45.539 --> 00:20:50.600 discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 00:20:50.599 --> 00:20:58.139 You can hear the contrast between the natural and the spiritual person. The natural person, 00:20:58.379 --> 00:21:03.719 he doesn't accept it. He can't accept it. He can't understand it. That's the problem. 00:21:04.579 --> 00:21:09.419 It's folly to him. Now, of course, what is a spiritual person? I don't know what you think. 00:21:09.519 --> 00:21:14.059 Sometimes we think of the kind of new age, this kind of person. That's not what Paul means. 00:21:14.059 --> 00:21:19.919 He's also not talking, I don't know, charismatic versus reforms, right? It's natural versus spiritual. 00:21:20.159 --> 00:21:25.859 It's someone without the spirit versus someone with the spirit, right? Someone who is, well, 00:21:25.859 --> 00:21:32.839 I'm not a Christian versus someone who is a Christian. That's the contrast. But the thing is, 00:21:32.919 --> 00:21:38.559 yeah, without the Holy Spirit, people can't understand it. Naturally, by ourselves, people, 00:21:38.559 --> 00:21:45.379 it's not just that we can't know it. We can't even understand it because it's spiritually discerned. 00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:51.220 Now, Paul doesn't explain here why. Other passages in the Bible tell us a lot about it, right? 00:21:51.879 --> 00:21:56.740 Like the problem is, actually, it goes back to the fall, right? It goes back to Adam and Eve, 00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:04.740 where human beings turned away from God. And since then, we've been corrupted, corrupted in our minds, 00:22:04.740 --> 00:22:11.299 in our hearts, in our wills. I mean, we see that with sin, right? How every human being ends up sinning. 00:22:11.720 --> 00:22:16.120 No matter what you do to them, they will keep on sinning, right? There's all this basic selfishness 00:22:16.120 --> 00:22:20.000 in each of us. But it's not just that. It's also our understanding. It's kind of corrupt. 00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:27.859 So here in Ephesians, right? They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God 00:22:27.859 --> 00:22:32.940 that is in them because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. 00:22:32.940 --> 00:22:38.600 And you can hear this kind of this distance from God, this alienation from God that leads to 00:22:38.600 --> 00:22:46.259 darkness and ignorance. The Bible talks about us being blind, that we need to have our eyes opened 00:22:46.259 --> 00:22:52.160 to understand the gospel, to understand spiritual truth, because our hearts are just biased against 00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:57.820 it without that. I think that's what he's saying. Now, if you're here and you're not a Christian, 00:22:57.820 --> 00:23:02.640 maybe that sounds offensive to you, right? You hear that and, well, you can't understand it. 00:23:02.640 --> 00:23:08.300 That sounds, that doesn't sound good. Just to say, we need to remember the previous point, 00:23:08.340 --> 00:23:16.100 right? This is about grace. How do, why can Christians understand it and people who are not 00:23:16.100 --> 00:23:22.280 can't? That's not because Christians are better or superior. It's a gift if God opens your eyes. 00:23:22.279 --> 00:23:29.200 And it's a simple, so I'm Dutch and so I can speak in Dutch. And none of you guys can understand it. 00:23:30.539 --> 00:23:36.139 Right? The only person who can understand it is Henrike. Can she understand it because she's 00:23:36.139 --> 00:23:41.579 superior to you? She is so much better than all of you, so she can understand it and you can't. 00:23:41.579 --> 00:23:47.759 Well, no, right? She's just, she's got the gift of being Dutch. Right? That's, it's not something 00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:53.919 she's done. It's just, it's a gift from her parents. And in the same way, you know, the fact that, 00:23:54.379 --> 00:23:58.839 you know, if God has opened your eyes, it doesn't make you better. And if God hasn't opened your eyes, 00:23:58.899 --> 00:24:03.279 it doesn't make you worse. It doesn't make you inferior. So don't take this as something 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:09.079 offensive when it says that, you know, people need to have their eyes opened, uh, to, uh, to 00:24:09.079 --> 00:24:14.339 understand the truth. Although it can sound pointless, right? You're here, you know, someone 00:24:14.339 --> 00:24:18.619 brought you to church and then the Bible says that eventually you can't understand it. Well, 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:23.879 why did you bring me here? I don't know if you think that. Well, sadly that sometimes happens. 00:24:25.039 --> 00:24:29.599 Sadly, sometimes people come to church, they know there's something, but they don't get it. And they 00:24:29.599 --> 00:24:33.919 come for months and months and they still don't get it. And they stop coming. And that's really sad. 00:24:34.939 --> 00:24:39.959 The thing is, we don't know when God will open eyes that that's God's work, right? He might do 00:24:39.959 --> 00:24:45.939 that. Maybe he will do that today. Maybe we'll do it next week. Please keep coming. Right? So we, 00:24:46.519 --> 00:24:52.839 the best thing we can do actually is just pray. If you, if you come here and you, yeah, you hear a lot 00:24:52.839 --> 00:24:57.299 about Jesus, but it just doesn't make sense. You don't see why you should believe in him. Why don't you 00:24:57.299 --> 00:25:04.579 pray? Just ask God. I don't understand it. I don't get it, but I want to please open my eyes. Please 00:25:04.579 --> 00:25:10.740 help me see why Jesus is so special, why I should believe in him. Just pray that, pray that honestly 00:25:10.740 --> 00:25:20.559 and trust that God will answer. Well, but what does that mean for us Christians? Why this truth that 00:25:20.559 --> 00:25:27.000 it's only by the spirit? Well, one thing that Paul mentions, well, don't feel judged, right? 00:25:27.839 --> 00:25:35.000 Don't feel judged. Verse 15, uh, the spiritual person judges all things, but is himself judged by no 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:40.240 one to be just by no one. I mean, if you've got the spirit and your eyes are open, yeah, you can see 00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:46.980 both sides, right? You can see everything. In some way you can evaluate everything. But the thing is, 00:25:46.980 --> 00:25:52.980 you shouldn't be judged by, uh, well, you don't feel judged by people who don't understand the 00:25:52.980 --> 00:25:58.920 gospel. I mean, it's so easy to feel inferior as a Christian, right? All your colleagues think that 00:25:58.920 --> 00:26:04.059 you're nuts and your family thinks you believe nonsense. And on YouTube, it's full of atheists 00:26:04.059 --> 00:26:08.680 saying that you're stupid. And no wonder we want to feel impressive. No wonder we want to build a 00:26:08.680 --> 00:26:16.120 really impressive church to say, no, no, we're not. But you know, we don't need to bolster our self-esteem 00:26:16.119 --> 00:26:22.819 without the spirit. People just can't understand the gospel. So don't feel judged and don't, 00:26:22.819 --> 00:26:28.179 don't, don't worry about it. Just ignore it. I mean, imagine I give a sermon in, in Dutch 00:26:28.179 --> 00:26:34.099 and then you give me feedback. Well, I didn't understand any of that. That was so unclear. 00:26:34.799 --> 00:26:40.019 Do you think I should take that seriously? No, because right, you can't understand Dutch. 00:26:40.419 --> 00:26:46.099 It's very same. Only Henrique would listen to, right? Does that make sense? Yeah. Don't feel, 00:26:46.099 --> 00:26:51.719 judged if people can't understand what you believe. And don't worry about it. 00:26:53.059 --> 00:26:57.639 At the same time, well, there's no need to make the church more impressive, right? 00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:04.639 That's a bit pointless. If people can only understand by the spirit, if it's only the 00:27:04.639 --> 00:27:10.379 spirit who needs to open people's eyes, why should we make the church really impressive? Now, we want, 00:27:10.399 --> 00:27:14.500 we want to move venue. We'd love to have a better building that's more accessible because we want 00:27:14.500 --> 00:27:19.799 people to come and hear it. They need to hear it. But an amazing new building is not going to save 00:27:19.799 --> 00:27:27.180 anyone, right? We, we upgrading the music team. Let's give a million dollar guitar to Jeremy, 00:27:27.759 --> 00:27:33.720 you know, gigawatt sound system, 10 background singers. It's not going to save anyone, right? 00:27:33.720 --> 00:27:38.759 We don't need to make the church impressive. Actually, it's just the spirit that's going to do it. And 00:27:38.759 --> 00:27:44.220 without the spirit, no matter what we do, right? So Corinthians, you, you, you're, you're really, 00:27:44.380 --> 00:27:49.120 you want Apollos, you want an impressive speaker, you know, by itself, that's not going to do anything. 00:27:49.680 --> 00:27:57.460 It's only the spirit. And so if it's only the spirit, yeah, what should you do? Well, pray, right? 00:27:57.460 --> 00:28:03.500 If we need to, we need the Holy spirit to open blind eyes. That's far more important, right? These 00:28:03.500 --> 00:28:08.259 things are spiritually discerned. We need to pray. We need to ask the spirit. We need to cry out to 00:28:08.259 --> 00:28:14.000 him. It's only by the spirit people will understand. And none of our techniques and none of our impressive 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:21.600 things will do anything. That's such an important lesson, right? We have, uh, we put our confidence in 00:28:21.600 --> 00:28:26.900 the wrong things often. Oh, if we just did this, then no, no, we just need the spirit and we need to pray. 00:28:26.900 --> 00:28:33.840 And, and tell people and trust God to do that. Again, that's another word for fathers on father's 00:28:33.840 --> 00:28:39.060 day. Are you praying for your kids? Right? So maybe you take this really seriously. You go through 00:28:39.060 --> 00:28:45.640 every book of the Bible and Calvin's institutes and other books and great theology. If you don't pray, 00:28:46.140 --> 00:28:51.540 you know, without your kids eyes opened, they can't understand the gospel. So please pray for your 00:28:51.539 --> 00:28:58.039 kids. Almost pray more than you teach. I think that's some people find it easy to teach what we 00:28:58.039 --> 00:29:06.079 need to pray. But I know how that sounds, right? As we finish up, when I say it's all God's work and 00:29:06.079 --> 00:29:12.839 there's nothing we can do. I mean, I like control. I like doing things myself, right? And the fact that, 00:29:12.839 --> 00:29:18.740 well, it's out of my hands, it's all God's doing, right? It's God who needs to open eyes. It's God who 00:29:18.740 --> 00:29:27.319 needs to reveal. And, and I can't do it. That feels disempowering, right? Isn't it much better if we had 00:29:27.319 --> 00:29:34.859 something to contribute to this? Well, can you see that actually this is just the same thing that 00:29:34.859 --> 00:29:42.779 it's about grace? And how are we saved? Well, we're saved by Jesus. And he died for us on the cross. He 00:29:42.779 --> 00:29:47.899 paid for all our sins. He did everything. And we need to do nothing because if we had to do something, 00:29:48.019 --> 00:29:53.819 we would mess it up. Isn't it so wonderful that Jesus did everything? But there's not just salvation. 00:29:53.819 --> 00:29:58.179 it's also how come we, how do we come to know this? How do we come to believe it? 00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:06.259 Again, if we had to do it, we would mess it up, right? If we would have to, yeah, we'd have to help 00:30:06.259 --> 00:30:13.700 people believe it would depend on us. Actually, we'd mess it up. No, God does everything. He does the 00:30:13.700 --> 00:30:22.220 revealing. He does the opening eyes. He does the, he inspires the words, right? That's what he does. 00:30:22.220 --> 00:30:27.519 And so everything about our salvation, not just the work on the cross, but even how we come to 00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:31.720 believe it's all God's word because it's just so important. He doesn't want it to go wrong. 00:30:32.240 --> 00:30:38.039 It's all grace. And actually, if we realize that we can rest in it, right? Isn't it so wonderful 00:30:38.039 --> 00:30:44.279 that the growth of the church is not about us. It's not on our shoulders. It's God doing it. And we can 00:30:44.279 --> 00:30:52.399 just pray and rely on him. And that's wonderful. So why don't we do that now? Why don't we close our 00:30:52.399 --> 00:30:57.039 eyes? Why don't we pray? And then we'll celebrate the Lord's Supper after that. 00:30:57.039 --> 00:31:14.839 Our Father, we look to you. We thank you that everything ultimately is grace. Even knowing 00:31:14.839 --> 00:31:20.500 the gospel, believing, it's all your work by your spirit. And we thank you for that because 00:31:20.500 --> 00:31:29.619 we are sinners. We are limited. We can't do anything right. Father, please open our eyes 00:31:29.619 --> 00:31:36.319 to this truth. Help us to trust just in you, just in your work by your spirit. Help us not 00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:42.779 to think that we can do anything, that we, by anything of our works, we can bring people 00:31:42.779 --> 00:31:49.460 to you. We can save them. We can attract people. It's just you by your spirit. We want to be a 00:31:49.460 --> 00:31:55.160 church that only trusting you, that's prayerful, even for ourselves, for those around us. 00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:01.819 We don't want to, yeah, we can't impress them into the kingdom. We can't argue them into the 00:32:01.819 --> 00:32:10.360 kingdom. We need your spirit. So please do that work. Please use us. Use our words. Use the 00:32:10.360 --> 00:32:17.799 people. Yeah, use us with the people you've placed us next to at work or at university or 00:32:17.799 --> 00:32:23.460 anywhere. But please do your work by your spirit and help us to look to that and to rest in 00:32:23.460 --> 00:32:28.000 that and to thank you for that. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.