Show Video time stamps

We're continuing in our study in First Corinthians chapter 2, focusing on the revelation that God has given to us through the Apostle Paul, through what the Apostle Paul refers to as the mystery. In First Corinthians chapter 2, we've looked at verses 6 through 10. Now verse 11 gives specific reference to the ministry of the Holy Spirit in enabling us to understand mystery truth. Verse 12. Now we have received we he's writing to believers, he's writing to members of the body of Christ, and he's speaking about the unique ministry of the Holy Spirit who's been given to us in enabling us to understand these mystery truths.

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. The word freely comes from the word, the basic Greek word that has to do with grace. They've been graced to us. They've been given to us, freely given to us. And now which things?

Verse 13. This is a key verse. Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual and then in. Then in verse 14, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God.

They're foolishness to him. Neither can he know them, because these things are spiritually discerned. Here's a key how do I get any inkling, any enlightenment, any understanding of the spiritual condition of an individual? I'll tell you this. According to this passage, no one who does not have the Holy Spirit in them can possibly understand, grasp the truths that are given to us in the mystery, cannot understand the mystery.

That's what Paul is saying here. The wisdom of God contained and revealed in the mystery are things that are revealed by the Spirit of God. Now, once you become a believer, once you become a Christian, once you trust Christ as your own personal Savior, you become a new creation. The Holy Spirit comes and resides in you. And now you have the capacity, the capability, the tools, the person inside of you that is able to give you the enlightenment about the truths contained in the mystery.

According to this passage, the natural man, the person who does not have the Spirit of God, the unregenerate person, cannot understand these things, cannot. They're foolishness. To them it's an impossibility because they can only be understand by the Spirit of God. Now a person who has the Spirit of God has the God given enablement to understand and grasp these things. Which says to me that if somebody grasps the meaning and Significance and is applying these things is somebody in whom the Holy Spirit dwells.

Now, the fact that somebody has the Holy Spirit dwelling in them doesn't guarantee that they will respond positively to these truths. Meaning that it is possible for a genuine, legitimate Christian, a new creature in Christ, somebody who has the Holy Spirit residing in them. They can hear these truths, these principles, these keys to understanding the word of God, and for one reason or another. And there are many reasons why people reject these truths. There's tradition, there's things that we've always heard.

There's what everybody, the majority of Christians believe, what the evangelical churches believe and teach, all of that. And I know there's been pastors who have began to learn these truths and began to see the truth of it. And then they've actually stated, I can't teach these things my church, I'll get kicked out, I'll lose my job, I'll lose my pension. It's a horrible way to live, to compromise yourself and to compromise truth by temporal things, things that are of temporal value and not eternal value. Many reasons why people reject these truths, but those that do understand them, those who are able to teach them and share them with others and grasp them, are those who have the Spirit of God in them, because these things are only known through the work of the Spirit of God.

And again, references to the mystery are central to Paul's message in First Corinthians chapter 15. And we could spend months looking at the mystery and all that the mystery is and contains. In First Corinthians chapter 15, the apostle Paul reveals another component, another aspect of this mystery. First Corinthians, chapter 15. Beginning with verse 51, Paul says, Behold, I show you a mystery, something that has not been revealed previously, something that is important for you and for me to know.

The mystery here is that we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. The word sleep, there is reference to physical death. We will be changed in verse 52, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. He's giving us this reality of a mystery truth about what awaits us in the future.

There come a day when we will all be changed. And he gives us the order here. And what happens? Verse 53. For this corruptible.

Corruptible is a body that has person that has died physically is placed in the ground, and that body corrupts well. This corruptible must put on incorruption. So at that day, at the day that we refer to as the Rapture, when we will be taken up to meet the Lord in the clouds, in the air, those who have fallen asleep previously, those who have died previously, physically, whose bodies are corroding and corrupting, deteriorating, will put on a new body, a body that's incorruptible. And we, if we, if you and I, remain until the coming of the Lord, we don't have. We might think that our bodies are corrupting, but not in the sense that they are in the ground.

But our bodies, we have mortal bodies. Well, we will put on something different. This mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible, this corruptible, those who have died in Christ previously, puts on incorruption, a new body that is incorruptible, and those of us who meet the Lord in the air and are here alive, we as mortals will put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

Death has been swallowed up with the result that victory has been attained. The death of a believer is always victory. It's a release. It is a freedom. Victory over death, victory over the grave, as Paul states here.

He says in verse 55, O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, because of this mystery truth about the promise of what awaits us, here's how we are to live. He says, therefore, because this is true, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord, it may seem like it's vain. It seems like maybe nobody's listening, nobody's responding. Stay focused.

Stay steadfast, unmovable. Why? Because of the reality that one day we will be set free from this world, set free from this body, the difficulties and trials. We will meet the Lord in the air first. Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 13 through 18, gives some specific details about that.

And so that's mystery, revelation. That's something that was not revealed previously, but that Paul reveals as mystery, truth. All right, continuing with this topic, this subject of mystery, look at Ephesians, chapter 3, where the apostle Paul says much about mystery. Like I said, once you understand, once you grasp this truth, you will see it everywhere, from Romans chapter one, all the way to Paul's last letter. It's amazing because.

And. And without it, like we said, without it, you will not be able to live the way God wants you to live. You will not be able to understand and grasp what God is saying in his word. Look at actually In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 9, the apostle Paul speaks about. He says, having made known unto us the mystery of his will.

There's the mystery once again. God has revealed his will to us. God's mystery, truth. That's where we discover God's will for us. God's will for us is not focused on clothes we should wear, who we should marry, what job she would take.

It's the mystery of his will. God has revealed his will to us, having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he has purposed in himself. This is all about God giving glory to God, honoring God. And he does that by engaging us in what he is doing today. Go to Ephesians, chapter 3.

Paul gives very specific instruction here about himself and about this mystery truth. In verses one and two, he says, for this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. And that's very unique because we are living in a day when God has set aside the nation of Israel. God has set aside his prophetic program and he's doing something new with a focus on Gentiles without the exclusion of Jews, individual Jews. But the focus here is on Gentiles.

And he says, I am the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. If you have heard of the dispensation once again the household management of the grace of God which is given to me, the word me there in the Greek focuses on to me singularly, uniquely to me alone has been given to me for you. Verses 3 and 4. How that by revelation he made known unto me God's unique and special revelation to the apostle Paul. He has made known unto me what the mystery, mystery, as I wrote before in a few words, whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, his understanding, his grasp, what God revealed to him about the mystery of Christ.

Now, whereby when you read, he says, how are we going to read it? It's because Paul wrote it down for us what we're reading right now.

Then verse five once again, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed. And it says unto his holy apostles and prophets, by the Spirit it was revealed. We read in Scripture clearly, it was revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ to the apostle Paul, through him to the apostles that were part of the beginning of the Church, the body of Christ, those apostolic ministers that ministered with the apostle Paul and those prophets that God has set aside in the dispensation of grace. This is not speaking about the 12 apostles, that is not speaking about the prophets of the Old Testament Scriptures. In the context, it's the prophets that were together with the apostle Paul.

Because Paul makes clear here that these things were revealed to him, and then by the Spirit, God revealed them to these other ministers, servants of Christ. Through the reading of Paul's letters, through the hearing of Paul's message. Verse 6 makes clear the position of believing Gentiles. He says that the Gentiles, Gentiles who previously we read this in chapter one of Ephesians, chapter two. In Ephesians, Gentiles were without God, without Christ, without any advantage.

They were completely disadvantaged. But now that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, this is mystery, truth, Gentiles as fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel, the good news of the mystery of Christ and the death and burial and resurrection of Christ. All right, so Gentiles now are fellow heirs of the same body. We are members of one body. Body truth is revealed in the mystery of the apostle Paul.

Verse and then verses. We'll skip over to, well, verse seven, whereof I was made a minister of this gospel. I was made a minister of this mystery. I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power unto me, who am less than the least of all saints. Is this grace given, this grace revelation, this grace ministry, this grace message that I should preach among the Gentiles.

Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ, unsearchable because they were hid in God. They're unsearchable because you cannot go to any other scriptures, you cannot go to the Old Testament, you cannot go to the Gospels, you cannot go to the Book of Acts and understand these riches of Christ as contained in the Gospel of the apostle Paul. The mystery truths and that which is part of this dispensation of the grace of God, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Remember that these things were hid from past generations, hid in God. Look at verse nine.

And to make all men see, what is the fellowship of the mystery? Ah, there's a great fellowship, a great fellowship that we experience in the knowledge and sharing of the truth of the mystery, the fellowship of the mystery. Once again it is stated which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God. That's why it is unsearchable, because it was hid in God. Not hid in the scriptures of the Old Testament, not hidden anywhere else.

Hid in God, but now has been made manifested who created all things by Jesus Christ to the intent that now, now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church. The manifold wisdom of God, the unsearchable riches, the manifold wisdom, wisdom of God. And which is interesting here as we read here and in other places where Paul writes, we have a ministry to angels, to the angelic community, to the intent that now verse 10 says unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church. The manifold wisdom of God. Angels are looking and listening and learning from us.

We are ministering to them. That's a role reversal from the ministry of angels to the nation of Israel. They were ministering spirits to them. Angels are not ministering spirits to us. We are ministers to, to the angelic community where they learn something that they cannot learn on their own.

Because what God has done for us humans is taken ungodly sinners on enemy territory before God. And he has redeemed us. He has bought us, he has saved us, he has given us by his grace all these unsearchable riches of his grace and his glory. And we stand as exhibit A for all eternity to the angelic community of what God is able to do, has been able to do by manifesting his grace to and through us. God has manifested his grace to sinners by saving us, by making us new creatures, by making us recipients of all of his riches, by giving us these mystery truths, by giving us this living hope that causes us to live differently.

We have a purpose in life. We are to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord, there are things that we will learn about our lives and our ministry throughout eternity as we learn about the impact that our lives have had. Mothers in the home giving their lives to children and the impact that that has on them, the spiritual impact that that has on them, the spiritual benefit that they derive by having that kind of a devotion, that kind of constant example and message to them, and on and on. But God is able to exhibit his grace like never before.

Because what he does is he takes his enemies, he takes us, and he gives new life to us. An eternal life, an eternal purpose. And we now are his ambassadors here on earth. And it's verse 11 of Ephesians chapter 3. According to the eternal purpose, God's eternal purpose.

We are part of God's eternal purpose, an eternal role that God wants us to play from eternity past. God has purposed that now, but now we would be recipients of all of these great riches. And God equipping us to have a ministry with people like never before according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ our Lord. An eternal purpose that God has that was not part, is not part of what God revealed through the prophets, through Moses, through Abraham, to the nation of Israel. It's a great purpose that we are a part of, that God has demonstrated to us and given to us.

You recall in point number six above the difference between that which has been hidden and that which has been revealed, which is what Paul mentions here in Ephesians chapter 3. So God has a unique and new purpose. God is demonstrating. Paul's message is demonstrating God's worthiness of who he is, what he has accomplished, and the greatness of how he has demonstrated his grace to us undeserving sinners. A grace that he has not demonstrated to angels.

Because fallen angels are not shown grace, they do not have the opportunity nor the ability to be redeemed, to be saved, to enter, to reject their fallen condition and be restored to a right relationship with God. No. We are God's trophy of what his grace is able to accomplish. And it's all because of what God purposed in eternity past and the councils of eternity past. God put together a plan.

God said, I am going to show the exceeding greatness of my grace, the incredible greatness of his mercy toward us. And it's all received by faith, it's believing, it's trusting in what God has done for us, Christ. And through his work on the cross. Then we have a new relationship with God. We are made members of this unique entity called the Body of Christ.

That God has a purpose for us as ambassadors and co laborers with him to represent him on this earth, to represent him accurately, to represent him with the power of a message that is able to turn people away from darkness into light, that is able to take people who are spiritually dead and bring them to life, to bring people who are God's enemies reconciled to God. And what a privilege we have to fill that role as God's representatives. God using us as his ambassadors here on earth to reach people for the Lord Jesus Christ. How else are the unsaved going to hear the message of salvation? How else are his enemies going to hear the possibility that exists that they can be reconciled to a holy God.

It's only through the ministry and message of reconciliation that we've been given. That is our role. Not much greater than that is to be able to reach people with God's message, with God's grace, with God's mercy, in order to bring them to a right relationship with him, with an eternal purpose, with a life lived in a whole different dimension. Because of all that God has provided for us, the riches and the glory of his grace and his provisions in salvation. There's nothing like it, nothing like it.

There's nothing of value like that. Everything else appears valueless compared to the value and the treasure that we have as those who are saved by the grace of God through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what God has given to us, and we're privileged to have it and to enjoy it.