Notes from 1/22/12
We continued to explore what God’s word has to say about what many perceive to be “gray area’s”
Again we must:
1. let God’s word be our final authority not history or experience
2. pray for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth
3. realize that while some of these topics might be unclear there is clarity on what we should be involved with and that is sharing the Gospel, giving Glory to God, being salt and light, etc. Ultimately people divide over some of these issues but we must stand firm on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and let it be our guide, present truth and grace to a dying world who needs Jesus.
We addressed the fact that History happened and is spoken of in the Bible and that we can not take verses out of context to prove a point that we want to make. Not everything recorded in the Bible is honoring to God, He has chosen to preserve the many different accounts of human failure not that he approves of it but that it is evidence of our Depravity and need of a perfect substitute (Jesus Christ) to pay for our sins.
On the subject of Alcohol. there are over 200 references to it in God’s word, some appear positive in nature, some negative….but there are Some questions we must ask first?
Did God create Alcohol?
Did God give guidelines for its use?
Is the wine and strong drink mentioned in the Bible the same as what we know today as wine and strong drink?
God’s word condemns drunkenness but what about those who take the stance of moderation…what is the basis of their stance?
God’s word condemns drunkenness but what about those who take the stance of total abstinence…what is the basis of their stance?
Regardless of your final position on Alcohol we must remember that we all will give an account to God of how we used our time, talents and treasures for His Kingdom…what were our motivations for doing what we do
What does everyone agree on? Drunkenness is a sin and we must submit to governing authorities so if you are under 21 in America you must not drink
Notes from 1/15/12
We are taking a break from looking at the Corinthian church to address questions from class members about various “gray area’s”. Before we even begin to look at any question we must establish what is clear and what are some scriptural guidelines we must follow when looking into any of these area’s.
Some Guidelines:
• We are to Seek First His Kingdom and His Righteousness
• We are to put off the old man and put on the new man
• We are to put off childish things
• We are Bondservants
• Don’t let the gray overrule the black and white.
Some Questions
1. Will this activity bring glory to God? (1 Cor. 10)
2. Is it profitable to my Christian life?
3. Will it edify me as a believer?
4. Does this activity have the potential of enslaving me?
5. Will this strengthen me against temptation or will it lead me into it?
6. Is this activity characteristic of God or the world?
Clear verses:
Matthew 22:37
Matthew 22:39
Phil 2:3-5
Eph 5:15-17
James 1:5
Matthew 6:33
Romans 14:13
1 Cor 6:20
1 Peter 2:13-17
1 Peter 4:10
1 Cor 6:12
1 Timothy 6:11
Eph 4:27
Romans 13:14
eph 4:30-32
1 Cor 4:6
Col 3:17
1 John 2:15
Some common scriptures referenced:
Piercing
Ez 16:12
Gen 24:47
Tattoo’s
(Leviticus 19:26–29 NET)
(Jeremiah 16:6 NET)
(Revelation 19:16 NET)
Final thought…we must all give an account before God for how we used our time, talent and treasure and what was our motivation for doing many different things…we have been given His Word to guide us The Holy Spirit to teach and convict us and Elders to rule over us in this world…are we in submission to all of them?
KP Yohannan – Gospel for Asia
6:12 “All things are lawful for me” 10 – but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me” – but I will not be controlled by anything. 6:13 “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both.” 11 The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 6:14 Now God indeed raised the Lord and he will raise us by his power. 6:15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 6:16 Or do you not know that anyone who is united with 12 a prostitute is one body with her? 13 For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 14 6:17 But the one united with 15 the Lord is one spirit with him. 16 6:18 Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin a person commits is outside of the body” 17 – but the immoral person sins against his own body. 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, 18 whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 6:20 For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.
The reality of Sexual sin is it effects every aspect of you’re being. Not just your body but also your soul.
The Bibles counsel is crystal clear we are to flee! The world will tell us that its to look, its ok to engage in premarital and extramarital sex but God’s word is clear on what is right and what is wrong.
Understand that looking and lusting has an effect on your walk with Christ and your relationships with others…something you might not even realize is its effects on people all the way around the world. Here is a video highlighting the problem of human trafficking and the porn industry.
WARNING!!!!NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN!!!!!!
The video can take some time to download so be patient.
If the embedded video doesn’t play go to this link to watch from vimeo http://vimeo.com/31795904
Jacob’s Story from Unearthed on Vimeo.
Notes from 11/11/11
Christian Liberty
. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. “All things are lawful for me”–but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me”–but I will not be controlled by anything.”
(1 Corinthians 6:10–12 NET)
““Everything is lawful,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is lawful,” but not everything builds others up. Do not seek your own good, but the good of the other person.”
(1 Corinthians 10:23–24 NET)
Liberty is not about you doing whatever you want, it is about you doing what God has called you to do to win/serve others. Before, you were a slave to sin, now you are free, free to serve God. Not free to do anything you want to.
Must ask the question “What is the wise thing to do” just b/c it is not wrong doesn’t mean you should do it.
Eph 5:15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise.
17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.
What do you allow to control your life? Is it the Holy Spirit or is there anything else?
Notes from 12/4/11 Your Identity in Christ
1 corinthians6:9-11 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals,thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. Some of you once lived this way. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Who you were before Christ, who you are in Christ, and who you will be some day in heaven some day with Christ…each of these can and should have an effect on how you live today. The Corinthians, and us, need to be reminded that:
yes we were sinners but we have been washed and made clean…so don’t get dirty
we have been set apart for God’s purpose for his Kingdom and for His Glory, not so serve our selves
We have been declared righteous before God though the blood of Jesus Christ
how then should we live?
Notes from 11/27/11
1 Corinthians 6: 1-8
On the surface this is about not suing other Christians but as you dig deeper the real issue is caring about “rights” more than the gospel. In the previous chapter they were willing to overlook a public sin and not excercise true biblical church discipline, but when it comes to their own rights the Corinthians were running to the public court system.
These verses teach that as a Christian my rights are not as important as my testimony. If I look after my testimony, the Bible hints that there is Someone who will look after my rights. After all, God is either in control or He is not. He is either the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills or He is not (Ps 50:10). If He’s not, then we’re all wasting our time here today. And if He is, then I don’t need to break my neck trying to protect my rights and my property and my reputation. God can and will take care of all that for me.19
Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian Christians can only be understood in terms of the utterly different value system of the Christian, as opposed to that of the unbeliever. When Jesus invited men to follow Him, they were instructed to “take up their cross daily” to follow Him. Thus, the Christian is a person whose life is dominated and directed by the cross of Calvary. It was on the cross of Calvary that our Lord was wronged, and this brought about our salvation. The wrongful death of Christ is established by Peter as the model for the Christian in 1 Peter 2, verses 18-25.
This is the reason our Lord taught His disciples not to retaliate, but to return good for evil (Matthew 5:43-48). This is what Paul teaches as well (Romans 12:17-21). Jesus taught that if a man forces you to go a mile, you should go two miles instead (Matthew 5:41). The one who asks of us should receive from us (Matthew 5:42). Our goal in life is not to accumulate possessions or to protect and preserve them. We are to give all these things up, gladly. Our attitude should not be to seek our own interests ahead of others, but rather to seek the interests of others ahead of our own (Philippians 2:1-8). This being the case, we should be willing to be wronged and defrauded, especially for the sake of the gospel and for the testimony of the church.
So at the end of the day what is it that you care about more than the gospel? What is it the moves you to action is it a loss and dying world that needs the Saviour or is it your “rights” being violated?
Notes from 11/20/11 Church Discipline
1 Corinthians 5:1 It is actually reported that sexual immorality exists among you, the kind of immorality that is not permitted even among the Gentiles, so that someone is cohabiting with1 his father’s wife. 5:2 And you are proud!2 Shouldn’t you have been deeply sorrowful instead and removed the one who did this3 from among you? 5:3 For even though I am absent physically,4 I am present in spirit. And I have already judged the one who did this, just as though I were present.5 5:4 When you gather together in the name of our Lord Jesus,6 and I am with you in spirit,7 along with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5:5 turn this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved8 in the day of the Lord.9
5:6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast10 affects11 the whole batch of dough? 5:7 Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch of dough – you are, in fact, without yeast. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 5:8 So then, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of vice and evil, but with the bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.12
5:9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. 5:10 In no way did I mean the immoral people of this world, or the greedy and swindlers and idolaters, since you would then have to go out of the world. 5:11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who calls himself a Christian13 who is sexually immoral, or greedy, or an idolater, or verbally abusive,14 or a drunkard, or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. 5:12 For what do I have to do with judging those outside? Are you not to judge those inside? 5:13 But God will judge those outside. Remove the evil person from among you.15
Take home points:
Christian’s sin and sin always has consequences
When Christian’s habitually sin and do not repent the local church must discipline:
How does Discipline effect the person?
How does Discipline effect the church?
How does Discipline effect the world?
If you were removed from the church what would you lose? If the answer is little to nothing than you are not currently in fellowship with the Body the way God would have you to be.
What is your attitude towards sin in your life?
Notes from Today 10/23/11
Sorry its been awhile but we have been watching “The Bema Seat” video by Bent Tree Bible Fellowship after finishing up 1 Corinthians 3
To judge or not to judge that is the question!
How can Paul instruct us to cease judging, when we know there are times when we must judge? What is wrong with the Corinthians’ judging that might not be wrong with other judgments?
One word for judging here is to examine the other is to pronounce final judgement.
When are we required to judge?
The Book of Proverbs is written to enable us to discern character, and various character types are vividly described: the naive, simple or gullible, the fool, the sluggard, and the scoffer. Contrasted with these is the wise.
We are to deal with a person according to their character, and thus we must judge character, based upon the descriptions given in Scripture.
We are to judge sin, which is clearly defined in the Scriptures, and clearly evident in our life (1 Corinthians 11:17-31) and in the life of another (1 Corinthians 5).
We are also to make judgments on spiritual matters involving believers (1 Corinthians 6).
We are to judge the doctrinal truth of what we are taught (Acts 17:10-11).
-When are we not to Judge?
We are not to judge the convictions of a brother in the Lord, since these are not matters of biblically defined sin, but of liberties (Romans 14:4).
Neither are we to judge or speak against a brother in any matter which the Scriptures have not defined as sin, and for which we have no biblical support. To do so is to place ourselves above the Word of God and to pass judgment on God’s law and God, the Lawgiver and the Judge (James 4:11-12).
When God calls upon the saints to judge, they do so in God’s behalf (Matthew 18:18-19). When we wrongly judge, we judge in God’s place (James 4:11-12).
In our text, Paul is forbidding men to judge in God’s place, passing judgment upon those things which God alone can judge. The judgment which does not belong to men is that which will be done by our Lord in the day of judgment, when He returns to the earth to establish His kingdom (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). We dare not “go on passing judgment” before “the time” (4:5). The judgment Paul forbids is God’s judgment, a judgment to be carried out by God in His appointed time. This judgment is God’s judgment alone, because it is that which only God can perform.
When we do judge we are to judge with righteous judgement (John 7:24), any righteousness in us comes only from Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, so in order to judge righteously we must be in fellowship with the Spirit, Walking by the Spirit in order to have discernment, there should be 2-3 witnesses as well.
If we have judged others wrongly we must repent, and walk in the newness of life. But we also must be involved in peoples lives to come along side people and be willing to speak truth into their lives when they are in error.
Notes from 9/4/11
1 Cor 2:14 The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 2:15 The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is understood by no one. 2:16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him? But we have the mind of Christ.
3:1 So, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but instead as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 3:2 I fed you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready. In fact, you are still not ready, 3:3 for you are still influenced by the flesh. For since there is still jealousy and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people? 3:4 For whenever someone says, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” are you not merely human?
Compare and Contrast attributes and actions of:
The Natural Man
The Carnal/Baby Christian
The Spiritual/Mature Christian
How does the Gospel change a man from the natural to a believer, how about from a Carnal Christian to a Mature Christian?
How does love play a role in this? Contrast the qualities of love in 1 Corinthians 13 with the list of the qualities of the carnal christian in the beginning of chapter 3.
