(audio cuts out) the authorship and recipient parts of the First Corinthians, there's a little segment on methodology. I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time, but I want to explain to you, when we say that we want to do an inductive study, what we're saying is we want to go through the necessary due diligence process of observing all there is to observe of the passage, of appropriately interpreting the things that we observe, and doing a thorough study as to apply it, okay?

So that being the case, with observation, we want to make sure that we take it verse by verse. We want to make sure that we're not just skipping over huge chunks of things, why? Because there can be another approach we take, which is what I did when we did the Psalm study, a devotional study.

How is it different? When I did a devotional study, I studied the passages and decided, in this Psalm that's typically pretty huge, I saw major themes and movements. Because it was repetitive, because there were things that were emphasized, I just used those major points to give you a devotion, to give you something to meditate and pray about for your life.

That's very different from saying, verse one, here's what it says, what is it? Verse two, this is what it is, what is that? And you're asking all these questions about every element of that entire passage. You see the difference? We can also take a topical study, which we've done in our previous Bible studies, where we say, hey, we want to talk about counseling.

We want to talk about hurt and pain. What does the Bible have to say about that? You see how that's a different approach than saying, we're gonna work through this passage, follow its trail of thought, we're gonna observe all that it has to say to us, right? So by nature, we're gonna take smaller chunks, typically no more than 10 verses, and we're going to do an in-depth study, okay?

Any questions about that? All right. Nonetheless, our study is truly for the purpose of our growth, our spiritual growth, both in understanding and practice. So we do have to have moments when we're sitting here asking ourselves, how do I now evaluate myself against what I'm studying, you know? And that's gonna be a necessary part of our study, and I hope you guys can do that, more so in your discussion time.

And obviously, I'm gonna bring up certain points in the study, okay? But one of the things that we really have to commit to is to do homework, okay? Reason being is because if we literally pause at each word and we sat there and just tried to dig, put a stake down and dig at each element, we can be in 1 Corinthians for like three years.

You know what I mean? So that being the case, you're gonna notice that I'm gonna assign homework for every single time, and I'm gonna try to make sure that the homework is both useful and that the homework is also reviewed. That way, we hold each other accountable, and also we don't feel like we're just doing busy work, okay?

All right, so we covered the nature of our class. Again, for small group-wise, the groups that you're in, these are just kind of mutual discussion groups, sharing application, all right? Lastly, one of the things that we do with each Bible study is we collect $5 from each individual. This is for the purpose of covering some of the costs, and from the money that we receive, I'm gonna purchase, I think I'm gonna purchase the binders for you guys, and it covers the cost of snacks.

So I'm gonna pass around a little snack sign-up sheet, and I apologize about the lines. If you guys have lines all through your thing, something happened with the printer today, and I couldn't get it fixed. So I'm gonna pass this around along with the pouch, okay? Pouch is for your phone holders, and then this is for the snack sign-up.

Cool thing is, the Collegians contacted me and said, in the month of May, every single week in the month of May, they're gonna serve us snacks. I said, wow, better be good, nugget. (laughing) I said, we're used to sushi, nugget. I said, you know, I told them, okay, cool.

So I already blocked off the month of May, but if you guys would sign up for the other months, that'd be much appreciated. Because then, even though we're still, the Collegians are covering that, I'm still gonna give them a portion of what we collect, so that it kinda covers, 'cause I'm not exactly how they're gonna do the finance, but also, if you decide to sign up for doing snacks, obviously, this is a large group, and to do snacks, it's gonna be quite a big sum, so we're also gonna compensate some of the money for the snacks, too.

All right, so I'm gonna start this over here. If you guys can make sure that it kinda goes all around, that'd be appreciated, okay? Oh, this one, too, all right. And there's change in there if you need. You can kinda open up the envelope. All right. Good. Then, let's pray, and then we'll jump into the study of 1 Corinthians, okay?

All right, let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we ask God that you would thoroughly bless our time. Lord, we thank you for the study that we're about to engage in. We thank you for your truth that's given to us. God, help us truly to be good students, children who are receptive of your instruction.

God, as we study a book that has many exhortations, rebuke and corrections, I pray, Father God, that these things all would be precious convictions for us, that, God, we might live in the light, God, that we might live in obedience to you. Lord, we thank you in Christ's name, amen.

Okay. All right. So, I wanna start off, actually, by talking a little bit about the first verses of this book. Okay? So, we're gonna actually skip the authorship recipient stuff for a little bit later today, but let's turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians, chapter one. Arnold, if you wanna join a group, sorry, I noticed you standing there.

You can join this one here. There's empty chairs in this group. Kind of small with three guys. Also, Christine. Is that you, Christine? My eyes are so bad. (laughs) If you can just join whatever group you want. All right. (laughs) Okay. Let's start here in 1 Corinthians, chapter one.

And I'm gonna read for us verses one through nine. And it says, Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sothony is our brother, to the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you are enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, waiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in a day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful through whom you were called into the fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Okay? All right. Now, as we look at that, again, the whole idea for us is we wanna make sure that we observe all that we can. We wanna make sure that we observe things that are relevant, things that are meaningful to us, okay?

And so I actually wanna start off, start off by asking you something that occurs in verse one. Okay? Something that happens in verse one is Apostle Paul introduces himself, and as a casual reading, you might be thinking, this is how Apostle Paul always introduces himself. Well, actually, the truth of the matter is Apostle Paul does not always introduce himself in this way.

Okay? Very emphatically, Apostle Paul calls attention to the fact that he is an apostle. Okay? So he says, "Called an apostle of Jesus Christ "by the will of God and Sosthenes, our brother." So, if you would just jot down really quickly, maybe just in number one, that Apostle Paul is both emphasizing his apostleship to the fact that he's describing it as a calling from God, but also by way of the language he placed it in Greek, he emphasizes the fact that he is an apostle.

Okay? But here's a question for you. Why would an individual, when they're writing a letter to a church or anybody who's beloved, feel the need to assert their title? Okay? So think about that for a moment, and any guesses are welcome, any thoughts that you have are welcome. Please, you know, just raise your hand and let's have some participation from the group.

Okay? So as we read the first verse, what would be a reason why Apostle Paul would feel the need to assert, I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ? (audience member shouts) Yes. Great. To assert his authority, okay? To assert his authority. By saying that he is an apostle, he is truly an individual who is a first authority in the church, as a founder of the church, okay?

Apostle Paul actually founded this church. So he is asserting his authority definitely by calling himself an apostle. But we could ask even further. So yes, he's asserting his authority and that's what people do when they say, I'm the boss, you know? But why would you feel the need to do that?

One more time? To defend, great. So if you guys are taking notes, please put that in there. So one of 'em, I think I have four blanks in there, one of 'em is the authority. And the next one is to defend. One of 'em is to defend. Apostle Paul, throughout his ministry, has experienced so much opposition.

There are false teachers, there are groups of people who constantly say, wait a minute, weren't you a persecutor of the church? Wait a minute, what do you know about the gospel? You know? And they're constantly bashing, diminishing the authority that he has. So definitely there's a sense in which Apostle Paul needs to defend himself.

As a matter of fact, if you read a book of 2 Corinthians, a huge chunk of that book is a defense of his apostleship, okay? What's another reason why? Can you think of any other reasons why Apostle Paul would feel the need to assert his authority, to assert his authority and introduce the letter with, I am an apostle?

(silence) Keep thinking. All right, so the one that, there's a couple more, but I think it's important to say is because, as you guys know, if you guys have read 1 Corinthians before, there's a sense in which he needs to assert that authority because of the state of the people he's speaking to.

So you can write in the brief, the state of the church, right? There's a sense in which, if the people already were really receptive, and not only were they receptive, they were, come on, Apostle Paul, come on over, you know, we miss you, I can't believe you're away and you're traveling and you're doing all this mission work, we've so long to see you.

Do you think he would need to come in with, I'm an apostle representing God, you know? No, he wouldn't, right? And so, in line with that, by the state of the church, I wanna talk about the background, okay? The background of the church. So we're not gonna read the whole paragraph that's there about the authorship and recipients of the church, but I wanna give you just kind of the description of the land, description of the people, as much as I can.

And I wanted to place it within our study because I wanted to show you that background information and historical information are actually really, really useful in elaborating the picture of what's happening, okay? So, the city of Corinth. What's really interesting about the city of Corinth is that for a long time, it was the epicenter of commerce, it was a heavily traveled trade route, okay?

I have a map for you guys there, a bigger map kinda showing you generally where it is, where in Greece, but a closer map showing you that there was actually two gulfs meeting with a small strip of land. And so you can imagine, anybody who wanted to go through, who didn't wanna go all the way around that region of Achaia, what would they do?

They would land on one side and they would go through Corinth, okay? So that being the case, Corinth was always a really important region in the area. But the thing about it was, you can imagine anywhere where there's high traffic, anywhere there's a lot of different people coming, there would be also a lot of different religions.

What's really crazy about Corinth is that it was one of these unique cities that had over 10 monumental, huge temples to idols, okay? So I think I have a picture there of one of the temples, that temple is the temple for Apollos, okay? So here you have a city that's high in commerce, high in probably entertainment, and high in idol worship.

But the thing about it is, almost all the cities I feel like, if you ever read the background information about any of the cities the New Testament talks about, it's always like that. There's a lot of people going through and there's a lot of idolatry. That's what it feels like, right?

But what I wanna mention to you is Corinth was particularly special. Because Corinth eventually became, by the time the church was established, Corinth became the capital, okay? Corinth was not only the capital, but Corinth had a high city in the capital, which is called the Anacropolis or something like that, okay?

And so if you can imagine, it's like the pinnacle of all of that kind of idolatry and all that kind of trade and all that kind of movement. If you think about it, if in our day and age, you think of where do people go to just have parties and debauchery?

Vegas. If you go to Vegas, there's trade shows coming in, there's electronic shows, there's rodeos, there's all sorts of people. And all sorts of people go there to have a bunch of fun, right? And then when you say Vegas, you automatically also associate that with sin. So much so that even some of the early pagan writers, I'm talking about people like even like Aristotle and stuff like that, early writers, they would mention that Corinth, and if they said, "Oh, she's a Corinth girl," that meant she was a prostitute.

If they wanted to bag on somebody and they would just want to use a term like you've been affected by this, you've been tainted by this, they actually had a term, I don't think I wrote it down in your notes, but it was, let's see here. Okay, it's called Corinthazesthai, which literally is to be Corinthianized or something, right?

So you can imagine, for the non-Christian world to talk about Corinth like that, it was probably even worse than Vegas, right? It's like that. So that's the kind of environment that was there, but the thing about it was, it was really, really odd because there was a huge contingency of the Jews.

When the Romans came in power, a lot of the Romans did not like the Jews, and so as the Romans were squashing the Jews out of certain cities, many of the people, many of the Jews, ran away to Corinth. Does that make sense? So here you have a city that's pagan as can be, but it also have huge contingencies of Jewish people, okay?

Why do we talk about that? Why is this background important? Because the Corinthian church, as established by Apostle Paul, he spent a year and a half there converting people, gathering the church together, teaching them, and all sorts, but they were so affected by their surroundings that much of the world existed in the church, okay?

So you can imagine, Apostle Paul is writing to this church. He's currently in Ephesus, having received a letter and report about what's going on in Corinth, and so you can imagine Apostle Paul, it's like a father who's been away for some time, coming to find out that his kids, that his kids are ripe with evil, wicked, all kinds of sin, all kinds of immorality, all kinds of strife, and so he's coming in wanting to say, look, I'm about to speak to you, and I'm speaking as one who is representing God.

I'm speaking as one with great authority. I'm an apostle called by Jesus Christ, not by my own will, but by the will of God, okay? That's what's happening. So again, in verse one, as we see, Apostle Paul says, "Called an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God," and it mentions in Sothenes, our brother.

Sothenes, he's an interesting character because in Acts chapter 18, it reveals that Sothenes was actually the leader in the synagogue. So this individual, this individual, was actually an appointed of the gospel. He was a Jew who was not just a regular Jew, but a leader amongst the Jews. What's pretty amazing is, Apostle Paul, who also was a leader amongst the Jews and appointed of the gospel, is now writing to them with authority with another individual who's been converted, okay?

All right. Now, in thinking about that, as you read, kinda, if you guys can, take a look at that whole passage again, okay? Take a look at the whole passage again. So Apostle Paul, laying down his authority, laying down his right to speak, laying down and asserting the kind of, you know, perhaps the foundation that he requires to speak great truth.

He's speaking to the church, but as you kind of evaluate what he is saying in the next verses, can you try to identify what are some things he repeats? What are some things that appear multiple times in this short paragraph, or the couple paragraphs, verses one through nine? So if you want to take a moment just to scan down the whole thing again.

Scan it through and then please let me know what you see as repetitions in the passage. (silence) Yes? - He talks about being called. - Great, okay. He talks about being called multiple times. Please jot that into the second line, okay? Please jot that into the second line. We'll talk about that in just a moment, okay?

He's being called. What's another thing that's repeated many, many times that perhaps we're not like pointing because it's always repeated many, many times? There you go. The Lord Jesus Christ. The name of God, right? So these are two important things that we just want to recognize here. That yes, the name of Christ, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ, or Savior, and all that kind of stuff in other passages are repeated.

Here is Christ Jesus, God, Christ Jesus again, and Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and it just keeps repeating the Lord again and again and again, okay? We started thinking about that a little bit because it's not just a way, kind of maybe how we do it. You know, I know that for me, I'm personally okay with it, but I know some people have a problem with it where you pray and you're like, Father God, Father God, Father God, and you just kind of say his name multiple times, right?

Some people have a lot of problem with it. For me, actually, it's okay if that's the way, you know, you've been kind of accustomed to pray, and you're praying like that. For me, it's okay, right? But the thing about it is, when Apostle Paul does it, it's not for no reason but just to fill her.

You see what I'm saying? There's a reason behind it. So let me ask you this question. There are two things he's repeating multiple times. One is the Lord. Second is the calling, and if you guys can fill that in a little bit more and say calling as saints, okay, calling as saints.

But I ask you this question. Given the context that we've already set up, we said that the church, mimicking the world, being heavily influenced by all the gross immorality that's around them, and Apostle Paul is coming and speaking to them in authority, what would be his motive and reason for bringing up those two things?

Let's start with Jesus Christ. (silence) I feel like you were gonna say something and then you're like. (inhales) (laughs) Yeah, no? The question. (laughs) Sorry, I put you on the spot, okay. The question is, yeah, he's beginning this letter and he's repeating actually the name of the Lord many times, not just like once or twice, but throughout the entire thing, his whole introduction, almost every verse.

Why? - To make note of them, or make sure that Jesus Christ is Lord. - Okay. Okay, he wants to make emphatically clear that Jesus Christ is the Lord of them, that kind of thing? Okay, good. What else, yes? - To me, that Christ is foundational to everything else we can say, and to some of the issues that are struggled with, and perhaps in part due to getting without Christ.

- Good, okay. So, Dr. David was saying Christ is foundational, and as they're living in our morality, they need to realize that their sins connects back foundationally to either knowing Christ or not knowing him well, right? And so, yeah, if you think about it, the foundation, and I almost think about it this way, perhaps the greatest way to convict them, the greatest way to shake them up would be to remind them of their relationship with Christ, you know?

Because if Christ is supposed to be the greatest love, if Christ is supposed to be the greatest, most important, most precious, most valuable thing in their lives, then that would be the first thing that he would lay as a foundation of why they need to repent, of why they need to return, right?

I mean, if you think about it, he could use arguments of, hey, this is not beneficial for you. He can use arguments of, hey, this is only gonna lead to ruin, you know, 'cause we do that in our strategy, don't we? In our strategy, don't we use arguments of, like, hey, this isn't good for you.

When I teach my children, I use that. When I teach other people, they use that. But sometimes, that's not the most convicting thing. The most convicting thing is that the core identity of who you are, you are in a relationship with the Lord. And if that's in danger, if that's been severed, that's going to be the biggest point of conviction, their identity in Christ.

That's foundational. And so, it goes hand in hand that he would talk about their calling, okay? So, the second thing that I had you guys write is their calling as saints. So, we see, noticed here, like, he talks about his own calling, but in verse two, he says, "To the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling." And then, if you look down in verse nine, he says, "God is faithful through whom you were called and to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord." Okay?

So, that is surprising. It's surprising, why? Because the church is very far from being saints, right? It's surprising that he would call them saints, and he says, "I'm speaking to you, saints." You know? If we were in a conversation, and an individual was talking to you and trying to correct you about something you did, and you were sitting there thinking, "Oh, yeah, that was so stupid, that was so dumb of me," and then they said, "Yeah, smart guy." Would that be received as, like, would that be received really well?

But is that the reason why he said that? Almost as a sarcastic tone, it was like, "Okay, saints," you know? It wasn't a sarcastic tone. The way that Apostle Paul was saying this, truly, was a way to call them back to their identity in Christ, which is, "In Christ, you are saints." The truth of the matter is that when they're in Christ, they are saints because they are set apart from him.

Saints literally means holy ones, okay? So, jot that in there as your notes. Saints literally means holy ones, okay? So, the Greek word for holy and the one for saints are just derivatives of each other. They're holy ones. They're set apart. They're consecrated and ordained. And they've been done so by God himself.

And so, as you guys know, the way in which God sees us when we are in Christ is that in the moment God has called us effectually, then God has called us to be separate from him. We're categorically different. And so, the Corinthians church, although they were far from being saintly in practice, they needed to realize that in standing before God, this is who they are.

I'm not gonna jump the gun yet, but later I'm gonna ask, so you see Apostle Paul's strategy? He's gonna bring them back to foundationally to their relationship with Christ. And he's gonna bring them back foundationally to this is who you are. This is what God has called you to.

And all the exhortation, all the commands that come after that is gonna be founded upon that ground. But moving forward, if we take a look at verses three down all the way to verse eight, it's a huge middle section that Apostle Paul spends a lot of time describing them.

And so, I wanna ask you this question. What is Apostle Paul's attitude towards the Corinthians church in this passage? So, kinda again, I want you guys to reread verses two through eight, and please answer that question for us. What is Apostle Paul's attitude towards the church? (pages rustling) Mm, very good.

He says just flat out in verse four, I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which is given you in Christ Jesus. So, underneath question number three, I believe I have two blanks again. The first one, please write it in that he is very thankful for them.

You know? I think, just as a side note, you see Apostle Paul's heart, right? Apostle Paul actually spent the most amount of time with the Corinthians. You know, there are some churches Apostle Paul only had three months with. There are only some churches he only visited for a short time.

And then there are churches he never got to visit, okay? But nonetheless, with the Corinthians, he spent a great amount of time. He toiled with them. He labored with them. He even sent more people towards them. And he probably wrote more than just two letters to them. But that being the case, they were frustrating.

Can you imagine if you invested all your time, you sacrificed, you risked your life, and in the end, they just didn't bear the kind of fruit? You know? Typically speaking, you would be tempted to be like, forget you guys, you know? Just do your own thing. Just do whatever the heck you want, you know?

But Apostle Paul was very thankful for them. And Apostle Paul, still nonetheless, if you look at verse three, says, grace to you and peace. Grace to you and peace. He wishes them well. That's his attitude. But what's another perspective Apostle Paul has about this church? What's his attitude towards them?

He treats them like what? Like children, like Christians. Like fellow believers in Christ. I think one of the things that I was surprised by is, you know, most of us, many of us, have probably read 1 Corinthians before. And we realize 1 Corinthians is an entire book about problems.

An entire book about like the number of different problems. And some of them were really grotesque. Some of them were unmentionable. Some of them, Apostle Paul himself says, even the pagans don't do that. I'm like, gosh, you know? But the way he addresses them is, he addresses them like brothers.

He addresses them like believers. I think his attitude towards them is, he treats them like they're saved. So if you look at the way he talks to them, when not only is he thinking of their best interest in verse three, where he says, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

You say grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, not to pagans. You know, that might sound like too rigid or harsh, but you actually don't say that to people who don't have grace, who don't have peace of Jesus Christ. Why? Because the kind of peace he's wishing them is the only peace that comes from the only Savior and Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.

That kind of peace is only a fruit of the grace of God. Does that make sense? And so as he's talking to them, look at all the stuff he says to the church of God, which is important, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus. In my mind, when you say to somebody, you've been sanctified in Christ Jesus, that's an exclusively Christian term.

You know? In other books of the Bible, he's mentioned people who try to do good. He mentioned people who try to be in the church or in the synagogue and stuff like that. That's not an exclusively Christian term. But when he says, you're in Christ, you're sanctified in him, he has an attitude towards them.

You are a Christian. And so he says, "Saints, by calling with all "who in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ "their Lord and ours." He says, "I thank my God always concerning you "for the grace of God which is given you in Christ Jesus." So the way he's talking about them is he's talking to them generally as a church of God, generally as those who are Christian and saved.

And I think, again, that kind of goes to show Apostle Paul's perspective, his attitude. His attitude is not so much dependent and determined by simply the performance of the people. Apostle Paul beautifully always has a very spiritual eye when he looks at people, and he always has a bigger perspective which God is always in control of.

And we're gonna see that a little bit more right now. If you guys can, on your packet, just put the whole block verse in there. Because some people, I don't know if any of you guys are like this, but some people really hate marking their Bibles. For me, I mark my Bible all the way up, but if you don't like it, that's why I put that in there, I would like you guys to please circle or underline or however you do it, mark every major verb starting from verse two through eight.

That is one of the ways you can observe the scriptures very carefully, okay? I asked you already to observe repeated words. I asked you to observe like attitudes and so forth because those are important. But I also want you to mark every single verb that you see. Okay? So go ahead and take time to do that.

Mark every verb. (silence) From verse two through eight. (silence) (marker clatters) (marker clatters) (marker clatters) (marker clatters) (marker clatters) (marker clatters) Okay. (marker clatters) So, observations about these verses, verses two through eight, what are some observations that you guys see from just going through perusing down these verbs? It can be something obvious.

Some observations are literally obvious because all you're doing is seeing what's in there. You can talk about some obvious ones, or you can maybe find a similarity behind some of the things that he's saying. What do you guys see? Like what is he doing with these verbs, so to speak?

(audience member speaks) (Marker clatters) Okay. Great, okay. So, he said that just for, there are people viewing on the internet and stuff, he said that there are the verbs confirmed that's repeated a few times, and it gives the idea of confidence, right, before God. Great, okay. So, in line with that topic of confirmed, you notice that a lot of these verses, or the verbs that are given, are describing the condition of the believers, okay?

And again, describing the state of these believers, you notice that what he is doing is truly talking about their, we mentioned it already a little bit, but they're confirmed in their what? Yeah, they're confirmed in their faith. Which I find, just again, really, really interesting, don't you? In a book that's all about, like, you guys are behaving like the world.

Like, someone, I wanna give credit, but I remember reading it, but not remembering who it's from, but that idea is if you're in a courtroom, does the prosecutor have enough evidence, visible evidence, to convict you of being a Christian? Perhaps the Corinthian church may not have had that. Because their external actions looked just like the world.

But what's interesting is the way that this begins off is a lot of these verbs are all about confirming their faith. So, I wanna go down through some of these descriptions, and so I have it here, descriptions of the saints and the grace of God. Essentially, as I say that, descriptions of saints and the grace of God, all it's really saying is, this is a description of a genuine believer, given the faith, right?

Having been given the grace of God to be in the faith. And this is what he says. And I actually broke it down into three different things, because I felt like there was three different, I guess, verb tenses in there. About the past, the present, and the future. So if you look, starting from verse five, it says that in everything, you were enriched.

In him, in all speech, and all knowledge. Even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you. And so, in the past, he says, as one who has been graced by God, you have been, one, enriched. So the letter A underneath past is enriched. They have been enriched in all speech, they have been enriched in all knowledge.

There's a sense in which, if you think about those two things, all speech and all knowledge, back then, it was considered so highly, incredibly valuable for you to have knowledge, and for you to be able to articulate it. Not only that, but even in the faith, spiritually speaking, for us as believers, isn't that surely the proclamation of the faith we proclaim to have, that which we hold onto so dearly as a Christian, right?

So he says, in these two areas, these two spheres, in the way of speaking about life and God, you have been thoroughly enriched, okay? But what's more, he says, the testimony is confirmed in you. Testimony is confirmed in you, all right? In the next verse, verse seven, he says, so that you are, and that are, as a state of being, is present.

You are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. So currently, currently, A, saints do not lack any gift. Okay, saints do not lack any gift. Secondly, saints eagerly await the revelation of Jesus Christ. So he's basically describing the Christian, a person of faith, and he says, they're enriched, they have the testimony confirmed.

Testimony confirmed meaning is that repentance and faith in Christ has been confirmed in their lives. But furthermore, right now, they lack nothing in terms of gifts. Now, the Greek term for the word gifts is charizoma, which really talks about grace gifts. So here's the thing. I find he's really summarizing the Christian life altogether.

We are a people who are, as believers, engaging in an act of faith and belief in the propositional truth, to understand that we have everything for life and godliness in Christ now. That we can be content whether we have little, whether we have a lot, we can be content whether we're healthy or we're sick, we can be content in every single circumstance because we lack no gift, no grace, because it's all found in our Lord Jesus Christ.

That describes the current state of a Christian. What's more, we are a people where we've been promised so much, but that promise and realization of that, what God has promised us, is not experienced right now, so to speak, but we're waiting for the revelation of Christ. Whether there's gonna be vindication for the saints, whether there's gonna be a righteous reign of Christ, whether there's gonna be, in the presence, worshiping in his harmonious community and all that kind of stuff, waiting for us when Christ is revealed.

So he's describing the Christian in the present case. Future, number three. I'm sorry, yeah, number three and verse eight. Who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, he talks about how saints will be confirmed in the end and saints will be blameless in the end.

So you can write those in as saints in the description of saints in the grace of God. Saints will be confirmed in the end, saints will be blameless. As we observe these things of what Apostle Paul is saying, some of these things aren't like profound new information to us, but I want us to examine and observe what Apostle Paul is doing.

First and foremost, his perspective, again, is not so discouraged just because the people are not responding the way perhaps we wish. That Apostle Paul all the more does not rest on the confidence of just man, but look at the beginning of the next verse. God is faithful, right? God is faithful.

So you look at the perspective of Apostle Paul and as he's describing the Christian, these descriptions, number one, cause us to think about what we recall to, what we were expected of, but it also gives us this perspective that Apostle Paul has. This view of the saint that he's giving and the description of the saints that he's giving, he can still maintain that standard, he can still maintain that expectation, why?

Because his confidence is not in the people, but his confidence is in God. So as we think about that, I ask you this next question. We've hit it already a little bit. I want you guys just to think about it a little bit more. What is Apostle Paul's strategy?

What's his purpose in this introduction? Can you guys perhaps summarize for me or tell me the main thrust of what he is doing, okay, by way of this introduction? What would you say? (silence) I mean, someone could read this, honestly. Someone could read this like, I do this sometimes, you know?

There are times when you have to say hard things to people, but you always start off with, but you do this so well. Like overall, if you're talking to a guy and you really don't think he should dress a certain way, like overall you have great fashion sense and stuff, but that Phoenix shirt just really needs to go, you know?

Like you start off with something nice so that you can crush him afterwards, you know? Is that what Apostle Paul is doing? Just being nice in the beginning so that I lift you up and then, wha-bam, I get you down. No, that's not what he's doing. Or just because he knows he has to say hard stuff, at least he's starting with trying to reaffirm them.

Why is he reaffirming their faith and saying you are called this way? This is what a Christian is. This is what describes you. What's his purpose and strategy in doing that? That's the question. Oh, sorry, yes. (laughs) Yes. Right, okay. Yeah, great. Thank you. So that is a truth, again, that perhaps it's not profound or profoundly new to many of us, but I want us to think about that because that truly is the foundation of his exhortation.

He's going to lay down the foundation, like a concrete base to say, this is who you are in Christ by calling, and now you have to live up to it, and now you have to live accordingly, right? The imperative for you must, you should, and you ought to is all possible because you are by the Spirit and the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, right?

This is how we are challenged in the scripture. This is how we are to think when we think about our exhortations, our disciplines, our works, and our deeds as a believer in Christ. That this is the calling to which God has already given. This is the status to which God has already laid down for us, and what we are doing is designed to fulfill that calling God has given us.

That's going to be the thrust and imperative for the rest of the book. If this is truly who we are, then this is truly who we must be. Apostle Paul, I think, beautifully lays down the core of what's really important for them, their identity in the Lord Jesus Christ, their identity by his calling.

Does that make sense? Okay, so, in your own time, you guys can write down perhaps a brief summary. That's a really good way to come down to an interpretation, you know? A really good summary of what this introductory paragraph has for us. Okay? All right. Now, any questions so far on the things that we observed and the kind of conclusions that we made?

What is Apostle Paul doing? What's the purpose of his letter? Okay? Then I hope that you guys have some good conversations in your discussions, and here are some of the questions I tried to think of, but you guys obviously can just share more. The first is, what sort of application can we draw from Apostle Paul's strategy in laying the foundation for his entire letter?

We just said that he is pointing at the identity in Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's pointing at their salvation, their identity as one's called, and saying, this is who you are, and so this is the commands that are there, right? What kind of applications can we draw?

You know? What kind of convictions can we have in our lives? Secondly, the centerpiece of the message, at least the bulk of it, was a description of the saints, past, present, and future. When you look at this description, what sort of personal convictions do you gain from evaluating yourself against the descriptions we observed?

So we can ask ourselves, do I feel like I've been truly enriched both in knowledge and in the content of my faith? Has it been confirmed for me? Has my repentance been confirmed? Am I confident that I've repented before God, that this gospel is truly mine? It's not a faith that's on a doctrinal statement.

It's not something I signed off on. It's something that I possess. This faith, I possess it. Do I truly feel like I lack no grace, that for life of godliness, there's a passage in 2 Peter 1 and 3, divine power has been granted to us, everything pertaining to life and godliness.

In Christ, I truly lack nothing. It's this present, personal conviction. Are you waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you have confidence he's gonna perfect you? There are so many people who are afraid of death. There are so many people who are afraid of this and that. And I think I shared with you guys, if you guys can pray for me, I've been having, still, nightmares of my children's death.

And it wakes me up at night. And I've been battling it, I've been trying to battle it with truth and remembering. And one of the things I just remind myself is, you can't die unless God's done with you. And when he's done with you, you're dead, but if you're a believer, death is just death, right?

Like, nobody dies, no sparrow falls unless God says so. Right now, I'm having all these crazy dreams of my kids drowning in different scenarios and stuff, and I wake up like, (yells) you know? And I can't go back to sleep 'cause I'm too afraid, but I've been trying to fight that with, if you understand God's sovereignty, no person dies prematurely, not a single one.

And if you're a believer in Christ, you're just safe, right? He completes you, he perfects you, he leads you all the way to the end. But are these confidences, faith convictions, past, present, future, for you currently? So again, please share that with your group on a more personal level.

Number three, how receptive are we to instruction? I ask that because, given the context of things, Apostle Paul, again, has to be like, I'm an apostle! I planted this church, you know? I almost hear it that way, and I wonder. But truly, we have to ask ourselves, how receptive are we to instruction?

Do we only receive instruction from people who are older than us, more mature than us, more knowledgeable than us? Can we receive instruction from people who are younger than us, if that at least is true and accurate? Do we feel like, you know, what did I put here? Are you a bad patient who typically ignores doctor's orders, you know?

The scriptures tell you to do X, Y, and Z, and you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But then it's always put back on the backburners. Have you tuned out certain people who annoy you? They've already talked to you one time, they talk to you a second time, by the third time, you're just like, off, please, you know?

How receptive are you to biblical truth, good, godly wisdom, how receptive are you? Now, obviously, this is kind of like a yes or no question, like, yeah, I am, or no, I'm not, but just share at least more personally, you know? As of lately, I've been having a great hunger for more instruction, I've been really hungry, or, you know what, actually, it's just been kind of, I'm not that interested sometimes.

Just be truthful with each other as much as possible, okay? Alrighty, then I just wanna cover really quick the homework assignment. Now, it's a lot, but I'm gonna emphasize just two things, okay, the homework assignments are just, please review the inductive Bible study process attached to this thing. Secondly, please read 1 Corinthians all the way through as many times as possible this week, and answer the following questions.

Number four, for the next time, please simply make closer observations of verse 10 through 17. If you're super duper busy these days, and you can only do a few of these, number one, I just recommend you to just read. Exposure to the Bible is the best thing you can do.

The more you read and the more you remember, the better it is for you. And especially reading big chunks sometimes is helpful to understand the whole, so read 1 Corinthians as many times as you can, at least once through, it'll be the first one. And then the second would be, focus on verse 10 through 17, and try to ask, you know, the best questions you can, and observe the things that are there, observe the verbal commands, observe what's the problem, what's the possible method of instruction, dissect the thing, and then really just make all the observations that you can, okay?

All right, any questions about today's study or what the homework is? Okay, let's pray, and then you guys can jump and have time in your small groups to discuss, all right. Father God, we thank you for this scripture, and Lord, I pray that if anybody in this room is in sin or perhaps have faltered, acted selfishly, whatever it may be, I pray, Father God, that our greatest, most piercing conviction would be the pain of being far from you, would be the pain of really affecting negatively the relationship and the harmony that we have with you.

And I pray, Father God, that if anything really causes us to return, it would always be you. And Lord, we thank you, God, that you are such a God, so patient, so kind, as to give instruction like this, to begin with reaffirming and reassessing the calling that you've given to your people.

Father God, I pray that through this study again, it would be so fruitful for our faith and our living. God, that surely we would not be like the world, that we would not mimic the fallen world, we would not mimic and desire the many pleasures that this world has to offer.

But Father God, rather, as having once received the greatest pleasure of all, we would continue our lives by sinning no more, but rather, God, living our lives and offering to you of everything to please you and to honor you. We thank you, God, in Christ's name, amen. All right, thanks, everyone.