First Epistle to the Corinthians

Let me develop this a little bit.

You can either look at your paper there or look in your Bible, 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, The Bible says, but we all, with an unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Has anyone ever taught you about this verse, what's going on, what Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians here? The believer, we all, Corinthians is written to Christians, with an unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed.

The Christian has eyes to see and understand.

The Holy Spirit allows us to see what the Word of God teaches, what it says, and what happens when we behold.

You're being transformed.

And it isn't a mirror.

It isn't a mirror, but there one day will be a face-to-face vision of Christ, right? Take your Bibles and turn over to 2 Corinthians 4.

I mean, we're not frustrated at any sort of individual or church.

This has been going on for thousands of years where people have misunderstood Scripture and And you go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and what do you see? I'm just going to pick out some quotes from this chapter.

You come together, not for the better, but for the worse.

And then it says, when you come together, there's divisions among you.

And Jesus showed his love.

Greater love has nobody than to lay down their life to offer themselves.

And here these Corinthians are taking for themselves.

And so Paul says that's an unworthy manner.

Amen.

I think that's in 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

But it's for sure in the Corinthians somewhere.

Praise God.

And I believe that.

So our conviction as a church is that the Bible is spoken out by God, breathed out through human authors, and so our practice as a church is to kind of work our way sequentially through books of the Bible so we can best get our heads around what the author is saying and what the Holy Spirit might be saying to us today.

So we're continuing our series where we've been in, in 1 Corinthians.

We're going to start in chapter 3 at verse 5 and go to the end of that chapter, and If you don't have a church Bible open, that'd be super helpful as we go through.

It's page 1145.

It starts on in the blue, non-large print church Bibles.

I'm going to read that for us, and then I'm going to pray, and then we're going to think about what God's saying together.

Let's read from 1 Corinthians 3, verse 5.

What, after all, is Apollos, and what is Paul, only servants? through whom you came to believe, as the Lord has assigned each to his task.

And this makes them have a language similar to that of tongues, which is then considered to be a prayer language.

Now the Apostle Paul addresses speaking in tongues as well as incomprehensible languages in First Corinthians chapter 12 through 14.

And I would encourage each and every one of us to read those chapters carefully and plainly, because what we will find is that what's often taught about the gift of tongues is not biblical at all.

And the reason why I want to make sure that we understand what's being communicated here is that this verse has nothing to do with any prayer language at all.

When the Word of God says that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groans that cannot be uttered, there are many theologians, many Christians alike, that take this phrase as meaning, when we groan as we pray, God the Holy Spirit provides words for us or utterances that are beyond natural words, and this makes them have a language similar to that of tongues, which is then considered to be a prayer language.

Now the Apostle Paul addresses speaking in tongues as well as incomprehensible languages in First Corinthians chapter 12 through 14.

And I would encourage each and every one of us to read those chapters carefully and plainly, because what we will find is that what's often taught about the gift of tongues is not biblical at all.

And the reason why I want to make sure that we understand what's being communicated here is that this verse has nothing to do with any prayer language at all.

And he needed to submit his will to God's will and be open to being used by God.

We see in 1 Corinthians 1, For ye see your calling, brethren, that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.

But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.

And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen.

I'm a saint, but I'm not yet the saint God is making me to be.

He'll carry on this good work until completion, it says in Corinthians.

He'll carry it on to completion.

As he started it on the cross, he will end it in his return.