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1 Cor. 2:6-16
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can also download our service at Baptist-Christian at iTunes. I often have people ask me, “why can’t I understand the Bible, better?” or “I read the Bible, but I don’t understand it. It doesn’t seem clear to me.” A person must come to Scripture wanting to understand it as much as God Himself wants us to understand His inspired, infallible, inerrant Word. Let’s consider:
- THE DESIGN OF THE BIBLE. Would you agree that a perfectly holy and good God would want to reveal Himself and His Laws in such a way so that anyone who wanted to, could understand what such a wonderful God is telling them? All through His Word God tells people to read, study, discuss, meditate on, and memorize His Word. He uses words like those just mentioned to teach us getting to know Him is a lifetime process, not a once in a lifetime event! Jesus said, “You are wrong because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” Both those life needs are learned from careful study. The truth is God wants us to know, learn, and understand His Book so we can enjoy a right relationship with Him, and be in a position for Him to bless us. Living in harmony with God and His Laws reflect His redeeming grace, encourages other, lost and saved, to follow Him. Now consider
- THE DEMAND TO UNDERSTAND SCRIPTURE! Read Romans 8:5-11. Notice in verses 5 and 9 the Holy Spirit teaches us that we must desire to know the things of God from a heart that is controlled by the Holy Spirit. Practically, in daily living as a Christian, that means your life must begin and end with the idea, “how does what I am doing, thinking, living, and taking about represent a true picture of God to all those around me?” Read Mark 4:10-12; Rom. 8:5-11; and James 1:5,6. Now go to 1 Cor. 2:1-16. One of the major problems with sin is it makes a person think they can please God legally, or through works of their own, done their own way. Isa. 64:6 tells us that can’t happen. All works that begin in “us” begin with a sin-tainted view. God tell us that to understand His Scriptures we must accept and obey the truth as He gives it to us; and we are to live according to His inspired, infallible Word as He directs, not as we choose. When we read Scripture with the right heart it draws us to God. Sin drives us from Him. All of us know the degree to which we control our own lives! We know what part(s) God controls and what parts we control. If we are walking with the Lord and we come to something we don’t understand, our (super) natural reaction is to “lean not on our own understanding, but trust in the Lord.” Lack of understanding on our part doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve fallen into sin. It probably means God is getting ready to do something different, and need us to pay close attention through intensified study. To someone who doesn’t know Christ as Savior, lack of understanding is the normal result of not being redeemed. The unsaved can read the Scripture and clearly understand that the only starting point is asking Christ to redeem them.
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