1 Corinthians 2

Sermon Transcript

We are here in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Paul is continuing this theme on wisdom that he talked about at the end of 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We are just going verse by verse through the book. After chapter 2 he starts to really get into specific doctrines and specific issues, but let us start here in verse 1.

Verses 1–5 — Not With Excellency of Speech

"And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God."

Right at the beginning Paul refers to them as brethren. Even though this is a church with a lot of problems and a lot of sin, he does not question their salvation. He says and I, brethren. And he says when I came, I did not come with excellency of speech or of wisdom. He is not saying he came to them being ignorant or stupid. What he is saying is that he did not speak in a way that was above them where they could not understand what he was saying.

Before we get into that further, go to Romans chapter 16, because I want to make a comparison. Paul did not come with excellency of speech, but there are bad people that often do have excellency of speech and wise words that they use.

Romans 16:17–18: "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." The Bible refers here to people that would cause problems and divisions — and they are doing it intentionally, not accidentally. They are intentionally causing problems, and they specifically target those who are simple, those who are ignorant, those who are not that educated about what the Bible says. And how do they do it? By good words and fair speeches. This is the flattery the Bible is referring to — they butter people up, make them feel good, and give them fair speeches.

Go to Jude chapter 1.

I am not specifically preaching on reprobates today, but I want you to realise that when someone is a reprobate it does not matter if they are a serial killer or a false prophet — they are going to be the same sort of person. Their mind is defiled, they are given over to a reprobate mind, they are filled with all wickedness, and they use the same pattern of fair speeches regardless. You think of truly depraved reprobates like Jeffrey Dahmer — he was basically caught by police on the street, and he just talked his way out of being arrested even though he was clearly guilty. John Wayne Gacy had police show up at his house several times because neighbours heard screams, and he talked his way out of it every time. It is a scary thing when someone can be caught with all the evidence and still just talk their way out of anything. And you have to realise these are the kinds of people that would actually come to churches — the false prophets causing problems in churches. They have these very smooth words, these fair speeches, and they are able to deceive people based on the way they talk. They can even make you start to second-guess yourself because they are so smooth in what they say.

Jude 1:16: "These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage." The great swelling words are the flattery they are giving. And why do they do it? Because they want to take advantage of you. Having men's persons in admiration — why? Because of advantage. They are using you. They want to take advantage of you. That is why they give you the flattery, why they give you the smooth words, why they are trying to swell you up and make you feel good. They do not care about you. They want to take advantage of you.

And what Paul is saying is — I was not like that. I did not come with smooth words. I just declared the testimony of God. I just said what the Bible says and let the chips fall where they may.

Go to John chapter 3.

As we read last week, the Bible says where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Now let me show you where the Bible speaks about testimony, because Paul said I came declaring unto you the testimony of God.

John 3:31–33: "He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true." What is the testimony that we are receiving? The testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. We are receiving the testimony of Jesus Christ — that Jesus Christ lived the perfect life, then died, was buried, and rose again after three days. That is the testimony Paul was declaring. Now, this does not mean the only thing Paul ever preached was the gospel — when you are preaching sermons in church you preach the entire counsel of God. But what he is saying is I did not come with just these amazing words to try to convince you of Christianity. I just showed you the gospel: Jesus died, was buried, and rose again, and you decide if you believe it or not.

Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 3.

2 Corinthians 3:12: "Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech." When the Bible says plainness of speech, it means you say things in a clear and simple way so everybody can understand. Now of course we do that when we preach the gospel, but we are also looking at the context of when we are preaching sermons and teaching — we use great plainness of speech. God was very specific in the commandments and instructions he gave people. He used very basic, plain speech so people could actually, as the Bible says, run that readeth it — so they could see the word of God and just do what is right.

Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

This gives you a fundamental difference between what we believe and what some other churches teach. I have heard Bible preachers get up and say well, people think the Bible is meant to be simple, but this is God we are talking about — it is meant to be complicated. Now look, obviously there are things in the Bible that are deep and confusing. You read Daniel or Isaiah or Ezekiel or Zechariah and some parts are genuinely confusing. Even having been saved for a couple of decades, there are still things I read in the Bible where I think, I am not 100% sure what the Bible is saying here, I need to cross-reference and learn more. There could be things I believe or that you believe that we are not entirely correct on. But most of the Bible is not complicated. When the Bible says thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, it is not complicated — do not use God's name in vain. When the Bible says read therein all the days of thy life, it is not complicated — read the Bible every day. When the Bible says forsake not the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, what is he saying? We should actually be there for church and meet together because it is important. God's commandments and rules are not complicated. People just do not want to do what the Bible says.

My job is to basically just learn what the Bible says and clearly teach what the Bible says. Yes, we are going to look at deep and complicated things sometimes, but most things are pretty simple. And it is important that things are simple and understandable because when you are in church you are not just preaching to extremely educated Bible people who have read the Bible for years and years. We are a family-integrated church and kids are in the service to hear the word of God — that is the pattern we see in the Bible. I ought to preach in a way so the children can understand what I am saying and actually learn. It is amazing when you are raising kids how much they actually pick up from the sermons. My oldest child Zephaniah is 8 years old and he has almost finished reading the entire Bible. He will talk to me about things from the Bible and I will ask where did you learn that, and he says from you, Dad, you preached it. And this goes all the way back to when he was 5 years old, explaining things he learned from the sermons. Other people at church will tell me their child learned something from the sermon and they are excited about it. Why? Because young kids can learn the word of God. That is why we do not have them in another room just singing songs about Noah's ark — we have them in church to learn the word of God.

And aside from kids, what about people we get saved and bring to church? You know, many people that hear the things we preach understand what we believe and what those doctrines are. But if somebody is new to our church and you mention new IFB, they are going to say what is that? What is the I, what is the F? How is that different from the Southern Baptist or the Bible Baptist or the missionary Baptists? They will not know these things because they are newly saved. So I need to preach in a way that newly saved people can understand. Ideally in a sermon I am going to speak in a way that even someone who is very new to everything can at least learn something — so they are not sitting in church thinking this is just too much, I cannot take this.

Think about it logically. If you are teaching a subject, your goal is to teach in a way that the people listening can actually understand and apply it. If I am teaching maths up here and I have got all these integrals and complicated notations from upper level calculus on the board, people in the church are going to be like, what are you talking about? There are probably a lot of us that have been in maths classes before where we could tell the teacher was incredibly smart and gifted but they did not know how to teach because nobody understood what they were saying. If you leave a sermon thinking Pastor Stucky is so smart but you have no idea what I was talking about, that is useless. My job is not to make something simple complicated. My job is to make something complicated simple so even the youngest child can understand the words I am saying. We use great plainness of speech. That is what Paul is saying.

1 Corinthians 2:2–5: "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." Paul is expressing that he had difficulties — weakness and fear and much trembling. Even Paul the Apostle, a great man of God, went through those times. And his speech and preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

The people that are generally guilty of the opposite are these dispensational teachers that speak in a very complicated way. There is this guy online named Gene Kim who specifically said people think the Bible is meant to be simple to understand but no, it is meant to be complicated — that is a completely different philosophy. I remember when my wife and I first started talking, she started listening to sermons online and at first she thought the sermons I listened to were strange because they seemed pretty simple. She was used to going to a dispensational church where it was all super complicated and nobody really understood what was being said. And then all of a sudden it was very different — just a very basic sermon about how to read the Bible every day, trying to motivate you. And after a while she realised, wait a minute, this kind of preaching is actually helpful to me because I am able to learn it and apply it to my life. What sense does it make to hear a sermon where you understand nothing? You need to be able to understand what the preacher is saying. This is what Paul is expressing.

People graduate Bible college and use all these complicated terms. The problem is not everybody went to Bible college. Not everybody knows those terms. In fact, very few people know those terms. And so we want to speak in a way people actually understand. At church you have people from all different backgrounds — some people are college educated, others are very educated in a very different way, maybe they started a business, work a blue-collar job, did not go to college but have real practical street wisdom. If they have not read a lot of books there might be certain words they would not understand. You talk to people in a way where they understand what you are saying. The same principle applies when you preach sermons. You want people to understand exactly what you are saying.

Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12.

Generally you are going to find that these people who use massive terms to sound intelligent are also obsessed with being in debates. I am not saying debates are always wrong no matter what, but these people who are full of themselves — the James Whites of the world, these Calvinists — are just obsessed with debates.

2 Corinthians 12:20: "For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults." Paul expresses debates in a bad context here. When you are in a debate it is not really about the evidence — what you are trying to do is trick the other person so they do not understand what you are saying, they cannot respond, and they look foolish. You try to speak in a way they do not really get.

Go to Romans 1.

You think of James White, this famous Calvinist. Or another guy obsessed with debating is Eli Soriano. Anyone from the Philippines watching this knows that Soriano is very famous. Catholics and people not even part of his religion love listening to him because he sounds oh so smart and wins all these debates. I think the guy sounds like an idiot. One of his arguments is that God does not have knees because the Bible never specifically says God has knees. Well, where does the Bible say God does not have knees either? It is like saying where is the verse that says God has elbows? There are a lot of body parts the Bible does not specifically mention that God has. But what the Bible does say is that man is made in the image of God. If man is made in the image of God, then you can look at me and guess what — God has ears, a chin, eyes, a mouth. Not talking about a physical body with God the Father, but yes, God has a spiritual body because man is made in the image of God. And specifically with the Trinity — God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost — you have three separate persons. That is why Jesus Christ was sitting on the right hand of God the Father. But Soriano is very good at debating, so he could make it sound like he is winning that argument when in reality what he is saying is really stupid. Another one of his things — where does the Bible ever say faith alone? You are never going to find the phrase faith alone back to back in the Bible, and at first that surprises people. But here is the reason why: because the Bible has verses that say you are saved by faith, not of works; saved by faith, not of repentance of sins; by faith and not by baptism. The way you sum that up is faith alone. Everybody understands what you mean. You are saying nothing else saves you. There are plenty of verses that say it is by believing on Christ and nothing else — and faith alone or believe only is how you sum that up. But he sounds smart at first.

Romans 1:28: "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate." One of the big things these reprobates are full of is debate. Whether it is Eli Soriano or James White — these are the Romans 1 people that have been rejected by God. They are reprobate and they are filled with all unrighteousness and wickedness according to the word of God.

Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

Verses 6–8 — The Hidden Wisdom of God

"Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

Now perfect in the Bible does not mean sinless — perfect means complete. What Paul is saying is we do speak wisdom, but not the wisdom of the world. We speak the wisdom of God amongst those that are complete. The princes of this world, the powerful people of this world, they are going to come to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. None of the princes of this world knew it. They did not understand this wisdom of God. They did not understand the mystery of Christ dying and paying for their sins. And if they did, they would not have killed Jesus Christ. They did not understand. They did not believe.

And the Bible is very specific that it was the Jews that are primarily responsible for killing the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me just show you a verse on that.

Go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2.

Everybody that was responsible for killing the Lord Jesus Christ did not understand the wisdom. They did not believe. They did not think Jesus was the Messiah.

1 Thessalonians 2:14–15: "For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men." The Bible says the Jews are responsible for killing the Lord Jesus. Now, the Romans had a part in it — but the Bible says it was the Jews because it was the Jews that pressured for his death. This does not make Pilate innocent. It does not make the Romans innocent. But the Jews are responsible. And throughout the Bible it is the Jews that are persecuting Jesus Christ because they reject him being the Messiah. It is the unbelieving Jews, even going back to the Old Testament, persecuting the prophets of God. The Jews have been persecuting Christians for 2,000 years. That is what the Bible actually teaches.

Also, on a side point — I believe in 1 Thessalonians 2:14, when it talks about becoming followers of the churches of God, the indication is it was just a small handful of churches doing major and awesome things for God. It is not like there was a multitude of churches doing great things. And there is nothing really new today, right? There are churches that are doing something for God, but honestly it is the minority of churches that are doing big things for God, standing up, preaching the truth, and doing amazing things. Whether it is Soulwinning Baptist Melbourne or Soulwinning Baptist Pampanga, you have got something special, because around the world they do not have a church like this. They do not have people that love God and are going soul-winning with the right doctrines and the right beliefs. You have something special.

Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

Verses 9–13 — Eye Hath Not Seen

"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

The eye hath not seen nor ear heard. There are a lot of ways you could apply this verse about the things that God has prepared for them that love him. But the actual context here in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 is going to talk about the wisdom of God and what we can actually learn from this book.

Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 1. I want to make a comparison because what the Bible is speaking about are the amazing and great mysteries we can find in the word of God. And you know what — if you love reading the Bible, or if you have been at good churches for a while or heard good preaching, when you learn something great from the word of God you are like, wow, that is amazing, that is awesome. What the Bible is saying is that you get saved, you start to read the Bible, you start to serve God, and there are amazing things that God has prepared for you.

Ecclesiastes 1:8: "All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." Often we look at this verse in a negative way, and that is the direct context. But it is also stating something that is true in a good way. In a bad way — if you go down a road of watching worldly movies and sinful things or even worse sins, the eye is not satisfied with seeing. The person who watches pornography becomes an addict. Their eye is not satisfied — they need more and more and more. The ear is not filled with hearing — you end up listening to rock music or worldly music and your ear just wants more. But this is also true in a good way. You start reading the Bible and learning amazing things, or you listen to great sermons, and your eyes are like I want more. I want to read more Bible. I want to learn more. You hear a great sermon and your ears want more. This is why when people started listening to new IFB preaching, what they often do is just start listening to sermon after sermon after sermon. I remember being a young man in my early 20s just listening to sermon after sermon. And I remember reading the Bible and memorising the Bible and just getting addicted to it — reading a couple of hours a day in college when I had the free time, because I was learning and learning and learning. I could not put the Bible down. It was awesome.

So this is true in a good way or a bad way. And here is what I want you to understand. God says as it is written, eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. God has some amazing things for us. Do not be deceived by the wisdom of the world or the entertainment of the world. What God has for us as believers is better than anything the world has to offer. You think of the things that the world loves, the world finds entertaining — sports, AFL, the rugby world cup, the football world cup. People live their lives for this stuff. This is what they care about. They know everything about these athletes they are never going to meet in real life. And then they know nothing about the characters in the Bible. The things God has prepared for us in this book are so much better than what the world has to offer.

Or how about going soul-winning? Is that not so much better than anything the world has to offer? It is so exciting. And once you get into it, it becomes addictive. You start seeing people get saved and it is like, man, this is exciting, I want to do more of this, because there is nothing more exciting you can do in your life. This is why Soulwinning Baptist Melbourne even exists. This is why the name of the church is soul-winning — because that is what we care about. And let me tell you something. If a church is not going to go soul-winning, what is the point of the church even existing? There is no point. We truly believe in heaven and we truly believe in hell. And from a human perspective, I do not want anybody to go to hell. And even God does not want anyone to go to hell — the Bible says he is glorified when people get saved, not when they go to hell. God wants us to do everything in our power to try to rescue people from hell, go out and preach the gospel, and get as many people saved as we possibly can.

What God has prepared for us as Bible-believing Christians is better than what the world has to offer. It is more exciting. It is better. Yes, there are going to be rough times and there is going to be persecution, but it is better than what the world has to offer.

Verses 12–16 — The Natural Man and the Spiritual Man

Now as a saved person you do have the ability to understand this book. The Bible says when you are saved, ye need not that any man teach you — the context in 1 John 2 is that the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit inside of you, is your teacher. You can learn from sermons, but honestly the best teacher of all is the Holy Spirit that is going to teach you and guide you as you read the word of God. If all of your learning is coming just from sermons, you are greatly missing out on what God has for you. You can learn more by reading the word of God for yourself as a saved person.

1 Corinthians 2:12–14: "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man."

When you are trying to understand something in the Bible, a good practical way to do it is compare spiritual with spiritual — meaning if there is something in the Bible you do not understand, look up other parts of the Bible that are going to explain it. You compare spiritual with spiritual and it can help you learn what the Bible says.

Now I want to spend some time on verse 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God — they are foolishness to him. The Bible is referring to someone who is an unsaved person. Now you have religions like Calvinism that will wrongly teach that every unsaved person is a reprobate — that the natural man is a reprobate, and when you get saved the natural man is just gone and you are now the spiritual man, meaning you will not be carnal. That is not what the Bible teaches. We are going to talk about that quite a bit in next week's sermon. But when it comes to the natural man, it is just referring to someone who is unsaved.

And the unsaved person cannot understand the word of God. Let me give you a couple of examples from the Bible.

Go to Acts chapter 8.

This is why when people try to read the Bible before they are saved they will often say, man, I just do not understand it, I guess I am not smart enough for it. But it is not a matter of intelligence because the Bible is understandable. It is a matter of it being a spiritual book, and you need the spirit of God to understand it.

Acts 8:26–31: "And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him."

This is an awesome story. Philip runs after this man — he knows I need to preach the gospel to this guy and he makes it a point to go over there. I remember a long time ago living in Pennsylvania and working in Maryland, I was on a path on my lunch break trying to find someone to talk to. There was another guy on an intersecting path and he was further ahead, so I started speedwalking, trying to time it perfectly, walking really fast catching up to him and catching up to him, and then boom, started talking to the guy and he got saved. Philip is not speedwalking — he is running. I kind of wonder if when he got up to the Ethiopian eunuch he was a bit out of breath. Understandest thou what thou readest?

And he said how can I except some man should guide me? This is the way people think even those who would call themselves Christians — they think they need their pastor to teach them the word of God. But as a saved person, when you are reading Isaiah, you do not need me there with you to learn it. Why? You have got the Holy Spirit to guide you.

The place of the scripture he read was this — he was being led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth. But the eunuch is not saved. He is literally reading a prophecy of Jesus Christ from the Old Testament and he has no idea what is being said. He was asking, is he speaking of himself or some other man? He totally did not get it. Why? Because he is not saved. It is not because he is dumb — nobody would understand as an unsaved person.

And you know what this shows us? Nobody gets saved on their own. This is very important. Every single person who has ever lived got saved because somebody preached the gospel to them. Nobody gets saved on their own. If somebody could get saved on their own, the eunuch would have gotten saved. He is a man showing a fear of God, reading a prophecy of Jesus, and he does not get it. He cannot get saved on his own.

This is why as soul winners we need to go out and preach the gospel — because nobody is going to get saved on their own. They are not going to read the Bible and get saved on their own. An angel is not going to come down from heaven and preach the gospel. They are going to get saved when a soul winner preaches the gospel to them.

Go to Acts 10.

Some people say, but the people that wrote these books of the Bible were preachers, so if you read what they wrote, you will get saved. Well, then why did the Ethiopian eunuch not get saved? This is the word of God, but you need somebody to actually explain the word of God for you to get it and get saved. And everybody who is hearing this sermon knows they got saved because somebody explained the gospel to them. I wanted to know how to go to heaven for a couple of years before I got saved, but I did not know because nobody told me. Somebody told me, I believed it, I got saved. And that is the way it is with every single person who has ever lived. Nobody gets saved on their own. You need a saved soul winner preaching the gospel.

Acts 10:1–4: "There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God."

Now before we move on — verse 2 says he feared God with all his house. He is devout, very devoted. He fears God. All of his house fears God. We are going to see in Acts 11 that this man was not saved. You can fear God without being saved. The Calvinists will say nobody fears God that is unsaved — you actually hate God if you are unsaved, you have no fear of God. But wait a minute. Cornelius is an unsaved man that feared God. Yes, it is possible. I feared God before I was saved. And you that are listening that are saved — you feared God before you were saved too. What is the proof of that? There are certain things you did not do because you were afraid what God might do to you. And you got saved because you were afraid to go to hell. So yes, you can fear God as an unsaved person. Cornelius is a great example.

Go to Acts 11.

Acts 11:13–14: "And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved." He preaches the gospel and they get saved from his words. Peter had to come and preach the gospel for Cornelius and his household to be saved.

Somebody might say, well, what about Adam and Eve — who got them saved? The Lord Jesus Christ, the second member of the Godhead, makes appearances in the Old Testament. The Bible talks about God walking in the garden in the midst of the day. He makes some appearances especially in the early parts of Genesis. And so obviously the first people had to hear the gospel from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. After that, men called upon the name of the Lord when somebody actually gave them the gospel.

I love 1 Corinthians. I think it is an awesome book. These first two chapters are kind of introductory. We are going to get to the nitty-gritty of the various doctrines and points going into chapter 3. It is a great book of the Bible.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today, and thank you for all the wisdom we can learn from 1 Corinthians 2. Help us to realise that the wisdom of you and the wisdom in the Bible and the things you have to offer us is so much better than what the world has to offer. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.