Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the daily Bible podcast. It's great to have you back. I would say with us, except pastor, Rod's not with us right now. He is on a little vacation here spending some time with his family. For Thanksgiving, but then also a few days afterwards, so grateful for him to get some time away and to, to hang out with Kristin and their kids. Uh, but we're here and we're still back in the text today. It is black Friday, which is whatever it is for you. If that's the day that you do all your Christmas shopping, or maybe that's the day that you start doing your Christmas shopping, uh, enjoy it for whatever it is. And, uh, If you're taking advantage of some of the online sales, then good. Maybe you can let everybody else know where you're getting the deals because. It just, is it. I do it on Amazon, for example, on black Friday, it's just, it used to be manageable because you'd go on there and be like, okay, here's the black Friday. Sale items. And there was only a handful of them now it's like everything. And it's like, where do I even begin? I don't even know where to start. And then it just gets overwhelming and annoying and a little bit convicting because we're reminded of just our materialism as a society that it's like, Hey, let's, here's a day to be thankful for, for what we have. And then the very next day is like, And here's everything that you really want. And so, uh, we're going to mark it all down and we're going to tell you, man. You're you're really going to be happy when you have this. What a lie that is from the world. Right. I don't want to go all existential and philosophical on us with regards to black Friday, but I do think there's just something there for us as Christians to ponder. Uh, for, for how our society has built in, Hey, here's a day for gratitude and then a day for covetousness a day for gratitude, and then a day for greed a day for gratitude. And then a data grumble and complain because we don't have what we think we need to be satisfied. How, how strange is that? Right, right. How crazy is that now? Don't get me wrong. It's not. Wrong. Or, or, uh, a sinful thing for you to, to buy things on black Friday, because they're marked down, they're on sale, especially if you're Christmas shopping for other people, that's fine. Be wise stewards of your money. I get that. It's just. It just, it's crazy. It's crazy that, that this is, we're not even trying to hide it. We're not. We're not covering anything up. It's like, Hey. Uh, yeah. Okay. On Thursday. Yeah, go ahead and be thankful for, for things on Thursday, but then on Friday that now it's about when you're going to get what you really want. And it used to be that you used to have to wait for stores to open up on black Friday before you could shift gears from gratitude to. Uh, everything that you really want. Nowadays, it's forget that. Online shopping things are open 24 7. So you can be eating your, your Turkey, having just gone around the table with your family, saying, we're thankful for this. And I'm thankful for this. And I'm thankful for this and then pull your phone out and be like, oh, I would be really happy if I had this thing instead of what I have right now. And then, oh, look at that. Add to my cart checkout. It's just a unique thing. So, um, hopefully you had a great Thanksgiving, all that to say, I really do hope that you enjoyed your time with your family. And, and I'm also hopeful that, that. That spirit, that mentality, that attitude, as we've talked about before already is going to carry over that. You're going to be thankful beyond just that one day. Thankful for your walk with Christ, thankful for the word of God, thankful for your church, family. Thankful for. All of these things that we get to, to have as, as part of our life. And so what a great reality that is that that is Christians. We should be in, can be and have every reason to be some of the most thankful people on the face of the planet. Let's let's let's practice that. That's a good thing for us to do. But yeah, black Friday. Enjoy it. Get your Christmas shopping done. Get it behind you. Let's move on and focus on what we've got in front of us, including today's daily Bible reading. First Corinthians one through four. First Corinthians. Uh, this is a letter written by the apostle Paul. During his third missionary journey. So we've been talking about his missionary journeys. This one is written during his third missionary journey, which was largely based in Ephesus. And so we think this letter originated from Ephesus or the region they're in. And so Paul's writing to this church in Corinth. And now we just talked about Corinth acts chapter 18 and 19, uh, that, that Paul had been there during his second missionary journey. Um, he had been planting churches there. And so this is another area, much like vessel Annika that Paul was familiar with. He knew the people there. And so he's writing these letters to them. And interestingly enough, In our Bibles, we have first Corinthians and second Corinthians, but it appears that there was a third letter. Cause Paul makes reference to that. He says in second Corinthians, this is now the third letter that I'm writing to you. So somewhere between first Corinthians and second Corinthians, there was a third Corinthians. Uh, we don't have it. And we're not meant to have it. Otherwise we would, it would be in the Bible. We would have it as part of our Canon, but this one was not a letter that was recognized by the church. As something that should be circulated. And so it wasn't, this was not a letter that was intended by Paul to bear the authority of scripture for everybody. And so it was not put into broad circulation from the Corinthian church to the Ephesians church, to the collation church. The way that these letters would have been. So even though Galatians was written to the church and glacier or first, and second Thessalonians was written to the church in thistle, Annika. These letters would have made their way around to all of the other churches in this region of Asia minor. And they would have been read by all of these other churches. And that's how these letters came to be revered and held in authority and held as, as scripture, um, compared to this missing letter of the Corinthians, that one was never intended to be. And so whatever the markers were that that told the church, Hey, this is just for you guys. Or this is not for everybody, whatever it may be. That letter was different from the others. And we know that because we do have the other ones, we do have first Corinthians and second Corinthians. Those were preserved as authoritative for us. So if you've ever wondered. Uh, what gives there, w w what about the, the missing letters and were there other letters that Paul wrote that we don't have the answers? Yes, but we have the ones that God wanted us to have that the early church recognized as authoritative, that Paul himself said, yes, this is good. You should circulate these letters. Because remember Paul's writing these letters and then still interacting with everybody. So if there was a letter that that should have been circulated, that wasn't being circulated, Paul could have stopped down and said, Hey guys, you need to get this one in, in the rotation. I met for this one to go out further. So we can have trust all that to say for many reasons, but this is part of it in the Bible that we have. First Corinthians though. First letter written. Again, during this third missionary journey while he's an emphasis. Uh, written to the church in Corinth, the first three verses chapter one, his greeting, he opens up and greets them. Uh, similar to a lot of the greetings that we've read in the past to other churches, but what is, what is of note in verse two to the church of God that is in Corinth? To those sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints together with those who in every place, call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their load and ours. Paul's writing to Christians is what I want you to note there. Th to those who are sanctified in Christ called to be saints. There's going to be some hard things that he writes about here. And not everybody in the Corinthian church were believers, but he's going to make some general statements about the church in Corinth. And it's important to remember that he's writing to those that he. Believes are truly Christians and that's going to come into bear. As we get into the letter itself versus 49, he gives thanks for, uh, this church in these believers, but specifically for God's provision for them. And so it's different than Desola Nikah and the believers there were, Paul was really grateful for them and their faith and the fact that they were loving so well and Excel still more. Here. This is Paul Moore saying, Hey, you know what? I'm thankful for what God has done for you to this church. I'm thankful for the way that God has provided for you. Verse five in every way you were enriched in him. In all speech and knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, you were not lacking any gift. And so Paul is, is commending more of God's provision for them than he is saying anything. Uh, about the believers there in Corinth verses 10 through 17, we get the problem introduced right off the bat here. And the problem is that division had crept into the church and the division was taking the form of spiritual cliques. There were some that were, uh, aligning with Paul others with a policy, some of CFUs, which is the name for Peter. There. And, and they were saying, Hey, this is our guy. We're following him. We're following him. We're following him. And it may be in, and I think verses 14 through 17 may allude to this. It may be that these factions were based on who baptized them. And so, because Paul's going to argue in verse 14, he's going to say, look, I thank God that I baptized. None of you. Except Crispus and Gaius so that none of you were baptized in my name. And so it may be again, that they're lining up behind these, these different figureheads saying, well, this person baptized me, this person baptized me, this person baptized me. And Paul's point here is this is wrong. You shouldn't be doing that. By the way sidebar here for those that believe in baptismal regeneration, that is that baptism is necessary for salvation. They're going to have a difficult time with what Paul says in verse 14. I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus. And Gaius now. If baptism was necessary for salvation, then Paul would have left out a key factor in sharing the gospel and seeing people come to faith. And I don't think that Paul would have been thankful for that. Had that been something necessary for us to be saved, baptism immensely important, but we have to separate it. It's not necessary. For our salvation. And I think Paul's words here at the end of first Corinthians chapter one, or in least this section of first Corinthians chapter one verses 14 through 17. Suggest that and imply that. For well from here, he goes on to talk about. Uh, the power of the gospel and really, uh, from here all the way down. Into chapter three, he's going to be talking about this. He's going to be talking about this idea of the sufficiency of the gospel and the wisdom of God. And he's going to be pointing away from men in, remember those, this dev. These divisions were forming and formulating around personality. He's going to be discouraging that and pointing instead to the power of the gospel itself. And so in chapter one here verses 18 through 31, that's what he's talking about is that the power they're in and. There's so many famous sections in here are well-known versus, uh, in here that, that he talks about here, verse 23 or 22, th the Jews demand signs, the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. A stumbling block to the Jews. Because the Messiah wasn't supposed to die and folly to the Gentiles because the Gentiles would say, who were ships, a dead savior. But verse 24 to those who are called both of the Jews and the Greeks Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. And so Paul is saying, look, yes, we understand that the message that we proclaim is going to appear foolish to the lost, but to you. Who are saved, it's going to be the power of God for salvation. And the reason being is found in verse 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. This is not a manmade gospel. This is not something that's come from the wisdom of men, similar to what Paul argued in Galatians in the opening chapter. There. This is from God and it's his wisdom. And his wisdom is designed to look foolish to the world so that no, one's going to be able to boast and say, look at me, I'm so smart. I thought my way into Christianity, I learned my way into Christianity. Now the gospel is meant to cause us to say the only reason why anyone would believe this is if God did a work in their heart to cause them to believe in it. Why? So that no one might boast in the presence of God. Chapter two. He goes on and continues to build on this idea in the first five verses of the power of the gospel. Paul says, I decided to know nothing among you. Verse two, except Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's the message that you needed to know. You didn't need to know. My learning background in Judaism, you didn't need to know about. All the intricacies of the Greek language or the Hebrew language you needed to know Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's what I determined to know among you, because that's, what has the power to save? Why verse five again? So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God, that's what God's after with the gospel is to Rob us. Of our boast in, in instead. Remind us that it's all about Christ from here. Then in verses six down through 16, we get an interesting section one that I'm going to talk about on Sunday, actually, as we get into our text in John's gospel. Um, Here in basically Paul's argument is this and the rest of chapter two, he says, along with receiving the gospel, you received the spirit and the spirit then is the key to you. Continuing to understand and grow in wisdom and maturity. He says, look, we're not saying wisdom is, is bad and evil and wicked. We just want the right kind of wisdom. Verse six. Among the mature. We do impart wisdom though. It is not a wisdom of this age, right? So we saying, we're going to impart wisdom to you. Don't get us wrong. Wisdom is important. Just not the type of wisdom you think is important. Verse seven, we in party secret and hidden wisdom of God. Oh, hold on. Backup. That that starts to make us feel a little uncomfortable. What do you mean a secret wisdom of God? Is this some sort of mysticism? Is this some sort of, you know, hidden. I have to, to reach a certain level or certain, you know, you think of Christian science and their Thetas are. I in, in, in reaching different levels and all that. There's none of that here. That's not what he's talking about. It's secret and it's hidden because it's only understandable by those who have the spirit. And so we understand them because we have received the spirit. He says in verse 11, who knows a person's thoughts, except the spirit of that person, which is in him. So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God, except the spirit of God will guess who we have. We have verse 12, the spirit of God. So that we might freely understand the things given to us by God. We're going to understand the wisdom of God, even after we're saved, we're going to grow in the wisdom of God is what he's saying here, because we have the spirit of God. And what is Paul's job. And even today, what is a pastor's job in some regards? Verse 13, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. So when we have the spirit of God, we're able to understand the hidden and secret things. They don't appear to us as hidden and secret things because we have the spirit. He's going to say in second Corinthians chapter four, that the God of the world has blinded the eyes of the laws to keep them from seeing the light of the knowledge of Jesus. Things that to us seem so plain are only playing because of what he's saying here in first Corinthians chapter two. Because you have the spirit. So interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. Look for. Verse 14, the natural person that is the person that's not saved. That's not a Christian. Does not accept the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness to him. And he is not able to understand them because why they are spiritually discerned, meaning they're discern, they are understood by. The spirit. And so chapter two, we're going to grow in wisdom, but we're only going to do so by the spirit. And the spirit is going to impart. Uh, spiritual, trues to us. We're going to be able to understand them because of his work in our lives. Uh, we get into chapter three, then. The chapter three, Paul says, Hey, but you know what? I wish I could have taken you deeper into some of these spiritual things. But Paul says I could not address you as spiritual people. But he says as people of the flesh, or as he says, infants in Christ. So it's important that he still says that they are in Christ. And that's why I stressed at the beginning of this in first Corinthians chapter one that he's writing to Christians. Uh, because he says in verse three, you are still of the flesh. You're not a spiritual people, verse one, but people of the flesh, verse three, you are still of the flesh, but yet you are infants in Christ. He's indictment here. He's not that they're unbelievers, at least not all of them. There are some there that are unbelievers, undoubtedly. And not that they're, they're all unbelievers though. It, but rather that they are immature in their faith. And in that that's a problem that they should have been further along, similar to what the writer of Hebrews says when he says by now you ought to be teachers, but I have to go back and give you milk. That's what Paul says in verse two. First Corinthians three, two. I, I fed you with milk, not solid food. And so here, he's saying, you know what? I'm, I'm, I'm disappointed. I wanted to teach you more, but I couldn't because you're still fleshly. You're still trying to live in the world. We're going to get to that in John 17. Um, where Jesus is getting a call us to be in the world, but not of the world. He Paul here's basically saying you're, you're blurring those lines too much. You need to separate yourself in grow. A maturity and leave the flesh, the old man that the nature. Of of our, our corruption behind and into to grow spiritually speaking. Well, he goes on and talks about that growth after this, he says, look, let's, let's get back to the what's causing all the divisions here again with you. And that is a policy or Paul or Peter, or who, who are you going to line that line up with? Uh, Paul says, who are any of us? Nothing. We're just servants. God is the one verse six. I planted a Pollis water. God gave the growth. So that neither he knew plants nor he knew why. Neither he knew. Why can I not say that? I see. The pastor is not here to bail me out. So neither he who plants nor there it is. He who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth. So you want to grow. God is going to be the one that's going to cause the growth, but we have to be able to, to grow by exposing ourselves to the things, the spirit, the word of God and let the word of God by the spirit of God. Produced change in our lives. What's that going to do, then that's going to produce in us a life of obedience, a life of growth, and he uses two metaphors here. He uses the field metaphor that that's what we've been talking about. God causes the growth, like the growth in a plant, a seedling. And then he uses a building metaphor and he says, you know what, Paul? He says, I'm not the one that laid the foundation. And now you church are going to build upon that foundation. And he says on the day of judgment, when you stand before Christ, the, that what you built upon. Uh, the foundation is going to be Jesus, but, but the things that you built upon that foundation, those are going to be judged at that point. And some of you are going to receive reward for, for building strong upon that foundation, growing in your depth and your, your spiritual understanding and your maturity. Others. He said, are there. Materials are just going to burn up and yes, they're still going to be saved in the end, but only as through fire that's first Corinthians three 15. If any is one's work is burned up. He will suffer loss though. He himself will be saved, but only as through fire. And then he gets out in any, he uses another analogy here and that is of the temple, the temple metaphor. And it's a, you plural in verse 16. So he says, do you not know that you are God's temple now? That is y'all. Do y'all not know that y'all are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you. And so here. Uh, when we're talking about my body's a temple of the Lord. Okay. We'll get to first Corinthians six, I think tomorrow. But here, he's talking specifically about the church and he's saying quit with the divisiveness in the church. Fashioning separating, clicking. Uh, off into your groups in the church because you are God's temple and God's spirit dwells in you. As a, as a community, as a body of believers, don't do harm to the temple of God. Don't destroy God's temple. That's what he says in verse 17, because God's not going to look kindly upon that. And then finally in verses 18 through 23, this is the bookend of this whole thing about division and divisiveness in lining up. He says, look, let no one deceive himself, or think that he's wise in this age, let him become a fool that he might become wise. And so Paul's concluding that argument with a lot of the same thing. That he said before. All right. Finally, first Corinthians chapter four. The ministry of the apostles is the title here in the ESV. The first eight verses basically what Paul is saying here is, Hey, you know what be content with what you have and be careful of criticizing the servants of the Lord in a spirit of pride, rather than receiving the good things given to you by the Lord, through their ministry. Paul saying why you want to criticize me or Pollis or Timothy or Silas or anything? Hey, be careful not to judge those that are there to impart spiritual things to you. Uh, this is different when he sinned not to judge, this is not the same as, as confronting her brother or sister in sin. He's going to get there. And in tomorrow's reading that we should do those things. And that there's a problem when we don't. Instead, what he's saying here is, Hey, we need to be careful not to be overly critical of those that are there to impart spiritual truths to us and our, we need to be discerning like the Berean believers. But we also need to be grateful for what the Lord is doing through the servants who he's putting in our lives that are conveying these spiritual truths to us. Verses nine through 13. He says that the treatment, the apostles had endured for the good of the local churches. Uh, including the one there in court is what he's talking about in these things. He's saying, look, we, we have, we are fools for Christ's sake. We've suffered for you. And we've done this. Why for your good we've, we've done this so that you might be built up. And Paul's not saying that to pat himself on the back. He's just reminding them of this, these realities. And then in verses 14 through 16. Um, he's not looking to sh to shame them here, but rather to remind them of his great love for them and the fact that he's their spiritual father. He says that in, in, uh, Uh, verse 15 for though you have countless guides in Christ. You do not have many fathers. I became your father in Christ. I care about you. As a father does his children because I'm your spiritual father. He's reminding the Corinthians in a hard letter for them to read. Where's confronting a lot in them. He's reminding them, Hey, look, I love you as a father. You need to know that and understand that. And then he says, this is why I sent you Timothy that's back in acts chapter 19. We just read about that a couple of days ago. And then finally in verse 21, Paul urges them to respond to the letter in repentance this initial letter, because he doesn't want to have to come to them and bear the rod of discipline. When he visits them, he wants to come with a spirit of gentleness. So he's encouraging them towards that end here at the end of chapter four. All right. So he's opening up there in first Corinthians one, one through four, he's covering a lot of initial problems. The main one being the divisiveness, the division in the church, he's saying, Hey, quit, fractionalizing quit, splitting up. Remember, God is the one that's causing the growth. We're all here to pursue him to be more like him as a result of all of this. He's the one that causes the growth. And so he's trying to unify everybody behind that main idea. It's not about the wisdom of men. The wisdom of men is foolishness to God. The foolishness of God is the wisdom that saves us. And so we need to be reminded of these things. Let's pray. Got thanks for this day. Uh, keep us grateful people like we talked about at the beginning of this episode, keep us grateful for all the good things that you've done in our life. And we thank you so much for your kindness to us. We just pray that we would have a great weekend as we roll into tomorrow and Sunday. And just, or, uh, yeah. What is today. I'm trying to think off the top of my head as I'm praying about this. I, um, this is what happens when we, yeah, I think today is Friday. So we just pray that for a great week, as we roll into two this weekend and ask that you'd be pleased with us as we prepare well for worship on Sunday. And we just looked forward to that. And so thank you for this time. Again, we pray for pastor Ron and his family to have a great time. Uh, on this vacation that they're on. We thank you for all this in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Y'all keep her in your Bibles tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. But.