Be Thankful To God Pt.1

Raul Ries: And if you're not reading the Bible in the morning and praying before you go to school or before you go to work, then what really have you put on? Nothing for protection. Nothing. And then when you get to work and throughout the day, what are you going to share with people? Nothing, because you haven't given God an opportunity to speak to you directly through the word of God.
Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. It is great to have you with us for our continued study of 1 Corinthians. Today Raul will challenge us to be more intentional about spending daily time with the Lord, asking him to fill our hearts with truth through his word and in prayer. You'll also enjoy the rich blessings of a life lived in communion with God as he works through you to point others to Christ. Let's join Raul Ries in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, beginning in verse 4, with the first part of our study, Be Thankful to God.
Raul Ries: If you were to define Corinth, it was the weekend party house where everybody came to party. All of the ships that anchored in Athens, they would come all the way around the bank and come to Corinth because this is where the 1,000 prostitutes were on top of this little hill. Every evening they would come down and they would begin to seduce the men of Corinth and every stranger and every mariner and every person that was visiting. And I wonder how many problems Paul saw in the city of Corinth, especially when he speaks so much about sexual sin in the city of Corinth. Well, I don't think that it has really changed much. Think about today our society. Think about everything that's happening in our world today. Every television program, every talk show, every magazine, newspaper, it has something always to seduce the young. And what people don't think about is the way pornography or a naked woman or whatever it may be, or a naked man if you're a woman, all of a sudden affects your mind for the rest of your life. I can remember when I was with my dad in a bar and I watched pornography for the first time in my life. I was about six years old and I never ever forgot it. Never forgot those images. As I was reading Paul the Apostle, he really encouraged me today. Because as I was reading his introduction and I was going through chapter 1, it's pretty amazing because the only thing that has covered me and the only thing that is going to cover you or anybody else in the church is the grace of God. The unmerited favor that God has given to us through his son Jesus Christ. That's why Paul, when he starts his letter in chapter 1 verse 1 to 3, he speaks about that important relationship that he has with God the Father and his son Jesus Christ, and how the Holy Spirit is there to assist him. It's interesting that when he's talking about this whole thing in the introduction, he's not only himself the writer, but those that are the recipients, those that are in Corinth. He talks about sanctification. He says to the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Jesus Christ, called to be saints or separated, with all who in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. And yet there were people in the Corinthian church that had fallen into sin. Just like in Calvary Chapel or the Assemblies of God or the Church of God or whatever church. It is always amazing to me to see how many men of God were seduced for a piece of bread. For a five, 10, 15 minute or an hour or one day or two days or a week relationship or a month or a year, they get disqualified for the rest of their lives. But they don't think about that when they're being tempted. And we need to think about those things because if God's going to use your life and God's going to use my life, then you got to count the cost. You got to count the cost of being sanctified, being set apart for the lordship of Jesus Christ in my life because I'm called and he calls me a saint, a separated one or a holy one of God. And then in verse 3, he gives us again the salutation, grace and peace, which is interesting because we really can't experience the peace of God until we have an understanding of the grace of God. The grace of God is so important. If you don't know the grace of God, you can be so messed up because as I get to know the grace of God and the peace of God, then I can have Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Nothing can separate me from the love of Jesus Christ. Nothing. I've learned that over the last 40 years. It's incredible. Satan never gives up on you. He's always there. And now what we're going to study is chapter 1 verses 4 through 9. We're going to see now how we need to be thankful, thankfulness to God. I think that that's one of the areas probably that all of us are lacking in and that is always being thankful to God for what he's done in our lives and for what he's doing even tonight in each one of our lives. It's amazing. Notice how he starts verse 4. He says, "I thank my God always," not part-time, always concerning you, Corinthians, for the grace of God which was given to you by Jesus Christ. Notice that. So here we have the benefits of being a Christian. It's interesting that the word grace here, it's used 110 times in the New Testament, 155 times in the New Testament. Speaking of that unmerited favor that has been given to each one of us individually. It is here for the Christian. It is here as a gift to the child of God. It is here not by human merit. It is given to us freely without any works. The moment we come to salvation by repenting of our sins and stepping out by faith and receiving Jesus Christ, we have the grace of God. Unmerited favor of God given to each one of us individually. As I was looking up the grace of God, it was really cool because the grace of God has a source, a source of salvation, which we see in Acts 15:11. It is also the source of the call of God in my life, Galatians 1:15. Thirdly, it is by faith that I've come to experience this grace, Acts 18:27. And fourthly, it is a source of justification in my life, justification by faith, Romans 3:24. It's also the source of forgiveness from the forgiveness of my sins, Ephesians 1:7. And then lastly, it is the source of eternal life that has been given to you, has been given to me, Romans chapter 5:21. So it's really important for me never ever to forget where the grace of God came from and who gave it to me. Why? So that I don't take advantage of the grace of God like so many people do. Think of how many people are taking advantage of the grace of God because they're thinking, "I'm saved, I got the grace of God," and they have this perverted thinking, I can do whatever I want to do because God will forgive me. Not so. That's not the way it works. That is abusing the grace of God. That is grieving the Holy Spirit of God if you think about that. And this is why some people in the body of Jesus Christ, as they have come to know Christ and receive the grace of God, they begin to abuse it. And first of all, as they abuse it, then they frustrate the grace of God and they can't experience the peace of God. They cannot. You have to really experience the grace of God in order to have peace with God in your life. And then you know what's incredible on the grace of God here? Notice in verse 5 now. He says that you were enriched in everything by him, in all utterance and all knowledge. Now Paul here is also thankful for the gifts that God has given to us. We're going to deal with that when we get to chapters 12, 13, and 14. There are approximately 21 gifts of the Holy Spirit including Romans chapter 12:6-8, Ephesians chapter 4:11-12, and then we have the rest of the gifts in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians. 21 gifts of the Holy Spirit given to us. I thank God that Paul the Apostle, when he came, he's in Corinth now he's been here about five months. And he begins to see the city and he begins to see what's really happening in the city. Thank God that we have the book of Corinthians chapters 12, 13, and 14. These Corinthian Christians were having problems in abusing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so Paul writes to them three chapters to correct it in the actual order of how to use lawfully the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, we would have chaos in the church today. Because God is a God of order, Paul says, not a God of disorder. So when we think of the grace of God and the benefits that we have in Jesus Christ, one of the benefits that is given to us here is that we have been enriched. Notice that. How is that? I look back at my life, where I was and where I am today. Should I have been blessed by the Lord to compare where I was in 1972, 1968, 1966? You can tell I'm old now, but it's crazy stuff. And you look back at your life and then you look to the present and you look to the future and surely God, even in your life, has made a difference constantly every single day. So Paul says if the grace of God is so amazing, says that you Christians were enriched in everything in Christ Jesus. My position is not outside of Christ, my position is in Christ. In the book of Ephesians, 42 times he speaks of the word "in Christ Jesus" speaking of my position in Christ spiritually. I'm not outside of him, I'm in Christ. And then he says this interesting thing. He says that you were enriched in everything in Christ Jesus in all utterance. And the word utterance here is an interesting word in the Greek. It means eloquence or of a discourse when you're speaking, the eloquence of speaking. So Paul the Apostle here is talking how the Holy Spirit speaks in me and speaks through my life the way he speaks. The reason for that is because of the change that I have received by faith in Jesus Christ, by getting into the word, studying God's word and receiving knowledge and wisdom so that I'm able to not only share my faith, but as a pastor-teacher to be able to teach God's word. And to the non-believer, I'm also able to preach the word of God to them. You see, it's important that you study God's word, that you read the Bible, otherwise what can you give to people of that which you have never received from the Lord? You can't. It's an impossibility. That's why I constantly tell people, if you only have read the New Testament, then you haven't read the whole Bible. You don't have the full counsel of God. You have to read Genesis to Revelation in order to say, "I have declared to you the full counsel of God." Why? Because in the New Testament, he's always quoting from where? From the Old Testament. Paul, James, Peter, John, Jesus, all of them. They're always going back to the Old Testament and bringing it to the New Testament because the Old Testament is a fulfillment in the New Testament of what was said in the past, bring it to the present, and now it's done. Amazing how the Bible works. So Paul the Apostle is encouraging, he's talking to the Christians in Corinth. He says that you guys being enriched in everything in Christ in all utterance and in all knowledge. These are the gifts that God is giving to us, utterance and knowledge. And how do we get knowledge? By studying the word of God. The word of God. That's how you get knowledge, by getting and digging into the word of God. Colossians 1:9-10 will tell you that. But I think it's really important that the priority is prayer and the priority is the word of God. When we see Daniel in chapter 9 of the book of Daniel, what is he doing? Before, he's reading the Bible, the prophet Jeremiah's book. Jeremiah's been there for 40 years. And what is he doing? Praying. Praying and the word of God and then what happens? The Lord sends the angel and speaks to him and gives him the revelation for his time and for the future. He verifies God's word. So it's kind of neat how the Bible works in our lives. If you're not praying, you're not in communion with God. And if you're not reading the Bible in the morning and praying before you go to school or before you go to work, then what really have you put on? Nothing for protection. Nothing. And then when you get to work and throughout the day, what are you going to share with people? Nothing, because you haven't given God an opportunity to speak to you directly through the word of God. Really important. That's why people are dying every day spiritually because they don't get into the word of God. They don't read the Bible. They don't pray. And it's really important that if you're going to be a Christian, you need to feed upon God's word. You need to. The priority to get up even if you can 30 minutes early and spend time in prayer and in the word, reading through the Bible, Genesis to Revelation. You want to start in Matthew, cool. Go all the way through the 27 books and then start with book number one in the Old Testament and read the 39 books. And then you're going to read 66 books in one year. That means the full counsel of God. Then you can share the gospel with other people why? Because you haven't kept it from them and you haven't kept it from yourself. As you get the knowledge of God and the utterance that God will give to you concerning the eloquence of the word of God, then you're able not only to feed yourself, but at the same time you're able also to speak to other people and give them substance, to give them the word of God that can help them when they come to you. And they'll give the credit and the honor not to you because you're not giving them your philosophy or your little psychology, you're giving them the word of God. So God gets the credit, Jesus gets the credit. And the word of God says what? It will never come back void. Never. Wherever God sends it, it takes root and it does its work through the power of the Holy Spirit in the word of God. I love that the way God works. Then he says in verse 6, "Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you." So notice what he's talking about here. He's talking about these gifts that have been given to us and the testimony or the witness, or martyrios in the Greek here, he says of Jesus Christ, the anointed one, was confirmed in who? In you. Notice that, in you. And again, here he's talking in reference to the Holy Spirit, the faith that God has given to each one of us individually. So it's important that we understand that the word of God was confirmed. The word confirmed here literally means to settle, to be settled or to be made solid in my life. So when the word of God came to me, it settled in my heart and by faith through the Holy Spirit, what? God began to work in me and to work through my life fully and completely. I love it. The way faith works. And listen, faith is obtained number one by the scriptures, John chapter 20 verse 30 to 31. It is also obtained secondly by preaching the word of God and hearing the word of God, John 17:20. It is also obtained through the gospel by studying the gospel, Acts chapter 15:7. And then it is also the source of not only hearing, but doing God's word, Romans chapter 10 verse 17. Hearing comes by faith and faith comes by hearing the word of God. And so it's important when you come to the church or any church, you should always have your Bible and take notes and learn. And then throughout the week, you should read the Bible once a year or twice a year. And then what you do is you're going through the Bible every year. So you imagine you're in the Lord 20 years, if you read it once you've already read it 20 times, and if twice that's 40 times through the whole Bible. Just by reading it. But when you stop to meditate and to really dig into the word of God, it takes time. You can't do it overnight, it takes time. And when you're reading and studying and just waiting upon God to do a work, then he begins to give you his wisdom and his knowledge as you begin to put down these notes that God gives to your heart. So that he can use your life to bring glory and honor to his holy name. So it's kind of cool here how Paul brings in this whole situation on the word of God and the Holy Spirit. He says in verse 6 again, "Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you." And check this out verse 7, "So that you Christians come short in no gift." Isn't that cool? That you come short in no gift at all. And Paul again is going to refer in chapter 12 to 14 to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They had not only abused them and they had misinterpreted the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so Paul will write to correct them. But here again we see first of all, notice where it says so that no one comes short of the gift of God. We notice here the Corinthian church was also a triumphant church. A triumphant church. And secondly, they were not only a triumphant church but they were also a trusting church. Triumphant and trusting church. Look what he says in verse 7 again, "So that you don't come short in any gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now what he does now at the beginning, he talks now about not only the gift that has been given to you, but eagerly, what are we doing? Waiting for the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Even at that time, they were hoping and waiting that Jesus would come in their own time, but he didn't. But they eagerly waited for the Lord. What we see here is that the church was waiting not only for Christ to come, but by God's design for the church, he had them become patient, which is not one of my virtues. Patient. And so here he's talking about this whole teaching of the coming of the Lord. And look what he says, "And eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now what I did here is I looked up this whole thing concerning the believer's attitude of Jesus coming again. I mean, what should be the attitude of the church or just individual believers? If Jesus truly is coming again, then what should be my attitude? Number one, my attitude should be waiting patiently for the Lord to come. Patiently. Secondly, I need to be looking for his coming. I need to be looking for his coming, Titus 2:13. Thirdly, I need to be ready spiritually when he comes. Spiritually when he comes, Matthew 24:42 through 51. Fourthly, we need to love the coming of the Lord. We need to love the coming of the Lord. We need to be excited about it, 2 Timothy 4:4 says this. Fifthly, we need to keep busy until Jesus comes. We don't just sit around, "I'm not going to work, I'm not going to do anything, Jesus is coming, so I'm just going to sleep, eat, and play." That's not the way it works. He says, "Keep busy until I come." Keep doing what you're doing, studying, working, whatever it is. But don't just neglect what Jesus is saying here.
Guest (Male): It is so exciting to recognize that our Savior could truly return at any time, and it's also challenging as we consider our responsibility to point others to his salvation. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. If you'd like to hear today's lesson in its unedited form, we'll be happy to send a copy to you for a donation of $5 or more. Simply call us at 800-634-9165 and mention today's study, Be Thankful to God. And to support you in establishing a consistent spiritual witness, we'd like to tell you about Raul's 11-part series, Unity, Holiness, and Love. It's available on either CD or USB. In every lesson, you'll discover practical ways you can glorify God and accurately represent him to a watching world. You'll find that you can infuse your faith into everything from conflict management to financial management and everything in between. To order this resource, visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165. We'll send you the Unity, Holiness, and Love CD set for $23 or the flash drive for $14. That's 800-634-9165. You can also order by writing to us at Somebody Loves You Radio, PO Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California 91765. Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries is listener-supported, and we are thankful for your gifts. Your partnership is a great blessing as we continue sharing the good news of Jesus. Well, we hope you have a wonderful weekend and will plan on being with God's people in church on Sunday. Then join us again next time as we continue our journey through 1 Corinthians. We'll get more insight into how we can honor the Lord in our daily lives.