Gtcotr/ss082221
I have come to a decision in life, and I might suggest you consider doing the same thing. I have decided that:
·
I
will not pray to the devil or ask him to help me.
·
I
will not obey the dictates of the devil.
·
I
will not fear the threats of the devil.
·
I
will not expect the devil to tell me the truth.
·
I
will resist the devil steadfast in the faith.
· I will expose the lies of the devil by speaking the truth in love.
Our text for today comes from the writings of the Apostle Paul and his first letter to the Church at Corinth.
Paul had to cut through the worldly influence of that day just like the pastors and bible teachers of today continue to do. Each week, with every sermon, pastors and Bible teachers do their best to untangle the minds of men and women who have been taught and trained to believe the fictitious lies, fables, and fantasies of the devil.
Generations grow up being taught to believe that sweet is bitter and bitter is sweet; light is darkness and darkness is light; right is wrong and wrong is right … oh how confused the children of this world have become as they follow and share the well-written lies of the devil. (Isaiah 5:20)
In her testimony about escaping from North Korea, 29-year-old Yeonmi Park tells how she commonly watched diseased rats feasting on the dead bodies of her friends laying in the streets of her city while other children chased the rats trying to catch one to eat. She had never heard of the internet, nor had she ever known a day without hunger. Yet she believed that she was one of the most fortunate people in the world to be born in North Korea, in the land of her beloved King. She was taught as a child that North Koreans were the most blessed, favored, and prosperous people in all the world. She believed everyone else in the world envied her and wanted to have the privileged life she was given of being a loyal supporter and subject of her King.
When she heard she might get a bowl of rice in China, at 13 years old, in 2007, she followed a lady who promptly sold her and her mother into the Chinese sex slave market. Years later, after a perilous second escape and a long arduous journey she arrived in South Korea where her eyes were opened to some truths.
North Korea was not and is not the most prosperous and favored country in the world and North Koreans do not have it better than any other nation in the world … in fact … just the opposite is true. All of her life she had been taught to believe a pack of lies in order to support the leader of a system that did not care one bit about her, her family, or her friends. Children were being allowed to die of starvation and neglect, without love, without help, and without anyone caring. She became appalled at how many lies she believed and how wrong she had been.
Yeonmi Park is now doing everything she can to Rescue others from the hell they wrongly imagine is heaven. She is angry because no one in her world who might have known the truth ever told her. She thought she was rich only to realize she was poor and wretched and miserable and blind.
Jesus
told the Church at Laodicea:
Revelation 3:17 “You say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ — and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.”
It is a shame that so many people think they know it all and have need of nothing and yet they are blind and don’t even know they can’t see.
As I said, our text today comes from the writings of the Apostle Paul and his first letter to the Church in Corinth in about AD54/55.
1 Corinthians 13 NKJV
12 For now …
·
For now. Now is different than later. Now
holds some promises and now holds some limitations. Now faith is the evidence
of things “Not Seen”. Hebrews 11 says faith is spiritual ownership but
not physical possession. Faith is an unseen reality and that will be realized
later … faith is now. Some things are now, and some things are then – later.
· Later does not tax my now faith. God can do later if He wants to.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
When the Apostle Paul wrote about a mirror, he was not talking about what you might be thinking about. Rather, he is describing the imperfect, discolored, opaque surface of the polished metal of that day which reflected a rather poor, uncertain, dimly lit version of the true image and not mirror you are used to today.
The Apostle Paul, writing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, could not offer a better description of the truth he wanted to present to those to whom he was writing. The common mirror of Paul’s day could not be relied upon to reveal the perfect truth. It was easily understood by the reader, and by the student of God’s Word today, that Paul was talking about a poor, undetailed reflection of the truth.
He went on to say that now, at this present time, we know only a part of what we will one day fully understand. I shall one day be sure about those things of which I am as yet uncertain.
Things which are unimaginable and incomprehensible as of yet, will become fully understood in the time to come.
The first century Believer to whom Paul was writing, did not have the great privilege we own today of having in our hands a completed New Testament. The Bible we hold today readily contains the whole counsel of God’s Word to us. The Bible was a work in progress in Paul’s day but today, each letter, and every verse, blends together to create one true picture of the full Gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet, we still do not see everything as clearly as we will one day when we get to heaven.
The claim of perfect sight does not belong to mortal man.
One day I will understand those things I do not understand now. So, what should I do with my now?
1 Corinthians 13:13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Now,
continuing with me right now: Now is powerful … I’m powerful in my right now
because I have abiding with me:
Faith Hope Love
Hope is the anchor of your soul! Hebrews 6:19
·
Put
your hope in God! Psalms 42:5&11; 43:5
o When you lose hope in
everybody else and everything else: your family; friends; job; government; the
world - put your hope in God … Hope keeps you anchored and stable …
o He is the health and strength of your countenance … Now!
Faith is your unseen reality. Hebrews 11:1
·
God
has heard me now …
·
God
has answered me now …
·
Faith
is my substance and my evidence right now
· Just like the three Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to the King when he threatened to throw them into the fiery furnace, unless they bowed down to his dictates:
Daniel 3 NKJV
16
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O
Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.
17 “If
that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the
burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king.
18 “But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”
1 Corinthians 13 NKJV
4 ¶
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not
parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does
not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does
not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things.
8 Love never fails … (Now or
then!)
