4 - The Necessity of Illumination

“Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit sets up a great contrast throughout this passage...between the natural, and the spiritual, between that which is of this world, and that which is of faith in Christ.

“He speaks, on the one hand, of ‘human wisdom' (verse 3) – ‘the wisdom of men' (verse 4) – ‘the wisdom of this age' (verse 5) – ‘the things of man' (verse 11) – ‘the spirit of the world' (verse 12) – and ‘man's wisdom' (verse 13).

“And he speaks, on the other hand, of ‘the demonstration of the Spirit and of power' (verse 4) – ‘the power of God' (verse 5) – ‘the wisdom of God' and ‘hidden wisdom' (verse 7) – ‘the deep things of God' (verse 10) – ‘wisdom which the Holy Spirit teaches' (verse 13) – ‘things that are spiritually discerned' (verse 14) – and ‘the mind of Christ' (verse 16).

“We saw this same great divide, this great contrast, in Second Peter last week – Scripture never came by the will of man, or man's understanding of things. The Bible is not a natural Book. It is a spiritual Book...It is the only supernatural Book. It is revealed truth – revelation given by inspiration.

“But Paul's focus here in First Corinthians is on the implications of those two great doctrines. He tells us where those two doctrines lead us. There are two other great doctrines that we need to understand – a third and a fourth doctrine concerning Scripture. And the third and fourth great doctrines have their foundation in the first two.

“The third great doctrine of Scripture is the doctrine of the necessity of illumination by the Holy Spirit...

"Unless the Author is dwelling in you, it is impossible for you to properly understand and interpret the Scriptures."