QUESTIONS & ANSWERS (97)

Victor M. Eskew

 

INTRODUCTION

 

A.   Questions are interesting because some questions mean a lot to some people and to others they are not important at all.

1.    Where did you graduate from college?

2.    What is your genealogy?

3.    Do you have money?

 

B.   When we have our Q&A lessons each month, some questions are more pertinent to one person than to another.

 

C.   However, we never know when a question that is not of interest to us today will become a question of dire interest in the future (Ex., studying the Bible with someone who asks a question that you were not interested in last month).

 

D.   This is our Q&A Sunday.  We will be examining three questions in this lesson.

 

I.             QUESTION #1:  Galatians 4:19

 

A.   Stated:  Please explain Paul’s words found in Galatians 4:19.

 

B.   Answer:

1.    Galatians 4:19

 

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again unto Christ be formed in you.

 

2.    Paul referred to these individuals as “my little children.”

a.    It was Paul and Barnabas who had taken the gospel to the lost in Galatia on Paul’s first missionary journey (Acts 13:14).

b.    He had labored long and hard in order to bring these individuals to Christ.

3.    Unfortunately, false teachers had entered into the churches of Galatia.

a.    These were Judaizing teachers, that is, teachers who were attempting to bind the Law of Moses on these Gentile converts.

b.    They were having a major impact on some of these Christians.

1)    Galatians 1:6

 

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.

 

2)    Galatians 3:1

 

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

 

3)    Galatians 4:9-11

 

But now, after that ye have known God or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

 

4)    Galatians 4:17a

 

They zealously affect you, but not well…

 

4.    Paul was stunned that these Christians had been removed from the truth so quickly.

5.    In Galatians 4:19, he seeks to reveal that pain that he felt and would continue to feel until Christ was formed within these Christians once again.

a.    The phrase used to express the pain is:  “I travail in birth.”

b.    It is said that the pains of birth are some of the most excruciating that a person could ever feel.

c.    Paul’s emotional and spiritual being was wounded deeply by the departure of these individuals from the grace of Christ.

 

II.           QUESTION #2:  Hymanaeus and Alexander, 1 Timothy 1:20

 

A.   Stated:  How was Paul able to deliver Hymanaeus and Alexander to Satan in 1 Timothy 1:20?

 

B.   The Context (1 Tim. 1:18-20)

1.    In this portion of 1 Timothy, Paul is exhorting Timothy to “war a good warfare” (v. 18).

2.    He admonishes him to hold faith and a good conscience (v. 19a).

3.    He then notes that some had not done this.  Instead, “concerning faith have made shipwreck.”

a.    They did this by failing to adhere to and proclaim the truth.

b.    They did this by promulgating false teachings.

4.    Hymanaeus and Alexander are set forth as two examples (v. 20a).

5.    We have additional information about Hymenaeus in 2 Timothy 2:17-18.

 

And their word will eat as doth a canker:  of whom is Hymeneus and Philetus; who concerning the truth have erred, saying, that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

 

C.   The attack these two men made against the truth caused Paul to “deliver them to Satan.”

1.    There are two spiritual realms that exist today.

a.    They are known as:

1)    The realm of the flesh and the realm of the Spirit

2)    The realm called the world and the realm called the church

b.    One realm is under the control of Satan.  One realm is under the control of Jesus Christ.

2.    When a child of God rebels against the truth, he can no longer continue in the fellowship of faithful Christians.  Thus, he is withdrawn from by the faithful and cast into the realm that is controlled by Satan.

3.    This removal of fellowship is to punish him and shame him so that he will repent and turn back to God.

a.    In this verse, Paul states:  “…that they may learn not to blaspheme.”

b.    In 1 Corinthians 5:5, Paul commanded the church at Corinth to deliver the fornicator unto Satan “for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

D.   Church discipline is designed with several purposes in mind.

1.    To punish the sinner.

2.    The bring the sinner to repentance.

3.    To keep the church pure.

4.    To cause the faithful to fear and not engage in the same or similar behavior.

5.    To save the soul of the individual who committed the transgression.

E.   NOTE:  When we fail to carry out church discipline, we fail the sinner.  We fail the church.  And, we fail the Lord.

 

III.         QUESTION #3:  1 Corinthians 12:3

 

A.   Stated:  What does 1 Corinthians 12:3 mean?

 

B.   Answer:

1.    1 Corinthians 12:3

 

Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed:  and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

 

2.    Background:

a.    Paul wrote the book of 1 Corinthians to correct several problems that were causing division in the church.

b.    One of those problems dealt with spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:1).

 

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.

 

1)    Spiritual gifts were miraculous gifts received by the laying on of the apostles’ hands (See Acts 8:14-17).

2)    These gifts were needed to equip the church do teach and function properly as the body of Christ because they did not have the complete written revelation of God to guide them.

c.    Before Paul addressed the matter of spiritual gifts, he reminded these Christians of two things:

1)    Their past conversation (1 Cor. 12:2).

 

Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.

 

a)    They were Gentiles, that is, heathens.

b)    They were worshipers of dumb idols, that is, idols that could not

think, see, hear, feel, or walk.

c)    Their lives were led by these false gods into all kinds of immoral and ungodly practices.

2)    The test of those who truly had the Spirit of God.

a)    In the first century, it was easy for imposters, false teachers, to invade the churches.

-      They claimed to be inspired.

-      They claimed to do miraculous works.

-      NOTE:  Their desire was to combat Jesus Christ and Christianity.

b)    The key to their exposure was their connection to Jesus Christ.

-      No man speaking by the Spriit of God calleth Jesus accursed.

-      No man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

c)    The false teachers did not honor the Christ as the Son of God.  If they claimed inspiration and did wonderful works, but were opposed to Jesus Christ, they were not men of God.

 

CONCLUSION

 

A.   Q&A lessons like this one are my favorites.

1.    The Bible is the Word of God.

2.    It is fun to go into the Bible and discover what God is seeking to communicate to us.

 

B.   God communicates many things to us.

1.    He communicates using figurative language like Paul used in Galatians 4:19 when he said:  “I travail in birth…”

2.    He communicates commands that are sometimes difficult for us to carry out such as delivering individuals to Satan by means of church discipline.

3.    He communicates tests that enable us to expose false teachers who oppose Jesus and His Word.

 

C.   The Bible is a fascinating book.  But, it is more than fascinating.  It is God’s power to save lost men from their sins (Rom. 1:16; James 1:18).