Earth and Sky

Alive is He who bled and died
For our pardon, glory cried
   All our sins, in faith, He wore
   All God's wrath; in terror bore

The time is near
   For dark to flee
All who hate
   To bow the knee

The sky will leave,
     The earth will heave,
          Death will grieve

                                           Where will you be?

Something Lovely

Something lovely this way comes
Something grand and glorious

Something that will have no end
Someone, Someone, Comes again!

                Jesus Christ, Immanuel
               God is pleased with man to dwell

He will crush His enemies
Bring all kingdoms to their knees
           
He came a babe; years long past
Returns The Judge and King - at last!

               Jesus Christ, Son of God
               Claims the earth; He once trod

Lasting peace for those He greets
Happy coming when we meet

Life undying; death to sin
To Him - quick, the veil wears thin!

               Jesus Christ, Lord of love
               Kiss Him now, before He comes

Something Bright is on the way
The Great, long awaited Day

Something old which we've been told
Will with certainty unfold

                Jesus Christ, the Righteous One
                Marching in; His kingdom comes


               
                

Long Road

The road is so long, I wander along
                 Looking for signs of You
The dark is so dark, the shadows so strong,
                 Seems like forever to me
                 Feels like forever to me

                                                             A day is a day, a year is a year
                                                                         Eternity flows away
Flows out of my grasp, too far to see
                 Too far away for me



The night goes all night, shine me Your light
                 Dimly, so dimly, I see
Your face is enough, your grace is enough,
                 More than enough for me

                                                         A day's just a day, now is the day
                                                                 To believe you, to see, to breathe
Make your words to abound; a song of a sound
                 And the long won't be long anymore


Soon comes the Day, time will vanish away
                All will see You,  Evermore
Lord, pour out Your grace, 'til it breaks out a praise,
                And the dark won't be dark anymore

                                                             Yes, this is the day, of glorious grace
                                                                        Drop upon drop, a sea
Just a short stay away, 'til I see Your face
               And the long won't be long to me


The road's not so long, it's Yours after all
                 Narrow and straight as can be
The strong won't be strong, the light will go on
                 Brightly, brightly, we sing

                                                  Today's just this day; in this place I'll say
                                                          The road's not as long as it seems
And forever with you, when all is made new,
                  Seems very near to me
                  It seems very near to me






 

Doctrine of Faith

Feb 27, 2019

Faith has to do with the character of the one who promises what is hoped for.


Hebrews 11:1  Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 


It would seem appropriate to use Hebrews 11:1 as a definition of faith; and we do need to define our terms or the doorway for miscommunication is opened more widely than necessary.  

If I am to have faith in something, I must be made to be sure of what I am looking for and I must be made to be convinced of what I do not see.  I must be sure of what I don't yet completely possess and convinced that it is mine by promise.  The thing promised is as good as in my hand - that's how sure I must be in faith.

Hebrews 11:6  And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Hebrews 11:6 tells us why the "must" is in the mix of being assured and convicted.  What God promises must be taken as if it is already ours.  Just like the Hebrews were taken out of Egypt and brought to the border of their new land.  We are brought to the border of our new land, but ours is as yet invisible.  They refused to enter, not believing they could enter.  God was so angry at being disbelieved, especially after all He had revealed to them about His ability and faithfulness, that he declared that generation of people would not enter, but that they would die in the desert.

So faith is imperative.  But who can be absolutely sure of what has only been told to them and of what they cannot even see?  How can one be so very convinced of eternal life promised when we can barely understand what it means?  Someone must convince us and someone must assure us so that we can take today what is promised and please God in doing so.

John 5:24  Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 

John 17:3  And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.


The gospel, God's good news to us about His Son Jesus and our salvation, is the most important promise - ever!  It is a promise of life.  It's really more like a declaration that a promise made has been kept; meaning the way to life with God forever without our sins has been made by Jesus in his coming and dying and rising from the dead to return to Heaven from where he came.  However, it is a promise in itself as well because it is by faith in Jesus - the one who completed the work of the promise - that we are saved from our sins and God's judgment to be made His children forever.

The gospel is what we are to believe.  God in Christ Jesus is who we are to believe.  The Holy Spirit is He who makes it possible for us to believe.

So we clarify (a little) the promise of all promises to believe and now can get back to the faith of it.  No one can be sure of anything that is promised without first being sure of the one who promises.  The character, revealed reputation, of the one who makes the promise tells us how sure we can be of the promise being completed.  What God promises can not be done by anyone other than God.  So how can we please Him by having faith in Him?  How can we be absolutely sure of God, that He will do as He has said - give us life eternal?

The only thing that can make us sure is to know who God is.  God not only tells us what to believe and who to believe, He makes sure to give ample reason for us to know His ability and willingness and even his motivation (His Glory).  He reveals His character in the Scripture as well as to us personally through circumstances and prayer and life in general.  Anyone can read the Bible and anyone can live through circumstances and anyone can pretend to pray, but the Holy Spirit reveals God through things to those whose eyes He has opened.

If ones eyes have been opened, he has but one need - to keep on being sure of the one who makes the promise!  If his eyes have not been opened, he has but one hope - keep on being told why he can be sure of the promise maker.  The Holy Spirit will testify to God and to no one else.  The power of the Holy Spirit is necessary to believe at first and to believe until the end.

We come to the necessity of doctrine.  What are we to teach and preach and focus on?  Doctrine has to do with the character of God or it is empty.  Any doctrine that is not rooted in and based on God's character will have no lasting good effect on one's faith.  God is one.  God is what He does and He is what He says.  There is no division in Him, His words, acts and being are one.  Knowing His deeds and declarations cause us to know His character.  Knowing His character makes us more sure of the promises He has made because it makes us more sure of Him.

A doctrine is a stance or a perspective which is taught.  If a doctrine cannot be traced back to God's character, it is not sound.  It will not hold water; has no floor.  No matter how fervently it is shouted, if God's character does not back it, it is of no use.  On the contrary, it will be a distraction at best and a deception at worst.  Take for example the doctrine that Jesus is in fact the Son of God.  This is in accordance with God's character as revealed in the whole of Scripture.  In Scripture it is made quite plain that no one can save except God alone, that God would not have it any other way, that at the end of it all, no one will say they did anything for God with respect to completing His plan for His glory.  Of course, there are lots of individual verses that prove the declaration of this doctrine but God's character makes it firm.  It seals it with the assurance of Himself.

Faith has to do with the character of the one who promises that which is hoped for.
True doctrine has to do with relating God's character in specific ways for the purpose of securing the assurance for the believer and giving the unbeliever a rock to stand on.

It does the hearers no good to be shy of discussing doctrine or to avoid certain doctrine because of its unpopularity - real or perceived.  If you are certain that you have sound doctrine, teach it.  If you aren't certain, examine it.   You might want to start with the Bible ;)

Elected Gospel

Nov 10, 2018

The more I read the Bible, the more I see Christ and God's election and the gospel of God's salvation through his Son, Jesus. What I can't figure out is how anyone can make sense of Scripture without taking into account the reality of God's election; predestination; His sovereign and free choice and predetermination over EVERYTHING. What specifically gets my attention is that without the truth of God's election or predestination, the gospel of Jesus Christ does not make sense.

God makes promises and His work secures their completion. Why anyone would want to remove His doing that (as if they could), is beyond me. But, people do want to remove God's election and they suffer weakness in attempting to do it. If God cannot determine, by His will, to make happen what He said would happen, what would be the point in promising it? It doesn't make sense.

Look at this prayer of Jesus' followers that was recorded in Acts:

  “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. Acts 4:23-28.

God has a kingdom and His kingdom existed before the creation of the earth. God has a Son and His Son was His Son from before the foundation of the earth – this is the Christ, who is eternal. The Son, the Christ, was determined to be judge of heaven and earth before the earth existed. God is creator and He is Savior. It was all His idea and only He could or would carry it out. To imagine that He waits or moves in accordance with any human decision just does not make sense.

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Matthew 25:34

The kingdom of God was predestined.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 1 Peter 1:20-21

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. John 6:38

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” John 18:37

Jesus Christ was predestined. His birth was predestined. His ministry was predestined. His death was predestined. His resurrection was predestined. Jesus Christ's position as judge, savior, and ruler of heaven and earth was predestined. If these things had not been elected, predestined, by God and brought about by God's power, regardless of any man, none of us would have any hope. The good news of salvation without predestination does not make any sense.

The saints of old – before Jesus came to the earth, were saved by faith in God's salvation through the One who was to come. If this had not already been determined and testified to by God, they would have had nothing to believe and so would have no salvation. For salvation is by grace through faith (believing). They were banking on a future, (already decided) event and a future (already chosen) person to complete it. The saints of today are saved by the same person and the same event; namely, Jesus Christ; His birth, life, death on the cross and resurrection. If the saints of old have no salvation, neither do we today.

At this moment God's people everywhere, even in heaven, are waiting for the King, Jesus, to return to the earth to judge the world and take His children to Himself forever. The second coming of Christ is an already appointed happening. The day and the hour have already been decided by the Father. It is set and cannot be changed. God has elected a time of judgment; a day of reckoning. It has been predetermined. If this day has not been determined already by God, we have nothing to look forward to in the future and our inheritance in heaven is questionable. Without God's predestination and election of events, our future does not make any sense.

I suppose for me, one of the most beautiful things about Jesus is that He submitted perfectly to all that God had destined for Him. Being God, of course, Jesus knew what was coming for Him. Being man, He did not flinch, but set His face like flint to His own death to keep us from the power of death forever. His earthly life was one of loneliness, disrespect, long hours, weariness, hunger, sleeplessness, harassment from Satan, unbelief from His own earthly family, betrayal of a friend, not being recognized as God and Savior by His own people; being falsely accused, treated like a criminal, beaten, spit on, mocked, and finally brutally murdered. All of it was predetermined by God and He knew it.

Where is the one who will lament that it was unfair that God decided ahead of time that Jesus was to suffer this way? Who would dare to imply that Jesus would do otherwise than to perfectly incline to the will of His Father? How could it be possible that being perfectly One with the Father, Jesus could do otherwise? Did He have a choice? It was determined and God had testified by His word through the prophets to all that Jesus would do and suffer and that He would be exalted to the highest Authority. God predetermined and elected our salvation and our Savior. To remove the beauty of God's election in Jesus' suffering is to make His sacrifice small. Without God's predestination of His own Son, Jesus' would not have had anything to look forward to in His suffering. It was “for the joy set before him” that He endured the cross. Without God's election of His Son and all the events in His earthly walk, Jesus' suffering does not make any sense.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news of a promise fulfilled by the only one who could possibly fulfill it. Any promise that would be fulfilled must have a preconceived idea of what is being promised and an existing power to carry it out. Without predestination, none of God's promises are any good. Indeed, He has no right to make them if He cannot determine that they will be completed since the possibility of failure would make Him not who He says He is; ALMIGHTY.

If God Almighty, does not predetermine and in sovereign power carry out all of His plans; if He is not in complete control of all things at all times and does not have each things already decided -

NOTHING makes any sense!

Psalm 41:10

  My enemies say of me in malice, “When will he die, and his name perish?”  
  And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he   goes out, he tells it abroad. 
 All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me.  
  They say, “A deadly thing is poured out on him; he will not rise again from where he lies.” 
  Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me. 
  But you, O LORD, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them!   Psalm 41:5-10


David wrote this psalm, but it was Christ speaking it.  Jesus, who was yet to come, here speaks through His servant and cries out to His Father about His enemies.  How mysterious!  Here, as in many places in Scripture, Christ calls out His enemies and pleas for their destruction.  Indeed, He orders their destruction.

Verse 10 of this psalm reads, "raise me up, that I may repay them!"  It is interesting that He does not say, "raise me up that I may save them."

The enemies of Christ are the enemies from before the foundation of the world and they will be destroyed.  They will not know mercy but will only know the wrath of God.

All who are in relationship with God the Father now, through the Son, will never know this wrath reserved for God's enemies.  This applies to those who will yet come to God through Jesus.  All who are in Christ or who will ever be in Christ have been in Him from before the foundation of the world and God's mercy and goodness is stored up for them.
 
Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Even though we know through Romans 5:10 that we who now know God were once His enemies, we were not His eternal enemies.  We were enemies who were destined to become His children.  God's eternal enemies are those who enslave, persecute and crush His people - on a spiritual level.

The Devil and the World and the Flesh are the enemies of God.  They capture and enslave humans for the glory of evil.  Satan and his demons seek the demise of God's children so that they can make God out to be a liar and prove Him false, which is not possible.

Jesus Christ, who died for His people, cries out for the destruction of the enemies of God.  He has cried out from of old, even as He calls out an eternal gospel.  Christ is raised and He is raised to repay the enemies of God.

The enemies of Jesus Christ are the enemies of His children.  It is good and right to cry out against the enemies of God and to plead for their destruction.  Every temptation and evil thought; every selfish motive and self loving act; every doubt and backsliding are the works of the enemies of God.  Although these things seem to be present in the person of God, they are not of the person of God but are of the enemy.  We call out for the destruction of God's enemies, knowing that we, ourselves are hidden safely in Christ - His new creation.

God Himself will once and for all utterly crush His enemies and we will enter into a blissful rest where there is no more temptation and taunting and accusations.  Even now, God is faithful to rebuke and chase away the enemies from us when we cry out to Him.  We can confidently and earnestly call out to our Father, with the voice of His Son, who helps us pray through His Holy Spirit, "Rescue me from my enemies!"

As Christ spoke through David, we today, speak through the Spirit of Christ:
"By this I know that you delight in me:  my enemy will not shout in triumph over me. 
But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen."  Psalm 41:11-13

Value Assessments

October 11,2018

 

Luke 14:26  "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple."

Luke records Jesus speaking this to the crowds of people that followed him.  Any sane person says, "Wait a minute, we need to clarify what Jesus is really saying."  That is reasonable and right given what we know about Jesus from the Scripture.  Then we can read how Jesus spoke in the same way to His disciples:

Matthew 10:37  "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

Now, we see it makes a little more sense.  One might say, "Yes, I can see that is right.  I should love Jesus more than anything, but how do I do that and how will I know if I am doing it?  This also is hard."  There is something similar recorded about a young man who asked Jesus how to obtain eternal life.  


Matthew 19:21  Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."  When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.


This seems pretty clear and one might say, "What a fool that young man was!  Of course, he should have sold his goods.  What a shame that he loved money more than eternal life.  This is something one could do."

One thing Jesus says seems out of order; not understandable.  Another thing He says seems sensible but difficult and the third reference seems to be a no-brainer.  However, none of these are about easy or hard or should or shouldn't. They are all impossible.  These are about value assessments of  Jesus and no matter how much you tell yourself that you should value Jesus above all, you cannot and you will not unless you are able to see His value.  However, once having "assessed" His value, you cannot not do these things.

To love one thing more than another requires that a value be assessed for the things compared.  You can't assess something that you have never seen or experienced.  It doesn't really matter if the value is based on emotion or practical use.  You will value what you value and although you can discourage or encourage the valuing, you can't really think yourself into loving or not loving something.  If that thing or person has value to you, that is the assessment.  The only thing that can change a bad value assessment is to know something of better value.  So surly, you know where I am going with this.  Don't ask me why it takes so long, it just does :)

God's value is hands-down, beyond-words greater than anything or anyone, ever!  However, unless He reveals Himself, one cannot value Him.  It is impossible to value God more than a piece of trash if He has not revealed Himself to you.  Now, once one has seen and known God, because God has made Himself known through Christ, on a personal basis, God's value remains in that person.  It is true that we may become temporarily distracted and always tempted to value other things more than God, but once God has made His value known to a person, that person will ultimately love Jesus more than all things and all people.  The Holy Spirit will light up the soul again and again so as to enable one to see and to cherish Christ forever. 

One who knows God will love Jesus more than everything; not because he has to in order to avoid being kicked out of the kingdom, or because a toll has been placed on the road to heaven that he must pay up front, or because he is so very strict with what he allows himself to enjoy on the earth.  He will love Jesus more because he will not be able to do otherwise; because Jesus is so much more valuable.  Now, as I pointed out, all who love Jesus, will be tempted and will unintentionally and momentarily value Him less than they would if they were seeing correctly.  But God, being most eager to uphold His great value (and rightly so!), will, in a variety of ways, help that one to see rightly.  And when we see rightly, we say as Peter did: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."  (John 6:68-69)  It is notable that Jesus had just pointed out, in this same conversation, "I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." (John 6:65)

We can trust that since God was pleased to reveal His Son to us and knows that it is impossible to love Him above ourselves - even for a second - without His enabling, that He will help us to value Him in Christ that we might keep His commands.  It is also given us to help ourselves and to help each other.  Rather than rehearsing to yourself (again) all the reasons that you cannot obey God such as:  your sinful human nature, the personality you had the bad luck to be stuck with, the rotten deal you got in childhood, the lack of discipleship and good examples in your life, or whatever; try calling to mind all the things about Jesus Christ that you can.  Think and read and tell yourself about how He is, who He is; His kindness, goodness, real humility, true wisdom, unmatched power - it never ends.  He never ends!  Help yourself to remember and see how valuable He is.  Then, help someone else.  Stop putting "humility" over the excuse to talk about yourself!  Maybe being honest about how rotten you are helps the next person feel a little better about how rotten they are, but it doesn't promote what is necessary, which is valuing Christ over yourself.  I think the reasoning is that if we see that one thing has little value (ourselves), we will see the other (God) as being more valuable in comparison.  So the idea is that if we see how bad we are, we will see how good God is, in comparison.  That is not good reasoning!  There is no comparing!  God is absolutely more valuable than anything or anyone at any time.  Even if we weren't all rotten to the core, which we are, He would still be of infinite, eternal, seriously unknowable-on-this-earth valuable - the MOST HIGH.  So it isn't good reasoning and it doesn't work.  That is why the Bible is about GOD, not about us.

Consider this example (maybe a silly one):  Let's say that I have an old piece of furniture that I am very attached to.  I love it.  You come to my house and you comment on it's character and style and good condition and when you leave I love it more.  Or maybe you come over and you make a face at it and others do the same.  After a short while, I love it less.  Maybe no one ever even comments on it. They don't even notice it.  Over time I will love it less.  We like to think that we do not influence each other in this way, but we do.  We are meant to influence each other, for Christ valuing and Christ loving, so that we don't have to walk around worried that when the bill comes we won't have the guts to pay the cost of discipleship.  Keep your eyes on the prize of Christ; go gaze at that Pearl of Greatest Value; run out and run your hands through the Treasure in the field and you will know that whatever the cost, no thing or person can out-value Jesus, the Son of God. 

Natural and Supernatural

October 9, 2018   

  Anyone who has managed in a business or who has worked for a manager or who has been a teacher or who has had a teacher knows that business school does not make one a manager and a college education does not make one a teacher.   One who manages effectively and one who teaches well benefits and adds to their strength with education, but they manage and teach well because they are managers and teachers to begin with.  It is who they are.
       An artist does not become an artist through art school and a singer does not sing because of voice training.  However, they certainly do well to take on training if they can get it.  They paint and draw and sing and dance because it is who they are.  It is who God has made them.
      When speaking about the things of the earth, this concept seems obvious, at least to me it does.  It puzzles me, therefore, how it seems that there are so many men who are accepted as pastors simply because they went to seminary and they are accepted as preachers because they have learned how to speak effectively.
       In the natural, earthly realm, there are things one can teach but the essence of that thing must become known on a deeper level than simply remembering things that were read or heard and repeating them or reenacting them.  That is why people say they have a good doctor or a good mechanic.  They don't think so much about the training, in fact, they probably don't even check to see if they were trained at all.  But they can tell, at times, almost intuitively, whether or not they know what they are doing.  People make these judgments all the time.
      As in the natural or earthly realm, so it is with the spiritual realm.  Or I should say that as it is in the spiritual, it is in the earthly, since the spiritual came first.  My point is that since we recognize the difference between cerebral knowledge and deeper knowledge (the sense of acquaintance with something) in our earthly dealings, how is it that this practice of discernment is so neglected when it comes to God's words and ways?  If a man has graduated from seminary, he is said to be a pastor.  If he can also speak well publicly, it may also be said of him that he is a preacher.  This does not mean that he knows Jesus Christ or that he acts and speaks from Christ.
     God is spirit and His loving Word is spiritual.  It is not possible to deal with God and work in His work and minister with His Word with the natural man running the show.  God must be running the show through His Spirit, if it is to be truly ministry.  If the Holy Spirit is not in it, it is not from God.  Anyone can read a Bible text and repeat what others have said about it.  And it would seem anyone does just that - but only that.  But, some will say, "look, he is actually reading from the Bible", apparently as opposed to the many who don't even do that.  So what!  Reading from the Bible is not the same as knowing the author and speaking in His interests.  That is only done by the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is not natural; human.  It is supernatural; of God, spiritual, and is discernible by those who have the Spirit of God.  Others may say, "Yes, but he is of our doctrine."  Right.  Just because you can read the menu doesn't mean you can cook the food - or should even try.  What most would say and do say about discernment is something like: "Who am I to judge?"  You are to judge!  You are to be watching and listening and judging it all!  The largest word in the Bible is not "UNITY"; it is "GOD", specifically, "JESUS".
       Generally, people seem reconciled to the fact that the majority of those who say they are Christians have not actually met Jesus Christ.  It follows then that those behind the pulpit would also follow the ratio of believer to hypocrite.  I suppose my question, however naive it may appear, is "why is that OK?"  Why is it rational and acceptable for me to say that I don't want to use a particular dentist because I don't get the feeling he really knows what he is talking about, but if I say that about a guy who is in a pastoral position, I am being mean and judgmental?  What do I know about dentistry?  Not much, but they are my teeth!  What do I know about being a pastor?  Nothing.  But, I know THE Pastor.  I know the kinds of things that Jesus says and does and I know what He likes and what He hates and if you know Him, so do you.
     So, what is the fuss about?  Why do I get on a soap box about something like this?  Because a natural man feeding God's sheep is a danger and an insult.  It is dangerous because the spiritual man is always tempted to deny God and do things according to the flesh.  The natural man cannot see or teach God's word from anything but an earthly perspective so he is always drawing the eyes of his hearers down, toward themselves - even with the best and most sacrificial and humble sounding language. It is an insult because Jesus Christ has appointed spiritual leaders - where are they!?  There are men equipped especially by God to tend to His sheep.  What an insult to Jesus to leave this position laying around for the common man to pick up. The spiritual man is not exempt from error, of course, but only he can speak from a Godly perspective, because in Christ, he has this very perspective.  It is not theory for him, but reality.  This man will draw the eyes of the hearer upward toward Christ - even on accident.  Listen to these things:

"For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generations than the sons of light."  Luke 16:8

 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.   The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.   "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.  1 Cor. 2:12-16

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.  But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Heb. 5:12-14