I Corinthians 1:4  I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
5  That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
6  Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
7  So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
8  Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9  God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

God directed Paul to write and thank God for the good things He had given to the church in Corinth as he began to write this letter. Notice that it was the grace of God that was given to these saints by Jesus Christ. It was not that these people had arrived. They would be nothing without the grace of God. They would be nothing without the salvation afforded by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The result of the grace of God which is the help that true saints rely on, is that they have been enriched in all utterance and all knowledge.
The Greek word translated as “utterance” means “something said, including thought”. God’s grace gives those who receive it the ability to speak with wisdom. There is a lot of hot air rising from the mouths of politicians and other secularists. False religions are also busy making a lot of noise, but no substance. The sad thing is that there are still too many people who are willing to accept the lies rather than the truth.
I had a visit with a man this week who was quite impressed with some well known people who were professing to be saved, but were clearly not saved. He could not see this because the grace of God is not effective in his life. He is a self-made man and self-made men lack the humility that brings them to repentance and salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Knowledge is “the act of knowing”. If we are not willing to humble ourselves and accept God’s wisdom and cast off humanistic thought, there is no hope. There is a common saying that ‘insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.’ The lost keep rebelling against God but they still believe they can find utopia through their foolish efforts.
God expects different results but He also provides the means to provide the result He declares will be present in all of His children. His salvation applied to the heart of the repentant sinner is what gives the recipient the ability to know truth. There are many things that people know, that are not worth the time it takes to learn them. The millions and billions of dollars being spent on space exploration are a complete waste. Secular man is still trying to figure out how this world came into being. Genesis 1 and 2 tells us how this world came into being. The flat earth people just need to read:

Isaiah 40:22  It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

There are those who want to argue that a circle can be on a flat surface like a pancake, etc.

Psalm 113:3  From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD’S name is to be praised.

We can know things that are important and indeed necessary for life if we humble ourselves and believe in the God of the Bible. We can save ourselves much trouble by just believing in the true God.
In verse 6 of our text we see further that this utterance and knowledge was due to the testimony of Jesus Christ being established in the saints. To confirm something is to make it sure. Any true saint will be fully convinced that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour. There will need to be growth in what that means, but the person who is saved must turn to God and accept Him as God and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Saviour.
In verse 7 we see that with this in place, the saint will not come behind in any gift. God gives gifts to every true saint. Not all have the same gift. We will see that further on in this book. However, every true child of God receives a gift and God equips each true saint to use that gift for His glory. The Christian life is not a competition among saints. I know there are religious groups who will have an evening where they give professing saved men 10 or so minutes to come up and give a short sermon. There would be nothing wrong with that if it was not run as a competition. If it is run as a completion the blessing is not there. I know when I was in Bible School, there were some male students who took the preaching class as a competition. I needed to learn how to prepare a sermon as well, but for me it was not a competition. I was graded on my sermons, but I was not looking for marks for performance. I wanted to be graded on the content of the sermon. Was I rightly dividing the Word of Truth. The approval we need first of all is that of God. If people want entertainers, there are many of those elsewhere. The truth is what matters.
As the true saint exercises their gift, they are doing so while waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That waiting is not a sitting by a fire or on a mountain in anticipation of the Lord’s return. It is an expectation of the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone commented yesterday about the different cloud formations they were noticing in the sky. I am often led to wonder if that cloud could be the one in which the Lord Jesus Christ will come in and where the saints will meet Him in the air. We need to live with that expectation in our hearts and minds.
In verse 8 we are reminded that our confirmation comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. We see again that we have eternal life if we are saved. The Lord Jesus Christ confirms us to the end. Our hope is in the salvation afforded us by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We see as well that the saved person cannot live in sin. We cannot be blameless when we deserve to be blamed. Those who are saved will commit enough sin without holding on to habitual sin. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses the repentant sinner of all sin. He is made a “new creature”. From that moment we need to learn how to walk as that “new creature”. We are challenged and commanded to do that.
In verse 9 we see as well that this hope is found in God Who is faithful. It is God that calls the saints into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. This calling is not supporting the heresy of Calvinism. All people have the opportunity of being saved. Those who do respond to the Holy Spirit’s
work of convincing them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and repent toward God and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, are called into fellowship. It is not a call into salvation, but to fellowship with Jesus Christ the Lord. God does not want us to take it for granted as if it is no big deal that we can fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a big deal. Every true child of God receives that special call from God to enter into that blessed fellowship. We need that. Our souls desire that. Our hearts need to be changed by God in order to be able to enter into that fellowship.
We will see that the saints in Corinth did not appreciate what they had been given in Jesus Christ our Lord. God directed Paul to begin this letter by speaking of the good He provided for true saints. We need to be reminded of what God has provided for those who are saved. Then we also need to examine what we are doing with those blessings. Are we availing ourselves of them, or are we missing out. We will look at this as we move through this letter.
Pastor Bartel