1 Corinthians Commentary - Wayne Barber

Updated: Sat, 05/24/2025 - 17:51 By admin

1 Corinthians Commentary
Dr Wayne Barber

NOTE - Unfortunately the end of many of the transcripts cuts off a significant portion of the sermon. My apologies as there was nothing I could do about that. However I can suggest a "workaround." Go to this page for the audios of all 105 1 Corinthians sermons which will allow you to listen to the last part of the sermon. As an example see the note at the end of the introduction. I can guarantee you will find Wayne's preaching style entertaining, edifying and challenging.

Here is the list of sermons which together are approximately 950 pages of material:

1 Corinthians Introduction
1 Corinthians 1:1 - The Authority of the Word of God
1 Corinthians 1:1 - The Fruit of Surrender
1 Corinthians 1:2 - What is the Church of God? 1
1 Corinthians 1:2 - What is the Church of God? 2
1 Corinthians 1:3 - What is the Church of God? 3
1 Corinthians 1:3 - What is the Church of God? 4
1 Corinthians 1:4-6 - What is the Church of God? 5
1 Corinthians 1:7 - What is the Church of God? 6
1 Corinthians 1:8 - What is the Church of God? 7
1 Corinthians 1:9 - What is the Church of God? 8
1 Corinthians 1:10 - Division Among God’s People
1 Corinthians 1:12-16 - Division Among God’s People - 2
1 Corinthians 1:17-20 - The Fallacy of Following After Man
1 Corinthians 1:30-31 - The Wisdom of Boasting in the Lord
1 Corinthians 1:21-25 - The Wonderful Message of the Cross
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 - That No Man Should Boast
1 Corinthians 2 - Grow Up
1 Corinthians 2 - The Wisdom of God
1 Corinthians 2 - The Wisdom of God - 2
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 - Spiritual Babies
1 Corinthians 3:3-9 - Vessels through Which God Works
1 Corinthians 3:9 - The Work of God
1 Corinthians 3:13 - The Work of God - 2
1 Corinthians 3:14-15 - The Preparation for the Test
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 - Don’t Mess with God’s People
1 Corinthians 3:18 - Beware of Self Deception
1 Corinthians 3:18 - The Meaning of Being Foolish
1 Corinthians 3:21-23 - All Things Belong to You
1 Corinthians 4:1-5 - The Marks of a God Called Preacher
1 Corinthians 4:6-8 - The Characteristics of a Conceited Church
1 Corinthians 4:9-13 - A Profile of the Approved
1 Corinthians 4:14-17 - Tough Love
1 Corinthians 4:18-21 - Spiritual Arrogance
1 Corinthians 5:1-6 - The Consequences of Fleshly Living
1 Corinthians 5:5 - The Painful Act of Church Discipline
1 Corinthians 5:9-13 - The Particular Focus of Church Discipline
1 Corinthians 6:1-2 - The Sin of Demanding Your Rights
1 Corinthians 6:3 - The Sin of Demanding Your Rights – Part 2
1 Corinthians 6:7-10 - The Sin of Demanding Your Rights – Part 3
1 Corinthians 6:11-14 - The Terrible Sin of Immorality
1 Corinthians 6:15-20 - The Terrible Sin of Immorality – Part 2
1 Corinthians 7:1 - Should I Remarry or Remain Single? – Part 1
1 Corinthians 7:2-3 - Should I Remarry or Remain Single? – Part 2
1 Corinthians 7:4-5 - Should I Remarry or Remain Single? – Part 3
1 Corinthians 7:6-7 - Should I Remarry or Remain Single? – Part 4
1 Corinthians 7:8-9 - Should I Remarry or Remain Single? – Part 5
1 Corinthians 7:10-14 -Should I Stay Married? – Part 1
1 Corinthians 7:15-17 - Should I Stay Married? – Part 2
1 Corinthians 7:18-24 - The Inward Work of Salvation
1 Corinthians 7:25-31 - What a Single Person Considers Before Marriage
1 Corinthians 7:32 - Our Supreme Goals in Life
1 Corinthians 7:34 - Our Supreme Goals in Life – Part 2
1 Corinthians 7:35-38 - Fathers and Daughters
1 Corinthians 7:39-8:3 - How to Deal with the Grey Areas of Life
1 Corinthians 8:4-13 - How to Deal with the Grey Areas of Life - Part 2
1 Corinthians 8:7-13 - Handling the Grey Areas of Life – Part 3
1 Corinthians 9:1-14 - Denying Self for the Sake of Others – Part 1
1 Corinthians 9:15-19 - Denying Self for the Sake of Others – Part 2
1 Corinthians 9:1-27 - Denying Self for the Sake of Others – Part 3
1 Corinthians 9 - Denying Self for the Sake of Others – Part 4
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 - The Discipline of the Christian Life – Part 1
1 Corinthians 9:26-27 - The Discipline of the Christian Life – Part 2
1 Corinthians 10:1-33 - A Caution to the Strong – Part 1
1 Corinthians 10:7-12 - A Caution to the Strong – Part 2
1 Corinthians 10:13 - Comfort in the Midst of Temptation
1 Corinthians 10:15 - A Word to the Wise – Part 2
I Corinthians 10:16-33 - A Word to the Wise – Part 2
1 Corinthians 11:11 - Respecting God’s Order – Part 1
1 Corinthians 11:11 - Respecting God’s Order – Part 2
1 Corinthians 11:16 - The Silent Killer
1 Corinthians 11:27-29 - Examine Yourself
1 Corinthians 11:30-31 - The Chastening of God
1 Corinthians 12:1-2 - The Signs of Spiritual Immaturity–Part `
1 Corinthians 12:3 - The Signs of Spiritual Immaturity–Part 2
1 Corinthians 12:4-6 - The Essentials of Understanding Spiritual Gifts – Part 1
1 Corinthians 12:4-6 - The Essentials of Understanding Spiritual Gifts – Part 2
1 Corinthians 12:7-9 - To Each His Own – Part 1
1 Corinthians 12:7-9 - To Each His Own – Part 2
1 Corinthians 12:9-10 - To Each His Own – Part 3
1 Corinthians 12:9-10 - To Each His Own – Part 4
1 Corinthians 12:9-10 - To Each His Own – Part 5
1 Corinthians 12:9-10 - To Each His Own – Part 6
1 Corinthians 12:9-10 - To Each His Own – Part 7
1 Corinthians 12:10-11 - Just Who Is In Charge?
1 Corinthians 12:12-17 - All for One, and One for All
1 Corinthians 12:18-23 - All for One, and One for All – Part 2
1 Corinthians 12:31 - The Absolute Proof of a Surrendered Life – Part 1
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 - The Absolute Proof of a Surrendered Life – Part 2
1 Corinthians 13:4-5 - Nine Characteristics of Love
1 Corinthians 13:6-7 - When Love Is Present
1 Corinthians 13:8-12 - Love That Never Fails
1 Corinthians 13:12-13 - His Love That Will Not Let Us Go
1 Corinthians 14:1-3 - What Is the Problem in Corinth?
1 Corinthians 14:5-12 - The Spiritual Power of Language
1 Corinthians 14:13-17 - Baby Talk
1 Corinthians 14:20-25 - Good Intentions Don’t Necessarily Make Things Right
1 Corinthians 14:26-28 - Order in the Church – Part 1
1 Corinthians 14:29-33 - Order in the Church – Part 2
1 Corinthians 14:34-35 - Order in the Church – Part 3
1 Corinthians 14:36-40 - Who Do You Think You Are?
1 Corinthians 15 - Up From the Grave, He Arose!
1 Corinthians 15:1-8 - The Resurrection of the Dead
1 Corinthians 15:8-10 - A Man that God Can Use
1 Corinthians 15:11-19 - Christ the Solid Rock

1 Corinthians - Introduction

A Look at the Book

I had a group of men several years ago from our church who were in a discipleship group with me. We were talking about the rules of Bible study, and I made the statement that Bible study has three steps. It doesn’t change. It doesn’t matter what book you’re studying. There’s observation, interpretation and application. It’ll never be any different. Whatever book you study, those are the rules of Bible study. Don’t jump in and start interpreting. No sir. You must start in observing. Don’t apply until you have observed and interpreted. So often we get off track when we do that. As I was talking about that one of the guys in the group said, "You know what? That’s like bass fishing, isn’t it?" That caught my attention. I like to put it on levels that I can understand. I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "You know, we fish tournaments, a lot of us. And the first thing a tournament bass fisherman does is observe the lake. He doesn’t just go out to the lake and throw his line out with a bobber on the end and a hook and all and expect to catch a fish. No. He doesn’t want to know what’s on top of the water. He wants to know what’s underneath the water. So he spends days finding this out. He gets the ph factor and the oxygen content and the thermo clime. It’s got to be between 68 and 72 degrees. He gets a topographical map and finds the places in the lake with that particular temperature. Then he begins to mark it. He marks the creek channels and the coves, etc. He puts out his boat marker. He doesn’t do much fishing for about three days. But he does a lot of observation. When tournament day comes immediately he begins to interpret what he has observed and how he is going to fish that lake. The application is when he finally gets to that spot and he uses his equipment." I thought to myself that’s beautiful. If you don’t understand observation, interpretation, application, maybe we can put it that way and you can grasp it very quickly. You’ve got to observe, observe, observe, observe. Then out of that you interpret, and out of that you apply. We’re going to do some observation in 1 Corinthians. That’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to find a lot of similarities with the church of Corinth in the book of 1 Corinthians with the book of Judges. It’s incredible. In the book of Judges, we had the willful deception of Israel. They chose not to obey God. They chose rather to give into their flesh. By the way, flesh is flesh no matter which testament you’re studying. Whether it’s before the cross or after the cross, flesh is flesh. I don’t care whose it is, we all have to deal with it. We’re going to find some similarities. In Israel they chose not to obey God. Therefore, they became idolaters. They became very immoral. Idolatry and immorality are always tied together. They also had to reap the division amongst the tribes. There was no unity among the tribes. You can see that. We see that all through the book of Judges. We’re going to see a lot of these same things pop up in the book of 1 Corinthians.

Observation

I want you to strap your seatbelts on. We’re going to do some observation, and I don’t think we’re going to get into the text too much. Look at verse 1 Corinthians 1:1. You find out the author and who he’s writing to immediately: "Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth,..." There are three things I want us to see about Corinth. First of all, we want to look at the city of Corinth. There’s not much in the scriptures to tell you this. I’m just going to have to historically help you understand the city of Corinth at that time. Actually today Corinth is a small town. There’s not much significance to it, except historically. Historically there’s a lot of significance to Corinth. It’s located about 45 miles from Athens on the eastern side of Greece on an isthmus. Do you know what an isthmus is? I’ll be honest with you. I had to look it up. It’s a narrow strip of land that connects two major pieces of land. That’s what an isthmus is. Geographically you have to understand that Greece is divided that way. There’s a northern part; there’s a southern part. They’re connected by about a four mile wide isthmus. On the western side was the Gulf of Corinth. On the eastern side was the Seronic Gulf and the port city of Cenchreae. Do you remember in Romans who was from Cenchreae? It was a woman by the name of Phoebe. That’s where that was. In the middle of this isthmus that connects the northern and the southern part to the south is Corinth. It’s situated on a very commanding plateau there. It just rises up above where everybody can see it. In ancient times if you were coming from the north to the south, particularly to Athens, you’d have to go right through Corinth which made it a very strategic city in that time. Did you know that the Olympics started in Greece? There were two sets of games. One was the Olympian games and the other one was the Isthmian games. The Isthmus of Corinth was what it was named after. Corinth hosted that particular event. Corinth was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC, then rebuilt by Julius Caesar 100 years later. When it was rebuilt it was basically a Roman colony largely populated by Romans, of course. It became the capitol city of the Roman providence of Achaia. But because of its location, once rebuilt it didn’t take it any time to become a strategic city one more time. People had to go through there. It was a very critical place, a very cosmopolitan area. In Paul’s day it was made up of Greeks, Roman officials and businessmen, and near eastern peoples, which included many Jews. So you kind of get a little idea of the city of Corinth. Like most Greek cities Corinth had an acropolis which is a high place. We’ve been to the acropolis there in Athens. They also had one. It was a huge mound of granite which stood 2000 feet. It was called the Acrocorinth. It was used for two things. That high plateau, that high mound was used first of all for pagan worship and secondly for the defense of the people. It was big enough that all the people of Corinth plus all the people in the neighboring farmlands could come up there and actually it would hold every one of them on top of this big huge place that was there. Also it housed the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. In that temple were 1000 women priestesses. Can you imagine? They were actually temple prostitutes, ritual prostitutes. That was a part of their religion, the promiscuity of their religion. Remember in the book of Judges that was exactly the same thing that went on with the Baal and Ashtaroth and their kind of idolatry. At night these women would go down into town to lure businessmen and foreigners into their trade. Even to the pagan world Corinth was known for its moral corruption. As a matter of fact, there’s a Greek phrase that meant you behave like a Corinthian. It was used any time you got around somebody who was involved in gross immorality and drunkenness. They would use this phrase. You’ve got to begin to get the understanding of the nature of this city; a very, very evil morally bad city. In that day when you thought of Corinth, you thought of something that was morally depraved. This begins to give us a setting of 1 Corinthians. You’ll see where these people came out of this kind of stuff if you’ll turn over to 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. It kind of gives you an idea how these people were saved and had come out of that garbage that Corinth was known for. In 1 Corinthians 6:9 we read, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God." If you stopped right there it wouldn’t tell you much, but look at the next verse: "And such were some of you." That’s what the city was known for, all of those things above that we just read. Paul goes on to say, "...but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." Though they were saved out of it, oh, there was like a pull of gravity on them all of the time trying to pull them back into the debauchery of sin Corinth was known for. So when you think of the church of Corinth, you first of all think of a city that was known to be morally evil. The people who were converts there had to live in that kind of garbage every day of their life. That begins to give you a setting now as you see the city of Corinth. Secondly, let’s look at the church of Corinth. Who founded it? Where did it come from? How did they get a church over there? When we looked at the church in the book of Romans we discovered that when God wants a church somewhere God just puts it there. He did the same thing here. Right in the middle of this moral garbage heap God put a church. The church at Corinth was founded by the apostle Paul. He went there on his second missionary journey. He had gone to Thessalonica, Berea, Athens and then to Greece. Let’s look at that. Go over to Acts 16. We won’t read all of that. That’s a lot of scripture. I just want to show you some of the things that happened here and how he got over to Corinth. Paul’s the founder, the first pastor, I guess you could say, of the church of Corinth. They had no church until Paul went there. I love what he said in Romans. He said, "I would not dare to speak of anything except that which Christ has accomplished through me resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles." And he said, "For I was able to take the good news all the way to Illyricum," which is modern day Bosnia. 1400 miles he had covered with the gospel. Here are some of the results of that right here in the city of Corinth. Well in Acts 16:12 it talks about the fact that he’s over in Philippi. He left Troas and ran a straight course (verse 11) to Samothrace and on to Neapolis and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia. Look what happens there according to verse 13: "And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled." It talks about the woman Lydia. This is Philippi now, not Corinth. This is where we’re getting started. He’s on his second missionary journey. Verse 16 is an interesting situation that happened over in Philippi. "And it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a certain slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling." This is a demon-possessed girl. Look what she says. "Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, ‘These men are bond-servant of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.’" Have you ever read that and wondered why a demon-possessed girl would tell the truth about what these men were doing? Has that ever bothered you? Well, good. I’m going to try to answer it for you. First of all, she was known in that town. Remember, she brought much money to these men as being a demon-possessed person. They used her for that kind of profit. For her to tell the truth about them and the people already knowing about her, what do you think that made them look like? The devil never tells the truth unless he has some way to hurt you. The truth that he tells is not the way in which we would tell it. So she’s telling the truth, but she’s already known to be a lowlife and to be a demon-possessed girl. Why pay any attention to her? So it was one of the better ways of discrediting what they were doing. "And she continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!’ And it came out at that very moment." Now this makes the people of the city angry and so, therefore, they go to the magistrates. The magistrates come and beat them up. They take Paul and Silas and put them in jail. Verse 25 reads, "But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them;" That’s when the earthquake happened and the jail cell opened up. God did it. The jailer was scared to death. They said, "Don’t sweat it. We’re still here." And he said, "What must I do to be saved?" They led him to the Lord and then went to his house and led his whole family to the Lord. The next morning the magistrates come and say, "We’re going to set you free." The apostle Paul,… I like him. Look at verse 37: "But Paul said to them, ‘They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans..." Roman law says that you could not even put a person in jail until first of all you have tried him. That was the right of a Roman citizen. They never asked him. They beat him up and threw him in jail. They messed up and the apostle Paul knew that. The apostle Paul says, "and now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out." They were the ones who disobeyed their own law. Well, to make a long story short, they talk him into leaving because they had really, really made a fool out of themselves. So they leave there in verse 40. Verse 1 of chapter 17 says, "Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews." Again, Paul preached just like he had before. Many people came to know the Lord and believed in Him. We find in verse 5 and following that the Jews are becoming jealous. They take along some wicked men from the marketplace, form a mob, and set the city in an uproar. So everywhere he goes he preaches the gospel but the disbelieving Jewish people, the religious Jewish, were always stirring up strife. Therefore, he leaves. They sneak him out in verse 10: "And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea; and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews." Here’s what he found. Verse 11 says, "Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica." Do you know what the word noble-minded means? These had more class than the rest of them. So instead of beating them up and throwing them out of the city look what they did: "for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so." By the way, if I ever have been an encouragement to your life when you hear me preach or you hear anybody else preach, be a Berean and go to the word to see if these things are so. And if they’re not, then you pray for us, because somebody’s wrong. It has to be what Scriptures say. Well, in verse 13 we read, "But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there likewise." They had to get Paul out of town again in verse 14: "And then immediately the brethren sent Paul out to go as far as the sea." Now he left Silas and Timothy behind. "Now those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens." Athens is where he walked up there on that acropolis and looked and saw the statues of unknown gods. He couldn’t stand it. I’m telling you. That guy, wherever he’d go he’d get stirred up about something. He goes up there and argues with all the stoic Greek philosophers of that day and said, "Hey! You’ve got a thing down there that says ‘The Unknown God.’ Let me tell you who He is and let me tell you how you can know Him." That was the apostle Paul. It wasn’t long before he had to leave Athens. So he leaves Athens in chapter 18. Verse 1 reads, "After these things he left Athens and went to Corinth." That’s how he got to Corinth on his second missionary journey. You think about it. It’s almost as if God kept squeezing him out of here, squeezing him out of here, and squeezing him out of here. God wanted a church in Corinth and He wouldn’t let Pau stay anywhere else. Everybody would get mad and run him out. So, finally, he arrives at Corinth. In Corinth he meets some folks that you’ll readily remember, Aquila and Priscilla. Both were Jews who had been driven out of Rome. They were over in Corinth, and they were tentmakers. Paul was a tentmaker, so he just stayed with them for quite a while and began to preach in the synagogue. Then Timothy and Silas come on down from where he left them in Berea. They finally come on down to where he is. Paul preached the good news of Christ and had great, great results, except the resistance began to build against him even there. Even Crispus the leader of the synagogue was saved. Look in Acts 18:8:"And Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized." So here he is in Corinth, and he’s seeing a great work. Now remember what they’re coming out of to be saved. This is a great thing to see people saved in the midst of the garbage they had to live in every day. Well, he ministers in Corinth for one and one-half years. Look at verse 11 of Acts 18: "And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them." In the meantime it talks about the Jewish opposition beginning to build against him. These are the main leaders of the Jews, not all Jews.; and as a result of that they tried to put him before the Roman Tribunal. But Gallio was the proconsul there and he said, "No, sir. This is not a political matter. It’s a religious matter." So he took the case out of court, and Paul thought, "You know, it might be a good time to leave Corinth." So shortly afterwards, with Priscilla and Aquila, they go to the city of Ephesus. Now in Ephesus he leaves his two friends and goes on to Palestine in Acts 18:12-22. I’m not going to read all that. The second leader of the Corinthian church was a man by the name of Apollos. Paul started it and spent a year and a half there. We’ve seen the history of it. The next pastor they had in Corinth was Apollos. He’s the guy Priscilla and Aquila had to help out in his doctrine. He’s from Alexandria and had come to Ephesus and begun to preach there. Evidently his doctrine wasn’t right. So Aquila and Priscilla had to sit him down and straighten him out. After they straightened him out he began to get a good reputation. The "pulpit committee" sent out a plea from over in Corinth, and so all the people in Ephesus even the elders said, "Hey, we’ve got your man." He goes to Corinth and becomes the second pastor or the leader of the church of Corinth. Well, amidst the debauchery and gross sin God said, "I want a church there." He squeezed Paul over here and over here and over here and finally got the man to Corinth and a church grew out of that. Now you have Apollos who’s there and you see the church that God has planted. But I want you to know it has the distinction of being one of the worst churches in the New Testament. I hope you understand this. Please understand this. You’ve got to realize it’s in the worst place it could possibly be, but it has one of the worst reputations of any church that you’ll ever study of in all the books, the epistles, in the New Testament. We’ve looked at the city of Corinth. We’ve taken a glance at the church of Corinth and how it got started. Now let’s look at the congregation of Corinth. Let’s look at the people who are in the church. This is what the book’s about. If you don’t know this, then you don’t understand the observation. You don’t understand what’s underneath the water when you first look at it. Alright, if you’re in Corinth and you were looking for a church to attend, this wouldn’t be the place you’d want to look. We learn immediately from 1 Corinthians that the church had many problems. One of the main problems was they were followers of men and not of God. Look in verse 11 of chapter 1. He says, "For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you." Then he says, "Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul,’ and ‘I of Apollos,’ and ‘I of Cephas,’ and [here’s the spiritual ones] ‘I of Christ.’" You know, when you read this and think about it for just a little bit, it doesn’t sound much different than the twentieth century, does it? "I’ll tell you who I listen to. I’ve got all of his tapes. I bought his books. If he’ll ever get on the radio and television I’m going to listen and I’m going to watch." Isn’t it the same way? "Well, you might believe this way but I’m a such and such." Then the spiritual ones walk in and say, "Hey, we’re of Christ." To me they’re the scariest ones in this whole bunch" "We’re of Christ and nobody else around here is." Well, anyway that same thing’s going on in Corinth. Because of this Paul said they were acting like babies in Christ. If you want to know what a baby in Christ is, a little immature whining little church member over in the nursery, he’s about to tell you. First of all, it’s people who say, "Well, I’m of Apollos, I’m of Cephas, I’m of Christ" or whatever. They’re men followers, etc. Verse 1 of chapter 3 says, "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men." Now why couldn’t he? He spent a year and a half with them. They trained Apollos and sent him over there. And he said, "I couldn’t speak to you as spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ." Now I want to tell you something. This whole book really is Paul addressing a bunch of babies in Christ, a bunch of immature whining church members. I’m serious. You’ve got to see this as we walk through it because that’s the mentality that he’s dealing with here in Corinth. Verse 2 says they couldn’t receive the solid meat of the word. He said, "I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able." They only could receive the milk and not the meat. Of course, Peter says, "You desire the milk of the word." What Peter is talking about there is how a little baby would desire milk. But Paul’s talking about something different here. He’s talking about the fact that I’ve got to feed it. How do you feed a baby, by the way? Have you ever noticed that? You just have to spoon feed them or in a bottle or whatever. He says, "You can’t seem to take the meat. You’re too immature. You’re the men of flesh. You’re babes in Christ. You’re not growing up. You’re still in the nursery. That’s your problem." They were walking like mere men rather than believers in that there was jealousy and strife among them. You see, when you get trapped in the flesh and this kind of thing that’s where your factions develop. That’s what we see in Judges. That’s what we see in Corinth. 1 Corinthians 3:3 reads, "for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?" Men-followers are simply babes in Christ. Verse 4 goes on, "For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not mere men? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one." We could go on. We’ll touch all of these when we get to them in the context, but I just wanted to give you an idea of the church at Corinth. This immature, men-following group, characterized the church at Corinth. Paul deals with their division from 1:11 all the way through 3:23. He talks about the unity that ought to be there but the divisions that are present. Because of their fleshly mind-set they even became judgmental of the apostle Paul. Can you imagine that? They started examining him to see if he was really who he said he was. The apostle Paul says in 4:3, "But to me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord." Then he says, "Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God." In other words, it’s one thing to judge himself; it’s another thing to let God judge you. But they even became judgmental of the apostle Paul. There was the problem of immorality among them. It just doesn’t get any better so just humor me, and try to listen to it. Paul talks about it in 5:1 all the way through 6:20. Look what he says in 5:1. This shows you some of the immorality that had gotten into the church. But remember the magnetic pull of all the garbage of sin that was around them. It says, "It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife." Well, there was no discipline. There was no discipline at all. He says in verse 2: "And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst." As a matter of fact, it was immoral the way they were treating one another since they were men of flesh anyway. They seemed to chase after the flesh all the time and not Christ. This was also seen in the fact of the way they treated each other in legal matters. In 6:7 they were suing each other in court. That made a great testimony. He says, "Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?" On and on and we’ll talk about that when we come to chapter 6. Do you see any symptoms here that come right out of the book of Judges? They were confused about many things. As a matter of fact, in 7:1 it appears they’ve written a letter to him and asked him some questions about things that were confusing them. In 7:1 through 11:1 he answers those questions that they have been concerned about. Let’s look at them. In 7:1 he says, "Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. But because of immoralities let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband." So he gets into marriage. They had a lot of questions about marriage. I want to tell you something. We have the same questions in the twentieth century. They haven’t gone away. When we get to that chapter you’ll understand what I’m talking about. He addresses this and talks about the unbelieving husband leaving his wife, etc. You know, you’ve heard that preached on many times. Well, hopefully, we’ll see it in the context of Corinthians and go through that. It’s a tricky area. The question of liberty in Christ comes up and from 8:1 he picks up on that and goes through chapter 11. A lot of these things are woven together. He speaks of the freedom to eat whatever we want but speaks of being sensitive to our brother who may be weaker in the faith. In 8:1 he says, "Now concerning things sacrificed to idols." He talking about whether we can eat the meat of those things and he has to deal with that problem. In chapter 9 he speaks of the freedom he has as an apostle to take money for what he does but also the freedom to choose against that. He has the freedom to take it, the freedom not to take it. In 10:23 we find, "All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify." Then in chapter 11 we’re going to deal with the subject (and I guarantee you’ve asked this question many times) of women wearing a covering over their head. A lot of people really struggle with that. We went to Romania and I guarantee you this is a situation. How do you handle that? We will see. We will address that subject in chapter 11. We’ll see there were many, many divisions among them. It gives me the idea that he’s not covering them all. He’s just referring to the fact this is a factious group of people. They’re divided and the reason they’re divided is because their faith and all is not based on Christ and His word. They’re men-pleasers, etc. In 11:18 he says, "For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part, I believe it." There are divisions among you when you come together. That would be a tough church to be in, wouldn’t it? Just factions and divisions everywhere. He’s going to say some interesting things about division, however, that we’ll also look at. They treated the Lord’s Supper as a meal. These people, Lord help them, they’ve come there for supper instead of coming to honor the Lord. This is in 11:20: "Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God, and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you." These are some of the problems we’re going to be dealing with as we walk through Corinthians. Somebody said, "Wayne, are you sure you want to do this book?" You know, I didn’t choose this for any other agenda than I just felt like the Lord was leading me to do it. That’s all I know. We’re going to seek to be obedient to Him and see what comes out of it. What falls, falls. If the shoe fits we’re going to have to wear it. That’s the way it’s going to be. There are going to be some tough places we’re going to have to wade through. This will be one of them. One of the toughest places we’ll wade through is chapters 12-14 when we deal with the spiritual gifts. Paul didn’t want them to be ignorant of spiritual gifts. It says in 12:1, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware." I preached out of chapters 12, 13, and 14 years ago. There was a tension in the church that developed over those three chapters like I don’t know if I’ve ever witnessed since. I mean, it was like people would come tight lipped and just scared to death of what I was going to say? "Is he going to make fun of this? Is he going to do this?" I want you to know when we get to chapters 12, 13, and 14, I will only share what I believe the word of God says in the context of 1 Corinthians. I want to assure you of that. There should not be any tension. But if we disagree then we don’t go on and say, "Well, one’s right and one’s wrong and let’s just live together." Listen, folks, somebody’s wrong. But we will live with one another because Christ is the basis of our fellowship not how we feel about chapters 12 through 14. We must remember, doctrine divides. Jesus said it: I come with the sword and that sword is the word and it’s going to divide. Folks, it doesn’t have to divide the fellowship but it’s going to divide where we all stand sometimes and we’re going to have to let the love of Christ overpower that if someone has difficulty. I guarantee you the Scripture’s not private interpretation. If Wayne’s wrong, he’s wrong. I just want to warn you ahead of time. When we get to chapters 12, 13, 14....

NOTE - THIS TRANSCRIPT ENDS AT 39:11 MINUTES SO WILL MISS MUCH OF WAYNE'S EXPOSITION THAT GOES FOR ANOTHER 53:08 MINUTES (TOTAL LENGTH IS OVER 90 MINUTES). YOU WILL HAVE TO LISTEN TO HEAR THE FULL MESSAGE. HERE IS THE AUDIO - BEGIN AT 39 MINUTES. THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT WAYNE IS ENTERTAINING TO LISTEN TO!

1 Corinthians 1:1

Contents

1 The Authority of the Word of God

2 Paul has a message that concerns Christ

3 Paul has authority from Jesus Christ

4 Paul was completely surrendered to Christ

The Authority of the Word of God

I’m going to call this message “The Authority of the Word of God.” We’re digging a foundation to understand the book of 1 Corinthians. There are going to be places it’ll be very exciting and challenging. There will be other places, however, where it will be necessary for you to know that in other places God will speak to you in His word. I’ve had a lot of good messages messed up by a lot of bad hearers.

You know, the word of God is a precious gift to all of us. I hope you see that. I hope we don’t just sit it on a shelf at home and think it’s a great thing to look at when you come to church on Sunday. The word of God is that which keeps us sane in an insane world. It’s what turns us right side up in an upside down world. Turn over to Psalm 19:7-8. I want you to see what the Psalmist said about the word of God. It’s so critical to our life. It’s meant to give us direction. It’s meant to teach us. It’s meant to reprove and correct and instruct us, as 2 Timothy 3 says. Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the Lord is perfect [That’s a great word, isn’t it? It absolutely accomplishes exactly that which God intends for it], restoring the soul.” Have you ever felt like you needed to be restored in your soul, the mind, the will, the emotion? “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” The simple has the idea there of those who just are ignorant and do not understand. Verse 8 reads, “The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.”

I tell you, when you get in the word of God and realize that it’s designed to help you not hurt you, then you begin to realize that you can rejoice in this. “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” If you took these two verses, put them together and looked at the contrast of it, it would say, “Without God’s word you would be defeated, ignorant, depressed, and blind.” You’ve got to have God’s word. It’s not like the opinions of man. “God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts,” he said in Isaiah 55. His ways are higher, so His word is a precious gift to the Christian community, to all the world really. It points to Christ. It’s the light that we look at. That’s why the Psalmist said in Psalm 119:105, he said, “Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.”

I love it when we sing that little chorus, “Thy Word.” It came right out of Psalm 119:105. Sometimes I catch myself singing just as I go through the day because the word of God is such a precious gift that God has given to us. No wonder the Psalmist said in Psalm 119:10, “With all my heart I have sought thee; Do not let me wander from thy commandments.” I’ll tell you what, when you stray that’s sin. When you cross the boundary, when you wander from what God’s word has to say, that’s when the misery sets in.

In Judges 17 and 18 we have Micah, the fellow who took the word out of his worship and got his own priesthood. Boy, a great guy. He said, “God’s really going to have favor on me now. I’ve gone out and got my own church, got my own religion, and I’ve even got my own preacher. God’s really going to have favor on me.” In Judges he was doing what he thought was right, not wrong. It says, “Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” That’s what happens when you take the word of God out of your life. You end up deceived. You do what you think is right and you’re so far off base you miss the point. You’re off course and you don’t even know it. You’re deceived thinking it’s right.

Then we saw the tribe of Dan. The tribe of Dan was the tribe that absolutely, totally embraced idolatry, disobeyed God, and moved to a land that God hadn’t even assigned to them. They disappeared off of the list of tribes. We saw how they were deceived. They thought God was even pleased with their disobedient lifestyle.

All of us are desperate for the word of God. It’s His design in our life. If you’ve got trouble in your family, your finances, or whatever, God’s word sets it straight. Man’s got a lot of opinions. Man’s got a lot of wisdom, but not like God’s wisdom. We have to have it. It’s a gift that God has given to us.

Now, how did He give it to us? He gave it to us in the Old Testament through prophets. God used the prophets to give us the Old Testament and we have that now in print. They didn’t have all of that. They had it in portion. They prophesied that way. We have it all put together for us now in the day that we live in. In the New Testament God gave it to us through the apostles. So through the prophets and through the apostles we have a precious gift that God has given to us today in the word of God.

It is with this in mind that we approach 1 Corinthians 1:1. This is God’s word. It was not only for them but it also profitable to us in the day that we live in, in context as we study it. 1 Corinthians 1:1 says, “Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother.” Now I like the way they did that. They would sign the letter before they’d write it. I wish people would do that today. Don’t you? You’d read a whole lot less mail if you knew who it was coming from. Sometimes you start off and have to read a whole lot to find out. Sometimes I just go to the end anyway and find out who wrote the letter. The word of God is God’s authority to man. He gave it to us through men like the Apostle Paul and he signs the letter, Paul an apostle by the will of God. So we understand then that this is God’s word to us. The Apostle Paul was like a father to the Church of Corinth. Look over at 1 Corinthians 4:14. He’s like a father to them. They’re like his children. He is their spiritual father. He had the gospel assigned to him to take to the Gentile world and they were part of this.

Verse 14 says, “I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.” Then in verse 15 we read, “For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.” It was through Paul that he preached the gospel. They got saved. He was the first pastor of that church. Apollos, as we saw in our review the last time, was the second pastor of that church.

Well, word had come to him. He was concerned. It’s kind of like any father would be over his children. He was concerned about some of the things that were going on. Look in 1:11. I want you to see how the message was getting to him by different sources. Verse 11 says, “For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you.” “I’ve heard about you. You are quarreling,” he said. Well, somebody had to tell him.

Look over at 5:1: “It is actually reported (I have heard from someone) that there is immorality among you.” 1 Corinthians 11:18 reads, “For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you.” So you see, the reports are coming to him from every place that there’s trouble in Corinth. The Apostle Paul is burdened as a father would be for his children.

This is where I want to make the break in the distinction. The book of 1 Corinthians is not just a letter from a friend or a fatherly figure of encouragement to believers who you know are in trouble. No, sir, it’s not that. It’s more than that. It is God’s holy word that is written through the Apostle Paul to the Church of Corinth. I don’t believe in the dictation theory so much, but I believe God used Paul’s own personality to write what God had burdened his heart to write and this becomes Scripture. There’s a difference in a fatherly letter to somebody and the word of God written through an apostle to somebody. It takes upon itself a different authority altogether.

When I get a letter from the IRS, I open it immediately. But when I get a letter from some other people I can put it off for two or three days. But there’s something about authority that you immediately respond to. You want to read and find out what it is that they’re saying. So when the Corinthians saw Paul’s name they would immediately recognize him but they also knew that he was an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We’ve already studied that the city of Corinth was a bad place. Folks, it was almost as bad as it is today. Did you catch that? A lot of people look back and say, “Boy, it was awful.” I think they would probably blush at some of the things going on in America today. But back in that day it was a terribly immoral, lewd city. If you ever thought of something bad, you thought of Corinth. It was at a crossroads. If you were going from northern Greece down to Athens, you had to come right through Corinth. There was a little isthmus there and it was right in the middle of it. There was a trade center and all of these different things, and it sort of attracted all of the different cosmopolitan peoples of the world. For that reason it was a highly immoral place.

There was a Greek word that was used wherever you were. If you were in Thessalonica or Athens, wherever, and somebody would start acting grossly immorally, they would say, in the Greek expression, “You’re acting like a Corinthian.” In other words, it was a common expression. When you thought of something bad, you thought of Corinth. But isn’t it wonderful that God put a church in the midst of all that kind of stuff. That’s what Paul said. He said, “Where sin increases grace abounds even the more.” God’s grace was right in the middle of it.

However, the corruption of that city had evidently put its claws in the church of Corinth, and they were suffering because of it. Their flesh had risen up. Paul’s going to have to write now under the authority of God, as an apostle to them, to correct them, to turn them right side up, to straighten them out, and to give them direction. God speaks through Paul to the Corinthians, and I want to document that in the first phrase of verse 1. Remember, we’re digging a foundation.

When my Dad and Mom built their house they used a team of horses to get a foundation dug years and years ago in Roanoke, Virginia. Of course, these days you don’t do it that way. It doesn’t matter how you do it. You’ve got to do it if you’re going to build a house. So remember as we’re wading through some of these things and you say, “Good grief, that was kind of dry.” Just kind of relax, sit back, and say, “God, can you actually speak through me in something that’s as foundational as this message is?” God may have a word for you. It may be that you treat God’s word like you’d treat a letter from a friend rather than God speaking to your life. You need to hear this. It’s different than just a friend writing it. This is God, holy God, writing His word through His apostle to this church.

Paul is a believer in Jesus Christ The first phrase is what we’re going to look at. “Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God.” There are four things that I want you to see in this phrase that documents the authority of the word of God. First of all, Paul says that he is a believer in Jesus Christ. He’s separating himself from the other people named Paul in that day. They knew immediately who this was. “Paul, called as an apostle.” That little word “as” is not in the Greek text. It really reads “called the apostle.” In the Greek it is kletos apostolos. There were no punctuation marks in that day, so you don’t know exactly how it was constructed. Let me show you two different ways.

First of all, the word kletos is the word translated “called.” It comes from the word kaleo, to call. When you put it in the plural it’s the word kletoi. When you put it in the plural it refers to the church of Jesus Christ, the called ones. That’s always important to remember. To those who He foreknew He predestinated. To those He predestinated He called. To those whom He called, He justified. To those whom He justified, He glorified. Man did not find God. God finds man. That’s so important. Yes, there’s a balance to that. Man has a will and also has a measure of faith to believe, but God initiates the process. That’s the first thing you get out of the word “called.” It didn’t start with man. It started with God and it is speaking of the church.

Look in Romans 1:3-6. I want to show you that the word kletoi refers to the called ones, the church of Jesus Christ. In verse 3 Paul is speaking about the gospel. He says, “.concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, for His name’s sake.” Look at verse 6: “among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ,” kletoi, that’s what he’s talking about there. It’s the church. It’s His church, His body.

Look over in 1 Corinthians 1:22-24, just to make sure you understand that word. “Called,” in the plural, refers to those that have put their faith in Jesus Christ. “For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom.” They both have their downfall. “But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” So, “the called” is the church of Jesus Christ.

When you think about yourself being a believer and a called one that puts it into perspective, doesn’t it? It didn’t start with you. It started with God. If you put a comma after the word “called” it makes the word an adjectival noun. In other words, Paul is saying, “Paul, called, apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” The first thing he would be saying if you did that would be, “I’m Paul the believer. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I put my faith into the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now, wouldn’t you want to hear from somebody who, first of all, was a believer? He put his faith into the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, the Church of Corinth knew this but Paul has documented who he is. “I’m Paul. I’m a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

If you knew anything about Paul and his past this would shock you to start with. Paul, a believer in Jesus Christ? A called one? I thought he was a Jewish man who persecuted the Christians. 2 Timothy 1:12 says, “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” Paul knew in Whom he had believed. Paul begins, I believe, by saying, “I’m Paul the believer. I put my faith into the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul has a message that concerns Christ

The second thing that we see in this phrase is that Paul says that he has a message that concerns the Christ that he believes in. If there’s no comma after the word “called” then what you have here is a called apostle of Christ Jesus. He would be saying that he’s first called to believe and then at the same time, basically, he was called to be an apostle to deliver the message of Jesus Christ.

I want you to understand the word apostle, apostolos. It means one sent forth with a message. Generically speaking, every one of us are called as an apostle of Christ Jesus. We all have a message in the One who we put our faith into, and we are to be out as ambassadors for Him telling that message to as many as we know how. We are to live it first and then if we need words, we’ll document it. But we’re to be witnesses of Him whom we have put our faith into. You see, it has the idea of an ambassador for someone.

I wonder if you have discovered that in your walk with the Lord, that you’re an ambassador for Christ. One of my hobbies is going out to eat. My wife and I used to go out to this particular restaurant which is not there anymore. We got to be friends with this waitress. Over a period of time we developed a relationship with her. She never knew who I was or what I did. We don’t tell people that. We’d rather let them know who we are, that we love Jesus, and have a message about him.

Well, one day she walked over to our table and she said, “I’ve got to ask you. Are you a preacher?” I thought, “Oh no! I gave it away.” I said, “Yes ma’am.” She burst out into tears and said, “I knew it. I knew it.” Boy, she began to share with me the most difficult story that I’d heard in a long time. She had cancer. She had some kids and had been divorced. She was just in an awful dilemma. I was able to bring it back to our church. This was years ago. We were able to help her with the cost of her surgery and help her out and hopefully got her back on her feet. But it’s interesting when you go out to eat or wherever you go, if you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you’re taking the news of Jesus Christ to others. He called you. You didn’t call Him. Now that you’re a part of His kingdom, you’re also an apostle. In a generic sense, you’re an ambassador by the way you live, by what you say, by all of that. It all builds together.

We’re called ones. We’re believers and we have a message. We bear the message of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let me show you what that word “apostle” means. Look over in John 13:6. It means one who is sent out, one who is sent with a message. The word is sometimes found even in the verb form. John 13:16 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master; neither is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.” There’s your word right there in a verb form. So you get the idea, one sent from the master, one who has a message.

In Philippians 2:25 it’s used of a person representing someone else like this person was representing the congregation at Philippi. It says, “But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need.” So the generic usage of the word “apostle” is one who has a message concerning the one in whom he’s placed his faith.

Paul says, “I am Paul, the believer, and I’m one who has a message concerning my Lord Jesus Christ.” In Galatians 2:7 we see the people he was sent to, of which the Corinthians were a part. It says in Galatians 2:7, “But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised [the Gentile world], just as Peter had been to the circumcised.” Paul had been given a message. He’d placed his faith into Jesus Christ. He was a called one and he was one who had a message concerning the One in whom he put his faith.

Paul has authority from Jesus Christ

The third thing begins to make the plot thicken. Paul is also saying in this phrase that he has authority that comes from Jesus Christ Himself. This is where we make the distinction. It’s not just a letter from a friend who loves those people. It’s a letter from a person who has been appointed into a position and called an apostle. It’s a specific usage of the word “apostle” that none of us will ever, ever, ever enjoy for ourselves. If you ever hear me say that I have become an apostle in the specific sense that I determine doctrine like Paul did, then pack your bags and leave. Wayne has lost his mind. The group of apostles that he was a part of in the specific sense was a very narrow, small group of people. You must understand that. They are the ones though whom we have the New Testament. They gave us the New Testament books, the apostles.

Look in 1 Corinthians 9:1. They had to be witnesses of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 1 says that he’s an apostle born out of due season which meant that he came later on after Jesus had resurrected. Jesus met him on the Damascus Road and stopped him in his tracks. In verse 1 he says, “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle?” Then he qualifies it. “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” These men were commissioned by Christ Himself and they had to be witnesses of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. They’re equivalent in many ways to the prophets of the Old Testament who prepared the way for the Messiah.

In Ephesians 2:20 the apostle Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus. Those first three chapters are power-packed about what we have in Christ, who we are in Christ, and where it all came from. In Ephesians 2:20 it says, “having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone.” So we see they’re relegated to a certain time. They’re a specific group. They’re a narrow group. They’re a small group. Not many people fit into that. Jesus commissioned them.

In Ephesians 3:5 it says, “which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.” So the apostles were the people God used. He revealed to them and they in turn wrote it down so that we have the revelation from them. So he was writing as a mere man. That’s the thing I want you to keep hearing. This is God’s word and God’s using a man to give us the doctrine we have even today.

He was in the category of what’s mentioned in Hebrews 2. This is important. Look over in Hebrews 2. Hebrews really nails this. You cannot miss it. You may not think this is helpful to you but you wait. There are people calling themselves apostles everywhere. You better be careful. Hebrews 2:3 reads, “how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed [notice the pronouns here] to us [third generation] by those [second generation] who heard.” First by the Lord; confirmed to us by those who heard. Now who do you think “those who heard” represent? That’s the apostles.

Look in verse 4. “God also bearing witness [look at the pronoun here] with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.” Now this is significant to understand. You know, signs and wonders are going around everywhere today. People are saying, “Hey, it’s a pattern. It’s a prerequisite to revival in the twentieth century.” Have you ever studied signs and wonders? It is only used ten times as a phrase in the New Testament. The first time it’s used in Matthew 24 it says that the antichrist will try to deceive the elect by signs and wonders.

Then it’s used with Jesus. It explains it. It says in John 20:31 many other signs did He do, “but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ.” They were only to point to the fact who He was. They’re used with Stephen right before he was stoned to death. The next time you find them they’re according to the apostles. The pattern, the focus, and all was with the apostles, not with us today. By those who heard it was confirmed to us with signs and wonders and miracles, etc. You say, “Can God not do that today?” Sure He can but it’s not our focus. That’s not our focus anymore. It’s not a pattern for us to look for.

When you hear that, people make you think that’s God doing something. As a matter of fact, take the word sign and wonder apart and one of the first times you find it, it says, “An evil generation seeketh after a sign.” It doesn’t have a real good pedigree here, folks, when you start looking into it. But it did with the apostles. It affirmed who they were. It affirmed that they had seen the resurrected Christ and had been commissioned by Christ. These signs and wonders were done to give creditability as to who they were.

Look in Acts 2:43. “And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.” Flip over to 5:12 of Acts. “And at the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people.” So you understand, then, that they’re in a narrow group. They’re in a small group. There has never been anybody like them. These were the ones through whom we get the word of God.

Look at Acts 1:1 and 2 and you find that Christ chose them Himself and instructed them Himself. “The first account I composed, Theopilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.” God chose them, God Himself. Jesus chose these men Himself. But listen, their authority was delegated. You’ve got to see this, man. It’s not in them.

A guy told me one day, “I saw a man stop 150 cars in the middle of the interstate highway by just putting his hand up.” I said, “Man, if I ever tried that, they’d run flat over me. How did he do that?” He said, “He had a big badge right here and when he stood out there he stood with the authority of that badge and everybody stopped.” It wasn’t his authority. It was the authority the badge gave to him.

That’s what you’ve got to realize. These men had authority, but it wasn’t in themselves. It was in the One who gave them the badge as apostles. He chose them and He called them and now He’s delegated to them the authority to give the epistles of the word of God to the church of that day. It’s important that you realize why this is. He said, “All authority is given to me.”

Do you realize in Matthew 28:16 they needed it themselves? He was leaving them. He didn’t say, “All authority is given to Me, now I’m going to give it all to you.” He didn’t say that. He kept it with Himself and there’s a reason for that. We’ve got to realize that authority is not in man. It’s in Christ Who lives in man, you see. That’s the key. Authority must always be centered in Christ. When man assumes it that’s when doctrine is perverted. Matthew 28:16 reads, “But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated.” Notice who He’s with, the eleven disciples. “And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them [the eleven], saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.’” That’s when he says, “Go therefore and confirm the gospel, teach the gospel, preach the gospel, baptize, make disciples.” But He told them, He said, “All authority rests in Me.” It must always be centered in Him alone.

Now why must it always be centered in Christ? I’ll tell you why. Because He’s the creator of all things. He is the only One who knows the plan. He’s the only One Who knows the design. So, therefore, for the Apostle Paul to write out of his own personal opinions, his own personal feelings, would have done the Church of Corinth no good whatsoever. But for him to wear the badge of the authority of an apostle that Christ had delegated to him and speak in his own way to the people the things that God had put on his heart to speak, that’s different. God knew the Church of Corinth and God knew what they needed and God knew what it would take to turn them right side up. The authority rests in Christ. It can never rest in man.

John 1:3 says, “All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” Isn’t it wonderful to get into the word and know that God’s word is designed specifically for you and me? You can trust it because He’s the one who created everything. You want wisdom? You come to the word of God. Paul had a badge, but that badge of authority was delegated by Christ. The authority rested in Him. As long as he was submissive to the One Who gave him the badge, then he could be usable as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul was completely surrendered to Christ

That’s my next point that I want to show to you. First of all, I’m a believer, a called one. Secondly, I have a message concerning the One in Whom I have believed. Thirdly, I’m coming to you in authority that has been delegated by Him. It’s not my authority. It’s His. But then, fourthly, I am completely surrendered to what I’m writing to you. It not only relates to you but it relates to me. I’m just the messenger. I’m just the voice. I have to live up under it also. I also live and surrender to the will of God.

He says, “Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ.” Some translations put it “Christ Jesus” because most of the original puts Christ Jesus. That makes a difference. Jesus was an earthly historically figure; Christ is the anointed One and the resurrected One. So he’s focused there. Some people say that He was only a man. No, no. We know He resurrected. He’s the Christ, so Paul puts it first. When you see that in the New Testament it reverses the order. The emphasis is on the resurrected Christ, the anointed One, the Messiah. He says, “by the will of God.”

In Kittel’s Dictionary of Theological Words, you have to wade through all the German to get to it, it says that phrase has absolutely the idea that Paul is saying, “I am totally submissive to the authority God has in my life and the only way I can exercise any authority is to be submissive to the Authority that delegated to me to begin with.” Do you know what? That principle holds true in our life even though we’re not apostles. Christ lives in us. We’re seated with Him but we’re not Him. Remember the two absolutes? One is there is a God. The other is you’re not Him. When I have authority at all, if it’s delegated by Him, then it only comes depending on the measure of my surrender to Him that God can exercise His authority through me or through you or through any of us. Paul says, “I’m an apostle. I’m called an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” How many times does he say that in his epistles? He says it in verse 1 of almost all of his epistles. He made sure they understand who he is. If they know another Paul somewhere, it is not him. This is a radically changed man. A man who understands if he has any authority over them it’s only because God delegated it to him. The authority continues to rest in Christ and only by his measure of surrender to Him is it even exercised in his life.

I think that’s why Paul said in Romans 1:1, “I’m a bondservant.” That’s why he said in Romans 1:9, “I don’t serve God out of my soul. I serve Him out of my spirit. I’ve cut myself free of all the soulless agenda I used to have.” Romans 1:14 s

1 Corinthians 1:1

Contents

1 The Fruit of Surrender

2 Paul’s Surrendered Life Affected the Religious and Non-Religious

3 Paul’s Surrendered Life Affected the Hostile World

The Fruit of Surrender

We are going to talk today about the fruit of a surrendered life because the Apostle Paul is going to do something here in a moment that is going to introduce someone to us. But let’s remember that the church of Corinth would have recognized him immediately. They would have recognized him to be the founder of their church, the father of their faith. In 1 Corinthians 4:14‑15 it says, “I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.” Then in verse 15 he says, “For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.”

So Paul in writing to them is writing as a surrendered believer, but they would have recognized him right off. They knew the fire that burned in his heart. They were the results of it. He was the father of them spiritually. They were his spiritual children in the sense that they responded to the gospel that he preached.

Now I told you he is going to introduce someone here. Look in verse 1 again. This is a beautiful story here in 1:1. It says, “Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Sosthenes our brother.” The story of Sosthenes is a beautiful story. It should just encourage every heart for all generations if you have someone that you know whom you don’t think can ever come to know Christ. Just listen to this story of Sosthenes. The verse reads “our” brother, but it really is not that in the Greek. It is ho adelphos. It is “the” brother. Oh, what a beautiful picture.

But I have to go back and take some time to show you how the story unravels. Why it is that Paul singles out Sosthenes and puts him alongside himself in his introduction as he writes the letter to the church at Corinth? In Romans 15:17 Paul says, “Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God.” What are those things? “For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles.” I want you to think about that verse. I want you to think about your walk with God. I want you to think about your salvation experience. And I want you to ask yourself the question, “Am I sitting here with my heart burning with a message and do I have a burden for people that are around me?” Because if you don’t, you are going to miss out on the fruit of a surrendered life. You are going to miss out on that. Sosthenes was the fruit of Paul’s surrendered life. He is a man who came to know Christ as a result of Paul’s willingness to be faithful unto God, to be faithful to the message. I just want you to think about that as we are going through this. I want you to see the people that Paul’s life affected.

I want to take you back to Acts 17:16. I want to walk you through the journey to where Sosthenes came into Paul’s life and how he was affected by the gospel of Jesus Christ and why Paul says, “and Sosthenes, the brother” in verse 1. First of all, I want you to see how Paul, being a surrendered vessel, had a fire burning inside of him and was so effective with the academic world of his day.

Now I don’t know if you are like me, but sometimes when I get around somebody that really has a great vocabulary and a great education, it intimidates me a little bit. Sometimes I have to carry a dictionary with me to understand their sentences. They make me feel like they can tie me up in knots and I can’t seem to answer like I want to answer. But I want to assure you that if you love the Word of God and the God of the Word and you are living with that fire burning inside of you, don’t ever be intimidated by the academic world that we live in. They need the same message that we also need and have.

Well, in Acts 17 Paul is going down to Athens. It seems like every time I study his life that God is just squeezing him from one place to another. It is not as if he plans all these things. It is like the Holy Spirit is leading him. And the leash that He uses to pull him is the leash of persecution. He is over in Philippi and they beat him up and throw him in jail. Boy, that was a big mistake. He was a Roman citizen. Roman law says that you can’t do that until you first of all question him and give him an opportunity to speak for himself.

This causes turmoil in that city. Finally, they ask him to leave. He leaves Philippi and goes over to Thessalonica. He goes right to the synagogue and when he gets there, boy, there are many people, especially Greeks who believed. But the unbelieving Jews get on his case again and even treat some of his friends badly. They slip him out by night and take him over to Berea. He gets to Berea and finds some of those great believers who at least checked him out in the Word to see if these things were so. But here comes the unbelieving Jews again giving him a problem. So they sneak him out and he goes down to Athens and that is where we are.

You know, I hear some people sometimes say, “Well, I have been faithful to Jesus and people are persecuting me. And I don’t like it. What is wrong with me?” Nothing. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for My name’s sake.” Do we understand 2 Timothy 3:12 which says, “If you seek to live a godly life, you shall be persecuted”? It didn’t say that you might be, it says you shall be. It is not a question of “if,” it is a question of “when;” it is coming. Light and darkness don’t work real well together. Paul was persecuted. You are in good company when you have a fire burning in your heart and you are persecuted because of it. That is exactly what the Apostle Paul’s life was marked by. If you ever wanted to find him in a particular city, just go to the jail. He was usually there. Or if there was a riot somewhere, he was in the middle of it. I mean, that is the way it always was.

Look in Acts 17:16: “Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens,…” The “them” there is Timothy and Silas. He is waiting on them to come down. He has some R & R here, a little free time. He is in Athens waiting on them to come to meet him. “Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was beholding the city full of idols.” Now the word “provoked” there is the word paroxuno. Actually one part of the word comes from the word “acid.” Something started stirring inside of him and he couldn’t help it. That is the way it is. When you have a fire burning inside of you and everywhere you go and everything that you do that fire continues to rage. You are living by the very message that you believe. You are living believing the Christ who lives within you. Then you have to be provoked when you see all the garbage that is around you, the idolatry of other people.

Paul was sitting there in Athens, the fire just raging inside of him. He looked around him and just got provoked. Man, he saw all the idolatry that was around him. Verse 17 says, “So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God‑fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.” He had a message. He would share it with anybody. He didn’t care. In the market place or wherever he was, he was sharing the message.

The word for “reason” there is the word that means intelligent discourse. They had something to say. He had something to say back, and they were reasoning it out. “Come on, let’s talk about this thing. Let me tell you about Jesus. Have you got a question? Let me answer it.” He was doing this daily in the market place and in the synagogue.

Well, this stirred up the intelligentsia of the area, those of the academic thinking, the school of thought. You know, Athens had a name for the academic way they treated things, the intellectual and philosophical ways of thinking. So he stirred them up. Verse 18 reads, “And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. And some were saying, ‘What would this idle babbler wish to say?’ Others, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,’ because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.”

Let me tell you about the Epicureans and the Stoics. These were philosophers of the day, but you need to understand what they held to and it will really make the plot thicken. The Epicureans were a sect of Gentile philosophers from the island of Samos. Their doctrine held that the world came into being and will be dissolved by chance. That is exciting, isn’t it? Or it happened by some mechanical means, but absolutely no creation at all, it just sort of happened.

Have you ever thought that to believe what the evolutionists tell you takes more faith than to believe what the Word of God has to say? They say there were two little cells floating around in space and they just sort of floated into each other and boom, there was a head-on collision. Now we have the interstate highway system, we have politics, we have buildings, we have everything you can think of and they all came when these two little cells ran into each other. That tells you who was driving that kind they were. They ran into each other.

Anyway, this is what they say, you see. They say the world was not created, it just sort of happened. Maybe it was a mechanical cause like an explosion or something. But God couldn’t have created it. They said all events happen by chance or by mechanical cause. In other words, there is no Sovereign in control of what is going on. They taught that when you die the soul dies with the body. In other words, there is no future hope. So in other words, eat, drink and be merry, do whatever you need to do because you deserve it. Isn’t that what the commercial says, “You deserve it. Go on and have a good time”? They taught that man’s chief happiness lies in pleasure or bodily ease. They also did not believe in judgment of any kind or retribution whatsoever.

The Stoic philosophers were a little different. They were heathen philosophers who came from a sect that was founded by Zeno, who was a Cypriot from the island of Cyprus, a philosopher in 336‑264 BC. Now here is what they thought. They thought that men should be free from passion or any kind of emotion and submit without complaint to unavoidable situations. In other words, fatalism. It is all going to be bad anyway, might as well go ahead and get in. I mean, I know some people like that. I think they must be kin to them. But that is the way they believe.

So you have the Stoic philosophers on one side, the fatalist, and on the other side, the Epicurean which don’t believe hardly in anything, everything just sort of happened and you can do whatever you want to do and there is never going to be any judgment. There was no creation. No Sovereign in control. That is who Paul is dealing with here. It says in verse 19, “And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, ‘May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?’” They had heard about it. The Areopagus was a place where they would hold courts. It was up on top of a huge hill there called Mars Hill.

Now the Acropolis is a huge hill. They have one in Corinth. They have all kinds of idolatry on top of it. But right off to the side there on the top is this big, huge stone that is called Mars Hill or the Areopagus. That is where they would hold court. Now Paul was not being tried for anything, but they wanted to talk with him and to debate with him. Verse 20 reads, “For you are bringing some strange things to our ears;” they said, “we want to know therefore what these things mean.” Now you have to understand, they are doing this for sport. I mean, they didn’t have television. They just enjoyed something new. They didn’t really care. It is kind of like the mindset you get in Europe sometimes. You go over there and teach the Word, and they say, “Well, that’s good. That is your opinion.” And they walk out. That is the way it is. Everybody loves something new. Just tell me something new and we will argue about it and leave and nobody comes to any conclusion. Well, that is kind of the way it was.

It says in verse 21, “Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.” But there is one problem they made here. They underestimated who it was they were taking up to the Areopagus. The Apostle Paul was probably the most intelligent man other than Jesus in all of the New Testament. In fact, he studied under Gamaliel, who was the great teacher of the Mishna of that time and was known to be an intellect. Peter said of him in 2 Peter 3:15-16, “You know, our brother Paul speaks some things that are kind of hard to understand, doesn’t he?” Paul just had an intellect. He was one person who could meet the academic world head-on and tie them in knots because he knew both sides. He knew the law and he knew how to talk with them.

Well, in verse 22 they are about to find out. “And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, ‘Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.’” Now how did he know that? Well, he explains in verse 23: “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.” Man, he was so sharp. He saw that one idol that said, “To an unknown god,” and that was it. That is all he needed. He said, “You don’t know who He is. I do. Let me tell you about Him.”

Watch how he starts knocking the Epicurean thinking. Verse 24 continues, “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.” Do you realize that idolatry comes from not believing that God is supernatural and creator? Because if He is not a creator God, if He is not Sovereign, if everything happened by chance, then religion is nothing more than a defense mechanism of the mind. Therefore whatever you do in religion, you can make it yourself because there is no God anyway. That is where idolatry comes from. The Apostle Paul just nailed that theory to the wall with his word.

Then in verse 25 he continues, “Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things.” Man, he is just knocking their idolatry right down the tube. Now look at this first phrase in verse 26. If you are not a creationist and understand that God spoke and the world was created, look here. “And He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation.” Do you realize what he is saying that is so contrary to the thinking of that day? No wonder he was a little provoked! Verse 27 says, “That they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.” You know, you can go to the darkest part of Africa and man is worshiping something, a stick, a stone, some grass, something. And God put that within man to know he needed to worship.

Verse 28 reads, “For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said.” And he quotes a line from one of their own poets, “For we also are His offspring.” Then he takes that line and says in verse 29, “Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver of stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent.”

Repent of what? There is no retribution. Do what you want to do. What do you mean? There is no such thing as sin. That is what they were saying. And he is saying, “No, no, no. Yes, there is and you better repent.” They also believed that there was no judgment. Look in verse 31 at what he does: “Because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” Of course, he is pointing to Jesus Christ when he says that. When he mentions a raising from the dead, buddy, this stirs them up even more. Remember, everything happened by chance. There is no sovereign. Or you are on the other side, you are fatalist.

Paul is talking about Jesus Christ, the judge. He is talking about the day appointed. He is talking about the resurrection of Jesus. Verse 32 goes on, “Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, ‘We shall hear you again concerning this.’” He really messed up their minds on that statement. Verse 33 says, “So Paul went out of their midst.”

Let me ask you a question. Do you think that the fire burning inside of him had any kind of fruit whatsoever amongst all these intellectuals, all of these men who were known because of their philosophy? Have you ever thought about this? A philosopher really has to stay within the bounds of his own philosophy. If he ever steps outside of it, he loses his identity. Wouldn’t that be a sick way to live? They can’t even treat truth over here because they are known. They have already drawn their boundaries over here. They can’t be known outside of what their philosophy is.

Well, Paul just absolutely blows their mind, and one man, who is mentioned here, comes to know Christ. It was worth every bit of his effort. Let me show you in verse 34: “But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman called Damaris and others with them.” Dionysius was one of the famous senate, the court of the Areopagus. And so, here is a man that was an intellect, a man who thought a certain way, but he was confronted with the gospel and as a result became a believer.

Therefore, the intellectual world can be affected when they are willing to live lives that are surrendered to God. Remember that. Don’t ever be intimidated by somebody who can out‑talk you or somebody who can out‑think you. Just remember something, hang on to the Word of God for dear life, stand on it and share Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit of God can convict that man just like He can convict anybody else. Many of us are intimidated by academic and intelligentsia of our day because we don’t think we are on their level. You don’t need to be on their level. God is way above their level and He lives in us. And so, when you live with a fire burning within you, don’t worry. God will bring to remembrance the things He has taught you in the Word and that will be the basis for which the Holy Spirit will use to bring others of that world, of that thinking, to know Jesus Christ.

You know, you think about what is going on in our world today. Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s son became a Christian. Things are going on. People who have thought differently for so long are coming back to what the Word of God has to say. So when you have a fire burning within you, and God puts in your path someone of that type of thinking that is different than yours and maybe higher up as far as academic is concerned, don’t worry about it. The gospel can change them just like it can change anybody else.

All I am trying to say is, the Word of God absolutely is needed by the academic world that we live in. Be a vessel. Let a fire burn in your heart and it will touch them.

Paul’s Surrendered Life Affected the Religious and Non-Religious

But the second thing here that I want you to think about in Paul’s life is how his life as a surrendered vessel also affected the religious and the non‑religious. Do you remember the statement of St. Francis of Assisi? He said to his congregation, “When you leave today, witness to somebody. Oh, yes, if you have to, use words.” Well, the Apostle Paul had integrity, folks, and that was the basis of his witness. Before he ever opened his mouth, he was a man of integrity. He had made certain choices to make sure his lifestyle did not in any way offend others. If it was Christ offending them that is one thing, but if it is Paul offending them that is another. He made sure it wasn’t him. He made sure that the only offense would be what Christ would do through his life.

He had chosen not to take any money for what he did. Now, in 1 Corinthians 9:1‑14 he shows very clearly that is okay to do that. You can take money for that because he said it is right. People who labor in the Word ought to receive from the people who are blessed by that, but he said, “I have made a choice. I have gone against that. I am free to make this choice.” He said, “I have chosen not to take a dime. I have chosen not to take any money whatsoever because I am working with Gentiles and I don’t want them to use that to mess up the message that I am trying to tell them.” So Paul had chosen to become a tent maker, of all things. That is the way he made his money. He didn’t take any money for what he did. In fact, when Philippi sends him a gift, he is almost embarrassed to have to receive it. He even tells them, “I didn’t need anything, but thank you for your kindness. I am sufficient in Christ.” So he had made that choice early on in life. That was the integrity that began to frame his witness. In 1 Corinthians 9:18 he says, “What then is my reward? That when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge.” In other words, I am going to make sure that when people hear me, they know that I am not expecting anything out of them at all. I just want them to hear the word of God and let God work in their heart.

Well, look in Acts 18, and we will take him out of Athens into Corinth. It is very important that you get into Corinth. That is where we are going to find our brother mentioned. Acts 18:1 says, “After these things he left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius [the Roman emperor] had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working; for by trade they were tent‑makers.”

Now here is Paul. He is happy as he can be. He gets over to Corinth. He is a tent‑maker. He finds two other tent‑makers, moves in with them and they start work. Every Sabbath he had a habit of going to the synagogue. Work during the week, make his money to earn his living and on Saturday he would go to the synagogue. It shows you that in verse 4: “And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.” This man never quit. If he wasn’t making tents, he was sharing the gospel somewhere in the synagogue.

Well, in verse 5 finally Timothy and Silas show up. He was waiting on them in Athens. They finally show up in Corinth: “But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.” Now, this intensified effort of sharing the Word stirred up a lot of hostility. He didn’t have it before. He would just go on the Sabbath and reason with them. Now it is every day. He stopped the tent making. He is full‑time now just simply sharing the Word of God. Verse 6 is referring to most of the Jews. “And when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, ‘Your blood be upon your own heads! I am clean. From now on I shall go to the Gentiles.’” In other words, I have stuck with you religious folks and you won’t listen to me. Alright, I will go to the non‑religious. I will go back to the Gentiles. And I am clean as far as God is concerned because I have told you the truth.”

I want you to see something here. God is just absolutely awesome, isn’t He? I mean, God is so far ahead of Paul you can’t even think about it. Basically he gets kicked out of the synagogue is what happened. They won’t let him come in there anymore. They are sick of him. So he says, “Alright, I’ll see you.” And he goes next door to a man’s house. Verse 7 reads, “And he departed from there and went to the house of a certain man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next to the synagogue.” Over there they had windows that were open and you could hear everything that was going on. I mean, if you were in a house next door to the synagogue, you are going to hear everything they do in the synagogue. But if you are in the synagogue next door to that house, you are going to hear everything that is going on in that house! Paul said, “Go on and kick me out of the synagogue. That is alright with me. I am moving next door.” So he goes next door and does the same thing.

Well, an interesting thing happened. There was a man by the name of Crispus who was the leader of the synagogue. As a matter of fact, he was the one who kicked Paul out. Look at verse 8: “And Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized.” I mean, you have got to get excited about this. Crispus was over in the synagogue, having kicked Paul out, but he keeps listening to what Paul is saying. He keeps hearing the gospel coming from the house next door. Finally he gets under conviction and can’t stand it. He gets saved, his whole household gets saved and as a result of that, the people say, “Hello. We better listen to this.” And a little small revival begins to start right there in that community because Crispus got saved.

This led to a very fruitful ministry for the Apostle Paul for the next year and a half. In fact, God even told him in verses 9‑10 of chapter 18 of Acts that nobody would bother him. “And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, ‘Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.’”

Now folks, I want you to see that Paul is a man who has a fire burning inside of him. Wherever he goes he sees those come to know Christ. If it is the academic world, Dionysius, or the religious world, Crispus, he sees those come to know Christ. If it is the Gentile world of Corinth, he sees many come to know Christ because he is a surrendered vessel through which God the Holy Spirit is convicting others of their sinful life and of righteousness that can be found in Christ Jesus.

All of us can be that kind of vessel wherever we go. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just sit here and think about all the countless people who have come to know Christ because we have our focus like it ought to be? We are not like the church at Corinth, but we are like the Apostle Paul. Isn’t it interesting that Paul’s life is surrendered but the life of Corinth is not? He stands in stark contrast to the church at Corinth. Folks, I am praying in my own heart that those of you who relate more to Corinth than you relate to Paul will understand how far you have drifted. Maybe when we finish this book all of us can get our focus back and be about the business that God has for us.

What I am trying to tell you is, that if you will just become a surrendered vessel, willing to let God use you, it doesn’t matter where you are, I guarantee you there is going to fruit to that surrender and there are going to be people who are religious and people who are non‑religious and people who are academic and people who aren’t academic. It doesn’t matter. Because the Word of God is for every man regardless. But you have to have a surrendered life for the Holy Spirit to use so that He can convict of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

Paul’s Surrendered Life Affected the Hostile World

Well, the third group of people that the Apostle Paul affected was the hostile world, the enemies, the ones who treat him badly. Oh, this is where the story really unfolds. Remember Crispus was the guy who kicked Paul out of the synagogue and then got saved himself. The man who followed him was a man by the name of Sosthenes. Much harder, much meaner than the Apostle Paul. Though his name is not mentioned until later on in the text, it is very implicit in the verses that he is the ring leader of bringing up false charges against the Apostle Paul. Corinth would ring with the name of Sosthenes and they would think to themselves, “Yes, we know who he is. He is the persecutor of the believers. That is who he is.” Well, get that in your mind.

Verse 12 of Acts 18 says, “But while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat.” Now, they kind of messed up here because Gallio was a just man, not just in the sense of God’s justice, but just as far as being a good man, a right man. Historians called him a sweet spirited man. He was a kind and gentle man. He wasn’t somebody who was out to make a name for himself. A proconsul is the same thing as a governor. Achaia was a province in Rome. Of course, Claudius was the emperor, but Gallio was the proconsul and would handle the legal matters in that area. Well, their charge was in verse 13: “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.” Well, they messed with the wrong guy. Gallio wasn’t going to handle it. He wasn’t going to fool with it. It is a religious matter, not a civil matter, so he says in verse 14, “But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, ‘If it were a matter of wrong or of vicious crime, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you; but if there are questions about words and names and your own law, look after it yourselves; I am unwilling to be a judge of these matters.’ And he drove them away from the judgment seat.”

A strange thing happens right here. It is hard to understand. Look in Acts 18:17. It is interesting. The Greeks who were there do a strange thing. They see a countryman being betrayed by his fellow countrymen, and they don’t like it. In verse 17 it says, “And they all took hold of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue.” Why are they grabbing him? He was the one who led them over there with the false charges. “They grabbed him and began beating him in front of the judgment seat. And Gallio was not concerned about any of these things.” Now that is a strange happening, isn’t it? They took Paul to be put on trial. Gallio wouldn’t fool with it. So some of them there fe

1 Corinthians 1:1

Contents

1 The Fruit of Surrender

2 Paul’s Surrendered Life Affected the Religious and Non-Religious

3 Paul’s Surrendered Life Affected the Hostile World

The Fruit of Surrender

All I am trying to say is, the Word of God absolutely is needed by the academic world that we live in. Be a vessel. Let a fire burn in your heart and it will touch them.

Paul’s Surrendered Life Affected the Religious and Non-Religious

Paul’s Surrendered Life Affected the Hostile World

1 Corinthians 1:2

Contents

1 What is the Church of God?

2 The Church of God Is Made Up of “The Called Ones”

3 The Church of God Is Made Up of Those Who Are “The Sanctified Ones”

What is the Church of God?

If somebody stopped you on the street and said, “What is the church?” what would you say to them? Everybody has an opinion, but look at 1 Corinthians 1:2. We are going to find from the text what the church of God really is. He says, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.”

Now just what is the church of Christ? Well, that little phrase “to the church which is at Corinth” dispels two myths that the people seemed to believe. Immediately Paul erases them. The reason I am dealing with them now is because when I get to that phrase a little later on, I want to treat it in a little different way. But first of all, there are some people who say that the local church is not important at all. Have you known people like that? They say, “I don’t need to go to a church. I don’t need to belong to a church. Man, I am a part of the body of Christ, and it is worldwide. I can worship in my house just like I can worship at home.” Most people who think this, by the way, have had some bad experience somewhere along the way. And they don’t feel like they have any God-given reason to be in a local church. Well, I hate to tell you, it is the church of God which is at Corinth. That is a local church. As a matter of fact, Paul didn’t address the whole church all the time. As an apostle he did, certainly, because it is in the New Testament. But he wrote a letter to the Ephesians; he wrote a letter to Corinth; he wrote a letter to Thessalonica; he wrote a letter to Philippi. Each of these were local church situations. And so therefore, people who say that the local church is not necessary are people who just don’t understand the Word of God and most likely are still bitter over some bad experience they have had somewhere along the way.

Now, denominations are not that bad of a thing. Some people say, “I wish we didn’t have denominations anymore.” Well, you know, denominations can help at times. They give doctrinal clarity at points to know what some people believe. Now, I know there is a downside to that. But there are a lot of people who just seem to think that the whole matter of the local church and denominations, etc., is all wrong. I hate to disagree with you, but the Apostle Paul is writing to a local church. That dispels that to start with. You know, a believer who is not a part of a local church is like a soldier who never puts on his uniform or never goes to battle or like a student who never goes to class and never takes a test or a citizen who never pays taxes and never obeys the law. It doesn’t make any sense. Hebrews says, “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.”

There is just something about being a part of the family that you want to be with. It is the church of God which is at Corinth and that is very important to understand. That is a local church situation and people were a part of that church.

The second myth that Paul dispels by that one phrase is the fact that the church ought to be the perfect place to go, the ideal place. Now, I don’t know how many of you have been caught in the trap of looking for the perfect church. We are always looking for the perfect church, aren’t we? The ideal church!

There was a lady one time who was tough. I mean, she just did not like me at all. I started calling her Super Kay. That is not nice and that is not right, but I did. Every time I would see her I would say, “Here comes Super Kay” and would go the other way. Well, my son was little at that time, very impressionable at his age. We were in a grocery store one day and he came running to me. I thought somebody had stolen my car or something. He said, “Dad, Dad, Dad.” I said, “What is it, Stephen? Is something wrong?” He said, “There’s Super Kay!” Well, when I heard it from him, I had to ask God to forgive me because I knew that it had gone too far.

But I thought when I moved from that church that Super Kay would stay there. Do you know what? She moved with me. The funny thing is, they disguise themselves. She didn’t call herself Super Kay anymore, she just changed disguises, you know, looked differently, changed her name and snuck up on me. It is amazing. Everywhere you go, you are going to have people. That is the problem.

I know you don’t like to hear me say, “When you come to this church you are going to be offended.” I know that. I have even had people say, “Don’t say that to people.” Well, you are going to be. And the reason is because people are going to be here. You are not going to find the ideal church. By the way, if you do, don’t join it because you are going to mess the thing up!

I have a friend who has always wanted to start a church. Now some starting churches is good because church planting is something that is necessary in many of the localities of the world. But I want to tell you something, folks, a lot of people, particularly younger folks want to start churches so they can have the ideal church. I want to tell you something, it has never been done yet. Don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, if that is what you are thinking. Because the first thing you are going to do is become the denomination of a nondenominational. That is the first thing you are going to do. “Well, we are not going to be denominational.” Ah, baloney! As soon as you get a group of people you are a denomination. Can’t we understand that? And then what is going to happen is you are going to get people who are coming out of other churches and they are going to have baggage you didn’t know about and they won’t tell you. Then one day you are going to wake up and say, “Well, look here. We have the same problems we had before.” And God is going to say back to you, “Where did you find in scripture that you are going to find the perfect church?” You will never find the perfect church.

What does this have to do with Corinthians? A whole lot. If you were in Corinth would you want to join the First Baptist Church of Corinth, if that is what it was? Maybe it was the First Presbyterian Church. Let’s just call it the Corinth Community Church. Would you like to join it? I mean, it is a perfect church, ideal setting, people just love each other. Man, if you think that, you haven’t gotten far enough into 1 Corinthians.

Beginning in 1 Corinthians 1:10 you are going to find out what kind of church this is. They were men followers. In fact, let me just remind you of the verses. In 1 Corinthians 1 beginning in verse 10 he talks about the fact that they followed men. Therefore, there were divisions among them. They had quarrels and divisions. In 3:1-2 he said they have an adult nursery, they are spiritual infants. That is what he said. You know, sometimes in many churches you just want to put a sign up that says “Adult Nursery I, Adult Nursery 2, Adult Nursery 3. If you want to whine and complain, come in here and this will be your place for the morning.” That is what was going on in Corinth.

As a matter of fact, in 4:3-5, they even criticized the Apostle Paul. Can you imagine this? They were judgmental of him. In 5:1-3 he talked about the gross immorality that was going on there. As a matter of fact he said they were even worse than the Gentiles in that area, and they weren’t doing anything to discipline them. Then in 6:7 they were suing each other in courts of law. Great church, huh! I know a real good church over in Corinth! Let’s join that one.

I tell you what we will do. We will make it the ideal church. Listen, there are no ideal, perfect churches, folks. There are churches that teach the Word and that ought to be the criteria. But that one phrase dismisses the idea that the local church is not necessary. It also dismisses the idea that there is a perfect church because he is addressing the church of God which is at Corinth.

Let me just give you a suggestion here. If you want to find a perfect church, stop looking for perfect Christians and become the ideal Christian yourself. My Mama always told me when I found the right person, she said, “You will just know.” I said, “Mama, how will I know?” She said, “You will just know because you know.” I didn’t know what she was talking about. So everybody I dated I just kind of made myself feel like I knew. I don’t know how many people I thought I was going to marry. Thank God, He had grace on me and spared me! A friend of mine said, “Do you know what your problem is, Wayne?” I said, “What?” He said, “Why don’t you quit looking for the right person. Just stop. Just stop looking for the right person and start becoming the right person for somebody else.”

Do you want the perfect church? Then shape up your own life and start living like you ought to. Then one by one we will have the ideal situation right in your own church. But quit looking at other Christians and telling them that you can’t find the ideal church. Man, that is crazy. They are going to have all kinds of levels of maturity in every church.

I think John pegged it. Look over in 1 John 2:12-13. He picks up on four levels of maturity. These are in every single church and you have got to understand this. This is what is going on with Corinth. They may have had more of the infants than others had, but you have them all in every church. You are never going to find the perfect church. You are never going to find the ideal place. 1 John 2:12 he says, “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” Those who are fresh in the kingdom need to know that their sins are forgiven.

How many people do you know who later on in life have difficulty with their past life because they don’t understand that their sins have been forgiven? So he tells them that straight out.

Then he says in verse 13, “I am writing to you, fathers [Now why would he call them fathers?], because you know Him who has been from the beginning.” Then he says, “I am writing to you, young men [those in that time of life when God can tremendously use you], because you have overcome the evil one.” And you know how to overcome him. In 1 John, it is by obedience to Christ. As we obey Christ we overcome the evil one. Then it says, “I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.” These are the older children who are ready now to be discipled in the faith.

There are four levels of maturity there. They were in John’s epistle, and they are in all of the churches Paul addresses. So I just want to say that one more time, that there is no such thing as the ideal church. Praise God for the churches that have more of the fathers than they do the infants, but at the same time you are going to have those different levels of maturity. So be the right person for someone else and therefore the church can be what it needs to be.

The Church of God Is Made Up of “The Called Ones”

Well, what is the church of God? Just what is it? First of all, the church of God is made up of those who are the called ones. You don’t have a church without believers. I don’t care what denomination you are a part of. I don’t care what church it is. You don’t have a church until you have believers. That is the key.

He says in the phrase, “to the church of God which is at Corinth.” Now the word “church” is the special word that helps us with our meaning. It is the word ekklesia. Let me explain that to you. The word ek is a preposition, and it means motion out of. Suppose I have a pen in my pocket, and I take this pen “out of” my pocket. Now this pocket that this pen used to be in no longer has this pen in it. Something has been taken out of it. It is very important to remember that. Not away from it, where something is alongside it that is taken away from it; that is different from something that is in it that is taken out of it. Do you understand the difference there in the two prepositions?

Now the word klesia is the word that comes from kaleo, which means to call. So what is the church? It is those who have been called out of something and into something and unto something. That is very important to understand. If you are going to call yourself a believer then you have been called. And it is not you calling, it is God calling you. You have been called out of the world and into Christ and unto Christ.

Let me give you an example of that. A boat in water is by design. Did you know that? A boat is designed to be in the water. How can we still live in a world and not be of the world? You can. Oh, it is very simple. You are called out of the way it thinks and looks. That is what Paul said in Romans 12:2, “Be not conformed to this world but be transformed.” You have to live in it but you can’t be of it. You have been called out of it, you see, into Christ. So a boat in the water is by design. But water in the boat is disaster.

So the first thing you find out then of the church is that they are the called ones. They have been called out of the world. They are still in it as far as having to exist every day. And they are called into Christ and unto Christ.

He says “to the church of God” by the way, not the church of man. There are a lot of organizations man can build, folks, and they really look good in today’s economy of the way people think. But this is not a church that is called by man. This is a church that is called by and unto God. And it is so different because you have to take your hands off of it then. It is His, not yours. Somebody said one time, “The way you build a church is by doing this and this and this.” That’s funny. Jesus said, “No man can build the church. I will build My own church.” It is His church and we are called unto Him.

Now when you think of being called out of something that is a lifestyle of evil and called into a totally different world in the sense that we are in Christ with a brand new lifestyle, think of the church of Corinth and think of the picture that Paul is drawing for them. Look what they came out of. Remember how lewd the city was? Man, there was an expression in the Greek of that day whether you lived in Corinth or not, if you were acting immorally or you were acting sinfully, then they would say, “You are acting like a Corinthian.” That was their phrase! The place was known for the debauchery. But right in the middle of it, God had put His church and called them out of all that kind of lifestyle and yet they still lived in Corinth. He called them into a different kind of lifestyle in and unto Christ.

Look over in 1 Corinthians 6 and you will see what I am talking about. Look at what they are called out of and how they are now different and you will get an idea of what it means to be a believer. Verse 9 says, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.” Now by the way, I didn’t write this. This is God’s Word. “Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters [and this means habitual], nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” Look at verse 11: “And such were some of you;” but you have been called out of that. Look what happened. He says, “but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.”

That is a beautiful passage. That is the best illustration I can come up with as to what it means to be the called ones. Man, called out of and into and unto what God wants in your life. You know, a lot of people say, “Well, brother, I have been a Baptist since I was born.” Well, bless your heart. I mean, I feel sorry for you. But did you get saved and were you called out of that lifestyle you used to live and were you called into the lifestyle? Jesus didn’t say, “I am the life alone.” He said, “I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.” You come out of one way of life and you come into another way of life and that is what the church of God is. And it doesn’t matter what tag you want to put on it. You might disagree on eschatology, you may disagree on a lot of things, but I want to tell you, the church of God are those who have been called out of one lifestyle, called into another, called into Christ and unto Christ. And if you are not a believer, you are not a part of the church of God. That is what Paul said to the Corinthian church.

Actually it is a subtle rebuke because from verse 10 on he is going to start showing them how they are certainly not living like who and whose they are. So the church of God then is made up first of all of the called ones, those who have been called out of and into and unto.

Before I finish with that one, let me just share this with you. In verse 2 it says “which is at Corinth.” Now I know I mentioned a while ago a little bit about that phrase, but I also told you I am going to go a different way when I get to it and I am going to do it right now. Do you realize what he just said? He said “the church of God which is at Corinth.” He didn’t say “part of the church of God which is at Corinth because the other part is at Ephesus and the other part is at Philippi and the other part is at Thessalonica.” That is not what he said. He said, “the church of God which is at Corinth.” Now folks, I am going to get a little emotional on this but this thing knocked my socks off.

I was studying this and I had never seen it before in my life. What he is saying is, “If there were no other church in Greece, if there were no other church on the face of this earth, that bunch of immature babies was the church of God at Corinth.” Man, he is trying to wake them up. They have every bit of God they could ever have or ever ask for. They have Him all and that is the church of God that is at Corinth. The church of God at Corinth. Oh, man, just think about it, the potential that is there. What is Paul doing in Corinthians? I tell you what he is doing. He is subtly moving in to remind these people of who they are.

I want to show you something. The way you behave, now listen to me, does not change who you are. Are you with me? Think about it again. The way you behave doesn’t change who you are. You are who you are because of Christ, the called out ones. Now it may not make you look like who you are supposed to be and it may not make you exemplify whose you are supposed to be, but it does not change who you are. So the church of God which was at Corinth are those Christians who were there, who Paul is writing this epistle to, are the called ones, called out of the world into Christ and unto Christ.

The Church of God Is Made Up of Those Who Are “The Sanctified Ones”

Well, the second thing really helps understand the first one. The church of God is made up of those who are the sanctified ones. Not only the called ones, but the sanctified ones. Now do we know what it means to be sanctified? It says in Verse 2, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling.” Now the word “sanctified” just draws a picture for you and you can’t miss it. It is the word hagiazo, which means to be separated. It means to be set apart. Another word that comes from this word is hagios, and we get the word “saint” from that. It is the word “holy,” the holy ones. As matter of fact, we call God the Holy God. Why do you call Him Holy God? Because He is in a class all by Himself. There is no other god like Him, totally by Himself. He is God. He is pure. He is righteous, but He is in a class all by Himself. That word hagios means He is separated from anything else you could put in your mind when it comes to understanding who God is.

The term here, “those that are sanctified”, is the plural term. It is the separated ones. I love this. So Paul is addressing the church not as a building, he is addressing the church as the people who make it up. What is that little thing we did when we were in kindergarten? “Here is the church, here is the steeple, open it up and there are the people.” That is simple. It is the people. Paul is addressing the sanctified ones. God could care less about buildings. I hate to tell you. They are necessary and you have to have them, but as far as eternity goes there are not going to be any buildings made by man’s hands. Thank God, they will be made by God’s hands and the great architect Himself. But he is talking about the people who make up the church, people who are holy and separated unto God for His purposes.

There is another word for “sanctified” or “holy”, and you must realize the difference because there are some people who teach sinless perfection and they come right out of this kind of teaching right here. Since we are sanctified, then we are now sinless. No, no, no. There is another word that would mean that and it is the word hieros. It is translated holy but in a different sense than hagios. It is a different sense and you must understand it. This is the word that is translated “sacred” in English.

Look at 2 Timothy 3:15: “And that from childhood [talking to Timothy here] you have known the sacred writings.” That is that word right there, hieros.

Now, look at 1 Corinthians 9:13. It is used again. I am going to explain to you the difference in the two words and it is going to light your fire. Verse 13 says, “Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share with the altar?” So you have two words there translated “sacred” but it is this little word.

What does it mean? Well, in the New Testament when they used this word it meant something that is absolutely spotless, something that has no blemish on it at all. Aren’t you glad that is not the word used for sanctified, because every one of us know the blemish that is already on our life, the sin that is in our life. You see, you are not sanctified on the basis of the fact that you are spotless. The church of Corinth, if anything, was not spotless in their behavior. Their history was horrible. Yet now they are sanctified. What in the world? Well, it has nothing to do with man’s ability or inability. It has everything to do with God’s sinlessness. It was Jesus who came as the Godman and what He did for us on the cross, the sinless lamb of God took sin upon Him. Sin was never in Him. There was nothing in Him that Satan could draw out of Him. He died on the cross for us. He arose from the dead, ascended, was glorified. Now we can be sanctified. We can be made holy, not based on our sinlessness but based on His sinlessness.

Hagiazo means something that has been taken and presented to God regardless of its nature or its past. If you had the other word it would have to be spotless. The only way we are made spotless is to be washed in the blood of the Lamb. Perfection is never resting upon our ability. It is always resting in Him who lives in us, the perfect One who lives in us. He has taken us and has set us apart. That is the difference in the two words. Thank God for that.

I think of a friend of mine. He told me, “Wayne, if you just knew where I had come from.” He told me some of his past and it made me blush. I am thinking, “Good grief, I thought mine was bad.” But isn’t it wonderful when we stand together we are sanctified, set apart. We are holy unto God. Not because of anything we have done but because of what He has done for us. Their sanctification was due to God snatching them from sin and purifying them by His blood and by coming to live in their lives. In Hebrews 10:10 it says, “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” And again, it was His sinlessness that enabled us to be sanctified. It had nothing to do with our being spotless in our behavior or their being spotless in their behavior.

Now the term “sanctified” here is in the perfect tense. You have to remember the perfect tense. Perfect tense is not static. It means something happened back here, yes, in a static sense it happened back here. When I put my faith into Jesus Christ as these Corinthians believers, God set me apart, called me out of the world, called me into Himself. He separated me unto Himself and made me holy by putting His presence within me and washing me of my sin. But the perfect tense means something happened back here that is having a result way over here. It is still going on in my life. That doesn’t mean that I can’t sin because that is not even the meaning of being set apart and sanctified, but it does mean that the Holy Spirit of God lives in me as a divine referee to make sure I do know when I have sinned. Therefore, I am a changed person because I am not like I used to be. I have His life within me now and it has a present result.

I hear people all the time saying, “Well, I got saved 30 years ago.” You did? That is great. What is God doing in your life now? “I got saved 30 years ago.” That is wonderful. What is God doing in your life now? “I got saved 30 years ago.” You can just forget people like that, folks, because you see, sanctified perfect tense means it happened back here but it is still having a present result on you right now.

You may be in sin but I guarantee you the Holy Spirit of God is rocking your boat because you are not like you used to be and you were called out of that lifestyle. You were called into a different lifestyle and you are not comfortable by what I am saying because the Spirit of God lives in you and that is what we are talking about. It still has a present result in your life. You can’t go back and live like you used to live. That is what he is saying. I tell you what, folks, start thinking about that for a while. Then think about the church at Corinth and you see what Paul is driving at.

It is in the passive voice. Passive voice means you didn’t set yourself apart. No, sir. You were set apart by God Himself. Religion, you can set yourself apart for that. But only God can set you apart in His Kingdom.

Well, in spite of all the problems in the Corinthian church, Paul reminds them that they are holy and sanctified and they have been called out from this world. Isn’t that great! They have been called out.

You say, “Well, Wayne, now that I am sanctified, I know that is positionally. I am in Christ and I am set apart unto Him. But I also know that sanctification is a process. Now, where is the balance in understanding all this?” Don’t make the mistake that the Galatian church made. The Galatian church was sanctified by God. God did it. God was the one who came to live in them. It was based on His sinlessness, not their sinlessness. But once they were sanctified and saved and called out, they went back to the law and thought by the efforts of their own flesh that somehow they could now continue to sanctify themselves. The Apostle Paul wrote to them and said, “Oh, foolish Galatians.”

Let me say something very simple to you because I have a simple mind. How do you continue the process of sanctification? The same way it got started in your life. When you fall on your face and you cried out to God and said, “God, I am unholy. I am sinful. I am aware of it. I know what You require and I can’t meet it. But I thank You that Jesus came to do that for me. And God, I put my faith into Him and I receive what He has done for me and I receive Him into my life. I bow down, lay my sword down. I won’t fight Him anymore.”

You were saved, folks. But let me tell you something. That same attitude that saved you is the same attitude that sanctifies you. I want to say it one more time. Perfection never rests in human flesh. Perfection rests in the One who is perfect who lives within us. Therefore, day by day I have to continually come before Him and say, “God, I can’t. You never said I could. You can and you always said you would. God, I can’t produce the righteousness you are demanding out of my life. But God, I know that by my surrendered relationship to you, I can perfect holiness in the sense that I can release your life in me and that is what you are requiring. You are only pleased when you look at me and see yourself.” That is sanctification.

Religion. That is what men do for God and justify themselves by it. But sanctification can always rest in Him. That is why when it says you are sanctified you fall on your face and say, “It has nothing to do with me. He is the spotless One. He is the sinless One. He is the perfect One. He has rescued me. And He is the one who has manifesting His life in me. I am decreasing so that He might increase.” That is how holiness is perfected in our life.

In 2 Corinthians 7:1 we read, “Therefore having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” In Colossians 2:6 it says, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.” You say, “I have to go to work tomorrow. How can I be holy before God?” Easy. He has already enabled you by putting His Spirit in your life. Bow down before Him and say, “God, it is not my agenda today, it is Your agenda. I am going to be about Your task. I am going to cleanse myself of all the defilement of my flesh by choosing against it.” And at that moment, something takes over in your life that you are not even aware of. And God who lives in you begins to live through you. That is what righteousness is all about. That is perfecting holiness, you see. It is not what man can do. It is what God can do through man.

I don’t know really why I stopped and threw that in, but I want to make sure that we understand if we are sanctified, understand all the way through that it is Him from the beginning. It is Him in the middle. And it is Him at the end. Philippians 1:6 says, “I am confident of this very thing, He that began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ Jesus.” It is not what you can do, it is what He does in you.

What is our responsibility? It is just like Corinthians said, we cleanse ourselves of the moral defilements, we choose to obey Him. We choose to get into the Word. Yes, there is responsibilit

I Corinthians 1:2

Contents

1 What is the Church of God? – Part 2

1.1 The Church of God Is Made Up of "The Calling Ones"

What is the Church of God? – Part 2

The Church of God Is Made Up of "The Calling Ones"

The third thing that identifies a person who’s a member of the church of God is found in the last part of verse 2. He says, “to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.” They call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Corinth had a little bit of an attitude. They were a very rich and affluent city. They kind of felt like they had it all together. As a matter of fact, Paul really had to chasten them when he came out of Macedonia and had gotten an offering from the poor people over there. He says a lot about that in this letter. Corinth kind of had the idea that “We’re the only ones around.”

Do you know anybody in a denomination who thinks they’re the only ones who are saved? Aren’t they fun to be with? They’re going to build a little fence around them up in Heaven somewhere. As we’re walking by they’re going to say, “Who are those people over there in that fenced in area.” They’ll say, “Shh. Don’t bother them. They think they’re the only ones up here.”

That’s kind of the way the Corinthians were. That’s the attitude they had. Since they had all this affluence certainly it must be God’s blessing. It sounds just like Israel in the book of Judges, doesn’t it? It’s no different. Flesh is flesh. So the apostle Paul was saying, “You’re the church of God in Corinth.” If he had stopped right there, they would have said, “That’s right. See, we told you. We’re the only one.” He wants them to know that there are some other believers out there. As a matter of fact, these other believers are not known by their position. Position is what you talk about sometimes, but you’ve got to remember the practice has got to somehow equalize the position. So he doesn’t point to their position in Christ as being sanctified. He points to their practice. Being sanctified means you live a certain way.

He says, “There are those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and our Lord.” He wanted Corinth to know that there were some others out there. Isn’t it wonderful the identifying mark on other believers outside of Corinth? By the way we’re outside of Corinth, and we are known to be sanctified by the fact that we call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I’m going to spend some time on this. We’ve got to understand this, folks. To call upon the name of the Lord means more than when your children are sick in the middle of the night and you call out to God and say, “Oh, God, help me.” Calling upon the name of the Lord is more than being in a foxhole in a battle somewhere and saying, “God, if you’ll get me out of this foxhole I’ll do anything for you.” Calling upon the name of the Lord is more than when the stock market crashes and all of a sudden, financially, you’re doomed and you cry out unto God. It’s much more than that. It’s the lifestyle of people who are a part of the church of God.

The word “call” is the word that’s used in Acts 2:21: “And it shall be, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Do we understand that verse? Do you understand why the people are calling upon the name of the Lord? They’re calling upon the name of the Lord to be saved. What does that mean? The implication is they know they’re lost. They know they’re helpless. They know they’re hopeless, and so they’re crying out in desperation, “Oh, God, I can’t. Oh, God, if you don’t, it won’t get done.” It’s that kind of attitude.

“Now, wait a minute. Are you telling me that people who are part of the church of God live that way, dependent upon Him?” Well, why is that a problem? If you’re purchased by His blood and you only have one purpose, to be a saint, to be set apart for His use, then why would you not cry out to Him? He’s the only one who has the plan. He’s the only one who has the strength. He’s the only one who can do in and through you what He says He wants to do.

It’s in the present middle voice. Go back to 1 Corinthians 1. Kind of keep a marker there because we’re going to jump every now and then. I want you to see the tense here of calling upon the Lord. The word “call” is the same word we’ve been looking at. But the word is in the present middle voice. Present tense means it’s a constant lifestyle. It’s moment by moment. We sing the hymn, “I Need Thee Every Hour.” That’s the idea of a person who’s blood bought, sanctified, a person who’s a saint, part of the church of God. He lives that way. He constantly cries out unto God that way.

It’s in the middle voice. Middle voice means no preacher has to come in and make you feel so guilty that you’ll cry out to the Lord. Middle voice means you do it when you’re by yourself, on your own, by your own choice. You choose to cry. It’s a choice of life you’ve made. You’ve chosen not to put any confidence in your flesh as Paul said in Philippians 3. You’ve chosen instead to cry out and depend upon and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, this is interesting to me. There’s a subtle rebuke in this. We’ve already looked at the church at Corinth. If that church was located in your town you would not want to join this particular group. They have all kinds of problems. And yet at the same time they weren’t living what Paul’s saying; Paul knows that. It’s sort of a gentle rebuke to them. He’s going to start addressing their problems. But you see, the reason they have their problems is because they stopped crying out unto God. You start depending on your own flesh and crying out to your flesh and you end up like the church at Corinth. The whole sixteen chapters deals with all the problems they had.

The word name means more than just to identify someone. Have you ever looked up the meaning of your name? I found out my name Wayne means wagon. I wonder why someone named me wagon. Then I found somebody who felt sorry for people named Wayne and so they called them “burden bearer.” A wagon bears a burden. We named our children Stephanie and Stephen. That came from the Greek word stephanos which means crowned one. That kind of crown is the kind you get because of righteous living. It’s not the diadem which is given to Christ but it’s the crowned one. We do pray that our children will live in light of their name.

Back in Scripture names meant much more. Some of us have a little to do with that today. But in their culture it was big time. Remember Jacob who was going to be the leader of all the tribes of Israel? Jacob’s name had to be changed to Israel. That’s how Israel got here. His name was changed to Israel, because his name meant deceiver. Jacob meant deceiver, conniver. I’ll trick you. He tricked his own brother, Esau, out of the birthright. God had to deal with him. He crippled him and changed his name to Israel, the son of God. Israel had twelve sons and those twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel. So the name meant something to them.

In fact, every time they would discover the name of God or God would reveal His name to them it would come in the midst of crisis. When Moses was up on the mountain and they were holding his hands up and Joshua was in the battle fighting and finally they won the battle. Jehovah became the word for provider, my provider, Jireh. Then Jehovah Nisi, my banner. Then Jehovah Jireh comes in and Jehovah Ropeh. But they always come in at times when they cried out to God and God had revealed Himself unto them. There’s a wonderful Precept course called “The Names of God” that I suggest everybody take. As you go through you begin to understand who God really is and you realize who you’re crying out to. They weren’t just crying out to some name that identified Jesus apart from somebody else. They were crying out to the One who had for them what their need was for the moment. They understood who He was and they understood what His character was all about.

When you study something in Scripture, it’s very helpful to go back to the first time it was ever used. A lot of times it will tell you a little bit of the root understanding of where it came from. This little phrase, “call upon the name of the Lord” is first found in Genesis 4:26. I want you to turn back there with me. I think it might be helpful to us to realize this. Who is it that calls upon the name of the Lord? It’s the church of God. But where does it come from?

In Genesis 4:25, remember Cain, the unrighteous son who would not depend upon God, provided an offering that God rejected. Abel, however, evidently provided one that was acceptable. It doesn’t tell us that God said anything to him, but evidently He did because God approved of his offering. Therefore, Cain got jealous and killed his brother.

Look at verse 25: “And Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, ‘God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel;” Ha! Now we’ve got a group of people who are starting to put their trust in God like Abel did.

Verse 26 continues, “And to Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.” In other words, now we have a generation of people who are going to depend upon God, starting with Seth. Abel was killed. Seth takes his place. Then men begin to call upon the name of the Lord.

The next time you find it it’s in the past tense. It’s over in Genesis 12 with Abram. He became Abraham in the 17th chapter of Genesis. Abram was told by God, “Get your family. Leave your house and follow Me to a land. I’ll tell you when you get there.” How’d you like to have those kinds of instructions? Abraham, remember, is the one through whom the everlasting covenant was given. It’s a covenant of faith. So you see the picture of it right there. Genesis 12:8 says, “Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.”

What I’m trying to get you to see is calling upon the name of the Lord is the attitude that governs the lifestyle of people who are sanctified, blood bought, saints, people who possess all of Him but are possessed by Him. That’s their lifestyle. They don’t know anything else. The intellects of the world would look at them and say, “You’re stupid people who walk by faith.” Well, fine. That’s alright.

A little lady one day was in her apartment and didn’t have any groceries. But she was the church of God in that apartment building. She got down on her knees and cried out to God, “God, I need food. I’m working and I can’t do anything more than I’m doing. God, would you give me food?” Her landlord called himself an atheist. There are no true atheists, you know. He heard her pray every day because his apartment was next door to hers. So one day he said, “I’ll fix her.” He went out to the store and bought about twenty-five bags of groceries, everything he can think of. He stocked up the pantry. There were groceries flowing out onto the floor. She came home and had a fit, I mean a spell. She start praising God, jumping around, and doing everything but stand on her head thanking God for providing for her because He is Jehovah Jireh and that is who she cried out to. That is His name. The man burst out of a closet he was hiding in and said, “Hey, Christians are all alike. You think God gave you those groceries. I went and bought those groceries, I’ll have you know.” She said, “Sir, I don’t where in the world you’re coming from but I asked God to give me groceries and if God chose to use the devil to bring them to me, He still gave them to me.” That’s the church of God.

I want to tell you something. If the world doesn’t like it, I’m sad for you. You need to know the same Christ we know and you can trust in Him that way. That’s what it means. It means to live a lifestyle of total dependence upon the name of the Lord. It’s not a one time anything.

The next time you find the phrase is in Psalm 116:1. If this doesn’t say anything to you, folks, there’s something deeply wrong in your life. There comes a time in every man’s life when he is not calling upon the Lord. There comes a time He reveals Himself to them and when they cry out He answers them. They realize He’s the only one who has ever answered. He’s the only one that can help me. At that particular point, that sets off a lifestyle that you live from then on. You see this picture in Psalm 116:1: “I love the Lord because He hears my voice and my supplications.”

You know there are times when I don’t think anybody’s listening to me. I love my wife more than anybody in the world. She’s my best friend. But there are times she thinks I don’t listen to her either. There are times when we don’t think we have an audience with anybody. But I want to tell you something, folks. Once you start crying out to the name of God you’re going to find you have His ear any time you ever cry out to Him. I’ll tell you, you’re going to end up like the Psalmist and you’re going to say, “I love the Lord for He hears my voice and my supplications.”

It says in verse 2, “Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live.” Then the Psalmist is going to take you back and show you what happened to him that changed his mind. It turned him from trusting men to trusting God. It says in verse 3, “The cords of death encompassed me, and the terrors of Sheol came upon me; I found distress and sorrow.” All that’s in the past. “Then I called upon the name of the Lord; ‘O Lord, I beseech Thee, save my life,’” he says. And in the crisis God heard him and God answered him. Verse 5 says, “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yes, our God is compassionate. The Lord preserves the simple.” The simple has the idea of those who don’t understand. They just cry out. They don’t know. He says, “He preservers the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me.”

Now the Psalmist found rest in his soul and he’s telling the story. He says in verse 7, “Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountiful with you.” You know, when you’ve cried out to God and God’s answered to you, there’s rest in your soul, in your mind, your will, your emotions. God just gives you the peace that passes all understanding. In verse 8 we read, “For Thou has rescued my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I shall walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed when I said, ‘I am greatly afflicted.’” Nobody had to convince me. I believed it. I was greatly afflicted.

Then he realized that man’s words could not always be trusted. He said in verse 11, “I said in my alarm, ‘All men are liars.’ What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me?” The Psalmist is thinking, “Man, God has been so good to me. When I was in those dilemmas I cried out unto Him. He saved me. What can I do that somehow would repay Him?”

Then in verse 13 you find that phrase the second time. “I shall lift up the cup of salvation,” I shall lift it and hold it up high, the cup of salvation, the story of how God rescued me. “And call upon the name of the Lord.” I’ll tell you what, folks, those people who call upon the name of the Lord are grateful for what God has done in their life. They understand there was a time when they were facing eternal death. Hey, by the way, I think sometimes we forget what it was like to be lost, don’t we? Be around a lost person for a while and it won’t take you long. Hopeless, helpless.

We heard about this cult group out in California. Thirty-nine of them committed suicide. Folks, I want to tell you something about that group. I guarantee they were sincere. They proved that by what they did. They said they were killing themselves because they were going off to a better life. I want to tell you something, folks. That’s all people have who don’t have the Lord Jesus Christ. A lost person has no hope and, therefore, a lost person will even, if he can, identify with what he thought was a spaceship following a comet if he has to. He’ll do whatever he has to do.

But that same lost person one day who because of the divine providence of God comes to know Jesus Christ will stand up in the congregation of the righteous and say, “I was once lost, in distress and facing destruction, and I cried out unto God and God answered me. Now I live my life differently. I live my life crying out and calling upon the name of the Lord.” That’s the whole attitude.

What? You didn’t know that? You mean you’re not living that way? Paul would say to the Corinthian church. “We may have some problems here. Have you gone back to putting confidence in men and in your flesh? Well, no wonder the misery and the upside-downness of your world.” They were people who realize what God has done. He’s sanctified them and made them saints usable to Him who call upon the name of the Lord. They call upon His name in everything.

I’ve got to tell you a story that happened to me. I was out in Denver with my son. We went skiing and we had a great time out there together. On Saturday I got a very early flight because I knew I was leaving on Sunday afternoon to go to Romania. You know how grueling a trip that is. I got up at 3:45 Denver time, got out to the airport, and got on the plane at 6:00 right on the nose. I said, “This is wonderful. They’re leaving on time. I’ll be home before noon. I’ll have the rest of the day to pack and get ready and rest.”

We backed out with that little truck. That little thing stopped and unhooked. The pilot started up his engines, turned the plane around and pointed it to go out. Just as he did something went wrong in the left engine. As a matter of fact, I’ve never heard this before. Boom! It shook the whole plane. You could just see the walls shaking. I’m thinking, “Hmmmm.” That’s when you go through these, “I’m getting out of here if I have to rip that window out of the wall.” We just stopped. The pilot just stopped the plane. I was very grateful. He sat there forever. We sat on that runway forever. Finally, he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the pilot. I’m sure all of you felt and heard that. We did too. I just want to comfort you. We heard it up here. By our gauges we cannot tell what’s wrong. We’re going to have to take this plane and turn it back to the gate.” I heard rumblings around me, saying, “Fly the plane.” I’m thinking, “Go back up to the gate! I’ll fly to Romania from Denver.”

We got up to the gate, and he had to let everybody off the plane. He said, “Guys, I don’t know. They’re going to have to fly a mechanic in here for this. It’s going to be a while.” So everybody went out to the counters. I thought, “I’ve got faith in these guys. Somehow they’re going to salvage this flight.” So I went over and sat down. I’m just fooling around with my computer. I carry my laptop with me. That’s the way I do a lot of my studying when I’m traveling. I’ve got all my programs on it and everything. So I was having a good time.

About an hour and half passed and after a while I’m thinking, “Hmmm.” The pilot came out and said that the mechanic was not here yet but we’ll let you know when he arrives. About two hours after that he came out and said, “Folks, we did the right thing. That engine would have exploded as we took off if we had not pulled back. We found it was a very serious problem in the engine. The flight is cancelled. Please get in line and let them help you.”

It’s Spring break in Denver. Every airline is full. They’ve got a waiting list. What are you going to do? I got up in line. Several had been in line. I got up in line about 8:00 and I stood in the line for almost four hours and never moved. You would get excited when someone would move their suitcase around so you could move up and feel like you’re going forward. Nobody moved. Finally I prayed, “You know, Lord, I’m just so grateful you stopped that plane from taking off. I’m just going to rest in You.”

But I began in my heart to cry out unto the Lord. “God, you know what I’m doing. You know the pressure that’s there. I’m putting this into Your hands. Deliver me from trusting in my flesh and trying to figure it out myself. You take it.” I kept doing that, and it was amazing. One guy walked up and said, “I’ve been watching you. You haven’t sat down or left the line, and you just stood here with sort of a half-smile on your face. Are you alright?” I said, “Yeah, as far as I know everything’s in control.”

I got up to the counter, and the lady in front of me had been crying. I don’t know what the situation was that had thrown her out of gear. I could tell she was nervous about it. The agent fixed her up and she turned off and was so grateful. This new guy walked in. It had been a woman doing this the whole time. This brand new guy walked in, and I walk up to him. I’m the second guy. “I’m Mr. Barber.” I hate this when they go, “Okay, you’re going to Chattanooga.” You don’t have a clue what they’re doing, “Uh-huh, uh-huh.” Then they pick up the phone and they turn their back to you so you can’t hear them talk. “Okay, let’s do this again.” He gets back on the computer. I’m thinking, “Oh, no.” He said, “Okay, good deal. I got it fixed up. I think you can get into Chattanooga at 12:05 in the morning.” I’m thinking, “Okay, Lord. I’m gritting my teeth and I want to praise You for this, but I’m not sure.” He said, “Okay, Whoa!” I said, “What’s wrong?” I thought the computer had blown up. He said, “Somebody is typing for you and searching out flights while I’m doing it.” I said, “That’s odd. It’s just you and me standing here. How’d they do that?” He said, “I have no idea. Sometimes they take people and start working out their flights.” I’m thinking to myself, “Six hours later at the very time he’s about to tell me I’m going to get here at 12:05?”

He just took his hands off the computer. The keys weren’t moving, but you could see the thing typing. It wouldn’t let him in but you could see what was happening. He said, “Look at the flight they got you.” Tell me. Have you ever tried to look at a computer screen and understand anything on it. I said, “Where’s the gate?” He said, “Right there. The one next door.” “You’re kidding me. When does it leave?” He said, “In twenty minutes and you’re sitting in a better seat than you were sitting in before.”

I thought to myself, “Thank you, God. Thank you that you even care about airlines and tornadoes when they strike an area. You care about everything in our life. We are those who are blood bought and sanctified. We’re saints, and we have a purpose in life which is only to live in You. It doesn’t make any sense for us to go to any other alternative but to turn to You and call upon Your name at all times for everything because You here us. The Psalmist said it. You the only one who listens and You’re the only one who has the answer.

That’s the church of God, folks. That’s the church of Jesus Christ on this earth. Forget your denomination. You can join every church that’s got a denominational tag to it and miss Jesus by fifty miles. But if you’re blood bought and you’re His, you don’t live for yourself any more. You live for Him and your lifestyle is one of total dependence upon Him.

When we got to Romania and walked in that room, they were singing, “My Jesus I love Thee. I know Thou art mine.” After they finished the hymn, before they let us do anything, the leader said, “Let us pray and thank God that our brethren have arrived.” They started praying in Romanian. You can’t understand them. But somehow in your heart you do. It was obvious. They weren’t thanking God that we got there. They were thanking God that He heard their prayer and had done what they had cried out to Him.

My heart goes out to the world that thinks that there are other ways to do this. If your life’s a mess and you’re looking at nothing more than a blackness in front of you and there’s just nothing there, I want you to know you’re at the best place you’ve ever been in your life to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Quit looking that way and start looking this way and cry out to Him and He will hear your cry. He will hear your cry. Oh, what he’s done, folks.

We sing a song that goes like this:

“He paid a debt He did not owe

I owed a debt I could not pay

I needed someone to wash my sins away

And now I sing a brand new song

Amazing grace all day long

Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.”

I tell you what. Keep singing it and keep singing it and keep singing it and then it’s going to click. The One who washed them away is the one who saved you from their power every day in their life. It’ll affect an attitude that says, “I’m going to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” People who live that way are people who understand gratitude for how they used to live the other way and what God’s brought them from and where He’s brought them to.

I hope somehow you will continue to call upon the name of the Lord in everything, every supplication, everything in your life. Call on Him and see what He does.

1 Corinthians 1:3

Contents

1 What Is The Church of God? – Part 4

2 The Church of God Is In Need of God’s Peace

What Is The Church of God? – Part 4

My precious Daddy is in heaven. He was just the kindest person who ever lived. Bless his heart, in World War II he got to smoking. That was a big thing to him. And they smoked Camels. You know, Camel cigarettes evidently are powerful, folks. They don’t have a filter. He smoked two packs of Camels every day for 30 years of his life. He died at 60 years old of a heart attack.

I remember about five years before my Dad died, he quit smoking. Now folks, I want to tell you something, you can quit habits in your life. There are people who help you out. But I want to tell you what happens. Many times when we surgically try to remove sin in our life, what we do by trying to do it ourselves, we maim everything that was natural and normal about us because you see, we are not surgeons. We try to play that role.

I tell you what happens. When you stop and cut something out of your life, if you don’t put something in its place, you are one miserable person. You know, the Pharisees have got to be miserable in the Old Testament and even in the New Testament in the gospels. There are people who are believers today who have cut out malignancies and have cut them out and cut them out and cut them out. And that is fine, but they have maimed everything else. They don’t have relationships that are normal with anybody. Everything is sin to them. They walk around looking down their nose criticizing and judging everybody, and they are one group of miserable people. I will tell you why: because the human nature cannot stand a vacuum. If you are going to cut something out, you have got to put something back in. But what are you going to put back in?

You see, we love to parade around like we are spiritual. “I don’t do this, and I don’t do that. I don’t drink, I don’t chew and I don’t run around with those who do. I am so spiritual it is just killing me.” And it looks like it is killing you. Miserable people. When you stop doing something you are always feeling like you are lacking something in your life. I guarantee you, you are! There is nothing in its place because you don’t understand grace.

Listen, Jesus Christ is not a surgeon. It is amazing the error that we make. He is not a surgeon. He is a physician, yes, the Great Physician, but He is not in the business of surgery. He is in the business of healing what is wrong. Living under God’s grace after you are saved is something that a lot of Christians still need to understand. That is what Paul is saying. “I wish this grace for you, that daily when you come to Me, you come to Me with those malignancies. You come to Me with that fleshly body. And you come to Me just like you came to Me when you originally received grace from Me. You get on your face before Me and say, ‘God, I can’t save myself.’” And God does a work of grace in your life, transforms you and enables you to do what you never could do before.

You see, you come that same way every day. You come to Him and say, “God, there is a malignancy in my life. It has crept up on me again. And Lord, I have tried to cut it out but the desire is there and it is killing me. There is a lacking in my life and I don’t know what to do. I get in the Word and it is like a newspaper. Nothing is helping me, Lord.” Cry out to Him in desperation. Oh, and the grace of God is so powerful. It heals. But in the healing process it replaces, and grace never leaves you lacking. Grace leaves you in the joy that the fruit of the Spirit of God produces when He is working and operating in your life. That is what it is all about.

“But there is bitterness in my life.” Listen, you can stop talking to anybody on the phone and maybe that will keep you from sharing it with anybody else. You can stop saying anything, but I tell you, you can’t conquer it on the inside. But you can come to God and say, “God, I am desperate for Your grace. Lord, I can’t.” That is when you are going to discover that He never said you could. He is going to say, “I can. And I always said I would.” In the area of that bitterness, when you surrender it to Him and confess it and acknowledge it and agree with Him what it is, God is able through His grace to replace you in that area of bitterness with His grace of love and forgiveness, ability you didn’t even know you had.

Folks, that is the Christian life. That is the good news of the gospel. That is being under grace every day of your life. Stop trying to cut it out yourself because you are miserable. I guarantee you that you are miserable. You criticize everyone who walks because you want them to be as miserable as you are. Come before God. The ground is level at the cross, folks. Come before God and say, “God, there is a problem of lust in my life, immorality, God. And God, I can’t stand it because every time I try to cut out the activity that feeds it, something within me innately continues to desire it. God, I can’t stop it. God, I am sick of it.” You come before God and say, “Oh, God, with your grace would you forgive me and cleanse me and would you produce in me purity where there was impurity?”

You see, that is grace. That is God replacing you. You know, we think God came into our life to reform us. You can reform yourself. There are people who will help you. You can stop doing anything you want to stop. That is all external. He came into your life to transform you, to replace you. It is Jesus in you and He replaces you with Himself. And along with that comes the fruit of the Spirit which is love and joy and peace and patience and all the good things that you are looking for. It wraps itself around what He is doing and you are able to live under the grace of God.

I am not so sure it is taught, I am not so sure it has to be caught, when the Spirit of God just has to turn somebody’s eyes on and they say, “Good grief, I have been going about this thing the wrong way ever since I ever discovered there was a sinful tendency to my body.” Victory is not you and me overcoming sin. Victory is not that. Now, some of you will come up to me and say, “You are wrong. I have overcome sin in my life.” No, you have overcome the activity, you never did overcome the desire. It is still resident in your flesh. You give it half a chance, and you will find it out. You will find it out. A lot of people are still trying to live as surgeons, aren’t they?

In Corinth, they must have been living that way because they certainly weren’t doing anything else right. They missed it on the first step of living under the grace of God. Victory is not me overcoming sin, victory is Jesus overcoming me. He lets me know that is why He lives in me. I can’t and never said I could. He can and He always said He would. It is His beautiful disposition and nature, listen to me, that we get to tap into when we come the way of grace, not depending on our flesh and our ability but surrendering to His power and His presence in our life. We get to taste of the nature and disposition of God Himself as He begins to manifest Himself in our life and we are never found lacking. We need grace. We desperately need grace.

The Church of God Is In Need of God’s Peace

Fifthly in our list from verse 3, the church of God is in need of God’s peace. In 1 Corinthians 1:3 we read, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Now let’s define the word “peace.” I have sort of a rough definition, but it is a beautiful definition. Peace is the word eirene. It is the word that means the absence of war and the absence of conflict in our life. You say, “I don’t understand. What do you mean by absence of war and absence of conflict?” Listen to me. All humanity is born into eternal conflict, first with God and then with man. Because of Adam’s sin, we are born into conflict. We are at enmity with God the very moment you breathe the first time. It is sin that is passed down from generation to generation to generation from Adam. Because in Adam all sin, Romans 5:12 says, and death comes because of that sin.

But not only is there a conflict with God, that conflict is with man. I have said this over and over again. Apart from Christ you have no normal relationships. You cannot relate the way God wants you to relate apart from Him because there is an inbred conflict with God and then with man built into the flesh. You cannot live it. It is always conditional, it is never unconditional, in any relationship you have apart from Christ.

This is illustrated in Genesis when Adam sinned. Immediately you see the conflict with God. Then in a few chapters you find out that Cain kills Abel. You see the conflict with man, and it has been that way ever since.

I was in the Cincinnati airport one day. I didn’t have very long before my flight was to leave, and I saw this girl just bopping through the big concourse there. Have you ever seen people who just seem to be bubbling over? I mean, she really had it together. She was speaking to everybody. “Hi, how are you doing?” She started making a beeline right for me. Now there are seats everywhere. I am sitting there, and I don’t want to talk to anybody. Do you ever have those days? I don’t want to talk to anybody. Just leave me alone and let me get home! I was sitting there and she made a beeline right for me.

She came over and sat down in the seat right on the other side of my luggage. She sat down and said, “Well, I tell you what, on a rainy day I have always wanted to be in the airport in Cincinnati. Isn’t this a great place?” I am thinking, “Oh, boy, here we go. She is going to talk my ear off.” I said, “Yeah, me, too.” She started saying, “Where did you come from?” “Des Moines.” “Well, I came from Houston.” She talked about where she lived in Houston and all the different things going on. She kept on and I am thinking, “The question is coming. The question is coming.” It always happens. “What do you do?” It is amazing to me. You can have a CEO of a company talking about computers and rebuilding them and you ask me “What do you do?” and I say, “I am a pastor” and they break out in a rash and they can’t even talk to you. I mean, you talk about conversations being suddenly either abruptly stopped and ruined or completely turned, that question will do it.

“What do you do?” “I am a pastor.” She sat there for a minute, kind of like she was thinking, “Hmmm, maybe I’d better go,” or whatever. But she didn’t. She turned back towards me. I was telling my wife that her whole countenance changed as we began to put Christ into the subject and what Christianity is all about. She came from a religion that was not an evangelical religion. It does not teach a relationship with God the Father through His Son. It is strictly a religion. You understand that Christianity is not a religion – it is a relationship. But she didn’t understand that.

She started talking to me and she said, “You know, I try to go to church and I try to do what is right. Man, I just need to give more time to God. If I could just give Him a half hour in the morning. I mean, I just don’t do it, though. It is a shame that I just don’t do these things for God.” I listened to her for a while and said, “In other words, you believe that Christianity is a religion. Is that right?” She said, “Do what? Certainly it is a religion.” I said, “I hate to pop your bubble. I am going to have to catch a plane here in a minute, but I hate to tell you that it is not a religion. Religion may not work for you and it has never worked for me either. That is why Christ came, to solve the religious dilemma of people. It is not a religion. He came to give us a relationship with a Holy God, the Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ.”

I began to talk to her about what that meant. I said, “You don’t give Him a half hour in the morning. You don’t just give Him an hour here and an hour there. You give Him yourself when you come to Him. That is solved the moment of salvation and then He comes to live in you and enriches your whole life.” Boy, she looked at me like, “Are you alright?”

Then they called my plane. That happens to me almost every time. About the time I really get into something, they will call the plane. So I told this girl, “Look, I have got to go.” I wrote down the number of a ministry that could help her, and said, “You call this ministry and they will get you into the Word of God.” I had to do something.

But I tell you, her whole countenance had completely changed when we started talking about a relationship, that she could actually be at peace for the first time in her whole life. That gal walking through the airport, you would think that she had it all together. But what she was hiding with the evident personality that she had and what she is hiding with the success she has had in life, is that she is in conflict. Conflict eternally with God and eternally with man. She lives with this inbred conflict. I don’t care how successful they look to you, inside that is the desperation of a person who doesn’t know Christ and understand His grace. They are everywhere around us.

Where do they find this peace? Again in 1 Corinthians 1:3, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” What she is looking for only Jesus can give her. The Father sends it to her as a love gift through His Son Jesus who died for her. Jesus Christ, who is the source of God’s grace, is also the source of God’s peace. In fact, peace is the product of grace. Whenever you find grace and peace together in a verse, you are always going to find grace first and peace second. Because unless you have experienced God’s grace and unless you are experiencing God’s grace, you know not of His peace. By experiencing His grace at salvation, you have peace with God.

Look in Romans 5. Remember in Ephesians, “by grace are we saved through faith, not of works lest any man should boast.” Then we come to Romans 5:1. You experience the initial grace of God when you bow before Him at salvation, realizing you are in Adam and cannot save yourself. You put your faith in Him. Everything rests upon Him. But in Romans 5:1 we see, “Therefore having been justified by faith,” acquitted, that which He did is written to our account, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is beautiful.

It is really twofold. First of all, it involves an attitude on my part, but secondly it involves an activity that God has done. People say there is no Lordship salvation. Now that term does bother a lot of people. But I want to tell you something, folks. The way I understand it, it better be. It better be, because what does this word “peace” mean? When Japan surrendered to America, they didn’t walk forward and say, “We give up. We give up. Maybe one day we will stop fighting you.” That is not what they said. The emperor of Japan took his sword out and handed it over to General MacArthur. In doing that he is saying, “I will give up. We surrender. We will not fight you anymore. We will not initiate conflict with you anymore.” That is part of having peace with someone. That is the attitude of man.

But on the other hand, God the Father, through His Son has removed the enmity. He has removed the wall of partition. He has removed the demands of the law because they were fulfilled in Christ. That doesn’t mean we still don’t live under the law in the sense that we live obedient to Christ, but He has removed it in that it cannot condemn us anymore. God did His work to remove anything that would keep us in conflict with Him. But we also come with an attitude of saying, “We don’t want to be in conflict with you. We lay our sword down.” And at that very moment we are saved. That is peace with God.

That is what that girl sitting in the airport needed, and that is what is going to happen, I believe, one of these days. I don’t believe it is an accident that we met each other in the airport. There is going to come a day she is going to lay that sword down and recognize what God has done for her and receive Christ into her life. Now that is the peace with God.

But what Paul is talking about in Corinthians, I think, is a little different. It is the peace of God. Look in Philippians 4:7. Paul is talking to believers here. Just like the grace of God is not static, neither is the peace of God. And if you are walking under the grace of God, the transforming power of God, then you are living in the peace of God at all times. You have peace with Him, certainly in Christ. But this is the peace of God. Look at what it does. In Philippians 4:7 it says, “And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension [Go to any school, wherever you want to go, challenge your mind forever and you will never understand it] shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” In Romans 5 we have peace with God and in Philippians 4 we have the peace of God. The peace of God is for believers to draw from in the conflict of every day life.

Now you have to realize this in context because it is more than just Paul giving a greeting. Paul knew what was in Corinth. Paul knew the evil and the wickedness that was in Corinth. Remember there was a Greek word that says when you lived immorally, it didn’t matter if you lived in Corinth or not, it said you are acting like a Corinthian. Paul knew that and as a result of that, Paul was writing to them trying to show them what could keep them from having their peace disturbed. Live under grace and live in His peace and you won’t have that disturbed, you see. He knew what was trying to disturb and trouble that peace they had. And regardless of circumstances and people, once you start living in the peace of God, it doesn’t matter what is going on around you. There can be with no conflict within you towards God and no conflict in you towards man. It is a beautiful picture here.

You know, there is nothing more comforting to me than the voice of the captain on a plane when the plane is going through turbulence. We took off one time flying from Kennedy Airport going to Johannesburg, South Africa on a big 747. You know, you fly on normal planes and they take off a long ways up the runway. You fly on a 747, and it is like flying a hotel down the runway. You are three stories up watching this thing. And it goes and it goes and it goes and it goes and goes and you are thinking, “Lift up, lift up, lift up.” Everybody in the plane is waving their arms and saying, “Lift up.” Right at the end of the runway they have these big cross marks and you know if you miss those, you are going to be in the third story of an apartment building across the field. “Come on, lift up.” Finally it shoots you off.

We had just gotten to climbing altitude, and they had given us something to drink, they had given us the peanuts and all that kind of stuff. They were going to serve a meal in a little bit. All of a sudden we went into turbulence like I have never been through in a plane in my entire life. I mean, it was like a roller coaster. I had peanuts in a bag and they were popping out of the bag. They would pop out and I would catch them. The Diet Coke was sloshing all over the place.

We are thinking, “Good grief. What is going on?” And it went on for a solid hour. You could try to take a bite of something and it goes diving. You know, it is amazing, you watch your coke go up in the air and come back down. I mean, it is really bad.

About that time there is a little click of a microphone above you and the pilot comes on and says, “Good evening.” Where is this guy? Is he on the same plane I am on? He has totally got it under control. “We are flying about 36,000 feet.” I am thinking, “That is a recording. He is not even in here. He is in New York and we are all fooled. We are all messed up.” “We are flying at 36,000 feet and I just want you to know that there is a little bit of turbulence out here.” He says, “There is a little bit of turbulence out here, but everything is under control. We have a 14 ½ hour flight, and I hope you enjoy being with us,…” He gets off. But it was amazing. As soon as he cut the thing off, we were still bouncing around but it was like, “Hey, everything is okay. We heard from the Captain. He has it under control.” It just soothes the heart.

Listen to me, if you are walking under grace, you are listening to the Captain all the time. And because of that, the conflict, the inner turmoil is gone. First of all, you know you don’t have any conflict with Him. That is settled in Christ. But now the peace of God. It is wonderful. It is soothing. It doesn’t matter what is going on around you, you see. It is that peace that carries you through whatever you have got to go through in your life. So Paul wishes the peace of God upon them. So as we choose to live daily in His Word, we hear from the Captain and that soothes us. This peace is God’s gift.

I want you to turn over to John 14:27. Jesus is going to leave a will for His disciples. He is about to go back to be with the Father. What is He going to leave with them that would be the incredible gift to remove internal conflict? Look at what He says. I love this. “Peace I leave with you.” Now, what kind of peace is this that you are leaving with us, Lord? I mean, you are leaving us.” Remember Peter. They were not real excited. He says, “My peace I give to you. The peace I have with My Father and He and I are one. The peace that brings joy because you know that you are going to the cross, bringing pleasure to the Father. This kind of peace.” Then He says, “Not as the world gives [because He shows you a contrasting peace here] do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

Oh, folks, how desperate we are for the peace of God. But I want to tell you, you can’t have it unless you living under the grace of God. Unless you are depending on Him to be in you what you know you are not every day, the peace is not there. You see, the one hooks to the other. You have to be living under the grace to have the peace. That is why we went back and looked at this.

Look over in Luke 8. I love this story. So many times you talk about it and never read it. I want you to see it. I want you to see it right in the Word of God. What a wonderful picture. We sing the song, “And He spoke to the waves and He said ‘Peace, be still, Peace, be still.’” We sing those songs, but where does that come from? Well, it comes right out of the Word of God. Look at this. Luke 8:22 says, “Now it came about on one of those days, that He and His disciples got into a boat, and He said to them, ‘Let us go over to the other side of the lake.’ And they launched out.” I love this about the Lord Jesus. “But as they were sailing along He fell asleep.”

There was another man in a boat that fell asleep, Jonah, but he had a little bit different situation here. He didn’t have God’s peace. As a matter of fact, he was totally out of the will of God. There was nothing more than apathy in his life and he had lost sight of what God wanted.

But this is a beautiful picture here of oneness with Jesus and the Father and the peace in His heart. He fell asleep. “And a fierce gale of wind descended upon the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger.” You know, on the Sea of Galilee the fishermen would be in the shallow water. Any time you are in a boat in a storm, don’t get in shallow water. Shallow water is the worst place you can get because the waves don’t have that far to go down before they crash up. That is what will swamp a boat. That is what will bring you under. And Jesus is still asleep. I love it. In the midst of it, here they are, boom, bang and He is just asleep.

Verse 24 goes on, “And they came to Him and woke Him up.” Now how many times do we disturb Him? “Saying, Master, Master, we are perishing!’ And being aroused, He rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm.” Wouldn’t you have loved to have been a fly on the wall and watched that? Jesus said, “Stop it!” And the disciples are going, “Huh?”

Look at verse 25. “And He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’ And they were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?’”

We say we want to be a fly on the wall and watch that. Well, friend, you can watch that every day of your life as you live under God’s grace. Whatever it is that just absolutely is disturbing you emotionally and every other way, robbing you of the joy that God wants to put in your life, all you have to do is cry out unto Him and He in you speaks and the ripples and the waves that are going on inside of you calm. Now, the circumstances may never change, but inside the turmoil that has been created by what is going on out here just goes whew, and it is okay. There is no conflict. He is in charge.

You see, the Corinthian church needed to hear that they could have the peace of God. They are not living under God’s grace and they are definitely not living in God’s peace. You say, “Now how do you know that?” Let me tell you something. You may have peace with Him, but if you are not living depending on His grace, it is going to be evident in only one area of your life that is going to be so clear. It will appear in other areas, yes, but one area is going to be real clear. Do you know where it is? It is in your relationships to one another within the body of Christ.

He is talking to Christians here, the church of God at Corinth. He says there are divisions and factions. The very antithesis of what peace is division. The very thing Satan creates in our life is division. His very name is diabolos – dia, through; bolos, to cast – to cast in between and divide. And when you are living with relationships that are severed and bitterness and all this garbage that goes with it, it is very clear that you haven’t seen yourself as a sinner yet as far as your flesh being able to sin. And you haven’t seen yourself as a saint, separated unto His work. And you haven’t learned yet how wicked the flesh is and how it can steal away in a moment what God wants to give to you. Therefore you have walked away from His grace and His peace disappears. The moment it disappears with Him, it disappears with somebody around you. And that is where all your griping, complaining, your criticism, your bitterness and your garbage comes from. That is all it is, garbage. It comes out of me and it comes out of you when we are not living up under grace, folks.

Look at verse 11, and I will show you. He tells them how they can live but then he shows them how they are living. 1 Corinthians 1:11 says, “For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people [friends of his], that there are quarrels among you.” You go to the book of James and it says, “Why do you quarrel and what are the conflicts all about?” It talks about the lusting of their flesh and their own individual desires.

When we are not living in the peace of God, you can count on it, the first place it will show up is in your conflict with others. You are opinionated, griping, this stuff is just rampant. It is in me and it is in you. Over in Ephesians he talks about letting no unwholesome word ever come out of your mouth. I want to tell you, if you haven’t studied Ephesians 1, 2 and 3, you can’t understand Ephesians 4 when he says that. Because in chapter 3 he says, “You be strengthened in the inner man by the Spirit of God.” That is how grace operates. And when you are strengthened in the inner man, then you can be kept in such peace with God and peace with man, you don’t have to utter those unwholesome words. The word “unwholesome” there in Ephesians 4 is the word that means rotten, putrid, smelly. Rotten. That is what comes out of people’s mouths who are not walking in the peace of God, not living under the grace of God. That is what kind of garbage it involved.

Wouldn’t it be something if somebody would call you up and say, “Did you know what I just heard?” And you say, “Phew! Oh, it is rotten. I can’t stand that! I have got to go. I can’t even talk.” And hang up. You just stopped that. You see, when you are living in the peace of God, a lot of people around you aren’t and you have got to be real careful or they will get your focus off His grace and His peace and pull you right down and disturb the whole matter by their little opinions that they have to throw in here. That is the way it is. My life, your life, anybody’s life.

You know, I heard an illustration and I don’t know if it’s true, but if it is, it is wonderful. I am going to tell it like it is true. If you have a pasture full of thoroughbred horses and a wolf or a dog is trying to bite them, they all get together with their heads in the middle and they all kick the enemy together. But donkeys, when a dog comes in after the donkeys, they all put their tail ends together instead of their heads and they kick each other!

That is the church at Corinth. That is people who don’t understand that they are desperate for God’s grace every day and desperate for God’s peace. Because if you don’t have that peace with Him and there is no inner conflict with Him, you can’t have peace with others.

Turn over to 1 Corinthians 7:15. In a context of an unbelieving husband leaving his believing wife we find out that God is calling us to peace. It says in verse 15, “Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace.” Anything else leads to confusion and all sorts of division.

Look in 1 Corinthians 14:33. “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.”

1 Corinthians 1:4-6

Contents

1 What Is The Church of God? – Part 5

2 The Church of God Lacks Nothing in Jesus Christ

What Is The Church of God? – Part 5

I hope you understand the importance of these first ten verses in 1 Corinthians. Do you realize what Paul’s doing? Do you realize that this sets the foundation and the stage for all the rest of what he’s going to say in 1 Corinthians? You cannot study chapter 10 without understanding what he said in 1:1-10. Very, very critical.

There’s one thing we’ve learned so far. No matter what a man does or doesn’t do, that does not change who he is in Christ and what he has in Christ. Now understand what I just said. It doesn’t matter what he does. It doesn’t matter what he doesn’t do. That does not change who he is in Christ and what he has in Christ. It may change how much he realizes that and walks in the reality of it but it doesn’t change who he is and what he has in Christ. The church of Corinth has nothing but problems but that has not changed who they are in Christ Jesus.

We’ve been looking at what the church of God is. He calls it the church of God at Corinth. First of all, then, they’re not their own. They’re bought with a price, fully possessed by Christ. Now we’ve read Acts 20 and 28 but I haven’t read these to you. Over at 1 Corinthians 6, we’re going to find the same thing – just to make sure you’re catching the thought. It’s the church of God, not the church of man. If anybody says that they’re a part of the body of Christ, part of the church of God, that means they are fully possessed by God, blood bought. Therefore, we are His possession. We’re not our possession. We’re not to be about our business. We’re to be about His business. In 1 Corinthians 6:20 he says, “For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” You’re not your own possession. You’re bought and paid for.

Look in 1 Corinthians 7:23. He says, “You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.” So the first thing about the church of God that we have discovered is that they are fully possessed by God. They’re His property. He has purchased us with His own blood.

Second, since we’re not our own, we’re separated unto His purposes. That’s what is found in the next phrase in verse 2. It says, “to the church of God which is at Corinth, [here’s the phrase] to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling.” The word sanctified means to be separated, apart from something else, to be set apart for something, a useful purpose. The word saint denotes the very same thing. Hagiazo is the process of being set apart. Hagios is a saint, one who has been set apart since he’s been purchased by the blood. He’s not his own. He only has one purpose in life and that’s to let God use him as a vessel and let God do His work through him.

Third, believers are everywhere and they’re not known by their position in Christ. That’s not easily seen. They’re known by their practice as a result of that position. Look at what he says. He says, “to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, [now here’s the phrase] with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:” The people who consistently, present tense, call upon the name of the Lord in absolute dependence upon Him. Not confidence in their own flesh but dependence only upon Him.

Fourth, the church of God is made up of those who daily, constantly, depend upon the grace of God. He says in verse 3, “Grace to you.” The church of Corinth could make a lot of money. They were very affluent. Though they were educated and could earn a lot of prestige, they couldn’t conquer the penalty of sin in their life. They couldn’t conquer the power of sin in their life. They were desperate for the grace of God and only the grace of God that does this in their walk. We’re constantly, totally, daily depending upon the grace of God.

Fifth, the church of God also lives desperate for His peace. All of this is found only in the Lord Jesus. It says in verse 3, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Remember this peace of God that we have? It’s peace with God. It’s the same peace but we take it a step further. It’s living in the reality of that peace, no conflict with God, no conflict with man every day in our life. If you are living under the grace of God, you can enjoy the peace of God. It’s there for you. It’s in Christ. In another place it says, “Christ is our peace.” All the grace and all the peace is resident in Him. But until we are living under it and in the midst of it and surrendered to it we cannot enjoy it, you see. You’ve got to be living under the grace of God before you can enjoy the peace of God. You don’t get the peace so that you can walk under the grace. You walk under the grace so that you can enjoy the peace. That’s the way it works.

Well, this brings us up to number six on our list. What is the church of God? Do you know what we ought to do? We ought to go out on the streets and ask people, “What do you think the church of God is?” People think it’s a denomination. That’s fine. That’s a good name for it. But what is the church of God? That’s what we’re looking at. This is what God says that we are. This is not what man says we are. It’s what God say we are.

The Church of God Lacks Nothing in Jesus Christ

Well, number six, the church of God lacks nothing in Jesus Christ our Lord. Absolutely lacks nothing.

You know, it’s amazing to be a grandfather. One thing I’ve discovered and one thing that her parents are discovering is that my granddaughter came fully equipped. She doesn’t know how to use everything yet, but she’s learning very, very fast. The cutest thing she’s doing right now is she’s standing up. She’ll just stand up right up in the middle of the floor. She hasn’t walked yet but she’s standing up. She’ll just stand there and not waver. I mean, she’s just got balance. She’ll just stand there for a while. I’m so proud of her. Isn’t it amazing what you’re proud of when you’re grandparents? Now she’ll stand there for a while and then she’ll just plop back down. But now one of these days she’s going to take a step.

So far we have learned that she has come fully equipped. Now she hasn’t gotten her words right yet but she’s found out that she can talk. As a matter of fact, she just sits there and babbles to herself. I know she’s saying something and somebody somewhere must understand her. She’s saying these little things like, “What’s that? What’s that?” I just think that’s so cute. It’s just wonderful watching her. But the longer she goes the more she discovers what she already has. It all comes in the package.

I want you to see that not only are we fully possessed by God, but we fully possess God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t lack anything in Christ Jesus. That’s an important principle to nail down the first part of this study. Look at verse 4: “I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you.”

The first thing Paul does is he lets these fleshly minded believers at Corinth, filled with factions and divisions and all kinds of problems, know that he prays for them constantly. He says, “I thank my God always concerning you.” It indicates not just a passing prayer but something that’s consistent in his life. As a matter of fact, the verb tense there is in the present tense. I consistently, constantly, thank my God concerning you.

Well, what does he thank him for? The word “thank” is the word, eucharisteo. The word means good grace. The word eu means well or good; the word charis of course is the word for grace. Good grace. The word came to mean to give thanks for that which man does not deserve. It’s just kind of giving you an indication of what Paul’s thanking God for concerning the Corinthian believers. He’s not thanking Him for their lifestyle for sure, because in verse 11 of chapter 16 he just skins them alive. But he’s thanking God for the fact that they have grace that they don’t deserve.

He says it in the verse. He says, “I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.” Now, what I want you to see here is that he’s thanking God that they have Christ in them, who is the embodiment of all grace. You see, the gift that we don’t deserve is not just what Christ does for us, it’s Christ Himself who has come to live in us. He says, “for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.”

Just remember something. You may feel lacking, but you’re not. If you have Christ, you have been enriched fully in all things and you have Him who is the embodiment of all grace and none of us deserve that.

Now, what is it that’s involved in this grace and about this grace that Paul is so thankful for and prays constantly for them? He introduces the whole thing, the whole sphere of what grace covers in verse 5: “that in everything you were enriched in Him.” I wonder how many of us believe that? In everything we have been enriched in Christ Jesus. There are a lot of people today who, like those in Corinth, feel like if they have to give up something or surrender something to Christ, they’re going to lose or have to pay more than they want to pay. Have you ever known anybody like that?

I remember a fellow one time who told his mother, “Mama, I would become a Christian, but I feel like I’m just going to have to give too much up.” There are a lot of people who still think that. They think if they come to God, they’re going to have to pay what they don’t want to pay, especially if they’re well-to-do financially. I don’t know how many times I’ve run across this in my meetings and places that I’ve been. People who are wealthy always feel like they don’t want to hear this message because they’re going to have to give up something that they don’t want to have to give up. The church of Corinth was made up of wealthy, well-educated people. They would obviously think that having to obey Christ somehow was going to cost them more than they wanted to pay.

Do you know what, folks? We live in a world of affluence. We look at all the external things and think that this is something that maybe God has cheated us out of. Maybe not. Maybe you’re fortunate to have all those things. We live this way all the time. For a person to not understand that he’s been enriched in everything in Christ Jesus is the saddest thing in the world.

This is nothing new because when God saved us He did not remove our sinful bodies. We still have our sinful bodies. Look in Matthew 19:27. It’s going to surprise you who says this: an individual who meant very much in the kingdom later on and an individual who God had to deal with quite often. The only time this person opened his mouth was to change feet. He was the most emotionally volatile disciple Jesus had. His name was Simon Peter. Look at what Peter says in Matthew 19:27. You think this is something new? This has been going on for centuries even when Christ was on this earth, thinking that if you have to surrender to Christ you’re going to have to give up something or pay something you just don’t want to pay. Are you kidding? Verse 27 says, “Then Peter answered and said to Him, ‘Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?’” Ha, ha. Woe is me for having to obey God. I’ve just had to obey You, Lord. What is there for us?

You know, the Corinthian church and Peter missed the whole thing. They have been fully enriched in Him. Yes, you must obey. Yes, you must deny sin. Yes, you must crucify yourself but in Christ you are enriched in everything.

Most of us have long weeks and you’ve probably had a long day. I have too. You get to church on Wednesday night and you think, “Oh, man, will you say something that’ll crank me up? I’ve got to be able to go home.” Well, let me tell you something. You have been fully enriched in everything in Christ Jesus, in everything. Everything has changed because Jesus has come into your life. Everything in life now is richer or fuller because Jesus is in your life. We’re rich in a way the world will never understand. In the material world the rich people who have things don’t really have them. They’re owned by the things they think that they have. They own us. We don’t own them.

Some folks gave us a car one time years ago, the first car that I’ve ever been given. It was a Chevrolet. It had upholstery like a couch. It was wonderful. I mean I thought I was in my living room riding in that thing. It was a Chevrolet Caprice. Man, it had power steering. It had a radio. It had big speakers in the back and speakers in the front, four doors. Man, we had been driving an old ‘73 Buick for all those years that would overheat 35 miles away from home. The church gave us a brand new car in another place where I served. I remember how automatically overnight that thing began to possess me. I wanted to make sure no leaves or limbs fell on it during the night if there was a rainstorm. I wanted to make sure that no bird got on it and no scratches got on it. All of a sudden it began to control us. Have you ever been in a situation like that and you thought you owned it? You don’t own it. It owns you and robs you out of every joy you could have had otherwise.

I was riding Mississippi one day, and there was a piece of pipe lying on the road. I didn’t see it until it was too late. I ran over part of it and it just made it flip up and when it flipped up it caught the side of my car. That thing had a big silver chrome strip all the way down the side. It caught right in the middle of it and just made a dent, I mean, an inch wide, all the way back to the end of the car. It scratched that thing like it has never been scratched. I pulled over to the side of the road, and I got out of the car. I stewed and pouted and got upset. It was almost like God was saying, “That’s good, Barber. That’s really good. You don’t own that car. That car rules you. It rules your emotions. It rules your choices.” You see the rich people of the world think they own this stuff. They don’t own it. You wait until the stock market goes down one more time and you’ll find out how they feel about the things in their life. It rules you.

But oh the difference in the riches that God gives us in Christ Jesus! We fully possess the riches that God has given us in Christ Jesus. We actually have them. They’re our possessions in Christ Jesus. In His kingdom, in Christ, they’re our possessions forever. You can be as poor as a church mouse and be wealthier than the richest person who lives down the street from you if you have Jesus Christ in your heart. You truly possess, and everything in life becomes richer and fuller because He lives in you.

Paul’s saying that you may not be realizing it, but you have in you that which will make life what God intended it to be, because He’s the added piece of the puzzle. You now have Christ in you. Love for people, love for life, love for your family, such that has never been known before.

If you haven’t traveled much, you don’t understand how desperate people are for what he’s talking about here. The Corinthian church didn’t realize how desperate they were for what he’s talking about here. He’s just setting the stage. He’s trying to show them, “Okay, you’ve chosen not to live in all of this and look at your divisions and factions and problems and quarrelling and all this stuff you live in.” The rest of the book is what people live and that inner turmoil. They could have had the peace of God living under the grace of God, enriched in everything in Christ Jesus.

Like that fellow who came up to an airline ticket counter. A fellow was just chewing out this ticket clerk because something had happened on his arrangements and he couldn’t take off when he wanted to take off. I mean you could tell this man had no peace inside of him. This was a man governed by his own flesh. When he walked away the fellow walked up to the counter and said, “How do you put up with people like that?” The ticket counter guy said, “You know, it didn’t bother me. I just checked his bags to Hong Kong.”

But there are people like this all around you. What they have controls them. They do not control it. We have something that adds the extra dimension to our life. You’ve been enriched by Jesus Christ. You say, “Well, my life’s not like that.” Well, hang on, we’ll tell you why before this thing’s over with.

Look over in Ephesians 3:8. He’s talking about the riches we have. Good gracious sakes alive! You know all this talk. “I just grew up in a nonfunctional family. I had a dysfunctional family so bad.” Oh good grief, man! So what? All of us did. We were born into the dysfunctional family of Adam but we’ve been born again in the functional family of God. We have been enriched in all things in Christ Jesus. We either have to live as if we’re products of our past or live as if we’re products of the cross. In Ephesians 3:8 he says, “To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ.”

I believe the longer you live the more you begin to understand some of these terms. When you think about the fact how rich is the forgiveness of God that He not only died for your sins, the sins past, present, and future, but He died for every person’s sins in the world, folks, you start thinking about that for a while and it will boggle your mind as to who He is and what He’s done and how rich we are in Him. They’re unfathomable. They’re unsearchable. You can go looking for them tomorrow and find things you didn’t even know that were there. I believe a million years after we’re in Heaven and we see Him and we know as we’re known, one day a million years from now we’ll walk by Him and we’ll break out and just praise and praise and continue to praise for who He is and what He’s given us in salvation. But we live down here like spiritual paupers.

Look in Ephesians 1:18 at Paul’s prayer for the church of Ephesus. He says, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” Now how does he say you’re going to find out? He said that the eyes of your heart are going to have to be opened. You can study it and study it until you fall in the floor and one day God’s going to open up that search light and open the eyes of your spiritual heart and you’re going to understand what you have in Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:3 talks about the First National Bank of all the blessings of God. Look what it says. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” We have access to the very unlimited spiritual riches of Christ. We’re the church of God, bought with a price, set apart unto Him, called saints, given grace in Him that we live under and experience His peace, but we also have everything. We’ve been enriched in everything in Christ Jesus. We lack nothing in Him.

You see there’s fallacy about riches, that they satisfy us. Look over in Proverbs 27:20. I want to show you whether or not your flesh can ever be satisfied. If you’re living this kind of life and think there’s satisfaction, let me just show you what the Word says. It’s very clear. Proverbs 27:20 starts off and says, “Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied [in other words, they just endlessly take souls into them. Then it says], nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied.” They’re never satisfied. As soon as you get whatever it is you think will make your life better outside of Jesus Christ, as soon as you get it, you’re not satisfied because you’re going to see something else that you want. The more you get, the more you want. That’s the way life is down here and the flesh can never be satisfied in that sense.

Not only will it never be satisfied but everything you get on this earth and you call riches, compared to what we have in Jesus Christ, have wings on them. We mentioned that just a little bit a little earlier. Look over in Matthew 6:19. There’s an inherent destructive end built into everything the world offers to you. Verse 19 reads, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.”

You know one person who learned that was the rich man over in Luke 12:20. You might want to mark some of these places because, I tell you, these are the things that you have to realize that are there before you can start being awakened to what you have that’s internal and eternal that no man can take away from you, the riches that we have in Christ Jesus. In Luke 12:20 we read, “But God said to him [this is that rich man who stored everything up. He just thinks he’s got it. He owns it. It’s his.], “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’” Thank God that we own riches that can only be found in Christ that no man can put their filthy paws on and take away from us.

An illustration happened back in the second century really touched me as I was studying this. It’s a true story. A Christian was brought before a pagan ruler and told to renounce his faith. And the answers he gave to this pagan ruler, I think, really depict what we’re looking at in 1 Corinthians. First of all, the ruler said, “If you don’t renounce your faith, I will banish you from this land.” The man answered and said, “You cannot banish me from Christ. You can banish me from the land, but you can’t banish me from Christ, because He promised He would never leave me or forsake me.” The ruler said to him, “Then I’ll confiscate your property and take all your possessions.” To which the man said, “My treasures are laid up in Heaven and you cannot get to them.” The ruler became angry. Not knowing what to say, he said, “Alright, then I’ll just kill you.” The believer said, “I have been dead for forty years since I first received Christ in my heart and my life is hidden in Christ and you cannot touch it.” And history records the ruler saying, “What do you do with fanatics such as this?”

When you begin to realize what you have in Jesus Christ, folks, all of a sudden your pursuits in this world change and He enriches and fills every area of your life. We’re rich. We lack nothing in Christ.

Go back to 1 Corinthians 1:4. The verb “enrich” is an important word to understand. It is a rare verb. It’s only found three times in the New Testament. It’s found right in 1 Corinthians in the first aorist passive. It’s a causative verb, that the action of our being enriched took place in the past at a certain point and it was final. It almost has the sense of a perfect tense. Yet it still continues to affect our life.

It’s in the passive voice. The passive voice means that all the riches we have in Christ are not because of us but because of Him. The action happened unto us. It’s not something we deserve. It’s not something we asked for. It’s something He gave us as a free gift of His grace. It’s all resident in Christ. It happened back here and it’s supposed to be still having an effect in our life. When we’re in Him, we become heirs of His family, heirs of all the riches He has. That’s what He said. You’re enriched fully in everything in Christ Jesus.

Look over at Galatians 4:7. When you’re living out there in the turmoil and conflicting arenas of this world, it’s good to know this, isn’t it? It’s good to know that we fully possess all of God in Christ Jesus through His grace. It’s all there. All we’ve got to do is learn how to tap into it. Galatians 4:7 says, “Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” You know, there’s no greater riches on earth than we have in Christ Jesus.

Do you know what the difference is between a co-heir and a joint-heir? In my wife’s family there are eight children. All of them are married. All of them have children. Good night! Anyway, she is a co-heir with eight children. She has six girls in her family and two boys. That’s five sisters and two brothers. So she’s a co-heir. So if anything ever happens to her mama, then she’ll become a co-heir of that estate. She’ll get one eighth of everything in that estate, whatever that is. That’s a co-heir.

But a joint-heir is a little different. A joint-heir shares in the whole estate with anyone who gets an inheritance. In other words, we are joint-heirs of Christ, not co-heirs. Co-heirs, let’s see how many millions of Christians are there in the world? Well, I’ll get about a millionth of a share. No, in Christ Jesus we share it all. Everyone of us. We have access to it through the Holy Spirit of God and because of grace. We have been enriched in all things; that’s constantly to be having an effect on our life every day that we live. Because of this enrichment there’s no area of our lives that cannot be affected if we’re willing to walk by His grace.

In other words, you may say, “I’ve got a problem and I don’t know what to do about it.” Well, I can tell you only one thing. You have been fully enriched in Christ Jesus and because of His grace, there’s not any area of your life in which He cannot transform you, renew you, and do whatever it is that He desires to do in your life. There’s not one single area, not one single problem He cannot handle.

I want to tell you something. In every situation of our life, God is able. God is able. God is able through the grace that He has given unto us. There’s not one area of our life that we cannot be enriched in because of having been fully enriched. We acquired a brand new nature, 2 Peter 1:4 says. We’re members of God’s eternal family as Galatians 3:26 says. What else do we want?

Paul is trying to remind this church; and remember, this is the most fleshly-minded church in the New Testament. He’s not bragging on what they’re doing. He’s boasting in what they have in Christ Jesus. That’s what he’s doing. That’s going to set the whole foundation for the rest of the book. When you get over several chapters later, remember what he said in 1:1-10 because it has something to do with everything he addresses in the rest of the book.

There are two examples that Paul wants us to understand of how we’ve been enriched in everything. He’s trying to tell us something. Look what he says in verse 5: “that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge.” Now, why in the world would he narrow it down to those two things? Because he’s going to zero in on a testimony they’re supposed to be having amongst the Corinthian people. Paul remembers how wicked Corinth is. Led by the Holy Spirit of God, he’s setting it up for the rest of the things he’s going to say in 1 Corinthians about the testimony we ought to be having to others by what we say and by what we know and how we live.

First of all, he says, “You’re enriched in all speech.” The word for “all” here is panti in the Greek, and it means all. It means enriched in every kind of word. Now, you know, when we communicate with one another, we express ourselves by what we say. So we have been enriched. He says, “You have been enriched in all speech.”

The word for “speech” here is the word logos. Now you know the word logos. That means word. Doesn’t it? It means more than just word. You see, in the English language we only have one word for half of the things we say. They had several words and were specific in what they meant. It’s kind of like we have one word for love. We love grandmother, the American flag, my dog, and Jesus with the same word. Who knows the difference in any of it? But when you hear them say it, they would put it in such a way that you would know exactly what they were talking about.

There are three words for speech we’re going to look at in a moment. What does this word right here mean, the word logos? It’s the word in the Greek that specifically refers to words that have meaning. Every time you ever see the word logos you never think of idle, senseless words. You never think of a word that’s hanging out there with nothing behind it. It means intelligence, with great meaning.

That’s the word God chose to call His own son Jesus Christ. John says in 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, (the logos),” the divine intelligence of God. He understands what he’s doing. There’s thought behind it. There’s sense to it. The very mind of God is incorporated into Christ: “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then in verse 14 we read, “And the Word (the divine intelligence of God in the person of Jesus) became flesh, and dwelt among us.”

So don’t ever think it could be used in a sentence of something that is senseless or idle or has no thought behind it. It can never be used that way. It’s always used one specific way. I told you there are three distinct words for speech in the Greek. We’ve got to understand them. You say, “Why do we have to understand them?” I’m telling you, this is foundational for what we’re going to get into later on.

Look over in Matthew 12:36. It’s very significant that you understand this. Only one of these words for “word” consistently means intelligent, thought through, with meaning speech. Only one, the word logos. The others, depending on their context, can mean that but don’t necessarily mean that just on their own. In Matthew 12:36 Jesus says, “‘And I say to you,...” Now, what do you think the word “say” is there? That’s the logos. Jesus was saying, “I say to you what I’m saying to you has thought behind it. It has meaning behind it. It has sense to it.”

Look at the next word: “that every careless word.” Now that “careless word” there is the word rhema. It is the spoken word but does not necessarily mean that there’s something thought through behind it. For instance, here it’s careless words. It can be a careless word. So rhema, even though some people say that it always mean with thought behind it, does not necessarily mean that. It can be a careless spoken word. Logos can never be that. It has intelligence and thought behind it.

Then there’s another word for speech there. He says, “And I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak.” The “shall speak” there is another word. It’s the word laleo. It simply means to make a noise and have no understanding whatsoever of w

1 Corinthians 1:7

Contents

1 What Is The Church of God? - Part 6

2 The Church of God Lives Eager for the Return of Christ

3 The Church of God Is Being Confirmed to the End

What Is The Church of God? - Part 6

Have you ever been looking for something and you had it all the time but didn’t know it? Recently I was looking for my glasses. I looked everywhere for them. I looked all over the house. I looked everywhere I could think of: pockets, drawers, anywhere I could find that I might could have placed them. I went into the bathroom thinking I might have left them laying there. When I walked in, I happened to look up in the mirror and I saw something very strange. I had them on all the time. Has that ever happened to you?

You know, it’s strange. You study the book of 1 Corinthians and observe, just simple observation, and you discover that the church of Corinth lived as if God had given them nothing, when in fact He had given them everything. A lot of Christians are that way. They live as if they lack something, not understanding they have everything in Christ Jesus.

The apostle Paul wants the Corinthians to know that they lack nothing in Christ Jesus. They lack nothing in Him because of the grace given to them. Paul wants the church of Corinth to realize that what happened back in the past, salvation, should be affecting them in the present. And it was not doing that. He’s reminding them, recalling them to what they have in Christ Jesus. They didn’t get cheated, folks. Every believer receives the same thing when he receives the Lord Jesus Christ and that’s everything in Him.

I want you to know today we’re no different from that. You have received everything in Christ Jesus. There’s not one ounce of God that you did not get in Christ Jesus. But the key is you’ve got to learn to appropriate that and begin to live in the understanding that you also gave everything to Him, you see. Full surrender is not a goal to work toward. Full surrender is what we come from, and we need to wake up and understand. We’ve already given everything to Him. We just haven’t realized it yet and we need to do that. So, Paul is recalling them to the fact that they have everything in Christ.

Verse 4 says, “I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.” Now, “was given you in Christ Jesus” is an important phrase. We were in Adam and had all the curse of that transgression, but now that we’re in Christ, it’s a different situation. And because of His grace all things been given to us in Christ Jesus.

Look at verse 5. That thought that we have everything in Christ begins to frame these next several phrases. Verse 5 says, “that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge.” That word “everything” means everything. He said in every area of your life, everything about you has been enriched with Christ Jesus. You don’t need anything outside of Him. As a matter of fact, what he’s saying is, all that you’re required to do in Corinth has already been given to you. You don’t lack anything. This is so important for all of us to understand.

Then he does narrow it down. He says, “in all speech and all knowledge.” Their words were enriched because of their knowledge. But their knowledge was enriched because of their words. It’s sort of a circle that keeps feeding itself. Think about what I’m saying here. The wisdom and the Word of God had been given to them. Now their minds had been enriched with that wisdom and the knowledge of God. You see, it’s something that God adds as a dimension to your life that enriches every dimension of your life. And now since their minds had been enriched, their words had been enriched and they could teach and share and preach the things that their minds now have helped them to understand. But as they do that, that increases the knowledge. And as the knowledge increases and is enriched, that enriches their words. It just keeps going on and on and on because of the dimension that Christ has added to their lives.

In fact, he says to just document the fact that you have everything that you need in Christ. The testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you. Notice that in verse 6, “even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you.” Right now it’s not being confirmed in Corinth, but it has been confirmed in them.

The word “testimony,” marturion, is that which gives proof without a shadow of a doubt. The word for “confirmed” is something that solidifies, that makes it firm. What he’s saying to the Corinthians is, “Folks, listen. It is settled. It’s settled. The moment you put your faith into Jesus Christ, you received Him, the embodiment of all His grace, and you lack nothing. You’ve been enriched with everything and that now is settled. Nobody can shake you from that.” You have everything you need. As Peter said in one of his epistles, “For life and for godliness.” Now, in verse 7 he adds that you are not lacking in any gift.

Before we look at verse 7, to put this into perspective, here is a church living as if they lack everything when in fact they have everything in Christ. You’ve got to realize that the testimony that’s been confirmed in them is only going to be manifested through them to the degree they live verses 2-4. In other words, when they start living as if they’ve been bought with a price, when they start living as if they’re set aside for the purposes of God, when they start living under the grace of God which is not putting their confidence in their flesh but into confidence only in Him, when they start living filled and flooded with the peace of God, then that testimony that’s been confirmed in them can be made manifested through them. That’s the whole problem with Corinth. They live as if they’re lacking when they already have everything they need. They live looking for their glasses and they already have them on.

Well, let’s go to verse 7: “so that you are not lacking in any gift.” Now why would they not be lacking any gift? Because they had the giver, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, if we have Him, we have everything. We don’t lack anything outside of Him. He’s the giver of all things. So they lack in no gift because they have Christ. The word “lacking” is the word hustereo. It means to be behind or fall behind in something. It means to be inferior or as it’s translated here, lacking. So the idea is you don’t lack anything.

Yet there’s another idea. It’s very subtle. It’s built right into it. It’s in the present tense and the passive voice. Present tense means that you consistently do it every day. Passive voice means nothing could be causing you to fall behind in any gift or in anything because you in Christ don’t lack anything. In other words, you have it, but now don’t fall short. Actually, what he’s saying is that if you do fall short, it’s your fault because you already have what you need. Understand that and learn to live out of it. If they’re not going to live according to verses 2 and 3 then they’re not going to experience what he says is truth that’s been confirmed in their heart in verses 4-7.

Well, if you have Christ, He’s the supplier of all the gifts. The word for gift there is the word charisma. It’s an important word. We get the word charismatic from it. Everybody knows that word, but they don’t have a clue where that word comes from. The word charis is the word for grace. God never has charisma. He has grace. He’s the embodiment of grace. He’s the giver of charisma. Charisma is the result of grace.

The little ma at the end of the word means the result. So it’s talking about the gift itself. So God gives charisma. He is the embodiment of charis, which is grace. The word has that understanding. By the way, remember grace is the beautiful, lovely disposition of God to give something that man could never deserve. Whatever gift we have from Him is not deserved.

There is no definite article here. So, therefore, it’s all inclusive. It doesn’t just mean the spiritual gifts of chapters 12-14. It’s amazing how many people never study 1 Corinthians. They just go to chapters 12-14 and study that. Then they go back to chapter 1 and put everything in the light of chapters 12-14. You can’t do that. You’ve got to start in chapter 1 and then when you get to chapter 12 it will make a lot of sense. That’s just so important. When you think of gifts with no definite article, you can’t just zero in on the wonderful charismatic gifts of the church, the body, and how we minister to one another. That’s just a part of it.

The thing I want you to see is anything we receive from God is a gift of His grace. The very fact that I’m breathing right now is a gift of His grace. The fact that I woke up this morning is a gift of His grace. We do not deserve any of it. We’re living in a day when people have lost that awesomeness of the fact that we don’t deserve what God gives to us. We live in a day when society teaches us to expect something from somebody. We deserve, we want something. We even vote in elections for people who can do the best for us. That’s the way we live. But in fact we deserve nothing before God. As sinners we deserve nothing. Everything we have from Him is a gift of His grace.

When I was in seminary I went over to visit Asbury Seminary. That seminary at that time had some wonderful professors, one of which was Dr. Robert Coleman who wrote The Master Plan of Evangelism. I had been going to a seminary that taught the “J EDP” theory. They said the first eleven chapters of Genesis was a myth. They would start their classes by praying, “Our mother which art in heaven.” The statement was made in one of my classes that Browning’s works were just as inspired as most of the Old Testament.

I went over to Asbury just looking for something, for that added dimension. In our lives He has enriched us in all things and I wasn’t finding that enrichment where I was going. I remember sitting in the class one day of Dr. Robert Coleman. I had never met him, didn’t know anything about him. There were two to four hundred students in the classroom, a huge class, like an auditorium. I heard a voice singing down the hall and I thought, “Who in the world is that?” It was that song, “Amazing love, how can it be.” I’d never heard that before in all my life. I guess that was their “Amazing Grace.” But ever since I heard it, it’s done something to stir my heart.

He walked into the room and it was my professor. When he walked into the room, everybody in there broke into four-part harmony. I want to tell you something, folks. I thought I had died and gone right into Heaven. When I hear our wonderful choir sing it, it just brings every bit of that back to me. He walked to the front of the room with tears streaming down his face. He said, “Folks, I want you to stand with me right now and raise your hands. We’re going to walk into the throne room of a Holy God who allows us to come into His presence because of the grace that has been shown to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t deserve it, but it’s God’s grace. Let’s walk in and let’s experience the Holy God who has saved us.” I thought, seriously, “God, don’t ever take me out.” I understand what Peter was talking about on the Mount of Transfiguration. Let’s just build a tabernacle up here and let’s don’t ever leave this place because it was so real. He helped me in just a few phrases to understand what I didn’t deserve. In just in a few words from Scripture lifting up our Lord, he helped me realize the disposition and beautiful character of God. That He would stoop so low that He would send His Son to give all of it to me.

You see, folks, you’ve got to live in light of that. If you think 1 Corinthians is all about spiritual gifts, get a life. Wake up and get real! The book of 1 Corinthians is written to a church that lives as if they lack, but they don’t lack. They have everything in Christ. The apostle Paul is trying to wake them up and shake them up and get them back to living like they ought to live. So he says, “You’ve been given it all in Him and you lack in no gift.”

Let me show you what the word “gift” means. Let’s look in other places where the word’s used because it covers all of this. First of all, it’s the gift of salvation itself. Look over in Romans 5:15. The very gift of salvation is charisma. It’s the gift of God. You don’t deserve it. That’s what he’s saying. You have all the gifts in Christ Jesus. You lack in no gift, even though you live as if you do. “But the free gift [that’s the word] is not like the transgression.” He’s comparing the first Adam. Really, Jesus is the first one. He’s comparing Adam of Genesis with the Adam of Christ, the God-man Christ. He’s comparing the two men who came and what they did for mankind. And he says, “But the free gift [charisma, that which man does not deserve from God] is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.”

So you see the difference in Adam and Jesus. When Adam sinned, all man sinned in him. But when Christ came, He died for us that all men might have life through Him. Through one came death. Through the other comes life. It’s a gift. It’s a free gift to us, but it’s expensive to God, as we studied earlier.

In Romans 6:23 he uses the word again. He says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God [I love the way it’s translated. The word “free” is not in there but it’s implied in the word] is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Of course over in Romans 11:29 he says, “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” So the first thing you see in the word “gift” is the salvation experience itself, that which has birthed us into the kingdom of God which we could not in a million years deserve. Now, it does refer to the wonderful grace gifts that God has given to us today. We have spiritual gifts. What are they for? For the building up of the body of Christ. You see, not only is the gift of salvation resident in Christ, but so are the gifts which are distributed by His Spirit. God, the Father, is the initiator of it.

Look over in Romans 12:6. It says, “And since we have gifts [It’s in the plural here but it’s the word charisma] that differ according to the grace given to us, let each exercise them accordingly.” And then he begins to give them a list of those gifts in chapter 12 of Romans.

Look in 1 Corinthians 12:4. The same word appears there. “Now there are varieties of gifts [The word is in the plural. It’s the same exact thought of Romans 12] but the same Spirit.” The Spirit of God distributes them. Jesus gives them their ministry, and the Father takes care of the effects.

Look over in 1 Timothy 4:14. Paul uses the word to Timothy, his son. He calls him “his son in the faith.” “Do not neglect the spiritual gift [Where is that spiritual gift? Is it out here? No. He says it’s] within you.” The spiritual gift within you.

Look at 2 Timothy 1:6. It’s saying the same thing in a different way to the same man. He tells him that the gift is within him and then in verse 6 he says, “And for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.” The laying on of his hands did not distribute the gift. The laying on of his hands simply recognized it and, as an apostle, he released him to exercise what God had already given to him. He’s still talking about the gifts God has given us as the body of Christ that are different. They are varied, and they’re there for the building up of the Body. This is part of it. Salvation is used for salvation. It’s used for this.

In 1 Peter 4:10, Peter gets into the act. He says, “As each one has received a special gift [speaking exactly of that], employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold [or the various colored] grace of God.”

Now, that’s two ways in which the word “grace” is used. Let me show you a third way it’s used and the gifts that he’s speaking of here, the grace gift. In Romans 1:11 it’s the gift given when it’s imparted by instruction that somebody gives to somebody else. Did you’ll ever think about that? When I stand up to preach, I want so much for God to make my mind sensitive to what He wants me to say. But at the same time He gives you grace to be able to hear what He wants to say to you. So none of us should walk away enamored with a preacher. We walk away overwhelmed by what God has done as we’ve come together to be in His Word. Paul says in Romans 1:11, “For I long to see you in order that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established.” The word “established” has the idea of when you take a basketball goal and you cement it in the ground. The wind may come and blow that goal over and back and over and back but if it’s cemented properly, it’s not going to break. It’s going to stand there even though the winds may blow it. It’s going to make you more firm and more established where you are. The Apostle Paul was going to instruct them. He was going to bring to them the good news of God. That was going to be a gift of grace that God had given to the people in Rome.

In 1 Corinthians 7:7, Paul is speaking of his celibate lifestyle. He talks about marriage sometimes and it appears he’s down on marriage. He’s not. He just understands that because of what he’s called to do, it wouldn’t be very helpful for him to be married. 1 Corinthians 7:7 talks about the different distinctiveness of individuals and how everybody’s not the same in this. It says, “Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am.” Having the self-control to be able to overcome the desire to be with another of the opposite sex and to live in marriage. “However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that.” He’s talking about a different situation altogether than anything we’ve brought up.

Look in 2 Corinthians 1:11. This is the last one I’ll bring up. What I’m trying to show you is when he says that you do not lack in any gift, he’s not just singling out the spiritual gifts of chapters 12-14. He’s singling out the fact that we have everything in Christ and should never live as if we’re lacking. We live being enriched in all things in Christ Jesus, through His grace. Verse 11 reads, “you also joining in helping us through your prayers, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed upon us through the prayers of many.” In other words, the deliverance of the saints. How many times has God interceded and stepped in the area of saints because of somebody else’s intercession, because of somebody else praying? He says, “Hey, these deliverances through which God has taken us out of this situation and spared us through that one are all grace. It’s a gift of God and we don’t deserve any of it.”

You see, this whole first part of 1 Corinthians, to me, is so clear. Paul is trying to say, “Guys, listen. You’re looking for your glasses and you’ve got them on. You’ve been enriched in everything. You don’t need anything outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you come up lacking, it’s your fault because you have these things in your life.”

Well, the church of Corinth was not living this way. We tried to introduce it to you. The church of Corinth lived as if they’re lacking. First of all, he depicts this one. He says, “You’re chasing after men instead of the one God man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you are of Peter. Some of you are of Paul. Some of you are of Apollos.” What he’s saying is, “Hey, when you find people who follow men around other than The Man, the God-Man, you’ve got somebody who doesn’t understand what they already have.” They live as if they’re lacking when they don’t realize they have everything in Christ Jesus.

But not only did they follow men and divide everything and everybody, they sought after the gift and not the giver. I want to tell you something, folks. When we do get to that area, you’re going to find a group of people who live as if they’re lacking, who do not live in the sufficiency of God in their lives, and they’re chasing after gifts rather than holding on to the giver.

I was in a leading sign gift church in El Paso, Texas. I started talking about Ephesians and what you have in Jesus Christ. Folks, in every session that’s all I talked about. We have everything in Christ Jesus. The same thing Paul was telling the Corinthians, I was telling them. You’ve been enriched in everything in Christ Jesus. Quit looking for something as if you lacking. Live out of that which you have.

Well, Saturday morning came, and they hadn’t run me off. There was about four hundred or so people there. When I finished, they gave me a standing ovation. I had no idea until later on what this meant. These people were finally coming to understand you don’t live chasing a gift. You don’t live chasing people. Live in the sufficiency of what you already have in Jesus Christ.

One little lady chased me down in the parking lot and got hold of me. She had tears streaming down her face. She said, “Thank you! Thank you!” I said, “What for?” She said, “All of my life I’ve been praying for the gift. I’ve prayed for it. I’ve gone to people trying to give it to me. Thank God! It finally dawned on me. I don’t need the gift. I have the Giver in my life.”

Now, folks, this may make you sad, mad, or glad, but that’s exactly what Paul’s trying to tell the church at Corinth. Wake up! Grow up and live out of what you have. Quit living as if you lack. You do not lack. You’ve been enriched in everything and this testimony has been confirmed in you from the day that you got saved. It’s been confirmed. It’s settled, put into concrete. You never change what has been done in a person’s life.

Well, let’s make our list again. Okay? Are you with me? The characteristics of the church of God are:

They’re fully possessed by God. It’s the church of God, not of man. They’re bought with a price as we’ve already seen.

They’re set apart for His purpose. They’re sanctified, that’s what it means. The only purpose a Christian has is to live for the purposes of God.

They consistently call upon His name. They’re constantly, dependent upon Him, not putting any confidence in their flesh.

They live desperate for the grace of God.

They live desperate for the peace of God. You’ve got to have the two of those. You can’t have peace before you have grace. You’ve got to have grace before you have peace. Living up under the grace of God means you live in His power, not in your power. And the peace of God is what God gives.

They lack nothing in Christ.

The Church of God Lives Eager for the Return of Christ

Well, we’ve finally come to the seventh characteristic. The seventh one is they live eager for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh boy! Look at verse 7 again: “so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Let me ask you a question. Are you really living this way? People love those songs, “The King is coming. The King is coming.” They sing all these songs and then they live as if He’s never going to come. They don’t live walking righteously before Him. They don’t live convicted by sin. All of us sometimes drift into that kind of apathy. We say that we look forward to the coming of Jesus. Has it dawned on you yet what that’s going to mean in your life when you stand before Him one day, the eyes of Him who knows all and has seen all? Has it dawned on you what you’re saying when you say, “I’m living expectantly waiting the return of Christ.” I dare say to you that a lot of people aren’t living that way though they say they are.

The church at Corinth wasn’t living that way. This wouldn’t have been in their life had they been living that way. He says, “so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly.” The word “awaiting eagerly” comes from two Greek words. One is apo and the other one is dechomai, which has the idea of it’s just that eagerness of doing something. Remember back when Paul went to the church of Berea and found those Berean believers who searched the Scriptures. It says, “They eagerly received the Word of God.” The Scripture says that they were more noble-minded. They were of a higher class than the ones he had been to. They at least listened to him. And with eagerness they received. The word dechomai is used there.

Suppose I had a gift to give you and you knew about it. You were at home expectantly awaiting that gift to come because you saw me in the store. You didn’t know what it was because you got there too late and it was in a box. You went home waiting on me to bring it by your house. You would be waiting eagerly to receive it. That’s different than if you didn’t know I was going to give you a gift. I dropped by your house and gave it to you. You’d receive it but not with the same eagerness. That’s what he’s talking about here. It’s, “awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

If the church of God is walking in the realization that Christ may come at any time, they live eagerly expecting that, trusting Him to have enriched them in anything, depending upon His grace and peace, and living with purposes that are only His as people who are His full possession. Now listen to me, they’re not going to live as if they lack anything. When you find a person who lives as if he lacks, it’s a person who’s not yet lined up with what he’s supposed to be. If a person’s not living and walking under the grace of God, living a life that’s for Him to use and trusting only Him and His Word, then that person lives as if he lacks and he is not eagerly awaiting for the return of Christ.

The return of the Lord Jesus Christ is associated with something we need to understand and that’s our adoption as sons. You know, it’s interesting to me. We’ve been adopted. We know that from Ephesians. We’re enjoying the process of that adoption now, but one day the final chapter’s going to be written because Romans 8 says, “We look forward to the adoption as sons.” That’s a strange thing. Isn’t it? I’ve been saved. I’m being saved. I shall be saved. It all fits in the same kind of understanding.

Look at Romans 8:19. It uses the same word. Look at what it attaches it to. What is the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, His coming, when He comes for His church, associated with? It talks here about creation, not necessarily humankind, but the animal life, the trees, the plants, everything’s awaiting something here. It has to do with this coming of the Lord. It has to do with our adoption, the final act of our adoption. It says, “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly [the same exact word we’re looking at over in 1 Corinthians] for the revealing of the sons of God.” Do you realize one day when Jesus comes for His church, we’re going to look at Him and we’re going to look at ourselves and we’re going to look back at Him and back at ourselves and say, “This is what it was all about.” Because God’s going to give us a glorified body when He comes again for His church. That’s when we get our glorified body. That’s the final act of our adoption that we haven’t experienced yet. It’s guaranteed because Scripture says, “Those whom He called, He justified. Those whom He justified, He also glorified.” He’s already seen it happen. We haven’t. He has. It’s guaranteed one day in that final act.

So the coming, the appearing of the Lord Jesus has to do with the final act of our adoption when we finally get our glorified body, when redemption has been made complete and then we can go on being about the purposes of God and live with Him forever.

Look over in 1 Thessalonians 4:13. This is really illustrated here, I think, as clearly as anywhere in Scripture. They’re having a real dilemma. They didn’t know what happened to the righteous dead. They knew Christ was coming. They believed in the eminent return of Christ. I totally disagree with those who say, “There is no imminence to the return of Christ.” Are you kidding? They lived with this fear that maybe He’ll come. What happens to those who have already died? They didn’t understand. What happened to their bodies? Paul says in verse 13, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep.” The word “asleep” always deals with death and the physical body. Some people say there’s a soul sleep. Are you kidding? It says in Corinthians, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” There’s not soul sleep. Your spirit goes right up to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. The word “asleep” here has to do with the body and death.

You see, when you go to sleep, what do you do? You lay down, right? But what do you do after you’ve slept long enough? You get up. Every time you see that, remember what’s going to happen to the body. A preacher one time said, “I’m going to plant a body.” I thought that was kind of callous until I studied 1 Corinthians 15 and found out that’s exactly what he did. The spirit went to be with the Lord. What did he do? He took the body out and planted it in the ground. What do you do when you plant something? You expect it to come up one day. That’s exactly what’s going to happen here. He said, “those who are asleep.” He’s talking about their bodies. They’re in the ground. He says, “that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”

I thought they were in the ground. No, their spirit is with Him. Their body is in the ground. There’s been a separation here. In death the spirit goes to be with the Lord. The body goes into the ground. Then he says in verse 15, “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.” Paul seems to suggest that he thought he was going to be one of them. You talk about imminence, “we who are alive.” He thought he was going to be living w

I Corinthians 1:8

Contents

1 What Is the Church of God? – Part 7

2 The Church of God Walks and Lives in Eternal Assurance

What Is the Church of God? – Part 7

I hope you understand how important these first nine verses are to our study of 1 Corinthians. They form a grid through which the rest of the book must be looked at. When we leave verses 1-9, and we start dealing with the divisions and the factions and the problems in the church, remember, Paul has already said some things that are very, very key to what causes life to be turned right side up.

What’s happened in Corinth is their lives are upside down. That’s why he’s writing to them. It’s a problem church. There are more problems in this church than in just about any of the New Testament that we study and love so much.

The Church of God Walks and Lives in Eternal Assurance

Let’s go back to the eighth characteristic of the church of God. I want to redo that one and rename it. The eighth characteristic of the church of God is the church of God walks and lives in eternal assurance. Now if you have any struggle with the assurance of your salvation, you listen up to what he’s about to say right here. Look at 1 Corinthians 1:8, “who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now, that’s an important, important verse. The word “confirm” there is the future indicative of the word, bebaioo. It’s the word, when referring to persons, that has the idea of strengthening. But it also has the idea of keeping us standing in the grace that we already have. Man, this is beautiful. We have His grace, and we stand it.

But God promises this to the church of Corinth, who’s living upside down lives. They’re not living surrendered lives, but Paul tells them they will be confirmed all the way to the end, blameless until His appearing.

Now look over in Romans 5:1. Paul says the same thing in other places. This is so significant to understand. Believing you can lose your salvation can only come from a misunderstanding of what salvation is to start with. You do not realize what happened to you when you put your faith into Jesus Christ, and you don’t understand the keeping power of the grace of God. Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have [that’s a present active infinitive, we continuously have] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Through Him we have peace with God. He became sin for us. He that knew no sin became sin for us that we might wear His robe of righteousness.

Verse 2 continues, “through whom [speaking of Jesus] also we have obtained...” perfect active indicative. What does that mean? Something happened way back here, perfect tense, and we made a choice. Alright, now, it’s affecting us way over here. That’s the perfect tense. We’re the state we’re in because of something that happened back here.

He says, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained [perfect active indicative] our introduction….” How did we get this introduction, by the way, into His grace? “by faith into this grace [now look at this next phrase] in which we stand.” In other words, when I received grace and accessed it by faith, then I was invited right in to partake of and to receive that which He’s given me. Now way down the road here, because of that event, I still stand in the grace of God.

You know in the Old Testament they were always worried about God taking His Spirit away from them. That was a constant thing. Or God turning His face away from them was even worse than that. I remember when Cain sinned and was banished he said, “God has turned His face away from me.” But you see, God turned His face away from His own Son on the cross. Why? So that He would never have to turn His face away from you and me. We eternally stand in the grace of God. He’s consistently looking right at us. He does not turn away from us. He loves us through His Son, and His grace keeps us. We stand in that grace, the eternal favor of God that man could never deserve in a million years, that transforming enabling power that God has given us by giving us the Lord Jesus, the Spirit of God that lives within us, the loving marvelous grace of God.

You know, I hear people all the time talking about, “Boy, you better hold on to Jesus. You better hold on to Jesus.” Thank God when we studied Hebrews we understand that it’s Him who holds on to us. This covenant is not built upon my faithfulness to God. It’s built upon God’s faithfulness to me as we’ll also see a little later on in 1 Corinthians 1:9. Dwight L. Moody said, “Trust in yourself and you’re doomed to disappointment. Trust in your friends and they’ll die and leave you. Trust in your money and it will be taken away from you. Trust in your reputation and some slanderous tongue will blast it. But trust in God and you’re never to be confounded in time or eternity.” Martin Luther said, “I have held many things in my hands and lost them all but whatever I have placed into God’s hands, I still have.” Just like Paul said, “I know whom I have believed in and am totally convinced that He is able to keep that which I have committed.”

You see, grace is something that keeps us. If we don’t understand that then we’re constantly worried about something that God’s not worried about and constantly thinking, “Have I lost my salvation in case of failure in my life or whatever?” But the Scripture says that He will confirm us blameless until that day.

Look there at 1 Corinthians 1:8, “who shall also confirm you to the end.” I want to make sure we understand what “the end” is because the context has already told you in verse 7. The end there does not mean just until the day you die. That’s nice to know that He will do that, by the way. It’s not just until then. It’s not just until He’s finished with whatever it is He’s assigned you or me down here on this earth. But it’s all the way until the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. That word telos is the word that means to accomplish a goal.

I remember when my son first played t-ball. Well, he didn’t understand the bases. I had taught him all this stuff, but his mind froze up when people were watching him. He got up to the plate and hit the ball really well, knocks it. He didn’t know which way to run. I’m going to help him. I came out of the stands and said, “Follow me, Stephen.” You see the goal was to get all the way around the bases. When you touched home base you’ve accomplished the goal. I remember going by first base and I said, “Touch that bag!”, and he touched that bag and kept on running. “Touch the bag!” We ran all the way around. When we came across home plate, they all applauded me. I’m just trying to help him out.

But you see, crossing the goal, finishing or accomplishing something. He wasn’t accomplished if he just got to first base. He wasn’t accomplished until he got all the way around to home. He finished what he set out to do. There was a task at hand and he accomplished that task.

Now the task is being preserved blameless until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, until the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. By the way, that day of Christ, the appearing of Christ, has everything to do with our glorified body. Do you know you’re going to get a glorified body? We’re all in desperation, aren’t we? We need a glorified body. That’s going to come when we see the Lord Jesus. When we see Him, He’s going to give us that glorified body. When Christ comes, the final chapter of our adoption is going to be written. That final chapter is when we get a glorified body. So He’s going to confirm us until that day, not just until we die. We may die before the Lord Jesus comes for His church. Not just until we finish our task down here. We may be taken out of here in no time. We don’t know when that’s going to be. But He’s going to confirm us. He’s going to make us strong. He’s going to keep us standing in the grace that He has given to us all the way until the goal has been accomplished of our redemption which is that we get a glorified body.

The word telos is the word used in John 19:30: “When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine (on the cross), he said, ‘It is finished!’“ In other words, that which I came to do is finished. You see, man never took Jesus’ life on the cross. He dismissed His own human spirit and gave His life upon the cross. “And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit.”

In 2 Timothy 4:7, Paul uses that same word. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” I believe what Paul is saying is, “I’ve won the battle over Paul and learned to allow God to use me the way He wants to use me. I know He’s accomplished what He wanted to accomplish in my life, and now I’m looking forward to going to get the crown that God has for me.”

So again, what is the goal of which He is confirming us until the end? What is the end? What is the goal? The end is, the goal is, the appearing of our Lord directly associated with our adoption and our glorified body one day. When you add verses 7 and 8 together, it makes all the sense in the world: “so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We know that the day of our Lord Jesus Christ is something the church should be looking forward to. Do you know the differences in the terms, “the day of the Lord” and “the day of Christ”? There are two different terms there. The “day of the Lord” is something to be feared. The “day of Christ” is something to be looked forward to by the church because that’s when He appears for us. That’s when He takes us up to be with Himself and that’s when we get our glorified body. Notice, He’s going to confirm us until that end and that end would be that day.

But how’s He going to confirm us? He’s not going to confirm us sinless; He’s going to confirm us blameless. That’s all the difference in the world. How in the world can you confirm a bunch of people like the people in Corinth who made a meal out of the Lord’s Supper and totally obliterated the meaning of it, who chased after gifts, who were calling Jesus a curse? How in the world could He ever confirm them? He couldn’t confirm them sinless but He could confirm them blameless. That’s very, very important. No accusation can ever be brought against us, now listen to me, which would threaten our eternal position in Jesus Christ.

Now to say that no accusation could ever brought against us against us, that’s crazy. Any time you do something or I do something, somebody will bring an accusation against us. But whatever accusation comes against us, none of them can threaten the position we have in Christ and the position we have in His grace, under His grace because He’s going to accomplish a goal in our life of taking us all the way to the finish line, of taking us all the way through to being glorified.

As a matter of fact, look over in Romans 8:1. The word “blameless” tells you everything. It’s that accusation that can be brought against us, but it can never in any way threaten our position in Christ. We may fail, we may sin, we may blow it royally down here on this earth, but if you’re a believer, you cannot have an accusation brought against you that would in any way threaten your life in Christ.

Some people think that’s a cop-out. “Yeah, that’s great. You just gave license to people to live like they want to live.” No, no, no. Listen to it all the way through. That’s just a statement I made right there concerning these verses. There are other verses that cover those bases and we’ll get to those when it’s time. Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Where were you before? You see, before we were in Adam. That’s where the condemnation was. That’s when sin entered in the world and death by sin because all sinned. But what happens when you put your faith into Christ, receiving the grace that He has given to you, you are taken out of Adam and you’re put into Christ and once you’re in Christ, all the blame fell on Him. How can it fall on you? He took it for you. Therefore no accusation can threaten your position of being in Christ Jesus.

Look at Romans 8:33-34. If you’ve ever studied Romans, you know what he’s talking about. He’s talking about what Christ has done for us. Romans 6:7-8 are critical to understanding this whole message of grace. Romans 8:33 reads, “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?” Anybody want to stand up? Paul under the leadership of the Holy Spirit is saying, “Anybody want to stand up and bring a charge against God’s elect?” Look at what he said, “God is the one who justifies [Not man, God justifies]; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”

In other words, it’s almost like, who will bring a charge against God’s elect? Who? Do you mean somebody would dare stand up and threaten that which Jesus Christ has done for us upon the cross? That’s the idea here, that we’re in Him. We will be preserved, confirmed, kept under His grace until the end, until He carries our redemption all the way through.

Now, let’s go back to that question. Many, many people believe that if you believe in eternal security, then evidently you must give license to sin. That’s what they think. But again, they say anybody who says they love Jesus is a Christian, too. They don’t even understand what belief is all about and what it means to become a believer. But they use that as a blanket statement. You say, “Well, that’s a pretty good statement, isn’t it? Look at the church of Corinth. You’re telling me they’re going to be confirmed until that day?” No, I’m not telling you. That’s what Paul’s telling them under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. How can that be? Does that mean when we see Jesus one day, then it’s all going to be the same? Does that mean we’re each going to get the same reward regardless of how we’ve lived down here? Not at all.

Look in 1 Corinthians 3:8. This is one of the verses. We’ll look at more when we get there. 1 Corinthians 3:8 says, “Now he who plants and he who waters are one [But now look at this next phrase because it’s so key and it’s used many times. We’ll study all those places when we get to this verse]; but each will receive his own reward according to his own [what?] labor.” Just like it says in another place that we’ll be judged according to the deeds done in the body. In another place it says it will be “wood, hay, and stubble, and precious stones.” In other words, the wood, hay, and stubble is what we did after our own flesh offered it back to God, but precious stones will be that which we allowed God to do through us as we found our purpose was to be a vessel through which God could work.

But all who are in Christ, regardless of their immaturity, regardless of what they do or don’t do, will be kept blameless until that day. No one can bring an accusation against us that would threaten in any way what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross.

Now, let’s talk again about that day of our Lord Jesus Christ, the “day of Christ” versus the “day of the Lord.” There’s going to be a great day that Christians are looking forward to. We’re all looking to His return, to His appearing, to the day of Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, the one who came to pay the penalty of our sin. We’re looking forward to that or at least we say we are. I hear people all the time saying, “The King is coming. The King is coming.” Everybody’s talking about the coming of the Lord and nobody’s living as if they expect Him to come. It’s interesting to me. But the day of Christ is what we focus on.

Now, on the flip side of that, the day of Christ begins something else. Once the church has been taken out, there’s another day that’s going to start and it’s called the “day of the Lord.” It’s interesting here that Paul writes “the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.” You’ve got the whole thing built into this. You’ve got the day of the Lord. That’s when He, Himself, is going to come and put an end to sin on this earth. It’s going to be a seventieth week of Daniel, the seven year period of time. We all know that’s another study. But that’s the day of the Lord. Remember, the great day of the Lord is the last three and one-half years of that seven year period of time.

But the day of Christ is what we look forward to. He’s going to confirm us until the day of Christ. That’s going to be His appearing. That’s going to be when we get our glorified body. We live in an evil day, but the day of Christ is coming. Thank God for it. He’s going to take us out. That word in 1 Thessalonians 4 when it says, “He will take us up,” is the word harpazo. It means to snatch. It’s like a wolf coming in to a flock of sheep and snatching one out. It’s imminent. It’s sudden. He’s going to take us out of here and we’ll meet Him in the air. Then begins the day of the Lord.

Go over to Philippians 1:6. Paul says the same thing. He talks about this day and what we have to look forward to. It’s a wonderful, wonderful day to look forward to if we’re living set apart for His purposes. If we’re living as those who depend upon His grace and His peace, as if we lack nothing in Christ, we look forward to it. You don’t look forward to it when you’re not living that way, if you live as if you lack. Notice the wording in Philippians 1:6. “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it [or perform it or carry it to its fullest accomplishment] until the day of Christ Jesus.” Here is that day again, the same day he mentions in Corinthians to the church of Corinth. There’s a day coming when Jesus is coming for His church.

Somebody asked me recently, “How close do you think we are to that day?” I’m going to be honest with you. Every time I go to Israel it just pumps me up and fires me up one more time. I believe that we’re so close to it, folks. If we really understood how close we are, it would change every bit of our living tomorrow. If we really believe this, how close we really are. Nothing has to happen except the fullness of the Gentiles. When that last Gentile comes to know Christ, whenever that is, buddy, that’s it. That’s when Jesus comes for His church, the fullness of the Gentiles. Then He turns His eyes from the Gentile world and turns His eyes to the nation of Israel that He has not forgotten. You see, the day of the Lord is something that unbelievers would fear but the day of Christ is something that believers look forward to.

Look over in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 just to make sure that you understand that we do not have to receive the wrath that is coming. We won’t receive it as believers. I’ll tell you why, because Christ has already received that wrath upon the cross. You either receive the lamb or you receive the wrath. The Psalmist says, “Who has known the wrath of God?” Only one. That’s Jesus Himself. When God the Father turned His back to Him when He was on the cross He understood the full wrath of God upon sin and then was raised from the dead. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 says, “For God has not destined us for wrath [By the way, that’s not even a definite article there. For any type of the wrath of God to fall upon us] but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Remember, salvation is in three tenses. We have been saved. We are being saved, and one day we shall be rescued from this evil world that we live in. Then starts the day of the Lord and the wrath of God will fall. And during the last three and one-half years, the great wrath of God will occur. So I’m going to say it again. The day of Christ is what we look forward to and we’ll be confirmed until that day. It is on that day, when we see Him, that we’ll be given a body, a glorified body which will close the book on redemption as far as the three chapters are concerned. It will be the final chapter. Then another one will be written from that point on because now we’re with Him, and we’re like Him. We will be confirmed blameless until that day.

You ask, “Can we be sure that we’re going to escape that wrath? How can we know for sure that we’re going to be confirmed until the end? I know I just read it but what can you tell me that might somehow make me sleep better at night?” Well, let me just go on to 1 Corinthians 1:9. The first phrase of verse 9 shows you the character of the one who says this through the apostle Paul. This is so important to understand. What are the first three words of chapter 9? “God is what faithful.” I could say, “Now listen, folks, you can trust me. I’m faithful to tell you the truth.” But I’d go home and lose a lot of sleep. I’m not saying that to you. I didn’t write it. I didn’t say it. God said it through His apostle Paul and it’s based upon the character, not just the conduct, of Almighty God who said it. God is faithful.

There’s no verb there. “Is” should be in italics. Actually faithful is an adjective describing the character of God. The word for faithful is pistos. It can be used in an active or passive sense. When it’s used of man, it’s in an active sense because man must put his trust into God. That’s something man must do. But when it’s used of God, it’s never used in an active sense. It’s used in a passive sense and it means that God is worthy of our trust. What he’s saying here is, write this one down, “God is worthy of our trust.” Don’t you dare trust Wayne Barber. Don’t you ever trust what I say. You go back to the Word and let the Word of God be the foundation. If you think I’m wrong then study it out, reason to see if that’s what God says. And I’ll tell you what, if that’s what God says, you trust what it says and you trust the One who said it and the character of the One who said it. God’s reliable and God is worthy of our trust. He is faithful. Again, it’s not a reference to His conduct but a reference to His character.

When we think of the faithful and trustworthy character of God, look at what Paul has already told us. To the Corinthian church he says, “God has enriched you in everything.” He was faithful to do that. He says in verse 6, “He confirmed His testimony in you and among you.” Then in verses 7 and 8 it extends all the way to the future. “I’m going to confirm you,” He says, “all the way to the day of Christ, to the day of the appearing of the Lord Jesus.” Listen to me. In the changing world we live in, thank God, there’s an unchangeable truth and that truth is God is faithful. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. The very word “faithful” has the idea of something that is steadfast, immovable, never changes. Something that is trustworthy.

In a silly way a compass can be used at times to be trustworthy although there are times when the compass gets off, especially if there’s anything that can pull it off. But you can trust that most of the time to take you a certain direction. The idea of being faithful is that God will never vary, not like a compass. God is always going to be who He is. He’s going to stand upon that which He said and will carry us all the way through just like He said He would do.

Peter uses this word. The reason I’m saying that is the changeable circumstances of our life sometimes turn us upside down and all of a sudden we get everything out of kilter. “God, do you even know what’s going on?” Habakkuk did it. Jeremiah did it. Go through the Old Testament. “God, where are you?” You see, they don’t seem to understand that God’s always there and God’s always faithful even though life’s circumstances sometimes may be so unchangeable it can throw us off course.

As a matter of fact, it happened in Asia Minor when Nero burned Rome and blamed the Christians for it. The persecutions swept the continent of Asia Minor, so Peter sat down and wrote them a letter, as he, himself, was looking forward to being a martyr for the faith. Look at what he said in 1 Peter 4:19. He uses this word “faithful” in a context that I think should speak to every one of us. Again, the context is the worst time believers had ever gone through. He says, “Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls....” Now, he’s talking to people who are suffering. You see, just because God is faithful doesn’t mean we won’t suffer. But in the midst of our suffering God is still faithful. That’s what he’s saying. He goes on to say, “to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.”

Now folks, I don’t know what’s going on in your life. Maybe everything has calmed down a little bit in your life and you can say, “Well, I can accept that.” But I want to tell you. Everything could turn upside down. Everything can change but don’t lose sight of that which is unchangeable. God is faithful. God is faithful. Like that old lighthouse that stood out on the point. I love that song, “If it wasn’t for the lighthouse.” I love that song because that lighthouse is a picture, again, of something that’s steadfast, immovable, something that’s always the same. It gives you direction, and you start anchoring your life to these truths. God is faithful.

I’ll tell you. The faithful character of God is seen in all He has sovereignly established. The laws of nature, for instance, and the law of gravity. You know, if you throw something up in the air, it’s going to come down. The laws of gravity haven’t changed, folks, and God established them. Look at the seasons of the year. They come, don’t they? Aren’t you glad every morning the sun comes up? You can set your watch by it in certain seasons of the year. Sometimes it can change a little bit because we have daylight savings time and Pacific time and so forth. Who cares what time zone you’re in? The sun still comes up and the sun goes down at night. You can rest assured that those things won’t change because the God who established them is unchangeable, you see. You can look around you and see the faithfulness of God.

There’s a beautiful picture of the faithfulness of God in the Psalms. Look over in Psalm 36:5. The King James translation, to me, picks it up better then the New American Standard. It says in verse 5, “Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens.” And then it gives you an idea of the limitless of it. It goes on, “Thy faithfulness reaches to the skies.” That’s a precious thought, but the King James version doesn’t say, “the skies.” It uses the same Hebrew word, but it translates it “to the clouds.” When I looked it up it seemed like it has more the idea of clouds, not just skies. I like that better.

Think with me for a second. “Thy faithfulness extends to the clouds.” Think for a second what he’s saying here. Is there anything any more uncertain than a cloud? Have you ever laid on your back on a day when a rainstorm was coming and looked at the clouds? I have and found little animals in the clouds or faces or whatever. How quickly you find it and how quickly it changes. Which direction is the cloud going? Well, you think it’s going that way, but suddenly you look and it’s going that way. Is there any rhyme or reason to a cloud? There’s nothing structurally that you could put there. There’s nothing direction-wise you could put there. That’s just totally out of sorts. But God’s faithfulness reaches unto the clouds. In other words, behind what you think is unstable up there in the skies is a sovereign faithful God who’s in charge of it. What looks to us as uncertain, to Him is not uncertain. For He is faithfulness and His ways are steadfast.

What could the Psalmist be saying to us in our life? Look at your life right now. What’s going on in your life right now? I guarantee you, somebody is about ready to check out. You’ve probably said, “God, if this is salvation, just take me home.” Have you ever done that? I prayed one night to die. I did. I’m glad God doesn’t answer all my prayers the way I ask. Life sometimes gets like those clouds. You don’t know where it’s headed. You don’t know what’s going on. You don’t have any answers. And you start going to man, which is the worst thing you can do. Behind all that uncertainty, like the clouds that are in the sky, God is in control.

Do you know how I know that? Because He’s faithful and that which is faithful is immovable and steadfast and never can be questioned. That’s the character that you trust. That kind of God will carry us all the way through to His appearing, to the day of Christ. His sovereign power orders those things.

You know how a storm can bring terror in your life. We can talk about that literally or figuratively. I used to love storms when I was growing up. My daughter never liked storms. Whenever there was thunder I would have to go lie down with her for a while because she just couldn’t stand it. But I love storms. Recently we’ve had a storm I’m not so sure I’d love. But I mean, a typical thunder storm. But what is the first thing a child thinks of? It’s terror. He hears the thunder, the noise and the lightning and the wind and it strikes terror in that child’s heart. But if that child understands who the God of the storm really is, then that child, by trusting in the faithful character of God, which is steadfast, immovable and trustworthy, that robs that storm of its ability to put terror in his heart by trusting the One who is faithful, not in the uncertainty of the storm. We rob it, take it right away from it.

How quickly life will turn on you. How quickly that storm will move in to your life. How quickly that thunder will roar and all of a sudden you think God is as changeable as you are and you forget and you move off dead center that He is faithful and He is faithful to do that which He has said He’ll do. Behind every circumstance of your life, no matter whether you planned it or didn’t plan it, God’s behind it. Don’t turn to man. Turn to Him and remember He’s the God of the storm and will confirm you blameless to the end. You’re going to make it. That’s what Paul’s saying to them. You’re going to make it. Now get in line with what God says instead of what your mind’s telling you and let God be who He is and do what He wants to do through your life. He confirms us to the day of Christ. He’s bringing us through. His faithfulness anchors our trust. That’s what he’s saying.

I don’t know about you but if you live fully possessed by God, you’ve been bought with a price, if you live set apart for His purpose, you wake up every day and say, “Okay God,

I Corinthians 1:9

Contents

1 What is The Church of God? – Part 8

2 The Church of God Has Fellowship with Christ

What is The Church of God? – Part 8

Years ago I was in military school. They told us what we were going to wear. They told us how we were going to act, how we were supposed to talk. I had to be reminded of who I was, whose I was and the responsibility that went along with that.

They gave work details called work gigs for misbehavior. Usually for the first offense they gave forty minutes of work during your free time, cleaning floors, washing windows, something like that. I had fifty offenses the first time they ever gave them out. So that whole semester of school I spent my free time washing floors and so on. When you misbehaved in rank they would make you put your rifle up over your head and run about one and one-half miles around this big circle. Everyone else would march around; you had to run around.

One day I was coming from the post office and had a big package from my mother. I had it up under my right arm. An office passed me in the car and I snapped to and saluted with my left hand. Man, he screeched to a halt and spent the next thirty minutes helping me to understand who I am now and whose I am and how I’m supposed to behave.

I believe that’s what the apostle Paul was doing in 1 Corinthians. He’s trying to bring these Corinthians back to who they are and whose they are and the responsibility they have to live like it. Now if you’re not living like it, you’re upside down. The apostle Paul, in the first nine verses of 1 Corinthians 1, puts them right side up. Then he’s going to begin to address how they have obviously walked away from that kind of lifestyle. If you call yourself a Christian and you’re a member of the church of God and these things are not in your life, obviously you’ve departed somewhere. This could help you understand and pinpoint the reason for the problems that you’re dealing with even right now.

The Church of God Has Fellowship with Christ

Well, we come to the ninth and final characteristic of the church of God. What is the final characteristic of the church of God? What are we supposed to be? Who are we? If the Holy Spirit of God stops us in our tracks and says, “Okay, soldier; let Me tell you who you are. Let Me tell you whose you are, and let Me tell you how you’re supposed to live.” That’s what He’s doing. What’s the final thing he would say here? The final thing would be that the church of God is made up of those who have fellowship with Christ. Now this is a powerful verse. I want you to look at verse 9. It says, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

We don’t just walk into the presence of a dignitary. Have you ever noticed that? You don’t walk into the President’s office: “How are you doing there, Pres? My name’s Wayne from down in Tennessee. I thought I’d drop in and say hello to you.” You have to be invited into his presence. God has invited you and me into fellowship with His Son. You don’t walk in. You don’t just decide one day, “I’m going to have fellowship with Him.” No, it comes as a result of a calling, an invitation, that our God has given unto us.

He says in verse 9, “God is faithful, through whom you were called.” Now that word “called” is the same word we saw back in verse 1 when it said, “Paul, called as an apostle.” So if you take just the word “called,” it was saying that Paul was a believer, obviously, before he was ever an apostle. That was the first step. He was called as a believer.

If you know anything about the testimony of the apostle Paul, you know that has to be right. He was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians, and the Lord Jesus stopped him in his tracks. He wasn’t seeking Jesus. Jesus was seeking him. That’s amazing to me. He came after us. People take their Christianity so for granted and live as if it doesn’t mean anything. God called us. He invited us.

In verse 2 we have the word for church, ekklesia. Ek means out of, and klesia refers to the called ones: the called out ones. You can’t be a member of the church and not understand the fact that God called you.

Paul gets in some words in Romans 8:30 that are exciting, real exciting. As a matter of fact, in Romans they don’t even appear until the eighth chapter because they’re secrets of the family. If the family knows it, it will motivate them every day. God knew everything about me and still accepted me in the beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in Romans 8:30, “and whom He predestined, these He also called (by the way, this is before the foundation of the world); and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Do you realize what that’s saying? That’s saying that He already sees it done. People think you can lose your salvation. Friend, before the foundation of the world, He knew you and predestined you. He called you. He justified you, and He glorified you. You’re not even there yet. He sees it as done.

Think about this for a while, and it might rattle your cage. All of a sudden it begins to make salvation a little bit more than being a member of a church on a corner somewhere. You’re in an eternal relationship with God, and He gave the invitation to you. He called you. That’s the whole key here. We must never forget this.

As a matter of fact, if you’ll look at verse 9 real closely, it shows you the agent of the calling was God Himself. Verse 9 reads, “God is faithful, through whom [God is the subject] you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” The word “through” is the word dia. It’s the word that is used to indicate the agent of calling. Then to make it even more emphatic, the word “call” is in the passive voice, indicating that God did the calling. So it’s God who has called us into fellowship with His Son. I just think that’s important to start off with, to realize that all we have in Christ initiated with God. It did not initiate with you and me.

Well, He has called us into fellowship. This is an important little “into.” There are three prepositions you’ve got to know. Ek is motion out of. If I have a pen inside of my pocket, the motion coming out of my pocket, that’s ek. En is a little preposition that means that which remains in something being affected by that which is remaining in; in other words, all the properties of that which it is. Then the word eis is motion from something and into something with a result in mind. That’s very, very important.

He called us into fellowship with His Son. But now if He called us into something, then He’s calling us away from something. Are you with me on this? I want you to think about this for a second. It’s God who’s doing this. Remember grace is, first of all, the beautiful loving disposition of the Father who does this. You’ve got to see this. It’s out of His love that this whole thing has been planned. We’re products of His love. That’s what salvation is all about. Now, this is important. We were not even longing for this fellowship when we were in Adam. Do you realize you’re either in Adam or you’re in Christ? No religion will get you out of Adam. Only Christ can get you out of Adam. The way He gets you out is that He came as a man to do what men could not do. He came as our representative, as the God-man. The law required certain things man could not live up because of the virus of sin. Therefore, He came as a man, did not destroy the law but fulfilled the law, went to the cross and took my sin upon Himself. I put my faith into Him, then what He did is written to my account and I’m no longer guilty as I was before. He takes me out of Adam, puts me into Himself and calls me into fellowship with His dear Son. That’s what salvation’s all about. I had been invited into fellowship with His dear Son.

You see, before I got saved, I thought I had it all together. As a matter of fact, witness to somebody who doesn’t know Christ. You say, “Brother, have you been saved?” Have you ever asked somebody that? They look at you and say, “From what? I didn’t know I was lost. I’ve got a great job, got money in the bank, my kids are healthy. Saved from what?” You see, until they understand what they’re missing, they just don’t look for something they don’t even know they need. That’s what lost people are like. That’s what we were like. I think sometimes we have forgotten what it was like to be lost and that’s why we’ve lost the wonder of our salvation.

Psalm 51:5 says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” The act of conception wasn’t sin. What he’s saying is the virus began with Adam, the sin virus, and it was to spread to all men. It’s in the blood of mankind. And a person is born into sin.

Psalm 58:3 reads, “The wicked are estranged from the womb. These who speak lies go astray from birth.” Every child born on this earth is born into sin. That’s what he’s saying. He’s born not understanding that he has a need that’s actually crippling his life. He does not know that. Thank God He does and knew it all along.

Romans 3:10 says, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, there is not even one.” You see, the saddest thing about being lost is that we didn’t know what we were missing. We didn’t know what we were lacking. We live life thinking there was something somewhere, but we never could find it.

The key word to understand here, I think, that’s really going to light your fire is “fellowship.” It is the word koinonia. You’ve heard the word used before in different places. The word needs to be understood. It’s an abstract noun that comes from the adjective koinos, which means common. The word “society” actually has its roots in this word. It’s a group of people who have the same things in common. You see, there’s a society here.

There are several things that I want you to see. First of all, the moment you receive Christ in your life now you have the opportunity of being in a new society. We’re in the world but not of this world. There’s another world in the world. We’re part of a brand new family. We sing that song, “I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God.” I wonder if we understand what we’re talking about. Jesus is the common denominator that draws us all together. How much rejection have you had in your past in the dysfunctional family of Adam? That’s one thing. But how much acceptance do you have in the functional family of God, you see? You’re in a brand new family. Jesus is what binds us together. He is our common denominator. You’ve got brothers and sisters all over this world. That’s the key. You’ve become a member of a big family. It doesn’t matter where you are.

When we’re in our conferences in Romania, they’ll start talking in Romanian, and I don’t know what they’re saying. But somehow the Holy Spirit of God is binding our hearts together, and they’ll start laughing and I’ll start laughing and people around me will say, “Did you understand what they said?” I say, “No, but yeah.”

I don’t know. It’s just fun. You’re in a family now and you don’t have to speak each other’s language. You don’t have to be in each other’s houses. Christ is the One who draws you together. This is why, I think, the author of Hebrews say, “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.” Why would you want to go anywhere else? Man, you’ve got a family and you come together to enjoy that family. That’s part of being in fellowship with His Son. That’s what it’s all about.

We’re a family now. You can go all over the world. It doesn’t matter where you go. So many people live as if they’re alone. No, you’re not alone. You’re in the biggest family you ever thought about in your life. That’s part of having fellowship with His Son.

It says in 1 John 1:7, “but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship [koinonia] with one another.” If you live out of verses 1-9 of 1 Corinthians 1, you will enjoy fellowship with one another. When you get any of them turned upside down you’re going to see the problems that Corinth was having.

Well, we have a brand new family. But we also have a brand new well to drink from, a brand new resource in our life to draw off. We’ve never had this before. The word koinonia also means to be a partaker of something, to share in something. Look over in 2 Peter 1:3. You need to see this. Second Peter 1:3 says, “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness [This is all another resource that we have] through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers [that’s the word koinonia] of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” That word means to partake in. We can partake of Him and His character. His Spirit even produces His character in us. We experience Him in that light. We have a new well to drink from.

I was in a conference one time and I preached on the fact that Jesus was the only well that you would ever need to drink from and that’s part of having fellowship in His Son is to be able to drink from that well, to draw from me. A man came up with me after the service and said, “You’ve offended me and you’ve offended the third person of the trinity.” I said, “Oh my goodness. I’m not worried about you, but I am worried about the third person of the trinity. What did I do?” He said, “You’ve offended the Holly Spirit of God.” I said, “Excuse me. How did I do that? Jesus is the only well you ever need to drink from.” He said, “You did not mention the Holy Spirit.” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “I have a conference every year, a Holy Spirit conference, down in this particular state and you just absolutely walked right over Him and said that Jesus is the only well you ever need to drink from.” I said, “I beg your pardon, sir. I love you in the Lord but you hear me straight. Jesus said, ‘When He comes will never speak of Himself, He will only speak of me.’” And I said, “I did not contradict anything. I complimented what the very Word of God has to say.”

If you’re going outside of Jesus for anything, you have missed it, folks. It’s all in Him and the Spirit is His Spirit. There’s only one God in three persons. There are not three Gods. It’s amazing what’s going on in Christianity today. We don’t seem to understand that it’s all in Christ, appropriated to us by the means of His Spirit. His Spirit lives with us.

First Corinthians 10:16 talks about that word in the area of sharing in. Some people take this literal and think that the bread that you have at the Lord’s Supper is actually His body and the blood actually becomes His blood. But no, it does not. It’s symbolic of that. First Corinthians 10:16 tells us, “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?” What he’s talking about is it helps us to remember that which we now have become partakers in. In other words, He is the well we drink from. We fellowship with His Son. We partake of Him. We experience even the divine nature of God Himself.

I was in another state speaking at a conference center. They asked me to go and speak to a particular church. It was the hardest group I’ve ever spoken to in my life. You talk about dead. When I told them to open the Word, everybody just stared at me. After I finished, I tried some humor to try to get them laugh a little bit and to show life, that their hearts were still beating.

I preached about a forty minute message and of course that’s twenty minutes too long in their terminology. One man had a burr haircut. He was a mean looking dude. Have you ever noticed people like that? They just love Jesus. Stomp all over you, that’s what they say. He walked up to me and said, “Preacher!” I said, “Sir?” He said, “I was in mission work all my life. I’ve been preaching in rescue missions all my life.” I said, “That’s great.” He said, “If you can’t say it in twenty minutes, then don’t even try it. By the way, I didn’t come to church to be entertained either.”

Before I could say a word he had wheeled around to leave, so I grabbed him. And when I grabbed him, I had a choice to make. My choice was, “Are you going to become a partaker of Christ or are you going to partake of the six months penalty for assault and battery? I mean what are you going to do right here?” I wanted to jerk him up and say, “Hey, listen God, this man says he loves you. I’m sending him home.” And bam, just put him out! That’s what I wanted to do but inside of me the Holy Spirit was saying, “Easy, easy, easy. Partake of me. Partake of me.” Some people talk about this stuff as if it’s so easy. Not for me. I go kicking and screaming. I grabbed him, turned him around and said, “Would you pray for me?” And he said, “What?” I said, “You just need to be patient with me. God is not finished with me yet. If I’ve offended you in any way, I didn’t come here to do that.” I thought later on, “Boy, that’s a switch from back before I knew Christ.”

Isn’t it good to have another well to drink from, a resource to grab hold of and experience the divine nature of God Himself and know that it’s not you, to know that you have fellowship with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Folks, I wonder if we understand any of that. Everybody’s got their own problems and they bring Jesus in at the last minute, when you could be sharing in Him right now. I guarantee you that His way is not your way. You go back to verses 1-9 and this is when it becomes important to you now, living as His people.

Once you start partaking of His divine nature and fellowshipping with Him, with that comes the wrong side of that, the bad side of that. That means you’re going to start partaking of His sufferings. This is the part nobody wants to hear because when you start walking in light and He’s in the light and you start partaking of His character and His divine nature, then it’s going to begin to offend the darkness that’s around you. We have to be willing to understand that part of it, and until Jesus comes that’s going to be part of it. That’s the key. We’re going to have to live with that.

That’s not a common message. That’s not what people want to hear but that’s part of it. Let me show you what Peter says about this in 1 Peter 4:13: “but to the degree that you share [koinonia] the sufferings of Christ [you see, you’re only going to share the sufferings of Christ to the degree you’re surrendered to Him to start with], keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation.” He’s encouraging us to keep on rejoicing, because this is just temporary. It’s like Paul said in Romans, don’t even speak of the sufferings for the eternal weight and glory that they’re bringing to us, they’re something we’re headed towards. So the sufferings are worth it. Don’t bail out. Keep a balance in your life. If you’re going to experience His nature, you’re going to also equally experience His sufferings. You’re going to have to experience that.

I heard a guy give an illustration at a conference that just struck me right where I needed to be struck. He was talking about mowing his yard. That got my attention because you know how I love to mow my yard. He was mowing the grass and said, “Do you know how your mower shakes and vibrates. Mine was vibrating and it was fine because it’s always that way, then all of a sudden it began to shake. All of a sudden it broke loose from the housing and kept running. It fell completely out of the mower. He had to figure out how to cut it off. The whole thing had just dropped out of the housing, just shook itself loose.” He finally got it turned off. He was halfway through in his yard. He went around the neighborhood and finally found somebody who would loan him his lawnmower.

The two of them walked over with the lawnmower to his yard and he said, “Listen now, I’m going to take care of your lawnmower. I’ll make sure it’s gassed up.” He gassed it up and he checked the oil to make sure the oil was there. He said, “Now, the next thing I’ll do before I cut is sharpen the blade.” So he started sharpening the blade and he said, “Now, it’s ready to go.’ The guy said, ‘Wait a minute. You’ve got one more step.” He said, “What step? I’ve never done anything else.” He said, “You never have balanced the blade on your mower?” He said, “No.” He said, “Well, if you don’t balance the blade, it starts shaking. And if it shakes really bad, it will break loose from the housing.” Then he realized what had happened to his mower. He said, “Isn’t that interesting? I was more interested in sharpness than I was balance.”

You think that’s not where we are today, folks? Some folks can tell you straight but they’re not balanced in what they say. They’re not telling the whole message. Yes, you can participate in Him, but that also includes participating in His suffering. Get ready for it. It’s there. “Those who desire to live a godly life”, he says in 2 Timothy, “shall undergo persecution.” It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. It’s not directed at you. It’s directed at the One who’s in you because He said, “If they hated me, they’re going to hate you.” That’s what He told us. We should not be surprised. But He said, “Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.”

Well, we’re running right down to the last phrase. Let’s look at the comprehensive title he gives to the Lord Jesus. This is the most comprehensive name you can find. “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

“Jesus,” what is that? That’s His earth name. You have to come to grips with the fact that Jesus was a man. He was the God-man, came in the flesh, born of a virgin. The Gnostics couldn’t grab that, so they couldn’t be saved in the sense of the word. They had to understand that He was virgin born but the God-man. Remember, the angel said to Mary, “And you shall call His name Jesus.” That’s His earthly name.

But it was Jesus what? Christ. Do you know what the word “Christ” is? It’s the word for Messiah, the Anointed One spoken of in the Old Testament. So you’ve got to also understand He’s Christ and any time you see Christ Jesus, the emphasis is on the resurrected Lord Jesus. When it’s reversed many times, it’s referring more to Jesus Christ and what He did on earth, etc. But when you see the Christ Jesus many times it’s very significant in the New Testament. This is the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. If you only had Jesus here in His earthly part of His ministry, you’d have a good man but you wouldn’t have salvation. You have to add “Christ” to it, the Messiah, the One promised in the Old Testament who is Jesus. He’s Jesus Christ and you’ve got the resurrected Lord Jesus, the One who ascended glorified and the One who’s the door of our salvation.

But look what he goes on to say. He says, “our Lord.” “Oh but Brother Wayne, you don’t have to do that. All you have to do is accept the other stuff and you can make Him Lord down the road.” Where did you get that? Because until you come to grips that He’s God in the flesh and yet at the same time God manifested through His resurrection and ascension and glorification, being vindicated by what He had done, will you ever bow down before Him as your Lord and that’s when salvation takes place in your life? Drop the sword. Peace and Lordship start at the very moment. You may not understand this much of it, but it’s settled right there. You don’t work toward Lordship. You come up from it.

Many of us think, “One of these days I’m going to give everything to Jesus.” Friend, you already gave it to Him but you just don’t realize it yet. You gave it to Him when you got saved. He owns every bit of it. That’s the struggle many people have. “Well, I’m working on it.” You’ve already worked on it, friend. You just need to get lined up with where He says we ought to be.

1 Corinthians 1:10

Contents

1 Division Among God’s People

2 A Plea for Unity

3 The Problem of Disunity in Corinth

Division Among God’s People

Division among God’s people is the problem Paul is dealing with in the first six chapters of 1 Corinthians. The whole book of 1 Corinthians has to be looked at through this grid of the first nine verses. Let’s make sure we have down what it means to be a member of the church of God. If you tell somebody you’re a believer, this ought to be in your life. If it’s not in your life, something’s upside down. Go back to where you departed, get it right, and go on. Things will shape up like they ought to be. But there are certain things that have to be there if you’re a member of the church of God. So, what are they? First of all, we found that the church of God is God’s possession. That’s the easiest one of all of them. Secondly, we learn from verse 2 also that the church of God has but one purpose, to be set apart unto His purpose. Then, we’ve seen that thirdly, the church of God has a predictable behavior. The fourth characteristic of the church of God is totally proficient in Christ. There’s nothing we lack in Him. Fifthly, from verse 7 we learn that the church of God has a promise for the future. Then the sixth thing that we looked at is that the church of God has the privilege to partake of Christ. That’s what the church of God is. That should be the predictable behavior of those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you get this out of kilter, that’s when everything gets confusing and chaotic in your life. That’s when division comes. That’s when everything turns upside down. The church of Corinth was upside down. This is right side up. That’s what he’s trying to say to them. Let me just put it another way. I know many people who do not live under the authority of the Word of God and are not accountable to anybody but themselves. They live as if they can call their own shots. If you’re not living about His purposes and you’re living about your own, you’ve chosen your purposes above His and somehow you’re rearranged the priority here. If you’re living with confidence in your own creative flesh ability instead of being predictable to depend upon God in everything, if you’re living as if you’re lacking instead of living in the sufficiency of Christ, if you’re living in your own temporary goals in life rather than in the coming promise of the Lord Jesus, you see you’re living temporarily with temporary goals rather than the eternal goal of His coming for you and one day what that will be. If you’re living instead of partaking Him, you’re finding fellowship outside of Him and His people, then look out. You’re upside down. If you’ll come back to that grid, it will get you right side up. That’s what Paul says to begin the letter to make sure the church of Corinth knows how they’re supposed to be living. Now he’s about to address the way they are living. One is going to be such a contrast to the other. I was at a conference and a lady came to me and said, “You know, the longer I’m in the Word of God, God just gets bigger and bigger, but His Word, even though it’s richer and richer gets smaller and smaller.” I said, “What do you mean by that?” She said, “The more I study, the more I see that God says the same thing over and over and over and over again.” Whether it be in the Old Testament, whether it be in the Gospels, whether it be in the Epistles, it’s always the same thing. He wants us to lovingly surrender to Him, to be about His purposes, to live in His sufficiency and not our own, to look forward to His coming.” You see, that’s just the bottom line. It’s what almost everything in Scripture points to. It’s Christ. It’s not us. I have to believe that. It’s like a well that has no bottom. That truth is still there. No matter how you come at it, it’s there. It’s not like it says seven different things in the Word. Is says the same thing seven different ways. You just keep seeing it and seeing it and seeing it.

A Plea for Unity

Well, division among the people of God, division in the church, this is what we’re dealing with. This is where Corinth was when the apostle Paul wrote this letter. First of all I want you to see a plea for unity in the church of Corinth. Verse 10 says, “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.” Now that word “exhort” is a very important word. It’s the word parakaleo. It has the idea of coming alongside someone, to comfort them. He’s going to rebuke them from verse 10 on. Well, he does but he does it in a very loving way. He’s not doing it to repel them. He’s doing it to attract them back to where they ought to be. He’s not trying to overlord them in any way. Remember Paul started that church. He’s coming alongside them and saying, “Guys, I’ve got something to tell you and I want you to sense the warmth from me. I want you to understand that I really do love you. But I want to come alongside you now to help you understand some things.” That word “comforter” is also the word used for the Holy Spirit of God. It’s a tender but a firm word. In other words, if the rod of correction has to be in my life, I’m thankful it’s in the hand of One who loves me and gave Himself for me. If He’s going to come alongside you through the people and the Word He uses, thank God that it’s with love that He does that. He beckons us back to where we ought to be. He wants to turn the church back right side up. He said, “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,...” Now, again, that’s that comprehensive name of Jesus. We’ve seen it earlier. It’s the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by which and through which the apostle Paul gets his authority. In other words, he’s saying, “I couldn’t tell you how to live. I’m not coming into your life to play God. But in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I come alongside you.” It’s His name that gives him the authority. It’s His name that can get it done. As a matter of fact, it’s His name that makes them automatically have a responsibility to listen to what the apostle Paul is trying to say. “I come to you in the character of Christ. I come to you representing the name of Christ. I come to you as an apostle of Christ.” You see the idea here. It’s just like a loving parent coming to a child who’s been rebellious. He’s coming alongside them but he’s got some tough things that he has to say. “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree,...” Now the King James translates that “speak the same thing.” That doesn’t really give you the idea here. It’s taken out of the Greek political life and it means that you be at peace with one another. That’s what he’s saying. “Hey, come on, folks, be at peace with one another.” Don’t you want to do that sometimes? Just stand up and shout when people are arguing and fussing and quarreling and conflicting and all this kind of thing and say, “Time out! Be at peace with one another.” That’s what he’s saying to them. Be at peace with one another. Make up your differences. By the way, that would be a good word for us. Wouldn’t it? If there’s conflict in your life, make up your differences. Be at peace with one another. He’s not saying to say the same thing. The churches would say, “Uh-huh, see there. Everybody comes together. We all say the same thing.” That’s what they’d take it to mean. That’s not at all what he’s saying. He’s saying, “Come on, guys. Make up your differences. Be at peace with one another.” This is seen in the following phrase. He just continues to explain himself. “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and there be no divisions among you.” You see, you can’t be at peace if there are divisions among you. He knew that there were divisions at Corinth so he’s easing into it. He’s making a plea for unity before he starts addressing the disunity. The word “divisions” is the word schizo. It’s the word that means to rend or to tear something in half, to rip something in half, to divide something. As a matter of fact, let me just give you a few verses here where it’s used and you might get a visible picture of what the word has to be. Matthew 27:51 says, “And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook; and the rocks were split.” Torn in two, that’s the word. In Luke 5:36 says, “And He was also telling them a parable: ‘No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.’” That word “tear” means to rip. It’s an aggressive, abusive type of thing. In John 21:11 we read, “Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three, and although there were so many, the net was not torn.” That’s the same word. So you get the idea of something that’s ripped, something’s that’s just grabbed and rent asunder. In Acts 14:4 you see the word “divided.” It says, “But the multitude of the city was divided; and some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.” So you see a ripping apart of a fellowship of people there: some siding this way, some siding that way. Acts 23:7 says, “And as he said this, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees; and the assembly was divided.” So when you get the word “division” it’s not just something that suddenly happens. It’s something that’s ripped, something that’s torn apart and it’s something that’s damaged as a result of that. He says, “I don’t want you to have any divisions among you. I want you to make up your differences. I want you to have peace with one another.” Then he adds this phrase in verse 10. He says, “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.” Now this is when he begins to show what his intention is. He’s given the grid in verses 1-9. Now he’s saying, “I want you to be made complete.” He’s talking to a body of believers he loves, a body of believers that he, through the Holy Spirit’s power in his life, started and initiated there at Corinth. “Be made complete” is the word katartizo. It’s the word that has the idea of repairing something, mending something. It also has the idea here of fitting something together so that it comes back into unity and oneness. Have you ever worked on a jigsaw puzzle? I’m talking about the ones with thousands of pieces in it. One of the things you do is put all the ones of darker color over here, and the ones of lighter color over here, and the ones with blue and the ones with yellow. You try to separate the pieces before you start the puzzle. You put them in these different little piles and even though they look divided what you’re going to do is you’re going to start pulling from each one of these piles. Even though it is all divided before you start it ends up being united when you finish. Each one of those pieces, though different, can be fitted together. The apostle Paul is saying to the church of Corinth, “I’m not asking you to be clones of each other. I know that you’re different.” He addresses the different gifts of the body in chapter 12: “I know that you’re different but come on, man, make peace with one another. Come out of your little groups over here. Come back together and fit the way God wants you to fit. Be made complete. Be mended. Be healed.” That’s what he’s saying to them. The same thing anybody would say to a group of people he loves, that he knows have been ripped apart and torn apart because people won’t live verses 1-9. They won’t live under the lordship of Jesus Christ. They become a cancer in the body and would rather divide than unite, you see. So he pleads for them to do that. This is the same word that’s used in Hebrews 11:3. This is a key verse to understanding this word katartizo. What does it mean? It says in Hebrews 11:3, “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God.” That word “prepared” in the New American Standard is this word. And the word for “worlds” is ages, the ages of time. What he’s saying is that the ages of time have been fitted together by the very word of God. What is it that fits man together? It’s that very same word, folks, that fits us together. When we get up under the word and the will of God, it fits us back together like we ought to be and all of a sudden the division stops and they’re healed. All of a sudden people come back to unity. That’s what he’s praying for. And the Word is what draws them back. You come back up under the authority of the lordship of Christ, under the authority of His Word, and God fits us into His Word. That’s what he’s saying here. Be fitted back together. You’re divided. You’re broken up. You’re ripped asunder. Now the next two phrases in verse 10 continue to add to the thought. He says, “in the same mind and in the same judgment.” “In the same mind” means with the same understanding. “The same judgment” means to have the same discernment that affects the same character. Now, again, what is it that fits us? Look over in 1 Corinthians 2:16. We have something that if we submit to, will immediately produce the unity that’s already there. It brings it back. It’s something that when you get up under it, it gets in you and you’re fitted into the Word. That’s what happens. He says, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” We have the Word of God ourselves. We have the Holy Spirit of God who gives us the wisdom from the Word. And so, when you’re fitted back together, it takes the Word to do that, just like the Word fitted the ages together. The Word fits us back together. Drop down to verses 11 and 12. “For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you.” Now look at this. “Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul,’ and ‘I of Apollos,’ and ‘I of Cephas,’ and ‘I of Christ.’” Now think with me for a second. What is Paul saying here? “Guys, be fitted back together. Don’t be fitted into my mind, be fitted into Christ’s mind. Be fitted back up under the authority of His Word, fitted into that which God has taught you. No difference. Don’t be fitted into Paul’s mind. Don’t be fitted into Apollos’ mind. Don’t be fitted into Cephas’ or Peter’s mind. But be fitted back where you need to be, in the mind of Christ.” Get men out of your focus and get Christ into your focus. That’s what Paul is saying. See, what’s happened is they have gone after these people who mean much to them, with good intentions, and as a result of that have excluded one another because, “You’re of him, but I’m of him.” It’s brought a division right down the middle of the body of Christ. Paul is not saying, “Say the same thing. Wear the same clothes.” Thank God, he’s not saying that. He’s not saying that at all. He’s saying to be controlled by the same hand. Suppose I played a middle C on the piano. Some people think that’s what Paul is saying. Everybody be the same. Everybody be the same. Would that ever get monotonous after a while? So I add another note. Then I add another. Oh, that’s better. Oh, that’s better. I wouldn’t be playing the same note because every note was different, but every note was be played by the same hand. That’s what Paul’s saying. Come back to the place where you’re played by the same hand. In other words, you’re controlled by the same Master. You’re fitted in to the mind of Christ, not the mind of man. You’re fitted back where you ought to be. Let the Word of God put you back together because you’re a disjointed group. Make peace. Settle your differences, come back together and let God play your life. Let Him rule your life. Come back to the lordship of verse 2. Understand who it is that owns you, purchased you, and bought you. Start living that way. Then immediately you’ll discover the unity that’s already been there. You see, it’s not at all that we have to be the same. It doesn’t even mean that we have to agree on everything the same in the sense that we’re all studying and growing, etc. But we do agree that this is God’s Word and there are certain things that hold us together. That’s what Paul’s recalling them to so that they can have the oneness in the body. In Ephesians 4:3 the apostle Paul says something. He says, “being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Paul does not say, “Produce it,” Paul says, “Preserve it.” We can’t produce it. We’ve tried it and it never works. I don’t have to be in your house or even know your name to be in oneness with you. If I’m walking right with God (1 Cor. 1:1-9) and you’re walking that way with God, you and I are already one because the unity’s there. We don’t work toward it. We come from it, you see. He’s saying, “Folks, come on back to that which draws you together. Fit yourself into the mind of Christ. Let Christ fit you back together. Let Him make the puzzle make sense instead of being provided with schisms there amongst you.” Well, what a beautiful picture of how God can always bring that unity back into His people. It’s there. He can just manifest it if we’ll come to Him. I was in a meeting in another state and they had been having quite a bit of trouble. Two members of the staff had resigned. I knew there were problems when I got there, because neither one of the two came to the meeting although both were friends of mine. What does that tell you? That tells you there are hard feelings. That tells you they’re not going to come because there are some really bad things that have happened. I want you to know that while I preached the Word that week, we didn’t address the problem. We just addressed the Word, and the Word addressed the problem. As we were going through it that week God put on my heart, “Don’t you go in and address anything because you don’t know. Just go in and teach.” So I decided to teach Judges. That’s what I did, and one guy told me at the end of the week, he said, “You must have talked to somebody.” I said, “I didn’t talk to anybody. Why?” He said, “You just about addressed every single thing we have been through for the last six months but you did it through the book of Judges.” I said, “Now, I didn’t do that. God’s Word did that.” But under the teaching of the Word that week we saw people break and come back together. It’s amazing. That’s exactly what Paul’s saying. You come back into unity. You be fitted back together. Let there be no divisions among you. This is not what I’m looking for in you. I want to see that oneness. It’s a plea for oneness in the church of Corinth.

The Problem of Disunity in Corinth

The second thing I want you see is the problem of disunity in Corinth. You see, even though he pleads for it, he knows it’s not there. Now we’re going to address a little bit more fully what we read a moment ago. This is the problem they’re having. He addresses it just about all the way through chapter 6. In verse 11 he says, “For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you.” Imagine this. This is the church of God at Corinth feuding with one another. How does it hit you when you hear about some church that’s split again? They’ve had another fight in the business meeting, and they’re feuding with one another. Well, that’s exactly what’s going on here. I want to tell you. Flesh is flesh. It doesn’t matter if it’s in their day or in our day. It’s the same thing and when a person gets his life out of synch and stops living surrendered unto Christ, automatically he becomes the instrument of division in the body, you see. Flesh is just flat out flesh. Here’s the church of God at Corinth fighting with one another. Peter had to address the same thing in 1 Peter when he says, “Hey, I want to remind you of something.” Peter had to remind the most persecuted believers in all of Asia Minor. You can find that in the whole New Testament. He had to remind them. “Get your eyes back on the Lord because, evidently, something’s going on in your relationship.” He had to remind them of that. They couldn’t grow until they made their relationships right with God and with one another. Verse 11 says again, “For I have been informed concerning you.” Now that means it’s not heresy. It means it’s not secondhand. He knows for a fact this is going on. This is not some rumor that Paul picked up on and then lambastes the church for. He knows firsthand from a person by the name of Chloe. We don’t know exactly who that was but it had to have been a prominent member of that church who either wrote him or came and told him of what was going on there. She tells of the quarrels that are among the people. Later on he talks about others who have informed him so it’s not just this person. Others have brought the news to him. But he knows. He says, “This is what has been going on. I know this for a fact. There are quarrels among you.” The word “quarrels” is a stronger than the word for “division.” It is eris, and it’s found in some strange company. You don’t want to ever have this. It’s something that’s inside first but it’s being manifested on the outside. When people are conflicting kind of folks and contentious kind of people, quarreling kind of people, what they’re doing on the outside is symptomatic of what’s going on on the inside, you see. That’s what the word has to do with. Let me show you some of the company it keeps. It’s not real good. In Romans 1:29 we read, “being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips.” That’s a great family of words to be involved in. Galatians 5:20 says, “idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions.” Look at the company it keeps. It’s a flesh word. So whenever we become contentious with one another, it’s very obvious that one or both of us have stepped outside the grid of 1 Corinthians 1:1-9. Somehow we’re not living up under the lordship of Christ and somehow we have allowed the flesh to dominate. And when the flesh dominates this is what’s produced. It won’t be just quarreling. It will be other things that will go along with it as a result of not living what Paul has already said the Christian life was all about. We know the strife was that they were lining up behind individual leaders in the church. Verse 12 again, says, “Now, I mean this.” In other words, this is what I’m saying. It’s a fact that each one of you say that “”I am of Paul, I am of Cephas, and I of Christ. Now, some people would say that this is the cause of the problem. They chased after men. That’s their whole problem. No, I don’t agree with that. I think it’s a symptom of the problem. I think their whole problem is they’ve stepped out of line with that grid we’ve already formed in the first few verses and as a result of that they start chasing after men instead of after God. He says, “Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying,...” Now it’s natural to be close to somebody who has ministered to you. Some people, though, take it to an extreme. The apostle Paul started the church, so naturally they would be close to him. Isn’t that right? But the apostle Paul reprimands them for putting him above Apollos who was the second pastor. He says, “Don’t do this. This is not what you’re supposed to be doing. You’re supposed to be following after Christ to let His mind fit you back together. Don’t put me on a pedestal. Don’t do that with men.” When I was in another church that I pastored, I was told how much the former pastor had visited. Most of the time people compare pastors with a pastor they had before or with the pastor in their life who has ministered so much to them. They keep waiting for somebody to come in and clone him and be that way to them again. They don’t realize that every pastor is gifted differently, called differently. Everything’s different in the body of Christ. Well, when I got there they told me that he visited the shut-ins every single day. But then there was one statement that was made to me. “His sermons weren’t much. He didn’t teach us much but, boy, he sure did love us and he sure did visit us. He sure did come by when we were ill,” or whatever. Well I’m a little bit different cut. “I came in a little bit different way. I felt like I loved the people by spending my time in the Word. When I got in the Word, then when I stood up before them, I had something to say. I loved them through the gift that God had given me to love them and I would teach them. That’s the way I’ve always looked at it. But they couldn’t stand that. And as a result of this first pastor, there was a division that began to grow in our church. Some were of him, but some of the newer ones were of me. Automatically there was a division in our fellowship every time we would come together. That’s exactly what Paul’s talking about. Now, folks, I want to tell you something. If you’ve got somebody on a pedestal who’s ministered to you in the past, get them off that pedestal and put Jesus up there where He belongs, because it can divide and conquer a church if you’re trying to measure everybody the same way. You see, that’s the whole problem he’s dealing with here. Some are of Paul, some are of Apollos, the next pastor who came along. I wonder what Apollos did that Paul didn’t do that made these be after Apollos instead of after Paul, the greatest missionary in the New Testament. I felt better, by the way, when I read that. Even he had that problem. But then he mentions another group here that I think to me is the problem and that is, “and I of Christ.” Now, how do you handle that phrase? Is he saying, “Some of you really are of Christ and these are the ones. You ought to be following after Christ instead of following after mere men”? That’s an idea, but I don’t think that’s what the text is saying. He mentions the “I of Christ” in the same censure that he mentions the other three. So it seems to me like what he’s saying is that you’re the toughest ones to reach. Some of you are saying, “Yeah, they’re after these mere men; we’re after Christ and if you’re not like us. We’re excluding all the rest of you.” By the way, do you know anybody that way, who says, “I am of Christ.”? Do you know anybody like that? I have a relative that way. As a matter of fact, he told me one day that since we didn’t do it the way he did it that I’m going to Hell. That’s what he said. Well, bless his heart. When we get to Heaven one day there’s going to be a fence built around these folks and Saint Peter’s going to say, “Shhhh, don’t speak loudly because they think they’re the only ones up here. Shhh.” And we’re all going to walk by, you know, and enjoy Heaven for a million years while they’re over here with a fence around them thinking they’re the only ones up there. I am of Christ, real exclusive. You say, “Wayne, how can you draw that conclusion?” Well, there may be a reason. Look over in 2 Corinthians 10:7. There’s a group of preachers who come along and they’re trying to exclude Paul as even being worthy or of any value whatsoever. I want you to see this and how Paul deals with them. In 2 Corinthians 10:7 he’s dealing with a group of preachers who is just trying to exclude him altogether. They’re very exclusive people. People of the flesh are always that way. They’re divisive, contentious and exclusive. He says, “You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we.” Paul is beautiful the way he handled it. He didn’t handle it on the same level they were handling him. He just sort of very kindly said, “Now, go back and rethink this thing now because just as you’re in Christ, so also we are in Christ. Quit excluding us because we’re not doing it the same way you’re doing it.” Who were these people? Well, we don’t really know but they could have been some of the legalists in that day. Paul understands this and simply says, “Hey, guys, I just want to tell you. You go back and rethink this thing because just as you’re in Christ, so we also are in Christ.” He’s not mean at all. He’s very kind but just drives a nail right there where it ought to be, you see. Go back to Acts 21:20-21. We find a situation where there were new believers who were Jewish but they stuck with the Law. They could be these people he’s talking about. I don’t know. It says, “And when they heard it they began glorifying God; and they said to him, ‘You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law.’” Wait a minute, now. Whoa. They have believed and they’re all zealous for the Law. They have been told about you, Paul, that you’re teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, and you’re telling them not to circumcise their children or to walk according to the customs. In other words, they’re still hung up under Law. They haven’t moved up under grace yet. The apostle Paul constantly had to deal with people like this. But they always wanted to exclude Paul because when you’re that immature, you’ll try to exclude everybody else. Perhaps that was what was going on in Corinth, that kind of division, that kind of thing. “I’m of him. I’m of this other. I like what he says. I’ve got all of his tapes. I bought all of his books.” Tape-ites and book-ites, you know, instead of “I am of Christ and of His Word and I just want Him to dictate in my life His will and I want to line up under it and fit where I belong in the body of Christ.” Many times we think these other people aren’t even believers. Yeah, they’re believers. They just may not be where we are. The way Paul treated them was precious. They could have been the ones he’s talking about. They could have been the very ones he’s mentioned that had come into this church back in chapter 1. The point is whether you’ve been ministered to by Apollos or you’ve been ministered to by Paul, or you’ve been ministered to by Christ, don’t put them up here. Put Christ up here. And as you put Christ up here, back where He belongs, get up under His will and up under His word. Then He will cause you to fit in the body where you belong. You can even tolerate and accept others who are different who won’t tolerate and accept you

1 Corinthians 1:12-16

Division Among God’s People – Part 2

I know that sometimes I sound like a broken record. But I’m going to keep right on sounding that way. I don’t mind if you can just grab it. Verses 2-9 are the grid you’ve got to look at. That’s the Christian life right side up. You get any of these out of order, you get them out of whack, and what happens is you get upside down, and that’s when the division comes. That’s when all the confusion and chaos comes into your life. When we live separated unto Him as His own possession, living for His purpose, not ours, not driving our purpose asking Him to bless it, then what happens is we start opening up to others that are around us.

Romans 12 says, “I beseech you therefore brethren that you present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service of worship. And don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove for yourself what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Then he goes on and immediately says, “Don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. There are other people in the body of Christ besides you.”

We have physical bodies that have many members which are different. It’s that way in the body of Christ. Isn’t it amazing? The first thing that happens when you live surrendered to Him, not perfect but predictable, when you’re about His purposes in your life, is you become inclusive of others, not exclusive of others. 1 Corinthians 1:2 says, “to the church of God which is at Corinth [God’s own possession], to those who have been sanctified [set apart for His purpose, not their own] in Christ Jesus, saints by calling [now look, immediately] with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.”

Paul was saying, “Hey, guys, there are others out here in the body of Christ besides you and we’re all in it together.” You become inclusive, not exclusive of others. Now, listen to me. When you talk about division, be real careful how you handle this. We’re talking about, in our own way of spiritual pride, excluding others. The very stand you have on the Word of God itself will divide you at times. It’s one thing for you to exclude them, and it’s another thing for your life and the Word of God in you to cause that separation. There’s a big difference. If I offend you that’s one thing; if God’s Word offends you, so be it. You see, there’s a difference in the attitude of the individual. You don’t willfully exclude, but sometimes those exclusions are there. In 1 John 2:19 John said, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us.” That’s going to happen in life. It’s not because we pushed them out but because they made that choice themselves. You become inclusive when you’re living about God’s purposes, living in God’s power, depending upon His grace and His peace. If you’re at peace with God, you’re at peace with man.

I had the most incredible experience out in Colorado. I was in a little church that averages 33 on Sunday mornings. I met the pastor up at Ohio and he asked me, “Would you come to a little bitty church out in the middle of nowhere.” I said, “Well, if God tells me to go, I’ll come.” We were just praying that God would cover the airplane ticket. I knew if He didn’t I was going to have to pay for it myself. That’s the way we went out there. We averaged 125 every night. People came from Denver and from Colorado Springs. Some people drove four hours.

When I got on the plane to come home, I was sitting there in my seat reading the USA Today and this couple got on the plane. I thought, “I know them. I’ve seen them before.” It was Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey, the father and mother of that little girl who was murdered in Denver. They sat right in front of me.

Well, we took off and something in my heart stirred when I saw them. I didn’t know I would handle it. When you listen to the news media you don’t know what kind of things you’ll end up with. But they’re people, folks. They’re people who have hearts that beat. They’ve got lungs that breathe air. They’re people who face an eternal destiny whatever’s going on in their life. Something inside of me just reached out to them. I don’t know what it was. I couldn’t do anything but pray for them almost all the way to Atlanta.

We got to Atlanta and he had put a bag up above my head. I knew he was going to have trouble reaching it because when everybody jumps up to get off the plane it’s real crowded there. I prayed. I said, “God, give me an opportunity just to say something encouraging to these people.” Look at the trauma they’ve been through, folks.

When we got up, he reached up and got his first bag. I said, “Is this your bag?” I thought I had seen him put two up there. He said, “Yes, it is.” I had my hand on the seat after I picked the bag up and handed it to him. I said, “Sir, I just want to tell ya’ll something.” Automatically he was defensive. They’re like, “What are you going to say to me?” I said, “I just want you to know that I’m praying for you.” And as tenderly as I have ever been touched by a father or any person who loved me, he put his hand down on mine and just tenderly patted it. Moistness filled up his eyes and he said, “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

You know, folks, I want to tell you something. The days when I’m not living according to what God wants in my life and the days when I get callous, opinionated, that kind of rot that we all do, are the days I wouldn’t give you a plug nickel for anybody outside my little own realm of opinions and my own little realm of hurts. But when you start loving God, God turns something on inside of you that you can’t exclude anybody, I don’t care who they are. You become inclusive, not exclusive.

If you’ll listen to what Paul’s saying here, he’s nailing every one of us to the wall – in love. The way he does it is beautiful. It’s the Holy Spirit of God in him. He’s not trying to just rebuke them harshly. I have said that before and I repent of saying that. He’s coming alongside them. He did rebuke them, but he did it in such a loving way they could receive it because he loves them. He really does love them. He issues a plea for unity in the church of Corinth.

You see, here’s a church. The church is filled with the Lord Jesus Christ living in them. He fills all in all. Here they are grumbling and all kinds of division among them, quarrelling with one another, and he issues a plea for unity there. He knows they’re not living in peace together. It says in verse 10, “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

That little word “I exhort you” is parakaleo. It is that word used for the Holy Spirit of God. It’s a firm word, but yet it’s a very comforting word, a very precious word, very tender word. What he’s saying is, “Hey, folks, listen. Come alongside me.” He started the church. He loved these people. He said, “Come alongside me. Get up as close to me as you can. I want you to sense how much I love you. I’ve got some hard things to say to you so I want to make sure you understand as I say them to you, I’m correcting you out of love for you. That’s why I’m telling you what I’m telling you, you see.” That’s the whole manner of how he approaches it. He wants them to settle their differences. He doesn’t want them to wear the same clothes and say the same thing and walk around like little clones of each other. But what he wants them to do is to come back to what he’s already told them. Live up under the purposes of God. Live separate unto Him. That’s the thing that unifies you. You don’t ever end up agreeing with everybody on everything but you have to agree upon the fact that we’re His property and we’re His possession and we are to walk according to His will in our life.

This division was the problem in the church of Corinth and it manifested itself in quarreling among the brethren. It says in verse 11, “For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you.” Now the word for “quarrels” there is not when you have a heated debate with somebody. The word for “quarrels” here is the little word eris. That word has nothing friendly in it, not one thing friendly in it. It’s contentious from its very motivation. These people are beginning to fight with one another with their words and they’re contending with one another. It’s a strife kind of word that never, ever, ever is the character of a person living as God’s own possession, living surrendered to His purposes. It can’t be because the Holy Spirit of God produces a different kind of character in that individual’s life.

What were they quarreling over? Verse 12 says, “Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul,’ and ‘I of Apollos,’ and ‘I of Cephas,’ and [the hardest group of all] ‘I of Christ.’” The tendency of our flesh, folks, if we’re not living attached to Him, is to attach ourselves to something we can see, touch, and feel. If you’re not living that way in the fullness and the sufficiency of Christ, you will attach yourself to somebody who has somehow ministered to you in life. Perhaps there’s been a mentor, pastor, or whoever, and you’ll attach yourself to them. For some reason they become your focus. What’s happened is they’ve gotten their eyes off of Christ and they’ve moved out of the realm of where he wants them to be.

Now they are of Paul and Apollos, and so on, as he mentioned there. Paul is about to address this common error. I say common error because everybody does it when they’re not walking the way they’re supposed to walk. It’s not just the Corinthian church. I’ve been that way, and you’ve been that way at times in your life.

When he says, “Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying,...” the only thing I can conclude from that is each one of you is saying. In other words, it’s affected the whole church. It’s not just a certain group. It’s the whole church that’s divided. They’ve been divided by this kind of stuff. Paul was the founder of the church. Many of them, perhaps, took up his cause. Apollos followed him as the second pastor. Maybe they liked him better than Paul. That happens sometimes, doesn’t it? Sometimes it’s the other way around. Some liked Cephas. Who’s Peter? Everybody knew who Peter was. Of course, again, the most difficult was the ones who said, “I am of Christ.” Now, listen. They had the right man to follow, the God man. They had the right one, but they had the wrong motive in following Him. Because when your motive is to exclude, then evidently you haven’t got the right pathway yet in how to follow Him. They had the right man but they had the wrong motive. They were doing with Christ what others were doing with Paul, Apollos, and Cephas. They were dividing over the fact that they felt like they had a corner on Christ, you see. Paul puts them into the list of those he’s chiding for their behavior. Again, their focus was set on man and not on God.

One of the things you learn about the apostle Paul, at least I’m learning, is he’s the most brilliant man in the New Testament other than Jesus, an incredible man. I can’t wait in Heaven one day, after a million years when I can just leave Jesus for a second, I want to go over and talk to the apostle Paul and just be around him. Man, the guy was incredible. The way his mind worked was far beyond anything. I can more identify with Simon Peter who said in one of his epistle, “You know our brother, Paul. He says some stuff sometimes that’s hard to understand.” That’s me. I’m on his side.

But Paul was an intelligent man. He was a master at reasoning with people. Who else would go down to Athens and get up on Mars Hill and take on all the Greek philosophers? Only the apostle Paul. I mean nailed them to the wall: “I saw this sign. It said the unknown God. Let me tell you who He is. I’d like to introduce you to Him.” This guy’s incredible. He was just sitting down there waiting for some of his buddies to come and meet with him and he just happened to see all the idolatry and it made him mad. So he goes up on the hill and takes the whole town on. It’s amazing. And held his own. That’s the kind of man he was.

He was able to take a proposition that somebody had and jump ahead of them and show them the dead end street they would face if they followed that proposition. Incredible ability to reason out something. I wish I had more of that. You know, when you start seeing some people say certain things and you say, “Hold on. That sounds good right there. Let’s just keep following that on down and see where it ends up.” That’s what Paul was able to do. In 1 Corinthians 15 he says, “Hey, you don’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, bodily? Well, hey, if you don’t we don’t have anything to look forward to because we’re not raised bodily either. If you don’t believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, then you don’t even have a salvation. You’re all lost. We don’t have any hope at all.” He just said, “It sounds good, what you say, but it just doesn’t jibe with the Word of God. If you follow it out, it falls over the edge of a cliff before it’s over with, you see.”

I’m overwhelmed at what the Lord has taught me in my study. Hopefully you can get some of it. The problem of division in Corinth had to do with their confused allegiance. In other words, they were following after man. They were not as God’s own possession living separated unto Him. That’s what happened to them. This was symptomatic but at the same time Paul’s going to have to address that, a believer’s allegiance to Christ, not to man, not to preachers, not to whoever baptized you, not to whoever meant a lot in your life. Yes, you’ll always appreciate them but don’t ever put them on a pedestal that Jesus deserves to be put. Don’t ever put them in His place. That’s what people do all the time.

Well, he begins by taking this last group, “I am of Christ.” He takes them first and tackles it straight on. Look at what it says. To those that say, “I am of Christ”, here’s what Paul says in verse 13. He asks a question. “Has Christ been divided?” Now when you first read that, you think, “What in the world is he talking about?” You’ve got to remember how he thinks. You’ve got to jump to the fact that he sees the whole picture. They don’t; they’re very narrowmindedly thinking they’ve got a corner on Jesus. This is the group that I talked about last time. When they get to Heaven, they’re going to put a fence around them and when Saint Peter walks us by he’ll say, “Shhh, be really quiet. They think they’re the only ones up here.” They’ve got a special corner on Jesus.

Paul just beautifully nails them. First of all, he’d already told them, “You’ve got other believers every place.” Just because somebody maybe doctrinally doesn’t agree with you doesn’t mean he doesn’t have Jesus Christ in his life. That’s the key. The doctrine we’ll have to work out later. Sometimes that will separate us, but we don’t exclude others because they believe differently. Sometimes that happens. But what he’s saying is that these people have Christ, too. Sometimes when you hear something from somebody that doesn’t sound like you heard it before, just listen again. There might be some truth in it. If it doesn’t, don’t throw them out of the window and say that they don’t know Jesus because Jesus is bigger, bigger than our little doctrinal things that we come up with sometimes. He’s much bigger than that. So what he’s trying to show them is, “You don’t realize this, folks, but Jesus is bigger than your little group. By your saying that you’re of Christ, if you take it all the way down and reason it back, you’re saying Christ is divided and you got something of Him that somebody else doesn’t have. Can Christ be divided?” No. What he’s basically showing them is the absurdity of the whole idea.

He jumps from that to himself. I respect him for this because he could have left himself out of it and picked on Apollos, because that’s the one who followed him. He could have picked on Simon Peter because, you remember, when Paul came out of that desert experience, the first place he went was right to Simon Peter. He said, “Simon Peter, you’re a hypocrite. You won’t even eat with the Gentiles. Get your life straight, man.” He tried to teach him about grace. He could have said some things about Peter. He didn’t. He doesn’t even mention those two. He makes himself vulnerable and puts himself up there in the focus of what he’s about to do. He doesn’t even address the other two. I think that one of the reasons he does this is because he’s horrified that the church that he started would ever, ever, ever put him on a pedestal and exclude other people if they didn’t agree with them. He’s horrified by that. That is a scary thing when people deify men rather than deify God and live under that. I’m telling you it’s a tendency if you’re not living and walking as God wants you to. “I’m of him, I’m of him.” Not only will that in itself exclude you, you become exclusive in yourself and you’ll stay right within the framework of what you want and exclude everybody else.

For those who said, “I am of Paul,” here’s what he has to say in verse 13. He says, “Paul was not crucified for you, was he?” Man, I’ll tell you. That’s a powerful statement. In other words, “What in the world are you looking at me for? I wasn’t crucified. I’m not the man you need to be looking to. I’m just as simple as anybody else. You need to be looking at the God man. He’s the one who died for you.” He’s saying, “Man, you’re putting me in a class that I would never in a million years want to even touch. It would be total blasphemy for me to be there.”

As a matter of fact, if you have ever studied much of the writings of Paul, you know that Paul shows this. He’s never pointing at himself unless he says, “Imitate my faith or whatever.” And that’s only in a way of helping to explain what he’s teaching. In 1 Corinthians 2:2 he says, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” There’s the heart of the man. He’s saying, “Why would you put me on a pedestal? The only heartbeat I have is to know Christ and Him crucified.”

Look over in Galatians 6:14. This is just the heart of the man. He’s really a man who’s upset. He’s a man who says, “Man, don’t you ever do this to me. Don’t you put me up there where Jesus belongs. I’m not worthy to be up there. I didn’t die for your sins.” It says in Galatians 6:14, “But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” That’s the heart of the man. Can you imagine how he must have felt when he found out that some of them said, “I am of Paul”, and by that excluded everybody else if they didn’t agree with them, thinking that Paul was something that Paul never professed to be and knew he wasn’t? It was a terrible thing in his heart.

Paul wants them to know that worshipping Paul is totally ridiculous. Basically he’s saying, “I didn’t die for you. Christ did. There’s only one man we should elevate.” In other words, “If I died for you, all you’d have is a dead man. I didn’t do anything for you. I was just a vessel. God stopped me on the Damascus Road. Don’t ever put me up there because I’m a man who has to deal with his own flesh every day just like you do.” If we elevate Christ, then you can’t exclude others and become that way in the body of Christ. You can’t narrow yourself and draw a little fence around yourself and say, “This is who I’m following.” You can’t do that if you’re following Christ because that always becomes inclusive.

Well, Paul ties the whole thing that he’s dealing with here, the quarrelling, the contention, the divisions in the people, back to their baptism. This is incredible to me. How in the world? The Holy Spirit has to be the author of Scripture. The apostle Paul ties everything back to baptism. He stays a while on himself and for the next several verses he’s going to talk about this one subject. Look at what he says in verse 13. “Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” Now what is he doing? Why in the world would he bring that up? He’s already talked Jesus dying. Why would he go back to their baptism? You know what, folks? It would be good if you’d go back to yours. You may need to do it again because you missed the whole point of why you did it in the first place. You see baptism speaks of the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus but what does baptism also speak? It speaks of my identification in that death. I have been buried in the likeness of Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. So it has something to say about a separated life that I have chosen to live. You see, this is so important to remember. It’s not in the name of Paul, he’s saying. It was in the name of Jesus that you were baptized. You weren’t baptized in my name.

You would think in this world today some people who are so of men, you would think they died on the cross for them. You’d think that they were baptized in their name, you see, identified with them, to follow them wherever you go.

Let’s read in Romans 6. That’s really what’s in the back of Paul’s mind, I believe, as he’s using baptism. What an incredible genius of the Holy Spirit of God to work in Paul to come up with baptism to prove his point that you should never be attached to men. You live attached to God. There’s a huge difference, folks. There’s a huge difference. Romans 6:3 says, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” Immersed into and identified with. Verse 4 goes on, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Baptism does not only picture Christ’s death on the cross, but it’s our outward testimony of our discipleship to Him, our attachment to Him. When we’re baptized, we’re saying to the world, “I’ve already been saved. It happened inwardly but outwardly I want to give a picture. This is the first step of my testimony that Jesus is my Lord and that I’m going to live unto Him, separated unto Him and His purposes because I died with Him and I’ve cut off the world from me, as Paul said in Galatians 6. I’m dead to that and I’m raised to walk in the newness of His life.

Now listen. Paul in no way is downgrading baptism. Don’t think that. Paul asks, “Were you baptized in the name of Paul?” That’s not his point here. He’s just taking them back and having them recall that experience so they have a basis to understand what he’s saying. You never follow men. You’ve been cut off from that kind of thing. You now have chosen to follow Him – period – and for all eternity, you see. He’s the focus of your life, not man but God.

As a matter of fact, Paul himself had gone through baptism. That’s what it meant to him too. Look over in Acts 9:18. I want to make sure you understand he’s not playing down baptism. By the way, there are those who struggle with baptism. They say that it doesn’t mean immersion. That’s okay. I’m not going to fight with anybody. Secular Greek used the word baptizo when a person drowned, which was transliterated to give us the word “baptized.” Now maybe you can drown in a cup of water. It takes a little bit more than that for me. It means to be immersed in water. It does mean identified with. But you’ve got to see the picture. If it’s just identification and you don’t see the picture of immersion, you missed the whole point. You go down into the water, dying and being buried with Him and you come up out of the water, raised to walk having been washed in the newness of life, not by the water. It’s just symbolic. You’re washed in the blood of Jesus. This is a spiritual experience.

You ask, “Well, Wayne, if a man’s not baptized will he go to Hell?” No. When you’re saved, you’re saved to the uttermost. Not being baptized is not going to send you to Hell. But baptism is very important and Paul does not downplay it. Paul himself was baptized. Listen, Jesus was baptized. Now if you want to get on this kick that you don’t ever need to be baptized, help yourself. But Jesus was baptized and Paul was baptized. In Acts 9:18 it says, “And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he arose and was baptized.” He’s already been saved and then he’s baptized.

The Corinthian believers were baptized as a result of their faith in Christ. Look in Acts 18:8. This is the church of Corinth there that he speaks of, the same church he’s writing to here in 1 Corinthians. Acts 18:8 says, “And Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing [look what comes first] and ]then were what?] being baptized.” So they were baptized. He’s not playing it down, but he certainly is bringing it up to bring them back to it.

Let’s recall. Why were you baptized? This is going to prove his whole point about the divisions and the factions of following after men. Baptism always follows belief. In other words, baptism cannot be substituted for faith. Baptism comes as a result of someone having placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It cannot be a substitute for salvation. The Corinthians had evidently forgotten what it meant. I wonder if we’ve forgotten.

Let’s just take some time and talk about baptism. Why does he bring it up? I think when we get through with this you may see the wisdom and the genius the Holy Spirit has in Paul’s bringing this up. First of all, go to Matthew 28:19. What does Jesus say about baptizing? Who do you baptize? It’s very important. Jesus gave the directions Himself to the disciples. Now Paul has made the statement, “It’s not in my name you were baptized. It’s in His name you were baptized.” That’s significant. Jesus says in Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them [not in the names of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit but] in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Some people get all bent out of shape about that. Should it be in the name of Jesus? Should it be in the name of the Father? If you use all three of them are you doing something wrong? That always has sort of tickled me. I know I have a simplistic mind and approach things that way. That’s all I know how to do. But it just seems to me that it’s kind of idiotic if you ask me. There’s no jealousy in the Trinity. Have you ever seen jealousy in the Trinity? So if you want to put all three names in there or pick one out it doesn’t bother the Trinity any, because the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is God. There are not three Gods. There’s one God in three persons.

I hear this argument all the time. I’m thinking, “What? Give me a break and get a life.” It’s name, not names, okay? The phrase “in the name of” is significant. It means with respect or regards to something. That’s one of the meanings.

An illustration of how it’s used is over in Matthew 10:41. The same phrase is used but in a different context. We’re not talking about baptism here. We’re trying to show you how it’s used. Matthew 10:41 reads, “He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet [there’s your phrase] shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.” It means he who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. That’s basically what he’s saying.

So in our text in 1 Corinthians Paul is saying that when the Corinthians were baptized, they were baptized because of their belief in the fact that Jesus was the Christ and died for their sins, because of the fact of who He is, because of His name, they were baptized into Him, you see. That’s what the whole thing is about.

There are two absolutes that Paul seems to be saying. First of all, “There is a God.” Secondly, “I’m not him. You’re weren’t baptized in my name. You were baptized in His name. He’s God. I’m not God. So, therefore, it’s significant that you don’t put me on a pedestal. You keep Him up there where He belongs.

Now to return to our text, there’s another meaning of “in the name of.” I think this is what Paul is alluding to. “In the name of Christ” means we have attached ourselves to Him. It’s not only an act of witness of what has happened inwardly to me, but it’s an outward testimony of my allegiance to Him. It speaks of my discipleship. It speaks of Him. It’s lordship. It’s the whole thing. Lordship was salvation, yes, but now I’m affirming it in my witness by saying, “I’m attached to Him and I’m going to live my life attached to Him. I’ve cut everything else away from me and have now been raised to walk in the newness of His life. He will be the one I’m going to live attached to for the rest of my days.”

Paul said, “You didn’t get baptized in my name so that you could live attached to me. You were baptized in His name so that you could live attached to Him.” Now you think about it for a second. Who are you attached to? Who do you listen to every single day of your life? If anybody walked into your house and said that they didn’t like them, you would exclude them and slam the door in their face because whatever that person says, that’s what you believe because you just think that person is right. I’m telling you, folks. That’s America in the twentieth century. If you ever cross somebody who somebody’s living attached to, watch how fast they’re going to exclude you from their presence.

So Paul is saying, “Hey, you weren’t baptized in my name. You were baptized in His name. You’re attached to Him. You’re not attached to me. Don’t you dare live your life attached to me. I’m His apostle and whatever I tell you, you have to listen because He gives it to me. Don’t live attached to me. Live attached to Him and His Word.”

Go back to 1 Corinthians 1. We’ll keep the flow. That’s where we’re talking about baptism. Why is it so important to what he’s trying to tell the Corinthians church? They’ve totally forgotten what baptism is all about. Verse 14 says, “I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius.” He’s looking back and saying, “Hey, I don’t even know why you’re attaching yourself to me. I only baptized two of you.”

Well, in verse 16, he talks about Stephanas and his household. In other words, “Why in the world would there be a faction over there? You weren’t baptized in my name. In fact, I only baptized a few of you.” It was not founding for the unwanted allegiance to him. <

1 Corinthians 1:17-20

The Fallacy of Following After Man

The church of Corinth, because of their fleshly living, were much divided, and it was because they weren’t living attached to Christ. They were attaching themselves to men. That was their problem. There are two points that I want to cover this time. First of all, Paul is saying, “The fallacy of attaching yourself to me. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. There’s a fallacy in it.” Let me show you what it is. You see, all of these men had a message. Remember that. You wouldn’t attach yourself to Paul if he didn’t have a message. He wasn’t a great athlete or anything like that, he was a great preacher of the day, as were Cephas and Apollos. Christ’s message, of course, is what we all embrace. They had a message.

Now, think with me. What is Paul saying in verse 17? He says, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void.” Paul points to the fact that he’s been commissioned, not to baptize, now listen, but to preach the gospel. That’s another nail. But let me just hit another nail here. If baptism is a part of the salvation message, why does Paul say, “I’m not called to baptize but to preach the gospel”? You see, you’d have to put baptism into the gospel for it to be a part of the salvation message.

The word “send” is the same word we’ve seen earlier in the book. It’s the word used back when he calls himself an apostle in verse 1. He uses the word apostello. This is the word that comes right out of it. In verse 1 you find he was sent to preach; in verse 17 you find what he was sent to preach. His message, which was what people were using to separate themselves unto God, is the very thing that he uses to prove that men should never be put on a pedestal. Stay with me. It’s very subtle. Don’t let me lose you. By saying what he says here he’s showing you why you never put your faith into man. You put Christ where He belongs. Look at the verse again. “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech.”

You’ve got to understand who we’re dealing with here. This man, the apostle Paul, could take an auditorium and pack it out every single night, five hours at a shot. This man was an eloquent speaker. This man was educated. This man had integrity, had something to say, and when he stood up he immediately drew people to him.

Look over in Acts 14:11. There was a lame man at Lystra who was healed, and the pagan people of that area made a statement about the apostle Paul. You’ve got to see this. There are many men who can stand up and preach with intellect, with education, etc., but never put those men up, and I’ll tell you why. Because the message they’re preaching, if it’s not God’s message, absolutely says nothing and will do nothing of eternal value in your life. “And when the multitudes saw what Paul had done [this is when the lame man had been healed], they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, ‘The gods have become like men and have come down to us.’” Look at verse 12, “And they began calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.”

Who in the world was Hermes? Hermes is the name for Mercury in Greek mythology. In Greek mythology, Mercury was the son of Hercules and was the eloquent, educated messenger of the gods. In other words, when Hermes or Mercury would speak, he was the greatest of all the orators of that day. And everybody was wooed and wowed in their mythology and their thinking of that day. Look at what they say. They say, “This man is super! He’s Mercury and has come back to visit us.” He was such a great speaker, an orator, with education and with intellect when he would speak. The pagan people of Lystra actually thought it was the mythological god of Hermes or Mercury. “He was the chief speaker,” Acts 14:12 says. So, though Paul was educated, clever and full of wisdom, as far as man was concerned, the message that Paul would preach outside of the message of Christ would absolutely pale from nonexistence.

What Paul is saying is, “You don’t ever put your faith into a man.” There was a time in Paul’s life when he did not know this message. This message didn’t come from Paul. This message came from God. He was not sent because of his own choice. He was sent because of the choice of God, by the will of God, to be a speaker of the message, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this message was wisdom that would come from above in contrast to the wisdom that could come from eloquent and educated men of that day, you see. Man’s wisdom was nothing compared to God’s wisdom. Paul is saying, “Just because I’m speaking a message to you and you like the way I speak don’t you dare put me up there. It is not my message. It is not me. It is in demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit of God.”

Well, look at 1 Corinthians 1:17 again, “For Christ did not sent me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech [Why is it not in cleverness of speech? Look at the last phrase], that the cross of Christ should not be made void.” I’ll tell you, folks. This is sobering when you think about it. If we could be saved through the eloquence and education of man, then all humanity would nullify the gospel which is synonymous with the cross of Christ. It would be made void. The word means to be emptied out. Boy, I’ll tell you that really convicts me. He’s saying that if all it takes is the ability to speak well, if all it takes is education, etc., and a man could get up and people could get saved then automatically it would nullify the message of the cross. You see, there are a lot of people who can get up and speak well and people are enamored with the speaker but they still walk out the door and die and go to Hell. He’s saying, “The message I’m preaching doesn’t come from me. It comes from God so don’t ever put me up here. I wasn’t smart enough to understand it until God stopped me on the Damascus Road. I didn’t understand it until God saved me. Now He’s commissioned me to take it to this world. Don’t you ever put me up here; Christ belongs up here.”

Did you realize the message of the cross is something that’s repulsive to the educated man of this day? They can’t stand it. As a matter of fact, they don’t even like considering one of the hymns that says, “For such a worm as I.” They want to change that because it somehow devalues humankind. The cross is something that the human logic cannot figure out. They exclude it in their mind. The cross is a glorious message, but it’s a gory message of how the Son of God died and bled and suffered on a cross because of our sins. Take all of our education, take all of our eloquence, take all of our good deeds of righteousness and they’re nothing more than filthy rags in God’s eyes. Jesus had to come and die for us as sinners and that’s a message the educated world today absolutely is repulsed by. There’s nothing in it that they want to hear.

Therefore, when you stand up in man’s wisdom, just by the very fact that you’re standing up with your message of what you want to say to people rather than God’s message and what He wants to say to people, it nullifies the whole message. It nullifies the cross of Christ. People don’t like to hear about the blood that was shed. Hebrews 9:22 says, “And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Do you see what Paul is saying? He’s saying, “There was a day when I did not embrace that message. There was a day when I myself lived foolishly as an educated man, rejecting that message. But today I understand the difference. And to put a man like me up there on that pedestal is absolutely absurd. The message didn’t come from me. The message came from Him, and it changed me and it will change you. But it’s not me in my education. It’s not me in my eloquence. It’s God working through me a message that he came up with. I didn’t come up with it.”

Charles Spurgeon once said this about the futile attempts of man to either duplicate God’s creation or to somehow enhance it. “Foolish man would paint the rose and enamel the lily trying to make it better, add whiteness to snow and brightness to the sun, [and I like this one] with their retched candles, they would try to help us see the stars. The cross of Christ is sublimely simple. To adorn it is to dishonor it.” Take all of the accolades you want to take of man’s wisdom and try to add to it. You can’t add to it. It’s just a simple message. We’re sinners, hell-bound, and Jesus Christ became man, died on a cross for our sins, resurrected the third day, ascended, was glorified and is the only way of salvation. You can’t adorn it. You can’t help it. It’s just left like it is. It’s God’s message. That’s the message Paul preached. He didn’t use all his background to fill in with. He just preached what God had put on his heart. Therefore, he said, “Don’t ever put me up here. Don’t ever put me up here.”

Paul goes on to explain the saving power of the message of the cross. Look at verse 18. He says, “For the word of the cross [which is the message God has given to him, so don’t attach yourself to me] is to those who are perishing foolishness [exactly what we just said], but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Now listen to me carefully. They saw the cross as a victory. In other words, when Jesus died on the cross in the pagan man’s mind they thought, “Good. We’re rid of Him.” The cross was a just penalty for a futile and reckless life. When they saw the people hanging on the cross, they knew well they deserved what they got. When Jesus died on the cross, they saw it as victory. They saw the whole message as being foolish.

But Paul said, “The message of the cross.” Have you come across this in your study of Scripture? When the definite article is used it’s very significant. I could lay a pen down on this desk and say, “Pick up a pen.” You could just look around, there are several pens, and just pick up this one. Big deal. But I could use the definite article and say, “Pick up that black pen, that specific black pen with a little gold on it.” You would reach over and pick up that pen. That’s a definite article. They looked at a cross, but Paul looked at the cross and the man who died on it. That’s the difference in the message, you see. They couldn’t see the difference. They didn’t realize who it was who died on it. They didn’t realize it wasn’t because of His sin, it was because of their sin. So it’s foolishness. It’s absurd to those who do not believe.

They live in a world that thinks it’s going to get better. Have you heard that lately? It’s all going to get better. All we’ve got to do is keep on doing what we’re doing. Take care of the environment. Take care of the animals. Take care of all these things. Get the ozone layer leveled out and everything’s going to be better. But you come to the Word of God, and you see it’s not going to get any better. God is such a holy God He even considered Heaven not to be completely pure. Therefore, there’s going to be a new Heaven and a new earth. Who in Heaven today accuses the brethren day by day? Satan himself. God is so holy He’s not going to let this world stay like it is. It’s not going to get better, folks. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. He is going to come back and give us the new heaven and earth, yes, but not in the existence of how we’re headed right now. “For the word of the cross,” he says, “is to those who are perishing foolishness.” The word “perishing” is in the middle voice. The idea is they’re perishing because of their own choice. It’s not a matter of just dying. That’s not what he’s talking about. Those who are perishing are heading headlong into hell and they’re doing it by their own choice. Do you know why? Because they take the wisdom of the world and reject the wisdom of God. Therefore, because of their own choosing they are perishing, middle voice. It has that idea.

“For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness [look at what it says], but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” The word dunamis is the word that means force that initiates change. Boy, when you preach the word of the cross, the gospel of Jesus Christ, unbelievers can get saved because they realize they’re sinners and there’s no hope except that Christ came to die for them. Believers can be delivered from the power of sin because they can take their identity with Jesus, deny self and say yes to Jesus. Also we have the hope that one day we’ll get a brand new body and be delivered from the very presence of sin. When you preach the cross it is to us power. It’s ability. It effects change in our life. But to those who don’t believe, it does not.

One day Benjamin Franklin was talking to the great atheist of the day who wrote The Power of Reason. This atheist said to him, “Benjamin, what do you think about the Bible?” Benjamin Franklin said back to him, “Listen, those who spit into the wind, spit into their own face.” I thought that was a good answer. You don’t believe the Bible, buddy? You will one day, but it’s going to be too late because everything you’re throwing out at it is going to come right back to haunt you one day. Your wisdom that you think is so smart, compared to God’s wisdom and the message of the cross and the gospel, is absolutely contrasted in such a way that one day you be overwhelmed by it. You spit into the wind and you spit right back into your face.

The Gentiles saw the cross as foolishness. However, to those who believe, it’s the power of God and salvation. I told you it was subtle. You’ve got to stay with me. What is Paul saying? He’s saying, “This is the message that I preach. Now, where did it come from? Did it come as a result of my seminary training? Did it come as a result of all the years of growing up in an educated family? Where did it come from? It didn’t come from him. It came from God. And because it came from God, don’t you ever put me on a pedestal because the very message I preach and have been changed by is not my message. It’s His message and I must preach it in demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit of God.”

That’s a good word for us today, isn’t it? You hear a good preacher on the radio and you say, “Man, I’m going to buy every tape he has. I’m going to buy every book he’s put out.” That’s wonderful. That’s fine. But, my friend, don’t you ever put that man on a pedestal and don’t you ever start being enamored by his wisdom; because his wisdom apart from the demonstration of the Spirit of God in his life is not worth a plugged nickel when it comes to eternity. If there’s anything good about that man and anything good about what that man says, you take it and give praise to God and keep Jesus up where He belongs. You appreciate the man, but you praise Him because if you don’t, you’ll attach yourself to that man and when that man is wrong, and I’ll guarantee you he’ll be wrong sometime, somewhere down the road you’ll become so exclusive of the body of Christ, the pain that you’re going to reek within the body, it’s going to be overwhelming to you. Be real careful what you’re doing. Be real careful.

Let me ask you a question. Who is it or what is it in your life that you feel like is so right has already caused you to make a choice to exclude somebody else in the body of Christ? I guarantee you if you’ll just be honest with yourself, there are many of us who have already fallen in this trap. We’ve dethroned Christ. We’ve either put a man or a message up there and we’ve forgotten who’s the focus of our life.

Let me give you just a real personal example. Some people are those who are of public school. Now listen carefully to what I’m saying. Some people are those who are of Christian school. Some people are those who are of home school. I applaud all three groups as long as it’s a conviction of your heart that that’s where you ought to be. But, my friend, if your conviction ever gets to the point that you exclude somebody else in the body of Christ, you have dethroned Christ and put your conviction ahead of Him. That’s exactly what’s going on in the church of Corinth. I say that with all the love in my heart, without any kind of agenda whatsoever. But come on, man, put Christ back up there and Christ will cause you to be inclusive, not exclusive of other believers. Our message is a person: it’s Christ. And He’ll tell you what to do and you do what He tells you to do, but you don’t do it excluding everybody else in the meantime. Don’t put your conviction, your message or your messenger up where Jesus belongs in your life or you have made a terrible mistake and you’re rendering and ripping and tearing the very body of Christ. Please understand what I’m saying. These are the days we live in, folks.

We have to remember to keep Jesus up there, and He will bring the conviction to your heart. It may exclude you but it won’t be you excluding you, if you understand what I’m saying. It will be others having to walk away from you because they didn’t see it the way you saw it. But you didn’t walk away from them. You still love them, care about, pray for them, and let them be a part of your life, you see. That’s part of it.

Secondly, Paul said, “There’s a fallacy in following me.” The fallacy of following any man. Put any of them in there. It doesn’t matter who they are. Look at what he says. It all has to with the message they bring and the wisdom from which this message comes. That’s why you don’t follow men when it comes to eternal things. Verse 19 says, “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.’” Paul quotes from the Old Testament. I love him because when he says, “It is written,” that’s perfect tense. He had no confidence in the oral traditions of the day, not one single bit of confidence. When he would reference something, he would go back to what is written. I love that. We have the complete Word today. He did not have all of that. In fact, he was writing three-fourths of the New Testament. He always went back to the written word. What does the Word of God say?

Romans 15:4 gives us a clue as to why he did this. He says, “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Now, he said, “Whatever was written was written for our encouragement.” So he goes back to the Old Testament when he quotes this verse, to Isaiah 29:14. This was at a very critical in the life of Israel, when Israel had a choice to accept the wisdom of God or accept the wisdom from man. They had a choice, and God said where they should make that choice. In verse 29 of chapter 14 it says, “Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous [that’s the way He deals with us, isn’t it? Then he says], and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be concealed.”

Now what in the world’s going on? Sennacherib had threatened Judah and God had come and spoken to the leadership and said, “Listen, don’t put any faith whatsoever into the wisdom of men. The wisdom of men will tell you to get an alliance with another country. The wisdom of men will tell you this and tell you that. I’m telling you don’t you do that. You trust in Me. You put all of your focus into Me and the wisdom that I give to you.” But did they do that? No. As a matter of fact, as soon as God has spoken to them they got a council together, a committee, and they said, “Listen, what can we do to help ourselves out? Let’s make an alliance with Egypt.”

Well, that made Assyria absolutely furious. As a result, they ended up in captivity themselves. God told them, but they chose not to go with His wisdom. You see, man rarely chooses God’s wisdom. That’s our problem. They chose to go with man’s wisdom so God said, “I’m going to deal with these people marvelously. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to make the wisdom of their wise man perish and the discernment of their clever shall be concealed.” Once again man had made that mistake.

Paul goes on in verse 19, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” The word “I will destroy” means to completely destroy. The word “set aside” has that same characteristic about it, just to get it out of the way, completely remove it from man’s mind. Now, does he do that? Well, in verse 20 he says, “Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe?” He still has this in mind. Did God do it? “Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” He’s saying, “Did I do what I said I was going to do? I tell you how He did it. He did it in the gospel of the message that Paul is preaching. He took every bit of the wisdom of man and just made it perish. He took every bit of the cleverness of man and just set it aside all in the gospel of Jesus Christ because what man said could bring a man to salvation. God absolutely turned that off. He just covered it up and put it aside.

You see, man’s trust in his own wisdom can never do anything there. But with the gospel it completely shuts man’s wisdom out. It’s a wisdom from God Himself. He said, “Where is the wise man?” Look back in history and find me a wise man who’s still hanging around with wisdom that’s eternal. Hitler made this statement, “Nothing will prevent me from tearing up Christianity, root and branch. We’re not out against 101 kinds of Christianity but against Christianity itself. All people who profess creeds are traitors to the people, even those Christians who really want to serve people we have to suppress.” And then Hitler said, “I myself am a heathen to the core.” That sounded great to the German people at that time. My friend, do you think he was a wise man? Did he make it?

A chaplain in a German prison camp where they had Germans as prisoners made this statement, “I wish you could have been present to see with what avidity the Bibles were received by the German prisoners of war. I’m here to tell you that Hitler has not succeeded in irradiating the hope of Christian faith in the hearts of his people.”

So Paul says, “Where is the wise man? Stand up out there somewhere, those of you who have claimed yourself to be so wise and oppose the wisdom of God.” God had done exactly what He said He would do. He caused the wise man to perish. The word for “wise” is sophia. We also get the word “philosophy” from it. Philos is lover of or friend of, and sophia is wisdom. So the word “philosophy” means lover of wisdom, but whose wisdom? It’s always man’s wisdom, friend, unless you’re a believer and love the Word of God.

We live in such a world that they’ve got their own answers. Paul would say, “Okay. Where are all those wise philosophers who gave us those philosophies that have never yet turned out as compared to the wisdom of God?” Then he says, “Where is the scribe?” The word for “scribe” had to do with the theologians of the day. Paul himself was a theologian at one time. We know that for a fact. You had to be a scribe in order to have a vote on the council. He did have a vote. He says in Acts 26:10, “And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests but also when they were being put to death, I cast my vote against them.” You had to be a scribe in order to have a vote in those situations. Paul at one time in his life was a theologian.

Now listen to me. He was a theologian, but he didn’t have a clue about God because he wasn’t saved. He didn’t know the wisdom from God. So Paul is saying, “Where are the theologians? Where are the scribes of that day? Look at me.” He said, “I went around from place to place persecuting Christians.” He says, “Listen, according to the law I was blameless. I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I had my “theology.” I was a scribe of that time. But now look. Because of the Damascus Road I’m totally different. All of my gifts of eloquence and speaking and my education doesn’t mean a whole lot when it comes to preaching because it’s got to be in the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit of God. The message I have now is so contrasting to the message I had then. God has concealed. He’s caused the wisdom that I used to have to perish with the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Then he makes one final statement, “Where is the debater of this age?” Well, the word for “debater” is the word that I think a lot of people fall in this category. It means those who love to argue just for the sake of arguing. It doesn’t mean that they ever come to any conclusions. They just like to argue. How many of you know somebody like that? Aren’t they fun? When I see them coming, I just turn and go the other way because you’re never going to answer anything. All they want to do is debate. They could care less about an answer. They just want to debate. They just want to argue all the time. Most of us can’t be philosophers because we don’t have that kind of background or that kind of mindset. Most of us can’t be theologians as Paul was talking about here. All of us fit into this.

What he basically does is he encompasses all the realms of human wisdom and says, “On the basis of this, I want you to know you never put a man up here on a pedestal because all of his wisdom compiled apart from the message God gives to a man is absolutely absurd in itself and you don’t want to put that man up there. He can’t lead you anywhere. The only one you want to put up there is Christ and then if you appreciate a man let him lead you to Christ. Let him lead you to the message but don’t ever put the message of the man up there. Put Christ, who is the Author of the message, up there and learn to live attached unto Him.”

I’ll tell you what, folks, men attaching themselves to men has been the downfall of the church in the twentieth century as far as division as schisms within the body, because of this preacher, because of this doctrine, because of this, because of that, because of whatever. Now listen, doctrine will separate you but you don’t have the right to make the separation yourself, an exclusive attitude. That’s what he’s saying.

There are times you have to walk away from false doctrine, but you still love the people. You still pray for the people. Your heart still includes them in your prayers, but that doesn’t mean you line up right beside them. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying this exclusive, holier than thou, I’ve got a corner on God attitude is what was dividing the whole church of Corinth. That’s exactly what’s dividing us in this day.

You start following men and you’re going to end up so confused you don’t know which way is up and which way is down. Follow Christ and His message. Listen to the message but don’t follow the man. Follow the message. When Paul says, “Imitate me,” he is really saying, “Imitate my faith. Do as I do.” He’s not saying, “Put me on a pedestal.” No, he’s just simply saying, “I’ve got a walk and I’ll follow Him. I think you can trust following the One I’m following.”

I wonder how much division is in the body because of people who have attached themselves to a doctrine, to a conviction, or to a person instead of attaching themselves to Christ. Perhaps you have drawn a little circle around yourself that says, “Nobody’s touching me and when these people get right with God, I might have fellowship with them.” Well, friend, you need to come to the cross that Paul preached and die to that self, that ugly old discriminating and excluding self, and experience the message that Paul’s talking about, the power that comes from the preaching of the cross and dying to self.

I Corinthians 1:21-25

Contents

1 The Wonderful Message of The Cross

2 The Problem of the Message of The Cross

3 The Power of the Message of The Cross

The Wonderful Message of The Cross

You know the world is filled with those of us who have an opinion and consider ourselves wise because of it. Don’t we love to brag on what we know? Whether it be in the area of philosophy or theology or the general run of the mill folks who in the barber shop like to express our opinion, we like to be seen as being wise. Of course, that goes right back to Adam.

Look in Jeremiah 9:23. Jeremiah talks about what man loves to boast in the most. There are three things, but I want you to see the first thing he mentions. I think that’s the bottom line of it all. Jeremiah 9:23 is a very wonderful passage which will open our eyes as to what we really enjoy boasting about. It says, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,’ declares the Lord.” Oh, how we love our wisdom.

When you take all the wisdom of man, whether it be the most academic or whatever, and you put it up next to God’s wisdom, it will absolutely pale to nonexistence. However, on this earth we tend to follow people we think know a lot. People who have a lot of wisdom tend to have a following. You say, “What does this have to do with 1 Corinthians 1?” It has everything to do with it. There was a division in the church at Corinth which had ripped it asunder, had torn it, in other words. Division means to rip, to tear, to rend. It’s a terrible word.

It says in 1:11, “For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you.” These contentious quarrels were surfacing. Verse 12 goes on, “Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul,’ and ‘I of Apollos,’ and ‘I of Cephas,’ and ‘I of Christ.’” Now the ones who says, “I am of Christ”, they’re the ones who had the right person, but the wrong motive. They’re the toughest ones to deal with. They excluded everybody. It was this attitude of exclusion that came with this division that has gotten into the church.

The Corinthians had made the same mistake we make in our time. We tend to listen to somebody preach or to teach and we tend, instead of hearing the message and letting the message draw us to God, we tend to attach ourselves to the person. That’s what Paul is saying. Don’t you attach yourself to a person. You attach yourself to Christ.

Paul is horrified that they even have put him in the mix. In verses 13-17 he takes them back to their baptism and says to them, “I wasn’t crucified for you. You weren’t baptized in my name.” Why would he say that? The little phrase “in the name of” or “in my name” has the idea of being attached to someone. What he’s saying to them is, “Listen, Jesus Christ saved you. He was crucified for you. And not only that, when you put your faith into Him, He attached you to Himself. When you were baptized, which has nothing to do with your salvation, you made a public statement that you were consciously attaching yourself to Him. Now, since He was crucified for you, He is your life. He didn’t just give you life. He is your life. Now you’re attached to that life. What are you doing attaching yourself to me?”

Don’t go around attaching yourselves to the people who have the message. Attach yourself to the Christ who gives the message. That’s the main thing. But we as human beings would rather follow a person we can see, touch, and feel. This was causing great division in the church of Corinth and it’s doing the same thing in the day that we live in.

As a matter of fact, Paul was saying, “Listen, this message that you heard from me in no way came from me. So why would you want to follow me? Follow the One who gave me the message.” That’s what we’re going to get into in a moment. Paul says, “The message is the message of Christ and Him crucified. I didn’t come up with that. I was a wise man for years, but religiously wise, and my wisdom was foolishness compared to this message. Don’t attach yourself to me.”

Then he begins to compare the wisdom of the world with the wisdom of God. In doing this, he shows them why they should never attach themselves to any man. Man’s wisdom is foolishness in light of God’s wisdom. The proof that man’s wisdom is foolishness in light of God’s wisdom is that man looks at God’s wisdom and calls it foolishness. That’s the very proof of the fact that man’s wisdom is foolishness. Whenever he hears what God has to say, hears the message of the gospel, and sees it as foolishness, it shows you how foolish his own wisdom really is.

So Paul basically is saying, “Listen, we are messengers. I’m a messenger, Peter was a messenger, Apollos was a messenger. But don’t attach yourself to the messenger. The message didn’t come from us. The wisdom of man will never save you. The message came from God. Attach yourself to Him and His message and let the message transform your life.”

Look at verse 17. We’ve looked at these verses, but we’re continuing to review. Verse 17 says, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech [because if it was in cleverness of speech and human wisdom, it couldn’t save anybody] that the cross of Christ should not be made void.” Then he says, “For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”

That brings us up to verse 21. We want to begin looking now at the wonderful message of the cross. This message is seen by men as being utter foolishness which shows how foolish man is in his own wisdom. Look at verse 21. “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”

Here’s the whole point Paul’s making. He’s saying, “Listen, it’s not as if the world has never seen the wisdom of God, but being right in the midst of it, they never recognized it to be the wisdom of God.” Creation is a looking glass through which man can see the wisdom of God, but man in his own mind, in his own thinking, cannot see it as God’s wisdom. The Puritan Thomas Watson wrote this about the wisdom of God. I think it’s just excellent to show you how we live in the midst of it every day. I wonder, by the way, when you drive to work or come to church, are you looking around you? If you’ll just start observing the wisdom of God, it’s all around you. Thomas Watson says this.

None but a wise God could so curiously contrive the world. Behold the earth decked with a variety of flowers which are both for beauty and fragrance. Behold the heavens bespangled with lights. We may see the glorious wisdom of God blazing in the sun, twinkling in the stars. His wisdom is seen in the marshaling and ordering everything in its proper place and sphere. If the sun had been set lower, it would have burned us. If it had been set higher, it would not have warmed us with its rays. God’s wisdom is seen in appointing the seasons of the year. The Psalmist said in Psalm 74:14, “Thou hast established all the boundaries of the earth. Thou hast made summer and winter.” If it had been all summer, the heat would have scorched us. If it had been winter, the cold would have killed us. The wisdom of God can be seen in the checkering of the dark and the light. If it had been all dark, there would have been no labor. If it have been all light, there would have been no rest. God’s wisdom is seen in mixing the elements, the earth and the sea. If it had been all sea, we would have wanted bread. If it had been all earth, we would have wanted water. The wisdom of God is seen in preparing and ripening the fruits of the earth. In the wind and the frost that prepare the fruit and in the sun and the rain that ripen the fruits. God’s wisdom is seen in setting bounds to the sea and so wisely contriving it that though the sea be higher than many parts of the earth, yet it should not overflow the earth so that we may cry out with the Psalmist in Psalm 104:24, “O Lord, how many are thy works. In wisdom thou has made them all. The earth is full of all thy possessions.”

You see, man has witnessed the wisdom of God in the created order that is around him. Look again at 1:21. “For since in the wisdom of God [in the sphere of it, being right in the middle of it] the world through its wisdom did not come to know God.” Encased in the wisdom of God, man in his foolishness did not come to understand it to be God’s wisdom. When it talks about the world and its wisdom, there’s a definite article there. It directly separates two kinds of wisdom. There’s the wisdom of the world or the wisdom of man and the wisdom of God.

The author of the book of James says, “Listen, is your wisdom divine and from God or is it earthly and demon?” He is showing that there are two kinds of wisdom. So man left alone without God’s intervention does not discover the wisdom of God. We chose the foolishness of man’s wisdom which shows you the foolishness of ever following after man. The only men you ever want to listen to are the men who have the message that came from God.

Man is discovering laws constantly. We’ve got the law of gravity. We’ve got the law of aerodynamics. We’ve got the law of...., you just go right on down the list. But man will not attribute them to be of God. They will not do that. In fact, we have substituted the word “nature” for God. The most intelligent individual who knows that these laws are beyond anything that man could comprehend will not attribute them to God. Unregenerate man does not have the intelligence, nor does he have the courtesy to attribute what he has found and seen and discovered to be the wisdom of God. Man’s wisdom, that might even recognize that there is a God, would never bring that man to know God, experientially. It’s God’s wisdom in the message of the cross that leads man to understand how he can know God. It didn’t come from us. It came from God.

Paul says again in verse 21, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God.” The word “know” means to know Him by experience. There are religions all over this world but they cannot get to know God by experiencing Him personally because He has a wisdom in His message of the cross that man could never equate.

Paul refers to lost humanity in verse 21 as the world. That’s a very precious thought here. He uses the term “the world.” You ask, “Why is that important?” Because that’s the same term he used in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world.” The world of people who are foolish in their own selves who would never give credit to God for anything. “God so loved that same world that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believed in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God still loved this foolish world and sent His Son and His wisdom into the world. That’s why Jesus is called the Word, the divine intelligence. If you want to know anything about God, you’ve got to come to Jesus and to His Word. He brought that message into this world to us that we might understand now how we can know Him and know Him personally.

Verse 21 goes on to say, “God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” Now, not only did man not recognize the wisdom of God that was around him, but when the message came through His Son of how man could personally know God, man considered it to be foolishness. But even at that God was well-pleased to save those who believed. Now, you just kind of keep this in mind. The emphasis is not on man. The emphasis is on God, His message and His love, His care, His grace, and what He has done for us. Paul is saying, basically, “Why in the world would you attach yourself to man who has the message? That man could never come up with the message. God must have given that man the message. So let the message lead you to the God of the man and attach yourself unto Him.”

The Problem of the Message of The Cross

Well, we’re going to look at that saving message of the cross. There are two things I want you to see. First of all, I want you to see the problem of the message and secondly, I want you to see the power of the message of the cross, remembering that man in his wisdom is foolish when he does not receive the wisdom that God gives to him. And man, by calling God’s foolishness, shows himself to be a fool. Remembering that all along, because the message of the cross is not something your flesh wants to hear.

What’s the problem with the message of the cross? Well it was in verse 21. “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased [now watch] through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” Now, we can put computers together. We can come up with all kinds of the fine laws of nuclear physics. We can do all these things. Mankind can come up with all of these things, but mankind cannot come up with this message. And to him, intelligent man, as we call intelligence, it’s really foolishness in God’s eyes because he rejects what God has come up.

How did God choose to get this message into this world? This message that was going to confound the wise, this message that was going to put down the wisdom of men, what was the method that God chose to get this message? Notice, it says, “God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached.” Now, folks, I want to tell you something. That word for “preached” means preached, exactly what it says. It means the method of delivering, that the person preaches it. It also has to do with the content of it. Just to make sure you know I know where I am, in verse 23 Paul says, “but we preach Christ crucified.” So it’s the message of the cross. It has to do with the delivery. It has to do with the content of the message but, particularly, the content. Preaching is what God anointed to get this message into a world of men who considered themselves wise but in light of God’s wisdom actually are fools.

What is it that brings this message in? It’s the method of preaching. Romans 10:14 says, “How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” God said, “That’s the way I want this message to get into the world, through preaching.”

Here’s a side thought. Isn’t it interesting we’re living in a day when preaching no longer is what man says they want to hear? As a matter of fact, forty-five minute messages, hour messages, man, people think, “Man, oh man, will he ever hurry up? I don’t want to hear this. I don’t want to be here. It’s the most boring stuff I’ve ever heard in my life. Let me get out of here. My stomach’s growling.” People will sit for four hours in a concert, but they don’t want to hear preaching any more. “I’m tired of preaching.” So an hour message or a forty-five minute message is down in some places to a fourteen minute message. People are doing what makes them feel better about the service rather than coming back to the way that God said, “This is the way the message is going to get into this world. It’s going to be by preaching. And this message will be the message of the cross of Christ.” It’s not just the preaching, remember, but the content which is the cross of Christ.

What did Paul mean by the foolishness of the message? Let me tell you something. The message of the cross, us being crucified with Christ, us understanding that Christ had to be crucified for us, that message automatically makes man admit that he’s a sinner. We don’t like that. We like to boast in what we know. We like to boast in what we can do. We like to boast in what we have. We want the attention to come to us. But the message of the cross takes all the attention off us, puts us in our place and shows us what we’re not. It shows us that we were such sinners that no man’s wisdom could come up with a method of getting us to God. God had to come to us and build a bridge. God had to send His Son to die on the cross. Our flesh does not want to hear the message of the cross. It wants to hear all the other stuff but not the message of the cross.

Romans just fills in the blanks. Whenever you’re kind of worried about anything, go back to Romans. Romans somehow will cover it. That’s the constitution of our faith. Verse 21 of Romans 1 says, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile [this is the picture of all the Gentile nations of the world from which we have come] in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became [what?] fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.” Here we are today, living in a state where we’ll spend millions to save a snail-darter but we’ll let an unborn child be aborted. That’s what’s happened to man. We’re upside down. And the wisdom of man, what he calls intelligence, God says is foolishness because man will not recognize his need of a savior. Man will not recognize the fact that he’s in the state of being a sinner because of Adam.

We saw in 1 Corinthians 1:20 that the world at that time was composed of the Jews and the Gentiles. Look over in verse 22 and you’ll see this was all Paul knew. Who’s he talking about when he says, “the foolishness and the wisdom of the world”? He’s just talking about people groups, folks. It’s the same way today. One’s the Jews and one’s the Gentiles. You’ve got two people groups during this period. There is another group but it’s something different. I’ll show you in a moment. Why do they think the preaching of the cross is such foolishness? Why would the Jews think it’s foolish? Why would the Gentiles think it’s foolishness? Because that’s all he had to deal with. It’s very simply seen.

It says in verse 22, “For indeed Jews ask for signs.” Now the word for “ask” is much stronger than ask. It means demand. In other words, the Jew, upon hearing the message of the cross, would say, “Hold it, hold it. Show me some miracles. Show me some signs. Show me something that tells me that Jesus truly is Yeshua, the true Messiah. I want to see a sign. I want to see a miracle.” You can understand why they feel that way. God used signs. The word is semeion. It refers to miracles.

As a matter of fact, you often see it combined with “wonders,” which has the idea that this miracle was of such degree that it was a wonder to the point I’ll keep it in my mind. The two kind of go together that way. But the signs are the key. Miracles, that which is extraordinary, those things that only God can do that’s beyond human thinking. God used those signs. These were fingerprints of God and the Jew wanted those fingerprints on everything that they heard. If those fingerprints were not there, they looked at whatever message that was preached as foolishness. The Jews wanted God’s fingerprint.

We know from the book of Deuteronomy God had used miracles all along their way. Every time He dealt with them there was a miracle. You can understand why they developed this mentality. In Deuteronomy 4:34 it says, “Or has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?” It says in Deuteronomy 5:15, “And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the sabbath day.” Over and over and over again you see the miraculous signs and wonders that God would use in the nation of Israel.

Now what did this do for Israel? I’ll tell you what it did for them. It made them grow complacent and they lost all their spiritual discernment. If it wasn’t a miracle, if it wasn’t something that was earth-shaking, if it wasn’t something that was extraordinary, they rejected the message. So the message of Christ crucified, to them, it’s total foolishness, you see. Therefore, they only picked certain prophets to listen to. That’s kind of like a cafeteria line. The Scribes and the Pharisees and the elders would go by and say, “Oh, I like this story. I like this one. I like this one, but I don’t like that one. Don’t like that one. Don’t like that one, but I like this one.” They got so confused looking for the miraculous power of God rather than Jesus coming and dying on a cross that.

When He resurrected, two of the disciples were walking down the road to Emmaus and Jesus had to come alongside them. He said, “Hey, guys, what are you talking about?” And they said, “Don’t you know what’s been going on this weekend?” I guess He did. He was kind of the center of attention. But He kind of acted like He didn’t. He said, “No, tell me about it.” And they told Him about how Jesus was crucified and they said, “Oh, we’re so discouraged. We thought He was going to set up His kingdom.” You see, Israel always looked for that kind of thing, power, big, exciting, awesome. So as a result of that, in Luke 24:25 we read, “And He said to them, ‘O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken?’” You grabbed this piece and you grabbed that piece but you missed Isaiah 53. It says, “He’ll be wounded for our transgressions.” And all the passages that talk about the sacrificial death of Jesus upon the cross, you picked this one and that one. You’re looking for signs. You’re looking for wonders. You’re not looking for the true wisdom of God which is in the message of Christ and Him crucified. So to the Jews, it was foolishness to them.

As a matter of fact, it was a stumbling block. That word “stumbling block” there in 1 Corinthians 1:23 is not stumbling block really, it’s skandalon, which is a trap. But it’s more than that. It’s the trigger that sets that trap off. Those traps, by the way, were a death trap. If you have mice in your house, you put a little cheese or a little peanut butter on a trap and put the top over it. It’s kind of like a little trigger. If the mouse touches that, it sets the trap off, but they don’t know what’s coming. Smack!! It’s a death trap.

They considered the preaching of the cross a death trap to them. Why would they consider it to be a death trap? Because for a Jew to accept the message of the crucified Lord Jesus on the cross, was for them to have fallen into a death trap. They’d have to cut themselves off from family and friends and deny everything their religion taught them from that point on because they became new creatures in Christ. No more need to go to the temple. No more need for this and this and this. It just cut it off. So it was a death trap to the Jews. This was their wisdom, you see. Their wisdom was a system, a form, and that which looked for signs and wonders. It didn’t look for the message of the cross. It was a stumbling block to the Jews.

But the Greeks were a little bit different. The Greeks, you see, didn’t have a Bible. They didn’t have all the prophecies. They didn’t have the prophets. They didn’t have all these things behind them. They were searching for wisdom it says. The Jews demand a sign; the Greeks search for wisdom. By the way, we all mostly came out of the Gentile world. You may be a converted Jewish person but most of us came from the Gentile world. And the Gentile world, since they didn’t have the Scriptures, debated and discussed and searched out wisdom for themselves. The word for search is zeteo. It means to zealously look for something.

There are a lot of people who search for wisdom. They’ll spend hours and hours and hours. That’s the Greek mindset. They want to come up with the conclusion themselves. Why? So they can point back to themselves as being wise enough for having discovered it. That’s the intellect. Do you know anybody like that, trying to figure out everything the Word of God has to say, trying to always wrestle with something, always learning but failing to come to an understanding of the truth? That’s the intellect.

So the Greek world, the Gentile world, represented the intellectual pursuit. The Jewish world looked for signs and wonders. So the gospel, that message of the cross, was foolishness to both groups. It was a deathtrap to the Jews, it was foolishness to the Greek. The Greek couldn’t stand to think of his sins, first of all even being there, but secondly being expiated by the shed blood of a person on a horrible cross. Crucifixion was the worst kind of death. They couldn’t handle this. You would never walk into the academia of that time and preach Jesus crucified because they’d throw it right back in your face. They’d laugh you out of the room. “What do you mean? We’re not even sinners, much less have to have our sins cleansed by the shedding of a man’s blood.” So they saw it as foolishness.

By the way, folks, while we’re in this, the world hasn’t changed much, has it? There are still two groups of people. It’s not any different. You’ve got that group who will only believe something if they have the signs and the wonders. They don’t like the message of the cross. You see, the message of the cross is not just what saves you. The message of the cross continues through your sanctification and we must remember that. You don’t take the cross out of your vocabulary. Just because you’re a believer does not mean that you don’t have to daily reckon yourself to be dead. That’s why we hate the message of the cross.

Paul said in Philippians, “I say this with weeping. There are people among us that are enemies of the cross and I’ll tell you where they are. They’re over here looking for signs and wonders or they’re over here trying to figure it out. They don’t want to die to themselves. They don’t want to reckon themselves to be dead. They don’t want to see themselves for how the cross makes them see one another.”

I’ll tell you, it’s scary, folks. People don’t want to hear the message of the cross any more. But that’s the day we’re living in, folks. The message of the cross is not wanting to be heard by anybody. It never has been popular because it makes a man realize that he has to recognize what he’s not. It makes a man come to grips with the facts. He’s got to understand to say “Yes” to Jesus and saying “Yes” to Jesus is saying “No” to his flesh. We don’t want to do that. That’s why marriages and everybody else is upside down sometimes because people don’t want to hear that message, to go home and die to self. It’s not them. It’s me. I’ve got to die to me, reckon myself to be dead as He put me to death on the cross and rise to walk in newness of His life. We don’t want to hear that anymore.

The problem with the preaching of the cross is it’s just not popular, never has been. Do you know why? Because it takes all of our wisdom and all that which we would take credit for and puts it to death and stomps it in the floor and puts it on the cross with Jesus and says, “Now, whatever you are is because of Him and His wisdom and what He has done for you.” But to the world it’s foolishness, those looking for a sign and those wanting to try to figure it out for themselves.

The Power of the Message of The Cross

The second thing, however, is the power of the preaching of the cross. You’ve got two sides to this thing. You’ve got a problem, but look what he says here in verse 24: “but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks [that same message we’re talking about], Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” You see, there really are three groups, aren’t they? Let’s make sure we understand that.

Look over in 1 Corinthians 10:32. I’ll show you there are three groups. There is the Jewish wisdom; there is the Greek wisdom and they see the message of the cross as foolishness; but look here, there’s another group. “Give no offense either to Jews [that’s one group] or to Greeks [that’s the other group] or to the church of God.” Whoa! Whoa! Do you mean there’s a third group? That’s right. The third group is those who are the called ones.

We’ve seen the word “called” already in this chapter. In 1:1 we saw that Paul said he was “called as an apostle.” They didn’t have punctuation marks so we don’t know if he meant called as an apostle or called apostle. “I’m a believer first, the called ones, then I’m an apostle, one sent forth especially commissioned by God for the doctrine of the New Testament.” It has to be in that order. Κletos is the word “called” in the plural. Every times it’s used in Scripture it means the called ones. Now, what I want you to see is the emphasis is not on them calling themselves out. It’s on Him calling them. You see, they’re in the wisdom of the world. The cross is foolishness, but one day the cross gets hold of them and God takes that message and calls them to Himself. That’s the whole idea.

Verse 9 of chapter 1 shows it very clearly: “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” I want to time-out here just a second because I’ve been wrestling with this. Have you wrestled with this? Can a man resist the grace of God, the calling of God? I’ve really struggled with it. The older I’m getting the more I’m coming to the fact that I don’t believe he can.

But you see, the whole emphasis here is on the fact that salvation came from God. It did not come from man at all. We tend to sometimes say that we’re on one side but drift over here and make the responsibility man’s when it’s really God. God even gives us the faith to beli

I Corinthians 1:30-31

Contents

1 The Wisdom of Boasting in the Lord

2 Wisdom Is the Ability to Perceive the Reality of Something

3 Wisdom Is the Ability to Discern Between the Trivial and the Eternal

4 Wisdom Is the Ability to Harmonize Truth and Love

5 In Christ Jesus We Have Wisdom

6 In Christ We Have Righteousness

7 In Christ We Have Sanctification

8 In Christ We Have Redemption

The Wisdom of Boasting in the Lord

I want to focus on verses 30 and 31 as we talk about “The Wisdom of Boasting in the Lord.” Now the word “wisdom” is found 18 times in 15 verses in 1 Corinthians. The first time it is found is in verse 19. That is when Paul quotes from the Old Testament of what God is going to do with the wisdom of men. It says in verse 19, “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.’” If you will look carefully at that verse, automatically you will understand there are two kinds of wisdom. He calls man’s wisdom the wisdom of the wise. There is God’s wisdom and then what he calls the wisdom of the wise. And he says, “I am going to destroy the wisdom of the wise.” Look over in 2 Corinthians 1:12. You find that word “wisdom” again and you understand that there are two kinds of wisdom, that which comes from man and that which comes from God. You have got to be able to make a distinction between the two. Second Corinthians 1:12 says, “For our proud confidence is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity [now watch], not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you.” Look over in James 3:15. Again we find that there are two kinds of wisdom; there is God’s wisdom and then there is another kind of wisdom. Verse 15 of James 3 says, “This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, and demonic.” So there is another kind of wisdom. Now you may ask, “Why in the world would Paul bring up this thing about wisdom?” Well, you may remember the people of Corinth had heard a message from several ones. They had heard it from Paul, the first pastor of the church. They had heard it from Apollos. They had heard it from Cephas, that is, Simon Peter. Some of them had even said they heard it right from Christ. That is the group that is hard to deal with. They had the right person and the right message but the wrong motive in their heart. They had attached themselves to the messenger and not the one who is the originator of that message. You see, they were attaching themselves to men. Do you think people do that today? Are you kidding? The moment you attach yourself to man you must remember something. And this is what Paul is talking about. Paul said, “Don’t ever attach yourself to men. If they have the right message, it is guaranteed that it didn’t come from them. And guaranteed, they don’t have it all and they don’t have it all together. Don’t ever put yourself in touch with man, put yourself in touch with God. Attach yourself to Him.” That was the problem in Corinth. They would exclude others who weren’t like themselves. “I am of John MacArthur.” “I am of Chuck Swindoll.” “I am of John Calvin.” And what happens is, you become exclusive and forget man is not the originator of the message. God is the originator of the message and man’s wisdom compared to God’s wisdom, well, there is not any comparison. Man’s wisdom is foolishness when compared to God’s. Paul is horrified that they put him in the lineup. He didn’t even mention Apollos. He didn’t mention Cephas. He just speaks of himself. He said, “Man, I wasn’t crucified for you. You were baptized into my name. Don’t attach yourself to me.” Oh, the difference between man’s wisdom and God’s wisdom. What is this word “wisdom?” The word is sophia. We really haven’t spent that much time on it. To put it simply, here is my definition of it. Now you may like it or not like it, but here is my definition of it. Wisdom, to me, is the right use of truth. You see, man without God is stumbling in the truth all the time. He finds the truth of laws of gravity, etc. He stumbles into truth. But when he does stumble into it, he doesn’t have the wisdom of knowing how to use it. Therefore, he never relates it back to God. Now wisdom is not just the truth, it is the right use of truth.

Wisdom Is the Ability to Perceive the Reality of Something

In my study of wisdom, there are three elements to wisdom that man does not have which completely separates him from what God’s wisdom would be all about. We are talking about wisdom, not the truth but wisdom. When it comes to the ability, wisdom is the ability to perceive the reality of something, to understand what really is going on, what forces are involved, what striving them, what is happening here. Remember Habakkuk? Habakkuk looked around and saw all the sinfulness of Israel. He was a prophet. He said, “God, why do you make me to see iniquity?” In his limited understanding he saw the truth around him but did not understand how to perceive what was really going on. Then he says, “God, will you never answer me?” God did answer him, didn’t He? God said, “Hey, I am raising the Chaldeans to power.” Finally Habakkuk comes to his senses and you can see the wisdom of God coming into his life. He says, “Now I see, they are being raised up to chastise and purify your people.” At first he did not have that ability to perceive the reality of what was going on. But when he got in touch with God, God gave him the understanding. Then he says, “Now I see what is really going on. I see all the forces that are involved. I can see what is happening.” So to me there is an element of wisdom that gives us that ability to perceive the reality of something, what is really happening here. And only God has that. Man does not have that.

Wisdom Is the Ability to Discern Between the Trivial and the Eternal

Secondly, it is the ability to discern what is trivial and what is eternal. That is wisdom. A wise man knows how to make that kind of difference: the difference between that which is trivial and that which is eternal. To be able to evaluate what is worth something, to be able to distinguish between those things that like I said are trivial or those things that are eternal. I think a little bit of that is seen in Romans 16:19. The ability to discern what is righteous and what is evil is something that wisdom gives you. Man does not have this, but God gives us that. This is where God’s wisdom comes in. In Romans 16:19 he says, “For the report of your obedience has reached to all [as Paul wrote the church there in Rome]; therefore, I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good, and innocent in what is evil.” The ability to make that discernment, that which is trivial, that which is evil and that which is eternally good. man does not have that on his own. It is amazing to me. You can have good parents, I mean good in the world’s eyes. They can raise their children to know the difference in right and wrong, and they think they have just done the greatest job. They send them off to the university, and as soon as they get to the university, they find out that the mores of that university, they say, “Oh no, it is not wrong here to do that.” They changed the standard. And so what was right and wrong at home isn’t right and wrong at the university. But wisdom teaches us the ability to know between good and evil and there is huge difference. What is good and evil at home is good and evil at the university. What is good and evil today is good and evil tomorrow. Only wisdom gives us the ability to discern between the two. Man does not have that. Obviously, he does not have that.

Wisdom Is the Ability to Harmonize Truth and Love

Thirdly, wisdom is the ability to harmonize two essentials of human life: truth and love. Make them balance out together. People can have the truth and not know how to deliver it in love. They don’t know how to do that. They don’t know how to be honest with somebody and yet patient with them. They don’t know how to be both frank and gracious. Only God gives a man that kind of wisdom. To me, these are three essential elements in wisdom. And you may argue that there are more, but those are three that I have come up with. One, the ability to perceive what really is going on. Think about it. You get up in the morning, have your quiet time and say, “Oh, that is going to make my day. It will just turn out beautiful.” Two hours later, you are thinking you are not even saved because the world caves in on you. Do you have wisdom from God to be able to perceive in that situation what is really going on beyond what the eye can see and what the mind can comprehend? Only God can give that to you. And do you have the ability to perceive the difference in that which is trivial and evil and that which is good and righteous and eternal that God is doing? Do you see through that? Do you have that ability to balance truth and love? Those three things are at least three essential elements of wisdom that immediately show you that man does not have this. God says, “I am going to put an end to the wisdom of the wise with the wisdom that I have that comes from above.” You say, “If we don’t have this wisdom and God has it, how do we get it?” We get it in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look over in verse 30 again. Now we have come right out of where he uses the foolish things of the world, the base things, etc., to shame the wisdom of man. He talks about how when Jesus came He was the perfect example of that. He came humbly into this world. He came into poor circumstances. He rode a donkey on His triumphal entry and died on a cruel cross. Man looks at that and says, “That is foolish,” without wisdom enough to perceive what was really going on, without wisdom enough to realize that this was the greatest, most righteous thing that had ever happened on this earth. No wisdom to discern that, you see. In verse 30 Paul says, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God.” Where do we find this wisdom? We only find it in Christ Jesus. Now keep the context in your mind. If you lose the context, this whole book just becomes fragmented. What is he talking about? Don’t attach yourself to man. Attach yourself to Christ. In Him is the embodiment of wisdom. You can find a man who has been made wise, but you don’t want his wisdom. You want to find the source of that wisdom. You attach yourself to Christ and that is where you find wisdom for yourself, the ability to supernaturally live in this world. He says, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God.” It is only in Christ that we find the ability to perceive the reality of something, only in Christ. It is only in Christ that we find the ability to distinguish between that which is trivial and that which is eternal. It is only in Christ we find the ability to harmonize truth and love. He gives us the grace and the empowerment to say what is needed to be said, but to say it in a love that is produced by His Spirit. Only in Christ can we find that kind of wisdom. The bottom line is it is only in Christ that we find the ability to properly and rightly appropriate truth. You can know it. You can sit in a Bible study for years and hear it and hear it and hear it and even tell other people about it. But when it comes to appropriating it and living it, that is wisdom that only comes from Christ. It does not come from mankind. If man has his wisdom with truth, he will take it and use it to abuse people, not to lead them to understand the wisdom that God has for them. The problem in Corinth was they were looking to everybody but Christ for this wisdom that they said they wanted. They were looking to Paul, to Apollos and to Cephas, but they weren’t looking to the originator, the source, the origin of all wisdom which is Christ Himself. Paul wants them to know that our entire state of salvation is found in Christ. There is not one thing that we are looking for when it comes to eternal things that are not found in Jesus Christ. “Don’t ever attach yourself to men. Don’t be divided,” he says. “You come back to Christ. He is the source of your unity that can draw you back together, who can solve your disagreements, who can bring peace back into the body. But don’t attach yourself to men. Men have nothing to do with our salvation. Christ is the embodiment of it all.” Verses 30-31 read again, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’” I want to make sure you understand that phrase, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus.” You must understand this. Man’s wisdom comes up with a plan called religion. He comes up with his own furniture. You know, religious works are nothing more than furniture in a dead man’s house. Man wants God to bless it but God can’t because it came right out of a dead man’s house. You see, religion won’t get you there. Man’s wisdom has many ways of being saved. The Gnostics said that it didn’t even mean Christ. All you had to have was a mystic understanding of things and a wisdom. And the religionist says, “Oh, no. It is by keeping the law.” And it goes on and on and on. It is by His doing that we are in Christ, not by man’s. That is why man can never take credit for anything. If he is wise at all it is because it comes from Christ. It is by His doing, not by any work that man can do. The little word ek is used there. Translators picked up on it and said “by His doing.” It is really “out of Him you are in Christ.” It is because of Him that you are in Christ. When we look at this verse on salvation and what we have in Jesus Christ, we begin to see the wisdom of boasting only in God. We don’t ever want to boast again in man because we realize now that in Him is all the aspects of our salvation found, in Christ Jesus. We are in Him, not by our own doing. It is by God’s plan and by God’s grace and by what God has done for us. Don’t ever attach yourself to man. A cult is always centered around a man or a person. People come to me sometimes and ask if certain denominations are cults? I say the only thing I know to say, “Who are they attached to? Are they attached to Christ or are they attached to some man?” If you center it in on a man, that is a cult. You don’t ever want to do that because when you center yourself in on man and make him the embodiment of wisdom, what happens is, you have become deluded as to what you really have in Jesus Christ. You don’t want to ever do that. Continually live unto Him, unto Him, unto Him, and every aspect of salvation is found in Him.

In Christ Jesus We Have Wisdom

That is what we are going to look at in verse 30. Why it is so wise to boast only in Him, not in us, not in man but in God for what He has done for us? First of all, in Christ Jesus we have wisdom. We have talked about that; now let’s look at it in verse 30. “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God.” Now I want to tell you, folks, it is one thing to know about the Christian life, it is another thing to know how to live it, to take the truth that we have learned and bring it down to where we live every day. You have got to have that. It is not there if you are not walking with Him in a surrendered relationship every day. You are not living in His wisdom. You may know His truth, but you don’t know how to appropriate it and apply it in your life. Look over in Colossians 1:9. I love the prayers of Paul. There must be a book written on them. I have often thought that would be a great book to write, just on the prayers of Paul. Because in his prayers you see such substance of what he is talking about, especially in Colossians 1:9. Wisdom. Do you need wisdom? I guarantee you, you are desperate for it like I am. It is only found one place – in Christ. Verse 9 of Colossians 1 says, “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will [Isn’t it good that he didn’t stop right there, because you can be filled with the knowledge of His will just by coming to the Word of God and as God speaks what He wants you to do to your heart. But now look] in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” In other words, when God speaks the truth, He gives you the wisdom on rightly using the truth in your life. You have got to have the two together. Knowledge won’t cut it. You can know it, but you have got to have the wisdom to know how to appropriate it. The well of wisdom that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ is absolutely unsearchable. Whatever you are facing in life, whether it be a trauma of a circumstance in your life, whether it be something physical you are dealing with, whether it be something else, God’s Word has something to say to you. He will give you His wisdom accompanying His will that will help you to know how to rightly use the truth that you have already discerned. Look in Romans 11:33. Paul has been speaking for 11 chapters on the grace and the mercy of God and what God has done for us. I love this. He speaks of the riches of this wisdom. You may not have a dime in your pocket, but if you have Jesus Christ living in you, you have tapped into the well of God’s wisdom that has no bottom to it. And the more you come to it, the more is there of how to take truth and rightly use it in your life. Verse 33 of Romans 11 says, “Oh, the depth.” You know, we read that callously. It is kind of like when I was down in the Caribbean one year. I had gone down with some missionaries there. I was down in the Caribbean on the island of Bon Aire and we were swimming. The water was about 30 feet deep. You could see down to the bottom. It was wonderful. I asked the missionary, “What is that out there where it gets real dark?” He said, “Why don’t you swim out there and see.” I thought it was some kind of plant, some green plant that was growing out there or something. When I swam out there, it was a drop off. I guess it was the ship channel. When it dropped off, folks, I don’t know how far it went down, but there was a strange feeling that went through me, because when you got out there, those sun rays went down hundreds of feet below you and it just turned dark and you didn’t see a thing. It just kept right on going down, down, down, down. I could say, “Oh, the depth of that ocean down there.” And you would say, “Oh, big deal.” You haven’t been there! You haven’t seen it! That little “Oh, the depth” is not quite enough to explain what he is saying here. I mean, it is unsearchable! You can’t ever begin to see the bottom. It just continues to go on and on and on. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” Man, the wisdom of God that we have in Christ Jesus. He has become unto us wisdom. You have just tapped into it when you receive Him into your heart. Look in Colossians 2:2-3. It talks about the wisdom that is hidden in the Lord Jesus Christ. I just want to make sure you understand who lives in you and what you have access to. It is all the wisdom of God is in Christ Jesus. Colossians 2, I’m going to pick right up at verse 2: “that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in which [speaking of Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” You know, every now and then I like to listen to something on an AM radio station. And you know, it is funny, I got to thinking about that the other day. Sometimes when you turn on an AM station and you are out of town, you can’t find anything. It will go forever and ever and ever. There is not much on an AM station. But when you flip it over to FM, I mean there is one every two or three digits there. The way I look at it is, when we receive the Lord Jesus Christ who has become to us wisdom, God has taken our little feeble, human brains, devoid of all eternal wisdom and has flipped us over to FM. If we will just fine tune the station, all that is resident in Him, the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge become ours. You see, I want to tell you something, folks, counseling would flip over and become almost extinct if people would tap into the wisdom that is theirs in Jesus Christ. People get so upset when you mention counseling. Listen, the greatest counselor who ever lived is Jesus Christ. And the only counselor who is worth his salt is a person who takes your hand and puts it in the hand of God so that you can get in touch with the Mighty Counselor because He is the only resource of wisdom that man is so desperate to have. When you tap into it, folks, that is the way it is. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom. Not just truth. Yes, He is the embodiment of truth. For God is truth. But not only that, He is also the wisdom of how to rightly use truth. To the degree we are willing to surrender to Christ daily and embrace the cross, which has been the message of chapter 1, we can now participate in that wisdom which He has come to us because of salvation. In other words, we must die to self daily, live dead to self and reckon self to be dead, which happened at the cross. The old man is dead. Reckon that dead and daily say yes to Him and yes to His Word. By doing that we tap into the resources of His wisdom. Look over in 1 Corinthians 3:18. We literally have to profess ourselves foolish in order to tap into what he calls His wisdom. First Corinthians 3:18 says, “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become foolish that he may become wise.” To the degree that I am willing to set aside my own wisdom and surrender to what His Word and His wisdom says to me can I tap into that which is hidden in Christ Jesus. Not only can we know truth, but we know Christ who has become to us wisdom, the ability to rightly use truth in our life. You know, one of the most prevalent things to all of us is when we enter into a trial. Turn over to James 1:2 and let’s just remind ourselves of this. We talk about the wisdom that we now have in Christ Jesus. If you have any struggles in your heart and life, I promise you, you may be able to find the truth of the matter, but you will not find the way to rightly use that truth until you come to Christ. Christ then, through His Word and through His power, can give you the wisdom to do what you need to do and the grace to empower you. I love these verses. James 1:2 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren [notice the wording here] when you encounter various trials.” That is multi-colored trials. I want you to know that your trials are multi-colored. They are color coded. Peter talks about the multi-colored grace of God, but Ephesians talks about the multi-colored wisdom of God. “Oh, you mean to tell me my trials are color coded, but God’s grace which gives me the enablement to deal with them is also color coded? And He even gives the wisdom that is color coded to go with it?” That is right. To put it so simply that nobody can misunderstand it, if you are going through a red trial, God gives you red grace. But not only does He give you red grace, He gives you red wisdom to go through it. Exact wisdom, which you could not have come up with in a hundred phone calls to the best friends you have who have a quiet time every day. God gives you the red wisdom. He gives you the exact wisdom to walk through those trials. Your trials are multi-colored, but so is His wisdom and so is His grace. Look at verse 3: “Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” There is a marvelous perspective now on why you go through trials. Look at verse 5. So often we read verses 24 and forget verse 5. They are tied together. He says, “But [that is a conjunction there] if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God.” When do you feel the most devoid of wisdom? It is while going through a trial. It is when the storm moves in on you. All of a sudden you find out what you owe on income tax or you are overwhelmed by something else and you don’t know what you are going to do. And in the midst of that, you see, you cry out to God and say, “God, I lack wisdom.” You know, the first key to getting into this wisdom is to profess yourself foolish, as he says in Corinthians, so that you might become wise. We have to admit what we don’t know so God can tell us what He does know. Verse 5 says, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” God is right there. Christ has become to us wisdom. But understand, once you have Him in your heart, it doesn’t mean that you automatically have it. You must profess yourself foolish to tap into it and to the degree you are surrendering to Him will be to the degree you tap into the unsearchable well that has no bottom of the wisdom of God. In Christ we have wisdom. I made some really bad mistakes in my early years as a pastor. I have made some big ones since then, but maybe not quite as frequently. One night there was a man from Holland visiting our church. Somebody walked up and said, “Hey, why don’t you let this man share his testimony? Some great things are going on in his life.” It was after the service and I said, “Sure.” The man walked up and said, “Oh, thank you, thank you for letting me come up to the pulpit.” He said, “I just recently got the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” Now, if you know where I stand, that is not where I am. I believe the baptism with or by the means of is our salvation. We are baptized into Christ by the means of the Holy Spirit of God. I do not see a secondary experience. We don’t teach that. You say, “Well, Wayne, you are wrong.” Well, pray for me, but we don’t teach that. I don’t believe that. I believe that in Him you have everything according to your salvation as Corinthians is telling us right here. I want to tell you something, that man was my brother in Jesus Christ. We do not agree doctrinally, but I am not going to exclude him. Now that doctrine may separate. That is why you have denominations in America. But it was not me trying to exclude him. How am I going to handle that? The truth of the matter is, I want to make sure I keep the doctrine straight that I believe that we stand for, but at the same I love the man as my brother in Christ. How am I going to handle that situation? I just quickly cried out. I said, “Oh, God, help. I don’t know what to do.” As I walked to the pulpit, God overwhelmed me. I never will forget it. It was one of those things that came right back to me when I was studying it. When I walked to the pulpit I said, “You know, isn’t it wonderful that when you get saved you have the same Holy Spirit of God. Now we may not agree as according to how He works, but it is the same Spirit and that Spirit will unite us and our brother right here and we can just all give him a hand for the fact that he is our brother in the Lord Jesus Christ.” It was amazing. When I walked away from church I am thinking, “Where did that come from?” It was like God said, “Pssst. It didn’t come from you.” The wisdom to be able to do and balance truth and balance love. That is wisdom. And we can fit it in any area of those things we talked about. Only God can give it to you and only when you profess yourself to be foolish can you tap into the wisdom of God. If a man is going to make himself wise as a Christian, he will walk right away from the very things that he could have had and does have, but he is not going to experience it because of his hardheadedness and his unwillingness to surrender to Christ. Potentially it is there. It is a well with no bottom. If you have a problem and there is a sin in your life that you won’t deal with, I promise you, you are not going to tap into His wisdom until you are willing to deal with that sin and come to the cross, embrace it and understand that apart from Him you are nothing. Say, “God, whatever you want.” That is when you are going to tap into His wisdom, and it will blow you away. I love what Paul says in Romans 12:1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto Him, which is [and I love how the New American Standard puts it] your reasonable service of worship.” It is not reasonable until you have presented your body and then it becomes very reasonable and you have tapped into the wisdom of God.

In Christ We Have Righteousness

The second thing we want to look at is that in Christ we have righteousness. This is what Paul is saying. “Why do you want to attach yourself to a

I Corinthians 1:21-25

Contents

1 The Wonderful Message of The Cross

2 The Problem of the Message of The Cross

3 The Power of the Message of The Cross

The Wonderful Message of The Cross

The Problem of the Message of The Cross

The Power of the Message of The Cross

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Contents

1 That No Man Should Boast

2 The Observation

3 The Truth

4 The Reasoning

That No Man Should Boast

We are going to focus on verses 26 through 31. We are going to talk about “That No Man Should Boast.” These are some of the most exciting verses in the New Testament. Oh, how God knows the heart and the mind of man. He knows what man thinks he can do. He knows what man thinks he knows. He knows what man thinks he is by what he has. And God has so come up with wisdom, the preaching of the cross that just puts all of this to shame.

The Observation

Now there are three things here that we need to see. When you first read these scriptures you might get the wrong idea of them, so the first thing I want you to see is the observation Paul wants the people to make. In the context of comparing the foolishness of man to the wisdom of God, there is an observation they need to make. First Corinthians 1:26 says, “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.”

We must understand that God is not a respecter of persons. You could read this wrong. You could think that God is against the rich, the strong and the intelligent. That is not at all what the Scripture is saying. And when you learn to make the same observation Paul wanted them to make, you can understand where he is coming from with what he is saying.

Look in John 6:37. I want to show you that God is no respecter of persons. He doesn’t look down on this earth and say, “You are rich; I won’t choose you. You are strong; I won’t choose you. You are wise; I won’t choose you.” That is not what God does. That is not even what Paul is saying. Whether you are rich or poor, it doesn’t matter; you will come to Him on the basis of faith. John 6:37 says, “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” So it doesn’t matter. He didn’t say the one who is poor, He said, “the one who comes.” It doesn’t matter whether you are rich, intelligent, poor or whatever. As long as you come on the basis of faith receiving Christ Jesus, He will not cast you out.

You could get from the verse that God is a respecter of persons and doesn’t like the people who are rich; He doesn’t like the people who are strong; and He doesn’t like the people who are intelligent. If that were true, then Paul wouldn’t even have been saved. Apart from Jesus Himself, Paul was the most intelligent man in all the New Testament. I love what the apostle Peter said about him. He said, “You know, our brother Paul says some things that are hard for us to understand.” I mean, Paul was an intelligent man, and God used that ability, but He filled it with His wisdom and His Word and His ways. So it is not a respecter of persons he is talking about.

The fact is those who were the wise and the noble and the strong in the world were not in the context of the believers there in Corinth. It is not because God is a respecter of persons. It is because of their wisdom, their strength and their nobility that they saw the preaching of the cross as foolishness. So Paul is saying to look around them. Look at the church at Corinth. Look at the people who are in it. And I promise you, there are not many wise, there are not many noble, there are not many strong, you see not many mighty.

Look in verse 22 again. I want to make sure now that you are catching this, because there were only two groups of people at that time, Jews and Gentiles. And these were the ones who proclaimed themselves to be all of these things above. He says in verse 22, “For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness.” Then Paul wants them to observe this. He says, “Just look around you.”

Look at the first phrase of verse 26. “For consider your calling, brethren.” The word “consider” is the word blepo. Normally it is translated “to see,” “to look at something.” But here it has more of the idea, yes, observe, but consider, do some reasoning here. He is telling them to look at the congregation that they are in Corinth. How many wise people do you find in it? How many mighty people do you find in it? How many noble people do you find in it? You don’t find many who are in the calling with which you have been called.

He says, “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.” The word “wise” means wise according to this world. The word for “mighty” is dunatos. It means those who are strong within themselves: they can do it, they can do it, they can.

And the word for “noble” is the word eugenes. You could translate it “good genes.” They came from the good genes. They have good families, money and a pedigree. Paul says, “Look around you. You don’t find many of these in the kingdom of God. You don’t find many of these in the church.” And it is not because God is a respecter of persons. It is because these are the people who consider the gospel to be foolishness. They consider the word of the cross to be foolishness. Now if they are in the kingdom it is not because of their wisdom. It is certainly not because of their strength. It is not because of their nobility. It is because of the grace of God. But there are not many who are a part of the chosen ones, a part of the called ones.

I love the Word of God and when you start looking at this, it just follows a pattern all the way through. As a matter of fact, later on Paul is going to quote Jeremiah 9:24. But if you will look back at Jeremiah 9:23, it will show you that he mentions all three of these things. And the implication is that man is so proud of his wisdom, man is so proud of his ability, man is so proud of his nobility and his riches and what he has, he doesn’t think he needs God. And he boasts and he brags about these things. Look at Jeremiah 9:23. It is incredible how Paul is just reaching back into the Old Testament and bringing these truths right in light of the Corinthian church. I guarantee you, you look at the church of Jesus Christ today and there are not many wise and not many noble and not many mighty in our church either; because you see, these people think they don’t need the gospel. They are not lost. Their money will get them to heaven. Their ability will get them to heaven. Or their wisdom will help them to figure it out. They don’t need Christ. In Jeremiah 9:23 it says, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches.” Boom, boom, boom. That is exactly what Paul is talking about. Evidently they had the same problem in Israel that the church was having in Corinth. People are proud within themselves.

Don’t we like to boast of these things? Have you ever tried to talk to somebody who was a real thinker and he looked at the gospel and saw it as simplistic and foolishness? Or have you ever tried to talk to somebody who is a self-made man in his business? I mean, he has brought himself up from his boot straps and you try to share the gospel with him. And he says, “What in the world do I need that for? I have built a business. I can do whatever I need to do.” These people don’t have any reason for the gospel, you see. That is why there are not many of them among the called ones.

We love to boast but that boasting usually costs us, doesn’t it? We love to tell people about what we have, what we know, what we can do. But those are the very things that make us think that the gospel is foolishness because we can save ourselves. We can do it ourselves. We can come up with a better plan. We have riches. Who needs God? And that is the reason there are not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble in the body of Christ.

He says very clearly there, “For consider your calling [he talks about their salvation], brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.” That is the observation Paul wants them to make. If you will look around you today, it is the same thing. The people out there that you want to know the gospel are too proud. They show their foolishness by thinking that the message of the cross is foolishness. That shows you how foolish they really are. So Paul says, “Observe the believers around you.”

The Truth

Now, the second thing he wants them to do is so critical to this text. There is a truth that Paul wants them to understand. It is found in verses 27 and 28. He says, “But God chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.” Now the word “chosen” is the key word. It comes from two Greek words, the word ek, which means out of, and the word lego, which means to say something with full expression and intelligence in the thought. The idea came to mean to select someone, to make a choice of someone in a lineup of others. Random choosing does not fit this, so if you think that God just randomly chooses, no, sir; it is a special selection – yes... that one right there. And amongst many, He chooses certain ones.

It is so important to realize what this word means. It is kind of like when you think of man choosing somebody to work for him and so he has a group of applicants who come. They give him the application. He looks through them and finds two or three who look pretty good. He calls a special conference and gets all the information he possibly can before he makes his choice. Then finally, he makes his choice. That is the way man does it. Man is limited. Man doesn’t know everything, so he does the best he possibly can. He gets as much information as he possibly can. You see in the business world how this works.

That is the way it is in our choices. You can see it in marriages. How many times have you seen a couple come for pre-marital counseling and you say, “Listen, you are going to have to go through counseling.” They say, “No, no, no. We don’t need it. This is the right one. We know it is the right one. We have chosen.” Yeah, right! And six months to a year later on they are coming back and saying, “Oh, we made a bad choice, you see. We didn’t have all the information.”

I am saying that for a reason. When man makes a choice, and it is always limited because man does not have enough information to know that he is making the right choice. But, this is not talking about man’s choosing. This is talking about God choosing. Now you have got to understand this. What the world thinks is foolish and weak God chooses. He makes perfect choices and His perfect choices are based upon His omniscience. What is that? That means God knows everything. He is in full control. He knows exactly what He is doing. And when He makes a choice, He never misses anything. It is exactly the right choice. Whatever He does, whatever He selects, whatever circumstances there are that the world looks at as foolish, as the world looks at as weak, etc., God sees it as wise because it is a perfect choice.

The word “chosen” is used three times in verses 27-28 in bringing out the point that we are looking at. God chooses perfect things. Look at verse 27 again: “but God has chosen the foolish things of the world.” Are they foolish to God? No, they are not foolish to God. He is perfect in His choices. But they are foolish to the world, understand that. When it says foolish things, it means foolish as the way we would see them: “to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.” Look in verse 28: “and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are.”

Now, with that in mind you have to realize that He makes perfect choices, but His choices are also very purposeful. Why would He choose what in man’s mind was foolishness? The verse explains beautifully what He is doing. The word hina isn’t in your scripture. It says He chooses the foolish to shame the wise. The word “to,” hina, means in order that. It helps you understand there is a purpose. It is a purpose clause. God chooses what is foolish to the world’s eyes in order that He has a purpose behind it. It is a perfect choice that has a perfect purpose in what He is doing.

Now, let’s look at that. What are some of the things he mentions here? God chooses that which is foolish. Why? He says, “To shame the wise.” When Paul uses the word “foolish” there with a definite article, it could be the foolish people He uses. In context that is probably where he is going. However, with a definite article behind it, it categorizes whatever choices He makes. It can be foolish things. It can be foolish circumstances in your life. The world looks at it and says, “That is foolish.” The world looks at it and says, “That is weak. That is not anything.” And God says, “That is a perfect choice and it has a purpose in it.”

God does that in order to what? To shame the wise. Now Paul is jumping in. Now he has been telling them about the foolishness of man and the wisdom of God. Man keeps rejecting God’s message. The word “to shame” is kataischuno. There are several words for shame. This particular word means to be humiliated or to be embarrassed. Now what is God’s plan? God sees man in his arrogance walking around boasting in what he knows. And God says, “I will show man. I will embarrass him. I will humiliate his wisdom by choosing what he thinks is foolish to accomplish My perfect goal of salvation in people’s lives.” The word has the idea to leave them dumbfounded. They won’t have an idea of what is going on. Their wisdom can’t come up with it. They can’t come to any conclusion based upon their wisdom that would even fit in the category of what God does.

Let’s illustrate that for a second. When God wanted to heal a man’s eyes, did He always do it the same way? One time He took mud and put it in a man’s eyes. Now why did He do that? That was kind of foolish to the people of that day. One time He spit and took the spittle and the mud and put it in the man’s eyes. Another time He spoke and a man was healed. Now why didn’t He do it the same way? You see, this is God. God, making perfect choices, has a purpose in making those perfect choices, and that is always to confuse and dumbfound men who think they are wise within themselves.

Vance Havner used to say, “One got his eyes healed when they put the mud in them. And then there was another little boy who got his eyes healed when they put the spittle on his eyes. And the other fellow, he got his healed when Jesus spoke.” He said, “If that had been in the 20th century, there would be three denominations come out of that: the mudites, the spitites and the speakites.” Everybody would have attached themselves to a man who had a message. But the messenger which is God Himself says, “Hey, I won’t always do it the same way. And what I do is never to bring glory to man. It is to bring shame to the wisdom of man. It is to bring glory to Myself.” He uses the things that are foolish to shame the things that are wise.

When God wanted Joseph to be exalted, what plan did He take? Man would have said, “Oh, I have got a great plan. Let’s let him go to school, get a Ph.D. and we will put him right at the top.” No, God had his brothers sell him into slavery. He was thrown into a pit, taken over into Egypt, then was falsely accused, spent years of his life in prison on a false charge and finally was exalted as the second man in Egypt. And when his brothers came to him, he said, “You meant it for my harm, but God meant it for good.” Now, you tell that to an ordinary man who is trying to figure all these things out, he would say that is foolishness. And that is the very purpose for which God does it the way He does it, to confound man, to dumbfound man, to help man understand that he needs a wisdom beyond himself if he is ever going to get in touch with a holy God.

In Judges we see this over and over again. Ehud was the left-handed judge God used in a very special way. Gideon was there in the wine press. The Midianites had come in the eighth year, and he was out there trying to get a little wheat. God said, “Hey, thou mighty man of valor.” An intelligent person looking at this would say, “This is just dumb. Why didn’t He pick somebody strong, truly a man of valor?” Because God was going to make him that because God was coming to do in him what he couldn’t do himself. He even narrowed his men down to 300 men. I mean, that was Gideon.

Deborah went up against 900 iron chariots. What is God doing, picking a woman to be the judge of Israel when Cisera has 900 iron chariots? Because God makes choices that man thinks are foolish. But they are perfect choices. And they are very purposeful. They are to shame the wisdom of the wise. So there is a purpose in this. You have got to embrace that. And the fact that God chooses things that men see as foolishness is many times the detriment to the wise, to the strong and to the noble. They look at that and say, “Ah, I can’t buy into that. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Wasn’t it Kareem Abdul Jabar who said the reason he couldn’t embrace Christianity is he couldn’t accept the three headed God? Well, bless your heart, Kareem. You mean you can’t understand a three headed God? Neither can we. If you could, He wouldn’t be any bigger than your brain. You bow before Him and you trust Him and you confess Jesus to be your Lord and your Savior. You see, those who are strong and mighty and rich see the foolish things that God does as foolishness. But God sees it as a perfect and purposeful choice that He has made.

Well, God chooses the weak things. God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. That is a precious thought. The word “weak” is the word asthenes. It is the same word used in James 5 which everybody translates as “sick.” Not necessarily. It can be somebody who is weak and powerless. It means they are totally unable to help themselves. The idea here is that God chooses that which the world looks at as weak, but it is a perfect choice and it is a purposeful choice. God has a purpose in it, to shame the strength of this world. You know, when He looked at Simon Peter, instead of taking the things that the world sees as strong, God chose tenderness and love and forgiveness and pity and mercy and meekness. The world sees that all as weak.

After Simon promised Him, “I will go with you, Lord,” He said, “You will deny me three times.” He didn’t ask him, “Simon, are you strong enough to go into battle and fight for Me?” That would have really spoken to his flesh. That would have made sense to Simon Peter. He would have said, “Absolutely, I will go in there for You.” But see, Jesus didn’t do that. He chose the things that are weak. He says, “Simon, do you love Me?” And the world says, “What are you talking about? Love? Man, we are talking about a kingdom here.” See, God chooses what the world thinks is weak to do one basic thing, to prove out how weak the world’s strength really is. He is shaming the strength of the world. If God could save the world through strength, why not try it?

You know, strength and force have done a lot of things. Have you ever studied the crusades and the holy wars? They tried to make everybody Christians by force. That has never worked, and it never will work. God wants them to see that. You don’t go the way of force. What I choose, perfect choice, is that which is weak to bring shame to those things you call strong.

Galileo made the statement that the earth revolves around the sun while the typical person of that day said, “No, the sun revolves around the earth.” They put him in jail. They treated him terribly. They tried to force him to admit that he was wrong. But he didn’t until the day he died. He said, “I am telling you, you are wrong.” You see, you can’t do it by force. God knows that. So God chooses the things that the world sees as weak, things such as tenderness, as I said a moment ago and love, and forgiveness and those kinds of things. And the world says, “Ah, that is never going to work.” And God says, “Yes, it will.”

By the way, husband, if you have a wife and there is a problem between the two of you and you want her to submit to you, you don’t walk in your house and use force to get her to do that. You have to go the way of the cross and the wisdom of God. You come in, submit to Him, bow down before Him and let Him produce love and tenderness and forgiveness in your life. And as a result of that, she will submit to your leadership because she can trust the One who lives in you. That is the way God is, folks. He never does it man’s way. He won’t do it man’s way. Because what He does is perfect and purposeful. He is putting to shame the wisdom and strength of man.

Verse 28 says, “the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are.” Let’s look at them one at a time. He says first of all “the base things of the world.” That is the word agenes. Do you remember the word eugenes that we saw a while ago? This is the exact opposite. A while ago they had good genes, and here they have no genes. These are the ones who have no nobility at all. They have no pedigree at all. They have no riches. They are the poor of the earth. That is the base things of the world. That is what the world sees them as, too. If you are not successful, if you don’t have your name in Fortune Magazine, then you are nothing. And God chooses the people who aren’t anybody for a purpose, you see.

He also chooses the despised. The word “despised” is the word that means scorned, contemptible of man. God has chosen the things that are not. This was the highest insult to a Gentile or especially a Greek because to the Greek, the whole thing was in being, in existing, in all their writings. This expression meant that you think you are something but you are nothing. God chooses the nothings of this world. I mean, the world would laugh and spit on them. They are nothing. That is exactly the perfect, purposeful choice that God makes, to put the world in their wisdom and shut them up and cover up the cleverness of the prudent, as He says over in the Old Testament. He put an end to their wisdom to show them that they are not as smart as they think they are. The message of the cross defies human logic and human wisdom.

Look at the people God used who were nothing. Just think about it for a second. One of them I like is John the Baptist. He came out of the wilderness with skins on him eating bugs. John the Baptist had no formal education, no training in a trade or profession, no money, no military rank, no political position, no social pedigree, no prestige, no impressive appearance or oratory. And yet Jesus said in Matthew 11:11, “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist.”

The greatest example is Jesus Himself: born of a virgin, born in humble circumstances, no room for Him in the inn. And the very fact that He grew up poor and the fact that when He came on His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, He didn’t come with an army behind Him. He came riding a donkey and He went to die. And the Jewish mind says, “That is foolish.” And the Greek says, “That is foolish.” And God says, “It is perfect. It is perfect. And it accomplishes My purpose and puts an end to the wisdom of the vain people on this earth who think they are wise in themselves.”

So the message of the cross, folks, is so important here. There are not many mighty and not many wise and not many noble in the body of Christ. It is not because God doesn’t love them and didn’t die for them. It is because they see in themselves what they need. They don’t see a need outside of themselves. God saves the intelligent. Thank God He does. He saves the strong. He saves the noble. But not many, because they just won’t give Him time of day. They don’t need Him. They have got everything they need.

It is not that God shuns these people, but God has actually made a choice to choose what they think is foolish and what they think is weak and what they think is base and despised and the things that aren’t for one reason. His purpose is to shame their own wisdom and to show them that He alone is the wise one who can save each of us.

The Reasoning

Thirdly, there is God’s reasoning that Paul wanted them to embrace. That is so critical, I think, here. He is bringing them to a point here. By telling them all this, he is telling them, “Don’t embrace man. Embrace the message of the cross. Embrace Christ, but don’t embrace man. Don’t attach yourself to man.” The reasoning in this is, to me, so beautiful how he brings it out. Why does God use the foolish in all these things? Verse 29 nails it. It says, “that no man should boast before God.” That is it, bottom line. No man can stand up and say, “Aha, I’m saved, but it is because of my intelligence,” as the Gnostics did of that day. And no man could stand up and say, “I am saved based on my strength. I can do it myself,” as the Pharisee would say of that day. And no man can stand up and say, “I am the noble one and because of my family line, God must accept me.” You see, no man can do that. It has nothing to do with any of that. That is foolishness to God. He has chosen another way. And when a man comes to the cross and admits what he is not and admits that he is in need and that he is a sinner and that he is desperate for God’s grace, then the man becomes wise with the wisdom of God and salvation is the result of it.

The word “boast” there is kauchaomai. It is the word that comes from the root word aucheo. It is the same word Paul uses in Romans 15. I want you to see this. Look at verses 17 and 18 of Romans 15. Here is a man who knew something about boasting in his wisdom, his own strength and his own nobility. It was the apostle Paul. Anybody who would write this had to be a changed man because he is the epitome of everything he says that God says is foolish. There was a time when all he did was boast in what he could do and what he knew and what he had. Romans 15:17-18 says, “Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God.” Boy, what a powerful verse there. Kauchaomai is the word “boast” there. I found a reason to stand up and shout out of things pertaining to God.

Then verse 18 continues, “For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles.” I want to tell you something. If you will look at Paul’s life, God had him do some foolish things in the world’s eyes to accomplish the goals that God had. By the way, let me just subtly bring this in. This is mainly to the lost who think God’s message of the cross is foolish. I want to tell you something. As soon as you become saved, you have the same battle. Are you going to come to the Word or are you going to come to the reasoning of man? And folks, the moment you depart from God’s wisdom and His Word and the message of the cross, you have just proclaimed to the world how stupid you have really chosen to be. Because anything outside the wisdom of God and the message of His cross is foolishness as far as God is concerned and all eternity is concerned and will not bring about the spiritual end you desire in your life. Only what God says, only dying to self, the message of the cross, continues on after we are saved. It continues on. We die daily so that we continue to live in the wisdom that God has for us. God tolerates no man’s boasting in himself. Salvation is something that man’s mind could never come up with or figure out.

The message of the cross is something money can’t buy. It is something intelligence cannot figure out. It is something that nobility cannot deserve. It is a gift by the grace of God.

Look at verse 30 of chapter 1. He says, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus [you used to be in Adam but now you are in Christ Jesus, and by His doing, not yours], who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.” Somebody says, “Oh, I want that wisdom. If my wisdom is foolish, I want the wisdom of God.” Then you come to Christ at the cross and Christ will give you wisdom. And Christ will give you righteousness. And Christ will give you sanctification. It all is in Him, you see. He is the only one who can supply it. A believer is given redemption in Christ, not only from the penalty of his sin, the power of his sin, but the promise that one day, even from the presence of sin.

Then the apostle Paul turns and looks back to the Old Testament and takes verse 24 of Jeremiah 9. I read verse 23 a moment ago. He says in 1 Corinthians 1:31, “that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’” Verse 24 of Jeremiah 9 says, “But let him who boasts, boast of this, that he understands and knows Me that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth. For I delight in these things, declares the Lord.”

You see, man in no way ever deserved or earned God’s wisdom, God’s righteousness, God’s sanctification and His redemption. No way in the world. We are not smart enough to figure it out. We are not noble enough to deserve it. And we are not strong enough to achieve it. It has to be given to us as we receive the message of the cross. It is at the cross where we die and are buried and are raised to walk in newness of His life. In Him we have wisdom. And in Him we have our righteousness. And in Him we have our sanctification. And in Him we have our redemption. That is the message. And no man can stand and boast before God. It is for this reason that we can never boast of any of these things.

I want to make sure you remember that this truth does not change once you get saved. God will do some things in your life and allow some things in your life you would look at and say, “That is utter foolishness.” But be careful. When you come back to Christ you may see the divine wisdom in it, for His choices are perfect and His choices are purposeful in your life.

1 Corinthians 2

Contents

1 Grow Up

2 Chapter 1 Review

3 Chapter 2

Grow Up

One of the most difficult things I do is come up with a sermon topic. I have more struggles there than anything else. But when you study scripture, you take it verse by verse and the topic has got to surface out of what the scripture says, not out of what you want it to say. So studying on further, even into chapter 3, I want to entitle this study “Grow Up.” I hope before we finish this you will understand what we are talking about. Just grow up.

You know, when Christians live as if they are lacking, they are still immature. They don’t realize who they are and whose they are and what they receive when they receive Jesus Christ. As a result, they attach themselves to a man or they attach themselves to a gift as if they are always lacking. We are not lacking, and when we mature in Christ, we will detach ourselves from these things and attach ourselves to Christ and live in the fullness that He offers each of us.

Chapter 1 Review

Well, we finished chapter 1. As I finish each chapter I want to go back and review. Now I am going to do this quickly. I want to make sure that we are always couched in a context. So we will go over it and over it. It will even change some in the way we present it as we do that, because as it is becoming more and more familiar to us, you have got to see the context. Observation, interpretation, application.

In verse 1 of chapter 1 the apostle Paul just identifies himself. He wants them to know that he is Paul the believer, the apostle of Christ Jesus. But in verses 29 he forms a grid. And that grid is the way you look at the book. This grid shows you what a Christian really is. He calls it the church of God. If you are a believer, then this is what you should be living like. They weren’t in Corinth, but this is what it is supposed to be. This is right side up.

The first thing he says in verse 2 is that we are a purchased people. The church of God is made up of believers who are a purchased people. He says, “To the church of God [not man] which is at Corinth.” That phrase, “church of God,” is found in Acts 20:28 where it adds “purchased by His own blood.” So the idea is we are not our own. We are His, purchased by His blood.

So if you are a believer, you realize that you don’t have rights to yourself, but you have privileges in Him. You are bought by Him. You are owned by Christ. He lives in you to do a work through you. And that purpose overshadows everything else. We are a purchased people.

Right in line with that, we are a purposeful people. He says, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling.” The word “sanctified” carries the meaning right on. It means that we have been set apart for His purpose. There is the purpose right there. We’re purchased, and we have a purpose. That purpose is to be that vessel through which God can use us. The word “saint,” by the way, is what you call somebody who has been sanctified. Hagiazo is the word for sanctified; hagios is the word saint. So when you look in the mirror in the morning, say “Good morning, Saint.” You are reminding yourself of the purpose you have in all eternity. You don’t retire, you just refire. God wants to use you. As long as your heart is beating, you have a purpose. God purchased you. He is going to use you until the day He takes you home.

Well, the third thing we saw in this is they are a prayerful people. That is what a Christian is: a person who depends upon God. Prayer is always our dependence upon Him. It says in verse 2, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling [now look], “with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.” That little word “call” does not mean just when the kids are sick. It does not mean just when the income taxes are due, but it means constantly depending upon Him in everything. It is a present middle participle. Present tense means constantly as a lifestyle. Middle voice means no preacher has to stand up and make you depend upon him. That is what you do. That is who you are. You have been purchased. You have a purpose and you live prayerful, dependent upon Him for everything in your life.

Of course, two of the things you depend upon Him for are found in verse 3, grace and peace. He says, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Grace to help you deal with your sin every day and the enablement to be and do what He wants you to do. Then peace gives you that enablement for your relationships, with Him first and then with others.

Fourthly, we discovered that believers everywhere are peculiar people. Now, I know some peculiar believers, but that is not what I am talking about. In all the race of humanity, we are peculiar in this sense: we live in a needy world but we have everything we need to exist here. We can make it through. You see, it is all in Christ who lives within us. He says in verses 47, “I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him [then he narrows it down], in all speech and all knowledge,[that has to do with their assignment that God had given them], even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you.”

Now, the problem in Corinth was it hadn’t been confirmed through them yet. In them it had; Christ was there, and He was their completeness. Then verse 7 says, “so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” So we are a peculiar people living in the world, fully contained in Christ Jesus. We have everything we need within in Him and therefore, we can be content in whatever circumstance we find ourselves, knowing that Christ one day will be coming for us.

Also we learn as we look in that grid that believers everywhere are a protected people. Now this is in the sense of security. We are protected, but not from circumstances. We have to go through things that are difficult like everybody else, but we are protected in the sense that we are secure all the way until the day of Christ. It says in verse 8, “who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now, he didn’t say “sinless.” He said “blameless.” There is a big difference. Knowing that we are going to sin, but any sin that we commit after we have received the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior can threaten our rewards, but it cannot threaten our eternal security in Him. That is what we need to know, blameless in Him. No accusation. We are kept until the day of Christ Jesus.

In verse 9 we find that we are a partaking people. We partake of Him. We have a resource. It says in verse 9, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Fellowship means to partake in Him. Now it means we partake in the sufferings as well as in all the other things that we partake from Him. He is our resource.

I am so excited that I could alliterate all those things. Normally I can’t do that. But we see that the church of God, made up of believers, is a purchased, purposeful, prayerful, peculiar, protected and a partaking people. Now that is what we are supposed to be. That is how we are supposed to live. That gives the whole gamut of what it means to be a Christian.

Now, what is the problem? The problem is they weren’t living that way in Corinth. So Paul starts off and says, “This is what you ought to be. Now let me talk to you about what you are not.” In verse 10 he says, “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you are all agree, and there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.” Remember, that word “division” is the word schisma and it means to rip or to tear something. There is nothing nice about it. He is really alluding to a division in Corinth. When you are living according to verses 29 there is no division, but when you are not living that way, there will be division and that is what he is getting to.

As a matter of fact, it evidences itself in the fact that they were attaching themselves to preachers of the Word, good men with a great message. They were attaching themselves to men. It says in verse 12, “Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul,’ and ‘I of Apollos,’ and ‘I of Cephas,’ and ‘I am of Christ.’” Can’t you just see this. Paul was the originator of the church, the founder. Can’t you see people going around saying, “I love you, Brother Paul”? “He is my favorite. Brother Paul is my favorite.” I am sure Apollos who came in to succeed him really appreciated that bunch. “We really liked the former pastor more than we like the one we got now. He was just so good to us. Paul came over and just preached the Word to us, and we just love him.” They excluded everybody else who didn’t think the same way they thought.

“We like Brother Paul. We like him.” Apollos was the one who came in after him and succeeded him. Here is the bunch who says, “Oh, no, no, no. We don’t like Paul. We didn’t like him because he was too hard to understand. We liked Apollos. He was more down on our level.” Then you had a bunch of them who said, “We liked Simon Peter. He was sort of the unsung leader of the whole Christian church of that day. We like him.” But then you had another group who was the hardest group and they said, “But we are of Christ.” Oh, buddy, watch out for that bunch. They had the right man, the right message, but the wrong motive. They didn’t have a clue. They were excluding everybody who didn’t see things like they saw them.

Paul said, “What are you doing attaching yourself to men?” They had torn the body of Christ apart. Paul immediately focuses in on this. This is the context. You have got to stay with the context. First of all he attacks their faulty logic in verse 13. He says, “Has Christ been divided?” Come on. Do you realize when you attach yourself to a preacher you are lacking and claiming that preacher has something of Christ that you didn’t get. If you don’t have his message and if you don’t have all this together, if you can’t stay around him and attach yourself to him, then somehow you are incomplete. Paul said, “What do you mean? Is Christ divided? Did I get something you didn’t get? Did Apollos get something you didn’t get?” No, if you received Christ, you got it all.

Peter himself said it one time. He said, “We are writing to those who have received a like faith as unto ours. You didn’t get anything less or anything more. God is not a respecter of persons.” Paul said, “What are you doing going around as if Christ was divided, attaching yourself to preachers rather than attaching yourself to Christ?”

Secondly, he attacks the faulty leaders they are attaching themselves to, good men but faulty men. You see, faulty logic always leads you to faulty leaders and Paul puts himself right in front. He doesn’t pick on Apollos and Cephas. He puts himself right up in front. He says in verse 13, “Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” He is saying, “Hey, guys, I am not God. What are you doing? What are you doing attaching yourself to me? I was one of the others. I was a foolish man for years until Jesus saved me.”

Verse 14 says, “I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius.” In baptism you make the statement of attaching yourself to Christ. At salvation, He attaches you to Him. In baptism you are making a public witness that you are living attached to Him. It doesn’t have anything to do with your salvation. It has everything to do with your witness. And Paul said, “You weren’t baptized into me. You didn’t attach yourself to me. You were baptized into Christ.” He uses that as a picture here to help them understand. He says, “I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, that no man should say you were baptized in my name. Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other.”

I love his nonchalant attitude towards baptism because some people say it is essential to salvation. Is that right? Well, why in the world is he so nonchalant about it? He said, “I wasn’t called to baptize. I was called to preach the gospel.” The gospel doesn’t include baptism in the sense of water immersion, in the sense of salvation. Baptism comes next as a public witness of what we have just experienced in putting our faith into Jesus Christ.

He goes on and focuses in now on the message of men. He says, “Now, look. If you are going to put your faith into men, if you are going to attach yourself to men, you have got to understand something. The wisdom that a man comes up with is absolute foolishness when compared to the wisdom of the preaching of the cross. Now this is the key right here. He takes all the messages but he narrows it down to the preaching of the cross. And he said, “You find the most intelligent man on the face of this earth and you preach the message of the cross and that man is going to look at it and call it foolishness because in his mind, he doesn’t see himself as a sinner, especially if he is a wise man, a mighty man or a noble man,” as this comes up later on in verses 26 and 27. You see, Paul says, “Hey, these people see that as foolishness.”

That is how foolish man really is. He would take the wisdom of the preaching of the cross and call it foolishness. That is how much a fool man really is. Now why would you want to attach yourself to men? That is his whole point.

Verse 18 says the message of Jesus dying on a cruel cross is to them that are perishing foolishness. “For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Then in verses 19-31 he takes that message of the cross and makes it his center point here. The wisdom of God makes the wisdom of man just absolute stupidity. He just shames the wisdom of man with the preaching of the wisdom of the cross. In verse 19 he quotes out of the Old Testament where God said He would destroy the wisdom of the wise and the counsel of the prudent or clever ones. Now, that was in a context of when God said, “Listen, you have got a big enemy coming in, but don’t you pay attention to man, you pay attention to Me.” What did the people do? They turned from God’s wisdom and turned to their own thinking and that is when God said, “I am going to destroy the wisdom of the wise and will destroy the wisdom of the clever and the prudent of that day.”

Well, in verse 20 he points to the two people who make up that kind of wisdom in the world. There were only two groups, the Jews and the Gentiles. And so he points to them. First of all, he says where is the wise man today? That points to the Greek or the Gentile thinking and the foolishness of man’s wisdom. But then he says, “Where is the scribe?” That points to the Jewish people who thought they were wise. Then, in case he missed anybody, he says, “Where is the debater of this age?” He throws in the guy who just likes to argue in the barber shop. He says, “I just want to make something clear to you. All of this wisdom is foolishness to God. They think they are so smart.”

In verse 21 he shows that as smart as they think they are, they couldn’t even discover God and God’s wisdom was all around them, in creation and in other things. They couldn’t even discover God. As a matter of fact, Israel was God’s idea to begin with. They didn’t even come up with themselves. God came up with Israel. And he says their wisdom has never caused them to discover anything about God. God had to reveal Himself.

You see, the Jews were hung up in looking for a sign (verse 22), and the Greeks were hung up in trying to figure it all out. He said that is their whole problem. They can’t receive the wisdom of the preaching of the cross.

In verses 23-25 Paul shows that the message of the cross puts to shame all the wisdom of the Jew and of the Greek. Then in verses 26-31 he closes the chapter and he says, “Now let me just ask you a question. Look around you. Look at your congregation. How many people in there are wise? How many people in there are mighty? How many people in there are noble?” He is not saying that God doesn’t love these people. He is saying these are people who are wise in their own estimation, they are strong in their own strength, they are mighty in their own nobility and riches and they say they don’t need Christ. And when you preach to them the foolishness of the cross, the message of the cross, they see it as repulsive. “What do you mean Jesus died? What do you mean the blood of this man cleanses me? I am not even a sinner! I am not lost!” They don’t want to admit that they are lost. So the preaching of the cross is foolishness to the world.

Paul is saying, “Listen, if you ever attach yourself to man, this is the kind of wisdom he comes up with. Man laughs at the preaching of the cross. Why would you want to attach yourself to man? Any man that preaches the right message is the message that God has had to give to him.” That is what Paul is saying. “Take me out of the lineup. What I preach to you, God gave to me. I wasn’t smart enough to come up with it myself. This is a message that originated in the heart of God.”

So the whole implication here is, why in the world would you attach yourself to men? Why would you act like little babies having to follow a man around just because a man preaches the message that you need to hear? Why don’t you let the message drive you to Christ? Why don’t you let the same message that drove him to Christ drive you to Christ and drive you to the cross and let you live in the fullness of what God has to offer you?

Remember the question he asks. He said, “Was I crucified for you? Were you baptized in my name?” He is still trying to remove his name from this list of people they have attached themselves to.

Chapter 2

So we come into chapter 2 and verse 1. There are two things that I want you to see here. Paul takes them back to when he first came and established his ministry there at Corinth. This is so imperative. He said, “Hey, let me take you back, let me remind you of some things.”

The first thing he does is, he says, “I came to you with a determination to only preach Christ and Him crucified. That is the only message I brought to you. That determination carried me the whole time I was there.” This is significant because he is taking the attention away from himself and putting the attention back on Christ and back on the message. This is very, very key. If you are a preacher or a leader, remember that is your key. Never point to yourself, point back to Him. Keep taking people’s mind off of you and putting their mind on Christ and putting their mind on the message.

There are many people who enjoy people attaching themselves to them. But the true person to whom God has given a message never pulls attention to himself. He puts the attention back on Christ and the one who is the center piece of the message.

Well, verses 1 and 2 of chapter 2 read, “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” That is a significant phrase. In defense of the fact that you never attach yourselves to him, Paul takes them back to when he first preached there at Corinth. He reminds them that his message was a message given by God. He said, “Now listen, when you go back, remember my method. Remember my method. Did I ever point to myself in my method? Did I ever do that? No, I didn’t.”

Verse 1 again says, “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.” The phrase “superiority of speech or of wisdom” is the key. The term “superiority” comes from the term huper, which means above, and echo, to have or to hold. So together it means to take something that you know and hold it up over somebody, to act superior in your knowledge over other people.

Now Paul had the ability to do that. The apostle Paul was an intelligent man, probably the most intelligent person in all of the New Testament, other than Jesus. He had the ability to woo and wow them and all these other kind of things, but he didn’t come that way. He had made a determination in his heart. He said, “Nothing I ever did pointed to me. Everything I did points to Him and His message. Why would you attach yourself to me?”

He didn’t water down the gospel with his own opinions and intellect so as to make it more appealing to the Corinthian mind. Paul knew what they would have liked. He knew. He knew exactly what they would have liked. He had been in those arenas before and he knew how to jump in. He knew how to use certain things to pull them to him and his wisdom, not to God and His message. He simply preached the message of the cross. He says, “Now why in the world would you attach yourself to me, because I never for one second drew attention to myself. I drew all the attention to Him. I only preached Christ. That was my method. I determined to do that.”

Secondly, he says, “Now if you will remember back, my message never pointed to me. It pointed to Christ.” Look in verse 1 again. “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.” Now the word “proclaiming” is kataggello. Kata is an intensive; aggello is the idea of delivering a message but with openness and simplicity and plainness. That is what he said. “I don’t think any of you could have missed it.” That doesn’t mean he didn’t use illustrations. It meant that whatever illustrations he used simply enhanced what he was trying to tell them of the message that Christ had given to him.

He said, “When I came to you I didn’t say anything about what I may have wanted to talk about. I came only for one reason and I didn’t point to myself by my method. I certainly didn’t point to myself in my message. I simply gave you the message of the cross, the testimony of God.”

Now the testimony of God is the key word. Marturion is the word used of a witness on a judicial stand. It must be precise with nothing added to it and nothing taken away from it in order to be what is truth. It must be told in total simplicity. You see, we live in a world which says, “No, no, no! Dress it up with all the academia you can to make it appealing.” No! It must be told in total simplicity for it not to deny the truth of what is being testified to. Now that is very important for you to understand. Paul said, “I could have done a lot of things with that message. I could have watered it down, added to it, done a lot of things, but I didn’t. I preached as simple as I knew how to preach it so that you could understand it. I never pointed to myself, only to Christ.”

He said, “I didn’t come in here with something to add to it. I didn’t try to make it appealing. I know you think this message is foolish, but I came determined to preach just this message. And that message did not point to me. That message pointed to Christ, the one crucified. Why would you attach yourself to me? My method and my message had nothing to do with me and had all to do with Him.”

Well, not only that, but he also wants them to remember his determined motive. This drove Paul. This was his motive in life. Never did he preach himself, only Christ crucified for others. He never preached himself and him being the servant to others with that message. Look in verse 2. He says, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” The word “determined” there is the word that means to make a decision between that which is good and that which is evil. He had to make a decision. He knew if he added anything to it, that was evil. But for that to be righteous and good, it is to take the message in its entirety and in its simplicity and be determined only to preach that message.

The word for “know” is the word eido, which basically comes from the word horao. It means to say “yes,” but it means more to understand and perceive something. In other words, you know something but you understand it. A lot of people can know about things and not have this word. They don’t have that intuitive perception of something. That is what he said. He said, “While I am among you, that is the only thing I am concentrating on. It is the only thing I want to be bothered with. I want to just perceive this one message. I didn’t come to Corinth to discuss your opinions. I didn’t come to talk about intellectual arguments. I came with one thought in mind and that is the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I only want that to be perceived.”

Now, be careful here. It doesn’t mean he didn’t preach anything else. That is not what he is saying. He is saying that until this message is perceived, there is no reason for anything else because you can’t understand anything else. There is no revelation until this revelation comes to a person’s heart, the message of the cross, the fact that I am a sinner and that fact of salvation. When Jesus died for me on the cross, He had to shed His blood for Wayne Barber. I have got to understand that. And God will reveal that to me with the proper preaching of His Word.

But not only that, once I am saved, I also have to remember I continue to identify with the cross. I have to die daily. And if I don’t, then I haven’t perceived the message. So why learn anything else? It doesn’t make any sense anyway. This is the bottom line of all of it. This is what makes the wisdom of men look foolish. They reject it. They call it foolishness. God says you have got to understand this. Flesh will not cut it when it comes to God. The cross is what crucified it, and the cross is what you need to embrace as a believer. As an unbeliever, you must come and identify with Him who died for you on the cross. This is the central message.

Acts 18:11 talks about the time that he spent at Corinth. It says, “And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.” It didn’t mean that he just taught one thing, but this one thing was the very central focus that must be perceived and be understood or there would be no understanding of the rest of it.

I tell you what, we are living in a day when people hate this message, folks. I go a lot of places and if I have learned anything, if it is going to be of benefit to you, I will come back and tell you. If you don’t want to hear it, then welcome to the human race. Nobody else does either. Just like Paul said in the book of Philippians, “There are those among us who are enemies of the cross.” Do you know how you are an enemy of the cross? When you think you have got something to offer Jesus rather than Jesus having something to offer you as you surrender to Him. That is when you know that you are an enemy of the cross.

I will tell you another way you will know you are an enemy of the cross. When you call everything in your life a demon instead of realizing it is your wicked flesh you are dealing with, then you are an enemy of the cross. You don’t understand what happened at the cross. You haven’t got a clue. And people that get off in that kind of stuff are people who don’t understand the crucified life. They don’t understand the exchanged life, the Christ life. They haven’t learned how to deal with self at the cross. They don’t want to learn because it makes them have to die to what they want and surrender and yield to what God wants. That is foolishness to man. Man doesn’t want to hear that.

So, therefore, we are forced with this message. Paul says, “Hey, I came for you to perceive one thing and that is the message of the cross, the testimony of God. I was determined to preach it.” He would not offer his message in any way. Again, I want to make sure I impress upon your mind. I hope it is impressed upon mine. Paul knew how to add to it. He spent his life knowing what he could add to it. He knew what appealed to the flesh. But he made a determination and said, “I am not going to do that. I am going to do it differently. I am going to just preach Christ and Him crucified.”

Paul said, “I am determined. I am just going to preach that one message.” In other words, “I know what could be added to it, but I am choosing one thing. I am choosing to preach that which offends your flesh because until your flesh is offended, you will never understand anything else. Until it is reckoned dead, you will never understand anything else. It will all be distorted and confused in your mind.”

The second thing I want you to see is, he came in demonstration of the Holy Spirit and His power. He didn’t come in his own power. He came in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Look at verses 35: “And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”

Now look at verse 3 real carefully. He says, “I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling.” The word for “weakness” is astheneia. It means powerless. Now, this is the apostle Paul. I always see him as a bold man. But he said, “When I came among you I was with you with weakness.”

Then he says, “I was with you with fear.” The word “fear” is phobos. It is translated fear, terror, honor, reverence, respect, but the idea of fear is in there. The word for “trembling” is the word that is the emotional accompaniment to fear. In other words, when you are afraid inside, it begins to show on the outside and you literally tremble on the outside.

Now, what in the world is he talking about? Paul, the great missionary was with them with weakness and fear and trembling! What was his problem? Well, look in verse 5. I want to show you what he was afraid of: “that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” Paul knew what he could have done. He could have won

1 Corinthians 2

Contents

1 The Wisdom of God – Part 1

2 God’s wisdom cannot be dethroned by man

3 The wisdom of God cannot be discovered by man

The Wisdom of God – Part 1

Turn to 1 Corinthians 2 where I want to focus on “The Wisdom of God.” We have seen in Corinthians already that there are two kinds of wisdom. There is the wisdom of man, fleshly wisdom, and then there is the wisdom of God. Of course man thinks he is so smart, but he shows himself to be a fool when he looks at God’s wisdom and calls it foolishness. Man does not want to hear about God’s wisdom. God’s wisdom is wrapped up in a message, in the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That has been Paul’s argument since way back in verse 10 of chapter 1. The apostle Paul preached the message of the gospel which contained the wisdom of God. Apollos, who was his successor, also preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. Simon Peter, who is called Cephas, also preached that message. Now, what Paul is doing here by talking about the wisdom of man and the wisdom of God and people who preach the gospel, he is attacking a problem in the Corinthian church. They have heard these preachers, these great preachers, and they have attached themselves to them. They have not allowed the message to attach themselves to Christ. So Paul is saying, “You have made a terrible mistake.”

Verse 12 of chapter 1 says, when he speaks of the division in the church there in Corinth, “Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying [now when he says “each one of you,” it has affected the whole church] each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul,’ and ‘I am of Apollos,’ and ‘I am of Cephas [then, of course, you have that other group], and I am of Christ.” That is the worst ones. They have the right person and the right message but the wrong motive. Don’t worry about them. They have attached themselves to a preacher.

Now Paul does not mention Apollos or Cephas, but he talks about himself. He puts himself into the forefront. All the way through he is saying, “Why in the world would you attach yourself to me?” In verses 16 of chapter 2, he takes them back to when he first came to Corinth. He says, “You examine my message. Nothing I did pointed to myself. Everything I told you, even the way I went about it, pointed to Christ. I made a choice. I wasn’t going to come with the eloquence of wisdom. I wasn’t trying to woo you to how smart I am. I brought the message of the preaching of the cross to you.” He said, “Look at my message. My message wasn’t about Paul. My message was about Christ. And not only that, look at my motive, the motive of my heart.” He said, “I came in demonstration of the power of the Spirit of God. I did not come as a man filled with his own wisdom. I came as a preacher filled with the wisdom of God.”

I love the verse found over in 2 Corinthians 4:5. It is exactly what he says in verses 15 of chapter 2. He says, “For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord.” That is so important to remember: that is the same thing he is trying to remind them, “We do not preach ourselves as lord, we preach Christ as Lord.” Then he says, “And ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.”

So, in verse 6 of chapter 2 he continues now to go deeper into that argument. Why would you attach yourself to a preacher? Why would you do that? He goes on to explain why they should not do that, which is the narrowed context of what we are in.

We are going to get into some troubled waters here and if you don’t stay with the narrow context that we have already seen, very fixed and very clear, a lot of things can happen in your mind and a lot of wrong things can come out. So stay in that narrowed context. It is very, very important. Once again he shows us that it is immature, it is silly for them to attach themselves to men. It makes no sense whatsoever when they realize that these men who have preached the gospel did not preach it because they had come up with it or because they had discovered it. The only reason Paul preached it was because God had revealed it to him.

If you have a preacher that you just like, do me a favor and pray for that person, but don’t put that person on a pedestal. I just want to encourage you with everything in me, because that preacher is no different than any of us who can’t get out of the rain without the grace of God. It is God who has revealed to him the message. Whatever a preacher says that is eternal and brings out the depths of the scriptures of God did not come from that man’s brain. It came as a result of the revelation of the Holy Spirit of God. Please understand, this is what Paul is attacking. He will bring it up again in chapter 3. I mean, he is not through with it yet. Don’t attach yourself to a preacher. Listen to the message. And if the depths of it are there and God is being revealed, then let the message drive you to Jesus and attach yourself to Him. That is the key. The preacher is not the man who came up with it. It is God who revealed it to his heart.

God’s wisdom cannot be dethroned by man

Okay, he is going to go deeper now into the wisdom of God. First of all, God’s wisdom cannot be dethroned by mere man. In other words, it cannot be dethroned and taken off of its pedestal where it ought to be and brought down to the level of man to where man could take credit for it. Paul says that it is foolish to think that a preacher would ever take credit for what he said and want people to follow him because God’s wisdom, the message of the gospel, cannot be dethroned by mere man.

Look at verse 6: “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away.” Now, I want you to look at that phrase, “Yet we do speak.” Remember, the narrowed context. The narrowed context tells us Paul is referring to the apostles; in other words, the ones who gave us the doctrine. He says, “We speak, yes, but we speak with a wisdom that is not from ourselves.”

Now in a broader sense it can refer to anyone. But in a narrow sense, the context, I believe he is talking about the preachers, those who people are attaching themselves to. He is defending the fact that they are not doing it out of their own strength. They are not doing it in their own power. They are doing it in the power of the Spirit and they are doing it with a message that comes from God. The word for “mature” there is sort of an interesting word. It is not really “mature.” It can be translated that, but it is the word teleios. It means to accomplish a goal.

If I am running a race and I see the finish line ahead of me, I have not accomplished my goal until I have crossed that finish line. Whether I win or not is irrelevant. Do I cross the finish line? When a person has crossed that finish line and met that accomplishment, then the word teleios is used. So you can see the word “mature” can come from that word, but the idea is to come to a point to where something happens as a result of that.

Well, there is much discussion as to who are the mature he is talking about. He says, “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are the mature.” First of all, could it be that the mature are the believers who did not see the gospel as foolishness, but because of the grace of God were wise in receiving it and received Christ into their hearts? Now they understand what Paul is saying. Then the wisdom of God would be the gospel. That is what he has been talking about. He has not strayed from that at all as he has walked his way through the context. By His grace they can now understand.

There is another side thought here. It could be that the mature he speaks of in this verse could be compared to the babes in Christ in 1 Corinthians 3:1: “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able.” In this case the mature would be those who could receive the solid food, and the immature would be the babes who had to receive only milk. What Paul would have been saying there is, “The mature group of you who understand the surrendered and the daily walk of the cross, you can understand what I am saying. Now some of you can’t.”

Maybe that is what he is saying. I don’t think so. I think the first definition is what he is using here. I am not going to fight anybody over it, but I think the word for “mature” here refers to believers in respect to mankind. Mankind in general has rejected the gospel message, but believers have received it. Therefore, they are the mature. When it comes to humanity, there is a group of people who has accomplished a goal. They didn’t actually accomplish it. God accomplished it for them, but they are at a point they can understand the things of God, whereas the people of the world who profess themselves to be wise, these are the ones who cannot understand the word of God.

Why do I think that? He has only had two groups in mind as he has come down to this point. One group has been the foolish and the other has been the wise. The foolish are those who have looked at God’s gospel and rejected it. The wise are those who have received it. He has not changed at all as he has walked down his defense why they should not attach themselves to men. So I think the word “mature” here would cover just the believers, those who have been brought into a place. Now the Holy Spirit lives in them, and they can understand the things of God. So he says, “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature.”

Let’s go on in the verse: “a wisdom, however, not of this age.” Paul is saying no man in this age can take any credit for the gospel message that we are preaching. The word for age there is the word aion. If you have a King James Version, I think it says, “not of this world.” That is not a good translation. An eon is an age that starts and has an end to it. However, within an age there are many ages. Let me give you an illustration of that.

I was born in 1943. I don’t know when I am going to die, but there will be a stopping point, just as there was a starting point of my physical life here on this earth. In the midst of that, there are many ages. I was in preschool from age one to five. I started the first grade at six years old; then from first grade to sixth grade; from seventh grade to ninth grade; from tenth grade to twelfth grade. I went to college and seminary. But these are ages within my life.

So not only is Paul referring to the age in which he is living, that no preacher such as himself or anybody else can take credit for the message they are preaching because it is a wisdom that is not of that age, but he is also saying, of any age. There is no man who ever drew breath on this earth who can take credit for the gospel message of Jesus Christ. It is a message that God gave to man. Why would you attach yourself to a preacher when God Himself had to give the preacher the message? We are preaching to those who can now understand a wisdom. And this wisdom is not of this age.

Then he goes on to say, “nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away.” The word for “rulers” is archon. It means the leaders, the ones up front. When we think of the leaders of our age we think of government officials. We think of intelligent people, of Nobel prize winners and people like that. Paul says, “Listen, all of these rulers here of this age are passing away.”

There are many things that he is thinking of here. First of all, let me identify the rulers he is talking about. Look in verse 8. He identifies himself. He says, “the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood.” Evidently he is talking about the lost ones, the Jewish and the Greek and the Gentile rulers of that age: “For if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Now these rulers who have rejected the gospel message in their own foolishness are passing away. There is no man who can take credit for the gospel message. I mean, even the ones we want to deify and lift up among the world, they are passing away.

There is an idea in this. The word for passing away is katargeo, and here it means they are really ceasing to exist and their message has to continually be upgraded. Have you ever noticed that every age has somebody with something new that they are finding? All of a sudden, it makes everything else obsolete. Then all of a sudden he is gone, and what he has found is gone, and somebody else comes up with something new. Then all of a sudden he is gone. It is constantly like that. But with the Word of God, the wisdom of God, it is not that way. It is the same yesterday, today and forever. That is what Paul is saying. He is saying, “Listen, the wisdom that we preach to you is not something that man can come up with and somebody else can improve upon. It is the same message that has been there all along. In fact, it was predestined before the foundations of the world.”

Let me share something with you before we get any further in this. If you ever hear a preacher or somebody say, “I found a new truth,” you had better back off and get on your knees and pray for that individual. Because when it comes to the Word of God and the gospel message, there is no new truth. It is all there from cover to cover, and it is not going to get new. I am hearing this kind of stuff when I watch television. They come up, “Well, I have got a new revelation about this and I have a new truth.” No, that is the way it is in the world, you see. And the next generation will come up with something new and the next generation will come up with something new. But when it comes to what we preach and what Paul said he preaches, it is the gospel, it is the wisdom of God and no man of any age can ever take credit for it because it is not of this age. The rulers of this age are passing away.

What we preach and what he preaches has been hidden since before the foundation of the world so that man cannot take credit for it. It says in verse 7, “But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory.” Note the narrow context here. He is defending these preachers who brought the message to Corinth. He says, “You should not attach yourself to them because what they speak is God’s wisdom, not theirs. It is in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory.”

The word for “mystery” there is the word that means something that is not naturally known. In other words, what Paul is preaching you can’t sit down in a little study group and come up with it without the Word of God and the Spirit of God. What Paul is saying here is that this wisdom, this gospel mystery, has been hidden. It has been hidden. It is something hidden. The word for “hidden” comes from two words. It means to hide away from where you can’t get to it. Perfect passive. Perfect tense means he made a decision back here and that is the way the gospel is going to remain because of a decision he made back here. Passive voice is, man didn’t have anything to do with it. God decided it was going to be this way. And so, when you hear a person preach the gospel and you take a friend to hear it and that friend just spits in its face and says, “That is stupid. That is foolishness,” and walks off, don’t expect him to be able to figure it out by his human mind. It is revealed by the Spirit of God. It is not something man can discover. It is something which has to be revealed.

Paul said, “We speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory.” The word “predestined” is proorizo. It always expresses purpose of something. It means to make a decision beforehand based on knowledge that one has. Before man was ever born, before there was ever a glimmer of man’s wisdom, this wisdom of God had been determined before a man ever drew a breath on this earth. This wisdom which contained the gospel message, the redemption of all mankind, which contained all the benefits of salvation, which contains the hope that we have in Christ Jesus, was hidden and was chosen before the foundation of this world.

For what? He says there in the verse it was predestined “to our glory.” Now what do little phrases like that mean? The little preposition eis means something that is moving into something with a result in mind. Why did God predetermine before the foundation of the world this marvelous wisdom that He is going to encapsule into the gospel message? Why did He do it the way He did it? Well, He did it for our benefit. For all of us that now have not been foolish but have received what Christ has done for us. We have not looked at the message of the cross as foolishness, but we have received Christ into our life. We have been wise in that respect. We have been brought into an understanding now of what the Word of God has for us. We have all the benefits in salvation, and one day, when we see Christ, we will have a brand new, glorified body. All of that was thought about before the foundations of the world. It was hidden and put into the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So what Paul is saying is, “When we preach to you, we are preaching something that never has changed. It has been that way since the foundation of the world, predetermined by God Himself. And you can’t just figure it out with your own human mind. It is something the Spirit of God has got to reveal to your heart.”

Verse 8 says, “the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood.” These rulers that we talked about a moment ago are the ones who crucified Jesus, the Jewish leaders and the Gentile rulers of that day. If they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord. Now, I guarantee you, Paul made a lot of people mad when he preached these kinds of things. There are a lot of people who say, “Wait a minute. I have all kinds of degrees, and you know good and well I can figure it out. You just give me enough time and I will figure it out.” But Paul says, “No, you won’t either. You will come up with one conclusion. The conclusion all men have come up with, that the gospel is foolishness. You can’t even see yourself as lost. It is the Spirit of God that convicts a man as to his lostness. It is not what man discovers on his own, it is what God reveals to the human heart.”

The wisdom of God cannot be dethroned to where man can take credit for it. So why would you attach yourself to a man? That is the whole point. That is the argument Paul has been giving to them. Don’t attach yourself to the preacher. If the message opens up your heart and you have received the things of God, you attach yourself to God who is the author of that message.

Verse 8 goes on, “for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Then in verse 9, as if to document how this wisdom of salvation, this gospel message that Paul preached, was so precious and predetermined before the foundation of the world, look at what he quotes. He quotes out of Isaiah 64:4. He said, “But just as it is written, ‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.’”

In essence, by quoting this passage what he is saying is, “There has never been a man on this earth whose eye has witnessed this, whose ears have heard this in order to perceive it, whose minds have conceived of it. There has never been a man on this earth until he sees a believer and he realizes this believer has something within him that is far beyond what man could ever do or man could ever think up. It came from God and it was predetermined before the foundation of the world.”

It has to do with our salvation and with the benefits of our salvation. No man could come up with this, folks. You won’t hear it in a classroom. It is when the Holy Spirit of God reveals it to man’s heart.

Turn over to Isaiah 64:4, because Paul doesn’t quote it quite exactly the way it is written in Isaiah. I think this is important to understand. When Paul uses an Old Testament reference, sometimes he doesn’t quote it exactly and some people have trouble with that. No, Paul has a point to make and he pulls the main thought out of something. He may quote it differently to establish the point that he is trying to make. You see, all the benefits of our salvation are wrapped up in the gospel message. It is not just getting saved. It is everything that goes along with our salvation and our calling. All of that has been hidden. It is a mystery. And until the Spirit of God reveals it, man is not going to know it. Therefore, how can a man take credit for it?

Isaiah 64:4 reads, “For from of old they have not heard nor perceived by ear, neither has the eye seen a God besides Thee.” There has been nobody to compare to our God. Now note the last phrase. “Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.” Paul is saying, “Man, when I came among you, there has never been a man on this earth who could ever sit and say, ‘I have seen something like that. I have heard something like. I have perceived it. I came up with it.’ No, no. They stand back in awe at the message of salvation.” But not just the message of salvation; it is also how the God of salvation deals with the people who receive that message. They have never seen anything like it. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard. Man cannot conceive of this.

You take the Buddhist, the Hindus and the different religions of this world. Man came up with them. There is nothing in those religions that will come anywhere close to what Christianity is, what the message of salvation brings to our heart. And every man has to stand back and say, “We have never seen anything like this. We have never heard of anything like this. We have never conceived of anything like this.” Paul said, “You see, it is something that had to come straight from God.”

I tell you what, when you watch people walk through difficult times and valleys and trauma, the world has to stand back and say, “I have never known anything like this. I have never conceived of how God would intervene in the lives of His people like that. Our God doesn’t intervene in our life.” You see, Buddha is dead.

Buddha said there was no way of salvation. He had these followers who came after him and they say there was no way of salvation. There is no salvation. This is it. Then one day he died. His followers said, “Well, since he said there was no way, he must be the way.” And so they all worship him and he is dead. He is in the ground. He is gone.

There is nothing like what we know. It came from God, predetermined before the foundations of the world. No human eyes have ever seen and no human ears have ever heard to perceive and no mind has ever conceived of it. What we know in salvation comes only from God, and it astounds the world when they see how our God works in our lives, how He intervenes and how one day He puts a hope within us that when we see Him, we will be like Him. There is nothing like this in the world. It came only from God. Therefore, how could the men who preach this message ever take credit for it? How could they ever dethrone the message to where it could become theirs? It is not theirs. It is God’s, and it has always been God’s. It is from the foundation of this world. God’s wisdom will never be dethroned by man seeking to take credit for it.

I tell you what, folks, watch out for a person who preaches and draws attention to him and what he says and does not draw attention to God and what He does. You be real careful. How do you know somebody is right? Well, when you leave, who did you leave impressed with, the Christ of the message or the messenger to where you would want to attach yourself to him?

Paul is warning them right here, I think, on both sides. Not only don’t you attach yourself to a preacher, but preachers, don’t you ever employ any human methodology that will cause people to be attached to you either. The message you preach is from Him, not from you. And it is so astounding. It has been a mystery and a mystery has to be revealed. It cannot be just discovered. It is the kind of thing that when you get into it, human minds cannot reason it. It has got to be the Spirit of God in the mix who helps a man to understand.

The wisdom of God cannot be discovered by man

That is our next point. The wisdom of God cannot be dethroned to where a man can take credit for it. But the wisdom of God cannot be discovered by mere man so that man can take credit for it. In other words, you can’t bring it down to man’s level, so man cannot discover it. It has to be revealed.

I keep bringing you back to that narrow context. Don’t attach yourself to a preacher because man’s wisdom is nothing compared to the wisdom of God. Look at verse 10. Look at the “to us” there. It is very important. “God revealed them,” the things of verse 9 which man has never heard or perceived or seen, “through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” God’s wisdom must be revealed to man or man will never find it. He says, “For God has revealed to us.” Who is he talking about? I think again he is saying these preachers of the gospel, the apostles, remember it is by revelation of God that we speak to you in that day. Of course, the wider meaning would include all of us, but I think the narrow context refers to them.

God has revealed. The word for “revealed” means He has uncovered, has taken the lid off. He has taken the lid off this message. He has helped us to understand it. We couldn’t understand it apart from Him. But God has revealed it in our life. Later on in 1 Corinthians 15:3 Paul says, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.” That is another way of saying the same thing. He is saying, “Hey, I got it from God, and I just gave it to you. Why in the world would you want to attach yourself to me?” “That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.”

He says, “For to us God revealed them,” but how did He reveal them? It is getting exciting here. How did He reveal them? He revealed this truth, that has been hidden before the foundation of the world, that is a mystery to the minds of man, through the Spirit. God reveals it through the Spirit. And, of course, when he says “the Spirit” he is speaking of the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity.

You know, it is amazing how we are living in a day where we think that there are three Gods instead of one. It is one God in three persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Do you believe the Holy Spirit is God? All of God? Absolutely all of God? You had better believe that because if you don’t believe that, you don’t believe the Word of God. Is Jesus all of God? Yes. Is the Father all of God? Yes. But He is one God in three persons. So many people get confused on that. They say, “Well, explain it to me.” I can’t explain it to you. If I could explain it to you, God would be no bigger than my brain. If that is the case, what are we doing in church on Sundays. I mean, He is bigger than any of us. We can’t understand that. That is why Jesus said the Spirit will come to be in you, but I will be with you and the Father will be with you. That is very important to understand. When you get Jesus, you get all of God. It is the Spirit of Christ. There is no jealousy in the Trinity. The Spirit of God is the one who reveals to us.

Now I want to tell you what Paul just did. It is very subtle. You might miss it. What he just did was take all the religions of mankind that men have come up with and he just sat them on the shelf. He showed that Christianity is transcendently superior to all these religions because ours had to be revealed to us by the Holy Spirit of God. His wisdom is beyond the wisdom of man. It goes even back before the foundations of the world with His predetermined plan to do what He has done. The power of the Spirit of God.

Look at verse 10 again: “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit [now look at this] searches all things, even the depths of God.” Oh, the Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, is the one who searches the very depths of God. Now, before we go any further, you can’t understand this to mean investigate. He doesn’t investigate anything. It sounds like that when you first read it, doesn’t it? He goes out and searches all of this stuff and gets the information and brings it back to us. No, He is the information, folks. That is what he is saying. The Holy Spirit of God, present tense, searches. He is the one, now listen, who sounds the very depths of the wisdom of God.

A Christian has someone living in him that a nonChristian doesn’t. So, we can’t even be understood by the people of this world. The things we know didn’t come from a classroom. The things we know came as revelation of the Spirit of God through the Word of God. All this has been a mystery and a part of God’s predetermined plan. In other words, He is always available to reveal whatever it is our minds cannot fathom.

Now folks, I tell you, that gets really overwhelming when you think about it for a while. Included in this would be the attributes of God. Do you realize that we make statements in the pulpit like this and think that some people understand it when yet that one statement could take you a lifetime and you would never understand it apart from the revealing of the Holy Spirit of God. We are all guilty of that. Omniscience. My goodness, what does that mean? Omnipotence. Omnipresence. He is ever present. How in the world does that work? The attributes of God, the grace of God, the goodness of God, the judgment of God, the wrath of God. All these things. The thoughts of God, the purposes of God, the plans of God, the providence of God. All of that. In these deep things that the Holy Spirit reveals would be included the cross of Christ, the Holy Trinity, the incarnation, the union of our spirit with God’s Spirit. You could just go on and on and on.

And there are times when I am studying the Word of God I think I am getting more stupid as I get older. The more I think I kn

1 Corinthians 2

Contents

1 The Wisdom of God – Part 2

2 The wisdom of God cannot be delivered by man

3 The wisdom of God cannot be discerned by man

4 Conclusion

The Wisdom of God – Part 2

I want to take you back into a little bit more of the history and understanding of the city of Corinth. Now having been there, it has opened my eyes. As a matter of fact, the book has come alive to me. We must understand this. Corinth was a fascinating and a very unusual place. If you have read through, you realize that Paul says things and addresses things in 1 Corinthians that he does not address in any of his other epistles. None of them. To the Romans, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, none of them except in 1 Corinthians. How do you explain that? Why is it that he brings out certain things there that he does not in other places?

I think part of the reason is that we don’t understand the culture and the history of Corinth during that time. You do know that when you study Scripture, having an understanding of the culture and history is very imperative to understanding what the Word of God is saying. If that were not true, how could we ever let Abraham get away with having a concubine? How could we ever translate the 11th chapter of Daniel? Without the historical understanding of that, you would be totally lost. The culture and the history of a place helps us to better understand the author’s intent and what he is doing under the direction of the Holy Spirit of God.

Corinth was one of the wealthiest cities in the world, possibly the wealthiest at that time. What was the reason? Most of it was due to the location in which they were found. They were located on an isthmus. Now I understand what an isthmus is. It is a small piece of land that connects two large bodies of land. When Rome conquered Greece they split Greece into Asia Minor, Macedonia and Acaia. Acaia is the lower part of Greece. Athens is in Acaia. However, if you will look over to the left of Athens and down just a little bit on a map, you will see a peninsula sort of jutting out the very bottom part of Greece. And connecting that little peninsula to the upper and main body of Greece is a little isthmus about four miles long, maybe about four miles wide. That is about all it is. Corinth was located there.

Now, here is why it was such a strategic place. If you were a sailor and you were coming from Ephesus, which was over in modern day Turkey and you were coming and going to Rome, you would have to actually sail out and sail south, go underneath that peninsula, come up through some very horrendous seas in order to get up into Rome. As a matter of fact, sailors did not even want to go that way. So the Corinthians were ingenious. They came up with a plan. They said, “Hey, let us pull your boat across the land.” As a matter of fact, the road is called “The Pulled Through Road.” They pulled the boats across about four miles now of dry land. There is a canal there now and ships have tug boats to pull them through, but back then they did not have that. It was a road. They basically rolled those ships on stones and rocks across the land connecting the Gulf of Corinth with the Seronic Sea, saving the sailors the pain of having to sail around the southern tip of Greece and also making a ton of money for themselves. It was very expensive to have that done, and they became very, very wealthy.

If you wanted to go to Athens and you were living down in that peninsula, you had to go through Corinth. Corinth was just a strategic city placed there and became very wealthy as a result of it.

Well, when wealth is not governed by the mind and the will of God and when it is among pagans, it is always associated with idolatry and immorality. You know, if you went to Corinth back in those days and you wanted to worship a false pagan god, you would have difficulty choosing which one you were going to worship. They had so many. But there were three main gods they worshiped. The temples are right there. We stood right in the city and saw these things. It is incredible when you see it. It just sort of makes the book come alive.

First of all was the worship of Apollo. Apollo was the god of light and knowledge and arts. He comes into play here in just a moment. Then they had the worship of Aphrodite; that was the goddess of love. There is a huge acropolis with a temple named after that god. An acropolis, as we described earlier, is a huge rock mountain that looms over the city of Corinth. It is beautiful really, the way the city sits at its base. On the top of that, they had the temple to Aphrodite or Venus, the goddess of love. There were 1,000 priestesses, they called themselves; women who were nothing more than temple prostitutes.

They also had public baths there. These women would come down to these public baths and that is where they would entertain the sailors coming through. On the bottom of their shoes they would write in their language, “Follow me,” and wherever they stepped that was not stone, the sailors saw the “follow me” and they followed them and things were not good. This was the worship. The sexual things that took place on top of that mountain are beyond anything we would ever want to discuss. As a matter of fact, today, they say that there was so much venereal disease in that area because of this promiscuity that there is in the museum at Corinth today, there is a room of things that they have found suggesting this, that they won’t even allow tourists to go into because it is so embarrassing and so humiliating. I say that to let you know the degradation of the area of Corinth. It was something that was normal everyday life.

Then there was the temple of Poseidon. Poseidon was the god of athletic strength, a man. In other words, that is where they would have the Isthmian Games. They were called Isthmian Games because of the isthmus there that Corinth was on, very much like the Olympic Games. They would have them every so many years. They would have it right by the temple of Poseidon, which was outside the city of Corinth. There was a big stadium there right beside it because they worshiped the physical abilities of man.

Now, here is something I ran into that I did not know and it helps us begin to understand why the apostle Paul has such concern that they are attaching themselves to men with a message. In every area of idolatry that was there, there was this mystical getting of knowledge from the spiritual world, now not the holy spiritual world, but the demonical spiritual world. They would go into trances. They have even found the base of the drug LSD that was used sometimes to quicken these trances that people would go into. Then they would speak in an unknown tongue or language, and they would have people around them who would say they could interpret that tongue. They would give a message to the people who would come and want that message.

There was a word in their culture that is not in ours that we need to understand. It was the word we get “ecstasy” from now. In their language, it was existemi. It comes from ek, out of, and histemi, which means to stand or put something. Together existemi meant to stand outside something. This was their mind set of that day. There were barriers, there were boundaries that man was not to cross. These entered into the spiritual domain and several people of their day would seek and venture to go beyond those boundaries. So they would worship this way. They would go into a trance.

This is important. The temple of Apollo was where most of this took place. It took place in all of them but this is where most of it took place and I will show you how significant that is in a moment. They would get into this trance. The people had to get to where their minds were totally out of gear, unintelligible; there was not a matter of intelligence and understanding here at all. They had to get into this mindset, this unintelligible type setting where their mind was totally vacant. Then they would begin to speak in this unknown tongue or unknown language. When this happened they were said to have now reached the pentacle of ecstasy. They had stepped outside the bounds. In their culture, once you had done this, you would tend to go beyond, there was no return. You would go beyond. As a matter of fact, the boundaries now had been lifted.

But not everybody had this experience, only certain ones. They were delving into the demonic world, and as they did this, they received messages and would become like gurus to the people. The people would say, “I have to attach myself to him because he has got something I don’t have. I have to follow him because he says something and he tells me things that I couldn’t get any other way.” This was the lifestyle and the norm of the pagan people there in Corinth.

The temple of Apollo sat in the center of the city, while Aphrodite was up on top of the Acropolis and Poseidon was outside the city. There was no way not to be affected by this. You couldn’t even go to the market, which sat on the other side up high, unless you were looking at it at all times. This was where this knowledge, this supernatural knowledge would come in. As a matter of fact, while we were there, they explained to me that Rome never did this, but the Greeks did. This is why it is so important to know this. They would go to these people called mediums, who would delve into the spirit world, to find out solutions to national problems.

The oracle of Delphi is a good illustration. There was a woman at Delphi who would sit cross-legged and get into this trance. She did not use drugs. I understand this was not used there. But she would go into a trance and speak in a language nobody had ever heard before. Some of her little followers would get around and say, “We know the answer to this.” They would come up with a message and they would actually take it and give it to the government leaders.

They had an enemy who was attacking them and they knew they were coming. So therefore, they sent officials up there to get a word of wisdom of what they should do. Well, she babbled some things and some of her interpreters said, “Here is what she said. She said that you will be saved by wood.” The people said, “What does that mean? I think it means for us to go back and build a wall around the acropolis. We will go up on top and they can’t get to us. That is what she means by wood. We will build a wall of protection from the enemy.” One of the younger ones said, “No, I don’t think that is right. I think she is saying we need to build boats and get on the boats and get out of here. That is what she is saying.” Well, the young ones built the boats and the old ones built the wall. The young ones were right. The enemies burned the walls and went right up and conquered them. But the ones who went out in the boats and sailed out to sea were saved.

So, they put credibility to this babbling and said, “You know, there really is a message here.” One story fed the next and the next fed the next and that was the lifestyle of the Greeks in that area of the world at that time.

If you can’t see the connection, I don’t know if you are listening. The apostle Paul is saying, “Why are you attaching yourselves to men who have a message? The pagans are doing the same thing and you know this. Don’t you ever attach yourself to a man.” Then he begins to show that the wisdom that Paul and Apollos and Cephas have did not come from the demonic world, it comes from the Spirit who is of God and is intelligent and reasonable. A man can understand and live in light of what he understands.

Now, if you will follow the term “we” from chapter 1 and chapter 2, I think you will understand the narrow context. Paul is speaking of the apostles, which is important, because he is justifying the message that he, Apollos and Cephas have preached. As a matter of fact, he is not through with this. He picks it up again in chapter 3. So he is still talking about that one context. In many of the things he says about “we,” even though he is referring to the apostles, it also refers to the whole body of Christ.

Look with me at the “we” phrases there. Look at 1:23: “but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness.” Who is “we”? That is Paul, Apollos and Cephas. That is any of the apostles of that day.

Look at 2:6-7. He says, “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory.” The demonic spirits didn’t do this. God predestined this before the ages.

Verses 12 and 13 read, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”

Let’s look at this for a second. The Corinthians had attached themselves to Paul, to Apollos, who was the second pastor of Corinth, and then to Cephas who was the unsung hero and leader of the whole church of Jesus Christ in that day. Paul is saying, “What are you doing? The message we are preaching didn’t come from some demonic experience. We don’t have something you don’t have. We have a message given to us by God the Holy Spirit, predestined before the foundations of the world, and if you will just listen to the message, let it lead you to Christ, you can receive Him and you will have everything we have. We don’t have anything you don’t have. We don’t have something you can’t understand.”

That, to me is his whole point. He is refuting this whole practice and is showing them that God’s wisdom cannot be dethroned by mere man. In other words, man can’t take credit for it and the demonic spirits surely can’t take credit for it. You can’t go to the oracles of Delphi and find a woman and come up with the wisdom of God. It only comes from the Holy Spirit of God. Secondly, it cannot be discovered by mere man. Man does not discover what God has hidden. It is a mystery, and God must reveal it to man.

The wisdom of God cannot be delivered by man

That is where I want to pick up in verse 12. He says, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God.” Again we see the contextual “we.” However, that is true for all believers. All of us have received the Spirit of God. He says, “received,” aorist active, which means willfully received. He says we have not willfully received the spirit of the world. We did not do that. The word for “not” means absolutely not in any way, shape or form.

The “spirit of the world” is key. The word for “world” there is the word that means the disposition, the mindset, the desires of this world without Christ. It is the spirit of the world that crucified Christ. It is the spirit of the world that looks at the gospel as foolishness. It is the spirit of the world that the people go into the temple of Apollo and they get all kinds of these demonic messages. We did not receive the spirit of the world, but we received the Spirit who is from God. We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God.

The word “from” there means more than just from. It is not as if He is sent from God, He is out of God. He is out of God Himself. The word is ek, out of, not apo, away from. We have received the very Spirit of God. God Himself lives in us. You don’t have to come to us because you also received the Spirit of God. You don’t have to go up to the mountain there. You don’t have to go to the temple of Apollo. You come to the Spirit of God who lives in you. What He has taught us He will teach you. He lives in us. No man has a corner on it.

The Holy Spirit of God has been willfully received into our lives. Why? “That we might know the things freely given to us by God.” The word “might know” there is eido. It means to know intuitively. Because of His Spirit living in us, we might intuitively perceive and understand the things that are freely given to us by God.

Look at what it says in verse 11 of chapter 2: “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.” The same word for “know” is there. It is like Paul is saying, “God’s Spirit knows so we can know because we have received God’s Spirit in our life.” Every person who is a believer, who has received Christ, has the Spirit of God living in him. The Spirit of God becomes our teacher, and all of us have access to the same information. It is the Word of God.

The phrase, “that we might know,” is present active subjunctive. There are conditions to it. But when we do know and surrender to what the Word of God says, the Spirit gives us full understanding and leads us into all truth. And so every believer has the Spirit of God, but particularly those who are preaching the message to them in the context of 1 Corinthians.

Paul goes on to say, “that we might know the things freely given to us by God.” I guarantee you that in the temples of Apollo and Aphrodite, you never learned anything about what those gods, false gods, had given to anybody but what they demanded out of others. But in our God, through the Holy Spirit’s power, we can know the things freely given to us by God. Paul is driving home a point. God’s wisdom cannot be dethroned by mere man. God’s wisdom cannot be discovered by mere man, and God’s wisdom cannot be delivered by mere man.

Look what he says in verse 1 of chapter 2. I want you to see that, because Paul says it very clearly. By the way, the apostle was who we got the Word of God from. They didn’t have this. We do. Where did it come from? From the apostles and the prophets. That is what Ephesians 2:20 says to us. But I want you to look back in verse 1 of chapter 2. He says, “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.” I didn’t color it up, I didn’t water it down. Verse 2 continues, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”

Now having said that, drop down to verse 13. I think he is explaining some things now. He is referring to the things he just mentioned in verse 12. He says, “which things [What is he talking about? The things that are freely given to us by God mentioned in verse 12.] we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”

Oh, there is so much in this thing. It never gets out of me like it gets in. The word for “words” here is important because it has everything to do with Corinth. The thing that Corinth was into was unintelligible words and messages, that which bypassed the human mind and reason and understanding. But that is not what God does. God never bypasses the human mind. God gives to us that which we can understand. It is enlightened by the Holy Spirit of God, and we can act upon. It is not mystical. It is very clear as to where we are to be.

The word for “taught” means that which was imparted by the Holy Spirit of God: “which things we also speak, not in words [intelligent words] taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit.” I think what we have here is one of the greatest proof-texts of verbal inspiration you can find anywhere of how God did not just inject the specific word to every person and made them use the same word, but how God had the wisdom and the intelligence and picked men like Peter and Paul and James and others and John. Each one of them had their own vocabulary. But God the Holy Spirit, having the thought, gave it to Paul and let Paul use his own vocabulary. God the Holy Spirit combining spiritual with spiritual put the two together and came out with the very thing God wanted to say and never at one time at the expense of Peter’s or Paul’s personality. It is a beautiful picture here of how we got the Word of God because these were the apostles speaking at that time.

It says again in verse 13, “which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.” Now, in all the translations I looked at, I like this one the best. It is very difficult. The Greek is not easy. The key word is sugkrino. The word comes from two Greek words sun, which means together, and krino, which means to judge. It means to join together, to compose and to combine. I like the word “compose.” That really struck a note in my mind. Oh man, the beauty of God here. He says, “I want my word to be known to man. I picked Paul, a Jewish man, and called him from his mother’s womb. I want a Jewish man who knows the law. But I want to teach him grace so I can use him.” God takes the spiritual teaching and teaches it to Paul and then even gives him the verbal inspiration of how to speak that word and communicate the very thoughts that God has. To me, this is the full picture of a composer putting it together and making the melody come out exactly the way He wants it to come out.

God used different men, but not one time is there a contradiction in scripture. Dwight L. Moody, right before he died, said, “When I first got saved I could find 1,000 contradictions in the Word of God. Now I am about dead and I can find only one and I am too hardheaded to let the Holy Spirit of God clear it up for me.” That is a good word. If you can find a contradiction in the Word of God, friend, you are a better man than anybody else. God used different men in 66 different books through different times and different places, different backgrounds, different vocabularies. Listen to the Greek of Peter and listen to the Greek of Paul. Yet God took His thought that He wanted, used man as His instrument and spoke through man the Word that was predestined before the foundation of the world.

None of these apostles spoke in their own power. They spoke only by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. This is why we now have the New Testament as it was written from the pages of their lives in that time by the Spirit of God. Paul is saying, “We are not like some of these mediums. We are not like some of these people who go out and get this babble that nobody can understand and then people say they understand and tell you what it means. No, what we have said to you is the reasonable, logical, understandable Word that God Himself has given to us and even given us the vocabulary with which to communicate it to each of you.”

The wisdom of God cannot be discerned by man

The wisdom of God is so far different than the pagan wisdom of this world and the spirit of this world. It cannot be dethroned by mere man, cannot be discovered by mere man and cannot be delivered by mere man. But there is one more area that I want to concentrate on. It cannot be discerned by mere man.

Look at verse 14. He says, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” Now he is making a contrast here. He takes what he just said, that the Spirit of God gave us the thoughts, the vocabulary to speak those thoughts, combine spiritual things with spiritual things and then he compares that kind of man with the Spirit of God living in him to teach him and to help him understand the things of God. He compares that with the natural man who cannot do these things.

The natural man here is the word psuchikos. That is an interesting word. It is important because it is only used in that form four other times in Scripture. Now there is a lot of dissention here. Is the natural man of chapter 2 a saved man and he is just simply pointing out the fact that the natural part of us cannot discern the things of God but only the Spirit of God can? Or is the natural man a lost man? Well, let’s look and see what he says. I have my view on it. I believe he is a lost man and here is why.

First of all, Paul uses the word in 1 Corinthians 15:44. Psuchikos is called the natural man, soulish man. I believe he is talking about a man devoid of the Spirit of God – period. That is what I believe. I would never force that on anybody. Following the context makes all the sense in the world. But in 1 Corinthians 15:44 it is not real clear as to exactly the difference, but I will show you in another place it is: “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” Notice the spiritual body is not first. It is the natural then the spiritual. He is talking about the death and resurrection of the body and how it is going to be raised a spiritual body. When it dies, you put a natural body in the ground and when it is raised, it is raised a spiritual body.

Look over in James 3:15, the only other two times this form of the word is used, and look what it says. “This wisdom,” he says, “is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, (which is the word there psuchikos) and demonic.” Not in too good a company.

Now look over in Jude 19. I would say 1:19 but there is only one chapter in Jude. In Jude 19 Jude uses it. I want to show you how he uses this word, then we will go back to our text. Only four times can I find that form of the word used outside of 1 Corinthians 2. Jude 19 reads, “These are the ones who cause divisions, worldlyminded.” He is talking about false teachers, but that is the word right there. I don’t know why they translated it “worldlyminded.” Then it says, “devoid of the Spirit.” Now, obviously not too good a company again.

Now let’s go back to 1 Corinthians 2:14. Let’s look at the strong things that he says about the natural man. There are two things that he says that I think makes a distinction here that it is a lost man. First of all, he says that the natural man will not accept the things of the Spirit of God. He says, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him.” Now, the word “not” means not in any way, shape or form. The word “accept” is the word dechomai, which means to eagerly receive something. It is a deponent verb in the present active sense. In other words, it is a lifestyle, a continuous thing. The soulish man without the Spirit of God does not in any way, shape or form receive with eagerness the things of the Spirit of God.

When the gospel is preached or taught, what does that do to him? Well, first of all, it clashes with his own perverted ideas and his own perverted thoughts. It condemns them and works to root them out. Therefore, he does not receive it. Why would he? It would change everything and he doesn’t want to be changed. Therefore, he does not receive it. They are foolishness to him.

We have seen this phrase before. Go back to 1:18. It is foolishness to him. You are talking about an individual here. It is foolishness not to his natural part, it is foolishness to him as a person. Verse 18 of 1 Corinthians 1 reads, “For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” That is pretty clear. Verse 23 of chapter 1 says, “but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness.” So the natural man thinks the things of the Spirit of God are foolishness. We have already seen before that these are lost people.

Secondly, he says the natural man cannot accept the things of the Spirit. He cannot accept them because he cannot understand them. Look at the verse. It says, “and he cannot understand them.” Why can’t he? He says, “because they are spiritually appraised.” The word for “can” really is dunamis. He has no ability within himself. The word “not” is not in any way, shape or form.

The word for “understand” is ginosko. He cannot sit down and study it and come up with an understanding of it. A lost man can come to church until he falls over in the floor and he cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God. He cannot. Why? Because they are spiritually appraised. The word “appraised” is the word anakrino. Krino is to judge something with a standard. You have a standard by which you judge something. The lost man has no standard by which he can judge. Therefore, not only will he not accept them, his natural part cannot even understand them.

Why? It is because the Spirit of God does not live in him. Then Paul gives the comparison in verse 15. He says, “But he who is spiritual appraises all things.” You know, this helps a little bit to understand the world. Have you ever wondered why sinners sin? Some people come to me and say, “I know a man who hates God. Man, listen to what he is doing,” as if they are surprised. Why would you be surprised when a sinner sins? That is all he can do. He does not accept the things of Spirit of God and he cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God, so what is he going to do but just be what he is. He is going to sin.

But in verse 15 we read, “But he who is spiritual appraises all things.” The word for “spiritual” is pneumatikos. It means pertaining to the spirit. It is those people who have the Spirit of God living in them who have been made new creatures in Christ by His Spirit coming to live in them, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, enjoying His influences, His grace, His gifts. These are the spiritual ones.

Is the natural man of chapter 2 just a particular side of a believer? Is Paul talking about someone not letting the Spirit of God show them these things? If you are not going to appraise the things by the Spirit of God, then you are going to be natural and you can’t accept the mature things that Paul has taught. The people who believe that compare it to chapter 3, which we haven’t gotten to yet, and the babe in Chri

1 Corinthians 3:13

Contents

1 Spiritual Babies

2 There is a time to be a babe in Christ

3 There is a thirst which a babe in Christ has

4 The tragedy of a baby in Christ

Spiritual Babies

Have I told you lately about my granddaughter, little Holly? I don’t think I have. She is just the cutest little thing. I know that every grandparent thinks this about their grandchild, but I just want to tell you, mine is the prettiest who has ever been born. We are having so much fun watching her grow up and learning those little words. She is trying to say Poppy. She hasn’t been able to say that too good. She gets Nana and Mama and Daddy, but she hasn’t gotten mine down right yet. But she is so precious. She is running and walking and just having the best time seeing everything afresh.

Today she came over, and she had a brand new dress on. Boy, she was something else. She was walking around in our kitchen so proud of that dress, just acting prissy. I mean, it is just so much fun. I love watching them grow up. No parent or grandparent in their right mind wants a child to remain a child. The very fact that they are born begins to give you the anticipation, expectation that they are going to grow, that they are going to change, that they are going to be different. Every stage in my own children’s lives has been just as wonderful as the other, if not even better. And now that they are our friends and are adults and have their own life, it is just even another dimension of it. They grow and grow and grow.

It is a tragic thing when you see a child’s mind in a 20year old person. Some people have had to suffer with that. It is a very tragic thing. But the same thing is true in the spiritual life. When you get saved, when you put your faith into Jesus, it doesn’t stop, it starts. There is a process that begins. We are birthed into the kingdom. We come in as newborn babes in Jesus Christ. Then there is the growth process and the stages that God wants to take us through, one day to conform us even into the image of Christ Jesus. And to refuse to grow, to make a choice and say, “I am not going to do what you tell me, God. I am not going to grow,” that is sin.

This is the problem we are dealing with at Corinth. Spiritual babies. Spiritual babies are cute when they are babies, but they are not supposed to remain that way. We must remember that when we become a believer, the body of sin is still there. I don’t know why it is that we tend to forget that. Romans 6:6 tells us, “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with.” That word is katargeo. Kata is an intensive and usually means to cease something, but not to cease to exist. It is still there. He has shifted the power of sin into neutral by putting His Spirit into our life. Therefore, He has delivered me from the penalty of sin by dying for me. Now He has delivered me from the power of sin by coming to live in my life. And as I learn to yield to Him, as I learn to surrender to Him, I can walk in more and more victory that He has already given me in Himself. I can no longer be in the flesh, Romans says, but I can be after the flesh.

A baby is one who chooses to continue to want to be after the flesh. What happens is, you refuse the growth process. You impair your spiritual growth. So spiritual babies can be a good term, but spiritual babies can be a bad term.

Since 1:10 Paul has been dealing with the biggest symptom of a spiritual baby and that is attaching yourselves to people, to preachers with the message, rather than attaching yourself to Christ and living in the depth of your relationship to Him. Babies have to cling to somebody they can see, don’t they? They just have to have somebody around them to remind them that God really is alive.

When my daughter was little she was so precious. My wife Diana was in the room with her one night, and she was just learning about God and things like that. She looked at Diana and said, “Mama, is Jesus in this room?” Diana said, “Why sure He is in this room, honey. He is everywhere.” She said, “Well, I don’t mean to be mean, but would you tell Him to leave. He is scaring me. It is okay if you stay, but tell Him that He has to go. He is bothering me.”

Now that is a baby. But you see, when you grow in the depth of your relationship to Him, you don’t need to attach yourself to people because you have the Holy Spirit of God living in you. That has been the message we have preached for years: live in the fullness of your faith. Understand that Christ is in you and you are complete in Him and He is your sufficiency. But when you refuse to do that, when I refuse to do that, when I refuse to say yes to Him, then what happens is I am stunting my growth. I am getting in the way of what God is trying to do in my life. Yes, He is in me to will and to work. Yes, He started the work and He will continue it and perfect it until that day. But remember, we can also get in the way. God works those things into His marvelous plan. He is still there, but we are still spiritual babies by the way that we behave.

Well, that is the problem in Corinth. Look at 3:1-3. Let’s read the whole context and we will come back and address it. Verse 1 says, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?”

There is a time to be a babe in Christ

There are three things that I want to show you in this text. First of all, and it is so critical to understand this, there is a time to be a babe. It is okay. There is a time to be a babe in Christ. He says, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ.” When he says “could not,” that is aorist indicative. He seems to be pointing back to a time in the past when he was with them and he could not speak to them as unto spiritual men. He obviously is pointing back to the time when he was there, when they were first birthed into the kingdom because of the preaching of himself and then later on Apollos and others. But he is pointing back. He said, “When I was with you at that time, I could not speak to you as unto spiritual men.”

We know the history of that. Acts 18 covers the account of Paul going to Corinth. I learned something when I was in Corinth. I learned that when he went to Corinth, he went there for the Isthmian Games. You may ask, “Well, why would he do that? Is he a runner? Did he just like games?” No. But the situation was that many, many people would come into the area for the Isthmian Games which was held over by the Temple of Poseidon. When they did this, they would stay in tents. Guess what? Paul was a tentmaker. Paul was a businessman. Paul never asked for offerings from people. He made his own living. He was a tentmaker. That is where he got with Priscilla and Aquila. For a year and a half he stayed with them up until the games. That probably financed his ministry for quite a while. So he was there with them.

Well, when Timothy and Silas came down and joined him, it wasn’t long until many of them devoted themselves fully to ministry and many people believed. Many people were saved. They were babies. They would come into the door now of salvation. So he says, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men [you weren’t there yet] but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ.” They had just entered the door of salvation. The process had just begun. They had not yet learned to be dominated by the Spirit of God. They were still fleshly minded.

Now, the word there for “men of flesh” is sarkinos. I know that means a lot to you, but sometimes I need to bring this out because these words help you so much in understanding what the text is saying. Sarkikos is the word used in verses 3 and 4. You say, what is the difference in sarkinos and sarkikos? Well, they are both adjectives. Sarkinos, in verse 1, comes from the word sarkikos, and sometimes it is translated just that way. However, I see a difference in sarkinos in verse 1 and sarkikos in verses 3 and 4. Now, don’t let me lose you. I am just trying to show you something here. It is like a black and white TV becoming a color set. Sarkinos has the idea of the attitude of a baby, whereas sarkikos has more of the action of a baby. One is the attitude, one is the activity or the action of the child. He begins to describe that in verses 3 and 4. He says, “You still have a fleshly attitude.”

Now, have you ever seen a little, bitty baby? I mean, it is the perfect picture here. Even though I love little Holly, and she is the prettiest thing, and she can’t even say Poppy right now, I want to tell you, her world revolves around her. Have you ever noticed that about a child? When a baby is born, it is fleshly minded. I mean it is whatever concerns “me”. I want food and I want it now. And I don’t want to do that. And when you pick her up, put me down. When you put her down, pick me up. I mean, it is constant, me, me, me. There is a fleshly something about a newborn child that is also a part of a brand new babe in Christ. He hasn’t learned yet to die to the flesh. He hasn’t learned yet to be dominated by the Spirit. So, they are still fleshly. They are men of flesh. The word sarkinos or sarkikos simply means they are fleshly minded.

Then he goes on, I think, and describes it. He says, “as to babes in Christ.” The word for “babes” is nepios. It is the word that means an infant, a helpless and unlearned child who has no ability to speak intelligently, one who is not mature. He has all that is needed but does not know how to use it. And so Paul says there was a time when I was with you that I could not speak to you as unto spiritual men because you were still fleshly, you were babes in Christ. There is a time to be a baby in Christ. When you are first born into the kingdom, don’t think that you are going to jump ten miles down the road in your growth. It is going to be a slow growth. It is a process. There is a time to be a babe in Christ. Paul had grounded them in the faith. He is not saying that. But he says, “I could not speak to you as to spiritual men.”

Look back in 2:35, and you will see what he taught them. “And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” Even though they were babies, Paul still grounded them in the faith in the time that he spent with them. There is a time to be a babe in Christ.

This is why you don’t take a person who is brand new in the kingdom of God and make them a leader in the church. That is why you don’t want a novice to be an elder. You want somebody who has walked down the road, somebody who has grown up in their faith, somebody who has become spiritual, dominated by the Spirit of God, has learned to deal with their flesh. But there is a time to be a babe in Christ.

There is a thirst which a babe in Christ has

The second thing I want you to see in this text is not only that, but there is a thirst which a baby in Christ has. He says that in verse 2. He says, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it.” Now the analogy here is tremendous.

When Holly was a few months old, she was over at the house. I was eating some french fries or something and I really wanted to give one to her. But I was reminded, now wait a minute now, she can’t chew anything. You don’t give a piece of steak or something you have to chew to a baby. You give them milk. They can receive that. No chewing to it. It is easy. It is palatable. It goes right down. But you don’t give them solid food. They don’t even have teeth yet. Those are going to come in later on.

Now in the spiritual life, you are born with everything you need, you just don’t know how to use it. But they don’t have all the essential things here, so you don’t give them solid food, you give them milk. He said, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food [Now that is aorist active indicative and he is pointing back to the time when he taught them. It was the milk of the Word, not the solid things of the Word. Why was that? He says] for you were not yet able to receive it.” The word “able” is the word dunamai. It means you didn’t have the ability to receive it. The word “not” is the word ou, which means not in any way, shape or form.

The word “receive” is not in the text but it is implied. You were not able to handle it. Therefore, when I was with you, you were a babe and you were thirsty and I gave you something to drink. I gave you milk, but I couldn’t give you solid food. The word for “solid food” there is broma, anything that you chew. It doesn’t have to necessarily be meat. It can be anything that you have to chew. He said, “I couldn’t give that to you.”

Now let’s make sure we understand something. It doesn’t mean that Paul taught them one thing then and taught them something else later on. No, he always taught the whole counsel of the Word of God. But he didn’t go into the depth and to the detail with them at that time with what he taught them because they couldn’t handle it. They were brand new babies. He stayed on the surface. It was the same teaching, he just didn’t have the freedom to go as deep as he would like to go with it.

Let me give you an example of that. Somebody might be describing the atonement and what happened to them. They say, “You know, let me give you my answer, Jesus died for my sins.” Well, that is fine. That is good. That is milk. That is right off the top. But somebody else who has grown a little bit might say, “Well, let me talk about my atonement. Let’s talk about justification. Let’s talk about sanctification. Let’s talk about substitution. Let’s talk about propitiation.” The guy who is over here says, “Do what?” You see, one can go a little deeper than the other. One has to drink the milk, but the other one can eat the solid food.

So Paul says, “When I was with you I didn’t sacrifice any of the teaching of the Word of God. But at the same time I couldn’t give you the solid food. I had to give you the milk. You couldn’t go beyond where you were. There is a thirst to a baby and I fed that thirst.”

I think Hebrews 5 gives us an insight into what this solid food refers to. Some say Paul wrote Hebrews, but we don’t know that. We do see a lot of Pauline theology in it. It is interesting though. What if he did write it? What if we get to heaven and we find out that Paul did write the book of Hebrews? Let’s just say he might have. Okay? Well, if he did, then this is real interesting because he is explaining something here that he wrote in Corinthians. Let’s just look and see what the solid food is. He says in Hebrews 5:13, “For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.”

Now what in the world is “the word of righteousness”? Well, it has to refer to the walk of faith by the believer. Romans says that righteousness comes by faith and the righteous walk by faith. He is not accustomed to handling the word of righteousness. That is the solid food.

You have a brand new baby in Christ. He hasn’t got a clue what he has gotten himself into yet. I mean, he knows he is surrendered to Christ and he knows that Christ has come to live in him, but he has got a lot to learn now what all of that means. By the way, it is never a goal that we surrender everything to Christ. We surrendered everything to Christ when you bowed before Him at salvation. We are working from that, not towards it. And so more and more we are understanding what this commitment means. We are growing in it and are learning to use and handle the word of righteousness.

I’ll never forget the day Diana and I got married. When Diana got ready to walk down the aisle, she had forgotten her shoes, so she sent her brotherinlaw, George, to go get the shoes. He brings back a heel and a flat. Come on, George, let’s get with the program. If you are going to bring heels back, bring heels. If you are going to bring flats, bring flats, but at least bring the same shoe. He brings one heel and one flat. Well, Diana should have just kicked her shoes off and come down bare footed. You know, with those big dresses, you can’t tell if they have shoes on or not. But Diana put them on. That is the way she is. She is so loyal. She came down like a hopeless cripple, walking on a heel and a flat.

Think about a wedding. Who really remembers anything? I mean, seriously. How many bride and grooms really remember anything of the wedding? Usually the guests get a lot out of it, but the bride and groom are not going to remember it. But I want to tell you something. About two years down the road when the bills are coming in and the baby is squalling and all that kind of stuff, all of a sudden that boy who made that commitment that day should have paid attention because what he committed to he is beginning to understand and he is growing in his understanding of what he did when he walked down that aisle, you see.

It is the same way in Christianity. When you come to Christ, there is only so much you can comprehend, but you give all that you understand to Him and He comes to live in you. You have a lot of growing to do to realize what that commitment that day really means for all of eternity. You get in the Word of God, the word of righteousness, and that is what gets you to grow.

You move away from the emotional realm of the unintelligible and the feelings and all that kind of garbage that was going on in Corinth and you move into the depths and the reality of the intelligent, reasonable walk with God. You don’t have to hear something spoken, something you can’t understand. You want to hear God speak to your spirit through His Word and you want to grasp that and bow to it and die to self and walk on into the depths of what God has for you. That is the growth that God has planned for your life. So, there was a thirst. This solid food, that he couldn’t feed them with at that time, is something they are going to have to have.

I am so thankful that little Holly has teeth now. That is so much fun watching those teeth coming in. It is the cutest little thing. But it is fun now because she is already able to eat things that are solid because she is growing up. She is growing up. Isn’t that great!

I want to tell you there are Christians all over this world who ought to have a big sign over their church, “Adult nursery, Shhhh!!!” There are people who won’t grow up. There are people who attach themselves to a preacher or attach themselves to a person and they are emotionally wrecked because they don’t know how to live in the fullness of what God has given to them. They won’t grow. They have impaired their growth, you see. Solid food has to do with the word of righteousness. If I am studying this correctly, evidently the gospel, the simple gospel message, is just the ABC’s, is just the milk of the word. That same gospel has a depth to it that you can’t know when you first get saved, but you will know as you grow along.

I do a lot of meetings, and when I go into some meetings, they want to preach on evangelism. I am concerned about people getting saved. But I want to tell you my biggest burden is not seeing them get saved. Once they get saved, send them to me and let me teach them. That is where my burden is. But they want me to preach on evangelism all the time. Do you know why they want evangelism all the time? Because they are little, bitty babies and they can’t stand the solid meat of the Word. Do you know why? Because it is going to take them to the cross. When you start growing, you have growing pains that go along with it and you are going to have to deal with pain and pressure and people.

But they don’t want that. Let’s go back to the milk. It was more fun. It is like a 15 year old walking around with a baby bottle trying to suck on that bottle. That is how stupid it is for people not to want to grow in their faith. Yet, that is what we have in Corinth. Believers who had it all in Christ and were still babies in Christ. They would not grow. They wouldn’t do it. They wouldn’t let the solid food get into their life, even though it was their command to do that.

The tragedy of a baby in Christ

Well, there is a time to be a baby and there is a thirst to a baby. It is for milk. It is not a hunger for food yet. It is a thirst because milk is something that quenches that thirst. But the third thing I want you to see is there is a tragedy of a baby in Christ. You see, that baby can be good and that baby can be bad. Look at what he says here. These believers were once brand new in the faith, babes in Christ. There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem is, they are still babies in Christ. In verse 2 we read, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it.” Now look, he changes tenses. “Indeed, even now you are not yet able.” Do you see the difference here? Paul says, “When I was with you before, I couldn’t give you the solid food, because you were a baby. But now I am with you and you are still a baby and I still can’t take you into the solid things of the Word of God.”

Growth is not only commanded by God, it is enabled by His Spirit living in us. When a believer lives a life that is not growing in the Lord, I want to tell you, that is sin before God. You are impairing what God the Spirit began in your life by your refusal to surrender to the Word of God.

Let’s go back to the context of Hebrews 5:1213. This is important, I think, to understand what Paul is talking about here. There was a group of people in Hebrews who weren’t growing either. They impaired their own growth. They had intentionally chosen not to grow from that point on. Hebrews 5:12 says, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” Now, “you have come to need milk” is the perfect active indicative. The perfect tense means that something has happened here that has caused you to be in the state that you are in. What in the world happened? Something happened in these people’s lives. Of course, we know that Hebrews was written to those who were scattered about because of persecution.

Several things were going on at that time. At that time, to be a Jew and to practice Judaism was no problem, but to be a Jew and practice Christianity was a problem. They said, “Hey, we are Jewish anyway, let’s just practice Judaism.” That is why the author of Hebrews wrote and said, “What are you doing? You can’t walk away. Christ is greater than the prophets. He is greater than the angels. He is greater than all these other things.” That was part of the problem. Somewhere they made a choice not to grow, not to go on in their faith.

Look at Hebrews 5:13. He says, “For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.” The word “not accustomed” is the word apeiros, which means without skill in handling the word of righteousness. There is no skill there. You have done nothing to build this skill. If you have a skill, you know that doesn’t happen overnight. You build that skill. You have got to do something to train yourself in it. It says here in verse 13 that you have no skill in handling the word of righteousness. It doesn’t seem to be a question of not knowing to do it. It seems to be a question of doing it. They have chosen not to and for that reason they have gone back to the milk instead of solid food.

Look at verse 14. He says, “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” Now this is a very, very important verse here: “Who because of practice.” The word is hexis, which means the practice or exercise of something. They had all the equipment that was necessary. You know, if you want to prove this point, take your right arm and tie it behind your back for about three months. You are going to find you are going to lose the use of it. There is no exercising of it. That is like people who get into Bible study groups. You know that is a big thing these days, to get into a Bible study group. Hey, but if you get in and learn what to do and you don’t do it, it hasn’t done you a bit of good. And what has happened is, you have impaired your own growth by your refusal to do what you know to do. There is no exercising of the skill, no exercising of what God has taught you.

Then it says, “they have their senses trained.” The word “trained” there is the word we get the word gymnasium from. Have you ever seen something that is trained? You know, you train your children not to go out and play in the road. You know training takes time. You say, “Children, don’t you go out and play in the road.” Okay, Mama, okay, Daddy. Are they taught? Yeah, they are taught. They know exactly what you are talking about. You turn them loose and what do they do? Go out in the road, every time! So what do you do to train them? You go out and get them, paddle them on the backside and say, “Don’t do that again.” Well, the next day you tell them, “Don’t go out and play in the road.” Okay, Mama and Daddy. And you look away and what do they do? Go right back in the road. So what do you do? You bring them back in, paddle them again. The third day, the fourth day, the fifth day, the sixth day. What are you doing? You are training them. You have to do this over and over and over again. Well, what happens? One day you forget to tell them and you think, “Oh no, I didn’t tell them. No telling where they have gone this time.” You look outside, and they are in the yard. Well, bless their hearts. They have been trained. They were taught the first day, but now they have been trained. They have these senses trained unto righteousness.

When some people hear the message of the Christ-life they think there is no activity in it at all for the individual. That is crazy. I am responsible for discipline and determination in my own life, to be diligent. There are certain things that I have to do, and if I am willing to do those things and train my senses unto righteousness, then they are going to line up and the growth process is taking on. Then I am going to start learning the joy of walking in the fullness of God, in the fullness of His Spirit. But if I am not willing to do that, then I have made a choice to go right back to drinking that milk again. Put that bottle in your mouth. That is the way people act in churches all over the country today. They don’t want to grow. They don’t want to deal with their flesh. That is the problem with Corinth.

Well, he goes on to say “to discern good and evil.” They are clearly able to discern. And the word for “good” is kalos, that which is inherently good, and the word for “evil” is kakos, which is inherently bad. God gives us that ability and the more we grow, the more we are in the Word, the more we are practicing and exercising our senses and having them trained to righteousness, the more we are able to see a fine line between that which is good and that which is evil.

Well, now we have a better understanding of the solid food versus the milk. In 1 Corinthians 3:3 Paul says, “for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?” Now here he is going to show you the symptoms of a person who refuses to grow in that which God has given to him. He has chosen to go back and be a baby and drink the milk. What is the biggest symptom? It is the symptom of jealousy and strife. The word “fleshly” again is sarkikos. You are fleshly acting.

Here are the two symptoms. When you see jealousy and strife together, almost every time they will be hooked together. They are strange bed fellows. Jealousy is that inward thing that you have and strife is the outward manifestation of it. The two work together. Almost every time you find them in Scripture, they are joined together. Jealousy, or the word zelos, really can be a good thing. It can be a person like me or you and we see somebody else and we see something good in that person and are motivated to have that same good worked out in our own life. This person blesses us, and so therefore, we want that quality in our own life. The Holy Spirit of God can enable you to have that. You can be zealous for that, and something inside of you is motivating you towards that. There is nothing wrong with the word. It can be a very good word, but it is not good here.

I have several friends who are just wonderful at dropping little notes at the right time, just jotting a note to somebody. I have asked God many times for that quality in my own life. I want to be zealous to have that in my own life. Somebody will say, “Well, you don’t have that gift.” Oh baloney, the Holy Spirit of God lives in you and that is something you can develop and train and have worked out in your life. So you can be zealous for something like that. I really long to have that in my own life because I really do care, but sometimes it doesn’t come out that way and I want people to know that I care.

Well, there is nothing wrong with that. But when it goes and degenerates and becomes the fleshly kind he is talking about here, it is when you seek to not only covet that desire, but now you want to rob that person of it. You are angry with that person because they have it and you don’t and therefore, you become contentious and filled with strife. The two things work right together.

1 Corinthians 3:3-9

Vessels Through Which God Works

When immaturity characterizes a church, no matter where it is, the symptoms are going to be very similar to what we found at the church of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 3. I told you back in the introduction of the book that verses 29 were critical and would come up from time to time as we studied 1 Corinthians. Well, here it is. Let’s go back to chapter 1. I want to just make sure you are remembering this. This is the grid. If you want to see a Christian who is growing up, a Christian who has walked out of the nursery and said, “Listen, I am not going to be a baby anymore. I am going to grow up in my faith,” well, verses 29 will show you what he looks like. Now the Corinthians were not looking like this because they refused to do it, but it is good for us to go back. In verse 2 of chapter 1, look what he says to begin with. He says that the church is God’s possession. He says in verse 2, “To the church of God which is at Corinth.” He didn’t say to the church of man. He said to the church of God. “Now what in the world are you doing attaching yourself to man?,” Paul is saying here. He has already shown them who they are supposed to be attached to, what they are supposed to be about. Also in verse 2, he shows them that they have one eternal purpose, just one, and that purpose is to live according to God’s will. He says, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling.” If you are a saint, you have been sanctified. Now what does that mean? Well, the raw meaning of it means that you have been taken out of sin, out of Adam. You have been placed over here into Christ and you have but one supreme purpose to live by. As long as your heart is beating, you have just one purpose. What is that one purpose? To live as a vessel through which God can do His work. That is the whole key. So what are you doing attaching yourself to men? Attach yourself to Christ. Attach yourself to God. You are set apart for Him to use as His own vessel on this earth through which He can do His work. But he also shows them that they were to depend totally upon God and not at all upon man in everything. In verse 2 he says, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling [here is the key], with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.” That “call upon” is present tense. It is a lifestyle. To call upon out of desperation. Paul is saying, “A baby in the nursery calls upon man, but somebody who is growing up has learned to call upon God for everything in his life. You don’t attach yourself to a preacher. Attach yourself to Christ. Call upon Him for everything. Live according to His purposes. Understand that you are His possession.” Paul goes on to show them that in Christ and in the grace that He has given them, they have been enriched in everything. They don’t lack anything. So why do you need to attach yourself to man? Then in verse 8 he reminds them of their future promise that Christ one day is coming for them. They will be kept blameless until that day. In verse 9 he shows them that they are partakers of Christ. Now, if a person lives this way, if he will grow up and come out of the nursery, there would be no division, jealousy or strife in the church of Jesus Christ. There is a time to be a baby, but there is a time to grow up. It is individuals who are living that way. It is not just me. It is not just you. It is everybody. If we would each choose to live that way, growing up, turning loose from man and attaching ourselves to Christ, living in the sufficiency that He has given to us, then we would erase division and immaturity in the church. Sad to say, Corinth is not much unlike many of the churches in our time, and many believers who refuse to grow up, who attach themselves emotionally to a man, to a gift, or whatever else, instead of living in the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. The immature do not live in who and whose they are. They live attached to men. The mature stand on their own two feet, even if alone, but filled to the fulness of God and living in the purposes that God has given to them. It is sad to say that the church today is split in a thousand different ways just like the church of Corinth. So we continue with Paul’s argument of why not to attach yourselves to men. Don’t do it. Attach yourselves to Christ.

God’s plan to use surrendered vessels

There are five things that I want us to see concerning this. Some of them sound like a broken record. How many times have I said this in the Word of God? I don’t know how many times you have to preach it? I guess you just preach it until Jesus comes because it is all through the Word of God, folks. First of all, this is the one that is going to be more familiar to you. God’s plan is to use men as vessels through which He does His work. Look at 1 Corinthians 3:5. There is a little word there that is so key: “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.” Now, “through whom” is very important. It is a great translation. The little word dia. You can translate it “by the means of,” but it is the same meaning. It is through, through whom. That is the way God uses people who are surrendered to Him. When you come out of the nursery, you get surrendered to Him, you live separate unto Him, then you become a candidate through which God can do His work in your life. It is like a line that is filled with electricity, coming from a power source somewhere. It is like a conduit or a pipe through which water can flow coming from a reservoir. That is what He wants us to be, a conduit. He wants us to be that vessel that is cleansed of selfish desires and agenda through which He can do His work. Paul said, “It is through us that you believed. It wasn’t because of us but through us. God gave us a message and He allowed us to preach it. It was through us that you came to know Him.” Paul says the same thing about this vessel that God wants us to be in Romans 15:1718. That is a very familiar passage. This is what Paul had to learn about being a Christian, the difference in religion and relationship, the difference of being immature and being mature. When you are mature, you are useable. When you are immature, you are not useable. Understand that. As long as you are attaching yourself to anything other than Christ, then God is not able to do His work through you. That is what you are set apart for, to be that vessel. In Romans 15:17 he says, “Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God.” Now, what has changed about the apostle Paul? Verse 18 reads, “For I will not presume, I will not dare, to speak of anything.” If I was in a room it was quiet. I wouldn’t break the silence with a noise other than “except what Christ has accomplished.” Now look at the wording, “through me [ dia, the same little word there], resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles.” Now we know from Scriptures that when God has a vessel that has matured, a vessel that has come out of the nursery, a vessel that has surrendered to God and letting God do what He wants to do through His life, then when God chooses to do something through that individual, nothing is going to stop as long as that individual remains surrendered to God. Look over in 2 Timothy 4 and I will show you this. God had something to do through Paul. Paul was not dead yet. He was about to be martyred for the faith. Look at what he says in 2 Timothy 4:16. He is in his last imprisonment. I want you to see this. 2 Timothy 4:16 says, “At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, in order that,” and look at the next two words, “through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the lion’s mouth.” You see, when he was first imprisoned there during his second imprisonment, the believers knew how difficult it was and they were afraid to come and take their defense along side him for whatever reason. So he stood alone. But God wanted to accomplish that message of the gospel getting out to his accusers. Therefore, God strengthened him and used him mightily as a grownup, mature believer who was about the purposes of God, you see. God accomplished what He wanted to accomplish through the apostle Paul. It is important that we understand the fallacy of putting your trust into men. Why would you want to put your trust into a conduit? Why would you want to put your trust into something that is only a vessel through which the power and the person of Christ can be made manifest? Why would you not put your faith into the One who is empowering them? Why not get plugged in to the right source? You see, that is what Paul is saying. Don’t attach yourself to men. They are just vessels. But God is the one you attach yourself to. He is the one who gives them the power to do what they do. Now these men are just vessels. We saw this in the book of Judges. When it said, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon and Jephthah and Samson.” What did that mean in the Hebrew? It meant that he put them on like a set of clothes. God said, “I want some skin through which I can do my work.” And so they became the vessels through which God could do His work. This has always been God’s way. So, I want you to know that just as with Paul and Apollos and what He wanted the church of Corinth to know, if we will just grow up and start living in light of our faith, pledging allegiance to the Lamb, living surrendered unto Him, then God can do His works through us the same way. That is exactly the message. But if you attach yourself to a man, you have just shut the process down. A person who is attaching themselves to anyone or anything other than Jesus is not a vessel through which God can do His works. That is the whole point of what the Christian life is all about. So the plan is that God wants to use men as vessels through which He accomplishes His work.

The prerequisite for men to be used as vessels

The second thing is the prerequisite for men to be those vessels that God can use. To qualify for God’s using, they had to make a choice. They had to grow up. They had to come out of the nursery. Look at Verse 5 again: “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul?” What is the next word? “Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.” The word for “servant” is diakonos. It is the word that means, “your glass is empty. Can I get you another glass of water? Is there anything else I can do for you?” This is the word that we get the word “deacon” from. You know, that word was never properly translated. It was transliterated. It was made into a word, and a lot of people do not even know today what a deacon is. The word means to serve, to minister. It is not a position of honor. It is a position of service. But it is also the calling of every believer. When you come out of the nursery, you come out serving. “Lord, what would you have me to do?” That is the attitude. Not, “What can you do for me,” but “What can I do for you?” They were servants. There is a synonym of this word that has a harsher understanding of it. It is the word doulos, which means slave. Now that is the word in Romans 1:1 where Paul doesn’t call himself a servant. He calls himself a bondservant, a slave. He means it that I am a love slave. I get to do, not that I have to do. I am privileged to get to do the things that God wants me to do. That is the attitude of a mature believer, one who is maturing, not matured in the sense of he has arrived, but one who is growing up, one who is coming out of the nursery. It is not, me, me, mine, mine anymore. It is you and Him and whatever He wants. It changes the whole attitude of the individual. He uses this word doulos not only in Romans 1:1 but in Galatians 1:10 and Titus 1:1 to speak of himself. It is synonymous with servant, but it has that deeper understanding that he has laid his will down, that he has laid his agenda down, that his attitude has been dealt with and he just wants to live his life as a vessel to be whatever God wants him to be. Now understand, babies have to attach themselves to a person. They have to. They have got to have a preacher by their side. They have to have somebody right there all the time. They can’t live standing on their own two feet. Eric, my soninlaw, and I kept his daughter, my granddaughter, recently on a Saturday. I think men ought to keep a granddaughter from time to time to help the granddaughter really grow up right. I mean, we had her for three hours and did we ever have the best time in the world. But she is not quite used to me yet. She is used to her grandmother, Nana. She says that real well. She is not doing too good with Poppy, but she is working on it. When I first walked towards her she was in the kitchen. Diana and Stephanie had snuck out the door. It was really, really slick the way they did that. She was standing in the kitchen and didn’t even know they have left. I walked over towards her to pick her up and she backed up and said, “Mama, Mama, Mama.” That is what she always says when she is in a jam and she is backed up against the wall. After about an hour, she finally came around and boy, we just had a blast. It will take them weeks to retrain her. I am fulfilling my role, I think, with vigor. But you know, it was so precious. It dawned on me how a baby has got to have somebody right beside them all the time. “That preacher doesn’t love me; I was in the hospital and he didn’t even call me. That person in my Sunday School class didn’t even say hi to me when I came this morning.” That’s the whining of little babies who just won’t grow up. The Scripture says that the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, diakonos, but He came to minister. When you come out of the nursery, you are not worried about what somebody is or isn’t doing to you. It is “Lord, what would you have me to do?” That is maturity. But it is not in Corinth and that is why Paul is saying, “You are attaching yourselves to men. Don’t you do that.” The prerequisite for attaching yourself to God and for God to use you as a vessel is that you be that bondservant. God gave Paul and Apollos the opportunity to be drawn into what He was doing in Corinth. Look at verse 5 again. He says, “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.” Now some people take that last phrase and say that means to the people who believed in Corinth. I have no problem with that, but I don’t think that is what he is saying. I think he is speaking of Paul and Apollos. At a certain time and point, God drew Paul into what He was doing and at a certain time and point, He drew Apollos into what He was doing. The two were useable conduits because they were surrendered to Christ. Therefore, God could do His work through them. Why? Because they were servants. That is the key. The prerequisite is a surrendered will unto Him, attaching yourself to Him, never attaching yourself to people, but attaching yourself to Him. Letting Jesus be Jesus in and through your life.

The partnership of God’s surrendered vessel

So we see the plan is to use men as vessels, and He can use us all. But the prerequisite is that we be surrendered to Him. Thirdly, there is the partnership of God’s surrendered vessel. It is incredible to me, when you start becoming a part of what God is doing, God opens your eyes to the fact that there are others also involved. A little baby only thinks of his own little world. Everything revolves around him or her. But when you start growing up, you realize that it doesn’t just revolve around you. There are other people out there God is using. It is God’s work and God’s design, therefore, He uses certain ones to accomplish it. Some are seen, and others are unseen. But they are all equally used. It is a partnership. They need one another. Now Paul and Apollos had different callings, but there was a partnership that Paul brings out so clearly. You have got to see it. When you start growing up and God starts using you, you begin to realize the importance of other people who are around you. In verse 6 he says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.” Paul’s role was to plant the seed of God’s gospel where it had not been planted before. Look over in Romans 15:20. This is so clear. Paul went to where seed had not been sown. Paul went to where people had not heard about Jesus before. That was his calling. That was different than Apollos’ calling. Paul says in verse 20, “And thus I aspired to preach the gospel [now watch], not where Christ was already named, that I might not build upon another man’s foundation.” He is using these agricultural terms here like, “I planted,” when he talks about it in Corinth. He is talking about a farmer who goes out to a field that has never been worked before. He has a brand new field with brand new seed and puts it in that field. Paul said, “That is my calling.” That is why he took the gospel from Jerusalem to Eliricum which is modern-day Bosnia, 1400 miles. He said, “I fully preached the gospel of Christ.” That was his calling. Even though the calling of Apollos was not the same they needed one another. Apollos was the second pastor of the church of Corinth. He is the one who followed the apostle Paul. He watered what Paul had planted. The word for “watered” there has the meaning metaphorically of instruction in the Word of God. So Paul took the Word of God and saw people saved as a result of it and he gave them the milk. But here comes Apollos. The crops were up, you see. It wasn’t a new field. It wasn’t a place where Christ hadn’t been named. Paul had already been there. He built upon the foundation that Paul had already laid. But the two were working hand in hand. Both were surrendered vessels through which Christ could work and both understood how much they needed one another. One plants and another waters, Paul says. Now, they needed both. I want to see if I can explain this. In a typical service we have got the sound guys up in the booth. We have folks up in the lighting booth. We have them over in the TV area. We have TV cameramen all around. We have the choir. We have our pianist and organist. We have the ushers. We have parking lot guys. We have the counters when the money is given. We have Sunday School teachers and nursery workers. I know I am leaving somebody out. But everyone is important because each one is a part of the work that God is doing. That is the way it works. But what they were doing, since Paul and Apollos, was clearly seen. They would attach themselves to those men. And the apostle Paul is saying, “No, that is immature. That is childish. Man, be a part of the work God wants to do in your own life. Attach yourself to Him and then you can get in on the bigger picture of what God is doing.” A team is important. Just because someone is not as seen as another one, they need another. There is no such thing as a healthy team with a selfish player. When one person stops being that vessel through which God can work, it is somehow inhibiting the work that God is seeking to do through His people. Corinth was a vivid picture of this. They said, “We are not going to grow. We are sinning against the very life and principle of growth. Because God lives in us, the seed of life is in us, but we refuse to grow. I want this church to do something for me! I want that preacher to do something for me!” Whine, whine, whine. We ought to have about a thousand little baby bottles and when somebody starts whining like that, we need to put one in their mouth. Go find a corner and sulk for a while, while the rest of us go on and get a part of what God is doing! Growing up in the faith.

The proof of God using surrendered vessels

Well, we have the plan, the prerequisite and the partnership. Fourth, there is the proof of God’s using surrendered vessels. How do you know God is using a surrendered vessel? Look at the verb tense in verse 6 carefully. “I planted, Apollos watered [watch this], but God was causing the growth.” That is imperfect tense. I love that because imperfect tense means no beginning and no end. He is pointing back to a continuous action in the past. Now listen to me. When Paul was there and when Apollos was there, there was growth. They have both been long gone now and the church has stopped growing. It is a problem. When they were there, there was growth. God was causing growth while they were there. I planted, and God was causing the growth. God gave the seed of His Word to Paul. God gave the water of His Word to Apollos and the two were just simply using that which God had given them and in the midst of it, God was causing the growth. Now the word for growth is a word we have to understand because we are living in a day when people say, “This is how you grow a church.” The word growth also means to increase a church. If you don’t realize the meaning of this word, then you have missed the whole principle of God using men only as vessels. God accomplishes his work. The word is auxano. The word means that which only God can do. I was in a conference, and they asked us to tell how our churches grew. One man got up in front of me and for 30 minutes talked about how they instructed the ushers, how they had visitation, how they had letters that went out and how they called everybody and how they did this, did that and he said, “That is what grew our church.” I was standing there praying, “God, please don’t let them ask me.” They said, “Wayne, how did you grow your church?” I said, “Well, first of all that is a misnomer. I have absolutely grown nothing, for I cannot grow anything. However, I have seen God do some marvelous things.” I began to walk through the prayer meetings that we had for one whole year in 1982 when the men came on Friday night. We walked the property and we got on the pews. We went into Sunday School classes and prayed, “God, would you do a work on this property that only Jesus could get the glory and the credit for.” Then we began to teach the Word of God. This is why when somebody asks me, “How is the church doing?” I say, “We are doing the same thing we did 10 years ago. We are equipping the saints for the work of the ministry with no flare and no fluff.” There is real excitement in going to the cross. That is what we are doing. We are going to lose people down the road, folks. Paul says in the last days men will not endure sound doctrine. As I began to share with them what we did as God led us to do it, and what God has done as a result of it, there was a hush in the room. I really felt embarrassed to even share it because it was so diametrically opposed to what I had just heard. When I finished they looked at the other man and said, “What would you say about that?” He said these words, “I wouldn’t touch that with a 30 foot pole. What you have just heard is what only God can do.” Now folks, that is growth. Let me explain the word auxano again. It means that which must be acted upon by an outside power or have the element of life within him, just like a seed has to have life within it. Life is inside that seed and you plant it and the life comes out of it. If the principle of life is not there, there is no growth. God doesn’t just give life, He is our life. So until a person responds to the gospel, until a person responds to Christ who is our life, there is no growth. You can have increase in numbers but you cannot have growth internally and eternally unless God is doing that work in the individual’s life. It says in 1 John 5:11, “And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son.” That is where the principle of life is. Unless He is dominant in my life, unless He is being surrendered to and bowed to, there is no growth. You can have numbers but you cannot have growth unless God Himself perfects that growth. We do not grow churches. We just simply surrender to His will and then He can use us as a vessel through which He can build and grow His own church. This leads Paul to say in verse 7, “So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything.” The word “anything” there is a little pronoun, tis in the Greek, and it means we are not somebodies. Don’t look at us as if we are somebody. Don’t attach yourself to us in the context. Man, we are not anybody. We are just those vessels. “But God who causes the growth.” Now look at the tense change here. In verse 6 it is imperfect tense. He points back to when and Apollos were there. But in verse 7 he said, “God is causing the growth.” The idea I get from it is, hey, you are not growing right now. You are still babies. You haven’t grown up. But God is constantly the one who is causing the growth. Now, come and attach yourself to Him and get in on the growth because the growth is obvious when you surrender to Him. The growth will not be there unless you are surrendered to Him. The proof that God is using them is in the fact that God was causing the growth. The imperfect tense was used very clearly in verse 6. The proof that God is the one who initiates that growth is in the present tense. He continuously is the one who is affecting growth. There is no growth unless God is the initiator, for only in Him is life. Man can build crowds. Only God can grow and build His church. And it will be to the degree that His people are willing to surrender to His will, come out of the nursery and get a part of that which God wants to do through their lives.

The parity of God’s surrendered vessel

The final thing is the parity of God’s surrendered vessel. You know what the word parity means? It means equality. We have got to understand this. Apollos and Paul are equal in the sight of God. There is no big “I’s” and little “you’s.” There is in our world, but not in God’s world. God sees it as a huge work that He is doing and each person plays a role. No matter how big or how small, every person is equal in the sight of God. Verse 8 reads, “Now he who plants and he who waters are one.” Now that word for “one” is not numerical one. It is the same word that Jesus used in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.” It means in quality and in essence. So Apollos and Paul stood side by side, two different callings, diametrically different. Apollos, was the teacher who came in and built upon what Paul had planted. Both of them were different, but both of them were equal as far as God was concerned. They were just vessels that He could use. Though the work of Paul was different than the work of Apollos, both were of essence and quality, the same essence and quality because they were surrendered to Him and it was God’s work being done through them. Compared to what God accomplished, both were essential. They were married in now to what God was doing. And God was using them in that way. You can illustrate this easily by the story of Dwight L. Moody. Mr. Kimball was an 80year old man who wondered if God could ever use him. He got burdened for this little shoe store worker and so he went down to the shoe store and God used him as a vessel through which he shared the gospel with Dwight L. Moody. D.L. Moody, at that time, had a speech impediment and a fourth grade education. They wouldn’t let him in the great church there in the city, and so he had to go out and start his own class in teaching people and winning people to Christ. He led so many people to Christ that the church was embarrassed not to let him in. Word spread of how God was using this simple man, surrendered to Christ. F.B. Meyer called him over to England to come and speak. He went over to England, butchered the King’s English, told deathbed stories and was totally emotional. F.B. Meyer said, “I am so glad to get rid of this guy.” After Moody left, F.B. Meyer was walking down the street one day and saw one of his Sunday School teachers. He said, “Aren’t you glad that man from America is gone?” The teacher looked him, began to weep and said, “Oh, sir. When he shared of how he led all of his members of his Sunday School class to Christ, I realized that I had never even cared enough to share with these people one on one.” She said, “I went out and God led me to go to each one of my class members and as far as I know, every one of them now has come to know Christ.” F.B. Meyer got down on his knees right there on the sidewalk and said, “It is not by might, it is not by power, but it is by My Spirit says the Lord.” It radically changed his life. He came to America and began to preach. And out of his preaching came Wilbur Chapman, one of the great revivalist of the latter years. Wilbur Chapman one day was preaching and as a result came to know Billy Sunday. Billy Sunday was led to go into evangelism and to preach the message of the gospel. He even preached Wilbur Chapman’s sermons half the time, read them word for word. Billy Sunday was the most unlikely man you could ever think of that God could use. He was a former baseball player. He would slide across as if he was sliding into home plate, of a person barely making it into heaven. One man walked down the aisle one day, and he grabbed his beard and went, “Honk, honk.” One man came down and said, “I don’t believe what you are teaching. I don’t believe the Word of God is true.” He said, “Yes, it is.” He grabbed his nose and twi

1 Corinthians 3:9

No man can do the works of the Father. We have seen this very clearly in 1 Corinthians 3. Whether it be the increase in people who get saved or whether it be the spiritual development of those who are saved, only God can do this. Now there was growth when Paul was in Corinth and later on when Apollos followed him as the pastor of that church. Look again at 1 Corinthians 3:6. Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.” Now that is in the imperfect tense. During that period of time there was growth going on and God was causing the growth. Not only when Paul was there, but when Apollos was there. But then he goes on to show that God is always affecting growth. That is who He is. Look in verse 7: “So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.” He puts that in the present tense. It is almost as if the apostle Paul is saying, “Listen, God is always affecting growth.” Corinth is not growing at that point. But if they will come back to verses 29 of chapter 1 and begin to live what the Christian life really is and get attached to God, attach themselves to His purposes and to His will, then God is the one who is always causing growth, always affecting increase in a person’s life and through a person’s life. But when an individual chooses not to live that way, he keeps himself out of everything God wants to do to grow him and to work through him. God and God alone does His works. You know, that principle is found all through Scripture, particularly with Jesus as our example. He says in the 5th chapter of John, “I can do nothing of my own initiative, only of my Father.” He put himself into that situation, totally subjective to His Father’s will. Then in John 14:10, Jesus says it so clearly that I don’t see how we can miss it. He is our example at this point of how we are to live. As He was to the Father, we are to Him. As the Father was to Him, He is to us. Look in John 14:10. It is a tremendous passage here. He says, “Do you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?” “Do you believe that?” He asks. “The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative.” Now look. “But the Father abiding in Me does His works.” Verse 11 continues, “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves.” You may say, “Well, how are these works accomplished? If God and God alone can do His works and He wants men to be vessels through which He does His works, how is this accomplished?” Look in John 6:28. Now to me again, it is so clear you don’t even need to add anything or take anything away from it. It just says it. This takes away our arrogance. This takes away our boasting in ourselves. We know what we are not as we get into Scripture, as we see who He is and what He is. In John 6:28 it says, “They said therefore to Him, ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’” He answers them in verse 29, “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.’” That word “believe” is the word pisteuo. The word has the idea of obedience in it. It comes from peitho, which is found over in Hebrews 13:17 when it talks about obeying your leaders. It is translated obedience. It means to be so persuaded by who He is that you are willing to demonstrate that by doing what He tells you to do. It is in the aorist active subjunctive. Aorist tense means do it, like that Nike commercial, just do it. Make up your mind and do it. Active voice carries with it the idea of do it on your own will, your own volition. Don’t let some preacher have to come in and cause you to do it. Make this your own choice. But then also subjunctive, it is a little iffy that everybody will do that. Again I want to say, immature believers like we have in Corinth are people who choose not to do that. They would rather attach themselves to a preacher than to bow in absolute submission to Christ. And they just deceive themselves and cheat themselves out of being a vessel through which God Himself could work. This was the church of Corinth. You must understand that because that is the whole background of the study in 1 Corinthians. When Paul first went there, they were babies. They should have been babies because they were just born into the kingdom. That is verse 1 of chapter 3. It says, “I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men,” back then, “but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ.” They were thirsty and he gave them milk. But the problem was that later on, they continued to be babes in Christ. They continued to live in that immaturity. And to demonstrate that and to prove it, they attached themselves to the preachers who had taught them rather than to the one who the preachers had taught them about. Therefore, they had missed it. In verses 58, Paul still in his argument that you should never attach yourself to preachers, tries to show them that preachers are just vessels through which God does His work. That is all they are, conduits, like a pipe that water flows through, like a line that electricity flows through. They are just a conduit through which God can do His work. They are servants to Him, so they are a part of what God is doing. Paul has been addressing the works of God and trying to show them that what a man does apart from God never qualifies. When God does His works through men, it is easily seen. So don’t attach yourself to man, attach yourself to God. Now, in verse 9, he is still talking about himself and Apollos and the fact that they are equal in quality and essence but different in their assignments. Look at what Paul says in verse 9 of chapter 3: “For we are God’s fellow workers.” Remember some were of Cephas, some were of Paul, some were of Apollos. He says, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” That little term, “fellow workers” is an interesting word. We get the word synergy from it. It has the idea of something intimately entwined together. It describes a divine partnership that Paul and Apollos had with God. The word “with” that is used in that word is the little word sun which gives us the idea that what Paul and Apollos did, though separate from each other, could not have been accomplished if God had not been in the mix. But just as they were God’s fellow workers, they were God’s workers together with Him. It was God’s work and they were the vessel through which He worked. They simply were servants who were surrendered and cooperating with Him. As they were God’s workers, the church at Corinth was God’s field, God’s building. Not man’s but God’s field and God’s building. There were other fields and other buildings. There was one at Ephesus and in Philippi when you talk about the believers here. He says, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” The word for field is the word that means a tilled field. Metaphorically it means here, of course, the church. That is what he is talking about. He is writing to them. He says, “You are God’s field. God has appointed His workers through which He does His work in this field here that is the church of Corinth.” But he also calls them God’s building. The word for building there is the word that means a building that is under construction. This is a beautiful picture he is drawing here. God is using His workers to work in His field and to construct His house. Now, in this analogy, you see the work of Paul and you see the work of Apollos. Paul was the one who had the commission to go and plant the seed in the field which they are. But then Apollos came along to help construct the building upon the foundation that Paul had left. So his context has been and continues to be not attaching yourselves to men. Just vessels, that is all they are, equal in essence and quality before God. Different assignments but just vessels through which God has been doing His work. Paul, working in the field; Apollos building the building on the foundation that Paul had left. The work of God here seems to be paramount. It seems to come to the surface as to what Paul is talking about. Why would you want to hook yourself up to a man when all he is is a conduit? Why don’t you just become a conduit yourself, attach yourself to God and let God use you to be a part of His works?

The grace that enables the work

There are three things about the works of God that I want you to see. First of all is the grace that enables the work. Now understand, man cannot do the works of God. God enables man, but God does His own work through the man. God’s work is a work of grace. Grace is not just the undeserved favor of God. Certainly it is. We don’t deserve it and can never earn it or merit it. But God’s grace is also the enabling power of God. Romans 6:14 says we are no longer under law, we are under grace. Paul shows you that being under grace is being a brand new creature in Christ in Romans 6:15. He shows that we have brand new potential but also a brand new problem. We still live in bodies of sin. But the grace that God now has for us is His enabling power. Any demand that He puts upon me is not a demand upon me but a demand upon the life that He has given to me. Jesus living in me is the embodiment of that grace, and He enables me to be everything that He commands me to be. Look how Paul describes His work in verse 10 of 1 Corinthians 3. He starts the verse off and says, “According [that is a key word, kata] to the grace of God which was given to me.” If you want to talk about where the work came from, it is according to the grace of God. When you use the word kata, according to, it is so powerful. It means that what happens must reflect the measure of where it comes from. Let me give it to you this way. If I was a rich man and wanted to give you some money, would you rather me give it to you out of my wealth or according to my wealth? If I gave you according to, it has got to reflect the measure of what I have. Now, this immediately shows you the tremendous eternal quality of this work. Paul says, “It is according to the grace that is given to me that all of this is taking place.” So it is always enabled by the grace of God. Paul didn’t do according to his own ability. He did it according to the grace of God, to his availability to God. It was God in him and through him that affected what Paul was about to do. It was a gift to Paul. He says, “According to the grace of God which was given to me.” Something hit me as I saw that phrase. It was given to Paul, and some of us say, “Oh, I wish God would have given me that kind of grace.” He did! Look back in 1 Corinthians 1:4. He gave it to all believers. All of us have access to this grace, the enabling power of God. That is why we never have an excuse. If we sin, we sin and we might as well own up to it. Our flesh is there and many times it overpowers us. And when it does, it does. But as we are willing to surrender to Him, His grace takes over and growth takes place. His works are now enabled in our life. It says in 1 Corinthians 1:4, “I thank my God always concerning you [he is talking about the believers in Corinth], for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.” There is the embodiment of grace. You have Christ in your life. You have access to His grace. Look in 2 Timothy 2:1. Paul says essentially the very same thing to Timothy. It is not as if Paul got something we didn’t get, or Peter got something we didn’t get. All believers who have received Christ have received the enablement of that grace. It is there potentially within us. In 2 Timothy Paul is in prison, but he is writing to Timothy passing the baton. He says in 2 Timothy 2:1, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” If you want grace, you have grace. You have the embodiment of that grace which is Christ Himself. And if He lives in you, then as you partake of Him, He enables you to do what He commands you to do. That is the way it works. It is a wonderful message. So many people think the good news is just for the lost. No, no. It is for the saved. To realize that Christ not only saved us and gave us life, but Christ is our life. He enables us to do whatever His Word commands us to do. Now Paul goes on. Look in 1 Corinthians 3:10. He says, “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation.” Now, he laid a foundation, according to the grace that God had given him. Planting the seed of the gospel was what God had enabled him to do and assigned him to do and God had done that through him in Corinth. The word for “wise” is sophos. We have seen this so many times, especially in 1 Corinthians. It means the ability to rightly use truth. Paul had that ability to take the Word and to practically apply it in his life. But the word “master builder” is the word we get the word architect from. As a matter of fact, the first part of the word, arche, denotes a rank or degree. The second part of the word, tekton, is the word which means workman, or a master builder. Isn’t it interesting how many architects sometimes like to come up with their own design apart from what their clients have demanded? You can tell them what you want, but sometimes you get an architect who is thinking his own way and he wants to draw it his own way. If you have a good architect, all he is going to do is make visible what the design is of the client that he is working for. The apostle Paul didn’t have the design, he didn’t have it all. Jesus had that. He just became as an architect. Through him the works of God worked in such a way to make it visible so that people could clearly see what God wanted to do through his life. Paul had laid a foundation. That is so key to understand. In verse 11 he tells us what that foundation is, “for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Now we saw earlier that Paul preached Christ and Him crucified. That is the foundation. There can be no other foundation but Jesus Christ. This was done among the Corinthians according to the grace of God working in the heart and life of Paul. It wasn’t according to Paul’s ability, but his availability, and God was using him to build a foundation, to plant that seed in the field so that a building could be built upon it. Paul now shows where Apollos came in and gives room for others. He says, “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it.” You see, Apollos came in after him. The word for “another” is not heteros, which means another of a different kind, but allos, which means another of the same kind, of the same quality, of the same essence. Another servant God is using came along after me and is building upon the foundation that I laid of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, that is the foundation. There is no other foundation but that for the believers. Therefore, somebody came in to build upon it. But the building upon it is in the present tense. Paul and Apollos had gone from Corinth. When Paul was there and Apollos was there, it was being built upon, and others came along to build upon the one foundation that Paul was assigned to lay there in Corinth. This shows to me that there is no arrival point down here. We are to be building constantly, growing constantly, increasing constantly. And others come along to build upon the one foundation which is Christ and Him crucified. Every man who followed Paul and Apollos and on down the road, had come along in a teaching position to build upon the foundation that Paul, under the grace of God, had laid there in Corinth. That foundation was Christ. So the grace enables the work. God wanted a church in Corinth. He had a man whom He called and assigned to do it. He gave him the grace to carry it out. Paul went and preached the Word, and the foundation was laid and the building began to be constructed. Others came along behind Paul to build upon that foundation. So we have the grace that enables the work.

The warning that accompanies the work

But the second thing that I want you to see is the warning that accompanies the work. He gives a warning here. Because he is the one who laid that foundation, he is seeing a problem in Corinth. He sees immaturity everywhere, and he knows that immaturity normally somehow attaches itself to wrong teaching. So he gives a warning in verse 10: “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But let each man be careful how he builds upon it.” Now whoever follows Paul and Apollos, who have both left Corinth, and builds upon the work that God started through Paul and Apollos continued, whoever they are, must build carefully upon that foundation. Now, the generic context would be all believers. We are all building upon a foundation. Remember the parable of building upon sand or building upon the rock. All of us are there. But the specific context here, he is talking about the teachers and the preachers who come along behind him. They should be careful how they build upon the foundation he laid for that church. It wasn’t laid upon either Apollos or Paul. It was laid upon Christ. And any man who ever brings back that foundation and tries to replace it or remove it, is out of God’s will. Paul gives a warning to that individual. Now it is implied here. So far our text has not said that some people in Corinth had been so enamored by the wisdom of Corinth and the ecstatic knowledge that they had the gurus that we talked about who always went to the Temple of Apollo. Some of them evidently were trying to infiltrate the church, so Paul is giving a warning. He is saying, “I want to tell you something. Whoever comes after me had better be careful how he builds upon the foundation I have laid.” Paul, in fact, is really saying, “I was only a secondary cause of laying this foundation.” You have to stay with me on this one. Jesus has always been the foundation, whether I laid him or not. He is always the foundation; I was the secondary cause. I went and preached the gospel and laid that foundation, but Jesus has always been the foundation. Look at the term there in verse 11: “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ,” is in the present tense. It is constantly laying there. Whether anybody is preaching Him or not, He is still the foundation, He is still the cornerstone, He is still the one who must be built upon. Nobody can remove it, and nobody can replace it. No other doctrine, no other thing can replace Jesus Christ and Him crucified, being the foundation of the church. No way in any world can we do that. Turn to Luke 20:17. There is a parable here that Jesus gives that I think is very appropriate to what we are talking about here in 1 Corinthians 3; the fact that Jesus is the foundation, whether anybody had ever been to Corinth and preached Him or not, He is still the foundation. In Luke 20 we have the parable of a farmer who plants a vineyard and then rents it out to some vine growers. He goes on a trip. He says, “I have a nice vineyard out here. I am going to rent it out to them for a certain price.” And he goes on a journey. When he returns, he asks them for what is rightfully his. It is his field. They had been working in his field and he asked them for what is owed him. Well, the slaves who went to make the request were beaten each time he sent them. Finally he says, “Well, I don’t know what is going on here. I will send my beloved son. Surely they will hear from him, because he is the one who will inherit it from me.” So he sent his son. But the growers beat the beloved son to death so that this man could not have any claim on the field whatsoever and they would get it when he died. Then Jesus adds in verses 17 and 18. Of course, the picture is Jesus and how He came and how they crucified Him. But look at what he said in verse 17: “But He looked at them and said, ‘What then is this that is written, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone’? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.” The word for “stone” there is lithos, which can be used interchangeably with foundation. What he is saying here is, “Upon this stone, upon this foundation, upon Jesus Christ, a man must build. And if a man seeks to reject it, if a man seeks to remove it and stumbles over it, he will be broken or the stone will fall on him and crush him. Nobody will ever remove or replace the stone, the eternal foundation that a man must build upon for all of eternity.” That is what he is saying. So Paul says, “Hey, I am a secondary cause here. I came and preached Him, but if I had never come, Jesus is still the foundation. Whether I preach Him or not, He is the foundation upon which a man must build.” In Corinth Paul was able to lay the foundation by the enablement of the grace of God. Remember what Paul said in Philippians. He said, “I tell you this weeping, there are people standing among us that are enemies of the cross.” That is a part of the foundation to understand that Jesus came to die for us. But if a man comes to remove or replace that foundation, he is not in the energy of grace, obviously. He is in the energy of his own flesh. What we just read in Luke 20, that kind of fleshly effort, will never survive. Nobody can remove it and nobody can replace it. There is the grace that enables the work but also the warning that accompanies the work. And the apostle Paul says, “Hey, whoever comes after me, you had better be careful how you build upon the foundation which before I ever laid it among you was already laid, which is Christ Jesus the Lord.” He is the stone the builders rejected, but He is the stone, the foundation we must build our lives upon. So there is a warning there for those who come after. He planted the field, but in building the building they not mess up the foundation that was begun.

The test that will determine the work

Well, we have the grace that enables it and the warning that accompanies it. But the third thing is the test that will determine the work of God. There is going to be a test one day to determine the work of God, whether God did it or God did not do it. There is a lot here to understand. Look at verse 12: “Now if any man building upon the foundation [a man is going to seek to do this] with gold, silver, precious stones,” that is one category, and then “wood, hay, and straw.” That is another category. You see, the foundation is Christ, already laid. Paul, the secondary cause, came and laid Him among the Corinthians. He laid the foundation of Jesus Christ. Paul now shows that there are basically two kinds of builders here. There is one builder who is good and there is one builder who is bad. There is going to be a test to determine whether or not they are in the enabling grace and the work of God or whether or not they are doing it out of their own flesh. God is going to test that one day. You are going to see the fleshly works of man who tried to build upon the foundation of Christ which was only enabled by the grace of God. You have the gold, the silver and precious stones which are the good materials. The other is the bad materials, the wood, the hay and the stubble; two classes of materials. The gold, the silver and the precious stones can stand the test of fire which God is going to use one day to test these works. They can stand it, God’s judgment. But the wood, the hay and the stubble cannot. One is building a mansion, the other is building a shack. Now you have got to remember the context here. All of us are building on that foundation. Once you are saved, there is a building that is going up. He talks about that over in Ephesians very clearly, that we are a household, we are being built into the temple of God. There is something going on, a growing experience. But in the context, he is specifically pointing and warning the preachers and the teachers who come in behind him and would seek to do anything but build constructively and enabled by the grace of God upon the foundation that has already been laid. Well, in the context, the gold, the silver, and the precious stones represent that which is enabled by the grace of God. Paul says, “According to the grace of God given to me, I laid a foundation.” That is how it is all done, by the grace enabling of God. Now, what would that mean? Well, the same grace that enabled the laying of the foundation is the grace that enables the building upon the foundation. What would that be? There are several verses that will help us. These stones would represent the righteous deeds that are produced when we walk by faith. Look over in Romans 1:17. This is righteousness. This is what comes as a result of being a servant to Jesus Christ, enabled now by His grace. I am never enabled by His grace until I am surrendered to Him. But in Romans 1:17, look what we find. He says in verse 17, “For in it [the gospel, the good news of Jesus] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” But then he clarifies it. Look at what he says. He quotes out of Habakkuk 4, “as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith.’” Now these righteous deeds come from surrender to Christ. So, as a man would come in to build upon what Paul had laid (Paul was enabled by the grace of God), this man must be enabled by the grace of God. So if he is enabled by God’s grace it means that he is surrendered to Him and God is working through him. Therefore, what he does will stand the test one day because it will be true righteousness that came out of him. Righteousness is that which comes from a surrendered relationship to Christ. If you want to be righteous, bow down to Him and surrender to His Word. Admit your flesh, confess your sin, repent of that sin and let Jesus be Jesus in your life. Righteousness is the outflow of that. Remember Isaiah 64. He said, speaking of Israel’s righteousness, “Our righteousness, you stack it all up. It is filthy rags in God’s eyes.” No man in the energy of his flesh can produce what God commands of righteousness. But enabled by His grace this righteousness can come as we walk by faith, for without faith it is impossible to please God. So whoever comes after him, Paul would be saying to him, you had better bow down and you better be the one through whom God can do His work and honor His Word. But the second of these things that we could look at, these are the good works predestined before the foundation of the world. Look at Ephesians 2:10. Isn’t it amazing what people think are righteous acts? What did you do righteously this past week? “Oh, Brother Wayne, I read my Bible 22 times.” I mean, it is like we have our own standard of what we think righteousness is. But righteousness is the character and lifestyle resulting from surrender to Christ. All of us struggle with our flesh. Nobody is exempt from that. The ones pointing their fingers are the ones you had better beware of because once you start living this life, you realize how wretched our flesh really is and how quickly we can snap back into the other way of living. Well, these are the good works predestined before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship [we are not our idea, we are not a product of what we have done], created in Christ Jesus for good works [now watch this], which God prepared beforehand.” In other words, you can’t get a committee and come up with it. God knows what they are and God alone knows what they are. We must be in touch with Him so these righteous works can be worked through us that we should walk in them. Now, these precious stones could also perhaps be synonymous with that which comes from surrender to the Word of God. Look over in 2 Timothy 3:1617. We always read verse 16, but rarely do we ever read verse 17 and the two go together. You know, it is amazing to me that you go to different parts in the world, in mission places and you find people. As soon as they get a Christian, they throw him into the work. That is crazy. We need to put him up under the Word. The Word comes before the work. We have been upside down for so long, it is not even funny in many places. 2 Timothy 3:16 reads, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable,...” That is a good phrase. A friend of mine had a business card and that is what he put on it. “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable.” He didn’t say anything else. He said, “That got more attention! Profitable.” But if you look up the word “profitable,” it doesn’t mean in a tangible, physical way. It means in a spiritual, eternal way. It is profitable. It is profitable for teaching, for clarification of what the Word of God days. It is profitable for reproof, that which exposes us as the sin that is in our life. It is profitable for correction, and the word really means to take a broken arm and set it straight. Isn’t it great? God’s Word not only reproves us, which we hate to deal with, but it corrects us. That is the beautiful part of it. But it is also profitable for training in righteousness. The word is paideuo, which means child training, not teaching. Teaching is first, but training is at the end of it. You know, teaching can be done in ten seconds, but training takes maybe years because you must be trained, you see, in that area to where your senses will respond correctly when you are trained. My Dad used to raise English setters. Training those dogs was something else. Watching my Dad train those dogs helped me understand the Word of God and the place it has in my life and your life. It is not a onetime thing. It is over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Finally one day, your reflexes begin to respond properly to what the Word teaches and so you are not only taught, you have been trained as a child has been trained. But look at verse 17. It is so clear. Why is all this necessary? “That the man of God may be adequate.” The word adequate has the idea of when you are packing to go on a trip and you have got everything loaded that you are going to need for the journey and now you are ready

1 Corinthians 3:13

The Work of God – Part 2

There are three things that I want us to see about this test mentioned here in verse 13. To me, this is one of the most sobering messages that Paul has brought up. Remember, this is an infant church. They will not grow up. They have chosen to be babies in Christ. They have evidenced this by attaching themselves to men and later on attaching themselves to gifts, anything that pampers and pleases the flesh. Paul is trying to pull them back to dead center.

An Individual Test

The first thing about this test is, it is an individual test. Look at verse 13 one more time. Paul says, “Each man’s work will become evident.” It is amazing how we believe the lie that we are not going to be held accountable for what we do.

When I moved to Chattanooga, I went down to the telephone company and signed up for a telephone. I went down to the gas company and signed up for the gas. I went over to the electric company and signed up there. You know, I have enjoyed the privileges of using the telephone and the gas and the electricity all this time. But there is a strange thing. Every month I get this little thing in the mail that holds me accountable for the privilege that I am enjoying. It is a little bill that says I must pay it. Now, that is not exactly the way it is in the spiritual world, but there is the idea of accountability. You are accountable in everything in human life, but when it comes to the church, we seem to think, “Oh, great, we can do what we want and be a Christian.” No, you can’t! There is going to be an individual accounting one day before God.

The term “each man” in verse 13 should cause every believer to pay attention. It is the word hekastos. It comes from the word hekas, which means separate, an individual, each one separately from another. Paul is not going to stand there with us. Apollos is not going to stand there with us. Chuck Swindoll is not going to stand there with us. John MacArthur is not going to stand there with us. We are going to stand on our own one day before God. What Paul did as a vessel while he was there in Corinth, God working through him, is not going to help the Corinthians at all. They need now, having received the message that he brought to them, having had the foundation laid which is Christ Jesus, to be vessels through which God can do His work and so that the building in their life can be built. What Paul did, what Apollos did, what Cephas did, will not count for them.

That is why you never attach yourself to man. People are following men around as if they have something we don’t have. That is crazy. Peter himself said, “To those who have received a like faith such as ours.” We didn’t receive anything less or anything more than they did. God wants to do His work through us just like He did in them. Each man’s work will become evident.

The word for work there is ergon which, in the secular sense, is used as an employment word. If you work for somebody, it is the work you do out of necessity for that person, and at the end of the week you get a pay check. That is kind of the secular idea of the word “work.” You may be one of the most successful businessmen Chattanooga has ever known and God has blessed you. You have worked up the ladder. You are the president of your company. You have made millions. That is wonderful and there is nothing wrong with that. The world rewards you for that. However, if you are a believer, when you stand before God all that you did, all the success, will mean nothing if it has not been in response to your obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a different set of scales when God puts us to the test.

“Every man’s work” is spiritual work, that work which Paul says that grace has to enable. Every man has the same opportunity to let God work through his or her life. We have an employer, so to speak, if you want to put it in secular terms. That is the Lord Jesus. He is Lord of our life. That is not an option. He is Lord of our life.

Go back to verse 2 of chapter 1. I told you this is the grid that you have to look at 1 Corinthians through. In 1:2 he tells us very clearly that we are owned, that we are God’s possession. We work for Him. It says, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.” Now, in that verse he says we have been sanctified. Sanctified means to be put in a class all by itself. It means to be separated apart unto God. It has the idea of someone who is unclean and has been washed now in the blood and has been taken out of Adam. He has been put over into Christ and has a brand new purpose. Among humanity, he has one supreme purpose, because God lives in him. He has sanctified him. He has set him apart unto Himself, and that one supreme purpose is now to live set apart unto the One who has set you apart. That is what it means to be sanctified.

What are the people called who are sanctified? Saints. The next time you look in a mirror just say, “Good morning, Saint. I have but one purpose today. Oh, yes, I have many purposes, but one purpose should dominate all the others and that is, I am a bondservant of Jesus Christ. I am a vessel today through which God wants to do His work.” That is so clear in here.

You see, that building is being built by the choices that we make every day in our life. A believer who won’t get serious about his calling wants to live like the Corinthian, not depending upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who would rather attach himself to man, even to the exclusion of others, will one day stand before Jesus Christ. And suddenly this truth will come back to haunt him, because he can’t go back and relive it. When salvation occurs in a person’s life, something starts and it continues, and then one day Jesus brings us up to be with Himself. Then the building that we have built, the choices that we have made, will be put to His test, not our test. It will be made manifest. That which He allowed Christ to do through us will stand the test. It will make it. But that which we have done for ourselves will not make it. So it is an individual test. No one will stand with you. It will be your work.

I like to watch Tiger Woods play golf. But you know what? I was watching one tournament that he was in and on the second day, he was like eight strokes behind. I am thinking to myself, everybody in the world sees everybody else’s scores, but everybody also sees Tiger Woods’ score. There is nothing you can do to change any of it. He has played that game. It is an individual sport. At the end of it, he is going to be rewarded, not according to how others have done, but how did he do.

Now in a similar way, in the spiritual walk every one of us, individually, will stand there and be tested according to our works. Actually it is our work. It is in the singular, not in the plural, which means that it is a house that is being built. It is all one house. Whatever is left standing at that time will see whether or not it will stand the test that God has. So, it will be an individual test.

A Revealing Test

But then secondly, it will be a revealing test. You see this in verse 13: “Each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.” Now, when it says “each man’s work will become evident,” that is a deponent verb. It is always used in an active sense. In other words, of its own it will be made evident.

What that says to me is, you are not going to change this. Whether you like it or not, whatever, sad, mad or glad, it is going to be tested. That is what he is saying. Of its own caliber, of its own value, it will of necessity be tested one day. The word “evident” is the word phaneros. It means to make something apparent, to make it evident. It has the idea of shining a light on something so that it might be clearly seen. It is the idea of bringing every detail out in the presence of the light.

On one fishing program on a sports network they have cartoon characters named “Tight Line” and “Sinker.” “Tight Line” and “Sinker” are out one night fishing. Now, a nightlight is something you put in your boat, a fluorescent light, and it will help you see your line, because that is the main thing you want to see. You don’t have to see everything else in the boat. It is kind of a black light, a dark light. You can see that line when a fish is hitting your worm. You can see the line twitch and know what is happening. “Tight Line” and “Sinker” were out one night and “Tight Line” said, “Did you bring that brand new light that I got the other day?” He said, “Yeah, I got it.” He says, “How ‘bout testing it out?” And so, “Sinker” gets hold of this thing and says, “Are you ready?” And he says, “I am ready.” Now it is pitch dark and he flips the switch and all of a sudden, the birds are flying and the sun is out. It is day time. Everything is evident. They say, “Wow, what a light!”

That is the idea of phaneros. You can’t see. But one day the light is going to be brought up and you won’t have any question as to what is really real. That is what he is talking about. It will be made manifest. It will be brought to light. Nothing will be left out. You will be able to see. God says, “Each man will stand this test of his works.”

Verse 13 says, “Each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it.” Now what day is he talking about? The day of Christ. Do you understand the difference in the day of Christ and the day of the Lord? First of all, the technical term is not the day of the Lord. The great day of the Lord is a technical term, the last three and a half years of the 70th Week of Daniel. The seven years, I believe, that will be that period of time when God deals with Israel specifically.

I personally think that the day of the Lord is the whole seven years, because it is the Lord Jesus Christ who takes the sealed book to start with. So why have any trouble calling the whole period the day of the Lord? Then the great day of Lord will be the last three and a half years. I just have never seen the struggle people have with those terminologies that are used.

So, what is the day of Christ then? The day of Christ is the flip side of that. The day of Christ is what we are looking forward to. You know, you dread the day of the Lord if you are not saved. It is when Jesus takes the church out of here and when tribulation comes on this earth and when He puts an end to sin down here on this earth. It takes seven years. But during the time He will bring Israel to their day of Atonement and bring them to repentance. A lot of people say, “Hey, we are spiritual Israel.” Well, I don’t agree with that.

But during that period of time, the day of Christ is the other side of that. In other words, we look forward to the day of Christ. The flip side, the day of the Lord, that seven year period of time, the 70th Week of Daniel, involved in which will be the great day of the Lord, Jacob’s distress.

Let’s look at this in Scripture and see if we can see it. Sometimes it says the day of our Lord Jesus. Sometimes it says the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then other places, the day of Christ. But the context will show you whether it is something to look forward to or something to dread. You can tell the difference. We look forward to the day of Christ.

Look over in 1 Corinthians 5:5 and we will just walk through some scriptures here. “I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” May be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. You can tell immediately which one you are talking about. Look at 2 Corinthians 1:14: “Just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason to be proud as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.” You are going to be proud in the day of the Lord Jesus. Obviously, that is not talking about the other day that has to deal with the wrath of God.

Look in Philippians 1:6. He speaks of it. It is something to look forward to. You don’t look forward to the day of the Lord. You do look forward to the day of Christ. He says, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Drop down to Philippians 1:10: “So that you may approve the things are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.” Look in Philippians 2:16. He says, “Holding fast the word of life so that in the day of Christ I may have cause to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.” So the day of Christ could be one day, it could be a time period, we are not worried about that, but it is an event that is going to take place, I believe, when Christ comes for His church.

Look over in 1 Thessalonians 4:1618. We read these from time to time, but just to help remember that there is such a thing as a rapture to the church. People say, “No, that word is never used.” Well, the word harpazo is, and it is not a noun, it is a verb. Which would you rather it be? I would rather it be a verb because it is action. It means to snatch up, imminently, suddenly snatch up. In secular Greek it was used of a wolf that would go into a flock of sheep and suddenly, out of nowhere, snatch up a lamb and go out. It is the same word. It is a catching up. Rapture is a good way to translate it, but the word harpazo simply means a catching up. It is imminent, sudden.

Look at verse 16: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” Those are the dead bodies. That was the problem in writing 1 Thessalonians. They thought the day of the Lord had come. The other thing was that they were worried about the dead, the righteous dead. What happened to their bodies?

Verse 17 continues, “Then we who are alive [there will be those alive at that time] and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.” And look at verse 18: “Therefore comfort one another with these words.” You don’t comfort somebody with the day of the Lord. You comfort them with the day of Christ. We look forward to the day of Christ. And when Christ takes us up to be with Him, immediately there is no more building on that house that we started building when we received Jesus in our life. There is no more way to go back and change a wall here and a board there. There is no more time to change anything. The house that we have built by faith or by flesh, whatever it is, will have to stand the test that God has for it one day.

Now Paul continues to explain. Look back at 1 Corinthians 3:13. He says it will be made evident. Now he chooses to use another word that says basically the same thing. “Each man’s work will become evident; for the day [the day of Christ] will show it.” The word “show it” is the word deloo, which means to make something plain for all to see. The same word is translated in 1 Corinthians 1:11 as “informed.” “For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you.”

In Colossians 1:8 we have the same word: “And he also informed us of your love in the spirit.” There is going to be information given on the day when we stand before Christ sometime in the future that nobody down here possibly had. Have you ever wondered if the people you think are doing so much for God are doing it according to the flesh or according to the Spirit? We don’t know down here. Down here it is hard to know. But when you stand before God one day, buddy, you will know. It will be made manifest and evident to everyone. Now that doesn’t make me your judge. That makes me my own judge. I examine my own self. I get in my closet and work it out in my own self. I walk with God so that my building will stand the test. It may surprise some of us what is going to stand and what is going to burn one day at the testing of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the light of His presence on that day when we see Him face to face, what we have done down here will be shown and everyone will see.

Paul goes on to say “because it is to be revealed with fire.” Now the actual test is fire, not the light. The light will show up things. But the test of fire will prove it out. So actually, I think the light is the secondary cause. The fire tests, then the light comes on as to what was and what really wasn’t. He said, “It will be revealed by fire.”

The word “fire” in the Old Testament so often is used of the revealed presence of God. When we stand in His presence, there is going to be a revealing of things, but it is going to be tested by fire. Now, why does God use the term “fire?” Well, it consumes. You have seen earlier that the three things on one side are the gold, silver and precious stones. And on the other side are the wood, hay and straw. One is consumable, the other is not. One is of the Spirit, the other is of the flesh.

How have we built our house? Are we living by faith? Down here, like I say, we can’t always tell. Up there, everybody will know. Look over in Exodus 3:2. These are passages where God revealed Himself in fire or as fire. God is appearing to Moses here. Exodus 3:2 says, “And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.” We see the fire of God’s presence.

When Moses brought forth the Israelites out of the camp to meet with God at the foot of Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19:18, again, God is revealed as fire. Exodus 19:18 says, “Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.”

Then I want you to go to the New Testament, to Revelation 1:14. John is on the island of Patmos. I have been there. It is a desolate place. But God chose to speak to him. It had been 65 years since John had heard Jesus’ voice, and that was back during the time He was on this earth. He heard His voice and recognized His voice, but when he turned, what he saw caused him to faint dead away. I want you to see what he saw there. Jesus, in His glorified state, appeared to John on the island of Patmos. In verse 14 it says, “And His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.”

In Hebrews 12:29 it says, “For our God is a consuming fire.” When you think of something being tested and you realize that there are two kinds of materials, one is consumable and the other is not, then it makes all the sense in the world that only fire could be that test. It may be instantaneous. It may be that when we see Him and we stand in His presence, that everything about us that was the flesh falls away and all that remains is that which God has been able to do through us as a result of our willingness to trust Him and walk by faith.

Fire puts things to the truest test. I have been quoting from 1 Corinthians 3:12 about different kind of materials. He says, “Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw.” That is the verse that we are building off of. Now, fire is going to reveal the most intimate secrets of man, the things that we hide down here and don’t want anybody to know about.

In Luke 8:17 it says, “For nothing is hidden that shall not become evident nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light.” You know, it is the fire of God’s presence that reveals this.

Years ago, I was working in the gift shop at a summer camp. Right behind the gift shop was a cliff and there was a road down at the bottom of that cliff, maybe 60 feet down. There was a drop off on the other side with a foot bridge that connected the two sides of those banks over that road. On the other side of that foot bridge was some trails that our kids could hike on.

There was a house, precious people, who lived right there in the corner, right there as you go across the foot bridge. It was a beautiful old house. It had a balcony above the front porch. It was one of those houses that you drive by and say, “Boy, that is really nice.” It was a darker wood, you know, and it was in just a beautiful mountain setting there.

One day the lady who lived there came over and she was just weeping and distraught. She said, “Hurry, help me.” I said, “What is wrong?” She said, “My house is on fire and my two children are in the house.” Well, I told the lady that was working with me, “Go get all the other guys and call the fire department.” I went running across the bridge. It had just started. When I got up the house, the smoke was billowing out. My uncle was a captain of the fire department in Roanoke, Virginia, and he told me some things about being in a fire. One of the things he always told me was, “Wayne, if you are ever in a fire, get on the floor. Stay on the floor because there is a pocket of air that runs along the floor if it hadn’t been burning too long.” Another thing he told me was, “If you hit a door and the handle is hot, don’t open it because if you do that oxygen will blow that whole thing.” So there were a few things I knew, but not much.

I went running in the house. They said the bedrooms were upstairs. I got up the steps but the smoke was so heavy. The smoke is what is the problem. You can’t breathe, you can’t see, your eyes are watering. I got down on the floor like I was supposed to. I could barely see. I got to one door and pushed it open. I crawled over and there was a bed there and there was nobody in the bed. I went to the next room, the next room. There were four bedrooms. I got to the fourth one but it was so hot, my hands almost burned as I tried to touch the door. I remembered, “Don’t go in that door because if you open it, it is going to blow.” So I said to myself, “Maybe I can go around the back and kick a window in, which wasn’t real smart. I got out the window on the roof and as I worked my way around, I was just getting ready to kick in a window when somebody down on the bottom said, “Get off the roof, Wayne! Get off the roof, quick, quick, get off the roof! It is about to blow!”

Well, I remember cutting myself up trying to get off that roof. I got down and sure enough, it blew. I mean, it almost took the whole upstairs off. I don’t know what caused that, but something just erupted inside. I stood there and waited and waited for hours because I was so distraught that I couldn’t find those two little boys. Well, we found one of them. He was down the street. He had set the fire. He was only five years old and he had been playing with matches in the bed. His little two year old brother burned to death in that fire. I never will forget when we found that little body.

You know, inside that fire, something overwhelmed me. That beautiful house that I had always looked at and thought to myself I would love to have one like that someday, had so burned down that the only thing that was left standing was a stone fireplace and the places where they had built up around the hearth there. Everything else was ashes. That beautiful house and that is all that was left. That is exactly the picture that Paul is trying to draw. It is the fire that consumes. You see, you may build a house for somebody and say, “This is a stone house.” Is there any wood in it? “No sir, buddy. Everything is made of stone.” But maybe you lied. Maybe some of the stone was really veneer and there were wooden beams but you didn’t tell anybody about it. One day that house catches on fire and immediately everybody knows that you had lied. What you had hidden and thought nobody else saw, the fire consumed. And the only thing that is left are those things which are not consumable. That is the test.

We are going to stand before God one day. You say, “What is it going to be like?” I don’t know. All I know is what is in here. It may be instantaneous. We will probably be so overwhelmed at the glory of God as we stand in His presence and the fire and the light. Everything about us that we didn’t trust God in, that we didn’t come to the altar and repent of and confess and rebuild under the grace of God, all of a sudden just disappears. And what is left is that which only was done as a result of faith and trusting the grace of God.

Let me throw something in here. When you die, you can’t do anything about the house. As long as you are living, you can. Where does confession and repentance down here in this life come in? If you are building a house and you have a wall that is crooked and the architect tells you that wall is crooked, you repent, which means you change your mind, and tear that wall out and build it the way it ought to be built. You have time to do those things now, folks. But one day, that time is going to be taken away. No way are you going to go back and correct anything. The fire is going to consume everything the flesh did down here.

Men on this earth may have rewarded you and applauded you, but it was flesh. And standing before God, you may feel very embarrassed if you are not living a life that Paul was trying to get the Corinthians to live. That is his whole point. Why attach yourself to men? You are going to stand. He is going to stand. You better just attach yourself to Christ and trust Him and walk in His Word and be what He wants you to be. It is an individual test. It is a revealing test. The fire will reveal it. It is a consuming fire.

A Quality Test

The third thing is a quality test. And oh, this just hit me right between the eyes. Look again at verse 13: “Each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire.” This is interesting. It will become evident. It will show it. It will be revealed. So we know that. The fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work, not the quantity, but the quality of each man’s work.

Billy Graham was on one of these talk show programs one time. They asked him, “What would you do if you could go back and do it all over again?” He said, “Less.” They asked him, “What limitations did you have?” He said, “My own self, my own flesh all those years.” The humility of the man just blesses me.

You see, it is going to be the quality, not the quantity. Now, it doesn’t mean there is not going to be any quantity, no, no, no. But that quantity has the quality of trusting God. They will be works of faith, believing God. “God, I can’t; you never said I could. You can, and you always said you would.” You need to be living as a surrendered vessel so that God through you can do those works. That is quality works. That is those works that no man could reproduce, only God could do. The quality of that work, not the quantity. Quality is a good translation.

James uses that word in James 1. You know the passage there in 2125 it talks about how you are supposed to be a doer of the word and not just a hearer. In verse 24 he says, “For once he has looked at himself and gone away [he has looked in the mirror and God has shown him what He wants to show him], he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.” It is the same word. What the makeup of his life really is, whether it is flesh or whether it is of the Spirit. The same exact word.

I don’t know how many times you preach on this, and people just sit there and squirm: “Oh, good grief. Why does he have to preach on this? I am scared to death. I don’t want to hear this.” Now, folks, I want to tell you something. That is a shame if you have that thought in your mind, because this test is not to prove what is wrong about you, it is to prove what is right about you. Now why in the world would that scare you? I will tell you why it would scare you. If you are living like the Corinthians, that ought to scare you half to death, because you are not living like God wants you to live and you know that and you know God knows that. That ought to put the fear of God in your heart. But it is for you, not against you.

The word dokimazo is the word used there for test. What does that mean? Dokimazo is a different word than peirazo, which is another word for test. Peirazo can be used in a good sense, but it is always to bring about a negative quality. In John 6 when Jesus was sitting there and all these people were there that were hungry, He says, “What are you going to do to feed them? You feed them.” He says He did this to test them, peirazo. He is doing something there to point out something that is unworthy about them that they couldn’t do, but it was a good thing. They needed to know this.

Well, let me explain it this way. Let’s say I walk up to you one day and say, “I was digging the other day for worms in my backyard and found some pure gold. I want you to have it. I just want to give it to you. God put it on my heart to give it to you.” I walk away and you are sitting there thinking, “He doesn’t know gold from dirt. I am going to prove to him that this isn’t gold.” You put it to the test, not to prove that it is good but to prove that it is bad.

That is exactly what Jesus was doing in John 6. He did this to test them, to show them what their flesh was incapable of doing and the evil of their flesh, to show them the difference of what He could do. So peirazo has the idea of proving something, to show you what is wrong with it.

Dokimazo is a totally different word. It is never used except in the following way. I go to you and say, “I found some metal in my backyard while I was digging for worms. I don’t know what is in it, but I will give it to you.” I walk away and you say, “Gracious sakes, I think there is gold in there.” So you put it to the test to prove what is right about it, what is good and pure about it. Lo and behold, it is gold.

Any time God is testing you and me, in trials or whatever, it is dokimazo. He is not just making us genuine. In a sense that is correct, because He burns

1 Corinthians 3:14-15

The Preparation for the Test

When I was in college, I remember when they would assign a test. That didn’t threaten me at all. Everybody in the classroom would get all nervous. Not me. I knew I could wait until the last minute. I am grateful that I have a mind that can grasp most things. I knew most of the teachers and how they would give the test.

I remember one night in a World Literature class, I was 84,000 pages behind in my reading. The night before the final exam a friend of mine and I went down to the library and got into the master plot books and began to develop funny stories about each one of these things so we could remember them. We laughed until I cried. I mean, we would make up the funniest things, just anything to help us remember the main tenets of the different books we were supposed to have read.

The next day in the classroom they separated us. He was on one side and I was on the other side, for obvious reasons. When we started taking the test, I began to laugh. He began to laugh. We had taken right out of the files a test from this particular professor and we had pinpointed him on every single question, even though we were 84,000 pages behind. I got an A and my friend got an A in the class.

Now, you can do that in school down here on this earth, sometimes. But when it comes to the test we are talking about in Scripture, you don’t wait until the last day and cram so you can pass, because we don’t know the day and we don’t know the hour. One day we are going to stand before God and everything of our life that has been built will stand before Him. There is a house that is being built the moment we get saved. The moment you receive Jesus Christ into your life, the foundation is laid. And that foundation is Jesus Christ.

Paul says to be careful how you build upon it. Look at verse 10. He says, “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it.” But then he says, “But let each man be careful how he builds upon it.” The narrow context of 1 Corinthians 3 is referring to the teachers and the preachers who follow Him, but all of us are included here, because once the foundation is laid by faith in Christ Jesus, that foundation begins to be built upon and every choice we make, everything we do in life builds upon that foundation. One day, standing before God, it will be tested as to the materials we have used to build that foundation, that house.

You know, we have had people leave the church because we emphasize obedience and surrender. They told me to my face, “Tell me all that I am in Jesus. Tell me who I am and whose I am. [That is so important to understand.] But don’t tell me what I am responsible for.” You see, we don’t want any accountability. But the reason we preach it and preach it and preach it is because one day we will be held accountable as we stand before the Lord Jesus.

In verse 14 Paul says, “If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains [in other words, after the fire has tested it], he shall receive a reward.” But then he says in verse 15, “If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.” There is going to be a test that is going to come one day. Now again, I want to point out the fact that this test is not a bad test. God wants to reward you. He wants to reward me. That is something we should be looking forward to. The only reason we would not look forward to it is if we are not willing to live the surrendered life He has asked us to live, enabled by His grace. If that is the case, get on your face before God and say, “God, I am sorry. I repent.” The blood cleanses, and the Spirit of God immediately enables and you are right back into building like you ought to be building. But when you live rebellious to those things of God, obviously that house is not going to be what God wants it to be.

Let’s talk about this reward a little bit. Take the word “reward” and run it through the Old Testament and the New Testament, particularly the New Testament. If you go into the New Testament, it gives you some clues about how you can know that you are putting the right materials into this building. There are some attitudes. There are some things God creates within you that are automatically clear as to the fact that these are the right materials. Let me just share a few things with you and you might grab on to some of them.

Persecution

First of all, when you are living by faith, surrendered to Him, one of the things you can expect at different times in your life is persecution. Now that word “persecution” means people pursuing after you. They never seem to go away. They don’t like you. They don’t like what you stand for. They don’t like the God you serve. Therefore, they are constantly on your trail. The picture is of an old coon dog on a trail at night. You can hear him off in the distance, and it just won’t go away. Everywhere you go, they are always on your trail. That is the word for persecution.

Look in Matthew 5:1112 and let’s just see if there is a reward for people who are persecuted for living the faith life, for surrendering to Christ, for letting Jesus be Jesus in you, depending on His divine enablement within you. Matthew 5:1112 is very clear as to what God says. He speaks there to His disciples and says, “Blessed are you [the word “blessed” is makarios; it means completely, inwardly, spiritually satisfied] when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil falsely, on account of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

The next time you seek to live the godly life and seek for the right materials to be put into this house that will one day be tested and you are persecuted as a result of it, say, “Praise you Lord. I am in good company and there is going to be a reward for this.” Persecution is a signal that you are doing it right, not that you are doing it wrong. Light and darkness never get along very well.

The kind of obedience that God requires out of us is not the obedience so that men around you can see it. Obviously they will see it. But it is not for their benefit, it is for His benefit and for your benefit. Therefore, when you do what you do, you do it in the privacy of that life that is hidden with Him and you obey Him. You don’t go out and announce it to everybody. This is something between you and God. It is out of our love relationship.

You know, there are so many things that I would love to share with you about the friendship and the relationship my wife and I have. But it is something that is very private and very precious to us. That is the way it is with your walk with God. You don’t come out and say, “Oh, guess what? I did this. Guess what? I did that.” No, no. It is not that kind of thing. You are obeying out of love. You are honoring a relationship.

Now, I say this because Jesus brought this out. He warned the people of His day, “Watch out that you don’t parade your acts of obedience.” Look in Matthew 6:1. Now you know that the right materials are going in here when you don’t have this overwhelming desire to go out and flaunt your obedience unto God. There are many people who do this. Now obviously people will know that you are obedient, but it is not because of your flaunting it and wanting their approval for it.

In Matthew 6:1 we read, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men [then He gives the motive] to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” Be real careful about the whole motive of everything that you are doing.

Then He lists several things there in Matthew. First of all is in giving of alms. In verse 2 He says, “When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.” “Alms” there means to do a benevolent work for somebody, to do a good deed for someone, to give money to somebody who is poor or whatever. It always has a benevolent sense to it. He says, “When you do that, don’t announce it. If you do, the applause that men will give to you is your reward.” So what you do, you do out of obedience but not to flaunt it in front of man. That is what He warns the Pharisees about in that day.

Then He talks about prayer in Matthew 6:5: “And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.” People walk by and say, “Aren’t they spiritual? Look at those people pray.” They have their reward. That was their reward right there.

You see, when you pray in that closet, that is your time alone with God, when you wrestle with the things that you are wrestling with and when you rediscover your peace with Him and when you walk with Him. Not that man can see it. They will see the result of it, only so that God might be loved and honored in your life.

Then He mentions fasting in Matthew 6:16. He says, “And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.” Basically, what Jesus is trying to show us is that when we obey Him, this is something between us and Him and we are doing it because we love Him, knowing that we are building a house that will one day be tested. We don’t do it to flaunt it in front of men.

This is something that has really blessed me. Do you realize that all those secret things that you have done out of obedience to the Lord that nobody ever knew about, that He keeps and knows about, one day will cause that house that you are building to stand like you couldn’t have caused it to stand before, because God knows those things? That is so encouraging to me. Many, many, many are the times that we have said yes to the Lord but nobody ever knew about it. That is alright. He did, you see. That is the way our walk with Him ought to be. When walking by faith, your heart is turned to acts of benevolence, as we said earlier, towards others, particularly those of the family of God.

Look over in Mark 9:41 and you begin to see that God creates within you a compassion for others and a love for others. This is not what you are doing as much as what He is doing in you. It is a good way of knowing that the house is being built correctly. If you have a cold heart toward the needs of others, look out. The house you are building is not one that will stand. Mark 9:41 says, “For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.” In another gospel it says a cup of cold water. They are talking about when you go out of your way to minister to the needs of somebody, particularly in the family of God, particularly those that are righteous and in God’s kingdom.

In that day the woman of the house would go down to the well early in the morning. The water was cold and she would put it into a pitcher. She would bring it back and set it up and then all day long they would drink out of that water. Well, to give a cup of warm water was easy, because the climate would warm that water up as the day would go by. But to get a cup of cold water meant somebody had to go all the way back down to where the well was and draw that water and bring it back. The idea is not just giving a cup of cold water, but going out of your way to minister to the saints of God, to minister to those that are around you.

I tell you, this isn’t something that you do resulting from the flesh. This is something God creates within you as you are walking submissive to Him. When you have this desire to minister to the family, to minister to those that you become aware of that have needs, this is God working in your life. Evidently, the house is being built correctly. Living by faith causes love to be produced by the Holy Spirit. I guess that is the greatest thing in the world that you can see. That love is going to be tested. And one of the greatest ways it is tested is when you are able, enabled by the grace of God, to love even your enemies.

Look over in Matthew 5:46. The bottom line here of loving others is brought out. By the way, loving your enemies does not mean adopting their ways or going along with what they do, but it is being so committed in your heart to do what is spiritually necessary for them. You are willing to pay whatever price that is necessary. In Matthew 5:46 He says, “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the taxgatherers do the same?” In other words, that is nothing to that. God’s love is beyond just loving people who are good to you.

Go over to Luke 6:35 where again He brings this out so clearly. Love is there, even for people who treat you wrongly. That love is not mushymushy. No, that is not it. But it is a commitment in your heart to do what is necessary spiritually for their best benefit. In Luke 6:35 He says, “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. And your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.”

That is one of the tests of whether or not you are building the right kind of building is when you can love even the enemies who come at you. Living by faith causes our attitude to be affected. Over in 1 Corinthians 9:17, Paul has something specific to say about that. He speaks of an attitude that he has. This attitude plays a huge role in determining what kind of materials are going into this building. He says, “For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward.” If I do it without any pressure on me to do it, I do it because I choose to do it. That is telling me something. Evidently this is the Spirit of God. This is a result of putting my faith in Him and God has caused this in my life.

Again in Colossians 3:2324 he brings out that same understanding of attitude of how God even changes an attitude towards what you do. He says, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men; knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of your inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.” So when you go to work, you are not working for men, you are working as unto the Lord. And you do your work heartily as unto Him. That is a sign that the right materials are going into this building. That is the Spirit of God working in your heart. When you are filled with the Spirit of God, there is a boldness that you have that you didn’t have before, a boldness to speak forth the things of God.

In Hebrews 10:35 we read, “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence which has great reward.” The word “confidence” means that willingness to step forward and to speak out and be bold in what you say. Living by faith, you see, is the norm of the Christians who believe in Jesus Christ. Now, you don’t have to be a fulltime minister to have a reward. You have to be fulltime as far as your Christian walk is concerned. We have made up these terms laity and clergy which have messed everybody’s mind up. Are you in the ministry? Well, yeah, but so are you. We are all in the ministry. The moment you receive Jesus Christ and start living a surrendered life, you are in the ministry. You are a missionary, whether it is across the street or around the world.

So everybody gets in on this reward. Everybody is building this house. This is not just for preachers. This is for every believer. He says that very clearly in Colossians 3:22. Look over there. Look who he is talking to, slaves. Actually, that was 80% of their work force. So he is talking to those who go to work. I mean, that would be a good application of it. Colossians 3:22 says, “Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men; knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance.” He is not talking to preachers. He is talking there to the workplace. He is talking to the slaves.

Again in Ephesians 6:8 we see this is all encompassing. There is a reward for the believer if he will build a house by faith while he is living here on earth. Ephesians 6:8 says, “Knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.” He just opens it wide open, to anyone who is a believer. We are all building a house and we are to build it by faith. When we live obedient lives in the circumstances God has allowed for us, there will be a reward. We not be called upon to do great things as others are called on to do, but whenever you obey Him, surrendered to Him saying Jesus be Jesus in me, for that will be a reward because you are building the right kind of house that will stand the test of His fire of judgment.

Well, back in 1 Corinthians 3:15 you see the reverse of this. How do you know that you are building the right kind of building? God gives you a heart to be benevolent towards others, a love towards your enemies. All these things are involved. And you begin to get an understanding you are going in the right direction because this doesn’t come from the flesh. This comes from God. But in 1 Corinthians 3:15 here is the other side of that: “If any man’s work is burned up, he shall also suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.”

In other words, Paul is saying to the Corinthian church, “If you are going to keep on living like you are living, friend, I am warning you, you are going to stand before God one day. Yes, you will be saved. This is not to judge you, but it is to judge your works. And you are going to be very ashamed. There is not going to be anything left, you see, that God has done through you.”

You know, when you drive through the Shenandoah Valley you see those old plantation homes, many of which have burned, and all you see standing is just a chimney. All of that which was so beautiful to everybody who drove by has been consumed. Only the chimney is left standing. I think of that every time I think of this passage. Standing before God one day, all that is of the flesh, all that I was unwilling to repent of and unwilling to seek God’s forgiveness and walk in His grace, is just going to burn immediately in His presence. The only thing left standing is that which I was willing to commit by faith, that which came out of a surrendered life towards Him. Now that is a sobering thought. It ought not be a scary thought, but it is a sobering thought. We need to remember there is integrity in the Christian life.

I want to go back to chapter 1 and show you the steps that we can take to assure that our building will not burn when it is tested by fire. What steps can we take? If you will go back and live this way, you can be assured that you don’t have to fear the coming of the Lord and you don’t have to fear standing before Him because you know that you have sought to live a life by faith.

Live According To Your Eternal Purpose

Alright, first of all, you begin by living according to your eternal purpose. That is step one. There is one eternal purpose for us and that is to live separated unto Him, as a vessel which God can use. Remember back in 1 Corinthians 1:2, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling.” A man or woman, boy or girl, who is a Christian, should start right there. “I am separated unto God. I didn’t separate myself unto Him. He separated me unto Himself. I am His. He owns me. I am His possession. God, what do you want me to do today? How do you want me to live today so that you through me can be seen to others?” That is the key. That is step one. Every day that you live, every morning that you wake up say, “God, I have but one purpose in my life.

The word “sanctified” means to be set apart, put in a class all by itself. The thing that distinguishes us between other human beings in this world is that we love this Book. We love the Lord of this Book. And as we love Him and we obey Him, then people see that we are different. We are human beings, yes; and we have faults, yes; and we have a body of sin, yes. But somebody lives in us and we have purpose in our life. This begins to set up our witness to others and it begins to start the process of making sure you are putting the right materials in the house that we are building.

We must get very practical with this. Look over in Colossians 1. This is a very precious verse. In everything in your life, give Christ first place. Colossians 1:18 says, “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.” He wants first place in everything. He is the head of the body. And we have been separated unto Him.

Go over to Ephesians 5:16 and it begins to show you how you work this thing out. I mean, let’s be real practical with it. If I want to make sure my house will not be consumed by fire when I get to heaven one day and I look at the Lord Jesus Christ and I stand in His presence, then I have got to understand my purpose in life. I have got to separate myself unto Him. I have got to learn this and give Him first place in everything. In Ephesians 5:16 it says, “Making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” That “making the most of” is a Greek phrase that means to purchase. It is made up of two words, ek, out of, and agorazo, which means to buy or purchase. Put together they mean to purchase out of, redeem the time.

Now let me ask you a question. If you are going to purchase time, which is all we all have, and if we are going to live separated unto Him, if we are going to give Him first place in everything, what collateral are you going to use to purchase time? The only collateral I know of is choice. So I have choices I can make all day long. When I get on the freeway, I have the choice to run over that lady or just pray for her. I have a choice to make. The choice that I have to make when something comes up in my life and I wanted to do something else.

One day I wanted to go with a friend of mine to a football event. I have gone to this event for years and years. But this particular Saturday was so full and demanding on my time. I had studied Saturday and had just finished the first message. I don’t like to spend Saturday studying, but I knew I had another message to go and I was wrestling.

Something inside of me was saying, “Wayne, you have got to preach tomorrow and you need this time to be alone with Me and to be in My Word. Now, Wayne, you have got a choice to make.” All the time I was thinking, “I know, Holy Spirit, but…!!!” I was thinking that the whole time. My flesh was raising up and I was thinking, “Wait a minute. Give Him first place in everything in your life.” Finally, I came down to it. If I had to make a choice that is eternal and not temporary, to satisfy my flesh, I am going to have to stay home and stay in the Word and finish out what God has put before me. It was not easy.

Folks, you have got to make those choices in life, enabled by the grace of God. It all stimulates out of your love for Him, yes. These people who say it is so easy to do that I don’t understand. My flesh rears up on me and makes me feel like an idiot sometimes because of the choices that I make to deny the flesh and do what God wants me to do.

When you are living this way what you are doing, without realizing it, is you are building a house in heaven. You are doing something that you can’t see right now and you don’t want to see right now because if you did, that would be your reward, as He told us. You want to see it one day when you stand before Him. And everything that goes into this house is redemptive in its nature. I want to tell you, folks, it is a blessing to be able to live that way. That is what God has called us to do. We have one purpose and that is to get involved with Him, attach ourselves to Him, put Jesus as first place in everything and learn to redeem the time. Learn to make the proper choices in life, enabled by His grace. This is not something legalistic. This is not something fleshly that you can manufacture. It is just learning to be submissive and obedient to His voice when He speaks to your heart.

If you are not in the Word of God, you don’t even know what I am talking about. All these things are built into it. Separate yourself unto God who has separated you and learn to put Him in first place and learn to make the proper choices to redeem the time. Then you won’t be afraid of standing before Him one day. You will not be afraid. The most ashamed you will ever be is when you realize how wise His wisdom in leading really was in your life. That is the only thing that will make you ashamed, to see the eternal aspect of what God has for you.

Live In the Attachment

Secondly, once you get involved in His purpose, attach yourself to Him. I am sanctified. I am a saint. I am not my own. I can’t live like I want to live. I live the way He wants me to live. You learn to live in that attachment to Him. It says in 1 Corinthians 1:2, “with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.” “Call upon” means to depend upon, to live every day depending upon Him.

In a recent conference, God reminded me that, “Wayne, it is in me, it is in Me. It is not in the people. It is not in anybody else. It is in Me. Depend upon Me. Call upon Me, Wayne, period.” That is it. From then on, you have it solved. That is your attachment to Him, those choices that you are making. It is in the present middle tense, so you call upon Him as a lifestyle and of your own choice.

Look over in Romans 10:12. I want to show you what you tap into when you call upon Him and what you don’t tap into when you don’t call upon Him. This is a tremendous verse. Romans 10:12 says, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him.” One of the things I think happens so often in our lives is that we move away from this. For whatever reason, we move away from that intimacy of just depending upon Him, calling upon Him. We don’t tap into the riches, spiritual riches that God has for us. You can’t live attached to Him if you are not going to call upon Him, if you are not going to depend upon Him.

If you are not walking with Him, no wonder you have doubts, frustration and confusion in your life. You are not building the right kind of building. Come back to what a Christian really is. Depend upon Him for everything, every single thing in your life. And when people look at you and say you are stupid for doing it, just smile right back at them because you know something they don’t know, that you have been set apart to Him. He lives in you to be your sufficiency, and you can depend upon Him for everything. It is ridiculous to think that a believer would depend on anything other than Christ Jesus, drink from any other well than drinking from that well. To do so is to cheat yourself out of everything God has given to you.

He says in verse 4, “I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him.” I love the statement that Bill Stafford made. He said, “Listen, if God loves a cheerful giver who is living attached to Him, who understands the principles of what it means to be a believer, then where in the world are they?” You can say the same thing right here. If God’s people are to live in the riches of Christ Jesus, then where are the people living in them? That is the whole point of writing 1 Corinthians. They were upside down. They were not living as if they were true believers. They were building buildings that were not going to stand the test of God’s judgment one day.

You Cannot Do It in Your Own Strength

It is critical to realize this. Live according to His purpose and depend upon Him. Thirdly, is to know that you cannot do it in your own strength. You have to know this. This is bottom line. This is basic. You have got to understand that you cannot do it in your own strength. People say, “Hey preacher, don’t pray for me yet. I am going to go a little bit further. I think I can handle a little bit more of this. Then I will call you or whatever.” As if they can do it themselves. What is it Paul wishes for them in verse 3? Do you think this is just a greeting? Hey, it is the inspired Word of God. When you look at it, now you begin to realize what he is saying.

He says in 1 Corinthians 1:3, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” What do you think grace is? Do we know what grace is? “It is the unmerited favor of God.” Yeah, that is basic. If you don’t understand that, forget it. You are not going to go any further. Yes, we don’t deserve any of it. But what is it? It is the transforming, enabling power that God places within us when the Spirit of God comes to live inside of us.

Now why would He put the Spirit in us if we could do it ourselves? That is why he told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:1, “Timothy, be strong in the grace that is found in Christ Jesus.” Grace is what I need to deal with the si

I Corinthians 3:16-17

1 Don’t Mess with God’s People -

2 We Are the Dwelling of God

3 The Temple Was a Magnificent Structure

4 The Temple Was A Place to Worship God

5 We Are Indwelt By God the Holy Spirit

6 There Are Those Who Seek To Defile the Dwelling Of God

7 The Man Who Destroys Is Not a Believer

8 The Man Who Destroys Is Bent On Corrupting the Church

Don’t Mess with God’s People - I Cor. 3: 16-17

I could have come up with a better title, I am sure. But to me it is more culturally understood. Here is my title, “Don’t Mess with God’s People.” Now there are other ways I could have said that, “Don’t tread on God’s people,” or whatever. But you know, we are in the south, so let’s just go on and talk like we talk. Don’t mess with God’s people.

In verse 16 we do not have a builder. We have somebody who is destroying that which is being built. One who doesn’t build. Paul is warning those who come against the people who are busy about building upon the foundation of Christ. They are in the church and outside the church.

Some people say (I think it is erroneous) that in Paul’s day the people would come to church, meet to worship and then when they would go out, Satan would persecute them and attack them. But today, Satan has joined the church and there is as much persecution inside the church as there is outside of the church. I think that is a wrong statement. I believe in Paul’s day it was the same way as it is today. If you will read the letters, there was as many wicked people inside the church as there were outside the church.

So Paul gives a warning. God really is giving the warning through Paul to those people who would seek to destroy the building being built by God’s own, by those who have been saved. We are going to learn a lot about these folks.

Look in verses 16 and 17. Let’s read the passage and then we will get into it. It will take a while because it is not an easy passage. Verse 16 says, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.” Now, that may seem easy, but it is not. Let’s just dig in.

We Are the Dwelling of God

There are three things that I want you to see. Perhaps they will help us better understand what is being said here in 1 Corinthians 3. First of all, Paul tells us that we are the dwelling of God. Verse 16 reads, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God.” He uses this same terminology over in chapter 6. There he speaks of each individual being a temple of God, the body being the temple of God, the Holy of Holies, that place where God resides on this earth. Yes, that is included here in chapter 3, but I think he looks more at the broader picture of the whole church being a temple of God. We won’t argue either way, but from the context I think you will see as we go along he is talking about the whole church, wherever they are, not just at Corinth.

Let’s look over in 1 Corinthians 6:19 so you will know what I am talking about. He says, “Or do you not know that your body [he is talking about the individual] is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” It appears there that he is talking about the individual person being a temple. Back in chapter 3, not only is that taken into consideration, but it looks at the whole picture of all of us being the residents of God on this earth.

God has chosen to dwell with His people on this earth. Go back to the Old Testament when God chose to tabernacle among His people. He had them build a tabernacle. Oh, what an exciting day that was when the fire came down from heaven, giving the people the understanding that God’s presence was with them in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle that they had built. A little later on it moves from a temporary dwelling, the tabernacle, to a more permanent dwelling, which would be the temple that Solomon built. What a day that was when the temple was dedicated. God was dwelling with His people in the place called the Holy of Holies. In the Greek it would be that same word we are looking at here as the temple, naos. It is the idea of the place where God dwells. But you know that Israel rejected God. They continued to sin against Him. And out of His righteous anger, He withdrew His presence, and from the book of Malachi to the book of Matthew, there is 400 years called the Period of Darkness. Nothing was spoken from heaven. God was not dwelling among His people until the gospels were written.

Then God broke the silence and chose once again to dwell with us. He came and tabernacled in His Son, Jesus Christ. He was born of a virgin and took upon Himself flesh and blood. He actually didn’t take a body, but He was born from a virgin, born flesh and blood. He had no earthly father, but He was conceived of the Heavenly Father. He became the unique Godman. God now dwelt in a fleshly body with His people on this earth, in Jesus Christ. Jesus was the actual temple of God on this earth.

Of course, man crucified Him and then He resurrected the third day, ascended, was glorified and then on the Day of Pentecost, He sent His Spirit back to this earth to dwell in the hearts of believers, to take up permanent residence within us. So the church becomes the Temple of God upon the earth. God dwells in us.

The apostle Paul says, “Do you not know.” The word “know” there is a form of the word eido. In other words, “Do you not have this perception? Do you not have this understanding?” Sometimes you want to remind Christians, “Do you not know?”, especially in counseling, when a husband and wife are having difficulty. One of them says, “I just can’t love him. I just can’t put up with him.” You could say back to that person, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God upon this earth, where God dwells? Nobody ever says you could, but He can and He lives in you. You are the dwelling of God upon this earth.”

Paul has just told them how important it is to build upon the foundation of Christ with precious stones, making sure that it stands the test of God’s judgment. Now, as if to further explain that, he points out that they are the temple of God on this earth. In other words, it is not their reputation that is at stake, it is His reputation that is at stake. And if anything becomes a motivating factor in our life, it ought to be that Christ lives in us. That is why we should live lives by faith to build upon this foundation a building that will stand God’s test one day.

So many people just do not realize that they are the dwelling of God on this earth. How many people come to church every week and don’t know they bring God with them, that God lives in them. We have got to grasp this.

This is what Paul is trying to bring out. Why would you attach yourself to a man? Attach yourself to Christ. He lives in you. Let Him work through you so that people can see that you are His temple here on this earth. Some people say, “Well, God is omnipresent. Isn’t He everywhere? Why would you say He lives in us if He is not everywhere?” Have you ever asked that question? Well, there is a very simple answer. Yes, He is everywhere, but everybody doesn’t recognize that. He is everywhere. He is in creation. Some of the greatest poets have written beautiful things about creation and then signed beside their name, atheist. They don’t believe in God. God is all around them and they can’t see Him. But God has uniquely chosen human beings who He would come to live in, those who put their faith into Jesus Christ. And when they do, they can not only be aware of His omnipresence but they can understand Him.

We can walk with Him. We can talk with Him. We can hear Him. It is an intimate relationship He chose to have with you and me. He chose to take up permanent residence in the hearts and lives of believers.

This was the burden that Paul had for the church at Ephesus. I guess he had the same burden for every other epistle that He wrote, but particularly the Corinthians and the Ephesians. Look over to Ephesians 3:14. He really wanted these Gentiles to know that Christ lived in them, that they were the temple of God on this earth, that God actually dwelled in their hearts and in their lives. Ephesians 3:14 begins a prayer that I think is the hinge of the whole book of Ephesians. It sums up everything in chapters 1, 2 and 3 and sets up everything in chapters 4, 5 and 6.

Look what he says here in verse 14. He says, “For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father.” What reason? Observation, interpretation. Normally when you want to find out the reason, you read a few verses back and you will find the reason. Well, here it is more difficult. Look at verse 1 of chapter 3. He starts that verse the same way he starts verse 14, the very same Greek word. He says, “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.” Now, I could be wrong but I think he starts his prayer in verse 1 and for 13 verses he just gets overwhelmed with what he is praying for them. Here he is in prison, loving Jesus, overwhelmed that Christ lives in him and he has such a high view of Christ, a high view of salvation, he is just continuously overwhelmed at the revelation and the mystery that God has shown to him. Then he comes back to his prayer in verse 14. If I am correct, you have to go back to 2:1922 to find out why he bows his knees before the Father.

Look back in 2:19. It is beautiful what he is saying to them here. He is a converted Jew writing to converted Gentiles, but he wants them to understand something. He says in verse 19, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord.” Then in verse 22 he just tops it off. He says, “In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”

He wants them to understand that for this reason I bow my knees before the Father. “You Gentiles need to understand who lives in you. You need to understand who you are and whose you are in light of that truth and live out of that. If you don’t, the foundation of the building that we are building upon is not going to stand the test of God’s judgment one day, and our works will be destroyed instead of remaining which will bring forth a reward.”

Understand what Paul is saying here. God is not there because there is building. He came and put up permanent residence in you and in me. He chose to do that. So we bring Him in the church with us, in that one respect. Even though He is omnipresent, we knowingly bring Him here. He is wherever we are. He is with us when nobody else can see us but just us. He lives in us. He is always there.

Now if this is not understood, there is going to be some serious problems in the building that we are building that is going to be tested one day. That is so clear from God’s Word that there is going to be an accounting one day for what we are doing now. God has given us everything for life and godliness. He is going to test it one day just to see what we have done with it, not to approve us but to approve those works. So we must realize that we are the dwelling of God on this earth.

Now notice what Paul says back in 1 Corinthians 3:16. He says, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God.” Now, let me show you something here that perhaps you wouldn’t see in the English. In the Greek there is no definite article here. You say, “What does that mean?” Well, when the definite article is there, it identifies. When it is not there, it qualifies. What does that mean? In other words, he is talking about God in the Godhead, the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the three in one. I want to be honest with you, I can’t understand it. If we could understand this in all of its totality, then God would be no bigger than our brain and you certainly wouldn’t want a God who is no bigger than our brain. Why would we go to church? I mean, it is much bigger than that. You can’t even illustrate it. However, we can show you some scriptures to show you that all of God comes to live in you, all that God decides to give to us.

Look in John 14:16. This is very important. This is Jesus speaking here in John 14:16. He says, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.” The word “another,” is allos, which means another of exactly the same kind, not the word heteros, which means another of a different kind.

Then in verse 17 we read, “that is the Spirit of truth [the Holy Spirit of God] whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.”

Look at verse 19. “After a while the world will behold Me no more [Jesus was saying, “It will neither see nor understand Me] but you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also.” There is going to be someone in you to give manifestation to Me.

Then in verse 20 of chapter 14 Jesus says, “In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” Then a little later in verse 23 it says, “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.’”

What I am trying to show you is, if the Holy Spirit of God lives in us, then that is God, very God. When you have the Holy Spirit, you have the Father and the Son wrapped up into one. When you have Jesus, you have the Father and the Spirit. When you have the Father you have the Son and the Spirit. They are all one. They are not three Gods. There is only one God in three persons. So if the Holy Spirit lives in you, God lives in you.

The word for “temple” in 1 Corinthians 3:16 is the word naos. In most instances it refers to the whole temple, but not here. In specific instances it refers to the Holy of Holies. There is another word that is synonymous with it and it means the sacred place, the Holy place, that place that God Himself dwells. Now, that ought to make you think the next time you make a choice. God Himself dwells in you. You are, in a sense, the Holy of Holies on this earth. Now the Holy of Holies is where God is in heaven. However, He is on earth and He has chosen to reside within the hearts of man. God dwells within us. We are His temples on this earth.

The Temple Was a Magnificent Structure

Now what is the purpose of the temple? There are two things I want you to see, and I think it all fits with what we are looking at in the context of 1 Corinthians 3. First of all, the temple was a magnificent structure. It was made of all the things that were precious (precious stones, gold and silver) where God would manifest Himself. Now, everything was done to keep the temple from decaying or from corrupting. The problem was, the people who were in it were wicked and lived without faith. When Christ came on the scene, He made it possible for us to be that temple of God. We are to be that magnificent structure which people look at and see us pointing to Him. They see the righteous deeds that we do and these become the precious stones; not a cold stone or a cold piece of metal, but something that is living and fleshed out. When we are willing to walk by faith, people see that and that becomes the beauty that surrounds the One who dwells within us. People everywhere realize that there is a fragrance about us, the aroma of Christ is in our life. We now become the temple. The beauty again is those righteous stones, those righteous deeds that we do by faith.

The Temple Was A Place to Worship God

The temple was also a place of worshiping God. Aren’t you glad that we don’t have to go to Jerusalem to worship God? We don’t even have to go to church to worship God. What we do at church we do as a body. But wherever you are, you can worship God in spirit and in truth. Worship is a verb. Worship is not something you feel. Worship is something you do in response to what God has done in your own life. It may be in a restaurant when you have ordered something, and the waitress brought the wrong thing and it was cold. But you chose to die to the flesh and you let the spirit of God reach out to her. Then you have worshiped God by your response to His Spirit in your life. That is what it is all about. We worship Him by falling down before Him, by our willingness to serve Him, by our willingness to live lives that point to Him and not to us. So we are the temples of God on this earth.

People who see you at work won’t see you at church, but they see you as the residence of God. They see you as that person in which God resides. That is our whole purpose. It is His reputation that is at stake, not ours.

We Are Indwelt By God the Holy Spirit

To take it a step further in our motivation to build upon the foundation with the correct materials, Paul tells us that we are the dwelling of God on this earth. But the second thing I want you to look at here, by being the dwelling of God on this earth, he says we are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit. Now I have said a little bit about that. I am not going to go back and try to prove He is God. You know He is God. He came to live in us. I want to take it a step further.

It says in verse 16, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” The word for “dwells” is the word oikeo. It comes from oikos, which means house or residence. In other words, He has taken up residence within our life. It is in the present active indicative. Continuously He dwells in our life, of His own accord (active voice) and write it down, it is a fact (indicative) you see. In other words, this is something that you just take home and understand. God says He has taken up residence in your life. The Holy Spirit taking up residence in your life is proof of your holiness before God. Understand that.

Look in the last part verse 17. He says, “for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.” The word “holy” is hagios. We saw that in chapter 1. Holiness does not mean perfection when it comes to us. When it comes to Him, yes, but not to us. His is inherent. Ours is imputed. But the word “holy” means we have been set apart, we have been put into a class all by ourselves. Amongst all humanity, we are in a class all by ourselves. Why? Because the Spirit of God has taken up residence in our heart. He has separated us unto Himself and for His purposes, therefore, we have been made holy. His living in our life is prove of that fact.

Paul says, “and that is what you are.” You are holy because God is holy and lives in you and has separated you unto Himself and made you holy. We as believers are the very temple of God. He sent His own Spirit to take up residence in our life.

Now what does the Spirit do? Boy, if you think along the context here, it just excites you. The Holy Spirit is the Building Project Coordinator. Last time we saw that we are building a building. It is going to be tested one day. Well, now who is the one who is running this project? The Holy Spirit of God.

Look over in Ephesians 3:16. The same prayer and the same chapter, but a different verse. I want you to see what Paul says. What is the Holy Spirit in our life to do? He says in verse 16 of Ephesians 3, “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.” It is the Spirit of God who enables the righteous bricks to be put upon the foundation of Christ in my life. If I am living in obedience to Him, if I am living surrendered to Him, the result is going to be a house that will withstand the test that God is going to give to it one day, the test of fire. We are to be as he says over in Ephesians 5:18, we are to be filled with the Spirit of God.

It says in verse 18 of Ephesians 5, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation [that is waste], but be filled with the Spirit.” Now, what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit of God? Well, it is understood by the first part of the verse. We are to be totally affected by the Holy Spirit, not by stuff that is outside coming in like wine or that which makes us drunk.

The apostle Paul said, “No, be ye filled by the same way you get drunk with wine, be ye filled with the Spirit of God. Let the Holy Spirit through His Word control your mind. Let the Holy Spirit give you understanding and perception through your spiritual eyes. Let the Holy Spirit help you to hear what God is saying to you. Let the Holy Spirit teach you how to walk. Let the Holy Spirit control you.” It is in the present tense. It means it is a lifestyle, be being filled. It is in the passive voice. Let Him do the filling, let Him do the controlling. It is imperative. There is no option to the believer.

The Holy Spirit lives in us to do exactly that. And if I live filled with the Spirit of God, controlled by the Spirit of God, surrendered to Him, then the building that is being built on the foundation of Christ one day will be tested by fire, will withstand the fire and there will be a reward in the end. Be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. That is what He is in our life to do, to rule and to reign and to enable us to build with the precious stones and the gold and the silver, the righteous deeds that will stand the test of God one day. It is the Holy Spirit of God who proves that we are holy. He lives in us and has separated us unto Himself. He enables us now to live separate unto Him and for the building to be built correctly.

There Are Those Who Seek To Defile the Dwelling Of God

Well, there is one more thing. We are the dwelling of God. Secondly, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. But here comes the main thought of what Paul is saying. Thirdly, Paul says there are those who seek to defile the dwelling of God. Here is when God, through Paul, is going to say, “You had better not mess with my people!”

Look at verse 17: “If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him.” Many people think that means suicide. It’s crazy how you can interpret something. Be real careful. That is not at all what he is talking about here. He is not saying if you go out and kill yourself, which is destroying the temple, that God is going to destroy you. That has nothing to do with it. If a Christian is a Christian, even suicide is not an unpardonable sin, because we are kept blameless, not sinless, in Christ until that day. No matter what sin we commit, it may have excruciating consequences, but once you put your faith into Christ, nothing can throw you out of the kingdom of God. You are His forever. So it is not talking about somebody committing suicide in this particular verse. It has nothing to do with it.

As a matter of fact, the word “destroy” could have been translated a little bit better. The King James translates it “defile.” That is a much better translation. Let me show you. The word normally translated as “destroy” is apollumi. That is not the word used here. The word that is used here is phtheiro. It comes from the word that means to waste away, to pine away, to corrupt. It refers to something that goes from this state to a much worsened state. That is what the idea means, to corrupt. To go from this state to this state which makes you worse off. The word “destroy,” apollumi, like I said, is a different word altogether. This word means to corrupt and defile.

The Man Who Destroys Is Not a Believer

Paul says, “If any man destroys the temple of God.” Now who is this man? Let’s make some observations about him. First of all, he cannot be a believer, because verse 17 says if you destroy the temple of God, God says he will destroy you. There is no way that the believer is ever going to be destroyed by God. But there is something about the believer that is going to be destroyed. What is it? His fleshly works. That is right. Not the believer, but his works. So we already have an observation here. This cannot be a believer.

The Man Who Destroys Is Bent On Corrupting the Church

Secondly, he must be a person bent on corrupting the church, somebody who is out to get the church, to keep them from walking by faith and to walk after the world and the ways of the world. The verb there is in the present active indicative. Present tense is an ongoing thing. Active voice is of his own volition and then again, the indicative, you had better write this down, this is what these people are doing. The tense of it then is in that area. This is not a one time thing. It is an ongoing bent that somebody has to corrupt, to defile the pure walk of faith that the church is supposed to be living.

This should not surprise us that there are people like that even among us today. It should not surprise us. There are a lot of people who still have not gotten it in their theology of how bad we were before we got saved. Try to convince some people they are sinners and ungodly, etc. “Not me!” Look over in Romans 5:6 and I will show you what every one of us were before God found us. None of us found Him, He found us. It should not surprise us that there are people even among us today who hate the things of God, who are enemies of the walk of faith and would seek to corrupt and defile the people who are His temples on this earth.

Romans 5:6 says, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” “Brother, I was never ungodly. Why I have believed in Jesus from the time I was born.” Have you heard that? “I wasn’t ungodly. We were good people, We were good people.” Yeah, right. No, you were ungodly. That is what you were. That is what I was. That is what all of us were. We were born into Adam. No matter how you covered it up, that is what we were.

Look at verse 8. It tells you even more. “But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners.” Do you know what that means? Habitual sinners. “Boy, not me. I was a good boy. I helped little old ladies across the street. I was good. I was a good person.” The prophet of the nation of Israel, Isaiah, said, “Take all of our good deeds and stack them up and they are filthy rags in the sight of God.” You see, we don’t understand that sin is anything that proceeds from a person who has not become the dwelling of God on this earth. Sin is sin, whether we want to call it rebellious or whatever. It is still sin. Sinners is what we were.

Then it goes on in verse 10, “For if while we were enemies [Enemy! I wasn’t an enemy of God!” Yes, you were.], we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

Now, I want to tell you something. That kind of mindset is a lost person’s mindset. That is what he is. He is ungodly. He is a habitual sinner. And he is an enemy of God. He is an enemy to anything that is of God. Paul has already laid the ground work for us. He says the ungodly think the gospel, the preaching of the cross, is foolish, you see. Romans 1 says professing themselves to become wise, they became fools.

But this is the mindset of the lost. In our day and time there are people who have even joined the church who are lost. And they think because they have joined the church they have joined Jesus. You don’t join Jesus. You have to be born from above. That is entirely different. A lot of people inside the church still have a fleshly mindset. When anything goes wrong, they seek to pull you away from your walk of faith, from the simplicity of trusting God and put you back down on this earth and make you think like the world thinks. They are everywhere, folks. They are inside the church and outside the church. Their very lifestyle seeks to corrupt and defile the people who are the temples of God.

Corinth was absolutely no exception. As a matter of fact, it was the illustration of the day. It was the most wicked city on the face of this earth. All of a sudden you begin to understand the feel of this book. Evidently, some of them had gotten in this church and some of them, enemies of God, were seeking to tear down what these believers wanted to build up. God says, “Buddy, you corrupt my people, you defile my people and I will corrupt and defile you.”

Listen, the word “corrupt” there has the idea of deceiving somebody. Listen to how it is used. Look over in 2 Corinthians 7:2. This word that we are looking at here has the idea of corruption, perhaps by deception. It is not as easily seen as you think it is. 2 Corinthians 7:2 says, “Make room for us in your hearts; we wronged no one [Paul is speaking of his own defense now when he was among them], we corrupted no one [same word], we took advantage of no one.”

In other words, he is saying, “We taught you the Word of God, pure. What we taught you is God’s Word. We didn’t corrupt. We didn’t deceive you. We didn’t defile you

1 Corinthians 3:14-15

The Preparation for the Test

Persecution

Live According To Your Eternal Purpose

Live In the Attachment

You Cannot Do It in Your Own Strength

1 Corinthians 3:16-17

1 Don’t Mess with God’s People -

2 We Are the Dwelling of God

3 The Temple Was a Magnificent Structure

4 The Temple Was A Place to Worship God

5 We Are Indwelt By God the Holy Spirit

6 There Are Those Who Seek To Defile the Dwelling Of God

7 The Man Who Destroys Is Not a Believer

8 The Man Who Destroys Is Bent On Corrupting the Church

Don’t Mess with God’s People - I Cor. 3: 16-17

We Are the Dwelling of God

The Temple Was a Magnificent Structure

The Temple Was A Place to Worship God

We Are Indwelt By God the Holy Spirit

There Are Those Who Seek To Defile the Dwelling Of God

The Man Who Destroys Is Not a Believer

The Man Who Destroys Is Bent On Corrupting the Church

In other words, he is saying, “We taught you the Word of God, pure. What we taught you is God’s Word. We didn’t corrupt. We didn’t deceive you. We didn’t defile you

I Corinthians 3:18

Contents

1 Beware of Self Deception

2 The Cause of Self Deception

3 The Cure for Self Deception

4 The Caution for the Self Deceived

Beware of Self Deception

You know, when you ask someone how tall he is, he can immediately respond. Do you know why? Because there is a standard by which he can measure himself. When I was growing up, my mother used to measure me on the door frame of our kitchen. She had it marked off in feet all the way up to the very top. We would mark how tall I was and write down how old I was and the date when I was measured. So, all the way growing up, I knew exactly how tall I was. There was a standard by which I could be measured.

But when you ask somebody how beautiful or how handsome they are, that becomes a matter of one’s opinion. Whose standard are you going to go by? The saying goes, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Now if somebody asks you how beautiful you are or how handsome you are, that is a matter of your opinion as compared to somebody else’s opinion.

It is the same way when you ask somebody how wise you are. You see, wisdom is a quality that cannot be evaluated so quickly and so effectively. What man calls wisdom is foolishness to God. A man can deceive himself quickly in this area by thinking himself to be wise.

Now, get back in the context. The apostle Paul is still addressing the immature church at Corinth who would rather attach themselves to men than attach themselves to Christ. He has already told them that God works through all men, not just preachers, and therefore they should attach themselves to Jesus so that God can work through them, and one day He will test those works by fire.

Then he warns those who would corrupt the church. I think he still has this in mind as we go into our text. After warning those who seek to corrupt the church, to defile it, to bring it to a worsened state, particularly by the means of deception, now he warns them, “Do not deceive yourselves.”

Look at verse 18: “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become foolish that he may become wise.” Now you see that is for any man, Christian or nonChristian. It is a warning. Christians, beware of self deception. Anyone can fall into this trap.

The Cause of Self Deception

There are three things that I want to show you concerning this self deception. First of all, the cause of this self deception. What causes a person to deceive himself? Verse 18 reads, “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become foolish that he may become wise.” The word for “deceive” is exapatao. It comes from ek, out of, and apatao, to seduce or to deceive. In other words, to lead out of the right way and the truth and to lead into error. Actually, in this sense of the word, to actually walk out of truth and to walk over into error.

It is a present active imperative verb. Present tense means it is a pursuit, not just a onetime thing. A person always seems to be prone to go this way. Active voice means is by his own volition. Nobody made him do it. He may have been deceived to go that way, but he made his own choice. And now he is headed in that direction. Imperative here means it is a command. Don’t do this, in other words. Don’t be a person like this. Don’t be a person who constantly pursues the wrong way, walking out of truth and walking into error.

Self deception is something that is different than being deceived by someone else. You can be deceived into self deception if you are not careful. Self deception is what you do to yourself. Now, if self deception is being lured out from under truth into error, what is it that is so magnetic and so attractive that would cause believers to go that direction? Well, we know first of all that it is a common thing to all of us. He said, “If any man among you.” This could happen to anybody. It is something that every one of us has to deal with.

Secondly, it involves how we think of ourselves. He says, “If any man among you thinks.” The word “think” there is a present indicative active dokeo. Here it has the idea of one’s personal concept of himself. He is walking around with this mindset of himself. So be careful, there is a mindset involved here. It is the way you think from within concerning yourself.

Think what? “If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age.” Here it is. That is the main characteristic of self deception. Thinking you are wise in this age. The word for “age” is the word aion. Sometimes it is translated “world,” but that is wrong. World is kosmos. It has something else to say, which we will see in a later verse. In this verse the word is aion, which means there are ages within ages. Each age has specific characteristics about it. It is the way the world thinks, the way they think during this age. All of the characteristics of all of the ages are similar here. All of it has the same basic likeness. It involves the way we think of ourselves as being wise. And when we buy into this mindset, when we start thinking of ourselves the way the world thinks of itself, look out, we have walked out from under truth and we have walked into error.

Paul has already discussed the trap called worldly wisdom that is characteristic to every age. Again, it has to do with the way the world thinks of itself. Look back in 1:19. Let’s just make sure we have done our homework here. He has already addressed this. This is the way the world thinks of itself. They proclaim themselves to be wise, Romans says, and therefore they became fools. In verse 19 of chapter 1 it says, “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.’” God said, “I will destroy it.” I mean, totally annihilate it.

Then he calls it the wisdom of the age in verse 20 of chapter 1. This is the way the world thinks of itself. He calls it the wisdom of the age. “Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” The word for “world” is aion. The wisdom of this age. Has God not made it foolish? So he calls it the wisdom of the age. It is also the same as fleshly wisdom. If you want to know what he is saying here, wise as the world is wise, it is a fleshly wisdom. It is how they think of themselves, not how God thinks of them.

Look in 1 Corinthians 1:26. He says, “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.” So what we see here then is a wisdom of this age, a wisdom of the world, a wisdom of the flesh, a fleshly wisdom. Paul is saying this is deceptive because this is something that they think of themselves, not based on how God thinks of them. Ask them, “Are you wise?” They will tell you in a minute, “Yes, I am wise.” Paul says, “Don’t fall into that trap.”

Paul has been talking about wisdom, teaching and the works that man does. Now, doing these things can lead to a worldly pride. Be careful. The more you learn, in other words, of what you study, all of a sudden you can become wise in your own estimation based on what you think. Or it could be pride of what you have done. God could have enabled you to do great things and used you in powerful ways, but somehow you adopted the world’s thinking and you think you are somebody because that has taken place. You may be proud of what you have. God may have blessed you in a very successful manner in the world and you think you did that yourself. You have become proud as the world would view wisdom of this kind. Buying into this kind of wisdom is the epitome of self deception. That is what Paul is trying to help them to understand. It will cost you in your reward one day. It will cost you one day when God tests all of our work by fire. It will not stand, because this is fleshly wisdom.

There are people out there who are trying to corrupt us and defile us. The way they do it is they come across with their way of thinking, and if you buy into it, it is going to be the epitome of that self deception. It was obviously the trap that was set for the Corinthian believers.

Let’s just illustrate this for a minute. Maybe you take a Bible study course. All of a sudden you have all of this knowledge in your head. Man, are you ever biblically literate! And you come across as, “I am a smart person. I am a wise person. Why, I have been in a Bible study!” You have fallen into the very trap Paul is warning them against, because you don’t know anything unless you are living it. And if you are living it, it is God giving you understanding. You never boast in what you know, you boast in what God has revealed to your heart.

You can easily fall into this trap. You can adopt the world’s way of thinking when it comes to wisdom, when it comes to pride. You think you know something as a result of all of that. Perhaps God has used you in something else. Maybe you have been on a mission trip. Maybe you are a pastor. Maybe there is a congregation that has grown large because of your being there. But one day you fall into the trap. And the trap is, from within, you start thinking that you are indispensable. You are the one who built this church. I tell you what, folks, that is rampant in the day that we are living in. They are having conferences all over our country on how you can build a church, how you can organize it. You do, you do this, you do this, you do this and you can have a great congregation.

But it has nothing to do with man’s wisdom. It is what God does. God is the one who builds His church. Man cannot build His church. All man can do is attract a crowd. God builds His church. But you can fall into the trap of estimating your wisdom based on what you can see and count and feel rather than how God looks at a matter.

In the first century in Corinth, all you had to do to insult a Greek was to question his wisdom. The Greeks were proud of their wisdom. As a matter of fact, the apostle Paul was perfect to be in the slot that God put him in because he was born as a Greek and he understood that mentality. He had the intelligence to deal with it. But all you had to do to insult them was to question their wisdom. A Greek would rather be poor than stupid. He would rather be a criminal than be known as a fool. The Corinthians were proud of their wisdom.

But look at what the apostle Paul is doing here. Paul is saying, “Hey, don’t fall into that trap.” He is a Greek. He understands the way they think. He is saying, “The height of self deception is to consider yourself wise in the age in which you live.”

Now before we leave this, look in 3:19. He changes a word here. He uses another word for “world” instead of aion, which is age. In 1 Corinthians 3:19 he says, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God.” Now the word for “world” here is the word kosmos, which is different from aion. Aion should be translated age and has a different meaning altogether. Kosmos, however, has to do with the material things of this world that we live within.

You see, the people of the world, when they are wise according to the world (and that is called foolishness by God), they base their wisdom on that which they can see, that which they can count. In other words, a man is considered to be wise if he has made a lot of money in this world. He thinks himself to be wise if he has done that. The people who are the billionaires laugh and make mockery of the church, but they call themselves wise. They say, “I know I am wise. Look at the kingdom that I have built. You can see it. You can count it. You can read my bank account, you see.” How many things have they really done? You see, God is the one who has actually done it. They think they have done these things. They count themselves by how others think of them.

We think wisdom comes by how many degrees one has. Vance Havner said, “I speak with these people who have a D.D. and a Ph.D. and an L.D.” He said, “You know, they are just a bunch of fiddledeedees if you ask me.” But I tell you what, there are people who are so proud of those degrees. When you walk into their offices, all you see is plaques. It is not wrong to put them on the wall, but some people think they are wise because of that degree. They can see it. They went to school. They paid the money. They passed the course. I am wise according to the world.

God said that kind of wisdom is nothing more than foolishness before God. When a man thinks himself to be wise based on the standard of the material, the standard of what you can see and touch and feel, that man is a foolish man. Paul is warning the church, warning the believer, “Don’t fall into this kind of self deception.”

I have a friend in a Eastern European country whose church grew very large under persecution. When I met him the next time, I began to sense pride in his life. I began to sense something I didn’t sense before. Back under persecution, back when they were sufferings, I sensed humility. I sensed desperation to get hold of God. But then when I met him later, I began to pick up that he has fallen into the trap that you and I can fall into. Success must mean we are wise. No, it does not. That is what Paul is saying.

The lure, the attractiveness out here is that I can look to myself as being wise. The accolades of people can make me think, “Wow, I really know something. I have done something.” I tell you what, that is the epitome of self deception. Don’t deceive yourself by walking into their trap. Don’t start looking to what you know, what you have done and what you have and considering yourself wise because of it. Friend, the world looks at wisdom differently than God looks at it. God calls the world’s wisdom foolishness. Well, I guess you could say, the reason we are attracted to it is because our flesh loves it. Our flesh loves it.

Don’t you dare think yourself wise in the midst of all that is going on. I tell you what, when you start thinking yourself as the world considers themselves wise, you are literally using the wrong materials to build the building which one day will be judged by fire, and it won’t last. It will not stand. So whatever God has done, whatever you have, whatever you know because of God’s revealing it by the precious Holy Spirit’s power, give God the glory back and say, “I would never have known it had it not been for God.” Because if you fall in that trap of worldly wisdom, it will defeat the very purpose for which God has come to live in your life.

The Cure for Self Deception

Secondly, we see the cure for self deception. Maybe you have fallen into that trap. I have fallen into it. All of us are susceptible to it because it is so magnetic, the lure of the way people think rather than what God thinks. In verse 18 he says, “Let no man deceive himself. If [hypothetically] any man among you thinks he is wise in this age [evidently somebody fell in this trap: he thinks he is wise], let him become foolish that he may become wise.” Look at the phrase, “let him become foolish.” The word “become” is an aorist imperative, ginomai. It means become, properly translated there. The aorist there has the sense of just do it. Stop talking about it. Make up your mind. You know the truth, now just do it. You become foolish. You do it.

Middle voice, it is middle deponent really. It has the active sense. Make up your own mind. Don’t make somebody tell you. You know good and well that this kind of thing is human wisdom and that is foolishness to God. Now you become foolish.

What does “become foolish” mean? Now wait a minute, the context will rule here. The word “foolish” is the word moros. We get the word moron from it. Isn’t that exciting? The context rules. Foolish as the world would view foolishness. In other words, when you step off that pedestal, the world is going to call you a fool. “What do you mean, man? You know you did it. I mean, give God a little bit of the credit, but you know you did it.” That is the way the world thinks. But when you become foolish, it means as they see foolish. God will see it as wise, but the world will see it as foolish. You must admit the foolishness of ever thinking you are anything outside of Christ. You have got to come to that place.

I tell you, that is a humbling thing in our life, isn’t it? To come to the place that we are nothing outside of Him. We know nothing outside of Him. We have nothing outside of Him. We can do nothing outside of Him. To admit that before others. In 1 Corinthians 4:10 the apostle Paul talks of him and his compadres. He says, “We are fools for Christ’s sake.” Paul said that. Did you know that Paul was the most intelligent man, other than Jesus, in the whole New Testament? You talk about a man who could draw a crowd. Remember, we looked at this back in chapter 1. At one time they thought he was one of the gods, the particular god who was the voice of all the gods because he had such a speaking ability. When he spoke, they said, “Oh, the gods have come to visit us.” Paul was an intelligent man. Paul had that Socratic method of reasoning and he would come in amongst them and wouldn’t threaten them right off. He wouldn’t tell them where he was going. He would kind of come up alongside of them and say, “This is great.” Then he would start asking questions and lead them to come to the conclusion. He would never have to say another word by asking the right questions at the right time. A brilliant man! He could handle any kind of situation. Yet he calls himself a fool for Christ.

You see, he understood something now that he didn’t understand before. For years of his life, he thought the message of Christ was foolish. As a matter of fact, to show you how foolish he thought it was, he was out to defeat and kill Christians. He stood there when Stephen was stoned to death. Then he was on his way to Damascus, breathing threats against those he would arrest in Damascus, but he got arrested on the Damascus Road and God met with him and blinded him for three days. After those three days, he was never the same. I mean, here is a man who was wise in his own estimation, a man whose religion had really helped him profit. He had a lot of gain because of it. But now that he is a Christian, now that he has met Christ, he realizes how foolish he really was all of that time. And now he calls himself a fool for Christ’s sake.

Turn away from thinking yourself wise in the standards of the world and the flesh. You start doing that by realizing how everything you have is nothing more than a blessing that comes from God. Everything you do is nothing more than what His Spirit living in you energized you to do. Everything that you have, everything you know, everything that you do, all of it comes from Him.

The wisdom of the world and the way it thinks of itself is amazing. “Hey, look what I have done. Look at my stock market receipts. Look at my investments. Look how they have paid off. Hey, man, I am a wise man in this world.” And God says, “Baloney! That is foolish.”

So, the way the world thinks of itself, the standards by which they come to the opinions that they have formed of themselves, don’t fall into that trap. It can happen to you in a moment. It can happen to you when good things happen in your life, but you have adopted from within. Nobody told you this, but you adopted it from within. Wow, I must be wise. You have adopted the very philosophy of the world by saying what you have said. You see, only what God does ever counts in our life. That is what will be rewarded one day when we have our work tested by fire.

The Caution for the Self Deceived

Then third, we have the caution for the self deceived. They need to understand a principle about God, a truth about God that will help them down the road. It says in verse 19, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, ‘He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness’; and again, ‘The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.’”

What in the world is Paul talking about? Well, when one thinks himself to be wise, this has come from within. I want to make sure you understand. A man loves what he is much more than what he has. And if this wisdom is not from God, then all that he thinks he is, is foolishness when put next to God. A man must humble himself and admit what he does not know before he can become wise before God.

Now, the wisdom of this world, according to verse 19, is foolishness before God. The word for “before” there is the word para. It means in the closest proximity to someone. In other words, when you take all the wisdom of the world and put it over here as close as you can get to God, next to Him and His wisdom, it is absolute foolishness, you see. And therefore, it will not stand the test. What the world thinks of itself and its wisdom is foolishness next to God.

“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, ‘He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness.’” He quotes out of Job 5:13. Remember Job’s life was quite difficult. There is a principle in this that shows you how man’s wisdom is really foolishness when it comes to dealing with God.

The word “catches” is only used here in the New Testament. It is the verb drassomai. It is in the present tense. Now, this tells you something about the character of God. The word means that He seizes, He catches, He grasps by the hand, He lays hold of, or you could say, He traps in His net. The verse implies that this seizing, this grabbing hold of, this trapping in His net, catching is part of the character of God because it is present tense. He is always doing this. He is about this all the time.

Now what is he saying here? This is really interesting to me. You see, He sees the wise in their own estimation. He knows who they are and the world’s wisdom. And He quickly moves to seize him in His hand to expose him. Now this craftiness here really speaks of a lost person because a lost person is just a crafty person. He may be wise in the world’s eyes, but he is underhanded. He will use methods that a Christian would never use in business. He will do whatever he can do to cheat the income tax to get his money. That is the way the world gets their things and that is the way they proclaim themselves to be wise. But God knows that, and God is watching the crafty. He knows what they are doing. It is like a crafty scoundrel or a criminal who is arrested. God arrests him. He grabs him, then exposes him and punishes him accordingly. In other words, God does not allow the world to get away with what they call their worldly wisdom. That is part of his character. He moves quickly to do that. It is crafty reasoning by which the wise put their deceitful wisdom across and rob men’s souls of Christ and believers of their reward one day in heaven.

Remember, he said look out for the ones who seek to corrupt My people. We talked about that earlier. How do they do it? These are those crafty people. They can lure you into their trap, oh, folks, in a minute.

I remember one day we were going out witnessing. We drove up in this man’s yard. Everybody told me, “You will never get anywhere with this guy.” So I drive up in his driveway, get out of the car, and the guy is outside watering his yard. He sees me and he says, “Wayne Barber!” And I am thinking, “Oh, here we go.” He said, “I have been looking for you. You are just the man I wanted to see.” Oh, no! We walk inside and he was a part of a certain organization. I won’t get into all that, he had brochures of what I could have and all this kind of thing. I could be financially free, etc. But I was already financially free.

He started telling me all these things that I could have. I had to finally stop him. I said, “Sir, I want you to know, I have been cut free from all that.” He said, “You don’t want any of that stuff?” I said, “No, I don’t want it because when you have it, it costs you more than you ever dreamed that you were going to pay for it. You never have it. It owns you.” He looked at me totally perplexed. I said, “As a matter of fact, I came over here to offer you something way beyond that. I came over here to share Jesus Christ with you.” His wife was sitting in the room, and boy, he just turned his whole body away from me. You know how people do when you are talking to them and they don’t want to hear you. I mean, he just turned away from me. His wife, though, didn’t. She was sitting over there with big tears in her eyes.

I looked at him and I said, “Can I speak to your wife? Is it okay?” And he said, “Sure.” I said, “I sense that you are listening to what I am saying. Would you like to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior?” She said, “Could I? Right now?” I said, “Can you!” And she got down on her knees and I got down on mine with her on the floor and she began to pray and she broke. You know, folks, if you have never led somebody to Jesus, you have missed one of the greatest experiences of your life. It is not really you leading them to Jesus. It is Jesus using you to draw them.

She began to pray, and I could tell that had tenderized her husband sitting over there. After she finished, I looked over at him and I could see the mistiness in his eyes. I said, “Hey, would you like to receive Christ?” He said, “Man, could I?” And he got down on his knees beside his wife and received the Lord.

I thought that was the most interesting thing in the world. He already had his scheme. He already had his plan. But God was way ahead of me. As we walked in there, God showed him that what he was pursuing wasn’t worth anything. It wasn’t worth pursuing. But what God could offer him was worth everything in his life.

But I want to warn you, there are people in this world who sound good. They have got a wonderful scheme of how to get you into whatever it is they are trying to lure you into. But if it gets you off track from your simplicity of trusting Christ, from your simplicity of living by faith, you have fallen into the trap that Paul is warning the church of Corinth about. Corinth was famous for this kind of thing. He was warning them, “Look out. They are crafty. They know what they are doing. Be careful. Don’t let them lure you into their trap. It is crafty reasoning of the wise in this world.”

The one that people look up to, the ones who are on television who talk about instant success stories. It is the craftiness of these people that lure precious believers out of a faith walk and trusting Christ and obeying Him into that which the world calls wise and God calls foolish. But the fact is, God catches these people in their craftiness, in all of their schemes. He exposes them. By the fact that He catches them like He does and exposes them like He does is the factual evidence that His wisdom completely outranks theirs. And nothing is more convincing than that. God will show you, give Him time. He will show you the futility of what the world says is wise. He will catch them in His net and expose them. And then their punishment will be as a result of what has been exposed in their life.

The verb drassomai implies speedy action. He seizes the opportunity. When he sees somebody working in worldly wisdom and craftiness, He seizes the opportunity to immediately move on that person. Normally He will allow them to go ahead and do what they are doing so once they have sinned, He will use that sin and turn it right back against them and expose them and bring them down from their platform they put themselves upon. God’s net catches man in his fleshly wisdom.

Paul wants the Corinthians to understand this so that they will realize that these people in Corinth who are trying to lure them into this type of thinking, these people are already caught by God. So why in the world would you want to go that route? You will be caught also. Come back to living and walking by faith. And they will have no excuse before God.

In 1 Corinthians 3:20 he quotes out of Psalms 94:11. Now look at this. He says, “and again, ‘The Lord knows the reasonings [that is an interesting word there] of the wise, that they are useless.’” Now, when the world has somebody out there they have built up, they say, “This man, now, he is wise!” God knows the reasonings of the wise that they are useless. God knows the logic. God knows the intelligence man thinks he has. Before man ever does anything, before he even has to move to catch him in His net, God already knows what he is planning to do. God knows how ineffectual it really is.

The word “useless” is the word meaning having no aim, empty of any beneficial result. The ineffectiveness of these wise men is illustrated, I think, so beautifully in the gospels when the Pharisees, by their schemes and their plots and their tricky questions, tried to trap Jesus. Jesus had already trapped them because He knew their schemes. He knew their logic. He knew it was useless and had no end to it. Therefore, He would turn it around. Every time He would turn around they tried to trap Him. The only reason they ever asked Him a question was to trap Him. But Jesus already knew that. Jesus would turn a question back to them and in one or two words make them look stupid before the whole crowd, showing everybody that His wisdom is far beyond the wisdom of what man says is wise. God’s wisdom exposes the world’s wise men as fools. Paul wants the Corinthians to keep that in mind.

You know what? There may be an application here, I am not sure. I haven’t really sat on it long enough, meditated on it long enough, but I think there is an application here. Because I know in my own personal experience, when I have fallen into that trap, God moves quickly to expose me, even if He has to humiliate or embarrass me,

1 Corinthians 3:18

Contents

1 The Meaning of Being Foolish

2 The technical use of the word “foolish”

3 The textual use of the word “foolish”

4 The tragic meaning of the word “foolish”

The Meaning of Being Foolish

In 1 Corinthians 3:18 the apostle Paul says, “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become foolish that he may become wise.” What does it mean to become foolish? Well, to show you this, I am going to have to back up and take a running start at chapter 3. You have to stay in the flow of a text at all times. I am committed to that.

When we were in South Africa, we went walking for a half a mile or so one day, and we just couldn’t see where we were going. Have you ever done that? We finally got to a high hill and that high hill, that perspective, allowed us to see where we had come from, but it also gave us a full view of where we were headed. We could see in the distance a big waterfall that we were going to see. It was precious.

If you stand on the high hill of 3:1 and look down over the valley to the banks of chapter 4, here is what you would see. Make sure you get the full picture of what is going on here. After one and one half chapters of Paul really bringing the people of Corinth to grips with the fact that they had attached themselves to man and not to God, he shows them the reason why they were doing this in chapter 3. It is very clear. He calls them babies in the nursery who have refused to grow up.

In 1 Corinthians 3:1 he says, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it.” Now, there is no indictment in that. He is just pointing back to a time when he came there. He, Timothy and Silas had led many of them to the Lord. There is a time to be a baby and there is a thirst to being a baby.

The indictment comes in the last phrase of verse 2. He says, “Indeed, even now you are not yet able.” You see, they were attached to flesh. Babies do that, you know. Babies like to grab something they can see, touch and feel. It is very difficult for a baby, in the spiritual sense, to walk by faith. They would rather cling to a preacher, cling to a church, cling to a denomination, cling to an experience, anything but cling to Jesus. There is just something about being a baby that hasn’t allowed for that yet, and they need to grow out of that.

Well, Paul admonishes them. The symptoms of this are in verses 3 and 4. He says, “for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you [those are not good words, folks; those two words always go together in scripture], are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?” King James adds “divisions among you.”

Then in verse 4 he says, “For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not mere men?” You see, the believers who refused to grow by faith are like babies in a nursery. They can be adults.

I learned something in South Africa and Australia. Do you know what a baby pacifier is called over there? In South Africa and Australia they call them dummies. Now that is the funniest thing. They have an expression in Australia that I think is classic. When an adult is acting the wrong way, when they lose their temper, they act like a baby, they just want their way and they whine and gripe and complain and want to have a fit, they call it “spitting the dummy.”

Have you ever watched a little baby who is just about ready to blow up and they have a pacifier in their mouth? What is the first thing they do? Pppt, they spit it out and just let it go. And so when adults do that in Australia, they call it “spitting the dummy.”

Well, welcome to the church of Corinth. What you need to do is go back to the church of Corinth, hand every one of them a pacifier, stick it in their mouth and tell them to get over in the corner. That is exactly what they were. They refused to get out of the nursery. That was their problem. They would not grow up. They would rather be attached to man than be attached to God.

I told you the story before about little Johnny who went to bed one night, and a little bit later his Mama heard a big noise upstairs. She ran upstairs to find that he had fallen out of bed. She asked him, “Johnny, what happened?” He said, “Mama, I guess I just stayed too close to where I got in.” That is the church of Corinth.

Now, I want you to make sure you get a feel of this. He is showing them where their problem is coming from. They had made a conscious choice not to grow in the Word of God. In verses 59 he tries to show them. He says, “I planted, and Apollos watered.” He tries to show them that we are just vessels. That is all we are. Christ hasn’t been divided, as he said earlier in chapter 1. He said, “We are just vessels and God is using us. Take what we have shared with you from Him and let it cause you to grow. But don’t attach yourselves to us.”

Do you realize that people are still doing that today? You know, preachers who stay at a church a long time, and that preacher dies or resigns or does something else, the church falls apart because people have attached themselves to a preacher. They have attached themselves to the way things are. And the next guy who comes in they crucify, all because they won’t come out of the nursery. All of us have to face this kind of thing in our Christian walk.

Paul says, “Don’t do that. Don’t attach yourself to the vessel. Attach yourself to the One who lives in the vessel.” In verses 10 and 11, Paul shows that God enabled him by grace to lay a foundation in their life. He was used to come into their area and preach the gospel. The foundation, of course, is Christ. He says in verse 10, “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But let each man be careful how he builds upon it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

Now, what Paul is telling them is that each person, when they become a believer, becomes a builder. That is very important, by the way. God respects us more than we respect Him. He gives us a will. We have a choice to make, and we choose whether to build of one kind of material or another. He lists those materials in verse 12. There are only two kinds; three in each group. Look at verse 12: “Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones [that’s one group], wood, hay, straw [the other group].” We have a choice of these two materials. Every believer is a builder. We either walk after the flesh or we walk by faith and let God produce the works through us that will stand His test one day when we are rewarded for those works in our life. If we choose to walk by the flesh or after the flesh, we are miserable because the Holy Spirit living in us makes us miserable. If a person is living after the flesh and is not miserable, I question whether he is saved or not. He is building a shack that is going to burn one day.

Paul talks about that test in verse 13. There is going to be accountability one day for allowing God to use you, of walking by faith. He says in 1 Corinthians 3:13, “each man’s work will become evident [the word is phaneros, the light will be turned on] for the day will show it.” The word for “show it” is deloo. It will give information that we really don’t have down here. It is very difficult down here to tell the people who are really walking by faith because some people know the game real well. They play the game well. But when we get up there, when we see Him one day, it will be clearly evident.

Verse 13 goes on to say, “because it is to be revealed [apokalupto means uncovered because it is covered now] with fire.” What is going to reveal it? It is going to be fire. Not the light; the light will show clearly what is revealed, but the fire is the test. The verse says, “and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.” The deeds of the flesh, those immature acts that we do that we do not confess or repent of, will be consumed.

By the way, that is a precious teaching in one way. It is not a negative thing. God is out to reward us. This is a judgment not to approve man, but to approve his works. Remember that. He already has you. He already has me. We have been accepted in the beloved. This is not that kind of judgment. This is the judgment for work because God wants to reward His people.

Verse 14 continues, “If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward.” This reward is for those who build upon the foundation by faith. That is why Paul says, “Man, don’t attach yourself to me. That is flesh. Attach yourself to Christ and walk by faith. Grow up. Throw the pacifier away. Come out of the nursery. Come on, man, let God use you. He wants to use you like He has used us.”

Verse 15 clearly shows us that God is not out to get us. I have heard messages on judgment for Christians preached in ways that would just make you cringe. But, folks, I want to show you the heart of God. God really wants to reward us. That is what this judgment is about. “If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.” The fire is going to consume all that is flesh when you stand before God. It is not going to be shown up on a screen to embarrass you. Have you heard that before? It is not going to nail you to the wall. No, it is going to be consumed immediately, gone. He wants to reward what is left. There will be a suffering of loss. There will be some kind of shame there because it suddenly dawns on you what salvation was all about, what you didn’t do, what you could have had, that kind of thing. But you are still saved. He says, “but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.”

Now, I preach these things and you think I understand them. But I want to tell you something, I did not understand that phrase. What does “he himself shall be saved, yet as by fire” mean? I was down in Australia and I was preaching in 1 Corinthians 3. God began to show me something about that phrase. What does it mean: “he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire,” even though his works are burned up? It hit me like a ton of bricks. Jesus Christ is the foundation, and the fire cannot destroy the foundation. Folks, listen to me. We were saved, not based on our works, we were saved based on His work. And His work will stand His own test one day. That foundation is going to sit there. There may not be one brick left on it and that man will suffer loss, but the fire will not consume the foundation. If you believe you can lose your salvation, wrestle with that verse for a while. You see, the foundation has been laid and no man can un-lay it and the fire cannot consume it. It will stand. So, therefore, we are saved yet so as by fire.

Paul then reminds them that Christ lives in them to do through them what they could not do themselves. How many times have we said this? That is our whole philosophy of ministry. It is being vessels through which God can do His work. No man can do the works of God. God does His works through man. Verse 16 reads, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” Wherever I go, He lives in me to enable me to do whatever He has commanded me to do. And when I walk by faith, attaching myself to Him in the sense that I am obedient, surrendered to Him, bondservant, slave to Him out of love, trusting His Word, walking by faith, then God works through me those things which will stand the test one day when I see Him.

In verse 17 Paul sends a message to anybody who would seek to destroy the temple of God. Now remember, believers are builders, by the context. This person in verse 17 has to be an unbeliever because he is a destroyer. It says in verse 17, “If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.” The word “destroy” there does not mean destroy as we think of it. It means corrupt, defile. It means to defile with the means of deception. In other words, the world is all around us at all times, trying to pull us out of our walk in the Word and put our minds back on the world, to think like they think. Once you fall into that trap, you have been pulled aside, you have been corrupted, you have been defiled in your walk. God says, you better not mess with My people.

Once Paul has warned whoever it is that seeks to corrupt God’s temple in 1 Corinthians 3:17, he turns around and refers to the believer himself. In verse 18 he says, “Let no man deceive himself.” It is very obvious to me that there had to be false teachers who had gotten into the church at Corinth. I mean, look at all the idolatry that is in Corinth to begin with. Paul has to have it in mind. Over in 2 Corinthians 11:3 he says, “But I am afraid lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your mind should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” So he already has this in mind. There has got to be somebody there trying to pull them away from their faith walk. Paul says, “Listen, you can’t do that. You can’t allow that, because the moment you get out of your faith walk, that is going to cost you one day when you stand before God. You are going to be miserable while you are down here. So don’t fall into that trap. Don’t deceive yourself.” The word “deceive” comes from two words, one means “out of,” and the other means to seduce, to deceive in the sense of leading out of the right way into error. It is even in a tense that means stop letting yourself do that. How susceptible we are to being led out from truth because we are around people who are smart and the world looks at them who have attained. We hear them talking and start listening to them and forget what the Word of God has to say. We deceive ourselves.

James 1:22 says a very similar thing. He says, “But prove yourselves doers of the Word and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” Listen, any time I refuse God’s Word in my life I deceive myself. It doesn’t matter what it is. Think of the million situations we could all get into in a week’s time. Of all the choices that we make, and when we choose not to line up under the authority of God’s Word, when we choose not to obey Him, we have conscientiously deceived ourselves.

Now, Paul is opening this up. He said, “Let no man.” This could be a lost person or a saved person. I think the emphasis here is more on the saved person because a lost man doesn’t make a conscious decision one day apart from the grace of God just to not deceive himself. He is already deceived. I think he is really referring to the believer here. He is saying, “Watch out, watch out. You can slip into that trap so quick.” The moment I stop becoming obedient to God’s Word is the very moment I have deceived myself, deluded myself, as James says.

Then in verse 18 we have the solution. “If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become foolish that he may become wise.” There it is right there. Now, whether lost or saved, you have got to become foolish before you can become wise. What does it mean to become foolish? And there are three things I want you to look at. We need to understand this today because there is a richness in this.

The technical use of the word “foolish”

There are three things that I want you to see about becoming foolish. First of all, the technical use of the word “foolish.” The word “foolish” in verse 18 is the word moros. Now what do you think is the English word that we get from that? The word “moron,” that is right. One who has no capacity to think or reason and therefore acts senselessly. That is moros, that is a moron. Webster says that a moron is “a feebleminded person, one who has potential mental age of only about 812 years old and is only capable under strict supervision.” So in other words, a child; a person who is not able to really think and therefore acts senselessly.

Now there are several words translated “fool” in the New Testament, but there are two prominent words. One of them is the word we are dealing with here, and another one is found in Matthew 5. Seeing the comparison may help you to understand the meaning of the word. Look in Matthew 5:22. Of course, this is the Beatitudes, and Jesus is speaking here.

In verse 22 you see both of these words used and the contrast between the meanings helps you understand what he is dealing with here. He says, “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whosever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court.” Now that is one of the words for fool, raca. But then he says, “And whoever shall say, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.” Now he uses the second one, moros. Now wait a minute. One is guilty before the court and the other one goes to hell because of what he did.

Do you see the seriousness of the two things? Raca means to call somebody or label them as stupid, which means they probably know better but they did it anyway. I don’t do dumb things, I do stupid things. I know better, but I do it anyway at times. That is just stupid. I have enough sense to know better, but I just act stupidly.

However, moros is different. It gives the idea of attacking a person’s intelligence. It says he doesn’t have enough sense to know. He doesn’t have the understanding; therefore whatever he does is senseless. That is moros. Do you see the difference? One is stupid. He knew better, and he could think it through. But the other one doesn’t have the ability, he just doesn’t have the understanding.

To better understand it, there is a synonym for the word moros that helps us. It is the Greek word aphron. A means “without.” The other part of the word is phren. It doesn’t mean “mind” like we think of mind, but that is the word. So aphron means without understanding. It is synonym for the word moros. So a person who is a fool, in a technical sense of the word, means they don’t have the mental capacity. Therefore, whatever they do, they cannot act intelligibly. Whatever they do is absolutely senseless. A fool is moros. That is the person. What he does is moria, the word for foolishness. That is the word, by the way, that we are looking at over and over again in 1 Corinthians 1, 2 and 3. Moria are the senseless acts of a person who doesn’t know better, a person who doesn’t have the ability even to understand.

So again, one more time, moros is a person who doesn’t have that sense or intelligence to understand, and moria is what he does. They are the senseless, foolish acts that he does. That’s the technical use of the word.

But now let’s look at the textual use of the word. When you take a word like that out of society and put it into a spiritual vocabulary, it changes a little bit. We need to understand that. Paul brings this word into 1 Corinthians and adds it to the Christians’ or the believers’ spiritual vocabulary. We have seen the word very frequently. The first way he uses it in the text, in the scripture, is to describe the sin sick world and the way that they view God. Now that is very important. They think Jesus coming to die on the cross is an act of senselessness and foolishness. They actually attribute to God the fact that He is foolish or we would say, a fool. That is a tough estimation of God, isn’t it? But that is the way the world thinks. They look at the gospel and laugh at it. They profess themselves as gods and therefore, they think God is the foolish one and what He did through the gospel is absolutely senseless. They believe that God is not capable of understanding their problems and their circumstances. They never turn to Him. They never turn to His Word.

Go back to 1:18 and we will see the word moria. It tells you exactly what I just said. The first phrase there is very telling. It says, “For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness.” Now, that is the word moria. In other words, “Oh, who needs the cross?” You see, that is foolish. “I am not lost.” Have you ever talked to somebody who is lost and didn’t know they were lost? You are trying to tell them what Jesus did for them on the cross and they look at you like you are two bricks shy of a full load. They can’t understand what you are talking about. “What do you mean, lost? I am not lost.” Well, you are dead in your sins. “I am alive, man.” They can’t understand. They won’t understand. They see the whole thing as foolishness, an act, a senseless act from a person who couldn’t understand to begin with. That is the way they see it.

Remember, back in Romans 1:22, it shows you that when they think this way, they are professing themselves to be wise, but they are showing themselves to be that which they are claiming God to be. In other words, they are showing themselves to be fools. They are showing themselves with no mental capacity of understanding God, therefore, everything that God does is senseless in their eyes. They are showing themselves to be fools. It says in Romans 1:22, “Professing to be wise, they became fools.” And the word “fools” there is a form of the word that we are looking at.

You see, the world says they don’t need God, they don’t want God. How many of you know somebody like that right now? Let me ask you even a more personal question. How many of you are kin to somebody like that? Those are the tougher ones, aren’t it? You are around them and you try to tell them of the joy of Jesus, what Jesus can do for their life, and they just look at you. I mean, seriously, they have no capacity to understand. They think everything you said is absolute foolishness, which means they think God is a fool because they are their own god. They are not about to listen to God. They don’t care about His Word. It is senseless and foolishness to them. They are their own god.

Look in 1:18 again and finish the verse: “For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.” The very thing they think comes from a senseless God is the thing that saves you and me, you see.

Well, go down to verse 21. He continues the thought. He says, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness [now be careful; he has already told you what the foolishness is, that act of God which the world thinks is foolish; it is not foolish, but the world thinks it is] of the message preached to save those who believe.” This message that the world thinks is an act of senselessness, of an incompetent God, is the very message that the apostle Paul preached.

Look at verse 23. The same word is used there. He says, “but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness.” They say, “What do you mean? I am not lost. I have got everything.” The Greeks especially were those who could argue about anything. They thought they had it all figured out anyway. Who needs God? That is why Paul one day, when he was in Athens, saw that sign that said “To the Unknown God,” and he walked up there and said, “Let me tell you who He is. I know Him personally. You guys think that it is senseless and foolish, but let me tell you who He is and what He did for you and perhaps He can save you while we are here.”

Well, why do they think it is foolish? This is a question that comes to my mind. Why does the world look at the gospel, look at what Christ did for us on the cross and think it is foolish? Look in 2:14. We studied this but I want to make sure you are following the word with me all the way through. I have taken the word moria and just followed it through. In 1 Corinthians 2:14, it tells you exactly why they think it is foolish. It says, “But a natural man [psuchikos. That is different than sarkikos. I think, as I see it used in scripture, it refers to a lost man] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”

So the first way that Paul uses the word moria is the way the lost people see the gospel. They see it as foolishness. They see God as not caring about them or understanding them. As a matter of fact, they don’t even believe in Him. They are their own gods. So whatever He does is senseless and lacks intelligence.

It is interesting to me in this whole line of thinking, in John 1:1 it says, “In the beginning was the word [logos, which means the divine intelligence], and the word was with God and the word was God.” Verse 14 says, “And the word became flesh.” God brought His wisdom and intelligence down here to man and man looks at it and calls it foolishness. That is exactly the lost state of mankind.

The textual use of the word “foolish”

But the second way Paul uses it is in 3:18. He uses it a different way. He even tells those who want to become wise that they have to become foolish. You have got to understand this. “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become foolish that he may become wise.” Now, as we have studied, the moron in English terms is a little child. What is he saying? I think he is talking more to the church than he is to the lost people, because they don’t make that conscious decision. If you are believer and want to become wise, you become like a child, like a moron who knows nothing. That is what he is saying.

In other words, when I come before God, I say, “God, I am teachable. God, I don’t know it all.” What happens to preachers and what happens to teachers and anybody who is in the Word a lot? You come to think that you have a grasp on everything, and you become unteachable, and you can’t listen to anybody because you already know it. That is the problem. What he is saying is, “If you want to become wise, you must become foolish. You come to God as a child.” You come to God and say, “Oh, God, I don’t know, but God, I want you to renew my mind and teach me so that I can know.”

Roy Hessein, who is with the Lord now, called me one time when he was going to come to the church for a meeting. He said, “Brother Wayne, I can’t wait to be with you.” I said, “Roy, what are you going to preach on?” Brother Roy said, “Oh, Wayne, will you pray for me? I am so empty. Would you pray for me that God would just fill me so that we can all feast on the Word that He has for us?” That is a teachable man. That man said that when he was 80 years old.

Folks, listen to me. Some people think the way the world thinks. “I have my degrees, therefore, I know.” No, no. There are no degrees in this thing. You always come before God that way. That is the way we approach Him. We take our opinions and lay them down at the cross and say, “God, I want to become foolish so that You through Your Word can make me wise.” Wisdom, true wisdom, is that which comes from God, not what comes from man.

Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Fools despise wisdom and instruction. The word for “fear” there has the idea of awesome respect. You know how we, as believers, show respect to God, that we truly are coming as children, foolish, knowing nothing, is when we get into His Word, bow down before Him and say, “God, would you speak your Word to my heart and I am willing to obey it.” We hold Him up by holding His Word up.

Jesus said in John 14, “If you love me, you will keep My Word.” That is the way we become foolish. We never think we have arrived. We can listen to other people as long as it is the Word of God and as long as the Word of God is being spoken. We say, “God, make me wise. I come to you becoming foolish. I come to You as a child. You teach me. Make me teachable.”

The older I get the more I see the wisdom in this. I tell you why: because of my stupid failures and sins in my life. Go down that road for a few times and after a while, it is such a dead-end street. You come before God and say, “God, what do I really know? Will You make me wise? Will you speak to me through Your Word? Will you renew my mind?” You don’t come to Him as some authority, giving your opinion to God and asking Him to bless it. You are willing to detach yourself from denominational thinking and from whatever other bias you have and attach yourself to Him and to His Word and come as a child and say, “God, just speak to me. I want to be a learner. I want to be teachable.” God can make that person wise.

You see, that is what God says. That is the only way we are going to be the vessel through which God can do His work is if we are willing to become foolish that we might become wise. Our problems begin when we walk away from what God’s Word says.

That is what Paul is saying. Attach yourself to His Word. Attach yourself to Christ. Stop attaching yourselves to people who corrupt and defile your whole mindset and shut down your reward one day when you stand before God. We have to be so careful, folks, walking away from the Word of God. There is a relativism that has moved into our world. It has not moved in. It has been there for a while, but it is manifesting itself. It is all over Europe, Africa, Australia and definitely in America.

Well, just let me ask you a question. Number one, are you willing to pray for the preacher so that he can get it right if he is wrong? And number two, are you willing to give up that experience or whatever else you are hanging on to and be willing to listen to what the Word of God has to say? If you are, God can make you wise and use you as a vessel through which He can do His work. Otherwise, it is nothing more than pure religious flesh. That is all there is to it. And folks, I put myself right in the same category. I open myself as much as I possibly can to you. If I am wrong, show me where I am wrong. But bring th

I Corinthians 3:21-23

All Things Belong to You

I want to discuss the phrase that is found in verse 21, “All Things Belong to You.” Now we know that we are dealing with the church there in Corinth which was mancentered. It was not Godcentered. They were babies who refused to grow up. You may say, “Well, you are just being smart calling them babies.” No, that is what Paul called them in 3:2. He said, “You were babies. You were at the time in your life when you were just babes in Christ.” But he went on to say, “You are still babes in Christ.” That is not my terminology, that is Paul’s terminology.

But think about it, the moment you don’t walk by faith, you are still in the nursery. You walk right back into it. I mean, you should just carry a little sign around and say, “I am in the nursery. Don’t bother me.” Churches are filled with people who won’t grow up.

Well, if it is not crystal clear in your mind by now, following the context as closely as we can, that Paul is saying not only don’t attach yourself to man, but don’t ever boast in man, it should be in verse 21, because that is exactly what he says. He says, “So then,” connecting all that he has said thus far. He says in verse 21, “So then let no one boast in men.” Now that word “boasting” has appeared several times in many of the studies we have done and also in Corinthians. The word “boast,” kauchaomai, is the word that most people think comes from the word “neck.” When you think of somebody boasting, you think of them sticking that neck out. I can just see those Corinthians walking around saying, “I am of Paul.” And another one walks around saying, “I am of Apollos.” And the other one says, “I am of Cephas.” They have that neck stuck out. He says, “Let no man boast in men.” The point of this is that boasting in men is in an absolute sense.

Now you have to understand this. Sometimes you think it is wrong to boast about your children. No, that is not what he is saying. I mean, come on, if my son hits a home run, you are going to hear about it. I am going to write about it in the newspaper. That is not what Paul is saying. When he says “don’t boast in men,” he is saying it in the absolute sense. In other words, don’t have a mindset that trusts men, that believes in what men have to say. Don’t live that way, you see. That is the whole point that he has been bringing out. Don’t look at the merits of man. Don’t put any faith in the wisdom of man. Put your faith into God. Put your faith in His merit and His worth and His Word. A believer who won’t attach themselves to Christ is like that little baby. He has to attach himself to what he can see, touch and feel. If he won’t attach himself to Christ, he is the epitome of a person who boasts in man. I don’t know why we can’t understand that.

Another term for that would be humanism. We drag it right into our Christian walk. If we are not under the Word of God, then we are being affected and infected by the way man thinks and what man does. Churches all over this country are built on that premise. So was Corinth. That is what he is trying to say. Christ is the builder of the church. Attach yourself to Him. He said, “Man, listen, I was your first pastor. Apollos was your second pastor. Cephas, or Simon Peter, is the unsung leader of all the Christians. But man, listen to me, don’t you ever hook yourself to us. Jesus is the one who builds the church.” Jesus said, “I will build my own church.” That is why you never ever attach yourself to the ways of man. You attach yourself to the ways of God.

Paul says back in 1:12 every one of them is affected. A man said years ago about the church of Jesus Christ in America today, “The Holy Spirit could leave and nobody would ever miss Him, because they don’t need Him to begin with.”

Miss Bertha Smith died at 100 years old. If you ever knew anything about Miss Bertha Smith, I mean, she was a saint. She came out of the Shantung Revival in China. Miss Bertha Smith said many pastors came to know Christ at her conferences she would be doing over in the country. They would come to listen, and the teaching on sin and the teaching on the cross was so powerful that preachers came forward and actually got saved. You see, in America for some reason or another, you don’t have to be saved anymore to be a pastor. Just be able to be a good manager, be a good administrator, be a good personal type of person. As long as you can stroke the people and keep them pacified, you can stay in your office.

Paul says that is not what it is talking about here in the book of 1 Corinthians. That is not the way the church is built. You don’t build a church to depend upon staff. You don’t build a church to depend on a preacher. You build a church like God built it, to depend upon Christ and to depend upon His Word. Even when we make mistakes, we come back to this principle because we want to stay attached to Him, not attached to anything of man.

Well, it is a stern warning to the Corinthian church and to all of us. Let no man boast, let no one boast in man. They had already fallen into that trap. I pray we will never fall into that trap.

The basis of him telling them this is found in the next several verses here. Now, it is kind of like you ask a guy, “Why do you want a cow when you can have the farm?” I mean, why do you want to attach yourself to man when you can attach yourself to the creator of all mankind? I mean, hey, folks, which one do you want? Paul is limited. You will never find a man who has it all together. I don’t care who he is. That is the fallacy of attaching yourself to men. But I want to tell you something, Jesus has it all together. You can attach yourself to Him and you can have it all. This is the whole point of what he is saying. Look at what he says in verse 21: “So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you [now watch this] whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.”

There are two things I want you to see. I want you to think clearly now as to what Paul is trying to say. Why in the world would you run around attaching yourself to man’s ways and wisdom when you can live attached to Jesus Christ Himself? We belong to Him and all things belong to us.

Why do we have all things?

The first thing we have got to look at is we must look at why we have all things. I mean, that is kind of an interesting point. Why do we have all things? What makes that possible? I mean, all of a sudden here are these people who are babies in the nursery attaching themselves to men. Paul says, “What are you doing that for? All things belong to you.” I guarantee you that was a revelation. Why is it that all things belong to us? You really can’t understand it from verse 21. You have got to jump to verse 23. In fact, the last phrase says, “And you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.” That is the phrase, Christ belongs to God. Now the literal Greek there does not have the verb “belongs to.” In the Greek it says, “And Christ, God’s.”

It is interesting here that the definite article is not used there, which describes the Godhead. So the term, “belongs to” God is implied, even though it is not in there. Christ, God’s. He belongs to God, the Godhead. Christ is God. He belongs to the Godhead. He is not referring to rank. He is referring to possession. In other words, He is God. He is possessed by the Godhead. You take Christ out of the Godhead and you don’t have a Godhead anymore. He is God, very God. It is one God in three persons. He belongs to the Godhead. It is who Christ is that makes all of this possible, not who Paul is, not who Apollos is, not who Cephas is, but who Christ is. That is what makes the whole thing open up.

In John 1:1 it says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The word for “word” there is divine intelligence. In verse 14 of John 1 it says, “And the word became flesh.” Christ has always been. He has always been the Son of God. He came to this earth.

(Now, when He came, His name was Jesus upon this earth. He says, “You shall call His name Jesus,” because that is what God said. If you ever relegate just the word “Jesus” to Him, you have His earthly life here. But when you use the term “Christ,” that is the term He has always had, the anointed One, for He was the one before the foundation of the world who stood in the portals of heaven ready to come and die for our sins. And when Christ came into the world they knew Him as Jesus, but when He went to the cross and they crucified Him and He resurrected the third day, you watch through the epistles, they turn that around. Instead of Jesus Christ, it is Christ Jesus, pointing to who He is, for all times, to His eternal essence as being God.)

Now, this a very important fact. We would have nothing were it not for the fact that Christ belongs to God. He is a part of the Godhead. He is God. Now we can begin to understand why all things belong to us. It makes all the rest of verses 2123 possible.

The second thing we need to realize here in verse 23, not only does Christ belong to God, but also he says, you belong to Christ. It is the same basic phrase there. It is just referring now to us. We belong to Him as He belongs to the Father. That is what salvation is all about. You see, I receive the Lord Jesus Christ, with His Spirit wooing and drawing me to Him, for no man comes to Jesus except the Father draw him. When I get under conviction and God reveals to me that I am a sinner through His Word, which is that seed which must fall into human hearts that contains the gospel, the good news of Christ, when I bow down and in repentance and faith receive the Lord Jesus into my heart, then I become a believer. Now I belong to Him.

Paul refers to that in 1 Corinthians 15. He goes back and shows them the message that he preached to them and what it was they believed. He refers then to their salvation experience. I think it is critical sometimes just to slow down on and make sure we understand what it means to be a believer. Well, this is what you must believe in verse 1. “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel [the good news] which I preached to you, which also you received [he is talking to believers now that he had a great part in] in which also you stand.” Now, look at verse 3, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.” In other words, I am just a mouthpiece. It came to me, and I gave it to you. “That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures [Christ, now notice the term], and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

Since Christ is the possession of God, He is God, therefore, that makes it possible for Him to bring God to me. That is what He did by coming down to this earth. By drawing me to God and when I receive Him, then I become a part of Him and I belong to Him. Now, the literal there is, “you are Christ’s.” In other words, you are possessed by Christ.

Look in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 just to make sure we understand that we are possessed by Christ. We are His. He belongs to God. We belong to Christ. He says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” You are not your own. That is very important. Verse 20 continues, “For you have been bought with a price,” bought and paid for, “therefore glorify God in your body.” What was the price He paid so that we might belong to Him?

Look over in Acts 20:28. It is just as clear as a bell. You see, grace to us is free, but to God it is very expensive. Here is the price that was paid for you and me so that we might belong to Christ. He belongs to God. That is what makes it all possible. He is God. God coming to this earth to become a man for us and to go to the cross and pay our sin debt. In Acts 20:28 it says, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock [he is talking to the Ephesian elders there on the isle of Miletus] among whom the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood,” not the blood of bulls and goats. Hebrews says He was sacrificed once. His blood was shed once and it was sufficient. It wasn’t just human blood; it wasn’t just divine blood; it was divinely human blood that was shed for us upon the cross and for that reason, we have been purchased lock, stock and barrel. When you receive Jesus, you instantly belong to Him. He belongs to God. We belong to Him. We are attached to Him at salvation. We belong to Him.

Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians, attaching yourself to Him. We are already attached to Him. However, he uses the analogy of baptism and says, “Were you baptized in the name of Paul? I think not.” What he is talking about is, when you are baptized in the name of somebody? It is a statement of attachment. You see, when we are saved, God attaches us to Him, but when we are baptized, we make a public statement of choice. We are attaching ourselves to Him now. We are living that way. That is why Paul said, “What are you doing attaching yourself to me?” So when you are saved, God attaches us to Himself. He is in us.

Look in 6:19 again. He is in us. Now make sure you understand how much this is all a part of His possession. He is in us. First Corinthians 6:19 reads, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”

Not only is He in us, but secondly, we are in Him. He is in us, but we are in Him. Why do we belong to God? He purchased us with His own blood and when you receive Him, He comes to live in you in the person of His Spirit but He also baptizes us into His body. We are in Him. In 1 Corinthians 12:13 he says, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” So we were baptized into one body.

Look over in 12:27. “Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.” Paul has the same exact idea in Ephesians. Look over in Ephesians 1:2223. It is just good to mark these things. But there are many other scriptures. Oh, there are so many more that I am not sharing with you, but I just want to get across the understanding why it is we belong to God. We know that Christ belongs to God; He is God. That made it possible for me to belong to Christ. It is a beautiful picture here. Ephesians 1:22 says, “And He put all things in subjection under His feet, [Christ’s] and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body.” We are members of that body, just like my arms are attached to my body and my legs are attached to my body, my feet are attached to my body. He attaches us to Him. He is in us, but we are in Him. We are part of His body. That is what the church is called on earth.

Look in Romans 12. Right before he begins to show the diversity of gifts there in the body, look at what he says. Romans 12:5 says, “So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” If I had a big, clear bowl right now, and I filled it with dye and I took a white cloth and immersed it into the dye, what immediately happens? The dye is immersed into the cloth. So the cloth is in the dye, but the dye is in the cloth. You see, that is the whole picture here. Now that the cloth has been baptized into the dye, submerged in the dye, it has taken upon itself the properties of the dye and the dye and the cloth belong to one another. You can’t separate them. Especially if it is the right kind of dye, you can’t separate them.

That is how we belong to Him, purchased by His own blood. When we receive Him, we are baptized into His body with or by the means of the Holy Spirit of God, but also His Spirit comes to live in us. Therefore, we belong to Him. He is in us, we are in Him.

Now there are critical points to understand why all things can belong to us. You have got to know that. You have got to understand Christ’s relationship to the Godhead. He is God, the second person of the Godhead. He belongs to the Godhead. You can’t take Him apart from the Godhead, you won’t have a Godhead. But as Christ belonged to God, that made it possible for Him to bring God to us. He came down to man, went to the cross, paid our sin debt, and now He draws us to God. He is the one who brings us to God. So, we belong to Christ. Some people think that you can separate that. Well friend, as I understand it, you can no more separate a believer from Christ than you could Christ from the Godhead because the same terminology is used there. Just as much as He belongs to God, we belong to Him.

By the way, sometimes you ought to take a red pencil or something and every time we hit a verse like this, mark it in your scriptures. You will find hundreds of verses on the assurance of your eternal security in Jesus Christ. We belong to Him, not by any work that we have done, but by the work that He did for us on the cross and He now is the foundation in our life. Everything hinges on the fact of Christ being God.

What do we have in and because of him?

Secondly, now that we understand why all things now can belong to us, we also want to see what we have in and because of Him. Now, here is Paul’s argument. “What in the world can I offer to you when you compare it to the fact that you belong to Christ and all things belong to you?” I go back to what I said a while ago. Why do you want a cow? Why don’t you want the whole farm? I mean, come on, man. Why are you attaching yourself to a part of it? Why don’t you attach yourself to the One who attaches you to Himself? You belong to Him, therefore, all things can belong to you. This is what you are missing when you don’t walk by faith. This is what happens in your life.

Well, verse 21 says, “For all things belong to you.” Now, it would help right now before we go any further to realize what Christ possesses, because if you see what He possesses, then you can begin to understand why we can possess those things. Alright?

Look over in Colossians 1:16. This is who He is. He is God. What belongs to Him? Colossians 1:1617 tells us two different things about Him. First of all, He is the creator of all things. In verse 16 we read, “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.” That would be a great verse to put on your refrigerator, when you read the newspaper or hear the news. What belongs to Christ? He says, “All things have been created by Him and for Him.”

Christ is the creator of all things. But wait a minute, it doesn’t stop there. Not only is He the creator of all things, but He obviously is the possessor of all things. Not only that, He is the sustainer of all things. Look in verse 17. Why is this world still hanging together? I hear people all the time say, “I can’t understand why this world even hangs on.” I can tell you why, because all things consist in Him. That’s why. The moment He turns loose of it, friend, you will know that and there is going to be a day that He is still in control but it is going to be very difficult here. Verse 17 says, “And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Now, let’s see. All things were created by Him, for Him, He sustains all things. That means He possesses all things. That means He controls all things.

I think I am going to make me a deduction. I think we will put this together here. If all things belong to Him and were created by Him and are sustained by Him, and I belong to Him, now I can see why all things belong to me in Him. That is the key, in Him. In other words, in Him now I become an heir to all that He has. You see, we are joint heirs. Joint heirs is different than a coheir. There are eight children in my wife’s family and if they were to get an inheritance, coheir means that she would have one eighth of that inheritance. However, a joint heir means that you don’t get one eighth. Wouldn’t it be terrible if we were coheirs with Christ? Say there are 30 million Christians on earth. I don’t know if there are that many of not, but let’s just say there are. A person gets saved and says, “I am real excited I have one thirty millionth of Him.” Of course, to me that would be enough for you to shout all the way through glory. But that is not the point. A joint heir shares in all that He has.

So how can all things belong to me? In Him; because He belongs to God and I belong to Him and He created it all and sustains it all, so if it all belongs to Him, then in Him and I am a joint heir, it all belongs to me. Now, why in the world would you want to attach yourself to man? Are you kidding me? Let’s go to the source, the one who is God, the one who possesses all things.

The sovereignty over all things was given to man when he was created on this earth. Go back to Genesis 1:26. I am wondering sometimes if we have ever studied this, or if you have ever studied this and you have come to understand what was given to man in creation. I am not so sure sometimes we realize the significance of it. In Genesis 1:26 let’s just look and see what God says about creating man. There was a counsel in the Godhead and the decision to make man and it says, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’”

Is that dominion or what? Expression of His character, an exhibit of His power. Maybe you don’t realize that man lost every bit of that when he sinned. But it is reclaimed, not in us, but in the Godman. And the only way you could ever say all things belong to you is when you say I belong to God. It is in Him that these things begin to work themselves out. You see, it wasn’t given back to man, it was given back to the Godman. And when you are saved, you are taking out of Adam and he lost it all, and put into Christ who has it all. And because He owns it, all things belong to us. It is in Christ, the Godman, that it is restored.

The phrase “all things are yours” actually is “all things is yours.” Now you say, “That is terrible grammar, Wayne. You can’t do that. That can’t be the phrase.” But in the Greek, as I understand it, when the subject is in the neuter plural, the singular can be used with it. Now this adds to the thought tremendously. All things is, are, ours but stop thinking of “this, this and this” and think of the whole all together. The whole is ours. That includes everything we have in our Christian walk. All that belongs to Christ now belongs to us in Him.

Before we take off on a treasure hunt to see what belongs to us, let’s stick to the context. If Paul had wanted us to know every single thing that is ours in Christ, that would have taken the next two million verses. But he doesn’t do that. He goes right to the heart and stays right within his context of what he is writing to the Corinthians. He gives us a list of the essentials that belong to us in Christ, only in Him. He is in the context, remember, of talking to the Corinthians about attaching themselves to men.

Look at the first thing he addresses in verse 22. He gives us all the context we need because when you get through this list, there is nothing else that you even want to belong to you, if you will understand it. First all he says, “whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you.” Look at that first phrase, “whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas.” Now that ought to ring a bell. Man, he has mentioned that from 1:12 all the way down to where we are. That was their problem, attaching themselves to men. What is he saying? All the teachers, preachers and gifted men in the body of Christ belong to you. Not just one. Don’t run over to Paul and hook yourself to him. Don’t run over to Apollos. All of them who teach the Word very faithfully have been given to the body.

Ephesians 4 says the same thing, that they are given, they are gifts. They were given so that we might learn the Word more, might be encouraged to be in the Word, might understand the Word better. But don’t ever attach yourself to one of them, because if you do, and he is off somewhere and you don’t know where that is, you have just bought the cow instead of taking the farm.

So many people are this way. That is his whole argument. “I am of John MacArthur!” Well, good for you. “I am of Chuck Swindoll.” Well man, do you realize what you have just done? You have just chosen one little tiny aspect of the teachers God has given to the body, because all of them are yours. They are the ones who help you and come alongside you and get you into the Word of God and help you to clarify that Word. The Holy Spirit is always your teacher, but God has given these as gifts to the body. They all belong to you.

Think of the body of Christ today, and think what they had been given in Corinth. We still have the same people with those pacifiers in their mouths, running around saying, “I am of him, I am of him. I don’t like you because you are not of him.” Folks, you are missing the whole point. All of them are yours. They all belong to you. They are vessels through which God can use.

Now he goes on and says, “whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world.” Now, if you didn’t understand what he was talking about here, somebody could jump up and say, “I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. Name it and claim it. I have all the world. The whole world belongs to me.” Sometimes I wish that doctrine worked. I would like to walk outside and say, “God, I love my Suburban. I need three of them. I am going to name it and claim it.” I wish I could do that and it worked. Wouldn’t that be great! Hey, man, just enjoy yourself.

What does he mean by this? You have got to be very careful when it comes to this. The world here does not mean the physical world. The physical world is under the dominion of Satan and is a temporary dominion. Why? Because of man’s sin. He can’t mean the temporary world. As a matter of fact, if you will think about it for a second, it was not the Lord Jesus who tempted anybody with the kingdoms of the world, was it? It was Satan who tempted the Lord Jesus with the kingdoms of the world. He owns them. They are his. It is his domain. Why in the world would God say that belongs to you? That is not what he is talking about.

There are many Christians in this world who don’t have anything. I feel so rich. People give me a lot of stuff. I feel a little embarrassed sometimes receiving it. I don’t run out and get it. Most of what I have is exceedingly, abundantly beyond what I have even asked God for. Sometimes I feel embarrassed because of what we have in America. Man, go overseas with us sometime. Just help yourself. Come on, go with us. Those bush pastors in Africa, who we bring in for the International Congress on Revival, come in and don’t even have shoes to wear, but all things belong to them, Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world. Now, how are they supposed to understand that? Well, hang on.

What we have that the unbeliever does not have is an understanding of the guiding hand of God in this world. The unbeliever who has the world’s things sees himself as a victim. You watch it in every election. They always have to make their stand on why the world is treating them this way.

But the believer is not a victim. The believer is a possessor of understanding of who is in control of this world. He understands what makes this world tick. He understands there is an unseen hand in control of it. So when he votes in the election in America, where we are free to vote, and his candidate does not get put into office, he doesn’t go running and bury his head and say, “Oh, no.” He knows that God raises up kings. God establishes kingdoms. And God takes them down. And whatever is going on, God is sovereignly in control of that. That is the believer. The world is his. He knows what is going on. The unbeliever does not. Christ teaches that He is in total control of all that is going on.

The believer possesses the world in this way. He sees the world not as a play of blind power but as a carefully oiled machine designed by love and God’s wisdom and totally under the control of what God is doing. His circumstances do not work against him but for him. World ownership is a matter of spiritual capacity, folks.

If we are willing to bow down before Him and become foolish so that we might become wise, we start to become possessors of what is around us. But we possess it through understanding. We possess it through appreciation. We possess it by the fact of what God has revealed in our hearts.

Let me read a quote by a Frederick Shannon. “God leases the universe to all who can pay for it in the invisible coin of appreciation. Deity hangs a sign in the window of every star, on the breast of every sea, on the summit of every hill, on the leaf of every tree, on the face of every flower, on the peaks of history, on the souls of immortal men and women, and that sign reads, ‘To Rent.’ The only rental fee is the capacity to enjoy.”

We have some cows behind my house. I talk to them all the time. I love a cow. I think a cow is the funniest creature God ever created. I love the look on their faces. They are out there just eating. They are always eating. Have you ever noticed that? They are always eating. Well, sometimes they are laying down.

I go home sometimes and they are all out in that field with their back ends towards me. I park the car, and nobody is around. I walk out there and say, “MMMooooOOO.” When I do that every cow in that pasture looks up, turns around and looks at me. I will say, “Okay, guys, I have a few things I want to talk to you about.” I will stand out in the back yard and talk to the cows. Now, I don’t have to pay for them. I don’t have to feed them, but I own them. All I have got to do is go out there, give them their call and they will come right to me. It is amazing. I just enjoy those cows and I don’t have to fool with any of it. That is the beautiful thing.

That is, in a sense, how we own this world. God gives us an appreciation for it, an understanding of what is going on, how circumstances work and how He is in charge of all those things. But then Paul goes on and says, “or life or death.” The word for “life” here is the word zoe. The word really means really, in the spiritual sense, the quality and essence of life. That is what it means. It never talks about the length of life. Life has been given to us, the quality of life. That is what he is saying.

Jesus lived on this earth 33 years. That is all the time that He had upon t

I Corinthians 4:15

Contents

1 The Marks of a GodCalled Preacher

2 The responsibility of a God-called preacher

3 The requirement of a God-called preacher

4 The reward of the God-called preacher

The Marks of a GodCalled Preacher

In 1 Corinthians 4:15 we want to talk about “The Marks of a GodCalled Preacher.” Preachers and how people think about them has very much been on Paul’s mind for the last three chapters that we have been studying together. The Corinthian believers were babes in Christ in the sense that they were intentionally immature. They refused to grow up. They would not walk by faith. They would not attach themselves to Christ and be vessels through which God could use. No, instead of doing that, there was jealousy and strife marked by the fact that they attached themselves to the preachers of that day; Paul, Apollos, Cephas, as we learned in 1:12.

Paul follows that line of thinking all the way through to where we are in 4:1-5. Instead of attaching themselves to Jesus, they attach themselves to preachers at the exclusion of others. “I am of Paul,” some would say. “I am of Apollos.” “I am of Cephas.” Well, Paul wanted them to know that they were robbing themselves. They were robbing themselves first of all of that which God wanted to do through them and they were robbing themselves of the reward that they could have one day when they stood before Him.

It has been very clear what he says. Why would you want the cow when you can have the farm? I mean, attach yourself to Christ. Don’t attach yourself to the vessel. Attach yourself to the One to whom the vessel is attached. He affirms to them that they themselves are temples of God, as you and I both studied in chapter 3. He lets them know, just like Paul was a vessel and a temple, Apollos was, where God lived, God the Holy Spirit. For some reason or another, they thought Christ was divided, that Paul got more than Apollos got and more than they got. Therefore, they had to attach themselves to a human being.

Paul was trying to say the same thing Peter says in one of his epistles. He says, “To those who have received a like faith such as ours.” I mean, I got the same thing Paul got and you did, too. All of us did. I mean, the ground is level. All of us got Jesus when we received Him. His Spirit came to live in our life. That is what Paul wants them to see. Stand on your own two feet. Come out of the nursery, walk by faith and attach yourself to Christ.

Well, he admonishes them, in the last few verses we looked at in chapter 3, to become foolish so that they might become wise. In other words, become like a little child. Stop thinking you know anything and let God teach you. Let His Word enrich your life. He sums up two and a half chapters in one verse there in verse 21 of chapter 3. If you have any doubt that his context has been “don’t you attach yourself to men and don’t you boast in men,” then look at verse 21. It is exactly what he says as he comes down now to his main thought. He says, “So then, let no one boast in men.” That is their problem. They were mencentered and not Godcentered. So he continues in verse 21, “For all things belong to you.”

Oh, if our eyes could just be opened, we could see what is ours in Jesus Christ. He says in chapter 1, “You have been enriched in all things in Him.” Now he says, “All things belong to you.” Now what in the world does he mean by that? Well, to understand that, you have got to look at verse 23. This is just a little bit of review. You have got to realize this. In verse 23, the last phrase is the key to the whole thing. The last phrase says, “and Christ belongs to God.” Now the word “belongs to” is implied. It is not in the text. The literal would be “and Christ God’s.” Now he doesn’t mean Gods plural but God’s possessive. In other words, He belongs to God. He is God’s.

There is no definite article used there. You say, “Thanks, but what does that mean?” Well, a definite article identifies something, but when it is not there it qualifies something. So he is talking not just about God, he is talking about the Godhead; no one person of the Godhead but the whole Godhead. And it says, “and Christ belongs to the Godhead.” He is God is what he is saying.

I tell you, that is a beautiful thought. Had it not been for the fact that Christ is God who came to this earth, born of a virgin, then He could not have brought God to man nor could He have brought man to God. That is the whole thing. Rest right on that one truth that Christ belongs to God. He is a part of the Godhead. He is not mere man. He is the Godman as He came to this earth. We now can belong to Him. He says, “and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.”

Now think about it for a second and the deductions begin to fall in place. If Christ is God, we know that He sustains all things and He created all things, so all things are His, right? If I belong to Christ, then in Christ all things belong to me. We haven’t gone back to Genesis much, but do you remember in Genesis 1:26 the dominion that God gave to man that man lost when he sinned? We forget sometimes that was reclaimed by the second Adam. It wasn’t given back to man. It was given back to Christ, the Godman. And in Him all things belong and consist. So therefore, if we belong to Him and all things belong to Him, then in Him we become heir to all that is His.

Now the first thing you usually want to do is sit down and make up a list. Alright! If everything belongs to me, where do I start? I want to see what is on this list. Well, now, relax. Paul has a list for you. As a matter of fact, you don’t want to go anywhere else until you look at the list that he has. The first thing that he mentions in verse 22, he says, “whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas.” What is he saying here? He is saying, “Listen, all of the teachers and preachers are gifts to the body.” He doesn’t mean everybody who stands behind a pulpit is a gift, because there are many teachers and preachers who do not honor the Word of God. Oh, no, no, no. He is not talking about them. He is talking about those who are truly Godcalled. They are given to the body.

If you attach yourself to a preacher, if you attach yourself to a teacher as they had done, you get off track somewhere. No one man has it all together. But all of them have been given, and they are equal. You draw from whoever that you might be equipped and encouraged. But remember, you are a temple of God and the true teacher, the Holy Spirit, lives in you. All the teachers have been given to the body, so why attach yourself to one, or why attach yourself to another?

Well, he goes on to say, “or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you.” Now that is an interesting thought. The world belongs to us. Some people have jumped on that doctrine and said that means the materialistic world. We can have the physical and tangible things of this world. Is that what he is talking about? No way. In fact, it wasn’t the Lord who brought the kingdoms of the world to the devil. It was the devil who brought the kingdoms of the world to Jesus and tempted Him with them. You see, He has temporary domain over this world. We are just strangers down here passing through, looking for a city not made with human hands.

So what is he saying then? How does the world belong to us? I believe it is in the sense that is in him first of all, but it is in the sense that we comprehend something about this world that the world does not comprehend. Most of the people of this world see themselves as victims, but we do not. We know who is in control of it. We know that life does not work against us, that life works for us. And having this understanding of it and appreciation for it, in that sense, the world belongs to us.

You know, we can cast our vote when the Presidents are nominated, and if our candidate wins, that is wonderful. If he doesn’t win, that is wonderful, because God is still in control. The book of Daniel clearly teaches us that He raises up kings and establishes kingdoms and is the one who takes kingdoms down. So we know God is in control.

I shared with you earlier about the cows in the pasture behind my house. I own those cows. I don’t feed them. I didn’t even pay for them. They are on somebody else’s land, but I appreciate them, and they are mine. I come out in the back yard and talk to those cows. You have to get their attention. You say, “MMMMoooooOOOO!” Now you have got to know how to do that. You have got to know their language. They may have their backs to me, but every time I do that every one of them, with the funniest looking faces, will turn around and look at me. I have got their attention. I stand out there in the back yard. Well, I own those cows. I own those cows. Do you know why? Because I appreciate those cows. There is something about them.

You see, the world belongs to those who understand who created it, who is in charge of it and who sustains it. All things belong to us. He is not talking about materialistic anything. He is just simply saying that because we are in Christ and all things belong to Him, all things belong to us.

He says life and death belongs to us in verse 22. How so? Somebody might say, “Well, hold it, hold it, hold it. I know a friend of mine who loved Jesus as much as anybody has ever loved Jesus and they died an untimely death. How can you say that life belongs to them?” The word “life” is zoe, which in scripture is never the length of life or the busyness of life. It is the essence of life. You see, the essence of life is the quality of life.

Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus only lived on this earth 33 years as the Godman before He was crucified? Yet, the verse is written of Him in John 21:25 and it says, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did which, if they are written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books which were written.” Wow, what a life in 33 years. That is what he is talking about. It is the quality of life. And to have that kind of quality of life, you have to have the One who is that life. Paul says in Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

And death. You say, how do I possess death? Oh, friend, you possess death because death is nothing more to a believer than a doorway into the presence of the Lord Jesus Himself. That is all it is. Jesus shed a single tear when Lazarus died. You say, “Why did He do that?” Because death was a piece of cake to Him, just from here to there. Bat your eye. But He wept when He looked over at Jerusalem who had rejected Him as being their Messiah. That is when He wept. We weep over the wrong things.

Believers, all things belong to us. Life and death belong to us. We understand who gives it and sustains it. We understand death because His scripture enlightens our minds.

Verse 22 goes on to say, “things present or things to come.” They belong to us. You say, how do they belong to us? I think Ephesians 1:14 really qualifies that. He is talking about the Holy Spirit. He says, “The Holy Spirit is given as a pledge of our inheritance.” Do you know what a pledge is? It is the earnest money, not money in the sense, but the earnest of something. You know, when you go to buy a house, you put earnest money down. What does that mean? That means that is guaranteed full payment is coming later on. The Holy Spirit living in me right now is the guarantee that full payment is going to come later on.

So all things present, I can live in the victory that Jesus already has given me in Himself. But then also, live in the promise of what is to come. That is God’s Word. That is His mind. That is His understanding.

In 1 Corinthians 13:12 it says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.” So truly what he says is, all things belong to Christ but in Him, all things belong to us.

What is the key of this whole thing, though? What has Paul been saying for three chapters? Stop listening to the wisdom of men. Look back in 2:16. I think this is the key to understanding why we can realize all things belong to us. Verse 16 reads, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” Oh, man! You say, “I don’t have the mind of Christ.” You do if the Holy Spirit of God lives in you. “Well, how come it is not functioning?” Because you are not living according to the Word of God. You are living like the church of Corinth. You are living according to the word of men and the world’s ways. You are not living up under the Word of God. You are not attached to Christ by being attached to His Word, by living by faith? If you will do that, He renews your mind and you begin to see as He sees and think as He thinks. Then you can understand why all things belong to us because we are in Him and He belongs to God.

That is the bottom line of everything he has been saying. Stop attaching yourselves to men. Stop parading men’s wisdom and all these things around. Attach yourself to Christ. Live faithfully to His Word. Then let Him renew your mind and live in light of that which He offers to you. Do you want the cow or would you rather have the farm? That is the bottom line. Good night, why would you attach yourself to the vessel when you can attach yourself to Christ and live in the fullness of what He offers?

Well, in chapter 4, it comes right back to the same argument. The basic line is, get up under Christ, get in His Word. Then Paul says something. People are still evaluating preachers. You know, they still do it today. They were doing it back then. They are doing it today. I tell you how they do it today. They evaluate preachers based on the kind of preacher of the church they came from or the preacher who used to be there. That is one of the ways they evaluate preachers. They evaluate preachers on how well he visits, of whether or not they really think he cares about them because he is always there when they need him in a physical way. They evaluate preachers sometimes because of personality. They evaluate preachers sometimes because of administrative abilities. It was going on in Paul’s day and it is going on in our day.

Paul is saying, “Now listen to me. Do you want to regard a preacher? Do you want to esteem a preacher? Then there are some guidelines for you that you are going to have to follow. If you are going to regard me, or if you are going to regard Apollos, this is the format you are going to have to use. These are the marks of a Godcalled preacher.” He says it so clearly in verses 15 of chapter 4. Let’s get into it and just see what we can find.

The responsibility of a God-called preacher

There is a magazine you may be familiar with, and every year or so, they will put out the top ten preachers in America. I know I will never make that list, but you pray that I never will make that list. I won’t because of ability, but I also don’t want to because of any other reason. What in the world would any preacher who loves God want to be on a secular magazine’s acclamation of the top ten preachers in a year? What in the world does the world know about preaching? That was the problem in Corinth. They were using the world’s standards to judge preachers and Paul says, “Whoa now, whoa. Are you going to regard a preacher? Are you going to esteem a preacher? This is the only way under God you can do it.”

Number one is the responsibility of a Godcalled preacher. Paul says, “Test me and Apollos and make sure we meet the standard. Verse 1 of chapter 4 says, “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.” Now, that word “let a man regard” is the word logizomai. I remember standing at the board in math class, and trying to remember all the different things that help me solve a problem. I remember one day standing there at the board, and the teacher was saying, “Come on, Wayne, come on.” They wanted me to pass the course. It finally began to come to me. The observations that they had told me to make began to make sense. I started making the observations and lo and behold, I came out with the right conclusion. That is logizomai. It means come to this conclusion by making these observations.

What observations? There are two of them there in that first verse. First of all he says, “regard us... as servants of Christ.” Make sure that if you are going to regard this preacher and call him a Godcalled preacher, you make sure he is a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now the word for “servant” will surprise you. It is not the same word we have seen earlier in 1 Corinthians, the word diakonos, which means that menial servant from which we get the word “deacon.” That simply means if you have a glass of water and it is empty, I go get you another glass of water. Is there anything I can do to serve you?

That is a synonym for the word here that doesn’t pop up very often in Scripture. I think it is very important that we look at it. It is the word huperetes. Hupo means under, and then the word eresso, which means the rower of a boat. Now what Paul just described here as a servant is a galley slave. It was one of the slaves who would get in the lower tier of a boat and row the boat, the most menial, unenvied and despised of all slaves. Now that is in its root form, in its secular form. The word came to mean one who is absolutely submissive to authority. That is the word for “servant.”

Now the next thing you have to decide is, whose authority is a Godcalled preacher submitted to? He has to be absolutely submitted to it. Is it the church? Is it the deacons? Is it the elders? What is the priority of this surrender and submission? He says, “a servant of Christ.” A preacher first of all is a servant of Christ. Is he called to serve men? Yes. But my friend, that is not what he is talking about right here. That comes later on in the book of 1 Corinthians. Don’t start throwing all these things in. Stay with the context. The context says, first of all, the priority of his life is he is a servant of Christ. He must have the understanding that he cannot be a servant of Christ with one eye on Him and one eye on the needs of man.

I will tell you what I am talking about here. If you are focused more on the needs of man than you are the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God in your life, you fail in both areas. Because if a preacher focuses only on the needs of man and thinks he has to go and meet those needs, he forfeits and compromises the very truth of God. Then he becomes a failure in all of those areas. Before the needs of man ever enter the picture, the preacher first of all is a servant of Christ, a galleyslave. As he says earlier in the book, we are equal. Don’t you put one over another. We are just all gifted men whom God has given to the body.

Look in Acts 13:36. I want you to see how David saw himself. That word huperetes is used here. I want you to understand who David was, the great leader, the king of Israel. If you mention David or Abraham’s name to a Jew, they open their eyes very wide because these are heroes to them. But look how David considered himself. This is so important. It says in verse 36, “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep.” The word “served” is huperetes. He served as a man no more worthy than any others who are serving.

That is the bottom line of what Paul is talking about. When you are a servant of Christ, you don’t look at yourself as somebody bigger or littler than somebody else. You just look at Him and walk and follow Him.

Look back in 1 Corinthians 3:5 and 7, just to make sure we have got the thought now that he has. This is exactly what he is bringing out. I think that is why he uses the word. In I Corinthians 3:5 he says, “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed.” Now there is the word diakonos. It says, “even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.”

Then in 1 Corinthians 3:7 we read, “So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.” Now the question has got to come in your mind and in my mind. If he serves Christ, how does he serve Christ? A true Godcalled preacher is a man when he serves Christ and serves His Word. That is the bottom line. He serves His Word.

The word huperetes is used in that form in Luke 1:2. The apostle Luke is talking. Boy, it is so crystal clear when it comes out. It says, “Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word, have handed them down to us.” In other words, the picture here is of one who is a servant of Christ who takes the Word of God and hands it to others. That is how a Godcalled preacher serves Christ. He serves His Word.

The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:16, “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion [I love that phrase there. Something is burning in my heart. This is what motivates me]; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.” Be very careful! Some people think the gospel is just the message of salvation. The gospel is the good news of the Word of God, the good news of Jesus from Genesis 1 to the last chapter of Revelation. That is why in Romans 1 Paul says, “I can’t wait to get among you believers, to preach to you the gospel.” I thought they only needed it if they were lost? No, no. You need it all the way through. It is the Word of God. And the true Godcalled preacher is one who is a servant of Christ and the way he serves Him is by serving His Word.

You know what a shepherd does? A shepherd does three things: he guides the sheep, he guards the sheep and he grazes the sheep. How does he do that? He guides them with the word, he guards them with the word and he grazes them with the word. The word, the word, the word, the word. That is what a Godcalled preacher is compelled to do. He serves Christ by serving His Word.

You say, “Wayne, you are just reading that into it.” No, finish 1 Corinthians 4:1. He said, “and stewards of the mysteries of God.” I started to say the manifold mysteries of God. It is called that in Ephesians 3:10, but here it is the mysteries of God.

Now, what is he talking about here? The word for “steward” is the word oikonomos. It means a household manager of somebody else’s property. You can be a manager of a business if it is not yours. It can be an administrator of a domestic affair. It is somebody who administrates and properly protects and distributes that which is the property of somebody else. He said, “I am a steward of the mysteries of God.” “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.” That word “mystery,” as we have already seen in 1 Corinthians, means that which can be known only by revelation. He speaks here of the Word of God.

So what is a Godcalled preacher? A Godcalled preacher is under the authority of Jesus Christ. He must be absolutely submissive to Him, never look at himself as if he is above anybody else, but he serves the Word of God. That is what he is, a steward of the mysteries of God. He holds nothing back. It is the whole counsel of God that he is committed to preach to people. That is what he is here for, that is what he does. You want to regard a preacher? Look first of all at his responsibility before God and that is to be a steward of the mysteries of God.

In Acts 20:20 Paul is speaking to the church elders. He is on the island of Milteus. They have come down to him. Look at what he says to them. It is so important that we hear this. He says, “how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable [Now that is so important. I left nothing out, he says] and teaching you publicly and from house to house.” They had house churches until way after the 8th century. And so, therefore, he would go from one house church to another house church to another house church.

Verse 21 says, “solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Then if you drop down to verse 27 of chapter 20 he says, “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.” The apostle Paul was accountable, obedient to Christ, and accountable to Him to be a steward of the mysteries of God.

Have you ever noticed how wrong doctrine gets its start? Because people are not preaching the whole counsel of God’s Word. Wrong doctrine will come from people who major in the Old Testament. They will teach the Old Testament, and the gospels and the book of Acts, but they will not get into the epistles at all. They never talk about the epistles. That is where wrong doctrine festers – when you are not teaching the whole counsel of it. The apostle Paul says, “Man, I am under compulsion to preach the whole counsel of God unto you.”

Look back in 1 Corinthians 2:2. We have studied it but let’s look back. Listen to his heart. He is saying to them, “Don’t attach yourself to me. If you want to regard us or esteem us, remember, here are your guidelines. Number one, our responsibility.” He says in verse 2, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” Paul knew the responsibility God had given to him.

Verse 4 continues, “And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” Then in verse 5 here is the compelling thing of a true Godcalled preacher, “that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” So the responsibility and the major concern of a true Godcalled preacher is he is never there, now listen, to please his hearers. He is there to preach thus saith the Lord. That is his responsibility before God and that is what he will answer to God one day for. Paul begins by showing them this.

It took me a long time to understand this. The average pastor in America today, they tell me, is dismissed after about eight months. It used to be two years and then it came down to one and half years. It is somewhere getting down below one now, somewhere around the area of eight months, the last thing I heard. Why is that? You know, I don’t know all the answers but I think I know some. From this passage, I think what happens is, congregations put a pressure on many preachers and do not allow them to fulfill their Godgiven responsibility. They want him here, here, here, here, over here, do this, do that, do this, do that and then come in on Sunday and expect to be fed without any comprehension of the time that it takes to get down and dig out the revealed mysteries of God in the scriptures. As a result, preachers end up being a failure to their congregation and a failure to God and a failure to themselves because they are cutting off the very thing that is the answer everybody is looking for.

Roy Hessein taught me a lot. One day I said, “Roy, I am worried.” He said, “What are you worried about, son?” I said, “I am worried about the fact that I come to church every Sunday and there are many people who never even bring their Bible. They sit there and they go half to sleep. They are looking at their watch half way through the message. They just don’t seem to be hungry at all. What do I do? What do I do about all those?” He said to me, “Wayne, you are not responsible for people who will not eat, but you are responsible for setting the table for those who want to. You won’t stand before God and answer for people who didn’t listen, but you will stand before God and answer for how you set the table.”

That set me free. It just set me free. Folks, I want to tell you, a Godcalled preacher knows that he is a servant to Christ and to serve Him he serves the Word. Now listen to me carefully, that is the way he loves the people. That is the way he serves the people is by being a steward of the mysteries of God.

That is the very thing people don’t want, especially Corinthians, who are still attached to people, in the nursery. They don’t want to hear from God. They would rather man be there. They cling to man instead of clinging to God. But that is his Godgiven responsibility. Paul says, “If you want to esteem me and Apollos, then this is our responsibility.”

The requirement of a God-called preacher

Secondly, there is the requirement of a preacher. The requirement of a preacher is found right here in verse 2. It says, “In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.” The present tense is used here for “required” which means at all times you have to find them this way. If you are going to esteem them, if you are going to regard them, here is the key, at all times.

The verb “required” is the word that means that which is expected, that which is required. So there is something expected out of a person who is a Godcalled preacher. Not only does he have a responsibility of being a servant and a steward, but he does have something else here that is required out of him - that he be found trustworthy.

The word “trustworthy” is pistos. It means to win over, to persuade. Now hang on, hang on. It is somebody you can put your confidence in, that is what he is saying. But in the context here, there are many things that characterize being trustworthy and faithful. I mean, you can get into character, etc. and that all applies, but that is not his context. His context is directly linked to what he just said. Since this man’s heart and his responsibility is to serve the Lord by serving His Word, being a steward of the mystery of God, he must be found faithful at all times to be this if you are ever going to put your confidence in Him. That is what he is saying.

Now there other things to being trustworthy, other things to being fai

1 Corinthians 4:6-8

Contents

1 Introduction

2 A conceited church is indifferent to the Word of God

3 A conceited church is ungrateful

4 A conceited church is self-complacent

Introduction

The apostle Paul is beginning to get a little bit more narrowed in the things that he says. He is really being direct. As a matter of fact, I want to entitle this study, “The Characteristics of a Conceited Church.” The church of Corinth was a conceited church.

Based on the fact that they thought they had it altogether and they were judging Paul against Apollos, against Cephas, he says in verse 5, “Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.”

Paul says, “Now listen to me, it is God who judges; it is God who rewards. That is His role.” “Therefore,” he says, “do not go on passing judgment before the time.” Now, he is referring to the judgments again that they are passing upon Paul and Apollos.

People still do that today. They have their little standards that they judge a preacher by. Does he visit enough? Does he show compassion? What is his personality like? The Corinthians were doing that. The apostle Paul says, “You stop doing that. That is not your role. This is God’s role.”

As a matter of fact, the time there is defined by the next phrase. He says, “Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time [what time? keep reading], but wait until the Lord comes.” You see, it is only the judgment of God that counts. It is only the judgment of God that is valid. He says, “Whatever you are coming up with to put me over here against Apollos and both of us against Cephas, you stop doing that because only God is the one worthy to judge, and He is coming to do that. So you back off.”

In verse 13 we have seen this judgment, haven’t we? Go back up to verse 13 of chapter 3. This is the judgment we have already looked at. He reminds them of this. He says, “Each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it [now that is the time, the day when Jesus comes], because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test [not the quantity, but] the quality of each man’s work.”

So, with this in mind, Paul goes on, “Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes.” Now look at what He will do when He comes: “Who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts.” You see, God and God alone knows the motives of men’s hearts. We found that out back in chapter 2. No man knows the thoughts of a man, certainly the motives of a man, except the man himself.

The word there for “motives” is the word boule. It has the idea of the counsel of a man’s heart, something that he sat down and reflected upon that determined his purpose and his motivation and his agenda. Why does he do what he does? Only God knows that. Paul says, “You don’t know that, therefore, back off. When God comes, all of these things will be revealed.”

The word for “bring light to” is photizo. It means to turn the light on. One of these days He will come and He will turn the light on. Don’t worry, God will take care of that. The word for “disclose” is the word phaneroo. In other words, He will manifest them at one time. How will they be manifested? Hey, you can tell by what is left, whether it is wood, hay and stubble, if it is going to burn or the precious stones that are going to be left. There won’t be any question about the motivation of a man’s heart one day when he stands before God. It will be at this time that the rewards will be given.

A called preacher of God’s word wants God’s approval and those rewards. He doesn’t want just the acclamation of men. That is not what he is looking for. So he says in the verse, “Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.” Each man’s praise will come to him from God. Now that is what we all want. That is what a preacher wants who is called of God. Therefore, back away from this judging the motives of a preacher’s heart. Stop saying, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas. Stop excluding oneself. Stop thinking you have the standard and nobody else has it.

I am serious. If you will look carefully at what he is doing, the bottom line is, who in the world do you think you are to judge the motives of God’s called preachers of His word? Well, the Corinthian church was rather conceited, rather arrogant. They thought they had the standard. As a matter of fact, that has been their problem all along, babies who wouldn’t grow up in the nursery.

What we are going to start seeing here in verse 6, to me, is very, very important. We are going to see a stark contrast between a conceited church and the humility of the apostles whom God had sent to them. The people whom God was using and the people who would not allow God to use them are going to stand out. It is as clear as a bell. We see the conceited Corinthian church and the humble apostles God had sent to them.

We are only going to look at the conceited church of Corinth right now, but I want to go ahead and introduce it to you. The word “humility” is never used, but it is implied in everything that you can see. The Corinthians walked away from the Word of God. They wouldn’t grow in the Word of God. They came up with their own standards. The apostles, on the other hand, never even thought of themselves as worth anything. They knew they were only vessels. They knew the sin in their life. They knew everything about themselves that was not apart from God. They lived in that humility, that proper estimate of themselves in light of who God is.

If you will think about it for a second, everybody God has ever used is characterized not by conceit but by humility. I want to remind you of some people God has used down through the Scriptures. When Abraham was interceding on behalf of Sodom, he said in Genesis 18:27, “And Abraham answered and said ‘Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord although I am but dust and ashes.’” Jacob, when he was afraid that Esau was going to attack him prayed in Genesis 32:10, “I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which Thou hast shown to Thy servant.” When God commanded Moses to go before Pharaoh and demand the release of the Israelites, Moses said in Exodus 3:11, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” When John the Baptist could not conceive of baptizing Christ, he said, “I have need to be baptized by You and do You come to me?” And John, in his gospel, records a record of the words of John the Baptist when he said, “I baptize in water but among you stands one whom you do not know. It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” Peter, when seeing the miracle of the great catch of fish on the Sea of Galilee and realizing that he was in the presence of God, made this statement in Luke 5:8, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” The apostle Paul was no exception. It says in Acts 20:19 of Paul that he served the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon him through the plots of the Jews. In 2 Corinthians 3:5 Paul says, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, for our adequacy is from God.” And in Ephesians 3:8 Paul said, “To me the very least of all saints this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ.”

Whenever you find a person who is being used as a vessel for God, you are going to find a marked characteristic of humility. But every time you find somebody who is unwilling to grow up, unwilling to get up under the authority of God’s Word and even though they go through the motions day by day, you are going to find conceit and arrogance and they are going to stand in a stark contrast to one another. All this humility of Paul and Apollos and Cephas that was mentioned back in verse 12 of chapter 1 and then followed through the three chapters that we have studied, all of that humility now is going to stand up against the stark conceit and arrogance of the Corinthian church. They are again babies who wouldn’t grow up. They wouldn’t come out of the nursery. They had their own standards. They had arrived. They needed no one.

A conceited church is indifferent to the Word of God

There are three characteristics of a conceited church. When you talk about the church, you are talking about individuals. So the same characteristics that apply to the church apply to an individual. These are the characteristics of a conceited church or a conceited individual. Paul minces no words and drives his point home.

First of all, a conceited church is indifferent to the Word of God. Now isn’t that interesting? Following right on the heels of 4:14, now we are going to see people who are indifferent to the Word of God. In those verses Paul talked about preachers who preach the Word of God and love the Word of God and are stewards of it. Now he is talking about people who don’t want to hear it, who are indifferent to the Word of God.

In fact, those churches are many times found in America today. I pastored a church once where I had walk up to me and say, “Wayne, why do you talk about the Word all the time? It is 2,000 years old.” You think they don’t exist, folks? They exist everywhere. As we go through this think, about now how many Corinthian churches you have seen. In verse 6, the indifference to God’s Word comes out. “Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to exceed what is written [there you go right there] in order that no one of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.”

Now when he refers to “these things,” that throws me a little bit. I think he is talking about verses 15, particularly verses 14 of chapter 4. However, notice back in 1:12 he says, “Each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul,’ and ‘I of Apollos,’ and ‘I of Cephas,’ and ‘I of Christ.’” That is the tough group. Then he drops off the last two and picks up on Apollos and Paul and follows that the rest of the way. So it could be that you could go back to when he does that and pick up the traits that he is trying to speak of here.

But to me, to stick right in the text, he is speaking of those characteristics of the God called preachers he talked about in verses 14. He says, “Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos.” That word “I have figuratively applied” caught my attention. Now sometimes when I am studying a word will grab me and I will start explaining it and you will lose the whole track of where I am going. I don’t want that to happen. However, you need to know this word. It is a good word. It is the word metaschematizo. It comes from the word meta, denoting change of place or condition, and the word schematizo, which is from schema, meaning shape or form.

Now, what is he saying here? Something that changes the outward form of something; not the inward, but the outward. The apostle Paul says, “I am just changing forms. I am not changing the meaning, nothing inward changes. I am just changing the forms. I gave you the example in 4:14. Now that applies to myself and Apollos. I have figuratively applied it to us.”

There is a reason that he is doing that. There is another word that means to be changed from within. That is metamorphoo, from which we get the word “metamorphosis.” Now, do you know which word is used when you die and go through that transition of death and one day get a glorified body? Which word would you think would be used? It is not the word metamorphoo. It is this word right here. There is only going to be an outward change. It is just going to be a transition from here to there because we are being changed inwardly constantly, aren’t we? From glory to glory, from faith to faith. It is really a sweet thought. Maybe I am the only one who thinks it is, but when I was studying that really hit me, that when you die it is just a transition, and the only thing that changes is the outside. He has already come to live inside of us. He has already transformed me inside. He is just simply going to transition me. So today I am being conformed more and more to the image of Christ and one day I will get the body to go along with it and we will just go right on together. It shouldn’t be that big a drastic thing. That just blessed me.

Well, Paul is saying that he and Apollos were given to the church that there might be a pattern to follow. Now remember who Paul was. He was the first pastor of the church. Remember who Apollos was. He was the second pastor of the church. He says, “I zeroed in on me and Apollos because I think there is a pattern here that you need to follow. There is something about us that you need to learn. What is that?” “Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn [now watch] not to exceed what is written.” Now what in the world is he talking about? Alright, let me see if I can help you.

You see, God’s written Word tells us to appreciate God’s called preachers. In fact, it gives us the boundaries within which we can appreciate them. But you cannot go and exceed what is written. Let me just show you that. Look over in 1 Thessalonians 5:12. We are to appreciate and encourage and regard the people who preach and teach the Word of God, whoever they may be. They are servants of Christ. They serve His Word. They are stewards of His mysteries. The mystery is His Word, and we are to regard them.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:12 look at what he says. He says, “But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction.” He says, “We request that you appreciate these people.” So there is a proper esteeming of someone who teaches the Word of God and it is within the guidelines of scripture.

Look over in 1 Timothy 5:17. I love this verse; you will see why in a minute. Again within the guidelines of scripture we are to appreciate those who teach the Word of God. First Timothy 5:17 reads, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor [I like that], especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.” Now that is within the bounds of scripture. Take care of them, encourage them, appreciate them. There is a regard that is biblical and scriptural for people who teach the Word of God. However, glory always goes to God. It never goes to man. You don’t exalt the man. You appreciate the man, and the scripture gives you the guideline. But when you start exalting the man, you have exceeded that which is written and this is never allowed.

So Paul says, “Hey, to help you understand, I have taken Apollos and myself. We are the example so that you might learn with us not to exceed that which is written. The sin of exceeding that which is written is being indifferent to what God has to say. You see, they could have cared less. Paul is going to zero in on them and show them how conceited they have become. They don’t care what Paul is saying to them at this point, but what he is telling them is, “Listen, guys, as a result of your exceeding what is written, you have become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.”

Do you know what the word “arrogant” is? It is the word phusioo. It has the meaning of to puff up, to inflate, to blow up. When somebody is arrogant, he is just a big old gas bag. That is all he is, just a big bag of wind. That is what he says you have become. You have become people who are arrogant. You have puffed yourself up. You have an inflated view of yourself, and you have an inflated view of the people who have ministered to you, because you have attached yourself to them instead of attaching yourselves to Christ. Therefore, you have exceeded that which has been written.

You say, “I would never do that.” Now be real careful in what you just said. If you are going to stay within the bounds of scripture, you can appreciate godly people and realize they have been given to the church. But if you step outside the guidelines of scripture, you are going to forget what they say and attach yourself to the man. When you do that you have just sinned against God and become indifferent to what God’s Word has to say.

Now be real careful, you may have already slipped into this trap of being a man follower. You see, when you are of a person and you go and exceed the scriptural guidelines of appreciation of that person, certainly treating them with a matter of respect and honor, and you move to exalting that person, you have just taken upon yourself the Corinthian mark of being a conceited, arrogant bag of wind. That is what you are. You no longer are a person who loves the Word. You have become indifferent to the Word. You would rather hear the people who preach the Word. That is what was going on in Corinth.

The apostle Paul is nailing them. He said one of the first characteristics of a conceited people, an arrogant people, is that they are indifferent to the Word. That is shown by the fact that they don’t just appreciate the man. They go beyond and exalt the man and that is sin. That has exceeded that which is written.

A conceited church is ungrateful

The second sign of a conceited church is ungratefulness. It is specifically ungrateful for the people God has used to get them to where they are. Somebody told me a long time ago that humility is when you give credit to people who God has used to get you where you are. That is the bottom line. None of us are self made; we are Godmade, and God uses people in our lives. God had used Paul. God had used Apollos. But these people at Corinth were fighting over who was going to be of whom and never stopped to think of how grateful they should have been for the people God had given them to bring them to where they are.

It says in verse 7, “For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” Now, let’s walk through that for a second. He says, “For who regards you as superior?” That is a good question. Who put you in this class? Who put you as superior to other men? Why is it you have the right to judge preachers when others don’t? Why is it you have the right to act the way you are acting? You see, they have put themselves into a class all by themselves. It wasn’t a class that God had put them into. They had put themselves into it.

And he says, “And what do you have that you did not receive?” You know, that is an honest question, isn’t it? Let me ask you a question, now what do you have that you did not receive? “Well, I am a successful business man and I have put my time into it and I deserve it.” Now, wait a minute, you received the health that God gave you to show up at work every day to do what you did. You received the ability to think, which God gave to you, to make the decisions that you make. You see, everything we have that is substantial is something that we have received – our IQ, our personalities, our shape, our size, our parents.

But that is not what he is talking about here. The context is very narrow. The context has to do with spiritual things that you have received. The apostle Paul is asking them a question. “Why is it that you act so arrogant, as if you somehow don’t have to walk by faith, as if you can go around judging preachers by your own standards, as if you can live this way? What is it you have spiritually that you didn’t receive? You are acting as if you got it yourself and didn’t receive it.” Any believer with any honesty would have to say that all that he has that is meaningful in the Christian life has been received.

Look over in Ephesians 1:3. What a tremendous verse this is of what we have received from God. Why is it the Corinthians could not see this? You see, they had just chosen to be indifferent to the Word, and that reflected an ungrateful heart that they had. They didn’t realize they didn’t get there on their own. As a matter of fact, sometimes we forget what it was like to be lost. Who was it God used to get to you with the Word of God and the gospel? Just think back in your life.

I remember when I first came to Chattanooga, some of the doctrine I was preaching. Some of the stuff I said is completely off the wall. I did not know how to study the Word of God. In fact, I was using everybody else’s notes. If Stephen Olford or Adrian Rogers would have died, I would have had to quit the ministry because I was using their outlines. Now, I would change them. I would run them through the mill of my own life. I wouldn’t use their illustrations. I would put my own there, but that is all I knew. I preached topically.

Then one day I passed by a sign that said Reach Out. Now it is Precept Ministries. But I saw this sign for Reach Out Bible Study. I said, “What in the world is that?” My wife said, “Well, why don’t you drive up there and check it out?” You know, I am usually uninhibited in things. My wife really is more uninhibited in that than I am. She did. I didn’t. She got enrolled in a course over there and started taking the book of Judges. I remember looking over her shoulder and seeing the difference it was making in her life and thinking, “I am jealous. I want what you have.” I began to realize I didn’t know how to study the Word of God for myself. So I began to do the homework, and that is how I learned to study the word of God, right there doing the homework of Precept Ministry. Today I am where I am because of the people God put in my life. I can only say I received it. I didn’t even know I needed it.

Then one day I was struggling with my Greek. One day Brother Spiros Zodhiates came to church. I never will forget that. As he walked out, he said to me, “Preach the Word, Son, preach the Word.” I said, “Yes, sir.” I didn’t know who he was. Somebody walked up to me behind him and said, “Do you know who that was?” I said, “Who?” He said, “Dr. Spiros Zodhiates.” I said, “You mean, like in Pulpit Helps?” They said, “Yes.” I chased him down in the parking lot and apologized to him that I didn’t know who he was. He started coming to my church and through the graciousness of his heart, let me start coming over to his place and start doing his radio program with him. That lasted ten years. All those years and those times and those hours of just sitting in there. I still don’t think I know anything, but I have learned a few things just by being in the room.

God began to teach me more and more about how to interpret. My gift was application. So here I am 16 years later and somebody says, “Man, what did you do to get where you are?” I have to say, “I didn’t do anything. All I know is, I am just grateful to be where I am, and I have got to give credit where credit is due. That is the thing.” What do any of us have that we have not received? It is incredible how conceited and arrogant and bags of wind we can become when we step outside the reality that we don’t have anything unless God gave it to us. That is what he is asking them. That is the question. What do you have that you did not receive? They were proud, ungrateful. They boasted as if they had gotten this themselves.

Verse 7 goes on. It says, “For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” That word “boast” is kauchaomai. We have seen it before. It comes from the root word aucheo, neck. Why do you walk around with your neck stuck out like you have gotten there on your own? You didn’t get there on your own. It was because of the grace of God you are where you are.

You see, the sin of pride is the epitome of ungratefulness. As a matter of fact, if I remember the scriptures right, look over in chapter 6 and verses 911. This is where they came from. Isn’t it funny how quickly we forget it. We don’t give credit to God and glory to God for the people He used to get us where we are. They were arrogant. They were self conceited here. Look in 1 Corinthians 6:9. He says, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, not revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” But look at verse 11: “And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God.”

That is where they had come from. Now it looks to me like people who had come from that would have a grateful heart. They didn’t have a grateful heart. They are living in that arrogance of thinking they got there on their own, and the apostle Paul is just immediately dressing them down for this. They deserved every bit of it. The sin of ungratefulness.

Look over in the book of Judges for a second. In chapter 6, remember the cycle of sin? You know why I went to Corinthians after going through Judges? Because it is the counterpart in the New Testament. Here is a nation that turned their backs against God and here is a church that is doing the same thing. They won’t grow up. They won’t get up under the Word. They have become conceited and arrogant. They have attached themselves to the men and not the message. They are not appreciating what God is doing in their life.

In Judges 6 this was a very difficult time. The Midianites had come in for seven straight years. When they would come in, they would come in on camels. They discovered the camel was like a weapon because it could go for days in the desert and not have to drink any water. They were coming in plundering, and the people were so afraid of them that they ran up in the mountains and hid in the caves. God is not going to tolerate this, and as they cried out to Him, He is going to raise up a deliverer. That is the pattern of the book of Judges.

But I want you to see something He does before He goes to Gideon, before He takes the matter in His own hands. Look what He does. In Judges 6:7 we read, “Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on account of Midian, that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them [this is the first time and the only time He does this in the whole book of Judges], “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel [now watch], ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt.’” Now wait a minute, this is not the people He is talking to here. They were second generation after Joshua. It couldn’t have been them. It had to have been the generation before them. He said, “I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you out from the house of slavery. And I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors, and dispossessed them before you and gave you their land, and I said to you, I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live.” But look at the last phrase: “But you have not obeyed Me.” Don’t you understand where you have come from?

You see, this is the second generation, and they had heard all the stories. God said, “Do you understand that if it wasn’t for My grace, if it wasn’t for My love and My mercy, you would still be back in Egypt in a Hebrew slave camp? But because of who I am, I have taken you out and this is how you show Me your gratitude?” He says, “You have forsaken me. You will not obey Me.” You see, the root of all sin is ingratitude.

That is exactly one of the characteristics of a conceited church, a church that says we got here on our own. We didn’t need anybody else. They were not grateful for the people God had used in their life. They were not willing to admit what they have, they received, and they boast as if they had not received it.

A conceited church is self-complacent

Well, we have an indifference to the Word of God and ingratitude. The third characteristic of the conceited church is self complacency or self satisfaction. Look in verse 8. This is very sarcastic. It is an irony here of how Paul does this, but it is real sarcastic and they deserved everything he said. It got their attention. He was led of the Holy Spirit. Look at what he says. “You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings [and then the indictment] without us; and I would indeed that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you.” I struggled with this verse for quite a while, but it is obvious to me that he is being very sarcastic and very pointed in what he is saying here.

Do the first couple of phrases remind you anything of the church of Ephesus in Revelation when he says, “Because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked?” That is exactly the way they were. The church of Corinth was the same way. In 1 Corinthians 4:8 Paul is using that sarcastic way of getting their attention. Corinth, the rich city, had infected the church. They were self satisfied with what they had. They were living as if they were already in the millennium and already had received their rewards. They lived as if they had even had the right to judge and that is not any man’s right. That is God’s right.

So look at Verse 8 again. He says, “You are already filled.” The idea of being filled

1 Corinthians 4:913

Contents

1 Introduction

2 The apostles are last in the sight of men

3 The apostles were least in the sight of men

4 The apostles had to endure physical poverty

5 The apostles had to endure physical pain

6 The apostles had to endure physical persecution

Introduction

We are going to see the contrast between the conceited and the approved. I told you this was coming. Now we are going to see the other side of the equation. Over here the arrogant, Corinthian believer is putting himself on a pedestal and exalting himself. But over here we are going to have the apostles, those precious men who God singled out, approved and used to give us the New Testament, the ones who had to bear all kinds of things, brought the message to the Corinthians. We are going to see the humility of those apostles. We are going to see a profile of those who have been approved.

Let’s read the verses together then we will come back and look at them. Verses 9-13 say, “For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor. To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.”

Just reading those verses you can already see the different attitude, can’t you? On one side, arrogance, flesh; on the other side, humility. See, the very word humble, tapeinos, has the idea of just getting flat down as far as you can to where nobody can see you, they can only see Christ. That is the whole attitude. Here are the apostles living that way. And here is the church of Corinth, rich, self-satisfied, arrogant, little babies with pacifiers in their mouth, attaching themselves to preachers instead of attaching themselves to Christ.

The apostles are last in the sight of men

Look at the difference. What are the two characteristics of those who have been approved? First of all, the apostles are last in the sight of men. The Corinthians? They want to be first. Look at verse 9. He says, “For, I think,...” That word has the idea “as I look at it, divinely inspired by God’s Spirit, here is the observation I need to make.” He says, “For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death.” Now, the emphasis here is not that we have exhibited ourselves, but that God has exhibited us as apostles. The whole emphasis is on what God is doing here. The word “exhibit” there has the idea of setting something forth, putting it on display. You go to a trade show and you see these different exhibits, things that are set forth, things that are put forth so people can see. The idea is you don’t exhibit anything unless it has been approved. You don’t put something out for people to see unless it has been approved.

Paul says, “We have been approved, therefore, we are put on exhibit.” Now if you stopped right there, the Christians in Corinth would say, “Yes, I like that. Now where did you put me? How can I be on exhibit? How can I be on display for God?” In their arrogance that is what they would say. But what is coming next popped their bubble. Look what it says. He says, “For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles [in first place. Is that what he said? No, no. He says,] last of all.” The apostles? Now wait a minute; who are we talking about here? We are talking about the apostles, the ones through whom we get the New Testament, the ones who were sent forth to take the Word of God to the uttermost parts of the world, the witnesses of Christ, the ones who were commissioned by Him, the ones who were witnesses of His resurrection. And they are put as last of all?

Now when you think of yourself in Christianity and you want to put yourself on levels, remember, the apostles were pretty surrendered people. They had been approved. And it says that God has put them on exhibit as last of all. Now we know that Matthew tells us the apostles, the 12, are going to one day sit on 12 thrones. It says in Matthew 19:28, “And Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I say to you that you have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” That is then. That is one day. But right now in this world you are going to be last of all.

The word for “last” there is the word eschatos. Yes, it means last in a line perhaps, but it also means more than that. In the context, as you look it, it has the idea of the lowest. Socially, they were on the lowest rung of the list, on the lowest rank of all people who were there. They were looked upon as last. Now think. God did this. You see, that is the whole idea of John the Baptist in the New Testament. He says, “I must decrease that He must increase.” You see, the height of pride is saying “I must increase.” But the height of humility, or the depth of it, is to say “I must decrease,” you see.

God saw to it that these approved men were put on exhibit as being last, not as being first. He says, “For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death.” Now you couldn’t find a worse position than that. Men condemned to death. The word is epithanatios. It has to do with people who were put on trial, found guilty and were then condemned to death. They were the lowest dregs of society.

The illustration there is when a Roman general would go out into battle, he would bring back his captives. He would bring back the generals whom he had captured, chained to his chariot. Then they would have the prisoners behind him. These men would be condemned to death, to be put into an arena where they were slaughtered and the people would all come and rejoice and enjoy what was going on. That was the lowest of the low, to be condemned unto death.

He goes on to say “because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.” This all builds together. The thought just continues to frame itself. The word for “spectacle” is the word we get the word theater from. You go into a theater, and you have a crowd of witnesses there. He tells you who the witnesses are. It is the world, but he defines the word “world.” There are two groups. He says, “both to angels and to men.” Now the angels would be those who are intensely interested in what is going on. Why would that be so? In Hebrews 1:14 it says, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who inherit salvation?” I mean, these angels consistently watch over us, and they are amazed at being redeemed. So they are intensely interested at how we are being condemned to death. The apostles are put at the last of the social ranks.

There was another group of people there – the spectators; and they would be the men themselves. I think he would probably be talking about the lost men, the cold, mechanical, indifferent men of the world. They could care less about Christians, but they are all in this arena watching those apostles who have been put forth as an exhibition for all to see. God caused it that way. These were approved men. But they were put, not in first place, but in last place.

Can’t you hear the wise of this world laughing at those apostles? They did. They did. They had a great time laughing at them, “Huh, look at him. These people call themselves believers. They haven’t got the sense to get in out of the rain.” That was their whole attitude. What an enigma! Those who were last in this world’s eyes, foolish as far as the world was concerned, are going to be first in the kingdom of God. That is what God said.

The apostles were least in the sight of men

Look at the contradiction – the conceit of the Corinthians and the humility of the apostles. They were last among men. Not only were they last among men, but they were least in the sight of men. Have you ever heard the expression, “I am last and I am least?” Well, they were last and they were least in the sight of all men. I wish sometimes I could speak to ministers before anybody had gone out yet and we could preach this word to them. What are you looking for in the ministry? Are you looking to be put first place and be respected by the world? Well, let me just help you to understand, the apostles were put forth by the God as last, not first.

Listen, it gets better. It continues to illustrate itself as we go on in the text. Look at verse 10 of chapter 4. He says, “We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor. To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.”

The only way you are going to be able to see this, I think, is to remember verse 8. Let me read it to you again. He says, “You are already filled [Ah, who could fed you? You are so spiritual?], you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and I would indeed that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you.” See, that is what you have got to compare it with. The arrogance, the conceit of people who won’t stoop to obey God’s Word. Humility is surrender. But conceit and arrogance comes from a person who says I will do it my way. I will exalt myself. That is what the church of Corinth had done.

Let’s begin to look at it. The contrast stares at you as we go through this. First of all, he says, “We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ.” Now we have looked at that word “fools for Christ’s sake.” Now remember, this is in light of how the world sees them. The word is moros. We get the word “moron” from it. The word “moron,” you remember, was a person who did not have the mental capacity above 8 or 12 years old. He was never capable unless under extreme supervision. He does not have the sense to act sensibly. That is what a fool is. That is why it was such an indictment to call somebody a fool in that day.

Therefore, Paul says, “We are fools. The world looks at us and the message we preach and the lives we live as fools. Everything we do is contrary to the way the world lives. We are called fools. God put us in this position.” Why? Because God has got a message. Remember back in chapter 2 we learned that He only uses the foolish to confound the wise. He chooses the things that aren’t noble. You see, God uses that as a backdrop so that He can exemplify His glory within him.

But he also says, “but you are prudent in Christ.” Now the word for “prudent” here is the word phronimos, the result of having a mind that appears to be sensible. He says, “You have the ability to think and act sensibly. You know how to relate with others in the world.” The Corinthians had learned, you see, the means of the flesh and how to relate to the world. And so the world would look at them and say, “Ah, now they are prudent. Those apostles, they are foolish.” The difference was the apostles were obeying Christ. The Corinthians were living after the flesh, but they wanted the world to look at them this way. Therefore, he says, “The world desires you and how you think, but they don’t desire us. We are the scum. We are the dregs of society.”

The little phrase “prudent in Christ” may throw you. What I believe he is saying there is, “It means you are wise in your dealings with the world because you have adopted their ways. You have left God’s Word. However, at the same time you still use Christ’s name as if you are connected to Him.” You have come up with this so-called wisdom, and the world thinks, “Hey, that is great. I love that ole boy. He relates to me.” But the ones who hold to the Word of God are going to be the ones who are looked at as the fools of this world.

Well, he goes on in verse 10. He says, “we are weak, but you are strong.” You see the irony in what he is doing here? He is just nailing their conceit and their arrogance right to the wall. “Here we are as apostles,” Paul is saying, “and look how you are living, as if you don’t even need us. Who do you think you are?” He says, “We are weak.” The apostles in the world’s eyes looked weak, and I guess that is right. As a matter of fact, the apostle Paul, as I understand it from 1 Corinthians, wasn’t really much of a figure of a man: little short, bowlegged, hook nose, bald-headed Jewish guy. He wasn’t much to look at. He said, “When I am with you, I look weak but my boldness is from the Lord.”

But in another sense, they look in appearance to the world as being weak, anemic, not able to do anything. You can hear the laughter of the world when the apostles chose only the power of Christ. Paul was one of the most intelligent men in the whole New Testament, but he says, “When I was with you, I chose not to woo and wow you with the eloquent words of the world, but I chose to be coming to you in the power and demonstration of the Spirit of God.” “That is the way the world sees us,” he says. “And God has put us in this of exhibit. But you are strong. You have chosen to apply the world’s ways and wisdom in order to make an impression.”

Then he goes on in verse 10, “you are distinguished, but we are without honor.” The word “distinguished,” endoxos, is from two words, en, which means in, and doxa, which means glory. You are in your glory. Man, you are in your glory. All recognition goes to you. That is what the word glory means. You already have your crowns. Men bow before you. You have a big bank account. You are successful in the world. What do you need? Hey, man, you are doing great! But we, the very apostles who give the New Testament of God’s Word, the ones who are approved by God Himself, commissioned by God Himself, are without honor.

The word “without honor” comes from two words, a, without, and time, which means honor. Paul says the apostles are dishonored. Why are they dishonored? Because they have one attachment in their life, only one, and that is Jesus Christ. And the humility of their life is their surrender to Him and surrender to the Word. He said, “But you Corinthians, you are rich. You have got it all together. The world looks at you and says, ‘Wow, that is what I want in my Christianity.’”

In Luke Jesus says, “Woe be unto you when all the world think well of you.” A man who points in all directions, points in no direction. Human wisdom is exalted before the world and those who cling to it are those who are going to be exalted by the world also. Oh, they will be in great shape. Oh, you can attach Christianity to it. You can hang on to it with one hand. They will like that. But those who cling only to God and His Word are going to be looked upon by this world as foolish people.

Paul gets very graphic now and is going to start describing the lifestyle they lead compared to the lifestyle the Corinthians want to lead. You can see all the difference in the world, in conceit and humility, two big differences. It is all attitude, isn’t it? It doesn’t necessarily mean these things are going on. It has all to do with the attitude of a person’s heart.

The apostles had to endure physical poverty

There are three groups here with three in each group. First of all, the physical poverty that the disciples themselves have had to endure. Verse 11 of chapter 4 says, “To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty.” The words “to this present hour” mean at this very moment. I mean, right now as I am speaking to you, this is the way it is. And what is that, Paul? He says, “We are both hungry and thirsty.”

You know, in the travels that God would put upon the apostles, the mission journeys, etc., that they would do, we have no clue as to the times they were in hunger and thirst. Nobody would feed them. We have no idea of the pain and the poverty that they had to endure. In verse 11 it says, “and are poorly clothed.” The word “poorly clothed” actually means naked, but in the context seems to have more of the idea of just poorly clothed.

You know, again I want to come back to this question, “What is it you are expecting in this world?” I mean, what is it? There are so many people who have an agenda. They have everything attached to an agenda and they say, “Oh, God, we will serve you, if....” Turn on the television and just by a person’s very presentation itself it tells you where people are coming from.

Listen to the apostle Paul, to me one of the greatest apostles. In 2 Timothy 4 I want you to see what happens. He was in a pit. Have you ever studied about his imprisonment? The first imprisonment was in a place where he could entertain guests and write his letters. He wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. But in the second imprisonment, the one right before he died, it wasn’t that way. I have wanted to go there so badly. One of these days, prayerfully, the Lord is going to get me there. People who have been there tell me that you walk into this place and there is a hole in the floor. Now this hole in the floor is like a manhole cover. You take this lid off and that is where they would lower them down into this dungeon. If you went there today, there is about an inch of slimy wet stuff all over the walls and all over the floor. That is what it was like. It was total pitch dark inside that thing and all you could see was out that little hole up there. That is where they would lower them into it and bring them out.

Now Paul is in that place right before they martyr him for the faith. Now remember something, this is right before he died. I can hear somebody going in the ministry saying, “Hey, man, I can’t wait for my retirement program. And I have been working hard on it and I can’t wait. One day I am going to get me a motor home and I am going to see America. That is what I am looking forward to in my future.” Well, I want you to know something, folks, the apostle Paul never understood anything about that. He had absolutely nothing, no piece of real estate that he could put his hands on. And here he was in prison, poorly clothed, freezing to death, bored to death and he writes Timothy. This is right before he dies now. This is the end of his life. One of the greatest apostles who ever lived. He says in verse 9, “Make every effort to come to me soon, Timothy.” In other words, “I am lonely. Man, I am lonely. Just to see your face would just bless me.” He says, “For Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.”

By the way, Corinth was a city that took after Demas, in that sense of the word. They probably never knew him but that is exactly what Corinth had done. They had loved this present world.

In verse 13 look at what he says. “When you come, bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus.” I am cold. I am cold. The person who had been to that prison told me that the moment they got down inside of it, they sang the song, “Amazing Grace.” They said they stood there and felt the chill inside that prison and it hit them right here that this was the end of one of the greatest apostle’s lives who had ever been lived, and the Corinthians acting as if they were too good for this kind of thing. He says, “Bring me my cloak, I am cold.” And he said, “And the books; oh, Timothy, bring me the books. I am bored stiff. Especially the parchments.” You know, even with not much light he still wanted the books, just something to have. That is the last days of his life.

Somebody said that a bunch of students one day asked Dr. W. A. Criswell, “Dr. Criswell, what can you tell us about the ministry and the pastorate?” He said, “Son, if you can do anything else, do it. But make up your mind. If you are called and you cannot do anything else, understand, you have to cut your agenda for what you think you are going to get out of it. It is only for God and what God wants to do in your life.”

The apostles had to endure physical pain

The second grouping involves not the physical poverty but the physical pain. He goes on in verse 11, “and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands.” Now the word “roughly treated” there is the Greek word that means to deliver a physical blow, either to the face or to the body. He is talking about somebody actually hitting you, like slaves were beaten constantly. They were looked upon as slaves. The same terminology is given to describe the apostles. Now, look who we are talking about folks, the apostles, Peter and Paul and all the different ones, martyred for their faith, every one of them as tradition tells us. To be struck with a blow.

In 1 Corinthians 11:26 Paul sort of gives a little insight into some of the difficulties he had like that. He said, “I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren.” Do you remember that time? We studied that in Acts. He goes into this little town and they beat him and throw him outside the city as if he is dead. The apostle Paul gets up, staggers around, gets both eyes back open and goes right back in the city. I want to jump inside the text and say, “No, Paul! Don’t go in there. They are going to beat you up.” But he would go right back in there.

If you wanted to find the apostle Paul in those days, go to the local jail and if he wasn’t there, find you a ditch outside the city and look for a bruised body. That is usually where you would find the apostle Paul. One of the greatest apostles in all of the New Testament. And he is saying to these Corinthian, rich, comfortable believers, “You have so bought into the world, they even like your kind of Christianity. What in the world is this! You are so conceited. Look at the difference of the ones God has approved. He puts them last. Last, not first, but last.”

Verse 11 says, “are homeless.” The word comes from two Greek words, a, without, and histemi, which means a set place. We have no set place, no abode, no place to go. Have you ever thought about this? The apostles, when they would go into a land to evangelize, were not Gentiles, so they were turned away. The Jews who might be there looked at them as Christians, so they automatically turned them away. They had no place to lay their head, no place. Does that remind you of the One who sent them? “The foxes have their holes and the birds have their nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” You see, those who are approved embracing Him and His Word may end up this way. They may not, but the apostles did.

In verse 12 it says, “and we toil, working with our own hands.” The word for “toil” is the word that means to work until you are fatigued at working. He is not saying there is anything wrong with that. He was a tentmaker. That is how the church of Corinth came about. He went over and met Priscilla and Aquila and made tents, getting ready for those Isthmian games. That is how the church got started over there while he was there. Timothy and Silas came over and met him, in Acts 18, and the little church began there. He is not saying there is anything wrong with that, but I think you have got to see the irony of what he is saying. “You people are proud, conceited and act as if you got there on your own. We are over here homeless, without anything to wear, and we are working with our own hands for you.” That is kind of the irony that he is using here. He is not doing it in a mean way. He is trying to help them understand, “Who do you think you are trying to live this way when the very apostles of God were put in last place.”

The apostles had to endure physical persecution

Well, the third grouping is the physical persecution. We have the physical poverty, the physical pain (some of that is emotional) and the physical persecution. He says, “when we are reviled [that is a persecution word, by the way], we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure [there is the word]; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate.”

Now let’s look at that. First of all, “when we are reviled.” The apostle Paul is showing again the stark contrast. They love the Corinthians because they are prudent and are distinguished. “We like you Christians. We don’t like these Christians.” “We are reviled,” he said. The word “reviled” has the meaning of somebody coming against you saying things, threatening you, talking about you in an unkind manner.

I remember back in my own life back when I first came to Chattanooga, the church of Satan wrote me letters. They put blood on the bottom of the page. They were going to kill me and my family for preaching the Word. I just started posting the letters out in the foyer, in case anybody recognized the handwriting. They would send people to our church and they would sit in the church and pray to Satan while we would be having our services. Do you know what? They left. Do you know why? Because we never bothered with them. We just kept preaching Jesus and they couldn’t stand it, they had to go.

I am not putting myself in this group. Good grief, these are the apostles. But I am telling you, I can understand. You can, too. You can relate to this.

Think about the apostles, man. It was much more serious in their life. Here is the contrast. It is not so much that they are reviled. Yes, that is part of it, but I think the response is the voluntary humility of these men. That is the key. He says, “when we are reviled, we bless.” The word “bless,” eulogeo, means to speak well of them.

Now wait a minute, they don’t go around saying, “Aren’t they nice people for trying to kill me.” No, no, no. You have to go to Romans 12 and some other places to realize, when you bless, it is in the opposition to cursing. Cursing is when you wish evil upon somebody. So the opposite of wishing evil on them is wishing good for them. That is what he means by blessing them. You don’t walk around saying, “Oh, I like that person. They are so sweet. They just cussed me out on the phone.” That is not what he is saying. He just doesn’t wish evil upon them.

And then it goes on. He says, “when we are persecuted, we endure.” The word “persecuted” has the idea of that old hound dog on your trail. It is somebody on your trail all the time. It is a word that means hound you all the time, always on your trail, never gets off your trail.

Now, the word “endure” is not the word you think it is. It is not the word that means to bear up under. It is the word that means we don’t retaliate. We refrain from responding to persecution. I like that. I like what Billy Graham said one day. They asked him, “How do you handle criticism?” He said, “I don’t acknowledge it.” I had a lady tell me one time, “Wayne, if you ever recognize it, you dignify it.” Do you hear that, Wayne? You said that. Are you listening?

“When we are slandered,” he says, “we try to conciliate.” The word “slandered” is blasphemeo. It is a stronger word that the normal word for slander. It means to hurt one’s reputation by what you say about them. The word “conciliate” is the word parakaleo. It normally means a comforting word, but it has the idea of entreating somebody to do something. I think that is how he means it. When you are blasphemed, usually that is to your face, but it can be behind your back when you hurt somebody’s reputation. I think what he is saying is, “When we are blasphemed we try to entreat in kindness and ask the person, ‘Don’t do that, don’t do that, but let me share with you something that is helpful to your life.’” I think that is the idea of how he brings this out. Paul continues to show the voluntary humility of these apostles. The world thinks of this kind of humility as cowardice and despicable.

Let me give you an example of that, and I want you to think on it. How do they respond when they are treated this way? Alright, we know already. How does the world think of that? Stupid, foolish, that is what they think about it. I want you to hang on to something. I have not worked it all out in my mind, so don’t accuse me too quickly.

We were counseling months ago with a person. The situation that she was dealing with was in her marriage. Her marriage had been bad. She got good counsel. I was talking with her and I said, “You know, do you understand the Christlife?” She said, “No, I don’t think I know what you mean.” “About you dying to self and letting Jesus be Jesus in your life, decreasing so He might increase?” The more I talked with her, the more I had to say things that she didn’t want to hear. The more I talked with her about the Christlife, the more she hardened on the inside.

Here was her final statement, “I can’t buy this.” I said, “Why?” She said, “For the first time in my life I have learned to stand up for myself.” I didn’t understand what was going on inside of me until I studied this passage. I think what I heard her say is this, “The world tells me be

1 Corinthians 4:14-17

Contents

1 Tough Love

2 Paul’s concern for the Corinthians

3 Paul’s compassion for the Corinthians

4 Paul’s counsel for the Corinthians

5 Paul’s companion for the Corinthians

Tough Love

You know, you say tough things to the people you love. You probably would not say the same things to people you don’t know, love or care about. But to the people you love, you will say the hard things.

We were in a restaurant some months ago. I am always in one somewhere, so it could have been any time. We were having fun with some friends and just laughing. My wife leaned over and whispered something in my ear. Only those who love you would tell you these things. She said, “Wayne, there is something green stuck between your front two teeth.” Immediately you say “What? Ummm, okay.” Then you proceed to work away and see if you can pull that awful piece of lettuce or whatever it is that you have got stuck right there between your teeth. Only the people who love you will tell you the things you might have not wanted to hear, but it is for your good.

You know, if I had understood this part of the scriptures before we started the book of 1 Corinthians, I would have started here. You have got to know the heart of the apostle Paul. He has been awfully difficult in some verses here. I mean, tough. You talk about saying some hard things to the Corinthian church. But he wants to make sure they understand the motivation of why he has done this. He loves them. He cares about them.

In verses 6-13, he really nailed them. He puts up beside their conceit and their arrogance and their fleshly immaturity the lifestyle of the apostles. The helpful thing is to remember that he loves them. That is why he is doing it. He is not some sarcastic individual. He is inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. This is God’s Word, not Paul’s word. It is God’s Word through Paul. So Paul is trying to remind them and is warning them and trying to get their attention.

As a matter of fact, if you think that was hard, go back to chapter 3. He says, “Hey, you are intentionally immature little babies, that is what you are. You won’t grow up. You attach yourself to men and the flesh, etc.” See, he has really been saying some hard things. And you can almost feel his heartbeat. Many times when you are disciplining your children you have to stop in the middle of it and say, “Now listen, I love you. I love you. Understand this. I am having to say some hard things, but I really do love you.” You can really feel the heartbeat of the apostle Paul doing exactly that.

In chapter 5 he turns right around, and it gets tougher. But he wants to them to know that if you love somebody, you will say the tough things. This is tough love. If you don’t care about them, you let them go. But if you love them, you can’t do that.

Paul’s concern for the Corinthians

Let’s look at four things about the character of the apostle Paul and how this tough love comes out of a compassionate, loving heart that he has. First of all, we see the concern Paul has for the Corinthians. They have got to know that. They can’t take what he is saying unless they know his love for them. He says in Verse 14, “I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.”

In that first phrase he immediately gets to the point. He says, “I do not write these things to shame you.” The word “shame” is the word entrepo. There are several words for shame, but this particular word causes a person, out of extreme embarrassment, to withdraw. Have you ever had that happen to you? Somebody just humiliated you, just embarrassed you intentionally and it caused you to withdraw from the whole crowd. Paul says, “In no way am I doing this.”

As a matter of fact, he used the word for “not” there. “I do not write these things to shame you.” It is the word that would have gotten their attention. I wish in our language we had the way of expression they had in their language, because you can’t miss it. In their way of thinking, they would have heard Paul saying, “I would not any way, shape or form shame you.” The little word ouk is used there. Normally that is a word that means I would not in any way, shape or form, shame you. That is not what I am doing. You may feel ashamed because of what I have said to you because you are guilty, but I am not writing this to shame you. That is not my purpose.

You see, they have stepped out of bounds and as a loving father he is trying to draw them back, just like you would correct your children. Then he says, “I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you.” Have you ever noticed how shame affects your emotions? But when you admonish somebody, it goes beyond that, to the mind and to the heart when you are warning them. If they can understand that you are trying to warn them, it is different.

As a matter of fact, the word “admonish” is the word noutheteo. It comes from the word nous, which means mind that can understand, and the word tithemi, which means to place. So, noutheteo means to place something in one’s mind, in his understanding, to appeal to his mind, to warn him, to admonish him.

You see, these are spiritually immature children. They won’t come out of the nursery. Normally a child doesn’t understand correction. They think you are out to get them. That is why Paul is trying to say to them, “I know you don’t understand my motive, but I want you to know that I really do care about you, like a father warning a child.”

Look at the rest of the verse. He says, “I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.” Now I want to tell you, you cannot find a more tender word than the word “beloved” anywhere in Scripture. It is a word in their language that meant affection. Paul is saying, “I really care about you all.” The word “beloved” is the word agapetos. To them it was just a very, precious, precious thing. It means dear. You are my dear.

Then in using the word “children” he is obviously referring to them in a spiritual sense, not a physical sense. You will see that even more in my next point. But how is he their spiritual father? How would they be his spiritual children? Well, obviously they are the children of God, but what connection does he have with them?

Well, go back to 1 Corinthians 3:6. He has a right, not only as an apostle, but because he has invested his life with these people and he cares about them. That is what he is trying to show them. First Corinthians 3:6 says, “I planted.” That means, “I planted; there wasn’t any seed there until I came. God used me to plant.” “I planted, Apollos watered.” Now remember, Apollos was the second pastor; he came along and watered what I had planted, “but God was causing the growth.”

Look at verse 10 of chapter 3. “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But let each man be careful how he builds upon it.” And what is that foundation? Verse 11 tells us, “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

Paul says this to these immature children, who normally can’t take correction. He wants to make sure they understand. He is as a loving father to a child. He says, “You are to me like my own children. I have a spiritual connection to you and that is why I am saying the hard things that I am saying to you.”

A child has difficulty when somebody talks tough with them, when somebody wants to correct them. So Paul is saying, “Listen, what I am doing is as a father to a child. I have concern for you.” As a matter of fact, he is going to develop this now. It is moving from just concern to a deep compassion that he has for them. I want to tell you, folks, you can receive a lot of things from people whom you know love you. It is tough when you receive it when you know that they don’t love you.

Paul’s compassion for the Corinthians

Let’s look at the second thing then. The first thing is the concern of the apostle Paul. Secondly, the compassion of the apostle Paul takes a different dimension here. It moves even beyond just simple concern. Paul is going further to illustrate his fatherly love for them. A stranger’s words will be resented but not a father’s. He loves you. Only a father would know and understand that kind of thing.

Are you a father or a grandfather? If you are you will have no trouble with this passage whatsoever. Verse 15 says, “For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.” Now let’s make sure we understand this. God is our heavenly Father. But what he is talking about is in the sense of relationship in the spiritual world. He has a deep connection with them.

He says, “For if you were to have countless tutors.” That word “countless” most of the time is translated “ten thousand,” but the reason it is translated “countless” here is that it really means innumerable. Sometimes some translations pick it up and put “ten thousand.” The word really means that you can’t even number the quantity of them. So the apostle Paul says, “You can have innumerable tutors in your life but only one father.” He is doing this to show them the concern and the compassion that he has for them.

The word “tutors” comes from two words, the word that means child and also the word that means a leader, a leader of children, an instructor of children. In the day and culture that this came out of, this person was originally a slave who had charge of the son of a wealthy person. In other words, he was somebody else’s property, but he had charge over him to make sure he behaved. He would lead him to school and see to it that the child behaved properly. He was really more a guardian than an instructor, although there was instruction involved. He was a guardian. He watched over them to make sure they behaved properly.

Paul is not putting these guardians down. “Hey, these are good things. You will have innumerable tutors in your life, but what I want you to know,” he says, “I am teaching you something. They will teach you and instruct you and it will be right. Do what they say if it is the Word of God.” But he says, “I am coming to you as a father would to a child. Understand my heart. It is not as a simple guardian or as a simple instructor. Sure, I will teach you. But I want you to know my compassion that I have for you.”

The apostle Paul was much more than just a tutor. He felt as a father to his children. He says, “for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.” Now we saw how that basically took place, but look at what he says here. Look at the phrase “in Christ Jesus.” That is a significant phrase. Obviously we were in Adam, and we are now in Christ. So all things take place in Him. But I think it means more than that. It means in connection with Christ, making sure they understand there is a spiritual relationship here that we have. Because of my connection with Him, I have a deep connection with you. It was in Christ Jesus that the motivation came to go to Corinth.

Go back to Acts and you will find out that God led him over there. When he got there, the Isthmian games were coming up not far from then, and he met Priscilla and Aquilla. They were tentmakers, so they made tents together, obviously making money for the ministry that God had given to him. Then Timothy and Silas came over and they stopped making tents and just started evangelizing. Out of that came a church there in Corinth.

But it was in Christ, in connection with Christ. Christ wanted a church in that wicked, wealthy city in Greece. But not only that, it was in CHRIST that the burden came to share the gospel. It wasn’t Paul’s burden. It was God’s burden in Paul. It was in Christ Jesus that the power and the anointing came which drew the Corinthians to Christ and to conviction and to the cross.

So now it is in Christ Jesus that he has this relationship with the Corinthians. Truly, he is their spiritual father. He is writing to them and saying some hard things because he loves them and wants them to understand that if they will listen to what he has to say a transformation can come in their life.

Think about it. What father who loves his children would not do the same? I mean, it is awfully tough to do it, but what father would not do the same? Proverbs 3:12 says, “For whom the Lord loves, He reproves, even as a father the son in whom he delights.”

You can take this to any relationship where you know they love you. Bottom line, that is what he is saying. He is not stressing the fatherchild relationship; he is stressing the relationship and how he loves them, the compassion that he has for them.

Diana is my dearest friend. She loves me, and I know she loves me. There are times when I wish she had a little signal she could hold up. That little signal would mean, “Wayne, I am about to tell you something you don’t want to hear, so prepare yourself.” Sometimes she is very quick to do that without any counsel beforehand. I will get in the car after a church service and ask her, “Diana, what do you think? Did it communicate?” I never think I communicate. I never listen to any of my messages, because I can’t stand it. I am my worst critic. I just ask, “Did it even communicate? Did I get anything out that I think I got in?”

Sometimes she will say, “Yes, yes.” I will just say, “Oh, that makes my day, man.” I know the Lord is the one who approves me, but I do know Diana loves me and she will tell me the truth. But there are other times I will ask, “Diana, how do you think it went?” She will say, “You didn’t say this word right and you didn’t say that word right and you thoroughly confused me right here.” I am thinking, “I don’t want this!”

You see, most of us don’t want this. That is why Paul is trying to do. Listen, he has not said the tough things yet. You think he has been tough up until now; in chapter 5, he deals with the immorality among them which was worse than the pagan world. He is making sure they understand why he doing what he is doing.

The people who really love us are the people who will say the hard things to you. But if you know they love you, you can receive them that much better. God has given us His Word. We don’t need this clarified through Paul that He loves us. We know God loves us. That is why we have the Word. But oh, if we would just be receptive of those hard things that God wants to say to us so often.

Paul’s counsel for the Corinthians

First we saw the concern of Paul, but then it moves deeper than that. He shows them his compassion. Thirdly, we have the counsel of Paul. What is it he is going to say to them right now? He says, “I love you. I am saying these things for you.” He says in verse 16, “I exhort you therefore, be imitators of me.” Now you have got to be careful about this and understand what he is saying. The word “exhort” is the word parakaleo. Here it means to call upon someone, to come alongside them, to be called alongside them, to beseech them to do something, to entreat them to do something. It is a counseling word. You cannot counsel without this word. That is what it is for, to entreat them to come to the Word of God. That is what he is called alongside to do.

And what is his counsel? He says, “be imitators of me.” Boy, I tell you what, the word “imitators” is a good word. It is the word that we get the word “mime” from. It is the word mimetes. You know what a mime is, don’t you? Have you ever seen somebody do mime? How many words does a person say when they are doing mime? None. They communicate by their actions and you are supposed to be able to discern what they are doing and who they are by how they act.

So, the immediate thing you get out of this word is, “I am not concerned about your talk. I am concerned about your walk. I am talking to you about what you say; it is how you are living. That is what I am dealing with right here.”

When he says “be imitators of me,” mime me, he is not putting himself on a pedestal and saying, “I am up here and you are down there.” What he is saying is, “Do as I do.” It is in the present tense, as a lifestyle. It means to do as somebody else does.

Let me show you this in the New Testament. Perhaps you will get a better grasp of the word. Look over in chapter 11 and verse 1, just to make sure. Just a couple of things, that as I was studying, I thought might be good to bring out to make sure you are understanding what it says when it says, “be imitators of me.” The apostle Paul is in no way putting himself in a position of having arrived. He has something else he is trying to say to them. In 11:1 it says, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” In other words, Paul says, “I am doing something that I have seen in Christ that He does, and I want you to do the same thing.”

What is that? Back up in the context of 1 Corinthians 10:31 and look at what he says. “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Did Jesus not do that to His Father? Yes. And Paul says, “I seek to do that for Him. I want Him to be seen in me, and therefore, I want you to let Him be seen in you. Do what I am doing, which is surrender, bow, trust and obey.” That is what he is saying. It is not, “You do everything I do in my life. You have the same attitude towards God that I have. You receive the things that I have taught you.”

Look over in Ephesians 5:1. This is one of the more tough ones where the word is used. This is why I want to do this, because sometimes we misunderstand this and we think we can actually imitate somebody else’s life. No, sir. I can’t; God never said I could. He can; He always said He would. You have to continue to balance yourself with that thought. In Ephesians 5:1, look at what he said. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” You do as God does.

There was a guy who wrote a book years ago called “In His Steps,” Charles Sheldon. It is a great book. But to me, it misses the heartbeat of what Christianity is all about. I can’t do as God did. However, there is something here that I can understand. You see, if you think you can do as God does, you wake up in the morning and say, “God, I am going to love every brother You put in my life today, because You love everybody and I am going to do as You do.” By noon tomorrow, God is going to put a brother in your life you did not know existed. And by 1:00, you are going to be saying, “God, I can’t.” And God is going to say, “I never said you could.”

If you will take the context of the whole book of Ephesians, you will understand how to imitate God. Back in 3:16 we read, “Be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.” Accommodate Christ by your faith. Then the garment of chapter 4, that you will be wearing, is not something you are doing but something He is doing in you, that is being seen on the outside. Therefore, imitate God. You have to understand the whole context.

When you first hear, “Imitate something,” you think you can jump right into gear and do it. That is not what he is talking about. There is an attitude. There is a walk here. There is more to it than just miming somebody in the sense of how we would see it.

Over in 1 Thessalonians 1:6, it is in the context of joyfully receiving the Word of God in their lives. Paul says of the Thessalonians, “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord [How?], having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit.” In 1 Thessalonians 2:14 he says, “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea [How? He says], for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews.”

So again, do as we do, but there is more to it than just do as we do. Hebrews 6:12 reads, “that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” And I think those are the two ingredients there. Patience meaning the ability to bear up under that Christ gives, trusting Him, bearing up under. These are things that God alone can empower you to do. So when Paul says, “Do as I do,” he seems to be saying more than that. He seems to be saying, “Do as I have taught you.”

Look at the context of Corinthians. Don’t be immature. Attach yourself to Christ. That is what I do. That is what I have taught you to do. You let Christ then do through you what He can only do. So Paul is bringing them to the teaching, bringing them to the walk, bringing them to the act of surrender and the act of putting their faith into Christ. He also has talked about the willingness to be a fool in the world’s eyes. That is the immediate context, the willingness to walk humbly before God, no matter how the world thinks about you.

You see, the Corinthian church was more concerned with the world than they were with God. Paul says, “We are not that way. We are the apostles. Do as we do. Humble yourself. Obey God. Let God be in you what He wants to be. Attach yourself to Him. And I guarantee you, the world will look at you then like you look at us, but don’t worry about that. Do as I do. The teaching that I have given to you, you do as I do.”

Paul’s companion for the Corinthians

So we have the concern of Paul, the compassion of Paul and the counsel of Paul. But then you come down to the companion of Paul. I want you to see this. The reason I put the companion there is because it was a “C” and it went on with the alliteration. But the real thing I want you to see is, Paul is going to send to them his closest companion. He calls Timothy his colaborer, his brother in the Lord. Timothy is as important to Paul humanly speaking as anybody could have been in those days. Paul says, “I can’t get to you, but oh, I am so concerned about you that I am going to send my closest companion, my biggest help that I have. I am going to send Timothy to you because I care about you.”

Man, you have to understand what is going on. If you just read it carelessly, you don’t realize what a sacrifice Paul is making. He is showing how compassionately he loves the people there in Corinth. “I am going to send Timothy, my beloved son in the faith.”

Look in verse 17. He says, “For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.” The ways he speaks of are the ways that are a direct result of receiving what God has said and being empowered by the grace of God to do those things. Since Paul was not there, Paul said, “I want to make sure it continues on, so I am going to send to you Timothy, my beloved.”

He says, “For this reason.” That ties the things together; you see the link there. Paul is saying, “The reason I love you, the reason you are like my children, the reason I feel as a father to you, I am sending Timothy. Timothy will teach you the same things that I taught to you.”

“For this reason I have sent to you Timothy.” The words “I have sent to you” is aorist indicative, which means it is done, he is on his way as I speak. I have already made the decision and cut him loose. He is coming to you because I have a burden for you and you are going to have to be reminded of some things.

Now he says, “who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord.” Now, you talk about a guy who is close to Paul. Many people think Paul led him to Christ. However, there is a debate about that. Did he actually lead him to Christ? I am not going to enter into that debate except to say that he was strongly and spiritually connected to this man. As a matter of fact, he calls him his child in the faith. Here he says, “He is my beloved.” It is like there is something unique between Paul and Timothy. Paul had sunk his life into Timothy.

Then he writes to Timothy from prison and says, “Listen, Timothy, you find faithful men and you entrust to them what I have taught you and then they will find faithful men and they will entrust it to them.” He was a true disciple of the apostle Paul and co-laborer.

When Paul was in prison in 2 Timothy 4, he says, “Timothy, come to me. I am lonely. Please come to me.” The one person he wanted to see out of everybody in the world was Timothy. Timothy was so important to the apostle Paul. But Paul says, “Hey, I am going to cut him loose and I am going to send him to you. I can’t come, but maybe somehow by him coming to you, you will understand how much I honestly love you and care about you. You are going to have to have somebody to hold the standard in front of you, somebody to keep the life in front of you so that you will know how to walk.”

They were babies who refused to grow up. They are going to have to have somebody to constantly get them moving in their Christian walk. Why would he send Timothy? He says, “He is faithful in the Lord. You can put your confidence in him because he puts his confidence in Christ just like I put my confidence in Christ.” That is what Paul is saying. “You can count on Timothy. He is faithful in the Lord and I am going to send him to you.”

I know I may have dwelled on that for a while, but I want to make sure you understand that this was a big sacrifice Paul was making here, trying to show once again how much he is concerned about these people.

Now what is Timothy faithful to do? He says in verse 17, “For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.” Do you think the apostle Paul went around, and because of his lifestyle, made up a set of principles and went and taught that to everybody? No. He taught the Word of God. He never minced the whole counsel of God. He is not speaking of his own ways. He is speaking of ways that have come from his constant study and teaching in the Word of God. “Timothy will teach you as I have taught you.” That is what he is saying.

The word “remind” is a good word. As a matter of fact, if you ever want to do a word study, do it on the word “remind” or “remember” in the New Testament. It will bless you. How many times we have to be reminded of something. Paul says in Philippians 3, “To write the same things again to you is no trouble to me. It will reap your benefit.”

Paul says, “I am sending him to remind you. YOU need to be reminded. Evidently you have forgotten something.” The word “remind” is anamimnesko. It comes from ana, again, and mimnesko, the word that means to put in mind. Together the two words mean to remind again and again and again and again. Implicitly, to put on exhibit in the mind is the priority, over and over and over and over again. It is through that the children learn particularly. Remember, these were immature children who would not grow up. The only way you teach a child is to remind them, remind them, remind them, remind them, remind them. Finally one day they become trained.

Have you ever thought about 2 Timothy 3:16? It says, “The Word of God is profitable, it is Godinspired, all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable.” All Scripture is inspired by God, Godbreathed. It is profitable. What is the first thing it is profitable for? Teaching. Now hang on to this. Reproof, correction and then what? Training or instruction or training in righteousness. The word “training” is paideia. It means child training. Now do you realize where it starts and where it is headed? It starts with teaching.

I want you to understand something. Paul says, “You people have been taught. You already know this. You are going to have to be reminded, reminded, reminded until one day you grow up and your senses now are trained unto righteousness.” That is exactly what is happening here. “I am going to send Timothy to do the reminding over and over and over again.”

You tell a child, “Don’t go out in the street and play.” Does that child understand? Clearly understand? Yeah, he understands. Is he going to do it? No. You look out the door and he is out in the street. You get out there, grab him and reprove him by what you have said. You hold the standard up. “I told you not to, here is the consequence.” You discipline.

Then you give him instruction again, correction, reminding him of what you have already told him. And you say, “Now listen, do you understand? The way you don’t get this is by not doing that.” Then hopefully one day he will be trained. How many times do you have to do that to train somebody? Man, every day. Finally one day you forget to tell your child and you are thinking, “Oh, my goodness, I didn’t tell him not to play in the street.” You have told him 972 times before. You look out the window and what do you know! He is not in the street. He is in the yard! Oh, finally, he has been trained! But as long as he is a little child, he is going to have to be reminded, reminded, reminded, reminded and reminded.

So Paul says, “I am sending Timothy. I love you and he loves you. You probably won’t like him, though because he is going to keep on reminding you of the things which I have taught you, my ways which are God’s ways.”

Now, you ask, “Why are you telling me all this?” You have got to get the feeling of Corinth. They are not people who don’t know. They are people who know, but they won’t do it. Paul is having to just reprimand them for it because he loves them. And he says, “Not only am I going to reprimand you, I am sending Timothy to you and he is going to remind you, remind you, remind you, remind you, remind you and remind you until you grow up and you mature and your senses are trained unto righteousness.”

That is what somebody who loves will do. That is what compassion will bring about. Paul says, “He will remind you of my ways which

1 Corinthians 4:18-21

Contents

1 Introduction

2 Spiritual Insolence

3 Spiritual Impotence

4 Spiritual Question

Introduction

It is a hard thing to be around arrogant people, but particularly when they are spiritually arrogant. The apostle Paul, as we have seen in recent verses in chapter 4, loves the Corinthian believers. All that he has told them is from a loving heart. He has been very tough on them from 1:12 all the way down to where we are just picking up in 4:18. All of it has to do with people who have detached themselves from Christ and attached themselves to something else and the result of all of that. If they had just lived attached to Jesus, he wouldn’t have had to say the hard things that he has had to say. He has said all those tough things to help them to understand that they need to come back and live by faith, come back to just attach themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we come to verse 18. Paul now turns to the guilty ones, and he will address all of them as he continues on in the book. They know who they are. You know, in the military they have several readiness levels. DEFCON (DEFense readiness CONdition) 5 is the easiest level that you are ever on. DEFCON 4 means, uh oh, something is going on. We have to move it up a level. DEFCON 3 is pretty serious. DEFCON 2 is really up there. DEFCON 1 is when our armed forces are under the threat of a foreign attack. We haven’t been at that very often in America, but DEFCON 1 is a point of urgency: the attack is imminent. I thought about that. The apostle Paul, from 1:12 to 4:18, has gone from DEFCON 5 to DEFCON 1. After he has told them, “I love you, I am your father in the faith,” he turns around now and is going to move in with force. He is going to address those spiritually arrogant people. Now, by that we mean those who have detached themselves from Christ and have attached themselves to anything of the flesh. I want you to remember, as we go through Corinthians, we see people attached to people, we see people attached to their opinions, we see people attached to the lust of their flesh, we see people attached to their spiritual gifts, we see people attached to just about everything you can attach yourself to. And the whole problem is, they detach themselves from Christ. Before I get started, let me ask you a question. What are you attached to? That is going to tell you everything about your spiritual condition. If you are not living attached to Christ, as verses 29 talk about in chapter 1, then evidently everything else goes haywire. Look at verse 18. We are going to read down through verse 21, and then we will look at the verses. “Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant, but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power. What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod or with love and a spirit of gentleness?”

Spiritual Insolence

Now, he doesn’t tell us who these people are who are spiritually arrogant. The thought even went through my mind, I wonder if it is the leadership of the church of Corinth. He does not say that specifically, so we have to leave it open-ended. Whoever they are, the message Paul sends to them is very clear. First of all, he deals with their spiritual insolence. You know, when you are spiritually arrogant, there is going to be an insolent attitude about you, an unwillingness to obey authority. He says in verse 18, “Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.” Now, when he says “some,” I think that is important. Go back to 1:12. This is important to me. I don’t know if it is to you or not, but in my studying I saw a little difference here. He says, “Now some of you have become arrogant.” In 1:12 he says, “Now I mean this, that each one of you.” Hekastos is the word used there, but the word he uses here in 4:18 is the plural form of the little word tis, which means some of you, talking about more than one but not all of you. I think that is significant. Somewhere along the way perhaps we can discover why that is so significant. The verb “have become” is the aorist passive indicative: something has caused some of these people to become arrogant. The subject is being acted upon when you have the passive voice. Now the word for “arrogant” is an interesting word. It is going to take us a while to deal with it. It is the word phusioo. It has two o’s on the end of it. In other words, when somebody is this way, it is clearly evident to everybody. But what does that mean? Well, it comes from the word that means to blow up or to inflate something. Have you ever tried to inflate one of those air mattresses? When you finish blowing it up, it is full of air. You might mistake it for a real mattress until you jump on it hard enough and find out that it is only air when the thing pops and the air goes out and it goes flat again. It is air on the inside of it. The idea in the New Testament is a pride and conceit. It has the thought of somebody thinking more highly of themselves than they should and, therefore, putting themselves into a position to where they will not listen to anyone else: to be an arrogant bag of wind. When I was growing up, they were called a blow hard, somebody who was always full of hot air, that kind of individual. Well, it is used six times in 1 Corinthians, and it gives us a vivid description of what we are talking about here. Somebody who is spiritually arrogant is just a big bag of wind; that is all they are. We see some things that come out about them that is very important. The first time it is used is in 1 Corinthians 4:6. Let’s go back to it because it tells us something about the spiritually arrogant. First Corinthians 4:6 says, “Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes.” He has dropped off Cephas and Christ and is just dealing with himself and Apollos here. He says we are doing it for a reason: “that in us you might learn not to exceed what is written, in order that no one of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.” Now arrogance is alongside of, exceeding, that which is written. In literal form it means to not go above that which is written, as if your will and your desire is higher than what God’s desire is. So the first thing we have got to understand about a person who is spiritually arrogant is that he is certainly willing to exceed that which is written, to go above that which God has written. Now, when a person does that, he or she obviously does not respect the authority of God. Now, if we don’t respect God’s authority, it is obvious we won’t respect the Word as being our authority. Then, therefore, we don’t respect any authority. We become our own authority. That is what it means to be spiritually arrogant. That is where it starts. The very moment I detach myself from surrendering to Christ, walking and living up under His Word, is the moment I attach myself to something else and decide that I am going to go above that which is written. I don’t need the Word. I can go above it. I can exceed that which is written. We become our own authority. This person, whoever they might be, is thinking his way is right. In other words, nobody is going to change him. He is going to be like he is going to be. Nobody can tell him anything. As a result, we see other characteristics develop in his life. Look over in 5:2 where it is also used. It makes us insensitive to sin. That is what chapter 5 is going to start addressing head-on. It says in verse 2, “And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst.” They were refusing to practice any kind of church discipline over somebody who was committing incest with somebody in his own family, as chapter 5 is going to talk about when we get there. Because you have become arrogant and have exceeded what is written and have become your own authority, now you are insensitive to sin and won’t deal with it. There is no discipline of sin amongst you. Well, in 8:1 it shows us something else that happens to the spiritually arrogant, those who exceed the written word, those who are going to be their own authority. They are bags of wind, but they think they are doing it the right way. You become proud of your knowledge. Of course, God resists the proud. “Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.” So a person who is spiritually arrogant is a person who is proud of his knowledge, but he has no love to go along with it, which proves the fact that he is living that which God has spoken. Then we find over in 13:4 a person who is spiritually arrogant is unable to display any of the love of God. You see, this kind of love, that is, the fruit of the Spirit of God, cannot be displayed by a person who is living attached to anything other than Christ. It says in verse 4, “Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and love is not arrogant.” So you are beginning to understand, I think, a little bit about what it means to be spiritually arrogant. It is a person not living attached to Christ. It is a person who has detached himself from Christ, moved above and beyond the Word of God, become his own authority and therefore, now the flesh reigns in his life. He is immature and fleshly, as Paul has already identified the church at Corinth. This seems to be the thought of what he is talking about back in verse 18. Go back there. He says, “Now some [not all of you] have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.” Now this really got to me. The passive voice is used: you have become arrogant. Now what is it that made them become arrogant, other than the fact that they detached from Christ? Well, there is another thought here: that Paul is not coming to them. Now you say, “What has that got to do with anything?” “Is not coming” is a present participle. In other words, he is not even on his way, he is not even beginning to come back to Corinth. You say, “What does this have to do with anything?” Listen, the apostle Paul is not only their spiritual father, he is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we saw back in 1:1. He is the authority. But, when there is no authority around, “when the cat is away, the mice will play.” So those who are living exceeding the Word of God, they are saying and boasting, “Ah, Paul is not going to come back. We are just going to do what we want to do.” The apostle Paul says, “That is the height of insolence. You won’t submit to God. Why would I even think that you would submit to me?” That is the insolent attitude, the rebellious spirit of a person who is spiritually arrogant. When the cat is away, the mice will play. “Well, Brother Wayne, I am not in church, and Jesus hasn’t come back yet. I can just do what I want to do and nobody is going to tell me any different.” Paul is just exposing the insolent attitude they have. He says, “Many of you are doing what you are doing because of the rumor that I am not even coming.” No wonder he said to the Philippian church, “I am so thankful for you because you are not only obedient when I am with you, but much more so in my absence.” What does that tell you? That means the person you are being obedient to is not the man who had the authority, but it is God who gives the authority. Once I am obedient to God, then I can become submissive to others. A person who is spiritually arrogant, who doesn’t need the Word of God, who detaches himself from what God has to say, who becomes his own authority, the only time he is even nervous is if somebody who is a spiritual authority gets around him. Sitting on a plane up in first class has been more fun. I sit next to some of these guys and I ask them, “What do you do?” They say, “Man, I am CEO,” of some big company. He starts telling me all about the stuff they do and then he looks at me and asks, “What do you do?” I say, “I am a pastor.” Folks, if this isn’t the height of what I am talking about here. They break out in a rash. They can memorize a computer manual and yet, when it comes to talking to a preacher, they don’t even know how to open their mouth. I guarantee you, some of them are deacons at some church someplace and now they are nervous because somebody who represents authority is sitting next to them. Had I not sat there, they wouldn’t have bothered with it. A man is what he is when he is by himself. The height of spiritual arrogance is if the only time we get nervous is if somebody with spiritual authority comes around us and it tells you where your heart is that fast. Back in 1:1 he says, “Paul, an apostle called by Christ, by the will of God.” So therefore, we know he is the authority. He said, “Some of you have become arrogant because it is said that I am not coming to you. So, you think you can just do whatever you want to do.” What is the key verse of the book of Judges? In Judges 17:6 and 21:25 it says, “In those days there was no king in Israel,” nobody was in authority, “so every man did what was right in his own eyes.” Here Paul exposes the insolent attitude of the spiritual arrogant. It is an attitude that says, “I am not under anybody’s authority and you are not going to tell me anything. The only time I am going to get nervous is if somebody with a badge comes around.” I was riding down the road from Memphis, Tennessee one time and I had a CB radio on. This guy came on and said, “Hey, good buddy. Put the pedal to the medal. Let the hammer down. There is not a Smokey all the way to the coast.” Well, I was just driving on. I had cruise control. Thank God for cruise control. That just keeps me honest. I set it at the speed limit and was just riding along. There was this one guy saying, “Put the pedal to the medal. There is not a Smokey around here.” About that time somebody comes back on and says, “Hey, man, slow down. The guy who is telling you to put the pedal to the medal is a Smokey and he is sitting down here about 25 miles. He has 15 cars pulled off the road.” Everybody started saying all kinds of things on there that I would rather not tell you. One guy comes on. He doesn’t even identify himself. He just pops on and says, “Well, if you would obey the law, you wouldn’t have to worry about them.” He just got off real quick. Somebody else came in who didn’t identify themselves either and said, “Amen.” In other words, the wicked flee. Listen, the attitude of arrogance is that you are under no authority, so therefore, the only time you are nervous is if somebody who represents that authority gets around you. Otherwise, you are going to do what you are going to do because you have detached yourself from Christ and you are living that conceited, arrogant life of the church of Corinth.

Spiritual Impotence

Well, the second thing he does is he warns them. He said, “Now I am coming to you. I am coming to you and when I get there, I am going to observe whether or not there is any power with all these good words that you are sharing with everybody. It is one thing to boast about it.” It is not your talk, folks, it is the walk that is behind your talk. Somebody told me years ago, my reputation is what people think about me; my character is what my wife and my children know about me. But you know, you can go another step from that. It is really what God knows about me when I am by myself. It even takes you further than that. Verse 19 says, “But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant, but their power.” You know, the word for “word” here is logos, which means intelligent words. But be real careful. You can have somebody who gives intelligent words, who might even sound spiritual, but that doesn’t document it. Look at the life that backs it up. Do they live what they preach? Is there any power of God behind it? Is there the touch of God on their live? This is kind of where he is headed. These people, whoever they were, thought Paul wasn’t coming back. Paul said, “Hey, I am coming back,” but then he qualifies it. He says, “But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills.” That word “soon” means immediately, quickly, I mean, before you can blink an eye. It is the word used in Galatians 1:6 when he says, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him.” Then over in Philippians 2:19 we see it when it says, “But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly.” He means right away. Paul said, “I am coming to you right away.” Sometimes we think of soon, and what does that really mean? Right away, immediately I am coming to you. But then he adds something to it. He qualifies it. He said, “if the Lord wills.” You know what I like about the apostle Paul? He has come out of the nursery, hasn’t he? He has already thrown his pacifier away, and he has learned some things in qualifying what he says. He has learned what Proverbs says. Proverbs says in 16:9, “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” So it would be foolish for Paul to say, “I am coming soon.” He is not real sure if God might not intervene in that, so he puts a disclaimer on it. “As far as I have anything to do with it, I am coming soon. But I know something about this. I have been this route before. God just might have other ideas before I get there.” He wasn’t an immature believer. God had taught him quite a bit about this. He had full intentions, but if the Lord wills. By the way, the word “will,” thelo, is that which God intends and which God gets involved with in carrying it all the way out to its purpose. Turn to James 4:14. James says the same thing. You see, when you are up under subjection to Christ, you can’t even tell what you are going to do tomorrow. You just plan your way and let God direct your step. That is when the adventure begins. You understand that God is going to direct your paths even though you plan your way when you are attached to Him. But if you are detached from Him, you can make all kind of promises you can’t keep. Verse 14 says, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” Isn’t that an incredible statement? A vapor that appears and just vanishes away. You know, I didn’t understand that years ago, because days sometimes would go by so fast. But now months go by so fast, years go by so fast, and I am thinking, “Wow, just a vapor.” Look in verse 15. It says, “Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or that.’” Let’s look at Paul’s life. I know I am taking a side thought here, but remember, he is writing to immature believers. He is a mature believer. Let’s just see some things he has learned in Scripture about what he just said to them. He has already exposed their own arrogance. They don’t live up under the authority of God. They could give a rip. They don’t live in the Word of God. But he does. What can we learn from a man who does live this way? Well, he lives a day at a time. Look over in Acts 16:6. These are just a couple of instances in his life how Paul learned that what he intended to do might not be what God was intending to do. If you are submitted to what God is intending to do, you are willing to turn it loose and let God do it, even in the little things. I love these verses because they are so comforting. He had the right intentions. He just wasn’t in the right direction yet. He says, “And they passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and when they had come to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia.” The imperfect tense is used in here. I mean, they tried and they tried again. They tried and they tried again. I love that because at least it is honest. He says, “and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them.” The Holy Spirit wouldn’t let him go in there. Verse 8 goes on, “and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.” Aren’t you glad in America that he went down to Troas? It was at Troas that he got the Macedonian vision. Paul took the fact that he couldn’t get into all these other places and concluded that he must go over to Macedonia. He didn’t just go by the vision. He took all the other facts, factored them in, drew a line and said, “Wow, it is obvious to me that God is sending me someplace else.” Macedonia was what is now the southernmost tip of Europe. Christianity started there and then moved up to a place called England. As a result of that, there was a group of people who came from England over to America for religious freedom. Here we are today in the United States of America. Thank God He had a better place for Paul to go. Paul had learned this. Even though you plan your way, God directs your steps. That is what he is saying to them. “Hey, I am talking to some immature folks here, but I am not immature because I know something. I walk with God and I am surrendered to His will. I am telling you I am coming soon, but I am giving a disclaimer because I am under authority to the One who tells me where I am going and when I am going there. And it might not be as soon as I thought it was going to be.” Over in the book of Romans Paul said, “I can’t wait to get to the church of Rome. I can’t wait to preach the gospel to you.” Then he goes on at the end of the book and says, “I am going to come to you by way of Spain after I go to Jerusalem.” Little did he know what was ahead of him. When he got to Jerusalem, and as a result of what happened there, he spent almost five years of his life in prison, two and a half years in Caesarea and then the rest of it in Rome, on false accusations. He did get to Rome, but he went in chains, not like he thought he was going to go. So the apostle Paul is even modeling what he is trying to tell them. “I am under authority. I am telling you, I am coming soon. And when I get there, I am going to look at your life, not what you say. But, if the Lord wills, I will be there soon. I don’t know exactly what He wants to tell me tomorrow, but I am coming. You can put that rumor to rest, if God wills. I am going to look at your life. I am not going to listen to what you say.” An air bag when it is burst reveals nothing but an empty container. Have you bought any potato chips lately? Have you bought these big bags of potato chips? You are thinking, “Man, this will last for two months.” But what happens when you get home and let the air out? There is hardly anything in them! That is what people who are spiritually arrogant are like. They can put on a good act. They can come to church and act like they love Jesus. They can talk it, but they don’t walk it. You put some pressure on them and what is going to be revealed is nothing but air. That is what arrogance is all about. Paul says, “When I come, I don’t want to hear what you say. I want to see how you are living, if God’s grace is enabling you to be what He told you that you need to be.” Paul says to those who have become arrogant, “I want to look at your power.” Now the word for “power” there is the word dunamis. We know that word. Normally it refers to the ability required to accomplish a task our Lord Jesus assigned, when you put it in spiritual vocabulary. But really not here. That is part of it, but really that is not all of it here. In 1 Corinthians 4:18, it refers to the essential reality of something, the true nature of something, the source of something. You see, the only source that these people had was hot air. But he wants them to find the source of something. Where is it coming from? Like in Philippians 3:10, he says, “The power of His resurrection,” not just the power but the source of that power being God Himself. Look over in 2 Timothy 3:5. I will show you what I am talking about. In 2 Timothy 3:5 Paul talks about the last days. He uses it in such a way I think it is clear that we can see. He is talking about the source of it, not just the ability. That is part of it, certainly, but he is referring to the actual source, where it comes from. Second Timothy 3:5 says, “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.” Who is the power? The Holy Spirit of God living in us. It is God’s grace that enables us. So it is not just the ability. That is part of it, yes. It is the source. It is where you are coming from. In the context, he contrasts it with words, because, you see, it is not just words that we are looking at. It is also the power that goes along with the words. That is what he is saying. Look over in 1 Thessalonians 1:5. When I saw this, it really hit me that I had seen this other places and I didn’t even realize it. First Thessalonians 1:5 says, “for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.” Now he is not talking about signs and wonders. He is talking about the greatest sign and wonder, how a man can be transformed from within, how a man can actually become enabled to be that which God has told him to be. That is real power. This other stuff, I wouldn’t hang my hat on any of it. Paul says, “We proved what manner of men we were. We didn’t just tell you something. We lived before you what we said, you see, so that the glory would go to Him and not to us. It is not just in word, it is with power.” So he comes and says, “Hey, I hear your talk, and it is intelligent.” He uses the word logos. It is not just babble. He says, “I know you sound intelligent with some of the things you are saying. Some of you have come to pretty boastful conclusions here. I am not even coming to hear that. I am coming to see where you are coming from. I want to see your walk.” You know, it is amazing how even at church, some of us act spiritual. But wouldn’t it be great if we could just be a fly on the wall in everybody’s house. No, it wouldn’t be great, but it would be honest, wouldn’t it? Where are we coming from? We talk it, but where is the power behind it. Not the power to do miracles but the great miracle of being what God tells us we are supposed to be. Well, I think Paul illustrates this over in chapter 12 and verse 4. I think this is what he is saying there. There are three things that have got to be accompanied together if God is in it. It is not just what you say. It is God’s hand upon it, the power, the grace that enables and transforms. By the way, with that grace comes the ability to discern when it is there. That is grace in itself, to be able to discern when somebody who talks it walks it. There is a discernment, not from man, from God. Over in 1 Corinthians 12:4 he says, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.” The Holy Spirit gives the gifts, and Christ gives the ministry. But look at verse 6. “And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.” It is like the Spirit gives the gift, Jesus gives the ministry and the Father takes care of the results. Well, if any one of those is missing, something is wrong. You know, so many people come to me and say, “I just really believe I am called to preach. Can you get me a church?” I don’t know who people think I am. But if God calls a man and if God gifts a man, then God will give the ministry. God will give the effect. Have we ever stopped to think that some people who think they are called to the ministry might not be in the preaching ministry? It might be someplace else? All these years we have felt like if anybody is in the ministry, he has either got to a preacher or a music leader or whatever. Hey, any Christian who attaches himself to Christ becomes a minister. Let God give the ministry, and God will give the effect. But if people go to school and get a degree, they think they qualify. Everything they say sounds intelligent. But there is never the power that backs that up. Hey, don’t worry about that. God is the one who does it as He wills, it says on over in 1 Corinthians. But anyway, Paul is saying, “I am coming to see where you are coming from. I want to see your walk, not your talk.” The effect, I believe, is what he is talking about. Where is the power that is there? Look in 1 Corinthians 2:2. Remember how Paul came to them. He is his own example. He is his own illustration. First Corinthians 2:2 says, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” He understood his responsibility. “And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” He understood that he could stand there and intellectualize any of them out of the group. But he said, “I didn’t come that way. I came in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” Verse 5 tells us why: “that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” The evidence of that power is in verse 5 of chapter 3. Here is the evidence of the power that worked along with Paul when he came. He didn’t just speak intelligent words coming from God and from God’s Word. Something went along with it. First Corinthians 3:5 says, “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.” There is your effect. There is the proof in the pudding there. There is what he is talking about. You can talk and talk and talk. Where are the spiritual things that go along with it? The enabling power that God had. Words are cheap. Paul says, “I am coming to see the source of your words. I am going to check your lifestyle. I am not coming to hear what you have to say. I am coming to see how you walk. Chapter 4 verse 20 says, “For the kingdom of God.” The word “kingdom” is the territory where a king reigns. If you are saying you are members of the kingdom of God and you are part of the territory, your hearts are part of the territory where God reigns. Paul says, “For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power.” That is a divine enablement to be what God h

1 Corinthians 5:16

Contents

1 Introduction

2 The immorality in the church

2.1 Moral sin

2.2 Spiritual sin

2.3 Relational sin

2.4 Social sin

2.5 Who was this woman?

2.5.1 This relationship is on-going

2.5.2 The woman is an unbeliever

3 The indifference in the church

Introduction

The apostle Paul said something to the Corinthian church back in chapter 4 that ought to bless us all. He said, “I don’t write these things to shame you, I write them because I love you like a father loves a child.” You must remember this as we go through these chapters. Here is a man who loves a group of people, the church at Corinth, and he wants them to know that he is going to tell them the hard things because he loves them so much.

As a matter of fact, when he wrote those three little chapters in the book of Titus, he says something that is very important for us to understand. We see it exemplified and illustrated in Corinthians. He says in Titus 1:16, “They profess to know God [he is speaking of the ungodly people who are inside the church], but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed.” He is saying doctrine and deeds go together. By a person’s deeds, you can tell his doctrine. That is what he is saying. If you are living by faith and if you love the Word of God and if you love God, it is going to show forth in your life. You can talk about it a lot, but your deeds are going to tell and speak much louder than anything that you could ever say.

Paul was talking in Titus about ungodly, unbelievers. But, you know, it is tragic when Christians start to live that way, when they step apart from what the Word of God has to say in their life. We know the mindset of Corinth real well by now. In 3:14 he just pegs their whole problem. Remember he says in verse 1, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ.” He points back to when they first got saved. Nothing wrong there. Verse 2 goes on, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food [here comes the indictment], for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able.”

Here they are, years later, and they are still not able to receive the meat of the Word. He says in verse 3, “for you are still fleshly.” In other words, in their life situation, flesh was still winning the battle. And as a result of this, they had no testimony. He says the testimony of God has been confirmed within you. That is the problem. It had never been confirmed outside of them. They had never affected Corinth at all. Corinth had affected them. And this led to all kinds of things.

The symptom of this happening is in verse 3. He says, “for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?” The King James Version adds a word in there: divisions. And the word “division” means to stand away from others as if to exclude yourselves from them and the jealousy and the strife.

He goes on to say, “You are attaching yourselves to preachers instead of the message the preachers are preaching.” He says in verse 4, “For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not mere men?”

Then in chapter 4 we learn that they had become arrogant. So arrogant that they lived as if they are already there, have arrived. They don’t need the apostles or the Word of God. All of this is background before we go into chapter 5. I just want to remind you of that. We are dealing with an intentionally, willfully, deceived, immature people; people who will not get up under the doctrine and, therefore, it is beginning to show in the deeds that come forth from their life.

The immorality in the church

Well, let’s look at the consequences of fleshly living. And the first consequence we get into in chapter 5 and verse 1 is the immorality in the church. When the Word of God is not upheld and obeyed, there will be no spiritual standards among God’s people.

Remember Judges 17-21? That was the picture of the time. The key verse in the book of Judges said there was no king in Israel so everyone did what was right in their own eyes. When you get over in chapter 19 that priest’s wife commits adultery. This is Israel now. It is supposed to be God’s people in the Old Testament. This is how far they had come away from what the Word of God had to say. As a result of that, she leaves him and goes to her father.

Well, the man decides to go get his wife, so he goes to her father’s house and stays there several days upon the bidding of the father. Then they leave. Nightfall hits them so they go over to Gibea, which was a part of the tribe of Benjamin. The custom of the day was that when you would stay by the city square, somebody would come by and take you home. Nobody came by. That should have told them something.

Finally, an old man came by and said, “Listen, you can’t stay here. You need to come and stay at my house.” They went to his house and they began to celebrate and just have a good time together. There was a knock on the door and some of the men of Gibea had come. They wanted to have homosexual relations with the man, not the woman, who had gone in. As a result, he wouldn’t go out, but he threw his wife out. They raped her until she died.

The next morning when he finds her body, he takes her body, cuts it up into 12 different pieces and sends it to all the 12 tribes of Israel. I mean, just overnight the people got so upset about this. They began to move towards Benjamin. And the tribe of Benjamin, instead of disciplining this handful of men who did this awful act, defended them and went to war against the people there.

You see, the whole problem in the book of Judges was that there was no standard. When you walk away from the Word of God, this is what begins to happen. When it is not upheld, there are no standards among God’s people. This is the epitome of idolatry. And never forget this. When I am not living up under the Word and I am not honoring the Word that God is putting in my heart, then that is idolatry. Out of idolatry will always come immorality of some shape, form or fashion. It may not be the same in one person’s life as it is in another’s, but there will be some type of immorality. Idolatry and immorality hold hands together. When you find somebody who is immoral, you will find somebody who is committing the act of idolatry. All idolatry is putting something or someone in the place where Jesus Christ deserves.

Well, Paul is going to point to an open, immoral sin that is going on in the church of Corinth. Look at verse 1: “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.” The very fact in that verse that says, “it has been reported,” means that this is known by a lot of people. This is not something hidden. People in the community know this to the point that somebody reports it to somebody else. This is a known, open case of immorality.

Now let’s make sure we comprehend and contemplate the word “immorality.” There are a lot of people who, when you start talking about immorality, raise up and say, “Uh huh, burn them. Get them. Those immoral people!” They don’t realize that immorality is just one of the manifestations of the flesh. Now understand this; when you point your finger at somebody who struggles with immorality, you may be pointing three right back at you in some other area of flesh. Flesh is flesh, and it is all sick. The sickest, perhaps, and most consequential is the sin of immorality; but let’s make sure we understand the word.

The word is porneia. It is the word that encompasses all sexual acts with somebody you are not married to, no matter what it is, whether it is adultery, sex before marriage or homosexuality. It is the big house that all those terrible sins live within. It is the word from which we get the word pornography.

Turn over to Galatians 5:16-17 and let’s be reminded of something. I am really preparing you for what Paul is going to do in this chapter. Don’t just jump. When you see that sin of immorality, many people struggle with that. That is a sign of the flesh. But now, folks, there are other signs of the flesh. Galatians 5:16-17 says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”

How many of us, since we have been saved, have fallen to the lure of the flesh from time to time? If you haven’t, this would be a good time for you to get saved and get honest. Every one of us has fallen. There is a war going on. If anybody says they don’t have that battle in their life they don’t understand the Word of God. When the flesh wins, immorality is just one of the manifestations that come forth.

Look down in verses 19-21 of Galatians 5. Let’s just make sure we get this thing in mind and see the company that he keeps. Remember, the sin of the flesh is the key here. Immorality is just a consequence of that. It is just one of the ways.

Don’t ever forget the prodigal son. Remember the two brothers, goodytwoshoes out in the field and the prodigal? If I had been in that particular story, I would have been the one who rebelled and left. I have always been very open, what you see is what you get. But, you know, you always have your quiet ones over here who always look like they are the ones doing it all right. Finally the prodigal came back to his father, and his father was so excited he killed the fatted calf.

Listen to what the goodytwoshoes said out in the field. He says in Luke 15:30, “But when this son of yours came who has devoured your wealth with harlots [Now, do you notice something there? He has singled out one sin; that is all he singled out, as if that is all that the individual did. He says,] you killed the fatted calf for him.” He wouldn’t even go inside. I mean, he was so filled with flesh himself, he wouldn’t even go inside.

It is amazing how we categorize sin, folks. We have the big, bad sins like immorality, but then we have other sins that we don’t even deal with. We don’t realize they are just as much an evidence of the flesh as immorality is. That is what I am trying to get you to see. When you walk after the flesh and the flesh is winning, yes, there are other things that will accompany this kind of thing in your life. It may not be this in your life. It may be something else. Be careful. It has its manifestation.

Moral sin

Let’s look at them. First of all, in Galatians 5:19, the first category of sin there that comes when the flesh is winning is moral sin. “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are...” Here we go. The King James includes “adultery,” but the New American Standard misses it. I think it ought to be there. It is in the Textus Receptus there. Moicheia is the word that means adultery. Then it says immorality. There is your word porneia, the word we are looking at right now: any sexual act with someone outside of marriage, whatever kind it is, whether it is homosexual, incest, whatever.

Then you have the word “impurity.” That word, akatharsia, means lustful behavior with or without somebody. You know, sometimes sexual acts are not committed with somebody else. You say, “Well, that is okay because it didn’t involve anybody.” Listen, you can defile yourself. It is covered under that one word right there.

The next word is “sensuality.” That is actually lasciviousness, the unbridled attitude that we can do what we want. Now that is the moral sin that comes as a manifestation of the flesh. If I am not going to live up under the authority of God’s Word, if I am not going to walk by faith and trust Him, this is probably going to be one of the manifestations of sin in my life.

Spiritual sin

There is also going to be spiritual sin. He says also in verse 20, “idolatry, sorcery.” We know what idolatry is. It is when anything takes the place of Jesus in our life. But also he says sorcery, pharmakeia. It is the word for drugs. We wonder where all this comes from. That is a manifestation of the flesh, needing something without to control rather than someone from within to control.

Relational sin

Then you see relational sin. This is what I wanted you to see. How many people love to walk over and point a finger at somebody who struggles with immorality, but they forget this right here, “enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying.”

You know, we never think about that. “That is okay, these sins are over here in the goody side, but the bad ones are over here – adultery, immorality.” Friend, flesh is flesh. I don’t care how you peg it. Flesh means you are not living up under the authority of the Word of God. Like the Corinthians, you have become arrogant. You don’t need God. You don’t need His Word. You are going to do it your way. It is going to come out. It is going to manifest itself in some way.

Social sin

Paul then turns to social sin, “drunkenness, carousing.” Paul doesn’t finish the list. He just says, “and things like these.” Now just remember this as we go through chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians, because the first verse makes you think we are going to deal with immorality and that is all the chapter is going to talk about. No, not at all. As a matter of fact, he is just going to mention it in one verse and then walk away from it and talk about something else that is just as serious among the people.

Now, know what Paul says in identifying the specific type of immorality that was in the Corinthian church. He says back in our text in 1 Corinthians, “immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles.” That is a powerful statement. You are talking about Corinth, and what is Corinth made up of? One thousand temple prostitutes. I mean, immorality was the custom of their day. We haven’t gotten there yet, but I wonder if the women wearing coverings over their head didn’t have something to do with the cultural degradation that we are dealing with, the immoral society that we are dealing with. Perhaps it was used somehow to set the Christian women apart. I wonder if that is not part of what is going on here.

Why does Paul deal with certain things in Corinthians that he doesn’t deal with anywhere else? This is an immoral place. And he says, “There is immoral sin among you that is not even found among the Gentiles.” What in the world could this be? What kind of act of immorality could be in the church that is not even found among the Gentiles, in one of the most immoral cities in the world?

Well, he says, “that someone has his father’s wife.” Now that is the sin of incest. You say, “Wait a minute! Wouldn’t that be in the pagan society?” Perhaps, but not openly. We know from Cicero and others that Roman law forbade this particular sin. Therefore, in their culture, no matter how pagan they would be, it probably went on, but nobody really knew about it. It wasn’t open. People didn’t talk about it. Paul said, “Listen, they are talking about this sin which is against Roman law right in the church there at Corinth, far beyond what you even hear in the Gentile circles.”

Who was this woman?

There are several things you learn in verse 1; three things particularly that I want to point out. “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.” First of all, does Paul mean that a son is having an intimate relationship with his mother? Well, I have a problem with that if he is. Why didn’t he say mother? He said the wife of the father, the father’s wife. Seems to me he is referring to a stepmother. That is the first thing that you have to look at. It is still incest. Incest, you know, is a sexual sin with members of the family, brother to a sister, or a sister and a father or whatever, however you want to mix it up. It happens within the family. Here it is a stepmother. I believe it is a stepmother, because he says the wife of the father.

As a matter of fact, in Leviticus 18:7 it says, “You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father;” that is, the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother; you are not to uncover her nakedness. But then in verse 8 it changes the term. It says, “You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness.” What we have here is a divorce or whatever. Even if there is not a blood relationship there, it is a very heinous sin. In Leviticus 18:29 it says, “For whoever does any of these abominations, these persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people.” So it was a very serious thing. In Deuteronomy 22:30 it leaves it generic. It says, “A man shall not take his father’s wife.” Whether that be the natural mother or a stepmother, both are covered in that command.

So, actually it is not just incest we are dealing with here in 1 Corinthians 5, you have got a case for adultery if it is his father’s wife and it is not his natural mother. You have a heinous sin that is going on in the church of Corinth there. It is a very difficult thing that Paul has to address. It is a very difficult thing for me to have to address, but when you go verse by verse, this is the next passage. Let’s keep on moving.

This relationship is on-going

Secondly, the verb is in the present tense. You learn something about that. It appears that this is an ongoing relationship. I can’t prove it, but it suggests some things. First of all, it suggests that it has caused his father to divorce this wife and this man is living with her since it has been an ongoing relationship. If it had happened once or twice, you might think that he is still married to her, but it suggests that it possibly could be that it has caused the father to divorce her and now he is living with her and they are not married. That is the suggestion. You can’t prove it.

The woman is an unbeliever

Thirdly, it suggests that she is not a believer. Now why would I say that? Because when Paul addresses it, he only tells them to discipline the man. He doesn’t say to discipline the woman. That suggests that she is not a believer.

These are just some of the things it suggests, but I think you can understand the uncomfortable thing that Paul has to deal with. Thank God, back in chapter 4, Paul said, “I am not trying to shame you. I love you like a father loves a child, but we have got to deal with some things. One of them is, you have got open immorality within your congregation and in the form of incest which you don’t even see in the Gentile world, which is killing your testimony with everybody around you.”

It was open immorality, an incestuous, adulterous relationship within the congregation at Corinth. That is the consequence of fleshly living. It is the first one he brings up. They had become idolatrous in the sense that they are not worshiping God. They are worshiping men. They are not listening to the message. They are attaching themselves to the messenger. We have already seen that. Now the immorality comes in.

The indifference in the church

The second consequence of fleshly living is indifference to sin. Now, you can jump on the band wagon and say, “Uh huh, boy. Yeah, preach it, Brother. Immorality is wrong. It is sin. Yes, it is.” But look what he does. He only spends one verse talking about that. The rest of the chapter is not what that man is doing. The whole chapter is centered in on what the people aren’t doing to deal with that man. That is the problem. They have become insensitive to sin. They have become indifferent to sin. The flesh of the congregation of Corinth was just as bad as the flesh of this man who was engaging in this horrible sin because they weren’t at all honoring God in their lives, as he was not. They had apathy towards the habitual sin that was going on in their midst. They allowed it to remain open to the people of Corinth.

When you see churches with sin within that body, and that sin is known outside the body and it is marring the testimony, and that church will not deal with that sin, then you have a church that may preach about the Word, but they don’t believe the Word. They are showing by their deeds what their doctrine really is, you see. That is the whole point. If you don’t deal with it, then evidently it must not be important. You send a message that licentiousness and license can be a part of the believer’s life.

In verse 2 Paul says, “And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst.” “And you have become arrogant.” That actually should be, “you are arrogant.” It is in the present indicative there. This is your lifestyle. He has already told us that in chapter 4. This isn’t anything new. “You are arrogant. Your whole lifestyle is arrogant.”

What do we mean by arrogant? Well, we have seen that also. Paul had already identified this particular word. It is the word phusioo. It means you talk a big game, but you are a big bag of wind. There is nothing to back you up. You may know the teaching and teach the teaching, but you are not living the teaching. Therefore, you are just like that big bag of potato chips that we described back in chapter 4. You know, you get this big bag of potato chips, and you really think it is full until you let the air out of it and there is nothing left in it. That is the word phusioo. It means to blow up, to inflate. You are walking around as a big bag of air.

Now, the mindset of the world is what we are seeing has infiltrated the church there at Corinth. Look in verse 6 of chapter 4, and we will see what I think qualifies the whole thing about this word. It tells us exactly the mindset of the people. Paul tells us that a person who is phusioo, who is inflated, who is a bag of air, who has nothing to back up what he says, is a person who exceeds what is in scripture. The word “exceeds” there means goes above it, beyond it.

He says in verse 6 of chapter 4, “Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to exceed what is written [that is the key] in order that no one of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.” In other words, when you exceed what is in scripture, now you are on your own unchartered territory. You are going to do what you want to do. You have walked away from what God has said to do. Your idea is better than God’s. When a person is exceeding what is written, he or she does not respect the authority of what God says. And if they don’t respect God’s authority, then they don’t respect any authority. That is the bottom line understanding of a person who has grown arrogant. He won’t live up under the authority of the Word of God. These people have become their own authority and the effect of that is you become insensitive to sin.

“And you have become arrogant,” he says in verse 2, “and have not mourned instead.” The word for “mourn” is the word to grieve. You mourn, not only for the sin in your own lives, but for the sin in other people’s lives. That doesn’t mean you have to get out in public and wail and make all kinds of noise. But it means a grieving, a mourning inside when you see people who won’t repent, people who walk outside the boundaries of Scripture, who exceed what is written.

It says, “You as a people should at least grieve about this, but you don’t mourn. There is no grieving among you for the sin that is around you.” In Matthew 5:4, in the Beatitudes, we read, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” The same word is used over in 2 Corinthians 12:21. He says, “I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced.” In other words, when I get there, I am going to find out that you haven’t changed. There has not been a repentant attitude in your life and it is going to cause me to mourn and grieve because of that sin.

You see, sin is transgressing the authority of God; and if you have no respect for His authority and His Word, then you don’t have respect for any authority. You begin to live that way and you exceed what is written and are totally insensitive, whether it be yours or whether it be somebody else’s. It is no big deal to you. Sin is just not any big deal if you are not living up under the authority of God yourself. When we respect the authority of God’s Word, we take sin seriously.

I guess if I think back in my Christian journey, one of the people who got to me was Miss Bertha Smith. She could let you see the blackness of sin better than anybody I have ever heard speak in my entire life. When you heard her, you wanted to go put on sackcloth and ashes and crawl into some crack in the floor somewhere. She let you understand how ugly and how bad and how wicked sin really is.

I am grateful that later on in life I came to understand grace and the marvelous freedom that is in grace, because there are many people who understand grace but they never understand really the reason for grace and they don’t understand the seriousness of sin, the ugliness of sin. Therefore, they take license. “Hey, I am God’s child.” They pull Him down to a human level and they forget God is God. He is holy and sin is sin. It is ugly and bad and wrong.

You see, when you live up under the authority of God and understand that sin is transgressing what His Word has to say, then not only when you have transgressed it and God helps you to see the results of that, not only are you concerned for yourself, but you are concerned for other people. But when you are arrogant, you don’t respect God. You don’t respect any authority. Therefore, what is sin to you? No big deal, whether it is yours or whether it is somebody else’s.

Well, this attitude had permeated the congregation, and they had come to where they didn’t even deal with it. I heard a man say in the pulpit that he never wanted to be a man who would stand up and offend anybody with what he said. I thought to myself, “Dear God, when I get up under the Word of God, God convicts me.” How does He deal in your life? What is it like when God is convicting you of sin in your life? What do you feel like? Do you know what it is in my life? I have never been kicked by a horse, but it feels like somebody has kicked me in the chest. I don’t have any relief until I finally do what God has told me to do. I am hardheaded, and it takes me a while. I have paid a lot of prices because of that. I will fight. I am rebellious. When my mother would tell me when I was growing up, “You can’t do this,” I had already figured out 16 ways to do it. That is the Adam in me.

But I want to tell you something. It may take me a while, but I will get there. I can’t live until I have gotten out from under the pressure of conviction. Do you know what bothers me? There are people in churches all over the country, folks, who come and hear the Word of God and walk out and sin in a heartbeat. It never bothers them.

That is what Paul is saying. “You have developed an insensitivity to sin, not just yours, but those that are around you. You haven’t even mourned over this particular heinous sin that is in your midst.” So he says, “And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst.”

You know, disciplining sin in the midst of a congregation sends a signal that sin is not okay. Are all of us listening? Yeah, we ought to be listening. Sin is not okay. We all struggle with sin. We all struggle with the flesh. We deal with it and grieve over it, but when it becomes a pattern in our life and begins to mar our testimony, it is a picture of a body of people who maybe talk about the Word but they don’t live it. They have walked away from it because they tolerate known sin in their midst. That is what Paul is dealing with here.

He said, “You want to talk about the guy’s immorality, help yourself. Let me talk about your insensitivity to his immorality. That is just as much a reflection of flesh as his immorality is. It is a proof of the fact that you are not living the way you ought to live either.”

In verse 2 he says, “You have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst.” The word “removed” comes from two words, ek, out of, and the word airo, which means to take or remove. Some people say it means to excommunicate. I guess there would be an argument for that, but I am not so sure that is the heartbeat of what we are talking about here. Excommunicate is so final and cut off. Remember, anything you do

1 Corinthians 5:5

1 The Painful Act of Church Discipline

1.1 The Authority

1.2 The Action

1.3 The Attitude

The Painful Act of Church Discipline

We left off last time at verse 5. As you remember, that’s a very, very difficult verse. Let’s look at it. Verse 5 of 1 Corinthians 5 says, “I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” What in the world does he mean in that verse?

The Authority

Well, there are three things we’re going to attempt to explain it with. Hopefully, it will help you, and hopefully I’ll continue to learn in it. It’s over my head. Thank God that the Holy Spirit is our teacher. First of all is the authority this decision involves. Now you’ve got to realize church discipline is not man’s idea. It’s God’s idea. I told you the decision Paul made back in verse 3. He says, “For I on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.” Paul is an apostle, remember, and the apostles are there to be a messenger of the Lord Jesus Christ, sent by Him and they’re taking a message from Him. They don’t alter it. They take what God has told them. The apostle Paul would have known the gospels. The gospels were very prevalent at that time. Paul would have known that God Himself came up with the idea of church discipline. This did not come from men. This did not come as a result of problems within the church and somebody got together and said, “This is the way we need to solve them.” No, sir. God came up with this idea.

Look in Matthew 18:15-17. Paul would have known this very clearly. There are four steps to church discipline that are brought out in Matthew, and these are the very words of Jesus Himself. We must understand this. Church discipline is good because God ordained it. It’s His idea. Paul was an apostle, one commissioned by Christ. Matthew 18:15 reads, “And if your brother sins, go and reprove him in private.”

I remember when we first got our elders how many people came to us with all kind of rumors and everything else. “Well, such and such is doing this, and such and such is doing that.” I guess people thought we were the spiritual Gestapo. I remember we’d get together and say, “We can’t deal with this because it’s not been dealt with biblically yet.” So we had to come back and preach the “one another” commands. It starts in the pew. If you’re sensitive to sin in your own life and you’re living obedient to Christ, attached to Him, living in His Word, you’re going to become sensitive if it’s in your brother’s life. And if you discern that, you go to him. Oh, the stories we could tell you of repentance that came because of a believer living attached to Christ went to another believer who was in sin and that believer repenting. It never got to the church. That’s what it’s all about. Go to him.

You say, “Well, I want the elders to do it.” No. We won’t. You go to him. That’s what the Scripture says. The second step is this: “If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.”

Now, this is not dealing only with the fact of his sins but the fact of how it’s dealt with. You have witnesses there watching this to see if it’s in the name of Christ; and if it’s in the power of Christ, there’s no vendetta, no vindictiveness, no ax to grind on anybody’s part. It’s truly seeking to help a person to come to repentance.

Well, verse 17 gives us step three: “And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.” This is when the church begins to become more and more aware and goes into prayer for this one. Church discipline is not to get rid of somebody; it’s to confront somebody and hold him accountable for what he does. The church enters into prayer, grieving and mourning over that individual.

It goes on to say, “And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax-gatherer.” That’s step four. Remove him as if he doesn’t even know the Lord. Treat him in that way. That’s God’s plan. The apostle Paul came on the scene a little later on and would have understood what this says. He would have understood it clearly.

I think it’s interesting that he doesn’t even mention steps one, two, and three. He jumps right to step four, which tells you something. It tells you something of the callousness of that church because nobody would go to him. It also tells you something about the seriousness of that sin. He goes right to the actual removing of that person from their midst. It’s God’s plan, it’s not man’s. Sin is a reproach to God. And His church is to walk holy before Him. We cannot tolerate sin in our own lives, in anyone’s life. If it’s something habitual, it’s killing the testimony of believers.

Two things happen when sin is not dealt with within the church. First of all, the testimony of believers is damaged outside the church. But secondly, the purity of the believers is affected inside the church. You see, you have young people growing up, you have people that aren’t mature in the faith, and when you allow sin to go on and you don’t deal with it, it’s sending a message it must be okay. So a younger person says, “Well, if it’s okay for him, it’s okay for me.” The purity of believers within the church begins to decay.

Paul, as an apostle under the authority of Christ Himself, says, “I’m making a decision and this decision is not based on my own opinion. It’s based on the fact of the authority of Christ. It’s God’s idea. It’s not man’s idea.

As a matter of fact, when he says in verse 5 “I have decided,” that’s not in the Textus Receptus. It leaves that phrase out. Now, read verses 4 and 5 without the phrase “I have decided.” Look what it says. It says in verse 4, “In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” Paul made the decision and it had to be made. It had to be done publicly to begin to raise, once again, the standard of holy living among the people. The whole congregation must be involved.

I remember years ago we first started implementing this in our church. We missed a lot of people for a lot of years, and I’ve always grieved over that. But you can’t go back. Hindsight’s 20/20. I remember one individual in particular. It’s precious the story of what God did before it ever got before the church. It did not get to step three. Because of faithfully following Matthew 18, this man came in brokenness and repentance. I remember the sweet, sweet night we had together when he came forward. I remember him tugging on my coattail. He said, “Brother Wayne, can I share before the people?” I said, “What is it you want to share?” He said, “I just need to ask the people to forgive me. I need to ask my wife publicly to forgive me. I want to make this right before God and the people.” We let him have the pulpit that night. He shared from a broken heart the repentant heart of his attitude. Oh, it was so precious.

I remember how we got all the ladies around the precious wife and all the men around this precious man and we began to sing, “Oh, the blood of Jesus.” And do you know what? Tears began to stream down my face because there wasn’t a single person in this church condemning anybody that night. People were rejoicing that a sinner had repented and come back to live holy before God. That’s what church discipline is all about.

Folks, when we begin to tolerate sin in our lives, we’re going to begin to tolerate it in others lives. Then it begins to get in the church. It just decays our testimony in the world. The world looks at us and laughs and says, “You’re spiritual air bags. You know what to say but your life does not show us that you really love the Lord Jesus Christ.” Well, the authority this decision involves.

The Action

The second thing is harder, the action this decision invoked. This action that this decision calls to happen is tough to understand. Look at verse 5: “to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh.” The word “Satan” there is an interesting name for the prince of devils. He’s called among many things, devil, Belial—which I think is a great name for him; it means worthless—the destroyer, the adversary, the prince of the power of the air. But when the word “Satan” is used each time it’s telling you something different, another aspect of who this creature is. It means adversary, the one who opposes all that God is and stands for. He’s the accuser of the brethren, an enemy to God and all that are God’s chosen.

Paul says when you remove this man, you’re turning him over, “to deliver such a one to Satan.” Now listen to me. If a believer refuses to allow the Holy Spirit to dominate his life, as they were doing in Corinth, if they would rather be attached to men than attached to Christ, and they choose the flesh rather than the Spirit to dominate their life, then they have effectually communicated a message to the world and everybody that they don’t want to serve God. They’d rather serve Satan. There are only two masters, and no man can serve two masters. He makes a choice. Am I going to serve my flesh, which in effect is serving Satan, or am I going to serve God through my spirit? He’s made his choice. “I’m not going to do that. I’m going to serve the devil.”

So the decision has been made by the church. This person has said, “I will not repent. I will not repent. I’ll not stop living like I’m living.” So the church says, “Okay, since you want this, since you have chosen to serve Satan, then we are removing you from our midst and we’re putting you back into the world God saved you out of.”

Friend, think about what I’m saying here. We’ve forgotten what it’s like being lost. We have been saved from that kind of lifestyle, rescued not just for Heaven. Hey, it saved me from Wayne, from myself. I’ve been saved from the power of sin in my life, saved from the penalty of sin in my life. If I choose to go back to it, then I’ve made my own choice. And the church, if it cannot get me to repent, has an obligation before God to remove me and turn me over to the one that I have said to everybody by my lifestyle that I would rather serve. Church discipline is turning an unrepentant sinner back over to what he says he wants. That’s the bottom line. He’s made his testimony before people. He will not repent, and so the church says, “We love you. We’ve done everything we know to do. But since you will not repent, you’re now removed because you don’t want to be here anyway. You don’t want to serve the God that we love. You go, then, and serve the one that you’ve been serving.” They turn him over to Satan.

The word “deliver” is the word paradidomi. It’s the word that means to deliver over or up to the power of someone. I’m not sure where the expression came from, but it could have come from the book of Job. However, we have a little different scenario there.

Look over in Job 1:12, just to make sure you understand that God has documented that He has turned people over to Satan, but with restricted power, with restricted authority on Satan’s part. Satan could only do what God allowed him to do. Job 1:12 says, “Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.’ So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord.” He’s speaking of Job. I’ve laughed to myself sometimes and said, “Lord, if you’re talking to the devil today, would you forget my name.” He said, “Now listen, I’m turning Job over to you, but I’m putting restrictions on it.”

In Job 2:6, basically he says the same thing. He says, “So the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life.’” So there has been an instance where God, Himself, has turned a righteous man over to the devil.

Now, be careful though. First Corinthians is not that kind of situation. It is the situation of God’s turning him over. But in 1 Corinthians you have a sinful man. In Job, the trial of suffering just purified him. In this situation it’s going to bring this man, hopefully, to repentance.

Paul says that this one is to be given over to Satan so that Satan can torment him, physically, not like Job, but because of this man’s sin in 1 Corinthians. You know, you think about it for a second. You may say, “If I was that person living in sin, calling myself a believer, and the church kicked me out, I’d just say, ‘So what!’ I would love what you’ve done because now I’m free to be a part of that sin once again.” But you know what? When you say that, it ought to scare you, because you have just forgotten the dead end street that sin leads everybody to.

What is salvation, folks? We’ve been saved from that drudgery and dregs of sin. We’ve been saved from it. When you turn a person back over to his sin, you remove him from your midst, and now he’s out in that satanically powered world to live under what the flesh can offer him. Then it’s going to be a very painful experience. It will immediately rob the believer of the joy and the meaningfulness of his life. Its consequences are grave. But that believer can’t see that. That sinner cannot see it. He’s so convinced and deceived that he thinks his sin is right. He doesn’t realize what’s ahead of him. The church has just done him a favor by obeying God. By removing him, they’ve put him right into that world that he said by his behavior he really wants to live in.

We must remember that there’s a point where sin can have a deadly effect. If you’ll turn to 1 John 5, I want to show you this. To say that I fully grasp it and understand it would be ridiculous. I don’t fully grasp it. I’ve studied it and studied it and studied it. I’ve read the best people I know to read and still haven’t quite settled in my mind what’s going on here. Just let the text speak for what it says. Remember, when you study Scripture, the main things are the plain things. It’s not going to answer every question you have. But let it say what it says in light of the context that you find it.

In 1 John 5:16, this is some pretty powerful words, folks. First John 5:16 reads, “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin.” Now, sees his brother, okay. Well, what if I don’t have a brother? I only have a sister. He’s not talking about natural brothers. He’s talking about spiritual brothers in the family of God. “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.” Verse 17 continues, “All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.”

You say, “Well, what in the world does that mean?” Do you know what it says to me, folks? I’m just going to put it as plain and simply as I can. It means sin is serious. Don’t mess with it. That’s what it says to me. I might not fully grasp everything he’s saying here. But I can grasp enough of it that there is a warning, a red flag that comes up in my mind and says, “Don’t do it. Sin is serious, son. Don’t deceive yourself. It could be deadly in the long run.”

Paul says that in an open assembly this church is to remove this man from the midst so that his flesh might go through destruction. If he wants disobedience, sensual pleasure and all that Satan offers, let him have it. He’ll look back at you, spit in your face and say, “Hah! I’ve got my sin and I got what I wanted.” He doesn’t understand there’s a bondage to sin, a blindness to sin, and a deception to sin. He’s already in all those three things. It’s not going to be long until the joy’s gone. The physical, emotional and mental torment will begin. There is a madness when a believer chooses to walk after sin. It will literally wreck him because he’s not pleasing an Almighty God. The believer doesn’t see that when he’s in sin. He wants his sin. He thinks the church has done him a favor.

Do you know what the sad part of this story is? The sad part is we’re living in a time when all that person has to do is go looking and he’ll find another church that could care less about sin and make him feel comfortable. That being what it is, the Word says what it says. And it says it’s going to be a dead end street. You don’t ever sweep sin under the rug. You put it under the precious blood of Jesus.

It’s a tough passage, folks. I don’t like it. You shouldn’t like it. It’s a painful thing to go through church discipline. But I want to tell you something. It’s good because God ordained it. And the will of God, Romans tells us, is good. It’s acceptable. And it’s what? It’s perfect. Hang on to that. You don’t like it. We don’t like it. Nobody likes it. And especially the sinner doesn’t like it. But, friend, it’s got a good redemptive purpose behind it.

The Attitude

So, we have the authority and the action, but then, thirdly, the attitude this decision invites. There’s an invitation in this decision.

Now, the person we’re dealing with here wouldn’t see it. I mean, he couldn’t see the forest for the trees. But there is an invitation, a lovely, redemptive invitation, when a church decides to remove somebody because they will not repent of sin. That ought to send a signal to him. The words on that invitation ought to be big, “God loves you. The people love you, and they’re willing to do the hard things so that you’ll come back to be blessed by God once again.” Disciplining an unrepentant person in the body of Christ with a redemptive purpose is like sending them an invitation.

The term “destruction of the flesh” in verse 5 is a tough phrase. I know you’re asking the question, “Does it mean physical flesh? Does it mean the mind or the flesh since the word sarx is used?” Well, hang on. I’m going to get to both of them. We’re going to start with the first thing it means. It means the physical flesh. It means the torment, the infliction of physical pain, the end of which could be death if there’s no repentance.

The word “destruction” gives us the clue. It doesn’t mean to destroy and annihilate. It has the idea of inflicting pain which is going to grow more and more and more progressively worse. That’s the word. Let me show you how it’s used.

Look over in 1 Thessalonians 5:3. You see, this word is not like the Ananias and Sapphira passage that we will read later on. It’s not like somebody dropping dead and just being destroyed in that sense of the word. It’s a different word. I want you to see the difference. I’m not getting into the context here, I’m just going to show you how the word is used. I’m not even bothering the context. First Thessalonians 5:3 reads, “While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”

Now, I’ve never given birth to a baby. I don’t really understand these birth pangs. My wife understands them very well. In fact, she’s chastened me at times for not understanding them. She wanted me to feel what she felt. I’m thinking of the day when my daughter was born. We were having a wonderful day. Diana felt great, not a pain in sight. Everything was wonderful, almost as if the event’s never even going to happen. And suddenly, pain starts. Boom! I was out doing a survey in an area. I called home and said, “Diana, are you okay?” She said, “No.” I remember driving home in the church bus. I forgot that I had left my car at the church, so I had to end up taking my wife to the hospital in the church bus. That first pain came suddenly and announced what? Another pain was on its way. Diana said that each one got harder and harder and harder and harder.

So instead of using the word “destruction” there it uses the word that we’re looking at here, olethros. It’s the word that means progressively, tormentingly harder.

Look over in 2 Thessalonians 1:9. It’s used in the sense of eternal destruction, something that continues to go on. It says, “And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction.” In other words, eternal torment, pain that begins and gets worse and worse. Think of all eternity, being separated from God and having to endure the kind of pain away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.

First Timothy 6:9 says basically the same thing. “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.” You don’t ruin something overnight. It begins to ruin overnight and it gets worse and worse and worse and worse.

Like an old shotgun I had that got a little rust on it. I should have cleaned it. I know I should have cleaned it. My father told me to clean it. I didn’t. In fact, I left it in the damp place where it had gotten rusted to begin with. It ruined the whole barrel because it just slowly progressively got worse and worse. That’s the way this term destruction is used.

It’s associated with God’s divine judgment. But it’s associated with something that’s progressive in nature. If you think you’re getting away with sin, let me just share with you from the love of my heart. No, you’re not. You think you are. You haven’t even seen the symptoms yet. You haven’t seen the ruin that has set in. You haven’t seen the way that you’re already paying and don’t even know it. That’s what he’s trying to say.

When you’re in the world of Satan, oh, he’s a liar, folks. He’ll deceive you, making you think that what you’re getting is worth it all. But, friend, he never tells you the price tag on the end of it. You must remember that Satan has no power over the spirits of believers, absolutely none. We know this from the trials of Job. He could hurt him physically. But he couldn’t bring him to death. He couldn’t touch his eternal soul. Couldn’t touch it. No, sir. The inner man of a believer belongs absolutely to Christ, just like all of us does. But He only allows Satan to work in the physical, mental and emotional areas of our life. He cannot touch our spirit. He cannot touch our soul.

Even in the verse that we’re looking at here, 1 Corinthians 5:5, we have the absolute assurance that this man will be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus. But in the meantime the unrepentant believer may be turned over to suffer gravely at the hands of Satan.

I want to make sure you understand something. Just because you’re suffering today, you may have something terrible going on in your life, does not mean this is the suffering that’s been caused by your personal sin. This is a misnomer that people have. All suffering comes from original sin, but not necessarily personal sin.

There’s Job for instance. Job wasn’t suffering because of personal sin. He was seeking to be a righteous man before God. That’s not what he’s saying.

Think about the blind man in John 9:2-3. Listen to what Jesus said to him. “And His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.’”

The first question we ought to always ask when we suffer is, “God, is there sin in my life and you’re trying to get my attention?” That ought to be the first question. I like what Tozer said, “To him whom God trusts He allows to suffer greater.” Suffering can be a blessing. It can be a marvelous thing that God’s doing in your life.

However, the scriptures are also clear that some suffering is the direct result of sin. Paul has to deal with it. Look over in 1 Corinthians 11:30. It’s in the very epistle that we’re studying. The Corinthian church was making a mockery of the Lord’s Supper. They were getting drunk and having a feast at the Lord’s Supper. Look what happens here in 1 Corinthians 11:30. He says, “For this reason many among you are weak [look at the progression here] and sick, and a number [do what?] sleep.”

“Oh, that’s not bad. They’re just asleep. They missed the Lord’s supper that night.” No. He means dead. In John 11, when Lazarus had died, Jesus was trying to tell His disciples that he was dead. He said, “Lazarus is asleep.” They said, “Oh, good. We don’t have to go. He woke up.” I was preaching this one day, trying to make myself sound intelligent, and I said, “Jesus looked at him and said in plain English…” He didn’t speak English. But if He had spoken English, He would have said it in plain English. He said, “He’s dead, D E A D, dead.” But they didn’t even understand.

So when you see the word “sleep,” he means dead. Some of you are weak. Some of you are sick. Some of you are dead. Physical weakness, sickness, and even death can result from persistent sinning.

Ananias and Sapphira, and you know the passage well, lied to the Holy Spirit and dropped dead in their tracks. Let me read that to you in Acts 5:1-10. It doesn’t take but just a few verses. “But a certain man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge.” They got a bigger price than they thought they were going to get and they said, “Whoa! Let’s don’t give it all. Let’s keep some for ourselves.” The verse continues, “And bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God.’ And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came upon all who heard of it. And the young men arose and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him. Now there elapsed an interval of about three hours, and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter responded to her, ‘Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price?’ And she said, ‘Yes, that was the price.’ Then Peter said to her, ‘Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they shall carry you out as well.’ And she fell immediately at his feet, and breathed her last; and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.”

Here’s why it took place. It doesn’t happen much, but when it does, here’s the reason. Acts 5:11 says, “And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.” Church discipline is for the expressed purpose of repentance of the one removed and to bring a sense of holiness and awesome reverential fear of God back into the congregation that we must deal with sin in our life.

You say, “I thought you were going to talk about that other part of the flesh, the attitude of the flesh.” While the physical part of man is being tormented, emotionally, mentally, and physically, that brings his flesh side of him to be exposed. Finally, he can come to his senses.

It was the prodigal son who had to be in the mire of the swine before he could come to his senses and realize what he had lost and walked away from. How bad does it have to get? I don’t know. It could be that God says, “Hey, listen. This guy’s not going anywhere. I’m going to bring him home before he completely loses everything that he had as a reward. I’m taking him home.” And He does it out of an act of mercy, not out of an act of unkindness.

My prayer’s always been, “God, if I ever get to where I become an embarrassment to your family and will not repent, take me home. Please take me home. I don’t want to live on this earth and embarrass the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Well, in the case of this man in 1 Corinthians 5, we believe he repented. As a matter of fact, look over in 2 Corinthians 2. Most scholars think this is the same man. I’m not a scholar but I still agree with them. It’s good company. Somebody asked me once, “Brother Wayne, are you a doctor?” No, I’m not even a nurse. Look at 2 Corinthians 2:5. “But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree—in order not to say too much—to all of you. Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, lest somehow such a one be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. For to this end also I wrote that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. But whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.”

It appears in 1 Corinthians they won’t remove him and they won’t take him back. Will these people ever learn? Paul says, “When he’s repented, don’t you hold it over him because that’s putting too much sorrow on him. It will overwhelm him. You bring him right back just like a brother equal to you. If he has repented before God, you bring him back that way and don’t put any more undue sorrow on him. He’s sorrowed enough.”

The bottom line is this. Church discipline is not a joyous thing. We’ve had many elder prospects turn us down because they don’t want to fool with it. I’ll tell you what, folks. None of us do. It’s not a joyous thing. It’s painful. However, it could and most of the time does reap a joyous result.

I have a friend of mine right now who says he’s in the ministry. He’s not in the ministry anymore. You can have a title on the church staff and call that ministry if you want to. But until you’re attached to Christ, living in total purity before Him, there is no ministry. It’s received, not achieved. I wish to this day that some church had stopped him when it became known that he was committing adultery years ago. I’d give anything.

1 Corinthians 5:9-13

Contents

1 The Particular Focus of Church Discipline

1.1 A lost letter

1.2 A lack of understanding

1.3 A look at the judge

The Particular Focus of Church Discipline

I’ve learned a lot about cooking. Thanks to the ladies in my church. I found out that yeast does not go into cakes or biscuits. So, the moral to that story is, don’t let me do the cooking. You cook, and I’ll eat it. I told a story about my mama baking a cake. It was rising, so I thought there had to be yeast in it. Yeast causes things to rise, doesn’t it? Anyway, I’ve learned a lot.

You ask, “What do you mean, yeast? Where does that come up in 1 Corinthians 5?” Well, look at verse 6. Paul is illustrating why sin has got to be removed, not only from an individual life, but from the church. When it’s habitual in someone’s life, it must be removed, because it’s very dangerous and it’s very deadly if it remains. He uses the illustration of leaven and what it does.

In verse 6 he says, “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?” He says a little leaven, micro, a little tiny bit of leaven. Now, yeast is that which causes the fermentation in dough which causes it to rise. I also discovered that yeast feeds on sugar. Did you know that? And also it feeds on the gluten that’s in flour. And the more it feeds, the higher it rises. The interesting thing is, it’s hollow on the inside.

Have you been to a restaurant and you’ve gotten one of those yeast rolls. Don’t tell me it’s not in there. And they look so good. They smell so good. And they are so good. You take your knife and cut it in half and butter it and what happens? It’s empty on the inside. It’s like there’s just nothing but air on the inside. The yeast has caused it to rise, but there’s nothing on the inside.

What does the apostle Paul say about the church there at Corinth? He said, “You’re arrogant.” What is the word for arrogant? Phusioo, which means what? You’re a spiritual air bag. Leaven has caused you to rise up; and people look at you and think you really love Jesus. But on the inside there’s nothing to back up your walk.

By the way, I found out something else. Do you know what the substance is that causes yeast not to activate? It’s salt. Now, if you have a creative mind, and you want to illustrate something, have fun with that one. What did Jesus say for us to be in the world? Salt and light. And the more we live godly lives, the more we cause leaven not to be able to function as it needs to function. So it’s a beautiful picture, obviously, of the Holy Spirit of God that we understand how sin works, whether in an individual’s life or in the body of believers.

Church discipline is our subject that we are dealing with. Now, if sin is not dealt with in a person’s life, if it’s habitual in any way, then what happens is, it has a destructive effect. It’s very much like cancer that silently works inside of someone’s body. If you don’t know it’s there, or if you do know it’s there and you don’t deal with it, while you think you’re doing fine, it’s tearing away, eating away at tissue and organs in your body. That’s the way it is. It can destroy a church.

I was over in North Carolina, and the pastor I was working with told me, “Wayne, do you know how many pastors leave or are caused and forced to leave the ministry every month?” And I said, “I have absolutely no idea.” He said, “I just read a survey that came out in a magazine. One hundred fifty pastors a month are forced out of churches of one denomination or another nationwide.” Now you figure this up on a daily basis. And you say, “Well, it’s because pastors aren’t living godly before God.” That is true in so many instances, but I want to tell you something. There’s another side to that. There are churches that won’t deal with sin. And when pastors come in and preach on it, they run him off. So it works both ways. Sin not dealt with in an individual’s life will destroy a church.

And I want to tell you it will also destroy a family. If you’re not dealing with sin in your own individual life, you don’t realize right now the damage it’s doing to your home. It’s like that leaven. It’s in there and it’s beginning to fester, and if you don’t deal with it, it’s going to destroy. It can destroy relationships of any kind.

We must understand the seriousness of why church discipline is even brought up in 1 Corinthians 5. The situation Paul has been singling out is in verse 1. It’s an immoral man who’s committing incest. Look at 1 Corinthians 5:1. He says, “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles [Now what is this kind of immorality?], that someone has his father’s wife.” It’s the sin of incest. And they have allowed it to go on. The fact that it’s reported signifies that everybody knows about it. In fact, everyone is talking about it on the street. All of Corinth knew that they were tolerating this man’s habitual sin within the church.

The apostle Paul says, “Since you won’t judge him, I will.” He orders them in a public assembly to remove him from their midst. That’s in the first part of chapter 5. He tells us why church discipline is so important in verses 6-8. Look at verse 7 of 1 Corinthians 5. He says, “Clean out the old leaven [The word for “old” means that which is longstanding. In the context, this man needs to be removed from their midst] that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”

What does he mean by new lump? Qualitatively new? No. This is a different word, neos. It means new in relation to time. It means that you’ll have a new testimony to the people of Corinth. In other words, up until now they don’t respect them. Paul’s trying to tell them that. They have absolutely no respect whatsoever. They know that you tolerate sin and even though you don’t associate with them, they know that you tolerate sin in your midst. However, if you want a brand new look to them, if you want to have a witness amongst the lost people of Corinth, then you remove this man. And it will send a message to them and you can have a fresh testimony among them. They were in great need of revival and repentance. This is what Paul’s saying. Deal with this man, and you’ll set a standard once again in the body. You’ll send a message to this world that we’re attached to Christ and leaven has no place in our lives.

Well, the apostle Paul takes them back to the Old Testament and reminds them of an Old Testament feast. Right before Passover there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Passover was the feast to celebrate what happened in Egypt when they were in captivity and they had to slay the lamb and put the blood over the door. Then they had to eat of the lamb. The death angel came and because of the blood on the door they were spared. Each one partook of the lamb, and God set them free. That’s what the Passover was. During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they had to get all of the leaven out of the house.

Paul takes them back to that mind-set in verse 8 of 1 Corinthians 5. He said, “Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” In saying that, he says, “You know, they only celebrated it once a year to remember their deliverance from Egypt.”

But then he puts the “celebrate” here in that verse in the present tense. He says, “Whereas they celebrated it once a year, we celebrate it every day. Daily we get the leaven out of our life. And as we’re willing to get the leaven out of our life, then we can celebrate Christ being our deliverance, Christ being our victory, Christ being our sacrifice. But you can’t celebrate victory until you’re willing to deal with the leaven, the sin, that’s in your life.” It’s a beautiful picture of a Christian dealing with leaven. We all have it. It can be as subtle as an attitude, but it’s still leaven and it must be dealt with and be put under the blood of Jesus. We must be cleansed of it so that we can continue to celebrate our victory over the penalty of sin and the power of sin day by day in our life.

Well, let us celebrate the feast. Let us continually be celebrating the feast. He goes on to say that we celebrate it “with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” That’s the life that we now live. If you hold us up before Him, you can see right through us, because whatever was there to mar what you might see has been dealt with under the blood. We are transparent. God is using us. We’re sincere and real, which is really the basic meaning of the word “truth,” absolutely genuine and real. That’s the way we live. And if we live that way, then we have a testimony to the lost world.

We’ve looked at the painful act of church discipline. We looked at the crucifying effect of church discipline in verses 6-8, as we’ve just reviewed. Now we’re going to look at the particular focus of church discipline. Church discipline does not deal with lost people; you deal with believers. Have you noticed in your Scriptures that he didn’t say anything about disciplining the woman who was involved? He only said to discipline the man who was involved. Does that tell you something? It probably tells us that she wasn’t a believer, and he was living with this unbeliever. But he professed to be a believer and would not repent; therefore, they had to deal with him. Church discipline’s focus is on believers, not unbelievers. We share the Gospel with unbelievers, we pray for them, but we don’t discipline them. We discipline those of our own body, the body of believers.

Look at verses 9-13: “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler – not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.”

A lost letter

That finishes up chapter 5. Let’s back up. Three things I want you to see. First of all, the apostle Paul deals with a lost letter. In other words, there’s an epistle that he wrote to the church at Corinth years before, evidently, that has been lost. We don’t know anything about that letter except what Paul tells us. Verse 9 says, “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with immoral people.” You know, it bothers some people that we don’t have that letter. I’ve heard people say, “Well, that just makes me not have faith in the Word of God. We don’t have all of the Word of God.” Personally, I think that’s hogwash to think that way. It’s ridiculous. It doesn’t make any sense at all. Do you realize, if you say that, your logic is, you’re telling the world that you don’t understand the providence of God nor do you understand the sovereignty of God? It’s very simple. If God would have wanted us to have it, we would have it and it would have been found. But, evidently, God didn’t want us to have it, so we don’t have it. So don’t worry about it. It must not be needed. It’s amazing the simple logic when we deal with certain passages like this.

But then the scholars have to step in and so confuse all of us that we don’t know what we’re arguing about. I went to a banquet that was down at the Trade Center. The pro-lifers met together and had a wonderful speaker from Washington, one of the greatest speakers I have ever heard. She was talking about how they put her on to debate the pro-choice people. She said, “The only debate I’ve ever been in was whether I was going to have chicken or hamburger for supper. I didn’t know what to do. All of these academic intellectuals debate this issue.” They put her on there. I guess they thought they’d make a fool out of her. Well, it backfired. Because of her simplicity, because of not trying to confuse the issue, she just went at it from the real basis of how we’d all deal with it.

They got in there and said, “First of all, this thing inside of a woman at conception is really not a child. It’s not a life. It’s a tissue.” She said, “Well, good. If it’s not a life then we don’t have a problem, because you don’t have to kill it.” They said, “No, no. It’s a life, but it’s not a human life.” She said, “Well, good. We still don’t have a problem. If it’s not a human life, just let it grow. Maybe it’s a parrot.”

As I listened to her I thought to myself, if people would come to Scripture on that kind of basis, the simplicity of the sovereignty of God, the providence of God, ought to solve the problem. But some people have to write books on where is that letter. And to me that’s just a waste of sweat. Why in the world bother with it? If we don’t have it, we don’t need it.

But there was another letter that he had written. It’s interesting to me. In that letter he was doing the very same thing he’s doing in this letter. They don’t learn very quickly, do they? He was trying to tell them then not to associate with immoral people, as he’s trying to tell them now not to associate with immoral people. The letter was lost, but still he was using the same teaching. Now the word “to associate” there comes from the word that means to mingle or to mix. The little word sun in front of it, that little word in front of it causes us to understand it. We’re not to mingle and to mix, but we’re to be with people who are sinful people. We’re acquaintances with them; however, we’re not to socialize with them. We’re not to mingle and mix with them. Why? Because if somebody is habitually sinful, then the leaven in his life can affect our life. That’s exactly what Paul has just said. You don’t mingle with them or socialize with them. However, if they’re lost, you pray for them and you witness to them. But you don’t socialize, you don’t mix, you don’t mingle with them. That’s what the word means. It’s important for us to note that.

Paul, of course, is pointing again to the fact, if you associate with people who are practicing immorality, it’s going to get on you. In other words, it’s going to affect you.

I don’t know why people can’t see that, even in dating relationships when young people start dating. You say, “Well, I know this boy is not a Christian, but I just want to win him to Jesus.” They make the stupid mistake of thinking that emotional means can accomplish a spiritual end. It almost never does. There may be one or two exceptions, but the rule is, if that’s a habitual practice of their life, get away from that person. Do not mix with them. Do not fellowship with them because, the way they’re going, the leaven in their life is going to affect your life.

So the apostle Paul tells them of a lost letter that already had warned them of not associating with immoral people. That’s been his whole context of chapter 5. Over in Colossians you find other letters that are lost and we don’t have. God, evidently, didn’t want us to have them. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God [In other words, if I don’t know where they are, it doesn’t matter. It belongs to Him.] but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” Now, that ought to solve it for everybody right there. The secret things, the things that are hidden, the things that we don’t know, they’re God’s, and that’s His business. But the things that are revealed belong to us forever that we might be obedient to the things God has shown us.

A lack of understanding

Okay, so the first thing then, is a lost letter. But the second thing he deals with is a lack of understanding. Evidently, when they got that first letter, they either intentionally or unintentionally misunderstood it. The Corinthians evidently didn’t understand his command in his last letter when he said not to associate with immoral people. Do you know what they looked at that as? It appears they thought he meant the lost people of the world, the immoral lost people of the world. But Paul was actually writing to say, “No, the immoral people in the church is really what I had in mind.” They said, “Hey, we don’t associate with the world because they’re immoral and lost and covetous and swindlers, and we’re separated away from them.”

Remember he said, “You’re boasting and you’re arrogant.” What were they boasting in? I think this was their testimony. This is what they’re saying to people. “Look at us. We’re living separate lives.” But the problem was, they weren’t dealing with sin in their own life. They refused, in their arrogance, to associate with any person who was immoral. Witness to them, yes; but don’t mix with them. We’re supposed to witness to them. But they took it to the limit. They didn’t have any contact with them at all. They just backed away as if that’s what it meant to be separate from immoral people.

I’ll tell you what, folks. Separation is good, but the key is to let Jesus Christ separate you. When you start separating yourself and patting yourself on the back for the separation, that’s nothing more than legalism. Your testimony is what you’re not doing. But the problem is, you’re not dealing with what you are doing, the sin in your own camp, the sin in your life, the sin within the church.

It reminds me of Romans 1:18-32. The apostle Paul dealt with the rebellious Gentile world and said, “Look at them.” He talked about how openly pagan they were. But then in chapter 2 he switches. Look at Romans 2:1, just to take you back and remember what we’re dealing with here. There are a lot of people who come across as being separated from the sinful people of the world, but they’re the meanest people you’ve ever been around in your life. They’ve got sin in their life. They’re judgmental. They really don’t have a testimony. They think they do, but they’re spiritual air bags. That’s all they are.

Look over in Romans 2:1. “Therefore you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” Who’s the “you” there? If you’ll drop down to verse 17, he says, “But if you bear the name Jew.” He makes a shift here. In chapter 1 you’ve got the pagan Gentile, but in chapter 2 through 3:20, you’ve got the religious Jewish people. He says, hypocrites, you’re standing there pointing at those Gentiles and their sins. You’re not willing to deal with your own sins. “Thou that judgest doest the same thing.”

This is what was going on in Corinth. They were boasting. They were arrogant. “We don’t associate with the immoral people of the world.” Well, whoop-di-do! What about your own sin? Are you dealing with that? I want to tell you something. Anytime you see a person walking with God, they’ll never come across as to their conviction. They’ll come across with humility. They’ll come across as a person who always is willing and open to deal with sin in their life. They realize that maybe they can’t see it, and somebody can. This braggadocios, arrogant type of thing, that’s nothing more than pure legalism. That’s all it is. People love that kind of stuff, folks.

I know a man who works in a video store. He was telling me one night, “Wayne, many of the people who come in here and rent these movies, I know where they go to church. They won’t walk into a movie theater, but they’re the first ones in here to rent all that stuff.” Now, I’m not saying that it’s right, wrong, or indifferent. I’m just trying to tell you something. If you think your testimony is not going to movie theaters and you are not willing to deal with your own personal individual lives, it kills everything you’re saying.

That’s exactly what Paul’s telling them. Spiritual air bags. You’re arrogant. You talk about what you’re not doing. But you’re not dealing with what you are doing. That’s the whole bottom line.

Do you know anybody like that? Have you looked in the mirror lately and seen anybody like that? How quickly we love to point the finger at somebody else. I want to tell you, folks, if we’re not dealing with the sin in our own life, forget pointing the finger at anybody. That’s where discipline steps in. If we’re not willing to deal with it corporately, it’s obvious we’re not dealing with it individually.

Well, in verse 10 of 1 Corinthians 5 he says, “I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world.” Verse 11 goes on to say, “But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler – [now listen to this] not even to eat with such a one.”

Now the literal translation in verse 10 out of the Greek, to me, is clearer than the New American Standard. The literal says, “Not entirely the immoral people of the world or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world.”

What Paul is saying is, “You’ve got to be associated with them.” You go to work with these people. They’re people next door to you. Some of them are kin to you. Some are even married to them. It’s not like you can’t associate with them, because we are forced into that association. For a person to say that he’s not going to have any kind of fellowship at all with people who are immoral in the world, Paul says, you’d have to leave the planet. He says, “You’d have to go out of this world.” It doesn’t work that way. They’re all around you. But the key is, you don’t socialize, as we’ve talked about a while ago. We’re in the world, but not of the world. We’re not isolated from them, we’re insulated from them. As we attach ourselves to Christ, He becomes our witness through that.

Paul doesn’t just single out the immoral people of the world or the church. He singles out some others, too. He makes a little longer list. By the way, isn’t if funny how quickly we love to jump on somebody who’s immoral, but we forget about the other sins that are also told to be dealt with? Look at what he says in verse 10. He uses the word “covetous.” Now, you’d never know covetousness was in some people’s lives unless it was flagrant, and he had obviously talked about that. Every time he mentions one of these sins it means a habitual pattern of life. All of us fall in these traps from time to time. We’re talking about somebody who’s obsessed with it, somebody who’s driven by it. The covetous person would defraud you in a minute to get what you have because he wants what you have. He’s not satisfied with what he has. He’s never satisfied with what he has. So he’ll lie, deceive and do whatever’s necessary to get what he wants. That’s the person you don’t associate or mix with, because that kind of lifestyle could become yours.

The word “swindler” means to seize. It’s one who secretly steals from another. The word picture is of a wolf that preys upon other animals. That’s the kind of mind-set. Somebody always preying on somebody to see if he can get a buck out of them or to swindle them in some way.

Do you know anybody like that? Do you know anybody who, when they walk up to you at church, immediately sees you as a candidate for making more money out of your life? Look out! That person will use you to get gain because he’s not satisfied with what he has.

The word “idolaters” comes from two words. One means idol and one means a servant or a worshipper of an idol. This is Corinth, remember? You have to flip a coin. I think I’ll worship an idol. Well, which one are you going to worship? There were so many of them you’d just have to flip a coin. He says, “Don’t you dare associate with these people who are serving these idols. Witness to them, pray for them, yes; but don’t you mingle with them. Don’t you socialize with them, because what they’re doing is going to get on you before it’s over with.” They’re a servant or a worshipper of an idol.

Paul’s point is very clear. He says, “I wasn’t referring to the world. You ought to know that. That ought to be common sense to anybody. I was talking about in the church.” In verse 11 he says, “But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother.” The word there means somebody who’s named as a brother, so it’s somebody obviously everybody would know as a Christian.

He adds two more. One of the ones he adds is “a drunkard.” The other one is “a reviler.” I want to talk about that word just for a second. Do you know what a reviler is? A synonym of that is the word blaspheme. Do you know what it means to blaspheme or to revile? It means to go behind somebody’s back with a rumor or a lie and tear down their reputation to somebody else. If a person habitually does that, you’d better disassociate yourself from them. Go to them, discipline them, and if they won’t repent, remove them from the midst.

It’s not just the immoral. Oh, no. It’s also the covetous, the swindlers, the extortioners, and also these revilers and drunkards. It’s amazing to me how we have categorized sin and the big bad five are over here, but the better ones are over here. We colored them. They’re not black sins, they’re gray sins. The apostle Paul says that you’d better be nailing every one of them. Isn’t it interesting how far we’ve come from dead-center as to what we’re supposed to be today?

People today say, “Come on, man.” You see, we all fall into that sin at times, but we repent of it, hopefully. But if a person doesn’t, it becomes habitual and that person becomes cancerous in the body and must be dealt with through church discipline. That’s what Paul says. He said, “You ought to have known not to do that in the world. I’m talking about in the church. You people will deal with the people in the world, but you won’t even deal with the people who are in your own backyard.” They were boasting that they did not associate with the immoral people of the world while at the same time they were not willing to disassociate with the immoral man in their own church or even deal with it in their own lives.

Do you know what’s killed us in America? It’s the same thing that’s killed them in Corinth, Christians. Wasn’t it Gandhi of India who said, “I would have become a Christian had it not been for Christians.” Folks, I’m telling you. We have no standards. A man who points in every direction points in no direction. That’s what Paul is saying. You can talk about their sin all you want to, but until you’re willing to deal with your own sin and the sin within the body which you represent, then you have no testimony to others. What you’re saying to them is you tolerate that sin in your midst.

There are a lot of denominations these days. I go to a lot of the different denominations, and I’ve talked to a lot of people of different backgrounds. I’m learning a lot. I did not know how many denominations didn’t believe in church membership. Do you realize a lot of people love to attend churches forever? They love to come and get all they can glean from it but have no responsibility to it. Do you know what Tennessee law says? If you’re not a member of a local church body, then they cannot practice church discipline upon your life. It’s already been tested in court. A person can be accused of slander. It’s already happened. So people say, “This is great! I’ll just attend and attend, because I don’t believe in church membership. Therefore, if I ever have sin in my life, they can’t touch me. I’ll sue them if they do it.” That’s the attitude a lot of people have.

Do you know what we see church membership as? Church membership means accountability. When you join a church, you’re telling that church, “I want to live holy before God. I want to come alongside you to hold you accountable and I want you to come alongside me to hold me accountable so that when we stand before God one day, the work that God has done through us will withstand the test of fire.” That’s what it means to become a member of a church.

In today’s culture, you can’t even practice step three and four of church discipline if you’re not a member. We’ve already seen that. Folks, listen to me. Think about that. The people who don’t believe in church membership tell me, “Well, we’re all the body of Christ.” Yes, we are. That’s right. That’s sort of an ambiguous term, isn’t it? So you live out in the middle of nowhere, drop in a church whenever you want to drop in, sins in your life and you don’t deal with it. Nobody’s going to confront you, because nobody knows it’s even there. You’re not accountable to anybody. Isn’t that convenient Christianity?

Folks, I say that from my heart. At this church we may miss a particular sin. If we miss it, we’ll go back and deal with it if we have to. We’ve done it for years. I want to tell you. That doesn’t grow great bigger and bigger churches. If you’ll watch it over the years, you’ll start seeing people say, “Ummm!” Kind of like when Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead. The visitation program the next week was really a killer. “Hey, would you like to join our church? I see you visited a couple of weeks ago.” “Uhhh, are you that church where these two people died?” “Yeah. Would you like to join?” “No, I don’t think so. I just changed my whole denomination. I’m moving somewhere else.” It’s amazing, folks, how people love to just coast with no accountability. Church membership is accountability.

Look at Nehemiah 9. Do you remember what Nehemiah was all about? Remember that? They were rebuilding the walls of their witness. It was a sham. Wasn’t it? They went back to build those walls again, and that was the walls of their witness and their testimony before others. I want to show you what they did in chapter 9 of Nehemiah.

1 Corinthians 6:1-2

In chapter 6 we see the sin of demanding your own rights. But until we understand what the church is, we’re not going to understand why Paul says the things he says about the situation that takes place in chapter 6. The chances of somebody offending you, harming you, causing damage to your life in some way or another, emotionally, mentally or physically, in the church, is not only possible, but it’s very probable in the day that we live in.

So many people come in who say they’re believers. Maybe they’re not. We have all different levels of maturity within the body of Christ. We used to tell people at our church when they would join the church, “You will be offended when you join this church.” A lot of folks will say, “Thanks, that’s really what we’re looking for, a church in which we can be offended.” All we were trying to do was be honest.

Hey, if you’re going into the pastorate, can I go ahead and tell you, whatever church you’re going to pastor, you’re going to be offended? It’s just part of the turf. When you deal with people, you’re going to be offended. You’re going to be harmed. There are going to be things that happen to you. But, now listen to me. The things that happen to you are not the key. The key is, how are you going to respond to those people when that occurs?

Now, whatever degree, from somebody talking about you to something even much more serious, as we’ll see as we study through chapter 6, you’ve got to understand the principle that we’re going to introduce this chapter with. First Corinthians 1:11 shows us there can be conflict in the church. There can be difficult situations that occur within the body of Christ. Paul says, “For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you.” That word “quarrel” isn’t a friendly little argument. That word “quarrel” is a very heated, difficult situation. He said, “I’ve already heard about this.”

If you will look over at 3:3 you see some other indications of it. Verse 3 of chapter 3 says, “for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife.” And those two are always together. Jealousy is the inward something that’s just bothering you, and strife is the outward symptom of that: contention with one another, always fighting and grumbling and all this kind of thing. Then the word “division” is added, although not in the New American Standard translation. It’s in the Textus Receptus and in the King James. I think it’s important. The word “division” means to stand apart from somebody with your feet down and you’re ready to fight. That’s the idea. Paul says, “This is going on among you.”

Now, you would think that when you join a church, surely you’re going to find a better bunch of people than that. Well, hopefully, you do. But that doesn’t mean there are not going to be people like this in every church. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to be offended. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to be harmed. It doesn’t mean that somebody’s not going to do you wrong. That’s not the issue. The issue is how you are going to respond to it.

Before you determine your response let’s go back to chapter 1 and remind ourselves of a few things. When we first got into 1 Corinthians I told you something. I said in 1 Corinthians 1:2-9 you have a grid through which you are to look at this book. I said that this grid is going to keep coming up over and over and over again. You cannot understand this part without understanding this grid in verses 2-9 of chapter 1. Let me just show you a few things about it that will help you as we get into chapter 6.

In verse 2 he says, “To the church of God which is at Corinth.” Now remember, ekklesia means the called out ones. The moment you tell somebody you’re a believer, that you’re a part of God’s church down here on this earth, it means you have been called out of the world and their way of doing things and into Christ and His way of doing things.

I could stop right there and go into chapter 6 and maybe you’d understand: you don’t do the things like the world does it any more. We’re called out of that way of living. In John 14 Jesus said, “I am the… truth and the life.” But He says something else, “I’m the way.” When you’re called into Christ, you do it His way. We’re the called out ones.

One of the first things the world notices about our behavior is that we don’t act like them in any given situation of our life. We are a unique community of human beings. We’re in a class all by ourselves. We are human, but there’s something about us.

He goes on to say in verse 2, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling.” He tells us right here what class we’ve been put into. We’ve been set apart by His grace, taken out of Adam and washed by His blood and put over here into Christ. So amongst all the human beings who live on this earth, all of the educated and intelligent people who are out there who don’t know Jesus Christ, we are in a class all by ourselves. We go out and mingle with them in the sense only of sharing the Gospel. We’re in the world but not of the world. We are different. We have been sanctified. The way we’ve been sanctified is He has come to live in our hearts and in our lives.

Look over in 1 Corinthians 6:19. Let’s just make sure we’ve got all these things down before we go into chapter 6. A lot of people will put their guns on when you get into controversial chapters and want to shoot at you. I want to tell you something. I’m going to disarm you with these Scriptures. We are not like the world. We don’t think like the world. We’ve been called out of the world. As a matter of fact, Peter said we’re a royal priesthood. We’re a royal people, a totally different group of folks amongst all humanity.

In 1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” How are we sanctified? We’re set apart and put in this place by the fact that God, the Holy Spirit, has come to live in us. God lives in us. Now He enables us to be and to do what He Himself would do.

As members of His body, we don’t have the right any more to do as we please. He says in verse 20, “For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” Do you know what it means to glorify God? To glorify means to make sure that all the recognition comes to Him. Show the proper esteem to Him by making sure that everything points to Him and never points to you. Let your body be a vessel through which He can work so all the glory will come back unto Him. That’s what kind of people we are.

You know, back before I became a believer, I was in the church, but I never did anything so that all the glory might go to God. I can remember planning things. I was in it for a long time before God got hold of my life and showed me what salvation really was. Everything I did somehow had a way of coming back and pleasing me or somehow benefiting me. But I’ll tell you. When Christ comes to live in you and He sets you apart, no longer is that your goal; no longer is that your purpose. Your purpose now is to only bring glory unto Him. You’ve been called out of the way of the world. You’ve been called into Christ. We just don’t act like the world acts.

I want to tell you something before I go any further. You’re going to have a war in your mind as we walk through chapter 6. Your mind is going to scream at you and say, “That just doesn’t make sense!” But, my friend, if you’ll put this in perspective, it makes all the sense in the world. And when you present your body as a living sacrifice to Christ, holy and acceptable unto Him, that becomes your reasonable service of worship. And what is not reasonable to your mind right now, once you’re surrendered to Him becomes very reasonable in your life. Then you begin to see He has a better way, and it’s not the way of the world. We don’t respond like the world. We have no right to respond like the world.

We even have the privilege of knowing how He thinks. Isn’t that incredible? We’ve been shifted from AM to FM. When I say that, I don’t mean to knock AM. There are some pretty good stations on AM. But FM just seems to be a better band or something. All I know is, in my car when I put the radio on AM and hit that little select button, it doesn’t hardly stop but maybe twice when it goes all the way through. But I can put it on FM and it just keeps stopping. There are stations everywhere, and they’re clear as a bell.

You see, when you’re lost, you’re on AM. Oh, you think you’re right. You think you’re so logical, and your common sense just blesses you. But when you get saved, He not only saves you, He saves your mind and flips you up on FM. Now you can think the way God wants you to think. That doesn’t mean you’re thinking that way, but it means you can.

Look in 1 Corinthians 2:16. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him?” He’s talking about the foolish people of the world. “But we have the mind of Christ.” I’ll tell you where it’s found. It’s found right here in the Holy Spirit of God taking it and renewing our minds with it. You may not be thinking that way, but you can think that way. So when it comes to understanding Scripture, you’re going to have to see it from His eyes, not from your eyes. You don’t come at it from your hurt. You don’t come at it from your circumstances. You don’t come at it from what’s happened to you. You come at it the way God says for you to come at it, and He’ll give you an understanding of Scripture if you allow Him to do that. No matter if the world says it is ridiculous, if it says it in God’s Word, that means it’s wisdom. That means it’s what God wants us to understand.

Go back to 1 Corinthians 1:9. We know that everything in our life, regardless of what it is, can work for us and not against us. Why? Because we serve a faithful God. God’s going to be faithful to us no matter how we’re treated. God’s going to be faithful for us no matter what happens in our life. We know that. We cling to that. In 1 Corinthians 1:9 it says, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, [to participate in Him] Jesus Christ our Lord.” No matter what happens.

You see, right now it sounds easy. But as soon as something traumatic happens to any of us we tend to walk away from this truth. You can’t do that. You’re going to have to keep the truth right here.

I remember when our little baby girl was born dead. We prayed and prayed that she’d be alive. Sometimes in the latter stages of pregnancy they’ll turn a certain way and the doctors can’t pick up a heartbeat. We prayed maybe she was alive. But she wasn’t alive here on this earth. She went right on. She just bypassed this old, sorry world and right on into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. We’re going to get to see her one day, because David said in the Old Testament that “he can’t come to me but I can go to him.” I know where she is, so we didn’t lose anything. But I want to tell you something, folks. In that room, knowing every bit of truth that I’ve ever known in my life, it is one thing to preach it in a pulpit, but it’s another thing to be in the midst of a situation clinging to that truth and not walk away from it no matter how your mind screams at you and says, “That’s stupid! That’s ridiculous! You don’t deserve this.” But God says, “Trust Me. I’m faithful.”

Listen, if we’re going to be the church of Jesus Christ, we’re going to have to learn to act like the church of Jesus Christ. And when things don’t appear reasonable to the world’s way of thinking, so be it. It never has from God’s Word. Isaiah 55 says, “My ways are higher. My thoughts are higher.” They are not your ways. They are not your thoughts. “You’re going to have to be raised up to think the way I think. You’re going to have to be raised up to have the wisdom that I want you to have.”

That has to be the mindset of the believer or you’ll never understand the sixth chapter of 1 Corinthians. All believers are in a class all by themselves. Their behavior is dictated and enabled by Christ who lives in us through His Holy Spirit. We live, we literally live to preserve the unity of the body of Christ.

Turn over to Ephesians 4. I want you to see something here. Folks, we’ve got to understand this! It’s kind of like the apostle Paul said in Philippians 3, “You want to talk about pedigree? I’ll tell you about my pedigree. You want to talk about how people have hurt you? Do you have about three of four days? I’ll share with you a few things about being hurt.” But, folks, that’s not the issue. It’s not how people have treated us. It’s how we respond to them as the body of Christ.

You know there was a prayer there at the last part of Ephesians 3 that’s the hinge of the whole book of Ephesians. It sums up three chapters and sets up the next three chapters. Right after you come out of that prayer, look at the last two phrases of Ephesians 3, the last two verses, 20-21. “Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” That word “amen” means let it always be so. In other words, let all the recognition go to Christ within the church. So the church says, “God, You be seen in us. We don’t want to be seen. You be seen in us.”

How do you that? Verse 1 of chapter 4 says, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” I’ll not begin to probe that verse. But the word “worthy” is the word axios. It means if you put a weight on one side of the scale, you need a weight of the same measure to be on the other side of the scale so they’ll balance. For three chapters Paul tells you how you can be strengthened in the inner man. For three chapters he tells you how the Holy Spirit of God works within the life of a believer. Then he says, “That’s a heavy weight. Now, you need to learn to choose to let Him do the things that you know He can do so that your life will balance out what you have.” In other words, let your walk balance your talk. Since you have all of this, learn to live out of it so your life will be balanced and people can see the truth by watching you live.

So Paul says, “Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility.” The word “humility” there is the attitude one has with himself. I want to tell you something. If you don’t have this attitude and somebody does something to harm you, offend you, cost you or anything else, I guarantee you you’re not going to understand the word “humility.” The word means to get down as flat as you can, like laying a pancake down on something. You can’t see it at all. Tapeinos means to get down so far that if people looked they couldn’t see you. They could only see Jesus within you. It’s knowing what you’re not; a proper estimation of one’s self in light of who God is. That’s humility.

Then he says “with gentleness.” The word “gentleness” is really meekness or brokenness. It’s the word praotes. You still have strength; as a matter of fact, as the world goes, you have rights but your strength, your power, and your rights are under the control of the Holy Spirit of God. It’s like taking a wild horse and breaking it and putting it up under control. That’s the word for gentleness. It doesn’t mean weakness. But it’s meekness. That’s the word he uses there.

He goes on to say, “with patience.” Do you know what patience is? Patience is what I thank God He has for me every day. It’s makrothumia. That is not dealing with circumstances. That’s another word, hupomeno. This is makrothumia, which means the ability, now listen to this, to bear up under whatever it is you have to face in life, even in the church. As a matter of fact, especially in the church. That’s his context. To bear up under whatever comes your way. If you’re hurt, if you’re reviled, if you’re talked about, if you’re slandered, it doesn’t matter. Remember the example as Jesus in 1 Peter, “whom, when reviled, reviled not back but kept entrusting Himself to the ones who judges righteousness.” He lives in me. Then He enables me to live that way. So, therefore, I can be one with patience.

He says, “showing forbearance to one another in love.” Do you know what forbearance is? Let’s just say I had it out with someone. Let’s say I was in an elders’ meeting and just got upset with another elder. That would probably disqualify us both, but let’s just say that happened. All of a sudden, I realize that maybe the other person is wrong. Let’s just say that I’m right. As far as I know under God, I’m right. I want to tell you what I’m going to do. I want to show you what forbearance is. Most people when they have a rift with somebody, no matter what it is, are going to kick them out. Do you know what forbearance is? I love him, and I’m going to bear up against him no matter how far he kicks me and whatever he tries to do. That’s what forbearance is. I’m not going to walk away and talk about him. I’m not going to write letters to people or tell people and ruin his reputation. I’m not going to let it make me grow bitter. No, sir. I’m going to get right up against him, and by the power that God has placed within my life to protect the unity of the body, I’m going to bear up against him. We’re going to forbear together so God can bring him through and we can continue to walk as brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what forbearance is.

I’m going to tell you where he’s headed. Look at Ephesians 4:3. This is one of the main things in Ephesians, the unity of the church. This is where our witness comes from. In 1 Corinthians 6 the unity’s not being restored. It’s being ripped apart by people who won’t live this way. Verse 3 says, “being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” I want you to notice that verse very carefully. Do you see anywhere in that verse where it says to produce the unity of the Spirit? Do you think that somehow fighting with one another is going to produce anything? Listen, what we’ve got to realize is, if you’re a part of the body of Christ, you are in this special group of people who are in a class by themselves. This group of people have been called out of the way the world does it into the way that Christ does it. They even have the mind of Christ, can think like Christ, and have the Spirit of God so they can see Christ lived out in their own life. These people already have the Spirit of oneness and unity.

Now listen. If you sense that you’re disunified from a brother or a sister in Christ, no matter what’s happened to make you sense that, first of all, you’re not even believing the Word. You already have that unity. It doesn’t tell you to produce it; He says to preserve the unity of the Spirit.

Years ago we thought we could produce it. We tried to have fellowships to get to know each other. We did everything we could think off. It comes down to this. If I’m living under the power of the Holy Spirit of God and you’re living under the power of the Holy Spirit of God, we can experience and enjoy the unity that’s already there in Christ. If you’re not doing it, I can’t enjoy that with you. And if I’m not doing it, we can’t enjoy that together, because that destroys it right there.

So Paul says to preserve it. How do you preserve it? In the bonds of what? Of peace. I want to tell you what that means. I’m going to put it simply. It means a whole lot of things; let me just put it simply so that everyone of us can understand. If I can understand it, I know you can. That means, first of all with God. How do I preserve that unity with Him? I lay my sword down. “God, I’m not going to fight you anymore. Your Scripture goes against what the world tells me. But, God, I’m going to trust You, because You saved me. I’m going to believe what You say and lay my sword down. I’m not going to fight you. I’m not going to fight you at all. Even though I may not understand it all, I’m not going to fight you.”

But it not only means with God, it means with one another. If you’ve laid your sword down with God, you have to lay it down with your brother. If you pick it up with your brother, you’ve picked it up against God. Any time the sword is picked up the spiritual problems start. So we live to preserve the unity of the Spirit at all costs, at the bonds of peace.

If there’s somebody in the body of Christ you’ve got in a rift with, immediately deal with it in the bonds of peace. Drop your sword. Do whatever it costs you to ensure you that relationship is bonded back together.

These things are important to understand. It is in order that Christ is glorified in the church that we do these things, that Christ be recognized in a way we aren’t. Doctrine and deeds are hand in hand in Scripture. If I say I have the right doctrine and my deeds don’t show it, then I have the wrong doctrine. Right doctrine produces right deeds. They are going to work together and those deeds are going to call attention to Christ. They’re not going to call attention to ourselves. This is the normal Christian life, living in peace with God and at peace with man.

That sounds great as long as man is living in peace with you. It doesn’t say that he’s going to live in peace with you. It says you live at peace with him. That’s the key. Always establish it on your side of the fence.

Now, since that’s understood, we can enter into chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians. I know it took me a little while to do that. I had a lot more that I wanted to say. Just relax. We could spend more time going back and reclaiming what it really means to be a believer. The same people are in the church sometimes who are outside the church. That’s what was going on here. The immoral was outside, but the immoral was inside. The covetous were outside, but the covetous were inside. That’s why they had to deal with it in chapter 5. So if you think that you’re in a protective environment in church and nobody’s ever going to offend you, you don’t seem to understand there are a lot of people who come who aren’t walking right with God. The key here is how do you respond when you’re offended?

The Problem

Well, the first thing we want to look at is the problem that has occurred at Corinth. Look at verse 1 of chapter 6. “Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?” Wow! I mean, Paul doesn’t waste any time. Does he? He just jumps in with both feet. It is not in the fact that this person in Corinth has been wronged, it’s in the fact that he sought to go to the pagan court to solve his problem with a brother in Christ.

Now listen to me. The legal situations at Corinth probably were much like those of Athens of that day. If you don’t know the history of that time, perhaps this will help you a little bit to understand. Litigation was a part of everybody’s everyday life. It had become sort of a form of challenge, even entertainment. One ancient writer wrote the words, “Every Athenian is a lawyer of some kind.” It seemed like all of them had their opinion and were all somehow dealing with litigation in some way.

Let me tell you why he said that. In the secular world of Athens, when a problem arose between two parties that they could not settle between themselves, the first course was the private arbitration. That was the first thing, private arbitration. Each party was assigned a disinterested private citizen as an arbitrator, and the two arbitrators along with a neutral third person would attempt to resolve the problem. Now, if they failed, the case was turned over to a court of 40 people who assigned a public arbitrator to each party. Interestingly, every citizen had to serve as a public arbitrator during the 60th year of his life. That’s interesting. You had to be at least 60 before you could be an arbitrator because they wanted somebody wise and somebody who had been down the road for a while. If public arbitration failed, the case went to a jury court composed of from several hundred to several thousand jurors. Every citizen over 30 years of age was subject to serving as a juror, either as a party for a lawsuit, as an arbitrator, or as a juror. Most citizens regularly were involved in legal proceedings of one sort or another. This was their everyday life.

Corinth was only 45 minutes by car today, a little longer than that by foot back in that day from Athens. Probably, the same legal thing that was going on in Athens was going on in Corinth. The Corinthian believers were so used to arguing and disputing, suing one another for anything they could think of, that they drug that lifestyle right into the church. They thought, mistakenly, that the church had nothing to do with it. This is my social life over here; this is my religious life when I come to church. The apostle Paul is about to nail that one with a big old nail right to the wall. They’re wrong. It is a part of the church. It very much is. That course was not only spiritually wrong, it was practically unnecessary.

The Romans said to the Jews, “Listen, you can solve your own differences.” They never did quite understand the Jewish people. So they just let them do their own thing. Remember back during the days of Jesus when they wanted Him to be crucified, they had their own courts. They solved their own problems. Then they brought it to the Roman governors and officials. The Romans didn’t have enough discernment to know the difference between a Jew and a Christian. So the Christians were considered to be Jews to the Romans. They didn’t know the difference. And for that reason the Christians had the legal right to solve their problems within their own selves. But they chose not to. The Corinthians chose not to. “Let’s don’t go the means of the church. Let’s go the means of the public courts to solve our problems.”

Well, he says in verse 1, “Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor.” That little phrase “does any one of you” is a little interesting Greek word that means “is there any single one of you.” Paul’s not pointing to somebody particular when he makes this statement. He’s really saying, “If there’s only one, we’ve got a huge problem we need to deal with. Just one, just one of you.” Remember the little leaven of chapter 5. If one of you has drug that leaven in here where you can demand your own rights and get the courts to legislate your affairs, if any one of you are in here, we’ve got a problem to deal with.

The word “case” is the word pragma. It’s translated matter. “If anybody has a matter against another,” it says in the King James. But when it’s used in this kind of context, it means a lawsuit. Does any one of you have a lawsuit they want to file against someone else. In their language, in their culture, when that word was used in a judicial sense it meant, “Is there any one of you who actually has a lawsuit against somebody else in the body of Christ?”

Now the word for “neighbor” there is the word heteros. That’s interesting. It’s really the word for “another.” There are two words for another. One is allos, another exactly like myself. Remember Jesus said, “I’ll go and send another comforter.” One exactly like me. He’s my Spirit. Then there’s the word heteros, another of a different kind. Now, here it doesn’t mean somebody who’s not a Christian, but somebody who has a difference of opinion than you have. That automatically begins to show you the little bit of contention here between two people.

As a matter of fact, you could tell how that was going to widen the gap between two people. They’ve got differences with one another. That word heteros establishes that very quickly. A believer has a case against his neighbor. He’s got a difference with him. Whatever it is, it’s so serious he’s thinking about taking this person to the courts to solve his problem. How do believers handle their differences? Are we to be in the world and act like they do, or do we have a better way? That’s what chapter 6 is all about. Remember, we’re in a class all by ourselves. We don’t do it the way the world does it.

How many times have you had something to happen in your life which has dealt with another Christian? I don’t mean in your church. I’m not talking about that. You went to somebody who represented the world and judicial system who did not know Christ and they gave you advice that just screamed at you that that’s not what God would say. Has that ever happened to you?

That’s what Paul is trying to understand. What’s reasonable to the world? He’s already covered that in chapters 1, 2, and 3. It’s not going to be reasonable to God and to the believer. The foolishness of the world, you see, is the wisdom of God. They look at Jesus’ dying on the cross as stupidity. That shows you the mindset of the intelligent world. So you have to be real careful here.

Well, without this understanding you won’t realize what Paul’s saying. “Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?” The word “dare” is the word tolmao. It’s not like, “I dare you to jump off that cliff.” It’s not like that kind of dare. It’s somebody who has the audacity, somebody who dares do something to cross a line of authority that nobody would ever do. Do you mean you have the audacity that you would dare take this step in that direction? That’s the word for dare.

It says. “Does any one of you dare take your case before the unrighteous?” That’s any interesting phrase, isn’t it? He automatically throws the court system and calls them unrighteous. We know that in the world of Corinth that’s pretty much the way it was. They didn’t have any Christians, usually, in the judicial seats. If you found one, that’s a find. It’s not just a slam on their character. It’s not a slam on their intelligence. This is not a slam on their family. What it was saying was that they’re unrighteous people. They don’t know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. For that reason they’ve never been taken out of the world and put into Him. For that reason they don’t have the mind of Christ.

Go back to 1 Corinthians 2:14. I want to show you something here. The next time you want the ungodly world to solve a case for you with another brother who is in the body of Christ, look at 1 Corinthians 2:14. It says, “But a natural man [a man who’s not saved] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”

1 Corinthians 6:3

The Sin of Demanding Your Own Rights – Part 2

In chapter 5 we saw the sin of immorality and the sin of indifference. The people would not even deal with the immorality that was in the church. Now, in chapter 6, we see the sin of demanding your own rights. You know, we get into a lot of trouble when we attach ourselves to the flesh. This is what’s going on in Corinth. We’ve covered all that background. Instead of being attached to Jesus, being vessels through which God can work, they’ve attached themselves to everything you can think of about the flesh. Now we’re seeing the consequences of that in chapters 5, 6 and 7. It just continues to go.

You know, a lot of people have said they want what God wants. But the problem is, they’re not willing to do what He says. They’re not willing to trust Him in the areas they don’t fully understand. And for that reason they miss out on all that He’s seeking to do. We only have two choices; the church of Corinth only had two choices. No man can serve two masters. He’ll love one and hate the other. Somebody says, “Oh, no, no. I don’t hate the Lord when I serve the flesh.” Hate is not an emotion. Hate is a choice. Just like we choose to love Him, we choose to hate Him when we choose to let our flesh rule in our life.

That’s exactly what’s going on in Corinth. Welcome to the church at Corinth. They have chosen to serve their flesh and as a result, as we’ve said, they’re paying for it. Be careful what you attach yourself to. Make sure you’re attached to Christ.

I heard the story the other day about two hunters. They were out on this man’s property who allowed them to hunt. As one of them was walking along he saw this big hole, the biggest hole he’d ever seen in his life. It was a huge hole. They took a rock and threw it over to see how deep it was. They didn’t hear a sound. They got a bigger rock and dropped it in the hole. It didn’t make a sound. They had never seen a hole like this. They went around looking for something else bigger they could drop into the hole. They found a railroad cross-tie. It took two of them to man-handle it over, but they got it up and dropped that railroad cross-tie into that hole. It just went out of sight. Suddenly out of nowhere came a goat. That goat was running as fast as they’d ever seen a goat run. It ran right between these two guys and just dove into that hole. One guy said, “Did you see that?” The other guy said, “Yeah. Where did that goat come from? He just dove in that hole.” The other guy said, “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

About that time the property owner drove up. They said, “Come here. Come here. Look at this hole. Have you ever seen this hole before?” He said, “No. I’ve never seen that hole before.” They said, “Well, we just saw the most unusual thing. A goat came out of nowhere and just dove into that hole. Could that be your goat?” He said, “Oh, no. I have mine tied to a cross-tie.”

Be real careful what you’re tied to. It will suck you right into the hole of sin. That’s exactly what’s going on in Corinth. Instead of being tied to Christ and attached to Christ, living focused on Him, they’ve attached themselves to the flesh and they’re reaping the terrible results of that.

Listen to the words of Psalm 1:1. He said, “How blessed is the man.” That word “blessed” in the Septuagint is the word makarios. It’s the same word used over in Matthew 5. The idea of the word is fully, spiritually satisfied. How fully satisfied is the man who does what? He said, “who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners.” The word “path” has the idea of the way of sinners, the characteristics of sinners who will not do the things that God wants. “Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord.” Now, not in the promises of God; he didn’t go out and buy a promise book and claim one every day of his life. He didn’t wait for God to do something for him. No, no. He asks, “God, what can I do for You?” “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” The revealed will of God, that’s his delight. “God, what do You want me to do?”

That’s the blessed man. That’s the man who’s satisfied spiritually, no matter what his circumstances are, no matter how difficult things might be in his life. All he wants is the will of God. Certainly, the promises come into play, but his focus is the will of God. You see, folks, we’ve got to realize that the flesh is addicted to sin. Now Christ broke sin’s power when He came to live in us, and as long as we’re focused on Him, living and enabled by His grace, we can continue to walk free from the power of sin. Temptation is all around us, but we’re free from its power to pull us down into that hole. The moment we attach ourselves to flesh, however, shift it back into gear. That’s when sin takes over and the devastating results come into our life.

I want to tell you where it’s most deceptive. Flesh if so deceptive, folks, when it comes to looking out for one’s self. Now, listen to me. When we’ve been offended, especially by Christians, when we have been hurt, when we have been grieved, when we have been treated wrongly and particularly when it comes to money, look out. The flesh goes back into gear. In that moment we can start using the world’s way of thinking that says we have a right to defend ourselves. That’s what’s going on in Corinth. I want to tell you something. That’s just as deceptive as any other area of sin. I think it’s probably one of the unspoken areas. We don’t usually talk about this.

What do you do when a Christian offends you? What do you do when somebody who calls himself a believer takes advantage of you? What do you do when somebody cheats you in a business deal and you’re a Christian and he’s a Christian? How do you handle that? The world rears up and says, “You’ve got your rights, buddy. Demand your rights.” God’s Word says, “No, you don’t.” You can be just as easily deceived there as any other area of your life.

In our last study that’s exactly what was going on. Somebody in Corinth is suing somebody else. That’s the whole problem that Paul is dealing with here in 1 Corinthians. Last time we recalled the context of 1 Corinthians. Back in chapter 1 it says that we are the called out ones, ekklesia. In other words, we’ve been called out of the world’s way of doing things into God’s way of doing things. In fact, we’re not our own any more. We’ve been bought with a price. We’ve been sanctified. We’re called saints.

That word “saints” comes up in chapter 6. Do you know what a saint is? It’s somebody who’s been taken out of the mire of sin, washed by the blood, and put over here strictly and eternally for the purpose of God’s using him. He becomes a vessel through which God can be glorified. That’s our only purpose. That covers every purpose under my life, not just as a father and as a husband and as a pastor. That’s fine. There are purposes in life. But this covers every purpose in our life. We are to be set apart unto Him. You never retire, you just re-fire. As long as your heart is beating you are vessels through which God is to work. We never have rights. We only have privileges of being in the kingdom of God and being people who can be servants to Him.

That’s important. Over in Ephesians 4:1-3 we read that we’re to walk worthy of our calling. After three chapters of Paul telling them what they had in Jesus, who they are and whose they are, which, by the way, has to be balanced, and once they found that out he says, “Now, walk in a manner worthy.” The word “worthy” is the word picture of a set of scales. If you put a weight on one side, make sure you put the same weight on the other side so that it balances it out. If you’re going to tell people you’re a Christian, live like it. Put some walk to your talk. That’s what he’s telling them, to make sure that you’re walking worthy.

The second verse says how you treat one another. One of the words he uses in there is the word “forbear.” That’s when you stand up against somebody. Somebody’s hurt you; somebody’s grieved you; somebody’s cheated you in a business deal; somebody’s taken advantage of you, and they call themselves Christians and they’re in the body of Christ. The grace of God gives you such an ability—it’s the strength of the inner man, as chapter 3 of Ephesians talks about—you’re willing to bear up against this person, and you will not allow him to fall and you will not separate yourself from him. You’re going to pray for him, take his abuse, whatever else it takes because you want this person to stand before God one day and get every bit of the reward that could be given to him. That’s the unity of the body.

The third verse of chapter 4 of Ephesians says that the Christian who’s attached to Jesus realizes he doesn’t do things the way he used to. He does them God’s way. He says that he preserves the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He lays his sword down and says, “God, I’m not going to fight You anymore. I’m going to do it Your way. My mind can’t understand everything you say but, God, I’m committed to do it. I have the shield of faith in front of me. My heart’s intention is to do what You tell me to do and when I fail I’ll come right back to this very place.”

I’ve not only laid my sword down with God, but I’ve also laid my sword down with my brother in the body of Christ. If he cheats me, if he tells rumors about me, if he does whatever he does, I’m not going to pick my sword up and fight him. I want God to be glorified in every action that I take. That’s the believer. The apostle Paul is trying to take something that’s upside down and turn it right side up. He’s bringing them back.

Now, folks, listen to me. There’s a war that goes on in your mind when these situations happen. This is easy to preach; this is easy to talk about in a study group; but as soon as somebody in the body of Christ offends you and hurts you and costs you financially, that’s when the war starts. The Spirit of God says, “Now, stay on track, son. Stay on track.” But the flesh says, “Come on, man. You had your rights. You’re an American. This is a democracy. Do what you know you can do. Burn the guy and get your money back.” That’s what the flesh says. The Spirit says, “Don’t you do it.” The flesh says, “I’m going to do it.” That war goes on in inside your mind.

I’m telling you, folks. It will happen. What the world tells you is one thing. But what the Word of God tells you is another. I’m trying to warn you. I think Paul’s doing the same thing. This is what divides God’s people all over and kills our testimony with other people. It’s important.

Paul says, “Is there any among you.” Paul usually doesn’t say, “Is there?” if there wasn’t. There’s somebody there who’s suing a brother there in the church. Look at verse 1 of chapter 6. “Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?” Any single one of you is the idea of that. And what he’s saying is, “If there’s only one, we’ve got a huge problem. You’ve just dragged the world’s way of doing things right back into the church.”

Now, you have to understand the culture of that time. If you don’t, this is very difficult. It doesn’t mean you can’t get the truth. We don’t always have the advantage of knowing the culture and the history. But it’s helpful. It kind of makes the black and white TV a colored set when you think of it that way. What is the culture? Well, you have to go to Athens. Now, today if you went from Athens to Corinth, it would take you about 45 minutes by car. How long is that back in that day? It was a little longer, but still close in proximity. So you can’t say adamantly this was what was going on in Corinth except that most cities of Greece always mimicked Athens. Athens sort of set the pace.

Here is what was going on in Athens. Everybody sued everybody. It became kind of a public game. “Oh, you got me. I’m going to sue you, buddy.” “Oh, no, you’re not. I’ve got a better lawyer than you do. I’m going to get you back.” Back and forth, back and forth. They were always doing it. One ancient writer claimed that, in a manner of speaking, every Athenian was a lawyer of some kind. Here’s why he said that. When a problem arose between two people that they could not settle between themselves, the first recourse was private arbitration. Each party was assigned a disinterested, private citizen as an arbitrator. The two arbitrators along with a neutral third person would attempt to resolve the problem.

Now, if they failed in private arbitration, it went to public arbitration. The case was turned over to a court of 40 who assigned a public arbitrator to each party. Interestingly, every citizen had to serve as a public arbitrator during the 60th year of his life. I thought that was interesting. They didn’t want anybody under 60 to serve as one of these arbitrators. If public arbitration failed, the case went to a jury court composed from several hundred to several thousand jurors. Every citizen over 30 years of age was subject to serving as a juror, either as a party to a lawsuit, as an arbitrator, or as a juror. Most citizens regularly were involved in legal proceedings of one sort or another. That was their life. I mean, if you weren’t in a suit, you were just coming out of a suit or going into one. You constantly lived that way. That was Corinth. Just sue your brother. If you have difference, sue him. Take him to court. That’s the pagan mind-set of their day.

It kind of sounds like today. Doesn’t it? People will sue you for looking at you cross-eyed. That’s what was going on during that day. The Corinthian people had come out of the pagan world. In 6:9-11 we see they come out of all kinds of sin. This is all they knew. So they took the practice of the world and drug it right into the church as if they couldn’t see the difference.

The apostle Paul is addressing that situation head on. Paul tries to get them thinking straight. In verse 2 look at what he says. “Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?” We’re going to look at that even more in just a few moments. Basically, what Paul is saying to them is, “Hey! If you’re one day going to be a co-regent with Christ, don’t you think you can handle your own problems within the church?”

By the way, Roman law said that all Jews could have their own courts. They could solve their own problems. And the Romans looked at Christians as if they were Jews. Romans didn’t know the difference, so they gave the Christians the same rights. But the Christians chose not to use it. They said, “No, we don’t want to go inside the church body. We like this thing of suing one another. Let’s go before the court.” It’s always that idea of greed. It’s always that idea of what I can get out of my brother because he has offended me.

Well, the apostle Paul says that even the poorest equipped Christian, if he had the Word of God, is better equipped to solve problems between Christians than even the courts of the land of that day. Why is that? In 1 Corinthians 2:16 he said, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” I want to make sure you understand something as we inch into this. He’s not saying that you can’t get a fair judgment by the courts. He’s not saying not to respect the integrity and education of people who are judges and lawyers, etc. That’s not what he’s saying. What he’s saying is if they don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ, they’re missing one precious ingredient here. And if you do know Him and know His Word, you can solve your own problem right where you are. In fact, not just as a collective group with Christian arbitration, but individually, before the problem ever gets that far. Die to self, attach yourself to Jesus, and let Jesus be the Lord of your life. That’s what he’s trying to help them to understand. So remember this. He’s not throwing a rock at the judicial system of the world. God even works through the judicial system of the world. What he’s saying is to solve the problem within your heart as you come before God and reattach yourself to Him and you can become even the smallest law courts of the land.

Let’s talk about that a little bit more. The first thing was the problem. The problem is somebody’s suing somebody. The misunderstanding was where we ended last time. Let me just kind of revisit that. We need to understand the misunderstanding in Corinth. They just didn’t have a perception. When you attach yourself to the cross-tie of the flesh, it will drag you right into the hole of being spiritually blind and no longer will you have any perception, whatsoever, to understand or to discern the things of God.

Again, look at verse 2. He says, “Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” The word for “know” there is the word eido. It comes from a form of horao, which means to perceive or understand. Many times in Scripture Jesus would say, “Behold!” That’s a form of that word. It means turn and look and see with deep understanding and perception of what’s really going on. Christians can have that. But when you detach yourself from Christ and reattach yourself to the flesh, you lose all that discernment. You don’t have it any more. You can’t see the big picture.

Somebody drew a real long line on a board and he put a little dot right in the middle of that line. He said, “Now this whole line is eternity. Let’s just look at it that way. This little tiny dot here is from the time you were born until the time you die. Isn’t it interesting the people who live their lives for this little dot and never see the whole perspective of what eternal life is all about?” That’s what happens. It narrows your perception. You can’t see the bigger picture.

Paul is saying, “Don’t you know? Don’t you understand that one day you will be a co-regent with Christ? You will rule and reign with Him.” He said, “Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” You see, what he’s referring to is what the Bible teaches us. Every saint, Old Testament saints, the apostle, each of us will have assignments. But we will be co-rulers along with the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Daniel 7:22 it says, “until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.” There’s going to come a day when we’re going to rule and reign on this earth with our Lord Jesus. He rules and reigns in us now. We will rule and reign with Him one day. The apostles will have a special assignment to rule over the twelve tribes of Israel. It says in Matthew 19:28, “And Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’” But we also note from the book of Revelation and other places that the believer will participate in this, not just the apostles, not just the Old Testament saints.

It says in Revelation 2:26, “And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations.” That’s in his letter to the churches before he ever gets into the prophecy part of chapter 5. Revelation 2:27 says, “And he shall rule them with a rod or iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father.” Revelation 3:21-22 says, “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” That’s as clear as you can see it. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” So there’s a day coming. We don’t know it now. But there’s a day coming when we will rule and reign with Him on this earth.

Now Paul says, if this is true, then why can’t you settle these things between yourselves? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts. Let’s think about this for a minute. He’s not just talking about breaking into small groups of Christian arbitration. He’s going further than that. Do you know what he’s saying? He’s saying every single individual believer who is attached to Christ (which means God did attach you to Himself) is going to be a judge one day. That believer can become the smallest of law courts. Now, obviously, sometimes believers refuse to do that so you have to have others get involved and have arbitration. But, in other words, if we know the Word of God and the Spirit of God is in us, we can make our own judgments as to situations in life granted the wisdom that God gives us to us. We can stop a lot of this before it ever gets that far. It can stop right with the individual. We, ourselves, can become the smallest of law courts because the Spirit of God lives in us and the Word of God is what renews our mind.

Years ago I had an experience with this. My mom got a job as the head housekeeper for a certain motel chain. Well, mom came out of the old school, if you’re getting paid for eight hours, you ought to work eight hours. So she wouldn’t let the maids who worked for her watch any of the soap operas as they cleaned the rooms. She’d make them turn them it off and work. She’d go behind them with a white-gloved inspection. She’d run that white glove behind anything, and if any dust came out they redid that room.

One day the maids just got upset with my mother. Of course, they hated anybody who made them work. So they decided they were going to come up with a union. The executives said, “No. We don’t want a union. Whatever it takes, but let’s not have a union.” So the maids said, “Okay, we’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll barter with you.” They came to the table. “If we’re not going to do this, what can you do for us?” The first thing on their list was to get rid of Mrs. Barber.

They had a man who worked there as the manager of the hotel. My mom loved him like she’d loved me or one of the children. Well, he bowed down under pressure and was the one who had to tell my mother.

The day came. She came into work. She was always smiling. She just always was very pleasant, loved everybody, loved life, just had a great time. So she came to work one day and walked into the foyer, and he met her there and said, “Mrs. Barber, it’s a cold cruel world but you’ve been fired.” My mom who worked harder than anybody in that whole place trying to make it something that would be worthy and establish her testimony before the Lord. It just broke her.

Well, she went home, and it just broke her so much she just began to weep. For two weeks she didn’t eat anything, just drank something every now and then and pneumonia set in. They had to put her in the hospital. For the next two years she was in the hospital almost nineteen months.

One day I was in her room. She was so weak, I remember I tried to hand her a grape and she couldn’t even grasp it. The phone rang while I was in the room. I picked it up and had to listen in on the conversation because she couldn’t hold the phone. I was listening and a man said, “Mrs. Barber, I represent a law firm. We have heard what has happened to you. We now know the details and want you to know that you have the right to sue these people. We’re talking about several millions of dollars because of the way they did this. We’ll set your family up.”

Here I am, the minister, standing at her side saying, “Yes! Yes! Burn them! Just burn them!” That’s the way I felt. I was so angry at what they did to my mom. I remember them telling her all the details, and then they said, “All you have to do is tell us over the phone, we have a recorder running, that you agree with this and give us your testimony. We know you can’t get out of bed. We’ll handle it from this point out.” I remember my mom saying over the phone, “No. I’m sorry. You don’t have all the story.” They said, “Well, you can tell us that.” She said, “No, you don’t know me. I’m a Christian. I received Jesus many years ago.” She said, “I’ve been a Christian for years. You know, for nine years I’ve been witnessing to these precious people. I took it wrong. I didn’t honor my Lord. I grieved. Instead of going to Him, I just went and sulked and that’s why I’m in this situation. But I want you to know I would never sue them because I don’t want my testimony that I have spent all these years building in any way to be stopped. I want Jesus to be glorified. He will care for me.”

I remember listening to her and thinking, “Oh, no. They’ve got her on medication. She’s not thinking right.” I really did. I walked out of the room thinking, “I know a lawyer too. I think I’m going to call one. I can get them to step into this situation. She’s not in her right mind. We’ll burn these people. I can get hold of that lawyer.” That’s what I was thinking. But every time I’d try to pick up that phone to do that, God wouldn’t let me do that.

Well to make a long story short, she died. The thing that really has killed me is I wasn’t with her when she died. Isn’t it funny how little things bother you over the years? I was with her so many times expecting her to die. Then one day they told me and it hit me like a truck had just run over me because I wanted to be there. She was so close to me.

I got to preach her funeral. That was precious. All those people who had treated her bad were there. I didn’t think any of them would come. I really didn’t. I wasn’t even looking for anybody but family and friends, and she had a lot of them. The place was packed out. I didn’t even know they were on the back row until after the funeral was over. I preached that day on what you have when you have Jesus. I said, “All of you are here because you love my mom, but I want you to know something. She would never stand up and take any of your praise. She would want me to point you to the One Who made her into the person she was and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ.” I walked through what a person has when they have Christ. I’ll tell you what, folks. I did not know until just a few years ago the heritage my mom had left for me.

My mother in that hospital bed became the smallest court in the land. She was a judge. She could make the decision. She knew the Word of God. The Spirit of God lived in her, and she chose the route of the cross. That’s what Paul is saying, “If you’ll go to the cross and let Jesus get involved in the situation, then your witness is protected. Can’t you do that? You’re going to rule over the nations. Can’t you solve your own problem? Can’t you, yourself, die to that situation and let God handle it so that your witness can be protected in this awful insane world?”

Well, he goes on to say, “And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?” Then he goes on in verse 3 and carries it another step. That’s what we covered the last time but we’ve got to carry it right into verse 3, the same misunderstanding. He says in verse 3, “Do you not know that we shall judge angels?” Not only will you rule over the world. You’re going to rule over angels. Don’t shout and don’t say anything because this is a tough one. Nowhere in Scripture, hardly, does it talk about us ruling over angels. We don’t know that much about it. Paul brings it up and just kind of leaves you hanging. Where am I going to rule over angels? Well, we know that He will. It says it in Judges 1:6, “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.” Peter also writes in one his epistles the very same thing. So we know that the fallen angels will be judged. Maybe he’s talking about the fact we’ll be alongside Christ when they’re judged. We, perhaps, will make those decisions over those angels. We just don’t know. You can’t be dogmatic about it. There’s not enough in Scripture to really help us. But the word “judge” can mean rule over or govern. Maybe he even means the holy angels, not just the unholy ones. Holy angels have no sin by which a judgment is made. But maybe we’ll even govern over the angels one day. We’ve been created higher than the angels. What is he saying? We just don’t know.

This thing we do know. In Ephesians 1:20-23, we know that Jesus has all control over angels. It says in verse 20, “which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.” Now we know we’re in Him. He is in us. We’re with Him. We’ll rule with Him, and He has authority over all His angels so somehow one day we’re going to rule over angels.

It’s interesting to me. Even down here when we live submissive to Him we have authority over the fallen angels, don’t we? There’s a lot of people running around talking about the devil all the time. I get so sick of it. Why in the world would you talk about a toothless wonder like the devil? Jesus rendered him powerless. Jesus has dominion over him. What do you mean you’re worried about the devil? One day Jesus is going to send one angel, just one measly angel. He is going to come down and pick up the devil and throw him in the pit for one thousand years. The church runs around saying, “Oh, what’s the devil doing? What’s the devil doing?” Good grief! One angel’s going to do it. He already has that authority over the angels, and we’re in Him. He’s in us and we will rule and reign with Him so if it’s the fallen angels, no problem. If it’s the holy angels, I can even see that. We’ve been created above them. He has charge over them. So somehow we will rule over angels.

But what’s his point? His point is that you’re going to rule over nations and you’re going to rule over the world, and you’re going to rule over angels, and you can’t even solve your own petty problems within the church. Why would you go to the pagan system and flaunt your testimony of your flesh in front of them which is ruining what the people are thinking about Christ in their life? Why would you do that? That’s what he’s saying.

I’ll tell you, folks. Before we got into chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians you could have possibly come up to me or I could have come up to you and asked, “Do you think it’s okay to sue folks in the church?” We’d say, “Well, there are certain situations it might just have to.” Ohhh, now we’re in the Word, aren’t we? You see how much we’ve been affected already by the way the world thinks. Folks, I want to tell you. I

1 Corinthians 6:7-10

The Sin of Demanding Our Own Rights – Part 3

Turn to Isaiah 55:8-9. I want you to read something. We will never understand the sixth chapter of 1 Corinthians unless we know this principle right here. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord.” That’s a powerful principle there. Verse 9 continues, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth [think of the distance of the heaven from the earth], so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Now understand that and keep it in the back of your mind as we continue to go through 1 Corinthians 6.

We’ve seen the problem; we’ve seen the misunderstanding; we’ve seen the shame of demanding our own rights. It’s a tragic thing when Christians who have differences with one another will not go to the cross, die to self, and allow Christ to be a part of the solution to that problem. When we’re offended, particularly when it comes to affecting our pocketbook, that’s when our flesh usually takes over. We refuse to die to self; we refuse to seek a biblical solution; and our testimony in the world is ruined.

You see, we have the Word of God. We can solve our problems. Whether you know it or not, we do. A better translation of 1 Corinthians 6:4 could read this way: “If then [the word has the idea of “since we do”] you have standards for material things pertaining to this life,” and we do. It is the Word of God. A standard is something by which you make decisions. The standards we have are in the Word of God. He says, “set them to judge who are the least esteemed in the church.” Now, by “the least esteemed” what he’s saying is not the least Christian in the church. He’s saying that all the members of the church are least esteemed by the world they’ve come out of. By the people of Corinth, the Christians there were the least esteemed. The world laughs at us. The world mocks us. But the difference between us and the world is we can solve our problems within the confines of the church. We can solve differences. We can solve offenses. The world cannot.

In fact, the world sees themselves as a victim. We don’t see ourselves that way from the perspective God gives us as members of His body. As a matter of fact, in verse 2 it says that we can be the smallest of law courts. Now, here’s what he’s saying. He’s saying that even the individual believer, when attached to Christ, allowing God’s Word to renew his mind and transform his life, can become the smallest law court. He can become part of the solution.

Let’s just say this individual is offended by another individual in the body of Christ. Let’s just say it’s going to cost him money. This person who’s been offended has a wonderful opportunity to die to self, lay the situation at the feet of Jesus, and ask God to love this person who offended him like never before. By doing that, this person who offended him can also come to realize his wrong and die to it. Then the whole situation can be solved within the church and not have to be taken before the courts where unbelievers do not understand any of us. In fact, they do not esteem us in any way.

But no! The Corinthian church is not going to do it that way. They’re going to do it their way. They’re not going to do it God’s way. As a result, their witness is absolutely devastated in the city of Corinth. They go right back and start living the very lifestyle they came out of.

Remember, as we studied before, in the tradition of that time, the consistency of the people in the pagan world was to sue each other at the drop of a hat. If you sneezed wrong, then you get sued for it. That was the world of Corinth. That was the world of Athens. Paul said, “You’ve drug that same practice right into the church and you don’t understand that I do it a different way. God does it a different way.”

In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:5, “I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?” That word “unbelievers” is the word apistos. It means a person without faith, an infidel. As a matter of fact, his character cannot be trusted because God, who can be trusted, doesn’t live in him. He’s a person who does not have eternal hope. A person who, when he dies, will spend eternity in hell; a person whom Christ died for on the cross.

Now, when you speak of a person as an unbeliever, you’re not in any way attacking his integrity. You’re not in any way attacking his family or anything. What you’re saying is he’s in a different class than you’re in, because, when you become a believer, God takes you out of the way the world does things and puts you into the way God does things. You become a part of the family of God and you’re different than that person. So unbelievers are people who do not have any means of acting justly because they have never received the just One who lives in our life.

The Corinthians were once like them, and to go back and act like them would be to devastate their witness. That’s exactly what they’re doing. You know the problem. You know the misunderstanding and the shame of demanding your own rights.

The defeat which is obvious

Now let’s take it another step: the defeat that is obvious when one demands his own rights. I didn’t write this. This is amazing to me. That’s why I read Isaiah 55:8-9 before we even got into this. Even in my own mind walking through it I’m thinking, “Man, this goes against the grain of how people think today.” Yes, it does. Folks, I want to tell you something. Chapter 6, if nothing else in 1 Corinthians, shows us how far we’ve come from dead-center, how much we’ve allowed the world’s thinking to infiltrate into our own minds. Sometimes it even makes us look at Scripture as if Scripture is wrong because the world does not think that way. But remember God’s thoughts are higher. God’s ways are higher.

Look at verse 7 of chapter 6. He says, “Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another.” It’s already a defeat. “Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?” The word “defeat” there is the word hettema. It literally means to overcome, to be moved into a state of being that’s worse than where you were before, to degrade oneself so as to be a total failure.

What he’s saying here is, by taking each other to law courts before the pagan world to settle your differences instead of solving them at the cross under the blood of Christ, you have already become a failure. Not only the one who sues his brother has become a failure, but now you have caused the witness of the whole congregation to be a failure. You see, we have to remember that. When we do one thing it affects the whole. That’s what he’s trying to tell them. You see, an unbeliever is not suing a believer here. And a believer is not suing an unbeliever here. This is a believer suing a believer, and that’s a defeat to everybody. No one wins. That is a lose-lose situation. Paul is saying your witness is totally defeated when this happens.

Paul sets a precedence for those who are offended by those who are in the church. Remember I told you that all of us can be offended, and when the flesh rises up on any of us we can offend somebody. Sometimes it can cost them monetarily. But when that happens, Paul raises up a precedent, the way we ought to live. Look at verse 7: “Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?” In other words, your witness is so important to the world. We must remember, folks, what goes on outside the walls of the church. People out there don’t understand what we’re like in here. They don’t understand the Word of God. They don’t have the mind of Christ.

The apostle Paul says, “Wouldn’t you be wronged? Wouldn’t you rather be defrauded than have your witness devastated before the world?” The most important thing you have is your witness for those people who do not know Christ. The word for “wronged” there is the word adikeo. “A” means without; dikeo comes from the word dike, righteousness. So adikeo means without righteousness, without justice. “Wouldn’t you rather be treated unjustly?” Paul said. If he had left it alone and just made that statement, that wouldn’t make much sense. But he said, “Wouldn’t you rather be treated unjustly and let it be, rather than react the wrong way and have your witness marred in the community?” He said, “Would you rather be treated unjustly,” then goes on to say, “Would you not rather be defrauded?”

Now, that can be the act of what somebody in the body did to you. They deprived you of something monetary. However, what I think he’s saying here is, “Wouldn’t you rather be deprived of your legal right to take your brother to court and at the same time salvage your witness?” You see, some people argue, “That’s my legal right. I’m American, aren’t I? I live here. I have certain rights.” No, listen. As a citizen, maybe; but not as a Christian. We don’t have any rights as Christians. We’re bondservants to Christ, and as a result of that we live daily surrendered to His Word, not what our flesh says is right or wrong. What He says is right or wrong. So the apostle Paul said, “Wouldn’t you rather be wronged? Wouldn’t you rather be treated unjustly? Wouldn’t you rather have your own legal rights deprived than lose your testimony before others?”

You know, I think sometimes we forget how our Lord Jesus suffered on this earth. It says that when He was reviled, He reviled not back but kept entrusting Himself to the Father who judges righteously. He told His disciples. “They hated Me, they’ll hate you.” Now, why do we think, if Jesus came to this earth and lived that way, we have the right to live differently than He lived, especially since He lives in us? For a person to take the bull by the horns, for a person to step outside the counsel of God’s Word and to accept the advice of the world, even if it’s a legal right, that person is sending a signal that he’s going his own way. He’s chosen not to go God’s way. That’s when his witness is damaged and devastated to the people around him. We completely defeat our witness and we damage the witness of the people we represent, the body of Christ.

You know, there have been times in my life when I’ve done things. You have also. We forget that we are attached to one another as well as being attached to Him because we’re in the body of Christ. No man is an island. Anything I do will somehow affect you, and anything you do will somehow affect me. That’s why we need one another. That’s why when offenses come up we must take them to the cross. We must die to self. And if we can’t solve it individually with one another, and we can, but if perhaps it goes beyond that, we can at least get Christian arbitration and get people within the confines of the church to solve it. Find biblical solutions. If we don’t and we take it the public court, we’re throwing mud on the witness that we have for Jesus Christ out there in the world.

In verse 8, look what he says. He said, “On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that your brethren.” In other words, he’s saying, “Now listen. As they have treated you unjustly, now by you dragging them into court you’re treating them unjustly.” Isn’t that interesting? You have stooped to their level by the way you’ve reacted to this, rather than responding under the grace of God. You’re the one now who’s wronging, and you’re defrauding that individual of his spiritual privileges in the body to have this problem solved under the umbrella, the protection, of God’s community. It is better to be wronged and defrauded than to wrong and defraud. When a person chooses to take his brother to court over offenses, particularly those that have cost him, then that brother does not realize how he’s infringing upon the whole body by damaging the witness we have for Jesus Christ. We’re not of this world. We’ve been called out of the way the world does things into the way God does things.

No matter what our legal rights are, the key is, what is our spiritual responsibility? That’s the bottom line for a person who loves Jesus.

So: the problem, the misunderstanding, the shame, and the defeat. We’re already defeated, he said, if we’re going to do this. If you’re going to do that, don’t bother telling them about Jesus, because they’re going to laugh in your face.

The question that must be asked

Another one we look at here is the question that must be asked of those demanding their own rights. Now, listen, if I do it, you must ask it of me. If you do it, I must ask it of you. It’s a question that has to be solved. What is that question? Am I or are you really saved? Do we really know Jesus? You see, folks, we live in such a watered down society. People have already learned how to play the game within the church. We’ve got to remember that unbelievers join the church. So we’ve got to start asking some serious questions. When people refuse counsel in the Word of God, when people refuse to lay something down and to die to self, do they really know Christ? Is that attitude one of belligerence? Is that an attitude of an unbeliever? It certainly echoes what the world does day by day.

Look at verse 9. He says, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.” Now, again, we must be aware that there are unbelievers always in our midst when believers meet. That’s the way it was then. That’s the way it is now. We’re known by our actions. Demanding that our own rights be taken and given is not the action of a believer.

You know, there is a lizard called a chameleon. Have you ever seen one of those? They’re weird little things. You put it on something blue and it turns blue. You put it on something red and it turns red. You put it on something that’s yellow and it turns yellow. Have you ever seen one?

You see, what’s happening here is these Christians are saying, “Ha! We don’t mess around with the immoral of the world.” That’s chapter 5. He says, “You’re a bunch of spiritual airbags. You have learned to identify with whatever group you’re with, and one of the things you’re doing is you’re acting just like the world. Now you have put on the color of the world. You’re acting like they do. You’re dragging your brother into court before pagans and before unbelievers.

That shows us that you need to ask yourself the question: do you really know Christ? That kind of action is not the action of a person who loves Jesus. A believer may act fleshly; that’s true, because in Corinth they’re doing that. Hey, listen, there’s a fine line between being a believer and an unbeliever when you get into that area. I’m not going to touch it.

Look over in 2 Corinthians 13:5. The apostle Paul questions if some of these people who call themselves believers are really believers. You’re seen by what you do. You do what you do because you are what you are. When people will not listen to God’s Word, will not bow and die to self and let God bring the solution, then something’s wrong here. Second Corinthians 13:5 says, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith.” Good thing, isn’t it? Test your faith. He says a very similar thing in 1 Corinthians 11 when he says to examine yourself. Second Corinthians 13:5 continues, “examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” You see, if Christ is in you and you have the mind of Christ, like the last verse of chapter 2 tells us, then you have the ability to appraise any situation according to what God’s Word and God’s will is all about.

Paul uses two words in verses 1 and 6 of chapter 6 to describe unrighteous people. I’m going to show you something here. In verse 1 it says, “Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous.” Now that word, “unrighteous”, there, adikos, is the word without righteousness, without a right standing with God, without the ability to act justly. Now, that unrighteous person can cause unjust things to happen.

Look at verse 6 of chapter 6. There’s another word here. He says, “but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?” The word “unbeliever” there is apistos. That means without faith, without believing. Now, careful here. As I said, there’s a fine line drawn here. Look in verse 7. That same word used in verse 1 is brought back into play in verse 7: “Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. [Now watch.] Why not rather be wronged?” That word for “wronged” there is the word that means to be treated unjustly. If a person is unjust, he’ll treat people unjustly.

What Paul’s saying is, “You don’t even know if that person who’s offended you knows the Lord. Because, by his very willingness to offend you, he automatically puts himself into the question where it has to be asked: Do you know Christ? Why would you do this to a brother?”

But watch. In verse 8 we see something that is crazy to me. “On the contrary [he’s speaking about the person who’s been offended], you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that your brethren.” Now, wait a minute. Hold it! The unbelieving world is unrighteous. They treat each other unjustly. Somebody in the church, who calls him a brother, has treated you unjustly. And now you’re treating him unjustly. Will the real Christian please stand up? That’s what he’s saying. Who knows the difference?

I grew up in city league basketball. But then I got into church recreation. I want to tell you something, folks. I saw the worst behavior of so-called believers on the basketball court and the softball field that I ever saw at city league. I saw unjustness being done. I saw unjust behavior. I grew up in unjust behavior and I’m thinking, “Where are the Christians?”

I put a big sign up on the wall that said, “If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” Every time something would happen on the floor, I would blow the whistle and just point to that sign.

You see, if you’re going to act unjustly, and you’ve been treated unjust, and the unrighteous live that way, how do you know you’re even saved? That’s the question that needs to be asked, not only if a person offends a brother, but if the person who the brother offended acts the wrong way. The world laughs in our face and says, “You’re no better than we are. You’re acting just like we act.”

Well, like I said, will the real Christian please stand up? In the world the standard is not the same as in the Christian community. You’ve got to realize this. I was at a funeral one time standing by the casket, and this person next to me said, “If anybody’s in Heaven, that lady right there is in Heaven.” I said, “Why’s that?” I was just curious. They said, “That woman was the sweetest woman I’ve ever known in my life. Why, when I was growing up every time I would go over to her house she’d give me cookies and milk. She was just the nicest person I’ve ever known. And if anybody’s in Heaven, she is.” I’m thinking, “Good grief!”

That’s the way the world thinks, isn’t it? If you’re a good guy and obey the law and don’t harm anybody, in the world’s eyes you’re righteous. I want to tell you something. That won’t cut it with God. Jesus said the Pharisees and the scribes lived the same way. Listen to what he says in Matthew 5:20: “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Do you know what I think happened that day? Those people would obey all the laws. I mean, they were squeaky clean, folks. And when they obeyed the law, they’d put a little thing inside what they called a phylactery. It was a little box on the front of their head. And the more laws they obeyed, the heavier the box got. The heavier the box got, they would eventually have to hire somebody to hold their head up. Those were the spiritual ones walking around. Oh, how spiritual they were, obeying the law, wouldn’t hurt anyone, they just did everything right.

One of them passed Jesus one day and Jesus said, “Do you want to get into Heaven? You had better be better than the Pharisees.” In the world’s eyes they see the righteous man. God says, “That’s not the righteousness I require. I moved you to a dimension higher than what the world says.” In Matthew 5:43 the Lord Jesus says, “I say to you to love your enemies, not just do what’s right within the law. Go a step further.” He said, “You have heard that is was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ I’m changing that.” He says in verse 44, “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.”

Do you realize when you take somebody into court to get your due, to exercise your legal right, that what you’re doing is far beneath what God requires? God requires that we love our enemies, love the people who persecute us. In the heathen mind-set, a righteous person is one who obeyed all the laws and never forgetfully or selfishly transgressed the laws that God had given. In our day and time, he obeys the speed limit. He pays his taxes and does all the little things. Everybody says, “Oh, that’s a model citizen. That’s a good man. That person will be in Heaven one day.” But I want to tell you something about him. He gives everybody his due, but within the confines of the law he wants his back. Under the confines of what is legal, he’ll sue you if he gets a chance to get what is his. And he will still be looked at by the world as a righteous, good man because he did it within the framework of the law. But I want to tell you something. What is legal is not the last word with a Christian, it’s “What does God say?” That’s the last word with a Christian. If it takes away my right to the world, I didn’t have any to begin with, because I’m just a servant to my Lord Jesus Christ.

You say, “That’s radical.” You had better believe it. Not only is it radical, it’s the normal Christian life. You wonder why the world still says, “Will the real Christian please stand up?” They’re looking for people who will go on and live what they say they believe. But like that chameleon, we go out on Monday and change colors. “As long as it’s legal,...” Christianity rises to a higher standard. The unbeliever says, “My right is my duty.” The Christian says, “My duty is my right.” What’s his duty? To love his brother. Galatians 5:14 says, “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, loving your brother.” Verse 22 in Galatians 5 says only the fruit of the Spirit of God can produce this kind of love. It has nothing to do with feeling. There’s a choice that one makes to do what is absolutely spiritually beneficial to the other person regardless of what it costs him. It’s the same word used in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son....”

Nothing less. Nothing more. That’s what God requires. What’s legal doesn’t matter. What does God say that I should do? My duty is my right. Being legally right is not the final word.

Look over in Matthew 5:39. I want to show you something. As you know, the Jewish people hated the Romans because of the way they made them live. They required them to help a soldier carry his pack one mile. That was Roman law. Well, the Jewish people hated that, detested that. You can just see that Roman soldier coming down the road. That Jewish man would be standing there and he would say, “Take my pack.” He takes his pack and follows along behind him, cursing every step he takes because he hates the Romans. When he walks a mile away, he throws the pack down in the dust and the Roman walks on sneering and laughing because he had done what he told him to do. They drove a peg one mile from where they lived just to make sure the Romans didn’t take them any further than what they legally had to go.

Look what Jesus has to say about that. Verse 39 of Matthew 5 says, “But I say to you, do not resist him who is evil [that evil means out to get you and injure you], but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Verse 40 continues, “And if anyone wants to sue you, and take your shirt,...” Take him to court and burn him because it’s your right. Is that what he said? He says, “let him have your coat also. And whoever shall force you to go one mile, go with him [how far?] two.”

Can you imagine this? That person is a precious believer, and that Roman soldier comes walking down the road. He comes up to him and says, “Sir, can I carry your bag?” “Uh, yeah. Here, take it.” “Let me take the other one too, both of them. Anything else?” He jumps out in front of him and starts walking down the road and as he’s walking down the road doing what he’s doing, the soldier’s thinking, “What in the world is going on here?” Instead of being behind him he’s in front of him. Every now and then he’ll turn around and talk to him and ask him about his family or whatever. He gets to the end of that mile and says, “You know what? I know I’m only supposed to take this a mile but hey, man, listen. I just want to be your friend. Let me take this another mile. Do you mind if I take it another mile?” By the end of that mile the Roman soldier is saying to himself, “Good night! This guy is uniquely different than the kind of people I deal with every day in my life.”

That’s what Paul is saying. He’s saying, “You want to act like everybody else? Do you want to do that? Do you want to take it to court? You’re killing your witness. Man, listen; when you die to yourself, when you lay that vendetta down, when you go to that person and seek biblical reason and biblical counseling and biblical solutions, listen, man, you can solve it right here and protect every bit of your witness out there in the lost world.”

Verse 9 of 1 Corinthians 6 says, “Or do you not know.” The word “know” there is eido. It comes as a form of horao. It means, “Don’t you see the big picture?” Are you so narrow minded that you think your life revolves around this one offense? Can’t you take a step back and see the whole picture. What’s going on here? You’re just simply being tested. God’s just running you to the end of yourself. God’s just running you to the cross to believe Him.

Paul says, “Or do you not know [what?] that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” You see, I said there was a question you had to ask. You have to ask yourself the question, “Am I saved?” If I am, is the person who offended me saved? If I take this issue out there I know they’re not saved. They’re never going to inherit the kingdom of God. The word “inherit” shows you immediately that we’re talking about grace, because when you inherit something you don’t work for it. When my mom left me an inheritance, it wasn’t because I earned it. As a matter of fact, she earned a reward in Heaven for putting up with me all those years. It was just by grace. It was just because she loved me that it was left to me. I didn’t do one single thing to deserve that. That automatically begins to show you what grace is all about and how we’ve received that grace. Not a one of us has worked for it. We’ve inherited it.

Then he goes on and says, “the kingdom of God?” The kingdom of God is in two stages. One of the ways to think about the kingdom of God is the territory where God reigns and rules. When you’re a Christian, first of all you have to look at the kingdom of God as inward. The moment you get saved the kingdom of God comes into your heart and then God rules and reigns. Flesh doesn’t. God does. “Well, wait a minute. This person’s suing me. That’s his flesh, isn’t it?” Yes, that’s right. Well, if God’s supposed to be ruling, is he even a Christian? You see, that’s the whole point.

Luke 17:20 says, “Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or, “There it is!” For behold the kingdom of God is in your midst.’” Listen, when Christ comes to live in you, it will be right here in our midst, because the kingdom of God is where He rules and reigns in us. We can solve our differences with one another. We can take it to the cross and the eternal judge that lives in us gives us the ability to discern all things. We can find harmony and love and unity which He gives to us. We can find Biblical solutions.

But secondly it is outward. One day it will be visible on earth. Matthew 25:31 says, “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.” We’ll live and rule with Him one day, as the earlier part of chapter 6 says. We’ll rule and reign with Him one day. We’ll judge over angels and nations alongside him. But the people who are unrighteous, the people who live unrighteously, the people characterized by suing each other and taking each other to court, which was the norm of Corinth of that day, these people won’t enter the kingdom of God. They don’t know the kingdom of God. You have a witness out there and you need to ask yourself if you’re living this way. Do you really know Christ?

Then he says, “Do not be deceived.” The word “deceived” is planao, which has the idea of a planet that’s wandering around. The idea here is, don’t be misled. Don’t be misled. People who live and act this way are telling you what they are. You do what you do because you are what you are. People who live unjust lives do not inherit the kingdom of God.

So the question we need to ask ourselves is, if we’re living this way, refusing biblical counsel, refusing what God’s telling us, and we’re adamant to claim and do it on our own because it’s our legal right, the first question you need to ask yo

1 Corinthians 6:11-14

The Terrible Sin of Immorality - Part 1

It’s interesting what Paul is doing here. In chapter 5 he began to show the consequences of fleshly living. The Corinthian church just didn’t seem to learn. They refused to attach themselves to Christ, and as a result, they attached themselves to their flesh and people around them, what they could see, touch and feel. As a result, these things began to appear. In chapter 5 we have the sin of incest and also the sin of indifference. The church wouldn’t deal with it. They just acted as if it wasn’t there. It’s amazing how callous you become to sin when you’re not living surrendered to Christ.

In chapter 6 we saw, first of all, the sin of demanding your own rights. The people were suing one another in court. Obviously, if you’re in the human race you’re going to have differences with others. The body of Christ is no exception. They were having differences. Some of them involved a lot of money, and they were taking each other before the pagan court. They couldn’t even solve their own problems. Paul even said, “Can’t you just be the smallest of law courts?” In other words, you have the Holy Spirit living in you. You have the Word to renew your mind. You know how to make the right choices. It takes two to fight. Why doesn’t one of you die and just go ahead and see the solution to the problem? That’s his whole point. What are you doing living this way?

Well, we saw the problem of demanding your own rights. We saw the misunderstanding, the defeat, the question, and the characteristics. It’s taken us a while to work through to this point. Paul simply wants them to realize that once you become a believer you leave the world’s way of doing things and you enter into God’s way of doing them. If you go back to the world’s way of doing it, if you go back to fleshly living, it’s going to cost you. Don’t do that. Do it God’s way and trust Him with the results of your choices.

Turn to Colossians 1. Paul wrote this epistle from prison. Basically, he’s saying the same thing as in 1 Corinthians, but perhaps coming at it from a different angle. You can clearly see why Paul is so upset at the fleshly living of the Corinthian church. You remember there was a term at that time, if you were doing pagan things, if you were living fleshly, they would say, “You’re acting like the Corinthians.” That’s the reputation this city had, and now it’s beginning to bleed itself into the church.

Well, in Colossians 1:13 look what Paul said. He says, “For He [Christ] delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” Now you’ve got to understand what he’s talking about here. I mean, this is glorious. A lot of people don’t seem to understand what happens when they bowed in desperation and cried out to God to save them and they were born from above, what took place. First of all, it says, “For He [Jesus] delivered us from the domain of darkness.” That word “delivered” is a beautiful word. It’s the word rhuomai. Rarely does it mean to be delivered from the presence of something, although that could happen. Most of the time it means to be delivered while still in the presence from the power of something. It’s the picture of someone drawing you to himself in the presence of evil that is around you.

Here’s the picture. You’re wading in a stream. Somebody’s told you not to do that. It’s a dangerous stream. The current is very strong, and you shouldn’t be there. You waded out into the water and thought there was no big deal. You’re in the water and you don’t sense any current. You tend to walk a little further and little further until suddenly you lose your balance and you fall off into the deeper water. The current grabs you and begins to pull you under. You have no life vest on. You have no means of protecting yourself. Suddenly you’re in the midst of a power and a force that you’ve never been in before and it’s sucking you down and you can barely get your nose above water. Finally, when you can just get your mouth into the air, you cry out, “Help! Help!” Somebody hears your cry and reaches down from a rock and grabs you and pulls you to himself and saves you from the raging power of that river. You lie there on the bank in the arms of your deliverer, still in the presence of that river but safe from its power to pull you under. That’s the word rhuomai.

You see, when we’re delivered from the domain of darkness, it doesn’t mean we were taken away from its presence. It roars around us, but we’ve been drawn to our deliverer now, taken out of the power of darkness, the power of sin, the penalty of sin.

Years ago we were out in Texas and I did one of the dumber things I’ve done in my. I didn’t know better. I do know better now—if I go back and do it again, that’s stupid. Then it was just dumb. I just didn’t know any better. We were canoeing the Guadalupe River. I was getting my instructor’s certification in the American Camping Association. One of the things you had to do was you had to take a five day trip. It was survival training. We’d stop on the side of the river and camp out and then get up the next morning and go. You had to know when it was at flood stage and all the different safety measures.

For four days on the San Marcus River I had been in the back of the canoe. That’s where I belonged. In a canoe I need to be in the back. The heavier person gets in the back. There was nobody there that came close to being heavier than me, so I needed to be in the back. All week long I learned how to work that canoe in the back in heavy white water, in the rapids. You had to learn this. And, of course, when you’re going into those rapids, there’s a big v there and you always point the canoe right into the center of that v. You can get through those rapids the right way. You don’t want to go sideways in any way.

Well, on the fifth day, the last day, we were about ready to finish up that exam for the week. The last part was to canoe the Guadalupe River. Now, the Guadalupe River is a racing canoe river. It is much stronger and faster than the San Marcus River. Much more dangerous. As a matter of fact, we didn’t know how dangerous. It was at flood stage. That’s something you don’t want to do in a dangerous river if you’ve not been on one before. About 1500 cubic feet per second was rushing down that river, and that’s just not a good time to be on that river. We didn’t know that. I think the instructor knew. I think he just decided to see how we were going to handle it. He decided to change us around. He said, “Wayne, you’ve been in the back of the canoe all week. To finish this you must learn how to go in the front of the canoe.” Bad mistake! You don’t put the heavier person in the front of the canoe. But he did.

We started off and it wasn’t bad, but it was pretty swift. I noticed to be idle water it was a pretty strong current. We hadn’t gone but maybe a mile or mile and one half and you could hear the rapids ahead. If you’ve ever done this, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You can hear the roar ahead of you and you begin to sweat. If you’ve never done it, you say, “Oh great.” If you have, you say, “Oh, no!” You know what’s coming. The land’s dropping. The water’s increasing. It’s incredible.

Well, we saw the mist coming up and we’re thinking, “Oh my goodness! Is this a waterfall or what?” It was that steep. Suddenly we were in it. Well, the problem was we didn’t go into the v as you’re supposed to. You’re supposed to go straight into that v, we went in sideways. I’m in the front of the canoe. The heavier person in the front of the canoe throws the balance of the whole canoe off. We went in the wrong way and I’m talking about white water that’s huge. We were both thrown out of the canoe. The last time I saw my friend he was hanging to a rock. I saw the canoe bouncing off a couple of rocks. But I noticed I never touched bottom. It was such swift water, such white water. But it was so deep. I had never been in that awesome a situation before in my life. I had a life jacket on which was made for somebody about five six, weighing 110 pounds. I had this thing on and it was barely holding my nose above the water. It was in April and the water was frigid.

Suddenly I realized I was helpless. The water had numbed me just within seconds of having been thrown into the water. I could hardly lift my arms. I couldn’t move my legs and I was caught in that current which was just sucking me down that river. I want you to know that’s the most helpless feeling you can have in this world. The instructors had gone through first and they had these big round things they would throw to you if you fell in the water. They were going to try and throw it to us, but the river was so wide there that they couldn’t get it to me. So it just carried me for probably one and one half to two miles. I couldn’t move. I was at the mercy and the current of the water.

As I was going down there was a big limb that I saw hanging out over the river. I was able to get my arms up enough just to grab that limb and the current swung me over to the side. Then I was able to roll over where it was shallow enough so that I could get up on the bank. I laid there for over an hour before the rest of the group found me. We had to beat all the dents out of the canoe. Can you imagine getting back into it and going another twenty miles? That wasn’t really exciting. That’s why when we heard the roar from then on it was like, “On, no!” Your prayer life increased.

But there I was laying on the side of that stream in the presence of that which had sucked me under but thank God delivered from its power. That’s what Paul wants us to understand. We’ve been delivered from the domain of darkness.

Now the word “domain” is exousia, that which has the right and the might, the authority, the power. You see, we’ve been delivered from that, from the domain of darkness. We still live in a dark world. Darkness is all around us, but, thank God, we’re in the arms of the One who has drawn us to Himself. We’re not under the power of sin anymore, not under the penalty of being in sin anymore.

It goes on. He says, “For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” Paul is talking about when He transferred us. The word “transferred” means taking from one place to another. Again, the illustration that we just looked at here. He moved us over here. We’re no longer where we used to be. He says, “He transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” The word “kingdom” has the idea of a territory where He rules and He reigns. He’s taken me out of the power of sin, even though its presence rages and roars around me, and He put me under His rule and His authority in my life. That’s what salvation is. He took me out of the way I used to live and put me into a new way to live in Him and His power enables me by His grace.

It says that He’s transferred me “to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” The word “kingdom” also has the idea of all the privileges afforded of being up under Christ’s rule and authority, both now and forever. Now, that’s the whole idea he wants the Corinthians to understand. Why would you roll back into the stream? Why would you wade back into that which has pulled you under? Why not stay in the arms of the One who’s delivered you? Because when you move away from Him, and you detach yourself from Him, you’re walking right back into the raging torrent of what sin can do in your life. I get the idea Paul is saying, “What in the world are you doing?”

I was teaching Romans 6 in a college class one time and one of the college young people said to me, “Well, you know if all this is true and I believe it is, why do we sin?” I stopped for a second because the question was so simple, yet so profound. I said, “Good question. We’re kind of stupid, aren’t we, to go right back into the very thing we’ve been saved out of?”

That’s exactly what Corinth had done. I want to tell you when you do that or I do that, we’re going to start reaping devastating results. This is where we begin to get in now in 1 Corinthians 6. Go back to 1 Corinthians 6 and let’s show you the current they’d come out of. Let’s show you what had sucked them under for so long in their lives because of Adam’s sin. That current is Adam’s sin that runs through the human race. But we’ve been saved out of Adam and put into Christ. What’s the difference?

First Corinthians 6:9 says, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” Then he explains, and this is where people live. This is the current that sucks them under. He says, “Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

He moves on in verse 11 and shows our rescue. You used to be in that current. This used to suck you under. This used to control you and you were paralyzed. You couldn’t do a thing to help yourself. But now look. He says, “And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.” You’ve got to see this.

There are three verbs there. There are three aorist tenses in those three things. You were washed; you were sanctified; you were justified. But there’s a difference. In the first one, you were washed, aorist middle. In the last two it is aorist passive. Aorist middle means you washed yourself. He’s not talking about internal cleansing. This is the word that has to do with external cleansing. As a matter of fact, some people even try to associate it with water baptism. That’s not what he’s talking about. What he’s talking about is you were willing to walk away from that current. That’s what repentance is all about. And when you’re willing to turn to Him and walk away from that lifestyle, that’s when He takes over and sanctifies you. Part of sanctification is inward cleansing, and only the blood of Jesus can cleanse you. Only the blood of Jesus can forgive you of your sins. This is where you’re cleansed. Sanctification has the idea of something taken out of the mud and cleansed and usable now for a brand new purpose.

That’s what sanctification is. It’s in the passive voice: when you were willing to wash yourself. This is what it says. I believe in James it says, “Cleanse your own selves. Wash your own selves.” In other words, walk away from the current. Be willing to turn to the help. Be willing to cry out to the One who can rescue you. Then He takes over and cleanses you and takes you out of its power and its penalty and sanctifies you by putting His Spirit within you.

Then he says that you were justified. The word “justified” is dikaioo. Not only did He declare you righteous, but he took you away and acquitted you. You’re no longer guilty of that sin that you were in. No, Jesus came and paid the penalty of that guilt and now it’s been taken out of you. You’ve been acquitted. You’ve been justified, declared righteous in Him, not only sanctified, but justified and all that came as a result of your willingness to turn away from that kind of life and turn in to Him and let Him take over and be your life. That’s salvation.

What Paul’s saying is, “What in the world are you doing going back to that which God so expensively paid for getting you out of?” You don’t go back and live that way anymore. That’s not what we are. He says, “But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified.” And every bit of this is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. It’s the Holy Spirit of God who causes it to take place. It’s all according to Jesus and what He’s done for you and me.

Now, since we’ve been rescued from the current of sin, since we’ve been taken out of its penalty and its power, its presence around us still roars. The Corinthians believers heard the roar of Corinth around them all the time. But some of them had stepped into that water. They had gone back into that current and now it’s sucked them down again. He’s trying to show them this is not the way you live. You live in the arms of the One who rules and reigns over you. He’s delivered you from this power. This is where you’re going to find the joy you’re looking for. This is where you’re going to find the freedom that He says is yours, only as you’re willing to turn to Him, to wash yourselves, to separate yourselves from the things that are pulling you under.

Well, we move now from that sin of demanding your own rights to the sin, the terrible sin, of immorality. It’s incredible. I changed my outline. Back in chapter 5 I said that it was immorality and indifference. I’m going to have to change that. It’s incest which is a specific kind of immorality and indifference. In chapter 6 it’s demanding your own rights and then it comes into the general overall place of immorality. He’s going to deal with immorality right here. He didn’t really deal with it that much back there. It was one specific sin. He dealt more with the indifference of the church towards it. Now he’s going to nail it head on, the sin of immorality.

Choosing immoral sin is harmful

We’re picking up in verse 12 where there are three things I want you to see about the sin, the terrible sin of immorality. First of all is this, choosing immoral sin is harmful. You’ve got to understand this. The moment you choose it you know there’s going to be harm to it. You must understand this.

He says in verse 12, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.” Now, when he says lawful he’s speaking of somebody who’s in freedom. The apostle Paul was the champion of the message of grace. He knew what it was to be in bondage. Friend, when he was saved, he was put up under the freeing message of God’s grace. He’s the champion of grace in the New Testament. In Galatians 5:1 he says, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Paul says, “Man, you’re out from under the law. You’re now up under grace.” He says in Romans 6:14, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.” The apostle Paul, wherever he went, whether it was the church at Ephesus, whether it was Colossae, wherever he went, he preached the message of grace. He preached the fact that we are no longer under the condemning, controlling power of any law. We’re up under only one law and that’s the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. We’re free now. We’re free in Him. But that freedom never meant license, not one time. Paul preached that we’re free but he never meant by that freedom that we have a license to do what we want to do.

Listen to his words again to the Galatians 5:13. He says, “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh.” Now listen. Freedom is not the right to do as you please. Freedom is the power to do as you should. That’s what real grace teaches. Real grace never teaches you that even though your sins are forgiven, any sin you could ever commit is already up under the blood of Jesus. It never teaches you that you have a license to go back and sin again. He’s come to realize that the Corinthian church has taken the message of being free in Christ and translated it perversely that they now can be free to sin. That’s what they’ve done.

In fact, when he says, “All things are lawful to me” that was a statement that they were going around saying to one another, “Hot dog! We’re under grace. All things are lawful to me. Party hearty! Let’s just do what we want to do. Isn’t it fun to be free?” That’s the way they were living. The apostle Paul is horrified just like he was with the Romans, just like he was with the Galatians. So instead of by-passing it or dodging it or changing that statement, no sir, he puts it right up and puts integrity right in the middle of it. He says, “All things are lawful to me.” He takes their statement that they’re using and says for himself all things are lawful to me.

Now, the word there for “lawful” is the word that means permissible. They are permissible. It actually means it is possible, but in the context here it means they are permissible. All things are permissible to me. Paul is again quoting their quote, but he’s saying it of himself. Paul says, “Hey, I know that no sin that I could ever commit is not under the blood of Jesus Christ, has not already been forgiven for all of eternity.” Now there are consequences to sin he’s going to bring up, but he knows he’s free to make whatever choice. He wants to be free up under Christ. But the fact that he is forgiven never gives him the right to do it. That’s what he’s going to show them. Even though all things are lawful to him, you see. I’m free to make my choices. But he understands that sin is never lawful, and it’s always painful.

Folks, I’m telling you. It hurts you. It’s going to hurt you if you go back to that current that had once pulled you under. Sin is never profitable. Look at what he says, “All things are lawful for me.” I can make whatever choice I want to make because the law does not have any claim on me anymore. I’m under grace. But, now, wait a minute. Verse 12 continues, “but not all things are profitable.” This is important to understand. He drops off the “to me” right there. He says, “All things are lawful for me,” then he says, “but not all things are profitable.” He drops “for me” at the end of that. Why? Because he understands something that these Corinthians didn’t seem to understand. That when I choose to go back to that which God has set me free from, God has delivered me from, it not only hurts me but it’s going to hurt somebody around me. I’m not the only one involved now.

“All things are lawful to me.” But look out when I make a choice that’s wrong. It not only affects me but it’s going to affect others. He wants them to understand it’s a grave mistake to go back to what God has delivered you from. He’s putting balance and integrity to the message of what grace is all about. The word for “profitable” there has the idea of advantageous and beneficial. It’s a personal thing. Paul is saying, “Hey, it’s not always advantageous to me, but it’s not always advantageous to others.”

I want to show you how that “advantageous” is used. Look over in 1 Corinthians 7:35. He uses the same word but this gives us an understanding here of what he’s talking about. Just so you can hear the word in another context and you can pick it up right off. Verse 35 reads, “And this I say for your own benefit [that’s that same word right there]; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is seemly, and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.”

Look in 1 Corinthians 10:33. First and 2 Corinthians has this quite often. It says in verse 33 of 1 Corinthians 10, “just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved.” “Not seeking my own profit.” That’s the word right there. Something that profits you, something that benefits you. In 1 Corinthians 12:7 it’s used again. By the way, when we get to the gifts in chapter 12, it’s important to remember the bottom line rule for all spiritual gifts is that they profit the whole body of Christ, not one individual, not two individuals, but everybody. And if it doesn’t profit everybody then don’t call it a gift in the context of what Paul is speaking of.

He says in 1 Corinthians 12:7, “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit.” Why? It’s translated for the common good, but the word is this same word and it’s left open-ended in the Greek. “Toward the profiting” is the proper translation, toward the advantage of everybody, toward the benefit of everyone, again the word. In 2 Corinthians 8:10 he uses this same word. It’s important to get a feel of what he means here. It’s not profitable. Second Corinthians 8:10 reads, “And I give my opinion in this matter, for this is to your advantage [there’s your word], who were the first to begin a year ago not only to do this, but also to desire to do it.”

Look in 2 Corinthians 12:1. “Boasting is necessary, though it is not profitable.” There’s your word again. So when he says, “All things are lawful for me. I can choose under grace to do whatever I want to do. But, now, wait a minute. If I choose wrongly, not all things that I choose are going to be profitable to me or to others, advantageous to me or to others, beneficial to me or to others.” In other words, I can make certain choices that are going to bring destruction and devastation in my life and in others lives. I’ve got to be careful never to take the message of freedom under grace and make it a license to do what I want to do. Paul says that even though we’re free, sin is a devastating choice we can make. He continues to show what the devastating effect is.

In 1 Corinthians 6:12 he says, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.” Now, Paul knows something here. He knows that if he would foolishly use the truth that he’s free in Christ to make the wrong choice, then whatever he chooses to do that wouldn’t be what God wanted him to do, he becomes a slave to his own choice. He knows that. The Corinthians, evidently, had forgotten it or walked away from it. They forgot there’s a consequence to every choice.

We used to have a sign out in front of our church that said, “You’re free to make your choices, but you’re not free to choose their consequences.” Don’t ever forget that. There’s a consequence to every choice.

Paul says, even though we’re under grace and we’re free to make these choices, look out. If you make a choice to sin and you go back up under that which you’ve been rescued from, it’s going to master you and you’re going to become its servant.

Look over in Romans 6:16. Paul brought this out in the book of Romans and was trying to show the Romans how you walk in victory. To do that you’ve got to stay under the One who’s delivered you, because the victory is Him. The power is in Him. It’s not outside of Him. It’s in Him. Until I walk up under His rule and reign I’m not going to experience the victory I’m looking for. In Romans 6:16 he says, “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?”

Paul says, “I will not be mastered by anything. I’m not going to attach myself to anything that I could become its slave other than God and His Word and His Will in my life.” That’s the way you make the choice. The text he’s using here is immorality and the apostle Paul says to choose to sin immorally is to choose to put yourself as a slave up under that sin and to bring devastation and harm in your life.

There was a little boy out in the country. There was only one little store there where people would stop and get gasoline if they were lost. It was a little place there. It only had houses about every two miles apart. His britches were too big for him because they were given to him by his brother. He wasn’t as big as his brother so he had to wear suspenders to hold them up. He was on a bicycle that had been passed down by about five in the family.

One day he was down at the little filling station. Everybody knew everybody in the county. Here comes a guy pulling up in a brand new beautiful car, probably a Lexus or something like that. The little boy had never seen anything like that. It sure didn’t look like his daddy’s 25-year-old pick-up. He rolled over on his bicycle to look at that car and at the tires, the spoke wheels. The fellow came out and saw him looking at his car. He said, “Son, would you like to get in it?” “Oh, would I!” He let him get inside and feel the leather seat, that soft leather. He pushed a button and that seat went back. That little boy was just so thrilled. He showed him the radio and the stereo and how that worked and all around the car. He opened up the hood and showed him the big computerized engine. He opened up the trunk and showed him all the space back there and the big spare time.

The little boy was just overwhelmed. He was trying to look down at the license plate because it had little lights all the way around it. He was kind of looking at that. The fellow said, “Well, I’ve got to go.” He jumped in the car and took off. The fellow went down the dirt road, got on the gravel road, got on the paved road and set the cruise at about seventy miles an hour. He was just enjoying the music in his car.

He just happened to look up in his rearview mirror and right behind him was that little boy on the bicycle keeping right up with him. The man said, “I’m not believing this. I’m doing 70 miles an hour and he’s right behind me, keeping up with me. What’s going on?” He couldn’t believe it. The little kid was just getting it. I mean he had never seen a kid pedal a bicycle that fast.

Finally he said, “I’ve got to stop and see this.” He pulled over and stopped and when he did the little boy went flying by him. He said, “There’s no way humanly possible a person can pedal a bicycle that fast.” Well, all of a sudden he came back going backwards. He went flying back that way. He waited for a minute and here he came again. Finally it threw him off his bicycle. Man, he just looked awful. He walked over and said, “Son, are you alright? I’m so sorry.” He said, “I’m sorry, sir. It’s my fault. If you would just take my suspenders off your back bumper I think everything would be alright.”

Again, that points out be careful what you’re attached to. That’s what Paul is saying. You want to choose sin, buddy? You don’t realize what you just hooked yourself on to. It’s the very thing God set you free from. Don’t do that. So it’s harmful to choose immorality.

Choosing immorality is demeaning

But the second thing I want you to see, choosing immoral sin is also demeaning. What I mean by that is it demeans the very purpose God has for the body, not only presently but for the future. It’s very demeaning for what God has done. Let me show you.

Look at verse 13. “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food; but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord is for the body.” Verse 14 goes on, “Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.” Now there’s nothing any more demeaning to the eternal purpose that God has for this body than for us to choose the sin of immorality. We’ve got to understand this.

Paul starts with an illustration. He says, “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food; but God will do away with both of them.” That’s pretty understandable. If you didn’t have a stomach, why would you need the food? But since you have t

1 Corinthians 6:15-20

The Terrible Sin of Immorality - Part 2

It’s amazing how many people can sit under biblical teaching and still end up so upside down. It’s amazing some of the things they say and some of the things they do. It’s amazing how this happens. I was in a meeting once and it was cold outside. The Minister of Music was not there that day. The fellow who was filling in really meant well. I honestly believe his heart was as sincere as possible, but he did something that overwhelmed me. He got up and said, “Folks, as we enter into the praise time today, Jesus is outside and He’s in the cold. Now we want to invite Him in this morning and give Him some hot chocolate and warm Him up.”

I was standing there looking straight ahead. The pastor was standing beside me. I was grateful I was in the congregation and not up front looking at the people. I saw him quickly ease his head over to see what I was going to do. And I knew that if I looked either way I was dead in the water. It struck me so funny what he said. I was thinking as we were singing. Do you realize now the way to be spiritual is just get some hot chocolate and invite Jesus in and warm Him up?

That came from a man who had been sitting under biblical teaching for seven and a half years. In fact, the preacher told me afterwards, “What is next? What can you do? I teach and teach and then this kind of thing comes out.”

You know, the church of Corinth was the same way. They had two of the best teachers ever known to man. They had the apostle Paul and Apollos, two of the greatest teachers at that time, and yet they still just didn’t get it. They sat up under teaching. They had factual knowledge, but they did not have that spiritual perception that they needed. In chapter 5 we saw that they wouldn’t even deal with a man in an incestuous relationship in the church, a man sleeping with his father’s wife. They wouldn’t deal with it. It appears that they were going around saying, “We don’t fellowship with the immoral people of the world.” That was their idea of separation. They wouldn’t even deal with sin in their own camp.

Well, in chapter 6 they were suing each other at the drop of a hat. Whatever was going on, it didn’t matter. That was the culture of Corinth. They drug it right into the church. But in the last part of chapter 6 he starts dealing with the sin of immorality. It appears to me from looking at the text that this immorality is soliciting prostitutes. We’re going to see this. I told you that I don’t like this, but these are the next verses. We’re going to look at it as God has put it before us.

Now Paul has shown us so far that to choose immoral sin is very harmful. By immoral, I mean an illicit sexual relationship with anyone outside of the marriage bond. That’s what he specifically is talking about. Immorality can be much broader than that, but that’s the context of what he’s dealing with. We need to understand this.

Look down at verses 19 and 20. We’re going to see these verses later on, but let’s look at them right now. Perhaps when we see them later you’ll really see how all this fits. Verse 19 of chapter 6 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” He says in verse 20, “For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

Choosing immorality is a sign of spiritual ignorance

So, in review, we’ve seen that choosing immorality is harmful and choosing immorality is demeaning. But choosing immorality is also a sign of spiritual ignorance to a believer. Look at what he says in verse 15: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” Now the word “know” here may surprise you. It’s the word eido. It comes from the word horao. It has the idea of to perceive and to understand something.

Isn’t it amazing? You know Paul and Apollos taught them these things, but still they did not have the spiritual perception to discern them. They couldn’t see the depths and the seriousness of this immoral sin. Many times we forget that we can hear truth and hear truth and hear truth, but all we have is fact until we’re willing to obey truth. Then the spiritual perception begins to set in. We begin to see the depths of it. We begin to see the reality of it. Paul wants them to know and he wants us to know and to perceive the truth of verse 15, that our bodies are members of Christ. “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” We’re attached to Christ. Our bodies are members.

Now you may ask, “How are we attached to Christ?” Well, he lives in these bodies. But more than that, He is a part of these bodies. He’s not in a little compartment in the body. He indwells us from head to toe to the end of our fingertips. He is a part of us now. The old man that we used to be in Adam no longer exists. Christ has come. He lives in us. Our bodies are members of Him. He is a part of us.

I want you to turn to Romans 6:5. Here Paul is talking about how God now has united Himself with us. We’ve been united in His death. Now we’re united in His resurrection. These are important things to understand. The moment I get saved something exciting happens. It is very mysterious to the human mind and is only revealed as God reveals it to our hearts. Look in verse 5 of Romans 6. “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.”

You’ve got to understand the phrase “united with Him.” The word is sumphutos. It comes from two words, sun, which means together with, and phuo, which means to spring up or to grow up. So sumphutos means to grow up or spring together with. He says, “We’ve been united together with His death, also in His life.”

There are two words for the word “with.” I want to go over it one more time. There’s the word sun which means the intimacy of being with one another, inseparable. But there is also the word meta. We are together today; therefore, when we finish, after a while everybody will go their separate ways. We can disassociate ourselves. The with of association is meta, but sun is the with of intimacy.

Remember the analogy of baking biscuits? You bring out a baking pan and on that baking pan you put the different ingredients. Flour, baking soda, salt, and whatever else you put into it. All these ingredients are on that little baking sheet. At any moment you can remove them or add to them, because why? Because they’re meta. They’re “with by association.” Nothing’s happened to them. Anything could happen at any moment. You can remove them. However, take those same ingredients and mix them together into a big biscuit and put that into an oven. Turn the oven on and those ingredients bake together. Scientists tell us there is a molecular change that occurs, and no scientist has ever yet been able to separate the ingredients of a biscuit once baked. Now those ingredients that were meta before they were baked are now sun. Now they’re intimately together, inseparable. That’s the word that’s used right here. We’re now biscuits for Jesus. God has baked His life into us.

Now, that is a crucial point to understand. That’s what he’s talking about. Our bodies are members of Christ in the sense that He indwells these bodies. He’s a part of these bodies. Well, this is a wonderful truth, but it can be a terrible thing when you don’t understand it.

When I was in youth work, we used to have services on Wednesday night. We would have skits sometimes. I found that once you taught the truth, and they had a chance to see it, sometimes it sort of set in. We tried a few of these things. One of the skits that we did was a fellow who received Christ. The drama started with him on his knees bowing to receive Christ. He said, “Oh, Lord, I ask You to come to live in my heart.”

When he stood up, immediately, another young person walked into the picture. Now there’s two of them, whereas before there was one of them. He becomes a shadow and shadows this guy in everything he does. We had certain scenarios set up and here was this guy right behind him. Have you ever gotten right behind somebody and walked in step with them? That’s the way it was. Whatever he did, he was there.

We had a setting for school; we had a setting for doing his homework. We had all these kinds of things. One day the phone rings and he’s asked to go someplace that he doesn’t want this person, Jesus, to hear about. So he says, “You wait here while I talk on the phone.” But the person just wouldn’t go away, because it doesn’t work that way anymore. You’re a brand new creature. There are two of you now. There’s someone living in you.

Well, he continued to try to get the other person away. In the skit, in the drama, he finally turns around, pushes him up against the wall, takes his hand out, nails his hand to the wall, nails his other hand to the wall, takes his feet and nails them to the wall, and says, “Now, you stay there. I’m going to do what I want to do. I’ll come back and get you when I’m ready.”

Now, you can’t do that. The problem is that just doesn’t work. In the skit that’s what we were trying to show the young people. Once you get saved, Christ comes to be a part of you. Our bodies are members of Christ. He lives in us. Wherever I am, and particularly when I’m by myself, I’m not by myself. Christ lives in me.

Paul is saying that we are one with Christ and our bodies are His. He indwells them. Therefore, we cannot do with them as we please. We think we can, but we can’t. They’re His property. He lives in them. He owns them.

Now, with this in mind, look in verse 15 of chapter 6. He says, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be!” Now, it is important to understand the sin of the Corinthians, particularly the Corinthians believers. It appears they have entered into this kind of sin. It seems they’re soliciting prostitutes. The word “harlot” means prostitute.

Remember the culture of Corinth there on top of the big Acropolis, that big rock mountain that overshadowed the city of Corinth. On top of it was the temple of Aphrodite, or the temple of Venus, the “love goddess.” There were 1,000 prostitutes up there. They called themselves priestesses and they would come off that mountain at night and on the bottom of their shoes they would have written, “Follow me.” Wherever they would step that was not in stone there would be a track there with “Follow me.” Evidently, some of the Corinthians believers had followed them.

Word had gotten around, and the apostle Paul said, “What are you doing? You cannot use your body that way. Your body is a part of the plan of redemption. God dwells in your body and you cannot do with it as you please.”

Well, in verse 15 he says, “Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be!” That little phrase, “May it never be,” is used 10 times in Romans, three times in Galatians, and once here. Paul seems to like that phrase. It means that is absolutely absurd. It’s like my son saying, “Daddy, can I borrow your golf clubs?” May it never be! You borrowed my last set and I didn’t get them back. May it never be! In other words, that’s absurd. It would take an absolute imbecile to think that way and then say he’s a believer. That’s what he’s saying. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s totally ridiculous. May it never be! To make ourselves members of a harlot by sexual relations is an absurd act of the believer.

Paul is reminding them now of the seriousness of sexual sin. Folks, I’ll tell you what. We live in a world probably a little bit better than Corinth, maybe not quite as bad. I don’t know. But we live in a world like Corinth. It’s all around us and we need to understand what he’s saying.

He says in verse 16, “Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For He says, ‘The two will become one flesh.’” This is important. The origin of that phrase, “The two will become one flesh,” is in the garden in Genesis 2:24. I want to remind you that God’s plan for marriage was never man with man, it was man with woman. God did not create Adam and Steve, He created Adam and Eve, and that’s the picture. In this bond of marriage, the phrase is made, “The two shall become one flesh.” You’ll never find that phrase anywhere except in the bonds of marriage which God created. So he begins with that phrase that’s in Genesis 2:24. It says, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”

Jesus, in teachings concerning divorce in Matthew 19:5-6, brings that phrase right into His teaching, taking them back to the original design, taking them back to what it’s supposed to be. He says in verse 5, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother [quoting Genesis 2], and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.” Then verse 6 of Matthew 19 says, “Consequently they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together [Now notice, God has joined together. That’s very significant. The two cannot become one flesh unless God joins them together.] let no man separate.”

Mark 10:8 is a quote of basically the same text. Paul picks up on this in Ephesians 5:31. He talks about how a man ought to love his wife. He talks about the family relationships. And Paul says, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.” Again he brings back into the picture the original design that God had of how the home should be. The sexual union is a bonding union. God has put it together between man and woman and it is something far deeper than a physical, external experience. So many people in the world say, “No, no. It’s just external. It’s just physical. Nothing to it. It’s just sex. It’s not love.” No, not the way God designed it. It is not that way. It is not just an external act. It is a tremendously deep act, emotionally, spiritually. It’s the deepest area of intimacy a human being can have with that of another sex. It’s only permitted in situations where God has brought it together and caused the two becoming one flesh.

You see, marriage is a picture of Christ and the church. This is so important, because when a marriage is broken and men and women go outside of marriage in adulterous and immoral relationships, they mess up and continue to devastate the picture of what it should be with Christ.

Do you realize in the Old Testament when you find the word “to know God” it is the same word in knowing your wife in a sexual relationship? So it shows you that this is a deep, deep becoming one with one another. It’s a tremendous show of love and so many things built into it. It’s not just an external thing to do and forget about. You cannot. God designed it that way. So you see, marriage is a picture of Christ and His church.

Look at 1 Corinthians 6:17. Paul brings this picture out. He says, “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” Two are coming together to be one in the intimacy of a relationship which is in the spiritual dimension. He is gratified by that which God offers in Himself, no one else.

The sin of immorality should be avoided at all costs

So there’s your picture of Christ and His church. Marriage is the example of that down here on earth. So the sin of immorality, particularly the immorality of Corinth, is first of all harmful. Secondly, it’s demeaning to the very purpose that God has for the body. He’s going to resurrect it one day. And thirdly, it is actually ignorant. It is spiritual ignorance for a person to say, “I’ve been immoral and yet claim to be a believer.” But the fourth thing about the terrible sin of immorality is that it should be avoided at all costs.

Verse 18 of chapter 6 says, “Flee immorality.” I don’t see how you can get any clearer than that. “Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.” Oh, man, listen to what he’s saying here. The definite article is used before the word “immorality,” and it appears to be pointing to the specific immorality of having relationship with these priestesses of that cult that was there in Corinth. He says to run away from these immoral women. Run away from the temple of Aphrodite. Run, flee. Don’t get around them. Run as if you’re afraid for your life.

The verb there is present imperative. Always be running. You don’t have to think about it. Always be ready to flee. Sometimes I go walking and try to exercise. In my neighborhood there are a lot of dogs. Most of them are little dogs. But there’s one dog on my block. He’s a Rottweiler. The dog is not a very nice dog. As a matter of fact, one day it chased my son’s friend up a tree. Now, these other dogs, I can just ignore them. I can just go on. They don’t bother me. But this dog, I run from. I want you to know I’m always fleeing from this dog. That dog scares me.

What Paul is saying here is, “Sin is sin. But there’s one sin that ought to scare the wits out of you. That’s the sin of immorality.” Most of them, in the enabling grace of God, are so easy to say no to and turn away from. But somehow this particular sin has a lure to it and has a seductiveness to it that entraps you to the point that you always should be of a mindset, “Run, run, run!” If I could say it to our young people one million times, I’d say that one thing: When you get anywhere around immorality, run, run, because you are not strong enough to handle it when you put yourself into that kind of situation. Paul is warning these Corinthian believers, many of whom have already found the truth of what he said. They’ve already fallen into this.

Well, when one flees, he ought to be headed toward something. That’s always important. Don’t just run from, run to. That’s always important. Paul says to Timothy, in 2 Timothy 2:22, “Now flee from youthful lusts [Look at this], and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” I love this. He says, “Listen, man. Take the energy that you’re using to chase after this other stuff and, by the enabling power of God’s grace, channel it a different way and pursue righteousness and those things others seek for with a pure heart.” We’ve got to be pursuing it that way.

Paul shows us the truth here of how the sin of immorality is worse than other sins. He says, “Flee immorality.” Why? He says, “Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.” This is interesting. Since the body is Christ’s possession, we not only sin against our body, we sin against Christ. We sin against our wife or our husband who are a part of that which God has joined together, and the ripple effect just continues to go. But the main thing is he sins against his own body. When the sexual act is committed with anyone outside the marriage relationship, he has sinned against his own body.

I’m not sure everything Paul’s talking about here because I’m not so sure my mind has grabbed all the truth that’s in this verse. But I’ll tell you this. He’s telling us that when we sin this way it has an effect on us that other sins seem not to have. The consequences of this sin go far deeper and are more far reaching than other sins in our life. And the main sin is you’re sinning against that part that has been reserved for redemption.

You see, our redemption covers three things, deliverance from the penalty of sin—that was when we were acquitted; deliverance from the power of sin—when Christ came to live in our life in the person of His Spirit; and then, thirdly, the deliverance from the presence of sin—when one day we’re given a glorified body. What we’re doing is we’re making a mockery out of what our salvation experience was all about.

That’s why Paul said, to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God.” You think about the Gentile world. They don’t have any choices, folks. They fall right into it. But the Christian does. When we choose to sin against our body, we act just like the Gentiles and we can absolutely devastate our testimony.

This is why Peter had the same instruction. First Peter 2:11 says, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.” That’s important. The mind, the will, and the emotions are affected by this immoral sin. The author of Hebrews said in Hebrews 13:4, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” That’s interesting to me. We’re living in a day when people say that we really are one with God in our spirit, but our bodies are just fleshly cartons that we have to put up with. In other words, we’re not really responsible for what they do. The body’s evil in itself and therefore it’s going to sin. But when it does you just learn more about it. There’s nothing wrong with that. We inwardly are one with God. And when we do sin it’s really the devil and demonic forces around us. Have you heard that kind of teaching? I want to show you something, folks. That is wrong and the Word of God proves that it’s wrong.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit, and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” They can’t see the unity here. They seem to denote the spirit as a compartment where God’s spirit lives in. But the rest of it is all evil and it’s all flesh and does its own thing. That’s ridiculous. This is Gnosticism. It was prevalent in Paul’s day and it’s carried itself right into the 20th century. People say they’re not responsible for sexual sins of the body, but they call themselves believers. They’re either so ignorant they don’t know how to get in out of the rain or they’re just not saved, period. We’ve got to understand that we’re responsible for all parts of what the flesh does. The Gnostics say, “Hey, nothing to it.” But when you understand the Word of God, you can’t do it.

Now, in that context and with that thinking, look at what verse 19 says: “Or do you not know that your body,” that’s the flesh and blood part of us. That’s the part the Gnostics said we are not responsible for. That’s ridiculous. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” Here it clearly shows we are responsible for what the body does. He owns it and lives in it and makes us aware of the fact that we have a responsibility of choice.

In verse 19 he uses the analogy of the temple. He says, “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.” The word “temple” is a Jewish word. It’s not a word for the church. But he takes the Jewish thinking here and takes us back and helps us understand. When they built the tabernacle, that’s where we first got its pattern. The temple came later on. It was a permanent place. Outside the eastern gate of the tabernacle the tribe of Levi would camp. And the tribe of Levi had the responsibility not to let anything or anyone impure through that gate. Now, we are the temple where God lives and, therefore, we are to daily not allow anything impure to get inside this temple.

We saw this truth back in verse 5:8, if you want to turn back. He uses the Jewish Feast of the Passover which they only celebrated once a year. But look how he uses it in 1 Corinthians 5:8: “Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” That verb, “celebrate the feast,” is in the present tense. Let us be constantly celebrating this feast, getting the leaven of impurity out of our life.

I guarantee you one thing. You will not commit an immoral act or a sexual act with some other person outside the marriage bond if you will daily deal with the sexual sin as it enters your mind. As you deal with the thoughts, as you deal with that which feeds those thoughts, you won’t have to get that far. You won’t get that far. God won’t let you get that far. But the people who are not celebrating that feast daily, constantly getting the leaven out of their life, will fall into sexual sin.

I heard someone on television saying, “We don’t confess sin anymore. We confess who we are in Jesus Christ.” I thought, “My goodness gracious!” The Scripture never says to confess who you are. It says to pursue who you are, righteousness and holiness and those kinds of things. We pursue it by the enabling grace of God. But confessing sin is very important for the believer, constantly confessing and repenting of sin, getting the leaven out of us so that we can live pure and righteous before God.

Well, it’s all a question of ownership. Who owns who? Verse 19 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” How many times does Paul have to say it? In 2 Corinthians 6:16 he says, “Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God and they shall be my people.’” In the epistle to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul says in chapter 3, “For this reason,” and then he goes on down to verse 14 and uses the same phrase. It seems like he starts his prayer in verse 1 and then comes back to it in verse 14. He says, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father.”

To look for context and find out what reasons he’s talking about, you have to go back to chapter 2, particularly verses 21 and 22. Here’s what he says, “in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord;” verse 22 says, “in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” Paul is saying to the Ephesian church, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father. You Gentiles don’t seem to understand Who lives in you and Who owns you and what He wants to do through your life. You are a dwelling of God in the Spirit and He owns you because you’re not your own. You’re bought with a price.”

Peter said in 1 Peter 2:5, “you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Folks, we’ve got to understand this. These bodies have an eternal destiny. They have temporary functions down here on earth. We don’t even own our bodies. He owns them, indwells them, and purchased them.

Acts 20:28 says, “He purchased us with His own blood.” For a person to make a choice to use these bodies to have sexual relations with a person outside the marriage bond is literally to spit into the face of God Who redeemed these bodies. We need to see this sin as heinous as God sees it. And if we don’t see it that way, it’s going to be license after license by people who just won’t get it. They continue to devastate not only their lives, but also their partner’s lives and other family’s lives. The ripple effect is overwhelming. Very rarely can they be healed of this sin in a short time. It takes a long time of counseling, of a lot of things when somebody has committed this sin.

Paul is trying to save them from a terrible mistake that many of them are about to make. Many of them have made it, but not all of them. Look in verse 20: “For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.”

I did a retreat once in another city. Every night at the invitation this precious bunch of young people just came forward. But one night there was a little gal. She didn’t come forward, but I could tell God was working on her. Her name was Phyllis. She was fifteen years old. I walked over to her after everybody had left and said, “Phyllis, are you alright?” She looked up at me and the tears just shed forth. She said, “Oh Bro. Wayne, I’m not okay.” I said, “What’s wrong, Phyllis?” She said, “I just found out Friday before I came on the retreat that I’m pregnant.” You know, inside of me, even as I tell the story right now, something just ached all the way down through me. I said, “What happened?” She said, “My mama and my daddy don’t come home until late in the afternoon. They both work. I’ve been used to going home by myself. My boyfriend came over and one thing led to another, and it was only one time.” Do you know what? That little child is not a curse on her. God’s the giver of life. Don’t ever look at the child as a curse on her.

What I’m trying to tell you is, when you step outside the will of God there are consequences to pay. I’m thankful that the grace of God heals. I’m thankful that the mercy of God helps us bear up under. I’m in no way finding any problem there. That’s our hope. But what I’m trying to say, perhaps you are flirting with that very sin. Hate me, spit on me, or do whatever else you want to do. But if I could just stop you and make you think. You don’t understand how much destruction comes when this particular sin is committed with the body. Any counselor will tell you that. So all I’m trying to do is warn you. That’s what Paul is trying to do. The sexual sin of immorality is a terrible sin. When you go outside the bonds of marriage and your body is used in a sexual relationship with somebody else, that not only is harmful, it is demeaning to the very purpose of what redemption’s all about. It’s a sign of ignorance, total spiritual ignorance of a person who may have been taught and taught and taught but since they never obeyed, they don’t have the bigger picture of how serious this sin is.

It’s to be avoided at all costs. Run from it. Folks, I want to tell you. That sin is the most heinous of all because of the ripple effect and the fact that you’re sinning against your very body. You’ve actually taken Christ with you in that sexual relationship.

Our bodies are to be used to glorify God

Well, finally, our bodies are to be used only to glorify God. Look at verse 20 again: “For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” That’s what these bodies are for, to glorify God. Now the word “glorify” is the key word there. It’s doxazo. What does it mean to glorify the Lord? It means to give proper esteem, the proper regard by putting Him into an honorable position. In other words, lordship. When my body’s willing to bow before Him and let Him have the rights over His temple on this earth, then I have glorified Him. I have given the proper estimate of His Word.

1 Corinthians 7:1

Contents

1 Should I remarry or remain single?

2 Paul is not demeaning marriage.

3 Paul is not teaching sexual relations in marriage is wrong.

4 Paul is not condemning celibacy.

Should I remarry or remain single?

We’re about to wade into some deep water. I want to entitle this “Should I Remarry or Remain Single – Part 1.” We’re not going to get past verse 1, but I want to talk about that.

In chapter 6 the apostle Paul has shared a wonderful truth in the background of a horrid sin. Isn’t it amazing how out of the blackest of circumstances sometimes God reveals the most marvelous of truths? And in the midst of the immorality of chapter 6, in the midst of believers in the church of Corinth soliciting prostitutes in the area, in the midst of all of that horrible stuff, he reveals to us afresh that our bodies are the temple of God.

In chapter 7 Paul shifts gear. After talking about this sin of immorality, coming down to the fact that our bodies are the temple of God, he changed gears. But you have to continue the flow of that thought because that dictates how we live, whether He lives in us to rule and reign through us. He begins to talk about marriage, divorce, remarriage, celibacy, a lot of things in chapter 7.

Verse 1 starts off with a reference to a letter they evidently had written to the apostle Paul. In that letter were many, many questions. Verse 1 says, “Now concerning the things about which you wrote.” Chapters 7 through 11 talk a lot about the things that they wrote and him answering the questions that they asked. The problem is, we don’t have the letter, so we don’t have the questions; all we have are the answers. That’s an interesting thing, to walk into a subject as deep as we’re going to walk into without the questions, only having the answers. You have to be very, very careful as we proceed.

Chapter 7 begins, as I said, with the subject of marriage and celibacy. Celibacy, for those of you who don’t know what it is, is remaining single; singleness; staying single. That becomes a part of, especially the first seven verses, what we will deal with.

To understand chapter 7, not just marriage and celibacy but all the things that are there, I think you have to back up a little bit and understand some of the culture of Corinth, what was going on there and what was happening. I think that helps us at least to get a handle on some of the things Paul is addressing.

Much of the Corinthians believers’ morality reflected the pagan immoral culture around them. Their society tolerated fornication, adultery, homosexuality, polygamy, and even concubines to some extent, in people’s lives. A Roman poet named Jubenal, who wrote between 60 and 140 AD, wrote of women at that time who even rejected their own sex. They wore helmets and armor and carried swords and enjoyed going into battle and whipping and killing men. That was in their culture at that time.

There were four types of marriages that were permitted during that day. One was for the slaves. That was a sub-human type of marriage, because when you had a precious man or woman who wanted to get married, they were totally under the rule of whoever the owner of those slaves were. They had a “tent companionship,” which meant they were to be together as long as the owner said they could be together. He could change partners or dissolve the marriage at any time. It was a sub-human type of situation.

Secondly, there was a form of common-law marriage where a person could live with somebody for a year and they were married. Wow! That sounds like America, doesn’t it?

Three, there was a special kind of arranged marriage when fathers would sell their daughters to perspective husbands.

But four was much more elevated. The nobility were married in this particular type of ceremony. I think you’ll enjoy this. This is what came right into our modern culture even of today. The Roman Catholic Church adopted it and modified it some. Protestantism picked it up and carried it right through the Reformation. Now we see it every time we go to a wedding. You see this very same thing they had back in this day. The nobility enjoyed this kind of marriage.

The original ceremony involved both sets of families in the arrangements for the wedding. A matron, or what we would call a bridesmaid, accompanied the bride, and a man, or the best man as we would call it, accompanied the groom. There was the exchanging of vows. There was the wearing of the veil by the bride. There was the giving of the ring, which interestingly enough, was placed on the third finger of the left hand. There was a bridal bouquet and a wedding cake.

That was the fourth type of marriage they had. The problem is the earlier church had members of every type of these marriages who came to be a part of the church family. The church was filled with members who had multiple marriages and divorces. But that wasn’t enough. Some of the members had gotten the idea that celibacy was spiritual.

Do you remember in 1:12 and 3:4 we read, “I’m of Paul; I’m of Cephas”? Well Paul was a person who lived a celibate life. He was single. God had gifted him and called him that way. The Corinthians said that since Paul lived that way, that must be the way to go. So these people actually preached down marriage, as if you were more spiritual if you were celibate.

It’s the same idea as fasting that’s gotten into our culture. People think if you fast, you’re more spiritual. No! Fasting is an environment in which you put prayer so that you can better hear what God is saying to your heart. It doesn’t make you spiritual. Jesus is our spirituality. But they had the same mind-set towards celibacy.

Still others taught that sex was unspiritual and should be forsaken even in the marriage bond. It was a tough situation. You can imagine. Can you imagine being the pastor at the church at Corinth with all this kind of stuff out there? That would have been tough for the mature much less the immature of that day.

On top of that, Corinth was a Gentile city, but had a substantial Jewish population. In Acts 18:4, when he first went to Corinth, it says, “And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.” Now with this mix, with religious Jews who had rejected Christ coming to know Christ, with pagan Gentiles who didn’t have any need for Him coming to know Christ, there are bound to be some marital problems in that mix.

Take, for instance, the scenario of a Gentile. You’re talking about two unbelievers now, whether religious or rebellious or whatever. One of them comes to know Christ. Of course, they lived and participated in immorality. That was just the norm of the day. Probably the woman came to Christ first. The men are so hard-headed. Say the woman comes to know Christ. Immediately she stops her immoral lifestyle. Immediately she begins to understand her body is the temple of the Holy Spirit of God. And suddenly she’s forced into a dilemma. What do I do? Does she refuse any kind of sexual relations with the unbelieving spouse since her body is now the dwelling of Christ? Does she remain married and have her body used by an adulterous husband? Or does she get a divorce and remarry? These were some of the questions that were being asked of the apostle Paul? The only reason we know that is by the answers that he gives. We don’t have the questions. We just have the answers.

The answers he gives even relates to us today. As you know, all of these things are present in our society just like it was at the time of Corinth. Verse 1 of chapter 7 says, “Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman.” He seems to be dealing with the question in verses 1-7, “Should I remarry or should I remain single?”

By the way, this is not the first time this question has come up. In fact, I want to take you back to Matthew 19:8. The Pharisees are trying to trick the Lord Jesus into saying something wrong. They know the original design. They know the Old Testament, and they say in the earlier verse that Moses commanded them to get a statement of divorce. Jesus says, “No, he didn’t either. He permitted you.” But he’s answering in response to the Pharisees. (I want to apologize ahead of time. We’re not going to cover this context. That’s not my message. But I want to show you this.)

In verse 8 of Matthew 19 we read, “He said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.’” In other words, it’s not God’s original design, but He permitted you. Verse 9 says, “‘And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.’”

There were two great preachers. You would know who they were if I told you. They were at one of their places of ministry in another state and were walking alongside each other. One of them looked at the other and said, “Do you believe there is an exception clause for divorce?” The other one said, “Yes, I do.” He said, “Why do you believe that?” He said, “Because Jesus said in Matthew 19:9, ‘Except for immorality.’ As far as I can tell that’s an exception clause.” The person answered him back and said, “Well, now wait a minute. We’ve got some geese here.” He showed him a pen filled with geese. He said, “When these geese came, we had to trim their feathers to keep them in the pen. But one time an animal got over in the corner and tried to root its way in a hole there where the geese could get out and every one of those geese tried to get out of that hole. In other words, if you go around telling people that there is an exception clause, they will use that as a loophole to get out of marriages they don’t want to stay in.” But this great preacher looked back at his friend and said, “May I ask you a question?” He said, “Yes.” “If you didn’t have any geese, what would Matthew 19:9 say?”

Isn’t it amazing the positions we put ourselves in that God would never tell us to put ourselves in. All we know is what Jesus said. Except there be for immorality. But that’s another subject and another time. I just want to show you how His disciples reacted to that. Jesus said, “You’re never commanded to do it, but if there’s a permission, it’s in this area – except there be for immorality.” Look at what His disciples say in verse 10. They were certainly the great spiritual giants of their day. “The disciples said to Him, ‘If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.’” You don’t think that’s funny, but that’s going to hit you in about three days. Do you realize what was going on with these guys? They’re saying, “What do you mean? You mean I can’t divorce my wife once the toast is burned? You mean I can’t divorce my wife because she doesn’t look as good as she did the day I got married? I can’t go find me a prettier one? You mean to tell me it has to be for this one thing? Hey, why get married?” That was the mentality of the day in which Jesus ministered when He was on earth. Incredible!

It hasn’t changed much in the twentieth century, has it? It’s amazing but we’re still asking the same questions they asked in Corinth. It appears that they’re asking the same thing. Some of these questions must have been asked by the answers Jesus gives back. Let’s ease into the chapter.

Paul is not demeaning marriage.

Verse 1 reads, “Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman.” I want to tell you something, folks. If you don’t study this thoroughly you could make this thing a cookbook before you get out of it. It’s incredible what you might come up with without understanding some things. So what is Paul is saying? One of the best ways to find out what he is saying is to look and document what he’s not saying. That’s very important. Find out what he’s not saying and probably the truth will surface very quickly, especially here. We don’t know what the question was, but I think we’ll know it by the time we finish.

First of all, he in no way is putting marriage down. When he says that it’s good for a man not to touch a woman, he’s not promoting celibacy or asceticism. Now asceticism was a little bit different than celibacy. Asceticism was a particular persuasion of some that you deny your body, your flesh, any kind of external pleasure including marriage. Therefore, you live this life of self-denial, and that was a spiritual thing to do. Celibacy is being single. He’s not in any way promoting either one of these two things. That’s not what he’s saying. All you have to do is go back to the Word of God and realize that marriage is God’s plan. You know that Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, would not be in any way going against what God had purposed and what God had planned for mankind.

Go to Genesis 2:18. I read this a lot of times in marriage ceremonies that I do. Right before the bride comes down I read several passages out of Genesis 2. Verse 18 says, “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.’” There’s another verse in between that in verse 24. It says, “God brought the woman to the man.” I rest on that promise. I believe that Stephen’s going to have a wife one day but I have come to believe that God is going to have to bring her to him. He’s not having any kind of good fortune finding her.

Anyway, verse 24 of chapter 2 says, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”

Go back to Genesis 1:27, when he first created them. You see that marriage is the highest purpose He had for man and woman. “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” Marriage, from the very beginning, was God’s idea.

Turn over to Proverbs 18:22. We find a wonderful verse here where God again puts His stamp of approval upon marriage. Proverbs 18:22 says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord.”

So we see God is pleased when man and woman marry. This is God’s idea. Paul himself taught that not only was marriage good, but it was good for the leadership of the church. He says to the elders to be a one-woman man. He says the same thing for the deacons in 1 Timothy 3:12. He’s not going to contradict what he’s taught. That’s not what he’s doing in 1 Corinthians 7:1. Since we don’t know the question, we can rule out one of them and that is, is he in any way demeaning marriage? First Timothy 3:12 says, “Let deacons be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own households.”

Flip over to 5:14. He deals with widows, a person whose husband has died and the younger widows. Look at what he says to them. “Therefore, I want younger widows to get married, bear children, keep house, and give the enemy no occasion for reproach.” That’s pretty clear. He’s putting a stamp of approval upon marriage. In the Old Testament, God the Father is spoken of as being the husband to Israel. You see that in Isaiah 54:5. Flip back over there. We don’t do this all the time, but I think it’s good from time to time to look and see, making sure that we’re backing this up with God’s Word that marriage is God’s idea.

In Isaiah 54:5, he even uses the analogy in His relationship to Israel. He says in verse 5, “For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the Lord of hosts; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth.”

Look over in chapter 62 and verse 5 of Isaiah. He said, “For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.”

Now look in Hosea 2:19: “And I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in lovingkindness and in compassion.” That’s God in His relationship to Israel, and He uses the terminology of a husband to a wife.

Christ’s teachings in the parables incorporate marriage. Look over in Matthew 22:2. He uses that terminology. It’s the vocabulary of God. This is His idea. This is not our idea. Matthew 22:2 says, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king, who gave a wedding feast for his son.” He uses the wedding feast. He pictures again in His teaching, this picture of a wedding. The parable of the ten virgins is the picture of the coming of Christ. It talks about how the unexpected coming of the bridegroom and how it catches them off guard in Matthew 25:10. Look over there. It says, “And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut.” There’s a lot behind that one. But that’s the terminology used. We find that the church is the bride of Christ.

Look over in 2 Corinthians 11:2. The church is the bride of Christ. As a matter of fact, marriage is a picture of all of this, a husband and wife relationship. It’s a beautiful analogy that’s drawn here in 2 Corinthians 11:2. He says, “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.” There’s a picture of there of a husband and the bride, the bride being the church.

It’s also pictured in Revelation 19:7. It says, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” By the way, there’s a tremendous study in that. She was not made ready, but made herself ready. That’s something to take some time sometimes and study.

Look in chapter 21 and verse 2 of Revelation. We’re just looking at the terminology of marriage and how God so incorporates it into the vocabulary of Scripture. It says in verse 2, “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.”

Then in verse 17 of chapter 22 it says, “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”

There is no way Paul is demeaning marriage when he says that it is good for a man not to touch a woman. He is not putting it down. He’s not making it second rate. That has nothing to do with it. That could never have been the question that was asked, you see.

Paul is not teaching sexual relations in marriage is wrong.

Secondly, there is no way that Paul is teaching that sexual relations are wrong within the marriage bond. Do you realize when you read that verse if you don’t understand what he’s saying, you could come up with that? One person could move to one end of the house and the other person could move to the other end of the house. They would come together only to have meals or whatever and talk on C.B. radios or whatever else they do. That’s the way some people surface-interpret. You can make the Bible a cookbook if you want to, but that is not what Paul is doing here. I’ll prove it to you, as a matter of fact.

He only is dealing with a man touching a woman who is outside the marriage bond. That has to be the question. Look at verse 5 of chapter 7. Speaking to married couples about sexual intimacy in the marriage he says, “Stop depriving one another [directly referring to sexual relationship], except by agreement for a time that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”

Now, you take that verse and put it into that kind of context and it won’t fit. He’s not talking about married couples not touching each other, a man not touching a woman. But when the woman is not the man’s wife and they’re not in the marriage bond, now we’re getting some sense out of this. Then it’s good for a man not to touch a woman. All kinds of immoral things happen when a man chooses to touch a woman who is not his wife.

Hang on. Relax. I’m going to get to your question. I know what you’re thinking. But I’m not there yet. Don’t jump ahead of me. He’s even talking about single men and single women or whatever scenario does not cover the married partners within the marriage bond.

I want to show you something before I get back to what I believe he’s saying here. Go back to Matthew 5. In the Beatitudes, Jesus talked about [[divorce and remarriage]], but He doesn’t start with verse 31 of chapter 5 when He brings it up. He starts in verse 27. If you’ll follow the flow of it, it makes more sense. He says in verse 27, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ [that is an illicit sexual relationship with somebody outside the marriage bond. But look at this in verse 28] but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.” It starts with an immoral look, a roving eye. Look out for the roving eye.

Verse 29 continues, “And if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” Look at verse 30. “And if your right hand makes you stumble, [that’s interesting. He’s moved from the eye that roves to the hand] cut it off, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to go into hell.” From the eye to the hand to the touch.

Then in verse 31 he links it to divorce. “And it was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’” Why would he send her away? Go back and study it. Well, she burns the toast or she doesn’t look as good as when I first got married, or I found somebody else that my eyes have locked onto. Perhaps there’s been a touch involved and perhaps now the whole process is about to get into motion. Oh, it makes sense now when Paul says, “It’s good for a man not to touch a woman.” The touch comes second. Jesus said that it starts with the eye and then it moves to the hand to the touch and then the act is soon to follow.

The word “touch” is the interesting word here that I want you to see. It is the word haptomai. It means to set fire, to kindle, to light. I thought that’s interesting. Some people say, “Does it mean I can’t even touch them? Can I not even walk up and touch somebody?” I know that’s what you’re thinking. “Are you kidding me? Do I have to start getting paranoid already?” Relax. The word “touch” will tell you.

There are two words for “touch.” He could have used a more generic word but he doesn’t. He used the word haptomai. It means to light a fire. In Luke 8:16, he says, “Now no one after lighting a lamp [that’s the word] covers it over with a container.” Luke 11:33 says the same exact thing, “No one, after lighting a lamp.” Luke 15:8 reads, “Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?” Each time the word haptomai is used.

Now, the more general word for touch is the word thiggano. In other words, there’s a difference in a hug and a HUG.

Let me ask you a question. Did you grow up in a hugging family? I did. My mama hugged everything that moved. She would hug a fencepost if it moved. She grew up hugging. I grew up hugging. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s the more generic word. But the word haptomai means to touch with an intent to go further than that touch, to handle something. There’s something more involved here than just touch. There’s a hug and there’s a HUG. If you’re telling me you don’t know the difference, don’t touch, because you need to back off and understand where all of this is coming from.

People say to me, “I don’t know the difference.” You do, too. You’re lying. How spiritual we can act sometimes. Every one of us knows the difference in a hug and a HUG. The word haptomai, that he’s using here, is used in Matthew 8:3. Let me show you how it’s used. Matthew 8:3 says, “And He stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’” This passage is speaking of the leper when Jesus touched him. There was influence in that touch. It’s used with Peter’s mother-in-law in Matthew 8:15. “And He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she arose, and waited on Him.” In Matthew 9:20 the woman with the issue of blood touched Jesus in order to be healed. It says, “And behold, a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak.” Why? Verse 21 tells us, “For she was saying to herself, ‘If I could only touch His garment, I shall get well.’” In other words, there’s influence there. There’s more than just a random touch. There’s more to it than that. There’s an intent involved. The word for touch means to touch with the intent of influencing someone.

Have you ever been in a crowd and everybody’s just hugging everybody and you go home and something’s bothering you because there was one hug that wasn’t like everybody’s hug and you’re thinking to yourself, “Uh-oh”?

I’ll tell you, folks. He’s telling us something here. Now do you understand why he says, “It’s good for a man not to, with influence, with evil intent, touch a woman”? You see, you’re moving further in your understanding of what he’s saying right here. Paul answers what must be asked concerning relationships outside the marriage bond. He uses that word “touch” that we hopefully understand by now. “It is good for a man not to touch a woman.” This applies to any one married or anyone single who is not in the marriage bond with one someone else. I’m serious. Whether married or single, this applies.

By the way, if you’re a single person, be really careful. I just say that from my heart. Because it starts with the eyes, moves to the hands, to the touch, and then to the act. Be real careful.

Do you realize there are many times that churches, our church included, could be guilty of putting people in situations that propagates that very thing? We learned, particularly in drama situations, when you start taking the husband of one wife and a wife of another husband, and you put them in situations and they practice for hours and hours and hours so the performance will be right, many times what you do without realizing it, not intentionally doing it, but you begin to set an atmosphere for the eye to rove, for the hand and for the touch. We’ve actually seen marriages affected. Not that that’s what made it happen. But without even realizing it, we fell right into that scenario.

You see, folks, we’ve got to be so careful about this. I’m trying to make it as light as I possibly can but this is a very serious thing. There are times when people are just accidents looking for a place to happen and whatever you plan it’s going to happen. But we’re trying to learn to whatever we do to make sure we think through as best as possible and ask the Lord to cover our bases because there are many times people get involved who don’t seem to understand that a married man does not touch another woman with an intent that has come from a roving eye. We’ve got to be so careful.

Paul is not condemning celibacy.

Well, thirdly, he’s not condemning celibacy. I want you to know that. I may sound as if celibacy would be wrong. No, no. In certain situations celibacy is okay, if it’s God’s gift to you and it’s God’s direction in your life. Celibacy, the desire to remain single, however, was rare in Paul’s day. You didn’t find it in the Gentile world. Corinth speaks for itself. But in the Christian world it was very rare to find a person who felt like God had directed them to remain celibate, to remain single. It was not a part of the Nazarite vow. However, if John the Baptist was under a Nazarite vow, then he would have classified in that. Some people think he was an Essene. The Essenes are another study for another day. You need to do that. It’s worthy of study. They started off with a very pure motive and a pure heart. The lived down in the area where a lot of the scrolls have been found. The Essenes are very credible in many of the things that they did.

But the germ of Gnostic dualism possibly came out of their thinking. One of the things they did do that was negative was they took a pure motive of discerning between light and darkness and made it bad. They got to the point that they said that anything that was material was evil. This begin to fester the false theology that John dealt with in his epistles and Paul dealt with in many places, that Jesus could not have had an earthly body because all bodies are sinful. That germ was found even in the Essenes, as pure as their motive were when they first began.

But there’s one other thing they did that was a negative influence on Christianity. They absolutely propagated celibacy. You had to be celibate for three years to even join their community. They were communal type of people. They were very exclusive of others. They kind of lived to themselves. If you were an Essene and you found another Essene in some place, buddy, you were okay because they would take care of you. That’s kind of the way it was.

But, you see, they propagated celibacy, and it got into the Christian community. Many of them even linked it to John the Baptist and said, “Hey, Paul was celibate and evidently it’s spiritual to be celibate, to be single.” You’ve got to be real careful about that. It is only right for you if God has directed you that way. In other words, it’s not the lifestyle you choose. It’s something God may choose for you, but

1 Corinthians 7:2-3

Should I Marry or Remain Single – Part 2

Now, we enter into verse 2. All of these verses build on each other. It’s like one step and then another one builds on top of it. In verse 2 he says, “But because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.”

There are three things that I want to show you. We’re going to hit verse 3 in the third point that I want to bring out. Stay with me in this because I’m beginning to see things in this. Paul is trying to turn everything right side up. The culture of Corinth had so messed up and marred what marriage was supposed to be that many of the single people, obviously were going around and saying, “Hey, I’d just as soon stay single. Why get married?” But Paul is putting things back into proper perspective, getting their minds renewed on the fact that this is God’s will and God’s will is good and acceptable and perfect.

First of all we’ve got to begin with a definition of immorality. I know we looked at immorality in chapter 6 but we need to do it particularly in this context and I’ll show you why. In verse 2 he says, “But because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman (or each wife) have her own husband.” The Greek phrase “because of immoralities” is dia de tas porneia. The word dia is important. I wanted you to hear it. The word translated in the New American Standard is a good translation. Normally the word dia means to be through or involves a separation between something.

Let me give you an example, diabolos, the word for devil. Dia means through, and bolos means to cast. Together they mean to cast in between and separate. So it has the idea of separating something and staying separate from something. But here it has more the idea of on account of, for the sake of, or as the New American Standard, the better translation here, is because of. But it still has the idea of separation built into it. The King James Version adds a little phrase in italics which is good. He says, “avoid fornication.” Now, you have the idea to separate yourself from immorality. There should be a separation from immorality in the believer’s life, but before we make that separation, we must define immorality. That’s so important.

The New American Standard translation brings it out much clearer than the King James Version or the NIV. It says, “immoralities,” plural, because that’s the way it is in the Greek, porneias. You see, if you use it as one word, it kind of misleads you, but when you put it in the plural, you begin to understand. There’s so many things tempting us in the immoral society that we live in. Paul just simply throws it all into one category and says that there are going to be many ways in which you need to separate yourself from the immorality of this world. The plural, again, is not rendered in the other translations, only in the New American Standard.

Immoralities, what is the definition? Let’s start here. In no way, in no way does the word immorality have anything to do with the rightful sexual intimacy within the marriage bond. Now, what happens is people tend to think the word “sex” and immediately they throw it into one big catch-all area and everything fits into it. No sir! That’s not the way it is. This is where the problems have come in many marriages, not understanding the difference of immoralities, plural, and the sexual intimacy within the marriage. Perhaps a woman who’s had a bad marriage brings her daughter and her children up to think of sex as shameful because she sees it that way. Or perhaps somebody has had sexual abuse in their past and they have drug that perverted idea into their marriage. Not perverted because they had anything to do with it—they may have been innocent parties—but perverted because of the one who caused that to happen in their life; and they still think of sex as a shameful thing.

Perhaps there are those who continue to put all of it into one category for whatever reason or not. But the effect is devastating. It will get in your head and suddenly the Word of God does not have any bearing on your life. At some point in our lives, folks, we have got to stop living out of our past and live as products of the cross. We have got to let the Word of God renew our thinking and get our ideas not from what society tells us, not from what experience dictates, but what does the Word of God say and stand upon it. There is garbage in people’s minds when they think of the word sex. It automatically, because of the society we live in, throws everybody into a funny realm and they don’t even want to talk about it anymore. You’ve got to make that distinction. The sexual intimacy in marriage is one of the most beautiful things God could have ever created for creation. But when you take it out of the context of marriage, then you have the ugly, then you have the bad, then you have all the other stuff. So you’ve got to make that distinction and stay separate from this over here but remember the sexual intimacy in marriage is not only that which God ordained but that which God Himself commanded.

The word “immoralities” refers premarital sexual relations with another person, whatever kind that might be, and includes a sinful extramarital sexual relations with someone outside of marriage. It includes the sin of homosexuality. It includes the sin of incest and on and on. But, again, I want to keep saying it. And I don’t like this any better than you do. But I’ll tell you what, folks. Let’s just say the truth and go on with it. It does in no way, no way does it include the rightful sexual intimacy within marriage. That is not included in anything Paul is saying. But can you see how somebody who lives in a secular world where sex is thrown out as one particular physical gratification thing and you can see how a person who’s single would say, “You know, I don’t even want to get married.” You can see the questions that are coming from the kind of pagan culture these people are coming out of. Corinth was almost as bad as America is today. So this ought to somehow relate to each of us.

So many parents do not make this separation terms to their children. I want to tell you. My heart goes out to those who have to do the counseling because you wouldn’t believe the situations that come up as a result of it. Maybe that parent does not want their children, particularly daughters, to be promiscuous as they were so, therefore, they make sex bad and ugly and that child grows up with a perverted understanding of what it’s all about. Therefore, one day when they finally get married, they even dread that intimacy within the marriage bond, all because a parent never made that distinction. The parent never made that definition of immorality versus the sexual intimacy in marriage. They never bothered to explain the difference.

In Genesis 1:27-28 it says, “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth...’” I’ll tell you what. They’re cloning cows and sheep but when God said that there wasn’t any cloning going on. There wasn’t any other things invented. There was only one way for that to be carried out and it was a command by the same holy God who spoke this world into existence. We must understand what God is saying here in Scripture. A definition needs to be there that divides sexual immorality, as we defined it, and the sexual intimacy in marriage, which is the most beautiful thing God could have ever created for that oneness of two individuals to experience.

In Revelation 22:15 is a great verse to circle in your Bible. I want you to see the context that sexual immorality is put into. In Revelation 22:15 Jesus said, “Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.” I want you to see the context, the company that the word “immorality” keeps. The word “immoral persons” is the word that comes from the word porneias, which we’re studying. It is interesting it is found in the context of dogs. That’s what sexual sin is outside of marriage. It’s nothing more than an animalistic desire that means nothing more than self-gratification.

I told my daughter years ago, “Stephanie, he’s going to look at you and the stars are going to be in your eyes and stars are going to be in his eyes and he’ll say, ‘Stephanie, I love you.’” I said, “Stephanie, don’t be stupid. Back up and make him explain what he means by loving you.” I want to tell you something. If that boy wants anything physical out of you and it’s not inside the marriage bond, there’s not one ounce of love in his head for you. All it is is lust and all he wants is nothing more than an animalistic desire of a dog to physically gratify himself, period. Look at it for what it is. We need to draw that line. The love that we have for one another is a respectful love. It’s a love that the fruit of the Spirit produces. It’s a love that man can’t even produce. And if it’s going to meet God’s design it’s got to meet the requirement that He has for it. So we need to see the difference of immorality and the beautiful sexual intimacy that God has given in the marriage bond. An act of love inside of marriage is nothing more than an act of lust outside of marriage. Fornication or immorality is never allowed for the believer, but that does not in any way include the beautiful sexual intimacy within the marriage bond.

So the definition of immorality needs to be here. Make sure we understand the questions that are asked in light of the answers Paul is giving.

God’s defense system against immorality

Secondly, I want you to see God’s defense system against immorality. I love this. I’ve never seen this before in my life. It’s beautiful how it just begins to develop. You can only get it going real slow, taking the words one at a time. Obviously destruction comes when we don’t follow God’s design. I’m not blaming anybody here, but I am not going to back off what God says is His idea. What God commands, God enables. So let’s keep the standard where it is. God raised it up. God’s the one who spoke it.

Verse 2 says, “But because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.” Now if you’re not careful and you read that real quickly, you can get the idea that there are two people dating who have been dating for a long time. Things are getting a little hot and heavy so finally the ole boy looks at the girl and says, “Do you know what? We don’t want to sin, so let’s go on and get married. Then we can gratify our desires, and it will be okay.” As if physical gratification is a justification for marriage. You could read the verse that way. Have you ever read it that way? It doesn’t say that. That’s not at all what he’s saying and we need to understand that.

Immorality was as rampant in their culture as it is in ours. Paul wrote of the culture they came out of. Look over in 6:9. Let’s just pick the words that have to do with immorality in verses 9-11. We’ve already studied this. We’re not going to go back and restudy it. Just read it to remember the culture they came out of it, what’s going on in Corinth. He says in 1 Corinthians 6:9, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, (here we go), nor idolaters, not adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals.” We described all those when we studied chapter 6. Those are the sexual sins that he mentions. Then he jumps to verse 11. “And such were some of you.” You used to live that way. This is what affected your life. He says, “but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.”

So with this in mind, you have to know in a casual reading of the verse, their society would make it appear that marriage was the way for sexual gratification. That way a Christian could get married and not sin against God as the people around him were sinning. Any marriage that is ever based on physical attraction alone and physical gratification almost never succeeds because that is the poorest excuse known to man to marry somebody else.

Ephesians 5:25 tells us marriage is built upon love and respect. You’ve got to understand what happens when two people get married God’s way. In Ephesians 5:25 it says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” You see, marriage is not an excuse for sexual gratification. No, no. It’s a covenant relationship that two people, fully understanding the responsibility on both sides, enter into.

I wonder if you know that word “covenant.” When I do a marriage ceremony normally I talk about the covenant at some point. I love to do it because it helps people understand that this is more than just two people running down the aisle saying their vows before a preacher.

Covenant is also the word “testament.” We get the word “Old Testament” and “New Testament” from it. That’s the same word. The word means to cut. It’s the strongest word in any language known to man of a relationship, the binding relationship that we’re talking about here. You can’t find a stronger word. God chose this word out of the vocabulary of the human race to describe His relationship with you and I.

There were two parts to covenant and you find it all through Scripture in the Old Testament, but you don’t ever find them all at one time. You have to do a lot of historical research to find all of this. But you see bits and pieces all through Scripture. First of all was identity. You see, this particularly with David and Jonathan and the covenant they cut and entered into with one another. First there would be the exchange of robes. I love this. That has to do with possessions. It’s covenant oneness. You’re coming together in covenant oneness.

I usually tell the groom and the bride, they’re always standing there goo-goo eyed, you know. They don’t have a clue where they are. They’re trying not to lock their knees so they won’t pass out. If you get that far in the ceremony, chances are you might finish it. I usually tell them even though they haven’t got a clue what I’m talking about. I’m saying to the groom, “Listen. Everything you own, she now owns.” And I say to her, “Everything you own, he now owns.” But here’s the down side. Everything you owe, she owes. And everything she owes, you owe. That’s part of it. It’s a covenant oneness. You’re entering into that.

I know of a couple who started a marriage that had a marriage agreement built up of what was his and what was hers. I thought to myself, “You want a preacher to sign his name to this?” God would never sign His name to that. You don’t even understand covenant. You’re going to enter into marriage. You enter into oneness.

But the second part of the marriage covenant was they would exchange belts. You see this with David and Jonathan, particularly. The belt was where they carried the weapons. Of course that was a symbol of protection. I always tell the groom, “Do you realize that you’re saying today that you’re entering into a covenant bond with this person and you’re saying that you’re going to provide for her, that you’re going to protect her, your life is going to be spent to watch over her?” And then I obviously say back to the woman, “Your whole life is lived as him being your one possession. You’re going to be faithful to him. That protects that relationship.”

Then it comes to the exchange of names in a marriage ceremony. The disciples became Christians at Antioch. Abram became Abraham. The word for “Yahweh,” the breath, was added to his name. Sarai became Sarah when they entered into the covenant with the Living God. So there was a change of names. Again, the covenant identity. The woman gives up her family name for all these years and takes upon herself the name of that husband.

I know of situations in our secular society where they don’t do that. But we’re talking about God’s plan, not their plan. God had it long before they had it. You know, somebody said that the Titanic couldn’t sink. I’ll tell you what. Anything man puts his hands on will sink, folks. That’s why marriages are falling down the drain. Because man has got his hands on what God designed.

The second part of that covenant was the most difficult. This is when usually I do the down on the floor ceremony. That’s the commitment part. Whoa! They would sacrifice an animal. Remember Genesis 15 when God cut covenant with Abraham and He sacrificed the animals and he put one half of one on one side and one of another, formed the path. That path became known as the path of blood or the way of death. Death to what? You’re leaving a way of living, singleness, independence, and you’re entering into a new way of living, dependence upon one another. No longer are you going to live that way anymore.

We have the same idea in the Christian faith. You present your body a living sacrifice. You don’t live independent of God any more. You live now dependent upon Him. You enter in the same way. That’s why God chose that language. It’s so picturesque for us to understand.

Well, they would enter into that path. This is the tough part. They would cut each other’s wrists and put their arms together. They would take a rope and wrap it in a figure eight. That was a picture of the symbol of infinity, the blood of one then would be flowing into the blood of the other. And while their wrists were together and the blood was flowing into the blood of the other, they would in that place, in the path of death, two halves of animals on both sides, there in that path, they would say their vows to each other. Do you think they were entering into a covenant to gratify physical desires? Friend, they were entering into a holy relationship with one another that rarely is even heard of in America today, or in Corinth of that day.

Once they had said their vows, they immediately put a powder into that cut. When that cut healed there would be a purple scar on that arm to remind everybody they were in covenant with one another.

I wonder about Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son. You know, Jonathan and David, as far as Mephibosheth knew, were enemies. But they were in covenant with one another. When Jonathan died, Mephibosheth was out in the desert. He had been kicked out of the palace. His daddy was dead. He hated David. One day there came a knock on the door. “Mephibosheth?” He opened the door and there were two of David’s big soldiers, and they said, “The king wants to see you.” Boy, he began to shake in his boots. He came into the presence of David. The Scripture says over in 2 Samuel that he walked into David’s presence and said, “I’m a dead man. I’m a dead dog.” He thought he was dead right in the presence of the king. But the king said, “Mephibosheth, relax. You’re going to live in my house and you’re going to eat at my table.” Mephibosheth probably thought to himself, “What in the world happened to cause this?”

David takes him in, and that night he’s sitting there at the king’s table. As he’s sitting there, one of the servants walks by and says, “You louse! You child of Jonathan! You don’t need to be sitting at this table. Who do you think you are?” He walked on, but David heard it. David looked over at Mephibosheth and said, “Mephibosheth, pass the biscuits.” Mephibosheth reached over and got the biscuits and handed them to David. When David reached out, he intentionally used the arm that had the mark on it. When he did the robe fell off his arm and there was the mark of the covenant. Mephibosheth said, “Now I understand. My daddy cut a covenant with the king.”

I tell you what. This is not covenant theology by the way, but you let Jonathan be the Jesus picture in the Old Testament and you let David be the Father. The Father sent His Son. Jonathan was the only one in the whole family of Saul who David could cut covenant with. And Jesus was the unique Son of God on this earth and He cut covenant with His Father on the cross. Because He cut covenant with the Father as a man, we as men can enter in through that covenant by faith. You’ve got to understand covenant, folks. It’s important. There’s a mark.

Then they had a reminder. There were gifts given. That was to remind them that they were in covenant with one another. They might have some seedlings of pine trees or whatever so they could plant them and grow a forest. I’m sure the wives would love that. What do we do today? We get a ring, don’t we? What is that ring? It’s a memorial of covenant. It’s to remind you that you’re in covenant with someone. What’s it to remind you of? Well, it’s round which pictures the everlastingness of the love that God has put within you to enable you to do what only He designed. It’s also the beautiful, costly metal which is the beautiful purity of His love within us. I used to think if I ever lost my ring, my marriage would fall apart. It wasn’t in the ring. It’s in the person who lived in me to enable me to fulfill those vows that I made to Diana.

By the way, they’d have a meal after that. They even did this at Mt. Sinai, by the way. They said, “Go up there and tell God, Moses, that we’ll do everything He tells us to do. I guarantee you we’ll do it.” That bunch of rednecks. They hung themselves right there. They hung themselves right there. That’s exactly what God wanted them to do. You have to be lost before you can get saved. By the very act of eating and drinking, they sealed that as a covenant. That’s why the Law becomes as a tutor to lead us to grace. The Law is what frustrates us and shows us we can’t do what we said we were going to do. Therefore, grace is the answer.

The final thing about the covenant was they were pronounced as friends. I love that in John 15 Jesus said, “You’re no longer slaves but you’re my friend.” Do you know marriages are falling apart today, folks? It’s because marriage partners aren’t friends. I can truthfully say today the best friend I have on this earth is my wife. Let me say this to you. Many of you are always wondering how in the world can you be gone so much from your home and from your wife and have any kind of marriage. Oh, I hope you’re asking that question, because there’s going to come a day that God’s going to allow me to let Diana share with you why. God spoke to her and helped her understand the calling that God had put on my life and how she lives in light of that. I want to tell you something, friend. It just excites and thrills my heart to have a wife who is a team player, but also a wife who’s my friend, trusts me and understands me. That’s what marriage is supposed to be.

Well, that’s God’s design. So you think the verse means, “Oh we can get married and then we can gratify ourselves.” Do you think that’s what he’s talking about? Are you kidding me? Having said all of that, marriage becomes the greatest protection against sexual immorality of anything that God has ever designed. It’s in the world. All of us are tempted. Everybody hates to admit they’re tempted. I want to tell you something. If you ever meet a man or a woman who says they’re never tempted by anything immoral you’re either meeting a liar, somebody who’s dead, or something who hasn’t got a clue. Why can’t we just be honest?

What is it that keeps us protected? It’s the grace of God, yes, but I want to show you what we can do to protect one another from the temptations that are everywhere. The trap’s set for all of us. Before we were saved we chased after sin. After we get saved sin chases after us. God has a protective defense system. That’s what I want you to see here.

In verse 2 of chapter 7, he says, “But because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.” Son, watch this. “Let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband” are phrases to the married at that time. He’s not saying to all the singles who are asking the question, “Okay, ya’ll go out and get married.” No, no. Let me just show you something. All of you who are married, let me just tell you something. There’s a team effort here if you’ll understand what he’s saying. The word “have” is the word echo. It’s the word that means to have and keep on having in the sense of possessing her, not possessive of her. Oh what a mistake people make in that.

I remember when I first started dating Diana. She was working at an air conditioning firm. There was not a woman in there but Diana. As pretty as she was, I became possessive, jealous of anybody who even looked at her. I want to tell you something. I just about messed up before we got married. I’d just started dating her. It’s amazing how possessive you can be. That’s not what he’s saying. That’s not the word at all. It means in the sense of possession. It’s in the present imperative tense. In other words, it’s a command. That’s interesting. It’s a command. So there’s an attitude involved here. Active voice means you make a choice, present tense, constantly.

The word “own” is heautou. It’s the word that means more than one’s very own. It means a part of me. It’s an attitude a man has that his wife is literally a part of him, of his own body. That’s what it means. For the man to consider her just like he would consider himself. She’s a part of him.

Look over at Ephesians 5:28. Is this not what Paul is saying there? Whoa! I love the Word of God. It just gets a hold of you and all of a sudden you say, “That’s what that’s talking about.” Ephesians 5:28 is exactly what he’s saying in 1 Corinthians 7. How’s a husband supposed to love his wife? As Christ loves the church? Verse 28 reads, “So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own (what?) bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.” So that’s an attitude. I want to tell you, folks. That goes into play in a second.

Secondly, it says, “Let each woman have her own husband.” Now the first words are the same, “let her have,” echo, present imperative active. But here’s the difference. When it comes to her own husband, it’s a different word. It’s not the word heautou. It’s the word idios. It means her very own possession. No man could ever fill the shoes of this man and she’s going to spend her life letting him know that, that he is the only one. So when it comes to people in the church or people around them, hands off because she is a part of his very own body. That’s the way he treats her. He is her very possession and nobody else can ever fill those shoes.

I want to tell you something. When this is lived out, acted out under the grace enabling power of God, I promise you that it becomes one of the greatest protective measures against immorality the world has ever seen. That’s when that couple is finding something of a bliss and a joy with one another that they never ever think to look outside. I’ll tell you what. If we could just get the men straight on this thing, that our wives are a part of ourselves, marriages would be amazingly different in America.

I thought about 1 Timothy 3:2. Look over there for a second. He’s talking about an elder. There are three words for elders: the position of elders, overseers, and pastors. In 1 Peter 5 all three are used to describe the same people. One’s the office. One’s the responsibility. One’s the heartbeat of it. But look here in 1 Timothy 3:2, “An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife.” It’s amazing to me how that’s translated. I just do not agree with that. I’m going to get cards and letters. The word “husband” and the word “man” are the same word in Greek, and the word “woman” and the word “wife” are the same word in Greek. Everything else that he mentions here about the elder is character. A husband of one wife refers more to status. Why would he change the list? However, if you changed that and say “a one woman man” you just put character back into the list. That makes more sense than “a husband of one wife.”

He says the same thing to the deacons, and I think this is what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 7. What he’s saying in Timothy, he’s saying the elders. The leaders model this kind of thing. In other words, if you want to see how it works, check them out because that’s the way they’re to live. The man is to possess his own wife as a part of his body. It affects his whole attitude toward church. She is to let him know every day, “There’s nobody else who can fill your shoes. You’re my very own husband.” Built into this is God’s protection against the immoral temptations of the wicked world in which all of us live.

He continued to stretch that out and explain it in verse 3. So we have a definition. We’ve separated between immorality of the world, of the flesh, and marital intimacy, which is beautiful. We’ve tried to make a separation there. Secondly, we see that God has a defense mechanism here. So if it’s a single person walking around saying, “Hey, I don’t know if I want to get married or not. Look at all the failed marriages. Look at the adultery. Look at all the stuff.” God says, “Hey, quit looking at all that and look at Me and look at My will and do it My way and you can enjoy everything I have for you.” Don’t ever let a failed marriage by somebody else keep you from even wanting to be a part of what God has for you.

Our determination as a team

Well, finally, there’s a determination, if we’re going to work as a team, that a couple’s got to have. We find that in verse 3. He says in verse 3, “Let the husband fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband.” That’s pretty good, but it leaves out a word. The King James Version picks it up.

The Textus Receptus has a word here that this one doesn’t have. Let me read it to you in verse 3. “Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence.” That’s not in the New American Standard because it’s not in their text. “And likewise the wife unto the husband.” Now, I read this in the King James Version, because that word “benevolence” clarifies something the New American Standard leaves out. The word “fulfill,” in the New American Standard, and “due,” in the King James, is the same word, opheilo, which means you owe a debt.

What Paul says is that a husband owes a debt to his wife and the wife owes a debt to her husband. By the way, the context is marital sexual intimacy. We’ll get there the next time. We owe a debt. There’s a sense of gratitude and a sense of debt that we owe to each other as husband and wife. But if you leave it there, it’s kind of like, “Oh, thanks a lot. I owe a debt. Okay, what are we going to do?” It’s like you can be mechanical with a debt that you owe. No, no. It’s much more than that.

The heartbeat is in the word “benevolence.” The word “benevole

1 Corinthians 7:4-5

Contents

1 Should I Marry or Remain Single?–Part 3

1.1 A willingness to surrender one’s rights to their own body

1.2 A willingness to surrender the desire for sexual intimacy

1.3 A willingness to surrender to God’s plan in order to defeat Satan

Should I Marry or Remain Single?–Part 3

Well, we come to verse 4. Now remember, you cannot disconnect verses 2, 3, and 4. They all fit together. Verse 4 says, “The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” What in the world is Paul talking about here?

A willingness to surrender one’s rights to their own body

There are three things we’re going to see in verses 4 and 5. First of all, we’re going to see a willingness on each person’s part in this determination to make this thing work, a willingness to surrender one’s rights to their own body. That’s got to be in every marriage. I keep remembering there are young people who aren’t married. I am glad they can hear this so they can grow up with a healthy understanding that there’s something to look forward to in marriage if it’s done God’s way, only if it’s done God’s way. We see a willingness to surrender one’s rights to their own body. The attitude that must be present when two married partners are determined to let God’s design work for them is that they must be willing to surrender their right to their own body.

In verse 3 the verbs are in the imperative mood. That’s a command. In verse 3 he says, “Let the husband fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband.” That’s a command. That’s not an option. That’s not a suggestion. That’s God’s command. But the verb in verse 4 is in the present tense. It’s as if the attitude is one of mutual consent. He’s showing you the pattern. He’s showing you how it’s supposed to work, that both of you enter into this relationship realizing how you’re surrendered to one another and you do not take a right over your own body for your own desire but you surrender that right.

Well, the man has been addressed first in verses 2 and 3, but when in verse 4 he addresses the woman first. That’s interesting to me. I don’t know why. He doesn’t tell you why. But he does change it. You know, Paul is doing something here that you cannot understand unless you go back to Genesis. So turn back to Genesis 2. We’ve got to see the original design God had so we can understand what Paul is doing here in 1 Corinthians 7. I believe you’ve got to go all the way back. This is where it started. This is where it comes from. We know most of our thinking about any kind of physical intimacy from what television tells us and what the world shows us but we should not get our information from that. We should get it from the Word of God.

Genesis 2:18 says, “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone.’” This just hits me funny. Men, who think they’re so smart in this world, myself included, didn’t have a clue what they needed. Adam didn’t know what he needed. He’s just out in the field goofing around. It was God who knew what he needed. Isn’t that amazing? God always knows what we need. We think we’re so smart. God knows what we need. He said, “I will make a helper suitable for him.” The word “helper” is the word in the Hebrew that refers to one who perfectly matches the one to whom they’re associated.

Now mankind stood out amongst the animal world. There was nothing in the animal world that could come close to the higher creation of man. So, therefore, there had to be a match in mankind just like there was in the other animal kingdom. You had to have someone to match the male that God had made. Verse 19 reads, “And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. And the man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.” Out of all the different creations there was none that would perfectly match him and that means sexually and every other way. They did not perfectly match him.

In verse 21 we read, “So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh at that place. And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.” Adam’s helper, the perfect match for him came from him, had to come out of him. Now, she didn’t come from his head so she could rule over him. She didn’t come from his feet so he could walk over her. She came from his side so that she would be a perfect match for Adam.

In verse 23 it continues, “And the man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’” I heard a guy preach on this one time. He said, “‘Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.’ Putting that in English it means hot dog!” From the very beginning man recognized that woman was flesh of his flesh and perfectly matched to him. God had purpose in all of this when he put them together. Verse 24 says, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”

That’s why Paul can say that the man gives up the rights to his own body. That’s why he can say that the woman gives up her rights to her husband. Why? Because they belong to each other. They are one flesh.

I was thinking about the man who doesn’t like this design and came up with another story. He said that God really came to Adam and said, “Adam, I’ve got something perfect for you.” He described all this perfection, and the man looked at God and said, “God, what’s it going to cost me?” He said, “An arm and a leg.” He said, “Whooo! Got anything for a rib?” That’s not the true story, is it? The perfect match for man is found right here in Genesis 2. They’re one flesh. Can my right arm say it belongs to my left arm? I guess so. Can my left arm say it belongs to my right arm? Yes, I guess so. It’s all one body. It’s one flesh. They’re a part of one another.

So now go back to 1 Corinthians 7 and let’s just see if we can figure out what Paul is saying here in light of all this. He gives up the right to his own body and she gives up the right to her own body. First Corinthians 7:4, “The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.”

The word for “authority” is the word exousiazo. There are four words for authority or power in Scripture. This is a very clear one. It’s one which has the right and the might, particularly in a relationship with another. He does not have the right and the might over his own body when it comes, particularly, to the sexual context that Paul is in with the intimate relationship in marriage. In other words, they don’t have the right to deny the other, particularly when it comes to sexual satisfaction, either by refusing or by gratifying themselves without any thought of the other. You must connect the previous verses for this to make sense. Verse 2 says, “But because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife [as part of himself], and let each woman have her own husband [her very own husband]. Let the husband fulfill his duty to his wife [He owes a debt], and likewise also the wife to her husband [in the sexual context here].”

Then in verse 4, by surrendering their own rights to their own bodies, that’s the way they pay that debt that they owe to one another. Now, neither one has the attitude that they have the right and authority over their own bodies. If you leave verses 2 and 3 out of this, verse 4 could give all kinds of allowance for crazy things that go on. One even could be in an abusive relationship in a marriage because a man says, “Hey, you don’t have any right over you own body,” without remembering that he doesn’t have any right over his.

You see, I want you to know in God’s point of view, abuse, sexually, in a marriage or a family is absolutely wrong when it comes to God. I also want you to know that as far as I’m concerned, for whatever it’s worth, a man who would abuse his wife physically is the biggest coward who ever walked on the face of this earth, to take the weaker vessel and to treat her in that way. Of course, over the years I’ve known a few women who could whip their husbands. But when it comes to that kind of thing we must remember this in no way gives anybody the right to anything. You’re giving up your right, remember? That’s what the whole thing’s about. You surrender your right to your own personal gratification and you surrender your rights to your bodies to the other person when it comes to the sexual fulfillment within marriage. He’s simply saying, “The man, considering the wife to part of himself. The woman, letting the man know that he’s her very own and no one else. The man, realizing that he owes a debt to his wife to sexually fulfill her and not himself, and the wife, the same to the husband. Each treating one another with mutual respect and good will. Each realizing that they’re part of one another and have no right to deny the other.” That’s what he’s saying so far just as you follow the sequence from verses 2 through 4.

I want to tell you something. God’s design works. In chapter 5, in case you’re confused, the first four words clarify everything he’s saying very clearly. It starts off and says, “Stop depriving one another.” You can’t change the context. The context is what it is. “Stop depriving!” The King James says, “defrauding.” What’s defrauding? Defrauding means to deprive someone of what belongs to them. The tense of the verb is present indicative active. That suggests all kinds of things. Because when he says to stop doing it, evidently they were doing it.

You’ve got to remember the immoral society that Corinth was in. What was making them do this? What was causing them to deprive one another of this sexual fulfillment in marriage? It had to be a perverted understanding of what sex relationships are in marriage as opposed to immorality that’s in the world.

Of course, it is clear what Paul is saying. Many people use deprivation. They deprive the other marriage partner as a weapon. “You spent more money on deer hunting this year than you did on me. You can sleep on the couch.” I hate to tell you this, wife, but if you’re doing that, you’re putting that husband into a trap you don’t want him in, as we’ll see later on, because you’re pushing him right out of the house. You’re pushing him right to where he covets another person’s wife. Look out. It says over in Exodus not to covet your neighbor, your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife, their servants, whatever stock, their animals that they have. So you’ve got to be real careful. When you start depriving one another you’re going against the system of what God has set up. When you start taking the rights back in your own hands and trying to manipulate the situation, that’s going to cause problems down the road, somewhere down the road.

Well, remember the age-old misconception that all sex talk is bad. You see, that came from the world. That didn’t come from God’s Word. And when God says it, it’s good because God said it. He commands it in a marriage relationship. So remember when you deprive the other person, you don’t even realize the damage that you’re causing.

I tell you what. You can see clearly by now what Paul means when he says that it’s good for a man not to touch a woman. You realize the context that he’s having to answer that question. He’s not at all talking about a husband and a wife because everything we’ve looked at goes right into the physical intimacy of marriage. God’s design is based on mutual love, verse 2, mutual respect, verse 3, and mutual selflessness in verse 4. But it all begins when they’re willing to adapt the attitude by grace God gives to them that they don’t own their own bodies and they’re not living for their own personal gratification. The other person doesn’t own it either. They had that mutual attitude towards each other, owing a debt to each other, etc., and then God’s design begins to work. So a willingness to surrender the rights to one’s own body.

A willingness to surrender the desire for sexual intimacy

Secondly, a willingness to surrender the desire for sexual intimacy. This is interesting. Having said all of that, then Paul goes on to say there are times for restraint within the marriage and he’s very clear about the boundaries. He says in verse 5, “Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” So restraint in the marriage intimacy is always to be by mutual consent.

The word “agreement” there is the word sumphonos. Guess what word we get out of that in English? Symphony. When we two people of mutual consent, neither one imposing their view upon the other, come together and make an agreement, there’s harmony like there should be harmony. One cannot impose his view upon the other. You have this macho society, particularly coming out of legalistic places, I’m telling you, where a man says, “You’re submissive to me, woman, and you don’t have a right over your own body.” That person ought to be kicked in a place on a southern end of his body for saying that. That has nothing to do with the Word of God. That’s a perverted view of submission to begin with. Good grief! But it comes out of a lot of religious circles. They do it in the name of God. That’s not what he’s talking about. What he’s saying here is there’s got to be a mutual agreement. If you do impose anything on any one of yourselves, you make sure it’s by mutual agreement, equally agreed. Stop depriving one another except in agreement.

Then he says, “for a time.” The word for time is not the word chronos. We wear a watch and that’s chronometer. You measure time by a chronometer. But the word kairos is used here. It is not a measurement of time. Kairos is an opportunity, or it can be translated as season. You can see why. Every year after the summer’s over and it’s been hot for a while the weather patterns change and it’s an opportune time for fall to set in. Then it’s an opportune time for winter to set in. So it’s the word “opportunity” here. In other words, you come together by mutual agreement for an opportunity that is beneficial to both of you. Therefore, there is restraint to back off for a while. He says, “Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer.”

Now the word “devote” caught me a little off guard. It’s an interesting word. It’s the word scholazo. Guess what word we get from that. We get the word “school” from it. I think it’s kind of funny in a way, because I didn’t grow up with this meaning of it. It means to have leisure. School has the idea that you’re free from physical labor and are at leisure to learn. School was never quite that for me. As a matter of fact, it was physical labor for me to go to school. I loved school. I just hated class. But any way, that’s what the word means: to be in a place free from physical labor so that you’re free to learn.

So the couple, in mutual agreement, come to the point that they willing, it’s an opportunity to back away from physical intimacy so that they can be in an environment where God can do something that will increase their understanding or whatever else is involved in that spiritual situation.

Verse 5 says, “Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time that you may devote yourselves to prayer.” That’s in the plural. That’s interesting. It’s not like the husband walks in and says, “Hey, I think I’m going to pray for a while and we need to back away for a few days.” No, no. It says “yourselves to prayer.” The first idea that you get out of it is both of you are going into prayer. The King James adds the word “fasting,” which I think should be added there. You’re going into it together.

Now, it may be that the wife is going to pray and fast, and she gets the mutual agreement of the husband that they, during that time, are going to seek the Lord and not have any physical intimacy. But I also want to say this. It also should say to us that to pray and fast you don’t have to break relationship with one another in the sexual side of marriage. That’s not what he’s saying. But if it’s by mutual consent, you can and it’s for an opportunity where God is going to bless you.

Now, listen to me. Fasting has never yet made anybody spiritual. Prayer and fasting is not some great spiritual thing the two of you are going to commit together. Some people take that thing and make it a spiritual rung of a ladder that they climb up to. They make it look, then, that restraint from physical relationship in marriage is a spiritual thing. That’s hogwash. Fasting is just the environment in which you put prayer. When you put prayer in that environment, you back away from eating to where you become more sensitized to hear what God is wanting to say to you.

That really fits the context very well, because you’re in a time backing away from physical labor so that God can speak to you in a way to where both of you can hear. That’s what he’s saying. But don’t ever look at it as some great spiritual thing that you do. I thought the Pharisees taught us that lesson. You see, that’s all fasting is. So there comes a time of mutual agreement where you back away. It’s for a purpose of God’s doing something else in your life, but it’s by mutual consent. The key is mutual consent.

Now, is this the only reason that Paul gives for us to be able to have that restraint from physical intimacy? It’s the only reason he gives right here, but that’s not the only reason. Just common sense tells you that. Why he singled that one out, I don’t know, but there are other reasons. For instance, sickness is another way that you have that mutual consent and respect for one another. There’s a time of pregnancy when a woman is carrying a child. There’s also the time of absence. Peter traveled as much as anybody else did, and he was married. There’s a time of mutual consent here and there are other things that would fit into this, but the key is that both of you are agreed. The reason’s going to come crystal clear to you in the last part of the verse. That’s what he’s saying. By mutual agreement that there’s restraint. What he’s saying is that these are rare times.

If you look at the nation of Israel, God was going to come off of Mt. Sinai after He had spoken to Moses and He was going to speak to the people. They told them to fast and to pray and refrain from any kind of marital relationships. Everybody was to get apart from one another and prepare themselves for this glorious occasion when God came down to speak. Over many centuries later when He gives them the prophecy of what’s going to take place in the end times in the book of Joel, He says basically the same thing. But you can’t find more than two or three times all through the Old Testament that God ever said that this is a requirement, that the man and the woman back away from any physical relationship to prepare themselves to what God is doing. So this is a rarity. This is not in any way the rule. This would be the exception, never the rule. But there comes a point that you may have to surrender your desire for sexual intimacy because of a greater burden that God has put upon you that’s by mutual consent.

You see, continuously laying down your rights, continuously laying down your desires is the whole point of living the Christ life, dying to self so God can accomplish His will in and through you.

A willingness to surrender to God’s plan in order to defeat Satan

So first of all, we see the willingness to surrender your rights to your body. Secondly, we see even to surrender your desire for sexual intimacy. The whole thing is wrapped up in the third point. The whole thing comes from a heartbeat of a willingness to surrender to God’s plan so that Satan can be defeated. That’s the bottom line. You see, we’re protecting one another. God says, “Here’s how you do it. Follow the directions. Husband, follow the directions. Wife, follow the directions. And when you follow the directions, you can escape the temptations that Satan has already set for you all around you in the world.

Verse 5, “Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time that you may devote yourselves to prayer [and fasting], and come together again lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” “Come together again” comes from two words, the word sun, which is the intimate coming together and then the word erchomai, to come. That refers to the sexual union until you come back to where that is taking place. By the way, this ought to show you that sexual intimacy in marriage is not just for procreation which a lot of religious, spiritual people say. Baloney! It’s for the continual enjoyment of husband and wife from now on. God set it up, and God said, “That’s good.” That’s what His idea was. That’s the way God does it.

I want to tell you. All the perverted things we have in our minds given to us by society, whether it came over the computer or came off the television set or wherever it came from. You’ve got to get that garbage out and let the word of God renew your thinking so that you can see it from God’s way. Sexual intimacy in marriage is good. It’s commanded. And if done God’s way, is mightily fulfilling.

Well, the word “Satan” is interesting to me. There are many words for this fallen angel that causes so much havoc in this world. There’s the word “devil,” diabolos, the one who comes between, separates, and divides. I don’t know how many times people have been arguing about where the devil’s doing something or not and dividing in the middle of it and don’t realize he’s already won. You’ve got Beelzebub. You’ve got all these other names. But the name used here is Satan, Satanaz in the Greek. The word means adversary, the one who comes against everything God has desired.

So what he says here in the verse is so clear, “lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” He wants to put you in a compromising situation. He’s got the people out there. He’s got the message out there. All you have to do is be susceptible to it. But as marriage partners you can protect each other from this and become willing to do what God says so that you can protect one another from the temptations that are going to be there. You cannot escape them there in the world, but Satan cannot tempt you for your lack of self-control. That’s very key. We know he’s there.

By Paul’s bringing Satan up we must conclude something out of this by what he said, by your lack of self-control. He’s showing us that all of us in our flesh are incapable of defeating Satan. I’ll tell you. If you want to try it, help yourself. But the temptations are there.

I remember one time I was preaching on the fact that the lust of the flesh and the lust of the world are passing away. Some of you remember that when I was in 1 John and I talked about it as if when you get older those passions leave you. I remember one of my elders came up and corrected me one night. He’s 76. It doesn’t leave you. The body’s a body of sin and we have temptation. The temptation’s just as strong when you’re 70 as it is when you’re 30. Sometimes it can even be worse because of your frame of reference that you have. But no man in the energy of his flesh can do this right here. He cannot do it. This is why you better understand the message of grace, friend, because you can’t do it. You cannot defeat the temptation Satan has around you. But God in the marriage, by your willingness to trust Him and let Him through His grace enable you, you can defeat him.

It’s interesting what people think about the devil. I was in one city not long ago doing a meeting and a guy came up to me and said, “Man, you’d be so proud. We’ve got a group of people here and we’re going to defeat Satan in this whole city.” I said, “You are? That’s so good. How are you going to do it?” He said, “We’re finding the places where Satan’s working and we’re getting together and fasting and praying and we’re going out and we’re standing in circles around them and we’re just casting Satan down and binding him in that city.” I thought to myself, “I bet Satan’s sitting over there listening to that being scared to death.”

Why is it that we all just want to fight Satan out there but we don’t want to go home and live the Christ life, which defeats him automatically? What’s wrong with us? I think people would rather talk about spiritual warfare as if it’s external, rather than dealing with their own flesh.

What he’s saying is if you’ll die to your flesh, if you’ll give up your rights to your own body, give up even your desire for sexual intimacy, whatever it is, you lay it down and you choose to do it God’s way, God will enable you and by His enabling you, you’ve already defeated Satan. That’s what he’s saying.

But oh, no. We’ve got husbands and wives. All of us are the same. I can’t point a finger at you. There are days I’m the same way. I just say to myself, “Alright, you’re going to act like that and I’m going to act the way I want to act.” I’ll tell you what it does. It drives a wedge in that beautiful intimacy God has for you. Then it comes Christmas time or Easter and everybody’s celebrating and you’re miserable and you blame the stores and you blame all the publicity and you blame all this stuff, but the problem is it’s not anything out there. It’s something in here. And if you’re not celebrating Christ in the design He has for you and your wife or your husband, if you’re not celebrating Him in that family, if you’re not experiencing Him, the grace truth of Him in you giving you even the desire to do what He’s commanded you to do, then how in the world are you going to celebrate Him outside? It starts right in the home, folks.

This is where we are in America. We’ve let the world dictate our thinking towards certain things instead of letting the Word of God renew our minds. He says, “because of your lack of self-control.” The word is akrasia. It means without control there. It’s found in Matthew 23:25 when Jesus said, “Whoa to you, scribes and Pharisees hypocrites!” There are a lot of scribes and Pharisees around in the church of Jesus Christ today, aren’t there? “For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.” Self-indulgence is the word akrasia. It’s the same world. Indulge yourself, you see. That’s what’s going to happen if you start depriving one another. That’s what he’s saying. Stop doing it lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control. You’re not programmed to go long periods of time in a marital situation without the sexual intimacy unless God has intervened and there’s a higher spiritual thing that He’s doing at that particular point and it’s by mutual consent.

It’s very important to talk about these things in open assemblies like we’re doing. If Paul didn’t want all of us to hear it, why did he write it in 1 Corinthians 7? The satanic temptation begins in one’s heart when one marriage partner says to the other, “No, sleep on the couch.” At that very moment the satanic temptation begins to well up in the flesh. I want to tell you. Satan’s got enough out there who can catch it and take it further than you ever wanted to go. The road to destruction has begun.

I remind you of Ephesians 3:16-17 again. What He commands, He enables. He gives us ability to go through what His design is all about.

So a willingness to surrender one’s rights to their own bodies, a willingness to surrender one’s desire for sexual intimacy, and when you put it all together what’s the whole attitude? A willingness to surrender to God’s plan so that Satan might be defeated. The moment you die to self and submit yourself to Christ, that is your resistance to Satan and, as I said before, he is already defeated. His temptations fall right off deaf ears when you’re doing it God’s way. Read the directions.

You know men are the worst about reading the directions. No wonder he addresses the men first because we don’t pay attention to any directions. We can do anything. Who needs God? Several years ago I got my son a Big Wheel bike. They’ve got a little more sophisticated now. Now they’ve got motors and clutches and everything else. Back then they didn’t have all that. Stephen really wanted a Big Wheel. It was green. It looked like a turtle. It had yellow on it and big green wheels on it. It was an awful looking color. That’s the one he had seen and had kind of liked so we got it for him for Christmas. I’m putting the thing together on the night before Christmas. Why did I wait until the night before Christmas? It’s 3:00 in the morning and I’m trying to put this thing together. Diana so sweetly says, “Are you going to read the directions?” I don’t need directions. I can handle this. I remember putting all the stuff on there and when I got it finished I was so proud.

I pushed that thing out across the floor and it looked like a crippled duck. I’m wondering why did it do that? I thought, “Oh my goodness!” Underneath the directions were four little red sleeves and I thought of all places to be up under the directions. I looked at them and said

1 Corinthians 7:6-7

Should I Marry or Remain Single – Part 4

One thing I’m learning in chapter 7 is that a lot of people are not hearing what is being said in the context. They’re hearing 1 Corinthians 7:1-7 in light of their own personal experience or maybe from the experience of somebody that they know. They’re looking for 1 Corinthians 7:1-7 to answer all the questions they have regarding situations that they’re aware of. I want you to know straight out. 1 Corinthians 7:1-7 does not in any way pretend to be a complete teaching on marriage. It doesn’t cover all the bases. It doesn’t cover the attitude of the husband that he ought to love his wife as Christ loved the church. It doesn’t cover the attitude of the wife who submits herself to her husband. It doesn’t cover any of that. It is in a specific vein that Paul has now that he’s speaking what he says. If you want a complete teaching on marriage go to Ephesians 5.

In 1 Corinthians 7 we’re dealing with some questions that have been written to the apostle Paul, which we don’t have, which have to do with moral purity. That’s what Paul is addressing. So when you hear the teaching, hear it in the context from which it comes. Don’t hear it in a situation that you’re trying to help out and trying to figure out why Paul leaves out so many things. It’s not a complete teaching on marriage.

Someone said, many years ago, “You know, I’ve had a lot of sermons, good sermons, messed up by bad listening.” So you’ve got to hear it right if it’s going to do a work in your life.

The church of Corinth had a perverted view of sex, even in marriage. They equated sexual intimacy in marriage with immorality, which was in the pagan culture around them. As verse 5 said, they were weak in their flesh regarding immoral temptations that they were facing. It appears, from the statement in verse 1, when Paul said that it is good for a man not to touch a woman, that this even could have been a conclusion they came up with and a statement they were making in that time. The apostle Paul just re-quotes it as he has heard it. Perhaps that was in the questions that they wrote him when he says that it’s good for a man not to touch a woman. But his point is that not touching a woman, a man not touching a woman, is only true outside the marriage bond. He’s trying to make a difference here. It’s not immoral to touch one’s spouse.

We saw how the word “touch” is the word meaning to touch with sexual innuendo. In other words, it’s not just a simple touch. There’s a hug and there’s a HUG. We’ve said that. Someone said, and I can’t remember who it was that said, “The difference in a kiss and a KISS is two minutes.” There’s a difference here. You keep thinking about that and it’ll hit somewhere. The touch he’s talking about here is not just to hug somebody. It’s a touch with a sexual innuendo. And he says, “It’s not good for a man to touch this way a woman except in the marriage bond.” They had equated the sexual intimacy in marriage with the moral impurity of the society that was around them.

We come now to the last two verses of this little seven verse setting here. He’s talking about should I remain single or should I marry. Let’s read it together and there are two things I want us to get out of it. First of all, in verse 6 he says, “But this I say by way of concession, not of command.” Verse 7 says, “Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that.”

Marriage is not a command

There are two things here that we need to see. First of all, marriage is not a command. If a person was single in Corinth at that time and they were thinking, “Well, hey, the only way to escape immoral temptation is to get married. Marriage is a command.” No. Marriage, even though it’s God’s design, is not a command. Look at verse 6. “But this I say by way of concession.” The phrase “by way of” is kata, which means not only “by the way of” but “according to,” according to a measure of something.

The word “concession” is the word suggnome, and it’s only used right here. The King James Version translates it differently. Whereas the New American Standard said “concession,” the King James Version says “permission.” That throws a different light on it. Both of these translations show a different light on the same truth.

The light that comes from the King James is, “I’m saying this by way of indulgence. I’m embarrassed about having to talk to you about all of this, but I say it to you only by permission. I’m just giving you my advice. I’m not commanding you to do anything.” I don’t have any trouble with that: the difference of apostolic command and apostolic advice. But if it’s apostolic advice, it’s sanctified advice, because it’s the Word of God; it’s inspired by the Holy Spirit. So Paul is saying, “I feel a little nervous dealing with this kind of thing and I’m just kind of easing in.” That’s the idea that would come from the King James Version. I feel a little nervous. I don’t want to do this either. So I can understand why he didn’t want to write it.

But I think the New American Standard picks it up better. I like the approach it takes towards the text and the context better than the King James. The word suggnome, for instance, comes from two different words, the word sun, which means together with, and ginomai, which means opinion. It means sentiment or will, a purpose.

As a matter of fact, let me show where ginomai is used, because it’s important to understand this. Look in 1 Corinthians 1:10. We’re going to flip to several passages here, and I want to show you how the second part of this word is used. It kind of gives you an idea of what’s going on with the word. We’ve already studied this. It signifies a common agreement, something that two people can agree upon. It says in verse 10 of 1 Corinthians 1, “Now, I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.” It’s translated agree, agreement, a common agreement.

Look over in 7:25, the chapter we’re in, but further on down. Here it’s translated “opinion” and will be in the next several Scriptures that I quote from. Verse 25 reads, “Now concerning virgins I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion [that’s the word] as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy.”

Then drop down to verse 40. “But in my opinion she is happier if she remains as she is [I like that last phrase], and I think I also have the Spirit of God.” I’ve heard people say that to me before.

In 2 Corinthians 8:10 again it’s translated “opinion.” This is the second part of the word we’re looking at here in 1 Corinthians 7:6. It says, “And I give my opinion in this matter, for this is to your advantage, who were the first to begin a year ago not only to do this, but also to desire to do it.”

Look over in Philemon verse 14. It’s translated “consent” there. It’s interesting to see how the same word is translated differently in different places. “But without your consent [you see that idea of agreement here] I did not want to do anything, that your goodness should not be, as it were by compulsion, but of your own free will.”

Then in Revelation 17:13 and 17 it’s translated as “purpose.” So you see various ways in which the word ginomai is translated. When you add the little prefix sun to it, that changes the word. Sun means together with, so the idea of having sharing a common opinion with somebody; as we’ve seen, the word can mean opinion. It means to share a common understanding with someone. It means to share a common awareness of something. To me, that’s why the New American Standard translates the word “concession,” meaning, as a single man, Paul’s saying, “I’m conceding to a common agreement and a common opinion that marriage is God’s design. I’m saying this by concession. I’m saying this according to a common understanding, a common awareness.” That’s what he seems to be saying. “We have a common awareness that marriage is God’s design.”

But then he goes on to say, “But even though marriage is God’s design, marriage is not a command. You’re not commanded to get married; however, marriage is God’s design. Look at the rest of the verse. He says, “But this I say by way of concession, by mutual awareness. I’m conceding as a single man to agree with you that marriage is the design that God has. But I’m not saying this out of command. It’s not a command.” He has put marriage back in the priority that God wants it to be put in, but then he backs off and says, “Wait a minute! Marriage is not a command. God knows what’s best for each of us; and if you’re married, wonderful, if you’re not, wonderful. But it’s not a command to be married.” You can live a fulfilled life.

By fulfilled, I mean in the context of 1 Corinthians 7, you can live in victory over immoral temptations of your flesh because of the enabling grace of God that He has given to you. If you’re a single person, you’re not commanded to get married. You can have every bit of the fulfillment you’re looking for in life, but it won’t be found in marriage. It will be found in Christ. That’s where it always ought to be found.

So Paul is saying, “As a single man, I agree with you as a common opinion that marriage is God’s design but it’s not a command.” Fulfillment is not based upon whether you’re married or not, and victory is not based upon whether you’re married or not. Victory is Jesus and you don’t work toward it, you come from it. When you’re willing to do it God’s way, to live God’s way, God in you is the victory through you. To me, that’s what Paul is saying.

I wonder if you are single or maybe single again and you’re bitter and you’re fighting against the very circumstances of your life and saying, “God, I just can’t be fulfilled unless I’m married. I can’t be fulfilled unless I have children.” Is that right? You know, Diana shared something with me years ago. It kind of embarrassed me at the time. It kind of made me feel bad, but she didn’t mean to do that. She said, “You know, Wayne, when I first met you, I thought that when I met the right person for my life, that would bring great joy to me.” God just threw me as a grenade right into her life. She found out not long after we were married, that did not bring her joy.

Then not long after that she said, “You know, I thought it was when I had children.” Have you have gone through that? You think, “Oh, that’s what will make me happy. That’s what will fulfill my life.” When you have children, you discover within seconds that they don’t come gift-wrapped. They come as they are and you have to learn to live with that. Yes, there’s joy, but not what you thought.

Then there was a day she came to me years ago and said, “Wayne, I don’t think I’m saved.” I’ve never known anybody any better than my wife. She had just been a good person before she was saved and a better person after she was saved. I’ve just never known anybody like her. She doesn’t have any guile in her. I’m always the problem. God just knew who to put into my life. When she said, “I’m not saved,” I tried to talk her out of it. I said, “Why do you think you’re not saved?” She said, “Because.” We were having revival meeting that week. The preacher was in a luncheon session drawing circles on a board trying to show what it was to be saved and Christ living in you. She said, “I was sitting there watching him and God convicted me that I’m an unrighteous person. I’ve never seen myself as unrighteous before.” Immediately I backed off, because that has to happen before salvation. You have to know what you’re being saved from and being saved to. She was changed over night.

She’ll tell you today that the greatest fulfillment in her life is not her little granddaughter, although it’s real close. It’s not me and it’s not our children. The greatest fulfillment in my wife’s life today is the Lord Jesus Christ.

That’s what the apostle Paul is trying to say. You’re not commanded to be married. You’ve got to understand the mind-set of these people. They had perverted ideas toward sex, toward all this stuff. There were no examples in front of them so they just decided it’s better for a man not to touch a woman. Paul has to jump right in the midst of all that mud and mire and put it back into perspective. He says, “I can say to you it’s a common opinion. We all understand this. We all agree on it. Marriage is God’s design. You may not understand behind the bedroom door, but marriage is God’s design and we all agree on that. But it’s not a command, because your fulfillment is not dependent on being single or being married.” It’s dependent on your life. Live attached to Jesus Christ which has been the theme of all of 1 Corinthians. So, marriage is not a command.

Marriage is a gift from God

Now we come to the second part that I want you to see in verse 7. Marriage or singleness, whichever one you want to talk about, is a gift from God. I know some of you think it’s a booby prize, but it’s a gift from God. That’s what’s wrong with us, folks. We can’t see that all the good things that God gives to us in life many times involve pain. It involves struggle. But it’s a good thing that God gives us. We’ve already learned in 1 Corinthians that all things belong to us whether life or death or the world or whatever because we belong to Christ and Christ is God. So, therefore, we see it from a different perspective.

So he says here that either marriage or singleness, whichever one it is, is a gift from God. So where are you? The key is what does God want? He says in verse 7, “Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that.” When I first read this first phrase years ago, it caused me to come to a conclusion. I though Paul was saying, “I wish that all were like me, single.” That’s what I thought. It just made sense. It kind of fit the context. But the more I studied it, I changed my mind.

One can see why you would come to the conclusion that Paul was saying, “I wish you were all single like me.” Here’s a missionary. He’s traveled from place to place. He doesn’t have family. He doesn’t have any strings or anything to tie him down. Therefore, wherever he goes he’s free. He’s free as a bird to be whatever God wants him to be. So he says, “I wish you were all like me.” That would sound good.

There’s no doubt that he was single. He says in verse 8 of chapter 7, “But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I.” He’s talking about the state of singleness. So we know he was single. Surely that’s what he’s talking about? I want to approach it a little differently. Do you think he might be saying something else here? Let me just challenge your mind a little bit.

Back when we did the book of Ephesians, we introduced it by teaching the book of Acts. As a matter of fact, somebody recently wanted my Ephesians tapes and I said, “Be careful. You don’t want the introduction unless you want an extra hundred tapes.” We were introducing the book and did the whole life of Paul. If you know anything about Paul’s life, you know that marriage or being single was never a focus for him. It never mattered to him if he was married or if he was single. That was never the direction he was headed. That was never his thought process. His process and his focus was the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s turn to several Scriptures and let me document that.

Turn to Philippians 3:9. Here’s Paul. Here’s who we’re dealing with here. If he was single, fine. If he was married, fine. That’s not his focus, though. His focus was, “What does God want in my life?” He focused upon the Lord Jesus Christ in his life. In Philippians 3:9 he says that he only wants to be found one way. For years he wanted to be found having measured up to the Law they had come up with, those six hundred thirteen commandments. He would justify himself by that and then condemn everybody else. But he said, “Buddy, God’s changed me. The only way I want to be found now is to be found in Him Christ. Verse 9 says, “and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law [that’s quite a statement from the apostle Paul] but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith [why?], that I may know Him.” That means to experientially know Him.

Have you known Him this past week? Let me ask you a question. This past week did God put a brother in your life that you couldn’t love and you came before God and said, “God, I only want to be found in You. I only want to be found obeying You and, God, I choose to love this person.” And God began to create within you a love you’ve never experienced before, and you began to see that person in a different light. You weren’t seeing it through your eyes. You were seeing it through His eyes. Paul said, “That’s all I want. I just want to experience Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.” That’s his focus, not whether I’m married or single. That matters very little to Paul. What matters to him is the fact that he’s living surrendered to the One who saved him and living, experiencing Him day by day in his walk.

In Romans 1:1, listen to the words of the apostle Paul. He says, “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus.” Paul said, “Hey, I’ve given up my will. I don’t have a will anymore. I just want my will to be His will or rather I want His will to be my will. I want to choose what He wants me to choose. I’m a bond-servant.” The New American Standard translates it bond-servant because it’s a love servant. Paul says, “I don’t want to be just a slave and do what I do because I have to. I want to live as a love slave and do what I do because I want to. That’s the purpose of my life.” In Ephesians 3:1, as he writes from the same imprisonment that he wrote the books of Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, he doesn’t call himself a prisoner of the Jews who have falsely accused him. He doesn’t call himself a prisoner of the Romans who held him in bondage. He said, “Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, for the sake of you Gentiles.” He said in other words, “I chained myself to His chariot. I’m going to live in the victory only He can give to me. Wherever that chariot leads me, that’s fine with me.”

If you put that in the context of 1 Corinthians 7, if he leads me to be single, that’s fine. If he leads me to be married, that’s fine. My joy is in Him. It’s not in my circumstance. In 1 Corinthians 4, where we’ve already studied, we saw the motivation and the heart of the apostle Paul. He says in verse 3 of chapter 4, “But to me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself.” He says, “For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted [I’m not declared righteous by this. I’m not proven to be righteous by this]; but the one who examines me is the Lord.” That’s how he lived. In other words, if he ever had the desire to be married, he’d have to take it before the Lord and let God examine that desire. He didn’t want anything outside of what God wanted in his life.

First Corinthians 11:1 tells us he always wanted people to be imitators of his faith, not of him, but of his faith. He said, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” What did he mean by that? Christ lived to the pleasure of the Father. He lived to the pleasure of his Christ. Now, when you understand the focus of the apostle Paul, I think you can better understand what he’s saying when he says, “I wish that everyone was as I am. I wish that you could live the same way. Then, if you’re single, you’re not trying to get married. You’re just enjoying Jesus. But if marriage is what God wants, that’s fine. If you’re married, you’re not trying to get out of that marriage, you’re trying to let Jesus be glorified in your life in the midst of that marriage. You would just live daily focused and centered and attached on the Lord Jesus Christ. I wish everyone lived that way.”

Paul knew he had every right to marry. In 1 Corinthians 9:5 he says, “Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas [Simon Peter]?” Simon Peter was married. There was not a question of whether being married was alright. The question was, what does God want from me? What’s God’s direction for me and can I be fulfilled in Him, find all of my satisfaction in Him? That’s the key. I think what he’s saying here, then, is not, “I wish you were all single like me.” As a matter of fact, if you think about it, that doesn’t make much sense. If you’ll take the words literally. “I wish that every one [every one?] were single like I am” Number one, you just killed the whole purpose of God and procreation and everything else of marriage by saying that. I mean, he says “every one,” if you take it literally. I don’t think that makes any sense. I think he’s saying, “I wish you could live as I live attached to Jesus,” which was the whole theme of 1 Corinthians anyway. They were attached to everything but Jesus. If you’d just live as a vessel attached to Him, then whether you were single or married would really not make a difference. Sexual purity would never be a problem if people who were married and people who were single would live as Paul lived. It would never be a problem in the sense that we wouldn’t be falling to it all the time because we’d live in the victory that Jesus is in our life.

Marriage is a gift. Singleness is a gift. And it’s grace that enables them both. Look at verse 7 again. “Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that.” Now the word for “gift” there is charisma. It has the little ma on the end of it that’s different. Charis is grace. Charisma means the actual gift itself. It incorporates three ideas. First, the heart of the fact that God gave it when we don’t deserve it. Second, it incorporates the gift itself. And third, it incorporates the divine enablement of God to sustain that gift in our life, whatever it is. If God has given you the gift in the context of marriage, God will give you the grace to enable you to bear up in that marriage and be everything He wants you to be. If you’re single, then God will give you the grace. If He’s given you the gift, He’s given you the grace, the enablement to live single and be absolutely fulfilled in Him. He’s given you that grace.

So Paul says, “Each man has his own gift.” Isn’t it interesting that we think of gifts in 1 Corinthians only in light of chapters 12-14? We don’t think about the fact that under grace everything God gives to us is a gift. Remember back in 4:7? He says, “For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive (as a gift)? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” Everything we have as believers is a gift from God.

Contextually you have to put what he’s talking about here in the same category. The gift we’re talking about here is whether or not you’re married or whether or not you’re single. In the context the Corinthians were weak in their flesh regarding the temptations to sexual immorality. Paul is desiring that they experience God’s enabling grace to overcome the temptation that’s around them, whether single or whether married.

The term “each man” here is an interesting term. It’s hekastos, and it means each man separate and apart from the next man. This is interesting to me that in the context of marriage or singleness you have problems but what do we normally do? Pick up the phone and call somebody else whose gift and whose assignment is different from ours. They don’t understand where we are and we’re trying to get understanding from them instead of going to God and living the grace that God gives to us. That’s the way the world seems to revolve. That’s not what it’s all about. The specific gift God’s given, it’s tailor made, is the grace to live in that whether it’s single or whether it’s married.

The term idios means his own specific gift from God. So in the context, what is your gift? Is it singleness or is it being married? Well, whichever one it is, it’s tailor made for you and God will tailor make the grace to enable you to be what He wants you to be in that situation. With the grace comes enablement.

Here’s what I want to talk to you about for a little bit. I’m taking a side street. Grace is color-coded. Did you know that? That means if something’s blue, something blue goes with it. It’s very specific when it’s color-coded. When I worked for the telephone company years ago, they put me on as a cable-splicer’s helper. They sent me to Blacksburg, Virginia, and in one night’s time I knocked out over twelve thousand phone lines. They came to me and said, “We want to suggest to you that we believe God’s called you into the ministry. We don’t think God’s called you into the telephone business.”

I was on a line and I had a cable splice with big wires coming out of it. What’s red goes with red and what’s blue goes with blue and what’s yellow goes with yellow and what’s orange goes with orange. I’m just supposed to put the two colors that were the same together and crimp them. How hard can that be? It’s raining outside. I was on a pole thirty-one feet up with a little tent around me. It was dark in there and the light was dimming and I was by myself. It was the first time ever they left me on a pole by myself. Well, what was orange looked yellow to me and what was blue kind of looked a little purple. I started putting the wrong colors together and every time I’d crimp one I just killed a phone line or several phone lines. Like I said, by the time they got back I had knocked out half of Blacksburg, Virginia, and they strongly suggested I go into the ministry. Color-coded.

You say, “Why is that important?” Because grace is color-coded. In 1 Peter 4:10, he’s talking about gifts. “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another [here he’s talking about the service gift] as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” That’s the multi-colored grace of God. In other words, hey, whoa, that grace is color-coded. In James 1:2 we read, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.” Isn’t it funny? Over here it’s translated manifold, and over here it’s translated various, but it’s the same word in the Greek. Color-coded trials, poikilos is the word.

Put that back in the context of 1 Corinthians 7. You’re going through something and God’s gift to you is being married but your marriage is not working out very well. Okay, so you’ve got a trial. Boy, this is a red trial, isn’t it? Well, how am I going to do this? With the gift comes the enablement and it’s the same color tailor-made to what you’re going through.

In fact, if you want to have fun with this word, go over to Ephesians 3:10, and it puts in the category of wisdom, the manifold wisdom of God, multi-colored wisdom of God. God even will give you the wisdom of how to take what you already know from Scripture and practically apply to your life. So, hey, why would anybody be upset whether they’re single or married, regardless of their circumstance? If Jesus is their joy, they live like the apostle Paul, connected to Him, realizing that he says in Philippians 4:11, “I have learned in all circumstances to be content.” The word content means self-contained. He says, “I have learned that everything I need is within me, not without. I can find Him within me. He will sustain me. He will give me the joy.” The fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and everything I’m looking for. Why would that person ever be bothered about being either single or being married if he’s living the way he’s supposed to live. It doesn’t make any sense, does it?

Paul knew the color-coded grace of God, and he says, “I wish all of you would live as I am. I wish you would live like me and you could live in the victory you already have in Jesus Christ.” But in Corinth that would have been a difficult transition. That’s what the whole book is all about. If you’re married, live dependent upon the grace to enable you in that gift of marriage. If you’re single, live in the grace God has gifted you to live in the gift of being single.

Do you want just what God wants in your life? That’s the bottom line, whether you’re single or whether you’re married. I’ve always wondered who it is in the marriage relationship when it’s going bad that’s going to drop anchor? Who’s going to drop anchor? Everybody waits on the other one. Well, if he would, then I would. God says, “Do what? Why don’t you just go on and live like you’re supposed to live? I’ll give you all the joy you ever thought about having?” “Well, he’s getting worse.” “Okay, fine. I’ll just drive you to the cross and conform you more and more in the image of Christ because tribulation and trials works out patience in your life and the ability to bear up under.”

You see, if it comes back to the truth of what Christianity is, then whether we’re married or single doesn’t really matter. It’s whether or not we know Jesus and can live in the fullness of His joy day by day, by being surrendered to Him in the grace that He has.

I was thinking about Philippians 4:11. Everybody has Philippians 4:13 on their refrigerator and nobody pays any attention to it. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” But if you put verse 11 up before it, it might make a little bit more sense. “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am”—single or married or whatever.

In the context of marriage and re-marriage in Matthew 19, the Lord Jesus told His disciples that the only reason to put away their spouse is for fornication. That’s when His disciples said, “Good grief! Why get married?” That’s how bad it was at that time. But then He said to them in verse 11 of chapter 19, “Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given.” You see, it’s not for everybody. It’s for the person who’s married. Then he goes on down and talks about being a eunuch. He says, “Of course, this truth cannot be received by all.” I guess not. Only to those that God has spoken it to. So wherever you are, whatever gift God’s allowed in your life, wherever it is, He has the wisdom and the grace and whatever else it takes to be what God wants you to be. That’s the bottom line. It doesn’t matter whether you’re single or whether you’re married. Whatever God directs in your life, He’ll give you the grac

1 Corinthians 7:8-9

Should I Marry or Remain Single – Part 5

In 1 Corinthians 7:8-9 we’re going to look at “May I Marry or Should I Remain Single?” You say, “That’s what we’ve already looked at.” No, in verses 1-7 we looked at “Should I marry or remain single?” Now we’re changing gears a little bit: May I marry or remain single?

I want to share with you in entering in to the Scripture. It’s not as easy as you might think. When you just surface-read it, you get all kinds of thoughts out of it. But when you start studying it, you realize the depths that are here.

When I first came to this church I used to do all the baptisms, and now the staff does that. I’m so grateful, because it saves me a lot of suits. They had a pair of chest waders that were a size 11. I always felt like a hopeless cripple when I went out to baptize. I wear a size 13. So the feet were not big enough. I had my feet all cramped up in those things and they had holes in the waders. When I used to try to wear my suit under it, it was very embarrassing to come out and preach in a wet suit. The water would just seep into those boots.

I remember one day somebody forgot to turn the heater on in the baptistery. It was in the middle of the wintertime. When I walked out and stepped into it, I knew it was cold, but when that water started going through the holes in my boots, folks, it was cold. The precious little girl that was baptized that morning, when she walked out, she stepped into the water and her breath left her. I said, “Hurry. We’re going to do this quick, because I want out of here too.”

I tell that illustration because sometimes, when you’re studying Scripture, we all must remember I am not the authority. There may be some holes in my waders when I wade into the waters of 1 Corinthians 7. So, don’t ever take what I say as being the last word. You be a student of God’s Word. Be a Berean; check it out; see if it be so. And if it’s so, then reckon with it. I’m doing the best I can. It’s over my head. Thank God, what’s over my head is under His feet.

Here’s the way I see 1 Corinthians 7:8-9. Now, again, we have looked at in verses 1-7, “Should I marry or should I remain single?” We are looking at the answers to questions that we don’t have. In verse 1 of chapter 7 we read, “Now, concerning the things about which you wrote.” For some reason, in God’s sovereignty, He chose not to give us the letter they wrote to the apostle Paul. So we do not have the benefit of knowing what the questions were that they were asking Paul. All we know are the answers that he gives in return. It appears that the questions in verses 1-7 had to do with “Should I marry or should I remain single?”

Remember, some of these people were of Paul. Paul was a single man and, therefore, they became celibate and they told everybody, “Since Paul is this way, we’re going to be this way and that’s the way to be spiritual.” That’s ridiculous, and Paul begins to show us that in verses 1-7.

Evidently all the questions they were asking somehow centered around the perverted ideas they had of sex. For me to mention the word “sex” in open assembly in church with a mixed group, some people already begin to be horrified, and I’ll tell you why. Because as you were growing up, nobody distinguished in your mind between immorality and sexual intimacy in marriage, which is righteous, which is good, which is God ordained and which is blessed. There is a tremendous difference in that. You see, the Corinthians out of the perversion of their mind had even made the statement, “It’s good for a man not to even touch a woman,” because of their misunderstanding of this truth.

Paul picks up on that and he says in verse 1, “It is good for a man not to touch a woman.” But we understand what he’s saying. He makes a distinguishing difference here. He shows that in marriage, with a man and his wife, that truth does not hold water, because, in marriage, sex is something that God has ordained and it is good for a man to touch his wife. It’s different. But outside of marriage it’s not good for a man to touch a woman.

The word “touch,” as we saw, is the word that means with sexual intention. It’s not just a touch. For those of you that haven’t been here, we’ve been using the phrase, “There’s a hug and there is a HUG.” There’s a difference here. When Paul says that it’s good for a man not to touch a woman, he means with something else in mind. It’s not just a simple hug or touching somebody. That’s not what he’s talking about, except within the marriage bonds. There is a definite distinction.

I want to remind the parents, that if you don’t make that distinction with your children as you’re raising them up, of what immoralities are in verse 2 and what sexual intimacy is in marriage which Paul talks about in all of those verses, then that’s going to follow your child into their marriage relationship one day, and it’s going to pervert their whole view of what God says is right and what God designed for His people.

Well, beginning in verse 8, the apostle Paul seemed to shift gear. In verses 1-7, “Should I marry or remain single?” was based on a perverted understanding of what sexual intimacy was all about, even in marriage. But in verse 8, it’s different. It’s more the idea, “Can I marry or should I remain single?”

The first group he mentions in verse 8, as we read, are the unmarried. He says in verse 8, “But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I.”

Who are these unmarried? There are three terms in chapter 7 that caught my eye as I studied the whole chapter. First of all are the unmarried; secondly, the widows; thirdly are the virgins mentioned in verse 25, those who have never had sexual experience, those who have never been married. Now, that’s interesting to me, because it comes back to answering the question of who are the unmarried he speaks of in verse 8. He only addresses two verses to the unmarried and to the widows, and then in verse 10 he goes on to the married. Who are these unmarried?

The term “unmarried” is the word agamos. A means without, and gamos has to do with wedding or marriage; in other words, without marriage, not being married. It’s only found four times in the New Testament, all four times right here in this chapter. I believe the term defines itself as to who the unmarried are. I’ll tell you who I think they are, and I’ll show you why I think that. I think they are the divorced people who are writing questions to Paul and saying, “Can we marry or should we remain single?” He was talking about people who have never been married before, but here he’s talking about people who are in the state of not being married now, but have been in marriage. Then he adds widows to that, which have been married, but are in a different state of circumstances because of the death of a spouse.

Look down in verses 10-11 in chapter 7 and we see the second time it’s used. It says in verse 10, “But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband,” then in verse 11 in parenthesis he puts, “(but if she does leave, let her remain unmarried.).” That’s the same word, agamos. There the word is used in relationship to somebody who has been married before. They’re divorced and they have left their husband. So the term “unmarried” fits our description here.

In verse 32 there’s no clear distinction, although it’s used there. But look in verse 34. Verse 34 to me is even the clearest understanding that the group of people he’s addressing are the divorced people and the widows. Let me show you why. He has to qualify the term unmarried in verse 34. Why would he have to qualify that if it meant the same thing in both places? Look at what it says in verse 34. In the New American Standard it says, “and his interests are divided.” The translators are connecting the little word in that verse that means divide back to verse 33. I’m not going to mire you up into that, but they did a little different thing than what the King James translators did. I’ll show you that in a moment. “[A]nd his interests are divided. And the woman who is unmarried, and the virgin [now, that’s the same person here. Why? Look at the verb. It’s singular] is concerned.” Not “are”; we’re not talking about two people. The unmarried person here, he qualifies as a virgin, somebody who’s never been married, somebody who’s never had any sexual experience in their life. “[T]hat she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.”

The King James Version to me even makes it more clear. The King James Version in the same verse says, “There is difference also between a wife and a virgin.” Then it says, “The unmarried woman,” referring directly to the virgin here, “cares for the things of the Lord that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but she that is married [referring to the wife], cares for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.”

My point is this, if unmarried in verse 8 is the same as unmarried in verse 34, why is it that Paul had to qualify it and put the fact that this unmarried person is a virgin? She’s without sexual experience. She’s without marriage in the past. You see, there are obviously two situations here. In verse 8 he’s dealing with those who have been divorced, have been married and are now in the state of not being married. But in verse 34 he’s dealing with a lady who has never been married, never had any sexual experience in her life.

To further my case that he’s talking about the divorced and the widowed, he adds the widows to it. Why would he do that? He says to the unmarried and to the widows, “I say to remain in the state that I’m in.” Why would he say that? Well, he could be doing what God has done all through Scripture. He always honors the orphan and the widow. God says, as a matter of fact, in Psalms 68:5, the psalmist speaks of God that He is a father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows. He’s God in His holy habitation. That’s the character of God. God especially ministers to these two groups of people because they have no help. God becomes a father and a husband, if you please, to those who are widowed. He becomes the fulfillment, the satisfaction, and the sufficiency to these people when the one they depended upon has been taken out of their life.

He could be doing that. Paul could just be saying, “Hey, out of the unmarried, there are the widows.” But he could be doing something else. This, to me, supports what I’ve been trying to say. He could be distinguishing between the widows and the divorced; because both of them had been married before, but they’re unmarried now, but because of different circumstances. The widow is unmarried because of the death of a spouse. To no fault of her own, her husband is dead, and, therefore, she’s a widow. However, the other person has been divorced. She’s been married. There was fault in this situation on someone’s part and now she is in the state of being unmarried. So to support my case and to follow that line, hoping there’s no holes in my waders as we wade into the water of 1 Corinthians 7, I believe in verses 8 and 9 he’s referring to those who have been married before and they’re asking the question, “Can we marry or should we remain single?” There are older widows, and these are people who have been divorced.

How do I know they’re older widows? 1 Timothy 5:14 says, “I say to the younger widows to get married, have children because that’s best for you.” So these have to be older widows, older people who their husband has been deceased. And he speaks to them in a very special way. There are several things I think we need to understand from his teaching here. Now, remember, there are three classes of being single which he addresses in chapter 7. One is single again, having been divorced. Two is single again, having been widowed. Three is single, never been married, a virgin, never had any sexual experience whatsoever. So the apostle Paul, answering the question addressed to him by these people, makes the statement, “it is good for them if they remain even as I.” He refers to his single state that he is in.

Let me throw something at you. You might want to chew on it. If that’s correct, and I think it is, then could Paul be saying that he was once married but perhaps has been divorced since he became a Christian from being a Pharisee or perhaps widowed? You say, “Where does that come from?” I just read the verse to you. “I say to the unmarried and to widows that you remain even as I.” “Even as I” is an important statement right there.

Many people think he was part of the Sanhedrin, and to be a part of the Sanhedrin you had to be married. So could Paul have been married? He says in Philippians, “I have suffered the loss of all things.” Could the “all things” happen to be a wife somewhere along the way? We don’t know that. By the way, I just said that to give myself a break and to see if you’re awake. There’s no way in the world you can prove that either way you go, so don’t jump on that and decide that you’re intelligent. You’re going to show how unintelligent you are by even taking up the argument. You cannot prove it. We don’t even know for a fact that Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin. So you have to be real careful how you handle stuff like that. However, it was fun to say.

Accept the fact that marriage is good

Alright, let’s look at the three principles that Paul is bringing to these people who have been divorced or been married before, widows. They ask, “Can we remarry or should we remain single?” First of all, Paul says to this particular group of people, “Accept the fact that marriage is good.” Now, we’ve got to understand that statement here. That’s what he says. He says, there in verse 8, “to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I.”

“It’s good for you.” I’m already feeling some of you saying, “Yeah, that’s good for Paul to say and for you to say, but I’ve got a different slant on that whole thing.” Let’s look at it. There are two things we need to be reminded of that we’ve already studied in verses 6 and 7. One, that in verse 6, Paul showed us that it is not a command to get married. Even though marriage is God’s idea, it’s His idea, it is not a command. God never makes a command, “Yes, you get married.” No, that’s not the way it works. He leads each one of us individually to the fact of whether we’re married or whether we’re single. Understand that. If you’re not married, you’re not breaking some command of God.

Secondly, in verse 7 of chapter 7, he said in the last part of the verse that being married is a gift and being single is a gift. With the gift goes the grace enablement to bear up under whatever state that we’re in. Paul knew this grace. He says in Philippians 4:11, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I find myself.” This is why he says to them in verse 7, “Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am.” Many people have translated that to mean that Paul says, “I wish you were all single.” That makes no sense whatsoever. Being single or being married was never the focus of the apostle Paul. Paul’s focus was to be a vessel usable to Christ as long as he lived. That’s all he wanted to be, a vessel usable to Christ as long as he lived, surrendered to Christ. That’s all the focus of Paul.

Paul is saying, “Listen, those of you who are single, if you would spend as much time developing a relationship with Christ as you do looking for a mate, and people who are married, if you would spend as much time developing intimacy with Christ before you expressed intimacy with one another, then we could rid ourselves of all these questions. I wish you were all like I am.” That’s what he’s saying. Whatever state you find yourself, let Jesus be the focus of your life. Let Jesus be your sufficiency. Let Jesus be your fulfillment. That’s what he was saying.

In verse 8, having said that, he now addresses those who had been married before and are now in an unmarried state. He takes that truth right into the verse. He wants them to see, not only is it good, it’s a gift. When he says, “even as I,” he refers to the fact that he is single and he’s saying, “Listen, it’s good for you to remain even as I am. It’s good for you. God’s will is always good.” This is what’s difficult to hear sometimes.

It says in Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Now, in this perfect will of God, in this good will of God that renders some people unmarried who have been married before, we find the widows. That’s a very sensitive thing. To the widow, God is saying to you, “I love you, but I have chosen out of the goodness of my heart to take your loved one on through the valley of the shadow of death before you have to walk through it. But I want you to know I’m orchestrating your circumstances. I am there to be your sufficiency. Wrap yourself around Me. Surrender yourself to Me and follow Me and discover the joys of being about My business until I come for you.” So it’s a good thing. To widows, it’s not as if God’s out to get you. He’s not out to hurt you. He says it’s a good thing that you are unmarried. He didn’t say that it’s a painless thing. He said it’s a good thing.

The point is, if you’re unmarried for whatever reason, do not fight it. Receive it as a gift from God. You see, that’s our problem. What God says is good, we say is bad. You see, we have to see it from our point of view. That’s what humanistic thinking does. That’s exactly what it does. Humanistic reasoning always questions what God does. But if we back off of that and receive it as a gift, call it what God calls it, it’s good, it’s profitable for me, then we begin to understand the truth of what Paul is saying. You must accept your being unmarried as a good gift from God and with it receive the enablement that comes with the gift.

The word for gift in verse 7 is charisma. It has to do with the giver, the heart of the gift, the gift itself, the divine enablement that accompanies the gift. It’s all in one package. So this state that you’re in, whether you’re married or whether you’re single, is a gift by God; and in that gift is the enablement to bear up under it, to endure it, and to live fulfilled in Christ until He changes your situation. Therefore, the state of being unmarried has your best in mind. God allows it in your life. He either orchestrated it or allowed it for your good. It’s the best for you.

Now, the word for good is very important to understand. It’s the word kalos. In this context, and several I’m going to show you, it has the idea of meaning profitable. It’s profitable for you. Again, he didn’t say it’s painless, but he said it’s profitable for you.

Go over to Matthew 18:8. I want to show you how this word is used as meaning profitable and, again, not painless but profitable. Matthew 18:8 says, “And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you [kalos, that’s the word right there], to enter life crippled or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the eternal fire.” Verse 9 uses the same analogy. “And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and throw it from you. It is better for you, kalos, to enter life with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into the fiery hell.”

Now go back to 1 Corinthians and look in chapter 9 and verse 15. He uses this word again in the sense of being profitable for you. If you’re unmarried today but you’ve been married before, whether you’re a widow or you’ve been divorced, understand it’s good for you to be unmarried. It is profitable for you to be unmarried in the state that you’re in. It’s even a gift and God gives you the enablement to bear up under it. First Corinthians 9:15 says, “But I have used none of these things. And I am not writing these things that it may be done so in my case; for it would be better for me, kalos, to die than have any man make my boast an empty one.” So, the word means to profit somebody. When Paul says, “It’s good for you to remain even as I,” he’s not saying it’s painless; he’s saying it is profitable for you.

Now, profitable for what? He says, “even if you remain as I.” The word “remain” is the word that means to abide in something. When my parents wanted me to stay still, they would say to me, “Wayne Allen,” and my daddy would draw an imaginary circle and say, “Wayne Allen, you stay right inside this circle and don’t you move.” In other words, you stay there. It’s going to be profitable for you to stay there, to remain inside that circle, to remain unmarried as the text is telling us. It is profitable to remain.

I can hear the wheels turning. You’re either widowed or you’ve been married before and you’re unmarried right now and you’re saying, “Yeah, profitable. What do you mean profitable?” Let’s let the Scripture speak for itself. Look down in verse 32 of chapter 7. Paul shows you one of the ways in which it profits you to remain unmarried. Can I marry or remain single? The apostle Paul is saying, “Hey, if you’re unmarried, having been married before, it’s better to stay in the state that you’re in.” Why can it be better? How can it be profitable for me? He says in verse 32, “But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord.” In other words, there’s nothing hindering him. There’s nothing pulling his attention from this to that. He lives his life totally focused on pleasing the Lord.

Does that mean a married person can’t do that? No, no; that’s not what Paul is saying. We understand exactly what he’s saying. If you’re married, I’m sure you have a perfect wife or a perfect husband. I’m sure you have a perfect finance’, and I’m sure you have perfect children and I’m sure that your whole life is just spent in one merry, wonderful time of just pleasing the Lord. Yeah, right. If you say it is, I want to talk to you. We need to get your interview on tape, because you’re the only one I’ve ever known who’s that way.

The apostle Paul is not saying it’s impossible, but he’s saying when you’re married, there are a million things that can pull you off the track from just serving the Lord. But if you’re single, it’s profitable. You can wrap yourself up in Christ. You can just surrender to Him, focus on Him, be about His work and nothing hinders you in any way. It’s profitable for you to remain single.

My mother was 55 years old when my father was taken. He was sixty when he went on to be with the Lord. I was 23. For the next 15 years Mom had sort of like seasons which came into her life. The first five years she grieved. Oh, she grieved at my dad’s death. Grief is a clean wound, but it takes times to heal. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s not sinful. That’s just reality. I remember one day when she had come down with leukemia and she was in the hospital and she called me. She said, “Wayne, the most awesome thing just happened to me.” I said, “What happened, Mom?” Because every time I called it was what was wrong and everything was bad and I got to where I didn’t even want to call home any more because she was so depressed. She said, “Wayne, it was like Jesus was in the room with me today. The room was so filled with the glory of God. Wayne, I wept and wept and wept. It was like God just came into my room to let me know it’s okay.”

She said to me, “Wayne, it was like God said to me, ‘Everything is okay. I am everything you need. You don’t need anything else.’” Do you know what we were doing as her kids? Running around trying to play cupid. We thought it was cute. We’re trying to find Mama a mate. Mother didn’t want a mate. Mother didn’t need a mate. Mother needed to learn what Paul said, “It’s good for you to be unmarried. You can focus in on Him and find a fulfillment you have never, ever know before.” We always jump to conclusions.

Paul says, “Hey, I didn’t say it was going to be painless. I’m telling you it’s profitable for you to remain even as I am.” So if you’ve been married before, understand it can be profitable for you to remain unmarried. Stop trying to help everybody get married. If God wants it, God will order it. Leave them alone. Let God be their sufficiency.

Accept the fact that your sexual desires must be under control

The second thing he says here, not only to accept the fact that being unmarried is good, but to be unmarried they must accept the fact that their sexual desires must be absolutely under control. I want you to understand something. Every question you have is not going to be answered here. You’ve got to realize Paul was being asked questions that were written in to him. He’s trying to give them an answer.

Have you ever been in that situation? I go into meetings all the time and they say, “Wayne, will you let us ask you some questions?” I do that periodically, and all of a sudden I’m giving answers and I’m thinking as I’m answering it, “Good night! I’m not covering this at all. Man, there are so many other things I wish I had said.” That’s 1 Corinthians 7. This is not a complete teaching on anything. However, it gives us some sound principles to stand upon.

He says in verse 9, “But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn.” Now, that’s interesting. After telling them that it’s profitable for them to remain unmarried, he turns right around and puts a balance into his teaching by bringing up some stark reality.

Folks, he says, “But if they do not have self-control.” The “they” refers to the unmarried. The word “self-control” means to be in authority over something, so much so that you control it. Of course, what he’s talking about is their sexual desires. In the secular Greek, it’s not only used in sexual appetites, but it’s used in physical appetites like going on a diet. They had no control over their physical appetites. Well, here is the appetite for sex. And he says, “Hey, if you’re going to remain single, it’s profitable, but you’ve got to remember something. You’ve got to be in control of your sexual desires because you’re going to have them and you’re going to have to learn how to control them and how to live with them.”

You see, we’ve got to learn God gave us sexual desires. However, sin perverted them. I had a young person come to me in a camp one time. He said, “Man, that’s great! I lust and that’s okay, because God gave me that lust.” I said, “He did not. He gave you a pure, righteous, sexual desire and sin perverted it and made it into lust.” That’s what we’ve got to understand. God didn’t make us the way we are, but He did give us the sexual desires. The fact that we have sinned made us the way we are. That’s why we have to let Jesus overcome us daily, which is the message of grace we preach. Here’s all the proof that you need of the intensity of the sexual desire in a person. It must be put under control.

Any one who has studied Romans 6 and 7 know that the apostle Paul had to deal with the desires of his flesh but he learned how to live up under grace and the controlling power of the Holy Spirit of God. The natural man is what you and I were before we got saved, and the natural man was given sexual desires. It was already perverted after Adam sinned in Genesis 3.

Look back in 1 Corinthians 2:14. It’s important that we see this. He says, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” Now, he has these sexual appetites, but he has no control over them because he can’t receive the things of God. Only God can give us victory over the perversion of our sexual desires. Only He can make them right. Only He can channel them the right way.

The word “natural” in verse 14 of 1 Corinthians 2 translates the Greek word, psuchikos which comes from the word psuche, which means soul. The psuche is the part of man that is immaterial that enables him to relate to the natural world around him. In other words, it’s the animalistic part of us. Animals have the same type of things. They have instincts. They have an ability to relate to the world that’s around them. The thing that separates us from all other creation is that God has given us a spirit, and it’s in our spirit His spirit comes to dwell.

A natural man, when he’s not in control of his desires, lives as an animal. He satisfies his sexual desires any time any way he wants to with nobody giving any control over it, just like a dog would in a pack. That’s the man without Christ. That’s all he has. He cannot control these desires. They’ve been perverted because of sin. That’s why Jesus said in 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”. That word for “life” there is this little word psuche.

What He’s saying is unless man is willing to put that which is the animalistic part of him under the control of the Holy Spirit of God, how in the world does he think he can be My disciple? He can’t follow me obeying the whim of every desire that he has. He’s got to be willing to lay that down. He’s got to be willing to turn his back on that. He’s got to be willing to just surrender and focus upon Me. We live in bodies that have sexual desires and when we are not under the control of God the Holy Spirit these desires are free to be expressed as they will.

Now, back in our text the word in verse 9 for “if” is a very important word. He says, “if anyone cannot control his desires.” The “if” there is a hypothetical “if.” He’s referring to the unmarried. He’s saying that some of these people who are unmarried have been married before, whether widowed or divorced, and they’re not going to be able to conquer these sexual desires that they now have. Now, that’s an oxymoron to say they can’t, because they can. You know what an oxymoron is. It’s interesting how you put those two truths together. They have the victory. The victory is Christ. The problem is they won’t live in it. They just won’t. They choose not to. As a result of that, they’re constantly stumbling and stumbling because of this sexual desire that burns within them. There are going to be that exception to the rule. There are going to be those. That’s just reality. I wish I could say that every Christian lives in the victory God has for them. But every Christian doesn’t live that way. He says, “But if they do not have self-control.”

The word “not” is the absolute word for not. It means if they do not in any way, shape, or form

1 Corinthians 7:10-14

Contents

1 Should I Stay Married? – Part 1

1.1 The authority of the apostle

1.2 The absolute will of the Lord

1.3 The anxiety of those living in a split family

Should I Stay Married? – Part 1

In verse 10 Paul changes gears. He moves from the single question, of whether they should marry, to people who are married. The title is, “Should I Stay Married?” The answer covers verses 10-18. Before entering into Paul’s answer, we must again remember the culture of these people. I think sometimes we forget this. We don’t realize what the pagan culture was like in Corinth.

Remember, if you were in some other place in Greece and you were acting perversely and immorally, they said that you were acting like a Corinthian. That’s how bad it was there. It was one of the most wicked and immoral cities in the world at that time. You can go there now and there’s a room with artifacts in a museum which they will not let you into because they’re so embarrassing to the public. They won’t even let you see what’s there, all the venereal disease, etc., that went on in Corinth that time.

But these people have been saved out of that kind of culture. They live amongst these other people every single day. As we said earlier, there were four types of marriages that were permitted, according to historians, during that day. One was that of slaves. When a slave wanted to marry another slave, it was a matter of love to them but it wasn’t a matter of that to their owner. The owner could do whatever he wanted to do. It was a very inhuman, very subhuman type of thing. He could end the relationship, switch partners, do anything he wanted to do because he owned them. Some of them had come out of that kind of background, for sure, because it was going on during that day.

Two, there was a form of common law marriage that if you live together for a year, the law recognized you as husband and wife. Three, was a special kind of arranged marriage when a father would sell his daughter to a perspective husband. Four was for the nobility, much more elevated. As a matter of fact, this was adopted right into the Roman Catholic church, went over to Protestantism, and it’s the kind of ceremony you go to every time you have a friend who gets married. Almost step by step—the maid of honor, the best man, the whole thing, the ring on the third finger—all of that took place right here. It was a part of the custom for that day. That was the nobility of Corinth in that time.

Well, the early church had members who had been saved who had come out of all four kinds of those marriages, for sure. Divorce was common. Any time that you would stand in the pulpit in the church at Corinth, there would be many, many people who had multiple marriages and multiple divorces. So there were a lot of questions. You’ve got to realize this. These were honest questions, questions of people who say, “We want to do it right, but what is right? What does God have to say to us?” They didn’t have all the Scriptures put together as we have. They did have the apostles, and the apostles were penning that Scripture even as they spoke. But they wanted to know, what is the answer to the dilemma that we now find ourselves in?

Now, there are two things in out text that we’ve got to nail down. One is, he is dealing with married people, not people living in any kind of illicit relationship, common law, or whatever. They are by law seen as married. It says there in verse 10, “But to the married I give instructions,” so this is who it is written to, people who have been married or are married.

Secondly, we need to understand the marriage contract between two individuals, though made in the state of unbelief, does not become void when one gets saved. You see, you can’t get saved and say, “Oh, therefore any man in Christ is a brand new creature so, therefore, I can divorce my husband or divorce my wife, find me another believer and we can go right on.” No, it does not work that way. Well, we shall see what we’ll learn.

Do you see what happens? When you get saved, it doesn’t change your circumstances. It changes you internally and eternally, and as a result of that, gives you a new perspective towards your circumstances, whatever relationships you have. They then become affected by your new life in Christ. It doesn’t necessarily change the external circumstances around you. So, these two things need to be kept in mind as we approach what Paul is about to say.

The authority of the apostle

First of all, we want to look at the authority of the apostle. Do you know what you call a man who can step out in front of thirty Mack trucks on a three-lane superhighway, hold his hand up and every one of them stop? What do you call that man? You call him a policeman. All he has to do is hold up a badge. Now, that badge is a signal of his authority that has been given to him by somebody else, not only his authority, the orders that come with it. He’s doing what he’s told to do and he has the authority to back him up. So he has a badge. That’s what you call that man. He is relaying to you what somebody else has commanded him to do. And because of the badge, he has that authority.

With that thought in mind, look at verse 10. Paul says, “But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord.” Now, in verse 1 of chapter 1, we saw that Paul was an apostle by the will of God. What is an apostle? The word apo, away from stolos, means to send, to send away from with a message, like an ambassador. But in the sense of the apostle Paul and the apostle James and the apostle John, through which we get the penned New Testament, what we have here is much more of an office, much more of an official sense of authority. They had the badge of authority that Christ Himself had given to them.

The only way we have apostles today is in a more generic sense. I’ve been misunderstood, I think, by some of the things I have said. When I say there are no more apostles, there are no more prophets, what I mean is not in the sense of the apostle Paul, not in the sense of the apostle John, not in the sense of the apostle James, no sir. Because we have the Word of God. And it’s through these men that have been given the badge of authority by Christ Himself through which we get the Word of God. But in a more generic sense certainly there are apostles, those sent forth, certainly there are prophets in that sense of the word but not in the official sense, not with the badge, not like these guys. They represented the One who had commanded them and were simply relaying what He had ordered them to relay. So that’s where I stand on that. What I’m talking about is, in the official sense that they had, we don’t have apostles like that.

Nobody can say put something in God’s Word, although there are those who are doing it, because it is sealed. It is there. It is written. God has spoken it. We have the Word of God. There are no people carrying a badge who can add to it in these days. But the apostle Paul was in the office of an apostle. He had the badge of authority given to him by Christ Himself.

Well, in verse 10 it says, “But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord.” Now, the word “instructions” is important. It’s the word paraggello. It means to pass on an announcement, to give the word to somebody nearby, to advance an order. An order that has been given, you take and advance. To give a charge or a command. The word is used in the military of a chain of command, how a commander gives the order and takes it to his staff sergeant. He takes it and relays it to the troops. But the order came from back here.

So what Paul is saying here is, “I’m saying this to you not me. It’s not my opinion. This comes from God. I’m simply an apostle. I’m relaying it to you.” I know I’m camping out here for a minute, but I want you to see the picture. Don’t look at the apostle Paul and pat him on the back. Look at the One who commanded him and Whose orders he’s relaying to the people.

I went to a military school after I finished high school. Hargrave Military Academy. It sounded good to me. We’d get to wear these uniforms, cute little things with a stripe down the side. I thought that was going to be fun. Fun? Are you kidding? Man, you had an imaginary line drawn at the edge of your bed. You had to put your shoes a certain way and had to set them a certain way. Your clothes had to be hung one inch apart from the other. They measured them in inspection. They took a quarter and flipped it on your bed and made it bounce. If it didn’t bounce, they gave you what they called these work chores. They called them gigs. The first time they ever gave them out I got forty instead of one. Each one of them was an hour of work or running. I was in the best shape I’ve ever been in my life when I was in military school. The cadets knew me, not because they had been introduced to me in any way, but they had seen me running the circle. They’re marching and I’m running with my rifle over my head. I spent all the time in the world doing that.

On Saturday morning at about 10:00 they had an official inspection. You had to be in full uniform, standing by your bed at attention at 10:00. They’d come in, call you to attention, and go through and check everything that you had and make sure it was done according to the manual.

One Saturday I had gotten into a water fight with the two lieutenants who were over our barracks. I was in a special barracks. They had hand-picked people to be in that barracks. How I got in, I don’t know. I think they read somebody else’s resume and thought it was mine or whatever, but I was in there. I mean, you can’t take this stuff too seriously. You take it too seriously, you’d go nuts. So I had to come up with something light-humored all the time. I got into a water fight with the two lieutenants. They didn’t have to stand inspection. I did. I forgot what time it was. We started about 8:00. We were just throwing water and brooms. I had a pair of gym shorts on and that’s it. I was bare-footed. That’s all they had but they didn’t have to stand inspection. We were supposed to be in full uniform at 10:00. I forgot what time it was. I got the fire extinguisher off the wall and was spraying them. I used all the pressure in that thing. I had foam all over me and all over them.

I was outside just having the best time and all of a sudden I heard somebody inside the house say, “Room, attention!” I’m thinking, “Oh, no! I’m supposed to be at my bed at attention.” I walked in the room.

When I walked in the door with that fire extinguisher with foam all over me and a pair of shorts on and everybody’s standing there at attention, I could hear one of my dear friends, Gene Ould, laughing but he was trying to hide it. But with a low voice he couldn’t hide it. I walked over and pulled myself up right where I was supposed to be. I sat the fire extinguisher down and snapped to attention. That particular day the guy who was doing the inspection was the commander, the big top guy. I mean, the one who orders it all. I played football with him and on the football field we were equal, but not when it came to this. Flip was his nickname. Flip was standing there looking at me trying his best to stay serious and he could not do it. His lip was quivering. He would turn to the staff sergeant, relay to him what to tell me. The staff sergeant would then speak it to me. But he couldn’t say anything to the staff sergeant. He just started laughing. Well, everybody in the room started laughing. The whole staff which was with him started laughing. He finally turned around and said, “Aw, forget it!” and walked out the door. Everybody was much appreciative of my humor on that particular day.

But, you see, somebody starts the order. It’s relayed through somebody else and then relayed to others. That’s the idea of an apostle. It’s God’s command. It’s not Paul’s command. It’s God’s command. He, as an apostle, holds his badge up and says, “You’ve got a question? I’ve got an answer, but it didn’t come from me. I represent the One who it comes from.” Paul is simply relaying what our Lord Jesus had already taught in Matthew 19. Folks, this is where you’ve got to understand something. When you come to the Word of God, it has authority in your life. And until you’re willing to bow up under it, you’re not going to realize the benefits of what faith will bring you.

Matthew 19:6 is a very significant passage. “Consequently [speaking of a married couple], they are no longer two, but one flesh. [Just like Genesis said.] What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” I want to tell you something. The law of the state of Tennessee did not legally make your marriage lawful. It did not do it. Yes, it did. But what you’ve got to think about is, it’s not the state of Tennessee; it’s God Who makes marriages lawful. You’re not a Christian? So be it. God is the One Who makes it lawful. That’s the thing that you’ve got to remember. When you shift gears and you want to get out of that marriage or whatever, you’ve got to come back and reckon with what God has to say. Once He seals it as law, it’s sealed and that’s what you’ve got to see. Paul is saying, “Hey, I’ve got an answer to that, but it comes straight from God. I hold my badge up and here it is. She should not leave her husband.”

Then next verse reads, “He should not send his wife away.” That’s it. That’s God speaking. Now, I know that the culture doesn’t like that. But that’s what God said, you see. They have become one. What God has joined together, let no man put asunder. “But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband.” Verse 11 says that the husband should not send his wife away. This came from the highest authority. This came from the highest command, you see. It came from God Himself, passed on and relayed by the apostle Paul. So if you see the authority of these apostles. Buddy, when they spoke, they spoke under the influence of the Spirit of God.

The absolute will of the Lord

Secondly, I want you to see the absolute will of the Lord that comes out in this verse. He says in verse 10, “But to the married I give instructions; not I, but the Lord [here it is], that the wife should not leave her husband.” There are two words for “not.” In English we have one word and that’s our problem. I’m not trying to change anything. I’m just trying to show you that when you take another language and put it into our language, it’s going to change. It’s not going to always be clear. The word ou is the word that means absolutely not, in any way, shape, or form, forget the circumstances. You may find a place or two but that’s the understanding of the word. Basically it’s an absolute word for not. Then there’s the little word men. It’s a relative “not.” In other words, it’s not as absolute as the other one is.

The word that is used here is the word men, not the word ou. The relative use of the word is found here in this text, that the wife should not leave her husband. Now, that very fact leaves it sort of iffy in a sense. There’s a contextual understanding here. It’s interesting that the very fact a wife might leave her husband comes up in the next verse.

Verse 11, “but if she does leave.” Do you see the relativeness of what he’s saying here? Now, we all know, or I hope you do, that our Lord gave an exception clause when it comes to marriage. It was never a command. It was a permission that our Lord Jesus gave. Look over in Matthew 19:9. Let’s just read it right out of what He said. I want to make sure you understand. I did not write this. This came from the commander. He did give an exception to the fact that the two shall always be one. There shall never be a departing of either the two. Matthew 19:9 says, “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife [context clear], except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.” Nothing could be any clearer to me. I don’t know. There are some people I know who take that verse and do everything you can think of to make it say what they want it to say. The Scripture is like a prisoner of war. You persecute it long enough and it will say whatever you want it to say. So you hang around long enough and you can make it into a cookbook if you want to.

What did He say? “Except for immorality.” The word “except” in the Greek means except. It’s not written in by a translator. It’s actually there. Except, except. Now, listen. To ignore that is to make a serious mistake in your understanding of what God is teaching in His Word. It’s permitted, but it’s not commanded. That was the whole issue. As a matter of fact, in Matthew 19, the Pharisees came to Him and said that Moses commanded them to get a writ of divorcement. Jesus said, “I beg your pardon. He permits you out of the hardness of your heart.” You see, when adultery or immorality occurred, the penalty of the Old Testament Levitical law was to be stoned to death. It’s only by God’s grace that there’s a permission here. By the way, if that wife was divorced and had not committed adultery, she had to be given a writ of divorcement to prove to people that she had not been unfaithful to her husband. Otherwise she had nothing to defend herself. So it’s a very tricky thing that we’re dealing with here. There is an exception.

Paul does not mention this at all. Perhaps he felt they already understood that. I don’t know. But he doesn’t mention it at all. He says in verse 10, “But to the married I give instructions.” Now, the term “married” there seems to refer to true believers. You say, “How do you know that?” Look in verse 12 and you’ll see. Verse 12 says, “But to the rest I say.” Everything he says in verse 12 has to do with a believer and an unbeliever living together. So, evidently, when they’re in a category by themselves, what he’s talking about in verse 10 here has to do with two believers who are married.

The word used for “leave” is the word chorizo, which means to sever something. She’s taking the action on herself in verse 10. It’s in a passive voice, but it’s in the middle understanding. Middle voice means she of herself is severing her relationship with her husband. “Divorce, if you please.” She’s leaving him, divorcing him. Paul says, “I’m telling you this from the Commander. Don’t leave your husband. You should not leave your husband.”

To this situation, Paul says in verse 10 that a wife should not leave her husband. Crystal clear. In verse 10, Paul indicates it is the woman and not the man who is the initiator of the divorce. She is leaving him. But in the last of verse 11 the man is the initiator. It says in verse 11, “and that the husband should not send his wife away.”

There are two verbs that are used here. Chorizo means to sever a relationship, but the word used in verse 11, aphiemi, is a different word. It means to send somebody away. It’s a word that is used in other contexts even of forgiveness of sins, when you put the guilt upon that scapegoat and send it away never to return.

So in verse 11, we have the situation of a man sending his wife away. That’s interesting. The wife leaves either way. In verse 10 she walks away. In verse 11 she’s sent away. That’s just like a man, isn’t it? He’s too lazy to leave, so the wife either leaves or he sends her away. But in both cases she leaves. Neither reason, the woman’s severing her ties with her husband or the husband sending her away, is biblical, because adultery is never mentioned.

So, in other words, here are two believers. One decides one day, “I’m sick of you. You burned the toast and I’m tired of it. You’re never on time and besides that, I’ve been living with you for a while and I found one that looks better than you. Therefore, you get out of here.” He sends her away. Or in the other situation the woman says, “You don’t make enough money. You’re not popular enough. I’m leaving you.” No biblical grounds whatsoever. So, therefore, we have a sinful situation here and Paul is trying to correct it and set the people back right. There’s only one biblical way in which divorce is even allowed and that is immorality, which includes adultery, homosexuality, and incest. It is a sexual relationship you have with somebody other than your wife or your husband outside of marriage. Now, it’s not commanded. It’s permitted. Reconciliation is always the bottom line of what God says. But in this situation Jesus did say, “Except for immorality.”

I’ll tell you what happens. We try to jump in and play the role of the Holy Spirit of God because we don’t want to see anybody divorced. Neither does God. That’s His standard. We try to help Him out. Folks, just let God do His own work and let’s just say what Jesus said. Jesus said, “Except for immorality.”

Now, the problem in Corinth, like it is today, was many wives had wrongly left their husband. What do you do? You know, it’s interesting to me. Divorce doesn’t become the real issue. Do you know what the real issue is? Remarriage, not divorce. People can come here and say, “What do you think?” We can tell them, and they can walk out and slam the door and spit in our face. They’ll find another church, and they’ll tell them exactly what they want to hear. Then they’ll go right on and do what they’re going to do. But the Word of God is what we’ve got to keep coming back to, spoken by the Commander, related through His apostle. What does God have to say?

The problem was many of the wives just wouldn’t listen, for whatever reason, and had wrongly left their husbands. To these he says in verse 11, “(but if she does leave, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not send his wife away.” It is clear, as far as we can see in this passage, that neither party is free to marry someone else if they divorce because of anything other than adultery. Remarriage is the issue and that’s the thing you’ve got to face.

You say, “Well, what if I’ve gone on and remarried somebody? What do I do now?” Listen. Don’t even get into that in this passage. That’s not what he’s addressing. He’s simply trying to answer the questions that have been asked of him. There are other Scriptures where God can turn a light on for you concerning that question. There’s grace and there’s mercy. There are other things to factor in. So don’t bail out on what he’s saying here, because it doesn’t exactly fit your situation. Just listen to what he’s saying.

Paul answers the question, “(but if she does leave, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband).” It’s pretty clear. The word “reconciled” is an important word. I can hear somebody say, “Yeah, right. You don’t know my husband.” Well, if you’re saying that, you don’t know the definition of reconciliation. It would help you to hear the whole thing out before you throw a grenade at me. Listen to what the word “reconciliation” is. The word is katallasso. Kata is an intensive; allasso means to change. The idea is if that man begins to change and there’s reason now that you feel like there can be a reconciliation, go for it. But if he won’t, then stay unmarried. That’s what Paul says. No if’s; no and’s; no but’s. Paul just simply says, “You asked me, so I told you.”

Have you ever asked somebody a question and you didn’t like what you heard? I called a dear friend of mine one day. I told him I was down. I was broken. I was offended. I was beaten up in my mind. I called him up to tell him my whole dilemma. I told him as fast as I can tell him. I could tell he was in a hurry. He was probably catching a plane or something. He said back to me on the telephone, “Well, I love you, brother, but I guess all I can tell you is just live what you preach.” Click. “Bill, come back here. I didn’t like what you just said.”

Again, Paul’s not answering every question you have. He’s answering specific questions they’re asking him. So don’t go throw your faith away because you didn’t get ministered to because your circumstance wasn’t brought into this. It wasn’t meant to, evidently, because Paul is dealing with questions that are already asked of him and he’s just answering them.

The anxiety of those living in a split family

So, we see the authority of the apostle, the absolute will of God, and then we see the anxiety of the believer in the split family. What about the anxiety of people who live in split families? By that I mean one’s a believer and one’s an unbeliever. In verse 12 he picks that up. “But to the rest I say.” He addresses the anxiety of those living in that split family. He addresses the anxiety of their own purity, anxiety over their children. When Paul says, “not the Lord,” he’s simply saying that Jesus never addressed the situation when He was here on earth. Now, I’m relaying with my badge what His Spirit is leading me to tell you. It’s not as if he’s expressing his opinion, as if this is some letter and only parts of it is inspired. This is the inspired word of God. The way I see that, Paul is saying, “He didn’t deal with it, but now He’s given me the authority to deal with it, and I’m going to deal with it.” Paul is under the inspiration of God; therefore, this is God’s word. You can trust what it says. You say, “This is his opinion.” Well, it’s a sanctified opinion then, because the Holy Spirit of God is the One breathing this book through him.

There are two interesting scenarios here. You’ve got a split family; okay, put the believer over here. But on the unbeliever’s side you’ve got two situations. One, they want to leave. “I didn’t marry a Christian. You sorry rat. I didn’t marry a Christian and I’m leaving. Do you hear me?” Blam! And he walks out. But on the other hand, you’ve got an unbeliever who says, “You know, I know you’re saved. I don’t know if I want to be saved or not, but I sure do love you and I want to live with you.” So how do you live with those two situations? Paul deals with them in verse 12. “But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever [that’s interesting. Usually it’s the other way around. But it’s not here. ], and she consents to live with him, let him not send her away.” What are believers to do with unbelieving spouses? Well, if they’ll live with you, live with them. Don’t send them away. Were they free to divorce them because they’re unequally yoked? No. Paul says, “Live with them.” Why? What is the situation here? These are honest questions.

Paul had taught them in 6:15-20 that their bodies were temples of the Holy Spirit of God. They were attached to Christ. They were concerned that they were members of Christ’s body, but they were married to unbelievers. How could this affect the union that they had with God? Some of them even believed, probably, that it made it a union to Satan. Some of them even thought it would defile, not only them, but their children. And many of them just simply desired a Christian partner. Jesus had never directly taught on this, and so Paul, unleashed of the Holy Spirit, is giving them now this direction. Christians were not to worry that they themselves nor their children, nor their marriage would be defiled in any way being married to an unbeliever.

This is the part that just pumps me up. It’s on the contrary. It doesn’t defile you, and it doesn’t defile your children. In fact, it’s not them that is the issue; it’s you that is the issue. By your being in that marriage, you affect them, they don’t affect you. Both the children and the unbelieving spouse were sanctified through the believing wife or husband.

Look at verse 14. We’ll get there in a second, but I want you to read it first. “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy,” or set apart. Now, Paul says, “If she consents to live with you.” It was not uncommon that they would walk right out on them. Paul is saying that if they’ll stay, don’t divorce them. Stay married to them, because you’re going to have an effect on them you’ve never dreamed of.

In verse 13 he reverses the situation. “And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, let her not send her husband away.” Let’s go back to verse 14. What does it mean? Sanctified. The husband’s sanctified by the believing wife. The wife is sanctified by the believing husband. It doesn’t mean they’re saved. It doesn’t mean that because the wife is saved, automatically the husband is saved. No, every person must respond by faith to the Gospel message as the seed comes to their heart and the Holy Spirit of God is in charge of that process. That’s not what he’s saying. But the root understanding of sanctify is to be set apart and put in a class all by itself. The family becomes immeasurably superior when you have a believer in its midst. When the wife is saved or the husband is saved, the unbelievers are blessed because of the presence of God who lives in that believer who now is in that family. One Christian spouse in the home graces the whole family. Because God dwells in that one believer, all the blessings that come to them will spill out on the people around them.

In addition, even though the believer’s faith cannot save the others around them, it often becomes the means of other family members getting saved. You have probably heard testimonies of a believing grandmother who stood by the Word when she had a husband who was pagan and cursed like a sailor. She may have had children the same way, but those grandchildren began to receive that seed and for generation after generation after generation there were Christians in that family. Why? Because one believer stayed and didn’t bail out and became a powerful influence for the kingdom for all of eternity. It’s amazing to me the power of the life of the believer. Folks, we don’t think about that.

1 Corinthians 7:15-17

Contents

1 Should I Stay Married? – Part 2

1.1 The reality of an unbelieving spouse

1.2 The result of an unbelieving spouse

1.3 The resource of the abandoned, believing spouse

1.4 The regret of the abandoned, believing spouse

1.5 The response of the abandoned, believing spouse

Should I Stay Married? – Part 2

We’re going to start in about verse 15 of chapter 7 in a little bit. But first of all, I want to go back and review some. I know that my review is rather redundant, but just hang with me. You’ve got to have the whole flow of the context. When you stay in the flow of it, it’s not as difficult. But when you grab a verse here and a verse there, here a verse, there a verse, and everywhere a verse, verse, you get all confused. We’re going to talk about, “Should I Stay Married, Part 2.” All of this started in verse 1. In verse 1 he says, “Now concerning the things about which you wrote.” There was a letter written to Paul with questions that we don’t have. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there would be a discovery and somebody would say, “Look what we have discovered, the questions that were written to Paul.” But it hasn’t happened and God has ordained that. All we have are the answers to questions. We don’t really know exactly what they were. The context of immorality actually started back in 6:9. I want you to remember this. That’s been the house that we’ve been sort of camped out in. All of these truths have lived in from that time, because he’s talking about the immoral culture of Corinth. Remember, if you were in Athens or anywhere else in Greece and you were living an immoral perverse life, someone would say to you, “Watch out! You’re living like a Corinthian.” You must understand the culture, the immorality, the perversion that was around them. It comes right into chapter 7. You see, they didn’t have chapters and verses. It was just one long letter. In verses 1-7 of chapter 7, they seemed to have asked him a question wrapped around their perverted idea of sexual behavior. They had made the mistake of equating the sexual intimacy in marriage with the immoralities of verse 2. That was a mistake that people are still making in the twentieth century. We hear the word “sex” mentioned in a public place with men and women present and we’re embarrassed. Why are we embarrassed? We’re embarrassed because what we’ve heard from the world. But we must understand that God ordained this relationship within the bonds of marriage. Sexual intimacy in marriage has nothing to do with the immorality that’s spoken of in verse 2. They failed to make the distinction. Some were of Paul according to 1:12 and 3:4. They were following after Paul. Paul was single and celibate. They said, “Hey, since sex is wrong and we want to be spiritual, then it’s best just to stay single.” So the question seems to be, “Should I stay single or should I get married?” Well, Paul has to jump right in the middle of that and turn it back around like it should be. He expresses in verses 1-7 that the sexual intimacy in marriage is God-ordered, God-ordained, and God-blessed, and has nothing to do with the immoralities outside of that marriage bond. In verses 8 and 9 we see he changes to another question. He seems to be dealing there with the divorced and the widowed. He uses the term “unmarried,” but since he has to qualify that term in verse 34, it appears that these unmarried have been married before, the divorced and the widows. Their question seems to be “May I remarry?” In other words, the first question is “Should I marry or stay single?” The second question is “May I remarry, is it permissible?” The apostle Paul says, “It’s better to remain as I am,” which means, in his context, to stay single just like you are. It’s better to do that. Now, he obviously is referring, when it comes to widows, to the older widows, because in 1 Timothy 5:14 he says, “To the younger widows I say get married and have children.” So he’s got to be speaking of older widows and those who have been divorced. So he says, “Stay as I am. It’s better for you to stay single.” However, he qualifies that. He says that if you can’t keep your sexual desires under control that were awakened in the marriage that you’ve experienced before, then it’s better for you, if Scripture allows and God raises the right person up, to go ahead and marry. So he deals with that question. Remember, none of this is a full teaching on anything. It’s Paul simply answering questions that have been written to him. Then in verse 10 he turns toward married couples, and the questions that were absolutely abundant about marriage and remarriage and divorce. Those kinds of things had come up. We’ve got to remember. This is a pagan culture where this church was founded and all kinds of scenarios came out of that culture. There were two specific kinds of families he deals with here in the marriage situation or married partners. One was where both partners were believers; two, was where one was a believer but the other was an unbeliever. We dealt with the first one the last time – of those who were believers. He tells those who both partners are saved to stay married. We get a good look at the authority of the apostle in verse 10 because he says, “But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord.” What he’s saying is, “I’m just relaying to you what our Lord Jesus taught when He was here on this earth.” That’s all he’s doing as an apostle. He was telling the message of another, relaying the message of his commander to those around him. Now, what God commands is very clear regarding two believing spouses. The permanency of marriage comes right out in this. This is God’s ordained idea and principal. Verse 10 reads, “that the wife should not leave her husband.” That’s automatic. Then in verse 11 we read, “that the husband should not send his wife away.” This is God’s command. But the fact that one may leave the other or be sent away by the other, you see people are going to do what they want to do regardless of what God says. Paul handles that. He says in verse 11, “(but if she does leave, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband).” He does not give permission for remarriage if the condition of that leaving was not what our Lord Jesus spoke of in Matthew 19:9, which would be immorality which would involve adultery, etc. We do know there is an exception clause, but it doesn’t mention that here, so it appears that these folks are leaving each other, or one being sent away because the toast is burned or because the husband doesn’t make enough or whatever. Paul says, “If that happens, and I’m telling you not to do it, but if you do it, don’t you dare get remarried. You don’t have Scriptural grounds to do that.” The only exception is Matthew 19:9. That does not come up in 1 Corinthians 7 at all, but we all know Jesus said in Matthew 19:9, “Except there be for immorality,” which is the big house that all the sexual sin with somebody else lives in. So if one believer leaves, divorces his wife with no grounds of immorality on either of the spouses part, then he is not to get remarried. Paul then moves to the split family. By split family I mean one’s a believer and one’s an unbeliever. He says that if the unbeliever chooses to stay with the believer then, by all means stay married. It says in verse 12, “But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, let him not send her away. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, let her not send her husband away.” Now that phrase “to the rest I say, not the Lord,” I do not believe in any way Paul is just simply giving an opinion. What I believe he’s saying here is, “Jesus did not deal with this specific situation when He was here on earth. Now I, as His apostle, have been assigned to do that and I’m completing the picture here.” He says this as an apostle, with that authority we’ve already seen that he has. Don’t leave the unbelieving spouse. Don’t send away the unbelieving spouse if they are willing to stay with you. Then he shows why in verse 14. To me this is one of the most encouraging verses in our whole study. He says, “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.” That does not mean by being sanctified or holy that they’re saved. That’s not what he’s saying. The root word of “sanctified” or the root word of “holy” means to be set apart. By the very presence of a believer in that family, that whole family is set apart. They had the influence of God Himself in that family. They’re not like a pagan family in the sense that there’s a believer in their midst. We forget the power of a believer in a dark situation and so often we bail out of something when we should stay right in the middle of it and let God be God in and through us affecting everybody that’s around us. I was down in Florida, and the pastor of a church there told me his testimony. I had never heard it. He said that he was born into a family where his Mom and Dad were not believers. He’d never heard about Jesus. He never heard the Gospel growing up except from his grandmother who was saved. As she was in the midst of all that darkness, she just kept right on holding up the light. He said as a result of that, when he got into his teen years, he came to know Christ. As a result of that, he led most of his brothers to his Christ and three days before his father died, he led his own Daddy to the Lord Jesus Christ. All of that because a grandmother held on to the truth, stayed in the situation, and let the light of Jesus flow through her life. Don’t bail out of the situation. Stay in that situation. If the unbeliever will stay, let him stay. We don’t realize the power that a believer has. That whole family is set apart. That whole family is sanctified in the sense that God lives in one of the members of that family. Well, in verses 12-14 he deals with an unbelieving spouse that is willing to stay. So stay with them. But in verse 15, we find a different category. We find a category of an unbelieving spouse who is not willing to stay. This is a brand new situation altogether. What does a believer do when an unbelieving spouse divorces them, separates themselves from them? There are five things I want us to look at in this passage and I think it will help a lot of us to be encouraged that God’s Word understands our circumstances.

The reality of an unbelieving spouse

First of all is the reality of an unbelieving spouse leaving and abandoning the believer. The reality must be faced because it’s very real. Perhaps you’re a Christian and you came out of an unbelieving family and your husband or your wife is an unbeliever. You must face this reality. They may come to the place that they want to divorce you and sever their relationship with you. Verse 15 says, “Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave.” That’s interesting, isn’t it? You’d think that came from a liberal counselor someplace. That came right out of the Word of God. Let’s talk about that for a second. The word “unbelieving one” is apistos, a – without, and pistos – faith; without the faith, or a person without faith. The word for “leave” is chorizo, which means to sever, to separate something. In the context it would refer directly to divorcing you. Somebody says, “I’m going to divorce you because you have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.” Now, it’s in the present middle indicative. He’s in the act of divorcing his spouse. This is not a whim. This is not something that happens instantaneously. This is something that happens over a period of time and the signals, probably, have been everywhere. Middle voice means he’s making his own choice. This is going to be his responsibility. He’ll answer to God for it. It’s nothing that the person has done to cause him to make it. That would be passive voice. It’s middle voice, on his own. Indicative, he’s doing it. Write it down. It’s a fact. This is what he’s doing. Get the picture. Here’s a man loving life as he thought he loved it until his wife got saved. All of a sudden it’s a different scenario. He hasn’t been around this one before. Immediately he begins to think, “Am I willing to live in this relationship?” Now, remember, when a person gets saved they’re capable of loving like they’ve never loved before. So here he is being loved like he’s never been loved before. Something happens inside of him, though, and he says, “I’m going to leave. I’m going to divorce.” He starts making his plan. Of course, the signals would be seen by anybody living in that close relationship. He’s going to be responsible. He’s making the choice himself. Now I want you to see this. This is the behavior of a nonbeliever. This is never the behavior of a believer. You’re saying to me, “Oh, I know some believers who are doing this.” Are you sure they’re believers? Maybe you need to take them back to God’s Word and show them this is not how a believer acts. This is how a person without faith acts. He walks away from his wife. He severs the relationship. Well, in verse 15 he goes on to say, “Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave.” Paul issues a command. It’s present tense being the attitude of imperative mood there. It’s a command and it’s an active voice. You make a choice here, buddy. It’s a command I’m giving to you. You let him leave. Do nothing to stop his leaving. Let him go on and do what he’s determined to do. This goes against what our flesh tell us sometimes. Oh, what can we do to keep the marriage together? You do everything you know to do, but if that man has determined to leave you and he’s already signaled that to you and he’s going to do it, the Scripture says, “Let him leave.” It’s a fact. It must be dealt with. If he’s determined to leave then Paul says to let him leave. Remember, from 6:9 to where we are, immorality has been the silent context that’s been wrapped around everything that we’ve taught. That’s important here. I believe the behavior of this unbeliever is not only tied to his lack of belief but specifically tied to some kind of immoral pleasures he’s getting and he doesn’t want to stop because he’s got a believing wife now who won’t participate with him. To me somehow they’re connected. I really believe that. Everything we’ve talked about has been connected to that kind of context. You see, the problem is that a believing spouse walked in one day a changed person. Go back to chapter 6. I want you to read verses 9-11 again. Make sure you know what they came out of. Verse 9 of 1 Corinthians 6 says, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” I didn’t write that, by the way, folks. This is lifestyle now. “Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” Look at Verse 11, “And such were (what?) some of you; but you were washed.” You washed yourselves. This word for washed is not the inward cleansing that the blood of Jesus cleanses. Only He can do that. Only His blood can do that. This is talking about you washed yourselves. It’s the same sense over in James when he says, “Cleanse yourselves, wash yourselves.” In other words, turn away from that sin. Walk away from that sin and turn toward the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what repentance is. They used to live that way but now this man’s got a wife who’s turned away from that kind of thing. She’s different in the household. Do you know what this does? This begins to immediately begin to expose his wrong. It exposes his desires that are fleshly and sinful. It aggravates and agitates him and either he responds properly to the light that’s within her or, as the Scripture says, he chooses to bail out, sever the relationship and walk away. Somehow what he’s doing, even though I cannot prove it, seems to be tied to immoral pleasures. What man would be foolish enough to walk away from a wife who now loves him like he’s never experienced before in his own life? However, if there are desires he won’t turn loose of maybe that have been exposed and it’s aggravated and agitated his flesh and this gives him credence to do what he’s doing. Right, wrong, or indifferent, he leaves. He severs the relationship. So the reality is there. When a person gets saved out of an unbelieving family you may have to face this, that an unbelieving husband may walk away or an unbelieving wife may walk away, divorce you, sever the relationship and that’s a difficult thing to have to face.

The result of an unbelieving spouse

But secondly, there’s the result. What result does it have of an unbelieving spouse abandoning the believer? What state does this leave the believer in? He goes on to say in verse 15, “Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases.” Now let’s examine the phrase. He says, “the brother or the sister.” So we can be talking about the man leaving or the woman leaving. Which one is left behind, the brother or the sister, is not under bondage. The word “not” there is the word for the absolute not. Almost every time you find it that’s the word ou. It is the absolute not. There’s another not. You see, in English we only have one word for not. We have one word for love. We love our grandmother, the American flag, Jesus and our dog. Nobody knows the difference in what you’re talking about. But when you’re in the Greek language it’s more specific. There are two words for not. The me is a relative not and we’ve seen that already in studying 1 Corinthians. But this is the little word ou. She is not in any way, shape, or form “under bondage in such cases.” The word “bondage” there is in the perfect passive tense. It’s written as if it’s in the present. Douloo means to be free of the yoke of slavery. You say, “Now, wait a minute. Is marriage slavery?” Yes. Some of you may say, “Yeah, right. Amen!” Especially some of us, when we get home and we’re tired and our wife says, “Take the garbage out.” You feel that yoke of slavery. Remember, marriage is a picture of our relationship with Christ. Are we slaves of Christ? Absolutely. Are we slaves because we have to be? No, we’re slaves because we want to be. The same thing is in marriage. This isn’t a “have to be” situation, this is a “want to be”, a “get to be” situation. There is a yoke of slavery. It’s the good kind of slavery to where the two are dependent upon each other. Well, it’s a covenant bond. When a man who’s an unbeliever leaves the believer, he breaks that covenant bond. Paul says that if the unbelieving one leaves then this yoke or bond that existed is no longer there. Perfect tense, his action caused the believing spouse to be in the state that she’s in. Passive voice, she did not initiate it. It was initiated upon her. So she is no longer yoked. There is no bond. There is no covenant bond there. It’s been broken. Now, this brings up an interesting scenario, doesn’t it? Is the believer now free to remarry? I’m not inerrant. The Word of God is. I’ve already told you, don’t build your faith on what I say. Build your faith on what the Word of God says. But the answer I come up with is “Yes.” If she’s free, what rule are you going to put on somebody who’s free? She’s free. If divorced is allowed, then, evidently, remarriage is allowed. That’s a big question that a lot of people are pondering. But what I can see is what the text says. He or she is no longer held responsible to the marriage bond. Therefore in my understanding, that releases them to marry. You may be saying, “Wait a minute, you’re contradicting yourself.” What am I doing? “Well, you said that there was only one exception and Jesus gave that in Matthew 19:9. Are we adding another exception here?” That’s a good question. It appears to me that desertion of an unbeliever to a believer somehow in God’s economy equated with the adultery or the immorality of Matthew 19:9. Since Jesus said there was only one exception then somehow the two are equated. We must remember that it’s very unlikely, again, that an unbelieving spouse would have divorced his wife if there was nothing out here that he wanted. And we also must remember the sexual immorality in the context of the whole culture and however you put it together, to me, that man is divorcing her to go right to an immoral relationship. I guarantee you. Ninety nine percent of the time it will prove itself out. Somehow they are intertwined. I could not prove it; however, from the whole context perhaps we can because of the sexual immorality that’s around. Whatever way you approach it the main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things. The Scripture says she is no longer yoked. She is no longer in that bond of slavery. The result of an unbelieving spouse divorcing a believing spouse, the result upon that believing spouse is she is no longer in that covenant bond. That has been broken and she is no longer enslaved to that bond.

The resource of the abandoned, believing spouse

Well, we see then the reality—it could happen. We see the result of that upon the believer who has been abandoned. But let’s look at the resource of the abandoned believing spouse. What resource now does she have in the situation that we’re looking at in verse 15? “Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace.” The little word which is translated “but” is the little word de. It has the idea of frequently to introduce something else. It’s as if Paul says that and then says, “Now, let me introduce something else. Let me share something else with you that’s very important to this issue.” “[B]ut God has called us to peace.” What is he saying here? That’s a good question. I’m sure everybody has an idea. Let me share with you mine. I think he’s saying that even though the unbelieving spouse leaves and divorces a believing spouse, that the believing spouse must live at peace with the one who left, no hostile actions are to be taken. The door is kept wide open for that person to come back and hear the Gospel message. There is absolutely nothing that can mar her testimony with the one who walks away from her. The believer is at peace with God. That’s got to be implied in the verse. We have peace with God. We have the peace of God, so, therefore, we have a resource to be able to survive the situation. She can live at peace with him because she’s at peace with God. But there is to be no hostility, nothing in any way that would mar the beautiful testimony that God has presented in her life. Look at Romans 12:18. I want to go back to that chapter which is all about relationships, particularly people who treat you wrongly, abuse you, etc. It so helps when you start putting the two together and understand where Paul, perhaps, may be going. Romans 12:18 says, “If possible [that’s a great phrase] so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” Where in that verse does it say they are going to be at peace with you? Even in Colossians it says that the Spirit produces peace which is a referee in your heart. To be at peace with all men. You say, “Well, he doesn’t love me. He treats me with hostility.” That’s alright. Can you be at peace with him? Yes, you can if you’re at peace with God. Now, you’re not to be at peace with him so you can be at peace with God. You’re at peace with God so you can be at peace with him. That’s the way it works. No hostility, no enmity between the two of you. You be at peace with whoever treats you the way they treat you. The believer’s not in conflict with God. Therefore, he doesn’t have to be in conflict with the one who has treated him wrongly. It’s always from us to them. We don’t look at how they treat us. We look at how we treat them. That’s the key, to stay on that side, to stay on that end of the truth. They may not be able to be at peace with us but we can be with them. So a believer who’s been abandoned has a resource. They have a resource and that resource is God Who through Jesus Christ has given them a peaceful relationship with God. Now they’re one. But He’s also given them His peace so that they can be at peace with whoever is related to them no matter how they’re treated. So therefore, keep the door open. Let there be no hostility. Let him leave but don’t fight. Be at peace with all men. God has called us to that peace. I’ve heard some say that means that with all the fighting and everything else that’s going on, it’s better for you to go ahead and get divorced. To me that’s weak. It’s real weak. What I believe he’s saying here is to keep that door open. Be at peace with him.

The regret of the abandoned, believing spouse

Let’s look at the fourth thing, the regret of the abandoned spouse. There is a regret to any abandoned spouse who is a Christian for the unbeliever who has left them. You see, when a person becomes a believer, the deepest burden of their heart is to see others come to know the same person they know, particularly in the marriage. That’s when they start loving a husband or a wife like they’ve never loved them before. The thing they want more than anything else in the world is for that person to come to know Christ. They desperately want that. The regret is in the form of, “Could I have done something different?” How many people beat themselves up by saying, “Could I have done something different? If I had acted differently, if I had done this or done that, maybe they would have come to know Christ and we wouldn’t be in this situation. If they never come to know Christ, it’s my fault.” They beat themselves to death until the day they see Jesus. Paul erases that kind of false guilt that people put upon themselves. It says in verse 16, “For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?” This is all tied back to “let him leave.” I used to think it meant to stay married. Do whatever you can do to keep him because you can save him but if you leave him or if he leaves you, how will you ever know? I think the word “know” is one of the keys to understanding that verse. The word for “know” there is the word eido, which comes from the word horao, which means to perceive and understand a situation. A lot of things we can know by learning but this is something intuitive. This is something God puts within somebody. He says, “You don’t have that ability.” It’s amazing how there’s no vacancy in the Trinity. We keep applying for that position and we think that if we had done this, then they would have gotten saved. How do you know that? No man knows that. Salvation is not the work of man. Salvation is the work of God. He uses man but it’s His work. He’s the One who draws people to Jesus. It’s not our work. We are involved in the work, but it’s His work, His business and He only knows whether or not that person would have come to know Christ. You don’t know. That’s what he’s saying: Stop beating yourself up. How would you ever know? You can live as long as you live and say, “If I had just done this, if had just done that.” Paul is saying, “He was determined to leave and you let him leave. As long as you kept that door open and peace was there, no hostility, don’t beat yourself up. You don’t know if perhaps he would have ever come to know Christ. Only God knows that.” That’s important for us to understand. I wish sometimes we could know. But remember, there are two absolutes. One is, there is a God; two is, I’m not Him and neither are you. We don’t know. You can never know that. So don’t beat yourself up falsely. Don’t put a false guilt on yourself. There is something here that you can find through the resource you have with God and the regret does not need to be there. Oh yeah, you always have regrets but not the kind that causes you the undue guilt you put upon yourself.

The response of the abandoned, believing spouse

Finally, the response of the abandoned believing spouse. How do they live now? How do they cope? I saw a picture one time of a young fellow who had one of those boom boxes on his shoulder. He was walking down the street and he had a t-shirt on that said, “Don’t bother me. I can’t cope.” That is a good picture of the Christian church in the twentieth century. But Paul shows you how you can cope. How can you live in the situation when you’ve been abandoned and your husband has walked away from you and you did what he said and you stayed at peace with him and you kept your witness alive but he just walked away from you. Well, he’s going to answer that in verse 17. “Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And thus I direct in all the churches.” There could not be many more deeply hurtful situations than to be a believer, a brand new believer, and have the one you’re married to, the one you love the most, abandon you and walk away because of your belief. There could hardly be any more hurtful situation than that. Sometimes it causes people to start blaming God. You can hear it echoed because we hear it in the twentieth century. People are still doing it. They look up at God and say, “God, why did You let this happen to me? If You were a loving God, You wouldn’t let that happen to me. You let me get saved and You ruined my marriage.” That seems to be the thought that comes from the hearts of th

1 Corinthians 7:18-24

Contents

1 The Inward Work of Salvation

1.1 Salvation changes us inwardly

1.2 Salvation circumcises us inwardly

1.3 Salvation charges us inwardly

1.4 Salvation constrains us inwardly

The Inward Work of Salvation

Have you ever tried to tell somebody what they needed to do in a difficult situation and they did not want to hear you and you had to remind them that they’re saved, that they don’t look at life like they used to look at it? That’s exactly, I think, what Paul’s doing. In verses 18-24 he just sort of backs off a minute and says, “Now, wait a minute.” Then he takes them back to what salvation really is, why it is essential to hear from God regardless of our circumstances. It’s a very important passage that we’re looking at. Now, it’s a wonderful comfort to know that God is in control of our circumstances. We may argue about the fact of whether or not He ordered or whether or not He’s just allowed it. That argument has been going on for a long time. But you cannot argue over the fact that He is in control of those circumstances.

How many times have you felt victimized this past week? Something happened you did not expect and suddenly you said, “Now why did he do that to me? I’m going to get him back for it.” Look out! You’re acting like a victim. We’re not victims. We are victors in Christ Jesus. We must understand this. You see, the whole mentality of the secular world is we’re victimized by others and by society, but we’re not victimized as believers. No sir. We’re victors in Christ Jesus.

As a matter of fact, turn over to 2 Corinthians 2:14. I just want to remind you of this verse. We could have gone to Romans 8, we could have gone to other places, but I just want you to look at this one verse as we’re introducing what we’re going to say. Remembering the fact that Paul is in a very difficult situation answering these questions that have been written to him. People just don’t want to hear what God’s Word has to say.

Second Corinthians 2:14 says, “But thanks be to God, who always [that’s a significant word] leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” That little phrase in that verse, “leads us in His triumph,” is one word. It’s the word thriambeuo. It comes out of the Roman culture and pictures the triumphant entry of a commander who’s gone out into battle and won the victory. There are several ways this triumphal entry is pictured by historians. As a matter of fact, in my research I found all kinds of different ways they would do these things. In this context it seems the one that’s more relative is when they would go out into battle and win the victory, they would send somebody, a runner, back into town. He had some incense with him and he would swing that incense lamp all over town. There would be a sweet fragrance coming from that incense and suddenly they would realize, because they recognized the fragrance, and say, “There has been a victory! There has been a victory!” They would go out and line the streets. They would get big wreaths of flowers to throw upon their soldiers, their victorious soldiers. The aroma was just beautiful. The smell in the air, the fragrance, was there. There had been a victory.

Then, finally, the commander of the armies would come in and when the commander came in, the general, the captain of the army, he was in a chariot drawn by four horses. And chained to his chariot were the generals which he had conquered in battle. They not been killed. He was leading them through the city, and the people would shout and the pandemonium would break out and the flowers and the wreaths and all the fragrance. It was just a joyous occasion.

The apostle Paul is telling us in 2 Corinthians 2:14 the type of triumphal entry that we have is that we are chained to the chariot of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been conquered. How are we chained? By the cords of our surrender to Him. And wherever we go we are chained to Him. God, whatever You want, not what I want.

So, putting it in context of 1 Corinthians, when a person is abandoned by the spouse, he or she doesn’t look to the legal society and say, “This is what I want. Can you help me?” They look to God and say, “God, what do You want? We’re chained to Your wheel. Let this be an assigned purpose for us. You work it for Your divine purposes.” That’s where we are. That kind of life becomes a sweet smelling fragrance to people around. Everybody stops and says, “Whoa, that’s different. That person is surrendered to Christ. That person doesn’t act like the rest of the world acts.” What’s legally her rights is not the last word. It’s what her God wants her to do, or his God wants him to do. And that way we’re always led into triumph no matter how difficult it gets.

You see, one of the misunderstandings of the word “grace” is its enabling power. It enables us to bear up under whatever circumstance we’re found, but grace, even though it enables us, does not spare the pain that we go through in those circumstances. Some people miss that. They think because the pain is there they must not have the grace. Oh, no. The pain is always going to be there. We’re going to suffer on this earth. But His grace is what leads us through. And as we surrender to Him and chain ourselves to His will, we’re always led in His triumph. It’s not our triumph, it’s His triumph that we’re led in, whatever circumstance that we’re found.

Every one of us has had that pain either by our own choosing or by somebody else’s choosing. When this pain is there, we feel that pain very heavily. It becomes a reminder, like a scar. It leaves scars on us. And those scars become reminders of the faithfulness of God. This is a beautiful teaching. We do not anchor ourselves to Him. He is our anchor. We’re anchored to Him. He’s the one who holds on to us. We’re not the one who holds on to Him. And even when we mess up He’s still holding on to us. This is where people miss it. But you see, the scars are going to be there, folks, of His holding on to us.

The most beautiful picture of this is of the African boy who had ugly ragged scars on his legs. On his wrists were long gashes that had healed over time. A missionary was talking to him one day and said, “Son, what are these scars on your body? They’re awful.” The young boy said, “The scars from my knees down were made one day when I was down in the water bathing. A crocodile grabbed me and tried to pull me into the water, and my mother reached out and grabbed my arms and held on to me. While she was holding, the crocodile was tearing the flesh of my legs. But because she had hold of me, the crocodile finally gave up and swam away.” So the missionary said, “What are the scars on your wrists?” And the little boy smiled and said, “Oh, they’re love scars.” She said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Those scars were made by my mama when she was holding on to me. Her nails dug into my wrists and tore the skin. But she held on to me so that the hostile reptile couldn’t do what he wanted to do to my life.”

Friend, put yourself into that picture. That crocodile, that circumstance, is raggedly trying to pull you down and tear and rip your life. But the Lord Jesus has got you by the wrist and is holding on to you even when you don’t listen to Him. He holds on to you because that’s what salvation is. One day when you see the scars on your arms you realize they’re the scars to remind you of a faithful God that loves you. No matter what you go through, no matter what it is, He has a hold of you. You’ve got to understand that. Whatever circumstance you’re in, God knows about it. Put your focus on Him and understand He’s got you by His own hands. Surrender to Him and let that become a sweet smelling fragrance to everybody involved. They’ll see Jesus in you. That’s what Paul is trying to tell them. You stay in that situation. You let God make it your assigned lot. Then He can work out His providential purposes in your life.

Well, people don’t want to hear that, do they? People come for the church service, but on Monday when they have to face their situation, they bail out quickly. They don’t want to hear it. So Paul backs off, as I said earlier, and takes several verses and says, “Alright, let me go back and give you some examples. Let’s just be reminded of the inward change that salvation brings.”

That’s my message, “The Inward Work of Salvation,” what God does inside. Just so that you’ll remember that when you hear the hard things, you’re not the same person you used to be. You’re now in Christ. Hear them the way He wants you to hear them and you can hear them correctly and God can bless you in your circumstance.

Salvation changes us inwardly

Well, the context has not changed. We’re still in the midst of the context of marriage, remarriage, and divorce. These are difficult questions at best. In the middle of all that, Paul puts this little insert. The first thing I want you to see that I drew out of it was that salvation changes us inwardly. There is an inward change. When you and I get saved, we’re changed from within. You see, religion is from without; salvation is from within. It’s a relationship that started and something happens on the inside. Whereas we were inwardly separated and at enmity with God, now we are internally and eternally at peace with Him, always through Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Whereas inwardly we were without the life of God in us, we now have the life of God in us.

You say, “Show me that.” Okay, Colossians 3:4 reads, “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed.” In Galatians 2:20 it says, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” In Romans 5:10 he said, “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” His life, being in us. Philippians 1:21 says, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Romans 6:5 tell us, “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” Totally identified in His life. His life is in us, whereas before we were devoid of that life. Before we were saved we had no ability to understand the things of God, but now we have His mind.

Paul spoke of the lost man in 1 Corinthians 2:14. “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” Then he shifts over and speaks of the believer. He says in verse 16, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” Whereas we did not have the ability to do what God had commanded us to do before we were saved, now we do have that ability and the power of the Holy Spirit.

That’s what grace is, by the way. The embodiment of grace is Christ Himself. His Spirit lives in us. Ephesians 3:16 says, “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.” We’re told in the same epistle that we are to constantly be under the control of the Spirit of God. That way we’ll be strengthened by His power. Ephesians 5:18 says, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.”

I could go on and on. Our whole attitude changes in the way we look at life because we have the mind of Christ. We have the Spirit of God living in us. We have the Word of God. We see things differently than the secular world sees them. That’s what Paul wants them to see. But wait a minute. Why is it so important? Here’s his point. Though we are totally changed inwardly, little if nothing changes outwardly in regards to our circumstances. That’s tough. Our external circumstances very rarely ever change. We’re changed inwardly but, you see, things around us are still the same. This is a hard pill to swallow sometimes.

The focal verse of this passage here is verse 20. Now look at it. He wants them to beware that the circumstances around them have not changed. He says in verse 20, “Let each man remain in that condition in which he was called.” You’ve been changed inwardly, but the condition that you’re in when you got changed inwardly is still there. Remain in that condition. Don’t try to move outside of it unless God directs you to move outside of it. This is very, very significant. He says in the verse, “Let each man.” That’s hekastos, and that immediately makes it an individual passage. Let each one, separate and by himself.

He says, “Let each man remain.” The word “remain” is in the present active imperative. Present tense means this is your attitude constantly. This is your lifestyle. Active voice. You have everything to do with this; it’s by your choice. And then the imperative mood means it’s a command. The word “remain in” is meno. “Remain” means to abide up under, not under, but just to remain in, and the word “in” determines the sphere that you remain in.

The sphere is the last phrase, “that condition in which he was called.” A key to understanding what Paul was saying here is the word “called.” It’s the key to the whole thing. It’s in the passive voice. I didn’t call myself, God called me. You didn’t call yourself, God called you. In the circumstance in your life, God is the one who determined its outcome. So you’re in that condition when you got saved. He could have changed it, but He didn’t. But it’s Him doing the action. The word “called” is the word used in the epistles to describe the effective calling of God into salvation. There’s a tremendous amount of material that could go with that. But here in the context the word “called” refers to an individual calling by God to accomplish a specific purpose which God has for the believer. So, in other words, when he says, “remain in the condition by which you were called,” God had everything to do with it. God is totally in charge of it. And God says, “Hey, you stay in there because I have a purpose within that circumstance. If I change it, I change it. Don’t you change it. I’ll change it.” You see, stay in that situation.

There were two cases in the context that this comes right on top of. It was dealing with married couples. One married person was a believer, the other was an unbeliever. But there were two individual situations that involved those couples. The first one, God effectively called one to become a believer and the other one chooses to stay with them. They don’t want to leave. So that becomes something the believer now is called to. It’s not something they came up with. God arranged it. God allowed it. This is the way it worked out. Why didn’t both of them get saved? I don’t know. Ask God. But God has one believer and an unbeliever and the unbeliever says, “I’ll stay.” Well, that becomes a calling for that person who’s a believer now, that he or she allows the situation to work for him now, not against him or her. In other words, it becomes something that God is using to accomplish His divine purposes in their life. God has chosen to leave them in that relationship. The person wants to stay, so God says, “This has become your assigned lot. I’m in charge. I have a purpose I want to work through this for your good. If I change it, I change it but don’t you change it. I’ll do the changing.”

But the other couple, the individual’s circumstance is quite different. This is what the problem is. The unbeliever says, “I’m out of here,” and abandons the believing spouse. It says, as we saw in verse 15, that the deserted believer may choose to remarry if God so leads her. That’s the emphasis. It’s not so much, is she free to remarry; the key is, what does God want her to do? That’s the key. So she sees it. God may change it. I think she is free, as I said the last time, but regardless of that, he or she has to do what God tells them to do.

This is the situation they’re in. The point is, we’re all changed inwardly the same. Peter wrote his epistle and said, “To those who have received a like faith such as ours.” In other words, we all got the same thing. The same change took place in you as took place in me, as took place in Peter, and as took place in Paul. But the difference is, outwardly our circumstances are not all the same. Mine’s different than yours. Yours is different than somebody else’s. So you have to look within the realm of your own situation and be willing to remain in that condition until God changes it. In the meantime, let God use it to change you. That’s his whole point. We must look at our own individual circumstances.

Verse 20 reads, “Let each man remain in that condition in which he was called.” Salvation changes us inwardly. Notice what he’s doing here in the midst of this heavy discussion on marriage, divorce, and remarriage.

Salvation circumcises us inwardly

Secondly, he brings out the fact that salvation, and you won’t understand this until you get into the text, circumcises us inwardly. He’s not talking about anything external. He’s talking about internal here. This is his whole point as he walks through this. Remember, there were basically two kinds of people who got saved in Corinth. One was Jewish and the other was Gentile. In 1 Corinthians 7:18 it says, “Was any man called already circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised.” Obviously the first group he mentions are the Jewish people. If they got saved, obviously they were circumcised the eighth day after they were born. This was a mark on their body which was very important in the Old Testament. But now that they’re saved, a new creation in Christ, it becomes really unimportant. He says don’t erase that mark. You say, “How?” Well, there was a surgery even back then that could cover up that circumcision. I did not know that until I did my study.

The second group were the Gentile converts. He said, “Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised.” This is very important because Paul, in writing to the Philippians, in chapter 3 said, “You watch out for these people that are coming amongst you.” Who were they? Proselyte Jews. Gentiles who later on became Jews and said, “Hey, you’ve got to be circumcised or you’re not saved.” He says, “Hey, watch out for those people.” You see, he says that if you’re a Gentile and you get saved, don’t go and have yourself circumcised. It has nothing to do with your spirituality. And, by the way, you Jews who were circumcised, it has nothing to do with you spirituality. The change is not external. The change is internal. That’s his whole point here and he’s using these as examples. It fits all areas of life.

Now, he’s not putting down the fact that circumcision at one time in the Old Covenant was significant, especially to the Jewish man. So if you’re of the Jewish faith, don’t think Paul’s making a mockery of circumcision. He himself was a converted Jew. In the Old Covenant, circumcision was a mark on the men of the nation of Israel whom God had ordered to separate themselves from the Gentile world. They were separated by their religion. They were separated by everything. The Law separated them completely, the way they looked and the way they lived. This mark upon the men was on the organ of the body that produced procreation, and so it was passed on from generation to generation. You’re born into a separate nation. Keep yourselves separate. This was God’s command. It first came when God commanded Abraham to be circumcised, just so you’ll understand where Paul’s coming from here.

Where did it come from and what was it for? Genesis 17:10 says, “This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised. And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me (God) and you. And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your descendants. A servant who is born in your house or who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised; thus shall My covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

Now, here’s one thing that Israel misunderstood. This is why Israel as a nation has rejected even Christ to this day. They never understood this. That is that circumcision was directly tied to a lifestyle of obedience. You see, you have the nation of Israel, but within that nation were people who understood the covenant, that lived obediently and looked forward to the redeemer, the Lord Jesus. That’s how salvation occurred in the Old Testament. We look back to the fact that the Redeemer has already come. But in the midst of that same nation were many people who wrongfully looked at that external mark as if somehow it was a guarantee into the spiritual promises of God. No. It had to be tied to a lifestyle of obedience. It was made very clear even in the New Testament.

What do we do today to do the same thing? We do baptism just like they did circumcision. We think if a person is baptized that automatically means he’s saved. No it doesn’t. Unless his life speaks of that salvation, then that baptism was nothing more than an external circumcision. It was just an external act and it was not at all tied to a lifestyle of obeying God.

Look over in Romans 2:25. Paul makes this so clear nobody can miss it. He’s saying that salvation occurred, even in the Old Testament, to those who looked forward to the Redeemer, and their lifestyle was noted by the obedience unto God, not just the Law, but to God. They obeyed God. Romans 2:25 reads, “For indeed circumcision is of value, if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.” In other words, it’s invalid. Verse 26 goes on, “If therefore the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?” In other words, the Gentile who gets saved, if he’s obedient will that not also be counted as circumcision because circumcision is tied to obedience.

Verse 27 says, “And will not he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”

Now, some theologians jump on that and say that’s proof text that God never considered Israel; that the church began with Abraham. Now, wait a minute. A Jew is one thing, but Israel is a nation. And God’s covenant promises were not to Jews, they were to the nation of Israel. He’s still not finished with the nation of Israel. However, there were Jews during that time, as we said earlier, that their life was tied to obedience. Therefore, they were shown to be saved even though their circumcision was valid. That’s his whole point. This is exactly what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 7. That’s exactly what he’s teaching. The outward sign fades into insignificance when compared with becoming a new person in Christ. That’s what he’s saying.

Now, in Galatians 6:15 we read, “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” That’s the key. Outward signs mean little if there has been no inward change. That’s his whole point. The believer is not to scorn this mark on another believer, however, it’s to be shunned if it’s ever to be associated with salvation because we’re not saved of works. We’re saved by faith, of grace lest any man should ever boast.

When we’re saved, there is an inner circumcision. This is what Paul wants them to see. Again, talking about the change that has come over a believer, why the believer ought to hear from God and not from man. We’re different creatures. Inner circumcision has taken place. It’s not made with human hands or human effort. It’s what God does when He comes to live in our life. He breaks the power of this body of sin and its penalty. Therefore, when He comes in it’s in a sense being circumcised. He cuts the flesh back to where the flesh has no power, has no penalty as long as we live as chained to His chariot. The moment we choose not to is when we inflict upon ourselves what should not have been.

In Colossians 2:11 he says, “and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ [when?] having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” In fact, Paul says in Philippians 3:3 that we are the true circumcision: “for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”

So, what is he doing here? Why is he talking about all of this? His point was you stay in the condition you were in when you got saved. His point is that if you’re circumcised, hey, don’t change that. If you’re uncircumcised, don’t change that. The point is not external. It’s internal. But his point is also, remember, there has been an inward change and there has been an inward circumcision of the heart. That’s why, when you come to counseling, when you come to find answers to your problems, you don’t come as a secular world. You come as a God-fearing believer. You come as somebody who’s been changed from within, somebody who comes wanting to hear what God has to say. Salvation changes us inwardly. Salvation circumcises us inwardly in the heart.

Salvation charges us inwardly

Thirdly, salvation charges us inwardly. Now watch this. Paul does an interesting thing in verse 19. Verse 19 says, “Circumcision is nothing (there’s the verb), and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.” The verb “is” is used with the first two phrases. “Circumcision is nothing. Uncircumcision is nothing.” The word “nothing” is the word ouden, which means absolutely of no effect. That doesn’t have anything to do with the matter. It’s inside, not outside. We are of a new internal and eternal covenant.

But in the last phrase, look at what he does. It’s translated with a verb, but the verb is not there. Look at the last phrase. He says, “...but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.” You see, there was a time circumcision or uncircumcision was of great significance. But now it does not matter, because we’ve been changed from inside. However, this right here does not have a verb. It’s translated with it, but doesn’t have it. Whenever you see a phrase in Scripture that’s translated as if it has a verb and then you start studying and find out the verb is not there, whoa, back off. Stand there and right that down. That means, whether circumcision or uncircumcision, it doesn’t matter; but this always matters. It always will matter, keeping the commandments of God. That’s the key. Whether you’re in the old covenant or the new covenant, it’s never changed from Genesis to Revelation. It’s never changed. Circumcision has changed. It doesn’t mean anything anymore. We’re circumcised of the heart. Keeping the commandments of God has never changed.

You see, that’s the whole key. In your marriage relationship, when you get involved in that situation, are you beyond a shadow of a doubt willing to do only what God has to say? If you’re not, that may even question whether or not you’ve had the inward change, whether or not you’ve had the inward circumcision. Because with all of that came an inward charge, and that charge is you live obedient to the commandments of God. That’s the whole point.

I can imagine the people in Corinth, because they’re living today in the twentieth century, the same kinds of folks. They hear the hard teachings, “stay in the situation you’re in.” “It’s best for you to remain unmarried.” They hear that and they say, “Oh, good grief! That doesn’t even relate today.” The apostle Paul says, “With that kind of attitude you’re telling me that perhaps there has never been an inward change. You’re not who you say you are.” Because the mark on us is that we’re surrendered to Him. Jesus says in John 14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me.”

You see, when you’re saved and changed inwardly the things of God may sound hard, but you know they came from the One who demonstrated His love for you when He sent His Son to die on a cross. Your whole attitude is different. I question people when they have a problem and they come to the Word of God and it doesn’t say what they want, that they rebel and go find another church and another preacher who will tell them what they want to hear. That’s where our society is today, folks. It’s relativism that is sweeping us nationwide. We no longer trust what God has to say. Grace is not you being happy regardless of what you do. Grace is God’s enabling power that you might bear up under the situation He’s assigned to you and be changed divinely and eternally because of it. That’s what grace is. If you’re not willing to hear what God has to say, then have you really been charged inwardly? Have you really been circumcised inwardly? Have you really been changed inwardly? We don’t hear like others hear. Jesus said, “My sheep know My voice. They hear

1 Corinthians 7:25-31

1 What a Single Person Considers Before Marriage

1.1 The predicament of marriage

1.2 The privilege of marriage

1.3 The pressures of marriage

1.4 The priorities of marriage

What a Single Person Considers Before Marriage

Just when you thought Paul had finished with the subject of marriage and divorce and all these other things, we come to verse 25 and he picks right back up on the subject. In verse 25 look what he says. After finishing that little parenthesis there he says, “Now concerning virgins I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy.” When Paul says, “I have no command of the Lord,” he’s saying here that Jesus did not deal with this specifically. But he’s saying also something else. The word “command” is not the word we saw back in verse 19. This word is the word epitage. It stresses the authority of the one who gives a command, whereas the other word for command stresses the command itself and that which has the weight of what God says. Jesus had given no directive on this subject when He was here on this earth. But Paul knew that the question needed apostolic guidance. So under the leadership of the Holy Spirit he tackles it. What he’s going to say doesn’t have the weight of a command behind it but because of his apostolic authority must be taken very seriously. He says, “Now concerning virgins I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion.” The word for “opinion” is the little word gnome. In its general sense it refers to one’s capacity for judgment. Even though this is Paul’s opinion, Paul’s judgment, it is a sanctified opinion. It’s a sanctified judgment. In other words, it should not be taken lightly. He is qualified to make it not just because he is an apostle. He goes on to say in the verse, “as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy.” He was certainly capable under the leadership of the Holy Spirit to deal with this question that had been asked him. The subject that he’s going to tackle is whether virgins should marry. The Greek word for virgin is parthenos. It can be either masculine or feminine. It comes from the word parthenia, which means to lay out or set apart. In the culture of this particular time it dealt with the secluded life that a virgin girl would live in the Eastern culture, particularly in Greece. As I said, the word “virgin” could technically mean man or woman and certainly has applications both ways. Paul picks up the feminine article and carries it all the way through his discussion so as to give us the focus, not just of a man in this particular situation, although it relates to him, but of a woman, of a virgin girl never having had a sexual experience. Should she marry or not? We must remember there was a custom in their day that’s not in our day, particularly in America, where the father would choose whether or not she would marry. This is not something that is done today but it was back then. The father would make that choice. Perhaps the question that had been asked Paul did not come from the young girls themselves. Maybe it came from the fathers. And the fathers were saying to Paul, “Should we give these daughters in marriage?” Down in verse 38 it says, “So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.” He’s talking about fathers who give their daughters in marriage. This causes us to be very careful in our application. Today the ladies make that choice; the fathers do not. But the applications are all here and we have to sort of weed out the culture, lift the truth to the surface, and see how it applies to each of us today if we’re in that particular circumstance, being single, having never had that sexual experience and then whether or not to marry. There are four things Paul wants a single person to consider before they get married. If you’re not careful you’ll hear this as if Paul is against marriage. No, he’s not. But he very honestly wants them to think on some things before they were married. Remember he’s single. Remember that. He’s giving his judgment that does not have the weight of a command on it but it certainly has the weight of an apostle under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. This is God’s Word. So it’s something that cannot be taken lightly.

The predicament of marriage

First of all Paul says that a single person should understand the predicament of marriage, not the marriage itself, but the predicament that may occur when you include the present circumstances that a person is in. That’s the first thing you look at, the circumstances around you. Do they dictate that marriage would be a good thing at this time? Verse 26 reads, “I think then that this is good in view of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is.” You said, “I thought you were talking about women.” Well, the word for man is anthropos. That’s the generic term. In other words mankind is a species here. The focus will turn later towards the virgin women who are single and are thinking about marriage or the fathers thinking about giving them away in marriage. Paul says, “in view of the present distress.” In verse 26 that’s a key phrase. Something’s going on here. He said that it would probably be best if they stayed single and stayed chaste before the Lord. The word “distress” is the word anagke. It’s a word that has to do with the inevitable circumstances of life. It has nothing to do with the marriage itself, although marriage could produce a real predicament here. All that will inevitably surround it, the circumstances that are going on in one’s world. Paul referred to a present circumstance not a future one. The word for “present” there in the verse is the word enistemi. It means to be present instantly or at hand. It is in contrast to anything that is in the past or anything that is in the future. We don’t know what particular distress Paul was referencing when he said, “Due to this I would say it would be better not to marry but to remain as you are.” Perhaps the problems that were going to occur in 70 AD could have been on Paul’s mind. Maybe the Holy Spirit of God had begun to trouble him and he saw it coming. Many scholars date this around 57 AD. That happened, of course, in 70 AD, just a few years later. Maybe he senses that. We know that many were persecuted and martyred during this time, so maybe it was a spiritual persecution that was going on during that time and Paul says, “During this present distress I would say remain as you are.” We just don’t know. But there was some kind of crisis that he seemed to be point to. Nothing in the past; nothing in the future; as much as but what was going on right at that time. For a virgin woman to consider marrying she must consider the predicament that marriage may cause in the midst of that present crisis, that present distress. Let’s just say it was persecution. We don’t know that but we do know Corinth was a pretty nasty city as far as sin goes. Maybe it was persecution. You know, it’s one thing to go through persecution single. It’s another thing to go through it married, particularly when you have children. One of the first things that a young girl would have on her heart would be to have children. Paul says, “Hey, the circumstances around you have a lot to say about how God may be leading you. You consider that and it may be that you need to stay as you are.” Whatever the distress was, Paul said that in light of it, it would be good for her to remain single and chaste. In verse 28 Paul clearly shows all he’s doing is trying to spare them some of the anguish that they might have to go through. He says in verse 28, “Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.” That’s his whole heart. It’s like a father to a child. The child has asked a question and he says, “You know, looking around you, seeing the circumstances as they are, maybe it would be better for you to stay just like you are. I don’t have the weight of a command behind this, but I’m saying this as an apostle; I’m saying this as one who is faithful and has received the mercy of God. I think you need to treat this very seriously.” Now, we’ve got to remember that the present distress that Paul refers to is not something we have to deal with but we have our own present distress. Every age has its own problems. Every age has its own circumstances that one must consider. Paul simply says that, if you’re going to get married, look around you at your circumstances and see whether or not marriage would cause an undue predicament in the midst of it. Let that be part of making your decision, discovering what God is wanting you to do. Second Timothy 3:1 says, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” He’s talking about in the spiritual sense here. I think that probably will be the heavier meaning of what he’s dealing with here. Of course, the word “last days,” eschatos, means the last of the last. The last days began when Jesus came to this earth. Of course, there’s going to be the last of those last days. It’s the same word used over in Hebrews 1: “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.” That began when Jesus came to this earth. He’s already warned us now that every age will have its own cycle of trouble. I remember many times I would gripe about something and my daddy would say, “Son, you’ve never lived through the Depression.” He would tell me about the Great Depression and what went on. He would tell me about when World War II came. He would tell me about the troubles during that time. Those were difficult times, days of distress. We don’t have those same days today but we have our own cycles of trouble that we have to deal with. It’s very practical, what Paul’s saying. Look around you. Look at your present circumstances. Let that weigh heavy in making your choice of whether to remain single or whether to marry. He balances the equation because if you’re not careful you can see something different in here. In verse 27 he says, “Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife.” In other words, somebody hearing this may say, “There are some bad things going on. I think I’ll ditch my wife. This is going to be tough.” No, no. Don’t do that, folks. I’m talking to the single ones who haven’t married. By the way, if you’ve been released from a husband, if you’ve been divorced, just stay like you are. I’m not telling you to do anything. Let this become the advice for that young virgin who’s contemplating marriage. Think about the circumstances around you, how much of a predicament marriage may bring in light of those circumstances. Have you ever heard the expression, “That couple tied the knot”? Have you ever heard that expression? That’s biblical. That’s exactly what the Word here says when it says “bound to a wife.” If means to be tied to someone with a rope. You’re bound and what he says is don’t try to untie yourself if you’re bound. If you’ve already been untied, don’t try to tie it back. This is basically what Paul says. But you see the practical wisdom. He says, “Look around you. Consider the circumstances around you, not the marriage itself. Consider how much of a predicament may be caused if you choose to marry. This is not the weight of a command on you. But it’s something you must consider because it’s sanctified advice. It’s my judgment in the matter.” So she must understand the predicament of marriage.

The privilege of marriage

Secondly, a single person wanting to get married should understand the privilege of marriage. I want you to know that marriage is God’s idea. He wants us to be married, and we have the privilege to be married. It says in verse 28, “But if you should marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin should marry, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.” Again, he’s balancing the equation. You see, you could get out of verses 26 and 27, “Let’s just don’t marry. Celibacy is the way to go.” That’s not what he’s saying. He’s not against marriage. He says, “If you do marry it is not a sin. I’m just trying to get you to think before you make that decision.” Some people ask about the first phrase in verse 28. He says, “But if you should marry, you have not sinned.” Does that deal only with the virgin girls or does that pretty much blanket everybody? It has to blanket everybody because of the next phrase. The next phrase says, “and if a virgin should marry, she has not sinned.” So you’ve got two groups of people here. Now, obviously we must be quick to interject other parts of the passage and say that it’s not a sin to marry if it is a biblical divorce or widowhood. It’s got to fit Scripture. It’s not a sin to remarry. You must fit that into the equation of the person who’s freed back in the earlier part of this chapter when her unbelieving husband leaves her. If she marries, is it sin? If she’s free, she’s free. That’s the way I see Scripture. That has got to be factored in at this point. Well, Paul’s main thrust here is having considered the present circumstances that are involved and then choosing to go ahead and be married, I want you to know you have not sinned. That’s his main thrust of what he’s saying. Now, remember the culture of that day. Usually the father decided whether you would be married or not. The verb here is aorist active. Aorist active means at a specific point and time you choose to be married. The active part of it means you choose on your own. Your daddy didn’t choose. He’s, perhaps, speaking to the fathers who are asking the question. He’s saying to the fathers, “You didn’t want her to be married, but she was married and therefore she has not sinned. Now get used to it.” You see, in their culture the fathers could put undue pressure on those children. This doesn’t in any way eradicate the fact that children should obey their parents and be submissive. Remember this. As we go through this every question will not be asked. The main thing is the plain thing. What he’s saying is that it is not a simple thing to get married if that person, in seeking the Lord, has weighed the circumstances and has chosen to do so. That marriage is now sealed in Heaven. It becomes their assigned lot in life. Don’t go around blaming that daughter. Listen, in their culture a father who didn’t want that marriage and didn’t want that daughter to marry could make life miserable for them by putting a guilt trip on her for ever having married. Paul says, “Don’t do it. She has not sinned.” There are circumstances where parents play too much of a role in something like that. There’s got to be a choice that she makes and if she does make the choice to be married, then she has not sinned in making that choice. The key is obeying God. That’s what matters. Surely somebody can sin out of rebellion and get married. That would be a sinful type of thing that they have to deal with. But marriage itself, no. That’s not what he’s saying. He’s saying that you obey God and when you choose to obey God sometimes that may not line up with Mama and Daddy but that’s alright. To choose to be married is not a sinful thing. Once the decision is made, followed through with, then deal with the fact that you’re now in covenant with a man (and of course the man to the wife) and it’s not a sinful relationship. You live now and let God be honored in the midst of that relationship. She’s yoked to that husband for life. If she marries she has not sinned. So understand the privilege to marry. You can marry. Paul’s not saying, “Hey, just because I said that it’s best for you considering the present distress not to be married, it’s not a sin if you go ahead and marry.” That’s what he’s saying. Understand it’s a privilege, not a sin.

The pressures of marriage

Thirdly, a single person should understand the pressures of marriage. You can just see this. The Apostle Paul now, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God, is giving some tremendous judgmental advice to the church there at Corinth. A single person should understand the pressures of marriage. Look at verse 28, the last phrase. “Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.” The word “such” refers to the one who considered the circumstances and chose to be married. He says, “Now, listen. When you choose to be married, that’s not a sin. However, there’s a huge responsibility that goes with it and there’s a whole new set of problems you just entered into. I want you to understand this. You have chosen it, therefore, you take what goes along with it.” The word “trouble” there is the word thlipsis. It’s an interesting word. It means to be crushed. It means to be squeezed. If you want a word for stress and pressure, you’ve got it. That’s what it means. I mean a time when trouble just narrows you down and squeezes you. The term “in this life” is not in this life. That is what the translations say. The word is actually “in the flesh,” sarx. It means the physical about us. It includes the emotional as well. The pressures upon a person who goes ahead and chooses to marry, believing God is in it, that’s no problem, but they have to realize that when they get into that marriage situation there are going to be pressures. There is going to be a squeezing. There’s going to be a crushing and it’s going to be emotional as well as physical. It’s an added responsibility and must be considered. The redeeming factor is that the verb is future active indicative, which means from time to time. It’s not going to be there all the time. Thank the Lord for that. There are going to be times when it’s not going to be a crushing pressure. But you can see Paul’s reasoning here. He’s single, celibate, and he says, “I think you just ought to be like me. There are no ties. There are no strings. But if you do get married, you’re going to have a whole new set of problems that you might not have thought about. Consider these things.” That’s all he’s saying. “Take my advice and understand the whole new set of problems when you get married.” There are a lot of problems that go along with being married. If you are married understand what I’m talking about. We all know what he’s talking about. He says, “Hey, I’m just trying to tell you and there it is.” Now, the pressure that he speaks of probably even goes beyond that because being an apostle he would look at the pressure spiritually that they had been going through at Corinth. Corinth, again, being a very pagan city. You know the persecution had to be rampant there. Jesus warned in John 16:33 using the same word, thlipsis. He said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation [that’s the word right there], but take courage; I have overcome the world.” What he’s saying is that it’s hard enough to live in the culture of Corinth with the present distress being single, but if you marry you’re taking upon yourself even a dual responsibility, and it’s not going to lighten the pressure. It’s going to heighten the pressure. There’s going to be more upon you. Understand this going in. He adds a fatherly concern at the end of the verse that I just love. He says, “and I am trying to spare you.” I love that out of Paul. It’s kind of like what he said back in chapter 3, “I don’t write these things to shame you but I write it as a father would write a child that he loves.” He’s just trying to help them. And he says, “I’m writing these things to spare you.” The word “trying to spare you” means to treat you with tenderness. Paul is saying, “I’m coming alongside you. I may speak like a big bear but I’m just a big teddy bear.” That’s what he’s saying. “I love you. I’m saying some tough things to you because I want to make sure you enter into it knowing the reality of what you’re entering into. You’re accepting a huge amount of problems in things that you wouldn’t have had if you had stayed single, but that’s not a sin. That’s fine because it’s God’s idea that you be married. But make sure you walk into it not blindfolded. Consider and understand the pressures that go along with marriage.” Isn’t it amazing how when a person walks forward in a marriage ceremony they don’t know what world they’re in? I think Paul understands that and he says, “Listen. Before you get that far make sure you have considered some things, because you’re accepting something that’s going to be a lot heavier than you ever thought it was going to be and you are responsible.” Many times we’ve had to counsel with people who ten years later say, “I made a mistake.” Do you think the legal society made that marriage legal? No sir, buddy. God made it legal. You made a mistake? Tough luck! Now, it’s your assignment under God to live under the trouble you chose to enter into. Now, that’s the way you deal with it. But I’m telling you. People throw everything back at you because they didn’t understand. They didn’t consider some of these things before they entered into that relationship. Now they’re in it and it’s too late to consider it now. It should have been considered before you did it. That’s why Paul says, “Stay like me. It’s not a command. It doesn’t have the weight of a command but I’m telling you. There’s a pressure that’s going to be upon you you wouldn’t experience any other way. So if you’re going to enter it, it’s not sin. But you better consider these things because it’s part of the turf.” That’s an expression we used to use when I played sports. “It goes along with the turf.” Do you want the privilege of playing? Then you take what goes along with it. Basically, it sounds callous. That’s not at all how he meant it. That’s just part of it. You make the choice and, buddy, it’s like the old expression, “You made your bed. Now you’re going to lay in it.” And it goes along with the choice. Paul says, “You better consider these things. Marriage is going to put you in a predicament in light of your present distress, but you better understand it is a privilege, and not a sin to get married. But you better also consider the pressure it’s going to bring upon you, not just the outward pressure, but the pressure of the marriage itself.”

The priorities of marriage

The final thing I want to share with you is the priorities of marriage. This is so significant in what Paul is saying. I use the illustration of a triangle when I do wedding ceremonies. I put the groom over here and just kind of draw an imaginary picture. I put the bride here and I put Jesus here on the top. I tell them straight out, “Do not have a priority of living for one another. It will never work.” That sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? But see what Paul is about to say is the same priority you had when you were single is the same priority you have if you’re married and that is you live attached to Jesus Christ. Go back and study 1:2-9 and Paul shows you what a Christian is: sanctified, and he’s devoted. He calls upon the name of the Lord in everything. He lives attached to Jesus. What was wrong with the Corinthian church? They were attached to everything but Jesus. Basically, what he’s going to say here is if you’re going to marry, it’s not a sin. Consider all these things but remember you better stay attached to Jesus. Do not let your marriage or the trouble or the pressure or anything else in any way hinder you in your surrender to Jesus Christ. If you do, you’re very foolish. Remember in 3:13 when we stand before God one day and our works are tested? You’re going to suffer that day in the sense that if you don’t have anything remaining. Why is that? Because you attached yourself to something other than Jesus. Your priorities do not change just because you get married. You are still to live. Now in that triangle picture here, here’s Christ, here’s the groom, here’s the bride. He lives for Christ. She lives for Christ. But look how much close they’re drawn together as you move towards the point that they’re both living towards, the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn’t contradict. It complements. That’s what Paul is going to bring out here. He’s warned them and now he says in verse 29, “But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess; and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the form of this world is passing away.” Now, when you first read that, you think he’s getting into some kind of eschatology or something. No, I do not believe that at all. Remember, translating from one language to another, sometimes words come out that seem to be pregnant with meaning but it may not be the meaning that you think that they’re talking about. Let me say, simply, what I believe he’s saying here. He’s saying that there are four things that cannot hinder your relationship with Christ once you are married. Number one, your spouse. And in this case he mentions the wife cannot be a hindrance to the husband although it would certainly be implied the other way around. Secondly, one’s sorrow cannot hinder his relationship with Christ. Thirdly, one’s joy, his rejoicing, cannot hinder his relationship with Christ. And fourthly, one’s business and material possessions cannot hinder his walk with Christ. Marriage, without thinking about it beforehand, could afford the opportunity for one or all four of these things to stand in the way of your living attached to Jesus Christ. Now, let’s take it slowly. Verse 29 says, “But this I say, brethren.” First of all, his spouse must not hinder his devotion. “But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened.” The word “time” is the word kairos, which is different than chronos. Chronos is something you measure, like a watch. You measure time. But there’s another word for time, kairos, which means a season or an opportunity. That’s the word he uses. In other words, there’s an opportunity you have from the time you get saved until the time you die. Marriage should in no way hinder that opportunity. “[T]time has been shortened” is in the perfect passive. Shortened has the idea of drawn together by the purpose that God has Himself. So when you look in the light of eternity, time has been shortened and certainly in light of the coming of Jesus it’s continuously getting shorter. So there’s a shortened time that we have, a shortened opportunity that we have. So in the midst of that short opportunity nothing in marriage should hinder us from being the vessel God wants us to use. Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her,” sanctifying her. All those things must blend in. Remember it doesn’t answer every question here. But the main thing is he says, “You keep your life attached to Jesus even in your marriage if that’s what you choose to do.” The whole thought is like James says that life is like a vapor. It quickly appears and then just passes away. So we must remember our first allegiance is under God. Please understand what I’m saying. That doesn’t mean, as I’ve heard, particularly in this area, “Oh, I’ve got to be about ‘ministry’ instead of my wife.” What he’s simply saying is, “You have your love relationship with Jesus like it ought to be and He’ll make your relationship with your wife what it ought to be. Don’t put her first. Like the triangle, put Him first. It will work like it’s supposed to work.” These guys will say, “Well, I’ve got to do this ministry for God” and they kill their families. No, that’s not what he’s saying. Please understand that. His point is, don’t let your marriage in any way hinder your walk with God. May it complement it, not contradict it. Secondly, one’s sorrow must not hinder his walk with Christ. Verse 30 reads, “and those who weep, as though they did not weep.” You know, when you get married there are a lot of things that can hinder your walk with Christ. One of these things is sorrow, sorrow in a very natural, non-sinful way. Things can happen to you that you would have never had to go through if you were single. Paul wants them to understand this. But don’t ever let that sorrow become a hindrance to your being a vessel that God can use. I remember our little daughter who is in Heaven. That was pain. It was more pain for my wife than it was for me. We men think we have pain when it comes to losing children or whatever, but I’ll tell you the wife who bore that child has more pain than anybody else could ever have. That wife, and he’s talking about virgin daughters here, if she had chosen not to get married, would never experience that. But now that the pain has come and now that the sorrow has entered into her heart. Grief is a clean wound which takes a long time to heal. Basically, what he could be saying is don’t let it lead you to bitterness. Don’t let it lead you to be hindered in any way in being a vessel of letting God use this in your life. Don’t ever do that. What sorrow has entered your life, death of a child, anything, that came as a result of your choice to be married and that sorrow entered into that relationship? Paul says, “I’m telling you. Don’t let it be a hindrance. Be as one who never sorrowed in the sense that there’s nothing standing between you and God. Be a vessel that God can use.” Then he goes on. Not only one’s sorrow must not hinder his walk but he says don’t let your rejoicing hinder your walk. Verse 30 continues, “and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice.” He’s not saying not to rejoice. My goodness! Just living on this earth brings a lot of joy, just the beauty around us. Just enjoying what’s around us, that’s fine. But don’t let that rejoicing, don’t let that joy hinder you in your walk with Christ. There are many joys to being married. Be joyful. That’s not what he’s saying. Jus

1 Corinthians 7:32

1 Our Supreme Goals in Life

1.1 Learn to live undistracted

1.2 To the single man – learn to live unwavering in your surrender to Christ

1.3 To the married man – understand the avoidable concerns of marriage

Our Supreme Goals in Life

We are going to pick up in verse 32 and talk about “Our One Supreme Goal.” The apostle Paul said over and over again and would want you to know that the supreme goal of every believer’s life is not whether he is married or single. That is not his supreme goal. His supreme goal is to live attached to Jesus Christ, to be a vessel through which God might do His work. Paul would shout that at us in the midst of a chapter that is dealing with whether I should stay single or whether I should be married.

As a matter of fact, in verses 29 through 31 Paul brought to our attention that one’s spouse, one’s joy, one’s sorrow, one’s possessions, and one’s business should never be a hindrance to that one supreme goal of living surrendered and attached to Jesus. Nothing should detract us from that. Nothing should in any way hinder that surrendered relationship. That is the silent theme that’s been behind everything Paul said in chapter 7. Whenever he suggests remaining single, whenever he suggests getting married, it should be factored in that the main purpose is not being single or being married. The main purpose is being surrendered to Christ, a vessel that God can use.

I want you to go back to chapter 1. I don’t want to be redundant and keep repeating this, but it is so important to see it. This is the grid through which you see the whole book of 1 Corinthians. Verses 29 give us that grid and show you what life is like for a believer, what a believer is, how he should live right side up. The church of Corinth was living upside down, but Paul tries to show them what it is to live right side up. The whole passage there, verses 29, is a series, but verse 2 really covers it. In verse 2 Paul says several things that we need to remember over in chapter 7, you see. The contexts have to mesh.

First of all, he says we are the called out ones. The word for church, ekklesia, means to be called out of. We have been called out of the world’s way of doing things into God’s way of doing them. We are the church of God, not the church of man, purchased by His blood. He says, “to the church of God which is at Corinth.” Now we don’t live like we want to live, we live the way He wants us to live. If that involves being single, so be it. If that involves being married, so be it. We are imperfect but totally sufficient in Christ.

He says, “the church of God at Corinth,” implying there that they have everything they need. What they are doing does not deny who they are. It just shuts it down and hides it, but they are complete in Christ. They have everything they need. Just like we are the church of God. We have everything that we need. If we are not living out of it, that’s our fault. God has given us everything we need. Therefore, if we are single, we are complete in Christ. If we are married, we are complete in Christ. We live in the light of that truth.

It also says in verse 2 that we are sanctified. We are called saints, as a matter of fact. It means we have been set apart. We have been set apart of His use. His Spirit has come to live in us. His blood has cleansed us. We are brand new creatures, as Romans says. We are not the same anymore. We can never be the same anymore. The old man has died. We are brand new creatures in Christ Jesus, and He has a purpose for us now. He lives in us and wants to live through us. So we live sanctified. That’s that one supreme purpose, that we live attached to Him. We are totally dependent upon Him in this new purpose, in this new relationship.

He says, “with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We live dependent upon Him. It’s not, “I need Thee every hour,” it is “I need Thee every breath. Oh, God, I need Thee every breath.” If I am single, I need you, oh God, every breath. I need you to be in me all that I cannot be for you. If we are married, it is the same cry. Nothing changes, whether we are single or whether we are married. The supreme purpose of our life remains steady, and we must be focused upon that at all costs.

Now, with this in mind, we should have no trouble with the things that Paul says in chapter 7. Since we are not our own, since we don’t live like the world, whether we remain single, whether we stay married, whether we get married, whatever, the purpose is still the same.

You know, Paul knew that their flesh was just like his flesh and like our flesh. No good thing dwells within it. Galatians 5:1617 says, “The flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.” Sometimes when you start talking about being single or getting married or remarriage and divorce and all these kinds of things, the flesh just rises up because it doesn’t like what the Word of God has to say. But it might be good to remember there is a battle going on. Galatians 5:16 says, “But I say, walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” I sure am glad he says that. I sure am glad he didn’t say you won’t have the desire of the flesh. That would leave me out of the picture real quick. But he says you will not carry it out.

He says in Galatians 5:17, “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another so that you might not do the things that you please.” Folks, there is a war going on, and it’s not with the adversary alone. It’s with our flesh. We look at our biggest problem every day in the mirror. So what Paul is saying is keep your priorities straight. Keep that one purpose where it ought to be. Be surrendered to Him as a person bought and paid for by the blood of Christ and listen to His Word and to His will and realize you are His property. Live attached to Him. Marriage or singleness is simply a means to an end. It should never be the end in itself. We are to be vessels for Christ. That’s the end, to be surrendered to Him.

Well, we come again to this truth. I am not just saying that to be saying it to find something to introduce the message with. That’s exactly what Paul brings back to our attention once again in the midst of all these questions concerning marriage, singleness, etc. If a person can best accomplish his one supreme goal being single, so be it, be single. If a person can best accomplish that living surrendered to Christ by being married, so be it, get married. But whichever you do, remember that’s the one supreme goal for all of us. There are problems either way you go, on both sides. The key is that we don’t allow any of our concerns, any of our problems to distract us in that one supreme purpose that we have of being surrendered to Him.

Learn to live undistracted

Let’s listen to what Paul has to say. There are three things that we will get into. First of all, he gives advice to everyone, single or married, that is, learn to live undistracted. Verse 32 of chapter 7 says, “But I want you to be free from concern.” Now that term “free from concern” in the New American Standard is one word. It’s the word amerimnos. It is the word that means to be without care or anxiety, to be free from anxiety, to be free from worry, to be focused in on what you are doing, to be without anything that pulls you off course or disturbs your priority in serving Christ. The word also an idea in it of being divided. When it is used in a wrong sense, it has the idea of being divided to where you have this here and you have Christ over here and you are kind of divided as to which way you are going to go and it overwhelms you as a result of it.

The root word merimna, without the little prefix, when it is used in the New Testament has a twofold idea. One is in a good sense, and one is in a bad sense. The word merimna itself means to care, to be careful or full of care for something, to be concerned. But it can have a devastating side to it in the Christian’s life if you can understand what he is saying here. The bad meaning is, when we let the care and concern so overwhelm us that it distracts us from the one supreme goal of surrendering to Christ. When we let circumstances or people or whatever it is that gets in our way detract us from Christ, even though we are concerned properly for them, that concern has a bad turn on it. It sours and it causes us to become bitter and worried and anxious and lose track of what life is all about for the believer. It is to allow these things to distract us from our main purpose.

Now you can illustrate that. You know, a person gets married, and he cares for his wife or she cares for her husband. Down the road something happens, a trauma hits them, a problem, a sickness, an illness and that person so cares for that loved one, but allows that good care and that good concern towards that loved one to turn against him and he becomes anxious about that loved one. He becomes worried about that loved one and all of a sudden he finds himself no longer in a walk surrendered to Christ. That’s when it has a bad turn. That is the bad sense of this word.

You see, all of our cares, all of our concerns, legitimate and commanded by God, are to be rolled over onto Christ. We cannot handle them. Romans 8 tells us that. We can only pick up our end of it. He helps pick up the other end. We are not here to bear it by ourselves. He walks through whatever we walk through with us. We take those cares and we take those concerns and we give them back to Him. We ask Him now to use us as vessels through which He can properly dispose that care and that compassion for others.

Paul says in Philippians 4 some beautiful words. He is talking about the bad sense of the word merimna, the anxiousness, the worry that can come when you are not handling it right. He commands us as Christ commands us in Matthew 6. It says in Philippians 4:6, “Be anxious for nothing.” The word “anxious” again is that wrong usage of the word merimna. The word for “nothing” means nothing. Be anxious for nothing.

Then he says the antidote for being anxious. He says, “but in everything [isn’t that amazing, “for nothing” “but in everything”, the contrasting words there] by prayer and supplication.” Prayer has within it more of the attitude towards God, that trusting attitude towards God, whereas supplication is the request that you are bringing before Him. And then he says, “with thanksgiving.” Thanksgiving always implies looking back. Something has happened and you are thankful. If you are not thankful, then you can’t qualify here. An anxiety has overcome your life. Worry and all the stress has moved in and taken over.

He says, “let your request be made known unto God.” So again, the antidote for anxiety is to pray and to trust God, which is exactly Paul’s theme in all of his epistles. It is the gospel message, to live attached to Him. Colossians 2:6 reads, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus, so walk ye in Him.” The same attitude you had when you bowed in desperation before Him and He saved you, you live that way every day, every moment. You take every care and you lay it before Him and let Him in you be what you are supposed to be.

Philippians 4:7 says, “And the peace of God.” I like that; not the peace with God, we have that already with Christ. That is a position. But the peace “of” God, the rest. You know, the word “peace” means rest, lack of conflict. Have you entered your rest by taking all your cares and concerns and laying them at His feet and saying, “God, I am not going to be anxious over these things. I trust You. You use me as a vessel and You strengthen me to be whatever You want me to be in the midst of this. But you are in charge and I lay them at Your feet.”

He said, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension.” If somebody would ask you why you are so at peace in the midst of this very difficult situation, you can say, “I don’t know. It surpasses my comprehension. I don’t have the vocabulary to explain it to you. It is God in me.” It says, “shall guard.” Where do our problems come from? Emotionally from the heart; mentally from the mind. He says, “This peace will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” You see, it can be transferred over to Him. It doesn’t have to work against you in the bad sense and become worry and anxiety which causes you to be distracted in your walk with God.

What happened in your life this past week that distracted you in your walk? Immediately the cloud of anxiety overwhelmed you. Immediately you have been distracted.

Paul’s wish for them is that they learn to live undistracted, to learn to live so surrendered that the things of life do not deter them in their Christian walk. If they are not properly dealt with, they will hinder and distract you.

Jesus uses the word merimna in the very same sense Paul uses it in Philippians 4. Jesus begins to show the things that cause us to be pulled off track. What causes us to be distracted? What causes us to be anxious and worried? Matthew 6 is so beautiful. This is one of the most wonderful sermons every preached. Jesus preached it Himself. It is just incredible in your study of it, if you have ever studied the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 6:25 is a beautiful picture here. Paul had the very same idea, except Jesus is a little more explicit on the things that can cause us to be distracted from our walk with God. Matthew 6:25 says, “For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life.” The word “life” there is psuche. It is more of the idea of your surroundings, the things that you relate to day by day, in and out.

Have you found out that traumatic experiences normally don’t throw you as quickly as the little mundane everyday things that come your way? He says, “do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink.’” Don’t be overly concerned with that. That doesn’t mean that you can’t be concerned for it, but don’t let that concern turn into worry and anxiety. He says, “nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing? ... And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life’s span?”

Then in verse 28 He says, “And why are you anxious about clothing?” He gives that beautiful illustration of how He clothes the birds and the field. Then in verse 31 He continues, “Do not be anxious then, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we clothe ourselves?’”

In verse 34 He caps it off. “Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow.” That is usually where it is, it hasn’t happened yet and you are worried about it. Anxiety usually traps you in the past or in the future, never in the present. And here you are in the present worried about something back here or here you are in the present worried about something that hasn’t even happened yet. He says, “Don’t worry, don’t be anxious.” It is the bad sense of the word. Don’t let it distract you, don’t let it overwhelm you.

I am so grateful that the things that are over my head are under His feet, aren’t you? That’s why you’ve got to learn to live undistracted. He says, “Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” And everybody said, “Amen!”

Man, I don’t want a crystal ball, do you? But I tell you what, I want to be undistracted so that whatever comes tomorrow, I won’t be distracted from my surrender to Him. Because only in my surrender to Him can the care and the concerns of this world be properly addressed. Otherwise, they are going to overwhelm me. They are going to hinder my walk with Christ. Clothing, food or tangible things that we could be concerned about, but the main thing is we should be trusting God. To worry over them is sin.

I remember how God taught us this. We were up in Kentucky, and I needed some shoes. I remember one night we had our family prayer time. And I remember we all prayed. I asked the Lord for a pair of shoes. Now, I didn’t just ask Him for a pair of shoes. It was snowing outside and I had to have a pair of shoes that would look dressy enough but also be able to walk in the snow because we couldn’t afford two pair, so I just needed one pair. And we prayed.

The next day a fellow in the church came by. He said, “You know, I’ve been praying.” We had told no one. He said, “God put on my heart to buy you a pair of shoes. You do wear a size 13, don’t you?” I said, “Yes, sir.” He says, “You do wear a D width?” I said, “Yes, sir.” He said, “I think they’ll fit. God just told me to do it.” I want to tell you, we had a shouting time in my house that day. I remember my children, you couldn’t wipe the smile off their faces; you couldn’t convince them that God did not care about us.

It is so precious, folks, when you learn that God cares about it more than you do. What’s wrong with us? We get so distracted over the dumbest things. He said, “Don’t worry about them. Put them in My hands. Let me do it. You trust Me. You walk undistracted, surrendered to Me.” Listen, life is just built on experience after experience after experience. Jesus said, “Why in the world won’t you just depend on Me! Don’t be distracted. Don’t let the little things of this world pull you off track. You have one purpose and that purpose is to be surrendered to Me.” And how beautiful it is when God shows you the other side of trusting Him.

The word merimna, in the good sense, is seen in several verses. Look over in 1 Corinthians 12:25. This is the good kind now. The enigma of this is we are to be concerned, but if we aren’t living attached to Christ, then our concern is going to be the wrong kind of concern and it’ll overwhelm us. That’s why He alone can produce this kind of concern, “that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.” That’s the word right there, “have the same care for one another.” You ask, “Is that bad?” No, that’s good. Well, how could it be bad? When you let that care for one another overwhelm you and distract you from your walk with Christ, you can put the cart before the horse. You’ve got to be connected to Him. He in you will express that concern and care through you. You can’t do it apart from His energizing by the message of grace. Grace is what does that. Grace is what instructs us. Grace is what enables us.

Look over in Philippians 2:20. He shows you again the proper use of the thing. The word is good word in itself. It becomes bad when we let it distract us from our surrender to Christ. Philippians 2:20 says, “For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.” You think that’s bad? Oh, no. Man, we ought to be concerned for each others welfare and so he sends them one of his trusted ones so that he would be concerned for them. But the key is, it becomes bad when you let that concern distract you from your surrender to Christ.

So in a good sense, the word is used for genuine concern for someone that comes from a trusting relationship in Christ. But in a bad sense, it is used of one who has allowed a genuine concern to turn sour and distract him from his own trust in Christ. So in our text, 1 Corinthians 7:32, Paul says, “But I want you to be free from concern.” He’s talking about the kind that is bad. I want you to be free from anxiety. I want you to be free from stressful living. I don’t want you to have to be up under that. I want you to put it over at my feet. I want to be in you what you cannot be for me. I want you to be securely focused upon your purpose in life as a believer.

Now in the context, if that means being single, so be it. If that means being married, so be it. But don’t be distracted by being single and don’t be distracted by being married. Be free of that kind of anxiety and worry. If that means whichever, accept it and go on. We must learn to live undistracted.

To the single man – learn to live unwavering in your surrender to Christ

Now, he begins to move from “everyone” to giving advice to single men. Now the reason I say single men is because that is what he addresses. He will address single women a little later on. So if you’re a single man, listen up! He is about to tell you something you need to hear. All single men pay attention. Here is his advice. Learn to live unwavering in your surrender to Christ.

Look at verse 32: “But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord.” Note the masculine there in verse 32, how he may please the Lord. There is no question he is addressing single men. He will address single women. So in verse 32 Paul makes a distinction between the single man and in verse 33 the married man. He is going to make a distinction there, but he is going to tell each one of them something here that will keep them from being distracted from their walk with Christ. “I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord.”

If we could somehow resurrect Paul we could say, “Now, Paul, sit down. I am going to ask you your advice, off the record. Should I get married or should I stay single?” What do you think Paul would say? He would say very clearly, “stay single. That’s the way I am. That’s the way you ought to be.” But now wait a minute. He wouldn’t say that as a command. He would say that based on that’s how he lived. He had found to be surrendered to Christ and be single was the best thing for him to carry out the purposes that God had given to him.

Back in 7:7 Paul told you that, but he had a twofold meaning in it. Look back in 7:7. He says, “Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am.” Now how was he? He was single. But also, he was speaking there of what he is bringing out in this verse that we are studying. He was speaking of the fact that he lived content in whatever circumstance he lived in. His singleness was not his problem; being married was not his problem. He just lived content with Christ in whatever circumstance he found himself in. So that was the balance to it. Paul would have a balance. He would have an opinion, but he would have a balanced opinion. The key would be not in being single or married; the key would be in what we’ve been talking about, living in that attachment to Christ. He was content in his state. He was content being single. But he knew the balance of the equation.

He goes on in verse 7 and says, “However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that.” To some they can accomplish what God wants them as being single. To others, they accomplish what God wants being married. And that is okay, because God will give the gift and the grace to do whichever He assigns. So the key: surrender to Christ. If He brings a wife or a husband into your life, wonderful; if He doesn’t, wonderful. You see, the key is, what does He want in your life?

This is important to review when you read verse 32. You could come up with all kinds of conclusions. It might make you think that single people are the only ones really serious about their commitment to Jesus. It could read that way, couldn’t it? Now that is the ideal, but sadly it’s not the reality. What he is simply saying is, the single man does not have the added responsibilities on his life that a married man would have. And with the added responsibility comes more and more the opportunity to be distracted, to be hindered. The single man is not that way. The single man, yes, he has burdens. Paul himself had the burden of all the churches on him. It didn’t mean you don’t have pressure. It didn’t mean you don’t have responsibility. But you don’t have the responsibilities that a married man has. He has every one you have, but he has a whole bunch more added on because he is married.

Paul says that the one who is unmarried, single men, listen, has no excuse not to have the purposes of God as your total focus and concern. You have no excuse. That’s basically what he is saying. A single man is totally unhindered by other relationships so that he can fully serve the Lord Jesus, fully be everything God wants him to be.

He goes on to say of the unmarried man, “how he may please the Lord.” That’s a very important phrase. All he wants in his life is to please the Lord. Like I said a moment ago, that’s the ideal, isn’t it? But that’s not the reality. I want to tell you something. If you are a single man and you have anything else as your focus in life, whether it’s getting rich, whether its finding a mate or whatever and it’s not being surrendered to Jesus, Paul just nailed you to the wall. If you don’t feel conviction, it might be a time to get saved because that is what he is telling you. He is telling you, single men, “Don’t you understand chapter 1:29? Don’t you understand you are a brand new creature in Christ?”

Now, if you are single, you ought to be wholly, absolutely unhindered in anything in serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Find all your sufficiency in Him. Find all the joy you are looking for in Him and go on and live that way. So if you are single, I encourage you and challenge you because that is exactly what Paul is saying. The fact that he is a single person, like Paul, he is not tied down to the things that can pull him off the path. How would Paul know that? Because that’s the way he lived and he has every right under God as an apostle and as a single, committed man to say that to single men.

So the word to the single man, live a life that is unwavering in your surrender to Christ. Let this be your focus. Don’t let it be finding a mate. Don’t you dare. That’s what he is saying. Don’t let it be being successful in life. Don’t you dare. Let it be being a vessel that God can use. All these other things will find their place, but your main supreme goal is living surrendered unto Christ.

I want to tell you something. Anything you are looking for in a wife, you are really not going to find. You are going to find it in Jesus Christ, whether you have learned this yet or not. I love the expression that we run into overseas. They know it. They say, when Jesus is all you have, that’s about the only time you ever realize Jesus is all you need. But see, over here, we haven’t come to that place yet. We always have Plan B. But what he is saying to the single men is, get your lives attached to Jesus. Don’t be distracted by anything. You just continue on living that way.

I’m telling you. You got single men, I guarantee you, who are as mad as a wet hen at what I’m saying. But I want to tell you something, I didn’t write this. The apostle Paul is telling you face to face, nose to nose, “Single man, get your priorities straight and get yourself attached unto Christ and quit looking for a mate and start living for Him. And if He wants you to have a mate, He will send her. And if He doesn’t, He won’t. And if you are single or if you are married, it doesn’t matter. Neither is to distract you in your walk with Christ.”

To the married man – understand the avoidable concerns of marriage

So he has a word for the single man. Be unwavering in your surrender to Christ. But then he has a word for the married men. Now he has had a word for everybody generally. I don’t want you to be full of anxiety. I don’t want this thing to get in there and distract you. The advice he gives to the married man is to understand the unavoidable concerns of your marriage. Now, by understanding I mean, don’t let your concern which is right for certain things in your marriage which now has been added to you because of marriage, don’t let that distract you from your walk with Christ. Make sure you put it in proper understanding within the text, within who you are as a believer first, then who you are as a father and as a husband.

Verse 33 reads, “but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.” Paul had been around some married folks, hadn’t he? I am sorry. He is not saying it’s wrong to be married. He’s not saying that it is wrong for married people to be concerned about what they should be concerned about. He knows that there are unavoidable concerns to being married. Paul doesn’t have to live with that. He’s got his own concerns. But there are unavoidable concerns that come with the turf. You choose to marry, that is your decision. But with the decision comes the responsibility. And that’s very important.

Paul himself taught upon this in many of his letters in his epistles. Providing for your family now becomes an unavoidable concern. Understand it, but put it in light of the teaching. Don’t let it distract you from your walk with God. Let God get involved in it, and God through you will enable you to do what He has commanded you to do. Second Thessalonians 3:617 speaks to this. I love this letter because the church at Thessalonica sprung up and boy, what a tremendous church. But they had a lot of problems. Paul hadn’t spent much time teaching them, and these letters were to instruct them. It is just a joy to study them.

In 2 Thessalonians 3:6 he says, “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep aloof from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us.” Now, what is an unruly life? Well, the context will show you. “For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without praying for it.”

1 Corinthians 7:34

Our Supreme Goal in Life - Part 2

Have you noticed the silent theme in chapter 7? It is all through the Scriptures, particularly in Corinthians. It is very clear and very precise. Sometimes it is silent, in the background, underneath. It is holding up the teaching of what Paul is saying. It was a theme that the Corinthians particularly refused to listen to, and that is the problems that they were facing. They would not listen to it.

What is that theme? The theme is that the believer is not to be distracted from his life’s purpose of being a vessel through which God can do His work. He has to live attached to Him and Him only. You know, at the church of Corinth, they weren’t doing that. They were attaching themselves to Paul, to Apollos, to Cephas, to flesh, to anything they could see, touch and feel. Chapter 3 says they were babies. Babies act like babies. Babies cannot trust what they cannot see. They have to attach themselves to something that makes them feel good, something that they can rationalize and reason out. They weren’t listening.

But we are to be conduits through which God does His work, and the only way to do that is to be such a conduit that nothing hinders the flow of the life of Christ through us, unhindered by any fleshly sin. It starts inwardly, looks upwardly and is seen outwardly. When you don’t have the inward and the upward, then the outward is going to look like the church at Corinth. But when inwardly you love Him and bow before Him and are looking upwardly to see what He wants you to do and be, then by His grace, outwardly people see His life in you.

Now Paul noticeably picked the theme up and made it very clear in 6:19-20. In the context of immorality, he brings that theme to the surface and shows them what they are supposed to be. In 1 Corinthians 6:19 he says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” Do you not know this? Verse 20 says, “For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” The word “glorify” means to give Him the proper estimation, let Him be recognized in and through your body. That’s our purpose. That’s the good news. That’s everything that Jesus came to do and to be in us, so he reminds them of that in chapter 6.

He continues the theme in 7:16 in the questions of should I marry or should I remain single, mostly stimulated by a wrongful idea of sexual intimacy in marriage. They had a perverted idea of any mention of the word “sex.” Paul says in verse 7, after setting things right, “Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am.” I said it when we studied it before and I am going to say it again. Even our context in the latter part of the chapter bears it out. He does mean that he is single—“I wish you were single like me”—but that is just a little portion of what he means. What he really means is what he said in Philippians 4:11, because if you know anything about Paul and you follow this underlying theme all the way through, you can see it. What he really means is, “I’ve learned to be content in all things.” In Philippians 4:11 he is talking specifically about “whether I am poor or whether I am wealthy, whether I am with nothing or without I am in abundance, I have learned to be content.”

The word “content” means selfcontained. He is saying, “I have learned that everything I need is in the One who lives in me. I don’t have to go outside of Him.” He brings that same thought, I believe, into Corinthians. He says to the single man and to the married man, “I wish you were living as I am living, in the sense that I have learned something, that whether I am single or married, I can be content in whatever state that I am in. I find my joy in a person, and that person is Jesus Christ.” That’s what he is saying.

With that statement, he draws them back to their purpose, I believe. Then in verse 17 a lady has had her unbelieving husband just abandon her. Can you imagine the pain and the hurt? The apostle Paul, trying to help her, takes her to the cross and takes her back to the purpose of her life, this same purpose. He says in verse 17, “Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And thus I direct in all the churches.” In other words, let this be God’s assignment for you. He allowed it. Now in that assignment, you let Him be glorified in your body. See to it that this assignment causes you to be a vessel through which Christ can be seen. Keep focused on your purpose. He says this in the midst of a very difficult circumstance.

In 7:19 he again says, “but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.” It is not what you want, it’s what God wants. That’s what matters. Verses 29-31 tell us, “Let no man be distracted.” Don’t let your spouse distract you. Don’t let your joy distract you. Don’t let your sorrow distract you. Don’t let your business distract you. Don’t let anything distract you from your surrender to Christ.

That leads us to verse 32 where he says, “But I want you to be free from concern.” Don’t let anything distract you. This has been the underlying theme of everything Paul has said. Now, that’s not their theme. That is not their question. This is his answer. He weaves it in all of the answers that he gives back to them. Make sure nothing distracts you from living attached to Christ, inwardly surrendered, looking upwardly in obedience and then seen outwardly, let Christ’s life flow through you.

In verse 32, there are two meanings for a particular word. He says in verse 32, “But I want you to be free from concern.” As we studied, the word “concern” has a good meaning and it has a bad meaning. The good meaning of it is to be full of care, to be full of compassion and concern for something, and that’s good. It is a good word to use. But when that becomes the wrong sense of the word, it becomes a distraction and causes anxiety and causes worry in one’s life.

Do you realize the fine line between a Godly burden and a fleshly distraction? It hit me as I was studying this. Let’s say your focus is missions. You’ve got the wrong focus. That has become a fleshly distraction. If your focus is evangelism, that’s the wrong focus. That is a fleshly distraction. If your focus is ministry, that’s the wrong focus. Your focus must be Christ, then ministry becomes a godly burden that He enables, and missions becomes a godly burden that He enables, and all these other things find their place. But you cannot put them in front of Christ. They become a distraction when your eyes are pulled away from Him and focused on that particular thing, whether good or bad. There is a fine line between them.

Therefore, Paul says, “Don’t let anything distract you, nothing. You be free.” And he uses the bad sense of the word, from anxiety, from worry. Don’t let anything, even if it is good, don’t let it distract you from the best which is Christ who is your focus. The context of chapter 7, being married or remaining single, is not Paul’s main focus and it is not the focus of us. It should be becoming and remaining attached to Jesus Christ. That’s Paul’s focus, and that should be our focus.

By the way, ma’am, if you are dating somebody and Christ is not his main focus, you may want to think twice before you consider marrying him. What makes you think if Christ is not his main focus now, He will be his main focus then? That is what Paul is saying. So, ladies, you might want to check a few things out before you make that step. Find out what his focus is. Inwardly if he is not surrendered and upwardly if he is not focused, then outwardly it is going to make a difference in the way he lives and the way he loves. It won’t be God’s way.

If you are thinking about getting married, remember, when you choose to get married, you are asking for responsibilities that you don’t have right now and it is going to be added to you to where God will hold you accountable. They cannot become a distraction. They must be a godly burden, but you must have these unavoidable concerns in your life. Paul is not saying it is wrong to be married at all. He is just saying that these unavoidable concerns go with the territory. If you are going to get married, it is part of it. And if the focus is Christ, inwardly, upwardly, then outwardly you can care for these things and it will work out the way they are supposed to.

The phrase in verse 33 “please his wife,” as we saw the last time, means to fit oneself to, to adjust to someone. A married man has some adjustments to make, especially if they have been single for a while.

Well, he says to everyone, live undistracted lives. To the single man, learn to live an unwavering life of surrender to Christ. To the married man, learn to understand the unavoidable circumstances, but don’t let them distract you. Let them be the godly burdens that His grace will enable you to accomplish. Don’t let them become the focus of your life. If they do, then they will pull your eyes off of Christ and the marriage will begin to crumble.

Well, we continue. Next Paul speaks to the single woman. Live an unquestionable, holy life before God. That is what he says to the single woman. Now, we’ve got a problem with the translation here. I have wrestled with it. I don’t want to confuse you. We are going to have to work with this a little bit. The King James translators took a word and used it one way and the New American Standard translators took the same word and used it a different way. Let me see if I can share it with you without confusing you.

Here is the King James translation of Verse 34. If you have a New American Standard, look at yours and see how different it is. It says in verse 34, “There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. [That is the phrase we are going to be looking at, by the way.] The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.”

Now the word that the King James translators brings out as “difference” is the Greek word merizo. It’s in the perfect passive indicative, which means that this person is in the state that they are in because of something in the past. It refers to someone or something. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a person, but something is in the state of being that they are in because of something in the past. It means to be divided in something or to be different in something. The problem is, which one definition do we use—divided or different? It is obvious that the King James translators picked the word “different,” but the New American Standard translators picked the word “divided.”

Now if you look in both translations and find the word merizo, every time except here it will be translated “divided” in both translations. So what are we going to do with it? Which translation are we going to use? You see, the King James translators said that word “difference” refers to the woman and to the single lady, the virgin. But the New American Standard doesn’t do it that way. It says in verse 34, “And his interests are divided.” That’s the word merizo. They refer it back to verse 33 to the man who has these unavoidable concerns in married life. Read it with verse 33 and it makes all kinds of sense: “but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and his interests are divided.” It makes a lot of sense to me. That division does not mean in the sense of anxiety or worry. It just simply means his life has a lot more areas in it now to deal with than he had before.

Well, which translation are you going to take? Are you going to use the King James Version or the New American Standard? I am going to take the New American Standard simply to avoid confusion, because I guarantee you if I took both of them, we’d be so confused.

To the single woman — let nothing distract you from your surrender to Him

Verse 34, then, man, goes back to verse 33 and then switches to a brand new group of people—single women. He says, “And the woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit.” It appears from my study that Paul is making a distinction among single women because there are several arenas that they fit into. The unmarried would include the divorced and the widows. We know that back from 7:8. Go back to verse 8 and I’ll show you. He uses the term “unmarried” and attaches to it the term “widows.”

It says in verse 8, “But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I.” So Paul is referring to the unmarried being the divorced, the widows being married before, but now they are single for a different reasons. Their husbands have died.

Here in verse 34 he adds the term “virgin.” So there seems to be three categories of single women; divorced, widows and virgins. The word “virgin” can mean one who has never had a sexual experience or can be and has been translated as a woman of marriageable age. Either way there is a definite distinction made among groups of single women. Paul is saying to these single women that they live holy lives before God. Now to do this is going to require an inward and an outward focus, you see. It goes back to the same purpose we have been talking about, that inward surrender and submission has got to be there for the outward to be around.

Look at verse 34: “And the woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit.” The word “holy” there is hagios. It means to be set apart, but it also means to be consecrated and devoted to someone. So she is to be holy to God and then it says, “both in body and in spirit.” Now, the human spirit is where Christ’s spirit dwells. So, therefore, it is inward before it can be outward, obviously. That is the whole theme of the Christian life. That is going to be the total focus. It’s got to be inward, upward, as we said earlier, and outward. One who is surrendered inwardly will take care of the outward temptations that come in the flesh.

By the way, they will come. There will be temptations of the flesh. And so, to the single woman, he says she is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she might be holy in both body and spirit.

Back in 7:8, that we read a few moments ago, he tells the divorced and the widows, “stay single just like I am.” But then he gives a warning because he knows what is going to come. He says in verse 9, “But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn.” So he knows the temptations of the flesh, particularly in Corinth. Corinth was the most immoral city in the world at that time and he knows that single women are going to have a tremendous pull towards immorality.

Therefore, he gives the answer in verse 34, and that is to be holy in body and in spirit, to be consecrated first inwardly so that outwardly you can battle and handle the temptations of the flesh.

Well, to the single girl, divorced, widowed or one who is a virgin, Paul makes a statement but he is also challenging them to keep on living as they are living, be unaffected by the temptation that is around you. Live an unquestionable, holy life before God. Continue to let nothing distract you from your surrender to Him.

To the married woman — be unceasingly faithful in your marriage responsibilities

Well, he has dealt with single men, with married men and now with single women. Now he is going to come to his fourth category, which is the married woman. Paul speaks to the married woman saying be unceasingly faithful in your marriage responsibilities. I am going to tell you something, ladies; we are living in a day where women are fighting for their rights. That is fine, and legally you can do that; but when it comes to being a believer, we don’t have any rights. We only have privileges and we have a responsibility to line up under what God’s Word says.

We saw that back when they were suing each other in court. Legally they could do it; biblically they couldn’t. So it must not come to what the society says. It must come to what Jesus says. It must come to what His Word has to say. And he says to these married women, “You be faithful. You be unceasingly faithful in your responsibility to your husband.”

Verse 34 reads, “but one who is married [speaking of the woman] is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.” The very same thing he said about the man, he turns right around and says about the lady. Now, he doesn’t always do that. In the book of Ephesians he says to the woman, “Submit yourself to your husband.” It starts with her and that’s it. He spends the whole rest of the chapter beating us men up. I mean, love her as Christ loved the church, giving Himself for her, sanctifying her.” Boy, he just lays it out. But here he says exactly the same thing to one as he does the other, that they are to be both faithful in fulfilling their responsibilities to one another. It says the exact same thing.

Like the man, she is now concerned with the unavoidable concerns of her marriage: “but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world.” By the way, did you know that “the things of the world” is not a sinful term? What he is talking about are the main concerns that you would have as a married person on planet earth today. You be concerned about those things, because the Word is very clear about them. It doesn’t mean in a sinful way at all, but the same thing that everybody has to be concerned with. The married woman fits into that category; the unavoidable concerns of being married. Like a man who is concerned with adjusting to her, she must be concerned with adjusting to him: “but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.”

But both have the same responsibility to fit, to adjust to one another. There is absolutely nothing wrong with fulfilling this responsibility. Only when it becomes a distraction is it wrong. As long as your focus is upon Christ, it will be a godly burden enabled by His grace. Many folks have discovered that and are walking in freedom, and daily their marriages just continue to be a testimony for Christ. Others have not. You can take something good and focus on it and it becomes a distraction. You must take it, lay it at His feet, and let God enable you now in the responsibilities that you have. When you obey Christ, it is never contradictory to anything that He has given. It is always complementary. Always remember that. You don’t live your lives for each other. You live them for Christ. Christ then melts the two of you together. That is where the complementary part of it comes together.

Notice, being undistracted is still the bottom line of all that Paul has been saying. If you are not convinced, look at verse 35. He shows you that this has been his main thought from start to finish. Verse 35 says, “And this I say for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is seemly, and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.” Now everything Paul has said has been for their benefit. Some things you cannot change either way. Some things are kind of grey areas. Paul is saying, “I am saying all these things for your benefit.”

The word “benefit” is the word sumphero. It is the word that comes from two Greek words, sum, together with, and phero, which means to bring, to bring together. Remember, anxiety and worry are a distraction and they scatter. They shatter things. They divide things. Paul says, “What I have been doing is pulling things together for your advantage. All the things that I have said to you are for your Christian conduct in the area of Corinth.”

Remember back in chapter 1 he says Christ’s testimony has been confirmed in you, but the problem is, it’s never been confirmed through them. Paul says if you will just let Christ be your focus and follow the guidelines I have given to you, it will produce a conduct among the Christians there in Corinth that will be an example to the pagans who live around you, to bring together something that is advantageous to them. Paul has been bringing it together for spiritual and eternal value. He doesn’t have a grudge against people who are married. You might think so when he talks about being single. That’s just him. He is single. He says, “You asked me and I am going to answer you. But I don’t have a grudge against people who are married. Just don’t let anything in that marriage become a distraction to your surrender and your walk with Christ.” He personally feels that being single would be better.

A brother came to me the last time I preached in this passage and he said, “Would you tell the people at some point that the single missionaries on the foreign field have already discovered what Paul is saying. Paul had that missionary spirit. They are absolutely unhindered in anything in their service for Christ. But the married couples have found that sickness and family responsibilities, etc., do have a tendency to hold them back.” He said, “I think maybe that is what Paul is saying.” I agree. I think it is, too. That’s all he is saying.

He said, “I am saying it for your benefit, just saying it for your benefit. Your main focus is to Him and being single will help that.” Then he goes on says, “Listen, I am not putting you into bondage to my personal opinions.” You know, some things he said aren’t personal opinions. They are sanctified opinions even when he gives them. But some things you can’t vary either way. But he is saying, “Listen, I’m not putting some legalistic rule on top of you. I’m not trying to put you up under my spell.”

Do you realize that you can take your personal opinion on something, when it is not a command of God, and you can put somebody under a legalistic hold? It can be your view of music. It can be your view of anything. If it is not biblical, you can take that and hold people up under that. Many people have been held under it. Paul said, “That is the way the world acts. I’m not doing that. I’m not doing anything to put you under bondage.”

Proverbs 7:21 tells us a little bit about this. It says, “With her many persuasions, she entices him. [This is the adulterous woman.] With her flattering lips, she seduces him.” In other words, she puts him up under her spell. She puts him up under her bondage because this is what she wanted and now she has him up under that bondage. Proverbs 22:24 says, “Do not associate with a man given to anger or go with a hottempered man.” Why? Verse 25 tells us. “Lest you learn his ways and find a snare for yourself.” In other words, you are going to become just like him. You are going to get up under his spell. He’s going to take his opinions and get you up under them and it’s going to change the way you are.

Do you realize that legalism and communism have the same tactic to control people? It is fear. It is exactly the same thing. One comes out of a religious world and one comes out of a pagan society. That’s the same thing. You put people up under some legalistic opinion you have and friend, you can kill their whole joy and everything else in their walk with Christ. But Paul said, I am not doing that.

He says in the last part of verse 35, “but to promote what is seemly [that is what he is doing] and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.” The word “seemly” has the idea of an outward appearance, something that people see. But here, of course, we know that it has to have first of all an inward motivation in order to have an outward appearance.

Paul is saying, “I’m trying to get you to the place that the people of Corinth will look at you and recognize who you really are, that you are Christians, that you are believers, that you are surrendered to Christ. That’s what I am doing: That they might see your outward conduct that comes from an inner and upward and then outward relationship with Christ.”

All that he said about marriage and singleness in chapter 7 has been for their benefit. He says, “I am not putting you under some kind of legalism.” And then he goes on, “and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.” There you go. That is the purpose of why he has done chapter 7. “Whether married or whether single,” he said, “I want to secure undistracted devotion.”

The word “undistracted” there is the word aperispastos—a, without and perispastos, which means to be drawn away from something, like you are looking at something and something gets your attention that pulls you over here.

When I was in the first through sixth grades every report card I got had a little red mark on the bottom, “He will not pay attention in class.” Do you know why I didn’t pay attention in class? Because I have a curiosity. Do you know where they sat me? By the window. You don’t put a curious kid by the window if you want him to pay attention. I would be looking at the teacher, trying my best and all of a sudden I’d see a dog outside or somebody playing on the playground or something and I would be drawn away.

That’s what the word “undistracted” means. Paul said, “I don’t want any of you to be drawn away by marriage or singleness or anything else, but to be focused upon the Lord.”

He said, “to secure undistracted devotion.” The word “devotion” is a beautiful word. It’s the word that means constantly attending to someone out of love. My dad’s mother was not quite the person my mother’s mother was. My mom’s mom was just absolutely wonderful. My mother had her personality and I got it from her. My daughter also has it. You can just see it in the four generations.

My Mama—that’s what I called by mother’s mom)—got sick, and my mother wanted her to come and live with us. Her Mother was very independent and she said, “I don’t want to fool with it. I don’t want to come. I don’t want to embarrass you. I don’t want to bother you.” But my mother said, “No, you need to come.” So she came.

One night she woke up. I guess she was having a pain or something. She said, “Myrtle, Myrtle!” That was my mother’s name. Boy, my mother jumped up and threw her nightgown and socks on. It was in the winter time, and she was cold. Those old gym socks were slick as they could be on a wood floor. She turned a corner and hit the top of the steps and she bounced all the way down the steps and banged into the door down at the foot of the steps. It could have killed her.

She went running into her mama’s room and said, “Mama, what’s wrong?” Her mother was laughing so hard. She said, “I can’t remember. I forgot. It was so funny you falling down the steps.” That was my mother’s mother! I loved her. She always had something funny to share or something encouraging to share. You never met her when she wasn’t that way. My mother loved her so much. I watched my mother for years literally wait on her hand and foot. She became an attendant to her mother because she loved her so much. She was such a precious lady. But my mother served her because she loved her. She waited on her hand and foot.

That’s what the word means. He said, “I want you to be undistracted. Don’t ever be pulled away from your coming before God and daily saying, O God, how do you want to use me? God, how can I be a vessel through which you can work because I love you, Lord. I love you, Lord.” He said, “I don’t want anybody to ever be pulled off of that purpose because if you ever do, then life is going to turn upside down just like it had in Corinth.”

That’s what he is trying to secure, that un-distraction. Whether you are single or whether you are married, you are to live that way. Let it be a godly burden if you are married, not a fleshly distraction. Keep focusing on Him and His grace will enable you to be what He wants you to be. It’s inward, it’s upward and it’s outward. Nothing is to distract us.

If you are inwardly surrendered, it is going to show outwardly. If you are loving Him inwardly and devoted to Him out of that love, that love is going to come out. If it is going to be in your marriage, it is going to make your marriage better than it has ever been. If you are single, you are going to have friends and a love for people that you’ve never had before. God will manifest that. The fruit of His Spirit is this love, but it has got to be first of all your love for Christ. Then you see through His eyes and people notice the difference.

Here is a story about a man named John Blanchard. I don’t think it is the same John Blanchard that is the great Bible preacher from over in England. This is a different John Blanchard that happens to have the same name, as best I understand the story.

John Blanchard stood up from the bench, straightened his army uniform and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand Central Station. He looked for a girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn’t. The girl with the rose. His interest in her had begun 13 months before in a Florida library. Taking a book off the shelf he found himself intrigued not with the words of the book, but with the notes penciled in the margin. The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and insightful mind. In the front of the book he discovered the previous owner’s name, Miss Hollis Maynell. With time and effort, he located her address. She lived in New York City. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond.

The next day he was shipped overseas for service in World War II. During the next year and one month the two grew to know each other through the mail. Each letter was a seed falling on a fertile heart. A romance was budding. Blanchard requested a photograph but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn’t matter what she looked like.

When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting, 7:00 p.m. at the Grand Central Station in New York. “You’ll recognize me,” she wrote, “by the red rose I’ll be wearing on my lapel.”

So at 7:00 he was in the station looking for a girl whose heart he loved, but whose face he had never seen. I’ll let Mr. Blanchard tell you what happened. He says, “A young woman was coming toward me, her figure long and slim. Her blonde hair lay back in curls from her delicate ears. Her eyes were blue as flowers. Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness and in her pale green suit, she was like springtime come alive. I started toward her entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose.

As I moved, a small provocative smile curved from her lips. ‘Going my way, soldier?’ she murmured. Almost uncontrollably I made one step closer to her and then I saw

1 Corinthians 7:35-38

1 Fathers and Daughters

2 The responsibility of the father

3 The father’s right to allow his daughter to marry

4 The father’s right to prevent his daughter from marrying

Fathers and Daughters

You are going to find out in verses 3638 that you have to know the culture of Corinth to understand what Paul is talking about. In verse 36 he begins with the little word “but,” which in the Greek is the word de. When it is used it means he is changing gears. He is going to another subject. It sort of connects it to another thought train, you see. He has just come out of talking to single men, married men, single ladies, and married ladies. Single women were divided into three groups: those who have been divorced, those who have been widowed and those who are virgins and had never married. The word “virgin” can mean those who have never had any sexual experience or it can be one of marriageable age or both. The subject of the virgin girl now comes up again, but in the context of that virgin girl and her daddy, the father and the daughter. It appears that some concerned fathers of these virgin, single daughters really have some questions they need to ask the apostle Paul. I wish we had the questions. It would make it easier, but we don’t. We just have the answers. Now, there is something to remember as we get into this. One of the problems of the Corinthian believers was their attachment to men. Remember back in 1:12, Paul says, “Now I mean this, that some of you are saying, ‘I am of Paul,’ and ‘I am of Apollos,’ and ‘I of Cephas,’ and ‘I of Christ.’” Of course, the ones who said, “I of Christ” have the right person but the wrong motive. These were all divisive kind of things. The ones that were of Paul adopted his way of living as being a spiritual way of life. In other words, to be single must be spiritual. To be a virgin and to continue to be a virgin and be single must be what God really wants, because Paul is that way and we are of Paul. So therefore, in their warped, immature minds, they established this as a spiritual precedent among them. This led to all kinds of confusion. As matter of fact, it even entered into the married people’s lives and they started equating the sexual intimacy in marriage with immorality of all things. That’s when Paul has to dig in chapter 7 and straighten out the mess that is in Corinth. Even their questions show their immaturity, and we know their questions only by the answers that Paul has given. Well, this problem of being attached to Paul and being the single person and remaining virgin as being a spiritual thing seems to reappear in the text that we will read. Look at verses 3638. Verse 36 reads, “But if any man thinks he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she should be of full age, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes, he does not sin; let her marry. But he who stands firm in his heart, being under no constraint, but has authority over his own will, and has decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well. So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.” Now I know what’s going through many of your minds. You are thinking, “I’m thankful for a lot of things, but one of them is this, that you are having to deal with this and not me.” Have you ever gone fishing and you had a reel that wasn’t really a good reel; it didn’t have the proper balance in it? You know, the open casting, but you don’t have a good reel and you just don’t use your thumb on the line quite correctly. What happens? The pros call it a “professional override,” but in layman’s terms that means a backlash. Many times I have done that. Usually when I get a backlash, I just like to take a pair of scissors and cut the whole line off and put a new line on. It is a lot quicker. When we see the backlash that’s in this verse, it looks like it is all tangled up. What in the world is he saying? The best thing for me would be to cut the three verses out and move on to the next passage. But, you know, you can get those backlashes out. If you fish long enough, you know what to do. You know that you sit there, take your time, follow that one little thread there and just take it out one at a time. It looks all confusing, but stay with it, stay with it, stay with it and finally it just untangles right in front of you. Now that’s what we are going to try to do. Now some of you are going to go to sleep because you are going to say, “It has nothing to do with me, thank you!” But I want you to know ahead of time, it’s got a strong personal application to families today, but you are going to have to stay with me in order to catch it. If you go to sleep, you are going to miss it. You’ve got to stay with me. This is a culture thing. We’ve got to enter into it, we’ve got to understand it and see what Paul is saying, then let the Holy Spirit lift out the gem of personal application that we can take home with us.

The responsibility of the father

Now there are three things that I want to show you. First of all, the responsibility of the father in the culture of Corinth. You’ve got to understand the culture of Corinth and the role of the father. And really to do this, instead of looking at verse 36 or 37 first, let’s look over in verse 38, because he wraps up those two verses in verse 38. He says in verse 38, “So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.” Now I want you to know this is not as easy as it looks. There are some people who translate this because of the way the Greek is constructed here, as if this is a man proposed to a single woman to marry. Obviously they have the pressure of immorality or whatever else and they choose not to marry. Then on the other hand, you’ve got others who say in verse 37, that they choose not to marry. So, they look at a betrothed couple. But that’s not the issue, I don’t believe. I’m one who believes he is talking about fathers giving away their virgin daughter in marriage. Now, I believe the proof of this is found in the little phrase which is one word in Greek, “he that giveth in marriage.” There is word that covers that whole phrase, ekgamizo. It comes from the word ek, which means “out” and from the word gamizo, which means to give in marriage, to place out in marriage, to give in marriage as a father does with his daughter. Now that’s important because that’s a special word. There is another word for marriage. But when this word is used, it means to give in marriage. Now look over in Matthew 22:30, and I think you can see the difference in the two words and why we come to the conclusion this is a father giving his daughter in marriage, not one who is betrothed to a single lady, either marrying or not. It is very, very important to see this because both words are used in this verse and they are translated very properly. Matthew 22:30 says, “For in the resurrection they neither marry [that’s one word] nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” Now the word for marry is gamizo. But the word for “given in marriage” is our word which is ekgamizo. That’s the word that we are looking at, to be given in marriage. You see, it’s different from just being married. Look over in Matthew 24:38 and you’ll find it again. “For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking ,they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark.” They were marrying, which is one word, and giving in marriage, which was the other word. Therefore, we rest our case that what Paul is talking about by using that special word in verse 3638 is a father giving his daughter, his virgin daughter, in marriage. Now you begin to understand this in the culture of the day. You’ve got to know the culture of the day. Parents, especially the father, played a dominant role in the marriage plans of the young people. Now I am sure there are many young people saying, “I am glad I didn’t live back then.” Mama and Daddy had a whole lot to do with it. As a matter of fact, they had arranged marriages. In the Jewish culture it was very much the same way, the father playing, as a matter of fact, the most dominant role in the marriage of his children. The same custom was in the ancient cultures around them, particularly Rome. Many people think that Rome began to fall and decline when the strength of the marriage setup was weakened in the family, when the parents stopped playing a role in their children’s marriages. Well, from our context, if we understand the scriptures correctly, we see this is the culture in Corinth. The father was the autocratic ruler of the house. And one of his main responsibilities was to determine whether that girl would or wouldn’t marry. Now, we will come back to verse 38, but we must see in this verse that the father had a right to decide if the daughter marries and he had a right by culture to decide if she didn’t marry. So verse 38 says, “So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.” Now, let’s go back to verse 36 and find our second point. The first thing is to understand the father’s role in the culture of Corinth because the culture was, different than our day. The father played the dominant role and made the decision if that daughter was to marry or not to marry.

The father’s right to allow his daughter to marry

The second thing I want you to see is the father’s right to allow his daughter to marry. He had a right to allow her to marry. He made that decision. Verse 36, “But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly towards his virgin daughter, if she should be of full age, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes, he does not sin; let her marry.” I mean, what did he say? Now here is a good instance of where you’ve got to slow down and almost take it phrase by phrase to even understand what the apostle Paul is talking about. Let’s look at the first phrase, “But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly towards his virgin daughter.” The word “thinks” is a key word. The word is not the normal word for “thinks.” It is the word nomizo, which means to make a supposition, an assumption. Maybe, maybe not; he supposed. As a matter of fact, this is why he asked the question to Paul. Undoubtedly he was confused, he didn’t know. But he supposed that he had done something wrong towards his daughter. Even though he says “thinks,” in our English we only have one word. But in the original there are different words and you need to have a feel of that. Look over in Acts 7:25, just to show you how this word can be very iffy. You may suppose something to be so, but it may not be so, you see. And that’s why sometimes the questions come. This is what is happening here. Acts 7:25 reads, “And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him; but they did not understand.” See, that’s that same word. He made an assumption, a supposition there, but it wasn’t correct. The people didn’t, but he supposed they did and they didn’t. Look over in Acts 8:20. We find it used then. Don’t worry, I’m only going to use three of these, but I just want you to see it. I could have taken you many other places to get a feel of this word. This is when the fellow wanted to purchase the power of the Holy Spirit of God. So he comes to Simon Peter and says, “I want to purchase this power. How much money can I give you to get the power that I just saw witnessed in your life? In verse 20 it says, “But Peter said to him, ‘May your silver perish with you, because you thought [there is the word nomizo] you could obtain the gift of God with money!’“ In other words, you thought it, but you are wrong. You see, that’s that, he assumed, he supposed something in his life. Look in 1 Corinthians 7:26. Paul uses this word when he gives his sanctified opinion. Remember, any advice Paul gives may be advice and may be an opinion, but it is a sanctified opinion because the Holy Spirit of God is the author of Scripture. This is not as iffy. This is something that, even though he is single and understands it from that point of view, is something to look at, something to consider. It says in 1 Corinthians 7:26, “I think then that this is good in view of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is.” In other words, remain single like he is. That is something he needs to consider, but since it comes from the apostle Paul, it’s not like that supposition we read about in Acts. So it can be very solid, or it can be very unsure. We see how the word is used. Well, verse 36 goes on, “But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter.” Now what in the world does he mean? Well, the word “unbecomingly” is the word aschemoneo. It means to treat her badly. It can be used of something that is ugly, indecent, unseemly. But at the same time, it’s to treat someone wrongly. In no way is Paul suggesting that the father has had any kind of immoral relationship with her. No, that is not what he is saying at all. That word could be used in a context like that, but that is not what he is saying. He is saying he has treated her wrongly. He has not done her right. He thinks, he supposes this in his mind. That is why he is asking the question of the apostle Paul. Now why would the father think he was treating his virgin daughter unbecomingly or wrongly? Well, look at verse 36 again. “But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly towards his virgin daughter, if she should be of full age.” That’s a delicate word in a crowd like this. The word is huperakmos. Huper means above, and akmen means the high point or flower of age, particularly with respect for marriage, beyond or past the flower of one’s age, past the usual age for marriage. In other words, she is one of the unclaimed blessings of the church, okay? And she is getting a little old. I wouldn’t say an old maid, but she is single and she is past marriageable age. She is getting older now. Evidently the father, exercising his right in their culture, has chosen not to let her get married. Now, that is the uniqueness of this situation. He has kept his virgin daughter at home, preventing her from marrying and now she is getting past marriageable age. Now, he may have made a vow. Remember that whole mindset that developed out of “being of Paul”? Perhaps he was at a retreat and somebody told a story and he made a vow to make sure that his daughter never got married because he thought that was the spiritual thing to do. Sometimes in an emotional moment, especially with the immaturity of Corinth, you make those kinds of stupid vows. It could have been that he thought this would in some way be pleasing to God. Now he realizes that she is passing marriageable age and he is beginning to think, “You know, I might not have done right. I may have done her wrong.” So, here is a man under conviction. He has not done right for her. Evidently she has protested to him. That is the only thing you can figure in this verse. If you are reading between the lines, that’s dangerous. But evidently something has caused him to ask this question. I suppose the daughters had a word in this whole thing. Evidently she has come to him and said, “Dad, I want to get married. I’ve got an opportunity to get married.” Now he doesn’t know what to do. So he writes to the apostle Paul. Look over in 1 Corinthians 13:5. When a father loves his daughter, he wants to do what is best for her. But in 1 Corinthians 13:5, Paul contrasts acting unbecomingly with what the other side of that is, when the Spirit of God is in control of your life. In 1 Corinthians 13:5 he is describing the agape love that God produces by His Holy Spirit in a person’s life. He says in 1 Corinthians 13:5, “does not act unbecomingly [then he shows the contrast]; it does not seek its own.” Perhaps the father is getting under conviction and is saying, “You know, I’ve been selfish. I have been thinking of my own interest by keeping my precious daughter at home.” Every father loves his daughter, and no father likes to see those young men come knocking on the door. Maybe he has just made that decision. Now he realizes he has kept her at home and she is passing marriageable age. Perhaps she has come and protested, but he doesn’t know what to do. So he writes the apostle Paul, “What should I do? Should I allow her to marry?” Well, go back to 7:36: “But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly towards his virgin daughter, if she should be of full age [and look at the next phrase], and if it must be so.” Now that is an interesting translation. There are two key words in that. One word is opheilo, which means to be obligated to do something. The father is feeling the pressure now. He feels the obligation to do what’s right for the daughter. The word ginomai means to bring something into being. She evidently has come to him and said, “Daddy, I’ve got an opportunity to be married. You have kept me at home. Now listen, let me marry.” And so he sees and feels the obligation to let this come about. He recognizes she needs to marry. He has done her wrong, and therefore, he needs to allow her to do that. Well, Paul says that if the father believes he has done her wrong and she wants to be married, then so be it. Let her get married. Verse 36 says again, “But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she should be of full age, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes, he does not sin; let her marry.” That little phrase there, “let her marry,” is not just a directive to him. It’s really “let them marry.” It is a directive to her and her fellow. In other words, “Hey, you are old enough and you’ve been to your father. Now, Dad, get it right and let her marry. And you two go on and get married. You haven’t sinned if you have married.” That is what Paul is saying. So in their culture you see that father/daughter relationship and some of the confusion that can come from immaturity, not knowing what is spiritual and what isn’t spiritual with some of the odd things that they believed. Well, that’s the father’s right to allow his daughter to marry.

The father’s right to prevent his daughter from marrying

Now you come to the third thing and this is the father’s right to prevent his daughter from marrying. Paul balances the equation. Now you are thinking, “This has nothing to do with me. Why are you wasting my time?” I told you to stay with me. It is going to have something to do with you before you get out of here. Verse 37 reads, “But he who stands firm in his heart, being under no constraint, but has authority over his own will, and has decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well.” Now what is he saying? Here’s a guy who is says, “I’m not in that boat. That’s his question. I’m over here. I haven’t got any conviction in my heart whatsoever I’ve done my daughter wrong by keeping her at home, exercising my authority as her father in my culture. I can do that. I did it and I don’t feel like there is anything wrong with it.” So, Paul addresses this. He says in the first phrase, “But he who stands firm in his heart.” The word for “stand firm” is the same word used in Ephesians 6 when it talks about warfare. We are never to chase the devil. We are to stand firm. That is the same word, histemi, to place yourself and set yourself. It’s in the perfect tense, which means he made a decision back here and it has been a long, ongoing decision and nothing has changed his mind. He said, “I am standing firm.” Evidently the father is standing firm because God led him in that decision. The word “firm” in the Greek is the word hedraios. It comes from a word that means moored like a ship, moored or tied to the right foundation. Now, what foundation would he be tied to that would be the right foundation in the Christian church at that time that would cause him to have that decision for that long? It had to have been that the Lord had led him to think that way. So he says, “I have no conviction to change my mind, none whatsoever.” Apparently the daughter was part of this conviction. In other words, she had come to him and she said, “Daddy, I checked all the young men around here and I don’t see a single one I am inclined to marry. Now, will you protect me?” He was entering into a bond with her and was convicted to stay that way. You see, the daughter had something to do with verse 36. Evidently she protested and the father had to write Paul and ask the question. Here, though, is a daughter who went the other way. You say, how do you know that?” Look at the next phrase. Paul says, “being under no constraint.” “Under no constraint,” anagke, means no necessity or compelling force. Now where would this compelling force come from? I doubt very seriously that it would come from the Lord. The compelling force would probably come from the daughter. She evidently hadn’t come to him about anything and is not inclined to get married. And so the father, in agreement with her, says “I am perfectly convicted that I am doing the right thing.” Verse 37 goes on. He says, “But he who stands firm in his heart, being under no constraint, but has authority over his own will.” Oh, you have to dig a little deeper here. The word “authority” means he has the power, the right and the might. The word for “will” is thelema. It means not just your intentions, but that which brings great pleasure to your life. Now every father wants to bring great pleasure to their daughter. And what he is saying is, “I’ve got the power, but I am also enjoying the pleasure of keeping my daughter at home. She is with me and I am with her and there is no constraint, there is nothing pulling on me. So therefore, I am moving the way that I move.” Well, the verse continues, “and has decided this in his own heart.” The word for “decided” there means “I have determined to do this.” He is saying, “My daughter is with me and there is nothing wrong with it.” To one guy Paul says, “Let her marry;” and here’s another guy who says, “I am not going to let her marry.” That’s why verse 38 covers both sides there. This father says, “I am determined to stay like I am. I have made a determination in my mind, and she’s not going to marry.” What has he determined? He has decided in his own heart to keep his own virgin daughter. You’ve got to look at the word “keep.” The word “keep” doesn’t mean just to keep her at home. It has the idea of protecting his virgin daughter. You know, you’ve got to read between the lines here. The culture of Corinth didn’t have much out there. The church was totally immature. She comes to Daddy and she says, “Daddy, I don’t want to get married. They are knocking on the door. I don’t want to marry any of them. Will you protect me?” And that father steps forward and says, “By the authority of my culture and the role I have in this family and by the agreement of my daughter, I’m going to protect her. I’m determined I am not going to let her marry. We have worked that out together.” So he has decided to keep his own daughter. Do you know what Paul says? Here is that single guy again. He says, “Now, he does well.” You see, it had to be with the agreement of the daughter or Paul couldn’t have written that. He does well. If he does well, then evidently he has taken into consideration the needs and the desires of his daughter. In verse 36, she protested because she wanted to get married. In verse 37, she didn’t protest and the father and the daughter evidently settled it. Now he is going to keep her from getting married. No father really wants his daughter to get married anyway. I didn’t want my daughter to get married. I imagine this man is tickled to death. His daughter doesn’t want to get married. He doesn’t want her to get married anyway, so he is going to exercise his authority and is going to protect her and keep her at home. Both of them are happy. The apostle Paul says, “You do well.” That is why in verse 28 he says, “But if you should marry, you have not sinned.” He wants to make sure you know that marriage is not sin. This is something that has got to be worked out in the family between a father and a daughter. Marriage is not sin. Verse 28 says, “and if a virgin should marry, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.” So he warns them of the responsibility of marriage but says it is not sinful to marry. But to the father who has decided to keep her at home, Paul says, “You know, you do good.” Verse 38 says, “So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.” Can’t you hear him say that? Remember, his main thought is eternity. His main thought is anything distracting you from your walk with Christ. Well, one gives his daughter to be married and Paul says, “You haven’t done wrong.” One says, “I am not going to do it,” and Paul says, “You do better.” So evidently it had to be worked out in the family. Marriage was not the problem. The question was what does God want and how is this worked out between father and daughter. Now you are saying, “I really do appreciate it, but I don’t see any application to me at all.” Oh, yes, yes, yes. We don’t live in the same culture where the fathers had the same authority, but the principle here is, daughters and sons, learn to let your believing mother and father have an influence in your life, especially when it comes to your marriage partner. Now there is your principle right there. Because you see, Mom and Dad can give insights to that young one who is blinded by love they can’t get anywhere else. They won’t get it from a neighbor, and they won’t get it from a friend, but Mom and Dad can give them that kind of wisdom. Maybe it has changed culturally, but as far as father and daughter and mother and son and parents and children, remember Ephesians 5. There is the beautiful picture as it lays itself out. It tells the children to be submissive to the parents. And the word for “children” means as long as you are going to eat Mama and Daddy’s groceries, then you live up under their submission, of their authority. You be submissive to them. So here is the principle, and the tiein is beautiful. I tell you, a woman can spot something in a woman that a man couldn’t see in a million years who is blinded by love. You think a daddy can’t see in a young man something that girl cannot see? I want to tell you something, friend, I can. There is radar built inside of us as fathers. You know what it is? We see what we used to be. No way! I know what you are thinking!!! How do you know? Well, don’t ask that. I know what you are thinking! You are not going out with my daughter. The blessing that can come just from lifting the gem of application out of this. You know there is a tie there between a father and daughter. In verse 36 they worked it out. In verse 37 they worked it out. We ought to be working it out in our day and time. In Christian families, daughters and sons, listen to your mother and father because they can hear things from God and sense things about you that you cannot yet discern for yourself. I want to tell you something. You always marry the other person’s family. If you don’t believe that, hang on. That’s why it is so important to have the blessing of both as you enter in to marriage. Now in some places, obviously, there is an exception to the rule, but we are talking about a principle here that we are lifting out. It is not the interpretation, it is an application to go home with. That’s your principle. It’s application, not interpretation. You make your own choice, but I think that application is strong, young people. Go and let your parents be a part of your married life. It will pay off dividends for years and years and years to come.

1 Corinthians 7:39-8:3

How to Deal with the Grey Areas of Life

We are entitling this study, “How to Deal with the Grey Areas of Life.” Now you won’t understand that until we get into chapter 8, but we will go on over, God willing, into chapter 8.

Well, verses 39 and 40 finish the chapter on marriage and celibacy. I’ve got to do this before I can get to chapter 8. Let’s look and see what he says. First Corinthians 7:39 reads, “A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. But in my opinion she is happier if she remains as she is; and I think that I also have the Spirit of God.”

A woman is bound to her husband

Now the first thing he does here is give the biblical precedent for marriage and that’s this, a wife is bound as long as her husband lives. Now that’s a clear as anything can be written. A woman is bound to her husband in marriage, not because of a law, but because of the law. For how long? As long as her husband lives.

Now, we must understand something. Paul has already discussed the eventualities that may come in this woman’s life that may cause a break in that marriage. Jesus covered immorality. The apostle Paul covered an unbeliever leaving a believer and abandoning her. So this is not to be taken that death is the only thing that breaks the yoke of that marriage. His real focus is on widows or widowers. What if you are left when the husband dies or the wife dies? He says in verse 39, “A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free.”

Now the word for “dead” is the word “asleep.” I’m going to throw something in. It doesn’t have anything to do with this passage, but it might help you. Every now and then we will hit the word “asleep” and every time we do, I want to make sure you understand. Have you been taught that there’s a soul sleep? Well, you should write whoever told you that and tell them to study the scriptures because their theology is off the wall. There is no soul sleep. Second Corinthians 5:8 says, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Every time you see the word “asleep” it has to do with the body, not with the spirit. Remember that. The spirit doesn’t go to sleep, it goes to be with Jesus.

The body, as the terminology goes, goes to sleep. Now, be careful, understand. When you get tired, you lay down. And after you’ve laid there for a while, what do you do? You get up. Every time you see the word “asleep,” it’s just a prophecy of what’s going to happen to your body one day.

I knew a preacher one time who said when he was going to do a funeral, “I am going to plant a body.” I said, “That’s kind of crude, isn’t it? Don’t tell the family that. What do you mean?” He said, “Well, I’m going to put him in the ground. What do you put things in the ground for? You expect it do what? To come up.” From then on I thought, “That’s not bad. We really are planting a body because that body is going to be raised one day.” So the word “asleep” is associated with death, and the word here in the Greek means asleep when he translates it dead.

Jesus spoke of Lazarus’ death in the gospel of John. “This he said and after that He said to them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go that I may awaken him out of sleep.’” The word “asleep” has to do with the body that is dead.

When Stephen was being stoned to death, Luke records in Acts 7:60, “And falling on his knees he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ And having said this, he fell asleep.” So it’s a beautiful picture of what happens to the body. The spirit goes right on to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. The body goes down, it sleeps. It goes into the ground or whatever. Then one day God will raise that body up. First Thessalonians 4:1318 and 1 Corinthians 15 both use that word. We’ve got a lot to look forward to in 1 Corinthians as we study that marvelous chapter on what happens at death.

The verb “asleep” in 1 Corinthians 7:39 is in the aorist tense. That’s interesting to me. In other words, when the husband dies, when the body goes to sleep as God renders it, at that very moment, the wife is free to marry. The verb there for “marry” means to give herself in marriage. Remember, we just came out of a context that said the fathers had to give them. No, not this lady. She speaks for herself. She has been married, but now her husband is dead. She makes her own decisions.

But then Paul adds the last part of verse 39, “only in the Lord.” In other words, she should marry only if the Lord leads her to and to whom the Lord leads her to, and he must be a believer. I tell you what, that sets a standard, doesn’t it? We’ve been talking about people who have been married and when they got saved they couldn’t do anything about it. But if it’s a standard for a widow or a widower, it has to be the standard for all believers. The implication is that it includes a widower.

Well, in verse 40 Paul says, “But in my opinion she is happier if she remains as she is; and I think that I also have the Spirit of God.” Paul adds, “She would be happier.” You know, Paul would have said that, too, because he is single. You can hear that coming right out of him. Had he been married, God fulfilling His purposes in him, he might have turned around and said, “I think she ought to be married.” That’s just his opinion, and he shares that.

Unfortunately, the word “happier” is not translated very well. The word is makarios. It’s the word used in Matthew 5 when he said, “Blessed are those.” It’s not the word “happy.” Some translations put “happy” in that. That is ridiculous. Happiness depends on external circumstances. If everything is okay outwardly, I am okay inwardly. That’s the way that word works. Makarios never means anything outward, it means inward. It means to be completely, inwardly, spiritually satisfied because Christ lives in me.

Here is the whole principle. Why do you want something out here? You have everything in here. “If your husband dies, why would you want to get married again,” Paul is asking, “because you have everything that you are going to be looking for in Christ Jesus? You can be fully satisfied because Christ lives in you.” So he tells the widow and the widower that it’s his sanctified opinion, under the inspiration of the spirit of God, to just go on and stay single. What are you looking for anyway in a mate? You have everything you need in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then after giving his own opinion, he makes this statement, “and I think that I also have the Spirit of God.” You have to be careful with translations, the word “the” is not in there. It is a little complicated, but let me simplify it for you. It seems that he is saying, “I have given my opinion and I know good and well you have yours, because I have heard them. But I tell you what, since I am under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God and I am an apostle and this is my opinion, pay attention, because it might be something you want to hear. It’s a little different. You didn’t hear this in a barber shop. This came from the apostle Paul. And I am under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God is energizing my life, so I have an opinion. Pay attention to it. You don’t have to stay single, but pay attention to it, because when I say it, the Holy Spirit of God is energizing what I am saying.”

Well, that completes chapter 7. Hallelujah!!! Hallelujah!!! Now we enter in to chapter 8. However, the questions that were asked of the apostle Paul in the beginning of chapter 7 were not all answered in chapter 7. There are more questions. As a matter of fact, this goes all the way through the end of chapter 10. The subjects are changing though. Remember, they didn’t have chapters and verses. Thank the Lord that somebody did that because it gives us better handles on what is going on.

Here’s the question with which we enter chapter 8. How, as a Christian, do we deal with the grey areas of life? You know what I’m talking about, those areas that Scripture doesn’t specifically say something about. It says it other ways, but it just doesn’t say specifically. For example, drinking. I’ve been asked, I don’t know how many, hundreds of times, “Well, does the Bible say you shouldn’t drink?” No, it doesn’t. It says you ought not get drunk, but it has some other things to say. “Well, that’s all I wanted to know, that’s all I wanted to know.” And they will walk away from you. Just say, “Come back here. I didn’t finish.”

Or, how about smoking? You know the question is. “If I smoke, would that send me to hell?” Oh, no, it will just make you smell like you’ve been there. But is it in the Bible? Is that sinful? Spurgeon smoked a cigar. Can I smoke a cigar? That’s a big question. You go to the rotunda at Southwestern Seminary and there is a picture of a great man of God there. You look at his right hand and it looks like his fingers were all messed up. You know why? Because he had a big cigar in his hand and they had to paint over it because the Baptist say don’t smoke.

Is wearing makeup sin? Is it a sin to play cards? Can women wear slacks? Do you know what this sounds like? This sound like the outline of some people’s sermons! I mean, these are the grey areas.

I could go on and on and on. Now, this is what you have to deal with as a Christian. How do you deal with those grey areas? You see, one of the reasons Christians spend so much time arguing about these things is because the Bible is not as specific as we want it to be on these things. These issues are not black and white. They are what I call the grey areas. Christians of every century have had to deal with the grey areas and had to make decisions based on what the Word of God has had to say. It’s difficult sometimes.

As a matter of fact, the very first council of the early Christian church met over some grey areas. The Jewish believers wanted the Gentile believers to be circumcised. They didn’t feel like that it was right for them to have to be if they were not. They felt like it was something to do with their spirituality. Well, it wasn’t, but was it wrong to be circumcised? No.

They were also afraid to even eat in the Gentile meals because they were afraid they would break the dietary laws. They still hadn’t come out from under the law yet. It still had so much influence on their life. It says in Acts 15:1, “And some men came from Judea and began teaching the brethren unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” That is what they were teaching. And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. That’s what the first counsel met over.

What did they decide? Well, they decided as far as circumcision in Acts 15:19, James says, “Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles.” That’s not going to be something we are going to put on them as a restriction.

Then, concerning eating laws notice this. There is nothing unclean as far as the dietary laws. They are gone. But look at what he said, at the decision they came to. “But that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.”

You see, they had to bend some because some of the people they were seeking to minister to, even though the truth was, the truth of grace is there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Paul said earlier, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable,” you see.

So there is a heavenly balance here between what you know is right and the weaker opinion of your brother. There are times of flexibility and times of sensitivity. Paul circumcised Timothy, but he didn’t Titus. You see, it was a different set of circumstances there. There’s a divine spontaneity that God gives you of knowing when to give in and when not to give, even with truth that you know to be correct.

First Peter 2:16 says, “Act as free men and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God.” There are going to be things in your life and in my life that God is going to exclude even though when you test it by the message of grace it would not in any way whatsoever be sinful. But because of the situation you are in, God says, “Don’t do it, because if you do, you are going to offend that man right there.” So you have to ease back, you see. And you don’t have that sensitivity if you don’t have the ingredient we are going to look at first.

You must have God’s love mixed with your knowledge

The first principle of dealing with the grey areas of life is you must have God’s love mixed with your knowledge of what is right. You have to have the two mixed together. You can’t just have a knowledge of what is right. You’ve got to have the evidence of God’s love, the Holy Spirit of God producing it in your life for the two to be mixed. Then, you can approach carefully and rightly the grey areas of life.

There are two ways of approaching this. One is legalism—taking the grey areas and making law out of them. Then the opposite of legalism was the party gang. That’s the church at Rome. Remember Romans 6, the antinomians? Why do the legalist and those taking license do what they do? They are trying to get rid of the grey areas. If you make it a law, you’ve gotten rid of it. If you take license, you’ve gotten rid of it. There is no grey area anymore. But the problem is, there is a grey area, and you have to deal with it as it comes. But to deal with it you’ve got to have the mixture of love, the love of the Holy Spirit of God mixed in with what you know to be right.

Now, before I get into chapter 8, let me explain to you what’s going on here, because you’ve got to realize what he’s dealing with here. All of the Corinthian believers knew about idols and what was sacrificed to them. It was a part of their everyday life. The sacrifices made by the pagan people of Corinth were food offerings. It was believed, now listen to this, that evil spirits attached themselves to the food. They were trying to invade human beings and the best way to get inside a human is to attach itself to the food. That’s what they believed. The only way the spirits could be removed from food was through the food being sacrificed to a god. That’s the way they got rid of it. So the sacrifice accomplished two purposes: one, it gained the favor of God, or that particular god, the pagan, false god, and it cleansed, as far as they understood, the meat from demonic contamination. This became very valuable to the people. Oh, eat this because this has been cleansed from demonic contamination.

There were three parts to the idol offerings. One part was burned on the altar of the sacrifice proper. That was the actual offering. The second part was given as payment to the priests who served at the temple, and the remaining part was kept by the one giving the offering. Now in Corinth, right there in the marketplace, is the temple of Apollo. I mean, you can’t miss it. You can’t see the market for looking at the temple. And on both sides of it is the marketplace where the vendors were, the men who had their little shops.

Well, the meat that was given to the priests that they could not eat, they would go over and sell to the market vendors. They were charging the people to sacrifice it, taking that money, then they were taking what was left and selling it to the market people. This meat was highly priced and valued because, oh, it had been cleansed of demonic contamination. Isn’t it interesting how the Jewish people looked at kosher food and how Satan perverts everything? And over on the other side, in the pagan world, you have to sacrifice it to an idol so it can be cleansed of any demonic contamination.

Well, this meat was served to guests at honorable occasions and at feasts. Now, think with me now of the culture. Here is a believer and somebody gets married, which was an honorable occasion. What are they going to do? They are going to serve meat sacrificed to idols. You can write it down. There was no way to escape having to deal with this. And how do you deal with it?

Well, and you had two groups of people. Some of the believers refused to buy the meat and, if they were ever in a situation like that, they would adamantly embarrass everybody by saying, “I’m a believer. I don’t eat stuff like that that has been sacrificed to an idol.” They were afraid of going back to their pagan background. But on the other hand, there were others who had full knowledge about this. They knew pagan deities really didn’t exist: piece of wood and stone. They knew that evil spirits didn’t contaminate the food. They were mature in the sense of their knowledge. They were grounded in God’s Word and they were completely clear in their conscience, so if they were in a place like that, they would just take it and eat it and think nothing more about it.

One group was afraid to eat and the other group said, “We are under grace, let’s eat it. There’s nothing wrong here.” It’s the second group, I believe, which Paul addresses in verses 1-3. This group says, “We understand, we know. We know all about this idol stuff. We know that with God that’s just junk. There is no god in that stone or in that wood.”

So look at what he says in 8:1: “Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge.” The word for “know” is the word eido, which takes it a step further. It comes from the word harao. It means to know with a full understanding, an intuitive perception of something. You’ve got a grasp on it.

The word for knowledge is the word gnosis. Here they were walking around thinking that they had come into the state of being that nobody could tell them anything else because they know. They have a full understanding of what’s going on.

Paul says, “We all know.” I think the “all” is relegated to this group of people, to the people here who have no problem with it at all because they see the message of grace and they understand the futility of ever going the other way. Paul wants them to know that is not the point. In other words, what you know to be true is not the main point.

Paul goes on in the end of the verse and says, “Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant.” Just like it says it in another place, knowledge makes a person proud and God resists the proud. Knowledge makes a person arrogant. You see, you can take out the love factor, which he is going to bring out in a moment, and you leave it just with knowledge. You’ve got a lot of people who are sharp as a tack. They can tell you the message of grace, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H. They can tell it and they can go out and live as they want to live and they do that, with no love whatsoever, which makes them a very harmful person. They are not helping anybody with their knowledge. They are hindering many. The fact that they knew about the worthlessness of the idols and the demons, that they could not inhabit food, was not in itself adequate. Knowledge alone makes arrogant.

The verb tense is present active indicative, it’s “always making you arrogant.” And the word for “arrogant” is the word we saw back in chapter 4, used six times in Corinthians. It is the word phusioo. It means you are a spiritual airbag. Oh, you can spout your knowledge, but put a pin to you and all the air goes out and there is nothing on the inside. You’ve got it all up here and out here, but you don’t have anything in here. That was the problem, see.

Like that bag of potato chips I like to buy. You know, you get these bags that are supposed to be a good deal on potato chips and open it and what happens? All that air goes out. There are just a few potato chips in the bottom of that bag. That was just a big bag of air. That is the word phusioo. That is exactly what it means, spiritual air heads.

Paul says just because you know about idols, just because you understand the message of grace, just because you realize you can eat that food and it won’t hurt you eternally, that is not the point. All that does is make you spiritually an air head.

But then Paul adds, “Knowledge makes arrogant,” but watch this, “but love edifies.” Whew, son. The word “love” there is the word agape, and of course, it is the meaning of a surrendered heart towards God. It is not an emotion. In Scripture, agape is not an emotion. I wish we could get this through our thick heads. When the scripture says you either love one or hate the other, somebody says, “I don’t hate Jesus.” You may not feel it, but by your choice, you’ve echoed it. It’s your choice. You choose to love this way. And when you have chosen to love God, then the fruit of one’s choice to surrender to God is the love that only the Holy Spirit of God can produce. That’s what he’s saying. If you are not walking surrendered to Christ, then there is no love coming out of you, so it doesn’t matter how much you know. What you know has made you arrogant and there is nothing in you. You are hindering the body of Christ, you’re not helping them. But you may be doctrinally straight as an arrow. That’s what he is saying.

Galatians 5:14 says the law is fulfilled in one word, love your neighbor as yourself. You see, the ceremonial law was done away with in Christ, but the moral law is now stamped on our hearts and the way it’s produced is by the spirit of God. The first five involve loving God with all your heart, your mind, your soul and your strength. The second five involve loving your neighbor as yourself. All of those things have to do with relationships.

Turn over to Galatians 5:22. This is what’s got to be there, folks. If it’s not there, then there is no walk. So all knowledge does is make you no better than the Pharisee; it makes you no better than the hypocrite. You are stomping on people with what’s right. But you are doing it the wrong way. There is no love in you. Galatians 5:22 reads, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love”—now listen, this is a cluster. How many times I’ve heard people preach this is a fruit and that’s a fruit, and that’s a fruit, all kinds of different fruit trees. One of them is a love tree and one of them is a joy tree and one of them is a patience tree and all that kind of stuff. No, it’s a cluster. And when love is there, all the rest of them are there. You can’t have one without the other. When the love is there, all of these are present, every one of these are present.

Look how they deal with other people: Love and joy and peace and patience. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been around somebody who is not filled with the Holy Spirit of God but is absolutely as doctrinally correct as anybody you have ever heard in your life? They take the word of God and, instead of sharing it with you, they regurgitate it all over you and walk away. I’m serious. Those are the only words I can think of. I thought of another one but it’s a little bit more descriptive. Well, I’ll tell you, just vomit all over you. That’s the way I feel sometimes. There’s no love. There’s no joy. All they want to do is to make sure that they are right when they tell you. Is knowledge important? Absolutely it is important. But it is not the most important thing.

Love and joy and peace, oh, man, lack of conflict; patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, selfcontrol, against which there is no law. And when that cluster is there, and then you take a person’s knowledge that’s correct and you put them together and you have to deal with the grey areas of life, you deal with it with sensitivity to God, sensitivity to man. And even though you may know that you are okay in this area, God may whisper to your heart, “No, for you it’s not okay. Back away.” You have that discernment of knowing when not to crush a brother with what you know to be correct.

The word for “edify” is the oikodemeo. It has the idea of building a house. I love that. In other words, love edifies, love builds up like building a house. You have to have the knowledge to build a house. But you see the love, taking the knowledge, now it correctly builds it. Love is what is needed to house the knowledge because it builds up, it is not arrogant. Knowledge without this fruit of God’s Spirit is devastating. It does nothing but puff one up and makes them a spiritual air head. It is worthless when it comes to helping others.

Do you remember the church at Ephesus in Revelation? It talked about their doctrine, their discipline and all the other things. Then it says, “But I’ve got something against you.” What is that? You have left your first love. He didn’t say you had lost it. He said you left it, you walked flat away from it. That’s what Jesus said, “I’ve got a problem with you because it’s missing.”

You’ve got to have it. That’s the fruit of your walk with God. Before your knowledge ever comes into play of the things that you are dealing with, your knowledge of Him and knowing Him and loving Him, that’s the key. Then that overtakes you and makes you sensitive and wise as to how to use what you know.

First Corinthians 8:2 says, “If anyone supposes that he knows anything [I love the wording], he has not yet known as he ought to know.” “Supposes” is that word, you know, that means he thinks or surmises that he knows something. Present tense, “goes around thinking.” “If anyone supposes that he knows anything.” The word for “know” is the word eido, that he fully grasps something. He has an intuitive perception of something that is full in its understanding.

The verb tense is perfect active indicative, which means something happened back here. He studied and he has been taught, so now he is in the state of walking around. He’s got the knowledge. Son, he’s got the knowledge. Just talk to him, he’s got the knowledge. Well, it’s worthless when it comes to helping others if that love is not there. “If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know.” What he is talking about , as I understand is, he is not as smart as he thinks he is. Let’s put it that way. He’s not as smart as he thinks he is. He has an elevated opinion of his opinion and he is not where he really should be. He can’t be taught anything, see, because he’s got it. He fully understands.

Paul goes on, “He has not yet known as he ought to know.” And the word there is ginosko. It means experientially know. He may know in his head, but he hasn’t experientially known. And, you see, many people who claim to know the Word of God take that word and cram it down your throat, as we said earlier. Without the fruit of God’s Spirit, what they know only makes them spiritual air bags. They are useless. They can’t be taught. They can’t learn any more. They are very inflexible with what they know.

Verse 3 continues, “but if anyone loves God.” The word “loves God” is in the present active indicative. That’s not on Sundays or when the babies are sick. It’s all the time, loving God. Jesus said, “If you love me, you’ll keep my word.” So there is a love for God and His Word and they are living that way, attached to Christ. That’s what the theme of Corinthians has been since chapter 1. This is the believer’s life, loving God. The word for “loves” is the word agapao. Again, it’s a choice you make at some point to surrender to Him. It is not perfection, never has been. It’s more like predictability. When you sin, you run right back to the cross and confess that. Your repentance is not putting your trust in your flesh, but putting your trust back into Him. It is impossible to know God and not love Him. Loving God is the most important evidence of a right relationship with Him. “Those who love God,” Paul says, “are known by Him.” Boy, that’s a precious thought.

Verse 3, “But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.” That’s ginosko, which means that experiential knowledge. Not only do they experience God in their life, but God experiences them. They are experiencing each other. They are walking in oneness. God wants us to be sensitive to the people He died for, the pagans of Corinth and the people we tend to pull away from because we know so much. Just because we know better, it may not mean we’ll take our knowledge and force it on them. They may not be ready for it yet.

We have a sensitivity to God and to others. Love becomes the key to all the behavior of the believer. If you don’t believe me, look over in 1 Corinthians 13. Let me preempt what we are getting to. All of this is a tapestry and if I am not loving God and knowing Him and Him knowing me, if we are not walking in oneness and that, again, please help me understand, help me help you to understand, that’s not perfection. Yeah, help me to understand. That’s not perfection. There has never been perfection. This is not something out here. This is predictability. This is right here. This is a choice you make right now.

Chapter 13 verse 1 says, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” Do you know what you ought to do? Go home and stand in front of a mirror and get two big cymbals. And if you are not going to surrender to Christ, then take whatever doctrine you want to tell somebody and while you are telling them, just start banging those cymbals together just as loud as you possibly can. That is what it sounds like to somebody when you don’t have the love of God controlling your life.

Verse 2 reads, “And if I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” Verse 3 goes on, “And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, and is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant.”

Skip down to verse 8: “Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.” Verse 13 continues, “But now abide faith, hope and love,” and if I had to pick one, God says, the greatest of all three of them, “the greatest of these is love.”

So Paul is chiding these people who are doctrinally correct, but you see, are not possessing the love of God which balances that equation. The love and the knowledge have got to be mixed together. It’s who you know and how well you know Him before you come to what you know and how well you know it.

1 Corinthians 8:4-13

1 Dealing with the Grey Areas of Life – Part 2

1.1 There is no such thing as an idol in this world

1.2 There is only one God

1.3 What some did not know

Dealing with the Grey Areas of Life – Part 2

Turn to 1 Corinthians 8:4. We are talking about dealing with the grey areas of life. There are a lot of things in life that aren’t as clearly stated as we would like for them to be. How do we deal with those things? That is what the apostle Paul has been assigned to answer.

There are two things that I want you to see. Paul rehearses what they all knew. Now what do they know? He tells them in verse 4, “Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one.” Now his topic is still idols, specifically eating meat sacrificed to idols.

There is no such thing as an idol in this world

They knew two basic things. And the apostle Paul makes it very clear. You already know this, even the weaker brother knows this. What are they? Number one, that there is no such thing as an idol in this world. Verse 4 says again, “Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world.”

Paul, what are you talking about? They lived in the city of Corinth. They walked up and down the streets. They saw the idolatrous temples. They saw the gods made out of stone and wood. What do you mean there are no idols? I see them every day. That’s not what Paul is saying. Oh, yes, you can see them with the eye, but what he is saying is, there is nothing behind that wood, there is nothing behind that stone. There is no god there, because we know that there is one God. There is no god behind that piece of wood. There is no god behind that piece of stone. An idol is simply a reflection of the imagination of the one who created it. That’s all it is. “We know that,” he says. “All of us know that. That’s why we came to Christ, the one true God.”

So first, they knew that an idol was of no value, of no significance. Why worry about a person bowing to a stone? There is nothing in the stone. We know that, okay.

There is only one God

The second thing they knew was that there is no God but one. There is only one God. I love this. Verse 4 reads, “Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one.” There is no God but one. Actually, the word “other” is in the text, the original, “there is no other God but one.” There is only one. The word “other” is heteros. It means another of another kind. In other words, if you step outside of who God is and try to find another and compare that with God, there is none. There is absolutely none. They won’t even show up on the scale. There’s only one God.

The prophet Malachi declared the fact that there is only one God in Malachi 2:10. He says, “Do we not all have one Father? Has not one God created us?” The apostle Paul declared it in Ephesians 4:6. He says, “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” He wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God and one mediator also between God and man, the man, Jesus Christ.” Jesus declared it in Mark 12:29. He said, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.’”

Now I want to tell you something, even the demons in hell believe that there is only one God. That hits me kind of funny, because the demonic spirits were the only power these pieces of stone and wood could ever have. The demons themselves were smarter than the people who created the idols out of stone and wood. It says in James 2:19, “You believe that God is one, you do well.” That is what they said in the morning and at night. It was a Jewish prayer. They were taught from young children to say this, “God is one. God is one.” He said, “You believe that God is one, you do well. The demons also believe and they shutter.” In other words, the demons have that figured out. There is only one God. They know that.

So Paul says, we all know that idols are nothing. They are of no significance. And we know that there is only one God. Now, in verse 5 he takes into account the pagan people. Yes, they see this differently. He says in verse 5, “For even if there are socalled gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords,” little “g”, little “l”. Now, as far as the world is concerned outside of Christ, they haven’t come to this conclusion. They still see these socalled gods.

Now that’s a powerful phrase, “socalled.” If you looked it up, it is the word lego, which means to speak as with intelligence about something. It’s in the passive voice and present tense. Present tense meaning people going around giving reputation to something, a piece of wood and a stone, and the passive voice refers back to the idol. In other words, the only way anybody would even know about the fact that there are gods anywhere is because of what we say about them. He says the pagans spread the reputation of these pieces of wood and stone and they give them their own exaltation. The word is a powerful word there for “socalled.” In other words, it is only as a result of what people say about them. The only credibility they have is what a person can give to those false gods and false lords. It’s only the reflection of one’s imagination. That’s all an idol is. Wherever you go, no matter whether the Old Testament or whether today in a foreign land, an idol is nothing more than something made with human hands, and it reflects the imagination of the one who made it. That’s all it is.

As a matter of fact, look over in Habakkuk 2:18. Look at what he says. Now, remember, this is the time when God spoke and actually shut Habakkuk up. But look at what he said in 2:18: “What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it [I want to show you now for sure all it is is the imagination of the maker], or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols.”

Now that’s all an idol is. It’s the handiwork of an individual who doesn’t know the one true God. He has to come up with something to worship. God put that within every man. You can go into the darkest part of Africa and they will worship a tree. They will come up with something, but they don’t know the true God. Their imagination of what they think a god ought to be comes out in what they make, the reflection in what they make.

Now, you say, “Why are you telling us that? Do we need to hear that?” Absolutely, because, folks, people are still pulling away from the One true God and making idols out of everything that you can think of: church, denomination, whatever. They make idols out of it and start worshiping that rather than worshiping the God who is the centerpiece of it all. And we still do it. The flesh tends to do that kind of thing. They will make it in its own image, what he thinks it ought to be.

One day I was channel surfing. Do you ever do that? I hit one of these talk shows, and it was Phil Donahue. Bless his heart, he met his match that day. Billy Graham was on the program. He looked at Billy Graham and said, “Now, tell me when a person becomes a sinner?” He said, “He is born a sinner because of Adam. Born into sin and cannot get out of it.” Phil Donahue looked at the crowd and looked at the television camera. He said, “Come on, Billy, you are not going to make a little baby a sinner, are you? Come on, let him be 12 years old before you make him a sinner.” All the people started clapping. Billy Graham never blinked an eye. The camera came back on his stern face and he looked at Phil and said, “Phil, do you know what your problem is?” He said, “What?” He said, “You are trying to create God in your image.”

That is exactly where an idol comes from. When you think God ought to be this way, that’s when idolatry springs forth. It reflects the imagination of the one who creates it. It has nothing to do with the one true God that we know. As a matter of fact, the Antichrist is going to put himself in this whole mix one of these days, and he is going to proclaim himself as the top one.

In 2 Thessalonians 2:4 Paul uses this word “socalled.” It says, speaking of the Antichrist in latter times, “who opposes and exalts himself above every socalled god or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God displaying himself as being God.” Now, if you could put those two thoughts together, it reflects the imagination of the one who made it. Secondly, it gets its reputation from what the one who made it says about it. That is where it comes from. If everybody would keep their mouth shut, it wouldn’t have a reputation and it would rust or whatever would happen to it.

You know, if we built a big statue and made it into a god and called 20/20, we would have people coming from all over the world to worship the god. How do they know it’s a god? Well, I heard this and I heard that and I heard this, you see. That’s how it gets its reputation. It is only a reflection of the one who makes it.

The world, in their rejection of the one and only God, has come up with many gods and many lords. First Corinthians 8:5 says, “For even if there are socalled gods [plural] whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed [now look at what he says] there are many gods [little g] and many lords.” Now that’s interesting. He uses both terms here, but he is going to do something with it that has to be the inspiration of the Spirit of God. I don’t think Paul was intelligent enough to figure that one out. That’s God giving him this. You see, they not only created the gods, but they divided up the sphere for what they thought the god controlled.

For instance, in the book of Jonah, they had the god of the sea. Somebody said, “Yes, but there is also the god of the wind.” Oh, yes, and there is also the god of the storm. There is the god of the thunder. Now they had a god for everything. That’s where it comes from. That’s why the captain came to Jonah and said, “Would you call upon your God? Perhaps He will be concerned.” He is the only one who knew the true God who was in charge of it all. They were upstairs on the deck crying out to everything, and Jonah is asleep in the bottom of the boat. What an indictment to the very one who knew the true God! But it gives you a picture, many gods, many lords.

We were in Indonesia, and I was preaching to a seminary over there. I had never been to the island of Java before. I had never been to Asia, that part of the world. When we got over there, they took us out and showed us that animism is all over that island. On every farm they will have an agricultural god. Isn’t that nice? They had these big gods. Now, I am not talking about 10 foot high, I’m talking about 110 feet high and 75 foot wide. The biggest things you have ever seen in your life. They would sit there and watch over the fields. Now, that made me feel better, just knowing that they were there. As a matter of fact, one of them was sitting there with a big gut. He just had a big belly. He had his finger pointing down. We were riding down the road and I saw that. I had them to stop. I mean, that thing was a half mile away and I had to get to where that thing was because that just cracked me up. You know how in basketball when somebody dunks a ball and somebody points down with their finger? That’s what it looked like.

But while we were there, we saw all these gods everywhere, the god of the field, the god of the storm, the god of the crops, I mean, they have got everything. We went out to the big Buddhist temple that is on the island. Now, can you imagine, I actually paid money to go see this thing. That is where they get you. I felt so stupid. We got out there and here is this big gigantic Buddha sitting up there, and you’ve got to walk up these steps. I mean, it’s huge. This is the god of that land.

Have you ever studied Buddhism? Do you understand where it came from? The man named Buddha, who said there wasn’t a God and there wasn’t any salvation, died. So his followers said, “Since he said there wasn’t one, I guess he was it.” That’s where it came from. That’s exciting! Boy, that will bless you! Hang on to that one when you get in trouble!

But when we got there we had to walk up the steps. There were different levels. Every time you would walk up the steps, there would be another level. I asked the guy who was guiding us, “Why do we have to walk up all these steps?” He said, “The higher you climb, the more spiritual you become.” Isn’t that exactly like what man would create? He is going to get up there, isn’t he? But in Christianity, it is not how high you climb, it’s how low you stoop. We must decrease that He might increase. It is exactly the opposite.

The deception continues to abound. All it is is a reflection of the imagination of somebody’s mind. And the only reason people even go there is because of the reputation that others gave it by what they said about it. Socalled gods. We as bornagain believers know that in the midst of all this deception, there is only one God, one true God, and we know Him through Jesus Christ.

Now Paul brings this one God up again in verse 6 and begins to describe Him. The more I got into this, the deeper it got. I apologize. I am not skimming the surface of what’s here. I challenge every one of you to go back and just get your Bibles out and let God teach you in this verse. It is far beyond anything I’ll say. It’s incredible. He says, “yet for us [believers] there is but one God the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.” Paul says there is only one God.

He starts off and shows us how we know Him. Do you know how we know Him? We know Him as Father. Isn’t that a beautiful thought? The way He wants Himself revealed to us is as Father. Unlike the socalled gods of the world, we are the products of our God. Whereas the socalled gods of this world are the products of man, we are the products of the God which we know to be the one true God. It was our Lord Jesus who revealed God as Father. Fortyone times in the New Testament Jesus calls God His Father. We would never have known the concept had Jesus not revealed it to us. You see, Jesus is God visible. God wanted to manifest Himself to man, so He made Him visible in Jesus Christ who came and was born of a virgin. The term “My Father,” spoken of by Jesus, is found 14 times in Matthew, 5 times in Luke and 21 times in the gospel of John.

Now let’s go to the gospel of John. Don’t worry. I am not going to do 21, but let’s just do a few of them to show you what this means to us. That piece of wood or that stone that people bow to literally does nothing for its people. The people must do everything for the god. But I want you to see it is the reverse in Christianity. It is not what we can do for our God, it is what our God has done for us, and it’s the goodness of God that even leads us to repentance.

Let’s look at some of these. First of all, it’s the Father who loves His children. And how does He show His love? He demonstrated it by sending His own Son to die for us. I remember being in a class of world religion when I was in college. A guy got up in class one day and said, “Let me ask you a question. Why do we say our God is the only God when we go into other parts of this world and find other gods? I mean after all, aren’t Allah or Buddha or whatever sufficient?”

I had never seen the professor do this. He took his glasses off. I learned after that if he ever takes his glasses off, get real serious because he is mad. Boy, he took his glasses off. He walked up in front of that classroom and said, “Let me tell you why we think our God and know our God is the only true God.” He said, “Name me another one who left His throne in glory and came down and died on a garbage heap for the very people He created who then turned in sin and spit in His face. Name me one!!!”

Boy, he started there and didn’t stop. I tell you what, before he finished, we were shouting, except the boy who had made the statement. He was very quiet. As a matter of fact, I never heard another statement come out of his mouth in that class. He shut him down.

Paul is saying, “Listen, we know God as Father.” He is the Father who loves His children. How do we know? It says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” You say, how you know he was talking about the Father? Because the definite article is before God, and the word “son” is mentioned in the same verse. Any time you find a scripture that has the Son in it and God is used and a definite article is there, it is God the Father. God the Father so loved this world that He gave His only begotten Son. We know that we know our God, the one true God, and we know Him as a Father who loves His children.

But also, He is a Father who cares for His children. Go over to John 6:32. Following the phrase when Jesus said, “My Father,” John 6 says it’s the Father who gives His children the spiritual bread, the essential bread of life, the eternal bread of life which is the Lord Himself. Verse 32 reads, “Jesus therefore said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.’” What is He saying? “I am that bread. He that eateth of Me and drinketh of My blood,” that is what He is talking about.

This is right before the Feast of the Tabernacles. The Feast of the Tabernacles was a Feast of Booths. When they had this feast, they celebrated the wanderings of Israel in the wilderness. During those wanderings they had manna that God provided every day. And not only that, they also had water from the rock. Jesus is saying, “I am the Bread. It is the Father who gives to you the Bread. I am that food. Our Father cares for His children.”

John goes on to say in John 6:40, “For this is the will of My Father that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” Well, it is the Father who loves His children. It is the Father who cares for His children. It’s the Father who protects His children.

Now watch this. Do you think you can lose your salvation? You are going to have to erase this verse out of your vocabulary. John 10:29. He speaks of those the Father has given to Jesus, His children, His people, His church. He says, “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” Oh, how are you going to get snatched out of the Father’s hand? As a matter of fact, if you’ll study a little further, Jesus said he is not only in My Father’s hand but you are in My hand. Do you realize that if the devil tried to get me out of Jesus’ hand, he would have to wade through the blood and if he waded through the blood, he would be a saved devil? He can’t get to me. I’m in Jesus and I’m in the hands of the Father.

He went beyond that to protect me. He went beyond that. He made Himself one with me. Go over to John 14:20. Man, if this doesn’t light a fire, just get saved or something. I mean, this is where it is! Look at what He did. We don’t even look at it half the time. John 14:20 says, “In that day you shall know that I am in My Father [now listen] and you in Me [now watch] and I in you.” He made Himself one with us to protect us. I mean, you talk about secure today! He is a Father who loves His children. He is a Father who cares for His children. He is Father who protects His children.

He is a Father who disciplines His children. Go to John 15. All we have to do is read one verse and it tells the whole story. John 15:1 says He is a Father who disciplines His children. Verse 1 tells the whole story. He says, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” Do you know what a vinedresser is? The husbandman, the one who comes in and takes care of the vineyard. If you will go on, He says, “You are the branches, connected to Me, the Vine. The Father is the vinedresser.” What does He do? Have you ever studied John 15? One of the verses says He does what to the branch? He prunes it. He is a Father who disciplines the children. Do you think He can’t take care of His family? There is much integrity in what He has done.

Well, we can go on and on and on. I told you, 21 times in John, 14 in Matthew, 5 in Luke. I tell you what, folks, we know our God, the one true God as Father, revealed by His Son, Jesus Christ. So in the midst of manmade deception we have this truth. We know who the true God is. We can go to Indonesia and see all that stuff, but we know who the true God is. We go to India and see all of that, and we know who the true God is. Wherever you go, or when you come back to America and see the gods that people have made out of wood and stone or whatever you can see, touch and feel, we know who the true God is and we know Him as Father.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:6, “yet for us there is but one God, the Father.” I have a dear friend. He and I have been friends for so many years. He is a precious friend. Every time I call him, do you know what he says to me? The first phrase out of his mouth, “Let me tell you what the Father has been doing in my life.” He just uses that phrase over and over and over again. That has so caught my attention, to remind me of the Father. That’s the one God and we know who He is.

Maybe that doesn’t really light your fire because you have had an earthly father that if God is like him, you won’t have anything to do with God. Let me help you understand that God is nothing like an earthly father. God is the holy, heavenly Father. He is the ideal of everything a father could be. That’s who he is. He doesn’t have to be, He is; that is who He is. So the next time you think about the Father being God, don’t put Him in the same category as your father if it has been a very difficult thing for you to live that way.

Charles Stanley, I believe it was, for years lived under the thinking that God, the heavenly Father, was like his daddy. Until one day God overwhelmed him and showed him the difference. We know God and we know Him as our Father.

Well, anyway, for what that is worth, “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him.” Now watch what he does here, I love this: “and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.” Paul just previously said, “In the world there are many gods [little g] and in the world there are many lords [little l].” He turns right around and says, “But to us there is one God, the Father and there is one Lord, His Son, Jesus Christ.” He covers the base right there. They don’t in any way contradict, they complement. He shows how the Father and the Son are equal. He says everything comes from the Father, and all of us exist for the Father

The first part of the verse: “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him.” Then he turns right around and shows you how the Father and the Son are exactly equal. He says, “and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things [He created everything; John 1:3-4 tell us that] and we exist through Him.” Isn’t it amazing? He says the same thing about Jesus he says about the Father and shows you that the two are equated.

You see, we are living in a generation trying to make three gods out of one. “Well, I received Jesus, and I am really trying to get the Spirit.” Wait a minute now, how many Gods are there? If you get Jesus, you have the Father and you have the Spirit. You see, it is one God in three persons. You say, “But I don’t understand that.” I don’t either. I just believe it by faith. If I understood it, God would be no bigger than my brain. I haven’t got anywhere close to it. But that is what His word teaches. Don’t make three Gods out of them. He is one God. The Son is equal to the Father.

Paul didn’t deal with it, but you can also go and see that the Spirit is equal to Jesus. He says, “I will send another comforter. The word “another” there is allos, another of the exact kind, another one just like Me. My Spirit will come to live in you.” So there is only one God, our Father, who is revealed through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul says, “Hey, we all know this. We know the idols don’t exist as far as the deity goes. There is only one God, and we know that one God is our Father. We know Him through Jesus Christ.” Now that is what they all know.

What some did not know

The second thing that I want to try to show you is what some of them did not know. And remember, he still has in his focus that arrogant group that says, “Oh, come on, eat the meat. It’s good stuff. Man, grill it, it is even better.” They don’t have any sensitivity to the people around them who don’t understand that. So he says in verse 7, “However, not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.”

Obviously Paul is still talking about the believers. He says, “However not all men have this knowledge.” The word “knowledge” is gnosis. You say, “Well, wait a minute. I thought he just said all men know.” Yes, but he is talking about something else here. Even though they know what Paul has just said they knew, some of them don’t have a grasp on the fact that eating food sacrificed to idols will not defile them in anyway.

The verse explains itself. He says, “but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.” Here is the problem very clearly put. Some still think that the food sacrificed to an idol would defile their conscience in some way. Even though they knew better, they couldn’t grasp it. They just could not grasp it. In fact, it says that they actually think they are defiled.

You know, put this in another scenario just for a second. Do you realize how many people don’t like contemporary Christian music? Do you know why many of them don’t like it? They understand we are under grace, but they came out of a background that the beat of that music reminds them of every polluted thing they ever did. And when they hear that music, they can’t get it. Whereas another person didn’t, and he is under grace and he can appreciate it. Now you have two people. Which one is right?

That’s the whole problem here in Corinth. What do you do? Even though you know these things, there are some who have not grasped that and they think if they do it, they will somehow defile themselves.

The question that I always get everywhere I go is, “Is it wrong to drink?” Well, let me just put the scenario into what chapter 8 is talking about. Maybe you are so under grace that if you were in somebody’s home in Greece or someplace else, and they offered you a cup of wine, you would pick it up and sip it, just not to offend the person because you know you are under grace and that’s not going to affect your eternal standing with God. But you might be at the same table with somebody who came out of alcoholism and anything that smacks of that reminds him of his past and therefore, he may know he is under grace, but he cannot grasp it like you grasp it. That’s the scenario. That is exactly what he is talking about.

Now, what happens is, you have some people who say, “Preacher, I’ll quit drinking if you show me where it tells me not to drink.” See, they defend it and they defend it at the expense of the weaker brother. That’s the whole teaching of Paul over in Romans. When he gets to the end of the book he talks about the very same thing. There are so many people who just don’t have the grasp of something that you have. That’s why he is saying it is so important to have God’s love mixed in there. He gives you a divine sensitivity to know what’s right in a given situation that’s gray and is not as clear as you want it to be. You’ve got to consider the one who can’t quite grasp it.

There were those, if they went to a wedding and they served them this meat, who would stand up and say, “I can’t,” and walk out. They offended everybody because they didn’t grasp grace. There were others who would point their finger and say, “Look at that person, legalistic.” See, be careful. It’s by grace that you even know what you know. Don’t think you have come to know fully. What did Paul say? You are not really where you think you are because you haven’t learned even how to apply that to your weaker brother when it is a sensitive situation.

Well, Paul is still speaking to that arrogant crowd. “Oh, there is nothing wrong with it! It is good stuff.” In verse 8, look at what he says. This to me is an encouragement to the weak, but buddy, is it ever a warning to the strong! He says in verse 8, “But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.” In other words, to that group that can’t stand it and just can’t seem to grasp it, hey, it doesn’t defile you not to eat it; it is not going to affect your standing with God. But to the group over here who says, “I am going to eat it,” it doesn’t affect your standing with God. Either way you go. To the weak, that’s a strength, but to the strong, he says, “Look out. Don’t boast of yourself being spiritual because you understand grace just because you ate. That hasn’t got a thing to do with your standing with God, see. Your standing with God is in Christ, not in what you eat.”

Look at verse 9. Here is his whole point. It is the whole point of the chapter. “But take care,” he says, “lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” That is what he is saying all the way through. Look out, look out, look out. When you understand, you could be the most dangerous person around if you are not walking with God and His love manifest in

1 Corinthians 8:7-13

1 Handling the Grey Areas of Life – Part 3

1.1 The damage that knowledge without love causes

1.2 The danger of giving an offense to the Lord

1.3 The desire of one whose knowledge is mixed with love

Handling the Grey Areas of Life – Part 3

Look at verse 7. I want you to think about what the conscience is. Everyone has one. He said, “However not all men have this knowledge [speaking of the idols and etc.], but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.” Paul says, “Now, some of the folks in the body of Christ are weaker than others and they haven’t come to see their freedom under grace. They haven’t come to realize there’s no condemnation to them who are in Christ. They don’t realize that their standing is in Christ, not in what they eat or don’t eat. They haven’t grasped this yet. These who don’t understand feel like they’re defiling their conscience if they eat this meat.”

Now, what in the world does the word “conscience” mean? In verse 7, the Greek word is suneidesis. It means to be conscious or inwardly aware of something as to whether or not it was morally right or morally wrong. It comes from the word suneido, which comes from sun, together, and eido, which means see and fully perceive. In other words, there is something inside of all of us, whether lost or saved, that gives us an inner awareness as to what is morally right and what is morally wrong.

You know you have a conscience when you are forced to make a decision. You come to a situation and have to make a decision and all of a sudden something inside of you says, “Yes, do it,” or “No, don’t do it.” Where does that come from? Even people who aren’t saved have a conscience. Immediately this conscience bears witness. It’s like an inner process that’s involved in every choice that we make. But sometimes we just don’t understand that it’s even going on. It’s the first thing that comes to our mind when making a decision, that conscience rising up and saying, “This is morally right” or “this is morally wrong.”

The conscience is affected by what a person knows or has been taught by those around him or his culture. That’s why a pagan person may not have a conscience that tells him that this is wrong or this is right like we would have in a more moral society, although that’s sort of an oxymoron living in America. A pagan might not have the sensitivity to something that we might have because of the teaching of the culture he grew up in. So, the conscience is going to react according to what is fed to it. The conscience is affected by what one knows and understands.

The believer has the Holy Spirit of God living in him. The Holy Spirit is there to enlighten the conscience by revealing the Word of God and renewing the mind. So the conscience, then, is directly affected by the power of God’s Word. This is the way as we understand truth. The conscience begins to line up with the Holy Spirit, and that moral witness stands up, the Holy Spirit obviously affecting it, and causes us to do what’s right, morally right or morally wrong.

Now, you take a person who’s in the body of Christ who hasn’t yet come to grasp what grace is. That person is still under the law. That person still is trying to obey certain rules like they were in Jerusalem when Paul came to tell them about the message of grace and how it was affecting the Gentile world. In their mind, you still had to obey the Law. They still hadn’t come to grasp the message of grace yet. Their conscience in that area had not been enlightened. They were, in fact, the weaker brother in that area. Whereas, somebody else might have had a full understanding of what grace was all about. That’s the same way it is today. There’s the weaker and there’s a stronger brother.

I was in a church years ago where I served in church recreation. When I went there they had some rules for the gymnasium when you would go skating. We had roller skating. It had grand, wood floors. They would stand the pressure of those skates. They had a rule there. Now listen to this, ladies. They had a rule that if the ladies came to church gymnasium and they wanted to skate, they could not wear slacks. They had to wear dresses. Now, let me ask you a question. Maybe I’m off the wall here, but if you were a lady at the church skating, would you rather be in a pair of slacks or would you rather be in a skirt? Which one would you rather fall in?

The first question that went through my mind was, “Who came up with this rule?” Then I had to back away, because it was one of the senior staff members. He had been there for a long time. He had made the rule that you had to do that. I’m thinking, “I better step back.” Studying chapter 8 has helped me to realize his conscience had not been enlightened in that area yet. He was still a weaker brother. He still thought that’s the way it ought to be. I wish at that time I had known this Scripture, and maybe I would have treated him a little differently. But we finally did change the rule and nearly lost him in the process. But that’s the way it is in our culture. It’s the same way.

They had the same thing in Corinth as we have today. Some people’s minds have been enlightened by the message of grace, and they absolutely have no restraint in what they do. Others have not yet come to that place so, therefore, the inner witness, the conscience standing up says, “This is morally wrong,” when their brother standing right here says, “No, this is morally right.” When you get into an area like that, how do you handle stuff?

It’s interesting how the conscience can be seared. It only speaks of a lost person here. I don’t see how a believer can sear his conscience because of the Holy Spirit of God living in him, but that may be true. In 1 Timothy 4:2 he says, “by means of the hypocrisy of liars [talking about false teachers here], seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.” The word “seared” there is the word from which we get the word cauterize. The idea is, everybody has a conscience when they’re born. To some degree they know what’s wrong and right. But the more you go against that conscience, the more you begin to harden that area. It’s like the scars of a burn. It becomes so hardened and so calloused that no longer does it become sensitive. Therefore you have hardened or seared your conscience.

The Indians would say that the conscience is like an arrow in someone’s heart. It’s sharp on the end and it continues to be sharp. As if turns, it begins to prick certain areas. It hurts you. And you realize it’s there. But if a person bears up under that and ignores it long enough, finally that will heal over and scar up and the area will not hurt them anymore.

So you can see how a lost person born with a conscience can sear that conscience and come to the place he has no conscience at all. As a matter of fact, it’s become hardened and he can do whatever he does without ever being sensitive to anything morally right or morally wrong. The conscience alone, however, is not enough to guarantee, even the enlightened conscience is not enough to guarantee, the right behavior of a believer. This is the whole point of chapter 8. It’s got to be mixed with something. If the love of the Holy Spirit of God is not mixed with the knowledge this person has, then his conscience, that bears witness of what is morally right or morally wrong, is still not enough to guarantee he’s going to be sensitive to do what is right.

Let me show you this. Look at 1 Timothy 1:5. This is a key verse and it shows you what Paul says is the most important. It’s not the enlightened conscience that is important. The most important thing is the love out of a pure heart. That’s the key: God the Holy Spirit producing love in you and through you that you cannot produce yourself. This comes out of a surrendered relationship to Christ. First Timothy 1:5 says, “But the goal of our instruction [now watch this] is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” The first thing that comes to Paul’s mind is love from a pure heart.

This is what he said in 1 Corinthians 8 He said in verse 1 that knowledge makes a person arrogant. The word for “arrogant” means he’s a big air bag. That’s all he is. He knows something, but he’s no use to anybody because of what he knows. He says also in verse 1 that love edifies. Edifies means builds up. If the love is there, then what you know will build your brother up. But if love is not there, what you know will tear your brother down. That’s the whole picture.

You may understand the message of grace. Be careful. It is to the group that understood it that Paul addresses chapter 8, because they are the most dangerous if their understanding is not mixed with the love of the Holy Spirit of God.

This is the context of chapter 8. Paul refers to what they know in verse 4. He says, “Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one.” Again, he addresses their problem. You know it, but unless the love is there it’s no good to know it. They had no sensitivity to their weaker brother. That was the key. This is the group that we have to watch.

Look at verse 9. He clarifies this whole thought. It’s the key verse, to me, of understanding the whole chapter. He said, “But take care lest this liberty of yours [that you understand you’re right] somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.”

The damage that knowledge without love causes

He takes you right out of that thought and begins in verse 10 to give you an example of what he’s talking about. This relates in so many areas. The narrow context is the eating of meat sacrificed to idols. As we teach through it, think of all the other areas that fit in the same category of those grey areas. There are three things that I want you to see. First of all, is the damage that knowledge without love can cause. Verse 10, “For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?”

Let’s look at the scenario that Paul develops for us here. He’s given us the principle. He just draws a picture so we can understand it. He says, “For if someone sees you, who have knowledge.” The little word “if” is the word ean. That’s the word that means this is probably going to happen. This is not something so hypothetical it can’t happen. This is probably going to happen. It probably already has happened. In fact, it probably is going on right now.

The man who is eating here is a believer. How do we know? By the context. He has knowledge, gnosis. Paul says, “For if someone sees you, who have knowledge.” These are the ones who understand grace. These are the ones who know they have liberty and freedom under grace. He says, “For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple.” Now, evidently the situation that Paul is presenting is that the believer has been invited to a celebration or a feast of some kind at the idol’s temple. These temples were made for this kind of thing. It’s kind of like a fellowship hall. They had huge areas where people could come and eat together, that was already made for it. They had a kitchen. Sometimes they had open-air feasts like this. So this was very easily done, for them to be invited to an area of a temple place and to have an area where they could banquet or celebrate with others. This is exactly what the people were dealing with. Paul was just taking them right to where they are.

From the context, there’s a meal of some kind. Obviously at that meal meat sacrificed to idols is offered. The enlightened believer is just eating away. First Corinthians 8:10 says, “For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple.” Now, the problem is that someone sees him eating this meat sacrificed to idols. Who is that someone? Well, the verse describes him as one weak in the faith, and then the next verse calls him a brother. So he’s a weaker brother. He has to be, by the context. This is not a lost person, although this principle would certainly overlap into the lost people and the testimony we have with them.

Verse 10 again reads, “For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak,” now, stop right there. The word “weak” is the word asthenes. It means, basically, without strength, etc. But here it means weak in his understanding of the message that the one eating already knows, one who doesn’t understand his position in Christ, one whose conscience has not yet been enlightened.

Now, note the phrase, “will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?” Listen, when Paul uses this phrase, “will not… be strengthened” it sounds like it means something good. “Oh good; if I understand grace, I’ll go out and find a weaker brother and eat in front of him and if he thinks it’s wrong, he’ll see me eating and it will make him strong and everything will be fine.” If you read it that way, it could sound that way. No, sir. This is not something good Paul is saying.

The word for “being strengthened” may surprise you. It’s the little word oikodomeo. It’s the word that means to build a house. You would think it would be the word, something that gives ability to or whatever. But it means to build a house, to build, construct, erect. The verb is always used in a positive sense except here. Here it’s not used in a positive sense. The word there is used in a negative sense. As a matter of fact, Paul is not making a statement and saying, “You who understand grace, go to the temple and eat the meat, because you’ll strengthen your weaker brother.” No, that’s not what he’s saying at all. In fact, he’s asking a question and is really saying, “Is this the way you think you build up your brother, by flaunting your freedom to eat that meat in front of him if he thinks it defiles one’s conscience? Is this the way you seek to make him strong, by putting that in front of him?” In reality what Paul is saying is that this is not constructive at all, this is destructive. This is a demolition rather than a construction. You’re causing them to act against their conscience, which has not yet become enlightened. They may do it because you did it, but they didn’t do it because their conscience bore witness that it was correct; and for that reason they’re sinning against their own conscience. You’re asking them to go against what their conscience has said to them. In no way is this building up a brother in Christ.

Some of you have asked me the question many times, “Is it okay to take a glass of wine?” Quit asking me that question, because this chapter ought to solve it for you. If you’ve got a doubt and something inside of you rises up, you listen to it; because that may be the divine sensitivity of God saying, “Don’t do it. There’s somebody with you that you don’t even know is weak in that area, and you may be flaunting what you know is a freedom under grace. But because of your love for that person, you’re willing to lay that down and not do it.” That’s the whole point. The problem with Corinth was they weren’t laying it down.

So he goes on and explains in verse 11 the damage. He says, “For through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined.” Let’s think about that. Here’s a person who’s come to understand the message of grace. Here’s a person who’s been enlightened by that, and because of that enlightenment has not yet understood that’s not enough. You’ve got to now be surrendered to Christ so that God in you produces through you that love which encases what you say you understand. If it’s not there, you have ruined those who are weak, the brother for whose sake Christ died.

The word for “ruined” is the word that means to destroy, apollumi. It doesn’t mean to destroy his soul eternally, we know that from 1:2-9. But the idea of ruined is something that’s become unusable. How could you make a weaker brother unusable by flaunting your strength and freedom under grace in front of him? Well, when you cause him to defile his conscience now, you’ve put him under a guilt he does not know how to handle; because until he sees it, until his mind has helped him, until the Holy Spirit has renewed that to him, his conscience is going to be defiled by what you have said was alright for him to do. You see, you’ve almost asked him to commit moral suicide in a way, because in his heart of hearts he’s not yet where, perhaps, you are in your growth under grace.

Paul is saying, “You see, without the love of Christ mixed with what you understand about grace, you have ruined your brother. You’ve taken your liberty and literally ruined him. So what if you’re free? What good is that to him? That freedom now has ruined him.”

Paul goes on to say in verse 11, “For through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died.” I was just meditating on that verse, and you know, it’s just full of meaning. First of all, you don’t love your brother enough to lay down what you call a freedom and have made a right. You don’t love him enough to lay it down. You don’t love him enough to do that. Secondly, you don’t love Christ enough. Who are you not to love Christ enough? Look what Christ did. Christ died for him. Christ emptied Himself of His divine glory, all of His rights and privileges, and came down to this earth, even chose to use His power never for His own benefit, only for the sake of others. He lived here obedient to His Father, even unto death. Look what He did, and you will not even lay down that right that you think you have for the sake of a weaker brother? This is the damage caused by not having love mixed with knowledge. You become nothing more than an insensitive member of the body of Christ. Instead of building them up, you tear them down.

The danger of giving an offense to the Lord

Secondly, it’s an offense even to the Lord Jesus. He brings this out very clearly now. Here comes the danger in verse 12. “And thus, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.” There are three things he says that you do. Actually, he turns it back to this group that understands. Again, please hear me. This is the group that has knowledge. This is the group that says, “We understand grace. We understand grace.” Paul says, “Yes, and you’re the problem, because understanding it and living under it are two different things.” Until you’re hooked into the embodiment of that grace, which is Christ, then the love which is a production of that grace is not there and therefore what you understand is not helping. It’s ruining.

First of all, he that you’ve sinned against them. That’s pretty serious stuff. “Wait a minute, I’m under grace. What do you mean?” He says that you’re sinned against them in verse 12. “And thus, by sinning against the brethren.” He puts this in the present tense. It’s not so much that this is what you did as an act, it’s an attitude because it’s ongoing. This is your whole attitude. You’re sinning against the brethren. Your whole attitude towards them is wrong. By your belligerent attitude towards them who don’t understand grace, you are, in fact, living in sin against them. You’re sinning against them.

Now the word “sin, hamartano, means to miss the mark. You take an arrow and you shoot it at a target and you miss it. That’s what it means. In other words, whatever you think you’re doing to build them up is missing the mark. It is in effect tearing them down, and you might not even know it. That’s what he’s telling them. You’re missing the mark.

Secondly he says that you’ve wounded your brother’s conscience. This really hit me. The word is tupto, and it means to wound. Now listen. It means to strike. It means to smite with the hand or a stick or another instrument. He says it is as if you had taken a stick, a big club, and beaten this man’s conscience. What you say should set him free. You’ve beaten him up with your flaunting the message of grace. So you’ve sinned against him. You’ve wounded his conscience.

Thirdly, most importantly, you’ve sinned against Christ. Now, I’ll tell you what. You get there and that kind of catches your breath. That kind of gets your attention, because you see, when you beat this man’s conscience, the blows did not just hit him, they struck Christ who lives in him. So the end result is you have sinned against Christ. Now you see the insensitivity of the heart when a person comes and says, “Hey, I’m free. I’m free.”

I think of this when Paul was writing to the Romans and the antinomians who were there. The antinomians were the party people. They were against all law. “We can do what we want to do. We’re under grace. Let’s just do go it.” He had to take that fourteenth chapter and say, “Folks, you don’t seem to understand.” He talked about the weaker brother, and, as a matter of fact, takes what he does in 1 Corinthians 8 and just lengthens and makes it a whole sermon there about what it means to treat the weaker brother. It’s so important to realize how serious it is to sin against the weaker brethren. Because it’s not only sinning against them, it’s sinning against Christ. To what degree do they sin against Christ? To what degree are the consequences? This is interesting to me. Paul is strangely quiet. This is hauntingly quiet.

When I study Scripture, I always like to look at what’s said, but I also like to look at what’s not said. He doesn’t tell you the consequences. He doesn’t tell you how much you’ve sinned against Christ. He just sort of backs off and gets quiet. When the Scriptures get quiet, I get quiet. He doesn’t tell you the consequences of that. He doesn’t tell you the harm that’s going to be done. He doesn’t tell you how far you’ve gone in your Christian walk.

Well, you sin against your brother. You wound their conscience and you sin against God. He’s talking about the Christian brother, but also a person who’s lost, maybe in your family. It works in both arenas. J. Vernon McGee tells a story of a friend of his who was saved out of the Islamic faith. He came over here and became a great speaker, preacher, especially on the message of grace. They were at a conference speaking together, and they had a big celebration for all the speakers. They had a big banquet. There were a lot of people there. They had chicken and beef, pork and everything else.

To an Islamic person and to a Jew, pork is a very filthy animal. Neither one of them eat pork. But he’s saved and he teaches the message of grace. He was walking through the line and when he got up to the table, she said, “We don’t have anything left but pork, but we’ve got some great looking ham here. Let me give you some.” He said, “No. You don’t have any beef?” “No” “No chicken or lamb?” “No.” “Well, I just don’t think I’ll eat any of that. I’ll just eat some vegetables.”

She said, “That surprises me. You’re here teaching on the message of grace. I thought if anybody understood that it was okay to eat it, you would understand.” He said, “Excuse me. I do understand. But you don’t understand something that I understand. My parents are still alive. I go to see them once a year. My parents have never asked me anything about the Christian faith at all, but the one question they ask me when I walk in the door, my father, every time, meets me there and says, ‘Have the infidels in America got you eating the filthy hog?’”

He said, “Up until now I’ve been able to say no. If I were to eat this today, I would go home and my father would ask me that question and if I said, ‘Yes’, he would slam the door in my face, and every bit of witness for all these years that I’ve tried to be to him would absolutely be crushed. So I give up my rights to eat pork for the sake of the salvation of my father.”

That is exactly what Paul’s talking about, learning to know when to die to what you say is your privilege, learning to know when it becomes insensitive to a brother to do it and be willing not to do it.

I want to say this before I finish my last point. That’s this. You can’t wake up every morning and say, “Oh, God, what can I do today that won’t offend somebody?” There’s a balance in every truth. If you’re going to do that, would you write me and let me know how you do it? Because there are some people in the body of Christ who have the gift of being offended. They live to be offended. They’re offended if you go to a movie and they’re offended if you don’t go to the movies. Whatever it is that you’re trying to deal with, they’re going to be offended either side you’re on.

So here’s the key. The key is not to make a list, “This offends; this doesn’t offend.” Hook yourself up to Christ. Attach yourself to Him. Surrender to Him and let God the Holy Spirit give evidence of the fact that you’re surrendered by producing a love within you. Then the love will take your knowledge and make you sensitive. Sometimes you don’t even know why you say no to something. You won’t know until eternity, until one day you see Christ and He’ll say, “By the way, remember that day you didn’t do that and couldn’t understand why? Let Me explain it to you, because he’s right over there, and it made an eternal difference in his life. You never knew it. You were just being obedient and sensitive to the Holy Spirit of God.”

The desire of one whose knowledge is mixed with love

Well, the damage, the danger, and thirdly I want you to see the desire of one whose knowledge now is mixed with love. God puts a desire in your heart. And the apostle Paul is going to put in the first person. He’s going to say, “I’m going to give you my conviction in this matter. I know where you are. I want to give you my conviction.” He says in verse 13, “Therefore [of course, always look to see what the “therefore” is there for], if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, that I might not cause my brother to stumble.”

Now, even though Paul uses himself here as an example to them, he also opens up an eternal principle that is just so precious when you put other areas into it. He first gives his own conviction. “Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again.” The word for “food” is broma, that which you have to chew. It’s translated food; it’s also translated meat; it’s also translated solid food. So the idea is meat here, because that’s his context. I would personally feel that he means meat sacrificed to idols—why would the other even be an issue? —but meat sacrificed to idols, yes, that’s an issue. If that’s going to cause my brother to stumble, he says, “I will never eat that kind of meat again.”

The word for “stumble” is skandalizo. When you have a mousetrap, don’t use cheese. They figured that out a long time ago. Put peanut butter on it. It messes them up. You have that little trigger that comes back and hooks on the trap and if you set the trap down wrong it will get your finger. Have you ever had your finger snapped on a mousetrap like that? You know exactly what I’m talking about. That little thing that comes back, that’s the word scandalon. It’s not the trap itself, it’s the trigger that springs the trap.

That’s a key understanding here. The trap is already there. The trap is already set. But if you decide to flaunt what you understand about grace in the face of one who doesn’t understand it, the trap’s already set. It just causes it to come shut. And when it does, that’s a death trap to him. That’s a destructive thing in his life. Paul said, “If I eat that meat that’s been sacrificed to idols and it’s going to cause my brother to be ensnared by his own conscience, I refuse to eat it. I refuse to eat it.”

Well, giving his own person example, he opens up a principle for all of us. Now we get down to, how do you deal with the grey areas of your life. “Well, I think it’s okay to drink.” Fine, but are you willing to say, “If it causes my brother to stumble, I’ll never touch another drop”? Do you understand now why it says of elders to be able to sit right along beside it and never even notice that it’s there? If you don’t have that ability, you can’t be a leader in the church. You see, it’s not that the Bible says you can’t do this or you can’t do that, it puts it in bigger perspective. It says that if you’re going to cause your brother to stumble, some of the things that you can do, you can’t do because of your sensitivity to the one who’s around you.

I’ve always thought a person is pretty well known by what he defends. Have you ever thought about that? How much time he spends defending whatever it is he’s defending will tell you where he’s coming from. If he’s defending Christ and grace, you’re alright. But if he’s going to defend what he can or can’t do, being under grace, you better watch out. He’s in 1 Corinthians 8. That’s the one Paul’s nailing.

James 3 says, speaking of the tongue, that we all offend in many ways. So there are so many ways we offend every day and don’t even know it. But when you’re aware of a weaker brother, immediately you have to step back and become very sensitive; because whatever you do needs to be carefully done so that not to offend him, to tear him down, but to build him up.

Well, you know all this is covered in the book of Romans, as I said earlier. Let me just read two verses out of the book of Romans and it might fill in some blanks for you as to what Paul was talking about when we studied that epistle. It says in Romans 14:2, “One man has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. Let not him who eats regar

1 Corinthians 9:1-14

Contents

1 Denying Self for the Sake of Others – Part 1

1.1 The proof of Paul’s apostleship

1.2 The privileges of being an apostle

1.3 His passion as an apostle

Denying Self for the Sake of Others – Part 1

In 1 Corinthians 9 we’re going to be talking about, “Denying Self for the Sake of Others.” This chapter is just beautiful in what Paul is going to bring out. I want you to know at the outset that it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to choose to deny what you know is right, your own right, your own privilege, for the sake of your brother unless you’re filled with the Spirit of God. Galatians 5:22-23 talks about the cluster. He says, “For the fruit of the Spirit is love.” Now, these other things are a part of that love. You can’t have one without the other. They all come into cluster. The fruit of the Spirit is love. It is not natural to the flesh to love somebody unconditionally to where you would even lay down your own rights for them. It is natural, however, to God and to His Spirit. So you must be filled with the Spirit of God. No matter what you know or understand, it has to be mixed with the love of Christ in your life.

It’s the love of Christ that motivated the apostle Paul. Second Corinthians 5:14 says, “For the love of Christ controls us.” The King James version says, “constrains us.” The word is sunecho. It comes from the word sun, which means together with, an intensive, and the word echo, which means to have or to hold. Figuratively it means to compel somebody, to press on. It’s a motivating force when the love of God is manifested in your life. It moves you towards your brother. It’s not something you even have to think about as much as it’s a reflex of the divine presence of God within you.

That’s what Paul is driving at in chapters 8 and 9. It doesn’t matter just what you understand. Yes, knowledge matters; yes, you must be in the Word of God; but you must mix that with the divine love that God has within you.

The Corinthian church of all churches needed to hear this message. They were immature believers who refused to grow up in the Lord. They refused. They would rather suck on their little pacifier and stay over in the nursery, attach themselves to preachers, to whatever else they could attach themselves to, instead of attaching themselves to Christ. They needed to hear this message.

In chapter 8 the believers had written him a question as they had done in chapter 7, but in chapter 8 their questions were all concerned about eating meat sacrificed to idols. Paul took some time in explaining his answer to them, but in doing so wrapped up a beautiful principle that carries right into chapter 9.

Paul had learned to make conscientious decisions, and he’s going to show this in chapter 9. He had learned to deny himself for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of his brother. He takes the theme of chapter 8 and just expands it in chapter 9. At first when you first start studying chapter 9 you wonder, what in the world Paul is doing, because he starts proving his apostleship. What’s he doing that for? Then he comes around and talks about the privileges of his apostleship. Why is he doing that? Then he comes in with the passion of his apostleship. The whole thing becomes crystal clear. He’s trying to illustrate the principle. Even though you have a privilege and a right and understand all these things, the love of Christ may motivate you to give that up for the sake of your brother.

It had become a way of life to Paul. My prayer is it will become a way of life to me and to you and to all of us so that we might live that way. It can be if we’ll attach ourselves to Christ and just let Jesus be Jesus in us. We must always remember, folks, when we get to Heaven one day, the only thing that’s going to be there are people; not ministries, not buildings, nothing else, just people. May I just give it from the heart again? You don’t burn bridges in the Christian life, because the bridge you may have just burned with your brother, you’re going to be reminded of it one day when you stand next to him in glory. Understand this, no matter what our rights are, no matter what our privileges are, no matter how much we understand, no matter how much knowledge we have, if the Holy Spirit of God is not empowering our life, producing the love of Christ in us, then everything we’re doing, as 1 Corinthians 13 says, is nothing more than a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. It means nothing to anybody. It’s the love of Christ that makes it work and that only comes when you’re living a surrendered life to Him, attached to Him.

As we enter chapter 9, it seems obvious to me that Paul had his critics. It always makes you feel in good company when you study Paul. You know, whenever you find him he would either be in jail or a fight or something. Where’s Paul? I don’t know. Where’s the noise? Or if there’s no noise, check the jail. That’s usually where he was. The people who were constant critics of him were people who I think had the gift of being offended. Do you know anybody who has the gift of being offended? They’re offended at everything. It doesn’t matter what you do or don’t do, they’re going to be offended by it. Paul, obviously, had his critics. As he starts the chapter it appears to me he seems to start answering these critics.

The proof of Paul’s apostleship

There are three things that I want you to see. First of all, the proof of Paul’s apostleship. Like I said, at first you don’t know what he’s doing, but hang on. It will become crystal clear. Verse 1 reads, “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?” The New American Standard starts off with “Am I not free?” The King James starts off with, “Am I not an apostleship?” I think that’s the better reading, because that’s his main focus. So for that reason I want to go that route.

It’s like Paul is saying, “Hey, you’re talking about privileges, your privileges which you understand. Now wait a minute. Just back off for a second and look. I’m an apostle. Do you know what an apostle is? I want to talk to you first of all to make sure you understand that I’m an apostle,” Paul says. Then he’s going to start talking about the privileges that an apostle has.

The will that determined his apostleship

It’s a little different when you talk about an apostle. These apostles were appointed and commissioned by the Lord Jesus Himself. Did you know the word “apostle” never appears in classical Greek, so evidently it had to be a word that Jesus Himself coined of the people that He Himself commissioned and gave authority to. Paul said, “I’m one of these guys, folks. I want you to understand that I am an apostle.” As he proves his apostleship the first thing he does is the will that determined his apostleship. I want to look at that. Whose idea was it that Paul become an apostle?

Look back in 1:1. I think you have to do this to kind of get in the feel of what he’s saying here. Where did this come from? He didn’t go to school studying to be an apostle. I promise you he didn’t. But this was God’s idea. He says in verse 1, “Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.” It was God’s divine will that Paul be an apostle. As a matter of fact, to add to that understanding, in Galatians 1:15 it says, “But when He who had set me apart, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace.” Paul was set apart in his mother’s womb.

I got to thinking about that one day. Here’s God in Heaven looking down and says, “Do you know what we need? We need the message of grace to the Gentile world. Let’s see, I think what I want is a man who understands the Law, every jot and every tittle. I want a man who understands it better than any man alive. Then I want to meet with him one day and change him and show him how to add the grace into it so that we can have a balanced message to the Gentile world.” So He created Paul in his mother’s womb. He was already called and set apart. Paul had no idea. He grew up under a legalistic, Jewish home. He was schooled by Gamaliel, the greatest teacher of the Law in the New Testament times.

Then one day he’s a Pharisee. He says in Philippians 3, “I was found blameless according to the Law.” Of course he was talking about the 612 laws that they put in the Talmud that they used to justify themselves. Here was the most religious man, I suppose, on all the earth at that time, and God was saying, “Everything’s right on target. Everything is exactly right.”

Then one day on the Damascus Road he met the Lord Jesus, and Jesus called him and set him apart to be an apostle. In Acts 13:2, when the church was meeting together to pray, the Holy Spirit of God spoke and it says, “And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’” He’s already called them. He was set apart in his mother’s womb. Jesus commissioned him as an apostle. So there should be no doubt that the apostle Paul was there not because of his own will but because the will of God.

The way of his apostleship

But now that he was an apostle, Paul begins to move into the way of his apostleship. In other words, what way did he live now that he was an apostle? Is there something different in the way the apostles lived? Well, we know this about Paul. He was not bound to any man, not bound in any way to any man. He was just simply bound to the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, “Am I not free?” The word “free” is eleutheros. It means to be free. That’s where the word comes from. It means capable of movement, the free one. In an absolute sense it means free, unconstrained, unfettered, independent, one who is not dependent upon another.

That’s a very key meaning of this word for Paul in this text. In a relative sense it means free, separate from or independent of. You see, Paul’s idea narrowed down to this context. Paul did not live dependent upon any man for his support. Paul lived totally free from any other man. He was a tentmaker by trade. That’s how he got over to Corinth to begin with. He went over and found Aquila and Priscilla. They were tentmakers. They began to make tents together. Why? Because the Isthmian games were coming in a few years, and the people, when they came in, stayed in those tents. So he was just sort of by vocation making the money to support the ministry that God had given him.

Timothy and Silas came over, and when they got there Paul quit making tents and started sharing the Word. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, was the first one saved, and a church was born in Corinth. So Paul said, “Hey, I’m not dependent on you, this church, or any other church. I totally depend upon the Lord Jesus Christ. I am free.”

In 9:19 he says, “For though I am free from all men.” I think that narrow context is as an apostle he lived totally dependent upon God and he depended upon no man or no church for his support. This is the way that he lived.

The witness required for an apostle

Thirdly he speaks of the witness required for an apostle. There was one thing you had to have done in order to be an apostle, to qualify as an apostle. Aside from being commissioned by Christ, you had to be a witness of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says in verse 1, “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” The word “Lord” shows you immediately he’s talking about the resurrected Christ because he has a name. He is our Lord the name above every name. He uses the word horao for “see,” which is different from blepo, which is the normal word for “see” or “to look at.” Yeah, I saw something or I saw Him. But the word horao has the idea of to see, to comprehend, and to fully understand exactly who he was seeing.

He puts it in the perfect tense. In other words, something happened back here. “I am what I am because of that.” He puts it in the active voice. “I was involved totally.” He puts it in the indicative mood. He says, “write it down and take it to the bank. It happened.”

When did Paul see and understand that Jesus is Lord? Look back in Acts 9:1. I want you to understand from this text Paul was not looking for God. God was looking for Paul. That’s funny. People say, “I found Jesus.” Have you seen that little sticker? I want to tear every one of them off the bumper when I see them. You didn’t find Jesus. The Scripture says no one seeks after God, no, not one. You say, “I was.” No, you were seeking after a better life or another church or whatever, but nobody is seeking after God. It’s God seeking after us. We didn’t find Him. He found us. He certainly found Paul. His name at that time was Saul of Tarsus.

Verse 1 of Acts 9 says, “Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest.” Here’s the most religious man in the world and what is he doing? He’s persecuting believers of which he is to become; and not only become one of them, but an apostle to the whole Gentile world. Verse 2 continues, “and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And it came about that as he journeyed, he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.” I’ve always loved this passage. He was going to arrest Christians and he got arrested by the Christ of Christianity. He ran into something he didn’t think he was going to run into.

Verse 4 says, “and he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’” That’s so significant there. It’s a principle to remember. You strike another Christian and you just struck Christ. You never affect the body that you don’t affect the Lord Jesus the Shepherd of the body, the Head of the body. Paul says, “And he said, ‘Who art Thou, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise, and enter the city, and it shall be told you what you must do.’ And the men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one. [Paul saw it] And Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus.”

It’s interesting, Paul saw Him and was blinded; John saw Him and passed out. But he was witness of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ which qualified him being an apostle. You could not be an apostle if you were not a witness of the Lord Jesus.

Look over in 1 Corinthians 15:7 again to prove that Paul witnessed the resurrected Christ. First Corinthians 15:7 reads, “then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.” So we then see the witness of his apostleship. We know then that he’s an apostle.

The work of his apostleship

The will, the way, the witness, and then fourthly, Paul speaks of the work of his apostleship. In other words, if you’re an apostle and that’s who you are, then God through you is going to do specific things. So he says to the church in verse 1, “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?” The word for “work” is ergon. It has the idea of the proof of the effort of someone, not just what they’re doing, but what they’ve done when they finished doing it. In other words, the proof of that: you are my work. The church of Corinth was the work of Paul.

As I said earlier, he went over there as an apostle. The word for apostle, apostolos, means one sent forth with a message commissioned by Christ Himself. So he wasn’t just there to make tents. He had begun to share the Word as God had commissioned him to do and as a result of that the church of Corinth came to be.

He said, “Are you not the very evidence of the work that I’ve done as an apostle?” He goes on and calls them the seal of his apostleship. Look at verse 2, “If to others I am not an apostle [you see, this referred to those who were examining and criticizing him. He says], at least I am to you.” “How else would you call yourself the Church of God at Corinth if I hadn’t come to you as an apostle bearing the name and the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ?” He says, “at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.”

The word seal is the word sphragis. It means the seal of guarantee that was stamped on something: “for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.” “Look at you. You’re the church here and you wouldn’t be there had it not been for what God had used me to.” As he says in chapter 3, “I planted, Apollos watered. Of course, others have built upon it and God was given the increase.” Figuratively the word here used means as a pledge or a proof of something. The work that Paul had done among them was the proof of his apostleship. They were the seal, the guarantee of his apostleship.

We see the proof then of who he was as an apostle. What is he doing? Why does he start chapter 9 in proving the fact that he’s an apostle? Remember there were the critics and the skeptics who were constantly saying things about him, accusing him not even of being an apostle. So he starts that way.

The privileges of being an apostle

But the second thing he does, he talks about the privileges of being an apostle. Here it comes. Now we’re beginning to see. Remember in chapter 8 we looked at the privileges you have, the understanding, the rights that you have under grace. Now he’s carrying it right into chapter 9 and says, “Okay, you’ve talked about yourself. Now let me show you. I’m an apostle. Are you convinced now?” “Yes, we’re convinced.” “Alright now, let me tell you the privileges an apostle has.” It’s a little different than the privileges they had. Let me show you.

The examination

Verse 3 reads, “My defense to those who examine me is this.” The first thing he does is acknowledge that there were those who had examined him, as to his calling, and of course narrowed to the context, his privileges. They want to found out, “Okay, Paul, if you’re really an apostle, what privileges do you have?”

Well, the word examine is anakrino, which means to examine or question in order to pass a judicial sentence. In other words, there were those coming to conclusions about him based on some of the examinations that were given to him. What did they examine him about? As I said, in the area of his freedom. What he was, what he was allowed to do as opposed to others being allowed to do it. That’s what they were asking.

The explanation

Well, the second thing Paul answers, he gives an explanation now of his privileges. Look what he says. His answers are very clear. You can’t miss this. First of all, he had a right to be supported by the churches. This is the key. This is where he’s headed. As an apostle, it’s a little different than a member of the church. He says, “As an apostle, one set and commissioned and a witnessed to the Lord Jesus, we have the right to be supported by the church.”

He says in verse 4, “Do we not have a right to eat and drink?” If you read that out of context you’d say, “Yeah, if you’re thirsty or if you’re hungry.” That’s not what he’s saying. In a sense, they were to be provided things to eat and to drink just like the priests at the temple. He says, “As an apostle we have the right to eat and to drink. We have a right to be supported by the church.”

In verse 6 he alludes to that very fact. He says, “Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working?” You see, the apostle Paul is saying, “Hey, guys, I know I’m going to pop your bubble, but, as an apostle I have a right to demand that you support me.” Now, he’s going to show you why in just a second.

He makes a very clear explanation of his privileges when he goes on. He says, “I have a right to marry and to take my wife with me. Not only should you support me but you should support her.” Paul’s going to make sure they understand. Verse 5 reads, “Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?” Cephas, of course, was Simon Peter.

Now, the King James Version adds a word there that I like. I wish the New American Standard hadn’t left it out. They put in the word “sister.” We have the idea of a Christian woman. That gives you the idea who you’re supposed to marry one of these days, men, a Christian woman. What I think Paul is saying is, “Hey, I’ve got the right to come right into Corinth and if God so sees fit and there’s a woman there that I fall in love with, I’ve got a right to marry somebody right out of your church and then you’d turn around and support both of us because I’m an apostle. That’s a privilege of being an apostle.”

Of course we learn in this thing that he was single. We also learn that Cephas had a wife, and evidently she traveled with him.

The examples

Then thirdly, Paul gives the examples from Scripture to support his privileges. In other words, he’s saying, “I’m not just saying this off the top of my head. This goes all the way back. This is a principle of life and a principle of the Law,” as he’s going to show in a moment. He says in verse 7, “Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and does not eat the fruit of it? Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock?” These examples are so clear it’s almost kind of ridiculous to try to even go through them because you don’t have to add anything to it.

First of all, he uses the example of a soldier who doesn’t serve at his own expense. I love to see young men sitting in our services with their uniform on. I guarantee you, they were fed while they were in the service. They only had about two minutes to eat, but that’s part of it. You learn to eat fast. As a soldier he is commissioned to do something. Now, if he’s going to do the work, then he ought to profit from the work. In other words, we’re not going to have an army if we’re not going to take care of the army. That’s what he’s saying. There’s a principle. If you’re doing the work, you ought to profit from the very work that you do. This is a principle of life he’s saying.

Then he gives the example of a farmer. He says, “Who plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit of it?” Can you imagine somebody planting a vineyard and looking forward to the crops coming in and then one day saying to his children, “You can’t eat that, because this is for somebody else”? They’d say, “Are you crazy?” Then they would gulp it down. They’re looking forward to that. Part of your reward of being a farmer is to profit in that which you have done. Any farmer knows that.

Thirdly, is the example of a shepherd. He says, “Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock?” The principle holds for all three illustrations. Whatever work you do, you ought to profit from the work, the principle of life.

Then Paul nails his point in verse 8. He said, “I am not speaking these things according to human judgment, am I?” In other words, “I’m not speaking this just as a man. I want to go a step further than that. You know the principle of life. Now let’s look at the principle of the Law.” He refers to it in the last part. “Or does not the Law also say these things?” When he speaks of the Law, he is speaking of the five books that Moses wrote. He proves this in verse 9, “For it is written in the Law of Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.’”

The picture he picks up from is from Deuteronomy 25. It’s an actual Old Testament verse coming right out of the Law before they went into the Promised Land. He says in Deuteronomy 25:4, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.” Here’s the picture that comes right out of the Law. This is not just a principle of life. This is a principle right out of the Law. He uses the example of an ox threshing corn. They’d take the ears of corn that had the husk on them and spread them out. Then they would take these oxen and walk them in a circle. The heavy weight of that ox would step down on the ear of corn and it would immediately separate the husk from it. Then you’d take the ear apart from the husk. Do you know how big an ox is? It’s a big animal, a heavy animal. So the weight of that ox was used to separate the husk from the corn.

And he’s saying that you don’t muzzle an ox while he’s threshing. In other words, the thing that gives the ox the energy to do what he’s doing is the very corn that he’s threshing. He’s got to be fed himself. He’s doing the work, isn’t he? Then feed him the corn. That keeps him being able to continue to do the work. This not just a principle of life, this is a principle of Law. He’s driving home a point here.

He asks a question concerning the Scripture he’s quoted. I love this. He says in verse 9, “For it is written in the Law of Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.’ God is not concerned about oxen, is He?” In other words, it’s like Paul is saying, “Since oxen can’t read and they can’t understand English or whatever language you want to speak, evidently God didn’t write this for the benefit of the ox. He had a different benefit in mind.

He goes on and answers his own question in verse 10. “Or is He speaking altogether for our sake?” That’s exactly what he’s doing. Using the example of the ox, the principle is to come into our own life. He says, “Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops.” In other words, you ought to profit from the work that you do. That’s his bottom line. He said it so many times you can’t miss it. It’s the privilege of an apostle to be fully support by the churches he ministers unto. That’s not sin. That’s not only a law of living. It’s principle of the Law. He needs to profit from the people that he ministers unto.

Now, that’s true all the way through Scripture. He says in Galatians that the one who teaches the Word ought to be treated with double honor. That means double salary. I kind of like that. But this is a principle of life. It’s a principle of the Law.

Then he goes on in verse 11 and says, “If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we should reap material things from you?” Are you having trouble trying to think about the fact of supporting us after we have given of ourselves in the spiritual things that have enriched your life?

He says in verse 12, “If others share the right over you, do we not more?” Now we’re beginning to see where he’s headed. He starts off and says, “You want to talk about your privileges? Fine; let’s talk about the privileges of an apostle. We are an apostle. Remember now who these people are. They’re commissioned by Jesus and given authority by Jesus. We’re here dependent upon no man. We’re dependent only on him. But the privilege we have is that we are to be supported by the churches. We have that privilege. Even if we’re married we were to be supported by the churches.”

Some people ask, “Well, shouldn’t a minister in this day and time be self-supported or whatever?” Well, as far as Scripture is concerned, it is right. If you have a minister who’s ministering to you spiritual things, it is right under God, under His Word that you minister to him in material things. That is very right. That is right. That’s the privileges Paul is talking about.

His passion as an apostle

Thirdly we see now his passion as an apostle. We know who he is and we know what his privileges are, but remember where he’s going. Even though he had the right to be supported by the churches, married or single, Paul had chosen to deny this right. He had chosen to give it up. This was his own personal choice. It wasn’t sin if he would have demanded it. But he chose to give it up. That’s his right. That’s his privilege but he chose to give it up.

Verse 12 continues, “If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.” The apostle Paul had chosen to make his own living. Even though he had the privilege and the right as an apostle to be supported by the churches, he had chosen to make his own living. In verse 12, first of all, he shows that this talks about the passion that’s inside. Remember the love mixed in? He talks about the passion that’s inside him that led him to refuse his privilege.

He says, “Nevertheless, we did not use this right,...” The phrase, “use this right” is the word chraomai. It means we did not make the most of this right that we have. Do you see how different that is to the natural? How different that is to a person who is not being filled with the Spirit of God? I’ve even know Christians who say, “Okay, give me my rights. I want to know what my rights are. I want to know what my privileges are, because I’m going to name it and I’m going to claim it until Jesus comes back.” Paul says, “We had the right, we had the privilege, but we chose not to make the most out of it. We chose to deny ourselves for it.”

This passion is motivating him in an unnatural way. Only the love of Christ motivates us in unnatural ways. Our flesh tends to go the natural way, but the Spirit pulls us the unnatural way. Then, we see the passion that led him to receive what would come because having chosen this unnatural way, there’s going to be consequences to that choice. So he says, “but we endure all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.”

I want to show you that word “endure.” When I first read it I almost didn’t look it up. I know what that word is. I s

1 Corinthians 9:15

Contents

1 Denying Self for the Sake of Others – Part 2

1.1 The sincerity of Paul

1.2 The humility of Paul

1.3 The expectancy of Paul

1.4 The integrity of Paul

Denying Self for the Sake of Others – Part 2

Don’t you love somebody who is real, somebody who really lives what they say, somebody who doesn’t just have all the talk but has a walk to match it? Years ago when I was a college student, I was youth director of a church for a summer. A friend of mine was also a youth director at another church there in Virginia. We got together and put together a summer camp. We had several speakers that week because we were always too late getting somebody to come for the whole week.

On the Wednesday night of that week we had a very, very special man come to speak. I had never been around anybody quite like him. I did not realize that two weeks before God had done a real breaking work in his life and helped him to realize that God can only use broken vessels. You know, in this world if something’s broken it’s put on the shelf. But in God’s economy until it’s broken, it cannot be used. So this man began to teach others this by the way he lived in front of us.

He wanted to have prayer before we went down to the waterfront to have our service that night. So we went to my cabin, my friend, this speaker, and myself. We got down on our knees and I had never heard a man bare his heart before God like this man. I had never heard anybody confess his own weakness, confess the sinfulness of his own flesh, and just right there in the presence of both of us repent of things that were wrong even that day, thoughts that he had, choices that he had made. It impressed upon me the fact of being real and honest before God and others.

We went down to the waterfront and as he began to speak, God the Holy Spirit just took charge of his message. As he called us to repentance, it was so much easier to listen because I had seen him being willing to repent himself. He was everything he was asking us to be. You love somebody who is real, somebody who is everything that they say that they are.

Well, the apostle Paul was a man just like that. He was what he said he was. As we saw in chapter 8, he developed a principle of truth and then he expands it in chapter 9. In chapter 8 he addressed a problem. The questions began back in 7:1, and the question in chapter 8 had something to do concerning the eating of meat sacrificed to idols. His answer specifically targeted one of two groups that were there in the Christian community in Corinth.

There was one group that was very weak in their understanding of their faith. They had just come out of this kind of thing and every time they would sit down and be offered the meat sacrificed to idols, they felt like if they ate it they would be defiling their conscience. That’s one group. I call that the weaker group.

But the stronger group were the ones who understood their position in Christ. They knew that there was no such thing as losing your righteousness, losing your standing with God because you had eaten meat sacrificed to idols. These were the ones who would say, “Let’s eat. Don’t worry about it.” Paul targets his thoughts and what he says to this group, not the group that did not understand, but to the group that did understand. He tells them very clearly there in 8:1 that knowledge makes a person arrogant if love is not mixed in with it. It is love that edifies. The word edify means build your brother up. So, therefore, if you know something and have no love mixed with it, you’ll break your brother. But if the love is there, you’ll build up your brother and you’ll be sensitive to where he is. You’ll even be willing to deny yourself what you know to be your privilege in your freedom in Christ for the sake of your weaker brother.

He captures his whole thought there in 8:9. He says, “But take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” It’s a very similar thing that he says over in the book of Galatians. Don’t let your freedom in Christ cause your brother to stumble. Be willing to sacrifice what you know to be your privilege under grace for the sake of your weaker brother.

Then, in the closing verse of chapter 8 he sets up chapter 9. What he says is, if I know my brother is offended by my eating meat, I will never eat meat again. That’s his own personal conviction and example before the people.

Now in chapter 9 he just simply expands this truth. It’s almost like he raises the curtain and lets us get inside of his mind and the way he lives and the way he thinks. We get an intimate view of who the apostle Paul really is.

I wonder if you ever had trouble giving to the church budget? I’m not picking on anybody. But I wonder if it ever goes through your mind, “I don’t think those guys have a right to get what they get. I believe they make too much. I don’t think they’re worthy of it.” Has that ever gone through your mind? And have you ever just decided instead of giving to the budget just to designate that money so that you can make a statement, “We won’t give to the budget, but we’ll designate it over here because we know who these people are.” Folks, listen. The Word of God says that a minister, a person who gives his life to minister the Word should be supported materially by the people to whom they minister. That’s God. That’s the law around us. That’s life.

Paul takes this another step. Not only are all of those things pillars that this truth rests on, but also the Lord Jesus Himself ordained this truth. He says in verse 14, “So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.” Jesus Himself ordained this.

We don’t know exactly where he’s referring to in the New Testament, but we do know the Lord Jesus said that. He could be referring to when Jesus sent the 70 out in Luke 10:7. It says, “And stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house.”

So it’s interesting what Paul’s doing here. He says, “I’m not going to do this. I’m not going to demand it.” But then he further supports the fact that he could demand it, only to come back once more and show that he will not do it. What is he doing? He’s expanding the principle and the truth that came out in chapter 8. In chapter 8 he says, “Listen, the question was, should we eat meat sacrificed to idols? Some of you guys understand that it won’t hurt you at all. But I want you to know that there’s a greater truth. Even though you may understand your standing with God, you’ve got to be mixed with love. You’ve got weaker brothers. Are you willing to give up your freedom for the sake of someone else?” That’s what love motivates you to do. Paul says, “Now, look at my own life. I’m an apostle and I have rights you haven’t thought about yet. And I have given them up for the sake of others.”

The sincerity of Paul

The curtain begins to lift even further and we get a glimpse of the apostle Paul, a man who had learned to deny himself for the sake of others. First of all, we see the sincerity of the apostle Paul in verse 15. He says, “But I have used none of these things.” All of the rights, the demands he could have made, he’s used none of them. “And I am not writing these things that it may be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than have any man make my boast an empty one.”

Paul says, “I have used none of these things. I have chosen not to take a wife. I have chosen not to take support.” Now, you may remember, support was sent to him even from the Macedonian churches, but he never asked for it. He never depended upon it. The letter written to the church of Philippi was to thank them for a gift sent to them by Epaphroditus. But he even says in that letter, “I thank you, but I do not speak from want. I’ve learned to be abased and I’ve learned to abound. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I am tied to no man for my support. Thank you for your gift. I didn’t ask for it. I’m okay. I don’t live my life depending upon others. I have used none of these things.”

The word “none,” oudeis, means not a single one. The verb “used” is in the aorist middle. So he is asking, “At any time have I ever depended upon you? Have I ever asked or begged for money? I’ve never done that. It’s in the middle voice, of my own free will. Nobody made me do it. I wasn’t in a conference and heard a guy speak and got inspired. God just put this on my heart. It’s my own choice. I did it on my own. What did he decide to do? Paul chose to be a tentmaker. He chose it. That was his own choice. He chose to make his own money, make his own way.

Back in Acts 18 it says, “And because he was of the same trade [When he got over into Corinth and found Priscilla and Aquila], he stayed with them and they were working for by trade they were tentmakers.” Paul says, “Hey, I can be bi-vocational. I can make tents.” As a matter of fact, the very reason that he was there was to make some money for the ministry. But out of his choice to deny himself and not be supported by the churches, the church of Corinth sprang up. When Timothy and Silas got there, he stopped making tents and started preaching the gospel. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, got saved and a church was born. It came right out of his conviction. “I’m going to make my own way, trust God and God alone, and I’m not going to be tied to any man or tied to any church.”

Then Paul says in verse 15, “And I am not writing these things that it may be done so in my case.” That’s an interesting phrase there. In other words, he says, “I’m not telling you what I’m telling you to play upon your sympathy. I don’t want you, by what I’m saying to you right now, to get a group up and take up an offering and give it to me. That’s not why I’m asking it.”

Have you ever been around somebody like that? They’ll come on with that grave humility as if God had led him to just trust Him. But they’ll take an hour or two to tell you what they need. Oh, yes, they’ll ask you to pray for it. But they have a string attached to that prayer. They want you to be a part of answering that need. Then when you get under the guilt or whatever that is and you give that money, then they stand up and say, “God answered my prayer.”

Paul said, “I’m not doing that. I’m telling you this because I’m trying to teach you a principle. I don’t live that way. I don’t work that way. I’m free from all men. I just trust God, and I do not depend. I have chosen to deny myself the privileges given to an apostle. I’m not married. And I do not depend upon the support of the church. That’s my choice for the sake of the gospel.”

Paul says, “for it would be better for me to die than have any man make my boast an empty one.” That’s a little bit difficult verse to translate, by the way. That’s a translation. It’s not as easy in the Greek. But what I came up with Paul is saying, “I would die if anybody ever thought I was a hireling, that I was doing what I was doing for money like Balaam in Numbers 22.” It’s like what Peter said in 1 Peter 5:2 when he told the elders, “Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness.”

In other words Paul says, “Hey, I would die if anybody ever thought for a second I’m doing what I’m doing for personal gain.” He was absolutely sincere with them. He’s trying to help them and teach them a principle that you have to learn to deny privileges. He’s not saying that to everybody. You have to discover in your own arena of life.

What is it that God’s asking you to lay down for the sake of your brother? You must have discovered that yourself. The Holy Spirit of God leads you to that. You don’t do what Paul did just because Paul did it. That was his conviction. But the principle is loud and clear. Are we willing to lay down our freedoms for the sake of a weaker brother? That’s the sincerity of the apostle Paul.

Can I ask you a question? Why do you do what you do? What is your motivation? If your motivation is godly, you’re having no trouble hearing this at all. If it is not, you’re having great struggle right now in your mind. You see, when you do it for yourself, you’ll cling to your rights. When you do it for Christ, you’ll willingly give them up for the sake of those that He loves.

The humility of Paul

Secondly, not only do we see the sincerity of the apostle Paul, but we also the humility of the apostle Paul. I love this. He gives the reason for his preaching the gospel. He can’t take any credit for it at all. First Corinthians 9:16, “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.” Paul wants them to know that preaching the gospel was not his idea. He didn’t go to a school and get a degree for it. He didn’t come out of a homiletics class. Preaching the gospel was God’s idea. All he could ever boast about was in the gospel, not for it. It wasn’t his gospel. It was God who initiated the whole process. He says, “I am under compulsion.”

The word “compulsion” is that little word anagke. It’s the word used in 2 Corinthians 5:14, translated “constrains” in the King James: “For the love of Christ controls” as the New American Standard says, or “constrains” as the King James Version says. “There’s something about me. There’s something moving me and compelling me to preach the gospel. I had nothing to do with it,” Paul said. “Don’t ever give me any credit for it.”

Do you realize what a preacher the apostle Paul was? He was in one place and somebody said, “The gods have come down.” They called him a name that was given to the great orator of all the gods. He must have been something else. His ability and his gifts must have absolutely been phenomenal. One night he preached all night long and a guy fell out of a window and died. He went down and brought him back to life, kept right on preaching, nobody went home, and nobody went to sleep. The apostle Paul, when he preached, was gifted by God, but he says here, “I had nothing to do with it. What I do is God’s idea. I can’t take any credit for what I do.” He was under the divine call of God to preach the gospel.

He said, “What I do, I do under compulsion. He’s motivated and moved me to do what I do.” Paul was under the divine call of God to preach the gospel. He could do nothing else. In Acts 9:15 God met him on the Damascus Road. I want you to see what happened. I want you to see what God had already planned for the apostle Paul. This is God’s plan, God’s will. It’s God’s gift. It’s God’s calling. It has nothing to do with Paul, other than the Lord selected him.

It says in Acts 9:15, “But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.” Paul knew that the suffering would come as a result of the calling that God had given him. That’s why when he was in prison in Rome when he wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, it says, “Paul, a prisoner of Christ.” “I’m not a prisoner of Rome. I’m not a prisoner of the Jews. I’m a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ because I know that He’s already told me. Not only has He called me and gifted me, but the suffering is going to go along with it.”

In Romans 1:14 he says to the Roman believers, “I am under obligation.” That word means I owe a debt. “I owe a debt to Christ. I was on my way to Damascus to kill the Christians, and God stopped me in my tracks and turned me around and called me.” He said, “I owe a debt to Christ. I owe a debt to the Christians, and I owe a debt to the world for what God has done in my life.” He knew that he could never take any credit for his preaching. This was all God’s design.

So back in 9:16 he says, “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.” That phrase just camped out in my mind. “Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.” The word for “woe” is a little Greek word that means it’s an indescribable sigh of unbearable grief and pain. It’s the word used over in Revelation, the first woe, the second woe, and the different woe’s that came. It’s the same idea. Paul said, “I would be filled with grief inexpressible if I could not preach the gospel of Christ. I can’t take any credit for it. God started it. God anointed it. God initiated it. It’s all God. I can’t take any credit for it. My preaching is something that God originated in my life.”

I wonder in whatever gift and calling and direction God’s put in your life, if you feel the same way, if you’re overwhelmed by the fact that God has gifted you. Isn’t it interesting how we think of ourselves sometimes? “I’ve got real talent, don’t I?” No, friend. If you’re saved, God put a gift in you that you couldn’t have come up with. No school can give it to you. And if you can do anything else but use that, then do it. But if He’s put it within your heart, burns within your heart, that’s what God does and you can never take any credit for it.

The glory must go to Him. Paul’s a humble man. Paul knew what he was not. He certainly knew who he was. Paul says, “I can’t take any credit. Woe be unto me if I didn’t preach the gospel of Christ.” The sincerity of Paul and the humility of Paul, that statement there hinges on the next two verses.

The expectancy of Paul

The next point I want you to see is the expectancy of the apostle Paul. You’ve got to put these verses together or you’ll miss it. Paul says something here that in first reading you miss. He says in verse 17, “For if I do this voluntarily.” He’s still talking about preaching. “For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.” Now, be careful, very careful what you’re doing here. He’s still talking about the fact that he cannot take any credit for his preaching. That’s what is still on his mind.

He says, “For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward.” The word “voluntarily” there is a key word. It’s the word hekon. It means an act of his own free will. Paul said that if he were preaching as an act of his own free will, he came up with it, he chose to do it, he put all the energy into it, then he could expect a reward. That’s his whole point. He said, “But I didn’t, because God came up with it. I didn’t come up with it. So how could I ever look forward to a reward for doing what I don’t deserve to do in the first place?”

Do you realize how many people have not yet grasped this? Vince Havner said before he died, “The thing that’s wrong with Christianity and Christians is we’ve lost the awe of salvation.” We’ve forgotten. We wouldn’t even be in church if it wasn’t for the grace of God.” I wouldn’t be preaching if it wasn’t for the grace of God. What’s wrong with us? And we’re looking for a reward to do what we have nothing to do with to start with? God initiated it and it’s only God that can anoint it and only God can get the glory for it.

I’ll tell you the times in my life I feel so ashamed of have been the times I wanted to cling to my rights, the times that I wanted to say, “Give me a reward for what I’m doing because I’ve put in the time,” without stopping to realize, but by the grace of God you’d be in a ditch somewhere as a drunk if God hadn’t found you. Isn’t it funny how the flesh creeps up on us like that? I wonder who’s a minister somewhere and you think you ought to be rewarded for what you do. Fairness is not even in the question. God is a just God, and thank God He is. That’s why He sent His Son to die for us on the cross. If He was fair, I’d be in hell and so would you, forever, without a whisper of a prayer. He’s a just God. What in the world is wrong with us?

Paul said, “Listen. I don’t have any rights. I have privileges as an apostle, but when it comes down to it, can I expect a reward for what God Himself has originated?” Paul is not saying in the second part of that verse he’s preaching against his will. What he says is, “but if against my will.” This is the way it happened to him, remember? Paul was not seeking after God. God was seeking after him. He says, “but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.”

Do you know what a stewardship is? That’s that little word that we’ve already looked at in Corinthians. He means a house steward. Paul said, “Hey, I wasn’t willing. I was headed toward Damascus, and God stopped me and assigned me and called me and gifted me. Now He’s entrusted me with a stewardship. It’s His property. It’s His calling and if I don’t exercise it the way that I should, I will answer to God for it one day.” In other words, I don’t expect reward for doing what I could have never in a million years deserved to do. God saved him. God called him. God entrusted him. This is all God’s idea. A slave does not expect to be paid for what he does. Paul’s a bond-servant of the Lord Jesus Christ so his reward is not for preaching the gospel. In fact, if he doesn’t do it, woe be unto him and God will deal with him one day.

Well then, what is his reward for? There is an expectancy in Paul. Paul does expect a reward; not for what he does, that’s strictly by the grace of God. In verse 18 we read, “What then is my reward?” His answer is, “That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.” Do you know what he says? He says, “I can’t expect a reward for what I do, but I can expect a reward of how I do it.” And he says, “I do it with a love for Him and a love for the others.”

That’s the implication of the verse. “I’m doing it for the sake of my brother. I have made a choice in this. This choice for the sake of my brother, I know one day will bring a reward and that is, I have chosen to give up my privileges as an apostle, of being supported by the churches, so that I could preach the Word of God without any charge.” Is that for everybody? No, that’s what the apostle Paul chose to do, to bring out and expand his truth that you’ve got to learn as a stronger brother to deny yourself for the sake of the weaker brother.

He says, “That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge.” The word “without charge” is adapanos, which means no charge whatsoever. Isn’t that amazing? The false teachers in 2 Peter 2 and Jude, all they do is for sordid gain. All they do is for profit.

Paul said, “I have discovered a reward, not only that I’m going to get one day but I get every day.” He puts it in the present tense. “I’m getting a reward.” In other words, he said, “It just tickles me to death to go into a place and preach the gospel, lay it right in front of them, and don’t charge them a thing.” “Oh, man, I’m so blessed, Brother Paul. Can I do something?” “No, just enjoy Jesus.” And he said, “As I walk down the road, the joy just springs up inside of me. Chills break out all over me. God has rewarded me and He will reward me one day because it’s not what I do. I haven’t got anything to do with that. But it’s the way I go about doing it.”

Paul made a decision of his own will, out of his love for his fellow man, not to preach the gospel for any kind of reward. This began to be the driving burden of his ministry. You see it all through the New Testament. To the church at Thessalonica, in 1 Thessalonians 2:9, he said, “For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.” “I worked night and day. I didn’t become a burden to you.” Then he said in 2 Thessalonians 3:8, “nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we might not be a burden to any of you.” That was a driving force in his ministry. An apostle who could every bit expect to be supported by the church chose to give that privilege up. Churches did send him money. That’s not the point. He never solicited it and he never depended on it.

The church at Macedonia supported him while he was over in Corinth, and Corinth was a rich church, a very rich church. Listen to what he said to them in 2 Corinthians 11:8. He said, “I robbed other churches.” That’s the way he felt about it. When anybody sent him money, he felt like he was robbing them. The word is the word used for plundering a temple. He said, “I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to serve you.” Then in verse 9 he says, “and when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brethren came from Macedonia, they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will continue to do so.”

In 1 Corinthians 9:18 Paul says, “What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.” I tell you what, when you choose to deny your privilege for the sake of your brother, there’s an immediate reward. But there’s also a future reward that God gives because it’s the motives of men’s hearts He’ll judge, why you do what you do. You see, he understood that preaching the gospel was something so foreign to anything he had ever thought about. God had to come up with it. It was God who gifted him to do it. It was God who called him to do it. He said, “I couldn’t do anything else and woe to me if I don’t preach the gospel. I’ve been entrusted as a steward.”

James said teachers of the Word of God will be given a greater condemnation. We can’t expect to be rewarded for what we do, but we can expect to be rewarded for the way we go about doing it. That’s the key. Paul found great joy in preaching the gospel without charge.

The integrity of Paul

Well, we’ve see the sincerity, the humility, and the expectancy. Fourthly, we have the integrity of the apostle Paul. He says in verse 19, “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.” That’s the enigma of his life in the choices that he had made. He’s free from all men. No strings attached to any man. He’s just walking as a servant of Christ as he says in 4:1. He says, “I’m free from all men. However, out of this freedom, and out of absolutely no coercion at all, I have made a choice to become a slave to all men.” Why in the world would he make himself a slave to all men? “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.” His whole motivation was to see more and more people come to know Christ, and he felt like if he demanded support from the churches, that somehow was going to be a detriment to what he was trying to preach. So he chose not to do that. He chose to go the route of making his own way and trusting God.

Second Corinthians 4:5 says, “For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus our Lord and ourselves as your bond-servants for Christ’s sake.” In Galatians 5:13 he says, “For you were called to freedom brethren; only do not turn you freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” In verse 20 he gets into the fact that to the Jews I became a Jew, etc., on and on.

You know, I’ve just been overwhelmed in this truth. It’s just overwhelmed me to rehearse the attitude that we all ought to have towards our salvation, the gifts, and the callings that God has put on each of our life. Why do you do what you do? If you’re not doing it for Christ, then you’re hanging on to your rights and your privileges and you will gripe and grumble until He comes back. If you’re doing it for Christ, there’s a whole lot of things that are rights and privileges and when you boil it down, you don’t deserve them anyway. Neither do I. So what in the world are we holding on for?

If you’ll look over in Philippians 2, we’ll close this out. I want to read something to you. Philippians 2:5 says, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.” What attitude? Well, verse 3 tells us, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests [some of us major on that, don’t we?], but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” I’m so glad He did, because none of us would be here had He not done it.

Denying yourself for the sake of others. What are you clinging to that’s your right or your privilege that’s beating your weaker brother up? Why not just come back and trust Him and just die to that old flesh and learn to live as Paul lived? Though he was free from all men, he chose to be a servant to all. That was an attitude of his heart. That’s the point he’s trying to get across to the Corinthian church. That’s the point, I think, God wants to get across to each of us. Be willing to die to a privilege you know you have, and you understand, but for the sake of others and for the sake of Christ you’d be willing to do just that.

1 Corinthians 9:1-27 Philippians 2:6-11

Contents

1 Denying Self for the Sake of Others – Part 3

1.1 The place that Christ left

1.2 The pattern that Christ set

1.3 The passion that Christ displayed

1.4 The position Christ now holds

Denying Self for the Sake of Others – Part 3

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 9. We’re not going to stay there too long, but I want you to turn there. We’re going to take a little diversion, but it’s all tied to what we’ve been talking about in 1 Corinthians. We’re talking about, “Denying Self for the Sake of Others.” Of course, the apostle Paul is writing the letter to the Corinthian church there in Corinth. He was the greatest example of his own preaching. He lived what he preached.

In chapter 8 he had told those who understood their freedom in grace, particularly in eating meat sacrificed to idols, he said, “You guys know it wouldn’t hurt you, but you understand your position in Christ. You understood who and Whose you are. Listen. Be willing not to eat that meat for the sake of your weaker brother.” He tells them, “Your knowledge is fine but if it’s not mixed with love, it’s going to do damage to your weaker brother. Knowledge alone is not sufficient. You must have love mixed with that knowledge. That love is the love produced only by the Holy Spirit of God.” He told them that knowledge alone makes a person arrogant and breaks others. But knowledge mixed with love builds others, especially the weaker brother.

He sums up chapter 8 in verse 9 when he says, “But take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” That’s his whole point. He’s saying, “Be willing to deny even your freedoms under grace for the sake of your weaker brother. Don’t take your freedom and cram it down your brother’s throat. It causes him to stumble.” In the last verse of chapter 8 he gives his own view and says, “Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again.”

Then in chapter 9 he expands this whole thing by giving his example as an apostle. You see, it’s one thing to tell a member of the congregation there at Corinth to give up their freedom. They say, “Yeah, but you’re an apostle.” He says, “Yes, I am.” So he starts chapter 9 and proves the fact that he is an apostle. Then he moves to the privileges that apostles had that they could not have. The congregation did not have these privileges. Only the apostles had them.

What’s his point? His point is, are you willing to give up your freedom, your privilege, for the sake of others? The apostle Paul was. He moves to the passion of an apostle and he shares with them, “I have chosen to become a tentmaker. I’m not going to take money from you. That’s my choice. It’s not wrong to take it, but I willingly give that privilege up for the sake of the gospel. I don’t want anybody to be offended. I don’t want anybody to think that what we do is for monetary gain in our lives.”

Then we saw the intimate look that Paul gives us of himself. You see the sincerity of the apostle Paul. I love this guy. He is what he is. What you see in Paul is what you get. It’s just like a transparent picture. You see right through him. He says in verse 15, “But I have used none of these things [speaking of his privileges as an apostle]. And I am not writing these things that it may be done so in my case [In other words, I’m not telling you this to make you feel sorry for me so I can get money out of you.]; for it would be better for me to die than have any man make my boast an empty one.” He says, “If anybody would ever be offended, it would be me, if somebody thought I was doing this for any kind of sordid gain. That’s not what it’s about.” So he says, “Hey, I’ve chosen not to do it for your sake.”

We also saw the humility of the apostle Paul. He says in verse 16, “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of.” In other words, “Why should I boast? God gave me this assignment. God gave me the gift and God gave me the calling.” He says, “for I am under compulsion.” That word “compulsion” has the idea of constraint. It’s like God in him is motivating him. He said, “How can I boast in anything I do? I boast in Him who gave me this opportunity. For woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.” That word “woe” means great grief beyond description would be mind if I were not preaching the gospel.

Then in verse 17 he says, “For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.” He speaks now of the expectancy that’s in his life. The humility is he knows that he didn’t call himself to preach. He didn’t go to school to learn it. God assigned it to him. God gifted him to do it. Then he says, “I am expecting a reward, but it’s not for preaching.” He says, “If I do this voluntarily, I have a reward.” In other words, “If I came up with it, went to school and got trained for it, then I could expect a reward for it.” That wasn’t the way it was. He was on the Damascus Road to arrest Christians, and the Christ of Christianity arrested him, as Acts 9 gives us that story. He says, “but if against my will.” That’s exactly the way it was. It wasn’t something he volunteered for. It was something God volunteered him for. He said, “if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.” In other words, “I have an assignment and I’m going to answer to God one day for this assignment. How could I go around seeking a reward for that? How could I even boast in it? This is something God did for me.”

He asks in verse 18, “What then is my reward? [He is expecting a reward] that when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.” In other words, “I can’t expect a reward for what I do. That’s God’s assignment. But I can expect a reward for the way I go about doing it. I have chosen to deny myself the privileges of an apostle. God made me an apostle. God gave me the gift of preaching. God assigned me, and I have a stewardship. I can’t expect a reward for that. But I can expect a reward for choosing to deny myself for the sake of others and the way I go about preaching it is my reward.”

In other words, not only when he dies one day and goes to heaven could he expect that reward, but every day, every place that he went, he was rewarded when he preached the gospel and saw the joy of people respond and wanted nothing in return.

Well, the bottom line is this is what Christianity is all about, denying yourself for the sake of others. Paul is asking them to give up their rights and privileges for the sake of the weaker brother. He says, “Look at me. I’m willing as an apostle to do that very thing and I don’t expect any reward except in the joy of the way I go about doing what I do.” Denying others, folks, is impossible without Christ in your heart motivating you to do that. This is not Paul. You can’t praise the apostle Paul. Even though we want to stop and give praise to him, we can’t do it. We give praise to the God Who lives in all, Who motivates him to do what he does. It is Christ Who causes us to be willing to deny self for the sake of others. He’s the greatest example Who ever lived. Even though Paul puts himself as an example to the Corinthian church, we know that later on he points to Christ. It’s Christ Who is the supreme example. He was and He is the God man Who came down for the sake of you and me, to die for our sins.

John 3:16 is a great verse: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” I think if we’re going to understand this principle of 1 Corinthians 8 and 9, as we see it as Paul commanded the church there at Corinth, then as he shows his own illustration, we’ve got to point back to Christ. We have got to look at Christ because if Christ lives in you, it’s Him Who wills and works within you. It’s Him Who gives you the desire even to deny yourself for the sake of others. It’s Christ Who enables you to be able to go about doing that very thing.

Turn to the book of Philippians. What a wonderful epistle. We’re staying right in the context of 1 Corinthians 8 and 9, denying self for the sake of others, but we’re going to look at Jesus, the greatest example of this. If He lives in us, then it’s His heart beating in us to do that very thing. The whole of the context of the book of Philippians to me is wrapped around what I believe is the key verse, 1:21. He says in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” That word “live” is zoe. Paul says the very essence of my life, that which makes me tick, is the Lord Jesus Christ living in me.

Maybe you don’t realize that. You don’t realize that Christ did not just give you life, He is your life. Paul said, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Why would it be gain? Because he lives by faith now. He can’t see Him, but one day he’ll die and see Him face to face. It just keeps better and better and better. So the whole book to me is wrapped around that one thought, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Verse 6 of chapter 1 shows you that Christ is not just a motivating factor in his life, He is the essence of his life. In verse 6, as he speaks it to the church there, he says, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work.” You didn’t start it. God started it. No man seeks after God. Scripture says it’s God seeking after us. You didn’t find Jesus. You weren’t even looking for Jesus. No man seeks after God. God found you, and He began the work. It says, “...that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” It is Christ in us. It is His work through us.

Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now life in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” It was Christ living in and through the apostle Paul that caused him to be what he was. Now, Paul was in prison when he wrote Philippians. That came about through a false accusation when he was over in Jerusalem. He had gone there to tell them of the wonderful work God was doing in the Gentile world with the Gospel and they couldn’t handle it. The Jews couldn’t handle the message of grace, so some of them made a false accusation against him. As a result he was in prison for almost five years, all on a wrong charge. They forgot about him for two years in Caesarea, Philippi. Now he’s in Rome in prison.

Folks, listen to me. Prisons don’t have to have doors and bars and windows. They can be a circumstance that come into your life. Remember that the resurrected Lord Jesus lives in you, and you can participate in His resurrection power, whatever circumstance is created because of your love for Jesus Christ. He will enable you to bear up under it. This is the whole theme of Paul as he’s there in the prison as he writes the book of Ephesians and Philippians and Colossians and Philemon. We see that he was in prison.

Verse 7 of chapter 1 reads, “For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me.” So he’s in prison. He says in verse 13, “so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else.” Then in verse 17 of chapter 1 he says, “the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.”

Now, the apostle Paul was in prison. He knew something. He knew that as a Christian with God’s life in him that he was never a victim, never a victim. Boy, society wants to make us victims, doesn’t it? But you can’t be if you’re a Christian. You’re a victor in Christ Jesus. Life does not work against you. Life works for you if you’re a believer and if you’re living surrendered to Him. God in you helps you to realize you can allow life to work for you. That’s what happened to Paul.

He says in Ephesians 3:1, one of the other epistles that he wrote while he was in this imprisonment, “Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus,” not a prisoner of Rome, not a prisoner of the Jews. The Jews wanted him dead. The Romans didn’t know what to do with him. He was a political hostage. But he never considered himself to be a prisoner of man. He considered himself to be a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want you to see what he wrote the church of Philippi. Philippians 1:12-13 reads, “Now I want you to know, brethren.” That word “know” means you’d never know this if I didn’t write and tell you. He said, “I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.” I love this. Paul’s in prison. He tried all kinds of evangelism programs, but he found him one—Prison Evangelism. He says, “Listen. Life is so working for me. I wanted to go to Rome and now I’m in Rome. I thought I was going to have to put a tent and have evangelistic meetings. God said, ‘No, no. I’m going to put you in chains and I’m going to put you in a prison over there and we’re going to have a meeting like nobody’s ever had.’ This is working out for the greater progress of the gospel.” Isn’t it amazing? He knew he wasn’t a victim. He knew he was a victor in Christ Jesus.

Verse 13 says, “so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else.” The praetorian guard was not just the soldiers, it was the headquarters of all of Caesar’s elite there in Rome. You’re talking about some big guys. These were big guys. These were the very special soldiers of Caesar himself. Do you know what I believe God is saying here? God said, “Paul, you think you’re going over there and have a great meeting in Rome. I’ve got better plans. I want to get the gospel all the way to the government. I want to go all the way to Caesar’s household.”

Did it work? Do you know what it Philippians 4:22 says? Look over there. I love this. You think God doesn’t have a plan? We’re never victims, friend. We’re only victors. He says in Verse 22, “All the saints greet you [now watch this], especially those of Caesar’s household.” God had a plan much better than Paul ever thought about. Paul lived his life understanding Jesus is my life. Put me in a prison and it works for me. It does not work against me. This is the good news of Christianity, folks. Life doesn’t look good sometimes when we view it from our eyes. But if we view from His, we’re always victors, never victims. It works for us and never against us.

Well, it’s in chapter 2 that we see our truth expand. The very thing that Paul was saying to them in 1 Corinthians 8, exemplifying to them in 1 Corinthians 9, now we find the principle right here in Philippians 2. Look at verse 3. “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself.” I’ll tell you what. That’s not natural to your flesh. You will not run home and say, “I’m going to deny myself for the sake of my husband or my wife.” No, sir. God in you, however, will motivate you this way.

Verse 4 continues, “do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” Here comes the context. Verse 5 reads, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.” I want to tell you something, folks. The attitude the apostle Paul had and the attitude he wanted the Corinthians to have and the attitude we’re supposed to have is the attitude of Christ Jesus. I can hear somebody saying, “I’m not God.” You’re right. There are two absolutes. One is there is a God. Two is you’re not Him. You got that one correct. I want to tell you something. God lives in you, and if He’s your life of chapter 1 of Philippians then He becomes your attitude of chapter 2. You start seeing people differently through His eyes.

I’ll tell you what, folks. We need to send a signal of the gospel, the good news. Think about the conferences going on right now to try to establish racial relationships. Are you kidding me? Until persons, whether black, white, green, or yellow, bow before the Lord Jesus Christ and receive His life inside of them, you’re never going to see racial harmony on this earth. It’s got to come from the changed heart. It’s what God does. It’s not what man does.

God has to get hold of you and me. Then He becomes your life and through that life He becomes your attitude and He gives you a perspective you’ve never had before. How can we have the attitude of Christ? Well, if He lives in you, you can. Now, you need to understand His attitude so you can understand how He can have that attitude in and through you. It only works when He enables it and when He motivates it. It’s not natural to the flesh. It’s only natural to the Spirit of a living God.

The place that Christ left

Now verses 6-11 are where we want to look. This is what we’re going to try and put together to show you the attitude of the greatest example Who ever lived on this earth of denying Himself for the sake of others. First of all, we have the place that Christ left. Remember who He is. Remember He’s going to deny Himself for our sake. Look what He left. Look what He turned away from and came down to this earth.

I don’t know if you have had any encounters with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. If you haven’t, hang on, you will. You say, “Why are you bringing up Jehovah’s Witnesses?” You better understand something. They do not believe Christ was pre-existent. They believe He was created. If they would just look at the book they would see that the very thing they use to disprove the fact that He was pre-existent proves the fact that He was pre-existent. I want you to see the place that He left, His pre-existent state as God.

Look at it in verse 6: “who, although He existed in the form of God [now watch it], did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.” The word “existed” there is in the present tense, continued to exist. It’s the word huparcho, which means He existed, continued to exist continually in a specific place. Now, obviously he’s pointing back because he continues to talk about when He became man. He existed. He lived continuously in a place you see.

Now, the word “form” really tells us what we want to know. It’s the word morphe. He says, “although He existed in the form of God.” It’s not what you think. The word “form” does not mean shape. There’s another word that means shape. People say, “Yeah but look at Him. He’s a man.” No, no. The word morphe means the essence of something. In other words, no man could exist in the form of God except he be God. It’s the essence of God.

Now, the word “shape” comes up in verse 8. When they’re used together it’s very clear. He says in verse 8, “And being found in appearance as a man.” That’s the shape He took upon Himself when He came to this earth. But He existed beforehand is the very essence of God. “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.”

“Did not regard” is the word hegeomai. In other words, He did not esteem this as something He needed to do in order for it to take place. Christ did not esteem what? He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. You see, He did not regard the fact that being equal with God the Father as something to be seized or grasped. Why? Because He was equal to the Father. That’s not something He needed to go get, make happen. It was already a fact of His life and had always been.

John 5:18 says, “For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but [watch this] also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” They couldn’t handle it. But it was the truth. He’s always been equal to God, so He didn’t have to seize this title. He didn’t have to rob someone else of the title. That’s who He was. So it says, “did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.”

The word harpagmos means to seize or to rob. That’s why the King James puts in there, “thought it not robbery.” That’s who He is. He didn’t have to prove anything. It was never on His mind. He was equal to the Father. He existed in heaven in the very essence of God. That fact was never something He considered a seizure of anything. That’s who He was.

John 1:1 reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” That is in the imperfect tense. That’s one of the verses the Jehovah’s Witnesses use and don’t even understand the tenses. The tense is imperfect: no beginning, no end. Always has been, is, and always shall be God, equal to the Father. Understand that. Not less than, equal to. So He existed in heaven. Look at the place that He pre-existed in that He came from, the place that He left. Why? To deny Himself for the sake of others.

The pattern that Christ set

Secondly, we see the pattern that Christ set. Look in verse 7: “but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” Whoo! Christ proven to be God, now, the very essence of God, demonstrated His love to deny Himself to become like a man. He came to this earth. He left His home in glory to heal a broken relationship between man and God.

You may not realize this, that when you were born physically, you were born into sin. You have the virus of sin in you, and there’s not any cure except what Christ did for you on the cross. Religion, being good, giving money, all of those things are dead works and they will not get you into heaven. Therefore, you have to hear what I’m saying. He came so that He can heal that relationship. He came as a man to do what a man could not do, and He went to the cross to pay our sin debt. He didn’t destroy the Law. He fulfilled it as a man. So when we put our faith in the God man, Jesus Christ, then He acquits us of our guilt and now we are found in Him.

Verse 7 begins with, “but emptied Himself.” The word is kenoo. It means to divest oneself of something. The statement refers to Jesus Christ as emptying Himself, divesting Himself of something at the time of His incarnation when He became man. This denotes the beginning of His self-humiliation. Here He was pre-existent God and still continues to be God. But He humiliated Himself in a sense. He humbled Himself by coming down to where we are. He denied Himself for all of our sake.

As a matter of fact, to understand what he means by emptying Himself, you’ve got to take the whole of verses 6-8. We’ve seen the pre-existent state that He had in verse 6. This is the beginning of His state of humiliation. What does it mean He emptied Himself? A lot of people get off in the doctrine right here. The text tells you. Verse 7 says, “but emptied Himself [How?] taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” In no way did He ever give up His attributes as God. If you think that Scripture means He ceased being God so He could become man, you’ve missed it. That’s not at all what it says. His humanity did not replace His deity. His humanity simply veiled His deity.

On the Mount of Transfiguration Peter, James, and John saw a little bit of it revealed, didn’t they, as the glory shone even through His garments? But His flesh veiled His deity, it did not in any way replace it. Christ chose to come to earth to veil His heavenly glory with a body of flesh.

The word “form” comes up again: “by taking the form of a bond-servant.” The word “form” is the word essence. He’s the essence of God. Now He’s the essence of man. As the essence of man, He became a bond-servant. The word is doulos. He came to deny Himself to serve His Father and to serve us. What He came to do would be the greatest thing anybody could ever do for any of us. He provided the cure for being lost. He provided the way to have a relationship with God the Father.

Verse 7 says, “and being made in the likeness of men.” Here’s where our Jehovah’s Witness friends step in. See there, “being made.” Well, hang on. Aorist middle means at a certain point in time in history He was made flesh. Now, the middle voice means of His own choice. You see, if you put it in the passive voice, He had to be created. But it was in the middle voice, which means He made His own choice. At a certain period of time Christ, Who had always been God, became the essence of man made in the likeness of men.

The word for made is the word ginomai, which means to come into existence on earth. He already was in existence in heaven, but now He’s come into existence on earth. He came as a man, the God man. Jesus Christ, having pre-existed as God, chose to come into existence on earth as a man.

There’s one unique thing that was different about Him that you need to get into your theology. He had a body like ours. “In the likeness of man” it says. But not exactly like ours. He had a body that could in no way respond to temptation, no way. When you take a magnet and you put it over a box of nails, everything in that box that responds to that magnet will go immediately to it. But if you have something that has an alloy in it, that won’t respond to it, it just lays there.

That’s exactly what happened when the devil tried to tempt Jesus to try to see if there was anything evil in Him. He found out nothing in Him could respond to it. He was different than you and me. When that wave of temptation comes over us, everything in us wants to respond. But not in Christ. Understand that and get it nailed into your theology. He came as a man similar to us but His body had no consequence of sin in it and had nothing in it that could respond to sin.

He was the God man. He wasn’t just innocent like the first Adam, He was perfect. He was the God man. So from His pre-existent glorious state to the state of His humiliation He veiled Himself with a body of flesh and became a servant. Why? So that you and I could celebrate His resurrection, so that you and I could have a relationship with God through the Son Jesus Christ.

The passion that Christ displayed

So we see the place that He left and the pattern that He set. When He tells us to deny ourselves, we have to understand He has gone before us and lives in us to enable us to do what He’s already proven He can do. Thirdly, we have the passion that Christ displayed. This is beautiful in verse 8. Why did He do it? “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” This is His purpose.

“And being found in appearance as a man.” Remember, that’s the word schema. Now He is seen on earth and His existence on earth is as a man. What He was in heaven, we haven’t seen yet. We’ve just seen glimpses of it. John saw it in Revelation and fainted. He couldn’t handle it. But He veiled that flesh and came. Now, He’s taken the shape of man.

Now, listen. He didn’t a human body. This is where Gnosticism and some of the heresies began in the first century or second century. They couldn’t understand how God could take a body if all bodies were sinful. His body wasn’t, remember. He didn’t enter a body. They said, “Oh, no. He entered him at baptism but left him right before the cross.” That’s some of the heresy that went on. The Scripture says in John 1:14 that He became flesh. He didn’t enter it. He became flesh. That’s that marvelous miracle of the incarnation, God through a virgin becoming flesh, the God man.

Verse 8 says, “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” His purpose is clear. He came to die. The Moonies, those great deceivers, say, “Oh, no. Rev. Moon is the new Christ. The first Adam fell. The second Adam [which is what they call Christ] failed because he died before he could marry and propagate a spiritual race. Now, the next one’s come.” They think His death was an accident. He came to die. That’s why Hebrews says, “A body thou has given Me so that I might do Thy will, oh God.”

He humbled Himself, tapeinoo. I want you to think about denying yourself. We’re not talking about the Apostle Paul. Although that’s good enough. We’re talking about Jesus now. God stooped down. The word tapeinoo means to stoop down to the lowest place, to get down as far as you could possibly get. God saw you and me and stooped down. He came down to where we were. We couldn’t get to Him. Thank God, He came to us. He stooped down. He humbled Himself.

How did He humble Himself? He says, “by becoming obedient to the point of death.” The word “obedient” means absolutely as the God man He had subjected Himself to His Father so that whatever His Father said, that’s what He did. No questions asked. As the God man He subjected Himself to His Father. Even though God, He subjected Himself to His Father, “by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” That’s aorist middle. At a certain time He came obedient to His heavenly Father and He lived. It’s the middle voice which means of His own choice. Nobody made Him come. He chose to come on his own. It was a love choice for you and me: “by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

It’s amazing here. Paul brings out that it wasn’t just that He died but he brings out the fact that He died on a cross. He skips all His earthly ministry, His miracles and everything and goes right to the very objective that Christ had when He left Glory and came to this earth and b

1 Corinthians 9

Contents

1 Denying Self for the Sake of Others – Part 4

1.1 We must live attached to Christ and abandoned to him

1.2 Our liberty may cause a brother to sin and us to sin against him

1.3 The Holy Spirit must make us aware of how we conduct ourselves

1.4 You must have a pure motive

1.5 Paul’s choice to deny himself led him to restrain himself

1.6 Paul is rolling up his sleeves and working with the Jews

1.7 Paul was reasoning in the Scriptures with the Jews

1.8 Paul was challenging them to know Christ

1.9 Paul’s choice to deny himself led him to release himself

1.10 Paul’s choice to deny himself led him to reduce himself

Denying Self for the Sake of Others – Part 4

We have looked at denying self for the sake of others from just about every angle, but we’re going to look at it again, part four of “Denying Self for the Sake of Others.” It all started back in chapter 8. I know you love review. But do you know what? We tend to forget about seventy-five percent of what we’ve heard in seventy-two hours. If we don’t stay in the flow of something, we could make the Bible a cookbook. So let’s go back and make sure we’re in the flow here.

Paul’s whole address of chapter 8 is to people who understand something. It’s amazing. He’s not trying to educate them. He’s addressing people who already understand their freedoms under grace. They know something. What is it they know? They know if they eat meat sacrificed to idols it will not in any way affect their standing in Christ before God. They had no problem with it at all. Paul addresses this group and wants them to understand that there’s another group whom he calls the weaker brother. They do not have this understanding. Their consciences are defiled if they eat meat sacrificed to idols.

The bottom line is, are they willing to deny their own freedom of eating that meat sacrificed to the idols for the sake of the weaker brother? That’s his bottom line. He says in verse 9, “But take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” Paul wanted them to see that denying self for the sake of others is important. I wonder how they took that. We don’t really know. We just know that he’s addressing them.

You know, if you bring that into the areas of our life today, what is it that God would be asking you to deny yourself of for the sake of a weaker brother around you? I don’t know why it is, but from time to time we hear the question, “Well, is it okay to drink?” We brought this up in chapters 8 and 9. I’ve heard people say that the Bible doesn’t say you shouldn’t drink, it says, “Don’t be drunk with wine.” My question to you would be God’s question to you, “Would you be willing to deny yourself that which you think is a freedom for the sake of somebody around you that you might be causing to stumble?”

That’s exactly what Paul is dealing with. You can put just about anything in a grey area. This is the way you approach it. Are you willing to deny yourself for the sake of others? That’s what he’s addressing in chapter 8.

We must live attached to Christ and abandoned to him

Then he goes on in chapter 9 and gives us his own personal example how that he as an apostle has done the very same thing. He doesn’t just tell them to do something that he hasn’t already learned to practice in his own life. He had been willing to sacrifice his right to be supported by the churches there as an apostle for the sake of others. This is a very delicate subject of denying yourself for the sake of others. There are several things that we need to nail down coming out of chapters 8 and 9. First of all is this. I think it’s the most important. Unless we are willing to live attached to Christ, abandoned unto Him, then we will not see the love and compassion that He can produce within us. That’s the fruit of His Spirit. That’s not something we can do. That’s something He must do in us. When we live that way, then the knowledge that we have will be mixed with the love His Spirit produces. Remember the problem at Corinth? They were living attached to everything and everybody but Christ.

Look back in verse 1 of chapter 8. He says, “Knowledge makes arrogant.” The word arrogant, phusioo, means to be a spiritual air bag. You may know it all. You may know the right things, but there’s nothing to back it up with your life. But then he says, “but love edifies.” In other words, our knowledge and our understanding are not worth anything unless the love is mixed with it, because knowledge without love breaks a man. But the love mixed with the knowledge can build a man up. This love is what sensitizes us to the needs of others. It takes us right to the core of what’s going on in Corinth. When you live as a vessel, abandoned to Christ then God in you makes you compassionate and sensitive to the people around you. Oswald Chambers speaks of this in My Utmost for His Highest. That’s the whole theme, abandoning yourself to Christ. When a person becomes self-centered, he may be knowledgeable but that means nothing. He must have the love mixed with the knowledge.

Our liberty may cause a brother to sin and us to sin against him

So that’s the first thing we need to nail down. This whole thing starts, not with others. It starts with Christ and our relationship with Him. But the second thing I think that’s very important that we need to understand and must grasp is that our liberty may cause a weaker brother to sin; and if we cause that brother to sin, we have sinned against him. If we cause him to stumble, we’ve sinned against him. And not only have we sinned against him, we’ve sinned against Christ.

Look at what he says in 1 Corinthians 8:9. He says, “But take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” Then in verse 12, “And thus, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.” That puts it in a different perspective. It’s not an optional thing that we’re talking about. If I’m not going to attach myself to Christ, I will be insensitive; therefore, I’ll end up sinning against the weaker brother, and I’ll end up sinning against Christ. So it’s very important we hear what Paul is saying.

The Holy Spirit must make us aware of how we conduct ourselves

The third thing I want you to see is that the Holy Spirit must make us aware of how we conduct ourselves, whether or not it’s offensive. You and I cannot live worried about everybody around us. As I’ve said before, there are some people who have the gift of being offended. They enjoy being offended and look for something in our lives to offend them. That’s not what it means. It doesn’t mean wake up scared to death you’re going to offend somebody. Just attach yourself to Christ and the Holy Spirit of God in you will make you sensitive to the people around you and will make you aware, either through somebody telling you or just by the sensitivity that you have in your walk with Christ.

Look in 1 Corinthians 8:13. He says, “Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again [that’s in light of that meat sacrificed to idols], that I might not cause my brother to stumble.” The word “if” there is the word ei, which implies a condition that an experience must determine. You’ve got to be aware of it. If you’re not aware of it, be sensitive to the Holy Spirit so He can make you sensitive to whatever’s going on around you that you’re not aware of. It’s a balance that only, I believe, God can put into our lives.

You must have a pure motive

But then there’s a fourth thing that I think is important here. That is in denying self for the sake of others, you must have a pure motive in doing that. Why would Paul deny himself for the sake of others? Because he had an eternal purpose; he had a redemptive purpose. He wanted to see them spiritually benefitted in their lives. We find this in 9:19. In chapter 9, you know, he talks about giving up his right to be supported by the churches as we’ve already said. Look at verse 19. It comes down to why he does what he does. “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all [Why would he do this? He says] that I might win the more.” The word there for “win” is kerdaino. It means to win them over to Christ. In other words, either for a person who’s a Christian, that he might come into the fullness of walking with Christ, or maybe a person who’s not a Christian, to win him over to Christ. This is the motivation of the apostle Paul’s heart.

Have you ever been to one of these courses on how to evangelize somebody, how to learn how to evangelize? Many of us have. I remember after we went through a course and everybody learned how to handle all the situations, we had a graduation. We gave a certificate to everybody who went through the course. Thirty days after we finished the course we made a survey on how many people actually shared their faith with anybody. Do you know what we found out? Zero had even bothered opening their mouth.

“Wait a minute, I thought if you trained the people, then they can evangelize.” No, no, no. Until people get attached to Jesus, they’re not concerned about anybody but themselves, period. God in that person is what opens them up to other people. I want to tell you if that starts happening and your heart begins to bleed for people, all of a sudden you care about that person who’s waiting on you. All of a sudden you become sensitized to a person who’s a different color than you are. All of a sudden you become sensitized to somebody who has nothing compared to what you have. When your heart begins to burn for these people, then and only then are you willing to deny yourself for the sake of others because your motive has become pure.

It’s God in us that causes us to care about others. Why did Paul do what he did? He did what he did because he wanted to win people to Christ. That was his burning motivation. Therefore, he was willing to deny himself for the sake of others. You cannot preach on evangelism and make it happen. You cannot preach on revival and make revival happen. You preach Christ. Christ has to draw people to Himself. Then He changes their heart. Then that motivation, having been surrendered to Him, is what causes us to want to reach the world for Jesus Christ. And He gets the glory for every bit of it. It’s not man. It’s God in man.

Paul’s choice to deny himself led him to restrain himself

Well, Paul denied himself. There are three things that he did. Like I said, we’ve looked at denying self for the sake of others in chapters 8 and 9 just about every way you can look at it, but we just continue to move right on. He educates us even further by three things that he did. We know why he did it. What did he do? First of all, Paul’s choice to deny himself led him to restrain himself. Let me explain what I mean.

Look in verse 20. He says, “And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law, though not being myself under the Law, that I might win those who are under the Law.” That’s significant to me that he mentions Jews first, because Paul was a converted Jew. It’s the first thing that comes to his heart as he’s sharing his own personal experience with the people there in Corinth.

I was studying this on the plane coming home recently, and I was sitting next to a Hasidic Jew. As I was sitting there next to him, I got to thinking that Paul said, “To the Jews I became as a Jew.” You see, because of Christ, Paul was no longer restrained by the Jewish ceremonies, their rituals, or their traditions. He was set free in Christ from these things. He was now under grace.

He says in Romans 6:14, “for you are not under law, but under grace.” What once was a legal restraint in Paul’s life, he put himself back up under as a love restraint in order to reach these same Jews. He knew legally he was not bound to any of this. But out of his own love, he submitted to it so that he could reach the Jews for Jesus Christ.

In verse 19 he says, “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.” Then he elaborates on that. “And to the Jews I became as a Jew.”

To understand his heart, go back to Romans. Let’s just see the heart that God gave the apostle Paul for the very people he had come from. He was a Jew, born in Tarsus, schooled by Gamaliel, circumcised on the eighth day. His pedigree is in Philippians 3. His heartbeat, now that he’s up under grace, having come out from all of that, is to go back to his people and lead them to Christ. I wish all of us had the same heartbeat for the lost around us.

He says in Romans 9:3, “For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” He knows that can’t happen because once you’re in Christ, you’re in Christ. But he says as an example, he says, “I would even be willing to go that far just to see my brethren come to know Christ.” That was his heart for them. That was his burning compassion, to see them come to know Christ.

Look in Romans 10:1. He speaks again of his Jewish brethren. I’ll tell you what. Standing there at the Western Wall and watching those fellows walk up there, they will pray, back and forth, back and forth, doing their prayers. Then going in behind the Western Wall, that tunnel that goes up underneath it and hearing them down there, something inside of your heart says, “Oh God, why can’t they see?” What do you think the apostle Paul felt? He came from that and he was so burdened for his brethren.

In Romans 10:1 he says, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them [speaking of Israel and the Jews], is for their salvation.” Look in Romans 11:13. This is something he brings out just as an aside. His ministry is to the Gentile world, but look what he says here in Romans 11:13-14. Of course, verses 9-11 are a beautiful picture, I believe, of how God is not finished with Israel and how we’re the branches that have been grafted into that vine. But he says in Romans 11:13, “But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry [It gets bigger and bigger, but he says] if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.” He says, “Even though God sent me to the Gentile world, and even though that’s what I’m all about, I’m just praying that if they see Gentiles come under grace to salvation that they themselves be moved to jealousy and perhaps some of them might get into the kingdom of God.”

With these verses in Romans it’s easy to see why Paul starts there and says to the Jew, “I became as a Jew. I was willing to restrain myself and put myself back up under Law, to put myself back obligated to their traditions, their ceremonies, etc., in order to reach my Jewish brethren.” He was willing to do that. It didn’t matter what it cost him. He was willing to do that.

Paul wanted to take Timothy with him. Remember what he did? Timothy’s mother was Jewish, but his father was Greek. He was going amongst Jewish people, and to make sure he disarmed any kind of judgmental attitudes that may come toward them, he had Timothy circumcised. In Acts 16:3 it documents it. He says, “Paul wanted this man to go with him [Timothy]; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.” You see, again, why would he circumcise Timothy? It didn’t do Timothy any good, it didn’t do Paul any good, but it did the gospel a lot of good, because he was going amongst Jews, those who would look at him in a different way.

It was at the advice of James and the elders at the church of Jerusalem that Paul willingly paid for and participated in a Jewish purification ceremony. Do you remember that? The elders sent him down to the church. Why would he do that? Because they told him and said, “The believers are still under Law.” They were still believers, but they were under the Law. He said, “They think you’re preaching against Moses and preaching against the Law and preaching against the temple.” Paul said, “Hey, I don’t want them to think that.” So he went down and participated in a purification ceremony at the temple. As a result of that he was accused falsely and spent five years in prison because of it. But he was willing to restrain himself for the sake of others.

As we think of how Paul treated the Jewish people at Corinth, and I think that’s the narrow context here, he said to the Corinthians, “And to the Jews I became a Jew.” They wouldn’t know that.

Paul is rolling up his sleeves and working with the Jews

Look back in Acts 18 and let me show you something here. How did he handle the people there in Corinth, the Jews who were there? Did he come in and snub them? He came out of Judaism. He’s a converted Christian. What did he do in Acts 18? There are three things I want you to see and it comes out so clearly to me that he came alongside them. Whatever he needed to do, he was willing to do for the sake of the gospel. In Acts 18:2, first of all, we see him rolling up his sleeves and working right alongside them. Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned. He says in verse 2, “And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working for by trade they were tent makers.” Here he is rolling his sleeves up right alongside them and working with them.

Paul was reasoning in the Scriptures with the Jews

But the second thing you see him doing with the Jews there is he was willing to reason in the Scriptures with them, not arguing, reasoning with them. You know the difference. He was not taking what he knew and cramming it down their throat. He cared about them. So he came alongside them. In Acts 18:4 we read, “And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.” The word “reasoning” there is the word dialegomai. It means to intelligently speak back and forth. Paul didn’t come in and take his knowledge and beat it down their throat. He said, “Hey, open it up. What does it say?” And he reasoned back and forth and let the Scriptures speak for themselves.

It was in the imperfect tense meaning it was something he was consistently doing, constantly doing, taking his own time to go down to that synagogue and to get with them saying, “Hey, guys, I want to show you Christ. Are you willing to look? I want to show you Christ in the Scriptures.”

Paul was challenging them to know Christ

Then thirdly we see him just absolutely challenging them to know Christ. You know, sometimes this is more intense. It seems like the Holy Spirit would move upon Paul at times when he was among the Jews that he just had such a burden for them that he would stand before them and testify of the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 18:5 says, “But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews, that Jesus was the Christ.” That “solemnly testifying” has the idea of intense, has the idea of somebody so burdened he can hardly stand it. He’s been teaching and reasoning with them. Now he can’t help it. He stands in front of them, preaches to them and challenges and charges them to receive Christ as their Savior.

We have a dear friend over in Russia who became a believer. He’s in the area of Moldova. He got so excited that he began to start Bible studies everywhere. He got one in his university. Everywhere he was he started a Bible study. But he was sharing with us that sometimes he got so moved. It was like the Spirit of God would be so heavy on him he would go down to the apartment complex. He would get right in the middle of it with a megaphone and start singing to the top of his voice to attract attention. People would come out on the balconies and then he would just begin to shout to the top of his lungs and preach the Lord Jesus to these people because he was burning inside with compassion for them.

This was how Paul treated the Jews. These are people under the Law. These are people who have rejected Christ. Paul did not reject them. Christ in him led him to restrain himself and put himself right alongside them. He worked with them. He reasoned with them and challenged to get to know Christ. That’s the heart of God within a person. That’s the motivation for why Paul did what he did. He was willing to restrain himself out of love to reach his brethren for Christ.

It says in 1 Corinthians 9:20, “to those who are under the Law, as under the Law, though not being myself under the Law, that I might win those who are under the Law.” Probably because of this is why he put himself under a Nazirite vow. In Acts 18:18 it says, “And Paul, having remained many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria, and with him were Priscilla and Aquila. In Cenchrea he had his hair cut, for he was keeping a vow.” What vow would he have been keeping to have his hair cut? It had to have been a Nazirite vow, because when it was fulfilled you had your hair cut, usually at the doorway of the tabernacle. So, therefore, Paul was completing a vow.

Why would he do that? Why would a man stand in Romans and say you’re not under the Law then a man put himself right back up under the Law and put himself under a Nazirite vow? It has to be for this reason. It has to be so that he could win more Jews. He put himself back up under the claims of the Law just so that he could win his brethren to Christ. He was willing to go that far.

I’ve got a question to ask you. How far are you willing to go to see others come to know Christ? Are you willing to restrain yourself for the sake of others? Now, remember, the motivation has got to be to see them come to know Christ, to see them in Christ to become into the fullness of what Christ offers to them.

Vance Havner was just one of my favorite preachers of all times. He used to say, “You know what’s wrong with us? We’ve lost the wonder of our salvation.” Paul never got over it. God so overcame him on the Damascus Road that even in prison he said, “I’m not a prisoner of Rome. I’m not a prison of the Jews. I’m a prisoner of Jesus Christ and let me tell you about Him.” That’s what drove him. That’s what made him do what he did. The reason he was denying himself was for the sake, spiritually, of others.

If you’re not living with Christ first, that’s not your motivation. You may be denying yourself, but the Pharisees did the same thing. But the reason he did it and would restrain himself was for the sake of his brethren that he might win the more and see them come over to know Christ.

Paul’s choice to deny himself led him to release himself

Well, not only did denying self lead him to restrain himself, but, secondly, it led him to release himself. With the Jews he restrained himself. With the Gentiles he released himself. Look here in the next verse. It says in verse 21, “to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, that I might win those who are without law.” The only thing I can understand from that is that if somebody is without law, anomos, a person without law. He’d have to be living lawlessly. That’s the Gentile world.

To the Jewish world he restrained himself and even let their rituals, ceremonies, and traditions motivate him simply so that he might win more to Christ disarming their judgmental attitude. But then with the Gentiles he released himself.

Now, what is he talking about by releasing himself? One of the first things you’ve got to solve before you go any further is, he does not mean in any immoral way. No way did he adopt the pagan immorality of the people that were the Gentiles around him. He clears that up in verse 21, “to those without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ.” Believers are not outside the moral law of God. We’re outside the ceremonial law. Thank God, we don’t have to worry about that. But we’re not outside the moral law of God.

As a matter of fact, it’s written upon our hearts. When we are Christians we are obligated legally to Christ to live morally and, of course, we have His grace to enable us to do that. Paul would never deny his walk with Christ for the sake of the Gentiles. That’s not what he’s saying. There’s nothing immoral that’s even implied here. Paul would never do anything immoral to win a Gentile. That’s not what he’s saying at all. Push that aside. In other areas, he became as the Gentiles were. That’s just left to your imagination.

First of all, the Jewish law said he couldn’t eat certain things. The Gentiles ate about everything, so he probably ate their food. He was willing to eat their food, even to sit at the table with them. Why? So that he could win the more.

I thought about that, and I I can remember the times the Holy Spirit was working in my life and when He wasn’t or when He was and I wasn’t listening. We were down in South America once and we were guests at some people’s house. They had a high position in the area, but they were very poor. They wanted to give us the king’s meal. And they gave me a plate of paca. They said it’s the king’s meal. I took one bite and I knew it was something like opossum because opossum is greasy. It’s easy to swallow, but it’s greasy.

I took a bite of that and it tasted just like that opossum I had eaten when I was in college and we had gone hunting one night. I was standing over by the door and I know Paul said that he became to the Gentiles as the Gentiles. I’m sure that meant he probably ate what they ate. But at this particular point the Holy Spirit was not getting through to me and I’m dumping mine out the window. But there was a waiter there that kind of liked me. He said, “He must like that.” He kept filling my plate up and I kept dumping it out. Ten times he filled my plate up and I kept dumping it out. I wasn’t doing real good to win the more that night. As a matter of fact, I wasn’t about to eat this.

I remember when I was in Romania, and we had cow stomach soup. Folks, listen. It is as bad as you even can imagine it is. I remember they were so proud of it because they didn’t have any meat. It was every night, every meal. The worst tasting stuff I had ever tasted in my life, cow stomach soup.

But the Holy Spirit had hold of me this time. I remember taking that thing in the spoon and I’m thinking, “Oh God, I’ll get it down. You keep it down.” Man, you don’t even think about how it tastes. You swallow it as fast as you can. That was the best that they had.

I remember once in Romania we went to a pastor’s house there. I hate liver. We went to this guy’s house and they didn’t have any food. Somebody had driven about 100 miles just to get a few potatoes to cut up. They had chicken livers and potatoes. I remember sitting down there and the pride on that man’s face of giving us everything that he had and God said, “You eat that.” I’ll tell you what. It was better than any T-bone steak I had ever eaten.

Paul ate what the Gentiles ate. They didn’t eat what the Jewish people ate. Perhaps he dressed like them. Maybe he went where they went. He didn’t violate any moral codes. But as far as other things, he identified with them. What would make a man do that? Because his heart was beating and his heart was in love with Christ and his heart wanted more and more of them to come to know Christ. And if it caused him to restrain himself, he restrained himself. If it caused him to release himself, he released himself. Whatever it took to see people come to know Christ.

You’re not going to have that, and I’m not either, unless we’re living in that intimacy of relationship with Christ, abandoned unto Him. I’m telling you it’s gone. It’s completely gone unless you have that relationship with Christ. Then the Christ in you will burden you to do what you never thought you would do before. Why? To win the more.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Contents

1 The Discipline of the Christian Life

1.1 The concept

1.2 The comparisons

1.3 The first major difference

1.4 The first major similarity

1.5 The second major difference

1.6 The third major difference

The Discipline of the Christian Life

Don’t forget the context of 1 Corinthians 9. The whole context is with people who understand, but who are not filled with the Spirit of God, people who don’t have that love mixed with their knowledge. They’re not willing to deny the privileges they have, that they understand under grace, for the sake of a weaker brother. All of this is in that context. Paul is simply saying, “I’m not telling you to do something I myself am not willing to do.”

You know, you don’t find the word discipline, determination, or diligence much anymore in the Christian vocabulary. As a matter of fact, I’ve heard some people say, “Well, that’s legalism, isn’t it?” Do we understand the difference of being under grace and under law? If you have a set of rules that you live by, that only builds character.

Legalism is not living disciplined. Legalism is when you take what you do, measure yourself by it, and claim to be spiritual because of it. That makes it legalistic. Rules just build character.

There are a lot of people today who want to push all these words out of their vocabulary. You know Paul said in the book of Philippians, “I say this weeping, that there are people among us who are enemies of the cross of Jesus.” Nobody wants to die to self. Nobody wants to go through the pain and the agony of saying “No” to self by saying “Yes” to Jesus. It’s a lost message almost. It’s like when we preach, like a voice in the wilderness, trying to tell people that you don’t live by your feelings. You live by your choices. Those choice many times are totally devoid of any feeling. And we choose to say “Yes” to Christ in order to let Christ be who He wants to be in and through us.

Well, the apostle Paul is going to bring the Corinthian church back into focus. I believe the Word of God is profitable to all of us “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, instruction, and righteousness, that the man of God might be adequate, equipped for every good work.” I believe it’s a word to us. He’s going to bring them back into focus.

Before he takes them there, go back to chapter 3. I want to help bring us back into focus. The apostle Paul is putting everything in a perspective. Sometimes in your life you’ve got to back up and look at the whole picture. You can’t just look at the chapter that you’re in. You’ve got to look at the whole book. You’ve got to see the whole picture of what’s going on. In chapter 3 he tried to give it to them. He says in verse 12 that every man is a builder. Be careful how you build. He talks about the materials you build with. You either choose to deny yourself by saying “yes” to Jesus or you choose to not to and serve self. But there’s going to come a reckoning day. There’s going to come a time of accountability some day. It’s not us that’s going to be judged that day, because we were judged in Christ. But it’s going to be our works, and it’s going to have to do with rewards.

He says in 1 Corinthians 3:13, “each man’s work will become evident.” The word “evident” is phaneros. It depicts a brilliance of light. It’s going to become evident. Paul’s not getting on to them to make them ashamed. He’s saying, “Hey, I’m trying to encourage you with something. Pay attention. There’s coming a day you’re going to pay for this.” You try to teach your children this, don’t you? If you do this, this, and this, it’s going to happen. They do this, this, and this and, boy, it happens. And you say, “I tried to tell you.” That’s what he’s doing.

He goes on and says, “for the day will show it.” I believe that to be the day He takes us to be with Him, the rapture of the church, because it is to be revealed with fire. That fire is going to consume that wood, hay, and stubble—that’s the fleshly works—but it cannot consume that which is the precious stones. It simple refines it. The fire itself will test not the quantity of man’s work, but the quality of each man’s work, where it comes from.

You see, you may end up in the same place but be coming at it from two different directions. There may be somebody who legalistically does something of the flesh, but here’s somebody else who under grace does the very same thing. This man’s work will last; this man’s work will not. That’s what he’s telling them.

He says in verse 14, “If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward.” That ought to be the most thrilling thing in the world for us, to realize if we’re willing to say “yes” to Christ and to His Word and to His will and live up under His kingship in our life, then what happens is, we’re going to rejoice one day because the reward is going to come, not only now but then. “If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward.”

Then he says in verse 15, “If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.” He takes that whole passage and drops it right in the middle of a teaching to show them how immature they are. He’s trying to get their attention. A little later on he says, “I don’t say these things to shame you. I say it as a father would say to his child. You’re my children. I’m telling you the hard things because I don’t want you to end up and be short-changed.”

That’s the focus of chapter 3. Putting it in perspective, he’s saying, “Hey guys, step back just for a second. Get out of your little circumstance here in Corinth. Step back for a minute and let’s look at the big picture.” I heard a person one time who used this illustration: He drew a long line. He said, “That represents eternal life.” He put a dot on it. He said, “That represents the time between when you were born physically on this earth and the time that you die. Isn’t it interesting how many people live for that one little tiny dot instead of looking at the big picture and living for all of eternity?”

That’s what Paul is saying. Quit living for the now. Live for the now and the then. You do live in the present. He’s the I Am, not the I was, and the I will be. He’s the I Am. You live in the present, but you live for the future. You know you’re headed somewhere, and, therefore, that dictates a lot of how you live down here. That’s what he’s doing.

He’s going to take a sporting event, something that he was very familiar with and fond of, and use it to help the Corinthian church get a perspective once again. He did it in chapter 3. He’s now doing it again in 9:24-27. These are some of my most favorite verses. But this is the first time I’ve taught it in its context. I’ve never seen it couched right here. The context is beautiful. In the midst of denying self for the sake of others he puts these verses.

Let’s read the text. Verses 24-27 say, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.”

The concept

First of all, there is the concept Paul wanted them to realize. In this whole subject of denying yourself, in this whole subject of disciplining yourself to say “yes” to Christ, and therefore saying “no” to flesh, Paul has a concept he wants them to see. He says in verse 24, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run?” Of course, he goes on to say to win the prize. But I want you to see this. Paul, in refocusing the Corinthian believers, picked something they were very aware of. I love him. He’s such an amazing teacher. He takes something right out of their everyday life and puts it right into their vocabulary of their Christian life so that they can understand.

Now, remember, in Corinth there were three major idolatrous temples. One was on top of a mountain, Acropolis. It overlooked Corinth. There was a gulf on one side and a gulf on the other side and this little isthmus that sat there. In that Acropolis up there was the Temple of Aphrodite or Venus, the love goddess. They had 1,000 priestesses there who were really prostitutes. It wasn’t much of a religion. But they would come down in the city with little markings on the bottom of their shoes that said, “Follow me”, and everywhere they would step in the sand the sailors would see that and follow them. That was the problem. That was one of the temples.

That had a temple in the middle of the city by the marketplace called the Temple of Apollo. Now remember, Apollos was the second pastor, Apollo was a false god of that day, so don’t get them mixed up. That was the god of knowledge and wisdom.

Then outside the city was the Temple of Poseidon. Poseidon was the health spa god. He would fit well in the twentieth century, the macho god. Right beside his temple was the arena where they would have the Isthmian Games. You know, they had the Olympic Games in Athens, but they had the Isthmian Games on this little isthmus where Corinth would set. Corinth set right there on that little piece of lane, four miles long, four miles wide, then hooked itself to the main body of European Greece and down to the lower peninsula. That’s what that little isthmus did. On that little isthmus they would have the Isthmian Games.

Many people, and I’m one of them, believe that in Acts 18 when Paul went over to Corinth that’s what he went for, to make tents for the Isthmian Games. It doesn’t make any other sense to me. For instance, when he walked into town, he met Priscilla and Aquila. They made tents so he said, “Good, I’ll make tents with you.” He went there to make tents and he thanked the Lord that he found Priscilla and Aquila so they could all work together. Remember chapter 9 says that he refused being supported by the churches so, therefore, he made his own way. He was a tent maker. Why would he go to Corinth? Because of the Isthmian Games, every two to three years. He said, “Hey, they’re coming up. Let’s go make some tents.” That’s probably why he was there.

Now, here’s what he wants them to see in a running event that they were so familiar with. It’s just like today. That was an individual sport. You think about it for a while. It overwhelms you how God put this together. It’s not a team sport. When I played basketball and football, you may have four guys on a basketball team doing well, but if one guy out of sync you’re going to lose. It depends on five guys, not just one guy.

Not in track. Running is an individual sport. Man, the way he does this, you cannot miss it. They understood this. They went to these games. That was the big thing in their life every so many years. You and you alone determine the outcome of the race. He’s not depending on anybody else. And in the Christian life it’s exactly the same.

This is what Paul said in chapter 3. “I’m not going to be standing there with you. Why would you attach yourself to Paul? Why would you attach yourself to Apollos? Why would you attach yourself to Cephas?” No, he says, “Attach yourself to Christ, because it’s the way you live that you’ll be judged for one day, not the way I lived, not the way somebody else lived. Stand on your own two feet. Run your own race.” That’s what Paul was saying to them. You see, when we deny ourselves in the Christian life, we can look forward to a reward one day. It’s not going to be based on what you did or didn’t do.

Years ago God just got all over me and I made a decision and my wife made a decision which has freed us up for a long time. Sometimes we regress, but most of the time we can stay right there. That is never to let life work against you, but always to let life work for you, because you’re in a race. If you’ll just take the principles of Scripture and the truth of Scripture and live up under it, then life fits up in that and that does nothing more than make you run faster. It keeps you in the lane and you look forward to the prize that’s down the road. It’s an individual sport, the Christian life.

There’s going to be an individual judgment one day of our works. What Paul is saying is, “Hey, guys, who are you counting on besides yourself? You are the one responsible to make these choices. Therefore, you understand that just as track is an individual sport, Christianity is an individual race.” We need each other. That’s right. We encourage one another. The bottom line is, when we stand before Him one day, it’s going to be how each of us, on our own, of our own choices, lived. So, when the rewards are given one day, we’ll know who made the right choices and who didn’t. That’s the only time we’ll know, because down here you can fool everybody, including yourself.

So the first thing you see is the concept he wants them to realize, the concept of putting the Christian life into the arena of an athletic event, understand the individuality of it, and to understand it’s your choices that you’ll be judged for one day.

The comparisons

The second thing he brings up, and this will take us a little longer, are the comparisons Paul wanted them to relate to. Now, it’s beautiful. Again, Paul is the master teacher. After I look at Jesus for about a million years, I want to spend some time with the apostle Paul. I love him. I love studying the epistles. Do you realize most of the false doctrines come out of the Old Testament and the Gospels? They never get into the epistles. Rarely will you ever hear somebody in false doctrines ever preach from the epistles to the churches. If they would just get in there, they would find the balance they’re looking for. The apostle Paul is responsible for about three-fourths of it. One of the greatest, most intelligent, master teachers. The imagery that he brings in here.

Now, there are some major differences and similarities when you compare living the Christian life and running a race in Corinth. There are some major things that compare. But remember there are differences. I think as a teacher, Paul wants them to see this and learn from it. Look in verse 24. He said, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.”

That little phrase “do you not know,” eido, comes from the word horao, which means do you perceive, do you understand, do you grasp this. Really that was kind of a dumb question in a sense. Sure they did. You could have asked them about a lot of other things they might not have understood, but they understood this. This is their life. This is their culture. Paul knew that. It’s kind of a rhetorical question. He knew that they know the answer to that. They knew that in a race all run but only one wins the prize. Everyone trains the same way, but only one can win the prize.

We know that today, don’t we? You don’t have to know that from ever having participated in a race in a track meet. You know that from watching television, if nothing else when the Olympics were on.

I remember when the Boston marathon was on, I saw them start. It looked like a bunch of ants coming off an ant hill. I’m thinking, “How in the world can you even find a place to run with that many people?” It was just jammed packed. Later on I came back to it and I saw that it had thinned out quite a bit. A little later on I came back and it had thinned down to about five of them. Now I got interested in it. I started watching those five. Some more slipped back. Finally, only one crossed the finish line. But he won.

I thought to myself, “Yes, Paul, I understand that.” I’m sure they understood that. Do you not know? “Yeah, we know.” Paul, what are you trying to say? Let’s go on. He’s using that as a teaching tool. He knows they know that. Why would he ask that question? Well, he’s making a comparison. Now that he’s got their attention, now that they understand it, now he’s going to give the comparison of the Christian life. He’s comparing one who runs the race with intensity, having trained, having denying self, looking forward to the prize which is his purpose with the Christian life and how he lives his whole life until the day he sees the Lord Jesus. It’s like he takes you into the training camp of the athlete. You can smell the sweat. You can feel the intensity of the athlete. You can feel the sobriety, the seriousness of them.

If you ever are around a group of athletes and there’s something on the line, you’re not going to hear a bunch of frivolous talk. You’re not going to hear a lot of laughter. You’re going to see intensity. You’re going to see focus. You’re going to feel the sincerity of these men. You’re going to feel the moment with them and that’s what Paul wants you to do. Paul wants to make sure that these Corinthian believers get right into the situation with him.

These runners knew that in that racing event there could only be one winner. Therefore, they would train. They would work. These athletes came into Corinth early, before the race ever started. Can you imagine the excitement in the city? They looked forward to this many years before they had the event. And then, months before, here comes these athletes, probably by a ship. Who knows how they got there?

But I’ll tell you what, there’s a whole lot of thinking that goes behind this. You bring them in early. That creates an excitement. That’s exactly the way it was in Corinth. These people were pumped by the time the day came. They went down to the track. I guarantee you, if they had cameras they would have been taking pictures of the athletes. You see, back in those days athletes were to them just like they are to us in these days. They were gods. It’s a shame that we have to say that, isn’t it? Things haven’t changed much. What did Ecclesiastes say? There’s nothing new under the sun.

Well, the apostle Paul, getting them into the feel of this athletic event, says, “Run in such a way that you may win.” Here’s the comparison. The word for “such a way” is houtos, which means in like manner. There’s your comparative word right there. In other words, as you understand how these men train, how these men deny themselves, how these men made choices, how these men had a purpose that drove them, how they were single-minded, how they marched to the beat of a different drum, you live your Christian life exactly the way they lived theirs. That’s what he’s saying. Don’t ever think about the fact that you have any R & R. It’s every day, every moment, every breath that you live the Christian life with purpose in mind, with integrity in mind, and the discipline of denying yourself.

The first major difference

When you start making the comparisons here, you’ve got similarities. You’ve got differences. Let’s just look at some of them, because these are teaching tools. Oh, when you start putting one side by side, it just teaches itself. First of all, there’s a major difference in the Isthmian Games and living the Christian life. What is that? Well, in the Isthmian Games there was only one prize. All these men were intensely training for it and they got out on the track and they ran. But there was only one prize. In the Christian life, oh, there’s a prize for every believer. Prize of prizes for every believer. There’s a reward for every one of us. Isn’t that exciting? We’ve already seen that in chapter 3. In other words, God wants to reward every one of us. We’re not competing against each other.

Isn’t it good that we don’t compete anymore? Isn’t that great? I’m not competing with you in your gift. You’re not competing with me in my gift. To him that’s given much, much is required. You may have been given much so I’m not required to do what you do. But you’re not required to do what I do. We’re not competing with each other. We just come alongside each other and encourage one another so all of us can get the prize. That’s the whole picture, standing one day before Christ and seeing our work remain. We’re not competing. There’s a prize for all of us.

I could stay on that for a while because we live as competitors with one another in the Christian life, even a husband and a wife. “How come you get to speak and I don’t ever get asked to speak?” Is there competition here? A little bit. But is there competition in this thing? Paul says that there’s a reward for everyone who lives choosing to deny himself.

Look at 2 Timothy 4:6. I want you to see what he says. Paul is finishing his ministry. He doesn’t have a dime. As a matter of fact, he’s in a prison. He’s in a hole somewhere in Rome. Onesiphorus couldn’t even find it. He writes to Timothy and says, “Timothy, would you come and see me? I’m lonely. I’m cold. Would you bring me my coat? Would you bring me my parchment?” He didn’t have anything, but he had everything.

Look in verse 6: “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.” How did he know that? I don’t know. God must have told him. In September 1966 my dad got me out in the front yard and said, “Wayne, I won’t be living by Thanksgiving.” He had some trouble, but he didn’t look like he was that sick to me. I said, “How do you know, Daddy?” He said, “Just listen to me, Wayne. I’m not going to be here.” He began to give me some things to do since he wasn’t going to be there. On November 12, 1966, he went on to be with Jesus. How did he know that? I don’t know. I guess God must have put it on his heart.

How did Paul know it? I don’t know. I guess God must have told him. Sure enough, he was martyred right after this letter. It’s the last epistle he ever wrote.

Verse 7 says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” What can he look forward to now? He’s run the race. That’s exactly what he would have said if he had been writing Corinthians. And he says, “In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day.” And you think, “Oh, yes. That’s good for you, Paul, but what about me?” Look at the last of the verse: “and not only to me.” I love this. Do you mean to tell me the same crown could be given? He said, “but also to all who have loved His appearing.” Oh! There’s no competition here. You don’t put this guy up here and praise him. No. We put Jesus where He belongs and attach ourselves to Him and there’s a reward for every one of us. We can all finish the race in the Christian life with no regrets.

In prison, he doesn’t have a dime. It knocks the health and wealth message, doesn’t it? He doesn’t have a dime, but he has everything. Why? Because he’s run his race and knows there’s a reward waiting on him. He knows he’s not going to be judged. That was in Christ. It’s not his sins. It’s his works. His works are for a reward. He takes the crowns and gives them back to the Lord Jesus.

Won’t it be great one day for the Lord to take you out of here and just put His arms around you and say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant?” Shouldn’t that motivate each one of us every day of our life? You let something bad happen in your life and I guarantee half of us would just throw the whole thing out the window and react according to the flesh, not even thinking of the bigger picture, not even realizing how there’s a reward to those who say “Yes” to Christ. I’d do it. I can’t point a finger at anybody else. There’s a major difference there.

The first major similarity

But also there’s a major similarity. Here we go with these comparisons. What? Put the race over here and the Christian life over here. Here comes a major similarity. It’s in the faith that the pain of choice is the same in running as it is in the walk of the Christian life. The pain of choosing. It’s the same thing. You see God does not spare us the pain of our choices nor does he spare us the pain of the consequences of that choice. He does not spare that. Grace enables us but never spares us the pain. Why in the world do people have this concept that if they obey Christ, everything’s going to be great until they see Jesus one day? That is not in Scripture. He says, “The things that you’ll suffer for my sake,” over in Philippians.

He says in verse 25, “And everyone who competes in the games.” The word for “competes” there really tells us the pain that’s involved. It’s the word agonizomai. Guess what word we get from that. Agony, that’s right. You know the word. It’s one who agonizes. Every athlete can identify with this, the pain that comes in choosing to train and discipline yourself in order to win. There’s pain to go with it.

Some of us, though, are lazy and live from catastrophe to catastrophe. That’s the way some Christians live. I remember back when the Gulf War came. On a Wednesday night the church was packed out. People I’ve never seen before and I’ve never seen since were there. They live from catastrophe to catastrophe. They don’t understand the pain until the catastrophe hits and then they’re upside down and the pain’s overwhelming.

When I was in military school I played three sports: football, basketball, and track. I didn’t run track. I was on the team. I went out for the field events. That’s the broad jump and the high jump. Well, the coach would come by every day and say, “Guys, you better be training. You better be training.” “Why, coach? Come on. We’re in shape. We play two sports.” He’s say, “Guys, there may come a day when a runner is not here and you may have to take his place.” “Right. When’s that ever going to happen?” Will I ever learn?

One day we had the mile relay in the field events. Do you know what a mile relay is? It’s a 100 yard sprint for 440 yards. I didn’t know that. He came over, knowing that I hadn’t been doing a thing but goofing off. He walked up and said, “Barber, the anchor leg of the mile relay is out today. Would you take his place?” All of my friends are going, “Oh, no!” So I got out there.

The first thing I had to do is learn how to take that baton. It took me forever to get that down. Finally I said, “Alright, I’m ready.” That last guy came around and we were way in the lead. I took that baton. Oh, if it had only been 220, I would have broken the world all-time record in the 440.

But 220 yards into that 440 yards, the gorilla jumped on me. Have you ever run track? If you have you know what I’m talking about. It was a 1,500 pound gorilla. It jumped on me. It was like I hit a wall. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I was going to finish. I held up another race. I got more attention than the guy who won. When I walked across, I was barely able to walk, but I finished that race, and I understood pain in a way I wouldn’t have had to understand if I had been training all the time.

That’s the way people are when they live calamity to calamity. That’s why it’s so overwhelming to you. If you would live in the good days trusting Christ, you’d live in the bad days trusting Christ, and you’d understand the pain that is involved. Every believer who walks by faith, denying self so that Christ can live through him, should be able to identify with this word. God doesn’t spare the pain.

Colossians 4:12 reads, “Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bond slave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly [agonizomai] for you in his prayers,” feeling the pain of paying the price for you.

It says in 1 Timothy 6:12, “Fight the good fight of faith [the word for “fight” is agon, agony], take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

Second Timothy 4:7, that we read a moment ago, reads, “I have fought the good fight,” agon. “There’s been agony in my life,” Paul is saying. He’s in prison and about to die. He said, “I have agonized by making choices.” I really think what he’s saying here is, “I’ve won the battle over me and I’ve allowed God to do through me what He wanted to do.” There’s pain and agony in the act of self-denial. I don’t care who you are.,God does not spare us that pain.

That’s the similarity between a runner and a person living the Christian life. Do you know what? If Paul hadn’t used a runner, he could have used a mother of children who agonizes for her children and who makes painful decisions for the reward that you’ll see down the road in her child. It’s the same thing. He could have taken a lot of things with his imagery, but he simply uses the runner. So a difference, but also a similarity.

The second major difference

We go on. There’s another major difference in the comparison of the two. In running the race at Corinth, it’s up to the runner and his own strength as to whether he finishes and how he finishes. But in the Christian life, once we have made the painful choice and endured the pain of its consequences, Christ in us produces the strength that enables us to go on. That’s the big difference in the runner and a Christian in the Christian life.

Look in verse 25, and I’ll show you where I got that. “And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things.” The word for “exercises self-control” is egkrateunomai. It’s the word that means to master something, for something to be under submission to you. This gives us a wonderful clue as to the message of grace.

This word “self-control” is the fruit of the Spirit of God. Look over in Galatians 5:22-

1 Corinthians 9:26

Contents

1 The Discipline of the Christian Life – Part 2

1.1 The challenge

1.2 Paul wastes no energy on the flesh

1.3 Paul’s motivation

1.4 The caution

The Discipline of the Christian Life – Part 2

The context that we are looking at is very clear. It is relationships. Our Christian life is directly measured by the way we relate to one another. In other words, if a person is walking with God, then he is going to be rightly related to his brother in Christ within the body of Christ. In fact, we are going to see this in chapter 12. We are not trying to preempt it, but when God came to live in us in the person of His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ came bearing gifts. Those gifts were given so that we could minister and build up one another. It was for unity. It was for oneness. It was never for division. I started to say diversity, but it is always diverse. It is never for division, nor is it for any kind of contention.

As a matter of fact, when you see a person walking with Christ, surrendered to Him, learning what we are talking about in chapter 9—the discipline of denying himself—you are going to see that person seeking for the unity of the brethren at whatever cost. It is like Ephesians 4:3 says, that you are to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. This is what the body of Christ is. This is what gives one another the benefit of the doubt. This is what causes a person to take the low road for the sake of another. This is God working in and through an individual’s life. When that person is not doing that, maybe he is playing a game. Maybe he wants people to think he is one way but he is another. Watch relationships. If he is backbiting somebody or grumbling, griping, whatever it is, any kind of division comes, that comes from the flesh. Our relationship with Christ is measured, not by how much we know, not by how well we think we are doing. It is in our relationships to one another.

The church of Corinth needed to hear this message. Division was rampant on every part. They were attached to everything but Jesus. Some were of Paul, some were of Apollos, some were of Cephas, as we have seen. The context of chapters 8 and 9 is interesting. It has to do with the stronger brother. By stronger we mean the brother who has come to understand the message of grace. He understands his place. He knows who he is, whose he is, and what he is. He knows his direction in life. He understands the message of grace. It is in the context of the stronger to the weaker brother.

The weaker brother has been defined already—that person who doesn’t understand grace. The problem was, the stronger brother who understood the truth was not sensitive to the weaker brother who hadn’t understood the truth. Therefore, the stronger brother used his liberty as a stumbling block to the weaker brother rather than surrendering his own rights and privileges, denying himself for the sake of Christ and the sake of that weaker brother. That is the whole context.

You see, once we have had the high privilege of understanding the message of grace, now comes the responsibility. We have the greater responsibility. The more we understand about grace, the greater our responsibility to live up under it and to make sure that reflects itself in the relationships we have around us.

Well, Paul comes down to verses 2427 and puts the whole summary of everything he has been saying into a context they could not miss. Paul says if you are going to be sensitive to your weaker brother, if you are going to see relationships manifest in the body of Christ like they ought to be, then individually we must discipline ourselves to deny self for the sake of Christ and the sake of others.

Now, you say, “I don’t understand what you are talking about.” Think about last week. What circumstances came to you? You know you were right, you know you saw something that others did not see, but because they were weaker and could not see it, you were willing to die to it in order that they might see what God wanted them to see. That happens over and over and over again in our life. God orchestrates those situations. We are given opportunities every day to die to ourselves. And once we learn the discipline of denying ourselves, then we begin to understand the urgency of living the Christian life.

I remember when I was playing football the coach would say, “Now guys, you are going to have to pay a price if you are going to be good.” Of course, at meals every day they would give us all we wanted to eat. Well, one day they had hot dogs. I love hot dogs. Well, I didn’t realize the coach was checking us out to see how many hot dogs we would eat because we were in training. When you are in training, you deny yourself certain pleasures. You all know that if you have ever been in sports.

Well, that afternoon he ran us and ran us and ran us and ran us and ran us. I hate to tell you this, but I threw up everything but my toes. I thought I was going to die. I have never been so sick in all my life. It was years before I could ever eat another hot dog. The coach was trying to get across to us, you have got to pay a price. But I like hot dogs! He said, okay, you want them, you will get sick off of them. You’ve got to learn to make some choices. And any athlete understands his language.

That is what Paul was been trying to get across. Everyone who competes in the games pays a price, but you also pay a price when you live the Christian life. God in no way spares us the pain of our choices. We’ve got to make those choices.

When people get up and sing those songs about sickness instead of health, oh God, give me poverty instead of wealth, I am thinking, “Good grief, man, do they understand what they have just sung?” I mean, it’s painful the choices we make in the Christian life. Nobody ever said it wasn’t. Do you think it wasn’t painful for Jesus in the garden when He chose to go to the cross for our sin? It was a painful thing. God does not, in many ways, spare us that pain. When you make a choice and everybody looks at you and they think you are absolutely ridiculous because you made the choice based on God’s Word, you are going to have to receive the pain of embarrassment. You are going to have to take the pain of ridicule. It just goes with the territory, and God does not spare the pain of choice. Along with that pain come the consequences that choice may bring. But when He speaks, you do what He says. That is it. You deny self. You don’t ask any other questions. You just do it, and it’s painful.

If you are trying to live the kind of life that is sometimes presented in the media and you want to name it and claim it and think everything is going to be sweet and fluffy all of your life, you have heard a gospel that is not in the Word of God. It is painful to choose against self.

This is God the Holy Spirit overcoming you and me. Victory is when Christ does this. And when we are able to say no to our flesh by saying yes to Him and receive joy in the midst of it, even though the pain may be there, that’s what God produces in us. So He doesn’t spare us the pain of our choice, but He enables us once the choice has been made. He even enables us in the choice. Once we have made the choice, then it is no longer us. We have denied ourselves. It is Christ who lives in us.

Galatians 2:20 says, “For I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me.” You see, in Philippians 1:21 Paul says, “For to me to live is Christ.” If you want to know what is happening to me, it is not me, it is Christ in me. This is the fruit of the Spirit of God. Thank God, in a race if that runner has a problem somewhere and he grows weak, it is his fault, it is his strength. But in the Christian life, you make the choice, you go through the pain of denying self and God steps in, empowers you and takes you right on to the finish line. When you stop, you shout and say, “Thank you, God. It wasn’t me. It was you all the time.”

The challenge

The third thing is the challenge that Paul wants the Corinthian believers to receive. Now we are going to get a look inside of Paul’s life. How did he live his life? Is there anything we can learn from the apostle Paul? Yes, there are many things. You see, when you live your lives in a consistent way, you point to something. You don’t have to say a word. You can learn by the way another person lives their life. That is the way Paul was. When you learn the discipline of denying yourself, you become predictable, and predictability is what gives you your witness to others around you.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all the parents were so predictable that their children could watch how they live and learn to live the Christian life simply by observing their parents? That is the way it was with the apostle Paul. That is why he says many times, “Imitate my faith, do what I do.” He is not saying, “Hey, look at me.” No, he is simply saying, “I have learned something that might help you. I’ve learned the discipline of denying myself.”

Well, as he gives this challenge, look at what he says in verse 26: “Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.”

The first thing he mentions is, “I run and stay within bounds. I have a goal out in front of me. I have learned this in living my Christian life. Have you learned that?” You say, “Where did you find that?” Look! “Therefore I run in such a way.” Now he is going to tell you what the “such a way” is, “as not without aim.”

The word “not” there is ouk. There are two words for “not” in the Greek language. There is ouk, which normally means absolutely without any question. There is another word for not, me, which means relatively not. In other words, sometimes, maybe not. In this particular case Paul uses the word which means absolutely not, in any way, shape or form. He says, I do not run without aim.

Now the little word “without aim” is adelos. It comes from a, without, and delos, which means uncertainty. In other words, I don’t run uncertainly. I don’t run without resolution. But if you take that word and meditate on it for a little while, it has the idea of running within bounds. When somebody plays a sport, there are rules that you go by. When you run a race, there are lanes that you run in. And the apostle Paul says, “I have learned something. I’ve got to stay in bounds. I’ve got to stay in the lane that God has given me and keep the goal ahead of me.” That goal is that one day he can have Jesus look at him and say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” He knows there is a reward coming and that reward won’t be for him. It will be to give back to Christ. He wants to stand there one day unashamed in the presence of God. He keeps that as the goal in front of him. Everything he does is based upon that aim in his life.

Does that remind you of any Scriptures? Philippians 3:14 says, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” He is saying the same thing in Philippians.

Luke 9:62 reads, “But Jesus said to him, ‘No one after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.’”

Do you realize when you learn to run in bounds, when you learn to keep the focus of your life being the finish line and where you are headed, when you learn to let that stay like it is, if you ever turn back, you are going to get out of the lane and you are going to lose sight of the goal that you are running towards? Of course, the boundary for us is the Word of God, the will of God. The finish line, of course, is the same one Paul had. When we stand before Christ one day we know that accountability is coming, that there is a reckoning day coming.

So, when a person gets out of bounds and when a person loses their focus, that is what communicates to others that he doesn’t know what is going on. That is exactly what is going on in the Christian life these days. We will fight somebody over the inerrancy of the Word, but we won’t let it dictate our lives. Until we stay in the bounds of what the Word of God says, stand upon what we know that God’s will is and keep our focus that one day we will stand before Christ, we are not going to even understand the vision that God has for us.

Paul says, “I have an aim. I don’t run without aim. I know where I am headed and I am going to stay in bounds to get there. I have learned to do that.” What was the lane that God had given him to run in? It was a ministry to the Gentile world. What is the lane that God has put you in to run? What are your gifts? What is your calling? Where has God planted you? All of a sudden that becomes a lane and His Word begins to surround that and you begin to see the focus at the end, the finish line and you say, “Hey, this is all that matters.” You learn the discipline of denying yourself so that you can pursue that goal and in the meantime you can stay within bounds.

Remember Hebrews 12:1? “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes upon Jesus [there is your goal], the author and perfecter of faith who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.” Do you realize that He went to the cross for the joy of knowing He was pleasing His Father? That was the ultimate motivation of His life: “despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

That is the way we run the race. That is what Paul wants them to see. He says, “Come on, Corinth, you are playing around with the flesh. You have attached yourself to everything but Jesus. You have lost your direction, your focus, and your aim. Come back to it. Choose the discipline of denying yourself. I know it hurts you, but God will enable you. Get your focus back on the end of life not just right now. Learn to live for eternity, not just for the present.” Paul says, “I have that focus.”

Paul wastes no energy on the flesh

The second thing he says here is that he wastes no energy on the flesh. Verse 26 says, “Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air.”

Do you know what he is talking about here? It is shadow boxing. They would stand there and constantly throw punches, using that energy on nothing. The apostle Paul says, “I don’t shadow box. I don’t waste any of my energy on the flesh.” In other words, if I am going to take the energy to make a decision, it is going to hit flesh right in the nose. Every decision I make is not going to be wasted. I have learned to be a redeemer of the time. Wasn’t it Paul who said, “Be a redeemer of the time?” The word means to choose, to purchase time. What collateral do you use to purchase time? Choice. Paul had learned to make the right choices, not to waste energy on the flesh but to make every choice count, let it deal with that which would better make him fit to run the race. Every blow was a direct hit.

You say, “Well, how do you know that?” Look in the next verse, and it qualifies it. It says, “but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.” The word “buffet” is the word that expresses a discipline. It is the word hupopiazo, to strike under the eye. Hupo means under, and piazo is to strike. Together they mean to strike under, but to strike the eye, to bruise, to give a black eye. One of the things that hit me as an application of this and that is, you can’t hide a black eye. You can try all you want to hide it, but you can’t.

A sweet lady in our church years ago came out one Sunday morning. She had dark glasses on. I could see underneath those dark glasses that there was something else and I’m thinking, “Come on.” She said, “Preacher, will you talk to my husband. He is beating on me again.” She was just laughing. Of course, what had happened was she had fallen down the steps. But I thought of all the pain she went through with makeup and sunglasses to cover up that bruised eye. You can’t do it.

I thought of that as an application. You know, when we are choosing to give a black eye to the flesh, every time the flesh rears up, just put it right back down. Learn the discipline of denying flesh. It is going to start showing up and people are going to start saying, “I see a black eye. Yes, I’ve been to the cross. Oh, I see another black eye. Yes, I’ve been to the cross.” And all of a sudden that becomes part of your witness. Thank God for the black eyes when we put the flesh where it belongs.

That is what Paul said he did. He said, “I don’t shadow box. I don’t waste any energy on the flesh. Every choice I make puts it right where it belongs, gives it a black eye.”

Well, it goes on and says, “and make it my slave.” The phrase “to make it my slave” is doulagogeo. Doulos means slave, and ago means to lead or to bring; to bring it up under submission. He said, “Every choice I am making, I am trying to learn the discipline of bringing my flesh up under submission.”

Do you know one of the things I am learning in my life? When I sit down without prayer, without the word of God and I make a choice about something, usually it is wrong, because my flesh goes exactly the opposite way of the Holy Spirit of God. That is what Paul said in Galatians 5. He says the flesh wars again the Spirit so that you might not do the things that you ought. So I’ve learned the first thought that comes to me, I had better be careful and get it back up and surrendered to Christ, because usually He does it exactly the reverse of the way I would do it. What seems logical to me is illogical to Him.

Paul said, “I am learning that discipline and I am putting a black eye to what my flesh wants; sounds good, looks good, the committee said it was okay, but it is not what God wants and I have learned to put a black eye to it. Bring it up under subjection. I have learned to let my choices bring my flesh under subjection.”

As a matter of fact in 2 Timothy, when he says, “I have fought the good fight,” I really believe he means “I have won the battle over me. I’ve allowed God to finish through me what He started to do through me. I had to learn the discipline of denying myself.” You say, “Well, how do I practice that?” Oh, you just say, “God, I want to practice it.” I’ll guarantee you He has a ton of decisions this next week you can practice it on. It is as practical as breathing right now.

Paul’s motivation

Then Paul shows you the motivation for why he does this. He realizes that he has a goal in his life, to preach the gospel of Christ. This is the lane that God has put him in. But why does he do all of this? Why does he choose against his flesh to stay in that lane and to follow that goal? So he won’t get benched. Verse 27 reads, “but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.” Now, that word “disqualified” throws some people, but you have got to understand his context. Paul in no way is talking about salvation. He is talking about really the process of sanctification. He is talking about usefulness once you are saved. He is not going to jump back now and say that if he is disqualified that means he loses his salvation. That is ridiculous and it is terrible hermeneutics to this particular context.

He is saying to be unapproved means you are not fit to be used in something. And if you are an athlete, you know exactly what I am talking about. Isn’t it awful to sit on the bench? Have you ever played a sport and had to sit on the bench? I had to sit on the bench a lot. It is the worst thing in the world to be out there in the action and seeing what is going on and being a part of it and then suddenly being jerked off and sitting on the bench.

That is what Paul said. I don’t want to start getting lazy about my Christian life. He says, “I don’t want to come to the place that I stop denying myself. I don’t want to come to the place that I leave the cross out of my vocabulary, because if I do, God will jerk me off the playing field and sit me back on the bench, and I’ll sit and watch somebody else be useable by God.” I’ll tell you something, folks, when you start seeing jealousy in ministries, somebody who is not being used is jealous of somebody who is being used, you have just found somebody Paul is writing to in Corinth. They are not willing to get off that fence. They are not willing to come to the cross and deny self and live it out. Therefore, they are not being used and they are jealous of the people who are on the floor.

That is where it comes from; because if you are out on the floor, you are conscious of one thing. It is painful to be out there on the floor, but it sure is a privilege. You are not worried about who is sitting on the bench. But if you are on the bench, you are griping about everybody else out on the floor.

Let me ask you a question. Has there ever been a time in your life that you loved Jesus more than you love Him now? Has there ever been a time in your life when you prayed more than you pray now? Has there ever been a time in your life that you studied the Word of God more than you do right now? Well, friend, if you have somehow backed up instead of gone forward, then no wonder you are sitting on the bench. Stop blaming everybody else and come to the cross.

Paul is saying, “Listen, live it out. Don’t talk about it, live it.” He gives you a million choices every day to do exactly that. Nobody wants to be benched. Of course, that is why we have the body of Christ to encourage one another, to exhort one another, to come alongside sometimes, reprove one another. Why? To get them back on the floor. It is not like a basketball team that only takes five. Hey, you can put the whole Christian family on this floor if they will just learn to deny themselves. The discipline of denying self for the sake of Christ and for others.

So Paul gives us a concept, a running of a race, and he helps them to understand living the Christian life is compared to a runner who wants to win the race. He gives comparisons that teach the differences of the two, the similarities and the differences. Then he gives them a challenge he wants them to receive. Run within your bounds and keep your focus. Don’t worry about how he is running except to pray for him and exhort him. The way you help the guy running in his lane is to run in your lane like you are supposed to run. What happens most of the time is we get in somebody else’s lane or forget which lane we are running in, instead of just being about the things that God has put upon us.

Then Paul says to make sure you don’t waste any energy. Make sure every choice you make is putting the flesh back where it belongs. Give it a black eye every time you make a choice. Be careful so that you are not benched. Be careful so that you will not be found unapproved.

The caution

Well, then he moves to a caution that he wants them to have. The context continues to flow. There were no chapters and that kind of thing. Somebody else put these chapters and verses in there. Chapter 9 just flows right into chapter 10. It doesn’t change a thing. He is going to give an illustration now of the nation of Israel, the caution he wants them to have. This is so very important. It is directly linked to 9:2427.

Look at verse 1 of chapter 10. He says, “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers.” Now that word “for” in the Textus Receptus is the little word de, and it means but. It is a contrasting word, but it still links.

But the word used in the Nestle’s and other texts is the word gar, which means therefore or for. That is why it is translated that way in the New American Standard. Now you say, “Which one is it?” I told you all that to tell you it doesn’t matter. Go anyway you want to go, because what it does is it links it back to what he just said in 9:24-27. You cannot disjoint chapter 10 from 9:24-27. Chapter 10 is continuing on with what he is teaching. Whichever one you prefer is fine.

He says, “For I do not want.” The word for “want” there is the word thelo. It is a little different from the word boule, which means to wish. Yes, it means to wish and desire and want something for yourself, but it has more of the idea, to me as I studied the word, that I not only intend this for you, but I am willing to do whatever is necessary to get in there, to make sure it is worked out in your life. I am not just telling you something, I am going to do something about it.

Paul is doing something about it by what he is about to bring up. He said, “I am doing something to keep you from something.” He goes on the verse to say, “For I do not want you to be unaware.” The word “unaware” is the word agnoeo, from a, without and noeo, which means understanding. I don’t want you to be without understanding.

It is interesting to me what he is going to bring up. He recalls the stories that any believer in Corinth, who had Paul as their teacher and Apollos as their teacher, would have already heard and, I would have thought, understood. But Paul says, “I don’t want you to be unaware. I don’t want you to be ignorant, brethren. The idea I get is he is saying, “You know these stories. You know what happened to Israel, but I wonder if you have ever realized that what happened to them can happen to you. I want to make sure that you learn from them, because the same mistakes Israel made you can make.”

Now as we get into this, remember, he is not talking about salvation. If you get lost in that, you are going to lose his whole point in chapter 10. It is a beautiful illustration of how Israel experienced many things together but then became arrogant in it, just like at Corinth. And because they stopped doing what they had been doing, they lost out on everything that God had for them. That is as simple as I can put it. That is where he is headed with his illustration of Israel.

He says, “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers.” The word “fathers,” pateres, is that paternal word that is universal in their language. However, it can be translated “ancestors.” But here it is pointing back obviously to the spiritual fathers of Israel.

Now the audience that Paul is writing to is a Christian audience. You’ve got to understand that he knows the difference between a Jew, a Gentile and a believer. He believes in three groups of people. Look at 10:32. He writes in his own words that he understands the difference in the Jew, the Gentile and the believer. Look at what he says. “Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God.”

I hear a lot of people say they are completed Jews. That is fine if you want to call yourself that, but I don’t believe that is proper terminology. I believe you are a brand new person in Christ. Ephesians says that both the Jew and the Gentile have been made into one new man. So if you are going to make the Jew a completed Jew, then make the Gentile a completed Jew. I mean, they are both brand new. They are a brand new person. Put all that other aside. You have been made brand new in Christ Jesus.

Paul understands that, but again he is illustrating his point of chapter 9, so he speaks of our fathers. In a sense, the Jewish, spiritual fathers were spiritual fathers, not only to the Jew but to the Gentile. In Galatians 3:14 it says, “In order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” So in reality, there is nothing wrong with his terminology as he points back to the spiritual fathers of Israel. He is simply using an analogy of Israel, who having been freed from slavery, delivered through the sea, provided for in the wilderness, chose against what they knew would bring them what God wanted for them and as a result of that, missed out on what God had for them.

He begins by pointing to several things that all of them had experienced together. Now this is kind of tough, but if you will stay with me, you can put Israel and the Christians right here. He is trying to say, “Now, learn something from them, learn something.” This is his point of reference over here, Israel.

Alright, all of Israel experienced the divine providence of God. Their worthiness had nothing to do with it. It was just what God chose to show to them. Alright, now watch. This providence first of all included direction. It says in verse 1, “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud.” All of Israel was under the divine protection and direction of God when they left Israel. Whether their obedience was what it needed to be or not is not the point. If they chose to follow Moses, then they were under the cloud. God put them under the cloud. You had the righteous and the unrighteous underneath that cloud. It had nothing to do with any worthiness on their part. It was the providence of God they experienced together.

The word “under” is the word hupo. It means exactly that. And the word “were” is in the imperfect tense, which has the idea that God put them there. They didn’t get themselves there. God put them there, but they had to choose to follow Moses. If they followed Moses, he was under the cloud, so they were under the cloud. He delivered them from slavery in Egypt. This reference is from the Old Testament, Exodus 13:21. It says, “And the Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light that they might travel by day and by night.” This whole mixed multitude that had chosen to foll

1 Corinthians 10:1-3

A Caution to the Strong – Part 1

Turn to 1 Corinthians 10. We are going to talk about a caution to the strong. You do know that the whole context of what we have been studying, beginning in chapter 8, is to the strong, those who understand, those who have experienced, those who have had the high privilege of those things of God. And once we have understood and God has allowed us to experience the Word of God in our Christian walk and we are labeled to be the strong, now we have a greater responsibility than ever. The ones who are walking with God, the ones who understand, always make the biggest concession. The responsibility is always heavier upon them.

The apostle Paul has been talking about sports. No athlete, I don’t care where you find him or what sport he is in, if he is running or whatever he is doing to win the prize, wants to be at any time disqualified and taken out of the race or be replaced by somebody else. No athlete wants that. Everything he does is to be in that race. The apostle Paul is saying that the Christian life is like a race from beginning to the very finish, all the way through.

The picture here is so vivid. Just like an athlete, no Christian who has experienced the things of God, who understands the Word of God, ever wants to be taken out of the action and benched. He wants to be out there where God can use him. He wants to be a vessel through which God can do His work. When an athlete, no matter how good he is, stops making the choices of selfdenial, it is at that point he becomes disqualified. And that is a sad thing.

But in the Christian life it is the same way. Being saved and experiencing the things of God does not necessarily guarantee you are going to be used of God. In other words, the way you started is the way you continue and finish. That is what Paul is trying to get across in making his comparison of the athlete and the runner.

The problem of an experienced athlete is that sometimes he might forget the discipline that got him to where he is, just like in the Christian life. Some of the hardest battles I face many times are the lessons I thought I already knew. Are you going through that? Things that I thought I learned years ago in my life are the same things that continue to come up. I am thinking, “Does anything ever change?” No. There is not classroom 101 and then classroom 102. That is what Paul is trying to get across. His whole context is to the strong, to those who understand, to those who have experienced the grace of God. He says, “You guys need to understand something. You are about to be disqualified. You are not mixing love with your knowledge, therefore you have become arrogant. That is his whole context back in chapter 8.

So he says to all of us who have experienced being used of God, those of us who have experienced the grace of God and the understanding of His Word, “Now listen, you continue to learn the discipline of denying self. It never stops, because if you stop and choose the other way, you will be benched and somebody else will take your place. You are not indispensable. You are dispensable when it comes to being used in the Christian life.”

Well, because of this, in chapter 10 Paul brings a caution to the believers. It seems to me that it intensifies. He gives his own illustration. He is talking to these Corinthian believers who are absolutely upside down, plugged into every person and thing but Jesus Himself. He is trying to bring them back, shock them back into reality. So he brings up the nation of Israel and brings a warning with it, a caution with it. That is why I call this “A caution to the strong.”

To those who have experienced, look out, look out. Israel was a nation that experienced the privileges of God, but a nation who by their own choosing, chose the way of the flesh rather than the way of God and missed out on all the things that God had prepared for them. Paul says, “Believers, don’t you do the same thing. Learn from Israel.”

The power and presence of God

First of all, we learned, as Paul illustrates, how Israel had experienced the power and the presence of God. Look in verse 1 of chapter 10. “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea.” Israel had been willing to put their trust into the one God had sent to lead them, which was Moses. Moses stood out front. They followed him. They didn’t have to follow him, but when they chose to follow him, they experienced together the power and the presence of God.

Verse 2 says, “and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” That word “baptized” means identified with. And again, it just bears witness to what I said. They were willing to identify with Moses and trust and obey what he told them to do. As a result of that, they were under the cloud and they went through the sea. Because of their willingness to obey Moses, they were set free from the penalty and the power and the presence of the Egyptians who had held them captive for 400 years.

Now Paul’s point is very clear. Just as we are willing to place our trust into Christ, He sets us free from the penalty and the power and the presence of sin. But being set free from those things does not in any way guarantee that we are going to be useable to Him once we become a believer. We are not going to lose our salvation, but we may lose our right to be used. This is what he is saying. Don’t misunderstand. He is not talking about salvation. He is talking about the usability within salvation. Just as Israel turned against God and became disqualified, our experience with Christ does not guarantee that we will be useable to God. It is not just how we start, it is how we finish.

The provision of God

Secondly, they experienced the provision of God. It is interesting to me that as soon as they have been delivered from the penalty and the power and the presence of the Egyptians who had held them captive for 400 years, we start seeing the ungratefulness of their flesh. It shows up immediately when they have gone through the Red Sea. In verse 3 he says, “and all ate the same spiritual food.” What I am going to show you in the Old Testament is going to bear witness to what I just said. It was while they were demonstrating a spirit of ungratefulness that God chose to give them the manna and the quail in the wilderness.

Why does he say it was spiritual food? We know it was physical food: it was manna and it was quail. That is physical food. Why does he call it spiritual food? Because Paul is trying to show them it was God supernaturally providing for them the food that they needed, just like in our walk God provides for us supernaturally the things that we need in our spiritual life, the Word and His power, etc. Just as they didn’t have to eat, we don’t have to partake, but the picture is the same. Many times, even though we grumble and complain, the provision is there all the time. God makes the provision. We have to choose to partake of it.

What he is pointing to here is in Exodus 16:12. The whole story begins to show you a lot of the attitude of the people but yet the faithfulness of God to provide for them. Exodus 16:12 says, “I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel.” I’m telling you, weren’t these grateful people to be freed from Egypt and taken through the Red Sea? It looks to me like they would be shouting until the end all the way through. But no, they are already grumbling.

Just like our flesh. People get saved, and within six months of being in a church, they are critical and just as complaining as anybody else. Don’t you understand what just happened to you? No, we are just like Israel.

“I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel; speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’” Why does He provide for them? Because He wants them to recognize that He is God and He is the one providing for them. He wants them to continually turn back to Him.

Verse 13 continues, “So it came about at evening that the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.” I have humorously thought of that many times. My Daddy raised bird dogs when I was growing up. They would have gone nuts on that day. I mean, the quail was everywhere.

Verse 14 reads, “When the layer of dew evaporated, behold, on the surface of the wilderness, there was a fine flakelike thing, fine as the frost on the ground. When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’” As a matter of fact, the word “manna” means “What is it?” “For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.’”

Now that is amazing to me. Even in the midst of their griping and complaining, God still provided for the people. These are people who had experienced His power and His presence and His provision, even though they knew they didn’t deserve it. Most of them grumbled all the way through the Red Sea, most of them grumbled when they had to leave Egypt, but they still followed Moses and as a result of that, experienced the grace of God, the divine providence of God.

Well, then Paul points to the fact that they also received water. Look 1 Corinthians 10:4, “and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.” Boy, I love the way he just nails this point right here. They all drank the same spiritual drink. Now again we know it was physical water, but again he uses the same principle. It was supernaturally applied to them and supplied for them. When he struck the rock, the water came out. Paul says they were drinking from a spiritual rock.

Now the word for “rock” is the word petra, which is an interesting thought because it is the same word used in Matthew 16:18 when Christ says to Peter, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” Not upon you, but upon your confession of who I am. “I will build my church and the gates of hades shall not overpower it.” So he is talking about a mammoth rock, a huge rock, not a little stone but a huge rock.

Paul says they were drinking of a rock that was following them. That little participle there, “which followed them,” has the idea of accompanying them. Paul says they were drinking from a rock that was accompanying them. Now, he seems to allude to a Jewish legend at that time that a physical rock rolled behind the nation of Israel when they went through the wilderness. That is what the rabbi’s would teach. The apostle Paul dismisses that real quickly and shows them it was not a physical rock. That rock, he says, was Christ.

I tell you what, you get into this just a little bit and you can go to Israel and understand that Israel has experienced Christ already but has rejected Him as being their Messiah. This is Him in the Old Testament. Paul says that rock was Christ, definite article, the rock was the Christ. The verb “was” is used there. He says, “And the rock was Christ.” Do you realize that is the same exact verb used in John 1 when it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” It is the exact same expression, tense and all. In John 1:2, “He was [speaking of Christ] in the beginning with God.”

What Paul is documenting here is, not only was He in the beginning, He was way back there in Israel. He has always preexisted. The theophany of Christ was back there. The rock they were drinking from was Christ and they couldn’t even see Him. He was supernaturally providing for them water in the wilderness.

In John 1:4 we read on, “In Him was life and the life was the light of men.”

Then Paul chooses a word here that identifies Jesus. He uses the word “Christ.” You do know the difference in those two words? Christ is His anointed name, His forever anointed name. Jesus was His earthly name. He says, “You shall call His name Jesus.” But He is the Christ, the anointed one. That is what links Him to all of history. That is what links Him to creation. That is what links Him to all the situations with Israel. That is what links Him to all of history. He uses the word “Christ.”

Israel had been privileged to experience the power, the presence and the provision of Christ Himself. God had provided for them there, but then they chose to do something rather stupid, they chose no longer to trust God and as a result, missed out upon all of the blessings God has for them. That is his whole point. In other words, they became disqualified. They were taken out of the action and put on the bench and very strong consequences fell in their life.

Here comes the warning in verse 5. He says, “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.” You know, that little phrase, “with most of them” could be the understatement of the book. How many of them did qualify to experience? Two out of all Israel. Now, you think about that. When he says “most of them,” he means exactly that, most of them. Joshua and Caleb were the only two God allowed to go into the land that He had promised to them. The rest of them walked around Mt. Sinai for 40 years in the wilderness.

He said they were laid low in the wilderness. The word there means their corpses were scattered out and spread around in the wilderness. Israel paid a difficult price because they weren’t willing to continue to trust God. See, it is not in the fact that you trusted Him back here and you were saved. Yes, that started it, but it is now like in the book of 1 John. It is kind of like asking somebody, “What does Christ mean to you now?” Oh, I was saved 30 years ago. “That is not my question. What is He doing in your life today?” “Oh, I was saved 30 years ago.”

That is not going to cut it, because there can be a disqualification in your life. There can be a point where God can bench you and you are no longer useable and just simply miserable and frustrated. Why? Because we have chosen not to employ the discipline of denying ourselves. The times that I choose not to say yes to Him are the times I choose to serve my flesh. The times I choose to say yes to Him are the times I have chosen to deny myself. I’ve got to learn that. That is a part of my Christian life every single day. Thank God He gets involved in it. Thank God He works circumstances that bring me to the end of myself and keep bringing me back to that place. But God wants us to be useable until He comes again.

Well, what was the problem with Israel? That is really what I want us to focus in on. What was the problem with Israel? Well, they craved evil things. Look in verse 6: “Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved.” The phrase “these things happened as examples for us,” refers to not only how God treated them, but how they wrongly responded to Him. In other words, God was constantly providing for them, but they were constantly wrongly responding to Him. These things which happened to Israel need to be an example to us.

The word “example” is also in the plural, and it has the idea of something that struck upon something, leaving a mark on it. Paul is saying, “This is something tangible that you guys can see and understand. I’ve used a picture of a runner in a race. That ought to help you. But if you will look back at Israel, it is even a better example that you can look back and see what happened to them. You look and see what they did wrong and you can understand why you might be disqualified at some point in the journey.

The word “crave,” epithumeo, is the word meaning to desire for something. It is an obsessive desire, it is something that controls us. I use the illustration of an 800 pound parrot that says, “Polly wants a cracker—NOW.” It is that obsessive, driven type of thing in your life. Verse 6 says they were driven, they were motivated, they craved evil things.

Now listen, there is a difference in you chasing after sin or sin chasing after you. There is a difference there. They let that become the obsession of their life. It is like a believer who started rightly and somehow down the road becomes arrogant because of what he knows and what he understands and stops the discipline of denying himself. And as a result of that, instead of going on and knowing more, God just pulls him out of the race and sets him on the bench.

Let me ask you a question. Was there ever a time in your life when you loved Jesus more than you do right now? Has there ever been a time when you loved being in the Word of God more than you do right today? Has there ever been a time when you were burdened to pray far greater than anything that has hit you lately? Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Am I going forward or am I going backwards? What’s going on in my life?” Is God using you? Are you the vessel that God can use?

You ask, “Well, how do you know He is using you?” Sometimes you don’t, but usually you know if you are living denying yourself and saying yes to Him. He is using you whether you see the results of that or not. This is not perfection, this is predictability.

Well, that word “to desire” or “crave” can be used in a good sense many, many places. I just picked one of them. First Timothy 3:1 reads, “It is a trustworthy statement, if any man aspires to the office of overseer, the elder, it is fine work he desires to do.” So you can aspire to be a shepherd of a flock. God puts that desire within you. That’s something He builds up within you and gifts you for. That’s a good desire.

But most of the time the word epithumeo is used in scripture it is not used that way. Most every time it is used it has to do with a negative sense. So Israel made a huge mistake. It is just like a runner. If a runner stops denying himself, if a runner stops the discipline of denying himself, he is going to be disqualified. That is exactly what happens to the Christian and that is exactly what happened to Israel. When you take the very things that you have been saved from and start chasing after them again, look out because you are not going to be useable to God. That’s the key. It doesn’t mean God doesn’t love you. It doesn’t mean you have lost your salvation. It just simply means you have lost all the joy, all the sense of His presence in your life, all of that until you come back to the cross. You have been disqualified.

The term “evil things” is an interesting term and a very telling term. The word “evil” is the word kakos. Now that is the antithesis of another word, kalos, which is good inherently or constitutionally good. Over here is kakos, constitutionally bad.

Now I want to show you something in Romans 7:18. This is a very clear verse here. One is the opposite of the other. If one is not there, the other one is. Many times this chapter is debated over and over again: Was he lost or was he saved? I think he was saved. I have changed my mind over the years on that just by us doing the study of Romans. I believe he was saved and going through the same struggle we go through and being warned about by Paul. He says, “For I know that nothing good that word is kalos] dwells in me.” Oh, wait a minute; he has to be lost because Christ lives in us. Then he qualifies it, “that is [make sure you understand] in my flesh.”

Now let me ask you a question, if there is nothing kalos, good, in the flesh, then the absence of one determines the presence of the other and the antithesis of that is kakos, evil. Therefore, kakos is always present in my flesh. There is nothing good in it, there is only evil in it.

So what we are seeing here is that the word kakos that he is talking about, evil here in Corinthians, is directly tied to the flesh. They crave the things of the flesh. As a matter of fact, in Romans 7:19 he says, “For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.” Where does the evil dwell? In my flesh. What is he saying? When I choose after my flesh, that is the only thing that can result. Israel desired that which pleased the flesh.

We live in the 20th century. We all say we love Jesus. Do we? You know, if you could be a fly on the wall in my house or I could be a fly on the wall at your house, what is it you crave? What is it that drives you and motivates you? What is it that has caused a vacancy and vacuum in your life of saying, “I just don’t feel used any more. I don’t feel like there is a purpose in my life any more”? Could it be that you stepped off track, you have gotten out of bounds, you have gotten out of the lane, as Paul would say in chapter 9? You have somehow gotten your aim off of where you are headed and somehow you’ve begun to be motivated once again by the flesh.

“Well, not me. I don’t have these problems. Why are you saying it like that?” I am saying it like that because I am one of the ones I need to be talking to.

What are the symptoms of craving the flesh? We are going to take a little test here. Let’s just find out if you are craving the flesh.

First of all is idolatry. I can hear somebody say, “Whew, that is not in my life. I threw all those statues out of my house a long time ago.”

Verse 7 says, “And do not be idolaters [there is your first symptom of craving the flesh], as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play.’” Now, it is interesting that he starts off with idolatry; because that is the root of all sin. Corinth would have understood that, because it was the most idolatrous city in Greece at that time. Remember, if you were living idolatrous or immoral, they would say, “Look out, you are living like a Corinthian.” Corinth had all the temples to the pagan gods, pagan idols. It would take little imagination for them to understand what Paul was talking about. Of the 11 times the word “idol” is used in the New Testament, five of those times are in 1 Corinthians. Of the ten times the phrase “meat sacrificed to idols” is used in the New Testament, six of those times are in 1 Corinthians. Of the seven times the word “idolatry” is used, it is found four times in the book of 1 Corinthians. And so Paul said, “Do not be idolaters, as some of them were.”

That “do not be” is in the present middle imperative. In other words, as a lifestyle: middle voice, don’t you choose, don’t you make that choice. You see, the temptation of the flesh is never the problem. The problem is, we make the choice. Once I become a Christian I am responsible for every choice I make. I cannot blame it on the world, I can’t blame it on the President,. I can’t blame it on my wife, and I can’t blame it on my family. If I make that choice, then I make my choice. Present tense means not just once, but twice and three times and four times. Don’t let it become a habit in your life to where you choose idolatry. It is one thing again for fleshly sin to chase after you; it is another for you to chase after it. Now I want to keep saying that because there is a difference there. That’s what changes in salvation. The problem you get is when a person gets saved and goes back and chases after sin. That is an anathema to the Christian life.

The word “idolaters” is the word that means idol worshiper. It is the word eidololatres, which comes from eidolon, meaning idol, and latres, meaning worshiper.

One of the best verses I have ever found in all the studies I have done on what an idol is, is found in Habakkuk 2:18: “What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it? Or an image, a teacher of falsehood, for its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols.” Now what is he saying? He is saying an idol is nothing more than the imagination of the person who made it and it demands nothing really of yourself. Whatever demand you don’t like, you just change in the man. You made the idol, so you can change the rules. That’s all an idol is.

So when you think of an idol, folks, don’t just think of a statue somewhere like Nebuchanezzar built. Think of something in your own life that you have taken and put in the place of a living God, something that you bow to, something that takes all your emotion, all your time, all your money, all your energy. It is sucking it right into this. Has that become an idol in your life? It is an idol of your own making, a product of your own imagination.

The verse goes on to describe their idolatry. It says, “Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play.’” Now this is a quote out of Exodus 32:6. I do want you to turn there. We are going to look at the context here. Context rules. I want to share with you what happened. Remember, it hasn’t been long since they have been delivered from the power and the presence and the penalty of being under the captivity of the Egyptians. They had been set free miraculously, baptized through the sea, as they were baptized into Moses, identified with him, immersed, taken all the way through. Now they are on the other side, and look what happens here. This is what Paul quotes, “So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.”

Now, in order to understand that verse you’ve got to go back and read verses 15. This is a terrible time in Israel. This is right after Aaron has just made the golden calf. Moses has been up on the mountain. “Where is he?” “I don’t know. The guy hasn’t come back.” “So what are we going to do?” “Okay, build us a god to take his place.”

Look at Exodus 32:1. “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron, and said to him, ‘Come, make us a god who will go before us.’” You make us a god who will go before us, as if our God does not go before them. They have already been under the cloud. They have already been through the sea. All these things have already taken place.

How quickly they forget. How quickly we have forgotten what it was to be saved, folks. How quickly we have forgotten the desperation when we bowed before Christ and were delivered from the power and the penalty of sin. How quickly we forget it and how quickly we find something else to take God’s place in our life just like them.

“As for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So make us a god. Verse 2 reads, “And Aaron said to them, ‘Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.’ Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it into a molten calf; and they said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.’” Can you believe the blasphemy that comes from the nation of Israel? How quickly they will change gods.

“Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, ‘Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.’ So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.” We don’t know what the word “play” actually means, but we think it means they rose up for immorality, the play being a sexual term there because it always associated with all the idolatry in the Old Testament. These are the people of God.

You say, “Well, the problem in America today is the church.” I agree. But stop pointing your finger out there. If you are born again, the problem is us. We have replaced a living God with an idol. What is it? What is it we have replaced Him with? What is it that took you out of church? What is it that took you out of the Word because you found something better in it? Was it a job? Was it the fact that your company started growing so fast you didn’t have time to get in the Word of God any more? All of a sudden you were able to enjoy the things of this world that you couldn’t enjoy before and all of a sudden you didn’t need God anymore. That’s idolatry. Paul says to all people who are idolatrous, “They are going to be disqualified.” And Paul says, “I am warning you, I am warning you.”

I tell you, you think it can’t happen to preachers? In a minute it can happen. I want you to understand something. The ground is level at the cross, and I struggle with the very same things you struggle with. How quickly, because you have experienced and know and understand, we get arrogant with that and think we deserve it. We will put an idol in front of us.

Years ago I had a car given to me. That car was MY car. Man, oh, man, it was my car. You talk about becoming an idol to you, I wouldn’t let anybody drive it. I kept that thing clean. It was the first time I had ever had a power seat on anything. I would play with that thing. I would sit at stop lights and run the window up and down, just pushing that little button running it up and down, locking the doors. Push a button, FM/AM radio. Man, it was wonderful. Speakers all over the thing. Sitting in it was like sitting on your couch in the living room. It was wonderful.

One day I had to go to the hospital. Boy, I was enjoying the air conditioner because it was always hot in that place. I didn’t see this until too late. There was a piece of pipe lying on the side of the road just where my right front wheel would hit it. I was looking around. I was counting hawks, as a matter of fact, if you want to be real honest. Hawks would come down and sit on the wires on the side of the interstate. I was counting hawks. I had been up to 64 before, and I was just going to see if I could count more than 64 that day. So I wasn’t looking at the road. I was looking at the hawks on the side of the road.

Suddenly I hit that pipe and that pipe did a funny thing. It flipped up and caught the beautiful chrome strip that was down the side of the bottom of those doors and put a gash an inch wide and about a half inch deep. All the way down the side it was just ripped. I pulled over on the side of the road. Man, I kicked the tires. Good grief, that was MY car. God, why did you let this happen? It was almost like out of heaven God said, “Son, don’t you ever get that thing fixed. I want you to drive it every day of your life and I want you to let that mark down the side of it remind you, this is not YOUR car, it is Mine. And the very moment you start attaching yourself to it, you have just committed idolatry and that puts

1 Corinthians 10:7-12

Contents

1 A Caution to the Strong – Part 2

1.1 Idolatry is a symptom of flesh craving

1.2 Tempting God is a symptom of craving flesh

1.3 Grumbling is a symptom of craving flesh

A Caution to the Strong – Part 2

We are going to go back to verses 7-12 and look again at “A Caution to the Strong.” I guess I could have called that a warning to the strong. It’s the same thing. You have to understand that Paul is speaking to the Christians who understand. He is speaking to people who understand grace. He is speaking to those who have walked with God. It started back in chapter 8. These are the ones who knew that eating meat sacrificed to idols didn’t hurt their standing with God. He is not addressing the weak; he is not addressing the ones who are in and out. He is addressing the ones who are strong, and the warning is so clear. I don’t know where you are in your walk, but if you have been walking with God and you’ve been in the Word of God, then this is the group he’s addressing. So we need to take heart to what he is saying. The apostle Paul wants the Corinthian believers to understand that living the Christian life is not a once in a while thing. There is no way you can play games with God. In fact, the Christian life is very much like a runner who runs a race in order to win that race. Verse 24 of chapter 9 gives us the tone of what Paul is saying. He says, “Do you not know that those who run a race all run, but only one receives the prize?” Now certainly they knew this. This was Corinth. This is where they had the Isthmian Games. Now that he has their attention, he turns and says, “Okay, then run in such a way that you may win. Let your Christian life be a picture of what that runner is like from the time he starts until the time that he finishes. Be serious about your walk with God.” In other words, run to win. In verse 25 he says, “And everyone who competes in the games exercises selfcontrol in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath,” then he turns back to the Christian and says, “but we an imperishable.” Why would we not be in the race? Why would we not be paying the price? Why would we not be denying ourselves? Because there is a reward for every believer. It is not like in the games. They only had one prize. But we run like that runner would run knowing that all of us can receive an imperishable wreath. This is a Christian who has learned the discipline of denying himself. You know what that means now, don’t you? That means to say “yes” to Jesus. You deny yourself by saying “yes” to Jesus. You don’t have to worry about saying “no” to the flesh. You say “yes” to Him. And when you have said “yes” to Him, you have just said “no” to your flesh. That is the pattern of the Christian walk. If he walks that way, he won’t be disqualified. Remember, Paul said in the last couple of verses of chapter 9, “I don’t want to be disqualified.” Now he doesn’t mean lose his salvation, as we have said, but what he means is, “I don’t want to be taken out of the action. I want to be a part of what God is doing. I don’t want to be sitting back watching somebody else. I want to be right there where God wants me to be.” Well, in chapter 10 Paul turns to Israel as an illustration. He takes them back to the Old Testament, to stories that most of them would have been familiar with and says, “I don’t want you to be disqualified. I don’t want you to be cheated out of what God has for you, like Israel was, by your own choice to serve the flesh rather than Christ. That is his whole point. As a matter of fact, he says in the earlier verses of chapter 10, with most of them, speaking of Israel, God was not well pleased. Boy, that is an understatement. Only two was He pleased with, Joshua and Caleb, out of the whole nation of Israel. Now, Paul gets into the problem that Israel had. This is what he does not want the strong, those that are understanding grace, to do. He says, “Don’t fall into this trap. Just because Israel did, don’t you do this.” But what was the problem with Israel. Well, they craved the things of the flesh. Look at verse 6 of chapter 10. “Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved.” Now, the word “crave” has the idea of intense desire for something. What is the most intense desire that you have in your life right now? Is it Christ? Is it His will? Is it His Word? Well, if it is, hey, you are pretty much on track. But if it is anything other than that, look out, because a desire that pulls you, obsesses you and compels you. That is what the word “crave” means. Well, what did they crave? Evil things. Now I am not going to go into a study of the word kakos. It is the word that means “evil.” Yes, there are two words for evil. But this particular word, every time I find it, it is always associated with man’s flesh. It is an antithesis to what God is and to what God wants to do. In other words, if we could simplify it, we could say that Israel craved after the things of the flesh. That’s the whole problem. “Don’t fall into that trap,” he says. “Don’t detach yourself from Christ and attach yourself to anything that’s of the flesh.” Israel desired those things.

Idolatry is a symptom of flesh craving

Now this was very appropriate to the Corinthian believers. Remember, our whole context, they were attaching themselves to everything but Christ, desiring everything but Him. That was the reason the church was upside down instead of right side up. Now what are the symptoms of flesh craving? That is where we are today. That is the bulk of what we are talking about. We have looked at two of them. First of all is idolatry. Look in verse 7. “And do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play.’” Idolatry begins when one stops trusting God and finds something else to put in God’s place. At that very moment, idolatry sets in. He has gone the way of the flesh. I’ll tell you what, this is a subtle, subtle thing. Sometimes we can put good things in the place where the best thing belongs, which is God. Sometimes it is not as clearly seen as in other times. The Scripture Paul uses here in this text is a quote from Exodus 32:6. It is right after Aaron has built the golden calf. It is a horrible time in the life of Israel. They chose something manmade to substitute for what God was in their life. This idolatrous practice that they did is likened unto immorality. Verse 8 says, “Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in one day.” Now it is interesting how idolatry and immorality are tied together. You always see them together. Immorality is an idolatrous practice. The word is porneuo. It means to prostitute oneself to another, to play the harlot. Now there is a sexual undertone here, but that is not the narrow context of what Paul is using. You see, they obviously, in their idolatrous practices, would bring in that immorality, but that is really not what he is saying here. It is the thought of immorality that helps us understand idolatry. Idolatry is when you disengage yourself from the one to whom you are betrothed and you turn and attach yourself to someone else or something else other than Christ. Now that is idolatrous, but that is also immoral. You see, immorality is an idolatrous act. So he is not talking so much about physical immorality which is there, but spiritual immorality. Once a person has chosen something or someone else—it can be good, it can be a ministry, it can be a person, it can be whatever—but anything that takes the place of Christ, not only has he committed an act of idolatry, he has committed an act of immorality, a spiritual, immoral act. He has prostituted himself by joining himself to anything other than Christ. You see, that is what Paul is getting at. What did he say to the church at Corinth back in 1:12? Let me read it for you. “Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul [the first pastor]’ and ‘I of Apollos [the second pastor],’ and ‘I of Cephas [Simon Peter], and ‘I of Christ.’” Don’t worry, they are not the right group. This is the group that, if they get to heaven, they will have a fence built around them. Peter is going to say, “Shhh, they think they are the only ones up here.” I mean, they had the right person, but they had the wrong motive. Then in chapter 3 he talks about their immaturity. He says, “When I was with you, it was okay that you were a baby, but the problem is, you are still a baby and you have never grown up.” Then he says in 3:4, “For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not mere men?” He is saying, “If you haven’t grown, then evidently you are still living the way you were, and if you are living the way you were, that was not attached to Christ.” Babies attach themselves to things they can see, touch and feel. That was the problem of Corinth. They had not only committed idolatry, but they had committed spiritual immorality. What was the passage that he was referring to in 1 Corinthians 10:8? It read, “Nor let us act immorally as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in one day.” That is Numbers 25. This is when the children of Israel went over and began to embrace the false gods of Moab. Now last time we were talking about this, I kind of led you into the fact about the immorality of the sons of Israel and the daughters of the Moabites. That took place. That is not the predominant thought. The predominant thought is, they detached themselves from God and they prostituted themselves by going with the idols of the pagan people of the Moabites. Remember, Moab was the illegitimate, incestuous son of Lot and one of his daughters. They were avowed enemies of God. Their god was Baal Peor, and the gods of Baal were the permissive, idolatrous gods. Can you imagine these young Hebrews guys? They got over there and found that “Hey, I can be religious and do all this other stuff. Man, this is much better than what I learned down here.” I remember one time a fellow left our church for over a year. Do you know what he said to me? He said, “When I came here, every time I sat in a service I walked out feeling guilty. I walked out feeling convicted. I got tired of it and went to another place. That was a year ago. I am back, and I am broken and my family is completely gone. Had I stayed and listened to what God was trying to tell me, that probably would not have happened. But I didn’t want that. I wanted something that let me be what I wanted to be.” That is exactly what happened to Israel. They chose the gods of Baal Peor. They committed idolatry. But in the same way, they committed acts of spiritual immorality. Now to me, that is exactly what James is talking about in James 4:4. He says, “You adulteresses.” Can you imagine him calling the Christians adulteresses when they hadn’t committed adultery? Then he qualifies it. “Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world”—and he is talking about the system of the way the world thinks and acts—“makes himself an enemy of God.” Idolatry is when you have detached from Christ. You’ve attached to something other than Him and as a result of it, this has become a spiritual immoral act. You have prostituted yourself with something other than Christ. What could that be? I don’t know. Maybe it is work. Let’s get out of the Christian circles here. Maybe it’s work. I know a lot of men when their companies begin to grow, all of a sudden you don’t see them studying the Scriptures. All of a sudden you don’t see them at church. All of a sudden they start disappearing. Oh, we’ll be back. We’ll be back. Yeah, right. You never see them again because they have attached themselves to something that has so pleased their flesh. Who needs God? But I tell you what, there is coming a day that is going to be a payday and when they hit bottom, they are going to realize what they walked away from. This is the whole point. Could it be money? Could that be it? Could it be a hobby? Whatever it is, flesh now has its way. Here you have an idolatrous and immoral individual, not sexually but in the same sense, they prostituted themselves. They are believers who have attached themselves to something other than Christ, His will and His Word.

Tempting God is a symptom of craving flesh

Now we come to the third symptom. You may be saying, “Well, my goodness. This is serious stuff. I don’t want to commit idolatry. I don’t want to be a spiritual adulteress. Is there any symptom that I can understand in my life that as a person who understands scripture and is a person who knows grace that I can quickly see that would give evidence of why I have done this?” Yes. The third symptom begins to show the surface part of it, the thing that you can really see. The first two are sort of subtle, but the next one is very clear—when one tempts or tries or tests God. Verse 9 reads, “Nor let us try [or test or tempt] the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.” Now there is a progression here. I can’t help but see it. First of all, you choose to detach from Christ so your walk is no longer the same. You don’t need Christ like you did before. You don’t need His Word like you did before. You’ve got your bank account. You’ve got something else. Secondly, you commit acts of spiritual immorality by the fact that you are now seeing in your emotions, your time, everything is being drawn by something other than Christ. He just stands here waiting for you to come and fellowship with Him, but you don’t have time for Him anymore. Then it begins to surface and you are tempting God Himself. The word “try” is the word ekpeirazo. The word is predominantly used to try someone, to test someone, to prove that person unworthy or that thing unworthy, that he does not measure up. Let’s just say Bob lives in front of a creek. He has a little river running behind his house. Let’s say I go over to Bob’s house and say, “Can I play in your creek, you know, because I am a pastor and I need therapy.” So I get out in his creek and I am playing around in the water and I find some gold-looking stones. I am thinking, “Look at this! I found gold!” I get a whole bucketful and bring some of it to Bob. I say, “Bob, since it is behind your house, I am going to give you some of this gold.” I walk away and he looks at his wife and says, “He wouldn’t know gold if he fell over it. This isn’t gold. I am going to put it to the test to prove that it is unworthy.” That is the word peirazo. When you are proving something unworthy, when you are trying to see something break down because of the proof, not be held up but break down, that is the word peirazo. Now what could a believer do that would so put God to the test that would literally break down who He is? What could a believer do to tempt God that way? Well, we are going to see. Our text is God being tried, not man. God is being tested. The first time that God is ever tested in the New Testament by anything or anyone is in Matthew 4:1. You might want to look at it and see who it is that has the audacity to try to disprove God, to try to break down who He is, His character, to show the doubt that this one has towards God. You probably already know the passage and know who it is. It is the devil himself. It all starts with him. He is the one who has the raw audacity to put God, the impeccable Godman, Christ, to the test to try to disprove Him and try to break down who He really is. Matthew 4:1 reads, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Now that word “tempted” there is peirazo, the word we are looking at. He is there to try to somehow dishonor, disqualify, break Him down by the testing. Of course, you have these people who say, “Well, He could have sinned. His temptation is valid, but He wouldn’t because He is God.” Now, folks, I love you, but I want to share something with you. You are looking at it wrong. The word in the Greek for “test” is not what we think of in English. What the devil was doing was putting Him to the test to see if there was anything in Him that would respond to him, because he assumed He was mere man. He wasn’t sure, so he put Him to the test, and guess what? John says there was nothing in Him that he could draw out of Him. He had a body similar to ours but not exactly like ours. He wasn’t just man, He was all Godman. He was all God, He was all man. And you can’t start separating that. If you do, your theology is going to go right down the drain. The devil didn’t know what He was going to do. Boy, he found out. You go back to the book of Genesis and see every time God created a man, Satan would raise up a man. Then God would raise up a man, and Satan would raise up a man, like a chess game. It came down to Malachi and all of a sudden there was a lull, 400 years of silence, as if God was contemplating His next move. He already knew what His next move was; He knew that when the first man was created. All of a sudden, Jesus came on the scene. God didn’t create a man; God didn’t raise up a man; God became a man. And the devil said, “Uh oh.” All of a sudden the rules have changed. But you see, he had to be sure. He tried to kill the firstborn under Herod. I think that is why Cain killed Abel. I believe Satan got a hold of him, and he thought that Abel was going to be that man, because the promise came all the way back in Genesis 3. But now he knows he has got trouble on his hand; because, you see, Jesus has been tested and could not be disproved, could not be broken down as the test was intended to do. Instead, He was affirmed to be who He was. See, the nature of the devil and the mark that the devil has made on us is our flesh. It is the nature of our flesh to disprove, to tempt and to test God, to try to pull Him and break Him down in our testing. So when someone tempts or tries God, he has already adulterated his relationship with God in the progression here. He has already committed acts of spiritual immorality and now, by doing all of this, he has put God in a position to where by his lifestyle, he is seeking to disprove the very character of who God really is. How do we know we have come this far? Paul helps us by the example that he gives. Now, folks, I want to tell you, we preach verse by verse, do we not? I don’t originate these messages. They come right up out of the scriptures themselves. If anybody nails me with an agenda, you need to deal with God about it. I’m just dealing with the next verse. What is the key of knowing that you have disengaged yourself from God, committed spiritual acts of immorality and by your very lifestyle have tempted and tried God Himself? I tell you what it is. It is when you doubt the leadership that God has sovereignly placed over you. Now he is speaking to the church at Corinth. He is an apostle. He is speaking to men who understand grace but aren’t living up under it. And his whole point is, Israel made a huge mistake. Look where he takes them—Numbers 21:4. This gets a little tough to preach because it sounds like it is an agenda. I’ve asked God to please erase that from your mind. I am just going verse by verse. But I want to tell you, folks, this overwhelmed me. Look at Numbers 21:4. “Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom.” Remember, the Edomites would not allow them to come in. That is why God, I believe, is going to use Petra to protect His people in the last days. “And the people became impatient because of the journey. And the people spoke against God and Moses.” Now look here. Who are the people? The Israelites. Who are their leaders? Moses. And then, of course, he is following God. “The people spoke against God and Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?’” Now look at this, “For there is no food and no water.” Yes, there was, there was quail and manna. But then it says, “And we loathe this miserable food.” Now, what are they doing? By what they said of their leader, Moses, it showed that they had placed themselves into a position that knew more than God knew. They didn’t like the position they were in. It had to be Moses’ fault. They don’t like the food that they are eating. They loathe it, “so we don’t have any food,” they said. You see, the attitude towards spiritual authority in your life, towards leaders God has appointed, directly reflects how you are walking with God, whether or not you are idolatrous or spiritually immoral. They showed that they distrusted His motive. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness,” they said. By saying this, they were showing in their hearts that they didn’t trust his leadership. But they also did not trust his supply: “Why do we not have any food?” They just didn’t trust Moses by saying that, they were saying they didn’t trust God. In all of this, you see, if they had been God they would have changed the menu and if they had been God they would have changed the schedule. But God didn’t. And by what they said about their leaders, it reflected an attitude of their hearts. Remember who he is talking about, those who have experienced God, those who have walked with God. That’s the ones who put themselves in the prideful position of saying they don’t need God. Now this must be seen. They were tempting God. It was in their distrust. Why do you think a woman will not submit to her husband? Why do you think? Where does that come from? What is the root of that attitude? I’ll tell you what the root of the attitude is. The root is idolatry because she doesn’t believe God when God’s Word says for her to do it. Because if she was God she wouldn’t do it, and after all, this is the 20 th century. Why does a man not submit to the leadership God has put over him? Because he is the same way. We have a better idea. We are living in a day when people don’t respect the authority God has placed over them. People have chosen not to trust God. As a matter of fact, in our text, God judged them with the serpent. In Numbers 21:6 the Lord was grieved and sent fiery serpents among the people. They bit the people so that many of Israel died. I asked myself the question, why did He send serpents? I don’t know. I have to be quick to answer that. I have something for you to chew on. Who took the form of a serpent and tempted Eve to be unsubjective to her husband, but also to God? Who was the first one? That was the devil himself. And it is almost like God said, “You want serpents? Do you want to buy into what the serpent has told you? Do you want to live rebellious, thinking you know more than God and the leaders He has picked? Then you can have what you want, all the serpents you want.” And with that we also get the destruction that comes when we show we do not trust the sovereignty of God by complaining about our leadership, by complaining about the circumstances God has put into our life. It is incredible. That convicted me. How many times I have told the jokes about our president? I am going to have to ask him for forgiveness. God raises up kings. God establishes kingdoms. We, in America, think we know more than God knows. We don’t know what is going on in America. We don’t know what God is trying to do in our nation. Yet we complain and gripe. I tell you what, folks, that attitude out there has carried right inside the church of Jesus Christ. I was in 38 churches last year, and in almost every one that I was in, the pastor was beat to death by people who would not respect the position God had put him in. Yet they were the first people to quote scripture when you talked to them. That is what Paul is saying to the people who know scripture, to the people who are learned, to the people who know grace, who understand something. You had better live what you know. Which means the only way you are going to experience grace is by faith; and the only way you are going to live by faith is to trust God; which means if you are trusting Him, you can bear up under any circumstance and leadership you ever have to deal with. If you distrust leadership, that is idolatry and spiritual immorality. The author of Hebrews says something interesting to the believers. Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey your leaders.” Do you know what the word “obey” is? Peitho. Do you know what the word means? We don’t like it because it is the 20 th century and we don’t talk about stuff like this. It means to allow yourself to be persuaded by the people God has put over you because it is the position, it is not the person. You are trusting God in the person, not just the person. If you are living, trusting God, you can live under any leadership whatsoever. Do you realize that Aaron built the golden calf and God made him the first high priest of Israel? Boy, God you don’t have very many characteristics here. You see, God put him there. Why? I don’t know. You have to ask Him. But the people continuously complained against the leadership God had given them, and these were the very ones who had experienced His provision, His protection, His presence, His power. They all experienced it. Because they had experienced it, I guess they were a little more arrogant. The Corinthian church had done the same thing. Paul said, “You learned people, you people who have been in the Word all of your life, you could be the very problem in what is going on because you are not living up under what you are telling others to live. You are not living what you say.” Well, to the strong believer who understands grace, his downfall comes when he chooses not to trust God but his own flesh. Then he prostitutes himself, he attaches himself to whatever it is that takes God’s place. Then this surfaces in his distrust of the motives and the direction of leaders God has put over him. You say, “Well, my goodness, this is hard. I don’t want to be an idolater. I don’t want to be an immoral person in the spiritual sense. I don’t want to be that. I don’t want to distrust leadership. How can I know that I am distrusting it? How can I know that what I am saying is not something that could be good in the long run?” Paul doesn’t leave any questions unanswered here.

Grumbling is a symptom of craving flesh

Here it comes on the next one, fourth thing. All a progression: idolatry, spiritual immorality, then you have distrust of leadership, and then you have grumbling. James says, “Hey, you want to find out where you are? Listen to what you say and listen to what you are saying.” How do you know that you distrust the people God has put over you? The true outward symptom of the idolatrous heart is in this grumbling. Verse 10 tells us, “nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.” Now the word “grumble” is an interesting word to me. Have you ever seen somebody who didn’t like something? Perhaps your children didn’t like your authority over them. They are making comments as they are walking away, but they are not going to say it loud enough for you to hear it. They are murmuring under their breath. You know what they are saying. Do you know why? Because when you were a kid, you said the same thing. That is how you know what they are saying. What are they doing? They don’t want to be caught, but this is a grumbling, this is a murmuring. It is a muttering under the breath of discontent and of questioning the very character, even as they did Moses, of the leader. That is where it comes from. It has the idea of complaining, complaining, complaining. “Boy, I’ll tell you one thing. If I was in that position, this is what I would do.” There you go. In Romans 12:3, after the great message of grace for 11 chapters, Paul says, “I say this by the grace of God, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think.” Boy, do we love to climb up on that barbershop pedestal when we’ve got the floor. We let everybody know how we would do it if it was us. You see, a person who has become idolatrous is already detached. He is attached to something now outside of Christ. It may be a good thing and it may not be a good thing. This is why this is so subtle. Now by his lifestyle and by not trusting the leaders God has sovereignly put over him, he questions the very character of God. It comes out in the grumbling and the murmuring. Now you say, “Are you reading into that?” I don’t think so. Look in Numbers 16:3235. There is your scripture reference. He is as clear as a bell on this thing. You see, you can discuss what testing is, but then you’ve got to take it to the narrow part of the context we are dealing with. Just like here, the murmuring, what is he talking about? In Numbers 16:3235 a terrible thing happened among the leadership of Israel. Korah, Dathan and Abiram set up a rebellion against Moses, their leader. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been in a church where people thought of themselves biblically and other ways more qualified than they really were, took the reins in their own hands and were the instigators of a rebellion against an authority God had placed over them? I have been the result of some. In Numbers 16:32 here is what God did when they rebelled. Boy, you talk about taking it seriously. God killed them, not just those three but all of them who were with them. “And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up [I guess like an earthquake] and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah, with their possessions. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. And all Israel who were around them fled at their outcry, for they said, ‘The earth may swallow us up!’ Fire also came forth from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the incense.” Now, God severely judged Israel because of a rebellion that came up against Moses. Now this is not the point; that is the context. Here is the point. Go over to verse 41 and see how Israel handled it. After it is all said and done, after the dust has finally settled, Numbers 16:41 reads, “But on the next day all the congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, ‘You are the one who have caused the death of the Lord’s people.’” Now I understand that it is conv

1 Corinthians 10:13

Contents

1 Comfort in the Midst of Temptation

1.1 No exceptions

1.2 There is hope when we face temptations

1.3 Therefore, flee from idolatry

Comfort in the Midst of Temptation

When you study Scripture, don’t just grab a verse, but you stay in the context. How many times we memorize Scripture, and that is good, but we never memorize Scripture in the context from which it comes. Therefore, we grow up with verses but also with a misunderstanding of how those verses fit the lifestyle that God has given to us.

So the context began in chapter 8 as Paul was dealing with the spiritual ones in the sense of they had experienced God, they understood grace. They are not the weak ones, they are the strong ones. He addresses them and has been addressing them ever since.

Now we are going to focus on 1 Corinthians 10:13 and the fact that all sin is idolatry. Now that is tough, isn’t it? All sin is idolatry. Idolatry is simply a choice not to obey God and to obey our flesh. Remember in Matthew 6 Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters.” There are only two choices. Now one of them that he mentions there is mammon, of course, mammon being money. But we know that money is not the problem. We know that the love of money is. It takes it back to flesh, to self. And so man has a choice: either serve God, surrendered to Him, or the worship his flesh, which is the epitome of idolatry. All of us are going to be tempted toward idolatry. We are going to be tempted to crave evil things as Israel did, the things that the flesh desires. We will be tempted to adulterate our faith. That is what happens. When you are not surrendered to Christ, then you have adulterated your faith. You’ve gone apart from Him, you have trusted in something other than Him. We are all tempted to attach ourselves to someone or something other than Jesus Christ. Every one of us is tempted that way.

How do you know somebody is doing this? It will be seen in their attitude toward their circumstances, specifically by the murmuring that someone does toward what is going on in their life. You see, that means they are not trusting God. If you are trusting God, you know God is in charge of the circumstance. So whatever comes your way, you can just get up under Him and know that He not only created all things, He sustains all things. But if a person is living in idolatry, he is worshiping in his flesh instead of worshiping God, instead of surrendering to Him. It is going to surface and it will surface in the way life deals its circumstances to him.

And in our text, 10:10, Paul speaks of Israel in the same manner, but the murmuring is not just against their circumstances. Their circumstances led them to murmur against the leaders God had placed over them, against the authority that God had placed over them. Isn’t that interesting how that person murmurs and grumbles about his circumstances? That even is seen in an intensified way of murmuring against the leadership God has placed over him. If you are not trusting God, obviously it is up to you to figure out your circumstances, it is up to you for your opinions towards the leadership God has given to you.

Well, by doing this, we tempt God. Now that is what tempting God is. The word “tempt” means we erode His character to people around us. If I am going to live worshiping my flesh, if I am going to live doing what my flesh wants, then it is going to surface in my life. And when it begins to surface in my life, by what I say, my murmuring, my complaining, my distrust of authority that God has placed over me, what happens to the people around me who aren’t Christians is, it erodes in their mind the view that I was supposed to be giving to them. They say, “You know, that person talks a good game, but I listen to him, I hear him and I realize that person is not trusting God. That person gripes, complains and murmurs about everything, even the leadership that God has placed over him.” So we have no more witness to anybody that is around us. Just like Israel, just exactly like Israel.

You know, when you study Israel you learn a lot about yourself. I learned a lot about myself. Israel is the vine of flesh in the Old Testament. You see, they experienced the power of God, as we studied earlier in chapter 10. They experienced the privilege and the provision of God. And yet when it came down to the difficult circumstances, they took the matter into their own hands. And that’s when it began to surface that they had made a choice. They had made a choice not to go on obeying God. They made a choice to obey their own flesh and, as the last few verses of chapter 9 said, they disqualified themselves. They benched themselves. They missed out on everything that God had for them. So the whole key for us is not to sin, not to bow before the flesh, but to bow before God, to surrender to Him.

As we have seen, Paul uses Israel in chapter 10 to warn the Corinthian believers against idolatry. That is what was going on in Corinth. He says, “Listen, let me just get off of your case for a minute and let me show you Israel and let me show you how Israel relates to you, Corinthians. I want to show you where you failed, they have also failed.” In verse 11 he again points to the fact that what happened to Israel is for all of our benefit. He says in verse 11, “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

The word for “instruction” there is a word that is a little more intense than just simple instruction. It is the word that means warning. It is a warning. It has the root idea of encouraging somebody to the point of changing their behavior. So Paul says, “The reason I am bringing up the things that happened to Israel is I want you to change your behavior. I don’t want you to continue to miss out on what God has for you. Just like Israel, you have chosen to become idolatrous. You have craved evil things of the flesh and therefore, you are upside down. Now quit doing that. Change your behavior.”

Paul speaks of himself and the Corinthian believers in verse 11 as those upon whom the ends of the ages have come. That is an important phrase to understand. Telos means the accomplishment of something, when something finally comes to an end. You know, you run a race and you have an end to that race, as Paul talked about in chapter 9. That is telos. It is the word that means “I started and now I have come to the finish line.” He is saying the ages have come to an end. We are living in the ends of the ages.

“Have come” is the word katantao. It means to arrive somewhere. In other words, you have arrived. The ends of the ages have arrived, and you are here in it. Paul says to those of us “upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” Isn’t that interesting? Paul put himself into that way back yonder. Where does that put us today? In the ends of the ages.

The last days, of course, are when Jesus came to this earth. Did you know that? Look in Hebrews 1:2. When did the last days start? They started when Jesus came to this earth. Remember, this world has been around for a while. So the apostle Paul could easily say to those people in Corinth, “To those of us whom the ends of the ages have come.” All of the ages now are coming to their consummation. There is a finish line beginning to come more and more in sight.

Hebrews 1:2, speaking of God the Father, says, “in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” “In these last days,” he said. The word for “last” is the word eschatos, which means the extreme or the remote end of something. So here we are thinking the last days are coming, but the last days began when Jesus came.

It is amazing how we sing, “The King Is Coming,” and none of us really believe the urgency of that. We need to cling to that understanding. That is why John says in his epistle, “If you have this hope in you, you will purify yourself because you really do believe that we are living in the ends of the ages.” That alone should be warning enough to attach ourselves to Christ.

I don’t know what it is going to take in my life, I don’t know what it is going to take in your life, but isn’t it amazing how much we can know this truth, how quickly our flesh will respond, how quickly we will give into the idolatrous whims of the flesh? Paul’s whole context has been, “Don’t miss out on what God has for you. Don’t attach yourself to the flesh. It is not worth it. Look at Israel. Only two of them made it into Canaan. Don’t do that. There are things that God wants to bless you with now. Hey, we are not talking about your salvation. You have that in Christ Jesus, but attach the way you received Him, walk ye in Him, so that you won’t miss out on what God has for your life.”

Are we all listening? We can’t play around with this thing called Christianity. This is no game. Choices are there every day of our life. We are constantly put on the line to make a choice, either to serve Christ or serve your flesh. Paul says, “Don’t fall into the trap that Israel fell into.” Corinth had already fallen into it, and he is trying to get them out of it because it is going to be so costly in the long run. Sin will take you further than you ever wanted to stray, remember that? Keep you longer than you ever intended to stay and cost you more than you ever dreamed you would pay. That’s the direction of idolatry. When a person chooses not to surrender to Christ, he disqualifies himself from the blessings that were his already in Christ Jesus.

Well, Paul says in verse 12, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” How many times we think because of our knowledge we must be standing. Not necessarily. The Corinthians had knowledge, but they weren’t standing. They were upside down.

Verse 13 is our key verse. He says, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.” You may be going through a trial. You may be going through something that you feel like nobody could understand. The main tool of the devil is to isolate you to where you think that you are by yourself. Nobody else knows what you are going through. Well, I want you to know from this verse, you need to think again, because you are not going through anything that is not common to all men. There are different degrees and different times, and not every person faces every single temptation, but all men face the same kinds of temptations.

No exceptions

The apostle Paul is going to give us a word of comfort in the midst of temptation. There are three things I want us to look at. Let’s begin there in verse 13. First of all, there are no exceptions when it comes to facing temptation. There are no exceptions. Some people say, “Oh, man, if you just quote this verse and pray this prayer, you won’t have to deal with temptation.” Yes, you will deal with temptation. There are no exceptions.

Verse 13 reads again, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man.” That is the common denominator that draws every one of us together. Other than Jesus there is another common denominator, and that is temptation which is common to every one of us. Every man and woman alive struggles and falls to the same kinds of temptation. The word for “common” is the word anthropinos, which means that which belongs to man, that which all mankind can relate to.

So, whatever it is you are dealing with, there is somebody else already dealing with the very same thing. You are not alone. It is not as if you have been singled out. All of us deal with the same kinds of temptation.

The word for “temptation” is a difficult word. It is the word peirasmos. Now that is an interesting word. The context will rule as to whether it is a negative connotation to the word or whether it is a positive connotation to the word. Let me explain that.

In James 1:2 it says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.” The word “trials” there is the word peirasmos. Very obviously these trials are for our good. If a person will respond by faith, we know in verse 3 it is just a testing of our faith. That’s all it is. God will prove not only Himself, but He will prove the believer in the midst of whatever it is he has to face.

But then drop down in James 1:13 and he says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” The word for “tempt” is the same word for “trial” in verse 2. So you have a positive connotation and a negative connotation. You know that being tempted to do evil, to crave evil things, to be idolatrous, is not from God. But we also know that in the midst of the temptation, there is something else that is going on that is good. You see, in my view, temptation is a neutral experience. In the midst of it, God is using that difficult situation, that circumstance in your life, first of all to test you, to prove you, to build your faith, if you will properly respond to it. But at the very same time, the flesh is craving the evil way, it is craving the way of the world. There is a head locking contest going on here. And the fact of which one it turns out in your life is the way you respond.

So when you talk about the temptation here, remember, at the same time the temptation is going on, there is also a testing going on. God is simply saying, “Obey Me. Bow, surrender.” But on the other side the flesh is saying, “I don’t want to. I don’t deserve this. I want to go my own way.” That is the conflict that goes on in the midst of these trials that we all have to go through, all of us have to go through.

Well, in the context of 1 Corinthians we realize that Paul’s emphasis here at the first part of the verse is on the negative end of that temptation. He speaks of that bait that is out there that somehow is luring us to crave after evil things, whatever that bait is. Whatever baits, in the midst of a difficult circumstance, that pulls his flesh into doing and craving evil things, that is the same bait every one of us have to deal with. There is nothing new under the sun. All of us have the same kinds of temptations.

Verse 13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man.” Now the word “overtaken” to me gives us a clue as to what he is talking about here. The word in the King James Version is simply “taken you.” We see “overtaken” in the New American Standard and I think that is more of the sense of what he is saying. The word is lambano.

The form of this word is only found in one other place in all of scripture. It is found in Revelation 8:5. It says, “And the angel took the censor [that is the exact same word] and he filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it to the earth.” In other words, the angel took the censor in his hand. He grasped it and held it in his hand. It was his possession. The angel took the censor.

Here it says the temptation has taken you. Now there is a sense of the way you have to deal with temptation, but there is also the sense that when the temptation has now overtaken you, it has you in its grasp. Paul is saying, “Listen, you Corinthians have failed. But I have just shown you that Israel also failed. I am trying to show you that there is comfort in the midst of this failure. Everybody around you has failed in some kind of temptation very similar to what you fell into.”

We know the situation at Corinth. Some are of Apollos, some are of Paul, some are of Cephas. They failed. They have chosen to obey their flesh. Like babies, they won’t grow up. So the apostle Paul is saying, “Hey, concerning this temptation that has overtaken you, it has you in its grasp, you have yielded the wrong way, you have gone the negative route, you’ve allowed your flesh to respond to it.” To me he is about to give some comfort to those who have failed as a result of all of that. He comforts them by letting them know that every believer has failed similarly in different situations in their life. “There is no temptation that has overtaken you but such as is common to man.”

You know, folks, I honestly believe that term discipleship, what we have done over the years, could have been the most detrimental thing we have ever done in our life, because we have led people to think that there is an arrival point. And friend, I want to tell you something, Christianity is not an arrival, it is a pursuit. The same things you thought you learned 20 years ago are the very things giving you trouble today. It is not a matter of fact that we possess truth. It is that truth must possess us and be honest about it. Every one of us has failed when it comes to temptations.

There is hope when we face temptations

So Paul says to the Corinthians, “Listen, concerning the temptation which has overtaken you.” That is important for us to see. Every one of us can fit into that scenario. Well, not only is there something that we have in common as we face temptations, but secondly, there is always hope when we face temptation. Paul is trying to pull them out of the understanding of their failures. He is trying to put them in a position to where they can understand where their victory comes from. How can I be in the midst of all the things that I have to deal with and how can I come out right on the other side? He is going to show you.

He says in verse 13, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man.” Then he mentions the first thing that you have to anchor to. He says, “and God is faithful.” Now, folks, let’s not go any farther. That is where you start. Is God faithful or is He not? The person who chooses not to submit to God announces to the world that he believes God is not faithful. That is his announcement; that is what erodes the very character of God. But that doesn’t change anything. God is faithful, no matter how we are living to present an image that He is faithful. He is faithful regardless. That is who He is. That is His character.

“And God is faithful.” There is no verb there. When the Greek construction says something like that and leaves the verb out of it, that just raises it up and elevates it even more. It is like it puts it in concrete and it announces to the world there has never been a time when God was not faithful. There is not a time now and never will be a time when God is not faithful. He is faithful.

Now what does the word “faithful,” pistos, mean? Faithful means worthy of putting our trust, worthy of our belief, worthy of me putting all my confidence into Him. Sin is when I put my confidence in my flesh. But when I obey I put my confidence into Him. God is always faithful. He is worthy, Paul is saying to me, “In the midst of your temptations when you cannot figure out what is going, He is always worthy. Anchor to Him. He will never let you down.”

That is the whole point. We’ve got to start there. Do we believe God is faithful? We are all going to have the same common temptations and we all are going to fail in those temptations and many times have victory. It doesn’t mean constant failure, but we are all going to have to deal with that. Accompanied with those temptations is the fact that God is worthy of our confidence. That is two truths that you have got to put side by side. In the midst of the fact that we are all going to suffer the same type of temptations, accompanied with that is that God is faithful.

Paul, early in the letter to the church at Corinth, had already addressed this, back in 1:9. This is not something new. He is just going back and rehearsing what he has already said. And as he talks about what the Christian ought to be, how to live right side up, he announces, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” If you ever want to look at the faithfulness of God, go back to the fact and see that He was so faithful that He called you into fellowship with His Son, Christ Jesus. If He wasn’t faithful, you wouldn’t be here today. He is faithful to His character, to what His purposes are. He is faithful.

In a very similar passage, Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. Look over in 2 Thessalonians 3:3. I want you to see this, because continually through the New Testament you find this phrase, God is faithful. You’ve got to lock that down before we can go any further. In the midst of temptation, whatever it is you are going through, stop isolating yourself and saying nobody understands me. Everybody around you understands to some degree because we all have to face the same type of thing. That is a cop out. That is a fleshly way out. Instead, come to the basis of truth. God is faithful.

Second Thessalonians 3:3 says, “But the Lord is faithful.” Now look at what He will do, “and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.” It is almost identical to what he is dealing with there in Corinthians.

Over in 2 Timothy 2:13 he is reminding Timothy, his son in the faith who is ministering there in Ephesus, of something. He says, “If we are faithless.” I love that. This is a beautiful contrast here. God’s faithfulness has nothing to do with my faithlessness. He says, “He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.” So even when I don’t believe Him, even when I don’t trust Him and even when I am turning towards my flesh, God is still faithful. He cannot deny who He is. He is faithful to chasten and discipline and scourge those who are His own. He is faithful. He never stops being who He is, even though we are the faithless ones.

Look over at what the author of Hebrews wrote in Hebrews 10:23. These passages would be good to mark in your Bible just to keep because these are pillars that everything rests upon. When you are going through difficult times and you can’t reason it out and you can’t figure it out and you are failing half the time by giving into your whims of your flesh, turn to them. The author of Hebrews exhorts the people that he is writing to. He says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.” Our hope is not only in the presence of Christ but the coming of Christ, the presence of Christ in me and the hope and the certainty of that. He says, “Let us hold fast to that confession.” No matter what you are going through, hold fast. He says, “for He who promised is faithful.”

I tell you what, friend, that is an anchor there. When you are going through difficult times and your flesh is pulling you to respond and become idolatrous, adulterate your faith, to prostitute your walk with God by latching on to what it wants to do rather than what God wants you to do, at that time, you throw that anchor on the fact that He that promised is faithful. And I know what is coming. I know He has already sent His Spirit to live in me and I am going to stand on that. I am going to cling to Him.

Look at 1 Peter 4:19. Peter was exhorting those persecuted believers in Asia Minor. And they were suffering. This was the worst time of suffering that you can find anywhere in the New Testament. It is very, very imperative that we understand the heat of the moment. And when you think you are being tempted and you are in a situation that nobody else can understand, I want to tell you something, He will put you right beside the people of Asia Minor during the time of this writing. Nero had burned Rome and blamed the Christians for it and now he is burning Christians. He put them on posts and doused them in oil and burned them for torches while they had their orgies. He put them in animal skins and put them in arenas and people would come to watch the animals eat them alive. This was a tough day. And yet the Christians would walk out into those arenas, knowing what was going to happen, singing the great choruses and the hymns of faith. And the people marveled, “How could they do that?” Because they were locked on to something.

Look here in 1 Peter 4:19. “Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.” I tell you what, that knocks a blow to the people who say we are not supposed to suffer if we know the Lord Jesus Christ. Because He is faithful; His character is impeccable.

Look at Revelation 19:11. I tell you what, this doesn’t mean anything until you are at the end of yourself, until you are in a situation that you cannot understand, you can’t comprehend, and your flesh is telling you all kinds of things. But God, as a pillar in your life, is saying, “Are you trusting Me or are you trusting your flesh?” This is when it begins to help you. I love this. “And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war.” Boy, He is faithful all the way through. He is impeccable.

Now why in the world would a person become idolatrous? Why did Corinth become idolatrous? Why would they not grow up in their faith? Why would they not anchor themselves to Christ and His Word? Why did Israel do that? Listen, all of us have to face the same temptations and the pull of the flesh doesn’t get any better. Thank God, the Spirit of God is never changing. He is never changing. God is faithful. You’ve got to anchor that down or you will not go any further in the verse.

The first thing he wants you to know is there are no exceptions when it comes to temptations, but then he wants you to know that when you face these temptations, there is something you really need to latch on to, our God is faithful. Now Paul goes on to describe what God is faithful to do for us when we are tempted, when the heat is turned up and we are tempted.

Verse 13 goes on to say, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful.” Now watch. There are two things he mentions. First of all, God can be trusted not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. He says, “and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.” Now, He is worthy of our total confidence, and we can be confident of this very thing. He can be trusted never to let us go through something we are not able to endure. Have you ever been going through a trial and you got to a point and said, “I cannot take any more”? Yes, we have all been there. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.

The word for “allow,” now this is important, is the word eao. It means to permit or to allow. But now wait a minute. Let’s take it another step. The other step is, somebody is in authority and that authority chooses not to allow something to take place because he has the authority to do that. Now that is what is exactly here. God is in control of whatever is going on in my life. He is in control. He is an authority and He chooses not to allow anything to come into my life beyond what I am able to endure.

The word “not” is ou. It means not in any way, shape or form. God is in charge of all that takes place. He will not in any way, shape or form let anything come into my life that I cannot endure.

“[A]nd God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond.” The word “beyond” is a good translation of the word huper. It means above or beyond, outside the realm of. The verse goes on, “what you are able.” And the word “able” refers to my power and my ability.

Careful, careful, because you are going to have to hinge this whole verse together or you will miss it. The first truth is, God is faithful. Now He is faithful to do what? You can always trust Him never to put anything on me that is beyond, out of the limits of what I am able to endure. So what does He do?

Well, look at the second part of it and you will begin to understand. God can be trusted to give us ability to endure whatever temptation we are facing. You see, God knows something. Have you ever tried to tell Him, “God, this is what I cannot do,” as if you are going to tell Him something He doesn’t know. God already knows that. But what He is going to do is give you the ability to do what you cannot do. We attach ourselves to Him in the midst of temptation. That is the time we begin to discover the difference in what I can’t do and the difference in what He can do. So all of a sudden, it doesn’t become a matter of rating temptation as to what is the heaviest for me; all of a sudden it becomes a matter of if I am surrendering to Him. There is nothing that can come into my life that He will not enable me to go through.

Look at the verse. He says, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also [watch out now] that you may be able to endure it.”

Now the first thing you’ve got to realize here is He doesn’t deliver us from it. It looks that way at first reading. He doesn’t deliver you from anything. He delivers you in the midst of it. He already knows what we cannot do. Trials, as a matter of fact, James shares, drives us to the point of admitting what we cannot do. When we cry out to Him, that’s when He does in us and through us what we couldn’t have done to begin with. This is the whole thing.

What Paul is saying is, “God is not going to lift the temptation. God is not going to water it down. God is going to leave the temptation like it is.” That doesn’t change, but we change in the midst of it when we begin to realize what He can do as opposed to what we can do.

Look at the phrase, “but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also.” The word “with” is the word sun. That word is used with intimacy. There is something intimately related to this truth that we all have to deal with temptation. What is intimately related to it? That in all temptation, no matter what the trial is, no matter how heavy it is, God in us will give us ability that we don’t have and deliver us, not from it, but deliver through it. This is critical.

He says, God “will provide the way of escape also.” The word for “provide is

1 Corinthians 10:15

A Word to the Wise – Part 1

I hope we will understand what the apostle Paul is doing here. I love him. Peter said of Paul, “You know, he says some things sometimes that are over our heads. They are hard to understand.” I like that, because Peter was a fisherman. What did he know about what Paul was talking about? Thank God, we have the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to us today.

One of the things that convicting me as I study 1 Corinthians is the fact that all sin is idolatry. Now that is a perspective that has not been very clear in my life. First Corinthians makes it very clear. All of sin is idolatry. We choose to obey our flesh. Everybody does it, from the small to the very big. When we choose to do that, to attach ourselves to anything other than Christ, it is an act of idolatry.

In 1 Corinthians 1:12, Paul says, “Some of you are of Paul, some of you are of Apollos, and some of you are of Cephas.” Then again over in chapter 3 he talks about how immature they had become, intentionally. He says, “You won’t grow up. You won’t come out of the nursery, and as a result of that, you are still attached to Paul, you are still attached to Apollos.”

So Corinth was the epitome of a church living chasing after idolatry. They were not embracing Christ. They were not embracing His Word. They were embracing the flesh and anything that pampered or made the flesh feel better. Paul has shown the Corinthian believers that it is this sin of idolatry that disqualified Israel.

Remember as we come into chapter 10 he mentions Israel as his example. The disqualifying doesn’t mean losing something in the sense of they had already experienced His deliverance, His protection, His presence, His power. But they did miss out on all the blessings that God wanted to give to them. They chose to adulterate their faith. Very skillfully, in verses 710 of chapter 10, the apostle Paul takes four sins of Israel and weaves them together to paint a picture that nobody can miss.

He mentions idolatry in verse 7. In verse 8 there is immorality. Immorality was certainly involved in a physical, sexual sense, but that is not really the meaning here. The meaning is more of spiritual immorality. When you or I choose to embrace our flesh rather than embrace Christ, what happens is, we have adulterated our faith. Now I want to tell you something, folks, that will make you go home and think about sin in a way that perhaps you hadn’t thought about it before. We adulterate, we prostitute our faith because we are no longer trusting God. We put our trust into our own flesh. That is a spiritual act of immorality. And of course, in Israel it did involve the physical but the spiritual is what he is talking about.

Then he mentions tempting God in verse 9. The word “tempt” has the idea of putting something to the test in order to tear the character down, to disprove them. In other words, the lifestyle of Israel, by flirting with idolatry and by adulterating their faith, tore down any witness that God was the one true God. They eroded people’s idea of who God was to Israel.

Then finally, in verse 10 he mentions murmuring. That is interesting. They murmured against the very leadership that God had appointed over them. They complained because, you see, what they were reflecting was, since they couldn’t trust God, they certainly could not trust the leaders God had appointed. It is an interesting way in which Paul brings that to the surface. He tells them in verse 13 that there is never an excuse to fold in the midst of a trial. Listen, a trial is any situation where you and I have to make a choice between obeying our flesh and obeying Christ. To obey flesh is to embrace an idolatrous act and to adulterate our faith. To embrace Christ, of course, is what produces righteousness in our life. Paul says there is always a way of escape so that God will give you the ability to bear up under whatever pressure is on you. So there is no circumstance that will ever come your way forcing you to make a decision that God does not give you the grace and the enablement to bear up under it. And the escape is not from the problem. The escape is from our inability into His ability.

Paul says in verse 14, as we review, “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” And the word “flee” means to avoid it at all costs. Whatever you do, avoid letting the flesh rule in your life. This will disqualify you. This will take you out of the race. This will cause you to be benched and you will watch others be used when you yourself are not going to be in the game. Avoid it at all costs. Again, to attach yourself to anything other than God is the sin of idolatry.

It is amazing how many people cannot see this. I want to ask you a question. What are you attached to? Are you attached to a church? Are you attached to a job? Are you attached to a family? A mate? Whatever. You can be attached to a church. You can be attached to a lot of good things, but if we are not attached to Christ, then whatever else it is, that is what idolatry is all about. It is amazing how subtle this is. Many times people are not finding their joy in Jesus. They are finding their joy in something else.

Now, Paul is going to speak to the seriousness of idolatry. Remember the context, starting in 8:1. From there all the way to chapter 10, where we are now, has dealt with people eating meat sacrificed to idols. It is very significant that we pay attention to context when we get into these passages. He is going to deal with it again now. He is going to bring it back to the surface and show us how bad it is to ever embrace the flesh.

Look at verse 15 of chapter 10. He says, “I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say.” Now a better translation of that is, “I speak assuming you to be sensible.” The word “wise” is not the normal word for wise men. It is the word phronimos. It means people who are sensible in the sense that they can hear what you say. They can make a choice based on what you said and be totally affected by the truth that you are giving to them. So he says, “I speak to you as if you are sensible.”

Then he tells them to do something. He says in the last part of verse 15, “you judge what I say.” In other words, you take what I say, you pull it into your life and make some concrete decisions that will radically affect your witness to other people. “I have something to say,” he says. Then he begins to explore what he is about to bring out.

Paul is doing something here. He is going to mention the Lord’s Supper as an example. He is going to mention Israel and the partaking of the sacrifices to the altars as an example. Then he is going to use those two examples to point to eating meat sacrificed to idols. You are going to think, “Where in the world are you going?” Well, I promise you, Paul knew where he was going and I think I know where Paul was going, so if you will stay with me, we will get somewhere. So don’t go to sleep, we are going to do a little spade work here, but if you will pay attention to what we are saying, it is going to make the point just crystal clear to you in just a moment. It will take a few minutes to do it.

Eating meat sacrificed to idols denounces God

First of all, Paul tells them that eating meat sacrificed to idols denounces God in a person’s life. Now the whole reason he is dealing with this is to show how careful we need to be by presenting to others the image that we worship anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ.

Are there any questions about who you love in your life as far as your relationship with God? Paul wants to make sure that our witness is crystal clear, that the witness of the Corinthians is clear. Obviously it is upside down. He is trying to put them right side up. He is going to use the illustration of the Lord’s Supper to start off with. This is not a definition; this is not an exposition; but it is simply an illustration of the Lord’s Supper and how it is going to fit in what he is about to say.

Verse 16 reads, “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?” Now, the cup of blessing to the Jewish person would be the last cup drunk after a meal. It was then that a prayer of thanksgiving would be offered. Also, the cup of blessing was the proper name for the third cup that the Lord Jesus partook of the night before He was crucified. It came to be known as the cup of blessing. It was the Last Supper that He had with His disciples.

Turn to Matthew 26:27. Remember that at the end of the meal, the last cup was drunk and then a prayer of thanksgiving was offered. Well, this particular cup that we are speaking of here is that cup that the Lord Jesus took at the end of that meal and blessed. It was very important to see the significance. Matthew 26:27 says, “And when He had taken a cup [or the cup] and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you.’” He took the cup and gave thanks and then said, “Drink from it, all of you.” That is the cup that we are talking about here. It is recorded again in Mark 14:23 and Luke 22:17.

This cup of blessing came to be known in the Christian church as the Holy Eucharist. The verb for giving thanks in the passage that we just read and also cited in the other two gospels is the word eucharisteo. It comes from eu, which means good or well, and then the word “grace,” charisteo; good grace. It has the idea of giving thanks now for the grace that God has given to us, this grace that comes from God and completely changes the heart and life of the individual.

Now here is where you begin to realize that, when you partake of the cup of blessing, you have to be a believer. It makes no sense to the world to partake of the cup of blessing because it is the cup of blessing by which we give thanks for the grace that we have received from the Lord Jesus Christ. It became known as the Lord’s Supper. It was and is an institution of thanksgiving. It was and is the celebration of the death and the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism pictures His death, His burial and His resurrection. But the Lord’s Supper points to His death, it points to the price, the suffering that He paid for you and me.

The term “blessing” in the little phrase “cup of blessing” is the word eulogia. It comes from eulogeo, which means to speak well of. In other words, to give thanks as in giving thanksgiving. We get the word “eulogy” from it. You know, sometimes you go to a funeral and somebody gives a eulogy of somebody. That is where the word comes from. When the cup of blessing was taken by the believer, the one holding that cup with the wine or the juice in it, he would hold it there and would be overwhelmed in the remembrance of what Jesus Christ had done for him. He would be overwhelmed that God would so love the world that He would send His only Son into this world to die for us so that whoever believes would not perish. That gratitude, that overwhelming awe that he would have, by holding that cup and remembering what it represented, what it symbolized, would emanate into a prayer of thanksgiving.

Hopefully when we have the Lord’s Supper, that is what each of us goes through. That is what we set it up for, but you cannot determine how an individual either thanks or gives gratitude or what he does when he receives that cup. But that is the idea, a remembrance. It is a very significant thing.

Paul says in verse 16, “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless.” You see, the whole idea is for the blessed to say good things. We want to be thankful, we want to say great things and wonderful things about Christ who shed His blood for us.

Then he says, “a sharing in the blood of Christ?” Now the term for “sharing” has got to be understood because he is going to come back to this three times. The term “sharing” is the word koinonia. It has several ideas. It means to have in common with somebody else. It means to participate in. It means to have partnership with others. It is the same word used in 1 Corinthians 1:9 when it talks about we are called into fellowship with His Son. It says, “God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” It is the same word used when we participate in [[the fellowship of His suffering]]. Remember what Paul said in Philippians 3:10, “That I may know Him and the powerful of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death.” It is the same word used in 2 Corinthians 8:4, to speak of the support that the people gave toward the saints; whenever you give, you participate in something. It says, “Begging us with much entreaty [speaking of the church in Macedonia], for the favor of participation in the support of the saints.”

You see, when you are properly sharing in the cup of blessing, we spiritually identify not only with Christ but with one another. There is also a participating together. You see, this is one of the ways that you know believers. They partake of the cup of blessing. They have the Lord’s Supper. They come together. This identifies us as people who have been blood bought, who are grateful for the work of grace that God has done in our life. All of it is due to the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. It is more than just a symbol, but it is a profound celebration, a profound communion, a sharing, a spiritual experience when Christians partake of the cup of blessing.

Now, in no way does it mean to literally partake, and that is important to the context. It does not mean literally to partake. This is the doctrine of transubstantiation and consubstantiation. That is the Roman Catholic Church’s belief. They say that when you partake of communion, you partake of the wine, you literally partake of the actual blood of Christ, as if He is being crucified all over again. They say when you partake of the bread, you literally partake of the body of Christ. But in no way can this be true. You say, “How do you know that?” Because when Jesus blessed the cup on the night before His crucifixion, He had not yet shed His blood. He blessed the cup anyway. The cup became a memorial, a symbol of His death and of His crucifixion that was impending upon Him. So how could it become the blood of Christ, when it was never meant to be the literal blood of Christ but symbolic of what He was about to do?

That is what the Lord’s Supper is. In no way does it mean to literally share in the blood. You have already shared in that when you were saved. You were cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. So by sharing in, he has the idea of identifying with, he has the idea of the fellowship, the commonality of believers when they partake of the cup of blessing. That is the meaning and it also holds true for the rest of the verse.

He says in the last part of verse 16, “Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?” The breaking of bread is, of course, the act performed during communion. There was one loaf, and all members partook of that one loaf. The bread is the picture of Christ’s body, a body that was made up of real flesh and real blood. He lived on this earth as the God/man. We celebrate His death and the shedding of His blood when we partake of the bread and when we partake of the cup.

Some people say the shedding of the blood is just symbolic. Well, now wait a minute. It was the shedding of the blood that satisfied the justice of God. It was the dying of the body that satisfied the love of God. And so when we take this ordinance, when we come together, we identify ourselves to the world as believers. We are giving thanks to God. Through His grace He has completely saved us, and we want to give our thanksgiving unto Him. We celebrate the cup, and we celebrate the bread.

This is important and very germane to what Paul is about to say. As Christians we partake of this Lord’s Supper. Paul was not crucified for us, so we are not attached to him as he said in chapter 1. Jesus was crucified for us, and we are attached to Him. When we celebrate, this forms a bond, this binds us together for we are one.

Look at what he says in verse 17, speaking of that unity. He says, “Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.” In other words, all believers stand on the same ground. There is only one loaf and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, and we must partake of Him. All of us are unified in that fact. You know, there are no big “I’s” and little “you’s” in the family of God. Now sometimes people have more gifts than others, or privileges, etc. But I am talking about all of us came in the same way. We came in by grace, not deserving anything that God did. We came in the same way. The ground is level at the cross and there is unity in that fact. All of us came in one way and that was by partaking of the bread which was the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, that just simply strengthens that bond. When we partake of the blood, every one of us were saved and cleansed by that blood. When we partake of the bread, every one of us were affected by the giving of the body of Christ upon that cross. Our sins were put upon Him on the cross.

Now, Paul continues to clear up what he is saying. What is he doing here? Christians celebrate Christ. They celebrate Him by the cup, and they celebrate Him by the bread. They are unified together. They are identified together. They point a specific direction. Everything they do points to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now look at verse 18. He changes gears. He said, “Look at the nation of Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar?” You see, he talks about Christians sharing in the blood, sharing in the body, and now he shifts gears and goes to Israel sharing in the sacrifices of the altar. He says, “Look at the nation of Israel.” Now literally that should be translated, “Behold, Israel after the flesh.” Paul refers to the physical descendants of Israel, the physical nation of Israel. He does not speak to the spiritual descendants, and I will tell you why. In Romans 9:6 we read, “But it is not as though the Word of God has failed, but they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.” In other words, spiritual Israel would never be partaking of the sacrifices given at the altar. They would be with the Christians over here partaking of the cup of blessing and of the bread which would signify their thanksgiving for what Christ had done in their life.

But here is his point. When the Israelites sacrificed an animal to the Lord, the animal or the sacrifice was divided in three ways. First of all was the sacrifice itself. Secondly, there was a portion given to the priest. Thirdly, the one doing the sacrificing and bringing the animal would partake of the very animal that had been sacrificed. When the physical descendant of Israel—now understand what I am saying here—ate of the sacrifice, he was confirming his descent. In this way he expressed agreement with the whole system. He was saying, “I am a descendant of Israel. I am confirming the whole system.” This, like the partaking of the Lord’s Supper, was a symbolic act of acceptance of the traditional meaning of the altar in the Temple. This is what Paul is doing here.

He says an Israelite who has never been saved, will go to the altar. He will take the sacrifice. And when he partakes of that sacrifice, he identifies himself with Israel. He partakes with other Israelites. He partakes of that sacrifice. And so there is a oneness and bond of all those Israelites. There is an identification: You are of Israel. There is an identification with people who take the Lord’s Supper: You are of Christ. Two distinct, different groups here. Both identified; both, when they partake, they are in fellowship with others of like mind.

Now what in the world is Paul doing here? His teaching is that the partaking of the Lord’s Supper never makes one a Christian, but one partakes because he is a Christian. The partaking of the sacrifice of the altar never makes one a Jew, but a Jew will go and partake of that sacrifice. Why? To identify himself and to fellowship with the nation of Israel who also, likewise, does the same things. Both are illustrations of the Lord’s Supper.

In the illustration of the sacrifices offered by Israel, two things are there: one is identification with others of like mind, and two, a participation with them and a sharing in that observance that took place.

Where is Paul going with all this? Look at verse 19. He says, “Who do I mean then?” When I was studying, I was thinking, “Thank you, Paul, I am kind of wondering myself.” He says, “That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?” The first word of the next verse is, “No,” that is not what I am saying. In other words, the first thing he wants them to know is that meat sacrificed to idols is nothing. It is nothing. We are in Christ. Romans 8:1 says there is absolutely “no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” He has already covered this back in chapter 8.

Then the second thing he wants them to know, “Is an idol anything?” No. We know that there is only one true God. You can hear somebody say, “Well, Paul, why do you go to all this trouble talking about Christians observing the Lord’s Supper and Israel observing the sacrifices if eating meat sacrificed to idols means nothing and if the idol means nothing?” Here comes his answer. You see, it is a very serious matter to step outside the bounds of attaching yourself to Christ. You send a signal that is the wrong signal to the rest of the world. Paul wants them to know that the idol that is sacrificed to is nothing and the sacrifice is nothing. But there is something more serious.

Look in verse 20. “No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.” Here is why it is such a serious matter. You see, he is speaking to the knowledgeable, he is speaking to the arrogant people, as he talked about in chapter 8. They understood grace. They had no love mixed with their understanding, so therefore, they just flaunted their liberty over everybody and broke their brother. What he is saying to them is, “Hey, guys, you might be in standing with God—that is right, it didn’t hurt your standing with God at all, you are in Christ Jesus—but there is a much more serious matter that you didn’t look at. You were eating meat that was sacrificed to a demon and God says, ‘I don’t want you identified with or participating with those who do these kinds of things.’”

You see, “demons” here is in the plural. Every time you find them in the New Testament, in the epistles, they are always in the plural, not in the singular, as they are sometimes in the Gospels. That means you cannot identify them, and they are plural in number. It is amazing to me how many people go to great expense trying to identify a singular demon when in the epistles they are never in the singular, they are always in the plural. They are just simply unidentifiable demon spirits.

Let me show you what happens. When you worship an idol, when a person worships an idol, he is literally worshiping a demon. Go over to Acts 17:22. Paul was in Athens. This is a very important verse to understand. Acts 17:22 is better translated in the King James than it is in the New American Standard. Paul is over in Athens. He is waiting on his buddies to come over and he is bored to tears and looks around and sees all these false gods and he cannot keep his mouth shut. Paul was like Peter in a way. Every time he opened his mouth, he put his foot in it. He just has to take them all on.

Look at what he says in verse 22. “And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, ‘Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.’” Now that word “religious” is not a good translation. The word comes from two words. It is a great big long word, deisidaimonesteros. The first part of the word is the word deilos, and it means to fear. The second part of the word is the word for demon, to fear demons. Now, it was translated “superstitious” in the King James Version which is a good translation. They so feared the gods and the demonic of that day that they went to great expense and got over into superstition.

Do you realize some people can fear our God in an unjust way and as a result of that, end up in superstition? It is the same idea. The Athenians were fearful of the demonic, and in order to pacify the evil spirits, they built altars to worship them. Paul is saying, even though there is an idol sitting there, that they are literally worshiping demons. He is showing how the fact that they eat meat sacrificed to idols is to identify yourself with and to participate with, to share in those who worship the very things that are opposed to anything that God represents.

So Paul says in verse 20, “No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.” Now that is interesting, “sharers in demons.” How can some people say “sharers in demons” has a literal meaning when the other two illustrations did not? You have to take it in the context it is in. He means in the very same way Israel shared in with other Israelites and partook with as they took the sacrifices, the same way that when a person takes the Lord’s Supper, they share in something together. It is symbolic. Here again is the symbolism.

He said you are making your identity with those who serve the very things that are opposed to God. It is not a literal sharing, but a sharing nonetheless. You see, when a believer takes the Lord’s Supper, he sends a message and his message is, “I am under grace. I am overwhelmed by grace. I am amazed at the love that Christ showed to me by the shedding of His blood as I take the cup of blessing, by the giving of His life as I partake of the bread. I am overwhelmed. I am attached to Him and my identity and my focus is Christ all of my life.”

When you point in one way, your message is clear. But, you see, when you go and eat meat sacrificed to idols, Paul would be saying to the Corinthian church, you are sending a mixed signal. You are participating and identifying with people who worship demons and there is no way that you can do that. You end up participating in their evil deeds.

In 2 John 1:10 it says, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him a greeting.” It is talking about the gospel message. Isn’t it amazing how many times we do that, though, without realizing it? Verse 11 goes on, “For the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.” And that is the same exact thing Paul is saying. He went all the way around the block to come to the simplicity of the statement, “You cannot do this because you are sending a mixed signal. You are ruining your witness. You are causing the unbeliever to be confused, and you are causing the weaker brother to be confused as to who is the focus of your life. If you are going to line up with people who worship demons, how can you at the same time worship the Lord Jesus? In fact, it is an impossibility.”

Look at verse 21. “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.” That word “cannot” is the word ou. It means absolutely in no way, shape or form. You cannot do it. It is kind of like what Jesus said in Matthew 6, “You cannot serve two masters. You will love one, you will hate the other one.” In other words, you cannot continue to do this over here and confuse your message. Over here is your identity, loving Christ and being overwhelmed by the grace that He has shown to you.

He said, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.” He is telling them if you partake of meat sacrificed to idols, you are denouncing God in your life. He is going to go on later on to say if you are aware that the meat has been sacrificed to idols. There are times when it wasn’t and he is going to cover that ground, but I will not cover it in this message.

Have you ever tried to mix oil with water? Isn’t that fun? You know what happens when you try to mix oil and water. They don’t mix. I think Paul is saying, “Make sure your direction is in a way that is clear, that people know who you are and who you are identified with, who you are grateful to and who you serve.” If you try to flirt with idolatry—and in this case, eating meat sacrificed to idols—what happens is, you confuse others and you have announced that you don’t trust Christ, that you have embraced your own flesh. That sends a signal that kills the witness that you could have had. So eating meat sacrificed to idols denounces God in one’s life.

Eating meat sacrificed to idols provokes God to anger

The second thing Paul brings out is that eating meat sacrificed to idols provokes God to anger. You know, sometimes we just do stupid things. Now dumb things are when you don’t know any better. Stupid is when you know better, but you do it anyway. That is my definition of stupid. Why in the world would we agreeably provoke God to anger? I don’t understand why we do that.

Hebrews 12:6, “He chastens, He disciplines and He scourges those whom He loves.” Do you know what scourge means? It means to whip severely. He will take you right down to the very end. Now why would I invoke that upon myself? If I embrace my flesh, in this case eating meat sacrificed to idols, what I have just done is put my hands into the hands of a living God, and provoke Him to anger because He is going to chasten me, He is going to discipline me and He is going to scourge me.

Well, 1 Corinthians 10:22 reads, “Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?” The word “provoke” there is parazeloo. Para means the idea, to the point of, zeloo is the desire to be zealous, to make one jealous, to provoke unto jealousy. Idolatry provokes the Lord to a jealous anger.

Look back in Deuteronomy 32:17. Let’s look at Israel just for a second. This is exactly what Israel did. It is what the Corinthians were doing, and it is what none of us are supposed to do. Deuteronomy 32:17 is a very good verse to remember that God’s people can do this kind of thing. When you embrace flesh, you have just embraced idolatry. Deuteronomy 32:17 says, “They sacrificed to demons who were not God, to gods whom they have not known, new gods who came lately, whom your fathers did not dread.” So here is the same picture of what Israel d

I Corinthians 10:16

A Word to the Wise – Part 2

The first thing he is going to tell them is idolatry denounces God in your life. He is going to use two examples that you can’t miss. He is going to take Christians at first and their participation in the Lord’s Supper. Verses 1617 read, “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.”

Now what he is saying is, when we have the Lord’s Supper, there is a beautiful, spiritual intimacy that we are drawn together. Why? Because we are all celebrating the same thing. We would not be believers if we were not celebrating the Lord’s Supper. You see, believers celebrate the Lord’s Supper. The cup represents His blood, the blood that was shed, and the bread represents His body, the body that was broken and died. The justice of God is in the blood, and the love of God is seen in the body that was given and died for us. Now, we celebrate that. We are already one body, but we are bonded even more together when we have the Lord’s Supper. That is what it is for. It identifies us and in a very real way, there is a spiritual participation together.

So when people walk in here and they see you and me taking of the Lord’s Supper with thanksgiving in our heart, when tears fill our eyes as we remember what Christ has done for us, when they begin to realize this, we are now identified. Our message is clear. Our pathway is straight. People know where we point. These people love Jesus and celebrate what He did for them.

In the second illustration he moves away from the church and moves to Israel to show you the same principle. He says in verse 18, “Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar?” In other words, when they would bring a sacrifice, everybody participated in the sacrifice. You got a portion of it to eat for yourself. And as they would eat of that sacrifice that had been given, the first portion was the actual sacrifice. The other portion was for the priest. And when you would partake of that other portion, it simply meant that you were identifying. Just like a Christian would identify in the Lord’s Supper, these people would be identifying with all of Israel and saying, “We hold true with their ritual, with their tradition, and in the fact that they rejected Jesus being their Messiah.”

All of that would in the one package, but there would be a clear message and everybody around would say, “Yes, sir, those people went to the altar, those people sacrificed, those people identified themselves as Israel.” A Jew who has been saved would not go the altar and give a sacrifice. He would be over here with the Christians celebrating the cup and celebrating the body of Christ. But at least they are identified.

You know who the Jew is. You know who the Christian is, but then he brings his point in verse 19. He says, “What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything [“Am I saying that? Am I putting the idol worship into some kind of category that would equal what I just illustrated?”], or that an idol is anything?” He quickly answers his own question and says, “No!” But he said there is a more serious principle here that we need to see. He says, “No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.”

Now, he says, “I don’t want you to be identified with them. I don’t want you to participate with them. You are sending a mixed signal. That is more important than the fact that there is no such thing as an idol. It is more important than the fact that meat sacrificed to an idol will in no way hinder you in your standing with God through Christ Jesus.” That is not his point. His point is, you are sending a mixed signal. A man who points in every direction points in no direction. But if we point in one direction, then everybody knows which way we point. And he says, “Therefore, live your life that way.”

An idolatrous lifestyle is when flesh says “I want to do it this way,” but by doing it this way, pulls the witness away from what our focus really ought to be. He says in verse 21, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord....” You cannot do it. “Cannot” means you cannot in any way, shape or form. “You cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.” You can’t do that. The two won’t mix. You take oil and try to mix it with water. They won’t mix. You take idolatry and try to mix it with Christianity, and it won’t mix.

What is happening in the 20th century is people who haven’t learned that yet. They still try to mix the world into their lifestyle, and at the same time practice living as a Christian and the two cannot coexist. And what happens is, you end up embracing flesh rather than end up embracing Christ and sending a clear witness to others.

Well, he says, in verse 22, a second thing. Not only does idolatry denounce God in your life and sends a mixed signal, but then secondly, it provokes God to anger. I don’t know about you, but I don’t do dumb things, I do stupid things—it is stupid when you know better but you do it anyway. And you see, what happens is, we provoke the anger of the Lord.

One of the greatest ways I know that I am a believer is in the chastening and the disciplining and the scourging of the Lord. I cannot get away with sin. How do you feel when you sin? “Oh, we don’t sin!” Oh, excuse me, I’ve got the wrong group. How do you feel? What is conviction like in your life? What is it like? “Conviction? Well, I haven’t felt that in a long time.” Are you sure you are saved? Because the Father said He chastens and disciplines and scourges those whom He loves. Do you know what the word “scourge” means? It means to beat severely. He will take you to the point of death to get your attention if you are His child. He is not trying to get you, He already has you. He is trying to shape you and conform you into the image of Christ Jesus. And so when people embrace the flesh, they provoke the anger of God.

He says this very clearly here in verse 22, “Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?” Is that what you want to do? “We are not stronger than He is, are we?” The word “stronger” is ischus. We don’t have that kind of inherent strength to make us think that we can do what we want to do, thinking that He can’t do anything about it. We are not that stupid, are we?

And then he says in verse 23, “All things are lawful.” Now, he doesn’t mean you can go out and shoot somebody. He doesn’t mean you can drive 110 mph in a 65 mph speed limit. What he says is, in regard to your eternal salvation when you have received Christ, all things are lawful and the fact that they cannot in any way destroy your relationship to God. But, he says, “but not all things are profitable.” In other words, you can make your own choice, but you can’t choose the consequence.

Man, how many times I choose my flesh! Am I the only one who does that? Can you relate to me? I do all the time. We are all in the same mess. Just making those stupid choices and killing our witness and sending a mixed signal all because the flesh wanted it and we embrace the flesh rather than embracing Christ.

He says, “All things are lawful, but not all things edify.” In other words, we need to be sensitive that we are building up our brother and not tearing him down. We can’t take our liberty under grace and flaunt it over our brother, because it suppresses him and defiles his conscience. Then we have sinned against Christ, as we saw in an earlier chapter.

Verse 24 reads, “Let no one seek his own good.” In other words, you don’t live for your own benefit. I tell you, that is tough when it is worked out, isn’t it? I am telling you, I am serious, you go through some of the business dealings in life that you have to go through and all of a sudden you have got to learn that you don’t live for your own benefit. You live for the benefit of others. I want to tell you, everything inside of you will scream at you and say, “This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my life. I have rights! This is mine!” What are you doing? God says, “No you don’t, buddy. You don’t live for yourself. You live for the benefit of others.” You have no option except to embrace Him if you want to walk free. Now if you want bondage, it is instant. Just embrace the flesh and immediately you put yourself back into the bondage from which Christ has delivered you.

There would be no idolatry if we lived to glorify God in all things

Well, we come to the third point. Number one, idolatry denounces God in your life. Number two, it provokes Him to anger; and who in the world do we think we are? Then thirdly, there would be no idolatry in the believer’s life if we would all live to glorify God in all things. Now, it is going to take a while for Paul to develop this.

This should be your purpose and my purpose. When we wake up in the morning we should say, “God, I don’t know what I am going to face today, but all I want is for you to be recognized in me. Father, help me to decrease so that you might increase in me today. May people look at me today and see Christ.” If we would live that way, we would make all kinds of concessions when it comes to our own rights, and we would make all kinds of choices to die to ourselves. This is the tough part; this is where the line is drawn.

Do you know one of the worst doctrines that is going around today? That God is not fair. Have you heard that? I want to tell you something, folks, if God is fair, then we are all going to bust hell wide open. I thank my God that He is not fair. I thank my God that He is just and righteous and is willing to come to this earth and pay the price for my filthy sin. I thank my God for that. And anything less than hell is grace. Now understand this, that is the way we live: It is not our rights; it is not what benefits me; it is what benefits Him, no matter what it costs me, so that the testimony of Jesus Christ might be seen in and through us as His church so that we don’t send a mixed signal, that we say one thing on Sundays and live another way Monday through Saturday. That is the whole point.

Well, let’s see how he develops it. In verse 25, he puts some balance. Can’t you imagine after he has just finished talking to people who understood grace and he has just told them that eating meat sacrificed to idols is worshiping demons, can’t you see them sitting there saying, “Do what? I mean, he is the one who taught me this, what is going here?” Paul evidently anticipated that and so he puts some balance in here so that you can think through what he is saying. He says, “Eat anything that is sold in the meat market, without asking questions for conscience sake.”

Now you know what the conscience is? It is a little Greek word that means the inner witness within you that tells you that something is right or tells you that something is wrong. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been going through the line at the grocery store and you gave them some money and they gave you twice as much change as you needed? Has that ever happened to you? Something goes through your mind and says, “Don’t take it, don’t you take it.” And the flesh says, “Well, it is their stupid mistake. It is mine. I mean, ‘finders keepers, losers weepers’.” But something inside of you keeps saying, “No, no, no, that is wrong.” What is that? That is your conscience.

You ask, “Well, how can some people have a different conscience than others?” Because truth enlightens the conscience. So it depends on how much truth you have been exposed to as to how your conscience is going to work. If you have not been exposed to truth, you can grow up thinking all kinds of things are right. You can go to some cultures and they have immoral practices that we would say are immoral, but in their culture, they don’t understand that. Truth has never enlightened their conscience.

Paul says, “Listen to me, you have been taught. Your conscience has been enlightened. Don’t walk around so paranoid you are scared to death you are going to do something idolatrous. When you go to the store to buy meat, buy the meat, go home and cook it and eat it and quit asking all the questions because you are okay in Christ. It is not going to hurt you.”

Now do you understand their culture? All of the meat practically, 80% of it, was meat sacrificed to idols. What are you going to be, a vegetarian? I mean, if you want meat and you go to the market, don’t ask the question, just go in and buy it and walk out. He says, “Don’t ask the question for conscience sake.”

Boy, it is amazing, if you will take this thing and apply it. Do you remember years ago when a major car company in America was cited in the paper for giving a large contribution to the communist party? Everybody said, “I can’t drive that car anymore, because they gave money to the communist. I am not going to buy that car.” Well, I hate to tell you but just about every one of them have done the same thing in one way or another, maybe not as directly.

You keep taking that principle. “Well, I can’t go to the store. That store sells beer.” Well, what are you going to do, mail order your food? Come on, let’s just get real. We are in the world, but we are not of the world. We have to eat. Go to the store, get the meat, take it home and cook it and eat it. That is what Paul said. Quit walking around thinking, “Good grief, is this the law or not?” He said don’t ask these questions for conscience sake.

Then he says in verse 26, “For the earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains.” Now does that have any meaning to anybody? Yeah, if you have stayed in Corinthians it should. Go back to chapter 3, and it has a lot of meaning. If the earth is His, all of it belongs to Him. Remember what we studied in chapter 3? Look in verse 21 of chapter 3. I mean, this is so powerful. By the way, if everything belongs to Him, that includes the cows and wherever the meat comes from.

Verse 21 says, “So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you.” Now wait a minute, I thought all things belonged to Him. Well, hang on, “whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.” In other words, He is God, everything belongs to Him and since you belong to Him, all things belong to you. Now go to the store, get the meat, cook it, eat it and quit griping. That is what he tells them. Quit walking around so paranoid you can’t even eat. Just go to the store and buy it.

Now wait a minute. He brings up another scenario here. One is buying meat at the market. The other one is in verse 27. “If one of the unbelievers,” now circle that: not a believer, an unbeliever. Remember, the Corinthians weren’t fellowshipping with the unbelievers. They had it backwards. “If one of the unbelievers invites you, and you wish to go, eat anything that is set before you, without asking questions for conscience’ sake.” Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. First of all, he says if one of them invites you. By the way, if you ever want to know the word of your calling, that is the word kaleo. That is the word here. It is an invitation. When it comes to your calling being salvation, He sent us an invitation, didn’t He, through John 3:16 and gave us the grace and the measure of faith to receive it? So that is part of that word.

But he says here, “If they send you an invitation.” What do you get an invitation for? Probably in their culture, a feast, a wedding, big thing, but it is an unbeliever having it and he sends you an invitation. He says, “if you wish to go.” The word “wish” is thelo. You don’t have to go. It is not sinful if you don’t go, and it’s not sinful if you do go. “But if you choose to go,” he says, “I have got something to tell you.” Watch this. I love this. He says, “eat anything that is set before you, without asking questions for conscience’ sake.” In other words, if you are going to an unbeliever’s feast, what is the assumption? The assumption is, 99.9% of the meat is going to be meat sacrificed to idols. That is their lifestyle. That is what they eat. He says, “But you are going as a believer, and you want to make an impact on this man’s life. You don’t walk into the door and address the fact that the meat is sacrificed to idols. No, sir. You take your fork and your knife, cut it up, eat it, put a little ketchup on it, enjoy it, because you are there for an eternal purpose. You are not just there to eat with him. You are there to affect him for all eternity.”

You know why that is? That is the heart of Jesus beating inside of you. Do you know who were the most unliked people in Jesus’ day? The Pharisees. Now you don’t understand the Pharisees unless you have been to Israel and been around a Hasidic Jew. Have you ever been around one? It is by the grace of God I have not put one in the floor. They are the most arrogant, push you out of the way. Why? Because we are dogs, we are dirt, we are Gentiles, and they are God’s chosen people! Well, I know that in Christ I can love them. I don’t like them. I want to tell you, that is exactly the attitude Jesus dealt with every day. He turned on them one time and said, “You whitewashed tombs, you vipers!” Jesus did that. I mean, it so irritated Him, this false religiosity which we see even in today’s time.

Well, Jesus, you know, He didn’t really like them, but He loved them. He came to die for them. Three times in the book of Luke He went to eat at the Pharisee’s house. And every time it says He went in and reclined with them. Do you know how they would eat? They would lay down. He would go and eat with the Pharisees.

The first time it is recorded is in Luke 7 and they wanted Him to come over. So He comes over, and a sinful woman comes into town and sees that He is Christ. She takes some alabaster oil and gets down and anoints His feet. The Lord Jesus received the worship of this sinful woman. Why do you think He was at the Pharisee’s house? Just to eat? He was there because they needed to understand that God loves even the most sinful. The Pharisees had such strict separation ideas that they wouldn’t even associate with anybody who wasn’t like them. And Jesus beautifully received the worship of this sinful woman.

The next time it is used is in Luke 11:3739. This is the time when the Lord surprised them that He didn’t go through the ceremonial cleansing before He had his meal. It says in verse 37, “Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table. And when the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal.” That was part of their ritual. “But the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness.’”

Do you think He was there just to eat? No, sir, He wanted those Pharisees to understand and the only way to teach them was to be in the home with them. He went for the divine purpose. He went to get their hearts. His purpose was to show them that cleansing on the outside is religion, but no man can cleanse the inside, only Christ can cleanse the inside. And to be saved, you must be cleansed from the inside out. Religion won’t cut it. That is the way He talked.

But not only that, in Luke 14:14, He has another experience and on this one, it was on the Sabbath. Man, they were watching Him like a hawk. What is He going to do on the Sabbath? You can’t blink your eye practically. As a matter of fact, you couldn’t carry a burden on the Sabbath. You know, they said if you had a handkerchief upstairs and wanted to get it downstairs, you couldn’t carry it because that is carrying a burden. So you could wrap it around your neck and wear it down. That is different. I mean, that is weird. You couldn’t move on the Sabbath because the Pharisees made man for the Sabbath. Jesus had to go and show them as He healed the man with dropsy. He healed him of a very serious disease at the time on the Sabbath, on that day, in the Pharisee’s home to show them that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

I share these things with you because Jesus went to the people who rejected Him. He went to the people who invited Him. Why? He didn’t just go to eat. He went with an eternal purpose in mind. Now, this is what Paul is showing them. When you go pointing in one direction, you have a purpose bigger than the purpose for their invitation.

Well, Paul says in verse 28, “But if anyone should say to you, ‘This is meat sacrificed to idols,’ do not eat it.” Push the plate back and drop the fork and don’t touch another bite. Now what in the world is he talking about? Could this be confusion or what? Let me show you what I believe he is talking about and I’ll try to prove it in a minute.

There were more people than him at that feast. Do you think the pagan is going to stand up in front of the whole feast and say, “Hey, folks, I hope you are enjoying the meat sacrificed to idols.” Good grief, the pagan eats that all the time and couldn’t give a rip. Here he is enjoying himself and he doesn’t ask any questions because Paul told him not to. He is sitting over there eating that meat that has been sacrificed to idols and he knows it won’t affect his eternal standing in Christ.

But there is a weaker brother there. What has been his context since chapter 8? Why would he change it now? The weaker brother comes over, the pious, weaker brother. They think they are the stronger. Have you ever noticed how the weaker always think they are the stronger? He walks over and says to you, “You are eating meat sacrificed to idols.” And when that weaker brother tells you that, immediately, Paul says, “Stop eating. Drop the fork and don’t touch another bite.”

Well, why in the world would he say that? He tells you. He says, “for the sake of the one who informed you.” What has been his context since chapter 8? The weaker brother, who doesn’t understand, defiles his conscience every time he gets around it. He says, “and for conscience’ sake.”

Now, whose conscience? He just told him not to ask any questions for conscience’ sake. Whose conscience is he talking about now? He clarifies that in verse 29. “I mean not your own conscience, but the other man’s.” In other words, what you are doing is not for your conscience’ sake. You haven’t been doing anything wrong, but to continue doing it would cause your brother to stumble and his conscience would be defiled. Therefore, you stop. Be sensitive to your weaker brother.

Then he goes on and he puts himself in this position. He says, “for why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience?” In other words, it is not going to be judgment on me, it will be judgment on him. Therefore, be sensitive.

Now I know one of the questions that has got to be going through your mind. It went through mine. How do you know when to eat? I mean, it gets a little confusing. Do you carry a little list around? No. God didn’t give you the map. He gave you the guide. You’ve got to stay as close to the guide as you possibly can. Be sensitive when He speaks. You don’t even have to know that there is someone there who is being offended. The Holy Spirit of God will let you know.

Well, how does He let me know? Let me give you this illustration. If my Mom would call me right now, that would be a miracle—she has been in heaven 17 years. If she called and I picked up the phone, “Hello, Mom,” and she would say, “How did you recognize my voice? I have been dead 17 years.” I would say, “Mom, I spent so much time with you down here on this earth, I would recognize your voice anywhere.”

You see, when you are attached to Christ, you are spending time in His Word and you are living surrendered to Him. He is speaking to you in those intimate times in the Word. Don’t worry, you will know when He is speaking to you when you don’t have the book in front of your face. He sensitizes you to His voice. You may never understand it down here.

I tell you what, perfection is not at all the subject of the matter. Predictability is. To live a life that is predictable enough to where people will know what you do, even when you fail they know what you’ll do. That doesn’t mean you are going to make it right all the time, but that is what it means to be attached to Christ, to be free to be what He wants you to be instead of doing what you’d rather do.

Well, he says in verse 30, “If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks?” You have got to understand what is going on here. Here is guy who has gone to a feast with a godly motive. The word “thankfulness” is not thankfulness. Why it is translated that way, I don’t know. It is the word charis. It is grace. Grace motivates a believer. Grace enables a believer. Grace instructs a believer. Grace is the enabling power of God to be sensitive to Him.

How many Christians have not yet separated religion from relationship? That is what we are talking about. Relationship and grace is what enables all that. He is saying, “Hey, you are going to be slandered for some of the things you do, but the difference is when you let Christ be glorified in your life, then it is not you making the offense, it is Christ in you causing the offense. There is a difference in me causing them to be offended and Christ causing them to be offended. When I am embracing Him and they still get offended, I am free and clear. It is not me, it is Christ that is making them offended.

Then look at what he says in verse 31. Here is your principle. He says, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do [“whatever” is a little Greek word that means whatever; I mean, this is not a one time a week, this is everything you do], do all for the glory of God.”

Let me explain that to you. If I hold a coat up, there is no way life can be glorified in it, because there is no life in it. Do you know what glory means? Recognized. That is the root of the word. And then the word esteem comes out of that. But the root of the word means to be recognized, to give recognition to. How are you going to give recognition to something that is not there? But if life gets in the coat and the coat yields to the life, then it has given recognition to the life that is within it. So when it moves, recognition doesn’t go to the coat. Recognition goes to the life that is in the coat. Whatever you do, give recognition by the way you are willing to attach yourself to Him and deny yourself by saying yes to Him. Give recognition, not to you, no sir, but to the One who lives in you. Whether you are out eating or whether you are drinking or whatever you are doing, make sure your purpose is eternal. Let Christ be seen in you.

Verse 32 says, “Give no offense [don’t cause them to stumble] either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God.” There are your three classes of people. Don’t cause them to stumble is the idea when it says “don’t give an offense.” The idea is if Christ has been glorified in you, He will cause them to stumble because He is the stumbling block, the gospel, the preaching of the cross. To the Gentile it is foolishness, and to the church, you’ve got the weaker brother, so you have got all of them covered right there. Don’t live your life to become a stumbling block. Build your brother, don’t break him.

Then in verse 33 we read, “just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit.” This is not brownie points. I am doing them for one reason:“but the profit of the many, that they may be saved.”

Look over in Romans 15. I have been accused of finding the Christlife in every passage of scripture in the Bible. That is a compliment, thank you. Somebody said, “Well, there is more teaching in the Bible than the Christlife.” Yes, there is, but every bit of it is rooted right there. If you don’t understand this one central message, the good news somehow is warped in your understanding. Christ did not just come into your life to renew you. He came into your life to replace you. Our combined effort of surrender to Him, it is then 100% His power, His presence and His passion that works through us. That is the Christlife. So anything He commands me to do, He lives in me to enable me to do it. And the results are not results that the flesh can do, the results are eternal results.

Look in verse 17. Paul says, “There in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting.” Here is the old Pharisee himself, obeyed all 612 laws, for he said in Philippians 3, “According to the law I was found blameless.” But he says, “I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. For I will not presume to speak of anything except,” oh, listen, listen. He says, “I have discovered something. I wouldn’t open my mouth in a crowded room except to say this, not of what I could do for God. No, sir, my flesh has deceived me too many times.” His problem was not his rebellious flesh. His problem was his religious flesh. He said, “except for what Christ as accomplished through me [by the means of me, through me as the vessel], resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed.”

Go back to verse 33 of chapter 10. He says, I do what I do to please all men, “for the profit of many, that they may be saved.” Paul can’t save anybody. But Paul said, “I have learned to embrace Christ, to glorify Him in all things, for people to see less of me and to see more of Him.” The eternal result is that some will stumble, some will slander you, but some will get saved. And they are the ones who will greet you one day when you get to heaven.

Now let me ask you a question. We are just about through with this whole subject, because he is going to enter into another area. What is it that you continually defend that you know under grace does not in any way affect your eternal standing with God in Jesus Christ?

“Man, it doesn’t hurt me to take a drink whenever I want to. Good grief, I like a little wine. Paul told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach.”

How does that hold up with 1 Corinthians 810? Let me tell you how it holds up. It doesn’t float. That sunk before you got out of chapter 8.

“Well, I have to have a smoke.”

I am just picking the obvious. You know what I am doing. Have you ever heard me preach on either one of these? No, you haven’t. I preach Christ. But let me tell you something. Whatever you are holding on to and defending it as your right under grace, is the very thing that is hindering you from being what God wants you to be.

1 Corinthians 11

Respecting God’s Order – Part 1

Turn to 1 Corinthians 11. That’s a different sound. We’ve been in chapter 10 for a while. “Respecting God’s Order – Part 1” is the title for this study. It’s going to be a while before we develop this one. We’ll get far enough to quicken your appetite for wanting to read the chapter ahead of me and really glean the great things that are here.

The Corinthians were living attached to men and everything else other than Christ. But when you attach yourself to Christ and surrender to Him, God so changes you in your perspective. Not only is there a love that is sensitive to others, but there also is a deep respect for the design and the order with which God has set things up in your life, a deep, deep respect. You can never get somebody to respect the order until that person respects God enough to surrender to Him. It starts there.

I know you know Paul’s context for the last three chapters well. In chapters 8 through 10 he dealt with denying yourself for the sake of others. It all started in chapter 8 when they wrote the question to him of whether or not they should eat meat sacrificed to idols. The problem was not in those who didn’t understand. The problem was with those who did understand. There were those in the group who had been taught by Paul. They had been taught by Apollos. We’ll see later on they held to the teachings of the apostle Paul and they understood their position in Christ eternally before God. They knew that. They knew that nothing could threaten that position. They knew that eating meat sacrificed to idols didn’t mean a thing. It’s just a thing, an idol, anyway. They didn’t care. It didn’t bother them. The problem was, there were some weaker brothers around them who really struggled.

These weaker brothers, when they were either offered the meat or when they would eat it themselves, would be defiled. Or when they’d watch a stronger brother eat that meat, they would be defiled in their conscience. The apostle Paul is really reprimanding the ones who understand. He’s reprimanding the stronger ones. He’s trying to say to them, “You understand grace, but you’re not living up under grace. You’re not willing to let grace within you, the person of Christ within you, you’re not willing to let Him restrain you from the privileges that you have under grace.” That sensitivity to others is something only God can produce.

Remember, 90% of the meat that was sold in the market was sacrificed to idols. When you were asked to a feast or some type of celebration, 99.9% of that meat was meat sacrificed to idols. So it was a very difficult situation, a grey area, if you please.

Paul is showing the overwhelming principle that when you’re surrendered to God, then love can mix in with what you know. If it’s just what you know, that’s going to break your brother. But if love is mixed in with it, which is the fruit of the Spirit of God, that makes you sensitive to your brother. That love affects your decisions.

Now, in chapter 8 Paul says, “It’s affected my decisions.” Actually, there was no choice to be made by Paul. If Paul was ever in the presence of a weaker brother, and meat sacrificed to idols was given to him and he knew it, Paul would lay his fork down, push his plate back, and would never touch that meat. He says in 8:13, “Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble [The food meaning food sacrificed to idols], I will never eat meat again, that I might not cause my brother to stumble.” The choice was already made. You see, that’s what God’s love in us does. It causes us to be willing to lay down our privileges for the sake of a weaker brother who doesn’t understand that very privilege, who has that privilege in Christ but doesn’t realize it. That love affects our decisions. And that love that only God can produce, that softens us and sensitizes us to others, affects our discipline of our life. That’s what affected Paul’s life.

He says in chapter 9 how that this love motivated him and how it caused him to live a certain way. He says in 9:26, “Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.” Being disqualified does in no way mean losing your salvation. That’s a terrible hermeneutic of that passage. What he’s talking about is usability in the kingdom. He says, “I don’t want to be in the game and experiencing what’s going on out here, then be put back on the bench.” It’s the worst thing in the world to be taken out of the game and put back on the bench. I don’t want to be disqualified.

Then he warns the Corinthians church and he says, “You’re living just like Israel, and Israel was disqualified. If you keep on living like you’re living you will be too.” As a matter of fact, he cites the great experiences of Israel in chapter 10, how they came out of Egypt and how they experienced the protection and delivering power of God and then how they went into the wilderness and experienced the provision of God, but how only two of them out of that whole generation got to go over into Canaan.

Isn’t that amazing how you hear the songs and people think that Canaan is Heaven? Do you realize that warfare started in Canaan? Do you think there’s going to be warfare in Heaven? Canaan is a picture of the fullness of all that God wants you to have. It’s a beautiful picture coming out of that fleshly living and coming into that spiritual dimension of what God has for you. But Israel was disqualified. Only two of them got to go in. God was not pleased with their lifestyle.

So what he’s saying to the Corinthian church is, “Guys, don’t you understand? This weaker brother situation is important to you. It shows whether or not you’re living sensitive to Christ and whether or not you’re living wrapped up in yourself. If you’re living wrapped up in yourself, you’re going to be disqualified. You’re going to miss out on all the joy and the fullness of what God can offer to you.

Then he says in verse 10:31, as he closes out on this question that has been asked him, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Do you know what that means? The glory of God means the recognition of God. In other words, whatever you do, make sure that you’re so dead to yourself that Christ might be manifested in and through your life. Glorified means to be seen in you, to be made manifest in you, to have the proper estimate of worthiness in your life He can be seen that He is your life. So do everything you do to the glory of God.

Now, in chapter 11 Paul’s going to shift gears. He comes out of that question starting in chapter 8 and going through the last verse of chapter 10. In chapter 7 he dealt with marriages, divorce, remarriage, and now he’s coming to another question, a question that’s going to concern the role of women. I want you to be very careful to understand the way he approaches this question. It’s interesting. It’s not explicit as to exactly what the question was. Let’s begin.

A portrait of submission

The first thing we see is he shows them a portrait of submission. I want to say to you again, when you’re surrendered to Christ, that is the first key. Then and only then can you respect His order, His design that He has for you. Do you know what the word “mime” means? It means to copy the manner or expression of another. The way a person does something is mimed by another. It is not just what someone does, but it’s the way they go about doing it. It’s exaggerated.

When you mime something, you exaggerate something. It’s not so much what you do, it’s the manner in which you do it. That’s very important to a word that we’re going to see here in 11:1, because the Greek word that the word “mime” comes from carries with it this idea. He says in verse 1, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” “I’m an imitator of Christ. You be an imitator of me.” The word for “imitators” again is the word we get the word “mime” from. What is Paul saying? Is Paul saying, “Do what I do.”? Yes, but he’s really saying that it’s the manner in which he goes about his life. It’s not necessarily just what he does, it’s the way he goes about doing it.

Look at the last phrase. “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” Let me ask you a question. How in the world do you think Paul could imitate Christ? Have you tried to imitate Christ lately? Do we understand that we cannot imitate Christ in the sense of living exactly the way He lived? How in the world have we been duped into thinking that? You wake up in the morning and say, “I’m going to love my brother. Christ loved His brother.” And by 12:00 tomorrow God’s going to put a brother in your life you didn’t know existed and you’re going to say, “But, God, I can’t.” And God’s going to say, “I never said you could. But I live in you and always said I would.” You cannot imitate the Lord Jesus Christ in exactly the way He lived. There’s no way. In a sense, however, you can.

Understand what we’re saying here. It’s not just what someone does. It’s the way that they lived. How did Christ live? I’ll tell you how Christ lived? He lived in total submission to His Father. What he’s doing here is giving you a portrait of what submission is all about, what surrender is all about. The design that God has for each of us is to live absolutely, totally surrendered to Christ. He exemplified that for us. In that respect we can imitate the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look over in John 14:10. It’s very, very significant that we see this. To imitate Christ is not to go out and think you can live exactly like Him. No. But to imitate Him is the expression. It’s the way you go about it. It’s the idea of living totally submitted to the will of the Father. In John 14:10 Jesus said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”

Now, that’s a beautiful picture of how we are to live. Jesus lived in such relationship to the Father that whatever He did was a reflex of what the Father was doing through Him. It was the Father working in Him. In John 14:13 He goes on to say, “And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do (remember, it’s the Father working in Him), that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” So when you saw Jesus working, you’re seeing the Father. When you see us imitating Him, and you’re looking at us and you’re seeing us working, you’re seeing Christ.

He says, “You imitate me. Live like I live. How do I live? I live like Christ lived.” How did they live? They lived in submission to the will and the Word of God. That’s what submission is all about. It starts right here.

But make sure you understand you don’t have a clue what He would do when it comes to the actual act, but you do have a clue what He would do when it comes to the attitude. He would surrender to the will of the Father. That’s what we are dealing with. Listen, I don’t know where He’s walking half the time. But He, living in me, will walk and carry me while He’s doing it. We have got to understand this. That’s the way you imitate Christ. You don’t do what He did. You let Him do what He wants to do through you. You just live in such connection to Him, such surrender to Him, that He’s glorified in you as the Father was glorified in Him, you see. That’s the way we live.

You can’t live like Jesus, but you can live in the attitude that He had. He was totally subjected to His Father and the Father in Him did His works. That’s the way Paul lived. You didn’t see Paul. You saw Christ. He said, “I’m crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live. Yet not I but Christ lives in me.” That’s the idea of imitation here. It’s the picture of submission. If I live submitted to Him, that means that Christ is going to be glorified in me. That’s the starting point for a believer. Before you ever get to talking about a woman’s role, before you ever get to talking about a man’s role, you’ve got to find out what a believer’s role is. That’s to live in absolute submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. Then He in you can be glorified, recognized, and properly esteemed through you. That’s the portrait of submission that the apostle Paul begins with.

Remember back in 7:7 he made the statement, “Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am.” Every commentator says that he means being single. No, more than that. The apostle Paul lived such a life submitted to Christ as Christ lived to His Father that all that was seen in him was Christ. That was a summation of his focus in life. What he’s saying is, “If you’re living like I’m living, then all these questions you’re asking me would fall by the wayside, because the most important thing to you would not be marriage or remarriage. The most important thing to you is Christ being glorified in your life.”

Look over in 2 Corinthians 4. I want to show you something. This is the way Paul lived. A professor in the school where my son is going made a statement in class one day. He said, “These people who say that Christ is your life and every demand placed on us is in reality a demand placed on Himself because He lives in you to enable you to do what you do, that’s ridiculous.” That’s what the professor said. He read a verse out of 2 Corinthians 7, and it troubled my son. He called me on the phone and said, “Daddy, I’ve been hearing you preach this all my life, but for the first time I’ve heard somebody slam it up against the wall.” He gave me the verse out of chapter 7, and I said, “Did the professor read anything else out of 2 Corinthians?” He said, “No.” I said, “You mean he’s a professor at seminary and didn’t read anything out of chapter 4 before he commented on chapter 7?” He said, “No, sir. He didn’t.”

Look at 2 Corinthians 4:10. Paul says, “Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested [where?] in our body.” Look at verse 11, “For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus [the life of Jesus], also may be manifested in our [what?] mortal flesh.” The word “manifest” is the word phaneroo, which means to be shown openly, to be made visible so that nothing is hidden, apparent to everyone, to be absolutely conspicuous. What Paul is saying is we live this life of dying to self daily. We’re already dead. We mortify the deeds of the flesh. We live in submission to Christ so that the life of Christ in us might be completely conspicuous to everybody and manifest and apparent and visible through our mortal flesh.

Wow! That’s living the Christ life. That’s living as Christ lived, because the Father was glorified in the Son. When you live as Christ lived, then as the Father was to Christ, Christ is to us; and the Son is made manifest in us. That’s a picture of surrender. That’s a picture of submission. It’s when it begins to have its foundation in all things, that we’re going to discuss. You begin to appreciate the order that God has.

Years ago I worked for a pastor who’s a friend. He used to just give me a list of things to do every week. I lived under such a rigid person. I couldn’t move unless I called and asked for permission. But you know what God continued to do? The more I surrendered to Christ, the more God began to give me the understanding that I need to submit to this man.

My wife one day told me, “Do you know, something incredible has happened to me. I have learned to appreciate my submitting to you by watching you submit to this pastor that you’re submitting to. How you’re living has communicated to me the appreciation I need to have for the order and the design God has placed within my own life.”

Now, folks, that’s what happens. Do you know what’s wrong? We can’t even discuss the role of women until first of all we’ve discussed this. One of the reasons people won’t talk to you about it, one of the reasons they have their own opinions, one of the reasons they’re trying to push their own programs, is because they have not yet abandoned everything in surrender to Christ. And until we’re surrendered and abandoned, then we don’t even understand the design and order and the function that God has for the rest of us.

So he starts with a portrait of submission. He says, “You imitate me as I imitate Christ.” Hopefully you understand that now. It’s not necessarily in what they do as it is the way they went about doing it, that submitted attitude, that attitude of surrender.

The purpose of submission

Well, the second thing he gets into is the purpose of submission. The purpose is to show allegiance to God’s will and God’s order. You see, when I’m willing to submit to the headship of Christ in my life and a woman is willing to submit to the headship of the man, as we’ll see, all these things communicate a message to others that absolutely we hold allegiance to what God says and we respect and honor His will even beyond our own mental comprehension sometimes of what He asks us to do.

Again, before we leap into it, remember that Paul is simply asking questions. Some things he’s going to leave the door open. He’s not giving a complete exposition on this. He’s answering some questions that were evidently written to him about the lifestyle and the role of women in the Corinthian church.

Here’s what you need to realize. In Corinth women’s lib was the thing among the Corinthian women. Can you believe this? The book of Ecclesiastes says, “There’s nothing new under the sun.”

History records that feminism appeared in the Roman Empire during New Testament times. Remember, that was the dominant government at that time. The women and the men wore robes just like we see pictures of them today. But they were distinguishable, not necessarily by the color of a robe, but in the fact that the woman would take that flap on her robe and pull it up over her head. It would come down over her brow. The word for covering really means something that hangs down over the head. It’s more the idea of a veil than it is actually a cover. It’s something that came over the head. It came down at least over the brow. Christian women would especially wear a covering over their head.

But when the feminist movement began to move into Corinth, it began to affect the church. The women would often take off their veil or other head coverings that distinguished them in their culture. Why would they do that? To make themselves look like men. You think we’re living in a new day? You think this is something new to the 20th century when you’re walking down the street and somebody passes you and you have to look twice to tell whether or not it’s a man or whether or not it’s a woman? It’s exactly what they wanted back in their culture. They would even shave their heads to look like men.

They asserted their independence by leaving their husbands at home and refusing to care for their children. They demanded jobs traditionally held by men and discarded all signs of femininity. Does that sound like today? It does, doesn’t it? This was going on in Corinth when Paul wrote this. This caused the church to be disturbed. They had many questions because what started in the secular society had now ended up in the church. That’s so sad, isn’t it? It always starts in the secular world but somehow if people aren’t living surrendered lives, it will affect the people in God’s family. They began to affect us.

Do you know why you can’t deal with this issue and why women in particular? We’re on women right now. We’ll get to the men when it’s time. Why women won’t hear you? It’s because it all has to do with their absolute total surrender and abandonment to Christ. If flesh is alive, it’s going to respond. That’s why you can’t deal with it. That’s why you just bring it up. You can say something and people just walk away mad at you because you’ve said something that sounded derogatory towards them.

Now listen. Paul is telling them to deal with it. The first thing he does is compliments them. He says in verse 2, “Now I praise you because you remember me in everything, and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.” The Corinthians were doing most things upside down, but at least they had some good orthodox. They had some great truth. Paul had taught them. They had not forgotten this. It appears from what he says is that they want and they respect what Paul says. That’s why they’re asking him these questions. Paul says, “you remember me in everything.” The word “everything” apparently ties itself to the traditions that he’s speaking of here.

The word “traditions” is the word paradosis. It comes from the word paradidomi, to give over to somebody. It has to do with the teachings. So Paul is saying, “You remember the things that I have taught you.” In fact, the word paradidomi, to give over to someone, is the next phrase. He says, “Now I praise you because you remember me in everything, and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.” That’s the actual phrase, “I gave them over to you.” Paul says, “You hold firmly to these teachings.” The King James Version simply says, “You keep these ordinances,” but the New American Standard says, “You hold firmly to.” That’s a better translation.

The Greek word is katecho, to hold fast to something, to retain something. It’s used in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 when he says, “But examine everything carefully. Hold fast to that which is good.” You see, the Corinthians still remembered the teachings of Paul, but they didn’t understand those teachings. That’s an interesting thought to me. How many things do you remember that have been taught? You even have it in your Bible. You have the outline, the date, when it was preached, but you don’t have any understanding of that which you remember.

Paul goes on in verse 3 and says, “But I want you to understand.” That’s a contrasting word there, “But I want you to understand.” The word “understand” there is the word eido. It comes from the word horao, which means to see it, to be able to fully perceive it, and to understand it. I don’t want you to just remember it. I want you to fully understand the things that I have taught you.

What is it that Paul wanted these Corinthians to understand? Evidently, it had something to do, everything to do, with submitting, living your life submissive to Christ in the order that God has given. Evidently, they remembered the things he had taught but hadn’t been able to put it together. They didn’t understand that submission to Christ establishes the base for all submission, no matter what arena it’s in.

First of all he gives the example of the fact that every man should be submissive to Christ. He says, “But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man.” The word “head” is kephale. When it’s used metaphorically with relationships here and people, it means the chief, the one to whom others are subordinate to. That’s where your word submission comes in to play. The ones you submit to, the ones you obey, the one who’s the head of a company is the one everybody obeys. The head of whatever is the one everybody obeys. That’s what he means in a metaphorical sense there.

Well, the term for “man” is interesting. It’s not the generic term of mankind which would be anthropos. It’s the word aner. That’s the word for male, actual man. That’s interesting to me. He immediately narrows himself to the point he’s about to make. He starts with the men. Is Jesus the head of all men? Absolutely. It says that every creation will bow before Him and confess Him as Lord some day. Yes, but that’s not his context. The context is he’s got something else to say. He narrows it and speaks to all the men who are listening to him and says, “Christ is the head of every man.”

Now, implicit in this is the believer and the union the believer has to Christ by faith. You see, once a person, a man, puts his faith into Christ, he now is in a relationship to Him, and in every relationship there has to be a head. By faith he’s in union to Christ, but Christ has to be the head. He becomes a part of a body which has many members. But every body has to have a head, and the head is Christ. That’s where it starts. Every man, his head is Christ.

Secondly, he switches, I think, to the husband, for the word “man,” aner, is also the same word for husband. But the implication here, since there’s a union with this man in Christ and Christ is his head as a result, now there has to be a union between this man and a woman and, therefore, a relationship has been formed and somebody has to be the head. He shifts gears. He says in verse 3, “But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman.” In other words, they’re united by marriage and when you’re united by marriage you become one body.

Look over in Matthew 19:6. I just want to make sure you see this. A body has to have a head, has to have someone to lead it where the thoughts are originated, and then the body complies with it. They’re one body. That body has to have a head. Matthew 19:6 says, “Consequently they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” That’s repeated again in Mark 10:8. But then in Ephesians 5:23 comes the essence of this thing. Now that they’re united and become one flesh, there is a relationship between the man and the woman. They are one body. They have to have a head. It says in 5:23, “For the husband is the head of the wife [has to be; the example he gives is] as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.”

So you have two pictures here of submission. And this is his whole point that he’s going to be bringing out. Every man has got to learn that Christ is his covering because of a union by faith. Is Christ the head of a woman? Certainly. That’s not his point right here. Then he says the husband, however, has to learn he is the covering for the wife and the wife has to learn that. Therefore, everybody has to have a head.

Then he gives a third example. It’s a beautiful example. He says in the last part of verse 3, “and God is the head of Christ.” I can just see the Jehovah’s Witnesses right now jumping up and down saying, “You see? You see? I told you. God’s the head of Christ. You see? You see? Christ is inferior to God.” No. The definite article is used before God. And when God and Christ are used in the same verse and the definite article is before God, it is God the Father. It’s Christ the Son. We know very well from Scripture He emptied Himself of His glory and His right to use His power for His own benefit and came to this earth. And by choice in this new union of the God man and the Father, by choice the Father becomes the head and the Son becomes the One who responds to the head.

Isn’t it amazing how Christ starts, Christ finishes it? Any time you have trouble with God’s order, go back to Christ, because there’s a union. As a result of that union, there has to be a head and one to submit to that head. He gives you three beautiful examples, and evidently he had taught them this but they did not have comprehension of what he was saying. If they had understood it, they wouldn’t have been asking him some of the questions about the role of the women there in the church of Corinth.

Why would he say these things? Why is he so emphatic? It gives you the understanding something’s going on in Corinth. The world has gotten into that church and those women, I bet you, had been taking those coverings off, acting like the men, disregarding the order that God had given. That’s the problem.

Now, there’s two things running side by side here and if you don’t see them, you’re going to get confused in chapter 11. One is culture. The culture is different in Corinth than it is for us today. The other is an eternal truth and principle, and they’re running side by side. You’ve got to be able to separate the two. Oh, the way he ends this thing is so simple. It’s as clear as the nose on your face. But right now it’s going to be a little confusing.

One is the culture. Now the cultural concerns the way the people would dress in that time. Like I said, the believing man would never wear a covering over his head when he came to pray in public or prophesy, just like the believing woman would never fail to wear a covering, a veil, because her husband was her covering, her head. This is a cultural trait. This is the way the believers set themselves apart from the unbelievers. You’ll see that in a moment.

Over in Romania, even to this day, it’s that way. Prostitution was so bad even under the former dictator that the Christian believing women would wear those coverings over their head to separate themselves from the people who wore the make-up, the prostitutes of Romania. They tried to separate themselves. It becomes something of a necessity because of society and the paganism that’s around us to make sure that there’s a difference here in the way that we look. That was a cultural thing.

He says in verse 4, “Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head.” In that culture if a man put a veil over his head, a covering, a veil, then he would disgrace himself. Why? Because he’s supposed to be the head of his wife, and Christ is his head, and he’s put another covering over that. That disgraces that man. Praying involves saying things to God. Prophesying involves saying things that God has said to you to others. He’s not talking about in church or anything else. It’s just a principle he’s bringing up here.

But look at the reverse of that in verse 5: “But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying, disgraces her head [it’s exactly the reverse of the man], for she is one and the same with her [now watch this] whose head is shaved.” Man, the culture is so clear. Paul is saying in Corinth, by necessity, a man does not put a covering over his head when he prays or prophesies and a woman does, because there’s a difference in roles. Christ is the head of the man and the man is the head or the covering for the woman. Symbolically and in that culture it made a statement.

Now, be careful. Paul shows how a woman disgraces herself by taking the covering off her head. Look at the last part of that verse. I read it kind of fast. Go back and read it. Now, if she takes that covering off, she is “one and the same with her whose head is shaved.” You need to know their c

1 Corinthians 11:11

Respecting God’s Order – Part 2

I remember when I was growing up I had a good buddy who loved to trout fish like I did. We used to fish the rivers and the streams in Virginia. When summer time would come it was wonderful. We’d take our socks off and put on a pair of shorts. We put tennis shoes on so we wouldn’t hurt out feet on those rocks. We’d just walk up and down those streams mainly to get wet and stay cool. We had a wonderful time.

One day we had finished fishing, and we were really just goofing off. We were walking back to the car right down the middle of the stream just singing to the top of our lungs. We were singing as loud as we could sing, Christian choruses and songs. I had a dumb-looking hat on. I knew the water was deep in places, but I didn’t know it had some holes in it like this one. All of a sudden I stepped into a hole. You could have put two cars end to end in that thing. When I went under, I never did hit the bottom. I was trying to get up. There was water in my tennis shoes. My friend said, “The funniest part of it was your hat kept sailing right down the river, but you had disappeared.” He said that I was so deep you couldn’t even see the tip of my rod. That’s how deep I went down into that hole.

I don’t know why I brought that up except to say that in studying 1 Corinthians I feel like I have just stepped into a hole in chapter 11. This water is deep. It’s way over my head. I hope you’re praying for me as we work our way through it. God has an order of how things should function and of how things are designed to be. He’s the potter, we’re the clay. The clay never messes with the potter, because the clay doesn’t understand fully what the design is all about. When I’m willing and when you’re willing to submit to Christ and let Jesus be everything in you and in me, what happens is He gives us a deep respect for His order and whatever order that may be, whatever function that may be. It may be a wife to her husband. It may be a husband and his walk with God or whatever. But in that order we have a respect for it.

Why? Because we’ve solved the first step. The first step is our absolute abandonment unto Christ. When I’m submitted that way, then whatever other design God has is really no problem to me at all. However, if I’m not willing to submit and abandon myself to Christ, then God’s order becomes an issue with me and I’m always trying to turn upside down what God says should be right side up.

A question has been asked of the apostle Paul. We don’t know what the question is. We just have the answers. That’s what’s been difficult since chapter 7, when you have the answers but you don’t have the questions. This question, evidently, had to do with the role of women in the church, particularly, the role of wives to their husbands. Again, we don’t have the question, but we do have Paul’s answer.

Verse 1 of chapter 11, to me, is the key verse for the rest of the chapter. It seems to me like that’s the well everything else flows out of. At first I didn’t see it, but now I see clearly how it attaches itself to what he’s going to say. He says in verse 1 of chapter 11, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” Now if you think imitating Christ like Paul said he did, if you think you can imitate Christ, you’ve got another thing coming. When Christ would walk by a man who was dead, sometimes he would raise him from the dead. Help yourself. When He would walk by someone at the pool of Siloam and he was sick, He healed him. You can’t walk like Jesus. However, there is something about Jesus and the way He lived that Paul imitated that Paul wants us to imitate. What is that? Jesus chose to be absolutely in submission to His Father. That was a choice He made. Equal to His Father, but when He became the God Man, He chose to line Himself up under His Father.

The problem with submission

The third thing we’re going to look at is the problem with submission. I mentioned it a while ago. The problem is some man somewhere hears the fact that he’s the head of his wife and he begins to think in his eyes that he’s more important to God than a woman is. This is so ridiculous. Chauvinism, male chauvinism, is just as much a sin as feminism. On both sides you’ve got wrong. There are equals here but you have order and God has established them that way. Man’s authority over his wife is something that’s simply delegated by God. We’ll have to get to Heaven to understand all of that. We’re here to submit and respect the way God set it up, believing the fact that He who created us has the right to do that.

Look in verse 11. “However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman.” If you want to take that in a general sense, you can realize in this world how we need one another. But I think it’s more narrow than that. I think it is more to the husband and the wife because there is a team effort there. You can say that in the church, certainly, because there are women who have wonderful gifts and God uses them. How we need each other.

But I think this has more to do with the authority structure He’s already set up. A husband needs his wife, but a wife needs her husband. You can’t live independent of each other. The word “independent” means to be without, to be separate or apart from something, or by itself. You’re not that way. The wife needs the husband. The husband needs the wife. They are helpmates to each other. They’re a team.

In all the years I’ve been in sports, I don’t care what team you have, you’ve got to have a quarterback. You’ve got to have somebody who calls the plays. So what he’s saying is there is equality among the two, but somebody has got to be the head and God’s order—not ours, not man’s, not woman’s—is that the man, the husband, be the one who’s the head over the woman.

Paul, again, shows the order does not come from man or woman but comes from God. Look in verse 12. It’s sort of subtle. The last part of it is the key: “For as the woman originates from the man [actually the word “from” is ek, out of], so also the man has his birth through [dia] the woman.” The symbolism is beautiful here. And then it says, “and all things [everything] originate from [ek, out of] God.”

In other words, “Hey, guys, what are you doing? You came from Me. I know Adam. She came from you, but I made you. All things come from Me.” It’s like He’s putting a big exclamation point: “Hey, what are you arguing about? If I made all things, and all things come from Me, and everything originates from Me, then I have a right to set the order the way I want to set it.” It’s God’s order, and it’s His prerogative to set it the way He wants to set it. When a man thinks he’s better than a woman, that’s just not so. God is the One from whom all things come, but He has delegated man to be the head of the woman. She’s his equal, but she has to submit to him in the sense of the married situation.

The problem comes when man does not realize God is the one who established the order, or the woman does not realize that God is the one who has established the order.

So we’ve got the portrait of submission. The purpose of submission is to show you respect the order of God. The problem of submission is you begin to equate submission with equality and think that because somebody has to submit to you, that you are more important to God than that person. That’s a terrible error that people make even today. Men think that submission of their wife is from some inferior person to himself. Remember, in the culture of this time women were treated like dirt. Thank God for the Gospel, because it raised and elevated the position of the woman. She’s equal with man in God’s eyes. There’s neither male nor female in the Lord Jesus Christ. However, in the marriage situation that we live in God has to have an order and we must respect that order.

The prerequisite of submission

The final thing that I want to share is the prerequisite of submission. What I mean by that is the prerequisite for anybody understanding the order of God is that submission, going back to verse 1 of chapter 11. It’s an absolute must in our life that we live surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. There are no big I’s or little you’s. The ground is equal and level at the cross. The same responsibility you have is the same responsibility I have.

Paul now says that there’s another teacher besides himself. He says, “I’m just going to step aside for a minute.” He says, “You’ve heard me. I’ve taught you. I hope you now understand what I taught you, but I want to back out. I want to let something else teach you.” He wants the Corinthians to look around them and see that they can already see in nature a distinction of man and woman. Men and women are different.

We’re different in the way we think, the way we look, but especially there’s another difference and it goes back to the beginnings of history. Nobody can even begin to argue with this. Short hair for a man and long hair for a woman has been from the birth of history the way in which they were separated in their appearance, which also later on led them to be separated in their roles.

One can see this in the Nazirite vow. It was a shame for a man to wear long hair. But when a person would put themselves under a Nazirite vow, he had to bear the shame of being looked at with long hair because he was obedient unto God in that vow. Paul put himself under a Nazirite vow. In all the historical findings that they have of drawings of mankind, men had short cropped hair and the women had long hair. It’s been that way since the beginnings of time. This is a distinctive way, not just one of them, but a distinctive way in which we see woman and men being separate from one another.

Now, look how Paul approaches this in verse 13. He says, “Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with head uncovered?” The word “judge” is krino. Make a decision. Look around you. Take what I said. Look around you and see some other things but come to a decision. Come to a conclusion. Is it proper?

The word “proper” is the word prepo. It means to be conspicuous, but it has an implied meaning of fitting or proper or suitable. Paul says, “I’m going to let you decide for yourself. Look around you at the conspicuous things that seem to be fitting or seem to be suitable for man and suitable for woman. Without anything from me, you just look around yourself.”

Verse 14 reads, “Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him.” Now, he mentions nature. We throw that term around loosely, but the word is a significant word. It’s translated “nature.” It’s used several times in scripture. I want to show you how it’s used so you kind of get an idea of it. It’s the constitution of something; it’s how something is made. It’s like if you want to know what something is, you go to the root of it. You go to the core of it and see what’s on the inside. That’s kind of the idea of the word “nature.”

Romans 1:26 says, “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural.” You see it? The thing that they’re made out of, the thing that’s always been there, the thing that determines them, distinguishes them, they’ve changed it. Romans 2:14 reads, “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law.” You don’t even have to be taught. It’s just something that comes instinctively. Romans 11:24 says, “For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree.” You see, the idea of what something is in its very essence, that which it does without even thinking. It’s instinctive. Ephesians 2:3 uses the word. He says, “Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

So when you think of nature, you think of that which doesn’t have to think. It’s just something that has evolved that way. It’s become that way and as a result of that, he says, “Look around you. Look at how women wear their hair. Look how men wear their hair. It will tell you something that’s been here all along, the distinctive, different role of men and women and that hair for the woman has been a covering ever since she was born. So should she not wear a covering on her head when she comes to pray or prophesy?”

Verse 14 again says “Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him [then reverses it in verse 15], but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering.” In other words, if she didn’t have a veil, God had already given her a covering. That’s her long hair. He already has set her aside in her role and in her difference from the man. The man has the short hair. That’s what he was saying.

Now, it comes down to a verse here that I wrestled with. Do you ever wrestle with verses and just wonder what in the world is this thing saying? I beat my head against the wall practically trying to understand why Paul brings this up. I’m going to shoot at it.

Now, we’re the Bereans. Go check it out and see if it be so. If you disagree, you disagree. I’m not telling you that you have to take this home and say this is what God said because I’m still struggling with it. Here’s what I see in verse 16. Look at this, “But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God.” What in the world is he talking about? Let’s work our way through it and I’ll tell you where I am on it and then you work your way through it and tell me where you are on it.

Look at this statement: “if one is inclined to be contentious.” The word “inclined” is dokeo. It’s translated “seem to be” contentious in the King James Version. It means to be of the reputation or to think or to suppose himself.

But the word “contentious” comes from two Greek words. One means a lover of, somebody’s fond of something. It’s the word for friend, philos. The other word means strife. Here’s a person who loves strife. He loves to be contentious. He loves to use something that’s been clearly taught to bring contention in the body of Christ.

He says, “But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God.” Do you know what I think he’s doing here?—Lord, help me; I’m going to step out here—I think he’s saying, “Some of you want me to go on and say that I need to determine the dress and I need to determine the hair length of you people there in Corinth. You love this teaching and it’s clear as a bell to you, but you love to use even what’s teaching, that which is meant to free people, you love to use it to put them right back into bondage.” I think what he’s saying is that in the church we are to never put a rule on how somebody dresses or how long their hair should be or whether they wear a hat or don’t wear a hat. But what we do put the rule on is that a person within the body of Christ is to submit to Christ inwardly. And if you’re living inwardly subjected to Him, it will show outwardly with respect to Him and respect for His order and respect for the way you look at others because you’re drawing attention to Him. You’re not drawing attention to yourself. That’s what I think he’s doing.

You know, there are people who love passages like this. They love it. Oh, they feed off of it. They breathe contention with God’s teaching in the Word of God. They take something that’s right and make it something that’s full of strife in the body of Christ. Can you imagine? There are people here in this town who say if you have hair over your ears, it’s too long and you have sin in your heart. I say that if you have hair over your heart, you have sin in your ears.

Let me just throw something at you. I’ve been thinking this thing through. Let’s just say we heard the teaching from Paul. Now, remember, it’s cultural and eternal, two roads running side by side. We don’t have that culture today so, therefore, it’s difficult for us to enter into exactly what he’s talking about. We don’t wear robes. We don’t exactly dress the way they did. Let’s just say we took that thing literally. First of all, we’re going to have to all go out and throw your clothes away and buy robes. We’re going to have to determine today what color those robe need to be, because red is a color of an immoral person—no, it’s not; but I’m saying we’ll come up with this.

Secondly, we have to get a committee to decide the length of the robes. I remember I went to a camp one time. This camp had rules. You could wear shorts but they had to be able to put a dollar bill from the bottom of the shorts to the knee. You don’t love God if you have a pair of shorts that you can put more than a dollar bill between your knee and those shorts. So am I spiritual or not spiritual.

Do you see what you’re getting into when you get into this kind of stuff? Paul is simply answering a question. It is never the church’s prerogative to set such a dress code. When I used to sit up on the stage area of our church I saw people walk in the back door. If we had had those rules, we would have kicked them out on the streets. But if I had the nerve to embarrass them, I’d bring them up here today and show you the difference that the Word of God made in their lives because they came and heard the message, got up under Christ, and as a result of that dressed differently from that point on and nobody told them.

You could take this thing and make a cookbook out of it if you had somebody who was bent toward strife and contention. That’s a person who’s never submitted their hearts to Jesus Christ. They love the rules to use them to break somebody else with them.

I think what Paul is saying is, we have no such moral code. He says, “We don’t have that kind of moral code in the church, nor do any other churches.” Your culture is going to tell you something; and if the culture is there, don’t rise up with the contentiousness and go the other route with that and say, “I’m going to change just because of the culture.” No. If people already have that mind-set, don’t allow that to dictate to you what you need to be and to do. Show proper respect for the order of God. Don’t go make this a law or you’ve got huge problems.

How about the veil? What color are we going to make the veil? How long are we going to make it? “Your veil is too short. It came to the top of your nose instead of the bottom of your nose.” Can’t you see the Pharisees enforcing something like this? Paul’s the greatest teacher on grace in the Scriptures. But I want to tell you something else. He’s the wisest man I’ve ever studied, apart from Jesus. He knows how to get in this situation and allow God to so sensitize him that even the culture doesn’t bother him. He doesn’t try to rebel against it. He allows it to be used for the purpose of showing others that he’s submissive to Christ and respects the order of God.

He can move to another one over here and switch gears again. His direction the whole time was pointing right toward Christ. His focus was Christ. When you’re submitted to Christ, you have no trouble with the order of God. But if you’re not submitted to Christ, you’re going to take this teaching of a woman’s role and you’re going to browbeat somebody with it. You’re going to be the very one who’s going to try and turn the whole thing upside down because you have not bought it. Until you come to the point of abandonment in your life, your role will never be fully grasped or understood. There will always be those, however, that will take a clear teaching and make a law out of it and bring strife and contention to the body of Christ.

Well, look over in Ephesians 5. I want to show you something. I want to tell you, folks. People are running every direction about what it means to be filled with the Spirit of God. Let me show you one of the things that reflects the fact that you’re under the control of the Holy Spirit of God.

Ephesians 5, beginning with verse 18, reads, “And do not get drunk with wine [that’s something from the outside you take to the inside that controls you], for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit [the word “filled” has the idea of being under the dominance of something, to be under the control of something], speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.” I’m telling you, God just puts a song in your heart when you’re living and walking in that kind of submission. You can be in the midst of the worst situation in your life, but the song is louder and louder as you can hear it because it’s God giving you that overwhelming joy, the fruit of His Spirit.

Verse 20 says, “always giving thanks for all things.” Oh, goodness gracious! These people who say, “Well, I’ve got the gift of tongues,” or “I was healed,” or whatever else, I want to tell you something. If you’re not thankful for all things in your life, then you have not yet come to the place that the Holy Spirit of God has absolute control of you. It looks back as well as up, as well as forward.

Look at verse 21, “and be subject to one another.” Do you know what that word “subject” is? Hupotasso, which means submissive. Be willing to allow the order of God to so affect you that you’re willing to subject yourself even to the Christ in others. How do you do that? He says, “and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”

You see, I think somehow we’ve gotten this thing turned upside down. One of the first ways that you see that a person is filled with the Spirit of God, totally subjected unto Him, is the respect for God’s order and willingness even to subject to the Christ in others with the attitude of awesome respect for, and a deep reverential awe of, who the Lord Jesus is. They’re willing to live that way. I know that there are men who have started companies and you submit to nobody. That’s alright. That’s okay in your business world. But don’t ever carry that attitude from the business world into your life as a Christian, because God says it won’t work. Christ is the head of every man. The man is the head of his wife. And the ultimate picture that should settle it for all of us, that Christ chose to become submissive to His Father.

So he says to the wives, whatever question was asked, “You do what you do. You ought to have a covering over your head whenever you pray or prophesy if nothing else, in respect for the angels who are there watching you. It would be a reproach to the divine order of God to take His function and order and to turn it upside down.”

Wouldn’t it be great if people would just live so surrendered to Christ that they’d allow that to dictate the way they dress and look to others? That’s the key. Not from the outside in, but it’s from the inside out.

1 Corinthians 11:16

Contents

1 The Silent Killer

1.1 The inevitability of division within the church

1.2 The evidence of division in the church

1.3 The cure for division in the church

The Silent Killer

In 1 Corinthians we’re seeing some tough things the apostle Paul is about to say to the church of Corinth. In fact, I want to title this study “The Silent Killer.” Before we start looking at the body of Christ and what can be a detriment to that, I want to relate that to the physical body. There’s nothing more serious, more life-threatening, than a disease, a tumor, or something within us that cannot be physically detected. It’s there; it’s doing its damage; it’s eating away; but we don’t feel anything. There’s nothing we can put our finger on that’s wrong on the inside, but there’s a serious life-threatening condition going on. There’s nothing any worse than that, because one day, unannounced, the symptoms of what’s been going on inside will suddenly become apparent on the outside. And when it does, it brings great pain, agony and, many times, death.

When you take that analogy and put it to the body of Christ, it is interesting that it’s the same scenario once again. In other words, you have a believer in the church of Jesus Christ, as were in the church of Corinth, believers who refuse to grow up or believers who understood truth but would not live up under it. By the way, we’ve already been taught that when we sin that is buying into another doctrine. When we choose not to live in the Word of God, we have chosen to live by something else. We have bought the doctrine of the church. We have bought the doctrine of the world. And to live this way, but not let anybody know about it, is a very dangerous thing in the body of Christ. It becomes life-threatening to the body. It becomes threatening to the relationship within the body, when people come to church wearing a mask covering what they know to be cancerous, what they know to be something that they are not willing to do that God has told them to do.

Ephesians 4:3 says, “being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” I want you to know the peace in the body is already there in Christ Jesus. It cannot be produced. The Scripture does not tell us to produce it. The Scripture says to preserve it. And to preserve it you have to preserve it in the bonds of peace. Peace with God, first in your walk with Him, no conflict, no irritant. “God, I’m willing to do whatever You tell me to do. My agenda is laid before You. God, You speak and I will do in the grace You’ve given me.” That’s peace, and you can live in that peace.

But that peace also affects your relationships with others. You can be at peace with them. Paul said in Romans, “If at all possible be at peace with your brother.” It doesn’t say that they will be at peace with you. You be at peace with them. That’s the way we’re to live. A person who chooses to break that relationship with the Father, chooses not to obey Him, chooses to go against what His Word tells him, that person immediately becomes that silent killer in the body of Christ, because it’s directly going to affect his relationships to the people around him.

One of these days—and we don’t know when it’s going to be—in the church setting, in public worship, that whole mind-set will surface itself, which is exactly what it did in the church of Corinth. It will come to the surface. You can go and go and go with this kind of wrong thinking within you, embracing something that’s not truth. But one day it will surface, and it will surface in public worship.

We’re going to see how this silent killer surfaced in the church of Corinth. Paul is very upset with them. This is one of the toughest messages we’ve had since we’ve been walking through Corinthians. He has nothing, absolutely nothing, good to say about them in this passage of Scripture. He’s commended them when he could. He’s even had to strain to do it, but now he has no commendation to them whatsoever.

Look at verse 17. We’ll begin to get in the feel of what’s going on. He says, “But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse.” In other words, you’re doing more harm than you’re doing good when you come together.

The word “come together” is sunerchomai. It means to come together. Sun means “together with,” and erchomai means “to come.” It’s the idea of corporate worship when people come from other homes and other places and they come together. He says, “You’re coming together not for the better but for the worse.”

The saddest thing is going on in the church of Corinth. There are people there who have already separated themselves from each other. Look at verse 18. He says, “For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part, I believe it.” In other words, “I’m beginning to believe, from what I have heard from others, that there are divisions among you.” The people were coming to church. Can you imagine? Coming to be together when, literally, they were apart. You’ve got people over here willing to serve the Lord Jesus and living surrendered, but you’ve got others who aren’t, and they’re trying to come together for a time of worship. Is that not an oxymoron, people coming to worship when in fact they’re not even living surrendered to Christ to begin with?

He says, “When you come together, you’re already separated.” We saw this word back in 1:12 when it says, “Some of you are of Paul; some of you are of Apollos; some of you are Cephas.” You’ve attached yourself to men. You’ve already separated yourself, and that’s brought a division among you. And he says, “I’m hearing that when you come together there are divisions among you.”

The setting for his words is clearly laid in verse 18. He says, “that divisions exist among you; and in part, I believe it.” What had been the symptoms of that division up to now? First of all, we saw it in chapter 3. They knew the Scriptures. They had been taught well. But they were not willing to grow under that which they knew.

You take this in the 20th century. How many people have heard and heard and heard but won’t live up under what they know? That’s the way it was at Corinth. Paul had been their teacher. You can’t get any better. Apollos had been their teacher, recommended by Priscilla and Aquila. You can’t get any better. They’ve had the greatest teaching in the world, but they will not grow up. So, symptomatically you’re seeing an immaturity within the believers already in the book of Corinthians.

In chapter 5 they allow sexual immorality to go on right there in front of them but nobody would confront it. In chapter 6 they were suing each other. Over differences they had, they were dragging each other before the public courts. Again, just a symptom of a deeper problem. In chapter 7 their families were torn apart because of fleshly living. In chapter 8 the people were very knowledgeable, but so arrogant with their knowledge. There was no love in that knowledge, which made them sensitive to their weaker brother. In chapter 11 there were women trying to take over the roles of men in the church. All of these things were in the church of Corinth.

Here they were coming together to “worship.” That’s amazing to me. There are three words for worship in the New Testament. One of the words is latreuo, which is always a response to what God has done for you. It’s never a feeling. It’s not a goose bump you got in a service when something happened that you really were thrilled by. Worship is, first of all, sebomai. It means to live a lifestyle Monday through Saturday that everybody knows you’re under the lordship of Christ. You’re not perfect, but you’re predictable, and people know when you fail what you’re going to do. You live embracing the cross.

Latreuo means to serve, and to serve means that you’re willing to do whatever God tells you whenever He tells you to do it. The key is “Yes, Lord.” It doesn’t matter what He says; no agenda but “Yes, Lord,” whatever it is.

Then thirdly, is the word proskuneo, which means to fall down prostrate, flat, before Him in total utter humility, realizing how awesome He is and how little you are apart from Him. That’s worship.

Here these people are coming together to worship. Worship takes place Monday through Saturday long before it gets into church on Sunday. Already symptoms had developed in them and he says, “You’re coming together as a group that’s divided.” And he says, “I have this against you.” In other words, “I don’t have anything good to say about you when you come to worship this way!”

I know people who get up on Sunday morning and fight with each other the whole time trying to get ready and get the kids ready. Then they come to church. They’re already late when they get there. They don’t intend to listen to anything. They never have. They’ve been sitting there listening to truth all their life. They’ve gone to all that effort. Then when I get up to preach, they sit there and park their brains in neutral and walk out the door at the end and say, “Nice sermon, preacher.”

You know, why come to church, is my question. Why do we go to church? Why do we do what we do? What is the very reason we come together? I wonder how divided we really are. I wonder how many of us, beneath the surface, have never been willing to buy in to the principles of God’s Word and what it has to say. We’ve never been willing to surrender to the sufficiency to Christ, to recognize how wicked our flesh really is and to live totally dependent upon Christ in everything that we do.

I wonder if it’s in the church today—listen carefully—because it was in the church of Corinth. The symptoms had been seen in other areas, but now it surfaced in public worship. It happened to be the Lord’s Supper. When I used to study this, I thought the Lord’s Supper was the issue, it is not. The issue is the divisiveness in the church. The issue is people embracing other doctrines within but not saying anything about it. But all of that surfaces when they come to take the Lord’s Supper.

I wonder if the apostle Paul was writing this in the 20th century if he could shift it out and say, “Let’s put the Lord’s Supper over here. Let’s take the church business meeting.” I wonder how many people come to a church conference the same way they go to take the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11. I wonder if we right here could say, “Listen, in any area of public worship this can fit.” The context is narrowed, however, to the partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Remember that. But when something is inward that is not what God says it ought to be, in your masking it by your smile and by the fact you can sing with the best of them, at some point that evil, that flesh, will surface in the body of believers that will distinguish where you are. It will not only distinguish where you are, it will also distinguish where those who are not of that same mine are. You’ll see this in the Scripture.

The inevitability of division within the church

First of all, Paul shows the inevitability of division within the church. In verse 19 he says, “For there must also be factions among you.” When you read “must also,” it’s the little Greek word dei. It can be translated “necessity” or “must need,” because it does mean necessity. However, it’s also translated “inevitable,” something that is inevitable. You don’t need division in the body of Christ, but it is inevitable that you’re going to have it.

Look over in Matthew 18:7. The same word is used, and I think it will show you exactly how he’s using it here. Nobody wants division, and you don’t need division, but it’s inevitable that you’re going to have it. Jesus says, “‘Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!’” You see, that the word can mean the inevitability of something.

Paul is simply stating it is inevitable there are going to be divisions within the church. You’re going to have. It’s not something that is needed, but you’re going to have division in the church.

Now, the word “factions” in verse 19 of our text is different from the word “divisions” in verse 18. There needs to be a distinction here. In verse 18 the word used there for divisions is the word schisma, which is the word that means to rip something apart, to tear something apart. There’s already the idea that these people had separated themselves from one another. Even though they were in the same church, even though they came to the same public worship, they didn’t sit together. They didn’t speak to one another. They had already ripped themselves apart from one another.

But the word used in verse 19 when it says that it’s inevitable that there will be factions in the church is a different word. It’s the word hairesis. We get the word “heresy” from it. Now, you think, “Heresy? What in the world has that got to do with factions in the church?” We think of heresy as somebody coming in here and preaching a doctrine that is so far out nobody would ever buy into it. Yes, that is heresy. But you’re seeing the root of what real heresy is here. Heresy is when a person does not embrace what the church embraces, does not embrace doctrine, does not embrace the Word of God.

What do I mean by embrace? That doesn’t mean understand; I mean willing to bow up under. A person who chooses not to live out what he knows from the Word of God is a person who has hairesis within him. There are heresies within him. That person may or may not be known. In other words, he’s never divided himself from anybody. He continues to have this harboring within, but it will come out at some point. It will come out at a public meeting somewhere like it came out here at Corinth. He hasn’t separated himself.

You see, the difference is this hairesis, this enveloping another doctrine, this embracing the flesh rather than embracing God and His Word, can lead to a schism, can lead to people being separated and torn apart. How many churches are there in our town? Do we need that many churches? Many of them are there because of a schisma. It has been torn apart. Why? Because people within that church never embraced the doctrine that the church was preaching. They never embraced Christ. They never embraced His Word. And when it came down to it, one day it came out and surfaced in public worship. And when it surfaced in public worship, it split the church and they separated from one another. So you’ve got two words here.

Paul is not really talking to the people who have already separated themselves. He’s talking to the people who are harboring attitudes of the flesh, which is nothing more than heresy. It’s the root of it. Heresy gets worse and worse and worse, but it starts right here. When I’m not willing to live up under that which God, through His Holy Spirit, has revealed to me, I am committing an act of heresy. You may not know it, because I may be smiling on the outside. I may be saying all the things you like to hear. But on the inside I’m a wreck, and one day it will come out in a public setting. It will come up. God will make sure it comes out. He’ll expose those kinds of people by their attitudes which are ungodly which spill themselves out in the public setting of worship. That is exactly what’s going on here at Corinth.

In verse 19 he says, “in order that those who are approved may have become evident among you.” What a picture! The word “approved” here is dokimos. It’s the same word he uses in 1 Corinthians 9:27 when he says, “I don’t want to be unapproved. I don’t want to be disqualified. I don’t want to sit on the bench.” He’s not talking about losing your salvation. He’s talking about becoming unusable in the body of Christ. How many people who come to church every Sunday are unusable because they’re not willing to surrender to the doctrines that God has taught them? They’re not willing to adhere to the lordship of Jesus Christ. So as a result of that he says, “in order that those who are approved,” present tense, those who are constantly being approved. There are those always within the church, the remnant, who are living consistent with God’s Word. They’re living dead to self. They’re taking the low road. They’re becoming river beds through which God can be the river.

Well, it was illustrated in chapter 10 in a beautiful way. In chapter 10 he mentions Israel. And of the whole nation of Israel, only two were approved. It says God was not happy with many of them, but really that’s an understatement. Out of a million and a half, only two, Joshua and Caleb. But those two stood out in stark contrast to a whole nation that rejected Him. What he’s saying here is, “It’s inevitable you’re going to have division within a church. You’re going to have people who are embracing flesh. You’re going to have people who will never embrace the word of God and will be seen symptomatically in the public settings of worship. But when they are seen, they just simply form a backdrop that God uses to enhance and make everybody recognize those who are faithful. He uses the unfaithful to prove the faithful. It’s inevitable you’re going to have them. But when you do have them, for those of you living faithful lives keep on living faithful because everybody will know you’re faithful by your attitude, by your demeanor, by the way you live.”

When you’re in public settings, it will come out, especially when the church is under pressure, when the church is being tested. Watch out! It comes out in public worship. It’s amazing to me how God can use the carnality of others to display the faithfulness of those who love Him. The inevitability of division in the church.

The evidence of division in the church

Now, the second thing I want you to see is the evidence of division in the church. It’s very evident in the church of Corinth. Verses 20-22 read, “Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God, and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.”

Paul quickly shows that when they came to the Lord’s Supper they did not come to worship Christ. That was not their motive. Now, I can hear some of them saying now, “Who are you to tell me my motive?” The apostle Paul says, “I’m Paul. I’m an apostle. I have nothing good to say about you. And I want you to know that when you come to observe the Lord’s Supper, that is not the heartbeat of what you want others to think it is. You’re not coming to worship the Lord Jesus.” He says in verse 20, “Therefore, when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.” Well, what is it then? Verse 21 goes on, “for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk.”

First of all, you’ve got to understand the culture of the heathen world. Remember, as we’ve studied Corinthians we have discovered that it’s not the church affecting the city, it’s the city affecting the church. That’s the problem. It’s infected it and it’s affected it and they’ve got a lot of problems. In the heathen world when they would have an idolatrous feast and everybody would come together, there was a lot of gluttony, drunkennessand immorality.

We’re talking to a rich church. Over in 2 Corinthians Paul even mentions that. He talks about how rich and wealthy these people are as opposed to the poor churches over in Macedonia. It was only the wealthy who could have the food there to eat. The poor had nothing to eat, as the verse even brings out. So what he’s saying is, evidently the poor were there. The rich despised the poor. Then the rich would bring food that they were going to eat and they ate it all up before the poor got a chance. In other words, those who had the food would bring it to this feast, but the problem was, the rich would take it and eat it. Then the poor were hungry and the rich ended up drunk. Paul says, “You call this observing the Lord’s Supper?”

Apparently, there was a huge problem, and the symptoms of their flesh indulgence came out when they had the Lord’s Supper. They made a mockery out of what was supposed to have been a time of worship. What was appointed to feed the soul was employed to feed their own lust and passions. What should have been a bond that would unify believers ended up being an instrument of discord, the very opposite of what it was intended to be. The poor were deprived the partaking of the sacred supper. The rich turned the feast into a debacle.

Well, their conduct was contemptible to the Lord. Verse 22 reads, “What? Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God, and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.” The first thing he tells them is, “Now listen, folks. When you come to the Lord’s Supper, that should be your sole focus and purpose. Eat at your house. You’ve got a house to eat in. Eat there. But when you come to the Lord’s Supper, you come only for the partaking of that which is symbolic and in remembrance of what Jesus has done for you. When you’re coming, you’re making a mockery out of this whole thing.”

Let me make sure I add a point here. There are some people who use this verse and say you should never eat at church. When you have something at church that’s meant to eat, go eat. This is the Lord’s Supper, very focused, very narrow. That’s the context. He’s not even talking about anything like that. The context will not allow for that kind.

What he is saying is you come to partake of the Lord ’s Supper. You come with that totally in your mind. It’s a focus there. He tells them that their behavior shows that they hold the body of believers in contempt.

Look at this in verse 22. Do you realize when a person comes to church symptoms can appear? It doesn’t have to be the Lord ’s Supper we’re talking about. He says, “Or do you despise the church of God.” That’s an interesting word, despise. It’s the Greek word kataphroneo. It means to look down on and hold others in contempt. Do you realize a person who is embracing the doctrines of the flesh and the doctrines of the world, who has somehow disengaged himself from that which Christ has taught him—the coming to the cross and embracing the cross daily, dying to self, living in the sufficiency of who Christ is—a person who’s never bought into that, is in reality communicating a message to the whole body of believers that you people are stupid? They look down on us and think we’re fools because of the way we live. The way they act proves the fact they’re despising the whole body of Christ. That’s interesting.

I was in another city and a man said to me, “You Christians are stupid. You’re poor. You don’t have any money. You don’t have any business sense.” But you know what hits me when I study this? I could receive that from him. Do you know why? Because he was an unbeliever and a pagan, and pagans think like pagans think. But what you cannot receive is when somebody in the body of Christ says the same type of things to you, has the same type of attitude toward you. “Who in the world do you think you are walking by faith?”

I was in a business meeting one time and a man stood up and said, “Listen, what we need is common sense.” I want to tell you one thing. Common sense is when my mind has been renewed by the Word of God and I start thinking like God said. Now that’s common sense. Anything other than that is nothing more than a disgrace. That’s exactly the message that is signaled by people who know but won’t live, people who have a mask over them, people who embrace a heresy, and yet they still come to worship. They are sending a signal that they disdain the whole body of Christ. Kind of good to know what those people think about you, isn’t it? If you’re trying to live a surrendered life, you’re a fool in the eyes of many people who claim to know Christ.

He says, “Or do you despise the church of God, and shame those who have nothing?” The word “shame” is kataischuno. It’s the word that means to bring to total humiliation. His reference here is to those poor people who were stopped and hindered from partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Did you ever realize when you have something that’s public worship there are those, and usually it’s the poor, who know their need and come and want to worship, but the attitudes of the rich and the attitudes of those who will not embrace the Word of God are the very attitudes that shut down the poor and humiliate and make them want to go over into a corner? The word has the idea of so humiliating them that they’re ashamed and they’re reddened in the face and they’re made to go over and feel as if they’re stupid over in the corner. Is that the attitude you have?

I’ll tell you what. I have never seen sin as bad as it is except in the book of 1 Corinthians. When we got in chapter 10 I had never seen sin as being idolatry. I’d never realized it was that serious. I knew it was serious. But I’d never quite seen it in the picturesque form. What we’re seeing right now is the true attitude of a person not living surrendered to Christ, as they were in Corinthians. They may know the Scriptures. They can quote the Greek and the Hebrew to you. But I want to tell you something. They could care less about you. They have no love or sensitivity to the weaker brother. They’ll take you to court if you ever say anything wrong to them. They’re the kind of people who are not out for anybody but themselves. They’re casting a message out that says, “Even though we attend this church, we cast disgrace and disdain on anybody who walks by faith. That’s a simplistic way of living.” And not only that, by their very attitude they suppress the poor who really come to meet with God.

Wow! Paul has nothing good to say about them at all. He said, “What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.” I’ll tell you what. You’ve got to hand it to him. For all these chapters he’s done his best to commend them. He’s done his best to encourage them. But right now he has no encouragement and no commendation in his mind. He is taking them down, opening up the sore and showing them what the problem really is. A person can be a heretic who knows the truth and will not live up under it. He knows it, but he’s embraced another doctrine. That’s where the roots of all heresy comes from.

The inevitability of it is going to be there. There are going to be those who have hairesis, and it may lead to schisma, the actual separation. There’s also the evidence of it. It sure was in the church of Corinth in the attitudes of the people toward the Lord’s Supper.

The cure for division in the church

The third thing is the cure for division in the church. Ironically, the Lord’s Supper was to celebrate what Christ had unselfishly done for them so that they could live free from the bondage to the very flesh that was dominating them. So why in the world would they ever want to worship the Lord in the Lord’s Supper the way they were doing? They were living as if they didn’t even know Him. Some may not have, because in 2 Corinthians he said, “I think your problem is you need to examine yourself to see whether or not you’re even in the faith.”

In verse 23 look what he says. He begins to rehearse now what he had already taught them. It’s not new. This is very similar to the book of Hebrews when he says, “You ought to be teachers. I’ve got to go back and teach you the ABC’s because you have become dull of hearing.” That’s exactly what had happened here at the church of Corinth. They knew better, but they weren’t living under what they knew. Verse 23 says, “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread.” He starts off and says, “For I received from the Lord.” We know that he had this teaching clear, every “i” dotted, every “t” crossed. Did God reveal it to him in a special revelation? He could have, because He taught him the message of grace while he was out in the desert and brought him back so he could help Peter and the other apostles.

But it may not have been by direct revelation. It could have been by indirect revelation through one of the other apostles. He was not there at the Last Supper. What he tells us is exactly what’s recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He does not miss a single thing. “For I received from the Lord,” then he goes on and says, “that which I also delivered to you.” That is aorist active. Paul had taught them, but now they have to be taught again.

He’s going to mention the two elements of the Lord’s Supper, but I want you to see something in verse 23. Context. What’s the context? The people of Corinth were even betraying the Lord Jesus Christ by the fact that they were coming and making a mockery out of the Lord’s Supper. They were disdaining the whole body of Christ. Look at the phrase here. Verse 23, “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus [now watch this] in the night in which He was [what?] betrayed, took bread.”

When I first read that, I thought that’s a good statement. He could have said the same thing and never mentioned the fact that that was the night in which He was betrayed. Do you realize this is in the midst of a church betraying the Lord Jesus by their walk? They’re embracing flesh rather than embracing Christ. Do you realize who He was betrayed by? A ma

1 Corinthians 11:27-29

Examine Yourself

My title for this study is “Examine Yourself.” I want to make sure we understand that title. So often we love to examine somebody else. It’s amazing how we look at other people more than we look at ourselves. So examine yourself. As we say many times, draw that circle around yourself. Don’t be pointing a finger or wishing somebody else was here to hear the message. Ask the Lord what He is saying to you. That’s the name of our message, “Examine Yourself.”

Always when a group of people come together there is what I call the mixed multitude. By that I mean there are those who are surrendered to Christ—never perfection; that’s never what we intend to imply, but predictability. People who love that Lord to where if they sin, and we will, that we immediately come and confess and repent of that, embracing the cross, finding our identity in Christ, letting Jesus now be the life in and through us. You’ll find those people whenever the church comes together for public worship.

But in that mixed multitude you’ll find those who have received Jesus but have bought the lie of the world, the flesh, and the devil and they’ve given into it. As a result of that they’re miserable, they’re opinionated, they’re critical, and they just wonder what has robbed their joy. They may even be questioning themselves if they’re even saved when the problem is in their surrender in their whole attitude towards Christ.

In that mixed multitude you’ll also have those who have joined the church and have missed Jesus. I was in the ministry eight years before I came to know Christ. I know how that feels. Living in the garage doesn’t make you a car. Neither does joining the church make you a believer. You don’t join Jesus. You have to be born from above. So you have a mixed multitude.

The key in ministry is to pray that the ones who love Christ get bigger and bigger. But you’re always going to have the mixed multitude to whatever degree. This makes it very difficult when you come to observe something in public worship that is intended only for those who are surrendered to Christ and love Him with all their hearts. It becomes a circus sometimes to try to do what is very sacred when you have people coming who don’t consider anything sacred any more.

You see, worship starts long before you ever come to church. Worship is the attitude of your heart towards God. Praise is the outflow of that. It’s the celebration of that. Obviously the ones who are not surrendered to Christ are made to feel very out of place when they are around people who are there for the right purpose. It can be the other way around, too. Even the people who are there for the right purpose, if they’re outnumbered, can be made to feel out of place.

So you have this enigma in the church of Jesus Christ. Paul warned that there would always be those who’d come to public worship with the hidden loyalties to their flesh. You don’t see it right off but they’re here. They always will be here.

As I studied this I just felt the heartbeat of Paul. It’s just amazing how you just begin to feel as you watch him express himself over and over again. The feeling I get is what I got in 2 Timothy. Look over in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 just for a second. I spent three years studying the book of 2 Timothy word for word. In that study something hit me in the third chapter of 2 Timothy that I want to show you. I think Paul’s heart as he wrote to Timothy is also being expressed the same way right here to the church of Corinth. We see the frustration of a man who’s given his heart to Christ, watching people he thought were receiving the Word, watching people just regurgitate it and live as a total sham to what God wanted them to be.

Second Timothy 3:1-5 says, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self [almost like reading the newspaper, isn’t it?], lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful [I want you to mark the next word], unholy [we’ll come back to it in a minute], unloving.” Do you know what unloving is? Astorgos); a means without, and storgos is that beautiful thing that God has given between a mother and her child. You can be lost and have this. God gave it to all humanity. Are you wondering why we have abortion in this day and time? Because we’re living in the last days. We’re seeing the astorgos. We’re seeing people without that kind of love. We’re living in those days. Verse 3 goes on, “unloving, irreconcilable [you couldn’t reason with them if you tried], malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good [he’s speaking to the church, remember], treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”

How do you know he’s speaking to the church? Verse 5 reads, “holding to a form of godliness”—folks, we can have church as church every Sunday; we can have the organization; we can set up committees and call it a church and have a form of godliness— “although they have denied its power.”

I want you to see that little word in verse 2, the last word. That’s a sermon in those first five verses of 2 Timothy 3. But look in verse 2 at the last word, the word “unholy.” The word is anosios—a, without, and then the word hosios. Hosios has to do with perfect righteousness which cannot come from our flesh. It only can come from faith. It’s that which comes absolutely right out of the nature of God Himself, that which is incorruptible, that which will stand the test of God’s judgment one day.

You can put it in another way. You can say in the last days there will be those within the church who absolutely hold nothing sacred anymore: the Lord’s Supper, times to come together to worship, nothing. Hebrews says, “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.” But it’s not sacred to anybody anymore. He says that will be there in the last days. Paul was already seeing the beginning of it in Corinth. We’re living in it today.

You may be thinking, “Well, I don’t want to be a divisive person in the body of Christ. I don’t want to be somebody with a hidden loyalty to the flesh who hasn’t manifested itself yet. How can I know if I’m part of the problem or part of the solution?” That’s wonderful, isn’t it? In the Christian life you’re supposed to become part of the solution, not part of the problem. How can I become part of the solution? Well, examine yourself. You don’t examine me and I don’t examine you. We examine ourselves.

A Command

So, in thinking about this, first of all Paul gives a command. That’s the first thing he does. Look in verse 27. He says, “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.” Verse 28 goes on, “But let a man examine himself [there’s the command], and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” Those two statements go hand in hand. That’s why I’ve got to go back and do verse 27.

Every time a believer participates in the Lord’s Supper he’s clearly declaring that what the Lord came to do he has fully received and accepted into his life. It’s not the remembrance of the physical body. No, sir; not at all. It was a unique body that Jesus had. It was the sacred body of the Lord Jesus Christ, one that could not in any way corrupt.

Look back in Acts 2. I want to show you something. In Peter’s sermon I want you to see something about the uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why it is we celebrate that particular body and that particular blood? What is unique about it? Go back to Acts 2:27. He says, “Because thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow thy holy one [hosios, that same word in Timothy 3], to undergo decay.”

Look down in verse 31: “He looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay.” There’s something unique about this, about the body of Christ. Do you realize that when we are born we begin to decay, we begin to die? Nothing has shocked me any more than the death of a friend, a brother, not even 60 years old. It hit me what James said when he said life is like a vapor. It quickly appears and quickly vanishes away. You get to thinking about things like that, how quickly something like that happens. Why does death have to happen? Because of the sin of Adam we live in bodies that are corruptible. The moment we’re born that body begins to die. Thank God for the promise one day He’ll glorify that body and thank God for the promise that when the body dies, the Christian spirit goes right on to be with the Lord Jesus.

Jesus, when He was born, did not begin the process of decay. Jesus got older, but His body did not decay because there was nothing in it that could cause it to decay. There was no corruptibility to the body. As a matter of fact, on the cross if you’ll study correctly, He didn’t just die, He dismissed His own human spirit on the cross. Nobody could kill Him. He came to die and He chose to die. His body was a unique body. So when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we’re not just celebrating a body, a common body. We’re celebrating the unique body of the Lord Jesus Christ. The whole gospel of Jesus Christ is wrapped around the understanding that it was a unique body.

The term “begotten” refers to His resurrection and how that body was resurrected from the grave. The only begotten Son of God who became flesh, dismissed His spirit and then raised it up again and raised Himself from the grave. Is He God or is He not God? So we have a uniqueness of the body of Christ.

We also have a uniqueness in the blood of Christ. It wasn’t just human blood. It was divinely human blood, a divinely human body and a divinely human blood. Hebrews says He was tempted as we are. Some people say, and I can understand why, if He was tempted then evidently He could have responded to it. No, no. The word “tempted” in Greek does not mean that. The word “tempted” means He was put to the test to see if there was anything in Him that would respond to Satan. Satan continued to put Him to that test. But as John said he found nothing in Him that he could draw out of Him. It was the unique body of Christ. He identified with our suffering in this life, never with our sin. He identified with our sin on the cross. So we must understand the uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s not just like celebrating any old body. This was the unique body born of a virgin there in Bethlehem. And as that body grew it got older but never corrupted. Even on the cross He dismissed His own human spirit. And the blood that flowed through His veins was not just human blood but it was divinely human blood. And that’s why we come to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. That’s what Paul is trying to show them.

Now, it goes on in verse 27 of 1 Corinthians 11, “Therefore whoever eats the bread of drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.” Whoa! The word “unworthy” there is anaxios, a which means without, and axios means worthy, unworthy. You could put it in a little different way and say to celebrate it in an unbecoming way, something that doesn’t measure up to the true worth of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. To make a mockery out of something that is sacred would fit right here.

“What do you mean? How do I know I’ve partaken of it in an unworthy way?” Let’s look at a contrasting word to the word axios. It’s the word timao. Let me show you the difference. Timao means honor; axios means the intrinsic value of something. It’s worth something. Timao is more than the attributed value. Do you understand the difference in that, intrinsic and attributed? Attributed is what you decide that it’s worth. What it’s worth is what it’s worth. The honor that you may give to something may vary depending on your perspective.

I have an old phone at home. My daddy used to take old phones and make lamps out of them. My father could fix anything, so they would give him these old, old phones. One of the phones that I have is an old phone that you crank, the big box type of phone. It’s got the little speaker thing on it. People are telling me all the time it’s worth about $200. That’s their attributed value. But to me there’s a value to that phone that can’t measure to what you look at. There’s an intrinsic value because it was my daddy’s phone. In fact, he was working on that phone, making a lamp out of it when he died. That means something to me.

So whatever you apply and give honor to may not measure up to what it’s intrinsic value is. So when he says unworthy, he didn’t say “in a dishonorable way”; that would imply something else. He says “in an unworthy manner,” something that you do attributing to that supper that is far less than what it’s intrinsic value really is. The blood and the bread of the Lord Jesus Christ has within itself, by everything that’s accomplished in our life an intrinsic value that can never be changed no matter what man’s perspective of it is. What he says is you’re coming to that intrinsic value that’s here and you’re coming to it in a much subnormal way and you’re not measuring to its intrinsic value. You’re making a sham out of something that is precious and sacred.

For instance, if one comes to the Lord’s Supper and partakes of it in the church, he has a hidden loyalty to his flesh that doesn’t match up with what God’s Word has to say. He has bitterness in his heart. He’s unforgiving to somebody that has treated him wrongly but yet he comes and partakes of the Lord’s Supper, he has partaken in an unworthy manner if he has not dealt with that before the Lord. He’s partaken in an unworthy manner.

Do you realize that when you partake of the Lord’s Supper you are receiving everything Christ has done for you, which was to forgive you as unworthy as you are? Then to turn right around and not forgive your brother? Are you kidding me? There are hidden agendas of the flesh that will not respond to the Word of God that’s within every church in America today, in the world. That’s what he’s talking about. That’s how you partake of the Lord’s Supper unworthily. That’s how you give it an attributed value that’s so far in the gutter from what the intrinsic value is you make a shame out of the very act of sacred worship.

Well, we partake of the Lord’s Supper unworthily when we are unwilling to forgive. Matthew 18:35 says, “You forgive as I have forgiven you, out of the heart.” Then secondly we can partake of the Lord’s Supper unworthily when we do not recognize the intrinsic—there’s that word again—value of the other members of the body of Christ, the other gifts.

We are going to get to 1 Corinthians 12. We really are. When I got into 1 Corinthians, most people got excited, not because of 1 Corinthians, but because they wanted to hear what I was going to say on chapters 12-13. I know that. Hey, it’s all going to come out in chapter 12. Oh yes! But isn’t it interesting that chapter 11 comes before chapter 12? Why? I wonder if that’s a coincidence. Chapter 13 comes before chapter 14. It’s amazing how that works, isn’t it? It’s just amazing. God must know something. It’s going to come out.

In 1 Corinthians 12:14-29 you’re going to find that God has respect for every member of the body of Christ and every clearly defined gift that He has given. When you don’t respect that and it comes out as that, look out. You may be partaking of the Lord’s Supper unworthily because it’s in Christ and we’re one. Not in a gift, not an opinion, not in a doctrine, but in Christ we’re one.

Ephesians 4:3 says that. He says preserve, not produce. You can’t produce it. Preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. The Spirit already produces unity. It’s already there. So when a person comes to partake of the Lord’s Supper and has an ax to grind against somebody else in the body of Christ, look out! He’s partaking the Lord’s Supper unworthily.

Do you see what I’m doing? I could make a list and we could stay in this list a long time. Paul says, “Don’t take of the Lord’s Supper unworthily, or if you do what happens is you are guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus.”

So here comes the command. Verse 27 is hinged on verse 28. In verse 28, here comes the command: “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” The word “examine” here is a really key word. He assumes that he’s speaking to believers. The word is dokimazo. It’s in the singular which means each man. In other words, this is that self-examination. It’s in the present tense; let him be continually doing this. Take full responsibility; active voice. And it’s an imperative. It’s a command. Paul says, “I’m going to tell you what to do. Look in a mirror and see if you’re the problem. You make sure you are living as in accordance to what you’re observing in the Lord’s Supper at your church.”

The word “test” means to test in order to prove something. Since it’s singular, it’s individual. There are two words for test. You’ve got to see this. This isn’t the only time Paul in Corinthians, in one of his epistles, says to the believers, “Test yourself.” This one assumes that they’re believers and assumes that since they are believers then they can denote if anything’s wrong in their life and they can deal with it.

There’s another word for “test.” Look over in 2 Corinthians 13:5. He changes the word. I’ll show you the difference in the meaning. These two epistles almost have to be studied together. Somebody asked me, where are we going after 1 Corinthians? I don’t think there’s any doubt. We’ve got to go through 2 Corinthians. It will light your fire, especially in the fourth chapter. You talk about the Christ life, it’s just everywhere there.

Look at 2 Corinthians 13:5. He says, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith.” That word “test” there is the word peirazo. It’s a different word. When the word peirazo is used in Hebrew, it’s a word that means assuming that you’re not something. Dokimazo assumes that you are; peirazo assumes that you’re not. Therefore, in 2 Corinthians he’s saying you better check out and see if you’re a believer. But he’s not saying that in 1 Corinthians 11; he’s assuming that they are.

He’s saying, since you are a believer, you check to see if there’s anything out of kilter in your life. If there’s sin and it’s a hidden agenda of your flesh, make sure you deal with that before you take the Lord’s Supper. So the word peirazo is a little different. So you get encouraged by this. He’s really trying to encourage them. “Hey, guys, you examine yourself.”

Now, all of us at all times are capable of partaking the Lord’s Supper unworthily. I’ll be the first to raise my hand. There have been times I have partaken of it unworthily, because I had things I wouldn’t deal with. I can say that, before it was over with, God dealt with me about that, most of the time.

You see, he uses “if any man.” The word man there is the word anthropos, which means generic man, human being. Just being a human being you automatically know that you’re fallible and, therefore, you can make mistakes. You commit sin. We will. So he says to the believers, who are mere human beings but yet they’re believers, “Before you take the Lord’s Supper, look in a mirror and examine yourself. You don’t want to be the problem. You want to be the solution.”

To strengthen the idea that this is self-examination he says, “But let a man examine himself.” He uses that little reflexive pronoun there, eautou. He says, “You examine yourself.” Paul wants to be sure that each one turns his eyes introspectively, instead of looking at others.

I want to make a statement here that I may be profound. Listen to this. Our attitude towards others affects us more than the attitude of others towards us. I’m going to say that again. You need to hear that. I need to hear that again. My attitude towards others affects me more than other’s attitude toward me. You think about that. You say, “No, man. You don’t know how that person treats me.” No, never in Scripture does God give you the luxury of thinking they’re ever going to treat you the right way, but He commands us to be at peace with our brother. He commands us to deal with our attitude towards them.

You see, this is what he’s trying to tell them. “Let a man examine himself, and then let him take of the Lord’s Supper.” Hey, there could be anything like that in our life at any time. Deal with the bitterness. Deal with the unforgiveness before you partake of that, because flesh does not hold that service sacred. But if you allow the Spirit to speak, then the flesh can be dealt with and then you can see the intrinsic value of why you take of that Lord’s Supper. We must examine ourselves before we partake of communion.

So Paul says, “But let a man examine himself [then he adds], and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” That little phrase “and so” is a connective word. After having examined yourself, now in light of that, take of the bread and take of the cup. That’s the way you partake. So he gives them a command. All of this has to do with examining yourself.

A warning

The second thing he does, and the last thing we’ll look at, is he gives them a warning. Look at verse 29, “For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly.” There is a self-incrimination to the person who partakes of the Lord’s Supper without first of all having examined himself. By self-incrimination I mean he accuses himself. He is guilty of something if he has not examined himself. He says, “For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment.” The word “judgment” carries in it the idea of self-incrimination. The word is krima there. It means a crime that is a known crime and is now ready for punishment. That’s what it says. So a person who would come with unforgiveness, a person who would come with bitterness in their heart to partake of the Lord’s Supper, and not having first examined himself, has just declared himself in the court of the church guilty as charged and is now waiting on the consequence God’s going to bring in his life.

Oh, that puts a different light on it, doesn’t it? Here we have a believer who’s harboring unforgiveness and bitterness and opinionated things that only come out of the flesh. He comes in to partake of the Lord’s Supper and will not examine himself. That person has just declared himself guilty and worthy of whatever punishment or consequence that God deals to him. If these fleshly attitudes, these divisive heresies are in his life, he brings upon himself a proven crime, and proven willful crime is always worthy of its own consequence. “For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly.”

Now, the word “judgment” here again, in verse 29, entails punishment that God Himself is going to give out. Now, there’s no way you can blame God. God’s not the one who arbitrarily does it. No, no. It’s because this person is guilty that the consequences are going to come. Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t allow us to judge each other? I’m glad the rod of correction is in the hand of the One who died for us and who gave Himself for us. But there are consequences for these choices that we make, and when our flesh does not treat anything sacred that we do publicly, what happens is, God says there’s going to be a consequence to that and God’s going to make sure that there is. But He’s the one who deals it out.

God doesn’t let us judge anything. He’s the judge. If I owe you $5, you’re going to charge me $7 and charge me interest. God doesn’t do that. If you owe $5, you pay $5. That’s the way God deals. He’s the only one who knows how much is owed. He’s the only one to know how much is done, therefore, He repays righteously and He says there’s going to be a consequence. Isn’t it wonderful to know that although we’re imperfect, because of the blood of Jesus we’re able to sit at the table of the Lord? He takes that into account, that we’re imperfect. But willful sin is going to bear its own consequence.

Again, in verse 29 it says, “For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly.” The word “judge” here is diakrino, which means to draw a line between and say this is this and that is that. He says this man has not judged rightly. He hasn’t judged rightly about what? The body, he has not judged the body rightly. He has not made a clear distinction between something.

You ask, “What body is he talking about?” First of all, it has to be in the context, the body of Christ. But it’s a sacred unique body, a holy body that was given and holy blood that was shed. That’s one, but it opens up another door: My own body and the deeds that come from it have got to be judged and a line drawn. This is this and that is that. But then, thirdly, the body of Christ itself. And if a man comes to the supper having not discerned the differences in the body—and, yes, these are this gift and they are those gifts, and we all fit to make the body of Christ—and if there’s any animosity or any separation there, then what happens is he partakes of the Lord’s Supper unworthily. The word “judge” means to distinguish between that which is different.

A member in our church is from Singapore and his wife is from China. They had a little baby recently. The first time their little boy saw that little baby he said, “Daddy, Mommy, she looks Chinese.” Now, you just have to understand this story. I think in the little boy’s mind he thought that if it was born in America it would look different. But instead he said, “It looks Chinese.” It just looks like its parents.

The word teknon in Scripture is the word “child” that means you bear the image of your father. What’s the image of your father? “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” So when you come to the Supper, you come as one bearing the image of the One you’re celebrating. And if the love for one another is not there, you’ve marred the image, and you’ve held the supper in contempt, and you missed the intrinsic value of what it was all about. He says to look in a mirror. Don’t point at somebody else. Examine yourself.

1 Corinthians 11:30-31

The Chastening of God

When I was growing up, there was a side to my parents that took years to understand. I knew they loved me. I could not have had more loving parents. I could not have asked for a better mother and father. They loved the Lord and taught me and gave me a great heritage of trusting Him. They just loved me. My father never told me he loved me all the time, but he showed me. My mother was always hugging me and telling me she loved me. I knew they loved me.

But there was a side to that love that took a long time as a child to understand, and that was the side of their chastening. In my little mind growing up, I couldn’t quite associate pain with love. Somehow that didn’t equate.

With my father it was a little different, but my mom would just cry all the time she was spanking me. She would say, “I love you, I love you. I am doing this for your good.” I’m thinking, “Well, I don’t understand how pain somehow equates with love.”

Well, it took me a long time. One day I became a parent, and now I do understand that. I do understand that when you love someone, you will go to great extremes to correct them and to put them back on the right path. You will spare no pain, because you love them, to see them enjoy life as it should be enjoyed.

Well, it is the same way in our relationship with God. I don’t know if you have discovered this or not. Oh, we love the songs, “Jesus loves me, this I know.” He does; He really does. But somehow we fail to associate His chastening with His love. You know, He loves us so much He will bring great pain in our lives in order to correct sinful behavior. God does not allow a Christian, a child of God, to get away with sin. Now, you can write that down.

Some people say, “I don’t know if I’m saved or not.” Listen, one of the best ways you can ever know is by the chastening hand of God in your life. He doesn’t let us get away with sin. He hates sin with a passion that I doubt we will ever fully understand. He hates sin with that kind of passion.

Many believers today take the chastening of God very flippantly. In fact, they seem to think that a loving God just could not do such things. I was watching a religious program on television. This fellow uses an expression I have used before. You know, God really spoke to me and convicted me. I have done the same thing. Isn’t it funny when you see another preacher and you think, “Did I do that?” I didn’t say the same thing he said, but I used the same expression.

He used it in a real sarcastic way. He said, “Would God, a loving God, allow sickness and suffering in His children’s life?” And he said, “Absolutely not, that would negate the loving character of God.” I wanted to yell, “No, no, it doesn’t negate the loving character. It proves the loving character.” Yes, God will bring pain in your life. Yes, God will cause us to suffer. Why? Because He is a God who loves us, and He disciplines His children. This kind of warped thinking that a loving God could not bring pain into my life has caused people to misunderstand much of the pain and suffering they have had to go through in this world being His child.

In fact, if you take God’s chastening out of the equation, then we all lose a holy, referential fear of God. What happens is we take God in such a flippant manner that we take sin lightly, and that is when our lives begin to cave in and all kinds of destruction can come about.

Let me say this now, as we talk about the chastening of God. When we talk about the chastening of God in a believer’s life, keep remembering my mother weeping as she has to correct me. The chastening of God has got to be associated with His loving correction in our life. That is what we are dealing with as we walk through the scriptures. Keep that thought in mind. In no way are we referring to the awful wrath of God that one day will be unleashed upon unbelievers and unrighteousness. That is in no way what we are saying. God’s correction is in a different realm than that wrath that one day, without any mercy, will be dropped on this earth. It is a future wrath that is coming one day.

The apostle Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:9, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now there is a wrath he speaks of here that is a future wrath that is coming one day. That future wrath is not what we are destined for. He goes on to say in 1 Thessalonians 5:10, speaking of Christ, “who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.” The implication is forever and forever and forever. So he says, “We are not looking forward to this future wrath that is going to fall one day.” That is not something that the Christian is destined for.

However, we must understand that there is a present wrath that we will have to deal with. You see, not only are we saved from the penalty of sin, we are saved from the power of sin and one day we will be saved from the presence of sin, which in effect will deliver us from the wrath that God is going to drop on this earth without mercy upon sinners and upon unrighteousness. But the wrath that Paul speaks of in one situation is future wrath. There is a wrath, however, that we will deal with, and that is the wrath of God mixed with His mercy.

Remember, the prophet in the Old Testament says, “O God, remember mercy when your wrath comes.” That is the way God always uses His wrath in our life. It is always mixed with mercy. He does hate sin. Thank God He has sent Jesus to deal with it on the cross. But He continues to hate those sinful choices that we make, and, therefore, He continues to allow us to experience some of that wrath mixed with His mercy to give us an understanding of the life that He seeks for us to live. God disciplines His children.

We used to have a sign in front of the church. We put a big sign out that read, “You are free to make whatever choice you want to make, but you are not free to choose its consequence.” What we were saying by that little sign was to let the world know that, as believers, we don’t get away with making sinful choices; that we invoke the very wrath of God upon our own lives when we choose to walk in darkness rather than walk in light. It is not a wrath that is one day destined for these others, but it is a wrath. He does hate sin. He does hate sin. We have got to see that. And God chastens His own.

In fact, turn over to Hebrews 12. Let’s just make sure we see this. This chastening, when it comes to believers, is always for an eternal purpose. It’s always to work an eternal good in our life. It is nothing like the wrath that is going to be released on unbelievers. This is a different kind of wrath. It is meant to correct. It is meant to instruct. It is meant to teach and to point us in the right direction. In Hebrews 12:57, they were griping and complaining. They were Jewish Christians, and they wanted to go back up under Judaism because there was persecution coming in on them. We don’t know who writes this, but he has a lot of tough things to say. He says in Hebrews 12, “and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons [now understand this wording here], ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines.’” I can hear my mother now, “I love you, Wayne, I love you.” That is exactly what he is saying.

The verse goes on to say, “and He scourges,” I mean, that is severe, that is painful, “He scourges every son whom He receives.” Why? “It is for discipline that you endure.” If there was no discipline, there would be no endurance. It is discipline that drives us to the end of ourselves. It is discipline that drives us to the cross. “God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?”

Do you see the example he uses? He says the same way a father disciplines his child, God disciplines His children. Now, to what extreme would God go to discipline His children? I want you to know the scriptures are not silent about this. An opinion means nothing here. What does God’s Word tell us about the extremes that God would go to discipline His people? Well, chapter 10, that we have already studied in I Corinthians, has told us of one particular event in the life of Israel. In one particular event in the Old Testament 24,000 of His children were brought down. They were executed by a divine God.

Now you say, “Wait a minute. That doesn’t sound like a loving God.” Now hold on, a whole nation was at stake. The nation had rebelled against Him; and God, in an effort to show them the seriousness of what they did, executed 24,000 of them. And what do you think that did? It woke them up. And that is why His purpose is so clear. It is always to correct. It is always to instruct.

I tell you what, when you stay in the Old Testament, it makes everybody feel better. Let’s don’t get in the New Testament, but the New Testament is not silent either. There were some divine executions. They are rare. They are very rare. I don’t want to scare anybody. That is not what I mean to do. I only want to awaken us to the fact that God hates our sin. God hates it, hates it. It has cost Him the very life of His own Son. And when we choose to walk sinfully, it is going to cost us, and there is going to be a consequence.

The times of any executions that God brought about in the New Testament, as I said, are rare, but they are recorded in God’s Word. Turn to Acts 5 just to see if I am right, beginning in verse 1. This is the beginning of the church. This is the new church. Just like as Israel was being formed in the Old Testament, God had to do something in such a way that shocked the people into obedience. He did the same thing in the church, the brand new church that was growing up after His resurrection and ascension and the day of Pentecost and the church now indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. God had to do something to shock them into reality of the lifestyle they are to live.

He says, beginning in Acts 5:1, “But a certain man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God.’ And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came upon all who heard of it. And the young men arose and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him. Now there elapsed an interval of about three hours, and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter responded to her, ‘Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price?’ And she said, ‘Yes, that was the price.’ Then Peter said to her, ‘Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they shall carry you out as well.’ And she fell immediately at his feet, and breathed her last; and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.”

Now, why would God go to this extreme with two people in His church there in the early church? Verse 11 says, “And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.” That is the key. You see, God shocked them with what He did in chastening His own. He shocked them into the reality, in this particular context, that He hated the sin of lying to the Holy Spirit of God.

The word for “fear” is the word phobos. The word phobos is that which puts a terror in one’s heart. But it puts such a terror in your heart that it makes you draw away from that which you are afraid of; now, not necessarily God. In other words, when you were growing up do you remember when your mom used to tell you not to put your hand on the hot part of the stove? You heard it over and over and over again. I remember one day when nobody was in the kitchen I went over and turned that eye on. I wanted to see what she was talking about. I took my little hand, stupid as I was, as rebellious and hardheaded as I was, and I turned my hand over and I laid it down. Wow, it is hot! And I could hear my Mother saying, “Don’t do it,” but I did it. I want to tell you something that did to me at a young age. It taught me to fear that stove. That fear, instead of ruling me, became a servant to me, and that servant to me caused me to stay away from that which would hurt me.

That is exactly what is going on here. God had to show them, “You don’t play games with me. You don’t sin and think you will get away with it.” And He has to shock them to bring them into the reality to be fearful of that which caused the great pain in their life. Something needed to awaken the church of Corinth.

We have been seeing it now for a long time. We know the book very well. A church that was divided, a church that was fleshly, a church that had been taught and taught and taught and taught but would not live up under the teaching that God had given to them. A pitiful congregation divided because of their flesh, desecrating anything that was holy and sacred unto God, particularly the Lord’s Supper. That is where it begins to show itself in the public worship, in the Lord’s Supper.

Well, Paul wants to correct this. The believers at Corinth evidently thought that God wasn’t going to judge them. Why He hasn’t done anything yet! They didn’t even know as they were reading the letter Paul had written to them, God was already judging them and they had completely missed it. They couldn’t see the judgment of God that was going on in their life.

The presence of God’s judgment in the lives of believers

There are three things that I want you to see. First of all is the presence of God’s judgment in the lives of believers. It is always going on whether you know it or not. You see, in your mind you may think it is going to be one thing, but God has a million different ways in which He brings judgment into our lives, chastening into our lives.

Look at verse 30, “For this reason [the very reason that you are not judging yourselves rightly, the very reason that you are divided, the very reason of the bitterness and all the things that are going on in your lives[ many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.” It is interesting to me that this was going on right in the midst of them and they didn’t even recognize it. They didn’t see the chastening hand of God which was all around them.

Now look. He says “For this reason many among you.” The “among you” is the group that is desecrating the Lord’s Supper, those who are coming and partaking of the Lord’s Supper, not having thoroughly examined themselves. Of that group, many of them were weak, many of them were sick, and many of them had already died. Now, the significant thing also about that first phrase is the word “many.” The apostle Paul does not tell us how many. He just gives us a clue by the little word he uses there for “many.” That means that there are more than you would think. There are several. There are not just one or two, there are several who are weak, several who are sick and several who are dead because of their flippant way they have treated their Christianity and the flippant way they have dealt with the Lord’s Supper. God was already sending a message, and they couldn’t see it.

Notice the progression. “For many are weak, many are sick and many sleep.” You know, that little progression is interesting to me. I am not sure if I am reading something into it. You check it out for yourself. I am never the authority, the final word. The Word of God is. But what I see in it is a progressive way in which God tried to get their attention. You know, if I was God—and thank God I am not, and thank God you are not, we would overdo it or under do it—I’d just go ahead and just execute them. But it seemed like He moved in a progression here. Weakness first—okay, you won’t get right; sickness—okay, you won’t get right; death. It is not as if He just stepped in an executed everybody, but there was a progression here: weak, sick and dead.

Now, the first sign of God’s chastening that they had completely missed was that many of them were weak. Now that little word “weak” is the word asthenes. It is the word used many places in scripture to be translated as sickness. It is interesting. Let me show you two different passages. You might want to write them down or turn to them. Matthew 25:39 says, “And Jesus said, ‘And when did we see You sick?’” And the word He uses for sick there is the word asthenes. Even though it is translated “sick” there, it is translated “weak” here. There is a reason for that, by the way.

Then in Matthew 25:43 He says, “‘I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’” Same word. So asthenes can be translated “weak” or it can be in certain contexts translated “sick.” But in other places it is translated weak. In Matthew 26:41 He says, “Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The word is asthenes. That is interesting, isn’t it?

In 1 Corinthians 12:22, “On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary to the body.” I can’t wait to get to that passage. So you see the same word translated as “sick,” and the same word translated as “weak.” Now this presents an intriguing situation, because you’ve got the word “weak” and “sickness” in the same verse. The word asthenes is translated “weak,” but there is another word there that is translated “sick.” That is the word arrhostos. It is a different word. Now, why are there two different words, and what are they trying to say? Is one sick and another sicker? I mean, what is he trying to say? Why does he use two words there? I love the plenary verbal inspiration of scripture. There is a reason for that.

As a matter of fact, Liddell and Scott, some of the tops when it comes to lexicographers, say the second word “sick” and the first word “weak” are distinctly different here in this context. The word “weak” that is used here means to be emotionally, spiritually, physically weak, just drained. It even could do with a psychosomatic type of thing. But when it comes to the word “sick,” he said that has more to do in this context with chronic disease, something that has literally affected the body. There is a sickness, there is a disease that can be specified as a disease, something that is chronic in their life.

So the picture I get of God’s judgment moving in the church of Corinth—and again, I don’t want to read anything into the text—but the picture I get is the first signal that they miss, they completely missed it, was just that emotional and physical and spiritual weariness that began to set in amongst their lives. God is saying to them, “There is sin in your life and you won’t deal with it. And you thought you needed a pill to correct this. What you need is a repentant heart and you will see the vibrancy of God come back into your life. Oh, you won’t get right. Well, alright, since you won’t accept this as my judgment, I’ve got something better, sickness.” And sickness begins to move into the congregation. Sickness of such a kind that was a chronic illness, an illness that had set in amongst the people.

Then God says, “Is that not enough? Do you not realize that you can’t play games with me? Alright.” There are some timely executions that God brings to shock the church back to the reality of how much God hates sin and what it has cost Him through His own Son dying on the cross.

“For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.” The word for “number” there is an interesting little word. It is the word hikanos. It means a sufficient number; in other words, not just one or two, a sufficient number of you. Paul is saying, “I mean, sufficient enough that you already know about those who have dropped dead in the congregation because of your unwillingness to treat God and His Word as sacred.”

Now let’s look at this word “sleep,” because it is an interesting word. It says, “many are asleep.” Why do you say the word “asleep” means dead? Now I want to tell you something straight out. When the word “sleep” is used to describe death in many places, sometimes it is used just to be physically asleep, but when it is assigned the task of describing somebody who has died, it is never used of unbelievers. It is only used of believers. Now that is significant here. You can check it out yourself. There is a reason behind that, because with the death of a believer comes the certainty of a future promise of the resurrection of his body. That is why that particular word is not ever used with lost people. It is only used with believers when it is assigned to describe a death.

Let’s look at it. It is a beautiful promise, actually. The promise is in the word. When Stephen died in Acts 7:60 it says, “And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them!’ And having said this, he fell asleep.” Now, the body fell. He was stoned, the body fell. What happened at that very moment? Do you think the spirit went with the body? We know from another passage, 2 Corinthians 5:8, that at the moment of death, the very moment the heart stops, the very moment there is no more breath left in the body, at that very moment the spirit goes on to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a divine departure.

Paul said that and people missed it. He said, “The time of my departure has come.” They thought it simply meant his physical life here on earth, but no. They could walk by his grave every day. He is still with us, but he is in the grave. Paul says, “No, no, there is a departure. I am going on to be with the Lord Jesus Christ.” The very moment that a believer dies, his spirit goes immediately into the presence of the Lord Jesus. That is why Paul said in Philippians 1:21, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Why? Because I live by faith here, but I live by sight there. I walk right into His presence.

But now, wait a minute. Why would that word “asleep” be assigned to the body then? Is there is a soul sleep? No, I just proved that. The spirit goes to be with the Lord. There is no such thing as a soul sleep. But there is a word “asleep” assigned just to the body of a believer. Why? Because it is a picture in itself. When you lay down and go to sleep, you rest, do you not? But when you have finished resting, what do you do? You get up. The body that is laid down gets up.

I used to know a preacher and I asked him one day where he was going? He was going to a funeral. He said, “I am going to plant a body.” I said, “Well, don’t tell the family that. I don’t think that will go over too good.” I thought it was kind of not good, but, you know, later on I found out he was exactly right. When you plant something in the ground, what do you expect it to do? Get up. Why is the word “asleep” only assigned to the bodies of believers who have died? Because there is a future promise of our redemption.

Our body has not been redeemed yet, only positioned. Experientially it hasn’t happened yet. That is the day when Jesus comes for His church. And what is the first thing that is going to take place? First Thessalonians 4:1318 tells us, “The dead in Christ shall rise first.” And those bodies will be changed and glorified and clothed, their immortal spirit.

This word “asleep” is powerful. This word “asleep” never is used of an unbeliever, so you’ve got to remember the context that we are in. God killed some people in the church of Corinth, but now remember something; He did it to correct a situation. Did He do it to eternally separate them from Himself? No way in the world. He could never have used the word “sleep.” Even though He took them out of this life, He still had the guarantee of the next life. So you see, we have to understand something here. We are not speaking of eternal separation. There are some people who think that, but that is not what he is saying. He could not have used the word “sleep” and be talking about unbelievers and being separated from God. What he is saying here is that He took them out of this earth.

It is almost like He looks down and says, “I will not allow you to be a mockery to me any longer. You are out of here.” But the flip side of that is, I am in His presence, to live with Him forever and can look forward to the resurrection of my body one day because God does not tell you something that He does not fulfill. He is faithful to His promise.

Now there are reasons for people being weak, sick and dead that are not because of personal sin. Before I go any further, I think we need to camp out here for a second or two and make sure you understand that. There are three basic reasons for weakness, sickness and death. First of all is original sin. I don’t know if you’ve noticed it or not, but we live in a fallen earth. You don’t believe that? Oh, talk to the environmentalist and talk to the tree huggers and find out if you think there are any problems on this earth. Every one of them foolishly think they can correct it, which is ridiculous. Only the Christians in that area know that we can do whatever we can do to preserve, but only God can correct the situation. And the correction will be a world that will burn and be purified, and then there will be a brand new earth and a brand new heaven. That is going to correct it.

Original sin has caused the problem, folks. Not only do we live in a fallen earth—and anybody knows that, the famine, the things that go on in our society, that creation groans in Romans 8—but this fallen earth has affected us. We are going to be weak because of other things, not personal sin, original sin. As long as you are a resident on planet earth, don’t try to get out of suffering and sickness and things like that. You are going to be bitten by mosquitoes, it is going to hurt you and you are going to get a bacteria and that bacteria is going to cause problems. Okay, so we are going to get sick down here because of original sin.

We are shocked by the death of a young person. I tell you what, it shocks me back to reality, the greatest reality of the fact that we live in a fallen earth. Walk into a cemetery and look at the tombstones and it will continue to remind you that we live in a fallen world. And because of original sin, there is going to be sickness, there is going to be suffering and there is going to be death, period. Woe be unto the person who tries to stand before a group and say that they don’t have to have any more suffering or sickness. They never say death, do they? It’s funny how they just conveniently leave that out. Original sin.

But the second reason we are weak and sick and dead is because of God’s wanting to make His works manifest. Turn to John 9:1—case in point—the man born blind. Of course, all the disciples thought that the reason he was born blind was because his parents had sinned. Oh, brother. I didn’t think they had television back then, but I guess they did. They just didn’t have enough faith through the parents, so therefore, he was born blind. Bless his heart. I tell you what.

John 9:1 says, “And as He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?’” See the mindset that they were in? Same mindset. There is nothing new under the sun, folks. Verse 3 continues, “Jesus answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of Him who sent Me, as long as it is day; night is coming, when no man can work.’” This man was destined to be born blind simply for the purpose of the Lord Jesus healing him and to show and point to the fact that He truly was the son of God.

Wow. “Well, you can’t find a death in scripture that was that way.” Oh, yes I can, John 11. The man’s name was Lazarus. Did the Lord Jesus know that he was going to die? I reckon He did. As a matter of fact, when they told Him he was dead, He stayed two more days. When He got there, he had already been in the tomb four days. Martha and Mary had a fit with that. Martha, the outspoken one, came out and said, “Well, Lord, if you’d have been here, it wouldn’t have happened.” Mary, the little quiet one said the same thing. And the Lord Jesus said, “This is so that the Son of Man should be glorified.” And what did He do? He raised him from the dead.

You see, there are times when sickness and weakness and death fit into a plan and an order that we don’t even have a clue about. We have experienced some of that even in our own churches. What do you do? You back away, leave it alone, and don’t try to put everybody into that category. You just simply say, “Oh, we have seen the works of God made manifest in this person’s sickness.” Don’t try to take the next person who gets sick and put him into that category. God may not have him in that category.

But there is a third way in which weakness, sickness and death come, and that is what we are looking at in our text. It is directly because of sin. Paul would say to the church at Corinth, “Now listen to me, some of you are weak and some of you are sick and some of you are dead, and it has nothing to do with what I am saying. It has nothing to do with your personal sin.” But then he would quickly add, “But there are many of you who are weak and many of you who are sick and many of you are dead because exactly of what I am saying. It is personal sin in your life. You have taken your Christianity flippantly. You have tried to play games with God, and God has shocked the whole body by what He is doing in your life to move His chastening hand among you.”

There is a progression of that judgment: weak, sick and asleep. You say, “Well, how can I take all this and ingest it?” I’ll tell you how. The first thing when you are weak or you are sick—if you are dead, you don’t have to worry about it; if you are dead, you waited too late—but if you are weak or if you are sick, the first thing that I think as Christians we ought to do is to check in with God and say, “God, is there any personal sin in my life that I have been unwilling to repent of that has caused this weakness and caused this sickness?” Then deal with it. That was the sit

1 Corinthians 12:1-2

The Signs of Spiritual Immaturity–Part 1

We are finally here in 1 Corinthians 12. As we ease into it, let’s look at “The Signs of Spiritual Immaturity.” We are going to have to do some review to make sure we are in the flow and getting into chapter 12. We need to live attached to Christ. Now, what I mean by that, we are already attached to Him as believers. When you get saved, you are attached. He attaches you to Himself. You are a part of His body. However, to live attached to Him means on our end towards Him and our willingness to surrender to Him, to yield to His Word, to yield to His will. When that happens, there is automatic growth in our life.

Let me show you this. In chapter 3, Paul beautifully shows us this. Turn to 1 Corinthians 3:6. All of this is just simply in review to make sure we have the proper setting in which chapters 1214 are couched. He points back to when he was the first pastor of the church there in Corinth and very faithfully planted the Word of God in their hearts. He told them earlier that he preached the whole counsel. He didn’t leave anything out. He preached the Word faithfully to them.

Then he points to when Apollos, the second pastor, followed him and watered what he had taught. Verse 6 says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.” Now that little phrase, “God was causing the growth,” or “giving the growth” is in the imperfect tense. And that imperfect tense means that He was consistently, as these two effective pastors were faithfully teaching the word, God working in them and through them and with the Word was causing growth to take place. A man cannot cause growth. God has to do that.

But then in verse 7 he changes the tenses. He moves from imperfect to the present tense. He says, “So then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.” He puts it in the present tense. In other words, God is always causing growth. You attach yourself to Him, you’ve attached yourself to the very principle of life and growth itself, and you cannot live surrendered to Him and not grow. It is like trying to drink water out of a fire hydrant when you attach yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. You find a Christian that is not growing, and you will find a Christian not attached, not living surrendered to God’s Word and God’s will. That is the only problem with him is that he won’t surrender. If he’ll surrender, God is always causing the growth.

Now there was a time in Corinth when the believers were growing. This can only mean that they were taking what they had heard and they were receiving it and obeying it. They were living up under truth attached to, by faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, surrendered to His will, surrendered to His Word. But something happened somewhere down the line. He can point back to when they were growing, but now their growth had become stunted and they attached themselves to everything but Christ.

In verse 12 of chapter 1, by the time that Paul wrote this, this was the situation they were in. He says, “Some of you are of Paul, some of you are of Cephas, some of you are of Apollos.” You are attaching yourselves to men. You are not attaching yourselves to Christ. Flesh had won out and was now ruling their life.

Now think of it. Corinth, one of the best-taught churches in the New Testament; and by the time Paul writes this, they are now the example of nothing but pure flesh and the havoc it can reap amongst those who know truth but do not live it. Now, solid teaching—now hear me—solid teaching is not enough. Solid biblical teaching is not enough. You ask, “Why?” Because if a person is not willing to respond to what he knows and what God has revealed to him, it produces pride and arrogance in that person’s life, and the enigma is that the person becomes deceived by that which he thought that he already knew.

A beautiful example of this is in chapter 8. They knew truth but weren’t living up under it. What you understand is not the key, it is how you live and respond to what you understand. In chapter 8 he is dealing with the problem of eating meat sacrificed to idols. Now I am not going to go back and repreach that, but before he answers the question, he acknowledges the wealth of knowledge that the church had, not only from him but from Apollos. And he says in 8:1, “Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge.” In other words, there was plenty of knowledge to go around. They had an understanding. This understanding had to be in the area of grace. They knew that if they ate meat sacrificed to idols, that would in no way infringe upon their relationship with God the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ. In no way would that affect their eternal standing with God. They knew that. They knew that 90% of the meat sold in the marketplace was meat sacrificed to idols. They knew, they didn’t even have to ask. They could just go in and buy it. They didn’t have any trouble eating that meat. They understood the message of grace.

But that understanding had not helped them whatsoever. Because if you are not living under grace, even though you may understand it, you fail to see an extra piece of the puzzle that needs to be there. In other words, knowledge is not enough. He says in the last part of that verse, “Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.” In other words, if you are not living surrendered to Christ, which is the message of grace, His enabling power in your life, then there is no fruit of His Spirit in your life. So therefore, what you know you will use to break your brother rather than build your brother.

Something had happened to this church. They knew. They had been well taught. They could sit in a group and debate and win the argument every time. They understood, but they were upside down because they weren’t willing to live in obedience to what they knew.

As a matter of fact, you can see clearly what happened to them in 3:14. Here is the Corinthian church. Here is what is wrong with them. Knowledgeable, well taught, but babies. They would not grow up. They wouldn’t come out of that nursery. In verse 1 of chapter 3, the apostle Paul takes them back to Acts 18 when he first went there and when many were saved. Remember, he went and made tents with Priscilla and Aquila. Then Silas and them came over and so they started witnessing and a church was birthed there. He points them back to that time.

He says in verse 1, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ.” That little term “men of flesh,” is sarkinos. It comes from the word sarkikos, which is used in verses 3 and 4. But as far as I can get out of it, that word has more of the idea that you had the attitude of a baby. Now, a baby is going to live like a baby. Babies are babies, but that’s okay. When they are first born, you tolerate that because you expect that out of their life. And he is not in any way indicting them. In verse 1 he is just simply saying you were babies back then and you acted like babies and that is okay. There is a time for being a baby.

There is a thirst to being a baby in verse 2. He says, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it.” In other words, you couldn’t chew the deeper things. And that doesn’t mean he watered down what he taught. What he taught was the Word of God. It is the Spirit who makes it milk to one person and meat to another. It depends on where you are in your level of maturity as to how that communicates in your life. And so he is not indicting them. Babies act like babies; babies drink milk because that is all babies can feed on.

Then comes the indictment in the middle of verse 2. He says, “Indeed, even now you are not yet able.” There is the problem. Back then was not a problem because you were growing, you had just been birthed. But the problem is, you are still in that nursery. And I want to tell you what, oh, how these babies, spiritual babies, well taught, had caused such havoc in the church at Corinth.

Now you want to see what a baby can do? You get a bunch of folks my age or more, 55 or whatever over, and you get a bunch of us together. We are going to have a good meal. We are going to have some fellowship. You take one baby, one who hasn’t been fed in a while, one who is a little bit tired and put it right in the middle of that group. And I want to tell you, the things you thought you were going to do, you won’t do. And the things that you thought you were going to eat, you won’t eat. And the time that you thought you were going to have, you don’t have. That little baby will control every single thing that is going on.

Now you can imagine, when you have got a whole church full of them, the havoc that was caused in that early church. The symptoms of babies living like babies, who won’t grow up, first of all was an apathy to sin. In chapter 5 we see there that they were tolerating a sin that shocked the world. A man in their midst was living with his father’s wife, probably his stepmother. You have incest and adultery going on at the same time. And they won’t even deal with it. They are just apathetic to the whole thing. “Well, you know, it is his life. He has to learn to figure it out himself.”

In chapter 6, we see the vengefulness toward each other. You know, babies offend one another. But not only did they offend each other and live that way, but they took each other to court when it was costly. Buddy, they would sue each other at the drop of a hat. They had no witness whatsoever in pagan Corinth in the courts because of the way they treated one another.

In chapter 6 we also see their fleshly indulgence. Immorality was all over the city, and here are these little babies who won’t respond to truth, who won’t attach themselves to Christ by faith. And as a result of it, now they begin to be pulled into the immorality of the city.

In verse 18 of chapter 6, Paul has to say, “Flee immorality. Run from it!” We also see in chapter 7 the confused ideas that they had of the family and marriage. Their marriages and their families were in shambles, and they didn’t know what to do. They were totally confused. In chapters 8-10, which is a unit and must be looked at as a unit, we see their insensitivity to one another; people who knew beating up people who didn’t know with the Word of God. They used it as a club rather than the truth that could set people free.

And then in chapter 11 we see all their bitter relationships, factions, divisions, all of this kind of garbage surface at the taking of the Lord’s Supper. They totally desecrated the Lord’s Supper. Now this is the havoc that takes place when you have people who know, but people who don’t respond and live what they know. It completely perverts their lifestyle, and as a result, it causes nothing but confusion and chaos. Carnal, immature, unspiritual, sick and anemic lives are the result of people who won’t live attached to the Lord Jesus by faith and surrender to His will and to His Word.

This is the setting for chapters 1214. You must understand this. This is a pitiful church, a pitiful excuse for anybody to call themselves Christians. That is the setting for chapters 12-14. Paul is dealing with a group of people who do not walk by faith. They lived in their feelings. They walked by sight. They were attached to their flesh and not to Christ. Truth was nothing but a distortion to the Christians who are in Corinth. You see, you don’t possess truth; truth must possess you. And if it doesn’t possess you, you don’t know truth. You think you do, but you don’t know what you think you know. That is what he said back in chapter 8 when he was referring to this very thing.

In the last two verses of chapter 11, he one more time brings God’s judgment upon them, these Christians who were weak and sick and some were dead because of their behavior. He one more time recalls them to proper respect for one another and care about one another. In verse 33 he says, “So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.” The word “wait” is the word “tarry,” give respect to that other person.

You see, what was happening, the rich would go in and eat all the food. The poor were hungry, while the rich were drunk and full. And he says, “You wait upon each other. Respect one another. This is a sacred time. It is when the body comes together in unity, not in division.

Then in verse 34 he says, “If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you may not come together for judgment.” Don’t come to the Lord’s Supper that way. “And the remaining matters I shall arrange when I come.” In other words, that wasn’t all. They had been asking questions since chapter 7. He is just answering questions. He said, “There are some more things that you asked me, but when I come I will straighten those things out.”

Now that leads us then to chapters 12-14. Now again, chapters 1214 must be taken as a unit, just like chapters 810 must be taken as a unit. We must understand now this fleshly minded, upside down, distorted church as we enter in to chapters 12-14. Paul immediately, once again starts pulling to the surface the signs of spiritual immaturity that exists among them. And you have to see that because so many times you jump into chapter 12 and immediately you go to verse 8 down. But you don’t get into verses 1 and 2. Those verses set the stage here. He is telling them something we need to take time and understand.

Ignorance of spiritual matters

The first sign of spiritual immaturity that he brings up in verse 1 is ignorance of spiritual matters. Now, what a task Paul has here, straightening out these upside down believers here at Corinth. It is interesting how we live in two worlds. He dealt with the physical world of chapter 11, the physical public worship. But in chapter 12, now he is going to enter into the spiritual dimension. We live in the physical, but we also live in the spiritual; two worlds at the same time. And that is very confusing to some people. Now, we can ignore the physical and suffer the consequences. That is the law of living in the physical of this world that we live in.

It is the same way in the spiritual world. We can ignore the spiritual world, but we have to live in the consequences of ignoring it. The Christians at Corinth were living in the consequences of ignoring their spiritual walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in verse 1, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware.”

That little word “now” that starts off the verse is the little word de in the Greek language. It is the little word that can be translated “now” or “but.” I think it ought to be translated “but” because he is changing gear. He is shifting from the physical world and in the public worship into the spiritual dimension here and is making a definite contrast.

“But,” he says, “concerning spiritual gifts.” Now the word “gifts” I will deal with in just a second, because it is really not there. Let’s talk about the word “spiritual” first. The word “spiritual” is the Greek word that comes from the word pneuma, which means spirit. It is that which refers to the characteristic faculty that God has given us to communicate with Him. Man to God and God to man. It is in that spirit that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell, giving us that access to the Father and giving us that communication with Him.

Now this word stands in contrast to another word, psuchikos, which is used over in 2:14 that deals with the soulish part of man. The soul is that aspect of man that he really shares with the rest of this kingdom that is here on this earth. Even animals have something like this. It is what gives you the ability to relate to the world around you; whereas, in contrast, the spiritual part of man is that which gives us the ability, once saved, to relate to the world above us. The soul gives us the relation of the world around us; the spiritual gives us the ability to relate to the world that is above us.

Now, we must make another correction to the task. He says, “Now concerning the spiritual gifts.” The word “gifts” is not in the literal. That is written in by translators. The word is simply “spiritual,” used in the plural, and referring to the many manifold aspects of the spiritual realm. “But concerning spiritual matters,” would be a better way of translating that. Now gifts are a part of these things, but not just gifts.

He says, “You Corinthians, you don’t understand public physical worship and you don’t even understand spiritual things.” He is not just talking about gifts. In fact, this was the problem of the church of Corinth. They stressed only one aspect of the life in the Spirit and, therefore, neglected the rest of it.

That is exactly what is going on in America today. People are zeroing in on one aspect of the spiritual but leaving out other aspects of the spiritual. The flesh always tends to exaggerate what it sees and what it experiences. It lives in the sensual. Remember this. If you are not living up under the spiritual power of God, you are living according to the flesh, and the flesh always exaggerates what it experiences and what it perceives and what it sees.

I will give you an example of that. When you isolate one area of the spiritual life, the spiritual dimension, you become unbalanced. Take the area of prayer, for instance. If that is the only thing you are interested in, you have missed the balance of the Christian life. You perhaps don’t understand spiritual things. You are zeroing in on one thing of the spiritual life. What about surrender to the Word of God? What about living in the fullness of the Spirit of God? What about all the other things that go along with it? You can’t just isolate one thing. You have to have an understanding of spiritual matters, of spiritual things.

Now, in the physical world to give you an example, if you have someone who over-exaggerates one aspect of physical life, then what we do with those kinds of people, if it is a pattern of their lifestyle, we put them in institutions because they are imbalanced. They don’t understand where that little piece fits and so they over do and exaggerate that one piece.

It is the same way in the spiritual life. And what happens when you are living like the Corinthians, everything is distorted. You will tend to exaggerate that which you see, that which you touch and that which you feel. So experience becomes a hedge around the things that you tend to exaggerate. Paul says, “This is what your problem is, you don’t understand spiritual matters, much less the gifts and the teaching on the gifts.”

You see, the world of the spirit is only accessed by faith. It is there all the time, but the only way you access it is by faith in the Word of God and obedience to Him. And when you access it, your senses and what you see, touch and feel, do not in any way prove or disprove the spiritual world. It is only accommodated, it is only accessed, through our willingness to attach ourselves to Christ. If I am not willing to walk by faith, if I am not willing to die to the ugliness of my flesh, if I am not willing to do that, then I have not accessed, I have ignored the spiritual world. The result of that is a distorted view of spiritual things.

Paul was displeased with their obvious imbalance and ignorance of spiritual things. He said, “I do not want you to be unaware.” Now the word “unaware” is the word agnoeo. We saw that over in Romans, without understanding, without knowledge. It is a transmitted knowledge. It is actually the understanding that comes with that knowledge. “I don’t want you to walk around,” he says, “as spiritual ignoramuses.” That’s another way to put that. “You people are so upside down. You are ignorant of spiritual things, so why in the world do you want to talk about this or that? You don’t even understand the whole picture. You won’t live attached to Christ. You have attached yourself to everything but Him.”

It is the word we get the word “agnostic” from. An agnostic is one who has not experienced or cannot experience something, and therefore, he does not know and does not believe. But he is ignorant and he is ignorant not because it’s impossible for him to know, but because he refuses to realize that there are certain things that cannot be known unless there is a capacity for knowing. And until he puts his faith into Christ, then he is not going to know beyond that point.

Paul tells them that because of their fleshly living, their refusal to surrender what they know, they do not have understanding of spiritual matters, not just the gifts, but in the spiritual realm itself. He is displeased that they don’t have this.

Now, you see, we must be careful to realize that the greatest and most extraordinary miracle that God has ever given to us is putting His Spirit into us and establishing communication between Himself and us. It is amazing, isn’t it? You find a person who doesn’t live in that daily, that person is always looking for a miracle here, a miracle there, a miracle everywhere. And he completely ignores the greatest miracle, a transformed life. God lives in him to reveal Himself to him. And if he will just accommodate him by faith and attach himself to Him, that is the miracle of salvation and nothing can top it.

But if you are living outside of that miracle and you are not walking in the Word of God and you are not living surrendered to Christ, then no wonder you tend to exaggerate things in the spiritual realm. Not only did Corinth not understand physical public worship, they didn’t understand and were completely distorted in the area of spiritual matters. Why? Because they would not bow.

“Now, concerning spiritual things, brethren, I don’t want you to be ignoramuses. I don’t want you to remain ignorant and unaware.” So first of all, he points them to the first sign of spiritual immaturity and that is an ignorance of spiritual things.

The influence of a pagan past

The second thing he is going to point to is going to take me a little longer. If I am not influenced by the Spirit of God, then my flesh is influencing me and my flesh is being influenced by my pagan past. Look at verse 2: “You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the dumb idols.” Do you mean that is the only thing that happened when they were pagans? What about talking about immorality? Why not talk about some other things? Drunkenness or other things? Come on, that is not the only thing they did. No, he picked out the main thing that all of them could relate to that goes back to their pagan past.

“You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the dumb idols, however, you were led.” That is an interesting translation. We will get to it in a moment. The word, “you know” there is a word oidate. That tends to have a little different meaning than the word ginosko, which means you know by experience. It is transmitted knowledge. But oidate is not that way. It is intuitive knowledge.

In the spiritual realm, when you are living attached to Christ and in His Word, there is a knowing that God gives to you. As a matter of fact, it is there whether you are or you are not. It is built in. It comes in with the package. The Holy Spirit of God gives it to you. Romans 8:28, “For we know that God causes all things to work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose.” What word is used there? Intuitive knowledge. You didn’t go to school to get that.

Now, when you have this intuition, the spiritual intuitive knowledge, that doesn’t mean that you don’t need more knowledge, but there are certain basic things that Christians just simply know. It is built in, comes in with the package. The Holy Spirit brings that understanding. The first thing you intuitively know when you get saved is the difference of what is now and what is in the past. The first thing you know, you know the roots of every problem that you are facing.

Now let me throw that out to you. If you are not living surrendered to Christ and being under the influence of His Holy Spirit, you are living under the influence of your flesh, then what is that problem that comes back from your past and haunts you? Is it immorality? Is it covetousness? Is it bitterness? What is it that goes back to your past pagan life that used to dominate you? And you know that the roots of what you are dealing with now are set back in the setting of what you were when you did not know Christ. Everybody knows that. That’s intuitive. It is built in. You don’t get saved and start having this problem. You had it before you got saved. However, now you have victory over that problem. But if you are not going to live in the victory, then you are going to have to go back and be influenced by what happened in your pagan past. That is where the roots are.

Now, what was the root of the problem the Corinthian believers were having in chapters 1214? If you go through chapters 1214, it is not just gifts. One of the major issues that he deals with is the tongues issue. Everybody has been waiting to see what I’m going to say about it. I am just praying that whatever I say will come forth with such love that you can receive it and if we disagree, we will just choose to disagree. But I am going to do my best to honor the text as much as I know how. But that was the major problem.

Well, if that is the major problem dealt with in 12, mentioned again in 13 but also really picked up in 14, then what was the pagan influence and the root that goes back to before they got saved? Now this is significant, I think, to the text. “You know that when you were pagans.” The word “pagan” translated in the New American Standard is the word translated “Gentiles” in the King James Version. What is the difference? Well, there really isn’t, because the word is the ethnos. It means “pagan.” That is why it is correctly translated that way. But the word comes from a word referring to ethnic groups, or nations of the world. That is why it can be translated “Gentiles,” because you are thinking of the pagan nations of the world.

Now this is a very important point. The word translated “pagan” in its root form comes from the word ethos, which means mass or host or multitude, referring to those who are bound by the same customs, by the same language, by the same rituals, whatever. You are bound by that. Now that is that word. It means you have a language that binds you. You have customs that bind you. You have other things that bind you and identify you.

I need to show you the four words that are interrelated when it comes to this kind of thing. When you talk about ethnic groups, when you talk about nations, there are four words and perhaps it would be good for us to know them. Look over in Revelation 14:6. All four of them are found in one verse. Interestingly, some of them are going to reappear in chapters 1214. Revelation 14:6 reads, “And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth [so these nations live on the earth], and to every nation [number one], every tribe, every tongue and every people.” Now there are four different words. I want to show you what they are.

The first one, every nation, is the word that we are looking at, or a similar word that we are looking at there in 1 Corinthians 12. The word “tribe” is phule. It has a little bit different meaning than just a people who have a common bond. The word “tribe” refers to national unity of a common descent. It is very similar but just a little bit different.

The word laos, or “people,” the last word that is used there, is used as a political unity with a common history and a constitution. Then the word glossa is the word used for “tongue” which means a known, understandable, common language that binds these people together.

So you see the four words that can be used; all of them very similar, but each one having a little twist and a difference from the other. The word ethnos, or pagan nation, as in Gentiles, the word we are looking at, is the lesser or the weaker of all four of those words. So he is simply pointing to the nations that are pagan of this world. He doesn’t have anything political in it. He doesn’t have anything of their language barrier or anything like that. He is just saying, “Back when you were a member of the pagan nations of this world.”

Oh, don’t miss this. Don’t miss this. Listen, that word is always used or most of the time used to differentiate between the Jewish people and the pagan nations of the world, almost every time you find it. Never, never, never can you put Jewish people in this word. This is a pagan word. Understand what I am saying now. Here it is used to differentiate between Christians and the pagan people of this world. But there is a thought in this. Why did Paul use that word? Why did the Holy Spirit inspire him to use that word? Oh, don’t lose me here now. I think that what he is saying is that most of you people in Corinth do not have a Jewish background. Now, some of them did, but most of them did not. They had a pagan background. Now there was something about their pagan background that had everything to do with the problems they were facing.

He was saying to them, “Listen, if you can came from Judaism, which is a monotheistic, God ordained nation, if you would have come from Judaism, you would not have any of the problems you have in 1214. But because you come out of the pagan nations of this world, the idolatrous nations of this world, this is having something to do with the problem I am now having to address to you in chapters 12, 13 and 14. Something about your pagan past directly relating to these tongues and these unknown tongues and all that, has something to do with the fact that you came out of a pagan background, not out of a Jewish background, because there is something in your pagan background that lured you and influenced then and influences now your life.”

Now what is he talking about? Go back. “You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the dumb idols,” however you were led. Now “you were led astray” there is in the present passive voice. Present tense means you were constantly being led. Passive voice means you didn’t have anything to say about it. You were captivated. You were being led. Something lured you. Something that was in control of you. Something got your attention. Something swept you away toward these pagan idols.

The little word “to” is pros, a motion toward something.

1 Corinthians 12:3

Contents

1 The Signs of Spiritual Immaturity–Part 2

1.1 Inexcusable speaking

1.2 When someone speaks under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, what he says will be in an understandable language

1.3 When someone speaks under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, truth will always be presented

1.4 When someone speaks under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, Christ will always be revealed

The Signs of Spiritual Immaturity–Part 2

Several years ago I was up in Montana fishing on the Bitter Root River. It is sort of a vision I have of what heaven is going to be like: beautiful mountains, the water was cold and clear. And if you have ever been in cold, clear, trout waters, you know that what looks like it may be a foot deep may be ten feet deep. It is just amazing how it can distort the view.

I had on a pair of waders that came up to my armpits. One of the things you learn when you are entering into the water—we were fly fishing—as you enter into the water, you move real slow. You don’t take big strides. The bottom is going down underneath you, and there are rocks everywhere. The current is strong and you know the water gets very deep. I was able to make it across the river, and we fished most of the afternoon. We caught several trout.

It began to get dark, and I knew that to get back to where we stayed, I had to cross the river. So I started working my way to get across. At first I was very careful, slow, a small step at a time. But then I got in a hurry and I took a big step. Bad move! The current is moving fast. My foot got up under a rock. I got my foot hung up under that rock, and the current was so strong, I couldn’t pull it out. And in doing so, I got turned around and I mean, I went right into the water, face first.

The water was down in my waders. Oh, it was cold coming off those mountains from the spring meltdown of the snow. My fishing companions had to grab me and literally get me up on the bank so that I wouldn’t be swept away or drown in that real deep water there that I was trying to cross.

I learned something. I learned to go slow when you are in deep waters. First Corinthians 12 is deep, fast moving water, if you haven’t realized it by now. We are going to go slowly, a step at a time. I know some of you are saying, I wish he would hurry up! How long is it going to take? I don’t know. But we are going to ease in. Someday said a long time ago, “Yard by yard, life is way too hard, but inch by inch, life is a cinch.” So we are going to go inch by inch as we go through this verse.

We are only looking at verse 3 and the characteristics of spiritual immaturity in the church of Corinth. Now, in 1 Corinthians, we have seen already that a person not surrendered to Christ, not willing to live up under the truth that has already been revealed to him, is called an immature believer. We don’t have to go back and do that again. That is chapter 3. It must be understood, this is the situation at the church of Corinth. You will never study a church in scripture that is more immature, upside down and distorted in their spiritual views as you will the church of Corinth.

Paul addresses their immaturity again in chapter 12. Of course, they didn’t have chapters and verses. Somebody added that in. So, in the course of his letter, he comes back now and revisits their immaturity and the signs of their immaturity. In verse 1 he shows that the characteristic of spiritual immaturity is an ignorance of spiritual things, spiritual matters. In verse 2 we have the second point, the influence of a pagan past.

You might say, “I don’t see how anybody could be lured into that.” Are you kidding me? Let’s put it in the 20th century for just a second. Have you watched television lately? How about the Psychic Hotline? Oh, you know one thing hits me when I see that commercial pop up. I think about how many Christians actually dial that number. I’ll tell you who they are. They are the immature ones who can’t hear from God in His Word and will not surrender to His Spirit. They have got to go someplace else to find their answers, and it is sweeping this country.

How many Christians pick up the paper and look at your horoscope? I was some place not long ago and a Christian walked up and said, “Do you know what? You are a Leo.” I thought, a Leo? What is a Leo? Somebody said that was a lion. I never thought about being a Leo. Do you think that hasn’t captured immature Christians in the country today? I guarantee you it has. People want fast answers. People want anything that pleases their flesh and they are moved towards that. That is what pulls people.

Paul is saying there was something about that idolatry, specifically in Corinth, that lured you passively. You didn’t even realize what was happening. You were being swept right into it. And, of course, the people who went would come away just as confused, but having felt like they had gotten in touch with a pagan god. Paul reminds them of this and says “the influence of your pagan past has crept right back into the church.”

Evidently some people were speaking in that same, unintelligible gibberish that had caused many of them to think that the Holy Spirit of God had actually influenced it. So, spiritual immaturity is characterized, first of all, by spiritual ignorance of spiritual matters. I mean, you know maybe one area or two areas, but you cannot highlight one or the other, you’ve got to see the balance. And only God can give you that balance as you are surrendered to Him. And then, secondly, the influence of a pagan past.

Inexcusable speaking

Now we are going to look at verse 3 where it talks about the third characteristic of spiritual immaturity, and that is inexcusable speaking. Ignorance of spiritual matters; influenced by a pagan past; and inexcusable speaking. Now, if you are interested in a person’s maturity level, you listen to them when they speak as if they are influenced by the Holy Spirit of God. It is amazing. It was amazing in Corinth the garbage that was being said and done in the name of God, the Holy Spirit. They were attaching the two together. We need to learn a lesson from them: that not only what we say but the way we say it has every bearing on our maturity in Christ as to whether we are surrendered to Him. It must be examined because there are guidelines that we must go by.

Now these guidelines hopefully will help you. They helped me as I was studying this. Let’s just wade in carefully. Verse 3 says, “Therefore, I make known to you.” “Therefore” connects it. Any time you see “therefore,” always look to see what it is there for. Verse 1 and 2 tell us what it is there for. “Therefore, I make known to you, that no one [now watch the words here] speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus is accursed’; and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” You begin to see immediately the area that he is going to approach.

Paul changes the word for “know.” He says, “Therefore, I make known to you,” present tense. “I am doing it as I speak,” in other words. He changes the word “know” from verse 2. The word “know” in verse 2 is oidate. Everybody intuitively already knows. You don’t have to be taught the problems you had in your past. You know what your flesh is like and you know what dominates you, or at least tries to dominate you.

He changes the word from oidate to gnorizo. This word has a different understanding altogether. In verse 2 you already know it, why do I tell you. But in verse 3, I am going to have to tell you because you wouldn’t know it any other way. It is transmitted knowledge. It is to inform somebody. It is to put something on someone’s mind.

For ten years I sat under Dr. Spiros Zodhiates. I did his radio and television with him, seven hours a week for ten years. Talk about the patience of that man working with such a thick headed person as me. You talk about a man who is intense! But you talk about a man who had to be patient to put up with me as he taught me Greek. But I would have never known any of it had it not been taught to me. It had to be transmitted from him to me. You don’t know this stuff intuitively, you’ve got to put your head in the book and let God, the Holy Spirit, teach you and let others help you. This is what it was all about.

So Paul is saying, “Listen, you know something in verse 2, but evidently you don’t know something in verse 3. I am trying to tell you something concerning spiritual matters that you don’t know evidently, and therefore, I am going to have to tell you.

Now what is it about spiritual matters that he zeros out and starts attacking? That is, when somebody speaks, notice the word that is so clear there. “Therefore, I make known to you, that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus is accursed’; and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” There was a lot of speaking going on in Corinth in the name of the Holy Spirit of God. And the apostle Paul says, “In your immaturity, you don’t seem to be able to distinguish when its under the influence of the Holy Spirit and when it is strictly nothing more than pure flesh.”

When someone speaks under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, what he says will be in an understandable language

Three things he gives to them that were just nuggets. It so blessed me when I was studying them. First of all is this, when somebody is speaking under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, what he says will be in an understandable language. In other words, there won’t be some gibberish that nobody has ever heard before. When God speaks, He speaks clearly and with understanding. Let’s wade in.

He says, “Therefore, I make known to you, that no one speaking.” The word “no one” is the word oudeis. It means absolutely no one in any shape, form or fashion, no one. Now, I hope I can explain the word “speaking” here. Sometimes it doesn’t get out like it gets in. The word “speaking” here is the word laleo. That word, when you take it and put it amidst two other words, simply means to make a noise. In other words, “Therefore, I make known to you that no one making any kind of noise, whether it is intelligible or unintelligible, any kind of noise,” It is very important to what we are dealing with, a gibberish even, if you please. Silence has been interrupted. Somebody has said something that broke that silence. And in this context is going to go on to deal with something that is very reasonable.

But I want you to see the meaning of laleo. It really simply means to make a noise. And it can be used in this context very well, but it has got to be clarified by the text. He ties this speaking, this making a noise, to the Holy Spirit’s influence. “Therefore, I make known to you that anyone making any kind of noise, saying anything, by the Spirit of God,” Now this puts it in another context. In other words, the noise, the sounds, the things that are said, are directly influenced and inspired by the Holy Spirit of God—no one making an utterance or noise by the Spirit of God.

The word “by” could be translated “in” and has the idea of under the control of. If a person says I am under the control of the Holy Spirit of God, whatever noise comes from me—we would say speaking—whatever noise comes out of my mouth that breaks the silence is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Now there is no definite article before Spirit. When there is a definite article, it identifies. When there is not a definite article it qualifies. In other words, it is the full character of the Holy Spirit of God you are dealing with here. “When a person makes any kind of sound that emanates from under the influence and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, when he says any words that breaks the silence.”

Then he goes on and says, “Therefore, I make known to you, that no on speaking by the Spirit of God says.” Now the word “says” that he uses there is the word lego. He completely changes the word. This is very significant. How many times do we read this stuff and go right on as if it means nothing? The word lego comes from the word logos.

Now, when you put up three words for “say” or “speak,” rema, subjective word, lego, or logos, and then you put up the word over here laleo, they all have a different meaning. When you put them all together, it makes a beautiful truth. The word lego, or logos, that is used here, the verb, means intelligent, understandable words. You see, anybody making a sound under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, will say that which is understandable and intelligent. There will be no gibberish in it. Everyone will hear in a language they can understand. Now, that may not mean they understand everything that is said, because the prophets would speak in a language everybody heard, but nobody fully grasped the depths of those things. When the Holy Spirit of God speaks and someone is making a sound that is influenced and inspired by the Holy Spirit, when he says (lego) something, it will be intelligent, it will be understandable, it will be full of integrity because it is coming from the Holy Spirit of God.

Now that immediately begins to make your ears perk up as to what is going on in Corinth. No man speaking under the leadership of the Holy Spirit can speak in some gibberish and call that the Holy Spirit. It will be a language that is understandable. God speaks so that His people can understand what He is saying. He does not speak in gibberish. As a matter of fact, the word logos is the word that is used of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the living logos. God wanted man to understand God Himself, so He sent His only Son that through Jesus we could understand He is the Father. He came to reveal the lamb nature of God.

So many things we know of the Father through looking at Jesus. He was very understandable. He never once spoke in a language that people could not hear and understand. They may not have understood what He said, but they understood the words that came from Him, because it is was in a language that communicated with them.

In fact, if you will turn back with me to Luke 3:22, God the Father speaks out of heaven, identifying who His Son is. I want you to know that God the Father did not use a language that nobody could understand. He spoke in a way that people could have use of communication and to understand it.

As a matter of fact, there are many verses. I just chose two of them because I am going somewhere with this. We could spend a lot longer time on this if I took all the verses, but you check it out. Hey, dig in, check it out to see if it is so, every time God spoke. Verse 22 says, “And the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, ‘Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased.” A voice came out of heaven, not in some language that nobody could understand, in a very clear language, whatever that was.

On the Day of Pentecost, what was the key? It wasn’t the speaking, it was the hearing. Everyone heard what was said in their own language. Look at Luke 9:35, “And a voice came out of the cloud saying, ‘This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!” How are you going to listen to anybody if you can’t understand what they are saying? God chooses to speak in a language that people can understand, whatever that may be. If you have a Romanian Bible, He will speak to you in Romanian. If you have an English Bible, He will speak to you in English. He speaks so that man can understand. So, when somebody speaks and he says that he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, the noise that he makes will be that with intelligence, integrity and understanding. That is the first thing and the first rule of being able to decide. A lot of people are speaking, where is the Holy Spirit in all this? That is the first one he brings up. It is a very subtle one.

When someone speaks under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, truth will always be presented

But then secondly, when the Holy Spirit is influencing someone to speak, truth will always be presented. Truth will always be presented. Not only were there those in Corinth who were speaking in a gibberish which came out of their very pagan past, but there were other parts of their pagan past and idolatry. There were those who discredited the deity of Christ. In fact, there were those who would speak and you could understand them. The problem is, what they were saying completely nullified scripture.

Look at what he says, “Therefore, I make known to you, that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says [there are no intelligent words that can come influenced by the Spirit of God which says], ‘Jesus is accursed.’” The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is no way going to inspire anybody to say Jesus is accursed. Obviously, any saved person or unsaved person in a fit of anger could say those words. I know there are times in my life and your life we say a lot of things, but it is not under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God. He qualifies—and make sure you understand—when somebody tags what they say to the leadership and influence of the Holy Spirit of God, you will never hear an unbiblical truth. Truth will always be presented.

What is here is a very heinous thing. They said Jesus is accursed. And probably in a fit of emotion of ecstasy, somebody might have got up and spoke in a language nobody had ever heard before. Not only that, somebody else gets up and says Jesus is accursed. Well, are they of the Holy Spirit of God?

The word “accursed” is an interesting word, and if you will look into it, it helps you better understand what is being said. The word “accursed” is the word anathema. It is an interesting word. In this context it means something that is given over to the curse in order to be destroyed. In other words, a person without Christ is anathema. He is given over to the curse that will one day be destroyed, in a sense that he is set apart from God forever. There is no relationship that can ever be there.

Well, what they are doing here, evidently in Corinth there were those who were taking the deity of who Christ is, the truth of what the Word presents, and they lowered it to where Jesus is just a human being. Now, who are these people? I don’t know who these people are. We can make some educated guesses. Maybe the ones doing the gibberish were the pagans who got in among the service and were trying to make the Christians think that this was really of the Spirit. Maybe, I don’t know. Maybe they are Christians themselves. Maybe there were others who were Jews. There were some Jews in Corinth, and the Jews were adamantly against the deity of Christ. So they came in and said He is accursed. He is like the rest of us. He is going to be destroyed under the curse. He is not God. They lowered Him down to a humanistic level. No man can do that and claim that he is under the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God.

You think the deity of Christ is not important? It is being attacked more than you realize it in subtle ways in our country today. People get up, well respected people, under the name of the Holy Spirit of God, actually by what they say, completely undermine the very deity of Christ. And Christians just sit there and say, “Isn’t he wonderful,” with no discernment at all.

Paul is saying that is the same thing that was going on in Corinth. They didn’t know the difference. A man could get up and say Jesus is accursed. Perhaps he didn’t say it in those same words. Maybe he got up and presented the fact that He is just mere man. You know, we talk about the Godman, maybe they presented so much of the humanness of Christ that they forgot the deity of Christ. And if you don’t have that balance, don’t speak until you are taught, because you are going to undermine the very deity of Christ. And when you undermine the deity of Christ, everything else unravels. So there are two things right here: when the Holy Spirit of God speaks, He speaks so that you can understand and so that His people can understand. God is not in the business of putting His will in some coded language.

When the Spirit of God speaks, the truth is presented and the truth is centered around Christ. It is the essence of who God is and it is centered right in His Word. Scripture will come forth when the Spirit has anything to do with it. I want to tell you something, folks, our flesh will chase an experience if you give it half a chance. It will chase an emotion, it will chase a great whim that is going on in this day and say it is of the Holy Spirit of God.

When someone speaks under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, Christ will always be revealed

Well, first of all, He will speak so that you might understand; He will speak so that you may understand. Secondly, He will honor the Word of God; the Word of God in truth will be presented. But then thirdly, Christ will always be revealed. When the Spirit of God is influencing, a noise, a word is coming out of somebody’s mouth, it is going to end up somehow in revealing Christ.

Look in the last part of verse 3, “And no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” Now hang on a minute, hang on a minute. You’ve got to ease back. First of all, “no one can say.” Paul uses the same word which means absolutely nobody can say. The word lego, coming right out of logos, is used. Nobody can say with an intelligent thought and understanding and integrity that Jesus is Lord unless the Spirit of God influences him, because that is the kind of stuff that comes from the Spirit of God. He reveals who the Lord Jesus really is, that Jesus is Lord.

You think that is not important? I was doing a meeting down in Mississippi years ago I preached one day on the fact that Jesus is the only well you ever need to drink from, the only well. You don’t need anything outside of Jesus. I finished, and I remember a man came up. He said, “I want to tell you something, Preacher, you have offended me and you have offended the third person of the Holy Spirit of God.” Well, I was concerned about offending the third person of the Trinity, of the godhead. I said, “How did I offend the third person of the Trinity?” He said, “You never mentioned the name of the Holy Spirit one time. You only talked about Christ.” I was able to say to him something and pointed him to scripture.

I want to point you to it. I want you to turn to John 16:13-14. I want you to see it for yourself. I didn’t write it. You know, it is amazing to me how many people are trying to defend the personalities of the Trinity when there is no jealousy in the Trinity. The Father gives it to the Son, the Son gives it to the Spirit, the Spirit gives it back to Jesus, Jesus gives it back to the Father. They don’t have a problem with it. The problem is down here on earth with fleshly, immature Christians running around trying to defend the third person of the Trinity! Don’t defend Him, just bow to Him. And when you do, He will reveal Christ to you, and truth will be presented and He will do it in an understandable way.

John 16:13 says, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes [that’s Him, the Holy Spirit], He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me [Jesus]” Do you know what “glorify” means? Give recognition to. Do you think the Holy Spirit of God came to this earth to give recognition to Himself?

But what is happening all over our country, folks, people are giving recognition to the Holy Spirit of God. And I want to tell you something that in no way demeans who He is. I bow before Him every day of my life. But He is the Spirit of Christ, He is God, He is absolutely, utterly God. There are three persons to the godhead, but only one God. You say, “I don’t understand that.” Well, if you did, then God would be no bigger than your brain, so don’t beat yourself up. You don’t understand that, you bow before it, the Holy Spirit of God.

I told that man, “I did not in any way contradict the Holy Spirit of God. I didn’t offend Him. As a matter of fact, I complimented Him.” He said, “What do you mean?” I read those verses and said, “The Holy Spirit of God didn’t come to present Himself. He came to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.” What is wrong with us, folks? Immature people build themselves around things that are emotional and they focus on only one or two aspects of what the whole is all about. And look out if they don’t present Him as Christ. Only the Holy Spirit can do that.

As a matter of fact, Paul says no one can claim intelligently, no one can say—and he uses the aorist tense—even once, that Jesus is Lord. Oh, do you know what he is doing? He is pointing back to their salvation. He says, “Do you remember when you got saved? You didn’t open your mouth and say that Jesus is Lord by the rationalization of your mind. You didn’t come up with that in your mind. The Spirit of God revealed that to you, and that is where salvation begins.”

That is why it says in Romans that people couldn’t come to know God. He was all around them but they couldn’t come to understand anything. The whole problem is, He has to be revealed to the human heart. Any speaker who ever stands up and says he is in the power of the Holy Spirit of God knows one thing, he knows there are a ton of things he can’t do. He can’t make things understandable. The Holy Spirit of God can. He can’t do certain things. He can lift up. He can speak in a language everybody can understand. He can present truth, but only the Spirit of God can glorify Christ and reveal Christ. And that is what will happen when somebody does this. No one can say even once that Jesus is Lord.

Verse 14 of chapter 2 says a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. He does not accept them. And in verse 10 of chapter 2, he says, “To us God revealed them through the Spirit for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” So no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit of God.

Now, who are these people who would come in and bypass the Holy Spirit to talk about Christ or to talk about other things? Maybe it ties back to that other group of people we are talking about. I know one of the areas that Gnosticism targeted was the area of Greece and particularly Corinth. We know that Colossians was written to combat Gnosticism and Colossae was there in Greece. So what is going on here? —Actually, Colossae was more over in the Turkey area—But what is going on here? Gnosticism.

Do you know who the Gnostics were? They were the people who bypassed the Word, the Holy Spirit, and came into everything through a mystical knowledge that you could have, that you didn’t need any other revelation. Maybe they were the ones. I just don’t know. But something was going on, and what Paul had to say to them was, “You can’t even say that Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit of God.”

Well, there were some people in Corinth speaking in gibberish that nobody could understand, directly tied to their pagan past. There were some who were there who were denouncing the deity of Christ, directly tied to their pagan past, and maybe still pagan. Some of them were doing that. There were some who were trying to rationalize Christ and the message and didn’t realize that only the Holy Spirit could reveal Him and could make Him fully understandable. The apostle Paul says you are so upside down, you won’t know the difference.

When somebody speaks under the influence of the Holy Spirit, he speaks in a language that is understandable because he intends to communicate something to you. But not only that, when he speaks, he will speak in a message that is truthful and he will present scripture correctly. But not only that, when He causes someone to speak, Christ in the midst of it will be revealed.

There are three things that qualify a person as immature spiritually. First of all, is an ignorance of spiritual matters; secondly, is an influence of a pagan past; and thirdly, inexcusable speaking. All I can say to you is be real careful that you don’t make an experience the basis of what you think the truth has to say. The flesh is so powerful. If you ever have an experience, perhaps it is in gibberish or whatever else and you don’t understand it, be very careful. Experience never backs up truth. Truth must always back up experience. And if whatever experience we have does not fit exactly into what truth says, then evidently that experience needs to be questioned, not the Word of God.

We are walking through it carefully. We are dealing with a church that is so immature they didn’t know enough to get in out of the rain spiritually. They didn’t know the difference when somebody spoke under the influence of the Holy Spirit, how to watch for the marks and the pillars that give us a clear understanding that yes, this person is under the influence of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is all I can tell you.

God speaks clearly. Scripture and truth is upheld and Jesus is revealed whenever He speaks.

1 Corinthians 12:4-6

The Essentials of Understanding Spiritual Gifts

We are going to be looking at 1 Corinthians 12:46. And I want to entitle this “Essentials to the Understanding of Spiritual Gifts.” Now one of the friends I have is Scott. Scott needed to know some essentials of my bass boat before he got in that boat. From time to time, Scott would borrow my boat. I said, “Now, Scott, there is something you need to know before you take my boat out. My boat pulls to the right.” When I first got it, I got into shallow water and knocked the little small fin off the bottom of that motor. Now that little fin causes that boat to be level and to go the way it is supposed to go. When that thing was broken off, that boat started pulling to the right. Now you have to know that. That is essential when you are driving that boat.

Well, I thought Scott understood that main essential—before you use my boat, understand it pulls to the right. He was going down the lake at 60 mph. He had his right hand where it ought to be—on the steering wheel because it did pull to the right. He got to having a good time and his hat blew off. Scott forgot that essential, and with his right hand, reached up to grab his hat. At 60 mph, that boat turned right. Now that is interesting. You try it sometime. It threw Scott into the side of the boat and knocked him out cold!

It is important to remember certain essentials before you do some things in life. Now Scott knows. I guarantee you, when Scott goes fishing in my boat, he will have his hands cemented to that steering wheel because he knows it pulls to the right. You have to allow for that if you are going to drive the boat. You have to know that essential.

Now what the apostle Paul does in verses 4, 5 and 6 is show us some essentials that a person must master and understand before he ever gets into the discussion of spiritual gifts. You’ve got to get these things down.

The focus of our spiritual gifts

The first thing we want to see, and the first and foremost essential in understanding spiritual gifts, is that we must look at the focus of spiritual gifts. We have to have our focus right when it comes to spiritual gifts. You see, when you live with a fleshly mindset, you have a different focus. The focus of flesh is me, mine, I. In other words, if you put it in the context of spiritual gifts, if you are walking after the flesh, you are more interested in your gift or your lack of gifts than you are the giver of those gifts. You are never focused on the giver, you are focused on the gift itself.

The apostle Paul, though, had a different view, had a different perspective. His perspective was not on the gifts. His perspective was on the giver of those gifts. As a matter of fact, why talk about gifts if we don’t have a proper understanding of the giver? If we are not living surrendered to the giver, why in the world talk about gifts? You see, the problem that Paul had, he is dealing with a church that cared less about the giver. And that is why they were so distorted when it came to spiritual gifts. When you are not focused on the giver of the gifts, upon His character, upon His love, upon His precious grace, upon His divine and sovereign purpose in our lives, then you can easily become distorted in spiritual things, not only spiritual gifts but ministry. Your whole concept of ministry is different when you are not focused on the giver. Not only ministry, but your whole concept is different when it comes to the effects of ministry.

It is incredible what flesh will do. It will even to try to produce effects that only the Spirit of God can produce. You can get totally upside down in the subject of spiritual gifts if your focus is not the giver of those gifts. You see, we can become jealous of people who have gifts that we do not have. We can become jealous of ministries that we do not have. We can become jealous of effects that others have. They are doing the same thing we are doing, but the effects they are having are greater than the effects that we are having.

I will never forget the time I was over in South Africa. I got up to speak. I had prayed and I was in the Word. I felt like I taught it correctly and that the Spirit of God was just in charge at the time. When I finished, the people looked at me with blank looks. The next preacher got up and preached. I thought, “Well, I have covered that already.” All of a sudden, the Spirit of God began to move, and people got saved. People got broken, and I walked out of that meeting upset with God. “God, why didn’t you let that happen when I preached? Why did you let that happen when he preached?”

Friend, I want to tell you something, if your focus is not on the giver, this is the kind of distorted life that you live. “Why didn’t I get that gift?” “How come I don’t have that ministry?” “How come the effects when I do something are not the same effects as when somebody else does it?” This is the distortion of the Corinthian church. This is why Paul does not start with the gift, he starts with the giver. You’ve got to have that nailed down in your theology, nailed down in your life and philosophy, nailed down in your walk with God. You’ve got to have the impeccable character of the Giver in your heart and in your mind and be surrendered to Him regardless before you can ever approach the study of spiritual gifts.

Now notice the word “same” in verses 4, 5 and 6. Verse 4 says, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.” Verse 5 reads, “And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.” Verse 6 goes on, “And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.” The word “same” there is the word autos, which normally means self. It is a pronoun, her, him or it. When it has a definite article behind it, it means “same” as it does here.

The word “same” is used for the Holy Spirit in verse 4. It is the same Holy Spirit who gives the gifts. In verse 5, it is the same Lord Jesus who gives us the ministry that we enjoy. Now, any time the term “Lord” is used in the New Testament, it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 6, it is the same God, the Father, who gives the effects of these gifts. How do you know it is God the Father? When the Trinity is being talked about as it is in these three verses and the word “God” is in the mix and the definite article is before the word “God,” it refers to God the Father. So, it is the same Holy Spirit, it is the same Lord Jesus, it is the same Father, you see.

The sameness of God is so critical that we must understand what Paul is doing here. By using the word “same” he is identifying something. He is identifying the Giver. He is identifying the unchangeable character of the Giver. Now we’ve got to see this. God doesn’t do anything out of jealousy or spite. He doesn’t simply push one person aside to do something for somebody else. You’ve got to understand who we are dealing with here. It’s the same Holy Spirit, the same Lord Jesus, the same God the Father. If you can’t trust the unchangeable, impeccable character of God, then when it comes to spiritual gifts, you are going to be totally upside down. You don’t understand what is and what isn’t.

Paul, in referring to the sameness of God, is doing the same thing James did in James 1:17. It says, “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.” You see, when you are dealing with the character of God, it is impeccable; no one can question it. Everything God does is wrapped around who He is. He is a God of love. He has a purpose. He is the God who knows what is best for us. And so that is the impeccable character of God; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Paul is doing the same thing the author of Hebrews did. Hebrews 13:8 reads, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever.” But here comes the difference and how you may understand what I am saying. You have to understand the sameness of God, the fact that God is always consistent when it comes to His character. But in understanding that, you also have to understand that His ways are as varied as you can possibly imagine. He doesn’t do the same thing a second time unless somehow it fits His eternal purpose.

I hear people all the people all the time say, “Oh, God, give us another Pentecost.” God would shout back from heaven, “Why do you want another one? Live out of the one you have!” This is God. His character is impeccable. But His ways are as varied as we are today. Now, you’ve got to marry those two thoughts together before you get over to the area of spiritual gifts. Don’t touch them until you get somehow nailed down that the character of God is good; it is consistent; and everything He does is good and acceptable and perfect.

God always has eternal purposes in His mind. God always works with a redemptive heart. One person prays for healing, and he is healed. Another person prays for healing, and he dies. Does that in any way become an affront to His character? No, because He never changes in His character. But does that show us that we don’t understand the ways of God? Yes, it does. No man can figure out the way God does. He will have Paul circumcise one man as he travels and He will have him not do it to another man, because God’s ways are not our ways. They are higher than our ways.

You ask, “Where are you going with all this?” Look at the verses! He contrasts two words in verses 4, 5 and 6. He contrasts the word “same” with the word “variety” in all three verses. Now, if you have a King James Version, you are going to be very troubled because your version changes the word in each verse, but I hate to tell you, go back and do your homework. In the Greek, it is the same word all three times. That is why I appreciate the New American Standard. It nails it one, two, three. Varieties of gifts, varieties of ministries, varieties of effects, but the same Spirit, the same Lord Jesus, the same God the Father. Now, again, His character never changes. It is consistent, the same. Any time you come to Him, whether you have sinned, failed or anything else, He is the same God He has always been. He does not change in His character, His mercy, His grace, His principle, who He is and His purpose. But He does change in the way He works in peoples’ lives. It is not the same from one to another. Look at verse 11, as a matter of fact. He just really nails this. He says in verse 11, “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.”

Now, let’s get into this just a little bit. What in the world does this word “variety” mean? Well, the word “variety” does not just mean the difference of the gifts. Now that is one of the first things that we do. We think the word “variety” stands for the differences of our gifts. It comes from the word meaning to divide. It has to do with the meaning of how He distributes His gifts. In other words, He does not distribute His gifts evenly, though His character is even, it is consistent, it never changes.

Now, if that is somehow not nailed down, before you even get into the subject of gifts, do you see the problem you are going to run into? The flesh is going to cause all kinds of confusion. “Well, wait a minute. How come I didn’t get this gift? He is no better than I am!” Oh, man, don’t you go through this. You see some people and you are around them for a while and you realize they are imperfect. Boy, doesn’t that shock you? And then you see them in ministry. You see God just blowing the doors off of what He is doing in their ministry. You come before God and you say, “God, how come you are doing it in them? You know that I am a whole lot better than them.” God so clearly speaks back and says, “Who in the world do you think you are? I do what I do. Don’t you dare question Me. And remember, My character is impeccable. I am the same. I am always the same. You may not sense that you understand what I do because My ways are as varied as you can possibly know.”

You see, you’ve got to get your focus on the Giver and not on the gift. What in the world is the gift worth if you don’t understand the Giver? To understand His grace, to understand what He has done in your life; if you are saved, isn’t that enough? And yet we have churches splitting right now over the topic of spiritual gifts. Why in the world would a gift split anybody? Look at the Giver. He unites, He does not divide. It is amazing. So get your focus on the Giver. Get on the Giver. This is essential.

If you are going to study spiritual gifts, you are probably going to get over to an area and realize what you don’t have and suddenly you are going to begin to feel like, “Well, I deserve it more than he does.” Get that out of your mind. We don’t deserve anything. We deserve hell. Anything less than hell is pure grace. So let’s look at the Giver who is impeccable in His character, impeccable in His love, impeccable in what He does as we contrast that with the varied ways in which He works unevenly in the lives of His people for His eternal purpose.

As a matter of fact, let’s take a little test. This past year have you had a problem with somebody in the body of Christ because they were more gifted and talented than you? Have you had a problem with that and wondered why you were like you are and they are like they are? Have you had a problem this past year with those of us who have ministries? We love to call something a ministry that God may call a farce. Have you had trouble sometimes wondering why your ministry is so small compared to others whose ministry is so large? Or have you had a problem this past year wondering about the effects? You did it the same way somebody else did it. You know, it is interesting that Peter preached a sermon and 2,000 or 3,000 were converted. Stephen preached the same sermon and they stoned him to death.

The character of God is consistent. It is impeccable. Don’t you question His character. But when it comes to His ways, they are as varied as we are. That is the first thing, the focus is not the gift, the focus is the Giver. If your focus is the gift, then you are already causing a problem in the body of Christ. If your focus is the gift, then you are causing a problem. If your focus is the Giver, that is a different matter because He has brought humility in your life. He has brought gratitude in your life. He has broken you of that old arrogance and pride and now you are just simply saying, “Oh God, thank you for letting me be a part of what you are up to. I don’t deserve anything but you.” Get your focus right before we get into this subject of gifts.

The fabric of spiritual gifts

Secondly, we see the fabric of spiritual gifts. Now this came to my mind as I was studying. I know I have a weird mind. But as I was studying it, I thought about this perhaps might be a way of helping you to realize what we are dealing with, the fabric of spiritual gifts. In verse 4 we read, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.” Now it is the same Holy Spirit who gives the gifts, and His character is impeccable. Obviously He is God.

An illustration never quite fully illustrates anything, but let’s just look at Him as the fabric of the spiritual gifts. All these gifts come from the same Spirit, so He is in the initiator of all of it, okay? He is the fabric of these gifts. The word for “gifts” in verse 4 is the word charisma. Charis means “grace,” and the word ma at the end of it means the result of God’s grace.

Now, we need to look at that for a second. It is referring to the gift itself. The gift that we have is a total result of the grace that God has extended towards us. Now, this immediately answers a basic question: When do we get spiritual gifts? Are we born with them? No, you are born from above with them. There is a difference.

There are two births in a believer’s life. He is born physically, and he is born spiritually. That is why you can’t join Jesus. You have to be born from above. And when you are born from above, the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of Christ, comes to live in you. He is the embodiment of grace. And as He comes to live in you, He comes bearing gifts. That is when you receive a spiritual gift. That shows you that a spiritual gift and a talent are different.

I remember I was in a speech class in college and I had to do a speech one morning. I had forgotten about it and had gone to bed late. I got up late and five minutes before the class began I was walking out of room when it dawned on me that I was supposed to give a speech that day. Well, I looked over and saw my roommate had an iron. So I grabbed the iron. I saw a little bottle of cleanser—I don’t know what it was, it could have been glass cleanser for all I knew—I picked it up and I walked into class. I got up and I gave a 30 minute presentation, impromptu, on how to clean an iron! I have never cleaned an iron in my life and I used whatever cleanser. Hey, by the way, it worked. I got that thing clean.

I did all the things you are supposed to do in that speech, and I went over and sat down. The teacher looked at me. Everybody in the class was awed. The teacher said, “Would you like to know what your grade is?” I said, “Yes.” She said, “It is a zero.” I said, “Why?” She said, “You have never cleaned an iron in your life. That is not the way you clean an iron. I knew that the moment you stood up.”

I could talk a long time ago, but when it comes to spiritual gifts that have to do with speaking, that has to come from God. It is something different. Does He throw away your talents? No, He just fills them up and wraps Himself around them. But the spiritual gifts come at the moment you are saved. If you are saved today, you have gifts. You have the Spirit of God living in you, the Gift, and when He came to live in you, He came bearing gifts. You are a gifted member of the body of Christ.

Now this brings us back to the character that Paul pointed out earlier. The word “grace” is a precious word. You’ve got to see it. People say it means undeserved favor. Yes, it does, but we usually look at grace as if it is something God does for us. That is the way we look at grace, and that is true, it is. But it is more than that. It is who God is before He ever does anything for us. It is the disposition of God.

The word had its growth, it began when you wanted to talk about somebody beautiful. It wasn’t outwardly, it was inwardly. Somebody who was inwardly, in their disposition, a precious, beautiful person. It didn’t matter what they looked like on the outside. It was what they were on the inside, kind of what Peter talks about in 1 Peter 3.

But then the word began to grow and it had to do with a person who is beautiful in their disposition is a person who gives. A giving person is always a beautiful person. Anyone who is beautiful inwardly is going to give to others.

But then it took another meaning. It came to have the meaning that someone who is beautiful inwardly, who has the precious heart inwardly, who gives, will always give but they will usually give to people who can never pay them back and who never deserve it. That is how the word “grace” came to be understood. You see, grace is far more than what He does for us. Grace is who He is. So, when we receive grace, the One who loves us when we don’t deserve to be loved, the One who came and paid a debt He didn’t owe and we owed a debt we couldn’t pay and when we received Him into our life, He came in bearing something else we don’t deserve. He brought gifts because He wants us to be a part of what He is up to down here. He wants us to be in the flow of what He is doing on this earth. That is incredible!

He is the fabric of all of those gifts that live within us. He is the same, His character is the same. That is why the Holy Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit. It is the very character that is consistent, always unchangeable, of the Lord Jesus being in us.

First Corinthians 13 beautifully brings out that character that is unchangeable that is presented when the Holy Spirit of God is moving within us. However, when He comes in, His ways are varied, as we said earlier. And this causes the fabric, which is one fabric, to be multicolored. In other words, we don’t all fit in the same place.

Look over in 1 Peter 4:10. This is where the idea of the fabric of this grace, the fabric of the gifts came to me. In 1 Peter 4:10 Peter is talking about spiritual gifts. I want you to see what he says. Peter, writing to these persecuted believers of Asia Minor, says, “As each one has received a special gift [and all gifts are special], employ it in serving one another [that is what the gifts are for, and we will see that later on], as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

You know what the word “manifold” is. The word “manifold” is the word poikilos. It means multicolored. That is where the idea came to me. The Holy Spirit of God is the main fabric of all the gifts. However, it is multicolored. I might be over here in the red section, and you might be over in the blue section. Somebody else might be over in the purple section. But your gift fits in a certain place. All of the gifts we have work together to reveal the entity that gives them.

You see, that is what the whole things is about. The body of Christ is universal. It is all over this world. It is not denominational. There are Catholics who know the Lord Jesus. There are all kinds of people of other denominations who know the Lord Jesus. That is the body of Christ, and when they receive Christ, they receive gifts and those gifts are multicolored. It is the same Spirit who gives them. The same Spirit lives in them who lives in me, but they are multicolored, multifaceted, you see. Therefore, there is diversity in the body with God working unevenly. Maybe you have a little shade of blue and somebody else has a big shade of blue. But whatever it is that God gave you, He gave it to you and you didn’t deserve any of it. When you put it all together, it begins to make the most beautiful picture of the entity of the One who lives within us. That is what a body is for.

Gifts are never to pump you and me up. Gifts are never for us to say, “Look at me.” Gifts are to reveal the person of Christ that lives within us. That is what the body is for. The fabric is within us and that fabric needs to be revealed. But it will be revealed in different shades and different colors and different ways. And then when it all comes together, the picture is as clear as bell. We are not here to reveal what Southern Baptists can be. God help us! We are not here to reveal what we can do for God. We are here to be the vessels through which Jesus is revealed. He has given us gifts by which He can be revealed. But it is different from person to person. That is why everybody needs to live surrendered so that Christ can be clearly seen.

We have people come to our church from time to time. Years ago, a fellow told me somebody came in and said, “You know, I don’t like this church.” And they said, “Why don’t you like it?” And he said, “The preacher never visits.” He said, “I don’t like that. That is not the character of Christ in that preacher.”

Careful, careful. The character of Christ is love. And that love is going to be manifested specifically through the gifts that God has given to you. Don’t you ever tell me that I don’t love you because I didn’t visit you in the hospital. Friend, I am loving you by spending the time I spend in God’s Word, because my gift is my way of manifesting Him and that is the way He specifically has designed me and that is the color I have on the fabric. Be careful, be careful.

This guy was complaining and the friend he was talking to walked with the Lord and understood 1 Corinthians 12. Do you know what he said back to him? He said, “Well, let me ask you a question. Do you really think that is a need in this church?” He said, “Absolutely.” He says, “Is it really burdening you when you pray?” He said, “Oh, man, I can’t get over it.” He said, “Well, did you ever stop to think that is the gift that God has given you in the area and the ministry that God wants you to have? Do you realize that God didn’t send you here to find out all of our mistakes. He sent you here to be the solution, not the problem. Why don’t you start doing that for us?”

That friend told me this person looked at him and said, “I have never heard that before in my life. That makes more sense than just about anything I have ever heard.” It is amazing the way the Bible will clear up all this stuff.

But see, the church of Corinth didn’t understand that. They didn’t care about God’s Word. They didn’t care about God who lived in them. They lived upside down, fleshly minded lives. All they were concerned about was me, mine and I. That is why Paul has got to shift gears on them and get them back on the Giver and make sure they understand the fabric of those gifts as the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit, He is God. His character never changes, but the way He works in going to be in different shades and different colors in different people’s lives. The same Spirit gives the gifts, but they do not all look alike, nor are they dispensed equally.

My wife and I were visiting one day. We walked into a hospital room, and when we walked in, the lady started moaning. Oh, come on, man, I saw that! She wasn’t moaning before we walked in the room. She just started moaning when we walked in it. My gift doesn’t quite work like my wife’s gift.

I walked over to the bed and said, “The Lord lives in you and you are getting better. The doctor has already said that.” But my wife gets her little pillow and fluffs it up around her head and pats her on the cheek, “Are you okay?” She gets her a glass of water. I am thinking, “Don’t do that. That is what she wants you to do. She is playing this thing as far as it will go. Come on, let’s exhort her, get up out of this bed and let’s go home.”

We got out in the hall. My wife is so precious. She said, “I would have never said that to that woman.” I said, “You know what, I would have never done what you did.” But then we got to laughing. But you know, I think she needed both of them. Isn’t it amazing how gifts work together. So when I need to show mercy, let me go with my wife, because she is going to help me. I am going to put her in front of me and whatever she does, I will follow her lead. But when somebody needs to be motivated, you put me in front. That is the way we can work together as a team.

That is the way the gifts in the body are. You have been wondering why I am the way I am and you are the way you are. Come on, get your eye back on the Giver and remember He doesn’t work evenly in everybody’s life. What He didn’t give me and gave you doesn’t mean that you are any better than I am. It just simply means we have different functions in the body of Christ. It is the same fabric, the same Giver, but differences in those gifts.

God works differently in people’s lives. It is the same God. Don’t ever tell me I don’t love you because I don’t do what you would have done if you were me in that situation. You let me be who God created me to be and I guarantee I will let you be who God created you to be. I don’t follow you around. I don’t check who is in church every Sunday morning. You know why? Because we preach the freedom under grace, that you be where God wants you to be and you be what God wants you to be.

The character of God is impeccable. If that love is not there, you forget talking about the gifts. You don’t know what you are talking about. Just shut up and leave it alone. But if that love is manifested in your life, friend, you have a handle on something. That is God in you. And God will manifest His presence through you in a way that won’t be like anybody else because you are a different color from the fabric. When it comes together, the picture is clear as to what is being presented.

I think about it as working a jigsaw puzzle. When I was growing up, I had a lot of bronchitis and my mother wouldn’t let me go out when it was snowing. So she would buy a big puzzle. We would all sit around the table. But one thing I learned from her is that you take all the colors and you put them together. That is one of the first things I learned. If they are bright, you put the bright ones together, and you put the darks over here. After a while, when you start putting those little pieces together and following that color scheme, there is a picture that begins to emerge. It is amazing. And when you finish, it is clear as a bell why this piece of the puzzle was dark and this was light and this was something else, because it all played a role in making the picture become visible to everybody.

That is what gifts are for. They are for inside the body, and they are to minister to one another. We will see that in the next verse. They are from the same Spirit that lives within. We sing “Jesus be Jesus in me, no longer me but Thee, resurrection power fill me this hour, Jesus be Jesus in me.” How do you think He is going to be Himself in you? First of all, by the fruit of the Spirit, which you cannot fake in any way, which is His love produced because that is His character that is impeccable. But secondly, He will be framed through the gifts that He has given you which are motivated to serve others, not yourself. That is what spiritual gifts are all about. They bring visibility to the entity that lives within us.

The essentials to understanding spiritual gifts. Get your focus right. It is the Giver, not the gift. It never has been the gift. It is the Giver. But then secondly, remember, the fabric of grace. It is multicolored and each of us have a place we fit on it, but it is all to bring visibility to the Lord who lives within us.

1 Corinthians 12:4-6

Contents

1 The Essentials of Understanding Spiritual Gifts – Part 2

1.1 The function of spiritual gifts

1.2 The follow up to spiritual gifts

1.3 The fallacy of spiritual gifts

The Essentials of Understanding Spiritual Gifts – Part 2

The apostle Paul is laying a grid through which we view the rest of chapters 12, 13 and 14. Rules are important. Boundaries are important. Guidelines are necessary.

I was playing basketball several years ago and we were playing against King College in Bristol, Virginia. I was just so excited. We had the ball under their goal at the end of the first half, and we were one point up. There were about four or five seconds left in the first half and I decided to do something. I knew our coach would just be thrilled. I was going to take the basketball and throw it through the rafters all the way down to the end of the court so that it would hit inside the court so the clock would start with only three or four seconds. It would run out before they could get the ball, and we could go in one point up.

I did that. I was so excited. I took that ball and threw it and it went through the rafters, never touched anything. I mean, a quarterback of an NFL team would have been jealous. It went through two different rafters at least and it came down just perfectly inside the court, right at the edge of the court and bounced out of bounds. I am waiting on the horn to go off because the clock was ticking down, but the horn didn’t go off. A whistle blew. And the whistle burst my little emotional bubble.

Rules are important. The rule says that the ball has got to touch a player before the horn starts. They got the ball back up under their goal, threw it into their big center, he scored and instead of one point up, we went in one point down at half time. Oh, our coach loved that! I was trying to find a crack in the floor somewhere I could crawl into.

He walked in looking for me. I am hiding behind everybody in there. He kicks the trash can off the wall and says, “Okay, everybody sit down. We are going to have a little basketball clinic. Barber, would you come here!” I walked up. He says, “Now, Barber, would you begin in the rule book by explaining that when the ball touches a player the clock starts, but if the ball doesn’t touch the player, the clock does not start. Would you explain that, please!”

Suddenly it dawned on me, all that emotion, all of that experience had just been popped by rules and boundaries and guidelines.

Now that is one thing in the physical and tangible world we live in, but I want to tell you something, it is absolutely imperative that we understand that in the spiritual dimension, you have rules and guidelines and boundaries. If there is ever an experience you have and you want to say it somehow is hooked or attached to the Holy Spirit of God, a gift, or whatever else, that must somehow fit into the guidelines and boundaries of scripture or that experience cannot be spoken of as influenced by the Holy Spirit of God. There are rules. There are boundaries. And there are guidelines.

The Corinthian church needed these as desperately as we do in the 20th century. They were so upside down they had absolutely no discernment when it came to spiritual matters. Paul told us in verse 1, they were walking around as spiritual ignoramuses. They were totally unaware of spiritual matters. They didn’t have any discernment towards that whatsoever. So Paul begins. The first seven verses are so important as a grid work to understand the rest of chapters 12, 13 and 14 because he nails down, he lays the boundaries, he lays the guidelines.

The first thing he shows in these guidelines, in order to understand spiritual gifts, we must get our focus right. Our focus must never be the gift, it has got to be the Giver. And Paul wants them to understand that the character of God is as consistent as consistent can be. He is the same yesterday. He is the same today. And He is the same forever. In verse 4 it says the same Holy Spirit gives the gift. In verse 5, the same Lord Jesus gives the ministries. In verse 6, the same God, the Father, gives the effects of those ministries. You can never doubt the character of God.

If I have to deal with God through repentance, I am dealing with the same God I dealt with the other day in joy and rejoicing. He is the same God. He loves me. He has character. There is integrity. He does not change. He is unchangeable. He is impeccable. His character always remains the same. Why is this important? Because the sameness of God stays right there when it comes to His character and who He is. But His ways are as varied as you can possibly come up with. There is a contrast here.

In verse 4-6 he contrasts the word “same” with the word “varieties.” Now if you have a King James Version, you are already confused because they change the word but it is the same word all the way through – varieties, same, varieties, same. The varieties of gifts, varieties of ministries, varieties of effects, the same Holy Spirit, the same Lord Jesus, the same God the Father.

What does the word “varieties” mean? How many of you thought that the word “varieties” meant that the gifts were in themselves different? Everybody thinks that. That is not what the word refers to. The word is not referring to the differences in the gifts, it is referring to how they are dispensed. They are not dispensed evenly. Now, why would you think he would mention the sameness of God? Because the character of God, the One who is always consistently loving us, etc, that same God does not work in each individual life the same way. And when it comes to distributing the gifts, when it comes to distributing the ministries, when it comes to distributing the effects, they are going to be different, they are going to be uneven; to some more gifts, to some greater ministries, to some much more of the effect.

Now, the word “variety” according to Liddell and Scott, was used in secular Greek when it came to voting, you know, when people would come together for a popular vote. When they were counting the results, they distributed, they divided the results. In other words, it was very rarely even.

The word in secular Greek was used when the soldiers would divide their troops. Anybody who has ever studied military strategy knows that you don’t put the same number of troops here that you put over here. It all has to do with your total purpose of what is going on. So the word very clearly has to do with the dispensation of those gifts, the giving of those gifts, the dispensing of those gifts to people. It is not an even manner.

As a matter of fact, look in 12:11 where we see a form of this word, and we really see a clearer meaning of it. It is not just the differences of the gifts, it is the way they are distributed. It says in verse 11, “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.” Now the word “distributing” there is a form of the word we are looking at that is translated “varieties” in verses 4, 5 and 6. So we see it has to do with the distribution of those gifts. God, who is consistent, gives unevenly the gifts, the ministries and the effects. His character of love, mercy, grace, wisdom, and power is the same.

But now listen, He is also the God of purpose, and His purpose is not our purpose. He is not interested in what I want to tell Him should be His purpose. He already has His purpose. He wants to draw me into His purpose and His purpose and the way He does things to accomplish that purpose is not the same as I would go about doing them, but His character is consistent.

So to begin to understand the complexity of spiritual gifts, Paul makes a strong statement. The focus must be on the Giver and not on the gift. The Corinthians were attached to everything of the flesh. If you are living surrendered to Him as a vessel through which He can do His work, then you can have a proper discerning and understanding of gifts. Because you trust the Giver, you can trust the Gift, whether you have a lack of them or a great amount of them, whatever. But remember His character is consistent, but His ways are very varied.

So rule number one, fully trust the Giver before you start talking about the gifts because if you don’t, you are going to end up being jealous because you didn’t get a gift. You are going to end up being arrogant because you got more than somebody else. That is what was going on in Corinth.

The second thing that he brings up that is very important before he gets into the subject of gifts, is we must understand the fabric of spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit is the fabric of the spiritual gifts. I mean by that He is the actual thread, He is the one who gives the gifts.

Verse 4 reads, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.” First Peter 4:10 is the same subject of spiritual gifts, both serving and speaking gifts. Peter makes this statement, “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” The word “manifold” means multicolored. So the Spirit gives the gifts. He is the fabric, but it is multicolored. It is going to look different. I may have a red gift, and you may have a blue gift; somebody else might have a yellow gift. They are all different, is what I am trying to say. However, the fabric is the same. In other words, there is something about the fabric of those gifts, the character of the One who gave them, that will resound in every one of those gifts. You will see it in every one of those gifts. They are multicolored but the same fabric gives those gifts. He holds them together. He is the one doing the portrait so that Christ may be presented through the corporate body called His church.

Now, even though these gifts are different, as I said, the Holy Spirit remains the same. Now this is important, the fruit of the Spirit of God is love. Let me explain to you. Anybody can fake a gift, but since He’s the fabric of giving those gifts and holds them together and paints the portrait of Christ and through those gifts, He produces the fruit which is the love of God which is found over in Galatians 5:22, the fruit of the Spirit is love. Now, you cannot fake the fruit. You can fake the gift but you cannot fake the fruit. The gifts come wrapped in the fruit of the Spirit of God. You see, the Spirit of God comes to live in us at salvation and He comes with giftwrapped gifts. They come wrapped in the love of Christ. So whatever gift you have that reaches out to others has within it the very love and compassion and heart of God, to serve and make that gift beneficial to somebody else.

Now that is one of the signals that we have got to stay with as we walk through these three chapters. Not only does He give the gifts, but He is the fabric of them, but He also produces the fruit. And the fruit and the gifts must be together. If you find a person who adamantly, arrogantly, talks of his gift with no love for anyone, you are talking about a person who is not living surrendered to the Holy Spirit of God. You find a person who would take their experience and they say it was influenced by the Holy Spirit and use it to divide a church, you’ve got somebody who is not influenced by the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God produces love. And in that love is a drawing force. He does not repel, He pulls them and causes people to come to Him. So the body of Christ is drawn together when the gifts are manifest in their presence. So to understand the complexity of spiritual gifts, we must understand that first of all, the focus must be the Giver and not the gift. But secondly, we have got to understand the fabric. The one who actually gives the gifts is the Holy Spirit and He not only gives the gifts which are varied in their colors, mercy, serving, all the different functions, but also He produces the fruit which wraps itself around those gifts. You cannot say you are influenced by the Spirit of God if that love, which is His fruit, is missing anywhere in the effects of those gifts.

The function of spiritual gifts

Well, the focus and the fabric. Now that brings us to the third thing, the function of spiritual gifts. Why did God choose to give spiritual gifts? What are they for? You see, we must understand that spiritual gifts are not primarily for us. Now that doesn’t mean to say you are not going to enjoy those gifts as you minister them to other people, but they are not given for us. They are given for others. It is said of the Lord Jesus in the Gospels that the Son of man did not come to be ministered unto, He came to minister. So if God lives in us, God gave us the gifts, He is the fabric, then His whole purpose is not to edify me, it is to edify you through me and me through you. It is not personal edification, it is corporate edification. Gifts are given to serve one another.

Verse 5 says, “And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.” Well, we nailed it down before that when you see the term “Lord” in the New Testament capitalized, it is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. So it is the Lord Jesus Christ who effects the ministry through the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given. The whole Trinity is involved in this work of God on this earth through the believers who have received Christ Jesus into their hearts.

The word for “ministries” there in verse 5 is the key word. It is the word diakonia. It is the word that we get the word “deacon” from. It literally means to serve. Now the first time you really see it come forth as a word that denotes what people do, ministry in churches and all, is found in Acts 6. I want you to turn there because there is a beautiful principle that comes out of Acts 6:12. Then contrast it with verse 4. We see the word “ministries,” diakonia, in verse 1. We see the verb form of it in verse 2. He says in verse 1, “Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.” Somehow they were being left out. When the tables were set and the people come to eat, as the early church ministered to one another in that way, somehow these people were being left out. The word “serving” in verse 1 is the word diakonia.

Now in verse 2 it says, “And the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, ‘It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.’“ That is the verb form diakoneo. That comes from the very same root of understanding here.

So the first thing we see about it in Acts 6 when it comes to the members of the body of Christ ministering, it is in the attitude of serving, tangible, physical serving. “Do you need another glass of tea?” “Is there anything I can do for you?” “Can I cut your grass?” “What can I do for you?” That kind of tangible service.

But we have an interesting thing here. When you contrast verses 12 with verse 4, you really see the picture even broader. Look at verse 4. You see, when the disciples said that they wanted service to be done by others for others, they said in verse 4, “‘But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.’“ There is the word diakonia. So you see two things here, you see the spiritual serving of the Word of God for the benefit of others, but you also see those who are serving in a physical and a tangible way, setting up chairs, doing whatever is behind the scenes. You see two kinds of things here, but both of them are in an effort to serve others. They have the heart of Christ to minister, to serve. My gift is not mine, for me, it is for you. And if I surrender to Him, then He will allow that gift to work for your benefit. And so the whole attitude is unselfishly you want to serve others through the giftedness that God has given to you.

So the definition of the word “ministry,” diakonia, would have to be any discharge of service in genuine love for the sake of others, no matter if it is setting up chairs or ministering the Word of God. This is serving one another. Oh, how we need to understand that.

There have been a lot of people who have told me to my face that I didn’t love them because I didn’t visit them or I didn’t do something tangible for them. Yet they will come and hear you preach and the moment you finish preaching, they will attack you, not even realizing that what you just did cost you the whole week of studying in order to love them so that your gift could be used in serving them. So you see, this is what happens in the church. When you are not understanding the Giver and you are looking strictly at the gift, you are going to see it only through your own gift. You are not going to recognize how He has made the body multicolored. Many are different colors than you are, and they are going to serve in a different way than you serve. You can’t judge others by your gift. You can’t do that. You have to allow others to be who God has made them and to work through the gifts that God has given them. When the gifts are used properly, when God is enforcing those gifts, then the fruit of the Spirit is wrapped around them and they will even have an effect on the world that is around us. I guarantee you, when the world starts seeing Jesus in church, it will be to the measure of how you and I live surrendered to Christ and let our gifts build, unify, edify one another.

So another truth in understanding spiritual gifts—it’s a rule—the gift is not given to benefit you, the gift is given to benefit others. You see, what was happening in Corinth was, it was benefiting them but not others. But we will hit that a little bit more clearly in a further verse.

So the question must be asked, what is the use of having the gift, understanding what it is, if it is not being used to minister life to others, if it is not used to unify and edify the body of Christ? As a matter of fact, to nail this point, look at verse 7. Just glance at it, we are going to come back and look at it more fully in a little while, but Paul just nails this in verse 7. He says, “But to each one [leaves no one out] is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” That phrase “the common good” means to others, not just to me. Let me say it again, if you are saying what you are calling your gift is influenced by the Holy Spirit of God and is not in any way benefiting others in the body of Christ, then somehow what you are talking about does not fit with what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 12-14.

You see, so much of what is going on in Christianity today is people defending that which edifies themselves, not that which builds up and edifies others. And so the gifts have got to minister to others. That is what they were designed for. They were not designed to build us up, they were designed to build others up.

So the focus, the fabric, the function of gifts. Why were they given? So that the body might minister to one another. No one has all those gifts. The Holy Spirit is the Giver, yes, he has Him, but he has a function in the body of Christ. You must understand it that way. There is no such thing as a healthy body with selfish organs. Think of your liver. It is not seen, but it does a very, very important task. It never gets applause for it, though. What if your liver one day decided, “You know, I am sick and tired of not being recognized. I am not getting anything out of this. I quit!” Do you realize what happens to the rest of your body?

So you see, you must understand, there is no sense in having a gift or even knowing what it is, if you are not going to live surrendered to Christ and let the Giver minister life through that gift, if you are not allowing God to use the gift in your life. He takes care of the rest of it. You don’t have to find a staff member to give you a ministry in the church. God the Holy Spirit is the only staff member you need to go to. You get surrendered to Him, and He will give the ministry. He will cause the effect and will bless others around you. But if you have a gift and know what it is and you are not using it to benefit the body of Christ, what happens is, you become a cancer in the body and instead of benefiting it, you are draining it of the life that God wants to use and minister to others.

The follow up to spiritual gifts

Well, fourthly, there is the follow up to spiritual gifts. Now, why would I say the followup? Well, personally I hear a lot of people come to me and say, “Oh, I have this gift.” You know, you’ve got to follow that up a little while. You have got to take it and see where it goes. You’ve got to make sure you follow it up to see if the effect to that ministry that came from that gift is a divine effect. Anybody can boast and say I have a gift. But I want to tell you something, God puts the proof of the pudding here. The effect has got to speak of Him and never speak of us. That is one of the first things you have got to learn is that if a person is being moved by God through a gift and a ministry, then the effect will not draw attention to that person. The effect will draw attention to Christ. We must see that.

The question arises then, “How can we tell if what one claims to have is really of the Spirit?” I mean, is this ministry of the Spirit? Is it a spiritual gift? Well, if it is to be understood as different from ordinary talents, how do we go about doing that?

Listen, anybody can build a crowd and call it a gift and a ministry and an effect. Anybody can do that. Anybody can build a crowd. But to say that was the work of the Holy Spirit of God, you had better be careful. You had better be careful, because it has a significant mark on it that it is divine, that it is eternal.

Anybody can take up money, and some of them do it very well. I am the worst person at that. Every time I have mentioned the budget being low, we have had the lowest offering we have had in months. I am really gifted at that! But you have a lot of people who can take up money who don’t know Christ. Have you ever been to a political rally? Do you think they can’t take up money?

Anybody can organize and call it a gift, call it a ministry and call it an effect. As a matter of fact, there are seminars in church growth today that say that if you stabilize the church with organization and you put this guy here and this guy here and you do this, you do that, you will have these results. And they are absolutely wooing pastors all over our country. Pastors are going away thinking that if they are properly organized then they somehow can fabricate the very effect that only God can produce. That is hogwash. You can’t do it.

So how do you know when it is God and when it is man, because man can be pretty smart? How do you know it is man and when it is God? First Corinthians 12:6 tells us, “And there are varieties of effects.” In other words, the effects are going to be as different as the giving of the gifts. They are going to be uneven. You see, this is why you can’t measure these effects. You may have a guy down in Louisiana serving Christ with a heart that is bigger than anybody in this room, but you will never know about him and you will never read his book and you’ll never see him on television. But one day in heaven you’ll know who he is because God knows where he is. You can’t measure effects in churches like you can measure effects in businesses. Oh, if we could understand this.

People say to me, “Oh, you must be successful because the church is so big.” Listen, only eternity will tell whether or not that was God or man. You don’t measure effects by crowds, by how much is given, by all these kind of things. God measures those effects.

Dorie Van Stone spent eight years over in New Guinea and never saw a convert. Her board told her she wasn’t obedient to Christ and surrendered enough because she saw no converts. Well, now there are about 650,000 of them over there as a result of the seeds that were planted when she was there. You see how people try to measure these effects. They are given unevenly, and God is the one who gives them.

“And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.” Now, we want to key in on the last phrase, “the same God who works all things in all persons.” The word for “works” there is the word energeo, which literally means to energize something.

Now I want to explain something to you. Let’s take a little sidetrack here, in case you don’t understand this. The Christian life is not you getting saved and trying to do things for God and impress Him with your results until He comes for the church. That is not the Christian life. The Christian life is not only God saving you from the penalty of sin, but God taking residence in your life to daily save you from the power of sin. He came in, not only to renew you, but also to replace you. This is God we are talking about. These gifts come from Him. It is His ministry through us. That is Christianity.

Suppose you hold a coat up and I say to the sleeve, “Sleeve, you raise your arm up.” That coat just hangs there like an idiot. It can’t raise its arm up. There is nothing in the coat to make it raise it up. But if you put that coat on, life comes inside the coat. Now say to that same sleeve, “Sleeve, raise up.” And it raises up. Why? Because of the coat? No, because of the life energizing the coat. That is effects, folks. That is God inside of us, effecting a ministry that you could never in a million years take credit for and giving effect that makes you want to bow down before Him for all eternity that we would ever think for a second that God could use us.

Well, if He comes to live in us, you can’t separate that from spiritual gifts. He is the energizing force in us. He is the person who energizes the gift. He is the person who energizes the ministry. He is the person who energizes its effect. He fills all in all. And I’ll tell you what, the effect is that when it is finished, then the attention is not drawn to us, the attention is drawn to Him. It is God the Father who causes the divine effects. He is the same God who works all things in all persons.

Now, there can be no more comprehensive statement made of God in scripture than the phrase “the same God who works all things in all persons.” Actually, the word “persons” is not in the context. It is, “the same God who works all things in all.” Persons are included, but it doesn’t exclude other things. God is in charge of everything, if you haven’t realized that yet. As a matter of fact, have you ever studied over in Samuel when it talks about a messenger, a demon of Satan who was sent from God? Does that ever kind of knock your theology? Or over when Paul said a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him? Do you realize God even has Satan on a leash? He doesn’t originate what he does, but He takes what he does and He even uses it to work into His own plan. God is a sovereign God. He works all in all. He is in charge of this whole thing.

He is in charge of our country right now. He is in charge of our President right now. That is why we have to get in touch with Him, because His character is consistent and biblical and solid. That is who God is. And so we just surrender to Him because He works all in all.

Now that phrase is found again over in 1 Corinthians 15:28. It is an interesting phrase because it points to His millennial reign. I know some of you don’t believe in the thousand year millennium, but that’s okay. If you say we are in it right now, that is alright, you enjoy it, but I am going to enjoy the next one that is coming because I believe there is one, when Christ rules and reigns on this earth.

In 1 Corinthians 15:28 he says, “And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, that God [the totality of God] may be all in all.” Now in that passage he is pointing to the future that has not taken place. There will be no question that God is in control, that God is filling all and working all in all.

But the question comes in the context, “How is He now, present day, working all in all?” What does that mean? Well, the “all things” in our text of verse 6 has to be the gifts, the ministries and the effects. It has to be. That is what he is talking about. He works all things in all things. He is the God who works all things in all persons. He is in control of ministry. You see, what we have got to get in our mind is Christ is with the Father, but His Spirit is still here on earth, and He lives in us. God is still working. God is still ministering. God is still doing down here on this earth. How, Wayne? Through the people who believe in Him, through the people in whom He resides. He has given the gifts, He has given the ministries, He has given the effects.

That is why when we taught the course Experiencing God at our church so many people said, “Wow, where have we been?” That has been the ministry we have had for 17 years, but somebody finally put it in a book form. God, who is always working all things in all, He is the one who says, “Would you like to be involved with Me? Would you like to be a part of what I am doing?” Oh, yes, Lord. Do we have to get a committee? “Kill the committee. I loved the world so I didn’t send a committee. Let’s don’t have a committee, but you individually get surrendered to Me.” That is the whole secret of the Christian life. You, you, you, all of us, get surrendered. Bail out. Abandon to Him. And then God draws you in to what He wants to do in the church. It all speaks of Him. It doesn’t speak of us. You can’t stand up at the end of the year and give the State of the Church. He has to stand up and give the State of the Church. He is the only one who energizes the gift, energizes the ministry and energizes the effect.

Now, this truth shows us why no human can ever take credit for anything that God does through his life. God’s character remains the same, but His ways are varied. He will not work the same in me as He will in somebody

1 Corinthians 12:7-9

Contents

1 To Each His Own

1.1 The critical truth about gifts

1.2 The categories of those who have received gifts

1.3 The speaking gifts – equipping

1.4 The speaking gifts – communicating

1.5 The extraordinary gifts

To Each His Own

1 Corinthians 12:7-9

We are entering into the arena of those spiritual gifts now. But there are three words that I want us to look at to make sure we have an understanding of them before we get into these gifts. The first word has already appeared in verse 7. It is the word hekastos. It is the word that means to each one.

It says in verse 7, “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” In other words, if you are worried about whether or not God ever gave you a gift, yes, you have a gift. You are included. Just think, God allows us to be in on what He is up to. That just overwhelms or should overwhelm all of us. Whether we have a small piece of the pie or whether we have a big piece of the pie, thank God you have got a piece of the pie. That is just grace. It is God’s mercy that we are even involved. So each one of us has a gift.

Everyone has a spiritual gift through which God wants to minister to others and to give an effect that is eternal. Everyone has a gift. Don’t think for a second that God left you out. You may have grown up in a family that is very poor, and you didn’t have anything. You have this mentality that since you are that way, you are nobody in the kingdom of God. Oh, yes. There are no big “I’s” or little “you’s” in the family of God. Everyone is gifted.

Paul uses the analogy of the body in Romans 12, and he talks about the members of the body. I have arms and legs and feet and a head and ears and a brain somewhere. There is my liver and my lungs and my heart, but there is no such thing as a selfish organ in a healthy body.

That is the very same thing he is talking about right here. So hekastos means each one, each and every one receives a gift.

In verse 8 we see the first of the other two words come up. It says in verse 8, “For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit.” Now, that word is the little word allos. Now the word can be used, and many times is, as just simply a numerical “another.” Give that one to this one and give that one to another. We have only one word in English, but they have two. That is why many times it was spoken in Aramaic, but it was documented in Greek because you can’t miss it. When both words are used, there is another understanding of that word that we must grasp. Allos means another of the same kind, especially with the word heteros, as we are going to see in just a moment, which means another of a different kind.

Now that is very significant and you will see it come up in the text. Let me give an example of that. In John 15:17 Jesus said, “Love one another,” another of the same kind. Who is He speaking to? He is speaking to believers, those who are following Him. He says, “You love one another.” Does that mean that they shouldn’t love the world? No, certainly they should love the world, but that is not his context right there. You can identify the group that He is speaking to.

A better one even than that is in John 14:16. If you want to make allos a numerical another, then you mess up here big time. It has to mean another of the very same kind. John 14:16 reads, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.” Now what is happening here? Jesus is explaining that He must go back to the Father. Why? So that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, can come to be, not with you but in you. That is the great promise of John 14 and 16. But when He says “another will come” He is saying “another just exactly like Me. It will be My Spirit that is coming.” If you just mean another, well, that could be anything could come. But another exactly like Me.

Now let me put this in the context. Every believer in the body of Christ could be referred to with this word allos. Why? Because we are all of the same faith, of a like faith. The same thing that saved you, saved me. Everybody comes in the way of the cross. We are born again by the Spirit of God. We are placed into the body of Christ. At our salvation, the Spirit of God comes to live in us. We are all allos in that sense of the word. But in the midst of being the same, we have many, many differences. Brothers in Christ, sisters in Christ, but yet we have differences among us.

So the next word that we need to look at is the word heteros, which means another of a different kind. Can you have both words referring to the same group? Certainly you can. We are allos, of the same kind in the sense that we are all born of the Spirit, but at the same time there are differences among us.

The word heteros is found in verse 9, and he changes a category here. He says, “to another faith by the same Spirit.” That word “another” there is heteros. Now what word do we get from that? We get the word “heterosexual” from it. In other words, we are all of the same species, human beings, but here is male and here is female. And so we are alike and we are the same, but we are different.

You are beginning to see, hopefully, the meanings of the two words. Now what makes us different in the body of Christ are many things. Personalities make us different. I guarantee you they do. I mean, there are differences amongst us. We have temperaments that make us different. Intelligence makes us different.

But now listen to me. In 1 Corinthians 12, what makes us different even though we are the same? His point is, gifts. It is going to be the gifts that are given that is going to put us into different categories. Now that is his whole context. That is how allos and heteros can be used together. We are the same. We are of the same family, born of the same Spirit. However, we are different. But the thing that makes us different, in 1 Corinthians 12, is the gifts or gift that God has given to us.

When we put that in that context, it spills over even into ministries. Our ministries will be different. The effects will be different. You can’t compare. So there are differences even in the body of Christ. All of the gifts and the ministries and the effects play their own role in setting us into different categories because of the gifts that are given.

So, in verse 8, “to another” would be another of the same kind. Then in verse 9, “to another” would be heteros, to another of a different kind. The difference of two people in the family of God can be their personality, their temperament, or their intelligence, but here in 1 Corinthians 12, it is the gift or gifts that God has given to them. God never throws away our individuality.

I can’t really put my finger on it or prove it, but God does not throw away our talents and abilities, even though they are natural and what we had before we got saved. I believe God just infuses Himself into us. He does not throw that individuality away. Gifts many times are tailored to the very individual that He chooses to use. But that puts us into different categories because of those gifts. God does not throw away our individuality. He just simply puts Himself in the middle of it and then people see us, but they see God in us.

My point is that if you take the word allos or heteros and you say, “That is just the individual. It has nothing to do with the gift,” you have missed the whole point of what Paul is saying. Because what makes this one different from this one over here is the giftedness that God has given to him and the ministry, not only what He has given to him but when in history He chose to give it to him. That is just as important to the text as anything else. So, as we walk through this, understand those three words: hekastos—to each one; allos—of the same kind; and heteros—of a different category, of a different kind. These three words hopefully will help us.

The critical truth about gifts

Well, let’s pull our boots on and begin to wade into the list of the gifts. The first thing I want you to see is the critical truth about gifts. Sometimes it is overlooked, but I want to make sure we start once again on the Giver and not the gift. Unless you are surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ, then your gift is useless. The Corinthian church was not surrendered to Christ, and this is something that Paul is dealing with.

Now listen to me. When you study gifts out of 1 Corinthians, you have got to understand the context and the culture and the church to whom he is writing. You can’t take Romans and cram it into 1 Corinthians 12. You can’t take Ephesians 4 and cram it into 1 Corinthians 12. Paul is not teaching a complete teaching on gifts here. He is trying to show something. The manifestations are the whole key to the passage. He says the manifestations are given. This is what was causing the Corinthian believers to be confused. Is this of God or is this not of God? He is trying to explain some things to them. But it is very important to realize, and they didn’t realize it, that the gift is only useable when you are living surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot command your gift to work. You cannot do it.

This automatically pops the bubble of some people’s thinking. You say, “How do you know that?” Alright, look with me. It says in verse 8, “For to one is given.” The tense of “is given” there is the most interesting part of that verse. I guarantee if I asked you what tense that is, you would say that is aorist tense—at a specific point in time that gift was given. We already know that we have been given a gift. That is what you would say. But I hate to tell you, it is in the present tense, and it is in a passive voice. Passive voice means it is not you acting upon your gift, it is God acting upon you through your gift.

Do you know what he is saying here? You say, “Well, that contradicts what we have already learned then. If He is consistently giving to that one this gift, then we don’t get it when we get saved.” No, that is not the emphasis of the apostle Paul. As a matter of fact, look over in 1 Peter 4:10 and I’ll show you that you got this gift when you got saved. Go ahead and look over there. I need you to see this because the tenses change. Why? Because of what he is trying to say to the Corinthian church. In 1 Peter 4:10 Peter says, “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” Now that word “received” is in the aorist tense, as each one at a certain point in time in the past has received a special gift. You already received that gift.

Look over in Romans 12:6. Paul says almost identically the same thing, to making sure that you catch the whole picture of what he is saying here. He is saying something a little different in Corinthians than he is in Romans or than Peter was in 1 Peter 4. Romans 12:6 says, “And since we have gifts,” and he is talking about the same thing, just like Peter was, “that differ,” and they do differ, “according to the grace given to us,” aorist tense.

Now, wait a minute. How come it says then in 1 Corinthians 12, “is being given” when in Romans and 1 Peter 4 he says, “has already been given.” Let me ask you this before I even get into that, have you been saved? “Yes, sir, I have been saved.” Well, are you being saved? “Oh, it goes on?” Yes, sir, you are being saved. Are you going to be saved? That is right, you are going to be saved, so be real careful. Even though you have received the gift, the one who gave it must continually energize it. That is the key. Your focus shifts again. He has the prerogative of the gift that He gives.

Folks, I want to tell you something, when you get enamored by a gift that you have and you become airheaded and arrogant like the Corinthians had done, and you begin to become a braggart about what God has given you in ministry or effect, you are a fool because only God can make that gift work and He continuously gives and energizes that gift. It is not something that just happens once, it is something that continues on. Yes, you have it, but only to the measure of your surrender to Christ is it useful to others.

This is a critical thing to be understood, because you see, gifts came be faked. I wish we could see this. You can fake the gifts, you can fake the ministry and you can fake effects. That is why it is so important to understand this before you even think about talking about spiritual gifts. Is your life surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you want only what He wants, as the apostle Paul lived that way? This is the norm for all believers. And if we are not living that way, let’s close our Bibles and go home. You will never understand spiritual gifts. He is the only one who can use it. He is the only one who can energize it. He is the only one who can give effect through it, which makes it back on our part. Man, I had better be surrendered to the One who gave it.

The great speaker for the Gideons, years ago, got up to speak in a meeting. They had a package there wrapped beautifully. He walked up to the pulpit thinking that the package was for him, a great gift by the people who appreciated his speaking. He opened up the package, took the top of the box off and inside was a bunch of filthy, dirty, smelly rags and a little note that said, “We are not here to hear from you. We are here to hear from God.” And he said, “If I could have found a hole to crawl into on that stage, I would have crawled into it, because it made me realize one more time what I am not and who He is.”

I tell you what, to those of us who have had a little bit more exposure to people—and this is the warning God puts in front of me every day—that if you ever start thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to think, then you are going to stand before the God one day, who gave those gifts, and you will answer to Him for what you called ministry that had nothing to do with the divine effect of what God was doing through your life. We had better get this truth down. Not only did He give it, He continues to give it and only at His bidding and only to the measure of our willingness to surrender wholeheartedly to Him and to His will in our life. That is the critical truth of understanding gifts. How many ways have we got to say it before we understand it?

The categories of those who have received gifts

The second thing we want to look at are the categories of those who have received God’s gift. And I want to say it one more time. You’ve got to back away and ask yourself, “What is going on in Corinth?” What did we identify in verses 1, 2 and 3? People were standing up and speaking and saying they were under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God.

Guess where the apostle Paul starts? He starts with the speaking gifts. Why would he do that in Corinth? Why would he do that? He didn’t do that in other places, so why did he do it at Corinth? You have got to take all that into consideration. You can’t just back off and say, “Okay, there is the word “gift” and there is the word “gift,” so let’s just put them all together and make some sense out of them.” You have to look at it in its context.

The speaking gifts – equipping

Now, the first group of gifted people are the ones with speaking gifts; I call them the equipping gifts. There was a real need for the Corinthians to understand this. So he says in verse 8, “For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit.” Now if we weren’t talking about spiritual gifts, this could be confusing, because everyone can have knowledge as the Holy Spirit imparts that. Everyone can have wisdom. God is very liberal in giving wisdom to those who are willing to admit they don’t have it. But since he is talking about spiritual gifts, it takes a little bit different dimension. Let’s look at it phrase by phrase.

He first of all says, “For to one is given.” You say, “Big deal.” No, no, no. It’s not to one and then one and then one and then one. No, the word means “that one right there”. It is almost like when a coach picks a player. I used to sit on the bench a lot when I was playing basketball. The coach would come down the bench to see who he was going to pick. I just kept waiting. The coach would say, “That one right there, I want you right there.”

That is what that word means, that one right there, as if amongst many, that one right there, to that one is being given. Immediately you have to trust the character of the Giver because some of the people God chooses to have certain gifts, ministries, and effects just blow us away, doesn’t it? But God just does it, and it doesn’t have a thing to do with what we think. He didn’t ask me. He just did it. God is not going to ask you. He just does it. To that one is given.

The tense of “given” is present tense. The word is didomi, which means as an act of good will towards somebody. When you give a gift, there is an act of good will or intention towards them.

Oh, you think God doesn’t love you or me today? He says, “I love you so much I died for you. I love you so much I want you to be a part of what I am doing. It is an act of my good will towards you. I am going to give you a little slice of this pie. I want you to be a part of what I am doing. I am going to give you this gift right here.”

I’ll say it again, the focus is again upon the Giver and not on the gift. I am telling you, you cannot miss this as you study through it. You can have a gift or plenty of gifts, but it is Him who drew you into it. It is not you who went looking for it. It is Him who gave it to you to let you be a part of what He is up to.

Now Paul says, “For to that one is given [as an act of my good will towards him] the word of wisdom through the Spirit.” What is the “word of wisdom?” The word for “word” is logos, which means understandable, intelligent word of God. Since it is used here, it most likely identifies, as I understand it, a speaking gift.

The word “wisdom” is sophia which is the word having to do with the application of biblical truth, scriptural truth. It’s the ability to take God’s word and to practically apply it to life’s situations. This kind of wisdom is not a human acquisition, but it is something God imparts to an individual as He speaks it for the benefit of all believers.

We must identify the fact that there are two kinds of wisdom. Why would Paul be bringing this up in Corinth? Remember, he has already had to deal with them. They were enamored with all the wisdom of men. That is why he is trying to show you something. When God’s man, and he is gifted, stands up to speak the word of God, God will gift him with wisdom of how to take that word and apply it to everyday life. God’s wisdom will stand in stark contrast to man’s wisdom.

In verse 20 of chapter 1 he says, “Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God [they couldn’t have figured Him out], God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

Now what you see immediately surface there is the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man. He says in 2:5 that he did not want their faith to rest upon the wisdom of men. So there are two kinds of wisdom. Paul is saying the person who has the word of wisdom has the spiritual speaking gift of being able to take God’s Word and bring it down and apply it to the practical areas of living because that is what wisdom is all about. Many people can understand the truth in the head, but they are never able to take it out and put it to use in their personal life.

Have you ever been in a counseling sessions and somebody says, “Yeah, but the Word of God doesn’t say anything to my problems today.” Oh, yes, it does. But you have to have wisdom to be able to apply it. That is what God has to give to you. It doesn’t come from man, it comes from above. It is peaceful and gentle, as James talks about it. So it is a picture here of a man being gifted to speak concerning scripture and put it down on the level of all believers into practical application where they can utilize it in their everyday life. To be wise with God’s wisdom.

One of the greatest examples of how man does not have wisdom and how desperate we are for it is in James 1:5: “But if anyone lacks wisdom.” I guarantee you, put a man into a trial and it doesn’t take him long to figure how he lacks wisdom. The wisdom of God stands starkly against the wisdom of the world. That is what he is saying.

Do you think we are not desperate for wisdom in these days? To walk when the stock market crashes and still honor Christ? To stand for Christ and stand for truth no matter if it costs us our salaries next week? We are desperate for wisdom and only God can give it. And He energizes certain ones—that one, that one, that one—to speak the word of God that brings application to this kind of thing so that people can then begin to associate that God does have something to say about what we are experiencing. There are those in the body of Christ who are different from others. I can see God saying, “I want that man right there. I want him to have a gift of taking the Word of God and speaking it to all My people. And when he is living surrendered to me, I am going to energize that gift and there is going to be a ministry and it will take on its own effect, which will be for all of eternity.”

The speaking gifts – communicating

In that speaking gift category of the equipping gifts comes another speaking gift. It could be any time a person communicates it to the body could be wrapped into this, whether he writes it, speaks it, whatever. Look at what he says in verse 8, “For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit.”

Notice what Paul does. He says “to another” here. Here he goes. Strap your seat belts on. What word is that? It is the word allos. In this category there is another of the same kind as this one. He speaks or writes or communicates to the body and he has the word of knowledge. So that is another gift that distinguishes these two gifts in a category by themselves.

The word for “word” again is referring to a speaking gift. Then the word “knowledge” is very, very important. There are two words for knowledge. There is the word eido, which has the idea of intuitive knowledge. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t need learned knowledge. But there are certain intuitive things that people know. Romans 8:28 reads, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good.” That is eido. We intuitively know that. All we have to do is get in the presence of God and we know it. We don’t have to go to school to get it. We don’t have to learn that from a classroom. That is one kind of knowledge. That is intuitive knowledge. Sometimes you ask your wife, “How do you know everything?” She always says, “I don’t know. I just know.” That is intuitive knowledge. Now, that is the kind of knowledge again that God just gives believers because the Holy Spirit of God lives within them.

But there is another word for “knowledge,” and that is the word gnosis. My son has two degrees from college, and he is still studying. Now, if he has applied himself during all those years in college, then he will know something. That is gnosis. It is acquired knowledge. It is knowledge that comes from experience. It is knowledge that comes from study. It is knowledge that has diligence behind it. It is not like eido, which is something intuitive that you already know. You don’t have to have anybody teach you.

But gnosis is something you acquire. It is being able to get in and take the deep spiritual truths from your brain and bring them down and make them accessible to the whole body of Christ.

The word of knowledge means you have the ability to get into God’s Word and dig out the deep spiritual truths and to put them up here on a plate and serve them to the body of Christ. You think Dr. Strong who put out Strong’s Concordance didn’t have that gift? Do you think Spiros Zodhiates doesn’t have that gift? Do you think the people who have put together all the study helps don’t have that gift? We start digging out a passage and we don’t know where to turn. We thank God for people who have been gifted in the body of Christ to take knowledge and bring it down and put it on a plate and serve it to you. Oh, listen, this is a giftedness that God has given to the body.

Why would he bring up the gift of knowledge anyway, because in Corinth there were all kinds of people standing up imparting knowledge? As a matter of fact, they were going to the Oracle of Delphi to try to get knowledge from the divine. Paul is trying to say, “I have got a category of people who, when they stand up and speak, have the speaking gifts of imparting wisdom and imparting knowledge so that the whole body of Christ can be benefited, not with the wisdom and knowledge of men, but with the wisdom and knowledge of God.”

But you say, “I thought the focus was the giver. You have kind of lost that, haven’t you?” No, I haven’t. Hang on. Look in verse 8. Look at the end of each phrase, “For to one is given the word of wisdom [How? It is continuously given] through the Spirit.” That is the little word dia. It means by the means of the Spirit of God. And then it says, “and to another [of the same kind] the word of knowledge [How?] according to the same Spirit.”

Do you know what the word “according” is? Kata, which is different than ek, which means out of. Kata means according to. If I had a million dollars and I wanted to give you a gift, I guarantee you, you would not want me to give it out of my wealth, ek. You would want me to give it to you according to my wealth, kata. I guarantee it. If I gave it out of my wealth, I would give you $10. But if I give according to my wealth, then my gift has got to reflect the measure of what I have. So he says it is according to. In other words, as the Spirit wills and to the extent He gives, it comes right back to the giver again. It is not how I want to extend it, it is not how I want it to be. It is how He decides it will be used, not how we decide it will be used.

We are all one in the body of Christ, in Christ. We are the same, of the same faith, born of the same Holy Spirit. There are no big “I’s” or little “you’s.” However, when it comes to the disbursing of the gifts, he gives certain gifts to this category of people over here. I personally think it has to do with their temperament. It has to do with a lot of things about them that they had naturally before they ever got saved. And he gives to this one the gift of wisdom, or the word of wisdom. He gives to this one the word of knowledge. He says, “To that one and to that one and to that one, I want to have the word of knowledge. I want them to be able to serve it out on a platter to the body of Christ. And to that one and to that one and to that one I want them to have the word of wisdom so they can take the beautiful knowledge and the understanding of scripture and bring it down and make it practical to the body of Christ.”

If it doesn’t benefit the body of Christ, remember, then don’t qualify it as a gift. So in other words, when a preacher stands up and has the speaking gift, whether it be the word of wisdom or knowledge and he begins to use this for his own gain, he just shut down the whole usefulness for his gift. He can never use it for his own self. It is not given for him, it is given so that it can be ministered to others. There will be many that will fall into the category of the equipping gifts. This will make them different than others in the body of Christ. It will make them different.

I tell you what God has had to do with me. He has had to humble me to make sure I am willing to admit when I am wrong. Are you willing to admit when you are wrong? I tell you what, if you are not related to the Giver and teachable, this is what is going to bring division. But if you are surrendered to the Giver, just let it fall where it falls. Don’t try to make it say what you have always heard it say. Don’t go get your books on spiritual gifts and compare what we are saying here and what you have read. Just let the Bible be its own commentary. I guarantee you, we will come through these three chapters and we will love one another and we will go right on until the Lord Jesus comes for His church.

The extraordinary gifts

Well, we are about to get into another category. Let me just introduce it to you. I am not going to start it in this study. I am going to wait until the next study to do that. Look at verse 9. He starts it off and says something real interesting. He says, “to another.” What word is he using now? The last word was allos. Which is this one? It is heteros. He is shifting categories. What in the world are these? I call them the extraordinary gifts. Now you can call them what you want to, that is just my term. I want to tell you something before we get into it. It is not the fact that the

1 Corinthians 12:7-9

To Each His Own – Part 2

Someone shared an illustration with me that really has meant a lot to me. The story is told of an evangelist who called home one day while he was away. He called home and just wanted to talk to his family. His son answered the phone. When he heard his Daddy’s voice he asked “Daddy, Daddy, when are you coming home?” The evangelist told him, and then he asked, “Daddy, what are you going to bring me?” His first thought was, “I am looking for the gift. What are you going to bring me?” Well, the evangelist didn’t know yet, but he knew he would have to bring him something or the child would be very disappointed. Well, then is wife got on the phone and said, “I will just be so glad to have you home.”

The evangelist remarked about this in a message. He said, “Isn’t it interesting that the child was more concerned with the gift than he was the giver, but the wife who had grown up and matured was more concerned with the giver than she would be with any gift.”

That very same thing happened with me a few weeks ago. We went my granddaughter. As soon as we walked in the door she says, “Poppy, what did you bring me?” Poppy brings gifts. My granddaughter knows that Poppy brings gifts. So she said, “Poppy, what did you bring me?” Well, we had her something.

You know, it is interesting, neither the evangelist’s little son nor my little granddaughter were really doing anything wrong, because babies act like babies. The tragedy is that the baby, when it grows up, continues to act the same way.

You know where I am headed with this. The church of Corinth was a group of babies, according to 1 Corinthians 3:1-4. Now, I am not going to turn there. You already know it. You should know it by heart by now. After all the teaching that they had, the most taught church in the New Testament, the apostle Paul their teacher, Apollos, after him. I mean, they had the greatest teaching. You are not dealing with a church that doesn’t know. You are dealing with a church that won’t obey. And because of that, they had remained immature. This immaturity had brought great division in the church and it had caused a distorted overemphasis of manifestations of spiritual gifts.

The word used for “manifestations” in verse 7 tells us everything we need to know, that the Corinthian believers were caught up in this kind of thing. Paul was trying to correct the way it is used. The word for “manifestations” in verse 7 is the word phanerosis. It is used for making something visible, something that is made manifest so others can see it. Now listen, babies have to see it. Babies live in the sensual. You see, their emphasis is that which can be seen. Their emphasis is that which can be experienced. It is not in the giver, it is in the gift. Paul is trying to bring them back. He is trying to bring their focus back to the fact that Christ does manifest Himself, He does give gifts, but the focus is always upon Christ and not upon that manifestation and not upon that gift. You see, when the Giver is the focus, then he will use the manifestations He gives to unite the body, not divide it, to build the body and not destroy it.

Now to illustrate this, it is God the Holy Spirit who gives the gifts. Look again at verse 4. He says, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.” This same Spirit who gives the gifts is also the Spirit who produces the love of Galatians 5:22-23. That is God’s love. It is a love that is unconditional. It is a love that is not self-centered. It is a love that takes into the interest of the other person. And this same Spirit who gives the gift and produces the fruit is also the same Spirit who causes the body to be unified. In Ephesians 4:3 he says, “Be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Listen to me, if a gift or a manifestation of any kind is bringing division in the body, then you have to question whether or not that person with that gift or manifestation is truly influenced by the Holy Spirit of God, for the Spirit Himself unites the body. Christ prayed for all believers to be united, to be as one as He and the Father are one. Unity is most important to the body.

Do you realize how gifts are dividing churches everywhere? Manifestations of the gifts or the ministries, or whatever else, these things are dividing churches even as I speak right now. You always have the Greater Fellowship Church and the Greater Than That Fellowship Church and the Better Than Yet Fellowship Church, coming from people. They are immature, and they are using gifts to divide that body of believers. There is something wrong when that takes place. God rules and reigns in His church through the gifts and the ministries and the effects.

We saw in verse 6 that it is God who works all things in all persons. You also remember that “all persons” really is all things. God works all things in all things. It includes people, but that is the narrowed context. He is saying here that God is ruling and reigning in the people He lives in through the gifts and the ministry and the effects. He is bringing about His purposes within the church. It is not our church. There is no committee that can meet and decide how to build a church. God builds the church. You feed the sheep, they put out the wool. It is His business, it is not man’s business. How often do we put upon ourselves a responsibility that God has never given us? He is the one ruling and reigning in the church to the degree that His people are focused upon Him so that their gifts and ministries and effects can draw attention back to Him. He uses the gift to unify and edify the whole body of believers.

Verse 7 reads, “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Yes, God gives the manifestation of the Spirit, but for the common good. The word “common good” is word sumphero. It is the word sum, which means to gather, and the word phero, which means to bring together. You see, when God is working in His body and the gifts are functioning and the ministries are functioning and there is an effect, then God is unifying and edifying the body of Christ.

In verses 7 and 8 we saw that there is no room for anyone to get proud of their spiritual gifts, for we saw that God is the one giving the gifts. He is not just the one who gave them, He is the one who is giving them. Now one of the things that means is, in verses 7 and 8, the tense is in the present passive tense. God continues to give. Now one of the things that means is, since He has given them, He continues to give them, so you cannot make them work when you want to make them work. They are strictly God’s prerogative to make those gifts work. And you have to be totally focused on the giver or your gift will never function and never benefit anybody in the body of Christ.

There are three categories of gifts in chapter 12. There is first of all, the equipping gifts. He says in verse 8, “For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit.” That is the first one, the word of wisdom. The word logos is used for “word,” which indicates that it is a speaking gift. Wisdom is the ability to take scripture and bring it down and apply it practically in one’s life. So to one, God gives the speaking gifts, the word of wisdom. Somebody can take the truths of God, clarify them and bring them down to where people can live them day by day.

The extraordinary gifts

Verses 9-10 cover the extraordinary gifts. He has covered the equipping gifts and now he shifts gears and shows you the extraordinary workings of God which are intermittent in a person’s life. They are not something that you get when you get saved. These are more in the category of what He gives when He chooses to give them, period. He does with them what He chooses to do with them and no man can hang a shingle on the door and say, “I have this or I have that.” So the second category of gifts is the extraordinary gifts.

In verse 9, he says, “to another faith by the same Spirit.” In other words, faith is not used here with a definite article. If it had the definite article, it would identify it as being the word of God, as being the gospel of Jesus Christ, as the doctrine to which the church holds to, that which has been taught by the apostles, which has been transferred to the believers and carried on. But the definite article is not there. When the definite article is not, it doesn’t identify something, it qualifies something. To one is given the gift of faith, or “to another faith by the same Spirit.” That doesn’t even mention the word “gift.”

Now, it is the kind of gift that when it is without the definite article, it means it doesn’t refer to what it is as much as to what it does when one has it. In other words, when one has this gift of faith, as God chooses to give it to him intermittently and when he needs it, then that gift is something that causes him to be bold and courageous when it comes to facing difficult circumstances in life.

As a matter of fact, in 1 Corinthians 13:2, Paul said, “And if I have all faith so as to remove mountains.” It is the idea of removing mountains. I mean, anything that you have to face is a mountain in front of you. God steps in and says, “Poof. You have had faith. You exercise it all the time, but you need the gift of faith right now. You need faith like you have never had it before.” And so God gives it when He chooses to give it for the purposes that He chooses for that gift. It is God’s Word that must be understood and believed.

Notice where he puts faith. Faith comes after the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge, I love that. In other words, it is not some kind of presumption. Hey, listen, the Holy Spirit of God is writing this thing, using Paul, and He knows where he is going. You don’t have somebody saying, “Well, I’ve got the gift of faith. I jumped out of a plane. I knew God would catch me.” No, God is just going to let you splat all over the ground and say, “You are a fool because faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God.”

You have to have the knowledge of God’s Word and the wisdom of how to use it before you can even have faith. Faith springs out of that. And, of course, faith is not just putting your confidence in the word. Faith is putting your confidence in the One who spoke the Word, which comes right back to your focus, which is Christ. It is the kind of faith that effects great boldness in the people who God chooses to give it, when He chooses to give it.

Acts 4: 13 might be a place to turn to. There is a word in the New American Standard there, the word “confidence.” The King James Version translates it “boldness.” That is a better translation and you get an idea of what this is. God stepped in and just gifted them with that boldness that they needed, which obviously was quickened by the Word of God and the one who spoke it. Acts 4:13, “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John [and that word “confidence” should be “boldness,” the boldness of Peter and John] and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men [that does not mean that they were uneducated and untrained when it comes to spiritual things; it is the way the world sees them], they were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.” I mean, there was something remarkable about them and the thing that made them remarkable was this gift of faith that became visible and manifested in their life. The people around them said, “These people have been with Jesus.” Again the word there is the word parrhesia.

It is the same word used in 1 Timothy 3:13. Turn over there, because I want you to see these things, to understand what this faith is. It is not just everybody has faith. To every man has been given a measure of faith. This is not talking about that. This is talking about a special giftedness that God gives to a person as he is going through a difficulty in life, as he is facing an overwhelming situation. It is not there all the time because you don’t need it all the time, and it is when God chooses to give it. First Timothy 3:13 says, “For those have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and great confidence [or boldness] in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.” In other words, in the faith that is in Christ Jesus, spawns this boldness that gave a testimony of those deacons to others. This boldness, this courage in the face of difficult circumstances is what faith is all about.

Now, it may be in the face of the enemy attacking you, the spiritual enemy that we have. It may be in the crisis of circumstances. It may be in the doing of the unexpected, but it comes only as God chooses for it to come. There may be something in your life that will overwhelm you, but you get before God and God says, “Wow, you need this,” and whoosh, and He just gives you that gift of faith and you get back up on your feet and walk through that thing. Never, ever could you bring glory to yourself. You would have to give it to Him who gave you that faith in the midst of the valley you were walking through.

Another example of this is when Peter had to say to Ananias and Sapphira that they were lying to the Holy Spirit. He knew that and had to bring discipline upon them. I want to tell you, you don’t see Peter doing that anywhere else. He is pretty straightforward. He is a fisherman, so he speaks his piece, but you never see him in that situation to where he has to declare the death of both of them actually. Ananias came in first and Peter said, “You are going to die right now.” Boom, he dropped dead. Then Sapphira came in, and he said the same thing to her and she dropped dead and they carried them out and buried them. What a testimony to the early church that sin was very important and you don’t lie to the Holy Spirit of God. That is an exception, it is not the rule, but Peter had to have the boldness of the Spirit of God to do that.

That is what we are talking about, something that makes you have the courage to do what normally you could not do, even in the gifts that God has given you. He just infuses that faith, that willingness to do whatever is necessary. The gift is listed before all the other things he says in a little list here.

Now he is going to give a list. Let me show you. Look in verse 9 again. He says, “to another faith [heteros, of another category; now watch what he does] by the same Spirit, and to another [allos] gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another [allos], the effecting of miracles, and to another [allos] prophecy, and to another [allos] the distinguishing of spirits.” Now all of that is in a list, all of that is in a category. You see, heteros changes the category, and allos keeps all of these gifts listed together, and the first one mentioned is faith.

I want to tell you why I think it is. Because out of the well of faith all of these others gifts come. If you want to find out where faith is operable, if you want to find out where it is that you need to believe God and be bold and courageous, that God just simply gifts you to do that, because God always gets the glory for it, then you will find it in the list that follows forward. In other words, Paul says, “To another [of the same kind], the gifts of healings.”

It is interesting that he brings that up first. What is the valley that most people walk through that they fear any more than sickness and illness? You mention cancer and automatically everything in us just sort of shrinks up because many of us have had to face it. That is a difficult thing. So he puts first the gifts of healings, which comes from the well of faith.

Now, there is no gift of healing. You say, “You just read it.” No, you didn’t listen to what I just read. It is in the plural, it is not in the singular. Woe to the person who hangs his shingle on the door and says, “I have the gift of healing.” No, sir. There is no gift of healing. There are gifts of healings, plural. The reason healings and gifts are in the plural there is because healing is as varied as the gifts are themselves. The very mention of the plural gifts of healings immediately opens the door to the fact that healings may come in varying degrees and in varying ways. We tend to think of it as somebody being cured miraculously. We hear all the stories. And for certain there are some who are cured miraculously as God steps in and gives that gift of healing miraculously. That has happened. We have witnessed it right at our own church. But it is amazing how this is so wrongly taught in the Americanized 20th Century.

We see the gift of healing taught as if only one person has the gift of healing. They don’t ever mention the gifts of healings. They can do this to that one and then this to another one, simply as they call it up. People come from great places to come to these meetings.

Isn’t it interesting how people have a healing meeting when the scripture shows us that they can’t call the gift up at their own command and yet they put a message out and say it is going to be a healing meeting on Friday night. How do you know there is going to be a healing meeting on Friday night? If God chooses to do it, it will be. If God chooses not, it won’t. It is incredible how people mess this thing up.

I want to tell you something. You don’t know much if you think that everything extraordinary comes from God. Who do you think mimicked the miracles of Moses? Have you got any clue? I had dinner with a man from India one time. We sat there and he said, “You people in America think that everything that is supernatural comes from God. I have seen more healings in pagan cults in India than you will ever see in one of these meetings you all have over here in America.”

So what is going on? Some people think that is the gift of healing. They just put up a sign and say, “We are going to heal. We are going to heal Friday night. We are going to have a healing.” Do some people get healed? I don’t have any doubt that some people do get healed, but it is not because of that guy and it is not because of that meeting. It is just because God intervened in their life at that time. You can’t call up a gift when you want to call it up. Who in the world do we think we are? You see, unless you are totally surrendered to God, that gift is not even operable, and in this list, it is only when God chooses to give it. It is not something you can hang a shingle on the door and say you have.

You see, to understand the gifts of healings you must understand why it is in the plural. I think we need to start by understanding the diseases and the ailments from which one is to be healed. If you don’t understand the varying diseases and the ailments, then you can’t understand what he is talking about, about the gifts of healings. There is in the Greek language a word that is so mistranslated, it confuses everybody. It does not mean sick, but it is translated sick over and over and over again. It can come to mean sick, but that is not the main word. The word is astheneo. It comes from two Greek words, a—without, and stenos, which means strength. It means to be a person who is weak and without strength. Now, that may cause sickness and sickness may come from that, but disease causes sickness. What we are talking about here is a lack of strength. The word for astheneo is the first word and it is used in a verse where both sickness and this word are used and I think it brings it out.

Look in Matthew 8:17, two words in that verse. Some people say it is not important to know the Greek language. I tell you it is, because if you are only reading a translations, no wonder there are confusions in the body of Christ. Now this word is translated “infirmities” but is the word astheneo, without strength. It says in verse 17, “In order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, ‘He Himself took our infirmities,’” That is the word astheneo. He took our weaknesses, “and carried away our diseases.” There is your sickness right there. The word for “disease” is the word that comes from the word nosos, where we get the word nosology from, which is the study of the classification.

Now, the word “infirmities” should be the word “without strength.” Over in Luke 9:2 it is used, I think, but translated wrongly. It says in the New American Standard, “And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God, and to perform healing.” But the King James Version is better. It says, “And He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” The word “sick” there is not the word for sick, it is not the word nosos. It is the word that means those who are weak, for whatever reason. Now they are weak, they are weary, they are at the point of they can’t do anything, hardly lift a hand. You see, the word nosos is the word for disease.

Look over in 1 Timothy 6:4. Now that we have identified the word that has to do with the classification of diseases from which sickness comes, let me show you the varying kinds of sickness. I guarantee you, this is never thought about in many people’s minds. This is Paul’s letter to Timothy addressing the pastors. It is called the pastoral epistles. It speaks of a pastor here with a sick mind. Have you ever thought about that? Now what is a sick mind? He says in verse 4, “he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest [that is your word right there, morbid interest; he has a diseased mind] in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, and evil suspicions.” It speaks of a minister with a sick mind. He is talking about a man who is proud, knows nothing and his mind is so sick or morbid that he automatically engages in arguments and word fights and causes great division. Have you ever thought of a person with a sick mind as one qualifying as one who needed to be healed of a kind of a disease? People who argue and fight with words all the time are people who are sick in their minds.

Again, you can be sick, but functioning, or you can be sick and immobile, it doesn’t matter. There are so many varying degrees of diseases. As there are categories of degrees of physical weakness and sicknesses, so are there degrees of healings. And as there are malfunctions in any number of parts of the human body or personality, so there are particular and peculiar healings.

Paul wanted them to realize, and I think wants us to realize, that all healing is of God. We have got to see this, whether it is total or partial, all the results of God’s grace and not simply of human administration. So when we are trusting God and there is a healing that comes, however it comes, whether it is in a meeting or whether it is in the silence of a room or whether it comes from taking medicine, seeing a doctor, it still qualifies in the gifts of healings. The phrase “gifts of healings” opens the door for all kinds of healing. The way the person is healed is immaterial. It is the fact that God gives gifts of healings. Being healed may also come from God’s intervention or in the normal use of going to the doctor to get medicine and the treatment of sickness and diseases. One of the greatest cures for asthenos, weaknesses, infirmities or lack of strength, is just getting some sleep and eating right. And you didn’t have to go to a meeting to hear that. You start eating right.

I went on a diet not long ago. But I have already noticed on this particular diet that I am already feeling better. Well, did God heal me? Yes, He is using my sense and the wisdom that God has given me to eat the right things. And when you eat the right things, you are going to feel better. It is amazing how we don’t think that is gifts of healings. You think it is in that? No, God is the only one who brings healing. He gives gifts of healing. Somebody may take an aspirin and it will heal a headache. Somebody else may not have an aspirin and ask God and He just takes the headache away. That is healing on both ends and God is the one. We must trust the Lord for the healing. It is all God’s gifts of healing.

Now this is clearly demonstrated, I think, in the book of James. Turn over to 5:14. It is a very, very misunderstood passage. In fact, I lived for years caring a little vial of oil around with me, a little thing of oil I carried in my pocket. Any time anybody wanted to pray, I would put the oil on them, pray for their healing, expecting them to be raised up and healed. That is not exactly what it says. I hate to pop your bubble. Verse 14 of James 5 reads, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let the pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.”

Now there were no question marks in the original Greek. Somebody has put that as a question. You can’t prove that at all, nobody can. As a matter of fact, it was probably rendered as a statement. That is the way most questions came, out of a statement. And the statement is, someone among you is sick. That immediately goes against the grain of people who say that if you live righteous with God, and James is a book of faith, you won’t be sick. Yes, there are going to be people who are sick. You are not except from weaknesses and diseases. “Is anyone among you sick, let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”

This anointing with oil is something they do first because it is “having anointed him with oil.” It is in a certain tense. Then they pray. But the anointing comes first. The anointing of oil was the physical remedy for the situation. Now God is in that. You’ve got to trust God in the process. In other words, today he would have said, “Call a good Christian doctor.” But they didn’t have doctors then. Isn’t it amazing how we interpret James 5 out of Americanized theology and customs. We have drugstores, a doctor on every corner and hospitals everywhere we look. We interpret it in light of that. Only one doctor is even mentioned in the whole New Testament and that is Luke. They didn’t have drugstores.

By the way, the word “sick” is not even sick, it is one who was without strength. What do you need when you are without strength? Well, the elders would come. And what would they do? You see, back in those days they had a double role; not only with the spiritual matters but they would actually go and help with the physical because they didn’t have doctors, as I said. They had huge vats, vases filled with olive oil. They were for people for medicinal purposes. The elders would come. The word for anointing here is not the spiritual word for anointing. It is the secular word which means to rub, to massage. They would come and rub you down and rub you down and rub you down. What does that do? It increases the circulation. And what happens when the blood starts flowing? Healing comes from that and that comes from God. The massaging doesn’t do it, it is still God who brings the healing.

Why has it got to be something so extravagant that you have got to go to a meeting so you can write a book about it? Why don’t we just stand up and shout for the millions of times God has healed us and we didn’t even thank Him for it? If we started right now it would take us the rest of our life to thank Him.

But again in James 5, the scriptures show that the sick or weak person is not to put his trust in that, even though they do that. He is to keep his trust in God. He is the One who does the job of healing. It says in verse 15, “And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick.” That doesn’t mean restore in the sense of raise up, in the sense of automatically physically, but it does in the sense of automatically spiritually. The whole context of James is not getting out from under anything. It is bearing up under it. Why would he blow the whole context of five chapters and say, “Hey, all you’ve got to do is get the elders over and you can escape the whole thing.” It is a spiritual restoration first and then many, many times because your spirit is restored, the physical can be restored. But still, it is the gifts of healings. It is still God.

My son called me the other day. He is dealing with some physical problems. I said, “Have you called a doctor?” He said, “I haven’t.” I said, “Well, you need to call a doctor. But trust God in the process.” Why do we think that going to a doctor and taking medicine doesn’t have anything to do with God giving the gifts of healings? God can heal by the use of medicine. It is not the medicine. If you are healed, it wasn’t your medicine. You keep taking that medicine and you will become immune to it and it won’t heal you anymore. God is the one who heals you. We give Him the credit for that kind of healing. In the matter of recovery, from the prevention of sickness or death, God expects us to do our part with what we know is needed to accomplish these ends.

Remember Jairus’ daughter? She was dead. He walked in and said, “Arise!” Jesus does that. And then immediately her spirit returned and she rose. Then He gave orders for them to do something. He said, “Now take her someplace and give her something to eat.” So there is a dual responsibility here. Gifts of healings.

What is wrong with us? We relegate this thing to somebody with a shingle walking around having meetings, taking in millions of dollars and then having people come forward. Listen, you had better be careful. Be real careful when you get into this kind of stuff, because that gift cannot be called up by that man. God intermittently, when He chooses, gives the gifts of healings. And it may come in so many different ways. Thank God for the doctors. Thank God for the progress people are making towards cancer. Thank God they are not stopping. Keep on going! But ultimately, in every situation, it is God who gives the gift of healings and, because there are so many diseases, He puts it in the plural. As varied as the diseases are, is as varied as the healings are. And no one man has all that. God gives it when He chooses to give it.

Well, these gifts of healings must be taken to refer to the person who may apply medicinal means, or the person who can’t. By the way, if you choose to trust God for your healing and not go to any doctor, it will only be for these reasons: Number one, you can’t get to a doctor; number two, the medicines aren’t available; number three, the medicines have not worked. It has to be for one of those reasons. Why would God step in for somebody who won’t even take the time to call and find medical attention? It doesn’t make any sense.

1 Corinthians 12:9-10

1 To Each His Own – Part 3

1.1 Distinguishing between the gifts of healings and the effecting of miracles

1.2 The definition of the term “effecting” of miracles

1.3 The diversity of miracles

To Each His Own – Part 3

Distinguishing between the gifts of healings and the effecting of miracles

The first thing on the list of these extraordinary gifts is in verse 9. By the way, they are all joined together to the middle of verse 10. He says in verse 9, “to another faith by the same Spirit.” Without the definite article behind it, it is not referring to the gospel, it is not referring to the word, it is not referring to the faith that we received when we received Christ, but it is referring to the ability, the supernatural ability that God gives us to believe Him in difficult and unbearable circumstances. Everyone is given a measure of faith. That is not what we are talking about. This is something very different from that. This is that supernatural ability. You don’t have it every day of your life. You only have it when God chooses to give it in the midst of something that is literally overwhelming you. It is a gift that God gives to believe Him.

You see this in His men through scriptures. You see it with Peter, you see it with Paul at certain times in their lives, and you see it exercised in such a beautiful way that the glory goes on to be with the Lord. It may be in the face of resisting the enemy, the adversary, the devil. It may be in the area of facing life-threatening circumstances. Whatever it is, it is not something you commonly have. You have faith, but this is that supernatural ability to believe Him, as chapter 13 says, if it has to be even to remove mountains. That is what he is talking about. Now, whatever the circumstances may be, whatever it is, God chooses to give this gift of faith to this one or that one.

Now, there is a list here in 12:9-10, and they connect together. Have you ever noticed when you study that either Peter or Paul, when they make a list, the first thing they say is very important to the rest of the things they say in that list? You say, “What do you mean?” Galatians 5:22 says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love.” Have you ever realized how the rest of that verse ties in and explains what that love does and how that love acts? Peter says over in 1 Peter 2, “Therefore, lay side all malice.” What is malice? He gives you four definitions of it. It starts off with guile and hypocrisy and envy and slander, and you begin to realize, hey, wait a minute, these lists are meaningful. The first thing that is mentioned almost every time—not every time, you can’t use this as a total rule—but you need to check it.

It especially is right here. He makes a list. He says faith, and then he says, “to another [allos, which means to another of the very same kind] gifts of healings.” And then he says, “to another, effects of miracles, or effecting of miracles,” which is again that little word another, allos. “To another [allos, of the same kind], prophecy, to another distinguishing of spirits,” and again that word another.

Then he says, heteros, “to another,” to another of a totally different kind. So we see a list right here in verses 9 and 10. They are all grouped together; faith, gifts of healings, effecting of miracles, prophecy, and distinguishing of spirits. They are all in the same category, which I call the extraordinary gifts. Now, this is significant because if faith—the ability to believe God in unbearable, overwhelming circumstances—begins the list, then everything else springs from that. Obviously, you can understand why he would put the gifts of healings second, because there is nothing any more unbearable, nothing any more overwhelming than when we are physically ill. If you mention cancer to any of us, all of us have a chill go up our spine because it begins to put us in a position to where we know we can’t handle it ourselves. We have to cry out unto God and then God, who is the Giver, imports faith to the people who are going through the unbearable circumstances of life.

Now why is the word “gifts” and the word “healings” both in the plural? Somebody asked me, “How do you know that?” If you’ve got a good Bible, you already know that. If you do any kind of checking it out at all, I don’t have to defend this. This is just the way the Greek is written. They are in the plural, not in the singular. Somebody says, “Well, I have the gift of healing.” No, you don’t. There is no such thing. But God gives gifts of healings. That is what you have to understand here. There are a multitude of various healings. It goes everywhere from physical illness to the point of death; it goes to the fact of emotional illness. We saw that in scripture last time. It even goes to the fact of a sick pastor who is trying to divide the church by things they argue over and always bring up dissention and causing disruption in the church. Paul uses that very same word. So there is a variety of illnesses.

You see, when you understand the variety of illnesses, then you begin to understand the variety of healings that is there. Extraordinary healing is always definitely included in this, but all of God’s healing is miraculous. All healing is of God. It is our flesh and the flesh of Corinth that wants to put the extraordinary times of healing up here and make them better than those ordinary times of healing in our life.

We have already seen that no man can call up a gift at any time. He can’t do that. It all depends on your surrender to Christ. Then I have a problem. How in the world do people plan a healing meeting? They plan it ten months away. And they say, “On that night, you bring your sick friends. On that night we are going to see the healing of God.” How in the world do they know that? No man walking is worthy ever to put that kind of stuff on a poster because God and God alone is the Healer. You cannot call up that kind of gift. No man can call up that kind of gift.

“Well, what is going on in those meetings?” I don’t know, but it sure doesn’t fit with 1 Corinthians 12 and what Paul teaches us about gifts and what he teaches us about healing. You know, the same time they have those meetings and people are supposedly coming and getting healed—I am sure some people do get healed—across town, somebody has gone to their pastor and they have prayed with them. They have gone to their doctor, a good Christian doctor, and the doctor has treated them. He has given medicines or vitamins or whatever else that you get and they very faithfully have done this. But the whole time, they have believed God to bring healing in their life. Something extraordinary is going on over in that auditorium. Somebody across town is being healed by the very same Healer, but this one is never recognized. That one is the one everyone wants to talk about. That is the problem you get into when you focus on gifts, folks. The flesh loves the extraordinary and overlooks the natural ordinary, miraculous power of God to heal day by day. That is why it is put in the plural. You can’t exclude those kinds of healings.

Most of the healings you and I will ever see will be in the ordinary, natural focus of life. “A doctor cared for us.” There is not a doctor who can heal, not a doctor in this place. There is not a medicine ever created that can heal. “Oh, but I took an aspirin the other day and I got healed of a headache.” Well, I have taken aspirins and felt worse. Now what are you going to do when that happens? There is no healing in that aspirin. You can take it, but God and God alone is the Healer. I don’t care if it is with an aspirin or without aspirin. God is the miracle Healer, nobody else. And He does it when He chooses according to the purposes He has in each individual life. No man can walk around saying, “I am some kind of faith healer.” Now, that kind of destroys what a lot of people think, but when He is constantly giving these gifts, it has the idea that He is the one and nobody else is in charge of these gifts. And if it doesn’t come back to His glory and it goes to the glory of that healer, it has nothing to do with God, nothing, nothing to do with God.

All the healings in 1 Corinthians 12:9 are miraculous. They are all miraculous, whether they be of the ordinary route or whether they be of the extraordinary route. Healing is healing, and God is the Healer. It is only the unbelieving world that has an excuse not to see God supernaturally or miraculously healing in the natural processes of life. You see, they don’t look for Him. They go take an aspirin and they think that is what has healed them. They go to a doctor and think that is who brought them to health. No sir, it is God. But they are not looking for Him. Shame on us when we fall into that same trap and fail to see the miracle-working power of God in the ordinary healing experiences of our life.

Well, the thing that throws us is the fact that most of the times healing is mentioned in scripture, it is put into the classification of the extraordinary. That is what throws us. We don’t see much of the other. When Timothy was told by Paul to take a little wine for his stomach, we don’t hear the end result of that and whether or not his stomach got better. But what we do hear are those extravagant, extraordinary times that were brought about in scripture. You would probably cite the case of the 12 apostles who were sent out. You might cite the case of Paul and the numerous times that he healed. You might cite the case of the 70 evangelists in the gospels who were sent out. You might cite the case of the prophets and even here or there an isolated believer. And what is the reason that they are sent out? Because God wants to show how authentic their call and their assignment is. You see, it doesn’t draw attention to them. It draws attention to the God who sent them. That is the very reason.

Hebrews brings that out beautifully in chapter 1 and the first few verses there, talking about how He gave them the gospel and then He gave it to us. He gave it to the apostles, and then it says by signs and wonders, then they gave it to us. It was to point to the authentic position God had put them in and to point to the authentic assignment that God had given to them. You cannot show me in scripture a consistent pattern for any ordinary believer to say that he can heal on a daily basis. You cannot find that in scripture. The pattern is only with Christ. The pattern is only with His apostles.

Now, in these exceptional things that He does, listen folks, that is wonderful. God can do the extraordinary, but that is not the rule. That is the exception. And what we will experience in our life is not going to be the extraordinary. We are going to experience God’s healing on a daily basis and we need to be living grateful for that. We need to be thanking Him every morning when we wake up. Do you ever think of that? Do you ever wake up in the morning and say, “God, thank you for letting me wake up this morning. Thank you for the lungs that can take in the air.” You see, if you haven’t been sick recently then you don’t even understand that. But if you have been through some difficult times, you suddenly become aware that God miraculously is working in your life all the time. He never slumbers; He never sleeps. That is what is wrong with the church in the 20th century. We want to live in the extraordinary instead of living in the miraculous ordinary of what God is doing moment by moment and day by day.

It is interesting. People want to talk about miracles ,and the first thing they talk about is healing. But in Scripture there are two different categories. Is healing a miracle? Yes, it is, but there is another category called miracles, and it comes up in verse 10. Now folks, I want to tell you, this just got my attention. He says, “and to another [allos, of the same kind] the effecting of miracles.” Now, wait a minute, wait a minute. Why does he separate “gifts of healings” [plural] with the “effecting of miracles” and put them in two different classes even though they are of the same kind? They are in two different groups here. Why does he do that?

Well, let’s start and look. First of all, the distinguishing of the gifts of healings from the effecting of miracles. What is going on here? Without a doubt, they are in two different categories, very clearly in verses 9 and 10: “to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healings by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles.” Now this is interesting to me. It immediately proves the point that even though any kind of healing is miraculous, we will live over here in the ordinary healing most of the time. Because over here on this side is another category of miracles that somebody is going to be gifted, in the sense that God will do them through him.

Take for instance, what is the difference in the gifts of healings and the effecting of miracles? Here is the major difference that I can see in Scripture. First of all is this, that miracles were assigned for people who were unbelievers. That is the thing that just rocked me when I was studying. Miracles are more of a sign to people who are unbelievers. Now certainly they affect believers. That is something that nourishes us and excites us, but it is really a sign for unbelievers.

Now you take tongues, which I haven’t gotten to yet, which are known languages understandable by others. One speaks a language which is not his own supernaturally, communicates to these other people who understand that language, and they are able to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. These tongues, these abilities to speak in other languages, were not a sign for believers. They were a sign for unbelievers, this miracle of speech.

Look over in 1 Corinthians 14:22. It is very clear. It is not a sign for believers. It is a sign for unbelievers, not only unbelieving Israel who rejected the Spirit of God, but for unbelievers. Look at what it says in 1 Corinthians 14:22: “So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers.” The miracle of speech, so that they could hear the gospel in their own language and understand it and respond, was a miracle that God would do, but it was a miracle designed for the unbeliever, not the believer.

Whereas miracles were a sign for unbelievers, healing is more of a sign to believers and points to the Lord Jesus and His deeper work that He can do in a person’s life. Look over in Luke 10:9. Let me show you where we are headed. Why are the two categories separated? Why do you have the gifts of healings here, and the effecting of miracles over here? In Luke 10:9 the Lord said to His disciples, “And heal those who are sick,” who are there in the city you enter, “and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is come near to you.’” In other words, the healings there had something to do with announcing the kingdom of God that is coming among them.

Imagine John the Baptist. Here he was out of the desert. They think he is one of the Essenes from the Essene community. He wore funny clothes and ate crazy foods. This guy was a real interesting individual. He lived his own life, not like anybody else. He sort of got a hold of the emperor there and denounced him, so they put him in prison. And when he gets in prison, he begins to hear about the Lord Jesus. He sends some messengers to talk to Jesus and to ask Him, “Are you truly the Messiah who is coming?” I guess John the Baptist felt, “Hey, if I am in prison then I need to know if this is the one I am supposed to be the forerunner to.”

Turn to Matthew 11:2 and let’s look at these verses. I want to show you how Jesus answers him, which is so important. What is it that would clue John the Baptist into the fact that Jesus truly is the Messiah? Jesus is the Son of God. What would comfort these believers? What is it that would quicken their enthusiasm to know that Jesus is the Messiah? Matthew 11:2 reads, “Now when John in prison heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples, and said to Him, ‘Are you the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’ And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up,” and then along side of that which points to this, “the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

I can imagine John. He is in prison. They believed when the Messiah came He would set up His earthly kingdom and kick the Gentiles out. They missed the fact that He was going to go to the cross first. I imagine John was saying, “Hey, if you are the Messiah, why don’t you miraculously free me from prison?” And the Lord sends him an answer back. And the answer is so significant. He points to the healings that are going on. This should somehow comfort the heart of John the Baptist because when those healings take place, then you know that Christ is here. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up. The evidence that He was the Messiah hinges on those healings that He was doing. The Lord was thus bringing in the kingdom of God, and He was trying to comfort John the Baptist. “I am not going to free you. You are going to have your head cut off, but don’t worry, I have taken care of what happens when your head drops. I have something in store for you. But, John, I want you to know, be comforted, I am the Messiah. And what proves My Messiahship are not these other miracles, but the fact that I am healing and the healing points to who I am.”

Look over in Matthew 4:23-25. Why are the gifts separated? Why are the gifts of healing over here and miracles over here? They are in two distinct classes; one is a sign for believers, one is a sign for unbelievers. This is right after His first miracle, changing water into wine. He starts out His ministry, but how does He start out His ministry? Doing all the miracles? Well, now wait a minute. It says in Matthew 4:23, “And Jesus was going about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom,” and to go along with that, to give authenticity to who He is, it says, “and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. And the news about Him went out into all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.” Our Lord continued His ministry by healing because it was the healing that was pointing to who He was. Healing was a sign that Jesus could forgive sins.

You see, that is the bottom line of it. The root of all disease, the root of all weakness comes from original sin. So when He can heal somebody of the physical symptom here, then obviously He can heal somebody of the root cause, which is sin. That is what He was pointing to. The Lord wanted to prove by His healing, not just that He could heal, certainly He can. He wanted to prove to them that He could also forgive their sin, which was where the sickness and all originally came from.

Listen to the words in Matthew. He says, “But in order [now listen to these words carefully] that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins [now this came right out of Jesus’ mouth; He said to the paralytic there when He healed the paralytic] I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home. The reason I am healing you physically is because I want you to be comforted. I can not only heal your disease, I can heal the sin that causes the disease.” That is what healing was for. It was for the believer, to comfort him, to exhort him. It was a sign for believers.

Healings are also mentioned as a separate sign because there is something about the comforting hand of God when somebody is healed. It is different from any miracle you will ever experience. Do you know what happens when you get hung up in these miracles? When you start talking about the extraordinary, what happens is, after you have been through the experience, now the next experience is going to compete with the last one. And there is nothing of the real gratefulness towards God that comes into your life. However, when you have been sick, when you’ve been down to where the fever was wrenching your body and when you didn’t have a thing you could possibly do, when the medicines are not really working like they are supposed to and God is taking you through a journey that is dark and darker and darker, and then suddenly God begins to lift you out of that and you come out on the other side, then you are grateful. The most humble people I have ever seen are people who have been through the valleys of sickness, the valleys of suffering. When they come out on the other side, they have a grateful heart, a humble heart. Suddenly life looks a little different to them than it did before.

You can have any miracle in the Bible and it won’t do that to a person’s heart. Oh, it will alert the attention of the unbeliever but to the believer it becomes ho-hum. He is always looking for another experience. But you let healing enter into the picture and you’ve got a totally different response of that believer. There is something about the heart of God that is communicated when healing takes place in a person’s life. Healings more than any other miracle have the ability to awaken gratitude, to awaken appreciation.

When you think of miracles and you think of healings, they are put into two categories, because over here it is a sign to the believer, over here it is a sign to the unbeliever. Miracles are a sign to the unbeliever. Healings are a sign to the believer. That is what brings a believer’s heart back in touch with the reality of the miracle working hand of God in their life.

The definition of the term “effecting” of miracles

Well, if that is the case then, if miracles are a sign to the unbeliever, let’s just go a little bit further and decide what is the gifts, or the effecting, of miracles? What is he talking about here? So first of all, we have just been distinguishing between the gifts of healings and the effecting of miracles. We see the different categories here. But secondly, let’s look at the definition of the term “effecting” of miracles. What does that mean? We must point out again that in the scripture, in the text, the word “effecting” and the word “miracles” are both in the plural again. Just get you a Greek book and check it out. You won’t have any trouble. They are both in the plural. The Greek word “effecting” is not really properly translated. Do you know what you get in the idea of effecting, or as the King James translates it, the “operations of miracles”? In other words, the idea of the cause. Somebody walks in and reads that the wrong way and says, “Oh, I have got the gift of miracles. What do you want to happen in your life? If you’ve got enough faith, I can do it.” That is the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard in my life. It doesn’t have a thing to do with you doing anything.

As a matter of fact, if that were true, it would be another word altogether. It would be the word energeo, the word which means to cause something to happen. But the word is not that word, it is the word energemata. It is a different word altogether. One is the cause, the other is the effect. The word that is used here is the effect, not the cause.

Let me show you the difference. You can see that in a lawnmower. I would come home and I couldn’t see the lawnmower anywhere, but I did see the effect of that lawnmower because the grass was just beautiful. The lawnmower would be the word meaning you can cause something to happen. The grass cut is the effect of the cause.

The word used here is not pointing to the cause, it is pointing to the effect. In other words, it is talking about the effects, the end result, not the ability to do it, but the effect, the end result which are the effects of the powers that God works in His life.

Very interestingly, in this whole list of 1 Corinthians 12, there are three words and they are all tied together. You see, the end of the word, ma, means the result of. You have charismata, gifts. That is not the grace itself, that is the gift, that is the result of the grace. Then you’ve got this word which is the result of something else happening. It is the effect of another cause. And then you have got the word iamata, which is the word for healing. It is not the process of healing, it is the effect of the healing itself.

So what we are seeing here is the term “miracles” is also in the plural. So “to one is given the effecting of miracles” is actually the results of abilities or powers. And God gives this in the plural because there are so many results, so many effects of God’s working in people’s lives. That is what it has to do with here. Sometimes we are the vessel through which He does these works. Sometimes we witness those works done in somebody else. But in no case can we ever do them ourselves. God and God alone is the one who does it. Just like God is the Healer, God is the only one who can do the miracles. All we see is the effects of that in our life, the effects of His working in our life. We cannot know the ways of God and how He does this. He does not give that to us, but we can see the effects of what it does.

We can witness them through scripture. We don’t know how He did it, but we know they were done. We know they walked through the Red Sea. We know they crossed the Jordan River on dry ground. The Jordan River backed up 17 miles to the city of Adam. We know Jesus resurrected from the dead. We know Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the dead. But how did He do it? Nobody knows. We just see the effect of the working of God. We don’t have any clue on how He went about doing it. In our finite state, we will never understand that.

What we have in verse 10 is not the ability to do miracles. Don’t ever think that. We have the fact that God makes us a witness to the miracles He chooses to do in our lives and in others’ lives. It is these miracles that God chooses to do that cause us to be in awe of Him, not only us, but the world around us. When God just steps in and does the extraordinary, when God just steps in and does some of these, the effects of His power working around that causes us to be in awe of who He is. So the effecting of miracles refers to the results of God’s working in our lives and in the lives of others. It is not in the ability to do it.

The diversity of miracles

So the first thing we have seen is the distinguishing between the gifts of healings and the effecting of miracles. They are in two different categories. But then we have to define “effecting of miracles.” It is not what we do, it is the effects of what God and God alone can do and has done and will do in our lives and in others lives. The third thing I want you to see is the diversity of miracles. Why is it in the plural? We must understand that the word “effecting” and the word “miracles,” which is the word for power, is in the plural. First of all, you’ve got to start with the ordinary. If you don’t come out of the mystical in this stuff, then you are going to end up just like Corinth. You are going to live your life with the extraordinary and overlook the miraculous ordinary that God is doing in your life. You’ve got to come back to that. We are going to talk about the extraordinary. We are going to get into that, how God in scripture did the extraordinary. We are talking now about the ordinary miracles of life that we live in every day. And because it is in the plural, you have to include that. That is part of this. We get to witness the power of God working in us and in others every day that we live.

Let me tell you where you can start. As I was studying this, I came across the fact of the laws that God has set into motion. Have you ever thought about that? There are certain laws that God has set into motion. Do you know what one of them is? The law of gravity. Now, those of you who sit in the balcony who don’t believe that, just jump off. Just don’t jump on the people down below. I want to prove to you that the law of gravity works. I don’t care where you are, it is consistent, you can count on it. It will serve you or it can hurt you. But if you jump off, you are going to hit the ground. You are going to fall. The law of gravity is going to work whether you like it or not.

Let me give you another law. The law of human digestion. God has so created us that you can just combine certain things and it will cause an effect on your life.

Have you ever thought about the laws of the fact that we have air in the atmosphere and we have to breath it in order to live and it makes our whole body function? Have you ever thought about that? I mean, if you don’t believe that law is not consistent, you walk into a room or into a garage where carbon monoxide has eaten up the oxygen and take a breath. You are a dead person because that law is consistent and that is a miracle that God keeps it that consistent. Nothing else in this world is as consistent as the laws that God has preset.

Listen, Corinth was hung up in the extraordinary. We should live in the miraculous ordinary before we ever start talking about the other. That is not a pattern, that is not a consistency. There are many effects of God’s working in our life all the time. Why in the world would people try to seek out a church just so they can have all the miraculous going on and the extraordinary? That tells me they are immature. That tells me they are not attached to Chris. That tells me they are ignorant of the word. They are not living sensible. They are not living with integrity and letting God, who is the miracle worker, be recognized in their life day by day.

You see, God set these laws, but I want to tell you something. God is the only one who can break them when He chooses. There are times when the extraordinary comes and He just chooses to break off a law. Whereas the law of gravity did mean that we would fall down, He can hover in the air if He wants to and one day we will, too, when we go up to see Him.

1 Corinthians 12:9-10

To Each His Own – Part 4

Turn to 1 Corinthians 12:10, and we are not going to leave it. We are going to stay right there. I told you we are going to go very, very slow in this. Hopefully we will have a balance of understanding when we come out of it. We are talking about “To Each His Own,” and this is Part 4.

We cannot leave the context because of what Paul is doing here. God is the God of purpose. He does not ask our opinion; however, by His grace He allows us to participate in His purposes. Only God’s grace allows us to participate in His purposes. He establishes the rules. The rules are, priority number one, that we surrender to Him. That is the only way we get to participate. If we are not willing to surrender to Him as the Corinthians were not willing to surrender, then we don’t get to participate in His life and His character and His power. We don’t get to participate in His eternal purposes that He is working on this earth. Obviously He is always working in our lives, but when we don’t surrender we are not the vessel through which God can continue His works. So surrender, surrender, surrender, surrender. That is the key word to walking with God. By faith we access grace. By faith we appropriate grace, and you cannot separate faith from surrender.

Now, the manifestations that were going on at Corinth, evidently, had captivated these immature, upside down believers. The word “manifestation” appears in verse 7, and I don’t see any reason for it being there unless it is trying to tell us something. Paul could easily have said to each one is given the gift, the ministry and the effect so that all would be benefited from it. But he doesn’t. He says, “For the manifestations of the Spirit.”

That word “manifestation” captures my attention. It should capture yours. It means something that is brought to light, something that is made visible so people can see. Now the Corinthian church had been enamored by these manifestations that were going on. Many of them were speaking in the name of Jesus, in the name of the Holy Spirit, but they were not speaking as God says they must speak. God does choose to manifest Himself through believers, but not in the way it was going on in Corinth. In verse 8, remember, he is not teaching a full teaching here on gifts. I do not believe that. He is trying to set an upside down situation right side up.

In verse 8 Paul approaches the equipping gifts. Basically he is saying, “Yes, God does manifest Himself through believers who speak to the body of Christ, but they will speak the Word. They will have wisdom and it will be the word of knowledge.” Both of these are always interplayed when the person is speaking to the body, but the emphasis will be on one or the other, depending upon the gifted one who is speaking. Wisdom is the ability to take scripture and apply it to everyday life, the ability to take deep, deep complex truths and bring it down to where they could be clarified and understood. And so he says He does manifest Himself this way, but it will always be wrapped around scripture, it will always be very succinct in that purpose.

But then Paul moves into the category we have been camped out in for a while, and that is what I call the extraordinary gifts. They are found in verses 9 and 10. We saw the definition of miracles, what they actually are, and also we began to look at the diversity of miracles. Now remember, “the effecting” and “miracles” is in the plural. We have only looked at the miraculous ordinary. To see the whole picture here and the diversity of them, you have got to step over into the extraordinary. We are just continuing that point. So the diversity of miracles continues.

Verse 10 of chapter 12 reads, “And to another, the effecting of miracles.” Now, when God chooses to step across laws that He Himself has established and do the extraordinary, that is usually in scripture called either signs or wonders or miracles. Sometimes it is called one of the three, or all three, whatever category you put it. These are the times, as I said, God goes beyond any created ability, anything that we would ever have or could understand down here. He steps over the boundary of His own laws. Now, except for Christ Himself, none of the participants of the effects of God’s power in scripture had any power on their own. Except for Christ Himself, who is the Power, none other who had seen these miracles take place had any power whatsoever on their own.

We need to realize that Jesus and the apostles did the miracles for basically two reasons. First of all, to authenticate who they were, to give authenticity to who they were; the Lord Jesus to being the Son of God, the apostles to being His commissioned apostles who were writing to the churches and were sent with His message to the world. That was the first reason they did it, to give credibility to who they were. Miracles never saved anybody, but to give credibility to who they were.

But then, secondly, so that the Jews specifically could believe in Christ. Now, it is going to take me a while to work that one out. But the reason the apostles began with the miracles was so that the Jews could come to know Christ. Jesus began that Himself. That was His end result reason. He wanted to point to who He was so that the Jewish nation, Israel, could see that He was the Christ. But then He passes that right on to the apostles and the same thing is continued. Remember, He said, “To the Jew first and then to the Greek.”

Well, we have to start with the Lord Jesus first, so let’s just go ahead and enter in. His extraordinary healings were most definitely in the class of miracles. But even at that, again, it was always to draw attention for the Jews to who He was. He came to the lost sheep of Israel. He did the miracles so that the Jews would know. Now the illustration of this was when He went to Bethesda. And when He went there, He healed only one person. Why didn’t He heal all of them? Many times in scripture it says He is moved with compassion. Well, if He was moved with compassion, why doesn’t He heal them all? Remember, God is a God of purpose. We don’t always understand that purpose, but we know that when He stepped across the ordinary to do the extraordinary, it wasn’t in the masses. It was usually in this one or that one. He only healed one in Bethesda, and He was very calculating, He did it on the Sabbath. Now who do you think that is going to irritate? The leaders of the Jews, boy, they really got upset.

In John 5:16, right after He had done this, it says, “And for this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.” They completely overlooked what He did. But then the Lord Jesus connects something here. And in answering them, He connects what He just did on the Sabbath, the healing, with the fact that He is the Son of God the Father. He says in John 5:17, “But He answered them, ‘My Father is working until now and I, Myself, am working.’” You see, He identifies Himself through His healing and on the Sabbath with the fact that He is the Son. All of that was done, not just for the physical benefit of that man, but so that Israel could look and say, “Yes, here is our Messiah.” Israel as a nation was rejecting Him daily as being their Messiah, and He was trying to show them that He was the one sent from God, promised to Abraham.

It was His miracles that drew Nicodemus to Him. Nicodemus was a very educated man. As a matter of fact, Jesus said, “If you are so educated, can’t you figure out the fact that you need to be born again?” He says in John 3:2, “No man can do the signs and wonders you do except he be from God.” That is what Nicodemus told Jesus. He came at night. It was the miracles that were the magnet. The miracles drew the people to Christ, so they could hear the message of you must be born again.

Over and over, as we follow Him through the pages of the gospels, we see Him doing the miraculous. You will not see it as consistent with anybody in scripture except for the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, John, when he wrote his gospel, in John 20:31 stated why he put the miracles and the signs and the wonders that were there. He said in verse 31, “But these miracles have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing that you may have life in His name.” The specific purpose of the miracles was not only to give authenticity to who He was, but also so that the Jews would recognize it and come to believe on Him. He came for the lost sheep of Israel.

Now, of course, He went to the cross to bear our sin debt. He paid a debt He didn’t owe; we owed a debt we couldn’t pay. He went back to be with the Father, and today He is with the Father. There is a man in heaven at the right hand of the Father, the God-man. What a precious thought. He is our representative in heaven today. But He sends His Spirit, His life now, comes to live in us, the person of the Holy Spirit comes to live in us. And He chooses, as we walk through scripture, to continue to do His work. But now He has a select group of people, called the apostles, through whom He continued His work after He had gone back to be with the Father.

Nothing has changed, really; the same purpose. Jesus is still here in the person of His Spirit with the apostles continuing to try to reach Israel with the message of the gospel. And so that message of the gospel could be effectively heard, He gave them the signs and the wonders to these apostles. He gave the miracles to them so that they, too, could have that authentic understanding and credential so that when they stood before people, people would listen to what they said. But not one thing had changed.

Now, on earth He continues His work. The first one that we want to look at is the apostle Paul. As a matter of fact, he is the most apparent, the most visible in the New Testament. He wrote about two-thirds of it. Now he was an apostle. In Romans 1:1, in 1 Corinthians 1:1, 2 Corinthians 1:1, Galatians 1:1, Ephesians 1:1, Colossians 1:1, 1 Timothy 1:1, 2 Timothy 1:1, he is called an apostle. Is that important? Oh, my goodness, yes. If you don’t see this, I have failed in trying to communicate to you what I believe the word of God is teaching. We see the pattern consistent with the Lord Jesus Christ to do the extraordinary works. Why? So that the Jews might believe on Him and be saved. But then we also see another group, where we also see a consistent pattern of effective, extraordinary miracles done through them and that is the group called the apostles. Now, we may have the apostles today in the generic sense, like a missionary, one sent forth with a message. You could use it that way, I guess, but not in the way they were here. They had to be the witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had to be commissioned by the Lord Jesus Himself.

Now God uses this converted Jew, by the name of Paul, to go to the Gentile world. And He uses him to reach them. And you say, “Well, I thought the miracles then were to reach the Jews. Paul was a missionary to the Gentiles.” Oh listen, don’t you understand? Paul himself explains it. He says in Romans 10:19, “But I say, ‘Surely Israel did not know, did they?’ At the first Moses says I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation, by a nation without understanding will I anger you.” Do you know what he was saying? He said the Gentiles have always been included in the covenant to Abraham, but the group that was to take the message was the Jews and they rejected Christ. And he says, “Listen, by all these Gentiles coming to know Christ, that is going to cause Israel to be jealous so that maybe they can come to know Christ.” Even when Paul was working with the Gentiles, Israel was still on God’s mind.

Romans 11:11 says, “I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be. But by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles.” Why? To make them, the Jews, jealous. So even though Paul was still continuing to experience the extraordinary miracles and his mission was mainly to the Gentile world, it still had, and he had on his heart, that the Jews would come to know Christ.

But there is no question, there is no question, the apostle Paul did experience extraordinary miracles of God. You know many of them. But just take for instance when he was on the island of Cyprus. Paul encountered a certain sorcerer, a false prophet by the name of Elymas. Elymas was trying to hinder the gospel getting to the deputy of the country by the name of Sergius Paulus. He didn’t want him to believe, and so he was intervening in this thing.

Acts 13:6 picks up the story. “And when they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus [now that is the main guy], a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician (for thus his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze upon him.” Mark that verse, I am coming back to it. Verse 10 continues, “And said, ‘You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil,” come on, Paul, tell us what you think, “you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.’” In other words, he is totally blind. “And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand.” Boy, a miracle happened at that moment. “The proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord.”

You see, it wasn’t the miracle. It was the teaching and the miracle combined, and that is why God did this through the apostles. It was to bring unbelievers to see that Christ was who He said He was. Well, we see Paul supernaturally being overpowered by the Holy Spirit of God. Now does that happen every day in Paul’s life? If you study his life, you know that it did not. As a matter of fact, in Acts 13:9 which we just read, the verse said, “But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze upon him.”

Now, that little term “filled with the Holy Spirit” could throw you if you didn’t understand it. Aorist passive. The term “being filled with the Holy Spirit” was not the previous filling of the Holy Spirit; that is when you get saved. When the Holy Spirit comes into your life, you don’t ever get any more of God, of His presence in your life than you do that day. But what he is talking about here, he doesn’t say you are full of the Holy Spirit, that would have pointed to that experience. The power that came on Paul that day was just an extraordinary dose of the power of God. God just gave him a rationale. He gave him an intelligence to know what to do, told him what to do and Paul, with authority, acted upon it. But it was not something that Paul could hang a shingle up and say, “Hey, come here, buddy. You want some of me, I will do it to you, too. I will strike you blind.” He didn’t have that power. He just happened to be there and the Spirit of God overpowered him to do that. It was an extraordinary thing that a man could speak to another man and cause that man to be blind. But it wasn’t the power of Paul, it was the power of God being effected in and through the apostle Paul. He did that with the apostles and particularly Paul. The extraordinary happened through Paul but not by Paul. You have got to keep that in your mind. This was not Paul, this was God who was in Paul.

In Acts 16:18 we have another situation when the extraordinary happened in the life of Paul with the Gentile world. He was being hounded daily in Philippi by a demon-possessed girl. You know the story. Days went by and Paul did nothing. Why did he do nothing? Because he acted in reflex to what God told him to do. And that is very significant to me. Verse 18 of that same chapter says, “And she continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed.” You know, it is one thing to annoy me but it is another thing to annoy the apostle Paul. And God chose in that moment his being annoyed, to do something. He says, “And turned and said to the demonic spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!’ And it came out at that very moment.”

Now if you will follow the text on down, why did that miracle happen that day of casting a demon out of that woman? Well, they got upset about it. As a matter of fact, they falsely accused him and put him in jail in Philippi. You do remember that in jail is when the doors opened and the earthquake came and Paul and Silas stayed there and as a result of it, the Philippian jailer, seeing all of these things that had happened, heard the teaching and got saved and his whole household. That is what extraordinary miracles are for, to get people’s attention, particularly the Jews so that they can see that Jesus is the Christ. Then they will have an audience so they can hear what the word of God has to say.

In Acts 19:11, the first few words says, “And God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul.” You can’t find anybody who had any more extraordinary miracles happen through them as you would the apostle Paul. But again, the miracles were assigned to the unbeliever, primarily the Jews. Yes, the unbelievers and certainly even to encourage the believers, but the primary purpose that Jesus did them and then transferred it over to the apostles was so that Israel could wake up and recognize their Messiah had come and that they might come to believe in Him. Outside of Jesus and outside of the apostles, you do not find any consistency of any kind of pattern when it comes to extraordinary miracles in the word of God when it comes to the effecting of miracles.

Now, please understand this because if you don’t understand this, you are going to get imbalanced, always looking for a miracle when you are living in one constantly. This is what happens to people, they get so confused in the whole matter. Look over in Hebrews 2:3-4. The apostle who wrote this, we don’t know who it was, had a lot of Pauline theology if you have ever studied Hebrews. Some of the phrases there are just exactly what Paul has said in other epistles. We don’t know who wrote it. Hebrews 2:3-4 says, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders,” and watch, watch the pronouns here, “it was confirmed to us by those, those, us, those.” And then it says, “God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.” Who were the “those” and who were the “them”? That is the apostles.

Do you realize that Jesus didn’t come into mass evangelism? There were crowds that came, but when those crowds came, He was not speaking to them, He was speaking to His disciples. He came and sunk His life into twelve men who became the apostles later on. And it was these men who had heard. Jesus even told them that “the Spirit of God will bring to remembrance the things I have taught you.” And it was these men who were a part of the extraordinary miracles. Why? Because God came to live in them, they penned the New Testament for us. They were the ones who wrote scripture. And to give them the credentials they needed, He gave them the effects of the powers of God so that the miracles would be in them just like they were in Him. The purpose had not changed whatsoever. Those who heard, the “them”, were the apostles.

Now the miracles themselves were never meant to in any way engender faith unto salvation. Miracles cannot cause salvation. This is another thing that you need to think about as you go through this. All they are is an emotional high, and you do get overwhelmed by them. However, once it is gone, now what? Miracles cannot engender faith unto salvation, but they are meant to favorably put the people into such a manner that they are willing to listen to the scriptures from which faith comes. Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of Christ. Romans 10:17 says that. This is proven, this whole thing is proven. When the extraordinary miracles took place, it gave audience to a message and when you marry the two together, it was absolutely indestructible because in the message then came the power of salvation.

The people heard the apostles speak on the Day of Pentecost. This is a perfect example of this. Do you think that wasn’t a miracle on that day? It really wasn’t the speaking as much as it was the hearing. There were people there from all different dialects and they began to hear in their own language. Some of them said these men are full of new wine. In other words, what in the world were they doing? Because they knew the languages they spoke and they were hearing them a different way. They said, “Man, these guys are crazy, they are drunk.” But I will tell you what happened. Even though there were skeptics, the crowd began to build and somebody said, “Hey, come over here. You won’t believe what is going on over here.” All of a sudden the crowd began to gather. Why? So that later on, Peter could preach his message and many of them could become saved. The crowd didn’t come to the miracle of the speaking in tongues there that day so that they could get saved, that was just what got their attention.

Acts 2:6 says, “And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were bewildered because they were each one hearing them speak in his own language.” That didn’t save them, as I have already shared. Peter goes on to preach his famous sermon and thousands came to know the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the miracle that got their attention. It was the miracle, it was the magnet, just like it was with Jesus. Here are the apostles doing the same things. But it was the teaching of the word of God that led the people to salvation. Now these special manifestations of God’s powers, these extraordinary things that God has chosen to do throughout time, called powers as we see in 1 Corinthians 12:10, were meant again to persuade unbelievers, particularly the Jews. And that authority and credibility was given from Jesus when He went back to be with the Father to the apostles.

But in this whole scope of the extraordinary, there is one other thing that we have got to look at. I am telling you, this is where people make their mistake. Do you realize that when we study Revelation, we bring in history, we bring in culture? Do you realize when we studied Daniel 11, we bring in history and we bring in culture? Any other book we study we bring in and consider that as a fact that must be factored in. But isn’t it interesting when you come to something like 1 Corinthians 12, you throw all that way? Do you know why I think that is? I think we have read too many books, folks, said too many things, written too many things, and now we are ashamed to have to go back and say, “You know what, I think I might be wrong.” And as the reason for it, we shut out anything that might come against what we have heard and therefore, what we have accepted for years about these kinds of gifts.

I tell you what, I am in the same category. I have taught on gifts many times in my life, but God has so overwhelmed me as I have come to 1 Corinthians 12. Do you know why? Because never in my life have I ever taught on 1 Corinthians 1-11. No wonder my doctrine was so upside down. No wonder I took one and another and another and lopped them all together and made it a big list. Listen, you can’t do that with 1 Corinthians. He has got a distorted group of people and he is trying to put them back on their feet. The one thing they don’t understand are the manifestations of this happening in their church that people are saying are caused by the Holy Spirit of God. He is trying to put sense back into the church.

I want you to see Ephesians 4:11, which was written by the same man who wrote 1 Corinthians 12. This is very, very important. He is going to talk about gifts, but he has shifted his gears by chapter 4 of Ephesians. There he only mentions the apostles and the prophets and he mentions the evangelists and the pastors and the teachers. Look in Ephesians 4:11. I just want you to see what I am talking about. He leaves out five of the six extraordinary gifts, completely leaves them out. They only show up in 1 Corinthians 12. You will not find them anywhere else. He does lend tendency to prophecy, or he mentions the prophet. You could tie them together. I have no fault with that. But look at Ephesians 4:11. “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers.”

Look over in Romans 12:3-8 where Paul is once again silent about five of the extraordinary gifts. He does mention prophecy, as we will talk about later on because it is in this list of extraordinary gifts of 1 Corinthians 12. Now let me ask you a question now, and I don’t want you to answer it. This is one of those rhetorical questions you go home and think about. Why does he leave out these five or six extraordinary gifts that only happen as a pattern with Jesus and the apostles? The same apostle wrote all three epistles. If it is that important to Corinth, it ought to be that important to Ephesus. And if it is that important to Ephesus, it ought to be that important to Rome.

To give us a clue, we must look at the dates when these epistles were written. Here is where history steps in because we do know almost the exact dates of some of these. We know the ball park of them in the years that they were written. First Corinthians is the oldest of those three books that were written. It was written somewhere around AD 58. It was written from Ephesus. You find that in Acts 20:31. You find that in 1 Corinthians 16:5-8. So it was written in Ephesus. And the historical evidence shows that it was written around AD 59. Now the next book that is written that we quoted was Romans. Romans was written from Corinth in AD 60, a year later during Paul’s third visit to that city. That is 2 Corinthians 13:1. The last one to be written is Ephesians, written from prison in Rome, Acts 20 through 27, all those chapters cover that, in AD 64.

Now think about that: 59—1 Corinthians; 60—Romans; and then 64—Ephesians. That is so we can see that all these gifts are mentioned in AD 59 to the Corinthians church, but not later to the Romans in AD 60. Why? What is the significance here? And in Ephesians in AD 64? The question comes to your mind, were they not needed anymore? Did they cease to have any effect as far as God’s purpose in doing them? Now listen, before we go any further —and I can’t really answer that question fully—but before we go any further, does God ever do something and then break the pattern and not do it anymore? Is there anything in scripture that would show us that God just does what He does, when He chooses to do it and if He decides to put a halt on it, He puts a halt on it? I hope you are nodding your head yes, because if you have ever studied the Old Testament, all the miraculous things that God did were done with no real pattern but only to accomplish His purpose.

You think of Moses. He called Moses to liberate the Israelites from their bondage to Egypt. Moses hesitated. He said, “Lord, I can’t do it. I cannot speak with authority. How can I be an ambassador for you and I can’t even speak, I stutter.” And God, “Okay, that’s all right. I will give you Aaron.” However, in his weakness, He also gave him something else. What was that? He said I want you to go out there and get you a rod. You know, that is a simple stick. Do you think there was any power in that rod? No. Termites, maybe; but not any power in it. But He said, “You go get that rod.” And God stepped in with the extraordinary things that He would do to give Moses who had no authority of speech, who could not speak as an ambassador for God, He gave him that which put him as the authority figure in front of not only Pharaoh but in front of all of Israel.

You say, “Wow, that is good.” How long did he keep it? Well, I’ll tell you this, he didn’t make it into the Promised Land. Isn’t it interesting? Well, I thought if you had this gift, it built your ego and built your ministry and called attention to you. Are you kidding me? Moses was a bigger louse after he got it than before he had it. It was by the grace of God that He even gave it to him. And then one day in his anger, he struck the rock three times. You know the story. And God just said, “You can’t go into the Promised Land.” And He kept him from going into the Promised Land. Wow. I bet that was real impressive to all of his family. Oh, we are so proud of you because you are the one that stood up there and said, “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord,” and the whole Red Sea parted. Now look at you. You see, it wasn’t to build the ego of man, it was the purpose of God. And when God was through with it, He stopped it. Do you see anybody else picking up a rod and taking it on through scripture if that is supposed to be a consistent pattern? No!

Joseph, who preceded Moses, was given an extraordinary ability, as He did Daniel, to interpret dreams, not his own. He probably didn’t know he had them. God gave him that ability. When God chose to do it, He chose to do it for the period of time that He chose to do it. It wasn’t something He did every day. How many years did he spend in prison? He had a great family life. Talk about a dysfunctional family, his brothers sold him into slavery. They threw him into a pit. Man, what a life. But one day, God said, “It is time. My purpose has come around. I am very calculated and now since it is time, come here, come here, Joseph.” Now, He gave him that power. He did the same thing with Daniel.

But do you see others doing it all the way through scripture? No. We have people even today trying to get into interpretation of dreams. But they had it at a certain time for a specific purpose and then it stopped. Elijah was the mighty prophet of God who fought against the prophets of Baal. I have been on Mt. Carmel and you just have to put yourself into that situation. When he was up there, and he was just making fun of those gods. He even told them, “What is the matter with your gods? Are they taking a nap? What is going on here?” I mean he would just banter them back and forth. Then he just called down fire from heaven and it destroyed everything that was there. Everything he told them was going to happen, after he put water all over it, happened. And then what did he do? He heard that Jezebel was coming. And so what did this great man of God do? He ran like a scalded dog!

1 Corinthians 12:9-10

Contents

1 To Each His Own – Part 5

1.1 The apostles

1.2 The evangelists

1.3 The prophets

1.4 The elders

1.5 The deacons

To Each His Own – Part 5

I have begun to realize this is going to be a long series, “To Each His Own, Part 5.” We won’t get past one word, or one little phrase, the gift of prophecy. He says, “And to another [allos, connecting it], the gift of prophecy.” Really, he just says, “To another, prophecy.” The gift there I guess would be implied. Now to deal with this we first of all, I think, have to make a connection between the extraordinary gift of prophecy and the extraordinary office of the prophet. If we can’t make that connection, then I think we are going to be very confused as we look at prophecy.

Does prophecy mean the same thing in 1 Corinthians 12:10 as it means in Romans 12:6? You see, we have got to make some decisions here as to what prophecy means in this context. The word “prophecy” is prophetes. It comes from two words, the word pro, which means toward or forth, and also the word phemi, which means to tell, to tell forth. It has three ways that you can translate it and all three ways are found especially in the early church. One, to forthtell, to tell forth, to declare what has already been told. That is the Word of God, to preach the Word of God, and we know that even today.

But the second way you look at that word is when you see that it means to have an instantaneous revelation. In the early church we see this from time to time. They did not have anything but the Gospels and very few of the epistles. They had the Old Testament, but they did not have the complete Word of God as we do today. Therefore, they would have a prophet who would stand up and have an instantaneous revelation from God. It would be a warning to the people, an instruction to the people or perhaps a means of understanding something to the people. That is the second way it can be taken.

The third way it can be translated means to foretell the future. Now, out of the three definitions that I just gave you, we have got to decide which ones fit the gift of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 12:10. You say, “What am I talking about? You are sounding like someone in high office who is using words to twist them and mean what they want them to mean.” No, in scripture context rules. You know that, I know that.

I have read books on spiritual gifts all my life. They add up the ones in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, throw in hospitality in 1 Peter and say there are either 19 to 21 gifts. Now personally I have disagreed with that from day one. You’ve got to let each context that speaks of gifts speak for itself. You’ve got to discern what Paul is doing in Romans 12. You’ve got to discern what Paul is doing in 1 Corinthians 12. And when you start doing that, then the word “prophecy” comes in to play. We are talking about extraordinary gifts right now. Are we talking about the ordinary preaching of the Word of God? Certainly we will see that is implicit. They did do those things, but are we not talking about the extraordinary when it is elevated into a realm like these others have been. If we are, and I think we are, then we have to realize that those kinds of things as a pattern have ended.

There are two things out of the three definitions I gave you that are extraordinary. One being when somebody has an overwhelming instantaneous revelation from God as to whatever truth or whatever he must share with the body of Christ. Two, when he foretells the future. And to me, those are the two you’ve got to look at in 1 Corinthians 12:10, because we are in the category of the extraordinary gifts of God.

Now listen, we know what a robot is in the context of America. A robot is a machine that looks somewhat like a person that is sometimes even animated by voice control, and is controlled by somebody else. You know what a robot is. But you take that same word, take it out of the context of America and put it in the context of South Africa, and it is a stop light. It is the strangest thing I have ever heard in my life. You better stop at that robot. Robot? I didn’t see any robot. Stop light. Oh, stop light. You take the word “bonnet” in America and it means a hat that you wear. You put it in the context of South Africa, it is the hood of the car. You take the word “boot” in America and it is what you wear on your feet, but in South Africa it is the trunk of the car.

That illustration is going to fall and become very weak when you try to apply it to scripture, but what I am trying to say to you is, what Paul is saying in Romans 12 and what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 12 are two different things. You need to understand what he is driving at in this little section of gifts here that are the extraordinary gifts that God gives. We must be very careful how we handle this word “prophecy” in verse 10 of 1 Corinthians 12. I want to be honest with you, I have never in my life looked at it in this depth. I am just grateful for how God leads in those kinds of things. I needed to see this in a different way. I hope that you will see it in a different way.

What we have to do is make a connection. We have to make a connection with the extraordinary gift of prophecy to the extraordinary office of the prophet. Now, do you know that there are three extraordinary offices in the New Testament that we do not have today? One, the apostle; two, the evangelist—now, careful, careful. We still have evangelists; that is alright. I am talking about the office of evangelist—and the third thing is the office of the prophet. Those were the three offices of the New Testament. They were extraordinary offices because the people who had them and held them did extraordinary things. You have to connect the extraordinary gifts with the extraordinary offices that God assigned to different men in the early New Testament and even in the Gospels.

Now, the list of the extraordinary offices that were given back then are found in Ephesians 4:11 and in 1 Corinthians 12:28. Let’s look at Ephesians 4:11 first, because we are going to come back to 1 Corinthians 12. Notice what Paul does. It’s just like we have studied, it is not a bit different. He puts the ordinary right beside the extraordinary. There are some gifts here that he mentions that are not the extraordinary offices of the church. But there are some gifts he mentions that are.

He says in verse 11 of Ephesians 4, “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastor and teacher.” Some people put it as pastor-teacher, and some people put it as pastors and teachers. Regardless of how you put it, there is that one list where they are all grouped together.

If you will look at 1 Corinthians 12:28, we find it listed one more time. This is a very similar list, although 1 Corinthians 12 leaves out the evangelist. It is only mentioned in Ephesians 4. First Corinthians 12:28 reads, “And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets,” notice the order is always the same in those two, and then “third teachers.” Now Paul again includes those pastors, teachers, the ordinary, but right alongside the extraordinary.

We have to be able to lift out the extraordinary that are not in the church today, but were in the early church. Some even functioned when Jesus was on this earth. That will be the office of the apostle, the evangelist and the prophet. Each of these three extraordinary offices required four things that no other gift does. First of all, it required an extraordinary calling. I believe in the ordinary calling, but these offices required an extraordinary calling. Secondly, it required an extraordinary power enabling them to act as they needed to act. And [3] it required an extraordinary gift or gifts for the exercise of this power. And [4] it required an extraordinary work in the effect that it had on others because the effects were overwhelmingly different than the ordinary effects that you see in the gifts that God has given.

All of these offices were for instruction and for the fashioning of the early, infant New Testament church. As we pointed earlier, it is for these extraordinary offices that God gave extraordinary gifts. When you look for a pattern in verses 9 and 10 anywhere else, you will only find it in those appointed men in these three offices that Jesus Christ Himself appointed. Let’s look at them.

The apostles

First of all, there were the apostles. That is the first one on each list, the apostles. The apostles were those whom the Lord Jesus Christ Himself commissioned to extend the ministry that He had on this earth while He was alive. They continued to extend it after He died, resurrected and ascended back to the Father.

Now what was the Lord Jesus Christ’s work? What was His focus? We know He came to die on the cross. We know that Gentiles were included in this, even back to Abraham’s day and in the covenant God made with Abraham. But what was the focus of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ while He was here on this earth? Look in Romans 15:8 and we will begin to get a glimpse of what the focus was of the Lord Jesus when He was here on this earth. In Romans 15 Paul is identifying the very purpose for which the Lord Jesus came.

In Romans 15:8 he says, “For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision.” Now you know who that is? That is the nation of Israel, the circumcision; not the Gentiles but the circumcision. Then he goes on, “on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers.” You see, Christ’s whole focus when He came was to Israel, not to the Gentile world. What He was going to do on the cross would include the Gentile world, but His focus was the nation of Israel.

As a matter of fact, He spoke to the twelve He had commissioned to extend His work in Matthew 10:5-6. Look over there. Now I want you to see it very clearly now that the focus was Israel while He was still living on this earth, before He died and before He resurrected and ascended to the Father. Verse 6 is very key here. In verse 5 it identifies who He is talking to, “These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, saying, ‘Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’” That little term “rather” marked the single focus of the Lord Jesus Christ’s ministry. He didn’t come to minister to Gentiles when He was on this earth. He came to preach the gospel. He came to reveal to the Jews He was their Yeshua, their Messiah, that He had in fact come.

Everything He did was according to the law. Even in the feasts, when He walked, everything He did was to show the Jews He was the fulfillment. He was the substance of all the shadow that they had seen for so many years.

This purpose of Jesus while He was here on this earth and the purpose He engrained into His disciples became so much in their heads that when the apostle Paul began to preach (he was in Antioch of Pisidia) he went into a synagogue and said to a group of Jews that were there, “It was necessary that the Word of God should be spoken to you first.”

During the time that Christ was on this earth, He gave these apostles, these twelve, extraordinary gifts to qualify them as they continued to extend His extraordinary work. But He also gave them the authority to use them. It wasn’t them, it was the power that God gave them. Look in Luke 9:1. They had the authority to do that. This was consistent to the ministry, the purpose of the apostle, that Jesus Christ Himself had commissioned.

In Luke 9:1 it says, “And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons, and to heal diseases.” Now that word “authority” in the New American Standard is a good translation. It is the word exousia. It means the right and the might. But I want you to see something. In giving this extraordinary power to this extraordinary office, connecting the two together, He limited that while He was here on this earth to the nation of Israel. Even in Acts 1:4, after He had commissioned them to go into all the parts of the world, He made a statement to them before He went back to the Father. He says, “In gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem.” You have an extraordinary office. You have an extraordinary power, but you have a limitation on that. It is for Israel right now. I’ll open the doors and tell you when it is going to be any different later on.

In His last words to them in Matthew 28:19-20 He said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Extraordinary gifts accompanied the extraordinary office of the apostle while Jesus was on this earth. They also accompanied them after He had ascended back to His Father.

Now this is the key. He continued to extend them, as we have seen with the apostles. The nation of Israel was on God’s heart and He hoped it would make them jealous as the Gentiles were overwhelmed by the miraculous, extraordinary things these apostles were able to do. When their commission extended to all the world, this took some adjustment on the disciples’ part. They were focused on Israel, and then all of a sudden all the nations were opened up to them.

In Acts 10 and 11 they had an argument between the apostles as to which came first. Are we supposed to go the Gentiles or are we supposed to go the Jew? It was a real confusing time as to which was which. In fact, Paul himself in Ephesians 3 while in prison in Rome, when he was writing of the great joy of our salvation, began to almost stumble when he says, “But it is a mystery to me.” This converted Jew was saying in prison, when he wrote to these converted Gentiles, “It is still a mystery to me how the Gentiles [who were dogs in the New Testament] have been engrafted into this covenant. It is a mystery to me because it was difficult to make that transition.”

But those apostles still had in that extraordinary office the extraordinary gifts that were connected with them. Now I want to tell you something, there is no apostolic succession to these twelve. There is no apostolic succession. Now obviously, Paul was one born out of due season, but I am talking about the people who penned the New Testament. We have no apostles in that form, in that sense, to this day. God appointed them for a time. God appointed them for a purpose and God ended it. Why did He do that? Because He is God, that is why. He answers to no man and He cares less about our opinion. He ended it. Even though there were apostles later on, they were in no ways like the apostles Jesus Christ commissioned to extend His ministry, not only while He was here but even after He was gone to be with the Father.

In Galatians 1:1 Paul says, “Paul, an apostle, not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead.” In other words, man does not have anything to say in this. Man can only look at scripture and understand from scripture that they were there and that God ended it for a purpose and His purposes are His own. These apostles were those whom God sent and God chose. They had a temporary office, but it was an extraordinarily temporary office. And connected with that extraordinary office were the extraordinary gifts that God allowed to go along, to identify who they were and to give them authenticity so the people could hear the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The evangelists

The second group we have got to look at are the evangelists. This is another temporary office. Now don’t confuse the evangelists of today with the office of the evangelist in scripture. Be careful. We are talking about offices now. We are not talking about ministries. Many, many evangelists are around us and God calls many people that way, but not like He called these evangelists. It begins when Jesus sent out the seventy. Look over in Luke 10:1 where seventy were sent out to preach the gospel and to pave the way in the cities to where Christ Himself was going to go.

In Luke 10:1 we read, “Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them two and two ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.” They were sent out as evangelists to preach the message, the gospel, to herald the message that Christ had given to them, and they had extraordinary power to do that.

If you will look down in verse 9 of that same chapter in Luke, it says that they had the power to heal. It says, “and to heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’”

They had the power to cast out demons in verse 17 of the same chapter: “And the seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.’” And in verse 19, they had the power to tread over scorpions and over serpents. It says, “Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you.”

But, just as the Lord had evangelists during His day to continue to extend His ministry, He had twelve apostles. These evangelists, by the way, were accountable to the apostles. They were subordinate to them. They were not on the same plane. But He also had evangelists that He sent out who were accompanied by signs and extraordinary works that God would do in and through them.

These evangelists were not only sent out during His day, but they were also appointed after He had gone back to be with the Father. Ephesians 4:11 is the only place we see them as a group, the only place. Philip is called an evangelist. Timothy is encouraged to do the work of an evangelist, but that is about all we know about this group of special people, not only before the cross, but after the cross. We don’t know their number. And there is one specific thing you must see in scripture, there are no qualifications. If God still had these men around, He would have qualifications so the church would know exactly who to appoint and who not to appoint. There are not qualifications for these evangelists, but it is apparent that their call was extraordinary. It was like the extraordinary call of the apostle; we have the extraordinary call of the evangelist.

Whether an apostle or an evangelist, all of these were preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As I said earlier, these evangelists were not on the same plane as the apostles. They had to line up under them. It was Paul who determined how long and what Titus would do on the island of Crete. Titus completely answered to the apostle Paul. They had that authority whereas the evangelist did not have that kind of an authority. The work of these extraordinary evangelists in the New Testament was to preach the gospel to all people wherever you can find them.

In Acts 8:5, Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ. In 2 Timothy, Paul charged Timothy to do the work of an evangelist and in the same breath said, “Preach the gospel in season and out of season.” Preach the Word in season and out of season. So these were preachers of the word of God. These were people who went into areas that would affect the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. What made them stand out from others who preached the gospel of Jesus Christ were the extraordinary gifts you have to connect with them. That is what puts them into a class all by themselves, like the apostles. God did extraordinary things through these evangelists.

The prophets

So we have the apostles. Subordinate to them were the evangelists. But when you come back up to the same level of authority, you also have the prophets. They were on the same level of the apostles. We wonder why the word prophet is mentioned second in both lists, because he is talking about not just the Old Testament prophets; that is assumed. But he is also talking about the New Testament prophets.

Now what in the world was a New Testament prophet? What was the office of a New Testament prophet? There were two things he was noted for. First of all, they would receive extraordinary revelations from God that would either inform, as I said earlier, or warn or instruct. Let me give you an instance of that.

Turn to Acts 13:1. When they were fasting and praying God in an extraordinary way showed them something that was so clear that it launched the first missionary journey of the Apostle Paul. Verse 1 says, “Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’”

There was a revelation that hit these men in the office of prophet, and it said to them, “You set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” They had an understanding of that and it so benefited the body of Christ that it completely initiated the mission journeys of the apostle Paul.

But these men could do something else. In the extraordinary way, they had the ability to foretell what was going to happen in the future. I am really glad that we don’t have those guys around anymore. Sometimes I don’t know if I want to know what is going to happen in the future. Agabus was one of these prophets. In the book of Acts, for instance, he predicted the famine that was going to happen in Jerusalem. It says, “And one of them named Agabus stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world.” Now watch this. This is what proved him to be a prophet, just like in the Old Testament. It says, “And this took place in the reign of Claudius.” This is what instigated the offering they took up for the suffering people in the area where the famine took place.

We have people today saying the gift of prophecy is still around. And we have people today saying you can learn that gift of prophecy and you don’t have to be right all the time. I say, “Hogwash!!!” The word of God says if you ever miss it, then you are not a prophet and you are a liar standing before somebody. You better get that straight in your mind, folks. The Old Testament didn’t change when it came to the New Testament. A prophet who heard from God said it and it happened. They had that in the New Testament church. Incredible.

As a matter of fact, look over in Acts 21:10. There is still Agabus. I am just using him, there were others. He prophesied that Paul would be put in bonds in Jerusalem. Paul knew where God was leading him, and he warned him. He said in Acts 21:10, “And as we were staying there for some days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, ‘This is what the Holy Spirit says: In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” Did that happen to Paul? Absolutely. Did Paul go to Jerusalem because the people wanted him to? No, they wanted him to stay. He went because he felt led there. But when he got there, he was accused falsely and spent almost five years in prison based on a false accusation. As a result, we have four of the greatest epistles he wrote in the New Testament. But Agabus came beforehand and predicted what would happen to him.

The work of these prophets was extraordinary. It wasn’t your ordinary work. No, it was extraordinary and they were endowed with extraordinary gifts. There is no mention of their ordination just like it wasn’t with the evangelists or the apostles. There is no mention of their qualifications. The only qualification we find of an apostle is he had to be a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ and commissioned by Him, but as far as character and other things, no mention of it. And there is no mention of that in the evangelists or the prophets in the New Testament church.

Now you tell me, has God made a mistake? Does it say that you want to continue to have these men but there are no qualifications for them, so nobody can be accountable to anything in the word of God? I think not. They are not here anymore. They served their purpose and the extraordinary gifts that were attached and connected to them were only a pattern to them. Can God still do those things today? He can do anything He wants to do. But you don’t build your faith on anything like that anymore. If He does it, He does it and you stand back in awe, but you don’t go looking for it, because the times He chooses to do any of this is so rare that you wouldn’t have much to look forward in the Christian life.

Well, since Ephesians is a commentary on itself, who then are the apostles and prophets? Remember, they are on the same level. Evangelists were subordinate to them. Who were the apostles and prophets? Who are we talking about? Are we talking about people today? Ephesians 2:22 says that our faith is built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. He relegates them, along with the evangelists, to the early foundation of the church. That is where they were. Not only were they present when Jesus was around, but they were present after He ascended and resurrected. These are those who were fashioning and teaching and preaching to that early infant New Testament church.

Now listen to me. For these gifts to exist today, something very scary would have to be true. If these gifts are existing today, as they existed when Jesus Christ appointed them in the New Testament, then they would have the ability to add to scripture and to take away from scripture. These were the ones who gave us the New Testament that we study, the New Testament that forms the basis of who we are in the church of the 20th Century. Now folks, that is scary when you think of people several years ago who got into a room and commissioned themselves apostles in this day, in the same sense, with the same authority and with the same, they say, extraordinary gifts. I’ll tell you what, friend, if I ever stand up here and tell you something like that, somebody have the courage in this place to take a gun and put me away. I have lost my mind. Man, listen to me, we are under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. He speaks to us through His Word as revealed by His Holy Spirit understandably and He communicates to our heart. And the way we live daily is dead to self, attached to Him, letting Him be and do what He and He alone chooses to be and chooses to do.

They don’t exist today. I believe with all of my heart that they do not exist today. I believe with all of my heart that they do not exist today. Neither the apostles not the evangelists nor the prophets in the sense of the extraordinary office to which they were relegated back in the early church. We do have evangelists. We do have people who have that sense of prophetic gifts, I guess you would say, but not in any way like what I am talking about right here. No, sir, they are not offices in the church of Jesus Christ today.

The elders

I am sure somebody is sitting there and saying, “Okay, if they are not offices in the church today, then what are the offices in the church today?” I am so glad you asked me that. There are two. The instructions as to the character of the men are well defined. The first office is the office of elder, whether we like it or not. That is a word that some people choke over. The qualifications of an elder is found in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus. I want to tell you this, elders and pastors and bishops or overseers, are all the same people. You say, “How do you know? I came out of a denomination where the pastors are over here, and they had a bishop and they had an elder over here. How come you make them one person?” I didn’t make them one person. Peter himself showed us that they are one person.

Look in 1 Peter 5:1. They are the same people. By the way, they are always in the plural. I remember back when we chose to go to the offices that God says ought to be in the church years ago. Some people said, “I don’t want to do that. That is Presbyterian.” Well, I hate to tell you but the word elder comes from the word presbuteros. Just because they got their name from that doesn’t mean that denies what scripture says. It took us forever to get over that hump. You say, “I don’t want to be Presbyterian. Call it something else.” Well, why would you want to call it anything other than what God calls it? Anyway, we had a lot of fun with that.

Verse 1 of chapter 5 says, “Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder.” By the way, that is one of the few times you will see elder in the singular in the New Testament. I think John called himself an elder. There is a verse over in, I believe, in Timothy, that says, “Do not receive an accusation on an elder except by two or three witnesses.” But every place else it is in the plural, every place else. “I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed.” That is the word presbuteros. That is the office.

Then he talks about the work, “shepherd the flock.” Now some people have their own opinion as what it means to shepherd the flock. The shepherd did three things; they guided the flock, they grazed the flock and they guarded the flock. They guide, graze, and guard. How do you do that? With the Word of God. The one thing that identifies the elders from the deacons is that they have to be able to handle the Word of God. Remember the word “teachers, pastors” that we saw a while ago? That is the ordinary.

1 Corinthians 12:9-10

To Each His Own – Part 6

Well, in Part 6 we are going to take the last of the five extraordinary gifts mentioned in verses 9 and 10 as we look at the distinguishing of spirits. You know, there is no greater truth in scripture than this: God wants to let us in on what He is up to. It really takes the pride out from under you when you realize it is not us working for God, but it is God doing His work in and through us. Just imagine—God wants us to be the vessels. That continues to awe me every day, knowing what I am not apart from Him, at the same time knowing that not only me but you and all of us can be usable to Him if we will just be willing to surrender to Him and let Him do His work through us.

I remember the time in the Gospels when they came to Him and said, “Jesus, what must we do to do the works of God?” And He said, “This is the work of God,” singular, “that you believe on Me.” The word “believe” doesn’t mean that you just comprehend or understand who I am. It means that what you believe about me and what you hear me say to you, you are so persuaded that you allow it to affect your very behavior. “You live in surrender to me. That is the work, I’ll take care of the rest of it. I am the one who is accomplishing my purposes,” God says, “in and through you.”

Now many times in this series and in other series we have studied, we have referred to the fact that the apostle Paul made that same discovery. The old, arrogant apostle Paul, back before he was an apostle in Philippians 3, made the statement, “According to the law I am found blameless.” Of course, you know he must be talking about the law that they came up with, because no human being ever stood before the moral law of God and was found blameless, except the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, “According to the 613 laws that we came up with, I was found blameless.”

That same apostle, once he was saved, came to discover the difference in working for God and God working through you. Romans 15:17 says, “Therefore, in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God.” He used to boast in things pertaining to Paul, but now he only boasts in things pertaining to God. He says in verse 18, “For I would not presume to speak of anything.” The word “speak” means to break the silence. I would not be sitting in a quiet room and break the silence with anything of what I could do for God. Oh, no. I wouldn’t open my mouth. But he says, “I would speak of that which Christ has accomplished through me.”

But I want you to know something; Paul discovered it and so must we. When God chooses to use us through the gifts and the callings that He has given to us, anything He does through us bears His mark of identity upon it. It never draws attention to us, it must draw attention to Himself. The apostle Paul goes on in Romans 15:18 and says, “All of this resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles in word and deed.” Nothing drew attention to Paul, nothing drew attention to his ministry, but what it did draw attention to was the changed lives of the people who had been affected by God working through the apostle Paul.

Now why do I bring this up? In Corinth there were many things that were going on. As a matter of fact, from what I get from scripture, it was a circus. There were a lot of manifestations in the spiritual realm, and all of them in the church were being attributed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is intent in 1 Corinthians 12 to correct the error of the Corinthian believers. Now, I have said and I will continue to say that I do not believe this is a teaching on gifts, but it is a correction of the error that is in Corinth. His main thesis seems to be, “Yes, in the circus of all the manifestations going on God manifests Himself through His people.” Yes, He does that, just like Paul discovered and the Corinthians evidently had begun to discover.

Now, we come to the last of these five extraordinary gifts which is found in verse 10: “and to another [allos, of the same kind] the distinguishing of spirits.” To fit into this category of verses 9 and 10, it cannot just be the ordinary discernment we have when we are in the word of God. It has to be shifted into a little higher gear of the extraordinary times when God chose to move upon someone and give them that ability to distinguish between the spirit, either the Spirit of God or the spirits of evil.

There are two things that I want us to look at. First of all, we must realize the need we have of discernment today. Not only the need they had in Corinth, in Greece, but the need we have in the church of Jesus Christ in America today. There was such a need for discernment in Corinth among believers. It was a circus. All kinds of things were going on. You must get this in your mind. There were all kinds of Satanic things that were miraculous, all kinds of extraordinary things. But at the same time, God was working in the midst of it. And evidently they needed so much discernment to be able to say this is of God and this is not of God.

You see, the things that were not of God could have been just as extraordinary as the things that were of God. Now that is hard for us to buy. It is hard for us to swallow. We must realize in the midst of all the manifestations going on in Corinth, yes, God was working. Perhaps He healed some; perhaps He did some great miracles with some; perhaps He prophesied in an extraordinary way through some. But at the same time, there was also the extraordinary things going on coming not from God, but from Satan himself.

Do we realize that Satan can do extraordinary things? Do we understand that? I think the biggest problem in America and the biggest problem in Corinth was, if it is supernatural, it must be of God. Is that all the discernment we have in the 20th Century? No more than the church of Corinth? You see, Satan can do extraordinary things, folks. He can do extraordinary things. As a matter of fact, I have been a little bit in error. I have been saying all along that he mimicked all of the miracles of Moses, but he didn’t. He mimicked the first two; the magicians mimicked the first two. And each time that they would have a miracle, the Lord would intensify the next one. And, of course, the second one, they mimicked, but when it came to the third one, they could not do it. And from the third one on, it proved that God just set aside the ones that could do the miraculous and showed that what He could do was far beyond what they could do. But at the same time, somebody mimicked those first two. Somebody did them. Satan does have power. Nothing like what our God has, but he can do the extraordinary. We think that just because it is supernatural it is of God.

A man who came over from India told me, “I have seen more people healed in pagan cults than you will see on television in America that happened in a meeting some place.” We just somehow don’t understand that. So, there is a principle that begins to arise here. We begin to realize that we need discernment. We need to distinguish whether this is of God and this is evil, this is of the devil.

As a matter of fact, Paul speaks of the Antichrist who is coming in 2 Thessalonians 2:9. I want you to read this for yourself. I want you to see it. How is the Antichrist going to come? Well, he is going to come in accordance with the activity of Satan. What is the activity of Satan? This is the way he deceives the elect. In 2 Thessalonians 2:9, breaking into a sentence, the apostle Paul says, “that is [speaking of the Antichrist] the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan.” There will come a day when Satan will absolutely incarnate the Antichrist and it will be Satan working through him on this earth in a way that this world has never seen, “with all power and signs and false wonders.” Now, “with all power and signs and false wonders,” that is the activity of Satan. The Antichrist is going to come in accordance with the activity of Satan.

We must learn this truth. And the truth is this, we must learn that we are never to judge the genuineness of the spirits by what they are able to perform. No, even if on the surface these seem to be extraordinary manifestations of power, no matter how emotionally great it is, we don’t judge “this is of God, this is of Satan” just because it is extraordinary. That is one of the greatest fallacies of living and discerning in the Christian life. The devil will do whatever he needs to do, however extraordinary he can muster, in order to deceive those who now have been blood bought by the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, every work that is done is under the influence of either the Holy Spirit of God or the evil spirits of this world. If you are a believer, the devil can’t get in you, the spirits can’t get in you. However, they can influence your flesh and that is your biggest problem, your flesh. They know exactly how to influence your flesh by the world that is around it. And if you are not choosing to live obedient, then you are living in a way that is influenced through the flesh by the demonic of this world. We must understand that. Either it comes from God or it doesn’t come from God.

It is interesting to me as I study scripture that the demonic spirits, yes, they are on this earth. But what I see in Scripture, and you will have to check it out for yourself, it appears to me that they have to inhabit a body. If you will look over in 2 Corinthians 5:2, he is not talking about demonic spirits, but he is referring to our human spirit. I believe he tells us something here that might be helpful in our discussion. Where are these demonic spirits? I believe they inhabit people, not believers, but I will show you that in a moment.

Second Corinthians 5:2 says, “For indeed in this house we groan,” talking about the body we live in, “longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven.” In other words, there is another spiritual body that is going to clothe our spirit. Verse 3 goes on, “Inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked.” It appears to me that demonic spirits do not float around like Hollywood wants us to think about it. They don’t come in my house and rattle my windows and do all the other stuff. If that ever happens, it is not the norm, that is not the consistency. But instead of that, they indwell people. They indwell people. I love what Paul said. He said, “A messenger from Satan was sent to me to buffet my body.” And that word “messenger” could be translated as an individual, not just the blindness that he had, a weakness that he had. It could have been a deacon who didn’t like him. But a messenger from Satan.

You see, Satan indwells people. But what kind of people? Look over in Ephesians 2. I don’t believe in any way, shape or form the devil can get inside a believer, or any demonic spirit can get inside a believer. I am very adamant about that. Let the record be set straight. I do not believe that a Christian can in any way be indwelt by a demon, because we are indwelt by the person of the Holy Spirit of God. From the top of my head to the end of my toes to the end of my fingertips, God lives in me and lives in you the same way. The devil cannot get in because there is no fellowship with light and darkness. But in Ephesians 2:1, let me show you where he dwells. “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit [now watch] that is now working [now watch] in the sons of disobedience.” Now we are not the sons of disobedience. We may be disobedient from time to time, but that is not what he is talking about here. He is talking about a lost people, and the devil has full control. And when he enters into that, then what better form of a body could the devil dwell in or the demon dwell in than that of a false teacher. That is the best way in the world to deceive the people of God.

This is exactly what was going on in Corinth. The devil had joined the church. He was there incarnate in those people who were unbelievers, and there was all kinds of things going on. They were saying, “This is of God.” And the apostle Paul is saying, “Wait a minute. Have some discernment. Draw a line. Be able to say, this is of God and this is of the devil.”

The one thing the devil wants to do is to be like God and to be recognized as God. He wants to be seen as an angel of light. Hollywood is his best friend as far as confusing us, but his worst friend as far as his ploy to come on as an angel of light. He wants to appear as God. He wants to appear that he has a way that seemeth right, but remember, that way leads to destruction.

The word “distinguishing” in verse 10 is again in the plural—distinguishings (plural) of spirits (plural). Now this must be interpreted along with the other plural phrases that we have seen in this list of five in verses 9 and 10. As with the gifts of healings, there is no gift of healing. It is plural. As with the effecting of miracles, it is in the plural. It shows me one more time by putting this in the plural, as we did in the other two, that you can’t hang a sign up and say, “This is my gift. I have the gift of distinguishing between the spirits. Now, if you want me to help you, you call. Here is my card. You call me. I have a ministry of doing this.” No, this list absolutely forbids that. These are the extraordinary gifts, and they are only given when God chooses to give them. They only may be seen one or two times in a person’s life, if ever, and the only pattern is in the original offices of the church.

The word “distinguishing” is the word diakrisis. Dia means through, and krisis comes from the word krino, which means to distinguish. In other words, to draw a line between the two things and to say this is this and that is that. That is the word “distinguishing.” Of course, the context is distinguishing of spirits. This is of the Holy Spirit, but this is of the evil spirit. The ability to discern and draw that line, even in the extraordinary manifestations that is going on, to be able to step right in the middle of it and have that extraordinary discernment to be able to do that. But remember, all of us, all of us, can have this kind of discernment, not in the extraordinary sense but it is implied in the word. All of us can have discernment between good and evil.

Look in Hebrews 5:12. You see, if you are going to treat it in the plural, you have to take the miraculous ordinary, and it is miraculous how God gives us discernment through His Word. But then you have to take the extraordinary, as we have done with every one in the list in verses 9 and 10. In Hebrews 5:12 this is the ordinary. This is what we need today. This is what Corinth needed back then. Extraordinary is one thing, but what we need is this ordinary, miraculous discernment that we can have every day of our life if we will do something. It says in Hebrews 5:12, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers.” Somebody came to me after a service that I had preached on this verse and said, “Does that mean all of us need to go out and be teachers?” No. What it does mean is, however, you have got enough information that if you had to, you could. That is what he is saying. He said, “you ought to all be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God,” the ABC’s. You have enough information that you should be teaching, but something has happened here. You have to be taught the ABC’s yourself. You have come to need milk and not solid food.

“Come to need” is in the perfect tense. Something happened back here that has caused the state that you are in over here. What happened to you? In other words, there is a rebuke going on here.

Then in verse 13 we read, “For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word or righteousness, for he is a babe.” In other words, if you are not able to teach, you have to be taught, and therefore, you can only have milk. You can’t handle the solid food. Now the solid food is going to be healthy and helpful to a certain group of people. Verse 14 continues, “But solid food is for the mature.” Who are the mature? They are not the church at Corinth. There are people who not only know and have had their minds enlightened, but they are living surrendered to what they know. That is the mature—those who have trained their senses unto something. He said, “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained.” The word “trained” is the word we get “gymnasium” from. That ought to tell us something.

In other words, you use something. It is something you put to use. He says, “have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” In other words, to say this is of God, this is not of God, this is either flesh or the devil, this is of God. Draw that line. The mature who are in the word of God, who have renewed their mind, who are surrendered to what they know, who live consistent lives in obedience to Him, have a discernment and they can draw the line and say this is this and that is that.

Now that work diakrisis in Hebrews 5:14 is the same word we are looking at in 1 Corinthians 12:10. Any of us can have it at any time if we are willing to surrender to what we know. All of us have this ability. If our minds are renewed with the Word of God, we have the ability to test the spirits, as John said in 1 John 4:1. He says, ‘Beloved, do not believe every spirit.” And I like the way he says that because he knows that behind what somebody says is a spirit. Don’t “believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” I guarantee you they have, and Satan has indwelt every one of them. So no matter what is being said, even if it sounds right, no matter what is being done, no matter how extraordinary it is, you test the spirits to see if this is this and that is that. All of us can do that. You get up under the Word of God and the Word of God renews your mind. Then you can easily test the spirit of a person speaking. You can tell where they are coming from.

You ask, “How?” Go to Romans 8 and let me just show you one way. It is a picture here of the spiritual-filled life. Romans 8 comes after Romans 7, and Romans 7 comes after Romans 6. You put them together. Romans 8 is the work of the Spirit of God in a person’s life—the difference of me doing it for God and God doing it through me. In chapter 8 we see easily how to test the spirit. Who is being controlled by what? Romans 8:4 reads, “a man controlled by the spirit of God does not walk according to the flesh.” Now this is not perfection. This is predictability, consistency. It goes on to say in Romans 8:4, “in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” He lives submissive to the Spirit of God. Look at the person’s life. Don’t see what they do and say, “Wow, that was a miracle! That must have been God. The way he said that sounded so good.” No, no, no. Go beyond that. Look at their life. See how they live, first of all before God.

In Romans 8:7, he obeys the word of God. It says in verse 7, “Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.” In other words, his mind is set on the Spirit, therefore, he obeys the word of God.

In Romans 8:10-11, he is alive with the very life of God. Have you ever been around somebody who just exudes the life of God? You know it is not them. You know by looking in their face. You know it by being around their life. It says in verse 10, “And if Christ is in you, thought the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Verse 11 reads, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies thorough His Spirit who indwells you.” Not only now, but one day when we are given a glorified body.

In 8:13 he daily maintains that life, that particular life that he has. He daily maintains it as he mortifies the deeds of his flesh through his surrender to Christ. That is how you do it. Now when you say yes to Jesus, you just mortify the deeds of the flesh. Romans 8:13 tells us, “For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” You will continue to maintain the life that you have.

Romans 8:17-18 gives us a man who is not characterized by emotional and ecstatic experiences, but a quiet willingness to suffer for Christ in his walk. Verse 17 says, “And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

And in Romans 8:21-25, he lives with the hope of Christ’s return and his future glorified body. In Romans 8:26, now watch this one, he lives knowing that whatever he goes through, the Spirit is going to step in and be his assistant. He is going to help him bear up under it. He doesn’t live with a delusion that obedience is going to spare him from suffering in the Christian walk, or from sickness or anything else. It says in Romans 8:26, “And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” He knows that there is a prayer meeting going on. He knows that the Spirit is going to pick up the other end of the log that he can’t hold up himself. So therefore, that is the way he approaches life.

Romans 8:28 show us he doesn’t live as a victim, he lives as a victor. It says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

In Romans 8:34 he knows that he is neither condemned nor forsaken, but that Christ is constantly interceding for him on his behalf. Verse 34 says, “Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”

And then finally in Romans 8:35-39 he knows that yes, he might sin, but there is no sin that he can ever commit that will in any way hamper or hurt or thwart the position that he has in Christ before God. Because what Christ did for him is an eternal work and nothing can break it. He cannot lose his salvation. He knows that nothing can separate him from the love of Christ.

Now, we can test the spirits. Behind every person there is a spirit. Before you hear what they say, before you watch what they do, look at their character. Look at where they are coming from, at the consistency of their life according to God’s Word. And I tell you what, folks, we need to get our feet on the ground in America today and we need this gift of discerning between this is of God and this is not of God. Today more than ever before. We don’t need baby Christians who are walking around sucking on pacifiers. We need people who have come out of the nursery. We need people who will stand on their own two feet. We need people who will stand on the Word of God and have a discernment that says, “This is of God and this is of the devil,” and be able to draw that line.

I was appalled when I read something in the newspaper. I normally don’t call names, but since it was in the paper, you probably have already read it. I want to show you the need that we have today of discernment. There was an article that quoted the words spoken by Paul Crouch, who is the owner of TBN network. This is what he said. “Of those who love theology and doctrine, theology or truth is just not important. It is religious entertainment.” On another occasion he spoke to his worldwide audience by stating, “Heretic hunters, those guys who spend their lives straightening us all out doctrinally, they are all going straight to hell.” On another occasion he says, “I refused to argue any longer with any of you out there. Don’t even call me if you want to argue doctrine, if you want to straighten somebody out over here, if you want to criticize Kenneth Copeland and if you have never read Christianity in Crisis.” In that book Kenneth Copeland stood before a large auditorium and said, “God spoke to me this morning and told me I could have been the redeemer of the world.”

Where are we, folks? Where is the discernment? In another quote he said, “God is the biggest failure that ever lived.” He said if you are trying to correct these people, get out of my life. I don’t ever want to talk to you or hear you. I don’t want to see your ugly face.” And then he went on to speak of those who love doctrine, who stand upon it and have discernment, between this is of God and this is not of God. And he said, “I think they are damned and on their way to hell and I don’t think there is any redemption for them. And I said, ‘The hell with you.’” End of quote.

Do you think we are not living in a day when we had better get our feet solid on the ground, folks? I want you to understand it. Don’t make any bones about it. What you are going to hear is “Thus saith the word of God.” We are going to stand on that. My prayer is that the word we teach will be the word that we live because when we live it, we have the ability to draw a line and say this is of God and this is of the devil. We know then, we know then. You think that makes us any better than anybody else? No. It just makes us more burdened for the people who are so deceived they can make statements like that.

You see, God’s love will not allow us to hate the sinner. We have to love the sinner, but oh, how you hate the sin. And one of the things so often that is difficult is in our world today in America, you cannot say a thing like this anymore without people associating what is said with the person who said it. But what we are criticizing is not the person, but what was said of the person, you understand that. We love the people, but doctrine is very important, folks. On a program on TBN, a fellow said Martin Luther changed the whole course of what worship was in the church for years and centuries. He made the sermon the message, the center piece of when people come together. He made the sermon the focal point when it used to not be that way.

I beg your pardon. I don’t see a whole lot of hymns that Jesus sung on the Sermon on the Mount. But I hear a lot of truth that came out of His mouth. And that must stay, that must stay, that must stay the centerpiece of what we do. The doctrine of where we stand. Somebody said, “Well, you are just an equipping church.” Thank God! We can equip people in the word of God to where they can stand on their own two feet and have discernment.

Secondly, we have the different categories of discernment. You have got to move from that. When he puts it in the plural, as he did with healing and with faith, you’ve got to look at the miraculous ordinary. That is what comes when you simply surrender to God. But I think he is talking about something different here. You know, the question comes as the discernment of Hebrews 5:14, the same discernment that he speaks of in 1 Corinthians 12:10. I think it is implied, but I do not think that is where he is headed. The plural again concludes it, but it moves it to a higher level.

What Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 12:10 to me is another category of discernment. And we must understand this in light of these five gifts that are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:10. I believe it refers to the extraordinary discernment of spirits, the kind that was so exemplified by the early officers of the church that you see as a pattern in their life. As a matter of fact, you just walk through scripture and you see if over and over and over again. It was so critical in their day.

It is my understanding the gift mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 is much like that gift mentioned of faith. We all have faith. The faith to remove mountains as chapter 13 says, however, is an extraordinary gift of that faith. God just simply chooses to put it on you when it is necessary in the scheme of His eternal purpose. The same way to me is with this particular distinguishing of spirits. There were times just as there may even be times today, but much more consistent with these men of that day, that God would move upon them with just that extraordinary ability to discern, to distinguish the spirit behind what somebody either said or what somebody was doing. But again, that pattern was only with them, only with those three offices of the church; the apostle, the evangelist and the prophet. You do not find that in the 20th Century as being a pattern at all, but you do find it as a pattern back in those days.

Paul in Acts 16:16, I think, gives us a view of this. We have read this passage, but I want to go back and look at something different, how God moved upon him to let him understand that even though a young girl was speaking the truth, the spirit behind speaking the truth was not God, it was the devil. Remember Luke is writing this and he is giving the account after it has happened. So he knows some things now he didn’t perhaps know right at the moment that it happened. He sees it as he looks back. It says that it happened back then, “that as we were going to the place of prayer, a certain slave girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, ‘These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.’”

Now, is that the truth? That is exactly what they were doing. And she was just simply walking around saying that. Many heard her, but they knew her and they knew what she had come from and they knew that she was bringing a lot of money. You see, the devil will tell the truth, but only when it is to his advantage. Because what happens here, now they can blame Paul for it all, and that is obviously the plot that the devil has by using this girl. Verse 18 says, “And she continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!’ And it came out at that very moment.”

Why did it go on for several days? He had the ordinary discernment to know that there was something amiss here. But I believe on that day, God extraordinarily stepped and said, “Paul, she is totally of the devil.” And at that moment when that extraordinary gift of distinguishing between the spirits hit him, immediately he cast the demon out of her life. But I tell you one thing, Paul didn’t go someplace and hang a sign on the door that said, “I have the gift of casting out demons."

1 Corinthians 12:9-10

To Each His Own – Part 7

We come now to the last grouping of manifestations that the Holy Spirit led Paul to give us in chapter 12. As you know by now, there are two Greek words for “another,” and when they are used together in the same text, they are very significantly different. This is why it is important to know those.

The first word translated another is allos, and it’s found in verse 8. It’s used to link the two gifts, the two equipping gifts that I call them, the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge. It links them together. These are speaking gifts, according to the Scriptures, that God gives to those in the body to speak the Word of God and to edify and to build up the body of Christ. It means another of the same kind. It links those two gifts together.

The second word for another is the word heteros, and it means to another of a different kind. In other words, you’re shifting gears. You have two alike and it refers not only to the gift, but to the people who have the gifts. Then it shifts gears and you have a different category all by itself. It’s found in verse 9. It says, “to another faith.” That introduces a different category. I call that category the extravagant gifts or the extraordinary gifts. These are gifts set apart from the equipping gifts in verse 8. There is the gift of faith which is bound to the gifts of healing (plural) with allos. Bound to it is the effecting of miracles (plural), prophecy, and then distinguishing of spirits which is also in the plural. We’ve already been through these. These are the extraordinary gifts that God chooses to give from time to time. Literally, I’d rather call them manifestations because that’s really what Paul’s addressing here in chapter 12.

The evangelistic gifts

And then we come to the grouping that he will give us in verse 10. It starts right in the middle of verse 10. We find that little word heteros again. I call these the evangelistic gifts. He says in verse 10b, “to another various kinds of tongues, and to another [allos, of the same kind] the interpretation of tongues.”

Many of you have been wondering and waiting patiently when we started 1 Corinthians 1:1 to find out what I’m going to say about tongues. Paul does not address the problem of tongues in chapter 12. He addresses the problem of tongues in Corinth in chapter 14. So, I’m going to disappoint you, because I’m not going to go everywhere you want me to go. It’s not in the flow of the context and you know our pledge is, “Word for word, line upon line.” That’s the way we’re walking through these passages of Scriptures. However, we can, as we wade into these two gifts, understand them a little bit better.

We’ve got to remember the purpose of why Paul even puts chapter 12 in there. He’s not teaching gifts. By the way, there wasn’t a chapter 12 originally. Somebody else did that. It was just one long flow. But why is it there? He’s not teaching gifts. He’s correcting error. Something is amiss in Corinth. It has to do with people speaking and teaching. It has to do with extraordinary things. And it also has to do with some languages that are being spoken. They’re saying that it’s influenced by the Holy Spirit of God. But what is happening in Corinth is, the language they’re speaking is not a known, understandable language. It’s an ecstatic gibberish. That’s where we’ll have to wait until chapter 14 to see it more clearly. They were speaking in a tongue, but the gift that’s mentioned here is tongues, plural. That’s very significant to our understanding.

You see, it had to do with the influence of the Oracles of Delphi which is only 30 miles from Corinth. We’ve already covered this in the first part of chapter 12. He points them back to their former idolatry. He points them back to something that lured them to the idolatry of that day. You remember the Oracles of Delphi. They were women, self-proclaimed prophetesses, who said they could get in touch with the pagan divine spirits.

It was at the temple of Apollo. Apollo was a pagan Greek temple there. It was over in Delphi. They would have inside the inner sanctum a tripod. Every time I think of that word tripod I think of a deer stand. I don’t know why. It just comes in my mind and flits right out. But they would set up a tripod and get into a frenzy. It was emotional. It was ecstatic. Suddenly they would begin to blurt out words that were absolutely senseless. The interesting thing here is the poor people of that day were so lured to it that they would line up for miles. As you read the history of this, as you study this, they had to have three. At the time Paul wrote this letter, they had to have three women to take care of the crowd. They had to work in shifts. People would get in lines because they wanted answers to questions in life. They wanted somehow to be in touch with the divine.

Such a sad picture, but it’s the same thing that’s going on in our world today. In Conyers, Georgia, there were 100,000 people to hear a vision that the Virgin Mary was supposed to have given to a woman. So people are still in that same mindset. It’s like a person trying to call their psychic hotline or a person who reads their horoscope. It’s the same type of thing that was luring the Corinthians, especially the believers, before they got saved.

The people would have a little slate that they would write their questions on and they would take them up and give them to somebody. If they got chosen that day, then they would take it in to one of these women and the woman would go into this frenzy and begin to speak this gibberish, a language never spoken on earth. They would have interpreters, so-called, and they would write it into prose and give them the answer. Can you imagine those pitiful people thinking they had gotten in touch with a divine and they walk away with a little slate and on the slate was an answer that meant absolutely nothing, after standing in line for hours upon hours upon hours? That’s what was going on in Corinth.

Obviously, chapter 14 has gotten to be taken into consideration. If I lean too much into it, I’m going to miss what I want to say. But, obviously, this practice had gotten into the church. They were saying that this ecstatic language, this language that was never known or spoken, that they were speaking—perhaps, in a prayer language or whatever else they were doing, whatever they were doing with it—they were saying was influenced by the Holy Spirit of God. What Paul is trying to do is put their feet back on the ground. He’s trying to turn them right side up. They’re so upside down. This is a sick anemic, ignorant, and immature church and he’s trying to put some balance back into it as he approaches this subject. So, we’re not going to go that far with it. I’m sure some of you are a little bit disappointed, but at least we can clarify what the gift of tongues is or the manifestation of tongues, along with it the interpretation of tongues.

Now, there are some ground rules. Already in verse 3 we have established something we must go back and review. Go back to 12:3. This has got to be there. You may read something in English and say, “Well, it doesn’t say that in English.” Well, friend, when you translate something from one language to another it’s very difficult when there are two or three words in one language and only one word in another. It says in verse 3, “Therefore I make known to you.” That word “known” means you wouldn’t know it any other way unless I show you right now. You’re so upside down you wouldn’t get this from anybody else. But Paul says, “I’m going to tell you.” “Therefore I make known to you that no one [that “no one” means absolutely no one] speaking,” that word “speaking” there is the word laleo. In its root form it means making a noise.

You say, “What’s the significance?” There are two words for speaking. Laleo means to make a noise, any one making a noise. That’s why it can be translated to speak. However, you can translate it just making a noise. So you would be saying, “No one making a noise under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God.”

The word “Holy Spirit” does not have a definite article behind it, which means according to the full character of how the Holy Spirit has and will always work. “Any one making a noise influenced by the Holy Spirit of God says,” that word “says” is a different word, and it’s so significant. If you don’t know the languages, you don’t understand this. Some people say the languages aren’t important. The word legos is used here. That’s the verb form of logos, which always means intelligent, understandable word of integrity. This is the word that was assigned to the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the Living Word. So what he’s saying is that any one making a noise under the influence of the full character of the Holy Spirit of God speaks intelligently with understanding and with integrity. That’s the ground rules. You don’t break that ground rule.

That is further brought out in our text today. What he says is, “to another various kinds of tongues.” What in the world does that phrase mean? First of all, the word “various” is written in italics. You might want to circle it and say, “Oops, not in the text.” When it’s in italics that means it’s not in the Greek text. It’s implied. Some translator stuck the word there. However, it is implied and I think it’s very important that it’s implied. Because, you see, there’s more than one language. Would you agree with that? There’s more than one language.

The little Greek phrase is gene glossoon. Gene is a form of genos. It’s the word we get for a kind or a family. That’s why it says, “various kinds of tongues.” The word “kind” is there. It’s the word gene. It means a family of something. We get the word genealogy from it. It’s that which something has been derived from.

The word glossoon, translated tongues, is the word glossas. That’s in the plural there. The basic meaning of the word is the physical organ called the tongue. You know good and well that’s not what he’s talking about; however, that’s the basic meaning. You take it a step further, it’s that which enables us to utter words which people can understand. In other words, a step further than that, the word glossas refers to the languages that we speak.

Now, we speak English. We understand one another. If somebody only spoke Spanish, then I would not understand them. They spoke another language. In the book of the Revelation the word glossa is used seven times to refer to languages, and it’s very clear, very specific. It’s used in conjunction with the word tribe with the phrase “a nation,” and it’s also used with the word people. So you have a tribe, people, and a nation. All of those are associated with this word.

Look with me at just one illustration in Revelation 7:9. It’s very clear that it’s language, a spoken understandable language. He says, “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every [now watch] nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands.” Now, the word “tongues” there in the plural has to be languages. It can’t be anything else. It’s referring to the different ethnic languages that people would speak depending on where they were from. Glossa, therefore, can be the organ of the mouth but it doesn’t mean that. It means the language that this organ enables us to speak so that we might communicate with somebody else.

Now go back to your text and put the two words together. He says, “various kinds [gene] of tongues” from the word glossa. It’s the word in the plural there. It’s a family of understandable spoken languages. So again, one more time, various kinds of tongues or many families of spoken understandable, communicable languages.

You may ask the question, “What do you mean, families of languages?” Listen. Don’t you know that there are different families of languages? There’s the Germanic family of languages; there’s a Latin family of languages; there’s the Hispanic family of languages; and the Semitic family of languages. They are not all exactly the same, but they fall into a category of the same, transmittable and communicable languages.

So do we understand? “Various kinds of tongues” rules out any ecstatic gibberish that somebody says they have as a gift and fit it into 1 Corinthians 12.

Some people will say, “If it’s an understandable language, then can you deny my experience that I had when I was praying in my prayer closet?” Not on your life. I wasn’t there. You say you experienced it, you experienced it. It’s good enough for me. But what I am telling you is this. Don’t you ever use that to back up the Word of God. You take the Word of God and check out your experience. That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m not trying to throw rocks at you. I’m not trying to ruin your Christian walk. All I’m trying to do is tell you what he’s talking about in 1 Corinthians 12:10, and he’s not talking about a gibberish. That was what was going on in Corinth, a tongue. It’s never listed in the singular. It’s always listed in the plural and it means families of understandable languages.

Turn back with me to Mark 16:17 where Jesus, for the first time in the New Testament, promises that this is going to happen one day. Mark 16:17, by the way, is a very controversial, very highly disputed passage. If you’ve ever studied Mark you understand more about that. Let me read the context. The Lord Jesus has just resurrected from the grave. He has not yet ascended back to His Father. It says in Mark 16:14, “And afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’” It’s a little different than Matthew 28, isn’t it? “‘He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who have believed; in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it shall not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.’”

Now, the New American Standard picks up something here better than the King James Version. The King James Version does not put, “to those who have believed,” as it says. They have put, “to those who believe.” That’s a big, big difference. It says, “And these signs will accompany those who have believed.” That’s a better translation. The New American Standard has an excellent translation there. These signs are not going to accompany them who will believe. This is not everyone who is going to believe. No, no. Not at all.

Who is He talking to? He’s talking to His disciples and the apostles. He’s saying, “These things will accompany you as you go on. I’m going back to be with My Father.” We’ve already covered much of this ground. That’s basically what He’s telling them. In other words, if it’s not you, you’ll be present. It will accompany you. There will be these things happening around you.

Note the phrase, “they will speak with new tongues.” The word “new” there is the word kainos. It has the idea of qualitatively new. In other words, it’s a language you don’t have presently. If it was neos, it would be the same old language, but you’d just have a different twist to it. But this is qualitatively new. This is a language that you don’t have right now. “You will,” he was telling them, “speak with languages that you don’t have right now.” That was a promise made by the Lord Jesus Christ. There would be others perhaps that would also speak, but you’ll be present. They will accompany you. What the Lord actually promised those whom He was sending out was about to happen, those extraordinary things that were going to happen after He went back to be with the Father.

The first fulfillment of Mark 16:17 was at Jerusalem at Pentecost. Will you turn to Acts 2:4-11? I’m only going to take two verses out of that passage for the sake of time. I want to key in on verse 4. This is Pentecost. This is when it happened. This is the inauguration of the New Covenant. We must understand that. They were out in the Old Covenant. Hebrews 8:6 says, “We are of a better covenant.” That covenant was inaugurated when the Holy Spirit came to live in the lives of believers. That’s what’s happening right here. Verse 4 says, “And they were all filled [that means each and every one in the whole group] with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other [Remember the word heteros, of a different kind? Languages that they don’t normally speak.] tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.”

Drop down to verse 8 and you’ll see that what they were speaking was a language that people could understand. In verse 8 it says, “And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?” So, when you speak of the tongues that he’s talking about here, it’s a known understandable language. The disciples spoke to many nationalities that day and each one of them heard in their own language. The key was the hearer. You see, that’s why we have to continue to drive this point home. They’re understandable. Why? Because of the hearers. In other words, they can comprehend what’s being said. This was a temporary enablement of the Holy Spirit, because you never find these disciples speaking in those languages at any other time. It was just on this day and for the purpose of communicating the gospel to all those Jews who are present in Jerusalem for that day.

The second fulfillment of our Lord’s promise was at Caesarea. This is as the gospel now is spreading out. The outline for Acts is in the first chapter, to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. It just kind of extends it all through and covers that outline. This involved Gentile believers. Look over in Acts 10. Gentile believers were at Caesarea in the home of Cornelius. You remember that. No manifestation of this gift had been recorded in the eight years since it had first occurred at Pentecost, not one, in any kind of history book, Josephus or any of them. It only appears now eight years later. Acts 10:45 says, “And all the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God.”

The Jews were astonished that these Gentile believers, that the Spirit had come upon them too. Their whole thinking was that the gospel was only for the Jews. Paul himself said in Ephesians, “It’s a mystery to me, a salvation that you could be brought near.” They are all in the body of Christ. We’re made into one brand new person. The language that the Gentiles were speaking must have been understood. You say, “Are you reading into the text?” No sir. It says that they magnified God. There was no interpreter there. How could they have known they were magnifying God? You have somebody walk in church. He may have tears in his eyes speaking another language, but you haven’t got a clue what he’s saying unless you understand that language or unless somebody translates that language to you. They knew exactly what was going on. They didn’t need an interpreter. They saw what was happening there. They understood that the Spirit had come upon the Gentile world. Jesus had told them it was going to happen that way.

The third fulfillment of this historic event of our Lord’s promise was at Ephesus to the disciples of John the Baptist. Look in Acts 19:6. And, again, they had to be understandable because there was not interpreter. They would not have known what was going on unless there was someone to share with them, or they must have understood what language they spoke. Acts 19:6 reads, “And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.” Now, again, we see the gospel now spreading itself out. It’s gone from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and the uttermost parts of the world. You can see more and more people and the evidence is that the New Covenant is not just for the Jews. The New Covenant is also for the Gentiles. We’ve been grafted in and the Holy Spirit now lives in believers.

It’s interesting it happened in Ephesus. It was a cosmopolitan city. It’s very important that it happened there, because there were so many languages spoke. Caesarea was the same exact way. But there was a specific purpose at a specific time already promised by our Lord Jesus Christ that it would take place. Again, we do not find these disciples speaking in other languages at any other time. It’s just these three recorded events and Jesus predicted every one of them.

This speaking in known languages has to be what Paul is referring to in 1 Corinthians 12:10, languages that speakers had never learned, but which the Holy Spirit enabled them to speak on occasion. They spoke instantly, though not necessarily as one might continue to speak a language he’s learned. They didn’t go on speaking that language.

I don’t know if that story is true or not but I have heard from so many different sources over and over again that a man was in Poland several years ago. He was preaching to thousands of people through an interpreter. The interpreter was a Communist. It was a set-up. And when the man got to the blood of Christ, the interpreter turned and spit in his face and walked off that stage leaving that poor man standing there by himself in the middle of a message with thousands of people sitting in front of him. As I understand the man spoke twenty-five more minutes in pure Polish, understood everything he said and hundreds of people got saved.

That’s what we’re talking about happened at Pentecost. That’s what we’re talking about happened at Caesarea. That’s what we’re talking about happened at Ephesus. People speaking in languages other than their own; people are hearing them, understanding them, and coming to know Christ. We must never lose sight of the ground rule of all the gifts he speaks of in chapter 12, all the manifestations.

Look in verse 7 one more time. Make sure you do not lose sight of this. This is important. It’s got to be nailed down in your mind. Verse 7 says, “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the [what?] common good.” That word is sumphero, to bring the body together, to build and to edify the body of Christ. It defies all comprehension that someone would walk into a group of people, stand up and speak in a language nobody else could understand and say they were under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God when not a person in here could be edified by what was said. So, again, they are understandable languages, otherwise they could not profit the body of Christ.

In the case of the Pentecostal experience, there’s a tremendous possibility—nobody has really disproved this—that when the apostles spoke, that they spoke in the language they knew, but the Holy Spirit took that same language and communicated it to the hearers that were there. That is a strong possibility. For instance, how many were dialects were there? It wasn’t the speaking, it was the hearing. I probably sound like a broken record. It is not for the benefit of the one speaking, it’s for the benefit of the one hearing. The hearing has got to be understandable. That’s the only way the body can be edified, unified, and built up.

I think a lot of people have just not had the experience. You ought to come to one of our conferences in Europe. I’ve been over there and they’ve had different translation booths and you see somebody standing up. I want to tell you something. It’s as confusing as anything you’ve ever heard in your life if you don’t have somebody to make it understandable to your ears. I hear that all the time. People say, “Oh, no. It’s some mysterious thing.” Paul says, “No, that’s what’s going on in Corinth. But what God does is very understandable, has integrity, and a lot of intelligence behind it.” This gift has got to be a clear understandable language. You see, to understand the tongues and to understand why the families of languages are there, you’ve got to get away from the speaker and take into account the hearer. If you don’t do that, then somehow you’re getting twisted already in your thinking.

Why is it that the gifts of tongues and interpretations of tongues in three lists are found twice together? Once in 12:10 and then in verse 30 we see it again. They’re put right side by side. Why would you need to interpret something if it’s not necessary you understand what you said? Again, the understanding has got to be there or it doesn’t qualify. It says in verse 30, “All do not have gifts of healing, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?” You see, if the listener cannot understand you, do you realize what they think about you? They think you’ve lost your mind and gone mad.

Look over in 14:23. I don’t like to get too much into chapter 14 because that’s where you’re going to see where the problem of tongues is in Corinth. Look over in 14:23 just for an understanding when people would start speaking in different, ecstatic languages and nobody’s interpreting, what it looks like. By the way, it’s not a sign for believers. It’s a sign for unbelievers. “If therefore the whole church should assemble together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad?” I looked up the word “mad” in the Greek. Do you know what that word is? It’s the word we get the word maniac from. What he’s saying is, do you realize how stupid this is if you got in here and started speaking in some ecstatic tongue which, evidently, was going on. He said unbelievers will come in here and think you’ve lost your mind, that you’re a bunch of maniacs. That’s what he said. No, what God does is understandable and if you can’t understand it, somebody’s there to translate it so that you can. It’s in a family of known, understandable language.

Now to further underscore that these tongues have got to be in an understandable languages, the very thing that he gives is the interpretation of tongues. I want to tell you something, folks. What the world has done to this interpretation of tongues is the same thing they did in Corinth in the Oracles of Delphi. They’re saying that somebody can literally interpret the gibberish and unknowledgeable words that somebody’s saying and actually bring a message. That’s what they were doing in Delphi. That was sick.

The word “interpretation” is not what you think it is. The word for interpret is simply the word hermeneia. Guess what word we get out of that—hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is what? The art of properly interpreting Scripture. That’s what the word actually means. So in other words, if you’ve got somebody speaking in a known, understandable language but you’re sitting there and don’t know what that language is, even if it’s only the Holy Spirit which it was at Pentecost, somebody’s got to translate what has been said so that you can understand. It’s just to further underscore that these are understandable languages.

Look in John 1:38 and let me show you where it’s translated in other places so you’ll see what I’m talking about. It’s taking something from one language, whether written or spoken, and putting it into another language so that they can understand it. It doesn’t matter if it’s spoken or not. It’s actually the gift of translation, not the gift of interpretation. That kind of throws you. Hermeneia is more the idea of translation. In John 1:38 I think it’s pretty clear what the word means. “And Jesus turned, and beheld them following, and said to them, ‘What do you seek?’ And they said to Him, ‘Rabbi [now watch this. In parentheses look at what it says. This is in the Greek. It’s right there] (which translated (from Hebrew to Greek) means Teacher), where are you staying?’” That’s the word hermeneia.

Look down in John 1:41. We find the word again. Verse 41 says, “He found first his own brother Simon, and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which translated means Christ).” One more time, Hebrew to Greek. Look at verse 42, “He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, ‘You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter).”

Do you see what’s happening here? From one language to another so that this person can understand what this person has said or written. Look in John 9:7. I’m breaking right into the middle of a sentence because I’m not interested in the context. I’m just interested in showing you how the word is used. It says in verse 7, “and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which is translated, Sent).”

So evidently in the Corinthian church from what we can gather from 1 Corinthians 14, anyone can get up at any time, call for the singing of a sing; they could teach, proclaim a revelation, or speak in an—not several—unknown tongue. Anybody can do that. And nobody was checking whether or not this was truly of the Spirit of God. Nobody understood a thing that they were saying. You’ll see all this unravel as we get to chapter 14. Their unknown tongue in Corinth stood on its own ground as a language. Nobody knew it. Nobody had ever heard it. Nobody had ever spoken it. It stood on its own. It was just like the Oracle of Delphi. It was just like a bunch of gibberish that nobody seemed to understand, yet they said it was a message from God Himself. This is why I think Paul adds the gift of interpretation or translation, so that from one language it can be brought over into another language.

That’s 1 Corinthians 12:10, folks. Anything else you want to jam into it will not fit because the gifts have to edify. They have to unify. And they have to bring together the body of Christ. As a matter of fact, in chapter 14 he’s saying, “When you speak in a tongue, you do not edify others. You edify yourself.” That is your huge difference here.

Somebody says, “Are you going to get mad at me if I disagree with you and have these experiences in my quiet time?” No, my goodness. I hope you know that I love you no matter where we differ or not. But I do want to tell you something. You do whatever you want to do in your prayer closet. I don’t really care. You can speak in Hebrew backwards. I don’t care what you do.

But now here’s where I’m going to get a little bit upset. If you bring whatever you do in that prayer closet into the body of Christ and tell somebody in the body of Christ that they need that because they didn’t get everything when they got Jesus....

1 Corinthians 12:10-11

Just Who Is In Charge?

We’re going to look at verses 10-11, not going very far. I want to entitle this “Just Who is in Charge?” Have you ever noticed how an immature child will test you to see who is in charge? They’ll do what they can to see what they can get away with. Finally, you just have to yank that leash to get them straight.

Well, in a very similar way the church of Corinth was a very immature church. So whatever was going on, you can rest assured God was not in control. They were in control. What the apostle Paul is doing in 1 Corinthians 12 is setting the record straight as to who really is in control.

In chapter 14 we’re going to see that what was going on in Corinth was not tongues, plural, it was a tongue, singular. As a matter of fact, in most translations it says “unknown.” “Unknown” is written in italics because what it’s trying to get across is this thing that was going on in Corinth was not anything like what Paul is talking about in 12:10 when he speaks of languages that people can known and can understand. It’s a tongue. It was an erratic speech of some kind of gibberish that nobody could understand. A tongue, singular, they were speaking that way.

By the way, it really reminds you of what was going on 30 miles from town at the Oracles of Delphi when we introduced chapter 12. Hopefully you understood that. This was something they used to be in, and evidently it’s crept right back into the church.

Chapter 14:2 reads, “For one who speaks in a tongue [singular],” verse 4 says, “One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.” Remember back in 12:7 Paul says the gifts are not for personal edification. They’re for the building up of the whole body, for the edification of everybody. He says he only edifies himself. Verse 13 of chapter 14 tells us, “Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.” He doesn’t have a clue what he’s saying. Verse 14 goes on, “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.” It does not work at all because it doesn’t have a clue what’s going on again.

In verse 19 of chapter 14 we read, “however, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind [he refers now to understanding what he’s saying] that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in [what?] a tongue.”

I can’t wait until verse 26. There’s a hypothetical situation there Paul brings up, kind of like “if Superman walked in the back door” type thing. You say, “Well, that can’t happen.” That’s kind of what’s going on here, but I’m not going to get into it this time. That’s for later. I’ve got too many other things to say. He says in 14:26, “What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching [evidently, they just get up and do whatever], has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation.” That’s interesting since they can’t be interpreted. “Let all things be done for edification.”

Now, look at verse 27. “If anyone speaks in a tongue.” You have got to see this as a significant thing. Paul says, “I thank my God I speak in tongues [plural] more than you.” But when he refers to them, it’s singular. When he refers to himself or the gifts that God has chosen to give from time to time—languages and the ability to translate those languages so that the gospel can get out, they’re known understandable languages—they are in the plural. And there is a direct difference with what’s going on in Corinth and what we know of in 12:10.

It’s interesting to point out that in all the gifts listed in verses 9 and 10 there, most of them are plural in chapter 12 except for the interpretation, singular, of tongues. Why is it? Because there can only be one translation of any one language, only one translation of a language. The most confusing thing you can ever be around is when somebody would stand up and give a gibberish or something like that and somebody give an interpretation and somebody else give another interpretation. There can only be one interpretation, one translation, to any one language.

I don’t back down from it because I believe scripture supports it. You check it out. You be the Berean. I’m not the last word on any of this stuff. I’m growing, I’m learning, and so are you. But everything I can find in scripture as I throw up a red flag is that tongues, when he mentioned in scripture in the plural, means a known, understandable language. That’s all I’m really going to say about it right now because that’s all Paul says about it until chapter 14. So you just have to sort of rest the rest of it until you get there. Put it on a shelf, but let the context continue to build. You’re trying not to find out about tongues. You’re trying to find out about what is Paul doing in chapters 12, 13, and 14. Once you get that down, everything else will make sense.

We’re going to push a little further. Paul has clearly pointed out that God does manifest Himself through His people. Yes, He does. He does manifest Himself and He gives gifts to His people. Through some He gives the equipping gifts, and evidently there were people speaking in Corinth. Everything he mentions had something to do with what was going on in Corinth. Remember that. He’s not teaching gifts, he’s correcting error. So he says, “Yes, he does give some equipping gifts, but it’s always according to the Word of God and it’s with the word of wisdom or the word of knowledge.” And to others He does some things that are just kind of hard to understand. They’re extraordinary things and it starts with faith, gifts of healing, the effecting of miracles, prophesy, distinguishing of spirits. But then through some God has manifested Himself, and He chooses sometimes to give them a language that they don’t know or they do know so they can speak it to another culture in another language, but He also gives people the interpretation of that language, the ability to translate that language.

None of these things are done by the simple will of man. We’ve got to understand this. Corinth was an immature baby church that would test anybody to see who was in charge. What Paul was saying is, “Let me tell you something straight out. If you’re in the church of Jesus Christ, you are not in charge. Your emotions are not in charge. Your flesh is not in charge. God is in charge.” “So just who is in charge?” is what Paul is asking here. He’s trying to set the record straight about what God does. He is in charge and is not going to like what was going on in Corinth.

In verse 11 he brings us full circle. I love the way he does this. He starts off with the Giver, and now he comes full circle back to the Giver. He leaves the gifts. You know what? I feel like sometimes when we have taught on gifts, perhaps we have made a huge mistake of making too much of the gifts and not making enough of the Giver. That is the key to living the Christian life. It’s not just knowing your gift; listen, your gift means nothing if you’re not connected properly to the Giver. So Paul brings them back to that very truth. You watch the flow as we go on through chapter 12. He continues to bring you back to the Giver, not to the gift.

Paul points us back to the person of the Holy Spirit

Verse 11 reads, “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.” There are two things that I want you to see. That’s all we’re going to look at, just two things. First of all, I want you to see how Paul points us back to the person of the Holy Spirit. We need to understand the person of the Holy Spirit. This is important.

Now, in the deepest sense, believers do not utilize the gifts that they have. You don’t really use your gift. In the deepest sense, it’s the Holy Spirit of God who causes them to work. It’s the Holy Spirit of God who chooses when they’ll work. It’s never for my emotional gratification, it’s for God’s eternal and redemptive purposes. He’s in charge of the gifts He gives. He’s in charge of the manifestations that He chooses to manifest. The Holy Spirit, the Giver of the gifts is a person. Now, listen to me. Why is that important? Because He’s not an emotion; He’s not an influence; and He’s not a force as Star Wars would tell us, “The force be with you.” He is a person, and He is God, and He is fully God.

Someone said to me years ago, “Now, when you speak of the Holy Spirit, I don’t think people understand that you’re talking about God. I know you understand that, but maybe they don’t understand it. So when you say the Holy Spirit, say God the Holy Spirit.” That is exactly right. When you speak of the Holy Spirit as a person, you’re speaking of God, fully God. He’s totally God, and He’s in charge of what He does in a person’s life when it comes to manifestations and gifts, etc. As a matter of fact, everything He does in us is a gift.

The word “He” in the phrase “He wills” is not there because it’s not masculine in that particular verse. It’s in the neuter, which has more to do with what He does than who He is. But it’s implied. Look at John 16:13. Jesus Himself calls Him the person who is the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus said. It’s not my word, Jesus is speaking to His disciples in John 16:13. This is His promise of the Holy Spirit: “But when He [that little word “He” is masculine and singular, referring to a person], the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”

You see the Lord Jesus Himself identifies that His replacement who is coming will be the Holy Spirit living in us, the Spirit of Christ, as we’ll see in a little bit. He is a person. He’s not an emotion. He’s not an influence. He’s not a force. He is God personified. He is the Holy Spirit of God.

Now, again, why is that important? Because if He were an emotion, an influence, or a force, you could be in control of Him. But since He is God, the third person of the trinity, He must be in control of you. That’s the first thing that has to start. That’s why he takes us back to the Giver. You are never in control of the gifts, neither am I. You are not in control of the manifestation, neither am I. It has to be Him. He’s God. He’s a person. He’s God, and He’s absolutely in control of what He gives and what He manifests.

We must understand that there are three persons in the godhead—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—and they’re all equals. This just boggles my mind when I preach it, because I preach it as if I fully grasp it. Are you kidding? I just trust it by faith. I don’t fully grasp the trinity. If you do, would you talk to me afterwards?

In 2 Corinthians 13:14 is just one of the verses where it shows they are all equated. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God [the Father], and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” They are all three equal. There’s only one God, but there’s three persons. So the Spirit of Christ is the Holy Spirit. Christ still lives in each of us in the person of His Holy Spirit.

John 14:16 says, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.” The word “another” is allos, another of exactly the same kind. It will be the Holy Spirit. It will be Me. It will be the Father. No, it’s not. It’s the Holy Spirit. It’s the Spirit of Christ.

It’s amazing how many people try to figure out the trinity. Have you heard them do it? Some people take an egg and they’ll say, “Here’s the shell. That’s like the Father. Here’s the white and that’s like the Son. Here’s the yolk. That’s like the Spirit. That’s like the trinity.” When I was growing up. I thought that was really good. I got that answer in Vacation Bible School. Until I started studying Scripture and found out, “Nope. I’m sorry. That won’t cut it.” In the trinity the white of the egg is God, fully God, with or without the yolk and the shell. The shell is God with or without the white and the yolk. And the yolk is God with or without the white and the shell. You say, “That’s heavy.” Yes it is. It’s over my head. That’s just the trinity. So when you talk about the Holy Spirit of God, you’re speaking of Christ and you’re also speaking of the Father; however, in the personality of the Holy Spirit. There’s no jealousy in the trinity.

Isn’t it amazing how many people have Holy Spirit conferences because they feel like the Holy Spirit’s getting a bum rap? There’s no jealousy in the trinity. The Father gives it to Jesus; Jesus gives it to the Spirit; and the Spirit turns around and gives it back to the Father; the Father gives it to Jesus, because there’s only one God. This boggles your mind, but when you have the Holy Spirit of God in your life, you have the Spirit of Christ in your life. The life of God comes into you in the person of the Holy Spirit of God.

The point is that He’s a person. He’s a person. He’s God, and He’s in charge. He’s in charge so you better hook up to Him. Don’t you hook up to what people say that He does or doesn’t do. You hook up to Him because He’s the one, the divine intelligence of God, who does what He does to a believer’s life according to a predetermined plan in the godhead for the purposes of eternal redemptive things. That’s what God does.

Now, He wills the gifts and the manifestations of God to men. Just because somebody needs an emotional fix, He’s not at your beck and call. He’s not an emotion or an influence. That’s why it is never Him bending to us except at salvation. It’s us receiving Him and it’s us getting lined up under Him, you see.

Well, it says in 1 Corinthians 12:11, “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.” Boulomai means as He wishes, as He desires; not as we desire, but as He desires. The point is in the context it will point to the uneven, sometimes sporadic ways at which He distributes the gifts. He does it according to a divine plan. He does it according to a divine purpose. He’s representing the Father. He’s representing the Son and what He does through us. He’s in charge of that.

You see what Paul’s doing. He’s trying to set the record straight. What’s going on in Corinth? A bunch of babies are trying to question who’s in authority. He’s saying, “Now, listen. When God does it, it’s not going to look like what it looks like in Corinth.” Gifts are not to satisfy man’s emotional make-up, but they’re to fulfill the purposes of God. Whatever manifestation one has, if it’s truly of God the Holy Spirit, it must bear the mark of the character of the very person of God upon it. It must flow out of the divine intelligence and purpose of God.

I’ve told you this illustration before, but I tried to find another one and racked my brain but I cannot find another one that’s any better. So I just apologize. You’re going to have to hear it twice. If you’ve got a hammer that nails a nail, don’t throw the hammer away. When the nail pops up, just use the same old hammer. Because this is what I’m trying to explain to you; this is where people get messed up. I want to tell you something. When you become a Christian, you no longer are in a judgment seat of telling God what He’s going to do or not to do. The Christian life is not you getting your will on Earth done in Heaven. Prayer is not something that starts with you. Prayer starts with God. Our whole purpose is God’s will in Heaven being done on Earth which takes a decreasing, which takes a dying to self, which takes a constant brokenness in our life submitting, surrendering, surrendering, surrendering to who He is and to what only He wants.

Remember when the Toronto blessing started? It’s kind of died down in some areas. It depends on where you are, really. But when the Toronto blessing came out, laughing in the Spirit was supposed to be a new phenomenon of what the Holy Spirit of God does through people to manifest Himself through people. It’s a very emotional time. As a matter of fact, accompanied with it, if you’ve never seen it, people get down on all fours barking like dogs, down on all fours roaring like lions, and they’re saying, “This is the Holy Spirit of God. Don’t question us because we love Jesus.”

I was in a conference one summer. We had about 600 kids and I don’t know how many groups. Right in the middle of it, I don’t know if it was just me, my flesh, or whether it was the Lord, but I had been troubled with this one thing for a long time. I don’t know what we were in. I don’t think we were talking about deception. We might have been. But somehow, right in the middle of a sentence, said something very distaining about the Toronto blessing. I really put it down quick. Well, I did not know what I had just done. I had just taken a grenade and thrown it right over into one of the groups, because they came there wanting to let us know of this new thing the Spirit of God was doing in their midst.

A friend of mine came to me in that conference and said, “I don’t know who you think you are.” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Who do you think you are to tell us that God can’t manifest Himself through our life that way? Who do you think you are?” I said, “Okay, go ahead.” He said, “The Holy Spirit is like an emotion.” That’s what caught my attention. I said, “He is?” He said, “That’s right. It’s like anger. I have anger; my wife has anger; my three children have anger; and when we express that anger, then every one of us express it in different ways. Some hold it in. Some blow it out and do different things. Just like they are free to express their anger in a certain way, then we’re all free to express the Holy Spirit the way we are. You have no right to tell us that’s not of the Holy Spirit of God.”

My only answer to him was this—and I haven’t changed; I’m not the last word; I told you a million times I’m not the authority and I keep saying that. You be the Berean. You check it out for yourself. But here’s what I told him—I said, “The flaw in your argument, which only works in a barbershop by the way, is the Holy Spirit of God is not an emotion. And what He does is characterized from this [Bible], page to page, one covenant, another covenant, and what He does He speaks of Christ, He manifests Christ. If He gets on His knees and barks, then I’ll bark with Him. If He gets on His knees and roars, I’ll roar with Him. But you cannot say that He’ll step outside the predictable consistent pattern in Scripture.”

We’ve got to understand something, folks. When God’s in charge, people don’t do what their emotions tell them to do. They do what their will is led to do, and they bow before Him, repent before Him. What we are seeing happening today, which was also going on in Corinth, is people are taking charge. And when people take charge, the result is nothing more than absolute havoc and confusion. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:12 and elsewhere, “There are divisions among you.”

It divides. It does not unite. He’s the person. He’s the person of God. He is God and He is in charge. My whole life is to live surrendered to the One in charge. He’s not concerned about my emotional instability at any time. He’s not concerned by what I feel. He’s concerned about a choice that I’m going to make because that choice is either going to be to surrender to Him or to go the way of my flesh. That was what was going on in Corinth.

Paul points us back to the purpose of the Holy Spirit

Secondly, there is the purpose of the Holy Spirit of God. To me this is so clear. I guess it’s because I’ve studied it. “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.” It’s the role of the Holy Spirit. There are two phrases there, “works all these things” and “distributing to each one as He wills.” What’s the purpose? Why does He do that as He wills? What’s the plan behind this? What is it that shapes the desires of God? What is it He’s out to do? Paul is going to tie the distributing of the gifts and the manifestations and the working of the Spirit in verse 11 to the body of Christ and its function in verse 12. Watch this carefully.

Look at verse 12, “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.” You know the picture here. I don’t have to illustrate it. I wonder if your heart ever gets upset because there’s only one of it and two lungs. But there’s different parts to our body, different members to our body, and yet it’s only one body. Everything that goes on in my body is not for the sake of itself. It’s for the sake of the whole body. If my liver quits today, then it kills the whole body. It doesn’t matter how functional everything else is. If my kidneys give up, that kills the whole body. If my heart stops beating, it kills the whole body. Everything else may be healthy. So the whole purpose of a member of a body is never for itself, but always for the benefit of the whole body.

Paul says it’s the same way in Christ, His body. His body is one. In other words, there are many members in the body of Christ. There are many functions in the body of Christ. There are many gifts, many manifestations, but there’s never a manifestation given here or given there that doesn’t somehow enhance the visibility of the body of Christ.

Christ still lives on planet earth. He lives in the bodies of those who have received Him as their Lord and Savior. And each one of us makes up a certain function in the body of Christ. So whatever happens to me is not just to me, it happens to me for the benefit of the whole body.

Remember verse 7 of chapter 12? That’s what he’s been trying to say. Now, the Lord Jesus lives in us in the person of the Holy Spirit. In John 14:16 we read, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever, that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.” Then he says in verse 18—listen to these words; he just told you that the Holy Spirit is coming to live in you—“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” I will come to you? I thought the Holy Spirit’s going to come to me. Now I’m confused. That’s where you’ve got to go back to what we just covered. The person of the Holy Spirit is God. He’s fully God. When I have the Holy Spirit, I have Christ, I have the Father. I have all of God that I’m ever going to get when the Spirit of God comes to live in my life.

Revelations 5 says that Jesus is at the right hand of the throne and the Father sits on the throne. Well, but He’s also in us. How’s He in us? In the person of the Holy Spirit. Listen, the Holy Spirit lives in me to do one thing; never to bring attention to Himself, but to manifest Christ. He says in John 14:14, “He shall glorify me.” What I’m trying to get you to see—and you’re going to see as Paul continues to tie together—if Christ lives in me, He’s manifesting Himself through me by that which the Holy Spirit gives or manifests through me. The Holy Spirit’s the agent who manifests the very life of Christ to others. It’s not to glorify the Spirit and it’s not to glorify me. It’s to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, to bring recognition back to Him.

There were many spirits in Corinth, and they were causing all kinds of extraordinary things going on in Corinth. But they were not the Holy Spirit of God. The end result was, there was division and strife and confusion. That automatically negates the fact that it was Christ. When Christ is in us, His proven character will be manifest through us. The Holy Spirit’s the one who does that. So anything that happens to me, whether it be in a service or wherever, it’s not just for me. It’s for the benefit of the whole body and for the benefit that Christ might be manifested in that body.

He uses a infinitive there in verse 11. He says that He works all these things. That’s an infinitive. An infinitive is always there to express a purpose for something. The verb “works” is energeo. It means He actually causes it to happen, the Holy Spirit does. The purpose behind what He causes to happen is as we just said, so that Christ will be manifested through us.

Let me show you this a different way. Look over in 2 Corinthians 5:20. This is totally another illustration, just to maybe come at it a different way. You ask, “What’s happening to me in my prayer closet, because something’s going on and it doesn’t fit with anything you’ve said so far?” My answer to you is that, first of all, I love you deeply in the Lord Jesus; but I want you to know, secondly, I haven’t got a clue what’s happening to you. But what I am trying to tell you is, you cannot fit whatever’s happening to you in 1 Corinthians 12-14. Fit it someplace else. Whatever experience you say you’re having, then I can’t deny that experience, although I can say that that experience does not in any way validate scripture. Scripture must validate that experience, and it doesn’t fit in 1 Corinthians 12-14.

Look at 2 Corinthians 5:20, just sort of a statement you sometimes read and miss it. He says, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.” By the way, he says this to the Corinthian church. Do you realize the word “ambassador” is also the word we get elderly or aged person from? The idea suggested here is a mature person. Do you realize a person who is only attached to his flesh and to gifts and all this other kind of cannot in any way be an ambassador for Christ? He cannot represent Christ, because he’s not attached to Christ. It’s not for the immature; it’s for the mature. “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us.”

In other words, we came to you and preached to you and entreated you, but it wasn’t us, it was Christ in us. It was God in us and through the power of the Holy Spirit of God He was entreating others through us, you see. That’s the work of the Spirit.

If I take my coat off and I hang it there and say, “Come on, sleeve, do something; come on stupid, do something” it just hangs there. Why can’t it do anything? Because it’s got to have life in it to do it. The Holy Spirit is the life of Christ that has come into us. With my arm in that sleeve I say to this sleeve, “Now, do it” and it does it, not because of the sleeve. It’s because of the life that is in the sleeve which draws attention to the one who’s life it is.

That’s exactly why the Holy Spirit lives in us. And if He manifests something through you, it’s not to give you an emotional high. It’s to draw people around you, never to you, never to the Holy Spirit, but to the Lord Jesus Christ through you. That’s His whole work. That’s His purpose.

In Romans 15:17-18 Paul says, “Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God.” That’s good for him because most of his life before he became a believer he knew how to boast in things pertaining to himself. Verse 18 says, “For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ [I thought Christ was at the right hand of the Father?] has accomplished through me.”

Now, just giving those two illustrations, that’s what he’s trying to tell them in 1 Corinthians 12. When God is in charge, then the Holy Spirit will be. Yes, He’ll manifest. Yes, He’ll give gifts, but it will be for manifesting the life of Jesus Christ. The body parts never do anything for the sake of the part, they do it for the sake of the body.

Paul is trying to show the Corinthian church if you are so attached to your flesh and your emotions that you would even split the whole place over your experience. If you’d split the whole place over your emotional moment, he says you in no way in this world are empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. When He’s in charge, He manifests the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This body that we are as a church is only to bring recognition to the Lord Jesus who lives in us, and the Holy Spirit’s responsibility is to make certain that that takes place. If you make the mistake of thinking that the Holy Spirit is an influence or an emotion, do you realize what you’ve done? You have now put yourself in control and no longer is He in charge of what’s happening. One can clearly see He distributes; He works as He wills; He is not there for any of our emotional satisfaction.

I’ll tell you what. There have been some experiences in my life. I have never spoken in tongues, in an ecstatic tongue or something, but I’ve had some precious moments with the Lord that I just don’t feel free to share them with you. Do you remember on the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus said to go and tell how many people? No one. I want to tell you something. When you have an emotional moment, the first thing you want to do is run and tell somebody and they want to built a denomination on it. We haven’t learned yet that those precious times that God may give to us are between you and Him and Him alone, and must always somehow fit the grid of what Scripture says. They’ll be precious times to you. But you’ll never tell anybody because they’re just in your walk with Him.

The Holy Spirit, when He manifests Himself, does it, not for your personal edification—even though there are times you are personally edified—He does them for the edification of others and for the presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ in and through our lives. That’s what Paul said in Ephesians 5:18, “Be ye being filled with the Spirit of God.” That’s the whole thing. Be always under His control. Let Him be in charge. When you get in charge, that’s when you see all the garbage that comes out; and Christ in no way is represented by what’s going on. Anything else is the sick church of Corinth.

Let me conclude in saying this. When a church is under the control of the Holy Spirit of God—which will only be when the Holy Spirit is manifesting the character of Christ through them—there will be unity, because Christ unifies through His Spirit. Ephesians 4:3 says, “Being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.” There will be fellowship, a general sharing together. Why? Because He manifests fellowship through His Spirit. It says in Philippians 2:1, “If there is [and it should be translated “since there is”] therefore any consolation of Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, and of one mind.”

If Christ is in control, there will be worship. People will sing praise, talk praise, and live victoriously.

1 Corinthians 12:12-17

Contents

1 All for One, and One for All

1.1 We are unified in one body

1.2 We are baptized into one body

1.3 We are nourished by one fountain

1.4 We are essentially different

All for One, and One for All

I want to entitle this, “All For One, and One For All.” I think it was the Three Musketeers who coined that, however, we’re going to see it in light of the body of Christ. How many times have you heard the statement that you and I are free in Jesus Christ? How many times have you heard me balance it by saying freedom is not the right to do as you please; freedom is the power to do as you should? If we’re ever going to live in freedom, we’re going to have to live attached to and surrendered to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the only way to live free and empowered to do what we’re called to do.

That’s the whole emphasis of 1 Corinthians. Who are you attached to? Who are you surrendered to? If you’re surrendered to Christ, then you’re living in the purposes He has for your life. In chapter 12 Paul has clearly emphasized the one source of all the spiritual gifts. It’s God. God the Spirit, in verse 4, gives gifts. God the Son, in verse 5, gives the ministry. And God the Father, in verse 6, gives the effect. God in the three persons of the God-head is the one source of all the gifts that we have in ministry and in the body of Christ.

In verse 7 he has clearly stated the purpose of any manifestation of the Spirit of God. It is to not only exemplify the power of the Spirit but it is to give to the common good. In other words, it’s for everybody. It’s to edify and unify the body of Christ.

I hope these Scriptures will come together for you. Romans 12:1 says, “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God”—what mercies? The mercies he’s just talked about for eleven chapters—“to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” The only way you worship Him, the only way I worship Him, the only way Corinth could worship Him is to surrender to Him, present their bodies.

In verse 2 it says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove [the word means to test for yourself], what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” When we live this way, then what God does through us unifies and edifies the body of Christ. Now, why are we camping out there? Because this was not the case in Corinth. They lived attached to everything and everyone but Christ. As a result, Christ was not glorified, and there was disunity and confusion in the church. They were more concerned with gifts and manifestations than they were living surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ.

We come to verses 12 and 13 that have to do with us being a part of the body of Christ. The last time we peaked over into verses 12 and 13. We really didn’t teach in it. We just looked over into it. We saw that when you become a believer, no matter who it is, it doesn’t matter what you don’t have or what you do have when you come to Christ. It doesn’t matter who you are or who you’re not. When you come to Christ, immediately you are placed into the body of Christ. Each believer is a part of His body here on this earth. Jesus still lives on this earth in the people who have responded to Him by faith.

First Corinthians 12:12 says, “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.” Verse 13 starts off by saying, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” I don’t know if that does anything to you at all, but to me that’s just an incredible picture that we’re a part of the body of Christ. He says in Ephesians 1:22, “And He put all things in subjection under His [Christ’s] feet, and gave Him [Christ] as head over all things to the church”. Then he says, “which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.” Ephesians 5:30 says, “because we are members of His body.” Colossians 1:24 tells us, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church.”

Now, we are members of the body of Christ. There are members in the body who speak other languages. You go overseas. There are members in the body who are a different color than we are. There are Caucasian, there are Blacks and Orientals. There are many people in the body of Christ. But when a person gets saved, he is birthed into the kingdom of God and placed into the body of Christ on this earth.

We are unified in one body

You say, “You said that about thirty times. We got the point.” I hope you do because if you’re a member of His body on this earth, then there are at least four things we must understand, very critical to the text of what we’re dealing with here in 1 Corinthians 12. First of all, we must understand how we are one. We are unified in that one body. We are unified in His body; fused together, if you please. Verse 12 says, “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.” In his first statement the apostle Paul is referring to the human body. You see, a human body is one. Do we understand this? Spreading into the plurality of members with different functions, each attached to another as members of the organism and each laboring for the welfare of the whole. There are many parts to the body and the many parts have different functions, but they are fused together in the body of Christ. Again, their functions are different and there are many of us, but there is only one body.

As the text goes on, the apostle Paul is not interested in picking out this part of the body, this part, and this part. He’s not interested in listing all the parts of the human body as he compares it to the body of Christ. But he is interested in helping us to realize the different functions and the different members in the body. For instance, in verse 15 he mentions those that are common to us, the foot and the hand. Look at verse 15. “If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,’ it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.” It’s a point he’s going to bring out on that we’ll look at later.

The ear and the eye are mentioned in verse 16. “And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,’ it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.” Again, his point is the multiplicity and also the diversity. There are many members in the body. There are many different functions of the members. But also there is unity in all of them. They are fused together in the one body of Christ.

Look at verse 12. The first word he uses there is the word “for.” You say, “Big deal!” Well, it is a big deal. It’s a little word, but it’s a big deal. It’s the little word gar. This is a positive participle. It stands after a point has been made and expresses the reason for what has already been said. This is very important. Then he says, “For even as.” The little word “as” there lets us know that a comparison is coming up. He’s going to take the human body with its many members, its many functions, but its unique unity and he’s going to compare it to the body of Christ. But he’s going to take the whole thing and tie it back to verse 11.

Look at verse 11. “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as he wills.” That word “wills” means He desires, He wishes. In other words, the Holy Spirit has a purpose in the body of Christ. What is His purpose? What He does, you see, He’s God. He’s God the Father, God the Son, all of God. He knows what the body is to do. He knows what the body is to look like. So He lives in the body to do one thing, to cause all the different functions to point to Christ and to make sure that Christ is manifested in the body.

So He does for you one thing; He does for someone else this other thing; and for me another thing. He gifts us differently, but He’s orchestrating the whole thing. He’s causing the body to manifest Christ. It’s like in a human body, the head controls the body. In the Christian life Christ controls it through the person of His Holy Spirit. So what he wants you to see is we are one and we’re caused to continue to be one by the working of the Holy Spirit of God.

In verse 12 he actually says the same thing two different ways. He says, “For even as the body is one and yet has many members,” then he turns right around and says, “and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body.” He says the body is one, and there’s only one body. Now he makes a comparison. He takes the human body, sets it up here on this shelf and says, “Okay, you see the human body? Does everybody understand?” And everybody says, “Yes, we understand.” Then he comes over here and compares something with it. Here is the body of Christ.

Look at the last few words there of the verse. He says, “so also is Christ.” I want to show you something here. Why didn’t he say, “so also is the church?” Why didn’t he say that? Because in other epistles when he’s bringing out other truths, he says, “so also is the church.” Why did he say, “so also is Christ?” I believe it’s this. I believe he wants to somehow take away anything in the mind that would in any way relate to the organized church, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian. Get that out of your mind. He wants to take it away from the organization and keep the focus on the organism, the body of Christ. He didn’t say the church. He said the body of Christ, “so also is Christ.”

We have to hear what he’s saying here. You realize when you get saved, you’re birthed into the family of God, into the body of Christ whether you’re Presbyterian or whether you’re Methodist or whether you’re Roman Catholic. Listen, in every denomination there are those who have joined church and missed God. But also within that same denomination there are people who are a part of the body of Christ. There’s only one body. There are many churches, denominations, etc., but within that there are many who are part of the body of Christ. I know Roman Catholics who know Christ personally, have been converted and stay in the church to bring more and more people to a conversion experience. I know people in the Greek Orthodox Church in Romania who are a part of what they call the Lord’s Army who stay in the church for one reason and that is to evangelize others who do not realize you can have a personal relationship with God the Father through Jesus the Son.

So, the moment you’re saved, you’re not put into a denomination or into a church. You’re put into the body of Christ. And the apostle Paul wants to keep us thinking organism, not organization. In Corinth it was organization but in the Christian world it’s organism, the life, the body of Christ. The Bible never refers to a body of Christians. It always refers to the body of Christ. As a matter of fact, He is the church. We’re just a part of that as we are birthed into the kingdom and put into His body. Paul’s whole point is that we recognize the differences in this body. We also recognize, however, the oneness of the many members that are different. We’ve got to see this. We have been fused together.

Now, in his comparison in verse 12 he wants us to see how even though we are diverse in function, how we truly are fused together. The human body is the example that he holds before us. Back to the human body. In that human body there are so many different parts to it. Again, we can overemphasize and over illustrate any point. But the human body still continues to be his picture here that he’s comparing the body of Christ. And you see so many different members in it. But the one thing is every one of those members, even though they function differently, are tied together by the life that is in that body.

Have you ever been around somebody who is dying? I don’t want to bring up anything tender or cause anybody to have difficult times by what I’m saying but he’s using the human body. He’s using the life that’s in that body that fuses all the members together. Once you take the life out of that body, it doesn’t matter how healthy every organ and every part looks, it means it is now organized death is all it is. To be an organism it’s got to have that life in it. It is very organized, the body is, but the organism takes precedent because without the life there is no organism. That’s so key.

I’ve been with several people when they died and, you know, the Scripture says that the moment of death the spirit leaves the body. If you’ve never witnessed that, you don’t know what I’m talking about. But if you have, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You can watch the spirit leave. They called me when I was in Mississippi and asked if I would come down to the hospital. There was a man who had overdosed. He had no family and they needed me to be there.

I went down there and lying on the table there was this big strapping guy about six feet four. Looking at his body, it looked healthy. Looking at his body, it still had color in it. It looked as if everything was there and what a strong person he was. But the life that held all of that together, the life that caused it all to work was draining out of his body. I sat there and watched as that man died. I watched the spirit leave and I watched the rest of it happen. The corpse that looked so organized and looked so healthy and was so efficient suddenly became nothing but dead meat because the life had been taken out of it.

It’s the life that binds us together in one body. It’s the life of God that fuses us together. It’s the blood of Christ that binds us together. You see what he’s doing? He’s done this over and over in chapter 12. He’s not teaching gifts, I’m telling you. He’s correcting error. He’s bringing them back. Get your eyes off the gift and come back and get your eyes on the giver. If you’re not connected to Him, it doesn’t matter how organized you are. It doesn’t matter what gift you say you have. It’s absolute nothing but death. It’s the life of the body that binds and fuses the different members of that body together. So the first thing he wants them to see here is that we are one in the body of Christ. We have been fused together by the life God has put in us in the person of the Holy Spirit of God, who by the way, gives the gifts as He wills and does the manifestation as He wills for the reason of manifesting Christ.

We are baptized into one body

The second thing we see, as he comes into verse 13, is he addresses how we became one in this body, how it all happened when we are baptized with or by the means of one Spirit. Look at verse 13: “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” The first thing we need to realize here when he uses the term “baptize” is it is not talking about water baptism. No. He says very clearly in the verse, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” That’s very clear that it is not talking about any kind of water baptism at all.

In fact, water baptism has nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at 1:17, and I’ll show you it has nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ. People have made it a part of the gospel, but it has nothing to do with the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 1:17, the apostle Paul very clearly says, “I’m glad I didn’t baptize most of you. As a matter of fact, I can’t even remember if I did baptize any of you. Two families, I can remember them.” He says in verse 17, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the [What?] gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void.” In other words, if you want to nullify the cross and what Jesus did there, you add baptism to it. Anything plus grace equals no grace. You cannot add any work to what Christ has done for us. So he’s not talking about anything to do with water baptism.

Verse 13 reads, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” When you read this wrongly, it appears that the Holy Spirit takes you and baptizes you into the body of Christ. That is wrong. In Scripture there is no baptism of the Holy Spirit, as if the Holy Spirit baptizes us in Christ. Nowhere in Scripture does it say the Holy Spirit baptizes us in the body of Christ. Look in Matthew 3:11 and you’ll see who baptizes you in the body of Christ. It’s not the Holy Spirit. I’ll explain why it says, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.”

In Matthew 3:11, John the Baptist is speaking, and he says, “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you, with the [What?] the Holy Spirit and fire.” This indicates who’s going to be doing the baptism. Christ will baptize you Himself into His body with or by the means of the Holy Spirit. That’s the way it should be read. It’s by the means of the Holy Spirit. Just like you’re baptized in the water by means of water, you’re baptized into Christ’s body by Christ Himself by the means of the Holy Spirit of God. We were all placed into Christ the same way. This is his point.

Let’s don’t get way over here. Let’s come back real quickly. What’s his point? We all got saved the same way. There is no uniformity in the body of Christ, but there is a divine unity in the body of Christ because we all came in the same way. We were all baptized by Christ into His body with or by the means of His Holy Spirit. We are one by virtue of our salvation experience.

By the way, there’s no class system in Christ. Look at verse 13 again. “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” Do you realize the gulf that spans the Jew from the Gentile? Do you realize the difference here? Here’s the Jew with all the covenants and promises of God. Here’s the Gentile, out of the pagan nations of the world, and all he knows is idolatry, which Corinth came out of. How in the world can you make these two people one? Because the Jew, who had all of his covenants and promises, had to come in by way of the cross and had to be baptized into the body of Christ with or by the means of the Holy Spirit, and the Gentile came in the same way. No matter how much you know, no matter how much you don’t know, the way is the same. He was able to span the gulf and the differences between these two.

In Ephesians 2:14 Paul, mystified at how this took place, said of the Gentiles and of the Jews, “For He Himself [Christ] is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two [Jew and Gentile] into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.” So He spanned that gulf. The same way the Jew gets saved is the same way the Gentile gets saved. They both came in. They’re fused together because they’ve been baptized in the body of Christ with the same Holy Spirit.

Then to carry the thought further he mentions the slave and the free man. What a difference there! The free man owned the slave. The slaves had nothing. The free man, normally, had everything and yet they both came in the same way. It doesn’t matter how much money you have. It doesn’t matter who you are. There’s only one way to the kingdom of God and when you’re in the kingdom of God, He places you in the body of Christ and baptizes you with the Holy Spirit. That’s your salvation experience. It all happens at the same time. But when we are baptized into the body of Christ with the Holy Spirit, then the gulf is spanned and we have been made one in the body of Christ. Only when we realize this can I accept you as being different from me. Only when I realize that we are one because of salvation experience, then I can accept you as being different from me, knowing the oneness is in the Spirit of God that lives in both of us. The diversity is in the way God has made us and gifted us and caused us to function. I can accept that if I understand our divine unity in the Holy Spirit of God.

As a matter of fact, Ephesians 4:3 says that the unity is already there amongst the body. He says, “preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” We already have unity. Unity was established when we were all saved the same way, came in the same way, and we were baptized in the body of Christ with or by the means of the Holy Spirit of God. We are all moved by the same spiritual breath of life that makes us one. It’s a beautiful thought.

Okay. So we’re one in the body of Christ. How do we get that way? Through our salvation experience, as we were baptized into the body of Christ with or by the means of the Holy Spirit of God. There is no other way for Jews or Gentiles, slave or free man. That’s how we were made one together. The same life in you is the same life in me. It’s the life of Christ in His body on this earth.

We are nourished by one fountain

Thirdly, we are nourished by one fountain, the same fountain, and made to drink of one Spirit. Now, being baptized with or by the means of the Spirit and the body of Christ and drinking of one Spirit are practically the same, but uniquely different. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ? Go back to John 7:37, 39. It’s very significant what Jesus said. If you’ll just put this together with what He said, you’ll see the difference in what it means to be baptized with or by the means of the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ and then when He says that we are all made to drink one Spirit. John 7:37 reads, “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.’” And then verse 39 says, “But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” You see, the drinking of the Spirit, drink from the same well, drinking from the same source, the same sense of nourishment here, that took place as a result of being baptized in the body of Christ with or by the means of the Spirit of God. That’s His coming to infill us. That’s His coming to indwell us. We were plunged into Christ as we died with Him. And as we were raised to walk in the newness of His life, we were made to drink from the Holy Spirit of God. He is the nourishment that we all drink from.

That’s why, going back to verse 11, He chooses which gifts to give. He chooses the functions in the body. He is in control of everything, and He’s the one we drink from. It’s Him that produces the functions of the body and manifests the person of Christ. It’s His life in us.

Now drinking automatically draws a picture of somebody who’s thirsty and dry. I’ll tell you what. If you want to go back to the organized church, if that’s what people want, it won’t be long until you’re going to be very thirsty because there’s nothing out there that you can drink from that will satisfy the innermost needs that you have except that which the Holy Spirit offers. Picture this dry parched land and water just coming in abundance and washing down through there quenching the thirst that’s there. Every day of my life, as I come to Christ, I come to His Spirit, and His Spirit infuses His life into me. It’s like cold water on a hot day which quenches that parched throat and that dryness in the throat. Everything that we have in life that’s good comes from the Holy Spirit and we’re made to drink from that Holy Spirit.

When we were in Germany, this one little lady was so humble. She would stop us every time when the service was over and she said, “I’m not trying to be presumptuous but I’ve written some things down. Is that what you said? I want to understand. I so want to understand.” Tears would stream down her face and she would say, “I’ve been living in such a dry and thirsty land. Is this what you’re saying?” And I would say “Yes.” And she would say, “It’s just too good!” She came to me one day and said, “Let me see if this is right. I can’t be good, can I?” And I said, “No, you can’t. Ask any Pharisee.” But she said, “I can surrender to His goodness, can’t I?” I said, “Yes.” And she said, “This is so good!”

What I pictured in my mind was she would come into that meeting, coming out of whatever background she had, and she would sit there and it was like you had a huge pitcher of ice cold water on a hot thirsty tongue and throat and you’re just pouring that cool glass of water on them. That’s when you drink from the Holy Spirit of God. When you’re drinking from the nourishment that only He can give, that’s when He begins to manifest through you the life that is in you that you have been fused together with others to have. He manifests that life. That life breathes life. That’s what the whole picture is all about. We’re unified in the body of Christ. How? Through our salvation experience we were all baptized into one body with or by the means of the Holy Spirit of God. Now that Holy Spirit that lives in us nourishes us and we’re made to drink from the same Spirit.

We are essentially different

But then fourthly, we are essentially different. That’s interesting. We are essentially different. Do you realize that diversity is essential to unity? Have you ever been in one of these places that they think unity is uniformity? Have you ever been there? Everybody cuts their hair the same way. Everybody wants to look the same. Everybody must wear a tie. Everybody must wear a white shirt. Everybody must wear a blue blazer and a pair of gray slacks. This is the kind of uniformity that comes out of some of this. That’s just what people do. They always want to look alike. “Let’s look alike because we’re one.”

But unity is more beautiful in the midst of diversity. Paul said in verse 14, “For the body is not one member, but many.” The Corinthian church was divided when it should have been unified. It tried to be uniform when it should have been diverse. That reminds you of most churches in America. On the one hand it was divided over the leadership. Folks, let me tell you something. If you have been bounded together in one Spirit, don’t you ever attach yourself to a preacher. I have said this over and over again. You attach yourself to Christ, to Christ. The Corinthian church attached themselves to a preacher. Some were of Paul; some were of Apollos, his successor; and some were of Cephas. Whoa! Simeon Peter got drug into this one too.

On the other hand, not only was it divided over leadership, they were all trying to be alike in their gifts. I know that from the text and I’m going to show you. Especially the showy gifts like tongues and the things that were on the outside. They tried to copy everybody who had it as if everybody had to do the same thing to be unified in the body of Christ. That’s absolutely ridiculous and Paul tells them that.

Look at 12:27. He says, “Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.” Then look at the questions. It tells you what’s going on. “All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way.” By the way, when we get there it will be interesting what that should say.

The problem was, “God, you told me I was one. But look at him. He’s gifted better than me. God, I want his gift. I’m not satisfied with my gift. I want the same recognition he’s getting. He spoke in another language. Can I speak in another language? Come on, God. I want his gift.” Ridiculous! But that’s Corinth. That’s flesh. That’s the way flesh always is. Instead of accepting and receiving what God’s given by grace, we’re always try to mimic somebody else especially the ones who were out in front.

Many seemed to be unhappy with their gifts. Envy is a sign of flesh, not the Spirit. How do you know that? Look at verse 15 again. Here’s what they were saying. You know what they were saying by the way Paul addresses it. “If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,’ it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,’ it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.” You see, the foot thought that since he wasn’t a hand he had been left out.

Can you imagine my foot trying to be a hand? You know, some people can walk on their hands. I think if I had been Jonah I would have walked on my hands all the way to Ninevah if I had been in a fish for three days. But some people can walk on their hands. But most of us walk on our feet. God, who made our body, knew that it needed a foot that’s going to look a whole lot different and in some cases like in our son, smell a whole lot different than the hand. The hand does certain things the foot can’t do. But the foot does things that the hand can’t do. So why in the world would the foot say, “I wish I was the hand.”? That’s what’s going on here.

Then he talks about the ear and the eye in 1 Co 12:16. “And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body."

1 Corinthians 12:18-23

Contents

1 All for One, and One for All – Part 2

1.1 The need we have for each other

1.2 The error of some in the body

1.3 The importance we should give to the unnoticed gifts

All for One, and One for All – Part 2

The church of Corinth was in a spiritual mess. They had had the best teachers any church could have had in the New Testament. The apostle Paul was their teacher/preacher. Apollos followed him. They were well taught. We’ve looked at that and researched that over the months that we’ve studied them together. And yet they were upside down. Why? Because, you see, their knowledge was in their heads, not in their hearts. They were attaching themselves to everything but Christ. They attached themselves to preachers in the first part of the book and they were attaching themselves now to gifts of certain kinds. Everything was always something other than the attachment to Jesus Christ.

As a result of that, they didn’t have a concept. They didn’t have a clue about the body of Christ and how it worked. They were coveting each other’s gifts. Can you imagine? They were coveting each other’s ministries. They were coveting each other’s effects of those ministries. They were coveting such gifts as speaking in tongues. They felt like somehow that made you more spiritual. You ask me, “What words does Paul use here to make you come to that conclusion?”

One of the things I’ve tried to do is when I make a statement, I try to show you how I arrived at that statement. It’s very clear how I arrived at this conclusion. If you’ll just look at the way Paul handles this subject in chapter 12 and then follow it on through, it becomes so crystal clear as to what the problem was in that church. He picks parts of the human body to illustrate what’s going on in the spiritual body of Christ there at Corinth.

For instance, look at verse 13. He begins with the spiritual body of Christ. He says, “For by one Spirit.” And you know that means with or by the means of one Spirit. He’s not talking about a baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not baptize us into Christ. Christ baptizes us into His body with or by the means of the Holy Spirit. That is our salvation experience. “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free.” He gives you the contrasting ends of a pole—a Jew and a Greek, and also a slave and a free man. We’re all made into one in the Lord Jesus Christ, “and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” Baptized with the Spirit, you have Him at salvation. Then you’re made to drink of that Spirit. It’s the Spirit that nourishes me. It’s the same Spirit that affects those gifts and ministries, etc., that God does through our lives.

Well, look at verse 13. It says, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” Now, by utilizing the illustration of the human body he begins to show how God made us all different. If you’ll look at verse 14, “For the body is not one member, but many.” It’s one body according to verse 13, but the body is not one member, but many members. He then establishes the absurdity of one member of the body being jealous or wanting to be like another member of the body. It takes away from the whole function.

He says in verse 15, “If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body’ [then he makes a statement], it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.”

Then is says in verse 16, “And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body’, it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.” It becomes very crystal clear in verse 17: “If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?” Then he drives his point home in verse 18, and he shows that God has created the body the way the way he wants it to be. He’s put the members in the body the way He chooses. It says in verse 18, “But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.”

One of the beautiful principles of the human body is that the organs of my body do not exist for each other. They exist because of the head and they respond to the head. Now, if the messages from the head are not getting to the members of my body, then everything is crippled. And so as they respond to the messages of the head, they in fact are responding to one another. In other words, you don’t live for each other. You live for Him. But because you live for Him, you live for each other. And if the head dictates anything to one member of the body, he’s dictating it to all the members of the body.

So it’s a beautiful picture here of the oneness and diversity of the body. All living for one, however, once you do that, then one is living for all: All for one, one for all. If you’re all living for Christ, the head, then we are in fact living for one another. You don’t live for each other so you can live for Him. You live for Him so that you can live for one another.

In verse 19 Paul wraps up his first thoughts here. He says, “And if they were all one member, where would the body be?” In other words, to the Corinthians, “Corinthians, if you’re going to concentrate on just this gift or that gift, what are you doing? Because if everybody was this gift or that gift, where would the rest of the body be?” It would be ridiculous to have all feet. The point to me is so clear you don’t even have to illustrate what he’s saying here. We all have our purpose and when we stay connected to the head like we should, attached to Christ, then we’ll fulfill that purpose, but also enable others around us to fulfill the purpose God has given to them.

The need we have for each other

In verse 20 he comes back to his main point. “But now there are many members, but one body.” The key is diversity, but the key is also the unity of that diverse body. Now, we come a little bit further in chapter 12. We’re going to see three other things about the body of Christ. Remember the thought, “All for One and One for All.” First of all, the need we have for each other. Paul wants to make sure that the Corinthians understand how much each of us need each other. When it speaks of the gifts, it speaks of how much every gift needs the other gifts. You can’t stand alone in that gift. Paul is addressing, remember, the immature there in Corinth. They were coveting gifts that were more recognizable. They somehow were equating the recognizable gifts with a spiritual condition of that person. The gifts that stir a crowd, gifts that spark of emotion, the ecstatic type of thing, they were coveting those kinds of gifts because they felt like that made them spiritual. Watch how he develops this thought. You have to reach the whole piece of Scripture here to get it. You can’t just read one verse. Let’s just read the whole flow and we’ll come back and comment.

Look at verse 21: “And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’; or again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body, which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our unseemly members come to have more abundant seemliness.” Verse 24 continues, “whereas our seemly members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.”

Now, there’s no room for arrogance in the body of Christ. It’s a different way of looking at the gifts. But in Romans 12:3, after those beautiful eleven chapters, he says, “Listen, I say to you by the grace given to me, do not think more highly of yourselves than you ought to think.” We’ve got to be really careful. There’s no room for arrogance. Just because your gift is an up front gift, just because recognition is given to your gift, so what? God gave the gift. It’s not the gift, it’s the Giver and it’s the fact that you’re just to be grateful for having a part of the body that He’s given. He says here that there’s no room for the eye to look in disdain at the hand. That’s his whole point. There’s no room for the hand to look back and disdain the eye. What are you doing here? Why would the hand want to be the eye? Why would the eye want to be the hand? Why would the eye think it’s more important than the hand?

It says in verse 21, “And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you.’” The eye might look at the attacker and see the attacker coming, but it’s the hand that fends off the attacker. The two have to work together. Without one the other’s not functional. So they have to work together. Then he continues the analogy. He says, “or again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.” With the head decisions are made. The head is where the beauty is. But the feet are the most unseemly part of the body. It’s senseless for the head to look at the feet and say, “I don’t need you. I’m greater than you are.” It’s the head that comes up with the ideas, it’s the feet that carries them out. So you have to have both of them in the body.

I read an article not long ago which said, “The feet are the most unsightly part of the body.” That just depends on who you’re talking about. I’ve seen some people where the head was the most unsightly part of the body. I didn’t want to tell them, “You’re ugly.” But the head is where the beauty is. That’s why you spend all your time in front of a mirror. The feet are the most unsightly, yet the head’s got to have the feet. The two work together. Paul shows how each member of the body of Christ, like members of our own body, need each other.

I’m not going to use every message to walk us through what I’m walking through right now and what you’re walking through in the time we have together. But I think this really does fit. If it fits, so be it. But I want you to know something. I spent years working very diligently trying to build this church on Christ and His Word. Listen to me. Every person in the body needs each other. If what happens down the road, the effect of those years and however long we’re going to be together, the effect of all that is not going to be now. The effect is going to be then. And if somebody said to me, “Well, one-third of the whole church is going to leave just as soon as you walk out of here,” let me tell you something. If that happens, shame on us, because every member of the body of Christ needs the other members, not just one. If one is taken away, that didn’t mean the rest have taken away.

If God in His foreknowledge understand that one day I’m going to leaving, don’t you think that He’s already prepared somebody to take the place and go right on? But that should not affect the body being responsive to Christ. We need each other. You can’t say, “Well, we just need you. Brother, we need you and if you’re going, we’re gone.” No! We need Christ. It’s His body. It’s not a church built on a man. It’s a church built on Christ. So to me this thing is so appropriate to bring in to the situation that we’re in to understand the depth of what Paul is saying. The eye is desperately in need of the hand and the head is desperately in need of the foot. Each gift in the body is important because the Spirit put it there and the function of it is to make sure that Christ is seen.

So many churches in our country today are built so much on preachers. That’s the only gift that they elevate. That goes totally against what the apostle Paul is saying. Welcome to the church of Corinth if that’s what we’re going to do. I don’t think it is. But I just want to make sure you think about it before those days come. The test is coming to see whether or not this church is built on a preacher or whether or not this church is built on the Word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. We will see in the days to come. There’s no such thing as a healthy body with selfish organs. Healthiness is not determined by how many people come on Sundays. The health of a body is how many people are surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ in their life daily, daily bowing before Him. That shows you health in the body of Christ.

The error of some in the body

Secondly, he shows the error of some in the body of Christ; not everybody, but some. In Corinth, yes, all of them. It’s a tendency of our immature flesh to think of gifts that are more noticeable to be spiritual. That’s kind of what was going on in Corinth. Our flesh is programmed to think and to measure things that way. In other words, if somebody gets up and stirs the crowd, if there’s emotion, that guy’s spiritual. I wish I could be like that person over there. I wish I had his experience. I wish I could do what they do. We think that those who are up front, those who are noticeable are the more spiritual. That’s the way the flesh operates. That’s the way it thinks. If we happen to be one of those who, on the other end of the pole, has one of the gifts that are more unnoticed and one of these gifts that are looked down on and not even seen, we think of ourselves as being real inferior.

We were over in Europe several years ago and as I was speaking there were five translators taking the language of one and putting it into a language of another. There was a little girl sitting three feet away from me. She was from Hungary, but she can’t speak English. So as I was speaking and she was listening through the earphones, I was sharing out of Romans 12 and how the gifts are all there but how they’re different. But the oneness of the body is there and how important each gift is. She began to cry visibly from the platform. I could see her. I knew she was moved about something, but I didn’t know what. After it was over she brought the tall lady from Hungary who’s there every year. She spoke through her and said, “I want you to tell him that all of my life I have felt like my gift was in the area of mercy. Nobody ever sees what I do. My heart is to reach out to people. It’s not a gift that’s up front. I’ve always felt inferior. I’ve always felt like I wasn’t really that important. Somehow I got short-changed in what’s going on. But for the first time in my life I realized that’s a sin of pride. I confessed that before the Lord and I realize now that I have the Holy Spirit living in me because I’m a believer. I ought to be grateful for what He’s given me. Whether people see it or don’t see it. It doesn’t matter. I’m critical to the body of Christ.”

I thought, “Man, that’s it. That’s what Paul was trying to say.” Look what you’re doing. If you start coveting gifts that are up front, if you start wanting to say that if you speak in tongues, that makes you spiritual or if you do this or you do that, do you realize what you’re doing to the rest of the body that have just as critical gifts as that? As a matter of fact, more critical to the effectual work of Christ on this earth.

Well, in verse 22 he says, “On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.” A little phrase caught me. He says, “seems to be.” What is that “seem to be” word? It’s the word dokeo. It has the idea of one’s understanding as he thinks. In other words, “As a man thinks so he is.” Do you remember that verse in Proverbs? How do you think? What’s your attitude towards things? What is your thought processes toward something? It’s the way he thinks.

It was used over in Matthew 17:25, and it says that when Jesus came into the house He spoke to him first saying, “What do you think, Simon?” The word is used as somebody’s thought processes, how he thinks about something. So, you see, what we think apart from the revelation of God and what Paul is bringing out in Corinthians is two ends of the pole. It’s almost like the North and the South Pole. They are so far away. The way man thinks and the way God thinks is exactly opposite. If you’re going to deify these certain gifts and make somebody think they’re spiritual, that is totally the opposite of the way God thinks. Man has a tendency to judge in the exact different contrary way than the way God thinks.

Let me put this into another area. I’m bringing in my circumstances right now, but it’s the only thing that came to my heart when I was studying. Get out of gifts and get out of 1 Corinthians 12. Let me show you the difference in the way man thinks and the way God thinks. When you have made a major life-changing decision has someone ever asked, “Have you counted the cost?”

You know where that comes from, don’t you? It comes from Luke 14:25. I want to tell you something. This is my heart attitude toward this Scripture. The counting the cost there is an illustration, not the truth. You don’t build a truth on an illustration. You build a truth on the context of what Jesus was saying. What Jesus was saying was there’s a clear cost to when you build a house. There’s a clear cost when you go into battle. There’s a clear cost when you serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is He comes superior to all relationships in your life. He’s not saying that the counting the cost is you better sit down and see if you’ve got enough money to do it before you ever commit it. He’s not saying that. Because if He’s saying that, then faith is completely eradicated.

The apostle Paul didn’t know where he was going to sleep the next day. I don’t know where that’s found in Scripture. He did know something: he knew in whom he had believed and was convinced that he was able to keep that which he had entrusted until that day.

Listen. This is the way the world thinks. Why? Because that’s the way business runs. Monday through Friday you know what’s coming in. You know what’s going out and you do what you need to do. That’s the way the world thinks. That’s not the way God thinks. Faith is not putting all your ducks in a row. Faith is hearing from God and moving on what God said. God puts the ducks in a row. We need to understand something about this. But you see how the world gets right in to the church.

It’s the same way about gifts. The world would say, “Hey, that guy’s got it. I saw him speak the other day to 25,000 people.” They completely overlooked the one who has the gift of serving and the gift of mercy, the one who’s behind the scenes, the one who’s unnoticed. That’s the way the world thinks. That’s not the way God thinks. He says the things that you think are one way are a total different way with God.

“On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.” Note the phrase “it is much truer.” The word there is mallon, which is the word for great. It means a greater degree, to a much greater degree. In Matthews 6:26 it’s used. “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” Matthew 7:11 reads, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” Acts 5:14 says, “And all the more believers in the Lord.” Romans 5:9 tells us, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood.”

In other words, you’re looking at this gift and thinking it’s spiritual, but God sees these other gifts much more that you’re completely overlooking. The word for weaker there is the word asthenes, and most of the time it means without strength. I think here, though, it has the idea of those gifts that are unimpressive, those gifts that are unnoticed.

I’ve always been blessed by the people who put on our services. I wonder how many times you walk in to church, bow your head, “Oh, God, thank You so much for the musicians who have spent all week practicing and for all the staff who’s out there doing what they’re doing and for the one in the sound booth who every time someone sings you always see them just sort of gritting their teeth because they’re scared to death that tape’s not going to come on.” You think they’re nervous buddy? The one up there is a whole lot more nervous. He’s got to have it cued at a certain point. The people in the light booth. The people in the television booth. The people on the television cameras, the ushers outside, the people in the parking lot. The only thing I know how to do is walk in, stand up and run my mouth. I can turn a light on and off if nobody showed up on Sunday morning.

You see what people do? They don’t even understand how all that goes on. They look at the one standing up here. “There’s our leader. He’s so gifted! He’s so spiritual. What are we going to do about him?” Good grief, man! The Lord Jesus Christ is the one you need to be looking to, not the one standing up here. He’s the one orchestrating what’s going on. But it’s amazing how the world thinks that those gifts that are up front are the ones to covet. Those are the ones to want. He’s saying, “Hey, you’re overlooking the ones that are even more necessary than you could have ever imagined in the body.” We must never take the gifts that we so ignorantly consider weaker gifts and overlook them. Don’t ever do that.

Paul said, “It is these unnoticed gifts, these unimpressive gifts that are so much more necessary to the body of Christ.” The word “necessary” is the word that means you can’t live without it. The error that immaturity makes and the error that was made in the church of Corinth is to single out this gift and that gift, to cover it, and to lift it up and to exalt it and to make people think if you have that gift, you’re more spiritual than the people who have the gifts over here. I want to tell you something straight out. I’m liable to get real tough here. When you watch some of this junk that’s on television, I want you to watch for something. All of this stuff that you say, “You just don’t understand.” I do understand. There are three things they talk about, three gifts are all they talk about. Every single time you ever turn it on, three. One, tongues or what they call tongues; two, healing, what they call healing; and, three, miracles. But now wait a minute. I thought there were more gifts than that in the body of Christ. An immature church will not only attach itself to gifts. It singles out which gifts they think is more spiritual and they earnestly covet them and desire them. And when they don’t have them, they feel like they’re inferior to everybody else. That is nothing more than flesh.

What Paul is trying to say is, “Man, you’re completely overlooking the whole thing of the body of Christ and you’re not understanding. There are no big I’s and little you’s. The gifts that are unnoticed and the gifts that are the ones that some people don’t put any value on, they in fact are more necessary than the ones that you are exalting.

So we see the need we have for one another. We have a desperate need for that. But also the error that some people make in their judgment and it comes because they’re not having their minds renewed by the Word of God. That’s people who aren’t attached to Jesus Christ, who have to have a fix, who have to have a feeling somehow to make it through. No sir. Your whole life is attached to Him and He’s the one who gives us that understanding and the gifts.

The importance we should give to the unnoticed gifts

Thirdly, we see the importance that we should give to the more unnoticed gifts. He tells us how it ought to be and he tells us the way it should be. It’s not that way in Corinth. It’s the way it ought to be, and he tells you why. He doesn’t let up on these immature believers in Corinth. I don’t know what you get when you study. I just know what I get. I know when I get into it I’m thinking, “Whew, Paul!” He starts off with verses 1-7, and then he begins to bear down. The more he goes, the more he keeps bearing down. It’s like he’s confronting them rather than just teaching them. I’ve always said he’s not teaching gifts. He’s correcting error. He’s trying to confront them right in their face. “Here it is. Now deal with it.” That’s what he’s trying to do here. He just keeps bearing down.

But bearing down, the bearing down, that’s what I want you to see. I know it couldn’t have been the Holy Spirit, but it came to my mind that when Paul was writing this he was jumping on that church and wouldn’t let up. The only thing I can get out of this is he’s not teaching them, he’s confronting them as to the error of what happens when you don’t attach yourself to Christ and how upside down you become in your thinking.

Verse 23 reads, “…and those members of the body, which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our unseemly members come to have more abundant seemliness.” Paul shows how it ought to be, but it’s not. Paul says that the members of the body that we take for granted and put no recognition to, we need to turn that around and start recognizing those people who have those gifts that aren’t as up front as other’s people’s gifts that others think are more spiritual.

He uses a term there that suggests the crowning of a runner when he’s run a race. He says, “on these we bestow more abundant honor.” The phrase “bestowing more abundant honor” is an important phrase. The word bestow is the word peritithemi. Peri means around and tithemi means to place, to place around. It’s the idea when a runner has finished the race and has won it, you take a wreath and place it around him. You lift him up. You help him to understand how important he really is. He’s just done something. The recognition that’s put to him.

There’s only one word that’s translated in two words when it says “more abundant.” It’s the word perissos. It means that which goes far beyond, much greater, to a greater extent. So the word is translated “greater” in the King James. It’s translated “more abundant” in the New American Standard version. Paul says, “I’m not going from one extreme to another.” He’s going to tell you in a minute. He’s going to say to the people who are up front that they already have their recognition. But the people who aren’t up front, go on and give it to them and put balance back into the body. He’s not saying to go from this extreme to that extreme but come back to a balance and understand just because this person’s got an up front gift and it looks like he’s more spiritual because everybody sees him, it does not in any negate what others are doing that you don’t see. Make sure you have a balance in your understanding of this.

I like what he’s saying. When you put verses 23 and 24 together it makes sense. “And those members of the body, which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our unseemly members come to have more abundant seemliness, whereas our seemly members have no need of it.” They’ve already got all the recognition they need. But bring the others up to where people see the whole body here. They don’t just see certain ones who are always up front.

Note the last part of verse 24. “But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked.” That word “composed” caught my attention. We looked at part of it in Romans 6 when we studied Romans together. You’ll remember it I think. It’s two words. It’s the word sun, together, and the other word is the word to mix, to mix something together.

What does this together mean? There’s the “with” of association. You can be together but not mixed together. That’s meta, we’re with each other. When you are just alongside each other, that’s when the error comes because you don’t realize how much you depend upon the other person.

But the word sun is a different word. It’s another word. It’s the “with” of intimacy, when two things have been so molded in together. The illustration of how he’s composed the body, how He’s mixed the body is beautiful. The biscuit. Remember Romans 6? You take the ingredients of a biscuit and I guarantee you the salt that you use is not the same amount of the flour that you use. But you put so much salt in it; you put a lot of flour in it; you don’t put the same amount of baking powder that you do that flour. I hope I got that right. But the flour’s got the most. So if you look on a baking sheet, and all these other things are there, the most predominant one would be the flour. Is that not correct? So if they’re just on the baking sheet you can look at it and say, “Uh-huh, that’s the biggest. That must be the most important.” However, when you take all those ingredients and you mix them together in the form of a big biscuit and you put it in the oven, and you bake that biscuit, when it comes out you’ve got a different word here because you can’t find the baking soda, and you can’t find the flour, you can’t find the salt. It’s all so mixed together that that which was big when it was “with” of association, now that it has been mixed has lost that kind of identity because it’s all so blended into the biscuit. The important thing now is not the ingredient. The important thing now is the biscuit.

That’s exactly to me what he’s saying here. If you’re just existing side by side, you can see why one can be up front and one’s not. But when you realize that you’ve been composed into the body of Christ, Christ has so mixed you together that the big gifts and the little gifts, when you blend them all, you don’t see the gifts, you just see the giver. There’s only one body and it’s His body. So your focus completely changes about what’s going to happen there. God gives abundant honor to that part of the body that would otherwise go unnoticed. Why? To balance the scales.

Look at verse 25: “that there should be no division in the body [look at this], but that the members should have the same care for one another.” What was going on in Corinth? Was there any division in Corinth? I imagine! So, what was happening here? If you’ve got division, evidently, you don’t have the concept down. You’re attaching to the wrong thing. When you attach rightly, there’s no big I’s and little you’s as we said earlier.

1 Corinthians 12:24-31

Contents

1 All for One, and One for All – Part 3

1.1 The pattern

1.2 The principle

1.3 The placement

All for One, and One for All – Part 3

It’s really precious to realize that no gift is ever real unless it’s received. If we’re going to receive the gift that God has given us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we are receiving daily His life. We’re receiving daily His peace. We’re receiving daily the wisdom and all of the other things that He embodies. But if we’re not going to receive it, then we might as well forget it.

The church of Corinth might as well have forgotten it. They weren’t receiving it. They weren’t living daily receiving what God would want to do in them and through them. They were not living that way. We’re talking about, “All for One, and One for All.” This is Part 3 of that series in 1 Corinthians 12. Like the perfect artist that God is, He has so beautifully composed His body of believers on this earth.

The word “compose” in verse 24 when Paul says, “But God has so composed the body,” is the word that comes from two Greek words. You need to see it because we are all important as believers in the body of Christ. It comes from the word, first of all, meaning to mix. It comes from another word which means together. There are two words for “together,” and it’s in that word “together” that we see the point that Paul, I believe, is making here under the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God. To mix together is the word “compose.” The little “together” there is the word sun. We talked about it last time. There are two words for “together.” The little word meta means together in the sense of association. We’re together on Sunday morning; we have to leave after the service is over and do our own thing. It’s not the body that’s important. It’s the individuals who make up the body. That’s the word meta. You can remove one, add one any time you want to do that.

But the little word sun is a different word. It’s the little word that means to be so mixed together that you lose sight of the individual ingredients and begin to see more the whole when all of them have come together. The picture here is a biscuit. You take the ingredients of a biscuit. There are no big I’s and little you’s in the word “composed.” It’s all the greater gifts and the lesser gifts, however man perceives them, put together into one unit called the body of Christ on this earth. You can’t see the different pieces. You see the body. That’s the key here in the little word sun. Like a biscuit, you put all the ingredients on a baking sheet. I still haven’t gotten them right. I’ve gone over this thing a hundred times. You have all those ingredients there, flour and whatever else you put in it. Before you bake them the focus is the ingredients themselves, because there’s nothing else there but ingredients. You can add to or take away. But once you mix them together, put them in the oven, and bake them, then the ingredients have lost their identity in the biscuit. That’s the word “composed.”

In other words, there’s nobody who has these great gifts and nobody has any lesser gifts. No, no. God has taken the people who have more noticeable gifts and the people who don’t have noticeable gifts and He’s so mixed them together that they form the body of Christ. You don’t look at someone and say, “Look at the gifts he has,” or “Look at this one. Look at the gifts he doesn’t have.” You see them all together and you see instead the whole, not the parts.

So God has beautifully composed the body of Christ. There are no big I’s and little you’s. In Corinth there were big I’s and little you’s. Why? Because they were focused on gifts, they weren’t focused on the giver. They weren’t understanding the mix that God had made and the beautiful mix he had made in the body of Christ. Every gift needs the other gifts. There are no greater gifts. All the gifts are important in God’s economy because God has put them together. He has mixed them together. When we all function in obedience to the head, then we cause the whole body to be identified and to function properly. God did not intend for us to covet each other’s gifts. God did not intend for us to belittle the gifts that we have. I’ve seen people do that. “Oh, I wish I had this gift.” Or, “I wish I had that gift.” Listen. Salvation is so grand we just ought to be overwhelmed that we’re a part of what God’s up to on this earth. That’s a beautiful thought. Gifts should never be the cause of any kind of division in the body of Christ. When God and the gifts that He has given are fully appreciated, this completely disarms all the selfish envy that anyone would have toward a gift that he has or doesn’t have. The result would be that we have a care then for one another. We begin to appreciate the other gifts.

You see, when you appreciate God, then you begin to appreciate the gifts that He’s given. That’s the way the body of Christ ought to function. We must remember our context. The apostle Paul is comparing the human body to the body of Christ. He just told them how ridiculous it is to ever consider any part of the human body as unnecessary. After showing how no sense is made at all of the eye disdaining the hand, of showing how it’s so stupid for the head to disdain the foot, he says in verse 22, “On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.” He’s talking about the human body and comparing it to the body of Christ. The word weaker, asthenes, normally means without strength. But here it seems to mean unnecessary, unnoticed.

With that idea, go back and read it again: “On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be ‘unnecessary and that go unnoticed’ are really necessary.” Then he illustrates it. He first points to the parts of the body that we spend time trying to make more presentable. In verse 23 we read, “and those members of the body, which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor.”

What in the world is he talking about here? Well, let’s just say a lady has big ears. I don’t know why I just said a lady because I’ve got big ears. But there’s one thing I can’t do about my big ears. I can’t make them any more presentable. They are just going to have to hang there less honorable. But let’s just say a lady has big ears. She can do something about it. She can grow her hair a little longer and she can pull that beautiful hair around those ears and make those ears a little more presentable. Or she can hang an earring on them, I guess, and make an ornament of it so people might not recognize the ear as much as they recognize the earring.

The ear is important, but it’s not quite as presentable. So what? It requires more attention. That’s what Paul is saying. In the human body you’ve got parts that are presentable. You don’t spend as much time with them as you do the parts that are not as presentable, but it’s just as necessary. Then he goes on and says that our less presentable members become much more presentable.

That word “presentable” there, I hate to tell you, means indecent. In other words, there are certain parts of the body we cover because of modesty. This is the perfect illustration that he’s using here. He’s saying it doesn’t make them any less important. It just makes them much more demanding of our attention so that we cover these particular parts of our body. What he’s saying is these are all necessary parts and they require attention.

The body of Christ is the same way. The parts that he has made, the gifts that He has given, there are some that go unnoticed. There are some that are overlooked in the church of Corinth. They are looking at the greater gifts and not the lesser gifts. But he is saying that God has so composed the body that it needs each other and you’ve got certain gifts that are not noticed that need to be noticed. You need to bring this thing up to a balance. And the gifts that are seen, they don’t need anything.

Look in verse 24. He says that our more presentable parts have no need of it. In other words, the parts that are more presentable don’t need attention. What needs attention are the other parts of the body so that they can understand they’re just as important as any other gift that someone might have. God has so composed the body of Christ that each member needs each other. Some members’ gifts don’t need as much attention as other members’ gifts.

Verse 24b reads, “But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.” The word for care, merimnao, means to be concerned about, to think of another in an anxious way. In other words, anxious meaning an urgent way, something that’s motivating you to think toward someone else.

The definite article is used here. He’s saying that God has so composed the body of Christ that each member is so important and when it’s functioning properly, each member has the exact same concern for the other as that one has for himself. No big I’s or little you’s in the body of Christ. In Corinth there were big I’s and little you’s. Some had these gifts and some didn’t have them. “Uh-huh, I’m more spiritual than you are.” That was the problem, and Paul is saying, “What in the world are you doing, man? You’re human body is a perfect example. You notice every part because each requires attention. All is as important as the other. There are not greater gifts.”

Verse 26 is where we come to now. We’re going to just take it from that point on. It says, “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” The body must live all for one, Christ. When the body lives all for one, then it can life one for all. That’s the whole message that we’ve developed here in 1 Corinthians 12 in these last several verses that we’ve been looking at.

Let’s look at verse 26 and following see what God can say to us. This is the message. Are we going to function in the gifts He’s given us? Are we going to be grateful to be a part of what He’s up to? First of all, Paul rehearses the problem again. There’s no way to miss what he’s saying. He says, “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.” We must determine what’s on Paul’s mind here. Is the suffering that he speaks about persecution because of one’s faith? Is it sickness? Is it traumatic circumstances? What’s he talking about, “If one member suffers”?

The principle of suffering with one another, me feeling your pain and you feeling my pain, is a solid biblical principle. As a matter of fact, in Romans 12:15 he’s been talking about love without hypocrisy, and he makes a statement. He says that you weep when others weep and rejoice when others rejoice. So when the body is truly functioning there will be a sorrowing for one another. There will be a rejoicing with one another. There’s no question that the principle of the body is that if it’s functioning properly that when somebody hurts within the body the other members suffer with it until it’s healed and then all are healed together because each member is important to the health of the body.

But I want to suggest something else that he’s saying here. I don’t think that’s exactly what he’s referring to here. The word for “suffering” is the word pascho, which is the suffering from pain caused from without. It’s in the present indicative active. One member is suffering, but what is he suffering from? In light of what Paul has been talking about, I believe he’s talking about those gifts that go unappreciated and unnoticed. Could he be saying that one member is suffering because everybody else is chasing after the greater gifts and making his gifts seem to be incompetent? In other words, his gift is not appreciated in light of the “greater gifts” that others are looking for.

When you start singling out something like languages or tongues of other languages and you start saying that makes you more spiritual than somebody else, then it automatically causes the whole body to suffer because you’re overlooking the other gifts that are just as important as that one gift is made to be. You can’t afford to overlook these other gifts. We can’t afford to do that. We can’t afford to exalt any gift. If we cause believers to suffer because of our selfish pursuit of certain gifts, then what I’m saying here is that everyone in the body will be suffering as a result of it. Every gift is dependent on the other gifts in the body of Christ. I don’t care what gift you say you have or don’t have. It’s ridiculous to covet others gifts and it’s ridiculous to belittle certain gifts. It’s ridiculous. It doesn’t make any sense. It goes right back to what he said. It’s like the eye saying, “I don’t need you, hand.” Or the head saying to the foot, “I don’t need you. You’re not a head, so, therefore, you’re not important to the body of Christ.” If you do this, it’s to cut off your nose to spite your face. That’s what was going on in Corinth.

In Louisiana, I was doing a meeting and a doctor came to me and said, “I want to share something with you. I have all the rounds in the hospitals here. There are people all over this city who could get up tomorrow and go home because they’re not sick because of anything physical. They’re sick because of something else. It’s more of a psychosomatic illness. It came as a result of the teaching that goes on in this area.” And he said, “There are a lot of people here who have wanted that second blessing. They’ve wanted that gift of tongues. They think that somehow makes them spiritual. We have so many of them come through these hospitals and there’s not one thing physically wrong with them. It’s all coming as a mental and emotional stress from not having received what others said were the greater gifts.”

That’s exactly what Paul is saying. If you exalt any gift—teaching, preaching, anything—over another gift, you have missed it completely. God has composed the body and when He composed the body, you don’t single out this or this or this. The body is the important thing, not the individual parts of the body. They need each other to make the body exist.

So he comes back, I think, to the problem, if any one suffers. The suffering there is not what he’s talking about in Romans. What he’s talking about is, when you overlook a person’s gift at the expense of what they would call the greater gifts, look out. The whole body suffers.

The pattern

Secondly, he points to the pattern, the way it ought to be. He continues his thought. Verse 26 says, “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” Now, immediately our minds will say that means this person’s rejoicing and I’m going to rejoice with him. This person’s suffering; I’m going to suffer with him. Yes, that is a truth and yes, that is Romans 12, but I think here he’s answering his own thought. If that same believer, who has been caused to suffer, is honored, then everybody rejoices.

You think it through and see if I’m correct because we’ve got both truths balancing each other. The reason I say that is the word for “honored” is not the normal word for “honored.” It’s the word that means glorified, and the word glorified means recognized. Isn’t that just what Paul has been talking about? If that gift instead of causing to suffer and not be recognized is recognized, then instead of the whole body suffering, the whole body will rejoice. You see, the local body of Christ is just a picture of the whole body of Christ, the universal body of Christ. Every body of believers has all that is needed in its local body, but every local body has the tendency, like Corinth did, to exalt certain gifts and cause the whole body to suffer or it has the opportunity to recognize all of the gifts and cause the whole body to rejoice. We must recognize each member and each gift that the body is going to rejoice. Every gift is important in the body of Christ.

How many times have you ever sat and heard somebody speak and say, “I wish I had that gift”? I’ve done the same thing. But I don’t need to sit here and be jealous of that gift. It’s no greater than the gift God gave to me or the gift that God gave to you. You see, this is what happens when you get your focus off of Christ. You get it down on ministries and gifts and this will divide a church. This will split a church right down the middle.

I know people today who will fight me over some of the things I’m going to say about tongues. They walk in ready to fight me; they leave ready to fight me. So what? What does the Word of God say? The Word of God says a gift should never divide a church, that each would have the same concern for the other gifts. Only when Christ is appreciated and focused on can that even take place. So the pattern should be that all the gifts are recognized or glorified (translated honored) so that the whole body can rejoice. But when you’re singling out certain gifts the whole body is suffering. That’s a very anemic body. It’s not healthy whatsoever.

The principle

Then Paul brings them back to the principle. Here he goes in verse 27. “Now you are Christ’s body.” He said that a little differently in 1:2. There he calls them the church of God. He said in verse 2 of chapter 1, “to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.” He calls them the church of God there at Corinth.

But now he says, “You are the body of Christ.” There in Corinth, in the midst of all of the paganism that was there, was the church of God. There is in the middle of it was the body of Christ. Now, Paul says, “you are Christ’s body,” then he finishes his thought, “and individually [each and every one of you] members of it.” Nobody’s left out. All of us are a part of the body of Christ.

I want to tell you something. That statement in itself requires a lot of meditation. We are the body of Christ. Is it not ridiculous in the height of arrogance for somebody to stand up and portray one gift as greater than another when Paul makes the statement, “You are the body of Christ”? My toes are just as important as my brain. Everything on my body causes this body to work, in my human body. And in the body of Christ, every part that He has so beautifully composed and mixed together on this earth is absolutely overwhelmingly important.

In 2 Corinthians Paul beautifully says what a body is for. A body is to bring recognition, not to itself, but to the entity that lives within it. He says in 2 Corinthians 4:11, “For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake [listen], that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” In other words, it’s not a gift that I can use to bring identity back to me. It’s a gift that when it’s used properly brings identity to Him. We’re His body. The only reason we’re on this earth is to bring glory to Him. We ought to know what we’re not by now. But we know who He is. So he said, “You are the body of Christ.” To inflate any gift as greater or to deflate other gifts as lesser is the height of one who is in nothing more than living in arrogance, a person who is so proud that it’s a wonder God has not already brought him down.

Well, the sign of an unhealthy body is when one or two or three gifts are lifted up and exalted above other gifts. There’s no such thing in a healthy body as selfish organs or unnecessary organs. There’s no such thing. All gifts are important. They have their place and their function should not in any way be exalted or belittled. The problem is exalting certain gifts and causing the whole body to suffer. The pattern is to recognize those gifts, to glorify, to bring them out like you do when certain members of the body require more attention. Why? So that the whole body can rejoice. Then the principle is, we are the body of Christ on this earth.

The placement

Welcome to the church of Corinth. That’s the only thing that they knew: The problem, the pattern, the principle, and then the placement of the gifts. Paul brings us full circle. This is the ending of chapter 12. We’ve seen over and over again. It’s the giver, never the gift. He brings them full circle right back to the giver. This is beautiful what he does here. I want us to walk through it very carefully. We must again be brought back to this place.

It says in verse 28, “And God has appointed in the church.” Back in verse 18 of the same chapter we find the same words and it says, “But now God has placed the members.” The word used there is the exact same word as the word “appointed” is used in verse 28; each one of them in the body just as He desired. In fact, in 12:7 we find out which person of the godhead did it. It was God the Holy Spirit. Verse 7 tells us, “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit of the common good.” So it’s the Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, who has placed and given the gifts just as He desires.

The word “appointed” there, as I said, is also used in verse 18. It’s the word tithemi, which means to set, to place just in exact order. We were having dinner with some friends recently and I noticed how it was set just right. You know, you put the mats down and you put the silverware. But you set things in place. You put it in their proper order. That’s the word tithemi.

So he has appointed here the gifts as He desires. He has put each person in the body in exact order that He divinely had desired to put them. How in the world could you ever say you had a greater or a lesser gift when God’s the One who put us where we are? What Paul’s about to do is to show once again that we have no business trying to be what God has not appointed us to be. We’re to accept the gifts. We’re to accept the ministries God has given us and never try to mimic somebody else’s or live coveting somebody else’s but receiving what God has given to us.

How and in what priority did He place the gifts? In the list to follow the Corinthians probably were taken back that what they thought were the greatest Paul didn’t think so because God looks at it a little differently than man looks at it. It says in Verse 28 we read, “And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues,” or as we’ve seen earlier, “languages”.

Now, let’s look at the list he just gave us. First of all, apostles, he first appointed apostles to the church. Apostle, the word apostolos means one sent forth with a message. You say, “Where are they today? Do we have them today?” No, not in this sense, but they’re still around; they’re right here in the New Testament. Their voice has long been silenced but they’re still heard in the written ministry that the Holy Spirit of God gave to them. This is where we get our New Testament from, the apostles. They will be heard in the church until the end of time. They’re still around only in the written Word. Now you may have a generic sense of apostles around, a person sent forth to be a missionary or whatever, but not in this sense. These are the ones who determined doctrine.

Along with them, secondly, he lists the prophets. These are not just the Old Testament prophets. That’s already implicit. These are the New Testament prophets. He had the apostles and the New Testament prophets and they too have been silenced. Their voices are also heard written in the pages of the New Testament. Ephesians 2:20 puts the two of them together and says that our faith is built upon the apostles and prophets. There they are right there. They’re already there. That’s the foundation of everything we believe. It’s right in the Word of God.

But then thirdly he says he gave teachers. I love this. These are the ones gifted to expound upon and explain what the apostles and prophets have given to us, which is the basis of our faith, which is the Word of God. These are what teachers are all about. A teacher clarifies and brings it down where people can understand it. How important it is that the teacher comes right after the apostle and prophet. They gave us the fundamentals of our faith, the foundation which is the Word of God. The teachers come along behind them and explain it to us and they expound it so we can clearly understand it.

Then Paul brings up miracles, works of powers, plural, and gifts of healing. We’ve already dealt with this and we’ve seen that the only pattern to that was in the early New Testament church officers. Now, God could do this any time He wants to but there’s no pattern except in those first offices that he appointed to the church. Then he mentions helps and administrations and it’s interesting. These are the things in the order He has given them. The word “helps” here refers to those who serve in those behind the scenes ways. The word “administrations” is the word that means to lead. It’s a word for leadership.

In fact, if you’ll turn over to Acts 27:11, let me show you where it’s used. It’s used of a person steering a ship. The leaders he put within the body of Christ. Acts 27:11 says, “But the centurion was more persuaded by the pilot [of the boat, the one steering the ship; that’s the word] and the captain of the ship, than by what was being said by Paul.” That was when they were about to shipwreck. That’s the idea of the word.

You know the church of Corinth lacked in no gift and neither does any local body of believers. Then they had people to lead them. But let me tell you the problem of Corinth was not leadership, the problem of Corinth was follow-ship. Every man was doing what was right in their own eyes. They weren’t about to do what the leader said. They had their own opinion and they did it their way. That’s what turned the whole church upside down at Corinth.

Then at the bottom of the list, the very last one he mentions is various kinds of tongues or languages. What is his point? Why would he even bring this up after all that he said? There are no greater gifts. There are no lesser gifts. But the body of Christ is composed, is mixed together. Everybody is just as important as anybody else and the key is not the individual gifts. The key is the giver and the body itself.

What is his point? Verse 29 is clear as a bell. “All are not apostles, are they?” In other words, “Guys, why are you trying to be what God never intended for you to be? All are not apostles.” He says, “All are not prophets, are they?” All are not teachers, are they?” You’re not gifted to teach. Why are you trying to do what you’re not gifted to do? “All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues [or other languages], do they? All do not [translate] interpret, do they?” There is a question that is implicit in this list here. He’s saying to them, “Why are you trying to be and do what you’re not called to be and do? Just be who you are. Be in the gift God has given you. You’re just as important as these others because it’s God who has put you in this body.”

Then for the finishing touch, in verse 31 he says, “But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way.” That’s a confusing verse to me when Paul has just spend all this time telling us there are no greater and no lesser gifts, that they’re all important in the body of Christ. The word for “earnestly desire” is the word zeloo. It means to earnestly desire. It’s a good translation. That’s why it’s translated “earnestly desire.” But it doesn’t make any sense to me.

I want to tell you something. I wrestled with this and wrestled with this. What are you saying? Paul, you just said that there are no greater gifts or lesser gifts and the ones that are more noticeable get their own attention. We should give attention to the ones that are the lesser. What are you talking about, Paul? Then it hit me. I don’t think it’s translated properly. You say, “Who in the world do you think you are?” I know what I’m not, so don’t take my word for it. You check it out. But in the Greek language the indicative and the imperative forms are identical. Most people translate this as a present imperative. In other words, “I command you that you desire the greater gifts.” It doesn’t make any sense to the whole context to me. But change it, since the form is the same; make it a present indicative and then see what he’s saying: “You are desiring the greater gifts, so-called.” In other words, you have put certain gifts into a greater category and this is your problem. This is what you’re doing. You’re designing the greater gifts.

Whoa! Now that makes sense. Then add what he puts to it. He says, “And I show you a still more excellent way.” In other words, what you’re doing is so off-the-wall. You have missed the point. You’re desiring that you say are greater and that make you more spiritual and it shows how unhealthy you are. But let me show you a better way. I show you a better way.

Now, we’re coming into 1 Corinthians 13. You know what that is, don’t you? I have the ability to speak with tongues of angels, etc., but I have not love. I’m a sounding gong. Listen. Do you know where that love comes from? That love is only produced by the Holy Spirit of God. Do you realize what Paul has just simply done? He’s come full circle. He said it over and over again. Now he’s come right back. I’m going to show you a better way. Quit seeking gifts that you call greater and start seeking the giver once again and God will produce in you and through you that which cannot be faked.

Do we recognize that you can fake any gift? You can fake it, but you can’t fake the fruit. Any gift that a person has, if it’s not wrapped with the fruit of God’s love, the whole of chapter 13 makes that person nothing more than a bunch of noise.

1 Corinthians 12:31 and 1 Peter 2:1

Contents

1 The Absolute Proof of a Surrendered Life – Part 1

1.1 God’s love has no intent to deceive

1.2 God’s love does not allow us to pretend to be what we’re not

1.3 God’s love will not allow us to envy what others have

1.4 God’s love will not allow us to slander one another

The Absolute Proof of a Surrendered Life – Part 1

Turn in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 12:31. We’re going to hang out there for a minute, and then we’re going to take a detour. I think you’ll understand that a little bit better as we get into the message. I want to begin a series that is going to carry us all the way through chapter 13, “The Absolute Proof of a Surrendered Life.”

You’ve heard the saying, “If it acts like a duck and quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it must be a duck.” That’s a good way of determining a duck. But in the context of what we’re studying in 1 Corinthians, particularly chapters 12 and 13, the question we must ask is this: Is there an absolute way to prove that a person is living surrendered to Christ? Is there an absolute mark on a person who truly is spiritual? We see those in the pulpit who preach. They’re eloquent and have all these gifts, so we say, “Surely that person is spiritual.” We hear a person teach a Sunday School class with teaching that we marvel at and we say, “That person is spiritual. Oh, what a gift they have!” We know people who know the Bible from cover to cover. They know all the books. They even know where Amos is. And we say that person has got to be spiritual. We see people do great things for others and we say just by the fact that they do those great things that they must be spiritual.

But you see, if you take all that preaching and teaching and knowledge and good things we can do for others and you mix them together into a big vat, there is one word that tests it all. That’s what we’re going to be looking at. It tells whether or not this is of God or this is of the flesh. You see, all this seemingly spiritual stuff could be nothing more than just pure religious flesh. But there’s one thing, just one thing that proves the fact that God has His hand on it, that this person is attached to Christ, that this person is surrendered to Christ. And it’s a word; really it’s a four letter word. We don’t like four letter words, but I like this one. It’s the word “love.” It’s something that only God could produce and it cannot in any way be faked.

In chapter 13 Paul shows that when you desire the Giver He will produce something far beyond that spiritual gift you want to talk about. He produces the fruit of the Spirit which is love. It’s no mistake that chapter 13 comes right after 12 and right before 14. He’s trying to bring them back to their senses. They’re attached to everything but Christ. But he says that when you desire the Giver, He produces in you that which cannot be manipulated and that which cannot be duplicated by the flesh. It’s a quality of love known only to God. A human being cannot produce it in his own way, in his own heart. God has to produce it in that person. If it’s not there, then all the teaching and all the preaching and all the good words and all this stuff is nothing more than a front to cover up what we really know we are apart from God.

I want us to do something that I think will help us in chapter 13. It’s the way God led me and I just have to follow where I think He’s leading me. I want us to divert from here. We’re going to see in chapter 13 what love is. There’s not going to be any question what love is, this love produced by the Spirit of God. But I want us to see what love is not. I think sometimes it’s healthy to put that as a backdrop. Chapter 13 will make a ton more sense when you see what it’s not. When you see what it is, wow, the contrast will be like night and day. I want you to know that in Corinth, with all their knowledge and all their gifts and all their manifestations they were chasing after, they did not possess this one thing which only comes from a surrendered heart from a walk, from an attachment to Christ. I want you to see what love is not.

Turn with me to 1 Peter 1:22. That will get us in the context. I’m taking you to a passage of Scripture that I’ve used many times. I want us to see it in light of what we’re looking at in Corinth. I want you to see why Paul has to do what he does in chapter 13. Everything you see Peter bring out was evident in the church of Corinth.

Let me give you a little bit of background of 1 Peter so that you’ll understand the context from which this comes. Nero has burned Rome as part of a prearranged plan to blame the Christians for doing it. As a result persecution came that had never been known before. These were the worst persecuted Christians you’ll ever find. Rome also dominated Asia Minor. As a matter of fact, when it conquered Greece, it divided into Achaia and Macedonia and Asia Minor. Up in Asia Minor, all dominated by the Roman influence, the persecution spread. Peter is writing to the churches, the believers, there in Asia Minor. These are very persecuted believers. If you want to find people going through tough times, this is where you’ll find it in the New Testament. You find them soaked in oil and hung up on poles and lit and to become torches for the orgies they would have right in front of them there in Rome and Asia Minor. Also they were taking them and putting animal skins on them and putting them out in arenas. People would pay great prices to come and watch wild animals eat them.

This is the time when the great stories come out about the way people stood in the face of persecution. The Christians would walk out arm in arm, singing the great hymns of the faith and it would astound the audiences. These people were so bold and so sure in the face of death. It’s a tremendous time in church history. It’s a tremendous time for people to look and see what a real Christian was.

But in the midst of that, Peter has to remind them of something that catches your breath. It’s like, “Why would you have to remind them of this? Come on! These are spiritual people, aren’t they? They’re being persecuted.” Let me tell you something. It doesn’t matter where you are or who you are, when you get your eyes off of Jesus, I don’t care how spiritual you’ve been up to that point, your spirituality just ceased. And when that vertical relationship is affected, it’s affected horizontally. Peter has to remind them of loving one another. Can you believe this? Evidently they took their eyes off the Lord and put it on the lions.

Look what it says in 1:22. “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls.” That word “purified” is not referring to what Christ did for us, it’s referring to what they did in response. It’s consecration. You have made a reform. You have chosen to reform your life. You’ve moved from here to here.

He says, “purified your souls [speaking of salvation] for a sincere love of the brethren.” That word “sincere” means without any hypocrisy whatsoever. In other words, now that God is in you, you have a purpose in you, not only to love God as the greatest commandment said, but to love your neighbor. So this love is in you. He goes on to say, “fervently love one another from the heart.”

Then he reminds them in verse 23, “for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God.” He’s going to compare flesh and spirit in the next verse. Persecution has set in on them and had caused them to start withering. It had caused their love to diminish. Why? Because they’ve taken their eyes off the Lord Jesus.

He quotes Isaiah 40:6 and following and says, “For, all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass.” Don’t you love the springtime when the beautiful flowers come out and the grass grows? The grass comes and the flowers grow. Springtime is beautiful. But what happened was, it wasn’t long before the sun came out and it was really hot. What happened to the grass? The verse tells you as it continues, “The grass withers, and the flower falls off.”

Do you see what he’s doing? He’s saying, “Listen to me. When you’re under the heat of persecution, if it’s of the flesh it may look good. But when the heat gets on it, it’s going to wither. The flower is going to fall off.” The flesh won’t cut it. In other words, when you’re under pressure and persecution, the love that you say you have for one another will disappear, because only that which God produces can stand the heat of trial. Peter says in verse 25, “But the word of the Lord abides forever.” This is the word which was preached to you.

Then he starts off in 2:1 and says, “Therefore.” How many times have we said this? When you see a “therefore,” you always look to see what it’s there for. I just told you. I just told you the context. He says, “Therefore, with this in mind, knowing that flesh won’t cut it, knowing that flesh will not be able to produce, only what God produces will last.”

Verse 1 continues, “Therefore, putting aside all malice.” That word “putting aside” is like taking it off like a garment. It’s the same word used in Ephesians 4 when it says to put off the old man and put on the new man. It’s the same word used in Colossians 3:9-11. It’s the same word used in Hebrews 12:1 when it says, “casting aside every encumbrance and you run the race.” The word “malice” is the key word here. The word “malice” is the word kakia. It’s only associated in scripture with a man’s flesh, whether he’s lost or saved. It’s evil. It’s wicked. It’s never associated with God. It’s always associated with flesh.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 5:7-8. Let’s look into this word for a minute. What is Peter saying to these persecuted believers who are being tremendously overwhelmed with pressure? He’s saying, “Hey, guys, get that malice off of you. Take it off. Take off that garment of flesh.” What is this malice? First Corinthians 5:7-8 gives us a clue. It says in verse 7, “Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Look at what he does. He takes the word “malice” and associates it with something we can immediately understand. It’s the word “leaven.” What is leaven? Leaven is yeast. Now, any woman who cooks knows what yeast is. You put yeast into the mix of certain things and what does it do? It causes things to rise up.

Now, figuratively, what’s he saying here? Figuratively leaven is sin and what he’s saying is when you choose to keep that garment of malice on, when you choose not to surrender your life to Jesus, not to be a vessel through which he can work, when you choose not to do that, malice, the flesh rises up. It’s not inactive. It’s not passive. It rises up within you.

Acts 8:21-22 tells us even more about it. It tells us it’s an evil intention of the heart. In other words, a heart that says, “God, don’t you call me. I’ll call you. I’m not going to do what you told me to do, God.” You’re going to go your own way. That’s the whole idea of it. Look in Acts 8:21-22. The same word is used in a context when a man wants to purchase the power of the Holy Spirit of God. The apostles had laid their hands on some people and great things took place. This fellow came to them and said, “How much money will it cost me to get that kind of power? I can use that kind of power.” Here’s what Peter says to him in verse 21, “You have no part or portion in this matter [look here], for your heart is not right before God.” Let me ask you a question. Is your heart right before God?

Verse 22 goes on, “Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours [the word “wickedness” is the word we’re looking at, kakia] and pray the Lord that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you.” You see the word. It’s attached to an intention of one’s heart. What is that intention? That intention is, “God, you are not going to dominate my life. Now, do we understand each other?” And you go your own way. That’s it.

Look over in Acts 14:1-2. Let me show you how it ruins relationships. This is all malice. This is kakia. This is the flesh and how it works itself out. Acts 14:1-2 reads, “And it came about that in Iconium [this is on Paul’s missionary journey] they entered the synagogue of the Jews together, and spoke in such a manner that a great multitude believed, both of Jews and of Greeks. But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles, and embittered them against the brethren.” That word “embittered” is a form of the word kakia.

You wonder why churches have splits? You wonder why Christian brothers and sisters can’t get along? There’s a garment somebody’s put on. It’s the garment of flesh, kakia, malice, and that is causing division and bitterness amongst people in the family of God. We need to understand what this malice, is because Peter is having to tell the persecuted believers of Asia Minor to take off that garment of malice. Get it off of you. Put it aside from yourself. Don’t even put it in sight. Get that garment off because when it’s on there’s no way in the world the people of the world could know you love the Lord Jesus Christ, that you’re living a surrendered life.

That’s why you see Peter saying in 2:1, “Therefore, putting aside all malice.” He’s going to show us what God’s love is not. Because, you see, everything that the flesh is, God is not. And everything that God is, the flesh is not. So what we’re going to look at four things that God’s love is not.

God’s love has no intent to deceive

First of all, as we wade into 1 Peter 2:1, God’s love has no intent in it to deceive others. He says, “Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile [deceit].” Have you ever noticed when Peter or Paul make a list, the first thing they mention always seems to be, not every case, but seems to be the key? For instance, Paul says in Galatians 5:22, “The fruit of God’s Spirit is love,” and every word that comes after that simply magnifies and enhances the word “love.” Out of that love comes joy; out of that love comes patience; out of that love comes all these other things. So the love is the key.

It’s the same way here. Malice is the key word here. You may ask yourself this morning, “My goodness. Have I got malice? Have I got the garment of malice on? Is malice in my life right now? How could I know if it’s there?” Well, the four things that follow it, by the way, are all in the plural, so you can’t just single one out and say this thing or that. It’s many phases of it. But the four things that follow simply tell you what malice is and what it does. All the nouns that follow are plural and they simply magnify the word “malice.”

When malice is present there is always an intent to deceive. Have you been caught lately doing something you shouldn’t have done? When you’re caught what’s the first thing that you’ve caught yourself doing? You’ll lie to make it look like you’re not guilty. The deceit, the intent to deceive someone. That’s a fleshly trait.

The word for deceit is the word dolos. It’s a word meaning to defraud somebody with intent, with intent to deceive them in some way. It’s found in 2:22, and it seems to be to deceive them by what you say. It speaks of Jesus and says, “Who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth.” It seems to be the things that you say with the intent to deceive. Of course, nothing could come out of Jesus that was in any way deceptive because He was the embodiment of truth. But when it comes to you and me, a heart with the intent to deceive is always betrayed by the tongue. James 3 says that the indicator of the heart is the tongue. So if I tell you something with the intent to deceive, that’s not only telling you that, but it’s also showing you where I’m coming from. It’s showing you where my heart is.

It’s amazing to me how much deceit is in the lives of people who claim to be believers that is covered up by the spiritual performance. It amazes me. The modern Greek word for “deceit” is the word for fish bait. That’s a good illustration. You don’t translate the text now by modern Greek, but it helps you to see that words don’t change that much. If you go over to Greece and you want to go fishing, you buy some deceit. You buy some guile. When you think about it, what are you trying to do? You’re trying to deceive the fish into biting the bait, right? He swims up and grabs what looks so good on the outside and swallows it all. It’s not long before he learns that within that which looked so good there was a hook. That’s deceit.

I want to tell you something. Folks, we can play games until Jesus comes back whether we’re spiritual or not, but there’s one thing that’s going to mark you and that’s the love of Christ. If the love of Christ is in you, there’s not a deceitful bone in your body. You cannot deceive by what you say or what you are. You are what you are. Transparency becomes immediate in your life. You can admit that you’ve done wrong because you know what you’re not. There’s no deceit. We’re not covering something up.

That’s deceit. It always has a hook in it. There’s an intent to deceive somebody with what they want or what they like in order to get what you want. That’s the way it was in Corinth. They were nothing more than deceivers. That’s all they were. They were believers, many of them, but they lived a deceitful lifestyle. Their pursuit of gifts tells you everything. Why would you pursue a gift if you’re pursuing the Giver? That changes your whole attitude toward the others who have the gift. They were looking for what would mask their wicked hearts, anything that would mask their wicked hearts. Because they were not attached to the Giver, they had to find something that could mask their sin. That’s deceit.

When you have a church filled with people and a church doing all the spiritual things, it could be nothing more than spiritual stuff if this love does not mark the heart of each believer. When that love is there, there is no intent in any way to deceive anybody around you. It took the apostle Paul and his boldness to unmask the problem that was going on in Corinth. When you pursue the Giver, there’s no place for guile because His love crowds it out and you become what you are. Transparency becomes something that’s real. And you can be what you are because you know what you’re not apart from Christ. In Him is where you find your identity. But apart from Him you can’t admit to anything because you know the wickedness of your flesh. In Him there’s no attempt to deceive the moment you’re confronted or in the moment you’re seeking to make someone think better of you than you know that you really are.

Where are you? What front do we have up? What intent do we have to make somebody think we’re something that we’re not? When accused, do we have to immediately defend ourselves and lie about it to make our flesh look better? You can’t do that when you’re surrendered to Christ. You cannot do that. When you’re surrendered to Christ, there is no guile, no intent to deceive, whatsoever.

God’s love does not allow us to pretend to be what we’re not

But I want you to notice another word that’s directly connected to it. He says secondly that God’s love does not allow us to pretend to be what we’re not. He says, “Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile [deceit] and hypocrisy.” The next thing Paul mentions after guile is the word “hypocrisy,” which is in the plural, hypocrisies. It’s the word hypokrisis. Hypo means under, and krisis means to judge—to judge under. In the secular Greek it came from the stage performance. A person would come up on the stage and pretend to be what he was not. They would wear a mask. That’s where the word came from. They would wear a mask and you were judging him as a person under a mask. You never saw him. You just saw the mask. Instead of wearing make-up like our actors do today, they had a mask and the mask would have a smile or a frown. What you saw was what they wanted you to see. It did not necessarily represent the reality that was behind that mask. There may be a smile but underneath that mask there would be a frown. You never got to see the person on the other side of the mask.

It’s interesting to me how the word “guile” and “hypocrisy” are tied together. Guile seems to be the intent to deceive; hypocrisy seems to be the way you deceive. It’s the front that we put up, the mask that is worn to protect the reality of what we know is really there.

You take Corinth, for instance. If you only had certain verses to describe the church of Corinth, you could come out thinking they’re a pretty spiritual church. In 1:2 he calls them “the church of God at Corinth.” That’s not bad. The church of God at Corinth, man, what a title. Also in verse 2 he said, “to those who have been sanctified.” The word means to be put in a class all by yourself. Wow! Then in verse 5 he says, “that in everything you were enriched in Him.” In verse 7 he said they lacked no gift. Go to 8:1, and he talks about the knowledge they had about grace.

You could pick several verses out of 1 Corinthians and that would be a front. Their position in Christ was well known. You would say, “Wow! These are spiritual people.” But the apostle Paul, through all the chapters we’ve been studying, unveils what they were really like, hiding behind their knowledge, hiding behind their position in Christ. In chapter 5, there was the unwillingness to deal with a heinous sin of a man living with his father’s wife. Nobody would even touch it. Nobody would deal with it. They swept it under the rug instead of putting it under the blood.

In chapter 6 they were not willing to settle the differences that they had with one another under the blood. No, no. They would drag one another into public court and sue another brother in a public arena. What a testimony! In chapter 7 they completely distorted God’s view of marriage. In chapters 8-10 they became so arrogant of their knowledge they trampled over the weaker brother and didn’t even give him the opportunity to be somebody and to be heard in the body. In chapter 11 they made the Lord’s Supper a disgrace. As a matter of fact, the rich disdained the poor; the rich brought the food and the poor had none. The rich were drunk and the poor were hungry. Paul says to them, “You in no way honor God by what you’re doing.” In chapter 12 they become so ignorant in spiritual matters that they actually began to exalt gifts rather than the Giver.

You see, all this position in Christ and their knowledge and other things were just a front. What was underneath? You see, when you’re connected to Christ there can be no guile, but there can also be no pretense. There can be no front. You are what you are in Him. You find your identity in Him and if you’re not walking in Him it’s obvious to everybody. You must be transparent and willing to deal with it. Paul had to nail them in chapter 13. That’s why chapter 13 is there in 1 Corinthians, to show them the difference.

Oh how we pretend, don’t we? Some of the most difficult experiences in my ministry have been when I’ve been somewhere and I’ve heard somebody that I’ve always thought a lot of. That person gets up and speaks with such eloquence. I’m so appreciative of the way they speak and so appreciative of what they said. I go up to them afterward, and they won’t give you time of day. They won’t sit down with you. If you’re not important, if you’re not somebody, they don’t have time for you. They have all the gifts and all the abilities, but where is the love? All that spiritual garbage is nothing more than a front that they want you to think of them. What they really are in their hearts they do not want you know.

Do you know how I know all of this? Because I’ve done it. I’ve preached at times when God was not anywhere near me. I know He lives in me, but I was rebellious in my spirit. I’m sure those listening could tell that. Thank you for putting up with me and praying for me. I want to tell you something, friends. I know how to play that game and so do you. I was in the ministry, not as a pastor, but in the ministry for eight years before I even got saved. I know how to play the game. But if we’re not going to live surrendered lives, folks, our church is a joke anyway. It’s not how many gifts we have. It’s not how much ministry we have out there. If we’re not marked by the love of Christ, then all of that is nothing. That only comes from surrendered lives. That’s the only place it comes from.

I have to be willing to admit what he I’m not. I don’t like doing that any more than you like doing that. It’s hard. It hurts. But I want to tell you something. The more you’re willing to deal with what you’re not and the weaknesses in your life, the more that Christ is able to manifest His strength. And I guarantee you one thing, you’ll never take another gap to glory for it as long as you live because you’ll know where it’s coming from. Talent, gifts, abilities, that’s fine. But the only thing that marks them that they’re usable to God is this manifestation of love which has no guile in it, has no pretense whatsoever.

Do you want to know if you have a surrendered life? Well, let me ask you a question. What pretense are you putting up to other people? What front is in front of you? What is it you want us to think about you that you already know is not there? That’s telling you immediately you don’t even know what I’m talking about yet. But when we come to that place of honesty, that’s when God can take us and use us.

God’s love will not allow us to envy what others have

Thirdly, God’s love will not allow us to envy what others have. We’ve just seen in 1 Corinthians 12 how they envied certain gifts. Where does it come from? In 1 Peter 2:1 Peter speaks of the flesh-mindedness of envy. He said, “Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy.” “Envy” is a fun little word. It’s a more difficult word in Greek to say. It’s phthonos. It’s more painful when you start finding its definition. It’s the pain felt when happiness in others is perceived. I have another way of saying it: It’s the funny feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when something good happens to somebody you know. That’s what envy is. God’s love does not allow that.

When I was Associate Pastor years ago the church gave the Pastor a new car every year. He would come over to my house driving his new, shiny, beautiful car. He’d pull up in my driveway, and I would say, as my front to deceive him, “Oh, that’s a beautiful car!” But in my heart do you know what I wanted to do? Spit on his car. That’s what I wanted to do. That’s the way I felt, exactly the way I felt, envy.

You can well imagine in Corinth the situation they were in. Somebody got up in an emotional, ecstatic moment and began to speak in another tongue and because of their pagan background they said, “Oh, man. That guy must have heard from God. I wish I could do that.” Envy was created in their hearts for that person’s gift, that person’s experience.

Let me tell you why people envy. It’s because they’re not finding what they’re really looking for in Christ Jesus. If you’re living surrendered to Him, you don’t envy anything, friend, because in Him you have everything. All spiritual blessings are ours in Christ Jesus. And if you’re living connected to Him, you’ll never find your joy in a gift or an experience or an ecstatic moment. You’ll find your joy in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and only when you’re surrendered to Him. That’s when you find your joy.

The whole theme of Corinthians, to me, is getting your focus back on Christ. Get it off the flesh and get it back on Christ. We’re always envious of other’s experiences, ministries, gifts, talents, looks, and abilities when we’re not finding our joy in Christ Jesus. Envy is an automatic byproduct of a person not finding their joy in Christ Jesus. God’s love will not allow us to deceive by pretending, putting a front up, and envying what other’s have. He will not allow us to live apart from the resources that He wants us to enjoy.

As a matter of fact, Romans 12:15 says that you’re so filled up with Him in Romans 12:1-2 that in verse 15 you can rejoice when others rejoice. That’s a beautiful thought. It doesn’t matter what happens to you, because you already have your joy. You don’t have to get it where they got it. You know where to get your joy. It’s in Christ Jesus.

God’s love will not allow us to slander one another

Well, fourthly and finally, God’s love will not allow us to slander one another. The word “slander” here is kind of like somebody says, “Man, that guy really is gifted, isn’t it? Whoa, man! That was so good.” But somebody not living surrendered to Christ, having to add in their garbage says, “Yeah, but do you know what I heard about him?” That’s slander. The word “slander” comes from two Greek words. One means to speak and one means against, katalalia. It means to defame somebody with intention. It means to cause another to think evil of someone.

A lady asked me one time, “How do I know when I’m not speaking for someone?” I said, “I don’t know. I guess you’re not speaking for him.” She looked at me and said, “That’s good. That’

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Contents

1 The Absolute Proof of a Surrendered Life – Part 2

1.1 A language without love is an irritating noise

1.2 Prophecy without love is nothing

1.3 Knowledge without love is nothing

The Absolute Proof of a Surrendered Life – Part 2

Would you turn with me to 1 Corinthians 13 and let’s read verses 1, 2 and 3. “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”

It’s interesting to me as I study Corinthians how many ways we look outside of Christ to satisfy ourselves spiritually. Do you realize the fleshly means that we go to to try to accomplish spiritual ends? When we’re not surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ, when we’re not being filled or controlled by His Spirit, we’re going to seek to satisfy the flesh. It’s either over religious flesh or rebellious flesh. There’s only two masters. One is God and one is us, our flesh, our own selves. When we’re not living surrendered to Him, even though it’s in a Christian setting, we’ll still seek to satisfy spiritual ends with fleshly means. Although Scripture says that flesh is never satisfied, it demands, however, to be satisfied with emotional experiences, with those things that are sensual that satisfy it.

I saw a bumper sticker not long ago that said, “If it feels good, do it.” That’s exactly the way it is in our Christian walk. We want to disassociate, now, the worldly, pagan way of living. Come on over to Christianity. That’s exactly the way it is when we’re not living surrendered to Christ. We’re going to look for what feels good. We’re going to look for what we can experience. We’re going to try to satisfy a spiritual need by fleshly, sensual, and emotional means.

Corinth was the epitome of this futile attempt to satisfy their spiritual hunger with fleshly means. They teach us a lot. They show us that we can have all kinds of experiences. There are a lot of things we can do. There’s a lot of things that we can do to make ourselves look spiritual, even to some people super spiritual. But God has a foolproof way of showing us whether it’s of Him or whether it’s of our flesh.

I want to tell you something, folks. We live in the twentieth century. We’ve learned how to play the game of church really well. We know how to sugarcoat it. We know how to make everybody think one thing when it’s really a veneer that we put up. God has a foolproof way of determining what’s of Him and what is not. By the way, it’s not perfect church attendance as some people would tell you. That doesn’t prove anything. There are many people who come to church every Sunday who won’t give Him the time of day. It doesn’t prove anything. It’s not how many people you witness to, although some people would have us believe that. Many people have witnessed in the flesh, folks. They’re not witnessing according to the Spirit of God. It’s not how involved we get at church. It’s not how big our ministry becomes. It’s something that God and God alone can produce. It’s something we cannot fake. It cannot be manipulated, duplicated in any way.

What is it? First Corinthians 13 focuses on it. It’s love, but not this humanistic, fluffy kind of love. It’s God’s love actually produced in and through us by the means of His Holy Spirit who now lives in us. Why would it be anything else? Christ lives His life through us. It’s Christ in me and through me. As Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me.” First John 4:16 says that God is love. If God is love and He’s going to be seen in our lives, then that’s the quality that’s going to mark His presence, that’s going to be the fruit of His Spirit. He is love, not our love, His love produced in us. His love is foolproof. You can fake all the gifts. You can fake ministries. You can fake affects. But you cannot fake the fruit that only God’s Spirit can produce in a person’s life.

One of the ways in which the police can tell who did it or who didn’t do it is by fingerprints. Do you know that you and I have fingerprints that are different? That’s amazing to me: As many people as God has created, and yet the unique differences in the fingerprints of each person. The FBI has on file all the fingerprints and when they find a fingerprint they can track it down as to who the individual is. They can find a match for that fingerprint.

Well, God wants His fingerprint on what we do. The fingerprint that is unique only to God is that character of love He produces in our heart. When that’s there, it points to Him. There’s no other person it could point to. It only can point to Him. It is this love that motivates us to live a surrendered life.

I think it would be helpful to make sure we qualify the difference of this love that God produces and the conditional love that our flesh comes up with. There’s a huge difference between the two. In the New Testament there are two words that are used predominantly to describe this love which is only of God. The verb is agapao, and agape is the noun. You’ve heard that term. The verb is found in some secular writings. But the noun is never found in any of the secular writings outside of Scripture.

It’s found in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. It’s found in 2 Samuel 13:15; it’s found in the Song of Solomon 2:4; it’s found in Jeremiah 2:2. The point being is this, that agape does not have any of its roots in the human languages of the world. A person without Jesus Christ has no clue what this agape love is. They do not understand it. They think it’s this mushy, frilly feeling that you get for somebody. But it’s not a feeling. It’s more than that. It’s a choice. It’s a commitment. It’s really out of the very heart of God.

You know John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That’s the kind of love that it is. No wonder Paul could say in Philippians, “Have this attitude in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” And a person could say, “What do you mean?” He said, “Though He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, He emptied Himself, came down and became a bondservant even unto death.” You say, “I’m not God. How can I have that attitude?” That’s right, you’re not God. But God lives in you and His Spirit manifests this kind of selfless love in and through our life. That’s the foolproof test. If that love is there, then a person is living surrendered and filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Agape is God’s own love.

Where was it greater manifested than in what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross? First John 4:7 says, “all love [and it refers to agape] is of God”. The word “of” is ek, out of God, comes right out of the very resource of who God is. Now, agape, to say it again, doesn’t have any of its origin in man. It has all of it in God. It’s rooted in Him. Agape manifested in a believer is what brings God down and through man to man. In other words, it’s God’s actually loving people through us. It’s not us loving them as much as it’s God manifesting His love through us. It is this love in man, produced by the Holy Spirit, that enables us to love others. It has within it the divine commitment, this is important, to do what is best for the other person no matter what it costs you and no matter what it makes him think about you. You have a desire deep within you. It’s God’s heart that wants you only to do what is spiritually beneficial for the other person. It does not matter what it costs you to do it. It’s that very love that God has manifested to us.

Now, when the believer realizes that this potential is within him and he surrenders to Christ, then God the Holy Spirit produces that love through Him. Let’s just say my coat sleeve is a person without Christ. The Christian life is never you and me trying to live like Jesus. I could say to this coat, “Sleeve, raise yourself up,” and that coat just hangs there like a dummy. “Come on, raise yourself up. Do you hear what I’m telling you? Raise yourself up.” And it just hangs there. It can’t. It just cannot by itself. But I put the coat on and the moment I put the coat on I say to that same sleeve, “Sleeve, raise yourself up.” Wow! What a difference. But we know now it’s not because of the coat. It’s because of the life that is in the coat. God is that life. Christ is that life. Christ is that love produced out of that life. That’s what we’re talking about. If that love is there, the life is there and a person is living surrendered to Jesus Christ no matter how else it looks on the outside. That has got to be there in order to prove that we’re living a surrendered life.

It’s most interesting to me how God actually lives in us. But is it not awesome to you that God lives in you? My clock went off this morning at six and I didn’t feel like God lived in me. Did you feel like God lived in you this morning? I just haven’t felt anything like God lives in me, but the Word of God says He does. Does it not? Does it not say that He comes and lives within us? And then I begin to think of this. It’s like dough and leaven. He doesn’t throw away my personality. First of all, dough and leaven by themselves are not fit for food. But you put the two of them together and one transforms the other. The dough is transformed by the leaven. This is a beautiful point to me.

God didn’t come in to throw my personality away. I’ve got my own personality, and you’ve got yours. God doesn’t throw that personality away. God gets in it and transforms it, infuses Himself into it and then exudes His love through the very individuality He’s already given to you. That is awesome to me. That is the Christian life. The way you see Him is you see His character, and His character is the love His Spirit produces. Agape literally transforms the whole of a person’s life. When a person gets saved he’s a brand new creature. You can’t join a church and get saved. You don’t join Jesus. You’re born from above, and God puts His Spirit in your life and gives you brand new life, His life, and literally transforms you, not from the outside in. No, no. From the inside out. That’s the Christian life. That’s what it’s all about. It’s not me. It’s Christ living in and through me, me yielding but to Him.

Now there are days that I just choose, “God, don’t you call me. I’ll call you.” There are days that are like that. There’s invisible lines drawn before us every day, and we have a thousand choices to make. And God says, “What are you going to do, your way or My way?” Many times I choose my way. Do you know what the first thing is that shuts down in my life when I make those choices? Immediately the love of God disappears. And when the love of God disappears, I can get busier in ministry. I can study more. I do whatever more to make myself appear to be spiritual, but inside it’s betraying me because I am nothing of what I want other people to think that I am. It all comes back to that surrendered yielded heart to the Lord Jesus Christ which is the whole message of 1 Corinthians. I have not seen anything else. You’re attaching yourself to flesh. You’re not willing to attach yourself to Christ. This is the test. This is the one nobody can get around. Is the love there? Is it there? And if it’s not, the rest is nothing more than silly game.

The Corinthians believers had spiritual gifts. Chapter 1 verse 7 says that they lacked no gifts. They had a right doctrine for the most part. Chapter 11 verse 2 tells us that. But there was no love in Corinth. Love was absent. How do we know that? There was division, 1:12 and other places. There was division and strife in that church. If there is division between you and a brother, somebody’s not walking attached to Christ because the flesh divides, the Spirit unites.

So we must look at this carefully. What’s the problem? The Corinthian believers were perfect examples for us to realize how upside down flesh can bring our lives and the devastation it can cause each of us. The fact that they had division and the fact that they had all these things tells us everything about their experiences. It tells us everything about how they pursued gifts. It tells us that there was nothing more than pure unadulterated flesh. You don’t want to go to 1 Corinthians and build your doctrine. You want to go to 1 Corinthians and let it be a mirror to find out whether the Spirit’s ruling your life or the flesh is ruling your life. They are the epitome of flesh ruling someone’s life. If you’ll watch what Paul addresses, you can tell the problems that they were having.

You do know that Paul was like a lawyer. The book of Romans was used in most law schools years ago to teach lawyers how to build a case. Paul was the most unusual lawyer led by the Spirit of God in the New Testament. He’s not like Matthew, not like Mark. He’s not like Luke or John. He’s certainly not like James. He’s not like Peter. He’s different. He builds his case methodically. What a tremendous picture of that Romans is. He’s doing the same thing here, folks. He’s not just bringing these things up off the top of his head. He’s addressing a problem, but doing it in such a skillful, God-ordered way that it will bring them to the conclusion they need to come to.

We do know that they were having trouble with speaking in a tongue, not tongues. That was not their problem. A tongue was their problem, language that was nothing more than a gibberish that nobody could understand. They thought that was a spiritual gift, and God the Holy Spirit actually was in charge of it. They also had a problem with prophesying and to whatever degree they would take that, foretelling or instantaneous revelation or whatever. They distorted it. They chased after the wrong side of that thing. They had a problem with supernatural faith. They wanted to have the kind of faith that could do miracles, even remove mountains. They had trouble with extraordinary deeds. The ordinary was not good enough for them. They wanted to chase after something that would make them stand out to others, as if they had the greater gifts. They not only chased after those things, but the people who had experienced some of these, the people who were doing some of these things, they esteemed them and made them appear to be the most spiritual in the body.

The apostle Paul is addressing that severe problem that flesh causes. He says in 12:31, “But earnestly desire the greater gifts.” He just finished proving there were no greater gifts. My personal understanding of that Scripture is a little different. I don’t throw rocks at anybody who disagrees. But the indicative and the imperative form here are the exact same, so you could translate it one of two ways. The translators chose to translate it in the imperative form in the sense of making it a command, “Desire the greater gifts,” as if there were any. But if you look at it in the indicative, it changes the whole statement. The present indicative would be “You are earnestly desiring the greater gifts, and that’s your problem.” There are no greater gifts. So Paul comes in behind it and says, “Listen, let me show you a better way.”

Man, this is so important for us to grasp. The word “show” is the word that means to point out. It’s used of a teacher who wishes to turn the attention of the group. “I’m trying to show you something. Think with me. Think with me. Let me point this out to you. Let me show you something that you wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t shown you.” He said, “Let me show you a better way.” Actually, I think the King James has the better translation, “a more excellent way,” because it kind of picks it up a little bit, not just a better way, but a more excellent way far beyond just being better. It’s an excellent way.

There are three words used there. One word is used to show the condition of something. One word is used to show that which is so far above average it’s excellent. And the word “way” refers to the manner in which you do something. To put it in my own words here Paul says, “I want to point out to you a more excellent way to live than to go around chasing gifts and experiences and emotional means to satisfy spiritual ends. Let me show you a better way.” By implication that better way is to live attached to the Giver, not the gift. You say, “How do you know that?” Because he’s only going to be talking about the fruit of the Spirit, but you’re not going to see the fruit of the Spirit unless you’re attached to the Giver and surrendered to Him. The fruit of the Spirit is produced when we are filled with the Spirit, controlled by the Holy Spirit of God. So by implication the better way is don’t attach yourself to gifts. Attach yourself to the Giver.

A language without love is an irritating noise

Let’s jump in and see what he tells us about how this love so qualifies everything that we do. No matter what they were dealing with, the love has to be there first or nothing else makes any sense. First of all, Paul tells them that a language without love is nothing more than an irritating noise. He says in verse 1, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” Paul is modeling the very love he’s talking about. Why? Because he’s not attacking them in their error. Instead he’s setting himself up to be the first to take the test. He’s giving them a test here. He’s saying, “Let me go first. I’m not going to attack you. Let me put myself in this situation. Examine me before you examine you.”

I’ve told you if you’ll pay close attention, each thing he mentions here has to do with the problems they’re having in Corinth. He didn’t just throw these terms out. He’s very precise. And one of the problems, the first one on the list, is speaking in other languages. In chapter 14 he takes this problem head on. He doesn’t do like he does in chapter 13. In 13 he sort of subtly says, “Look at me. Let’s examine me, for instance. I’m not going to examine you. Let’s examine me.” But in chapter 14 he attacks it with aggressiveness. Let me tell you what he does.

In chapter 14 every time he speaks of them he speaks in the singular. You’re speaking in a tongue, singular, every time. But when he refers to himself, he says, “I speak in tongues, plural, languages, plural.” So what he’s doing there is to show them what they were doing, this gibberish that was coming as a result of the Oracles of Delphi 30 miles down the road. This gibberish was what the problem was. Languages is not the problem; gibberish is the problem. They were speaking it and calling it an unknown tongue. He does that in chapter 14. He also aggressively attacks this problem. He says that if believers were all speaking in a tongue that nobody had ever understood, an unbeliever would come in and they would think you were insane. They would think you’re mad. They’d think you’re crazy.

This gibberish was also something that in no way could edify the body. Chapter 12 verse 7 says that all gifts are given, not to edify you, but to edify the body. Not only that, he attacks it in chapter 14 and says that it destroys the whole heartbeat of evangelism. How can you evangelize if people have never heard the language you are speaking? But he’s not doing this in chapter 13. He’s taking a different approach. He’ll do that in chapter 14.

In chapter 13, Paul does not attack them. He puts himself on the spot and instead of examining them he says, “Let’s examine me.” He says, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels.” That’s a hypothetical situation. He says, “Let me just give you a hypothetical situation. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels.” He uses two examples, one the tongues of men, and two, the tongues of angels. I want you to know that both languages, whether it be of men or of angels, are understandable languages. Find me an angel in scripture that spoke to where we couldn’t understand. God always speaks that we can understand. But, you see, the tongues of men are languages that are naturally understood and learned. But the tongues of angels are supernaturally given. They are given by revelation. In other words, that happened at Pentecost. They spoke and everybody heard in their own language. This is supernatural.

Some say that Paul is saying, “If I speak with eloquence”—by using that term “tongues of angels”—“and have not love.” That possibly is true but to some degree. That’s not what he’s saying. You can’t separate this verse from the context. I wholeheartedly disagree with that thinking. We cannot deny the context, and the tongues that Paul’s dealing with.

Let’s look at the tongues of men, the languages of mankind. We’ve said this before, but there are as many languages of mankind as there are mankind. As a matter of fact, Revelation 7:9 would be a good verse for you to write down. We looked at it in chapter 12, but I want to look at it again to show you that the word “tongue” means language. It is given to peoples and tribes that communicate with one another by these languages. Revelation 7:9 says, “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation [here we go] and all tribes and peoples and tongues.” It has to be languages, because he’s already described everything else that could define the people he speaks of.

When Paul refers to tongues of angels, there’s no scriptural phrase that we can go back to, but in the context it would have to mean those tongues given by supernatural means to where you speak a language you have never personally learned but which can be understood and spoken. Paul says, “Let me examine my own life first.” In other words, you’re speaking in a gibberish, a language that cannot be understood; I’m speaking in languages that can be understood. So I’m not going to get on you. Let’s get on me because the rule works both sides.” He said, “Let’s examine me first. Suppose I speak with the languages of men, whatever they are. Let’s go a step further. Suppose I speak with the revealed languages of angels.” Then he comes to his point, “but to not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

I love those two phrases because by using those two phrases he is bringing up an irritating noise. Do you hear what he’s saying? He’s saying, “Hey, a person who doesn’t have the fruit of the Spirit in him, no matter whether he speaks in the tongues of men or tongues of angels, he’s nothing more than an irritating bit of noise. That’s all he is.” He’s willing to be examined by the people so that they can understand, “Hey, if he’s nothing but noise and love is not there when he speaks in an understandable language, how much more so if you speak without love in a language that cannot be understood.”

There was no love in Corinth. If speaking in a language that can be understood without love is nothing more than an irritating noise, then the people of Corinth were nothing more than irritating noise. That’s all they were doing. The words “noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” really affect an irritating noise. I want to emphasize irritating. The term noisy is a term denoting loud noise.

We’ve got to get this idea. He said to the Corinthians, “I don’t care if you speak in a tongue that’s understood or if you do what you’re doing. If you have no love, all you are is a bunch of loud, irritating noise.

The word “gong” is the word used for a piece of metal that somebody strikes against. Then he uses almost the exact same phrase. He says “clanging cymbal.” It’s almost as if Paul says, “Let me give you another illustration. This is not good enough. Let me go a step further, a clanging cymbal.” A cymbal is plate of metal kind of hollowed and beveled out. When you struck it, it made a sound that harmonized with nothing. It’s an irritating sound, very irritating. That’s what Paul says we’ve become. That’s a real edifying statement, isn’t it?

I just want to make sure you get the idea of irritating noise. Have you got it? Paul says, “I can stand up and preach in the tongues that men can understand and I can speak to reveal the tongues of the angels but if love is not there, I’m nothing more than that awful clanging sound that irritates everybody, the clanging of a cymbal.” I’ll tell you what. That ought to deflate the Ephesians all of a sudden. “Well, I have the gift of speaking in a tongue.” Paul said, “Big whoopee deal? All you’re doing is making a lot of irritating noise because the very fact you had to brag about having the gift shows that there’s no love in you and respect for others in the body of Christ.” You see, we are only an irritation to others when we speak without the Holy Spirit producing that love that’s within us. Language without love, any language without love is nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

Prophecy without love is nothing

The point is so clear that Paul is making to the Corinthians. I don’t see how they could miss it. He doesn’t stop there. He moves to the second thing that they’re dealing with. He says prophecy without love is nothing. There are three definitions of prophecy: foretelling, instantaneous revelations, and to tell forth the Word of God. Anyway you want to take it. He uses himself again. He’s not blasting them right now. He says, “If I have the gift of prophecy,… I am nothing.” He goes from the noisy irritating sound to the fact that he’s nothing.

The word “nothing” in the Greek, in my definition, is a zero. I’m nothing. Flesh always distorts anything that God does. Flesh will take speaking in a known understandable language, distort it to where it’s a language of nothing more than gibberish. But flesh will also take the purity of the prophecy, of telling forth the Word of God, and twist it and turn it around and make it something mystical and magical and even call it a greater gift. Paul’s dealing with that. Paul simply says, “I’m not talking about you. I’m saying if I, the apostle Paul, have the gift of prophecy and do not have love, I am nothing.” Once again he’s putting himself to the test.

Did Paul have the gift of prophecy? What do you mean does he have the gift of telling forth the Word of God? He’s the greatest preacher in the New Testament and, aside from the Lord Jesus, the most intelligent preacher in the New Testament. In fact, he preached at one place and they said, “The gods have come down to us.” And the god they referred to in the pagan culture he was in was the god of Oratory, the one who spoke so well. They said, “We’ve never heard a man preach like this.” Did he have the gift of prophecy?

Paul’s putting all of this in such an absurd way to try to get them think. He says, “Alright, let’s just create a situation. If I have the gift of prophecy.” Go back to 2:1 and let me show you something that was mixed in to Paul’s life that we now know because of chapter 13. It says, “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.” That’s a humbling statement there. He could have wiped them out. They would have had to have had a dictionary to understood what he said if he came with that wisdom. He was schooled by Gamaliel. He’s one of the most beautiful people in the New Testament. He said, “I didn’t come that way.” “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” He knew the seriousness of the situation.

Verse 4 goes on, “And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but [look at this phrase] in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” If it was in demonstration of the Spirit, love had to be wrapped all around it because the first thing the Spirit demonstrates is the manifested love of Christ. Paul was mixed with it. That was all in him, so of God. But Paul, the greatest preacher in the New Testament, puts himself up on the test. He’s wanting them to examine themselves. But he says, “I’ll start. I’ll examine me. If prophecy is my gift [and obviously it was], and there’s no love in it, then I am nothing.”

I’ll tell you what that ought to do to the Corinthian mindset of that day. I think I’d be getting the point real quick. Here these people were, “Oh, I’ve got the gift of foretelling the future. I got a word from God about you and if you’re smart, you’ll listen to me.” Paul said, “If love is not present in that, you’re nothing. No matter what you think you have, the love has to be there.” Language without love is a noisy irritating sound, but prophecy without love means the person who says he has it is nothing.

Knowledge without love is nothing

The third thing he mentions here, as he goes to the different areas they’re dealing with there, is “Knowledge without love also is nothing.” He says, “And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge.” The word for “know” here is the word eido, to know intuitively, to divinely perceive something. It’s an inward knowledge God alone can give to a person. It’s a little different from something that is learned. It’s more something that is instantaneously perceived because of God’s working within a person. Unlocking, as the next word says, the mysteries of God.

The word “mysteries,” musterion, in Scripture, and especially in the New Testament, refers to the hidden things that man could never discover. Man does not discover what God has hidden. God reveals it to man, and what God doesn’t reveal remains a mystery to man. Do you see what he’s doing? It’s so funny. He’s creating such an absurd thing they’ve got to look at it. He said, “If I;” this is totally hypothetical. He knew he hadn’t obtained. He hadn’t arrived. He said that in Philippians. But he says, “If I have all, could unlock all

1 Corinthians 13:4-5

Contents

1 Nine Characteristics of Love

1.1 Love is patient

1.2 Love is kind

1.3 Love is not jealous

1.4 Love does not brag

1.5 Love is not arrogant

1.6 Love does not act unbecomingly

1.7 Love does not seek its own

1.8 Love is not provoked

1.9 Love does not take into account a wrong suffered

Nine Characteristics of Love

I love the psalmist in Psalm 42:1: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my heart pants after You, O Lord.” The problem with Corinth was they thirsted for other things. They’d rather have experience. They’d rather be attached to a preacher. They’d rather have a manifestation. They didn’t seem to understand that only Christ is that unending fountain of grace. If they would attached themselves to Him, all the rest of it would have taken care of itself. But Corinth didn’t do that. Corinth was upside down. It attached itself to everything but Christ.

The thing I’m getting out of our study of chapters 12, 13, and 14 is if you’re seeking after a gift, you render yourself unusable in the body of Christ. If you seek after the Giver, you’ll take care of the gifts. They’ll all point back to Him. That’s his whole point. Corinth is an upside down, fleshly minded, immature church, and he’s trying to show them the better way. Attach yourself to Christ; surrender to Him. Be the vessel through which the living water can flow and the gifts will take care of themselves.

He begins in verse 1 and follows it all the way through verse 3 with a little word “if.” It’s amazing. In English we only have one word for “if.” But there’s more to it in the Greek language. The word “if” is the little word transliterated ean. That’s a little different than another word, ei, also translated “if.” That’s a hypothetical “if.” Ean actually could be in the realm of possibility. It implies a condition that experience must determine. It’s always in the future sense.

In other words, Paul says, “The possibilities are there for this to happen.” Let’s see what he’s talking about. He says to them, “Hey, if I arrive—and evidently that’s what you guys are trying to do there in Corinth.” What does he mean by “arriving?” Verse 1 says, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels.” The word “tongues” there should be languages, as you know. We studied that in chapter 12. “If I speak with the language of men. Let’s take it a step further; let’s say I’ve come to the point I can even speak in the languages of angels.”

Now, don’t get mystical on me, because no angel ever spoke in a language that was not understandable. We’re not talking about an ecstatic, irrational tongue. We’re talking about something very understandable. Angels spoke understandably. So do men.

So Paul says, “If I reach that pedestal in my life, if I arrive there,” that’s possible because one day we’re going to be perfect in the Lord Jesus when He comes again and we’re glorified to be with Him forever. Then he goes on and says, “but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

Then he says in verse 2, “And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” Now look at the categories here. If I get to the place that I can speak in the languages of men and the languages of angels, but I don’t have this love, the one thing that I have to have to prove me spiritual and to surrender to Christ, if that’s missing, even though I get to this arrival point, he says, “I’m nothing more than noise, irritating noise.”

Then he lists another category in verse 2: “And if I have the gift of prophecy [to foretell and to tell forth all the truth of God], and know all mysteries [to unlock the things that God has hidden], and all knowledge [not some knowledge, all knowledge], and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but,” he says, “if I miss the very thing that’s only produced by surrendered life which is love, I’m nothing.” The word “nothing” in the Greek means a zero. I’m going to look at it a little more carefully in a little bit.

He says in verse 3, “And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” That’s interesting to me, how he divides that up. I’m a noisy nothing that doesn’t profit from anything if I don’t have love in my life.

Now, you see, the Corinthian church, what did they want? They wanted all of these things and they wanted that arrival point. They wanted to get to the place they could speak in these languages. They wanted to get to the place they could prophecy. They wanted to get to the place where they could unlock the mysteries of God and have all knowledge and have all faith to remove mountains and to do all these great deeds. But Paul says, “Hey, it doesn’t mean a thing unless the love, the fruit of the Spirit of God, is in your life.”

Do you know what he just did? He just disarmed all religiosity for all time, because what he mentions are experiences, gifts, and abilities, but they have nothing to do with spirituality. Spirituality is when I’m surrendered to Christ. It’s not in how much I know; it’s Who I know and how well I know Him. It’s not in what I can or cannot do; it’s what He can or can’t do and will do in my life. So it’s a difference here. Paul is saying, “Let me show you a better way. This love is the gift wrapping that goes around all the gifts, all the manifestations, all the work of God and if it’s not there, there’s nothing going on. You’re having experiences but that’s all.”

We got to the last part of verse 2 the last time, and we didn’t look at all faith. Let’s look at that. He says, “and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” Now, the word “all” means all, each act of faith, every act of faith and all of the faith put together. Folks, that’s getting there. That is getting there. You can see the Corinthians saying, “Can we arrive there?” Paul, by using the word ean suggests the possibility, because if you use the other hypothetical word it would not be there at all. He suggests it’s a possibility. He said, “If we can arrive there.”

The word “faith” is pistis, having the ability to so believe God. Then he goes on to qualify it, “that could remove mountains.” The word “remove” comes from two words, meta, denoting change of place or direction, and then the word istemi, which means to stand or place, to remove from one place to another. We get the word metastasize from it, to move from one place to another place.

Now, can you imagine? Could you see the meeting we could have to prove how spiritual we are if we all walked out and we spoke to the Smoky Mountains, “Smoky Mountains, we don’t like where you are. You change places with the Rocky Mountains,” and the mountains “Poof!” they changed? We would have a crowd next Sunday morning and be spiritual. You’ve got to be spiritual to do something like that.

By now Paul certainly had their attention. He had to have had their attention. To speak in any language, even languages of angels, to prophesy, to forth tell the word and to foretell the word, to all mysteries, to have all knowledge, this is better than what’s on television. Good night! Can we get there? This would prove us to be spiritual. Then the clincher, “but if I have not love, I am nothing.” I don’t know if that rattles your cage or not but that sure rattles mine. “Do you mean to tell me that if I had this experience, that doesn’t prove anything in my life?” No. “Do you mean that if I have this manifestation of the Spirit?” No, it doesn’t prove anything. “Do you mean to tell me if I have a great ministry out there it doesn’t mean anything if this love is not there?” I didn’t write it. He wrote it. And he said it means absolutely nothing.

The word “nothing” there, oudeis, means I’m not even one. I’m the very least. If there was a list of one hundred people, I’m a minus twenty-five on the list. Even if I could speak in all the language of men and of angels, if I had prophecy and unlocked mysteries and have all the knowledge and all of the faith to make one mountain here move over there. If I had all that and didn’t have the love, I’m nothing, absolutely nothing.

I’ll tell you what. If I was in the church of Corinth right now I would be very repentant in my heart, because what he’s just told them is there’s nothing going on in the Church of Corinth spiritually, absolutely nothing. Then he goes to verse 3. This is the category that somebody would say, “Well, hold on. This would prove you spiritual. All of that other stuff, I can see what he’s talking about. But this would have to prove you spiritual.”

It says in verse 3, “And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned”—my goodness! How much can you do? Come on! —“but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” Do you mean if I give all I have to feed the poor it profits me nothing? Isn’t it interesting what we do? Religion is what you’re going to make somebody think you are by what you do, what you experience. Spirituality is who He is in you. Christ is our spirituality. It’s not a matter of doing something, it’s being someone in Christ. And when you’re surrendered to Him He becomes the aura of your spirituality. It’s not your experience or your manifestation. It’s His love manifested through you and through me.

I’m not picking Mother Teresa, I just want you to evaluate something. If this gets back to me that I’ve said something negative about her, no sir, I have not. I’m just quoting something to you. Everybody thinks that because somebody gives of themselves for the poor, they have got to be spiritual. I was reading Newsweek Magazine and it said Mother Teresa signed the document to make Mary the co-redeemer of the world. There’s a cross in South America with Jesus hanging on one side and Mary hanging on the other side. They say that she was virgin born, just like Jesus. They deified Mary in that document, and she signed that. People say, “Oh, but she must have been spiritual.” Maybe she was. Maybe she wasn’t. But what Paul would say is, “You can give everything you have to feed the poor but if you don’t have the love in your heart, it proves something to everybody. You are nothing.”

That kind of knocks it in the head of going to church and trying to prove you’re spiritual to somebody and being nice to little old ladies and helping them across the street or giving to the church budget. Maybe that proves you’re spiritual. No, sir. Your surrender to Christ is manifested by a love that only He can produce. That is the absolute proof of being a spiritual believer, a believer surrendered to Christ. You can give everything you have and it doesn’t prove you’re spiritual.

Then he tops it all off. He says, “and if I deliver my body to be burned.” That’s martyrdom. “Greater love hath no man but to give of himself for another.” That’s what Jesus said. So if somebody dies, wouldn’t that be spiritual? Well, he says if there’s no love in it, it profits him nothing. This is what you’ve got to see here. He didn’t say it didn’t profit them. If I give all I have to feed the poor, they profit because they’re fed. It didn’t say it didn’t profit them, it says it didn’t profit him. If I give all I have to the poor, it doesn’t profit me if the love is not in my life.

What does he mean by “profit”? We know the apostle Paul. We know that he doesn’t profit materially from anything. He died penniless in a prison in Rome. He wouldn’t be talking about that. So what’s he talking about? “In a spiritual sense” is what he’s saying. In other words, there’s nothing spiritual about me. I don’t profit from the fullness of God reigning and ruling in my life. I think he’s even pointing to something else, because in chapter 3 he mentions the rewards one day, how God’s going to judge the motives of men’s heart—not just what they did, but why they did it. If it’s not out of surrender to Christ, the motive is impure no matter how it looks on the outside. Paul says, “Yes, it may have profited them. Certainly it did. But it didn’t profit me. I’ll stand before God one day and God’s going to say, “Son, you didn’t do it by faith, and only those things which are of faith produce the righteousness of God.” I’m serious.

He has just taken a crowning blow to what religiosity is in the twentieth century. You can’t fake this, folks. I can’t fake it. We live in the realms where we try to fake it. We hide behind church and make church our spirituality and our good deeds for others the standards by which we judge ourselves. But he says here that you can’t fake this fruit. This fruit is only produced by the Holy Spirit of God. It must wrap every gift you have. It must wrap every manifestation you experience. It must wrap every deed that you do. It’s got to show people it doesn’t come from you. It comes from God.

That’s not a very popular message. Do you know that? That’s about the time people pack up and leave and find another place where they can just have their Sunday School pins for perfect attendance and at least feel a little more spiritual about what they do. Surrender produces a love in your life. That’s what Paul says, “I want to show you a better way. I’ve got a better way. If you surrender to the Giver, I’ve got something far better than gifts. It’s the fruit and you can’t fake the fruit.”

Language without love is an irritating noise, no matter whether it’s the language of angels. It doesn’t matter. Prophecy, all knowledge, all faith, without love means you’re nothing, absolutely nothing, the least of the least. Greatest acts of service which are giving all you have to the poor and even dying for others produce no profit for you at all, spiritual advantage at all in the spiritual kingdom of God because when you stand before Him, it’s the motive of your heart that’s going to be judged. So, this love is very, very important.

All of us hide behind something, don’t we? You take away what we do and where’s your identity? Paul is trying to show them that it not in what you do. It’s not in what you experience. It’s not in what you feel. It’s in who you are in Christ Jesus and whether or not you’re surrendered to Him. That’s your identity. Take all the doing when you can’t do anything, that’s still who you are in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, Paul turns now to the quality which he says we must possess. I’ll tell you what. Take all the books off your desk. Take out a clean sheet of paper. We’re going to find out whether or not we’re real, whether or not we’re really filled with the Spirit of God. All the gifts that you say you have, all the ministry and effects and the abilities, take all of them and put them on a shelf. Just forget them and let’s just find out if we really love the Lord Jesus and are surrendered to Him. Wives, your husbands already know more than what you think, and husbands, your wives definitely already know a whole lot more than what you’re willing to admit. What happens here is we find out the ground is level at the cross. Let’s just find out who’s spiritual and who isn’t. Forget gifts. Forget manifestations. Forget great acts of service and let’s just find out who’s surrendered to Him.

Love is patient

He starts off with two positive qualities and follows with seven negative qualities. What he’s doing is beautiful. The first thing he says there in verse 4 is, “Love is patient.” When Paul or Peter makes a list, the first thing they mention sets the tone for the rest of it. The first thing he chooses to do is pick out a relationship word. We know what he’s doing already because we know the context of 1 Corinthians. What’s going on in 1 Corinthians? Division. We get the word “schism” from “division.” It means to rip something apart. This is a bad division in the church. He says that in 1:12 and repeats it several times in the letter. We know this is a church where there is no love.

Why does he put chapter 13 in? He wants them to see that all this stuff they call spiritual has nothing to do with spirituality. He wants to show them what they’re not by showing them what they need to be. So he says, “Love is patient.”

The word “patient” is a beautiful word. Makros is the first part of the word. It means to stretch something. Say I pin something down and pull it as far as I can pull it. I extend it so far it’s almost ready to break. That’s makros. The second word, thumos, is the word that means anger or wrath. That’s interesting. But the idea of the word is you have been ill-treated. And, yes, there is a response that your flesh wants to make. But rather than make it, because of the empowerment of God’s Spirit, you’re willing to stretch. It’s that willingness to endure the bad things of your brother as far as you can possibly stretch it. That’s what the word means, the long-suffering of somebody.

The implication of the word is you’re mistreated by someone but you’re willing, rather than to let your wrath explode, to let it be long-suffering. An even though you’re upset and it has hurt you, you’re not willing to retaliate. God’s love in you put the restraining power on that and keeps you from doing that. It even gives you the best interest of that other person. How can you love that person in the midst of the ill treatment they’re giving to you? That’s a quality of God’s love, you know.

Look over in 2 Peter 3 at the passage where He’s going to judge the world by fire. Some people ask, “Why is He hesitating?” In 2 Peter 3:9 the apostle Peter explains why He hesitates, why He is long-suffering, why He’s willing to put up with all the garbage He puts up with. Why does He do that? This is the very heart of God that the fruit of the Spirit produces in us. It says in verse 9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness [you may think He’s taking a while to get about the things He said He’s going to do] but is patient toward you [longsuffering, makrothumia], not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” That’s the redemptive heart that God has. That’s the redemptive heart He gives to us when we’re mistreated by others.

This love does not allow division. This love hangs on for dear life for that unity of the Spirit. This love will do whatever it takes to make sure that that peace of God and the unity of the Spirit is maintained, as Ephesians 4:3 tells us to do.

In the context of Corinth, when this love is present, you don’t go sue your brother just because you’ve been mistreated by your brother and it’s cost you something (chapter 6). In the context of Corinthians (chapter 8-10), just because you have knowledge and your brother doesn’t have knowledge, you don’t trample over him. You walk along with him and help him get to the place that he can walk on his own. In chapter 11 the rich don’t come and bring the food to the Lord’s Supper and the poor go hungry and the rich go fat and drunk. You don’t do that and desecrate the whole Lord’s Supper. That’s what was going on in Corinth.

So the first word he chooses just slaps the church of Corinth up the side of the face. He says, “Love is patient.” They don’t even know what it means because they’re not living surrendered. Oh, but they’ve got gifts. Oh, they’ve got ministries. They’ve got effects. They’ve had manifestations. They must be spiritual. Baloney! Look at your relationships. That’s the gauge. If you’re walking with God this way, you can walk right with man this way. So love is patient.

Love is kind

Now he adds one to that. The second positive quality he brings out is kindness. He says, “love is kind.” The word is chresteuomai. It comes from the word chrestos, which means, by the way, to be useful. This is an interesting word here. It has the effect of a kind heart in the sense that it’s always looking out for the other person. “What can I do for you?” It’s not what can I do for me, or what can I do for you that will benefit me. It’s what can I do for you? It’s the kindness that will express itself in deeds that we’ll be willing to help and assist another brother. We become useful to our brother when the love of God is produced in our life, only then. We’re not useful to anybody until we’re surrendered to Christ. When you’re surrendered you can even take ill treatment. Not only that, you’ll have an attitude constantly, “What can I do to be useful to you?”

That’s why some of the gifts they were chasing after were edifying themselves. They were not useful to the body. Why would they do that? Because there was no love in Corinth. They’re upside down. I don’t see how much clearer it can get. It’s almost like you don’t even have to apply anything. You just read it and everybody can shut their book and praise the Lord. It’s as clear as a bell if you just look at it.

Then he shows us seven things that describe what this kind of patient kind love is not. It’s very important that we see this. We started this chapter with some things about what love is not in 1 Peter 2, but now he does his own list. Seven is not a bad number. He took seven things about what love is not. He could have picked other things, but everything he picks, everything he addresses, has something to do with Corinth. Context always rules. He doesn’t stop and forget what’s going on in Corinth and teach a chapter on love. It fits beautifully into the mix of this wonderful book.

Love is not jealous

The first thing he says about this love and what it’s not, he says in verse 4, “Love…is not jealous.” The first two things Paul mentions, patient and kind, which are useful, but now he enters with a negative, what love is not. The word “not” there means not in any way, shape, or form. Love is not jealous. The word jealous is the word zeloo. It’s the word that can be good or bad. It can be zealous toward God so that He would use you in the fullest. You surrender to make that happen. That could be a good thing. But here, obviously, it’s used in a bad sense. It comes from the word meaning to boil, to boil over.

Have you ever been around someone who’s about ready to boil over and you can just sense it? That’s the idea of the word. It’s a fleshly quality that cannot stand the good fortune of somebody else. This is interesting. Patient and kind is contrasted to a person who doesn’t care about anybody and is offended at the good things that are happening to his brother. He can’t rejoice with them. In fact, he wants to take their joy away from them because it’s not his own joy.

How does that fit the context of Corinth? Somebody stands up and speaks, babbling a tongue that nobody can understand, and somebody sitting over here gets angry because they say, “That’s what I want in my life. I don’t want him to be that. I want to be that.” That’s the kind of contentious things that was going in Corinth. It seeks to rob the other person of their joy that God’s given him. It’s very similar to envy, very close to envy. Love is patient and kind and cannot seek to rob others of this joy. He’s showing them now what this love really is. In no way, shape, or form can it take the joy away from others. It is not jealous.

Love does not brag

The second thing to find out about this love is it does not brag. Love does not brag. What was going on in Corinth? Verse 4 says, “love does not brag.” The word for brag is not the normal word used to describe bragging. It’s a different word, perpereuomai. It’s only found here in all the scriptures. It’s a word that means to think more highly of yourself, bragging about something because you have a higher estimate of yourself than you ought to think. Corinth had that going on. “Have you had the gift of speaking in tongues?” That was the subtle way of saying, “I do.” Or “have you seen any miracles lately? I have.” That kind of garbage doesn’t go on when the love of God’s Spirit is being produced in a person’s life. There’s no bragging notion. There’s no bragging at all because you know that whatever God’s doing, God puts His hand and seal of approval on and it draws attention back to Him.

Love is not arrogant

Verse 4 goes on to say love “is not arrogant.” We’ve seen this word five times in 1 Corinthians. I want you to look with me. First Corinthians 4:6 says, “Now test things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to exceed what is written [that was their problem, by the way; they went far beyond what was written] in order that no one of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.” Then he goes on and says, “For who regards you as superior?” That was their problem, arrogance.

Look in verse 18 of the same chapter. He says, “Now some have become arrogant [it has to do with what they were saying] as though I were not coming to you.” In other words, they are really bragging. They think they’ve got their act together. Look at what Paul says, “But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant, but their power.” Oh, they ought to be shaking in their boots if the apostle Paul came in because he would know one hundred yards off where the power came from.

Look over at 5:2. Here they would not deal with immorality in their church, and he calls it an arrogance. He says, “And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst.” In other words, you can become arrogant and overlook sin. It’s amazing what this arrogance is. It was definitely a trait of the Corinthian church.

Look over in 8:1. He’s talking about things sacrificed to idols and says, “Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge [in other words, they have been well taught]; knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.”

What is the word “arrogant?” The word “arrogant” is phusioo, which means to be a bag of wind. I used this illustration before when we touched on it. You go to buy your favorite big bag of potato chips. You open it up, and what really is in it? A big bag of air. That’s the word phusioo. God’s love doesn’t allow somebody to brag or to think of themselves so highly that they become nothing more than a braggadocios bag of air. That’s what was going on in Corinth.

Do you know what I’ve noticed? A person who’s unteachable is phusioo. He’s a bag of hot air. I’m going to ask you something. I come at chapter 12 a little differently than other people. No apologies. But I wonder if you closed me off because it’s not the way you did it or you read about it or somebody else told you about it. You became unteachable at that point. That’s exactly what’s going on in Corinth. They can’t listen because they know it all already. That’s what happens when knowledge sometimes gets perverted and distorted.

Love does not act unbecomingly

Well, Paul goes on. In verse 5 he says, “does not act unbecomingly.” The word there, aschemoneo, is the word that means indecently. It has the idea of doing something indecent to disgrace somebody else. In 1 Corinthians 7:36, you have a case of a father who’s kept his virgin daughter at home and finally realizes he’s disgraced her by not allowing her to marry. He’s put a disgrace upon her life. So it’s something you do openly to somebody else that disgraces them. Love will not allow you to do that. Love will not allow you to disgrace somebody else. It’s an outward behavior that brings disgrace upon someone.

Now, you say, “How do you know so much about this?” Because I’m reading it from scripture, but I also know a lot about it because I’ve been that way many times in my life. But so have you. Any time the flesh is dominant, you’ll do things that will probably bring disgrace upon somebody else. Don’t point your finger. There are three more pointing right back at you. You can’t blame somebody else for doing it. We all do it. That’s what this kind of love forbids. God’s love does not in word or deed cause disgrace. It seeks to change others, not disgrace them.

Love does not seek its own

The number five he mentions there in verse 5. God’s love is not only patient and kind, but it does not seek its own. A patient love, a kind love, does not seek its own. The word for “seek” is very similar to the word we got the word jealous from. It’s the word zeteo. It’s the word that means to strive to find something. The word “not” is not any way, shape, or form. “Its own” really means of itself. In other words, there’s a selfishness here. You might go out and minister to somebody, but you’re really doing it for your own benefit. Love will not allow you to do that. You cannot do anything, whether you call it spiritual or whatever, and do it for your own benefit. You can’t do that. You can’t be self-serving.

1 Corinthians 13:6-7

When Love Is Present

The apostle Paul has done a marvelous job under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God bringing this truth to light for us. You know, folks, there’s no mistake that chapter 13 follows chapter 12 and comes before chapter 14. There’s no mistake. What I’m talking about is this passage or this portion of Paul’s letter is injected there for a very, very good reason. What’s going on in Corinth had no love in it whatsoever.

In fact, when he finishes chapter 12 he says, “I have a better way. Let me show you a better way instead of getting on this endless pursuit of gifts. Oh, no, what are you doing? You pursue the Giver. You attach to Him, and He’ll produce a gift in you far beyond anything else you’ve ever talked about. It’s called the fruit of the Spirit. That fruit is, of course, His love in us.”

Then verse 1 of chapter 13 says, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” Language without love, any language without love is nothing much but a noise, irritating noise. “And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” “Nothing” meaning a zero, not one single thing. I may push myself up in front of others and talk about what I’ve done for God, but I’m nothing. “And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” Oh, it would profit them. They’re fed, but it doesn’t profit me anything. When I stand before God one day there’s no reward for anything I’ve done because I didn’t act it by faith. I didn’t have that love ingredient which only comes from surrender in my life.

“Love is patient,” he says, “love is kind.” Those two words he could have added to that list very quickly but those two words describing God’s love is so appropriate to the context of Corinthians because there was not patience. People were intolerant of one another. There was no kindness. They were more interested in what benefited themselves than what benefited others.

The word “kind” has the idea of being useful to others. Then after he identifies this love, he identifies it with patience, makrothumeo, long-suffering with the intolerable ways of others and then the kindness, that which only God can produce and a usefulness to others in the body.

Last time I referred to seven negatives. There are eight negatives. I’ll bring the eighth one up now. Verse 6 picks up the eighth one. It’s married to a positive one. It starts off and says, “does not rejoice in unrighteousness.” You see, love, God’s love, never takes or gets satisfaction from sin. It does not do that. To rejoice in unrighteousness is when a person takes something that is wrong and makes it appear as if it’s right. He’s justifying sin. He’s making something wrong to appear to be right. If we love God, what causes Him to rejoice is going to cause us to rejoice. Love is His quality. It’s His character in us and the effect it’s having on us. It’s changing the things that bring us joy. It’s changing the way we see things. So we’re not going to rejoice in unrighteousness.

You know, in the church—and I’m sure it was probably going on in Corinth—one of the ways in which we do this and don’t even realize we do it when we rejoice in sin, is when we gossip about someone. How many times have you been in church over the years and heard somebody talk about gossip? I guess the reason they do is because it’s been around for a while. Gossip usually has an element of truth in it. There’s enough truth that gets somebody’s attention. Normally it’s not the whole story. But when we just really rejoice in taking a juicy morsel about somebody and taking it to somebody else and spreading it, that is when we have just stepped outside the barrier. Now we’re rejoicing in unrighteousness, which proves we’re not filled with the Spirit of God. Because, you see, a person filled with God’s love cannot do that. We’ll see what he does instead of that in a few moments. But it does not do that. All of us have been damaged by this on both ends. How many times have we been in the flesh and we just chose to walk after the flesh and somebody calls us and we listen to them? It’s just as much on the listening end as it is on the giving end. What it does, we are rejoicing in somebody else’s unrighteousness and the person telling it is rejoicing in telling it.

That’s what Paul is alluding to, not just that one sin, but just to help us understand how Christians can take something that’s wrong and make it appear as if it’s right. There’s nothing more painful than for somebody even at church to walk by and smile at you as if they love you and as soon as your back is turned stab you in the back. I used to talk about the folks who would go home and have me for dinner. But it’s happened to all of us. But here’s the interesting thing. I can pick up on this because there’s a great weakness inside of me caused by the wounds that have come over the years. What God would say right back to me is, “Hey , while you’re talking about how much you’ve been hurt and trying to get other people to think about how much they’ve been hurt, what’s the context?” The context is you can’t think that way towards those people because if God is producing His love in you, you are already patient with them; and not only that, you’re kind towards them.

So you can’t find you any solace here in the fact that somebody has gossiped about you. You can’t do it. You can’t find any solace in the fact that you’ve gossiped about somebody else. The only solace we can find is in our surrender to Christ because His love in us changes our whole way that we see others no matter if we’re on the hurtful end or on the end of causing that hurt. It doesn’t matter. Love changes us. It changes us. It’s Christ in us changing us from within. So there are two positives that he gives, two great examples of what love is. It’s patient and bears up under the intolerable ways that flesh can treat you.

But, not only that, it’s kind. It goes a step further. What can I do to help you? What can I do to see that you can change in your walk with God? And then the negatives of what it is not. Of course we see what it is by seeing what it’s not. Finally, he comes back with five more positives. We’re seeing what love is when it’s absent and when it’s present.

What it’s like when love is present? What’s it like when we’re being filled with the Spirit of God and God’s producing that marvelous quality of love, His love, not our love, His love through us? The first one is found there in verse 6 of chapter 13. He says, “(it) does not rejoice in unrighteousness [you can’t understand the first part unless you understand the second thought; it says] but rejoices with the truth.”

What kind of truth is Paul talking about here? Just checking this out I found all kinds of ideas what he’s talking about with truth. But I think he is referring to the truth of the Word of God. I’ll tell you why. The definite article is there. When a definite article is put before truth it’s the truth, not just truth. Without the definite article it qualifies; with the definite article it identifies. To me what he’s saying is this person cannot in any way rejoice with unrighteousness because he rejoices, not just in the Word, but it’s with the Word of the truth, with the truth of God’s Word. You see, righteousness comes from the Word of God and when you act by faith, when you live by faith, righteousness is going to come forth. So with that understanding, if you love the Word of God, you love truth and therefore, you love righteousness. You have to be able to not rejoice with unrighteousness. That’s the opposite of it. When you find people in love with God and His Word, they cannot in any way make something unrighteous appear to be righteous. They can’t stand it. They can’t rejoice because they only rejoice in the truth.

Hang on with me for a second. Why does Paul do this right here? What is present? Why does he do this? Because he’s exemplifying it. This is key. God’s love, now listen to me, cannot in any way rejoice in wrong doctrine. Hang to what I’m saying. Hang on. When you love somebody and it’s God’s love in you produced by your surrender to Him and it’s Him causing that love to be manifest in your life, you can in no way rejoice with anyone who has false doctrine. You can love that person, but you cannot in any way rejoice because your rejoicing is only with the truth. Truth does matter when it comes to this aspect of loving others. You take love, which is what we’re talking about, and truth and righteousness. They’re inseparable. They’re like three parts to something that’s a whole. If you alter any of them, you weaken them all.

I’ve heard this expression so many times, “Well, the important thing is that we just love each other because it doesn’t matter what your doctrine is. We just need to love one another.” Yes, but also no. Because John tells us if a person’s doctrine is wrong don’t even let him in the door and don’t even have dinner with him. So there is something to the fact that when you are manifesting, not your love, but God’s love, there is something in you because it’s God in you who loves what He’s spoken and you love truth.

So therefore, love and truth absolutely go together. When we weaken, as I said a moment again, any one of those three—love, truth, or righteousness—we’ve weakened all three of them. You cannot do it. Now, that’s a tough one. He doesn’t explain a whole lot more, although the ones that follow help us to deal with somebody, perhaps, who is caught up in untruth. But I’ll tell you what. You cannot rejoice when there’s false doctrine around in a believer’s life. You cannot do it.

What’s Paul doing? Paul is writing to the church of Corinth who is absolutely upside down. Their doctrine is wrong. When it comes to gifts, when it comes to manifestations, they’re wrong. What is he doing? He says back in the earlier chapters of the book, “I’m not writing these things to shame you. I’m writing these things as a father would write his son because a father loves his son. I’m saying the hard things to you because I want you to be in love with God’s truth. I want you to come back to where God can work in your life afresh. But you’ve got to learn to love truth. You can’t rejoice in error. You can’t do it and then claim to be filled with the love of God.”

Do you realize the whole Ecumenical Movement is built off the theory that if we love one another despite what we believe, everybody will be fine? That’s ecumenicalism. In other words, that’s just like saying, “Hey, everybody’s fine. I’m okay. You’re okay.” That’s not God’s love. God’s love is directly married to His truth. Therefore, this person who loves, when love is present, yes there’s a caring for one another. We’ve already seen all that. But there’s also a rejoicing with truth. You cannot rejoice in unrighteousness. There’s no way you can rejoice because unrighteousness comes from error. It comes as a result of flesh.

Well, what do you do with somebody you’ve seen all of these eight negative things in? Look at the next one. It says in verse 7, “[Love] bears all things.” The first thing you think of when you think of bearing all things is a person with a big heavy load, and he’s walking around carrying that load on his back. The first thought that comes to your mind is, “Well, it just puts up with everything. It just bears all things.” Isn’t it wonderful just to get in and find out what it really means? As a matter of fact, if you’ve got a good translation, it’s got a little mark beside verse 7 which tells you that there’s another meaning to it out in the outside margin.

The word is stego, and it means to cover. As a matter of fact, it comes from a word that means to put a covering, to put a roof on a house. Whoa! That changes the whole idea of what he’s saying here. It puts a cover over those thoughts and sins of people that are treating you without the love of God. As you seek to see them changed, it puts a cover over the whole thing to keep them from being exposed to everybody. It puts that covering over them. You see, love already has rejected all the fleshly deeds, not the people that do them, but the deeds that they do. It rejects jealousy, bragging, arrogance, things that are unbecoming, selfishness, provoked anger, resentment, unrighteousness, and false doctrine. And when it encounters these things, it loves the person who’s been caught up in these things and that love builds a covering over them. It begins to feel their pain because of their fleshly choices. It begins to help bear the burden of the consequences of those fleshly choices. But it doesn’t go out and parade everybody’s dirty laundry before everybody. It has a love about it. It covers over it. It does not seek to expose. It seeks to protect. It seeks to protect the ones while in the midst of that time there’s a challenge to change that individual, to see God in that individual change that individual.

We’ve practiced church discipline for quite a while. Many have said, “You must not be doing anything because we never see hardly anybody brought before the church.” Part of the reason is they repent before it ever gets that far. Isn’t that good? But you don’t even know who they are. Isn’t that good? I used to be in a church if anything went on it was the matter of a whole public business meeting, and everybody’s dirty laundry was drug out in front of everybody. I want to tell you something, folks. If that ever starts happening around here, people are going to disappear. Why would they want to come to some place that everybody wants to nail them for what they’ve done when the people that are nailing them usually have areas in their own life. What would happen if it was reversed?

Proverbs 10:12 says, “Hatred stirs up strife [that’s a fleshly characteristic] but love covers all transgressions.” Is that not a beautiful verse? Now, if you have somebody in your family and you see that the flesh has gotten hold of them, jealousy and all this kind of stuff, and your heart is burdened toward them and your heart burden is to love them so that they might be changed by the same love that’s changed you, you don’t pick up the phone and call everybody.

We started a prayer chain in another church I pastored. Do you know what that prayer chain became? It became the best way to find out what was going on in the community. It became nothing more than a gossip sheet. There were people who would put down, “Please pray for my husband. He’s lost.” That sounds great on a prayer sheet until you found out he’s a Sunday school teacher and a deacon and the wife happened to be a little upset with him the day that she put the request down. Son, did they ever spread through the church overnight. Love doesn’t do that. As a matter of fact, we had to get rid of that whole thing because all it was doing was causing people to sin.

Love covers. It protects. So when you run across somebody who has any of the eight negatives of that love, then what happens is your heart is grieved, but you still love the person. God has that kind of love for you and me. He loves us but He hates the sin. So when we come together to pray for them, we put a covering over them. We protect our own so that the enemy out there cannot blaspheme.

Love bears. Why does love bear all things? What’s going on here? Is there any connection between these five that we’re putting together? Yes, because it believes all things. Love bears all things because it believes all things. It refuses to yield to suspicion of doubt. Let me ask you a question. The next time you hear about somebody you know, how quick are you to buy it? Or how quick are you to reject it until somebody’s proven guilty? With this right here somebody is innocent until proven guilty, because it believes all things. Flesh is ready to believe all the evil about somebody; love does just the opposite. Love is confident until the very last, until absolutely proven to the very last and then will not give up.

Isn’t it interesting Paul takes you right down to everyday living. He takes you down to dealing with people and circumstances in your life and people who hurt you. You don’t need God’s love manifested in your life if everybody is treating you nice. It’s easy to treat them nice. It’s easy to love them back. God’s love is put there so that now you can treat them the way God would treat them even though they have treated you the wrong way.

I remember early on in my ministry I used to have a hit list when I prayed. “God, if You could get rid of these ten people, we could have revival in the church.” Then it was like God began to put on my heart, “I put some of these people out in your midst just to bring you to the point to understand what you don’t have that you thought you did. You have to admit to Me that you can’t love this person and then I want to show how I can love that person in you. I’ll give you a different perspective toward that person. I’ll give you a heart for that person that’s going to seek to protect him even though you know what he’s doing is wrong. You’ll still seek to protect him because you believe all things and you believe that God can change that person and you’re not going to give up on that person.”

Love always considers a person innocent until proven guilty. I just wish that were true in the body of Christ, that people were so surrendered to God that whatever you hear you don’t take it and run with it. You stop and say, “Hold it. I believe in God in that person and before I go any further I want to make sure that what I just heard would be correct.” That’s what love would do. Love would always give your brother the benefit of the doubt because it’s patient. Remember long-suffering? It still goes back to those first two things. It’s useful. It’s kind. It wants to help the situation, not hinder it. All of us, except by the grace of God, would be right in the middle of it.

The religious Pharisees always looked for the negative in anything that Jesus did, although they claimed to be the most religious people on the face of the earth. Remember in Luke 5 when they brought the paralytic. They had to lower him through the roof. He healed him and immediately they began to question Him because He made a statement to the man, “You’re forgiven of your sins.” They couldn’t handle that. But they completely overlooked the fact that the man was healed. They always seemed to find the negative in everything.

Oh, man, the negative. God’s love won’t let you do that because God’s love believes all things. It just won’t let you have that mindset. You can’t do it? Remember Job’s friends? Oh, Job’s friends. Oh dear God, help me never to have friends like Job had. Job had everything taken away from him. Here they come with their little opinions. One of them said, “If you’d just get right with God, God would restore every bit of it. Evidently there must be wickedness in your life.” You see, love doesn’t do that. Love believes all things. It’s believing that God, in the person, will triumphant ultimately. Even if you find out that what has been said is right, you trust in the God in the person.

Well, why does it do that? Because loves hopes all things in verse 7. You can’t take this out of the context. He’s not talking about the eternal hope that Jesus is coming soon. All that’s there. We’ve got to stay with the context of relationships, the context of people not relating to each other. He’s dealing with selfishness and flesh. So if you keep it in the context, love hopes with expectation towards others.

This hope knows no pessimism, but I want to make sure you understand. This is not a fleshly characteristic of flesh optimism. That’s not what I’m saying. The grace of God has so transformed the person who had this love that he hopes that grace will do the same to the person. He’s believing all things; he’s hoping all things; he’s just not going to give up. Human failure is just not final. It doesn’t give up.

God never gives up on us. If God would have given up on Israel, Israel wouldn’t have made it a month. But God never gave up on them. He never gives up on us as He manifests that never giving up through people who have His love. They don’t give up on us either because it’s not them. It’s God in them. They’re hoping all things, that that person can change, that that person will change. They’re believing that. They’re believing that the God in them will triumph before it’s over. Love hopes all things.

Well, you’ve got to then add the next one, the fifth one. They are all so beautifully woven together. It’s like a fabric. Love endures all things. The word endure is hupomeno. Hupo means under, meno means to remain, to remain up under. Whatever’s coming your way, remain up under. Whatever pain, whatever pressure, you remain up under. God’s love enables you to endure all things.

It would be interesting to know that in James 1 it says, “Count it all joy, brethren,” and it talks about enduring. He said, “Endurance worketh forth patience.” That endurance is the same word, hupomeno. It’s God’s love causing you to be able to endure. Why? Because you believe all things, you hope all things. All these things are tied together. You’re just trusting that God will triumph in the end of it. This endurance is feeding right off of the hope that we just looked at.

In the secular Greek the word is used of a military unit pinned down, holding to the very last, enduring the pain and the losses to the very end. I don’t know if you saw Saving Private Ryan. I never talk about movies, but I just want to talk about that first twenty-five minute segment that they took, actually, from a World War II scene. That was just real. They even had to have counselors for veterans to go see that thing because it was so vivid of what actually went on in that war. One guy’s arm was blown off and, in shock, he picks it up with his other hand. Most of this was actual footage that they just somehow took and wove it into this thing of a group of men who were under orders to hold their position even though all the pain and all the losses they had to take. They bore up under. They stayed there.

That’s what love does. Love bears up under until the very end, no matter how much pain, no matter how you count your losses, no matter what. Love bears up under. This love is awesome, isn’t it, folks? It’s awesome. You say, “Where in the world is it?” It’s only in people surrendered to Christ because it only comes from Him. You couldn’t manufacture this in a million years. We could have a course on “How to Love Your Brother.” It doesn’t work. What we’ve got to learn to do is so surrender to God, Who is love. He’s not filled with love, and He’s not like love, He is love, and manifests that love through us. The same kind of love that He dealt with us, because He’s a God of long-suffering, is the same kind of love He gives to others. It’s a love that endures. It’s a love that bears up under. No matter how bad it gets, the love is still there. It’s the greatest quality in the world.

Paul, knowing that, now wraps it up and says in verse 8, “Love never fails.” It never fails. “Oh, you’re too simplistic. You and the apostle Paul think everything’s solved with a sentence.” I’m not that stupid. I know the sentence is right and very profound, but I do know it takes a whole lot more to get us to that place. I know that. But it never fails. We’ve seen what it’s like in its absence—it’s terrible. We’ve seen what it’s like with its presence. That’s what you want. That’s what you want a church to exemplify, that kind of love.

Now in comparison to every other quality known to man, love never fails. Love will never have an end to it. The word for “fails” there is the word that comes from the little word pipto, which means to fall. Actually it has more of the idea of stumbling and then falling. It’s the word used in James 1 when he says, “Count it all joy when you encounter.” It’s the same word. You stumble into and you fall as a result of it. You’re in the midst of it before you even realize you’re there.

But the word pipto, used in secular Greek, was used of a leaf falling off a tree, decaying and vanishing away. In other words, love will never go away. Love will never fall. Love will never decay, because it’s who God is. Love will never in any way go away because it’s God and who His character is. God’s love never fails. It’s us who fail, but His love never fails. It’s who He is in us.

Let’s put some practical hands on this thing. We’ve gone far enough. Let me just ease back a little bit and let’s bring it down to where we all live. We know what it is now; we know what it’s not. We know in the context of Corinth that it’s something they hadn’t even seen before because it’s only what God can produce in lives that are not chasing gifts, but are surrendered to Christ, the Giver. When it’s there, how do I get it?

I could go to several places in Scripture to show us how to get it. Let me start with the principle. The principle is this, before you can ever get it, you’ve got to realize you can’t do what this love does. It’s foreign. It’s not natural to our flesh. That’s what you’ve got to first realize. I shared the illustration of a lady that walked up to me in Germany and said, “Let me see if I’ve got this right.” She said, “I cannot do good. Is that correct?” I said, “That’s exactly right. There’s no good that dwelleth in me apart from the empowerment of Jesus Christ.” She said, “Let me see the second thing, then, if that’s right. I can’t do good, but I can surrender to His goodness. Is that right?” I thought, “Not only is it right, that’s profound.”

What the church of Corinth needed to understand is how much Paul loved them. He was trying to bring them back to truth and help them understand all you’ve got to learn is, if you’ll just surrender to the One who is love, then He will manifest that love in and through you. You can’t love like this apart from His Spirit producing it in your life. How do I do that?

Go with me to Ephesians 3, and I just want to practically show you. We could go other places, but this is one very familiar to me and I want it to be familiar to you. Why is it the church of Corinth could not grasp what Paul is saying? Why is it they weren’t living in this every day? It tells you right here; because Corinth was just as much a Gentile city as the city of Ephesus. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, said something a little different, but it brings about the same point. It says in Ephesians 3:16, as he’s praying for them, “I pray that He would grant you [as a gift that you don’t deserve, but as a show of His good will toward you], according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power.” What is that power? It’s the word dunamis, dynamite, ability. We get the words dynamite, dynamo, from it. It’s the ability you don’t have unless you’re strengthened in the inner man.

He goes on to say, “to be strengthened with power through His Spirit [where?] in the inner man.” I’m so grateful he put that there instead of “the outer man.” Paul’s already said the outer man is decaying. It’s the inner man that we’re growing stronger. So it doesn’t matter how old you are; it doesn’t matter how diseased you are; it doesn’t matter how weak you are. The strengthening takes place in the inner man, you see. As long as you live it can happen, this ability that God wants to give you. He said, “with power through His Spirit in the inner man.”

Now, verse 17 to me answers verse 16. How do you do it? That little word “so that” throws you. It makes it look like “so that Christ may dwell in your heart.” In other words, I’ve got to be strengthened in the inner man by the Spirit of God before Christ can dwell in my heart by faith. That little word doesn’t mean “so that” or “in order that.” It’s really Christ dwelling in your heart through faith. Here’s the key to verse 16: I’ve got to let Him dwell in my heart by faith. To the church at Corinth and to the church at Ephesus what does that mean?

Well, the word “dwell” does not mean indwell. He indwelt me at salvation. So it’s not Him coming to live in me. He’s already there. But it’s the word that has the idea to be down home. Be at home where He is. In other words, if I want this love to be manifested in my life, I have got to learn to accommodate Christ in every area of my heart.

The word “heart” is used about 139 times in the New Testament. But three of them have to do with the room of our thoughts. Over in Luke it says, “Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their hearts.” You say, “That should be minds.” No, no. Wait a minute. Hebrews says that the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, able to cut asunder spirit and soul, able to cut asunder bones and marrow, able to cut asunder the thoughts and [what?] “the intentions of the heart.” The heart has everything to do with the thoughts. So the room of my thoughts. Am I accommodating Christ in the room of my thoughts?

Well, not only that. We go over to Matthew and he says, “You must forgive one another as I have forgiven you, from your heart.” I thought forgiveness was just what you said to somebody. No, no. It must go a lot deeper than that. So we see not only the room of our thoughts, but we see the room of our attitudes towards others that have got to accommodate the living presence of Christ in us.

Then in find in John 14 he says, “Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God [the Father], believe also in me.” Don’t let your hearts be troubled in the area of your emotions. You can just walk through the different areas of your heart. What I’ve got to learn to do and what you’re got to learn to do is come to the place in these areas as they surface in my life. I don’t have to go find them. Don’t worry. They’ll find me. When they come up, accommodate the very presence of Christ in that area. How do you do that? He tells you. He says, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Here we go. You can’t separate faith and love. Faith is that willingness to bow down and be submissive to whatever He says, in whatever area you’re dealing with. If it’s in the area of your thoughts and you’re still struggling with them and being defeated, evidently you haven’t given Him supremacy in that area. You haven’t been willing to submit to what His love has to say. If it’s the area of your emotions or the area of your attitudes, we’ve got to learn to accommodate the holy presence of God in our life.

It’s the same thing he says in Ephesians 5:18, “be ye filled with the Spirit of God.” Be controlled by the Spirit of God. Wait a minute. I want to stop there. When we get to the point of surrender—remember we’re talking about the fruit of a surrendered life—look at the next part of the prayer in verse 17 as he comes to that little semicolon. Then he says, “And that you being rooted and grounded i

1 Corinthians 13:8-12

Contents

1 Love That Never Fails

1.1 Because God’s love does not fail, there will come a time when there will be no need for preaching

1.2 Because God’s love does not fail, there will come a time when there will be no more ignorance

1.3 Because God’s love does not fail, there will come a time when there will be no need for different languages

1.4 Because God’s love does not fail, there will come a time when we will all be glorified

Love That Never Fails

We’ve been talking about the absolute proof of a surrendered life. Of course, that proof is the love that God produces in us. But I’m going to change gears just a little bit and entitle the message, “Love that Never Fails.” We find that phrase in verse 8.

You know, just a simple glance at verse 8 tells us that there are three things, three gifts or manifestations that the church of Corinth was struggling with. These were the gifts that were enamoring them. These were the gifts that were somehow luring them. It says it in verse 8, “Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.” There’s no coincidence here these three gifts are mentioned. You have to understand this is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God working in Paul to write this letter. He doesn’t just throw words out. He’s not at a loss for words. The words “prophecy,” “tongues,” and “knowledge” describe the three gifts or manifestations that the Corinthians had literally attached themselves to. And, as a result of it, this had led them into grave error in their day.

Paul, finishing out chapter 12, says, “I’ve got a better way for you. I want to show you a better way.” What he wants to show them is that instead of pursuing gifts, sensual, emotional experiences, pursue Christ. Attach yourself to Christ. Don’t attach yourself to gifts. When you can attach yourself to Christ, He produces—and this is an awesome thought, folks—His love in us. Not a love, but His very love, the love that is used in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world.” That love is produced, then, in the life of a believer by the Holy Spirit of God. This love cannot be duplicated. It cannot be manipulated in any way, manufactured in any way by man. It has to be produced for the Holy Spirit of God and is only produced when we’re surrendered to Him. It’s amazing the kingdom of love that God sets up in His church on this earth. It ought to say something to the world as to what they do not have and give us a witness to share Christ.

A friend of mind e-mailed me this quote from Napoleon, of all people, a great military man centuries ago. Here’s what it said. “I know men. I tell you that Jesus was not just a mere man…. The religion of Christ is a mystery which subsists by its own force and proceeds from a mind which is not a human mind. We find in it a marked individuality which originated a train of words and actions unknown before. Jesus is not a philosopher for His proofs are miracles and from the first His disciples adored Him. Alexander, Caesar, and myself founded empires, but on what foundation did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Yet Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love, an empire and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.”

Then, as he lamented, Napoleon said, “I die before my time and my body will be given back to the earth to become food for worms. Such is the fate of him who has been called the Great Napoleon. What an abyss between my deep misery and the eternal kingdom of Christ which has proclaimed, loved, and adored, and is extending over the whole earth.” Then he turned to his general, General Bertrand, and added, “If you do not perceive that Jesus Christ was God, I did wrong in appointing you a general.”

That’s Napoleon. Absolutely overwhelmed at the kingdom of God on this earth, the kingdom of love founded, not on force, but founded on love. It’s that love produced by God’s Spirit that gives that kind of witness to a lost world. And the apostle Paul is trying to tell the church of Corinth this.

He said back in chapter 1, “The testimony of God has been confirmed in you but it never has been confirmed through you.” In other words, you’re in Corinth, but Corinth has gotten into you. Instead of you attaching yourself to Christ, letting His love literally attract many in Corinth, you’ve attached yourself to gifts and you’ve done nothing more than turn the whole gospel upside down.

Now Paul, in the light of the culture in Corinth, begins to describe this love that God produces in our heart. First of all, in verse 4 he says that this love is patient and kind. That’s important if you understand that culture of Corinth. Again, he’s not throwing words around. There could have been others thing he said. But in Corinth they needed to hear this. The word “patient” is long-suffering. God’s love is long-suffering. That ought to give a glimmer of hope right there to the Corinthian believers. Even though they’re upside down, even though they completely missed it, God’s love is persevering. It’s long-suffering. Not only for us to others as God produces it in our life, but also from God to us. God’s love is patient.

But also God’s love is kind. The word “kind” means useful. Instead of chasing after gifts and only edifying you, he says that God’s love in you would cause you to pursue how you can edify others, not just yourself.

Then he proceeds to show what life without this love would be like. He uses eight negatives as he follows, beginning in the last part of verse 4. First of all, he says that love is not jealous. Love is not going to try to steal away the joy that you’re having. It does not brag. It is not arrogant. It doesn’t say, “My gift is better than your gifts.” That’s what was going on in Corinth. In verse 5 we see love “does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own.” It’s not selfish. In other words, since it doesn’t seek its own, it’s not provoked. When I’m easily provoked by someone it’s obvious I’m seeking my own. I’m self-centered at that point. It does not take into account a wrong suffered. It doesn’t keep a ledger of things that people do wrong against you so that you can use it later on.

In verse 6 it says, “[It] does to rejoice in unrighteousness.” It doesn’t take something that is wrong and try to make it appear as if it’s right. As a matter of fact, if you took all these negatives and said this is the world I live in, then life is nothing more than a cold, self-centered place that you exist in day by day. But, see, when God’s love is there it’s quite different. He shows you that as he brings out five positives of what love is. I’m going to tell you what. This is when it’s almost like the current starts speeding up right here as he leads to his further thoughts. He says in the last part of verse 6, “but rejoices with the truth.” I want you to know that’s the truth. The definite article is used there. Certainly he enjoys with honesty, etc., but that’s not what he’s saying. It rejoices with the Word of God. Righteousness comes from the Word of God as we act on it by faith. That’s why you can’t rejoice in unrighteousness. Those two phrases are linked together there in verse 6. It rejoices with the truth.

The Word of God does matter. Truth does matter. That’s why Paul’s writing this letter to the Corinthians; because doctrinally they are totally upside down. He loves them so he’s trying to correct them. When you love somebody, you want them to be doctrinally correct.

Then in verse 7 it bears all things. The word for “bears” all things means it covers it. It doesn’t seek to expose the wrongs of everybody. It builds a covering over it. That’s love. It believes all things. It hopes all things. It endures all things. Now, basically it’s saying love never gives up.

Paul says it in another way in verse 8. As he starts off he says, “(God’s) love never fails.” The word “fails” we looked at last time is the word pipto. There are two definitions. Each one of them helps us. I think the second one that I did not give to you last time is much more appropriate to the context. The first one means to fall, to stumble, but it’s used in secular Greek of a leaf that blows off the tree. It floats down and then it withers and then it decays. God’s love never decays, withers, or falls off. It’s always there in the life of a believer. It’s there It never fails. But the better definition, and I think what he’s saying here as I’ve studied the whole context here, is the definition used of a ship when it gets off course and as a result of it, ends up in shipwreck.

Stay with that definition of love never fails. Love never gets off course to where it can’t get back on course. It’s going to get you to the destination that it set you out on. It’s going to arrive. Love never fails. I’ll tell you what, this ought to begin to already encourage your heart. He’s saying this to the Corinthian believers. Even though you’re upside down, even though you’re immature babies, even though you don’t have a clue about half of what I’m telling you, God’s love is going to get you to where He told you you were going to arrive, because God’s love never fails. If you want to enjoy the journey, then attach yourself to the One who produces that love. You want to be miserable on the way, don’t attach yourself but you will arrive. God’s love never fails.

Because God’s love does not fail, there will come a time when there will be no need for preaching

With that thought in mind, let’s ease in and see what God has for us. Man, these are some powerful verses. First of all, because God’s love does not fail, there will come a time when there will be no more need of preaching. He said, “but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away.” The first thing you’ve got to do is to realize is “there be gifts of” is in italics. That means a translator has added those words to the original text. It’s not in the original text. That’s just a translator’s way of bringing it out, to perhaps make it more sense. It seems to be implicit but it’s not there in the original text. The literal would be, “But if prophecies, they will be done away.”

The word for “prophecy” is the word propheteia. We have seen in our study propheteia means to speak before someone. That can mean two things. It can mean to foretell the future, to tell beforehand, or it can mean to tell forth the Word of God. We’ve already seen in our study that the foretelling the future is already beginning to phase out even as Paul wrote this. You only find that as a pattern with the apostles, prophets, and evangelists of that day, not the evangelists we have today. Don’t get upset. The evangelists they had, the 70 that were sent out, they had these gifts. You find the pattern there. So if you bring it on up to date to where Paul would be when you think of prophecy, you’ve sort of got to put that out of your mind and come to the telling forth, the preaching of the Word of God.

You see, Paul is saying there’s going to come a day when sermons will no longer be needed. Why? All preaching—in fact, if you want to go behind preaching and go to the foretelling and the prophecies of the prophets of the Old Testament—is at best incomplete. Even the author of Hebrews says that the prophets of the Old Testament prophesied in part and in portion. They didn’t have the whole picture. Neither is either message complete in itself. There’s always something left out. There’s always things that could have been said. There’s only a piece or a portion. They only had a piece of the huge pie. So there’s going to come a day that there’s no need for that any more.

In verse 10 he tells us when that day is. He says, “but when the perfect comes.” We’ll get to that. Something in the future is going to happen. We’ll explain to you what we believe that to be. There will be no more need for prophecies. There will be no more need for sermons or preaching because it will all be absorbed in that which is perfect that is coming.

The phrase “will be done away with” is the word katargeo. It’s the word kata, down, and then from the word argos, which means to idle; to idle down. Actually here it means to set aside, to make it idle to where it no longer is needed.

Look at verse 11. He uses the same phrase, “when I became a man, I did away with childish things.” He uses the same word. In other words, he didn’t do away with them. If he did away with them, then what man could do another childish thing? But he set them aside as a pattern in his life. He set them aside. They are no longer needed.

Now, the verb that is used here, pay attention, is future passive. You say, “Why do you get into stuff like this? I don’t care what the verb is.” You better care because it sheds light on what he’s talking about. In the future the perfect is coming. In the future passive voice, God, not man, will take all the sermons and all the prophecies and set them aside. When the perfect comes, all preaching and prophecies will be set aside. Remember, that word “prophecies” is in the plural. It’s not prophecy, singular. So he’s talking all the different messages from all the time and particularly the preaching of today. All of that will be absorbed and set aside when the perfect comes. So because God’s love does not fail, it gets us to the destination God says to where we headed. There’s going to come a day when the perfect comes that all preaching will be set aside.

Because God’s love does not fail, there will come a time when there will be no more ignorance

Secondly, because God’s love does not fail, there’s going to come a time when there is no more ignorance. I’m going to skip the little phrase he has about tongues ceasing. I’ll come back to it. He says in verse 8, “but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues they will cease, if there is knowledge, it will be done away.” The reason I’m doing knowledge second instead of third is because the verb that is used with prophecies and the verb that is used with knowledge are exactly the same. It changes with the tongues. That’s what I want you to see. So Paul says that there’s going to come a day that knowledge will be set aside. “What do you mean? Is there going to become a day I can’t learn any more? Is there going to come a day I won’t know anything or there will be no knowledge?” No, that’s not what he’s saying. In fact, knowledge has got to be looked at in the same sense that prophecies were looked at. Even though it’s in the singular, it has more of a plural understanding.

Actually, scholars have debated. This should be the plural because that exegetically and dramatically fits the text. Singular, as it is in some text, is not right. Plural should be there but if you’re going to leave it singular, you’ve got to look at it in the plural sense. What do I mean by that? You see, any knowledge I have or you have is just a part of a bigger piece. In other words, it’s fragmented at best. Mankind thinks that they are so smart, but all we have are little bits of knowledge. We see through a glass dimly, as he says later on. We don’t have it all together right now. This is why it’s so important never to attach yourself to a preacher. No preacher has it all together. Attach yourself to the Giver. He’s the one who has it all together and He is the treasure house of wisdom and knowledge as Colossians tells us.

So all these bits and pieces of knowledge that we have, fragmented as it is, will one day be absorbed into that which is perfect. When it comes, it will be set aside. It won’t be needed because you’ll be overwhelmed at what you’ll know.

Look at 1 John 3:2. I want you to see something. When that which is perfect comes, when we see Christ one day, there’s going to be something that’s going to take place in our life. It’s called the glorification of the body. I want you to see this. In 1 John 3:2 the apostle John is telling us what it’s going to be like when we see Jesus face to face, the One who is the summation of all knowledge. What we have is only fragmented. We have bits and pieces. First John 3:2 says, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be [what does it say?] like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.” All those tidbits of knowledge that we thought we had [and aren’t we proud of it?] will one day just be set aside. When we see Him, we shall know as we’re known.

Look back in 1 Corinthians 13:12. I want to show you something. All of this is tied together. You’ve got to tie these knots. If you don’t, you’ll get real frustrated with what these verses mean. Verse 12 of chapter 13 reads, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then, face to face [look at this]; now as I look in a mirror, I know in part, but then [when I see Him face to face] I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.”

Can you imagine what it’s going to be like one day to know as we’ve been known? All those bits of knowledge that we thought we had all of a sudden they mesh together and we know. When that which is perfect is come, all preaching, all fragmentary bits of knowledge, will be set aside because then, you see, we will know as we’re known. Down here we think we’re so smart. We really do.

We are so smart down here. Man, we clean up the air in a city and pollute the river. We don’t know what we’re doing. Oh, aren’t we intelligent? I’ll tell you. He’s not speaking about secular intelligence. He’s talking in a spiritual way. We think we know so much about God, but when that which is perfect is come, He’s going to take all the preaching and set it aside. He’s going to take all the knowledge and set it aside because you’re going to know as you’re known. And on that day you’ll realize how much there really was to the picture. Well, because God’s love never fails, that day is coming. God is going to get us to where He says He’s going to get us. God’s love never lets the ship get off course too far that He doesn’t get it back on course and make it come to its arrived destination.

Because God’s love does not fail, there will come a time when there will be no need for different languages

Then thirdly, because God’s love does not fail, one day there will be no more need for different languages. Let’s go back to that tongues verse. Right in the middle of verse 8 he says, “if there are tongues, they will cease.” I hope you understand by now, as we’ve studied chapter 12, when “tongues” is rendered in the plural, it refers to known understandable languages. Get off this kick that’s some ecstatic prayer language that somebody has. That is not right. He deals with what they’re doing in chapter 14. Every time he refers to them he uses “tongue,” singular. Every time he refers to himself, he uses “tongues” plural, languages, known understandable languages. There’s going to come a time that there will be no more language barriers. All the languages are going to cease. Why? Because we’re going to speak one language. In that day, when the perfect is come and all sermons are put aside, all knowledge is set aside, all languages will cease because there’s not going to be a need for them. They can all hear and speak in the same language.

Do you realize the only reason we speak in different languages is because of what happened in Genesis 11? Man was so arrogant, and God looked down at him and said, “Hey, this is not going to work.” He confused them with different languages? That’s where your nations have their root, right there in the pagan area of Babel. But do you also realize that at Pentecost there was a reversal of Babel? They spoke in different languages but they all heard in their own language and God was giving them a prophecy. Only for that moment did that happen, but he’s saying, “Listen there’s coming a day when you’re not going to need languages because you’re only going to speak one language and you’ll all hear in one language. When that which is perfect is come there will be no more need for languages. There will be no more barriers there for languages. They will cease. I don’t know what the language is going to be, but it’s going to be one language.

Now, the Greek verb used there for “they will cease” is important. It’s the word pausontai. That’s a different verb than the verb we looked at earlier, katargeo. It’s a different verb altogether. It means to stop, put the brakes on. Now, it’s in the future, just like the others are, but it changes. It’s in the future middle. There’s a big difference. Future passive means God’s going to do it. He’ll take this stuff and set it aside. He’ll take the knowledge and set it aside and it will be absorbed in that perfect when He comes. But this one means it will cease on its own. He’s not talking about ecstatic tongues.

You say, “You act awfully sure of yourself. How did you arrive at that conclusion?” I’d better defend myself. Obviously I’m convinced. First of all, if he’s talking about an ecstatic tongue, like I said, he would have put it in the singular, because he follows a pattern all the way through. He doesn’t break that pattern. Any time he speaks of what God does, which are the languages, it is in the plural. So I know he’s talking about languages. Secondly, some people say in the phrase in 1 Corinthians 13:1 “tongues of men and of angels.,” angels means a heavenly language that I have in my prayer time. You can’t take that away from me. Wait a minute. If that’s going to cease, which he says it will, it doesn’t make any sense if it’s a heavenly language. When that which is perfect is come and we’re in heaven, what are we going to do? Sign to each other? The language is not going to disappear. You walk down through the process of just simple logic and you have to arrive at the fact that he’s talking about languages, not some mystical whatever everybody wants to call it. He’s talking about languages. There will be no language barriers when that which is perfect has come.

There’s coming a day when all prophecies will be satisfied. There won’t be any need for preaching; there won’t be any need for all these bits and fragments of knowledge, not as if you do away with it. But it’s all absorbed into that which is perfect. There’s coming a day when there won’t be any need for languages. We’ll all speak the same language. How do we know that? Because love does not fail. God has told us where we headed. God has told us. It’s the hope of every believer and when we see Him, we shall be like Him and the perfect has come.

We haven’t told you what the perfect is yet. We’ll get there in a minute. When the perfect comes, we know that we’re going to arrive, because love never fails. I’ll tell you what. I’ve always read this as if it’s up to me to love my brother, but I’m beginning to realize it’s not up to me. It’s up to Him. The whole promise does not start with me loving my brother, but me receiving the love my God has for me. If I’ll just receive it, then I can enjoy the journey because I’m going to get there. But if I won’t receive it, it’s going to be one painful direction for me and Corinthians had already bought into that painful direction.

Because God’s love does not fail, there will come a time when we will all be glorified

Fourthly, because God’s love never fails one day we will be glorified. We will be made perfect. John said we shall be like Him. We will not be God. We will not be omniscient. We won’t be omnipresent or omnipotent, but we will be perfect in His eyes, in His sense. We will be glorified. It will be something that we have never really known. We won’t be God, but we’ll be like Him. Verse 9 is so connected with verses 8 and 10. It’s amazing, isn’t it? After he says what he says, look here. Verse 9 reads, “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;…”

The term “in part” needs to be understood. It’s the word ek, out of, and meros. It means to be a part or a piece of a bigger something. For instance, if I took the top of a piano and ripped it off, wouldn’t that be fun? I would hold it up. That’s a part of the piano. You really wouldn’t know what the piano looked like just by the top. But one day, when the piano got here, and I put it where it belongs, it’s sort of absorbed into the whole. You don’t see it any more. You see the whole. That’s what he’s talking about. It’s a part. We prophesy in part. Even the author of Hebrews said it. Everything we do is in part. It’s fragmented. Our knowledge is fragmented, and yet it’s directed and it’s increasing. But one day when we see the embodiment of knowledge, it will all be absorbed into that.

He’s saying that prophecy and knowledge, they’re just a part. We prophesy in part. We know in part. In verse 10 he says, however, “but when the perfect comes.” Look at this. He contrasts “part” with “that which is perfect.” You’ve got to see that. There’s a contrast there in verse 10. He’s leading you right to his thought.

In verse 12 we have the same thought. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.” Something is coming in the future. When the perfect comes it will swallow up the parts. They’ll be set aside and will be no longer necessary. There won’t even be a language barrier. We’ll all be hearing and speaking the same thing.

When the perfect comes. Here’s where we have to enter some of the controversial waters. What does he mean by “the perfect?” Well, the word is to teleion. I did it that way because “to” is a definite article. When a definite article is used with that word it means that which is the perfect state of something. It’s not just an area of your life. It’s not just maturity. This is absolute maturity. This is the absolute perfect state of maturity.

Then verse 12 links us to what that has to mean. We say it’s Christ coming. It could be, but I’m thinking more this: he says then we’re going to see face to face, and what’s going to happen? John says we will be like Him. To me it’s the full maturity of the believer which God has already programmed into the computer. Romans 8 says He already sees that glorification. It’s already done and His love never fails to get you from here all the way to there. We’re going to make it. We are going to make it.

Corinthians are you listening? Do you want to be painful in the journey or do you want to enjoy it? Do you want to attach yourself to a gift? You’re missing out because you don’t know the love. Not only are you not experiencing it for yourself, you’re not experiencing and giving it to others. You’re miserable. You’re going to make it though because His love will get you there. But you can enjoy it a whole lot more.

I don’t how this term “when that which is perfect is come” could mean anything else but the glorification of the believer when one day we won’t need to worry about sermons or knowledge. We’ll know as we’re known and when we speak, we’ll speak in the language all can understand. It will all be the same language. There is perfection for the believer that is coming one day when we see Christ.

There are some other views of this. Some people say it’s the Word of God, when the Word of God comes. Wait a minute. When the Word of God comes, all the preaching is going to stop? All knowledge is going to stop? And we’re all going to speak in the same language? It just doesn’t make much sense to me.

Then people say it’s Christ, when He comes. He’s the perfect one. That to me is close, because when He comes and we see Him, we’ll be made like Him. Some say that this is the maturing process of the Corinthians. When they finally get to maturity, they can put aside all of this garbage they’ve been doing and get about the things God wants them to do. They can grow up and be adults in the family of God. Personally I agree with that thought, but not in this verse. It comes up in just a minute. To me, he gives the ultimate maturity first and then as an illustration goes back to their immediate need for maturing in the faith. Once again I think that’s what he’s pointing to.

Some people would ask, does this happen at the moment that you die—when you see Jesus, you’re going to be like Him? Well, in one sense it does, because we do have a temporary covering for a spirit. The spirit is never left unclothed. Second Corinthians 5 teaches us that. But we don’t have that body yet that’s going to be our eternal covering. So I don’t know how this works. I can’t go any further than I can go. I do know that in 1 Corinthians 15 he gets into this big-time and heavy. We’re talking about just a few verses over. So it’s got to be on his mind. This is the glorification, I believe, of the believer that is one day going to come and God’s love will not fail in getting us to that place.

Verse 10 says, “but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.” “Be done away” is the very term we’ve seen earlier, katargeo, be set aside on that day when the perfect is to come. Then, as if to explain, he shows how you can look at life from start all the way to finish. It’s the process of growing up, constantly growing up, coming out of childish things into mature things. Even as mature physical adults we’ve got to come out of our childish spiritual behavior and grow up. It’s a constant, one replacing another, one being absorbed into another as th

1 Corinthians 13:12-13

Contents

1 His Love That Will Not Let Us Go

1.1 We have a dim view of God’s love

1.2 We will love Him forever

1.3 Love is the greatest gift

His Love That Will Not Let Us Go

We’re going to finish chapter 13 in this study. This chapter has been so phenomenal in how it’s focused upon the one way in which you can know a person is surrendered to Christ—that is the love that God’s Spirit produces in their life. This love is a love that will not let us go. That’s what I want us to think about, “His Love That Will Not Let Us Go.”

Paul has shown us what life is like without this love in verses 4-6a. Then he turns around and shows us what life is like with this love in verse 6b and 7. Then he makes a powerful statement. It’s one of the hinges of this whole chapter. He says in verse 8 that God’s love never fails. And in using that term “fails,” he uses a term that is sometimes used of a ship that has gotten off course and has shipwrecked. It did not get to the port for which it sailed. What Paul is saying is God’s love gets the ship to the port that it’s destined to go to. In other words, there’s a hope for every believer. There’s a port that we’re headed towards. God’s love that caused us to be saved and is sustaining us and sanctifying us now, is the same love that will get us to that port that we’re destined to go to.

What is that port? What is the hope of every believer? It’s one day in seeing Jesus Christ face to face. John says in his epistle, “When we see Him, we shall be [What?] like Him.” That’s what we’re looking forward to. We can mature down here. We are to mature down here. It’s progressive. We grow and grow and become more and more conformed to His image. But there’s coming a day when the ultimate maturity is going to take place, when we are glorified, when we see Him, like I said, we will be like Him.

How do you know Paul is talking about the event of seeing Jesus face to face, that event that John said would change us where we’ll be like Him? Look at verse 12. The context is very clear. He says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then.” You’ve got to ask yourself “when.” Drop back a couple of verses and he says, “when the perfect comes.” We’ve identified the perfect, not as being the Word of God, not as being the Lord Jesus Christ, although certainly He is, but when that full maturity comes, when that glorified states comes that we’ll enter into. He says that when the perfect comes we shall see Him face to face. When that time comes we shall see Him face to face.

On the day when the perfect comes, on that day when we’re finally glorified and changed forever to be like Him, he says, “but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away.” Literally, it’s not gifts of prophecy, it’s prophecies. In other words, there’s going to come a day when there’s not going to be any more need for sermons. There’s going to come a day when you can go back even beyond that. There’s not going to be any need for any prophesies from the New Testament prophets or prophecies of the Old Testament prophets. All of them will be absorbed into the fullness of the whole because each prophecy now is only a part. On that day they’ll be set aside, future passive. God Himself will set them aside, not in the sense of done away with because they’ll still exist, but they’ll sort of disappear when you see the full picture.

On the day when the perfect comes all languages will be dismissed. They will only have need for only one language. He says, “if there are tongues, they will cease.” Of course, we’ve identified tongues as known, understandable languages. They will cease, future middle—on their own they will cease because we’ll all just speak one language.

On that day when the perfect comes if there’s knowledge, any kind of knowledge that we have, it will be done away, or set aside. It’s the same exact verb that’s used with prophecies. All the knowledge that we think we have right now of Christ and His love for us will one day be set aside because it will be so overwhelming the knowledge that we don’t have even while we’re here. It will be simply set aside. Then Paul shows why in verse 9. “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.” Any knowledge that we have, any prophecy or sermon that we have or proclamation of God’s Word is simply a fragment of the whole. But one day when we see Him, the one who is the fullness of knowledge, the One who is the embodiment of all prophecy, all of that will be set aside.

Then Paul shows how we are progressively moving towards that. Maturity is a part of being reborn, just like when you are physically born. There’s a progressive maturing in a child’s life. It’s the same way in the spiritual life. You don’t want somebody to remain as a baby. In 1 Corinthians 3 he talked about them and chided them for being babies in the nursery. He’s telling them to grow up. Now I think he sort of brings a subtle rebuke back to them. While we are here, we are progressing toward the port that we are destined toward. We are maturing, but there’s going to come a day when see Him that a full maturity will take place.

He says in verse 11, “When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.” To me, he’s not just mentioning that at random because his whole context has been, “Corinthians, grow up. Come on. Move out of that chasing after emotional experiences. Move out of attaching yourself to gifts. Attach yourself to the Giver and grow up. And as you do, you’re progressing toward that day that you’re promised to arrive at.” You see, love never fails. We’re going to get there. The implication of this whole passage, to me, is you can determine how you’re going to arrive. Even right now we can choose. I can either surrender to Him and grow up and live in the sufficiency of who He is, or I can fool around here and chase after attaching myself to flesh and experiences and be miserable the whole way. What he’s basically saying is if you’ll just go on and attach, it’s a lot sweeter journey and you will arrive. God’s love never fails. God’s love that set us on this journey will cause us to arrive one day when we see Him face to face. Oh, what a day it’s going to be when we see Him one day. We’re going to be looking at this very closely.

As a matter of fact, look at verses 12 and 13: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Let’s talk about this love that will not let us go, this love that even though we’re up upside down like the church of Corinth sometimes in love, we will arrive. We will arrive. It will see us through. It will get us there. Let’s look at that love.

We have a dim view of God’s love

The first thing I want us to see is at the very best, at the highest spiritual pinnacle of your life or my life, when we think we have a grasp of God and His love for us, at the very best, we have but a dim view of God’s love. Look what he says in verse 12: “For now we see in a mirror dimly.” The mirrors we have today have to be gotten out of your mind. When I look in a mirror, I see very clearly. I don’t like what I see very clearly, but I see very clearly.

The kind of mirrors they used in Corinth were not the same kind we have today. Ours are glass which are coated on the back, and we set them in frames. That kind of mirror wasn’t developed until the 13th century. The kind of mirrors they had then were made of burnished metal or polished stone. If you’ve ever looked into a mirror like that, you realize you don’t get a clear picture of what you’re looking at. There’s a distortion there. So at best you have a dim view of what you’re looking at. That’s the imagery that Paul uses here that they would understand. He says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly.”

You can take this in just about any direction you want to go when it comes to what we’re going to be like when we see Christ. We look in a mirror today, we’re not seeing what it’s going to be like. We only see a part of that. We’re going to be changed and glorified one day. But more than that, all of our attempts to look at the truth of God’s love in this life, in God’s truth as it’s reflected in creation, as it’s reflected in history, as it’s reflected in Scripture, as it’s reflected in our own conscience, as glorious as it is, it’s but a dim and imperfect view of what it will be one day. Why? Because of our human failure. That’s why. Because of our own sin, that’s why. We couldn’t handle it all if it was all given to us. Our perception of reality is real as far as we can see, but yet it’s still dim and imperfect in light of what is coming.

He says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly.” The fact that Paul puts himself into that mix caught my attention. There’s nobody in the New Testament, to me, as intelligent as the apostle Paul, no one who has had any greater experiences than he has. We know the apostle John got to go into the third heaven. We have the book of the Revelation as the result of it. But nobody had any greater experiences than the apostle Paul. As a matter of fact, he’s seen the Lord face to face. He said, “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” Paul could look at them and say, “I’ve already seen Him face to face.” When was that? On the Damascus Road when God stopped him, and he was changed and converted. That became the basis of his apostleship—you had to be a witness of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

But then again, look over in 2 Corinthians 12:2. I want to show you another time that he saw Him face to face, right in the very abode that God is in now, in Heaven, in the third heaven. Second Corinthians 12:2 says, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the third heaven.” You know, there are the lower heavens, which we see as we look up in the daytime. We see the sky and the clouds. There’s the upper heaven above that, which is what we see at night, the universe and the stars. And then there’s a third heaven. The first two heavens we can see with our eyes. The third heaven we believe by faith that it’s there. It’s where God dwells.

He says in verse 3, “And I know how such a man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows—was caught up into Paradise, and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.” Now, Paul had seen Christ face to face on the Damascus Road. He had been somehow brought into Heaven in an experience. He had seen Heaven. He had been there in the mighty place of beauty there in Heaven. The point is Paul could have looked at them and said, “Now, you see through a mirror dimly. I’m a little different because I’ve already seen face to face.” But the apostle Paul doesn’t do that. He puts himself into the mix and says, “You take my experience,” and the Corinthians didn’t hold a candle to the knowledge that Paul had and certainly looked after these kinds of experiences. He said, “You take that experience of going into heaven and seeing Him. You take that experience of the Damascus Road. You take all that I have come to understand as an apostle. You put it together and I’m in the same mix. I’m looking in a mirror dimly. I don’t see it yet. I can’t see it yet. But there’s going to come a day that we will.”

When there’s so much to know, the one who knows the most should be the first one to be humble enough to say of what he doesn’t know. It seems like the older you get the more you learn about what you don’t know. The apostle Paul said, “I’m in that mix. I see through a mirror dimly. I see imperfect things as I look into it.” We must ask a question that’s relevant to what Paul is saying here. What mirror is he talking about? When you look into a mirror you see dimly. Well, the mirror, to me, would be anything that reveals Christ and His love to us. It’s anything that reveals that in our present life.

We could look in Romans 1:20 at the visible creation. He said He’s revealed an invisible creation around us. It would have to include the very life of the Lord Jesus Christ even though He emptied His glory. He still came and there were men who saw Him. He was here on this earth. You would have to include Scripture itself, anything that brings to light the revelation of Jesus and His truth and His love for us. John said in His epistle in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” I want to submit to you that what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 13, when they did behold the Lord Jesus Christ, it was only to the degree that God allowed them to behold the Lord Jesus Christ. Even in that it was a dim and imperfect view of what they’re going to see one day when we see Him.

It’s the same thing when we are living in our spiritual lives. The word “dimly” there is the word we get the word “enigma” from. We see in a mirror dimly. An enigma is a riddle or a dark saying. In Numbers 12:8 the Lord said He would not speak to Moses in dark speech. In other words, “I’m not speaking to you, Moses, in things that you can’t understand. Because you want to hear, therefore I’ll tell you what I have to say to you.”

It’s interesting how Jesus spoke in parables. He even told His disciples in Matthew 13:13 that He did this intentionally. If you’ll study them, what He’s doing is He’s taking the people who want to know and telling them. He will not cast His pearls before swine. What He does reveal and once a person grasps it, it still is looking into a mirror and seeing dimly and imperfect.

I’ll tell you what. He just took all the roots of pride right out of us. Anybody who thinks they know something about the Lord immediately has to be humbled by the fact that the best of knowledge that we can ever have, the apostle Paul putting himself in that situation, is but a dim and imperfect view of what yet we will see and know one day. Make sure you get the picture here. As we choose to yield to Christ, God reveals more and more truth to us. It’s a walk. It’s a progression. Years down the road as you’re a Christian you’ll understand and have revealed to you much more than you had when you first got started, even at the pentacle when you just can’t take any more. Dwight L. Moody said, “Oh, God, stop it. I can’t take any more.” When you get to that place and you think there cannot be any more, Paul says, “No, no. You have to understand. What you see at that point, at that pinnacle, is nothing but a dim and imperfect view of what He has reserved for us.” As a matter of fact, it’s His love that limits that revelation because we couldn’t stand it if He gave it to us. So He just deals it out in proportion and in part in pieces and says, “Hey, there’s coming a day when all of that is going to change and you’re going to know as you have been fully known.” The fact that Paul includes himself in the mix obviously includes all of us.

The older I get the more I realize this truth. I was down in the Caribbean. We decided one afternoon we were going to go swimming. So we got our masks on and our snorkels and our flippers. We walked down to get in the water and as soon as we got out there it was wonderful. The sand was just beautiful white. We’d go down about thirty feet and you could feed the fish around the coral. It was so much fun.

I looked out and saw it had gotten dark out there. I asked “When you get out there and it gets dark, is that coral? Is that what makes the water look dark?” He said, “Oh, no. I want you to find out what it is. You swim out there.” So we started to swim about two hundred yards out. We got out and oh, I found out why it got dark out there. It wasn’t coral. It was a drop off of about five or six hundred feet. It was a main channel.

When I got out there, I felt like I was hanging suspended. It was like I was hanging six or seven hundred feet up above what? I don’t know what’s down there. I could see light rays go down as far, just way down, and then it just got pitch black, kind of syrupy black. I saw fish that were as big as I was. We swam out over there, which it seemed like was so unsearchable below us. It made me cautious of every move I was making. Back near shore it was easy. I could see. I could do what I wanted to do. But when I swam out over that, it was like something overwhelmed me to the place that made me cautious of every move that I made.

The apostle Paul does this to me in 1 Corinthians 13:12. I don’t know what he does for you. But he walks me out over the depth of something that’s so far beyond my comprehension. He says, “You think you understand, but you don’t have a clue of what you’re going to know one day when you see Him and you’re made like Him.” God’s love that will not let you go is going to bring you to that place, and one day you will see Jesus as He is. We see through a mirror dimly. Does anybody want to stand up and applaud yourself for what you know? I dare not. I dare think that anyone would do that because what Paul has just done by putting himself in the mix is saying. “I don’t care how smart you think you are, and you may have a handle on truth and as far as you’re concerned it’s true, but you don’t know what’s out there that’s one day going to absorb it all into itself.” You’re going to understand one day what you don’t understand right now. Well, we get a dim view.

We will love Him forever

Secondly, but what we will know, when the perfect comes, will cause us to love Him forever. I don’t know if this will ever get out of me like it got into me. Sometimes when I’m studying that’s the biggest frustration. You get something inside of you and it’s so overwhelming to you, you can’t find the words to express it. But this verse here, folks, will overwhelm you if you’ll just let it do it.

When I first interpreted this verse, I thought it meant that I’m going to know everything God knows. That’s ridiculous to start with and I knew it was but I couldn’t figure out what’s he saying. Let’s just walk through it and I think it will bless you. He says, “now I know in part, but then.” Once again, Paul’s not suggesting we can’t know now. It’s a progressive knowledge every day. He’s simply stating that all the knowledge we’ll get down here on this earth is nothing to compare with what’s coming when we see Christ face to face.

I want to illustrate one more time. A fish can be swimming in a creek and it will know every rock and every log it can get under, but it has no idea of the ocean that stream is flowing into. That’s what Paul is trying to say. There’s an ocean of knowledge that you don’t have and can’t have until you see Christ face to face.

What is it that we do know? Even though it’s a dim view, it’s still a pretty good view. What do we know? Well, we do know for starters that when Jesus died on the cross that He totally has taken the load of sin and guilt off of us when we have received Him by faith. I hope you know that. I hope you’re not going around beating yourself up for what you did before you came to know Christ. I hope you understand He took that load of sin off of you. He took that guilt off of you. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Romans 5:1 reads, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” and so on, and so on.

But I want to tell you something. That’s enough, but we don’t understand even all of that. We just have a dim view of it. These people who are always trying to figure God out when it comes to the matter, for instance, of election and predestination. People have God so boxed in that they have figured Him out from A to Z. Friend, to me, I back off and I say, “Lord God, here’s my lightning rod. When you strike them, don’t hit me.” Because what we know of salvation is a mystery. Paul, the most intelligent man in the New Testament, said in Ephesians 3 that it’s a mystery. It’s beyond me. I cannot fathom salvation. But what we do have and what we do know about salvation is absolutely adequate and sufficient to get us from here to the port to which we are destined. But at that port we’re going to find out a whole lot more than we ever dreamed could possibly be a part of this salvation. That’s what Paul is saying.

Not only do we know that. We also know from Romans 8:28 that “all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose.” I’ll tell you what. We don’t understand suffering. But we can at least understand what God just said. One hundred people, at least, have asked me over the years, “Explain to me suffering.” I shoot at it. The only thing I know is what God’s word says. But I fall far short of being able to explain to somebody why their infant child they just prayed for, God took on to be with Himself. I don’t understand that. I don’t understand how a godly person living on the street here can be absolutely molested and beaten to death. I don’t understand that. I don’t understand how the unrighteous sometimes seem as if they don’t even suffer. I don’t understand. But what I do understand is sufficient to get me through this life. Anybody who says they can figure all that stuff out bothers me because Paul, himself, said, “Whatever we do know is but a dim and imperfect understanding of what will come one day.”

Paul’s is pointing again, now, to seeing Him face to face. He says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” Have you ever met someone through an acquaintance? Maybe you’ve written them, called them, e-mailed them, whatever, and you thought you knew them. Finally came the day when you could sit down face to face and you found out what you thought you knew wasn’t anything close to what you found out because they’re much more wonderful than you ever thought they would be.

The thing that encourages me is that one day we shall know Him as He knows us. It’s like the closest I can get to Him on this earth just gives me a little glimpse of what it’s going to be like one day when I see Him face to face. That ought to encourage every single person in this place. God’s love will see to it that we’ll arrive at that point. Now we know in part. The part we have is very thrilling and there’s nothing to down play that. But it’s just to encourage us that there’s much, much more to come.

One day we shall know as we’re known. As we look at that phrase, that’s the key to this whole understanding. “We shall know” is epiginosko. Some people say that simply means to know. But I believe it would absolutely be slanderous to the whole text for it to just be simple knowledge. I believe it’s fully known, to fully know something. Epi means that intensifier, to fully know something, knowledge above knowledge. We think we have knowledge now. We have a certain fullness of knowledge now, but on that day it will be the fullness of knowledge when we see Him.

The verb is future middle, but it’s used as a deponent verb which just throws in an added thought here which doesn’t have a whole lot to do with his direction. Some people think that when they see Him, they’ll be so radically changed they’ll lose their identity, their personality. Nobody will even know who they are when they see Christ. No, because by the way he uses the verb it has the idea Wayne’s still going to be Wayne, but a transformed Wayne, a glorified Wayne, a glorified body. Thank the Lord! I need that—a glorified mind to understand what it’s never understood before, but very quickly recognizable and very quickly identifiable. I just threw that out in case you’ve ever asked that question. It’s very clear. You’re not going to lose who you are. If you’ve lost a loved one and you’re looking forward to seeing them one day, don’t worry. You’ll recognize him. But the difference will be the glorification of that person, the fullness of maturity that has finally come. He’s been maturing all along down here, but then that full maturity will come, whether it will be at our death down here or simply when the Lord Jesus comes. I don’t know. But somehow it’s equated when we see Christ, we shall be like Him.

The last part of the verse clears up what Paul’s saying. This is to clear any thinking that you have that one day you’re going to know everything that God knows. That’s not what the verse is saying. However, it appears to read that way. Look very carefully: “but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.” Oh, son. Look at that last phrase, “I have been fully known.” My wife thinks she knows me. She really doesn’t. But there’s someone who fully knows me. Do you know who that is? It’s in the past tense. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Psalm 139 David is being overwhelmed in the fact that God has known him before the foundations of the world. God designed him. God created him. God knows everything about him. And the apostle Paul understands the same understanding here. He says, “God, I have been fully known.”

You’ve got to think with me. You’ve got to put your thinking cap on and don’t move too far. We’re in a chapter on love. What he has just done is so beautifully tie together God’s love with God’s knowing. Somehow loving someone has something to do with knowing that person, understanding that person. You see, in the enigma here is that Paul says, “I will fully know as I am fully known.”

He didn’t use the term “we.” He says “I.” He uses the personal pronoun. By the way, until you personalize this into your life, you can’t see what he’s talking about here. The apostle Paul had stood there before he was converted and saw Stephen stoned to death. He had absolutely brought havoc to the Christian community. He was on his way to arrest Christians when God arrested him on the Damascus Road. The apostle Paul, Romans 7 seems to indicate, still struggled with his own flesh as you and I struggle with our own flesh. Yet he can come here and say, “God has fully known me,” in a context when he’s just been talking about God fully loving him.

Think with me. God loves us fully because he knows us fully. I’ll tell you what that will do to your theological bubble. It will pop it when you think you have to do something to make God love you. God loved you before you were ever born, friend. That’s the thing that’s incredible to me. That’s the thing that humbles me. Progressively, I’m to be maturing every day. Progressively, I’m to be obeying so that more revelation can come into my life. But do I do that every day? No. Do you? Wow! Will you help me? How many times do we absolutely turn our backs on Him like David and commit willful sin knowing that that’s shutting down the process of our maturing? And yet God knew that before we were ever born. God knew that. God knew every wart. God knew every sin. God knew everything about us. He has fully known us and in spite of that has fully loved us. So in loving comes the knowing. The point is that God fully knows and understands us and yet He still loves us.

Spurgeon was asked the question one time, “How in the world could God hate Esau?” And Spurgeon said, “That has never bothered me.” He said, “Well, what does bother you?” He said, “How in the world could God love Jacob?” You think on that for a few minutes. We live in a society that believes we deserve to be loved by somebody, especially God. We pray that way. God’s our cosmic bellhop. We name it and claim it, and we think He’s going to do it. But yet anything short of hell is grace. He knows us, folks. He knows you. He knows the thoughts that went through your mind this past week before you even said it. Maybe you didn’t say it. God knows the thoughts that you didn’t say. God knows the things that you did in the dark and you think nobody else saw it. God knows that. Darkness is light to Him. God knows everything about us. You can’t put on nice clothes and go to church and cover up what God doesn’t know about you. God knows everything about us. He fully knows us. Thank God, He fully loves us. In spite of us, He loves us because to know is to love and then it goes in a cycle. To love is to know and to know is to love.

Do you see what Paul is saying here? One day when I see Him, when the perfect comes, when I see Him face to face, I will know as I am fully known. What do you think he’s talking about there? What comes to my heart and the only thing I can rest on is the fact that Paul says, “One day, in spite of my flirty and fleeting will, one day when I see Him, I will understand something about Him that I could never has understood down here. When I see Him, the knowledge of Him and the love of Him combined will take my will and His will and make it one and we will be one forever. This body will be shed and I’ll walk in perfect harmony with Him forever and ever and ever because I will love Him because I will know Him as He has known and loved me.”

He has fully known us. He has fully loved us, and yet we don’t fully know Him. We don’t fully love Him, but one day we will, and we’ll walk in harmony and oneness with Him forever. Do you realize what this is? This is the fulfillment of the prayer the Lord Jesus Christ in John 17 when Jesus prayed that they would be one. He said, “Oh, Father, as we are one.” One day we will, not only with Him but with each other. Do you realize that? We’ll be so enmeshed into His will at that time that we will be also that same way with one another. Is that not incredible?

Love is the greatest gift

Well, what I know and the most excited I can be in the midst of a sermon is yet but a dim and imperfect view of what’s coming. But what I do know or what I will know when He comes will cause me to love Him forever. Then finally, you can see why he closes the chapter the way he does—although they didn’t have chapters and verses; we’ll just make it out like he concluded it. This thought kind of ends here. You can see now why love is the greatest gift.

1 Corinthians 14:1-3

What Is the Problem in Corinth?

Many of you did not think you would live long enough to see 1 Corinthians 14. But we made it. We’re going to be looking at verses 1-3, and we’re going to be talking about the problem at Corinth. “What is the Problem in Corinth?” We live in a day and a time today much like the time the Corinthians lived in during the writing of this epistle. It’s a time when ability, performance, and experience seem to dominate our spiritual vocabulary. It’s not very different.

I subscribe to a little magazine called The Spirit of Revival. It’s a very solid magazine about what true revival is and the brokenness and repentance that comes in people’s hearts when God truly has moved upon. Nancy DeMoss wrote a beautiful article that talked about the discernment we need in these days to what real revival is. Just because somebody says it’s revival doesn’t mean it’s revival. I so agree with something she said. She said, “We’re using and throwing around terms today that are so flippant that we are about to lose the seriousness of their meaning.”

That’s exactly the way it was in the day of Corinth. If someone could stand up and preach with the greatest eloquence and could woo and awe the crowd, they said, “This person has got to be a spiritual person.” If a person had great intellectual knowledge far surpassing others and his peers, they would say, “This person has got to be gifted of God.” And if a person could speak in other languages other than his own, he had to be in touch with God. Perhaps they were. But perhaps they weren’t. What the apostle Paul is trying to show is all of these things are wonderful but they’re nothing if a person’s life is not absolutely surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ.

When you’re surrendered to Him, there is one thing that you cannot fake that comes out of your life and that’s the love of God Himself. The fruit of His Spirit is love. Paul has beautifully changed the subject of chapter 12, being the gifts, to chapter 13, being the Giver. He circled that truth many times in chapter 12 but it’s very clear in chapter 13. In fact, he says in 1 Corinthians 13:1, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” In other words, if I had the greatest gift of being able to speak with the languages of men and of angels and if there’s not that love present, I’m not nothing more than an irritating noise. No matter how eloquent I am, no matter how gifted people think I am, if that love is not there, then whatever is being said is not coming from a surrendered life.

Verse 2 says, “And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” And then he says, “And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor [certainly this must be spiritual], and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” It may profit them; they’re fed. It may profit someone else, but it doesn’t profit me, not here. But one day when I stand before God and the rewards are passed out, I find out it’s nothing more than pure flesh. If it’s a surrender to Christ, it will have His mark on it and that mark will be an indescribable love that only He can produce in you and me.

That love is His love, His very own love. Galatians 5:22 says the fruit of His Spirit working in us is this love. You see, flesh can fake all of the gifts. It can fake it all. It can have enough knowledge to where a person could be eloquent in speaking, etc., but it cannot fake the fruit. The fruit has got to be wrapped around it or it’s nothing more than educated flesh. This love that we have never fails. I love the way Paul ends chapter 13. In verse 8 he says, “Love never fails.” He uses the term of a ship that gets off course and is shipwrecked. Paul is saying a word of encouragement, in my understanding of this, a word of encouragement to the Corinthians who are upside down. He’s saying, as he said to the Philippian church, “What God started in you, He’s going to continue and He’s going to get you to that day. You’re going to arrive. And in the meantime you’re supposed to be maturing.”

He uses his own life in verse 11. He says, “When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.” The more you grow in knowledge of Christ, the more you love Him and the more you put away fleshly matters and childish things. It’s a continual progression. But he says that one day we’re going to see Him face to face; and when we see Him face to face, we’re going to know just as we have been known. That doesn’t mean we’re going to know everything God knows. What it means is we have already been fully known and fully loved by God. He knows everything about me and, thank God, He fully loves me in spite of me. He knows me, yet He loves me. I know Him to a degree; I love Him to a degree. Hopefully the degree of my love and understanding of Him today is more than it was last week because that’s a maturing process of a believer. But oh, one day I’m going to get to see Him face to face just like you’re going to see Him face to face. When I see Him, I’m going to come into a full understanding of who He is and when I fully understand Him, then I’m going to fully love Him and my will and His will will be one forever. That’s what we’ve got to look forward to.

The apostle Paul seems to be saying to the Corinthian church, “You’re going to get there. God’s love never fails. If it’s His love in you, you didn’t do anything to get it. He loved you before you were ever born. He’s going to get you all the way through. But in the mean time grow up, Corinthians. Grow up. Enjoy the process. It’s going to be a lot of pain in your life if you’re not willing to surrender to Him. The mark of your surrender is that love which cannot be manufactured or duplicated by anyone’s fleshly efforts.” That’s the mark of a surrendered believer.

With those words we come out of chapter 13 and into chapter 14. You know they didn’t have chapters and verses. We see chapters 12 through 14 as a unit. If you don’t see it as a unit, then you’re going to miss a lot of things that Paul is saying. You’ve got to see the flow here. He comes into chapter 14 and begins immediately to talk about love one more time. He’s going to talk about the problem that’s going on in Corinth. He’s going to deal with it. The problem is speaking in a tongue, which was gibberish, babbling, a language that was nonsense. Nobody could understand it. Nobody had ever spoken it and they thought it was something that was produced by the Holy Spirit of God. That was the problem of Corinth. We going to have to do some backtracking here because I said it’s a unit. You’ve got to tie it in together.

Look back at 12:2. He’s already alluded to this. It should not be a surprise to anybody. He brings it up in chapter 12, drops it, goes through chapter 12 and now he picks it up full force in chapter 14. He says, “You know that when you were pagans [pagans meaning back when you did not know Christ], you were led astray to the dumb idols, however you were led.” Paul singles out one pagan influence in their life before they became a believer. Why did he single out only one?

Let’s find what other influences were there in their life. Why didn’t he pick out some of these? He only chooses one and there’s a reason he only chooses one in chapter 12. Back in 6:9 you see what they came out of. You can see what influenced them. You can see what bound them back in those days. It says, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

Look at verse 11. “And such were some of you.” In other words, this was the influence they had had before. What a list of things that had influenced them in their pagan past: immorality, covetousness, thievery, drunkenness, and so on. One out of a list of many was the sin of idolatry. That was an influence on their past. In 12:2 he singles out that one area and brings it forth and calls attention to it. Why did he do that? At this particular point, as we looked at when we were going through chapter 12 you’ve got to factor in history and culture. It’s amazing to me how we do that in Daniel 11. You couldn’t interpret Daniel 11 without history. You could not do it. You can’t go to Revelation and look at the first three chapters there and really get the full understanding of those letters to those churches unless you knew something about the culture and history of those areas.

Think about the church of Laodicea, the lukewarm church. If you go there, you’ll find Hierapolis on top of the mountain. There’s hot springs with the water running down to the city. By the time it got there it was lukewarm. On the other side was Colossae, the cold springs were there. By the time it got there the water was warm. You find out why certain things were said because you know the history, you know the culture of the area and so forth. But when you come to 1 Corinthians 12, it’s amazing how many people want to throw history and culture right out the door. I’ll tell you why people don’t want to look at it. Because it pops their little bubble. It immediately pops their emotions because it doesn’t say what they think it says when you read into it, the history, the culture of that area.

What was going on in Corinth that was not going on in Athens? What was going on in Corinth that was not going on in Ephesus or in Philippi or in Thessalonica? What was going on at Corinth? Thirty miles from the city of Corinth was a city called Delphi, but there in Delphi was the Oracle of Delphi. It influenced Corinth more than any one city in all the continent of Greece. This was why Paul had to deal with it there. He didn’t deal with it in the other epistles he wrote because it wasn’t anything like it was here at Corinth.

The Oracle was a self-proclaimed, woman prophetess who worked out of the temple of Apollo. Apollo was the main temple of Corinth just like it was the main temple of Delphi. In that temple they would go in to what they called the inner sanctum, of course, in a pagan sense. They’d have a tripod. Here was a woman who would come in and sit cross-legged after taking herbs and certain spices that would put her into an emotional trance, just like going on drugs. She would get into this emotional frenzy and begin to speak gibberish. She would begin to babble a language that had never been spoken before. It was nothing more than just pure nonsense. She had people sitting around her and while she was in this emotional, ecstatic state they would begin to write down what she was saying, although nobody had ever heard what she was saying. So they must have had the gift of interpretation because she had the gift of speaking in another language.

People would line up for miles. You study your history. At the time this was written they had to have three of them because they couldn’t handle the crowd. They worked in shifts. They’d have people lined up for miles and miles, precious poor people.

The passive voice is used here saying, “You were led astray.” In other words, you didn’t know what was going on. Something was luring you because over here at Delphi you could actually get in touch with all the divine messages the gods would give to you. They’d write on a little slate their problems and their questions. Can you imagine the pitiful sight of people thinking that they’re actually going to hear from God? If their number was called, they would take this slate with the problem on it and this lady would look at it and then she would get in this trance and begin to speak. They’d write down this nonsense on this slate and bring it back to this person. This person was so warmed because it felt like they had been in touch with the divine. They’d take this little message and they’d walk away and say, “Oh, I’m so glad.” Then they would read it and say, “Huh?” It just didn’t mean anything. But, oh, they had been in touch with the divine.

That’s what was going on in Corinth, when this was written 30 miles down the road. You take that piece of the puzzle out and you’ve got a complicated three chapters. You put that piece in here, friend, and you’ve got a very understandable three chapters. It wasn’t too much different than it is today, is it? We talked about this when we got into chapter 12.

People still read their horoscopes. Why do they get into it? The same reason these people went to these oracles in that day. It’s the same thing as people calling the psychic hotline. Do you realize right now that’s one of the most lucrative businesses in American and around the world, people calling to get a message of the divine for the future? We said it earlier and I’m going to say it again. If it’s a psychic hotline, why in the world don’t they call me? Why do I have to call them? Evidently, the same gibberish and babbling that went on in this pagan cult because of the flesh mind set of Corinth had snuck it’s way back into the church and they thought when a person spoke that way they had to be influenced by the Holy Spirit of God.

Paul in chapter 14 is going to isolate that problem and deal with it head on. Those who were doing it thought they actually were being spiritual, that they were actually in touch with the Holy Spirit of God. So it begins. Verse 1 of chapter 14 continues the same thoughts that just flow right out of chapter 13.

He starts off and says, “Pursue love.” The word “pursue” is the word meaning to pursue intentionally. It means to put it in your focus, be absorbed with it, be overwhelmed with it. It’s like a hound dog on a trail. They get on a trail. They’re pursuing something. There’s an intensity to it. You ask any hunter who’s been hunting with a dog. They know, friend. They know. That dog is not backing off until he finds what he’s looking for. That’s the word “pursue.”

Did you know that same word is translated “persecute?” Do you realize that wherever you walk is the light of God because you once were darkness but have been made light? That darkness is going to follow you everywhere you go until the day Jesus comes. Why in the world do you think it’s strange when you run into all kinds of problems and conflicts with darkness? It’s the same word.

The apostle Paul starts off with an imperative. He said, “Pursue love.” We know from chapter 13 we can’t pursue love without pursuing Christ, who is the embodiment of that love. What he’s saying is, “You attach yourself to Christ.” You can’t pursue love. Unless you’re pursuing Him, unless you’re living surrendered to Him, there’s no way that love is even going to be in your life. So you begin by pursuing it. Make it the focus of your life. You pursue Christ. Get off this gift thing and get on the Giver. Pursue Him and then His love will be produced in you. That’s the only way you can pursue love. This love can in no way be manufactured or duplicated by the flesh.

Then Paul says, “desire earnestly spiritual gifts.” If you have a good translation, the words “gifts” there is in italics, because that word is not in the original text, and you need to understand that. That was written in by a translator. The word there is pneumatikos. It refers to that which pertains to the spiritual, not to the flesh. It’s in the plural, so there are many things that pertain to the spiritual. He says, “yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts.” The same word is used in Romans 7:14 when Paul said that the law is spiritual, the essence of which is spiritual. You desire those things that have the essence of spiritual and eternal value.

He turns around and says “desire earnestly.” The word “desire earnestly” is zeloo. It’s one word. It is a word used of a pot about to boil over. We get the word “zealous” from it. A lot of words come out of that. That’s why it’s translated “desire earnestly.” Have you ever watched a pot begin to boil? Something’s going to happen. Something starts stirring inside that thing. There’s an intensity that you need to deal with.

When you get on this thing, “desire earnestly,” that’s something that’s boiling inside. There’s a zeal there. Paul makes certain the Corinthians believers know they’re to begin by pursuing love which means they’re to begin by pursuing Christ. Don’t pursue the gift, pursue the Giver. He’s echoed this from chapter 12. It’s a focus through chapter 13 and now he comes back to it in chapter 14. Once you have that intense desire for Christ, you begin to intensely desire the spiritual things of this world. It’s funny in His presence how the things of this world grow strangely dim. You just want the things of the Spirit. You want things that are eternal and the essence is purely of God.

Paul goes on to say, “but especially that you may prophesy.” Man, the word there means more even to a greater degree that you might prophesy. You know the meaning of the word “prophesy.” We’ve already discussed that in the last two chapters. The words means to tell forth the Word of God. Folks, listen to me. This is the ultimate release in expression of love that God produces in you—wanting to share God’s Word with somebody else. When you begin to desire spiritual things, God’s going to put people on your heart and you’re going to want to share God’s Word with you, whether to lead them to salvation, whether to help equip them and grow them in their faith. It doesn’t mean from the pulpit. It just simply means from whatever pulpit God creates in your life. Maybe it’s at work. Maybe it’s across the desk. Maybe it’s over the phone. But God’s Word is so alive in you and spiritual things have become your earnest desire and you want to share the Word of God with others. Paul says that’s what it’s all about. That’s what it’s all about.

I see a beautiful progression here. You seek Christ which is in turn seeking His love. His love in you will cause you to desire spiritual things. You begin to desire spiritual things, and the next things that happens in that progression, even to a greater degree, you begin to desire to be a part of God’s getting His Word to other people. Now, why would Paul bring this up at this juncture in 1 Corinthians 12-14? Why would he even bring that out? Why would he say when you desire Christ and you pursue the Giver and not the gift, God begins to bear His fruit in you and you begin to see the needs of others? You want the spiritual things in life because they’re eternal and you begin to seek that outlet of sharing the Word of God with others. Why would he bring that up at this time?

The problem of Corinth is identified

Well, look at verse 2, and he begins to explain it. “For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.” There are two things that we’re going to look at. First of all, the problem of Corinth is clearly identified. Paul wastes no time. In verse 2 he says, “For one who speaks in a tongue.” That is singular. It’s used six times that way in chapter 14. I want you to know when you see that it refers to gibberish. It refers to a babbling. If you want to call it a language, it’s one nobody can understand it. When it’s used in the singular, it refers to gibberish. When it’s used in the plural, that refers to a known, understandable language. Paul said, “I speak in tongues [or languages], more than you do. I wish you did that.” But when it refers to them, he uses “a tongue.” That’s gibberish that nobody understands. This tongue, this gibberish, that they were speaking, meant nothing to anyone else in the body of Christ. Whereas if you’re seeking Christ, and His love is produced in you and you want to share the Word of God with others, it means something to them. But speaking in this unknown language, this gibberish, means absolutely nothing to the body of Christ.

In fact, it violated the very purpose of gifts as stated in 12:7. Let’s make sure we tie these together now. “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit [Why? What does he say?] for the common good.” In the Greek that means for the profiting of everyone. Everyone’s to benefit of anything God chooses to manifest in His people. So it’s for the benefit of others, not the benefit of us that God give what He gives.

Paul told us in 12:3 that when the Holy Spirit speaks, He will always speak in a language that is understandable. I want to make sure we understand this. This is the gridwork that we laid earlier. “Therefore I make known to you, that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says;” English has one word for “speak” and one word for “say.” Then you go into a language like Greek where they have several words for a word. That makes it difficult. It makes somebody think, “Good night, how are we supposed to know that?” I don’t know, but let me just tell you that there are two words here and Paul is saying something very specific.

He says “that no one speaking,” that is the word laleo. In its root form it means to make any kind of noise. In this context it means to speak. So Paul is saying if anybody speaks or makes any kind of noise under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God. Then he changes the word. He says “says;” that’s lego. That’s the verb form of logos. What am I saying? Any time you see the word laleo, it’s sort of iffy as to what it means because all it means is to make a noise. The context will determine. But when you see the word lego or logos, that refers to the intelligent, understandable communicable word of God. When God speaks, He wants man to understand. So if somebody is speaking making any kind of noise under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, he has to say whatever he says in a language that is understood, a language that one can communicate with.

That’s why in 14:13 he said, “Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue [singular] pray that he may interpret.” He better pray because he has not got a clue what he’s saying. It’s clear that when God says something He wants it to be understandable.

Look at verse 14. He explains it even further. “For if I pray in a tongue [singular], my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.” Fruitful there is used in a metaphoric way. It’s a word picture. In other words, it doesn’t yield the fruit of understanding. When you speak, what is the fruit of speaking? People understand. It says when this person speaks by his own spirit, not by the Holy Spirit, but by his own spirit, nobody can understand. It doesn’t yield the fruit of understanding. Look at verse 19 of chapter 14 when it’s used in the singular: “however, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind, that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue [gibberish that nobody can understand].”

What is he saying? What good is it to the body of Christ if somebody speaks in a gibberish and a babbling that nobody can understand? Paul said, “I’d rather have five words of something that people can understand than ten thousand words in a tongue that nobody has ever heard or will ever understand.”

Then Paul lays the most stringent of boundaries. It’s almost humorous how hypothetical of a case he builds. Look in 14:27. This is really impossible because when somebody is speaking in a gibberish, there is no interpretation. But Paul, being the great theologian he was, look at what he says. Verse 27 reads, “If anyone speaks in a tongue [singular], it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and let one interpret [or translate].” Friend, they had interpreters or translators at the Oracles of Delphi. They thought they were saying what they were saying. Paul says, “If you’re going to push me on this thing, then, buddy, you better know and know for sure what you said. Because if it’s of God, God will not speak unless people can understand.” The problem with Corinth was not speaking in other languages. The problem with Corinth was speaking in a gibberish, in a babbling, however you want to qualify it, that no one, even the person speaking it, understood.

In the six times that it’s used in the singular in chapter 14, not one of them is a good time, not one of them. Look back in 1 Corinthians 14:2. “For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.” Now again, here’s further proof this is gibberish. He says, “for no one understands.” The word for “understands” there is the word akouo. You say, “Aha, I got you. It doesn’t mean understand. It means nobody hears him. He’s just in his prayer closet and nobody can hear him.” No, no. You can’t do that. Akouo means to hear with understanding. So whether you put him in his prayer closet or whether you put him wherever, it’s got to be hearing with understanding. How do you know that? Jesus said, “Do you have ears? Do you hear?” He didn’t mean “Can you hear the sound of My voice?” He meant “Do you understand what I’m saying?” That’s what the word akouo means, to hear with understanding.

Paul says he’s not speaking to men. He’s speaking to God. That’s the only assumption Paul could make. I can’t blame him. Who else are you going to speak to? I guess it would have to be God because nobody’s going to understand what you’re saying if you’re speaking in gibberish. My problem is I don’t believe God understands it either. But he says that it must be to God. It can’t be to men. But then this becomes the basis of his point. He speaks mysteries.

He says, “For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.” That little word “but” is not really rendered well. It’s an adversative here. What that means is indeed nobody understands him. He speaks mysteries. That’s what it should be reading like instead of “but he speaks mysteries,” as if it’s a good thing. Indeed he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about.

The word “mystery” is the word musterion, which means something that cannot be understood. “Indeed,” Paul says, “he must be speaking to God.” If he’s speaking to anybody, he must be speaking to God because he hasn’t got a clue what he’s saying and nobody else does either.

The term “in his spirit” has to be carefully noted there. It means his own personal spirit, not the spirit of God, not in the Spirit, but in his spirit. First Corinthians 14:14 documents that. He says, “For if I pray in a tongue [singular], my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.” It’s my spirit, not the spirit. This doesn’t have anything to do with the Holy Spirit of God. This is the problem of Corinth that’s now identified. It’s speaking in a gibberish that even the one speaking does not understand.

Now, by implication what he’s saying is the person who’s speaking in this gibberish and only edifying himself is a person who’s not seeking after Christ, not seeking after the love of God, has no one on his mind but himself and has no usefulness in the body whatsoever. They were not desiring spiritual matters. They were singling out an emotional experience. What they were doing meant absolutely nothing to the brethren in the body of Christ. Paul wanted them to understand that the man who seeks Christ, if he seeks Christ, is pursuing love because God will produce that love in him. And when He produces that love in him, he’ll seek after spiritual things, outlets to which this love can be manifested. One of the greatest ways above everything else is when you share the word of God to others. This man edifies others, exhorts others, and consoles others. He doesn’t live his life to edify himself. He lives his life to edify others. So we have the problem of Corinth identified.

The solution for Corinth clarified

But then, secondly we want to look at the solution for Corinth clarified. He’s got a solution for them. It’s very clear. He covers it all right at the first and then begins to develop it as he gets deeper into the chapter. Verses 3-4 say, “But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church.” I don’t see how anybody can miss this.

He’s saying that when God’s love is working in the heart of a man, that man never seeks to edify himself in anything. He always seeks to edify others. God Himself will edify the man. He doesn’t have to seek for that. God will take care of that. The whole motivation of his life changes. If the believers in Corinth would just change their direction and seek the Giver, they’d find a whole new ministry God could have for them.

“But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation.” Now prophesying, telling forth the Word of God, does three things in the lives of others. This is the fruit of God’s love working through the person who’s pursuing Christ. The word “edifies” is the word that means to build a house. That’s pretty self-explanatory. You want something constructive in somebody else’s life? You love God and you share God’s Word with them and God’s word will first of all lay a foundation which nobody can lay. It has to be Jesus. The Word of God gives the gospel very clearly. But not only that, it enables people to build on that foundation just like you’d build a house. The foundation first, and then it builds up. So a person who’s living to see others edified and shares the word with them, they’re seeing other people’s lives being put together and the foundation laid, which is Christ, and building upon that foundation.

But not only that, it also exhorts. I love this word. It’s the word paraklesis. It’s the same word attributed to the Holy Spirit of God. I love this. It means to come alongside somebody else for the purpose of helping them. Para means in close proximity with somebody. So the very heartbeat of the one seeking Christ pursues love and becomes a vessel that this love can be released. The very heartbeat is that that person edifies, but that person also wants to come alongside somebody else. Whether it be in the pulpit ministry or wherever it is, you want to have the word of God on your lips because it’s in your heart and it’s in your mind and you want to share it with somebody else. It not only edifies, it exhorts. People are benefiting from it.

Then it also consoles. That’s the word paramuthia. This takes it another step. Muthos means to instruct, to instruct alongside. It doesn’t just come alongside bu

1 Corinthians 14:5-12

Contents

1 The Spiritual Power of Language

1.1 The spiritual purpose for all languages

1.2 The specific picture to clarify

1.3 The subsequent problem

The Spiritual Power of Language

We’re in the thick of the discussion that Paul brings up pointing out the problem at Corinth. He alludes to it in chapter 12, but he really opens it up now in chapter 14. We have been talking about it for months and month. We’re here.

We’re going to pick up in verse 5 and talk about the spiritual power of language. Language is to communicate. The fruit of any language is understanding. You say something to someone so that they might hear you and benefit from what you say. But what is the spiritual power of language? When God speaks, He speaks in words that are understandable. Understand this. Grab it quickly. We covered this very thoroughly in chapter 12. If someone is going to say he’s under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God when he speaks, he must speak a language that can be understood. That’s the way God works. That’s the way God chooses to reveal Himself. So when we speak under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, we speak in a language that can be understood.

The apostle Paul differentiates between speaking in different languages and speaking in a tongue, which is going on in Corinth. As a matter of fact, the translators of the King James Version added a little word in verse 2 right before the word “tongue.” They call it an “unknown tongue.” Even the translators in the day that the King James was penned knew the problem that was going on in Corinth and they sought to identify it. Paul clearly defines the problem of Corinth as speaking in a gibberish. Of course, it was akin to the Oracles of Delphi 30 miles down the road and this is what was going on in their pagan past. Somehow it had been drug back into the church. But he also gives the solution to the problem. All of this in verses 1-4.

The solution is to pursue love. Look at 14:1. He says, “Pursue love.” Obviously you’d have to be pursuing Christ to pursue love. How do we know that? Because there is no love in our flesh. Christ’s Spirit produces that love in and through us. Galatians 5:22 says the fruit of His Spirit is love. This love, when produced, has an amazing effect upon the believer’s life. It gives a believer a spiritual focus. He begins to look at spiritual things and not fleshly things. The progression is as clear as a bell. He says in verse 1, “Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts.” There’s no word “gifts” there. That’s in italics. The word is pneumatikos, and it means spiritual things. Don’t be desirers of fleshly things, be desirers of spiritual things which God’s love produced in you and through you. This will cause you to focus on those kinds of things.

Now, once you’re focusing on spiritual things and experiencing the love of Christ, you will immediately want to seek a release for that love. The greatest release is to share God’s Word with somebody else about Christ, about the gospel, or whatever. It’s in telling others the good news from God’s Word. Paul calls this prophecy. Isn’t it amazing how we make it so intimidating and so mystifying? But it’s not that at all. He says, “but especially that you may prophesy.” That word “prophesy,” propheteuo, is simply the word that means tell forth, declare forth, proclaim the Word of God.

So the progression is clear. He says in the last part of chapter 12, “I’ve got a better way.” He explains that better way and what it produces in a person’s life in chapter 13. And then he comes back in chapter 14 and says, “Come on, guys, quit following after the gifts. Quit attaching yourselves to gifts and experiences. Attach yourself to Christ. Surrender to Him and He’ll produce that love in you. That love will change you from within. You’ll begin to seek spiritual things, and the highest things you can possibly seek in the spiritual realm is to share the word of God with others.” Seek the Giver. That’s been his theme since chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians. Don’t seek the flesh. Don’t seek gifts. Seek the Giver.

The spiritual purpose for all languages

We pick up the thought in verse 5. We start off talking about these languages that are there for the purpose of communicating to other believers the things of God in His Word. First of all, the spiritual purpose for all languages. He says in verse 5, “Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying.” I’m overwhelmed at the people in the body of Christ who have the gift, God’s gift. It’s a linguistic gift of speaking in many languages. There are many people who are gifted linguistically in the body of Christ. They can speak and grasp other languages and they are very gifted of God.

If you don’t understand that God gifts people like this, you’ve got some problems. You’re going to be confused in verse 5. In fact, wherever I go, this is one of the verses they bring up on me. They say the word “tongues” in verse 5 refers to an ecstatic experience that one has and they claim to have. But as we’ve shown over and over the word “tongues,” when it’s used in the plural, cannot refer to a gibberish or an ecstatic tongue. It has to refer to known, understandable languages. It’s not mystifying at all if you read it again with that understanding.

He says in verse 5, “Now I wish that you all spoke in [languages, known understandable languages], but even more that you would prophesy [even more that you would declare the Word of God in those languages], and greater is one who prophesies [who proclaims the Word of God], than one who speaks in languages, unless he translates what he is saying so that the church may receive edifying.” What is confusing about that? I’ll tell you what. You throw the word “tongues” in there or the word “prophesying” in there, and it turns the cart upside down. But when you understand what the words mean, it’s not as mystifying as it seems.

Paul, in using the word “tongues” in verse 5, follows the pattern he’s already established back in chapter 12. Now, just for the sake of memory go back to 12:10. Let’s make sure. This pattern was preset. You’ve got to look at chapters 12, 13, and 14 as a unit. You cannot take them separately. They are all tied together. They had no chapters and verses anyway. But in 1 Corinthians 12:10 he says, “and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another [meaning another of the same kind] prophecy, and to another [of the same kind] the distinguishing of spirits.” Then he changes categories, “and to another [heteros, of a totally different kind] various kinds of tongues.” The word “various” is not in the text. It’s in italics. But the word “kinds” is in the text. The Greek word genos is the word for “kinds.” That is the word we get “genealogy” from, families of. Glossa is the word for “tongues,” which means languages. So various kinds, families, of languages.

What kind of families of languages are there? There are Semitic languages. There are Latin languages. There are Hispanic languages. There are Germanic languages. There are all kinds of families of languages that can be known and understood. It’s very clear that tongues, when it’s seen in the plural in chapters 12, 13, and 14, refers to known understandable languages. What’s going on in Corinth is not tongues, plural, it’s a tongue, singular. That’s what he’s dealing with. It’s gibberish that somehow has been equated with these other languages. Paul says that it cannot be equated with other languages. It’s useless noise. Nobody understands what anybody is saying. He says, “Now I wish that you all spoke in languages other than your own.”

Go back to 14:5. He is really saying, “Now I wish that you all spoke in languages other than your own.” All he’s saying is he wishes they had more languages in which to tell others about Christ and his Word. Follow the verse and you’ll see where he’s headed. He says, “but even more that you would prophesy.” In other words, speaking in a language is one thing, but allowing that language to be used to tell forth the Word of God is entirely another thing.

What is any language used for in the spiritual sense? It’s to communicate the Word of God, the things of God. That’s the good news. That’s what we’re all about. The eternal good is only done when it communicates what the Word of God has to say. Basically, he’s saying languages are for the use of edifying the body with the Word of God. He’ll explain that even further.

He says, “Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies.” What does he mean by that? He’s saying, “Okay, so you’re linguistically gifted, but unless you’re using that language to tell the Word of God you haven’t found it yet. The person who is greater, in the sense of accomplishing more in the kingdom of God, is the person who uses his language to edify others by speaking God’s Word.”

Then he clarifies himself, “unless he interprets.” The word is “translate.” In other words, if this guy comes in and speaks in another language, if he translates and if he is telling the Word of God, then he is equal to the person who prophesies in a sense of preaching and telling forth God’s Word. So it doesn’t matter what language you’re speaking in as long as you’re translating it, people can understand it, and you’re teaching the things of the Word of God.

The fact that he’s referring to using language for the good of the church comes up in the next statement. He says, “so that the church may receive edifying.” The word edifying is the word oikodome. It’s the word that is used to build someone up. It’s used to build a house. What is language for? That’s the tool, the vehicle that God has chosen for us to use to share the Word of God which builds the spiritual house that people live in that’s their spiritual life. It builds up spiritually. Nothing else builds them up. The Word of God has got to fuel the building of that person’s life. And what language we use must be used to accomplish that purpose.

Some believers have the gift of being able to speak in many languages. To them Paul would say, “Use that gift in telling others the Word of God. Translate it so that it’s understood. Make sure that whatever language you speak always is for the purpose of the body and builds up the body of Christ.” So the spiritual purpose of language for any believer is to tell forth the Word of God, the gospel, that which builds up, encourages, and edifies a believer. We have Oh, for a Thousand Tongues in our hymn book. Oh, for a thousand languages that we could tell others the marvelous message of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The specific picture to clarify

But secondly, as it continues to go it gets more and more clear. We want to look at the specific picture that Paul uses to clarify his point. I don’t see how anybody can miss it. I honestly do not see how anybody can miss it. You say, “I don’t believe that’s what Paul is saying there. I’m mad at you. You’re not going the direction I want to go with that.” Well, you haven’t read far enough. If you just keep reading it’s amazing how much commentary the Bible is on itself.

Verse 6 reads, “But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what shall I profit you, unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching?” How do you know that he says using the Word of God, prophecy, is taking the Word of God to edify believers? Here it is. In the context it’s what’s going on in Corinth. Paul says, “If I come to you like others have come to you and I’m speaking in [languages] tongues, what good is that unless that which I say is scripturally bound, that which is scripturally documented?”

Look at verse 6. “But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues [languages], what shall I profit you, unless I speak to you either by way of revelation.” He couples four things, revelation and knowledge, and then prophecy and teaching. That’s very key that you see what he’s talking about.

The word “revelation” is the word apokalupsis. It means to uncover something. Here it means to disclose truth that they did not know otherwise. So he says, “If I come to you, I must come to you with a language which takes God’s Word and reveals truth, discloses truth.” No truth can be shared until first of all it’s revealed. Many people think they can intellectually come to the Word of God. You can intellectually understand what the Word says, but you can only have it revealed to your heart what it means. This is what God brings to your heart. This is the word of the Holy Spirit in one’s life. “Whatever language I would come to you with,” Paul says, “it must be for the purpose of sharing revealed truth from God’s Word.” Language is the vehicle through which truth is shared. It is to be used to edify the body of Christ.

Then he adds the word “knowledge,” gnosis. By the way, there is no knowledge until there’s revelation. So you’ve got to marry revelation with knowledge. When a person comes to study God’s Word, God reveals to him what’s in the truth, then he has knowledge. He takes that knowledge and gives it to others by the use of language so that they can understand it and so they can be built up in their faith. This will be beneficial to the whole body of Christ. That’s what language is for, the vehicle we use to take that which has been revealed to us, the knowledge from God’s Word and we share it with someone else.

Next he refers to the means by which he shares this word. He couples “prophecy” and “teaching” together. They are the means by which this revealed knowledge is shared to others. Prophecy is the preaching of God’s Word, confronting you with truth that has been revealed. It confronts you with knowledge that has been gained by revelation that God has given through His Word. That’s what prophecy is.

He didn’t say “the prophet.” He says the gift of prophecy, which is the idea of telling forth, proclaiming the Word of God. But in the true nature of prophets it usually confronts people with the Word of God; not just clarifies, it confronts. But then we have the teaching which is the clarifying of the revealed knowledge of God. Paul says, “If I come to you preaching, proclaiming, confronting you with truth, or if I come to you teaching, clarifying the truth, or both, whatever, you’re being benefited by whatever language I’m using if it’s properly translated and it comes from the Word of God.”

So the bottom line is, whatever language you use must be of spiritual benefit to others as you go forth and as you tell forth the revealed Word of God. That’s what language is for in a spiritual sense in the Christian community.

Remember 12:7? It said there were no gifts that were given to profit ourselves. Gifts or manifestations of the Spirit were to profit the body of Christ. You’ve already seen in chapter 14 that what they were doing was only edifying themselves and that’s part of the problem right there. But if you’re going to speak a language and tag it to the Holy Spirit of God, He’s going to speak in an understandable language, one that can be communicated, one that reveals truth, reveals knowledge to others to help them grow and be edified in the body of Christ. How can we miss that? I don’t see how anybody can miss that. The spiritual purpose of every language, the specific, spiritual, divine, eternal purpose is that it be used to edify the body. The specific example that Paul gives is himself. Evidently he was multilingual. He could speak many languages. He said, “Let me just pick any of them. But if I don’t come to you with revelation or knowledge, either in preaching or teaching or body, if you’re not going to be edified in what I say, it’s nothing more than useless noise.” You say, “How do you know he says that?” Just keep reading. It just gets simpler and simpler.

The subsequent problem

Thirdly, we have the subsequent problem of speaking in an unknown language. Here is where we’re going to spend a little bit more of our time. Here’s the problem in Corinth. When you speak an unknown language, he says, it is useless noise. You follow Paul’s thought. The conclusion I came to was to speak a language that nobody could understand is nothing more than a waste of time, not only for you who is speaking it, but for the people trying to listen to it.

Verse 7 says, “Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp? For if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? So also you, unless you utter by the tongue speech that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. There are, perhaps, a great many kinds of languages in the world, and no kind is without meaning.” How clear does Paul have to be? Let’s just dig in here.

Verse 7 starts off with the word “lifeless.” He’s talking about the flute and the harp. What’s the word? It’s apsuchos. Suchos is the word for soul, without a soul. What’s the soul? The soul is the vital force which animates the human body. He’s saying, “Hey, we’re not talking about a human being now. Let’s move away from a human being who even has a soul within him that animates him. Let’s move over here to an instrument that the only way it’s animated is by the sounds that are blown through it, the breath that comes through it.”

Paul says, “Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp,” he’s talking about sounds that comes through them and whether or not they are recognizable. He says, “Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones,” in other words, if there’s not something recognizable in what’s coming out of them. If you blow into an instrument and you blow intelligently, intelligent sound comes out of it. If you’re going to be influenced by the Holy Spirit of God, intelligent sounds are going to come out of you. A language is going to come out of you. The picture is so clear.

Have you ever heard a flute or a harp that had sounds that were not distinct as they should be? Have you ever heard that? I was in the band in Military School, and we switched instruments one day. You’ve got to understand military school. You do everything by the band. You march here and you march there and the band is always out in front of you. So we just decided one night that everybody had to play an instrument they had never played before in all their life. That was the worst sound. You talk about indistinct sounds, sounds that were not recognizable. We’d always walk around and stop and mark time while the whole corps would go by, and we’d fall in behind them and march. The Drill Sergeants were crying they were laughing so hard. They could not believe we did that.

When I was in Virginia, I was the usher for the Roanoke, Virginia Philharmonic Orchestra. I’ll tell you what. When you go in and you’re watching the orchestra warm up, have you ever heard those indistinct sounds come through those instruments? You’re thinking, “Good grief! What’s going on? Where are these sounds coming from?” They’re not distinct recognizable sounds. So the effort that was being blown into that was useless and lifeless and meant nothing to anybody. But when that conductor walked out there and they picked up those instruments and they started playing sounds like they’re supposed to be playing sounds, suddenly it became recognizable, soothing to the ear and everybody was being blessed by the sound of only one instrument blending with others.

That’s what Paul’s saying. If you’re going to say something and you’re going to say the Holy Spirit of God is initiating it, then it has to be communicable, understandable, intelligible. If it’s in a spiritual sense, it’s going to edify and build the body of Christ. They recognize what you’re saying.

Then he goes on. He doesn’t quit there. Verse 8 reads, “For if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle?” The bugle or the trumpet, even though it’s used in orchestras and bands, it’s also used in the military. When I was in military school we had certain things that made certain sounds that we recognized to cause certain things to be done. Like at night they played “Taps.” That meant, “Go to sleep.” That communicated. I recognized that sound.

Do you understand what Paul is doing here? If God the Holy Spirit is initiating a language in you, then He has a purpose in the body, and if it’s not accomplishing that purpose, something is amiss, particularly if it is an unrecognizable sound. In Paul’s day the trumpet blast was more than what we know. In our day we have radios and communications. But when they would go into battle, the commander would have a certain way of communicating with his troops. It would be through the bugle. There were certain calls that would tell his troops what to do. It was life or death. That’s exactly the illustration he uses. If they chose to blow an uncertain sound, the troops became confused and disaster would be the result.

Paul says, “You need to understand the seriousness of what you’re doing, because if it’s under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, it’s only given to you for the edification of others, not yourself. If it’s unrecognizable, you’re confusing everybody, including yourself.”

He goes on in verse 9, “So also you, unless you utter by the tongue speech that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air.” There are different words for “speaking.”

The word for “speech” there is logos. We’re supposed to know what that word means by now because we’ve been over it. It means understandable, intelligent thought through the Word of God. It cannot mean anything else. Look what he says. He says if we utter by the tongue intelligent, understandable speech that is clear.

The word “clear” comes from two words, eu, which means well or good, and sema, which means sign. It’s a good sign. What is a sign for? It points to something. It points to the fact that we’re under the influence of the Spirit of God. If we’re speaking things that are understandable, that are intelligible, that make sense, that are recognizable from God’s Word, that’s a sign. It’s a good sign. It’s clear. How will it be known what is spoken if we don’t do that?

Paul says, “For you will be speaking into the air.” He changes the word “speak.” Remember the word we looked at in verse 3 of chapter 12. He changes the word to laleo. That’s different from logos. Laleo, in its root form, means to make a sound or just make a babbling or make a noise. And he says that if you’re not speaking that which is intelligent and understandable and clear, which is a sign that the Spirit of God is upon you, then all you’re doing is making a bunch of nonsense in the air and it benefits nobody.

Folks, listen. I don’t like going through this any more than some of you like hearing it. But if you’re going to study verse by verse, you just have to take it verse by verse. So you just pray for me.

Verse 10 goes on, “There are, perhaps, a great many kinds of languages in the world, and no kind [look here] is without [what?] meaning.” Paul knows that there are many, many languages in the world. Why did he speak in languages more than they do. Because wherever he went he had to speak a different language. This guy was the most intelligent human being in the New Testament other than Jesus. I can’t wait to get to Heaven and one day just to spend a little time after about a million years with Jesus. I want to spend a little time with the apostle Paul. Intelligent, good night, he had an ability in so many languages and he simply says that there are many languages in the world but if it’s a true language, like he’s been speaking, many tongues, many languages, all of them have meaning. So in other words, if you’re speaking in a language it has a meaning. So properly translate and use it for the benefit of others by teaching the Word of God.

Verse 11 reads, “If then I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be to the one who speaks a barbarian, and the one who speaks will be a barbarian to me.” That word “barbarian” tickled me. It means that I don’t have the culture of the one who’s speaking. The Greeks would use it for people who didn’t have the Greek culture. When I was over in Greece, I was speaking to Greeks. Why would I not understand that? I said, “There are two Greek words for life.” They all perked up. They were so excited that I knew Greek. I didn’t realize why they were so excited. They knew it. I didn’t. I said the two words were zoe and bios, but I didn’t pronounce them right. They died laughing. I was wondering why they were laughing. I didn’t realize they spoke the language. They called me Wayne the Barbarian for the rest of the week. You don’t have our culture. We don’t have a clue what you’re trying to say.

That’s exactly what Paul said. If somebody comes in and speaks a language I don’t know, nobody else knows, then I’m a barbarian to him. If I go in and speak a language that they don’t know, then they become the barbarians. Either way you don’t understand what’s being said. That’s the whole point. What are languages for? To communicate. Communicate what? That which God has revealed, the knowledge He has given to you and me. So what good is another language if you cannot understand what the person is saying?

If you don’t translate a language nobody can understand, what are you doing? It’s useless. Why are you even talking about it? God’s not into secretive things with languages that nobody can understand. God wants to reveal Himself to His people. So make sure it’s a distinct understandable intelligent sound when you speak.

Look at verse 12. He says, “So also you [now he points it back to them], since you are zealous of spiritual gifts [that was an understatement of the year; he says to take all of that energy and turn it over here], seek to abound for the edification of the church.” You tell me what he’s saying. He’s saying that you’re speaking in a tongue. It makes no sense to anybody. Now, if you want to seek something spiritual, turn that energy into seeking that which will edify and build up the body of Christ. “You want to pursue something?” Paul says, “Pursue that which edifies the body.” Gibberish does not edify anybody.

As a matter of fact, it’s rather senseless because even the person who does it doesn’t know what he says, and the only thing it can do is give him an emotional high at the moment. But friend, the Word of God will not back that up. If you’ve had the experience of speaking in another language—or let’s put it this way, in a tongue which is not a language—it’s just something you’re saying. You say, “You can’t deny my experience.” Let me help you to understand. I love you and I would never seek to deny your experience. All I’m trying to tell you is, you’d better take that experience and put it in light of God’s Word. Don’t even come near chapters 12, 13, or 14. It will not fit.

Some people use Romans 8:26 to justify their experience. It says, “The Spirit prays through you with groanings that cannot be uttered.” That is the most ridiculous hermeneutic I have ever heard that that’s a prayer language the Spirit of God gives to you. That’s ridiculous. That doesn’t even fit the context. By the way, the word “uttered” means cannot be expressed by sound or word. This is something that goes on in the godhead we’ll never know. The Spirit of God is helping us in our weakness. He picks up the end of the log that we can’t pick up when we’re going through difficult times and He prays to the Father. We don’t even know it’s going on but we can trust it because we can thank God in all circumstances for this is the will of God concerning us.

Folks, people are throwing verses every which way to try to back up an experience, but it just won’t work. It won’t work. I have heard by people who say, “I don’t care what you say, Wayne, because when I have that experience, I know that was God. You can’t take it away from me.” I’m saying back to you that I love you in Jesus. Hate me until the day you die but, my friend, you’d better take your experience and put it up next to the Word of God. And if it doesn’t meet contextually what the Word of God says, you walk away from that experience.

1 Corinthians 14:13-17

Contents

1 Baby Talk

1.1 The nonsense of speaking in an unknown language

1.2 The negative of speaking in an unknown language

1.3 The necessity of speaking in a known language

Baby Talk

Turn to 1 Corinthians 14. Yes, we are still there. In fact, we are going to be here for a while. I’ll be grateful to get to chapter 15, but I can’t rush it because we’ve got to deal with what Paul says. We are going to start in verse 13. I entitled this “Baby Talk.” Isn’t it wonderful when a baby begins to grow up? The first sign that it is growing up is when he begins to speak a language you understand. In fact, the best and most intelligent words it can say is either “Daddy” or in my case, if you are a granddaddy, “Poppy.” That is my name. There are other names for grandfathers, I realize that, but Poppy happens to be the best because that is what my granddaughter calls me. I love it when you can talk to them, don’t you? What does a baby contribute? Not a lot. A lot of pain that you have to go through to get them to that point. You want babies to grow up. Well, a lot of babies were in the church of Corinth, a lot of babies. And because they were babies, they were absolutely of no use to anybody else in the body of Christ. That is what is on Paul’s mind. That is what he has been trying to say, building up the body of Christ is his whole thought process as here in chapters 12, 13 and 14. It is what spiritual giftedness is all about. In 12:7, he says, “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good,” so that everybody might benefit. God does not single out an experience for me or an emotional gift for me so that I can be edified. He gives me gifts so that others can receive benefit from those gifts. He gives you the same types of gifts. God does what He does for the sake of the body. Now one of the key words in chapter 14 is the word oikodome. It is used in the gospels three times and is used for a building. As a matter of fact, if you will look in 1 Corinthians 3:9, it is exactly the way Paul uses it back there in that chapter. I want you to see how he uses it. Verse 9 of chapter 3 says, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” That is the word right there. Now, when it is translated differently, when it is not translated “building” as it is in many places, when it is translated as “edification” or “edifying” or “edifies,” or however you want to do it, when it is translated like that, it refers to the process of building something with the finished product in mind. Everything in our church building is done with the thought of the finished product. In other words, it wasn’t just something thrown together. As a matter of fact, the piece of property only holds a building with this shape. We are on a pie shaped lot, and the building fits the shape of this lot. We couldn’t have built a rectangular building. We couldn’t have built another kind of building. It has to be where it is. Everything was thought through. Everything that was done was with the finished product in mind. As a matter of fact, our auditorium has no windows in it. I can remember the day when several of our leaders, men whom I respect with all of my life, almost got into a knockdown, drag out fight on whether or not we are going to have windows in this building. I remember going home and thinking, “These people are nuts. They are just absolutely crazy.” Nobody spoke to anybody after the meeting. Do you believe this? These are the most spiritual men I know in the church. I got home and got on my knees before the Lord asking Him to deal with them. And God said, “I am sorry, son. Relationships are more important than buildings. Now deal with this thing.” So finally I had to repent, and I said, “Lord, put the windows in there if you need to.” Well, it was resolved. But why do we not have any windows in the building? I’ll tell you why. Because we foresaw the day that we might be on television. We recognized that the churches in this area who, as an afterthought, chose to go on television had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to blacken out the light that those beautiful windows brought in, because with that light ruined the TV picture. We knew that one day we wanted to get the gospel outside these walls, so we said, “Let’s don’t put any windows in the auditorium.” You see, everything that was done was with the thinking of the finished product. It was useful, not just for the fact that we don’t have any windows, it was not somebody’s agenda, it was for the benefit of the finished product. That is the idea of oikodome. When you edify somebody, you do something for them with the finished product in mind. You want to see them grow up and become mature in their lives. Now that is one of the key words of chapter 14. This is what Paul is trying to say. Gifts are for the building up of the body. And every gift that you have is not just for that instant or for this one person, but it is for the whole body of Christ, with the finished product that they come into a maturity of their faith. Whatever you have been given is given to others to build and edify those people. Each time it is used, it is used to signify the building up of one another. Look in verse 3 of chapter 14. The word oikodome is translated “edification.” Paul uses it to show what proclaiming the word of God does for others in this building of the body of Christ. He says in 1 Corinthians 14:3, “But one who prophesies [or tells forth the word of God] speaks to men for edification.” That telling forth of God’s Word is to build that person up. So, it is for the benefit of others that we tell forth the word of God. In verse 5 of chapter 14 we read, “Now I wish that you all spoke in languages [you know now that “tongues,” plural, means “languages, known, understandable languages], but even more that you would tell forth the word of God [which is what “prophesy” is here]; and greater is one who tells forth the word of God than one who speaks in languages, unless he translates so that the church might receive edifying,” might be built up. Why would Paul wish that everyone spoke in other languages? Because there are so many cultures and so many languages. He thought if we all spoke in those languages, we could get the gospel to them and we could help other believers in other places who spoke differently than we do grow up in the faith. He uses the word in verse 12 to show that building others up is what we ought to be desiring more than anything else. That is what should be the single-most desire of our life, is that God use us for the building up and edifying of someone else in the body. Verse 12 says, “So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church.” And then in verse 26 he uses the word as a warning. Look at verse 26. “What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a language, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.” In other words, if you are going to bring it into the church, you had better have as its purpose to build up and edify the body of Christ. Now can you see in chapter 14 how understanding and comprehension linked together to help build the body of Christ. If you can’t, you are missing the whole context of what Paul is trying to say here. If you are going to speak in a language or a gibberish, as they were doing in Corinth, if you are going to speak in a tongue, singular, that no one understands, not even the speaker, then what good is it? It is nothing more in the context of building up the body than useless noise. That is all it is. Well, now we push a little further in chapter 14, and I hate to tell you, folks, but Paul bears down even harder. We are not through yet. We have 20 something verses before we finish this chapter. I mean, he just unloads in chapter 14. He unloads on the problem that is going on in Corinth.

The nonsense of speaking in an unknown language

Now, there are three things we want to look at. First of all is the nonsense of speaking in an unknown language. Verse 13 reads, “Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.” Now the little word “therefore” that the New American Version brings out here really is better translated in the King James Version with “wherefore.” What is the difference in “therefore” and “wherefore?” Well, “therefore” usually hinges on what has just been said, but the word “wherefore” is a little different. The word is dioper. It is the word that presupposes now, presupposes a concession on Paul’s part. This is interesting to me. Here is the great lawyer, the great stalwart of the faith, writing the epistles in the New Testament. It is almost like I can hear him right before he writes, “Ahhh, these are hard-headed people.” He has exhausted himself trying to help them. They don’t want to be taught. They enjoy gratifying this emotional experience. They don’t care if it doesn’t benefit anybody else. They don’t really care if it doesn’t benefit them or if they don’t understand it. The emotion is worth the experience. And Paul says, “Ahhh, wherefore, alright.” He is not changing his mind, he is changing his approach. Paul hopes what he is about to show them will help them understand that it makes no sense whatsoever to pursue this kind of emotional experience. He wants to show them this. Verse 13 says, “Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.” Now the word for “speaks” again is the word laleo. We have covered that several times since chapter 12. It has as its root idea to just make a noise, make a sound. In Corinth they chose to make noises that made no sense whatsoever. So in verse 13 it should read, “Let the one who speaks [or makes noises] in a tongue [this gibberish] pray that he may interpret.” That is present middle imperative. Present tense means that the whole time you are speaking this gibberish that means nothing to anybody, especially you, the whole time you are doing it, you better be praying. This is a command. The apostle puts a command on it. You better be praying at the same time that you have an understanding of everything that you are saying. Now, there seems to be a note of sarcasm here. There is no interpretation of this gibberish. Paul really takes a different approach. “Alright, alright, alright,” he says, “if you are going to do it, fine. But buddy, you had better pray that you can interpret it.” I can hear one of them now thinking, “Well, we can’t interpret it.” And Paul is thinking to himself, “That is exactly right. You can’t. You can’t translate gibberish.” That is what was going on in Delphi 30 miles down the road. That is what was going on in the temple of Apollo in the center of Corinth. That is what was going on at the temple of Venice up on top of the hill. That was what was going on in the temple of Poseidon. It went on in every one of the temples where people would speak in a gibberish, and people would actually step forth and seek to interpret it. Paul said, “Alright, if you are going to do it, translate it and buddy, you better make sure the translation is right. And that is a command.” There is sarcasm and frustration in his voice because, you see, he is about worn out trying to tell these hard-headed people that it makes no sense to do what they are doing. In giving this command, Paul is showing what they are doing is nonsense. But not only were they speaking in this gibberish in the church of Corinth in the context that it is an open assembly when they come together, but they were praying in this gibberish. There are people who were saying, “Hey, we pray in this tongue.” He says in verse 14, “For if I pray in a tongue my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.” Just like it makes no sense to speak in gibberish, it makes no sense to pray in gibberish, because no matter how emotional the experience is, nobody has a clue as to what is going on. He says in verse 14, “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays.” Now, what does that mean? Well, first of all, he is not talking about the Holy Spirit. Never in chapter 14 is the Holy Spirit linked to this tongue, this gibberish that was speaking there in Corinth. No, sir, it is “my spirit.” That is in the text, “my spirit.” Now, the word “spirit,” my human spirit, is the word pneuma. That means breath, but it is also the emotional center of man, the spirit of man, the heart of a man. That is the idea. Paul says, “If I pray in gibberish, my breath is praying, yes, there is something going on, there are noises that are heard, but it is definitely an emotional experience. It is definitely an emotional experience. If you have had that emotional experience, nobody doubts that. You have had some kind of an emotional experience and your tongue was involved and there was breath that was used. But there is a problem to that. He says, “If I pray in a tongue, which is gibberish, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.” The word for “mind” is the word nous. It is the word for understanding. Paul says that if he were to pray in gibberish he might get an emotional high, but there would be no understanding of what was going on. If there is no understanding, then the body of Christ certainly is not being edified, and that is the bottom line of his discussion. Then why are you doing it? It is nonsense. If the body of Christ is not edified there is no use in doing it. That is his point. Paul does not deny that a man can pray in his emotional being, the innermost parts of his being, and never say or vocalize a word. He is not denying that. He is saying if a person is praying, then nobody hears him or maybe he is groaning or making a sound, but at least if he understands what he is saying, that is a fruitful prayer. Many are the times that we have been in prayer and we have groaned and didn’t know what to say and in the midst of that, at least, we knew we understood that. But you see, he says, “Hey, if there is no understanding, what good is it?” “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.” The word “unfruitful” is akarpos, from a, without, and karpos, fruit. So the fruit of speaking is understanding. If there is no understanding, then it is unfruitful. So all you are doing is making noise. It is not benefiting the body of Christ and you haven’t got a clue what you are saying. When you conclude what Paul is at this particular point, he is saying, “Hey, I am not denying that a person can have an emotional experience. Yes, that is exactly what it is, but the pleasure of this emotional experience, that bypasses any kind of rational intelligence, invalidates the experience as being anything that fits in chapters 12-14 of 1 Corinthians.” That is the bottom line. That is what he is saying. It does not make any sense. It just makes no sense. Verse 15 reads, “What is the outcome then?” This little phrase is literally translated better, “What then is there?” He says, “To pray in gibberish or speak noises, if it makes no sense, then what is the answer?” Paul says, “I’ve got the answer for me.” And on in the verse he says, “I shall pray with the spirit and I shall pray with the mind also.” In other words, I want to pray that I can understand my praying. That is what I am going to do. Now whatever you are going to do, you are going to do. I can’t change what you are doing, but I can set the table for you so you can understand how nonsensical it is. He says, “I shall sing with the spirit and I shall sing with the mind also.” You know, when we are singing the hymns, isn’t that wonderful? We understand every word. You know, all the revivals that have ever been recorded in church history were built around the great doctrinal hymns? And when people stood to sing, tears would come to their eyes. They were singing scripture and they were singing about Christ and what He had done for them. And if they couldn’t understand that, then all they would have is useless noise. That is the best illustration to me of what Paul is saying. He said, “You can understand the prayer parts. Some people would question that, but you can’t question the singing part. If I pray, I am going to pray with understanding. If I sing, I am going to sing with understanding. That is the only thing that makes sense to me and to everyone else.” The mind and the spirit must be on the same page for it to qualify as a gift that God has given to the believer because when the mind and the spirit are on the same page, others in the body benefit from what is going on. I am constantly asked, “What do you think about speaking in tongues?” That is the way people ask it. They don’t seem to understand that tongues, plural, are languages known. They don’t understand that “a tongue” is what Paul is dealing with here in Corinth. My answer still is this. I can’t deny anybody’s experience. So what I say back to people is this, if you are going to do that, help yourself, but you need to understand it is nonsense and you cannot put it in 1 Corinthians 12-14. Try as you might, it does not fit. It is like taking a square peg and trying to cram it into a round hole. It does not fit. Don’t come to me and tell me it fits in 1 Corinthians 12-14. It does not. It is nonsense when a person speaks anything that he can’t understand. It does not do anything but emotionally gratify that person for that moment. It does nothing for the benefit of the body of Christ. It is nonsense. So the nonsense of speaking in an unknown language.

The negative of speaking in an unknown language

Secondly, we see the negative of speaking in an unknown language. We have seen the nonsense of it, let’s see the negative of it. What is the big negative of it? Well, remember the context is what is going on in public worship in Corinth. Paul, after coming to his own conclusion of only praying and singing in a language he can understand and that which can be understood, says in verse 16, “Otherwise if you bless in the spirit only, how will the one who fills the place of the ungifted say the ‘Amen’ at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying?” Now Paul again puts himself into a hypothetical situation. Paul is not saying he is doing anything, but he is about to put himself into that. After saying that it makes sense to pray and to sing with words that are understandable, he says, “Otherwise, if you bless in the spirit only.” The word “bless” there is the word eulogeo. It took me a long time to understand that word. There are two words for “bless.” Macarios is used in Matthew 5 in the Beatitudes. It means totally, inwardly, spiritually satisfied. It does not mean happy. Happy comes from the word hap, which means circumstance. That is circumstantial happiness. That is not the word used here. The word used here is the word eulogeo, to speak well of something. It is the word that is used when you say your blessing. I didn’t know this for years. I thought saying the blessing at the table was just something that mechanically I was taught to do when I grew up. But now I say the blessing differently. God, will you speak well of this food. What does God do when He speaks? He creates. And what does He create? That which is good in His sight. And I have eaten some stuff, folks, that I needed that blessing big time! “Oh, God, Oh, God, I am going to get it down, you speak well of it and keep it down.” Sometimes He did and sometimes He chose not to. He has a sense of humor. But when you pray, that is what eulogeo is. However, eulogeo is also the word used to praise God, to speak well of God. He is saying when you stand up to praise God and you are doing it in an unknown tongue, in a gibberish that nobody can understand, you may be getting an emotional high out of it, but it is not helping anybody there: “how will the one who fills the place of the ungifted say the ‘Amen’ at your giving of thanks?” Oh, I see what you are saying, Paul. You mean when I do something in the open assembly, I need to be thinking of how it benefits others and not how it benefits myself? Yes! That is what he is trying to say. I know of a church that has made this statement. They said, “If you are here and you don’t agree with what we are doing, leave, because we don’t want you here.” Oh, that really fits with what Paul is saying, doesn’t it? You see, people who are having an emotional experience don’t want somebody coming in and telling them what the word of God says. Paul said, “If you stand up to praise God and you do that in an unknown tongue, nobody is going to understand. Do you know what the word “ungifted” means? The word “ungifted” is the Greek word idiotes. Now what does it speak of? Of one who is unlearned, one who is ignorant, one who just simply doesn’t understand. So what is he talking about here? Probably the lost guy that walked into your service. Now what are the lost people of Corinth doing in that day? They are over in the pagan temple hearing these priestesses get up and speak in a language that they had never heard before, gibberish. And they come out of that pagan influence, they walk inside the church and hear the same thing inside the church! As a matter of fact, if you will keep on reading in chapter 14, he said they are going to look at you and think you are mad, you are crazy. They don’t understand what is going on. There is nothing being said that makes any sense. So Paul says, “How can you say ‘Amen?’” The word means “let it be so.” It carries over from the Hebrew. It says, “Yes, that is exactly right. Let it always be so.” Paul says, “Now how in the world can somebody who is lost who comes into the congregation say ‘Yes, that is right. Let is always be so,’ if you stand up and speak in a gibberish that nobody understands?” This person doesn’t have a clue what is going on. He can’t do that. Can you see the necessity now of speaking in a known language? That is Paul’s point. A person who is praying in a tongue, a gibberish, who is getting an emotional high out of it, oh, he thinks he is praising God, but he is the only one getting anything out of it. The people around him are sitting there thinking, “What in the world is going on?” The lost man thinks you are crazy because he can’t understand a thing that has happened. There is another verse in scripture to hang on to. It says God is not the author of confusion, period. So Paul’s point is well taken. Verse 16 reads, “Otherwise, if you bless in the spirit only, how will the one who fills the place of the ungifted say the ‘Amen’ at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying?” The negative effect of speaking in this language that nobody understands is that the people around you cannot grow and benefit from it. Verse 17 continues, “For you are giving thanks well enough [you are getting experience out of it, you are getting a charge out of it], but the other man is not edified.” Now, how could he be? He doesn’t understand what is happening. When the Holy Spirit authors a gift in us, everyone should be built up, everyone should be edified. When the Spirit of God is working in our lives, this is what His gifts are all about. Go back to chapter 3. I want to show you something. In 3:1 let me show you what he says. Now this is the church. The context has not changed. This is who he is dealing with, right here. He points back to when he first went to Corinth and met Priscilla and Aquila and started making tents. Then Timothy and Silas came over, and so he just dropped it and began to preach the word. That is when the church was born. “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ.” There was a time when I first came and you got saved and you were babies. You were babies. You acted like babies and talked like babies and made no sense like babies don’t make. But that is okay. There is a time to be a baby. And then he says in verse 2, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it.” You had a thirst at that time, but you didn’t have a hunger for the meat. You couldn’t handle it. All you could handle was the milk of the word, the ABCs. But here comes the indictment. So far there has been no indictment. He says in the last part of verse 2, “Indeed, even now you are not yet able.” There is your indictment. “You have remained babies. You have remained in the nursery. And now when you stand up and babble, you are babbling like babies. You haven’t grown up. You are speaking baby talk which is not useful to the body of Christ.” Nothing has changed since he gave that illustration. It is funny how a baby doesn’t say anything that makes any sense. In Corinth these babies were babbling in a language they didn’t even understand. And Paul said, “That just doesn’t make any sense.” So we see the nonsense of it and the negative part of it—the lost people around you think you are crazy. They don’t understand what is going on.

The necessity of speaking in a known language

Finally, we have the necessity of speaking in a known language. The believers at Corinth were speaking this nonsensical, emotional experience that they were having, this gibberish in the worship services, and Paul is absolutely coming against it. Paul says something to correct them. He says in verse 18, “I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all.” That is one of the verses people who attack me on this love to use. “You see there, you see there.” And I want to say, “Don’t make me do this again. He says, ‘in tongues,’ singular or plural? Plural. And when it is in the plural, it has been already documented that it means known understandable languages.” I feel the same thing Paul felt, “Good grief. Will you get it? That is the whole idea of what is going on here. Can’t you see it? I speak in languages more than you all.” And why does he do that? Because he speaks to so many different groups of people who speak so many different dialects. What does he do with this language? What he told them to do. He prophesies with it, which means he tells forth the word of God. And if he doesn’t have a translator, he translates it. Paul knew the language. He was multilingual. And he spoke many more languages than they did. But then in verse 19 he puts this in a church context. Whether it be a language I know or whether it be one of this gibberish stuff that you are talking about, he includes it all right here. He says, “however, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind, that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.” I certainly don’t want that gibberish and if you want to take it and stretch it and say, “Well, in that particular case he could mean a language.” Well, help yourself. But Paul says, “No matter what you are talking about, I don’t want to speak anything where people cannot understand it.” That is his point. This comes right out of his own heart. He prefers five words that people can understand so that he might instruct them. What does instruction do? It builds them up. What is the purpose of the gifts? To build up the body of Christ. He said, “I would rather speak those five words [here comes the contrast] rather than ten thousand words in a tongue. The word “ten thousand” really is not ten thousand. It is the word that means you can’t count them. Somebody just put ten thousand in there. It is the same word used in Revelation. And we get the word “myriad” from it, myriad’s upon myriad’s, as it says in the book of the Revelation. He said, you can take every language ever known, every sound ever been made by man and stack it all together and if people don’t understand it, give me five words in the church that people do understand, I would rather speak those five words. That is the apostle Paul. He sums it up very well. Someone says, “Well, Paul is talking about speaking in the church, and I can do what I want to in my prayer closet. I wouldn’t do that in the church, but I would do it in my prayer closet.” Do you know what I think Paul would say to you? If that is what you want to do, help yourself. If you want an emotional experience that is nonsense, if you want an emotional gratification like any baby would want, then go get it. But I think he would also have me add, but don’t ever put it in 1 Corinthians 12-14. It doesn’t fit. You can’t put it there. Baby talk is for babies. We are to grow up and become useful to the body, and by being useful, we speak what is known, understood, and comprehended by what we say. Anything else is nonsense. And oh, by the way, I think he would have me add something else. He is not saying it in the scripture so I am reading in between here. Remember that one day you will stand before Christ and answer for what you do in your body. As a matter of fact, he has already covered this, hasn’t he? Go back to 3:10-13. Look in verse 10. He doesn’t want to see them stand before God one day and not be rewarded. He wants them to be rewarded. He says, “I don’t say these things to shame you. I say it as a father would tell his children.” Why would a father tell his children? Because he wants his children to benefit from it. That is all he wants. He is not trying to embarrass them. He is not trying to make fun of them. He is simply trying to get their attention. So he says in verse 10, “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it.” Another teacher, Apollos, followed him. Other teachers followed him. “But let each man be careful how he builds upon it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man builds upon the foundation,” he broadens the context. He goes from the teachers who follow him to the people who listen to these teachers. He says every man who becomes a believer is a builder and you’ve got two choices, only two. You either do your Christian life out of the flesh, or you live by faith in the Word of God. If you live by faith and surrender to what God has said, Jesus who lives in you in the person of His Spirit will produce righteousness through you. But if you work out of the flesh and are as religious as you want to be and as emotional

1 Corinthians 14:20-25

Good Intentions Don’t Necessarily Make Things Right

I am not real good at titles, so the only title I could come up with is “Good Intentions Don’t Necessarily Make Things Right.” You know, children have the very best of intentions, but they do some very ignorant things. They really have the best of intentions.

I have loved listening to my wife’s stories about all the funny things that happened when she was growing up.

When she was in about the first or second grade the teachers told the children, “If you are real, real good, you get to help clean up the teachers’ lounge.” One of these days my wife was cleaning the tables they would eat on and she—good intentions, good intentions—saw a jar there that had some white powdery like substance inside of it. And she got that jar, thinking it was sugar, and refilled all the sugar bowls on the table, not realizing that it was laundry detergent! Her intentions were good.

Children have the best of intentions, but sometimes end up doing some of the most ignorant things. Now you say, “What in the world has that got to do with our text today?” It has everything to do with it. We are dealing with the children at Corinth. These are Christians who ought to be walking in maturity. They were in the best taught church in the New Testament, but were living and acting like babies.

Chapter 3 verses 1-3 told us immediately what the problem was. Paul wasted no time in getting to the very crux of the matter. He says, “You people just won’t grow up.” In 1:12, he says, “Some of you are attached to Paul, some of you are attached to Cephas, some of you are attached to Apollos. That is your problem. You are attached to everything and anybody except Christ. You are living like babies. Perhaps your intentions are good, but you are doing some very ignorant things.”

Now his word in verse 20 sums up a lot of what he has been saying in chapter 14. He has come at this situation of speaking in this unknown gibberish in so many directions. He is going to come at it from a different direction this time. He says in verse 20, “Brethren, do not be children in your thinking.” Now, you can’t divorce that from its context. We know the whole chapter 14 is dealing with the contrast of speaking in languages and speaking in a tongue, which was the gibberish that was going on in Corinth.

Paul gives them a command. It is an imperative. It is present active. He says, “Do not keep on being children,” active voice. You are making the choice yourself. Nobody is making you do this. This is what you and you alone are doing and you are accountable.

The word for “children” is the word paidia. Now there are several words for “children.” Why this word? Because it is the word that means a little child that is ignorant and lives, because of being ignorant, in immaturity.

The next phrase continues to clear it up. “Do not be children in your thinking.” The word for “thinking” there is phren. It is the word for “understanding.” Children act out of what they understand. They do childish things because they do not understand. “Bottom line,” Paul says to the Corinthian church, “will you please grow up?” He contrasts their immaturity with these words.

Look at verse 20 again. He says, “yet in evil be babes.” The choice of his words. I believe in the inerrant, inspired, infallible word of God. I believe in the plenary verbal inspiration of scripture and right here, look here, at the word “evil,” kakia. There are other words for “evil,” but this is a particular word the Holy Spirit chose to use here. Why? Because it is used for “malice.”

This is the word that Peter chooses to use in 1 Peter 2:1 when he says, “Get that garment of flesh off of you, that garment of malice.” Malice is the thread, the fabric of the flesh garment. And he says, “When it comes to flesh activity, when it comes to flesh deeds, you be babes.”

Now it is an interesting word for “babes.” I told you there were different words. This word is nepiazo. It is the word for an innocent little baby. He says, “When it comes to acting after the flesh, when it comes to wearing that fleshly garment, you be innocent, not ignorant. You need to be aware, but be innocent when it comes to participating in fleshly deeds.”

Can you see what he is saying to the Corinthians? That is sort of interesting. They were anything but innocent when it came to the flesh. They knew nothing of the fruit of the Holy Spirit of God. There was no love in the church of Corinth, none whatsoever. There were divisions, quarreling, strife. But they could teach a course. They probably had PhD’s in living after the flesh.

Then he goes on and says, “but in your thinking, be mature.” Now the word for “thinking” again is the word understanding. In your understanding, be mature. The word “mature” is the word which means to accomplish a goal, reach the goal of your understanding, which always means it will reflect in the way you live. Grow up in your mind, grow up in the way you think and that is going to change drastically what you are doing.

Again, look at the context. The context is speaking in an unknown language, in a gibberish that they were doing in Corinth. It was nothing more, as Paul is inferring here, than thinking and acting as a child, as if they knew no better. Their intentions, I am certain, were good, but they were doing ignorant things. It was that which activated their flesh. As a result, they had strife and division within the church.

Paul is now going to show them that the tongues, the miraculous speaking in tongues on the day of Pentecost, the languages that people heard and understood even though they were foreign to the people speaking them, were foreign languages. He said that whole thing about tongues, the languages were never a sign for the believer. But he is going to start showing them now as he takes another approach. He is going to go back into prophetic history and show them it was always intended to be a sign to the unbeliever.

Now why would he do this? Because evidently, Corinth thought that if you had this experience, that somehow became a spiritual sign to other believers that you were at a certain level of your Christian life. That is what we have dealt with in chapters 12, 13 and even now up into 14. They might have even thought it was a sign to unbelievers, perhaps and that is maybe why he addresses this. He doesn’t tell us, but he is going to go back and show that it was never intended to be a sign for believers, but a sign to unbelievers.

I have the feeling and he doesn’t clarify it as clearly as I wish he would, but I think the feeling is, they think they are reproducing Pentecost. They think that they were having the same experience that happened at Pentecost. Why else would Paul go back and refer specifically to the prophecy of people speaking in unknown languages? Why would he do that? I don’t think there is any other reason for him to do that.

Over a hundred years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah prophesied that God would speak a judgment to Israel by strange tongues and by the lips of strangers. And in spite of this miracle that happened on Pentecost—its Messianic fulfillment was at Pentecost—in spite of that, Israel would not listen and therefore, would again go into judgment that God would invoke upon them. Paul wants the Corinthians to know that their whole premise of what they are doing was wrong. But not only that, their practice was wrong. Everything was off base according to scripture. They didn’t seem to understand what they were doing.

Well, look at verse 21: “In the Law it is written, ‘By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to Me,’ says the Lord. So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers, but to those who believe. If therefore the whole church should assemble together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.”

The purpose of tongues

Well, let’s enter in. There are two things I want us to understand in this portion of scripture beginning in verse 20 there of chapter 14. First of all, as Paul so beautifully brings it out, is the purpose of tongues. Now, even though the people of Corinth were not speaking in these languages that are understandable, they were speaking in a gibberish, identified by the little term “a tongue” in chapter 14. The apostle Paul wants to go back and say, “Listen, I want you to understand that it was predicted by the prophets that there would come a day that miraculously people would speak with other languages by lips of strangers and that would be a prophecy of judgment for Israel.”

Verse 21 again reads. “In the Law it is written, ‘By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people [speaking of Israel], and even so they will not listen to Me,’ says the Lord.”

Now, turn over to Isaiah 28:11-12. This is what he is referring to. He quotes the prophet Isaiah, who prophesied both to the northern tribes and to the southern tribes. He had quite a ministry there. But the prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 28:11 says, “Indeed he will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue. He who said to them here is rest, give rest to the weary and here is repose, but they would not listen.” Now that is a prophecy Isaiah gave at a certain point in history. Fifteen years before he gave that prophecy, the northern kingdom had gone into captivity. Now that was 722 BC. They went in because of unbelief and apostasy. Now the prophet also warned that the southern kingdom would go the same route, that the Babylonians would take them into captivity. And he warned them, “Unless you repent, you are going to follow the same route as your big sister, the ten northern tribes. The same exact judgment that came upon them will come upon you, except not by the Assyrians but by the Babylonians.”

Remember, the southern tribes were Judah and Benjamin. Mainly you refer to them as Judah even though Benjamin was included. They said that the prophet Isaiah was talking to them as if they were children. His teaching was too simple. They wouldn’t pay attention to the prophecy that Isaiah was trying to warn them with. They accused him of talking to them as if they were babies.

As a matter of fact, look at verse 9 of chapter 28 where we find this reference of one day these foreign tongues will be spoken. It says in verse 9, “To whom would he teach knowledge and to whom would he interpret the message. Those just weaned from milk, those just taken from the breast. In other words, they said, “Man, what are you doing? I mean this is simplistic what you are saying to us.” They didn’t take him seriously. He had indeed spoken to them simply.

Look at verse 10: “For He says, ‘Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there.’” What he is talking about is how simply he went about prophesying and laying it out so that nobody could misunderstand. He was saying to Judah, “I have given you a little here. I’ve given you a little there. I have been trying to draw a picture for you. Judgment is coming.” But yet they wouldn’t listen. In verse 12 we read, “He who said to them, ‘Here is rest, give rest to the weary,’ and, ‘Here is repose,’” now look at the last phrase, “but they would not listen.” And as a result of that, the judgment would come.

Eight hundred years before Isaiah, God had warned Israel and certainly the judgment came, the Assyrian captivity. In Deuteronomy 28:49 we read, “The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth as the eagles swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand.” The strange language of their conquerors would be spoken as a sign of God’s judgment upon them and they would be taken into the Assyrian captivity.

Then one hundred years after Isaiah, Jeremiah the prophet says in Jeremiah 5:15, “Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel, declares the Lord. It is an enduring nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say.” The sign of judgment would be a language that they could not understand. And Isaiah, standing right in the middle, points back. That is what He said then, and you didn’t listen. You went into captivity. “And then a hundred years from now,” he says, “if you don’t listen to me, again it is going to happen.” It did, and Jeremiah prophesied the same thing.

So when the apostles spoke at Pentecost in languages that were not their own, the people who were there, the Jews who were there, came from all kinds of foreign countries around and they began to hear their own languages, foreign languages, not the native Hebrew that they grew up with but the foreign languages spoken to them. The miracle was that they did understand it, however, it was a foreign language spoken to them. They should have known, judgment has come once again. If God dropped judgment upon those who had disobeyed Him in the Old Testament and taken them into Assyrian captivity, if God brought judgment upon them under Judah and Benjamin, the two southern tribes and taken them into captivity of Babylon, how much more would He bring judgment on those who had crucified the Lord, the son of God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ? Judgment had come and the prophecy came forth as men speaking in languages that were not their own native Hebrew tongue. It came from foreign languages and it was again a sign of judgment. It had fallen upon them for their disobedience.

In 70 AD, that judgment fell. Just like it was prophesied before the Assyrian captivity, just as it was prophesied before the Babylonian captivity, it came again and it came again at Pentecost. Jerusalem was totally, utterly destroyed under the emperor Titus. Over one million Jews were slaughtered. Thousands were taken captive. The Temple was plundered, desecrated and utterly destroyed. The rest of the city was burned to the ground. One historian comments that Israel had no history whatsoever for 60 years as a result of the destruction of AD 70. God said it. You crucified My Son and judgment is coming upon you once again. And the sign of that judgment will be men miraculously speaking in foreign tongues.

He warned them, Jesus did, in Luke 19:43, “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you and surround you and hem you in on every side and will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” My Son walked among you and you did not recognize your time of visitation and therefore, judgment would be announced and judgment would fall.

Now I want to ask you a question. If you were the Corinthians and you were into this speaking in a gibberish, thinking somehow it was a spiritual sign, not only to believers of your spirituality, but to unbelievers so that they would know that they could be pointed to Christ somehow and suddenly it dawns on you that all of that is a false premise? How would you handle that? How would you handle that? How do you handle it today? How do you handle that? They had the experience, so what are you going to do, when you suddenly find out that speaking in those foreign tongues was not a sign for believers, had nothing to do with spirituality, but it had to do with the judgment of God upon Israel? Tongues were spoken, the judgment was sealed.

Well, once again, the destruction of Israel took place in 70 AD. And once that happened, why would there be a need to repeat the miraculous tongue speaking of Pentecost? It had done its work. It was prophesied, it happened and judgment fell. Why would you need that again? There is no reason for it to be there again. Now, remember, Paul is referring to known languages, much less the gibberish that was going on in Corinth.

Even though Israel has rejected Jesus Christ, there is something else that you might need to know here. Even though judgment fell upon them, and yes, AD 70 happened and all of the judgment of the Jews there, but listen, God is not finished with Israel yet. Now, I am not one of these people who think that we are spiritual Israel and God has done away with Israel. No, sir, no, no, no. And you need to know where I am coming from. Make sure you understand that without any question in your mind.

Why do I believe that God is not finished with Israel yet? Because I believe God to be a faithful God. What He promises, He fulfills. Look at Jeremiah 31:33. Now if you can get around this prophecy, then you can convince me that we are spiritual Israel. But if you can’t get around it, hang it up because this one nails it to the floor right here. This is the prophet Jeremiah prophesying the new covenant by which we have been grafted into by the way, the new covenant that God is going to make with His people one day, we get the first benefits of it. Jeremiah 31:33 says, “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will put my law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.’ Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day, and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the Lord of hosts is His name.”

He talks about a fixed order here. He talks about the sun giving light by day and the moon and the stars for light by night. Now look at verse 36. If you can get around this verse, then you can convince me perhaps that we are spiritual Israel and God has written Israel off the map. It says in verse 36, “‘If this fixed order departs from before Me [What is the order? The sun giving light by day, the moon and the stars giving light by night],’ declares the Lord, ‘Then the offspring of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever.’”

Now, I don’t know about you, friend, but the sun is still in the sky, the stars and the moon giving light at night. And God said, “Until that stops, I still consider Israel as a nation.”

Zechariah says at the end of the seventieth week of Daniel, one-third of that nation will be saved. Why? Because of them? No, sir. Because of who He is. He promised him and God is faithful to His promises. God still loves Israel. God still loves Israel. But tongues don’t have anything to do here with what we are talking about. Tongues is still a sign of God’s judgment, this miraculous speaking in tongues.

This happened at Pentecost in the three different recorded instances in Acts. What happened there was a picture of God’s judgment towards Israel, speaking in languages other than Hebrew, pictured for us something else. It pictured for us the door being opened to all nations of the world. Once Pentecost came and tongues were spoken, the foreign tongues, as a judgment on Israel, from that point on, God is saying I am not working through one nation any more. I work now through My church and all nations are welcome to come to me through My Son. Galatians 3:28 says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Don’t you love that? That opened the door for me and you. When those tongues were spoken as a sign of God’s judgment, it opened the door for all the nations now to come into the covenant that God has and that includes Israel. And God continues to show His mercy and grace and many Jewish people are coming into the covenant even as I speak. But as a nation, they have not yet repented, but one day will come, their day of atonement will come. The very fact that other languages were spoken to the Jews at Pentecost does signal a whole turn of events in the economy of God as the church now comes on the scene.

In verse 11 of Romans 11 it says, “I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be!” talking about Israel, “But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression be riches for the world and their failure be riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!” there it is, just as clear as you can read it. And then verse 25 of chapter 11 in Romans, “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob,” which is Israel, “and this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.’”

So God now has opened the door for all nations and He certainly, though He has judged them, has not closed it on Israel. He still has a promise and He will fulfill it to them at the end of the seventieth week of Daniel, which will come sometime in the future. I am one of those who believes we will be out of here. Now if you want to stay, stay; I am going with the first bunch. When the church is raptured, that begins the seventieth week of Daniel. And God then turns His focus back to that nation that rejected Him. But the nation that He promised would one day have their day of atonement.

The sign of tongues was repeated when Peter and them took the gospel to the Gentile world. It says in Acts, “while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message and all the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also.” Again, those tongues being a sign of judgment to the Jew but a sign of promise to the Gentile. The doors are now open and whosoever will may come.

So we have the purpose of tongues. Now, you can see Paul’s argument here. “Now that I have finished that, Corinthians, where are you coming from? What is the profit of you doing what you are doing? How does that fit in scripture? And folks, I don’t know why people can’t see it. It does not fit. As a matter of fact, if it were known, understandable languages, that is one thing, but the fact that it was a gibberish that nobody could understand pushes it even further as being totally ridiculous as to anything spiritual in a person’s life.

The problem with tongues

Well then, secondly, we see the problem with tongues. He deals first of all with the purpose of tongues, what were they there for. And if you think you are redoing Pentecost, what do you want to do that for? Because at Pentecost, those tongues opened the door for the Gentiles but it brought judgment upon the Jewish nation. In 1 Corinthians 14:22 we read, “So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers, but to those who believe.”

Paul is awesome in the way he orchestrates his arguments. I mean, he is just a master at it. If you have ever studied his epistles, you know that already about him. He sets you up before he ever brings in what he is trying to say. He has shown the Corinthians that although the Jews received a miraculous witness, they rejected it. They rejected languages, not only that were foreign, but languages that they actually understood. They rejected the message. They clearly heard the message. Now Paul says to the Corinthians, “Here you are, speaking in an unintelligible manner and you expect something understandable to come from that? Could it be you are doing this with the hope of impressing non-believers? Isn’t it obvious to you Corinthians that if you are doing this as any kind of sign, now you are impressed with yourself and believers seem to be impressed with it? But if you are doing this for unbelievers, isn’t it obvious to you if they won’t accept languages that they can understand why do you think that they are going to accept a language that they can’t understand?

He said if you think that you can get across any amount of message by what you are doing to an unbeliever, you are kidding yourself. Paul seems to want to know, where in scripture are you coming from? Where in scripture does it say that this kind of stuff goes along with the gospel and the preaching, the telling forth of the gospel? Nowhere. Then why are you doing it? That is his point.

Verse 23 reads, “If therefore the whole church should assemble together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad?” Now Paul uses an “if” here that is the hypothetical “if.” He says, “Okay, let’s just set up this.” He is driving his point home and he says, “Let’s just set up a situation. It is hypothetical, but let’s just set it up.”

Let’s assume that this happens and he is dealing with public worship in Corinth. What does that tell you? That tells you this must have been going on in Corinth, causing all the confusion that was there. He says, “If the whole church should assemble together, everybody is there, and all of them, every one of them are speaking in languages.” Tongues, remember, when it is plural, refers to known, understandable languages. Now, even though what Corinth was doing was gibberish and was not a language, Paul says, “I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt. What if you all came together and you all spoke in another language that was understandable to those who knew that language?” He said, “Do you realize what kind of chaos that would be?”

You know, one of these days, I would love for everybody in the church to be able to go to Europe and some of these places I go when they have about five translators going at the same time. I mean, you’ve got your Hungarians and Russians and Romanians; you’ve got different languages; and somebody is saying, “What in the world? This is a circus. Man, I don’t understand anything that is going on in this place!”

That is his point. Only those who knew the languages could benefit from them. If everybody was speaking a different language, a lot of people there don’t know what is going on. So he says, “If therefore the whole church should assemble together, and let’s just give you the benefit of the doubt, you spoke in languages that were known languages, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter...”

The word “ungifted” is the word idiotes. It means somebody that is ignorant. Ignorant of what? Ignorant of the particular languages that are being spoken. Obviously the context will rule.

He also says unbelievers. Unbelievers are exactly that, they are unbelievers. They don’t believe in Christ. They don’t believe the gospel. Maybe they have never heard it. How are they going to hear it if everybody is speaking in another language?

“Will they not say that you are mad?” The word “mad” means you people are crazy! What in the heck are you doing? Can’t you see someone in the 20th century who walks inside a church and everybody in the whole church is speaking in a foreign language and he thinks, “Good grief, man, are these people drunk?” Hey, by the way, wasn’t that what they said at Pentecost? Because, you see, the Jews heard that language, but the others who were there didn’t understand that language and they accused the apostles that spoke of being drunk. The same argument that Paul is using right here.

It says in verse 24, “But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.”

Now, you have to remember, prophesying is not foretelling. We have covered that. The word 90% of the time always means to tell forth, it means to tell forth the word of God. Now he is comparing and contrasting what they are doing, even if he gives them the benefit of the doubt and says, “Okay, maybe what you say is an actual language; but,” he said, “what good is that?” The prophesying, the telling forth, the preaching of the word of God is what stirs the hearts of people, not an emotional, even a miraculous experience. Do you think miracles get people saved? Then go back and study Luke 16 when the rich man died. The rich man said when he saw Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom, “Hey, can I come out of hell just for a minute? Can I go tell my brothers?” And what did they say? If he will not believe the law and prophets, he won’t believe you. You can walk straight out of hell and tell them and they won’t believe you. Miracles don’t get anybody saved. But the word of God is what gets people saved.

If we prophesy, tell forth the word of God, clearly, in a language that can be understood, then he says an unbeliever or an ungifted man who enters and doesn’t know what church is all about can be convicted by all, each and every part of it. Why? Because if you point in five directions, you don’t point in any. If you point in one direction and people hear God’s Word goes deep into their heart. It says he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all. That is a beautiful picture here of the power of preaching the word of God. When you proclaim the word of God and you declare forth what God has said, that is what brings salvation to people’s hearts. Miracles never saved anybody. Oh, they have gotten their attention and they have wanted another emotional experience, but you end up competing with yourself. And after a while it gets a little old.

So Paul says, “Why don’t you come back? Have some sense. Come on, let your mind go a little further in your understanding. And even though you’ve got good intentions, you are doing some ignorant things. Come on, snap out of it. Come beyond that and be what God wants you to be.” He is convicted by all, called into account by all.

Then verse 25 explains that. The word of God goes deep into his soul. Verse 25 says, “the secrets of his heart are disclosed.” Boy, does that sound familiar to you? Remember James said when we go to the word of God it is like a mirror. You

1 Corinthians 14:26-28

Order in the Church – Part 1

Some people may be saying, “Will you ever get out of this chapter?” Well, I want to tell you something, this is not an easy chapter, as you already know. The slower you go, the safer you are. So for your benefit and my benefit, we are going to ease through it.

We are going to be talking about “Order in the Church.” It is humanly impossible to reconstruct the chaos that was going on at the church of Corinth in their public worship services. You say, “Why is that?” I will tell you why. We have not experienced anything like it, particularly here. They had not experienced anything like it in Ephesus or in Philippi or in Thessalonica. Why? Because Corinth was the only city affected by the Oracles of Delphi 30 miles down the road. Of all the letters that Paul wrote, they were the most affected by this. And the pagan idolatry had crept in and the emotional frenzy that went along with the pagan worship had now crept back into the church and they thought it was something spiritual. It was a circus. No order in their worship whatsoever, just chaotic. Paul even says, “People will come in and see what you are doing and they will think you are crazy. They think you are mad.”

You know, it is interesting that there is nothing new under the sun, is there? Nothing new under the sun. I was watching a television program several years ago when I watched people get down on their hands and knees and start barking like dogs and roaring like lions. The pastor would stand up and try to speak while people were laughing so hard, it actually became a distraction to him. Several times he had to correct himself. He couldn’t even keep his own attention. And me, looking at that program, I thought the exact same words that Paul said, “Are these people crazy?” Nothing new under the sun.

You have to understand Corinth. If you don’t, then you miss everything Paul is dealing with in chapters 12, 13 and 14. The offending obstacle, however, that Paul is dealing with in chapter 14 is this speaking in an unknown language, gibberish that no one could understand. They called it spiritual. They called it all kinds of things, but that is the problem Paul is dealing with.

He goes about it in a very subtle way to get their attention. He is trying to correct them doctrinally. He has already shown them that speaking in this gibberish was not only wrong, but the whole premise was wrong. As a matter of fact, the Bible does speak of speaking in foreign tongues, languages that are understandable, which are not your own. It speaks of that. Now they weren’t doing that; they were speaking in a gibberish. But Paul says, “Hey, come on, guys. Your whole premise is wrong. Even if you were speaking languages that people could understand, your premise is wrong. It is not a spiritual sign for believers. It doesn’t prove anything about your spirituality.”

I remember years ago, I went to a Romanian village that had never heard the word of God. A national pastor came to me and said, “Would you mind going and we will translate for you?” I am thinking, “I am just not the evangelist that some people think I might be. I am more of an equipper.” I would rather take a guy after he gets saved and build him up in the faith. That is where my gift seems to be. But I said, “Hey, the opportunity is there. I will go. I certainly know the gospel.”

We went in and taught and preached to these precious people, one hundred plus. I don’t remember the exact number, but they had never heard the word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ in that village. They told me it had never been preached in that little village. I am in a hall that was once owned by the Communists. And here I am and I am trying my best to teach the word. I am scared half to death because I don’t know if I am doing it exactly the right way. I am going through an interpreter.

At the end of the message, I gave the invitation. When I give an invitation, friend, you are going to think it through. I mean, I did it so many times, they had to think it through. I make it difficult. I make it very difficult. Are you sure you understand what you are doing? I walk them through step by step. And I said, “Now how many of you would like to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior?” Every hand in the room went up! And I am thinking, “No, no, no. You don’t understand.” I went back and walked through it again. I said, “Do you understand what I mean by this?” And I walked through it. I mean, I am very tough on that. I am not like some people, this easy stuff, I put it down. They all raised their hands again. The pastor said, “They understand, Wayne, they understand.” And I am saying, “No, no, no. I am going to do it again.”

I did it a third time and the third time they all raised their hands. Tears just gushed out of my eyes and I am thinking, “Lord, you actually used me! You actually took what I shared with them and use it.” It was like God said to me again, when I was studying this, “Son, stand up, preach the word of God and men’s hearts will be convicted. Men will come to know Me because it is Me honoring My Word. Whatever you say, preach the Word of God.” That is what Paul is saying.

Now what in the world is going on in Corinth? You can hear the frustration in his voice. You can feel the frustration in Paul the apostle, trying to get this church to think straight for once. It is the Word that changed people’s hearts, not some emotional frenzy. When people walk into that, they will think you are absolutely crazy. What a difference when the word of God is preached.

Well, Paul is going to put some order back into their worship. Now remember this or you are going to get lost. He is still dealing with that one obstacle of speaking in a gibberish in an unknown tongue, a tongue, singular. We have already identified that when it is in plural, it means languages that are understandable. When it is singular, it identifies an unknown gibberish that they were speaking in that church.

So he says in verse 26, “What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation.” Now hear: you don’t understand any of that until you understand the last part of that verse. The last part of the verse is where he is driving at. He says, “Let all things be done for edification.”

Now you’ve got to see something here or you are going to miss everything. This is a difficult passage, but if you can hold on to the fact that that is the driving force of everything he is saying, you will be okay. The key is, let all things, when you come together for worship, all things must be done for edification. That is the key to everything he says in these verses.

By the phrase “What is the outcome then, brethren?” Paul is saying, “Okay, what is the outcome of my discussion with you so far? I mean, okay, have you learned anything?” You have to go back to the 25 verses of what he has just been telling them. He said, “Have you learned anything at all?”

Then look at the term he uses. “What is the outcome then, brethren?” What a beautiful thing. “Brethren” is the real wonderful term used for a brother. He says, “You are my brothers.” It kind of brings back to mind 4:14 when it says, I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. There is a relationship here, and you tell the people that you love the hard things. Paul is willing to do that. Paul is standing right in the middle of their emotional frenzy and experience and saying, “You are wrong, you are wrong, you are wrong. But I love you by telling you that you are wrong.”

Verse 26 reads, “What is the outcome then, brethren? When [not if] you assemble;” now what did that tell us right there? It tells us right there the necessity of coming together for worship. Hebrews 10:25 says, “Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some.” Now I hear some people say, “Well, Christ lives in my heart and I can worship God wherever I want to.” You are exactly right. But that in no way negates the responsibility you have of coming together for corporate worship.

I hear a lot of hunters and fishermen do that a lot of times. They come up to me and they say, “I tell you what, out here in the woods, I can really hear from God. And when I am in a bass boat, I tell you what, I can worship out here.” Well, sure you can; the spirit of God lives within you. But does that have anything to do with what the author of Hebrews says, don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together? You find a person who forsakes the assembly, you’ve got somebody who has got a problem in his walk with God because when you love Him, you will love His people and you will want to be with them. You don’t have to drive it down. It hasn’t become a law. There is nobody here checking your church attendance.

You know, somebody told me recently, “You are the craziest preacher I have ever been around in my life.” Sometimes I will say, “Go home and ask God, ‘God, do you want me to go to church tonight or do you want me to sit in a chair and act like a goof off?’” I just tell the people to do whatever God tells them to do. Somebody said, “Man, you’ve got to be meaner than that!” Why? I am not keeping score. He just says if you love Him, you are going to love being with His people, period. You are going to love assembling yourselves together. So he says, “When you come to assemble.”

Paul is saying a lot more than what meets the eye here. He is addressing their public worship, stuff that is going on in their public worship that is a sham and bringing no glory to God whatsoever. As we enter into their public worship now, let’s just see how Paul is going to put some order back into it. Now remember, remember, that’s his whole key. Everything must be done for edification. He said that back in 12:7, didn’t he? He said, everybody is given a manifestation of the spirit for the common good. So whatever you do has got to be for the benefit of others or don’t walk out and tell somebody you are spiritual because you have had an emotional experience. It means nothing. It is done to edify the body of Christ.

The purpose of worship

There are two things basically we are going to look at. First of all, Paul teaches them the purpose of a worship service. Now that is good to know. Why do we come together? What is the purpose of coming together? He says, “When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation.” Then he wraps it up in what the purpose of the worship service is. Aorist middle imperative. This is a command and it is in the aorist tense, “do it.” It is in the middle voice, “don’t make me have to tell you, you make your own choice to do it.” Let all things be done, let this be your motive, let all things be done for edification.

Now, one more time, the word “edification” is the word that means to build a house, to build somebody up in the faith. The only way to build them up is in the word of God. So whatever you say, whatever you sing, has got to be for the purpose of building up the body of Christ. That is the purpose of a worship service when you come together.

Now let’s look and see how he arrives at it. He is so good. When you study Paul’s letters as much as we have, certainly you have picked it up already, particularly Romans. What a lawyer this guy is! He builds a case and you think, “Hey, there is your answer.” He says, “Good, I was going to say that next.” Then he leads you right to where the answer is before he even tells you.

Well, he starts off and says, “When you assemble, each one has a psalm.” Now you have got to decide, are you going to take this inclusively or are you going to take it restrictively? What do I mean by that? If you take it inclusively, everybody comes with a psalm, you are missing I think what he is saying. However, he has already alluded to the fact that this was the kind of chaos that they have there. But I don’t think that is what he is saying here because of that last phrase of the verse, everything must be done for edification. I think he is doing it more in a restrictive sense here. In other words, there were people who had the gift of singing and had the gift of music and they prepared in their coming, to put some order in the church.

So here he is not speaking inclusively, everybody comes in and wants to get up and sing. That is the chaos that was already going on. He says, “No, no, no.” The word “psalm” first of all is the word that Liddell and Scott says, means a song that is sung to the accompaniment of a harp. So he is talking about a song here. Man, it would be better translated, when you assemble, each one who has a psalm or a song. The word “has” would imply that they have prepared to sing it.

You know it is interesting to me that he starts with singing. That is the way their services probably started, just like ours, with singing.

Then he goes on and says, “has a teaching.” Now that would be sort of chaotic if everybody came with a song and everybody came with a teaching. We would be here a while, especially if they did it all at the same time. There are two words for teaching. This word has to do with the content of what is taught, didache. The word didaskalia is the word for the method of teaching, didache is what is taught, and boy, that fits right exactly with what he is saying. If you are going to stand up and speak in a gibberish, how in the world is anybody going to understand anything? There is no content to what is being taught.

So again he speaks of one who teaches and the content that he teaches. Of course, that must be the word of God to edify the people. Paul may have used this word to do exactly that, just to bring them to the point that everything you say, everything you sing, in order to edify the church, must be understandable, in a language which all can comprehend. If they thought that speaking in tongues was the predominate thing, speaking in these ecstatic utterances, Paul just popped their bubble by choosing that particular word (didache). Didaskalia would be the method, didache has to be the content. There is no content to gibberish and a language that nobody can understand.

Then he says, “has a revelation.” Now the word “revelation” is a word we are very familiar with, apokalupsis, that which is a disclosure of something which uncovers something. You see, we want to make it mystical. Everybody loves to read into this, but it is not mystical at all. When you sing and when you teach, you are revealing what God has given to you. And so, he who sings, he who teaches, and he who has a revealed word from God that identifies with the word of God. He will go onto say every prophet always measures the other prophet. In other words, you just can’t get up and say, “God gave me a word this morning.” No, the other prophets are sitting there. If it doesn’t match the word of God then sit down. It is not edifying anybody, it is just making you feel better that you thought you had a word.

We used to have a sign out front of our church that said, “Be careful, when somebody comes to you with a word from God about you. Make sure you have a word of God about you first, because you need to compare the two.” It may have been pizza that he had the night before.

Now, if you stop and go back for a minute, remember the context. Paul has already covered these bases. It is not something that we are bringing up that is new. We are just pulling in what we have already learned. In verse 19 of chapter 14 he says, “In the church I desire to speak five words with my mind that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.” That still holds true in what he is saying right now. That is what edifies people. That is when people are built up. It is the next two areas that Paul is really concerned with. He subtly brings in singing and teaching and the revelation of that which God’s Word will bring, but then he brings in the next two. Isn’t it neat the way he just sort of fits them in and hasn’t said much yet about them.

Verse 26 says, “What is the outcome then, brethren, when you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation,” then it says, “who has a tongue, who has an interpretation.” Remember that little “who” I am inserting because it would be a better way of translating that.

Now here we go, here we go, here is where we jump into deeper waters. He just eases it in. He says “a tongue.” Now, is he talking a tongue in the sense of a language that people can understand? I don’t see why he would be because every time he does that he puts it in the plural. Or is he talking about that gibberish that is going on in Corinth which he has identified all the way through the chapter in the singular which it is here, a tongue. Now you have to make up your own mind. I am not the authority on anything. The word of God is its own authority, but my opinion is, my mind has been made up. I think he is talking about that gibberish and he just eases it in. What a tactic. What a tactic. I believe that we have identified that when he uses the term “a tongue” he is referring to the gibberish at Corinth. I think he is referring to this point.

Look at the last phrase again, “Let all things be done for edification.” Already you are beginning to see, wait a minute, wait a minute, there is something in here that is not working. This is inconsistent. Hang on.

He says, has an interpretation. The word “interpretation” is hermeneia. We get the word “hermeneutics” from it. The word is a restricted meaning, to take it out of one language and putting it into another language to where they can understand it.

The first thing that has got to come to your mind is a little bit of a problem here. Hold it, Paul, you are losing me. It has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, but now I am confused right here. We would say to him, “Every time you have used the word “interpretation” from chapter 12 through chapter 14 it is tagged to the plural, tongues. There is a gift of being able to understand languages, a linguistic gift and if it is a language that can be understood, then somebody is going to have the gift and the ability to translate that language. But Paul, what are you doing here? You have associated “interpretation” this time with the singular, which means that gibberish. Paul, that is an impossibility.” Paul would look at you and say, “You’ve got it!” You see his subtlety. Do you see what he is doing? He is an incredible man, gifted of the Holy Spirit of God. He has got a way of doing it that you just can’t get around. There is no interpretation for this gibberish.

Isn’t it funny, he starts off the chapter and says, “Hey this stuff is nonsensical.” Then he comes and says, “As a matter of fact, it is baby talk.” He is trying to get at them. Remember he says, “Wherefore, alright, I give up. I will go at it another way. It is baby talk.”

Paul said, “It is cute when you are little, but it is not cute when you are supposed to be grown up. Quit acting like little babies.” You say, “It is an impossibility.” And he says, “You are right! That covers it!”

Now you say, “Wayne, you are stretching this.” No, no, you haven’t read far enough yet. hang on. He’ll show you. Paul has just singled out the offending element of their worship services by just easing it in. And he is saying, “Hey, this guy has got a song. Isn’t that great? And this guy has got a teaching and a revelation. And look here, this guy has got a tongue, and this guy has got an interpretation? That’s odd. How do you interpret a language that is not a language? That’s interesting.”

Now watch. He teaches them the purpose of worship. The purpose is that everybody be edified. You don’t come together to hear a gibberish with no interpretation for that gibberish. Now, again, I know some of you are thinking, “Wayne, you are pushing this, you are pushing this.” No, I am not.

Look at the second point. Now Paul tightens the noose on the practice of speaking in a gibberish. Look at verse 27. Look at what he goes right to. He goes right to the throat of the issue. “If anyone speaks in a tongue.” He didn’t say, “If anyone teaches, if anyone sings, if anyone gives a revelation.” That is not his point. His points are those last two. He says, “If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and let one interpret; [Now watch] but if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and speak to God.” But don’t you let him stand up in church and do anything.

The little word “if” there is another word for concession, giving a concession. The word is eite, which is a little different than most of your words for “if.” It means to give a concession. It is like you feel the frustration. It is humorous to me. It is like Paul says, “Alright, alright, alright. You are not going to listen to me anyway, Corinth. You are so smart, you don’t need somebody to tell you anything. Alright, alright, you are going to do it anyway? Then you had better do it this way.” Paul puts an order to it.

Now watch his order. Again, he raises a hypothetical, impossible situation. He said, it should be by two or at the most three.” What was going on? Man, they were all getting up and speaking this thing, and he said, “People are walking in thinking you are nuts, that you are crazy. If you are going to do it, narrow it down to no more than two or three.”

What is he saying? He is saying, “My concern is you are killing your testimony in this community. Lost people think you are out of your mind. So at least narrow it down to two or three.”

He doesn’t leave us hanging. He knows what he is doing. He says, “and each in turn,” not at the same time. No, no, no. Two can’t do it at the same time, and three can’t either. One and then another and then another, but no more than three.

Then comes the clincher, “and let one interpret.” Now boy, when you read that in English, you say, “I got it, I got it, I got it.” Go a little deeper than that. When you take one language out of another one, which is what we are doing, explaining what that language means, sometimes it doesn’t come out as clearly as you think you have it. The word for “let one interpret” normally would be a specific word with the gift of interpretation. Is that not correct? We saw that back in chapter 12, and every time there is a gift to that. But not here. This is not the word. The word here is “let anyone interpret,” because we are not talking about the gift of interpretation now. If anybody in here can interpret it, then interpret it. If you are going to do it, you are going to have to do it my way, Paul says. If you are going to do it, then not more than three of you are going to do it at the same time. By saying not more than three of you, that was already popping the bubble of everything that was going on in Corinth. They were all getting up and doing it at the same time. He says, “No, no, only three. And if you are going to do it, after each one has done it, let anybody who thinks they can give an interpretation.”

Again, the question comes, “I thought you said if it is a tongue, there is no interpretation.” There is not. And look at what he does. He says, “but if there is no interpreter.” That is a hypothetical “if.” It is like he said, “What? You mean there is no interpreter?” I wish we could get the feel of this. It just loses something when it is just written in the way it is written. We kind of lose something here. “You say there is no interpreter? Then I tell you what you do: keep silent.”

Now I hear somebody already raising an objection. “Hold it, hold it, hold it. I don’t think it means that.” Well, that is fine. I am not the absolute. That is just my opinion. That is the way I see scripture. But let me ask you something. Let me throw it right back in your face. Alright, alright, stand up and give an interpretation. Who checks the interpretation? If you can answer that for me, then maybe I will listen to what you have got to say.

I had a friend who memorized the 23rd Psalm in Hebrew and went to a meeting like this and stood up and gave the 23rd Psalm in Hebrew. A man got up and gave an interpretation, but it wasn’t the 23rd Psalm. Immediately they realized the embarrassing situation and escorted him out and never missed a stride, went right on doing what they were doing.

Now folks, think. As Paul said, “Grow up in your mind, reason it out.” “Oh, I heard them give an interpretation, Bro. Wayne.” Well, good. Did you check out the interpretation? How do you know that is what was being said? How do you know that? By the way, every time I have ever heard anybody give an interpretation, it is right out of the word of God. I don’t know why in the world we just can’t come to the word of God. Isn’t that what Paul says. Just preach the word of God. Why do you need somebody to stand up and tell you what God has already told you? Does this do something for us? Is it a fix? What is the deal? Nobody is being edified.

Just look at the chapter again and look at the different approaches he uses. Can’t you see it? Then he comes around this way. And he says, “Okay, let’s do it this way.” He is trying to get them to think that he has come at it from every approach you could possibly imagine. But the conclusion is, the whole emphasis of what he is saying, the whole emphasis, whether you agree with me or don’t agree with me, the whole emphasis is, when you come together for an assembly of worship, it is for the purpose of edifying, building up. And there is only one way to edify people and that is in the word of God, whether it is sung, whether it is taught, revealed, whatever it is, it is only in the word of God. Now, take the scripture any way you want to take it, but if it is not edifying and building up the body of Christ, it has missed the purpose for which worship services are for.

You may say, “You are awfully tough.” Well, sometimes I am. Have you forgotten the church that we are dealing with here? I think sometimes we get into this and lose total sight of what we have studied for 104 messages. This is a sick church. It was well taught, but it was upside down. They won’t even deal with known sin in the church. Paul said in chapter 5, “Oh, you are so spiritual and yet you will sweep sin under the rug. You are so spiritual doing this stuff; yes, that is really a manifestation of God when you sue each other at the drop of a hat. You are so spiritual that you can’t even keep away from the immorality of Corinth and I have to tell you to run from it. You are so spiritual, your families are upside down. You even think that sexual intimacy in marriage is a sinful thing. What is wrong with you people?” In chapters 8-10 he said, “You have grace in your head but you don’t have it in your heart. You are walking all over your weaker brother.”

As a matter of fact, that would be a good argument. If you are going to stand up and speak in a gibberish, what are you going to do with the weaker brothers who just came out of that idolatrous practice? Walk all over them. They wonder what in the world you are doing.

Then in chapter 11 Paul tells them, “Every time you come together, you desecrate everything God represents.” And then we get into chapters 12-14. You have to feel the heart of the weight of the matter. The problem is, the gibberish that is going on there is nothing more than an emotional frenzy that they get themselves into and yet they are calling it of God.

Years ago I had a situation occur in my life. We had gone to a meeting and it was so great. All the different denominations were called together and the singing was wonderful. It was beautiful, just like it is in our church every Sunday. And the preaching was good. Everything was just so uplifting and edifying. Right at the end of the main sermon, a man stood up in the middle of everybody and began to spout off something he, I guess, thought was a sign that he was spiritual. I mean, it was just a babbling is all it was. And he was loud. I mean, he overshadowed the speaker. The speaker had to be quiet. And everybody there just froze. Even the people who came with him froze, so it wasn’t a matter of us not being used to it.

As a matter of fact, the pastor who was speaking was one of the pastors of the church he represented. It just totally humiliated him that this man did that. Chaos came into that meeting. There was a lack of a sense of the spirit of God. Everything was just broken, ripped apart by that one man’s fleshly, emotional experience that he thought would tell everybody he was really spiritual before God. The pastor who was speaking had to call him down and shut him up.

Welcome to the church of Corinth. That is what we are dealing with. Pitiful, pitiful, pitiful. Now if I can say it enough to get you to get into the context and to understand how sick this church is, then you can begin to understand why Paul takes so many different approaches, trying to get across the very same thing. He says it over and over again, but in a different way. “You’ve got somebody who can’t interpret? Is that true? Are you kidding me? Then let whoever it is that spoke in that language be quiet, shut up and if he is going to speak at all, speak to himself or speak to God, but don’t let him speak in the assembly. You are bringing confusion to everything God represents.”

Remember years ago, when I preached on 1 Corinthians 12 I said if you don’t agree with me that that somehow is a spiritual, whatever you want to call it, that is fine. I can’t make you think anything. I can just try to tell you what I believe God’s Word says. But I tell you what, if you do disagree with me, whatever you do at your house is between you and God. You are going to have to work that out with Him. You will stand before Him one day and you will answer it one day.

But I said it then and I will say it now, don’t ever bring it into this church. Don’t ever, don’t ever, as long as I am standing up here, bring it into this church. I will publicly nail you from the pulpit in the sense that I am going to identify you, and I am going to have our ushers escort you out of here. You have just disrupted that which edifies the body of Christ.

You say, “Well, what if you are wrong?” If I am wrong, I am going to be wrong. If you point in five different directions, folks, you point in no directions. We are going to point in a direction that what we do when we come together is going to be to edify people in the word of God, whether we sing, whether we teach, whether we preach, it is going to be the revealed word of God. That is where we are going to stand.

“Well, if I am in your church and I disagree with you, can I stay?” Hey, you can stay as long as you want to stay. I am not the last word. But on this subject, I am. That is just the way I see it, as strong as I can say it. And I see it stronger today than I have ever seen it. By the

1 Corinthians 14:29-33

Contents

1 Order in the Church – Part 2

1.1 The definition of prophet

1.2 The duty of the prophets

1.3 The discipline of the prophet

1.4 The delight of a prophet

Order in the Church – Part 2

I am so grateful that we are about to get out of the subject of speaking in a tongue, which we have been looking at in chapters 12, 13 and 14. We are just about through this and then we come to women speaking in the church. This is so exciting! I look forward to 1 Corinthians 15. In that chapter we will be looking at the fact that we are all going to die, but we can look forward to the good things that will happen when it takes place one day. Isn’t it amazing?

We are talking about Order in the Church, and this is Part 2. The Corinthians needed to hear this message. You talk about chaos, it was a circus at their public worship services. We saw a little bit of that back in chapter 11 when he talked about when they came together for the Lord’s Supper. He said the rich people were full and drunk and the poor people were hungry. It was a sham when they came together publicly for what they called worship. But isn’t it amazing how close each of us are to living like a Corinthian?

Now, if you haven’t been studying the church of Corinth, you don’t know what I mean by that. What do I mean by “a Corinthian?” All over Greece when somebody would act in a perverse way or sinful way, they would say, “Look out, look out, you are acting like a Corinthian.” That is the kind of reputation this city had, but listen, the church didn’t have one much better. My definition of a Corinthian is a person who confesses to know Christ but a person who was upside down. They had been taught by the Word of God, the best-taught church in scripture because they had Paul as their first pastor and Apollos as their second pastor. They were well, well versed in God’s Word. Why did they act the way they did? Because they lived their lives attached to fleshly things and not to Christ. That is my definition of a Corinthian. It is a person who comes to church, professes to know Christ, a person who studies the Word of God or at least has studied it and knows the Word of God but is not living it. Their walk doesn’t match their talk. It is a person who has attached themselves to fleshly, sensual things. That is the church of Corinth.

Paul said back in 1:12 and in 3:4, “Some of you are of Paul, some of you are of Apollos.” In other words, you are attaching yourselves to preachers. You are attaching yourselves to things that you can see, touch and feel. You are not attaching yourself to Christ. You are not living as a vessel attached to Him through which He now can enable and do through you what you cannot do for Him.

Well, we know so much today in the 20th century just like they knew so much. But if we are not living what we know, then we are not far from being a Corinthian. Our purposes are no longer God-centered, they are self-centered. That begins to filter right into when we come to worship. May I ask you a question? Who are you attached to and why do you go to worship on Sunday morning? Are you a Corinthian? Are you looking for something that will make you feel better, or do you want to learn and grow in the word of God? You see, everything becomes self-centered when we are not living surrendered to Christ, even when we come together for what we would call worship.

Well, if you are that way and you are not surrendered to Christ, you are not allowing Him to do through you, you are not coming to Him daily and saying, “Lord, yes, I am wrong, I agree with you that is sin in my life,” and changing your confidence to no longer being in the flesh but to being in Him, then what I can truthfully say to you is welcome to Corinth. You know exactly now what we are studying in the book of 1 Corinthians.

Evidently the public worship service of Corinth was just a sham, as we said earlier. It was chaotic and confusing. From what Paul has to say and the way he addresses this chapter, there were people standing up and speaking in a gibberish that nobody had ever heard before. They were calling it a spiritual gift and even relating it back to the Pentecostal tongues that were spoken there. People would not only speak in that gibberish but they would speak at the same time. Can you imagine? He says earlier in chapter 14, “A lost person comes into the church and they think you are nuts. They think you have lost your mind. What are you doing? Nobody understood anything.” The people speaking didn’t understand it, and the people listening didn’t understand it. And then when somebody did get up to speak, and spoke intelligently, they were speaking heresy.

Paul is trying to put order back into the church. He wants them to know when somebody stands up to speak, he is accountable. He is accountable so that he might be understood. He is accountable with the content that he says because he is speaking before God. His first audience is God, the second audience is the people that are there. He is accountable. So that is what he is trying to bring back to their attention.

When we meet to worship, it is not to see what man can do or what gifts man has. We are here to hear from God, to learn and to grow in the Word of God. In 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 it says that God the Spirit gives the gifts, God the Son gives the ministry and God the Father gives the effect. So therefore, the glory then from all of that is that it doesn’t come back to man in any way. It doesn’t draw attention to man. It comes back to God. It draws attention to Him. God shares His glory with no man. I don’t know why we can’t understand that. He is not interested in what experience we have had. He is interested in us standing up and being a vessel and letting God use us to speak His Word which brings peace to people’s hearts.

Paul is addressing those who were doing the speaking in the Corinthian church. In verses 26-28 we looked at how he talked to those who were speaking in a tongue, speaking in that gibberish. You may say, “I disagree. I don’t think they were speaking in a gibberish. I think they were speaking in another language.” Well, you can take it any way you want to take it. Paul says, “Unless you have an interpreter, then sit down and be quiet.” Verse 28 gives that very strong admonition there. He says, “If there be no interpreter, let the man be silent.” So the chaos of the church has got to be felt before we can get into this. You’ve got to realize the sick services that they were going through. Everybody is standing up at the same time. Some people speaking in a gibberish. Others said they had a word of prophecy and all this kind of stuff. It was nothing but a total mess.

Well, in verse 29 he addresses those who speak the things that could be understood. He says in verse 29, “And let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment.” Now that little word “and” in the New American Standard there, transliterated in the Greek, is the little word de. It is an adversative. It expresses a contrast. He is contrasting something in verse 29 with what we just found in verse 28. What is the difference? In verse 29 there is no “if.” In verse 28 it says, “If there be no interpreter, let him keep silent.” You don’t need an interpreter when a prophet speaks because when a prophet speaks, he speaks something that is known, understandable and intelligible. People can hear him. People can understand him. There is no “if” in verse 29.

Paul’s point is even if one is speaking clearly so that he can be understood, then there has got to be accountability not only the way he says it, but what he has to say. You’ve got to remember, we have covered so much of this in the past in our context. Back in 12:3, he alludes to the fact that when people were teaching in the church, they were teaching heresy. It says, “Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus is accursed.” That word “accursed” is anathema. Paul wouldn’t be saying that unless somebody was doing that. Anathema means under the curse. Somehow their false doctrine had gotten into the church that Jesus was nothing but a mere man. Like us, He was under the curse. This was part of the Docetic heresy and all the things that happened back in those days. And it was error.

Paul is wanting to make sure when a man stands up to speak, it is not just that he speaks understandably so that people can hear him and understand in their language, but it is what the man is saying. Is the content the word of God? You see, they were speaking heresy in that church. And so we have got to remember some of the context of what is going on.

The definition of prophet

Well, let’s get into verse 29. There are fourth things I want to show you. First of all, we see the definition of the term “prophets.” Now what does he mean when he says, “And let two or three prophets speak”? Who is he speaking of when he mentions prophets? There are two schools of thought here that we have got to look at and I don’t really care which side you take. I can see the first one a little bit better than I can see the second one because of the time that this was written. The first one is that the prophets refer to the New Testament prophets upon which our faith is built upon.

Remember, Ephesians 2:20 says, “Having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.” Now these were extraordinary men used in extraordinary times. These men spoke in one of two ways. One, they would foretell the future, such as Agabus when he went to Paul and said, Paul, “I’ve got a prophecy for you. When you get to Jerusalem, they are going to put you in shackles.” Sure enough, that is exactly what happened. Two, they would give instantaneous revelation. In other words, God would evidently reveal something to them and they would stand up and speak it to the church as the prophets of the Old Testament.

These extraordinary men, however, were phased out in the early part of the early church. You ask, “Why?” Because we have the complete canon now. The canon was being completed as the history is unfolding throughout the New Testament. As a matter of fact, when Paul wrote his pastoral epistles, he mentions much about those who do the speaking. He talks about pastors, about teachers, about elders, about deacons, but he didn’t mention at all prophets. And remember, when he wrote 2 Timothy, that was when he was in prison, about to be martyred for the faith, so that was at a later time in his life.

So taking the idea that these were those extraordinary prophets who we don’t have anymore, it would make sense that what he is dealing with here was that the church at Corinth was one of those early churches in which would have been some of these prophets. Evidently, that was the way they went about their speaking to the people, the revelation that God would give to them.

Now, that is one view of who these prophets are. The other view is, and I don’t really care which one you take, the other view is he is simply speaking to the preachers of that day. The third meaning means to tell forth the Word of God, to declare forth the word of God. He is simply referring to those who prophesied in that day, telling forth the word of God. If he is, it is rather different than the way we do it today, but that is alright. Either way you look at it, the responsibilities are the same. One responsibility, do what you do in order. Don’t you dare get up and make chaos out of this. Secondly, you don’t do it then at the same time, but one at a time. Thirdly, you do it with respect for one another. If somebody else stands up, you sit down because you respect one another and the word of God. Fourthly, do it with accountability as to what you have just said. And the latter here is the main focus that Paul has. He doesn’t just talk about how you do it, but it is what you do, what you say when you get up. Paul is very much interested in that. The main thing would be, be accountable for what you speak. If you are going to speak the word of God, make sure you are accountable to others who know the word of God and there is no error mixed in with truth.

This has got to be the same even today. Today we would call these prophets preachers of the word of God. And preachers of the Word of God, James says, are going to be held in greater judgment when they stand before God one day for what they have taught. Peter says, the Bible is of no private interpretation. If there is a difference in interpretation, somebody is wrong, period. And that is where we are going to stand before God one day. Paul told Timothy, “When you preach, you preach before the council of God, the audience of God. God is the first one that you ought to be concerned about. If you are going to stand and speak, you be concerned about Him first because He is going to judge you for how you taught that which He spoke.”

So accountability to what is being said, that is the main thing. But who are these prophets? They are either the extraordinary prophets of the early New Testament or they perhaps could be the preachers of the Word of God, but the responsibility is the same. Be accountable to what you have said.

The duty of the prophets

Well, that leads us right into the second point, the duty of the prophets. He says in verse 29, “And let two or three prophets speak.” I don’t think he means just two or three, as he did with the ones who spoke in a tongue. But the idea is, everybody doesn’t speak. That was what was going on at Corinth. Everybody who walked in the door said, “I’ve got a word from God for you.” He says, “No. If you are going to have any speakers, maybe two, maybe three.” And then he says, “And let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment.”

Now the word “others” is the word others! It is the word that means that there was more than one. Paul allowed for more than one to stand up and speak. But not only that, it comes from the word allos, which is the word from which we get “ally.” It means another of the same kind. In other words, you don’t have one of one doctrinal persuasion over here and another of another doctrinal persuasion over here. You’ve got people of the same mind who are standing up, who are preaching the same thing.

I so appreciate the heartbeat of or church because we have a divergent doctrine statement. We are not going to force what we believe down your throat, but if you teach in our church, you are going to teach what we teach so that everybody is saying the same thing. That is exactly what he is talking about here, another of the same kind, doctrinally sound, based. If you stand up, somebody else is not going to stand up and say something entirely different to refute what God’s Word has to say. Paul allows for more than one to speak. The number is not really that important. It is the fact that everyone is not to speak who comes to worship. That is the key, as we said earlier.

The prophets are to pass judgment. Now what does that mean? I have been in some meetings where that meant to criticize the guy who is speaking. The apostle Paul doesn’t mean that. That is not what it is. I have had to confess that so many times that God is probably sick of me doing it. He just says, “Would you just stand up and say what I told you to say and quit trying to compete with anybody? There aren’t going to be any prizes given at the end of this conference.” I go through that. I am just honest with you that my flesh responds that way many times.

But the word “pass judgment” is not that at all. The word is diakrino, and it means to judge between something. This is this and that is that. I’ll go ahead and give you the short of it: this is of God, this is of the flesh. You need that kind of accountability with prophets who stand to speak God’s word to God’s people.

Now look at that with me. Hebrews 5:14 uses that word diakrino. I think he uses it in Hebrews 5:14 exactly the way he uses it in 1 Corinthians 14:29. Look at Hebrews 5:14. The author of Hebrews is talking about the fact that the people had been taught but they wouldn’t respond to it, so now they have to be taught again. They were not accustomed to the word of righteousness. Look at what he says in Hebrews 5:14. This is important. He says, “And solid food is for the mature,” those who have reached the goal of hearing. The goal of hearing is responding and obeying: “who because of practice,” the word is the word we get the word “gymnasium” from, “have their senses trained to discern,” diakrino. So the idea is of discernment. A prophet is sitting over here listening to another prophet preach and he has got the ability to discern, “Is this of God or is this of his flesh?”

He says, “to discern good and evil.” The word “good” means that good that only God is, because Jesus said only God is good. And then the word “evil” has to do with the evil that comes from our flesh. Be able to draw a line and say this is of God and this is of flesh. Paul is saying it is very, very important that the person speaking is held accountable to not only how he says it, but what he says, the content of what he says.

You see, we must realize that at the time of this writing there was not a complete canon, and there was no body of doctrine that had been strictly formulated. It was being written and formulated, so they needed discernment above all. They needed men who knew God and men who could hear from God and discern when error was trying to be mixed with truth. The other prophets who were sitting while another one was speaking were listening in order to protect the integrity of the message. They were to protect the integrity of the messenger, to make sure that what was said was of God.

In Corinth there wasn’t anybody checking anybody. As a matter of fact, do you remember Judges? The theme of Judges was every man does what is right in his own eyes. A New Testament comparison is 1 Corinthians. That is exactly what is going on there. Paul says, “No, it can’t be that way. You just make sure that people are held accountable for what they say.”

I have gotten a lot of letters. I got one this past week, whew, seven pages and they didn’t even sign it. They never do. But I want to tell you something, seven pages and not one paragraph addressed textually anything that I have said. That is where people are today. “Don’t tell me what God says! You are denying my experience!” Do you realize what we have been teaching from chapters 12-14 absolutely blows a hole in some of the major denominations of our country? But if you don’t say what God says, what in the world are we doing? Everybody does what is right in their own eyes. That is the point.

The principle of accountability still holds today. And I am grateful it holds today. You talk about somebody holding me accountable. I was preaching one day and was trying to get to a point. Sometimes that is when we get in trouble because you are trying to run through something to get to something else. It was in the study of the book of Revelation. I said, “Right here, right here, the two and a half witnesses go up!” And I said, “It is right here, the sovereignty of God is finished.” I meant the mystery of God. How do you finish the sovereignty of God? It didn’t take long for the prophets to come up and say, “You missed it!”

How many times I have come up the next Sunday and said, “Excuse me, but I missed it last week.” I have tried to do that over the years. When I am wrong, I will tell you I am wrong. We’ve got people out here who know the Word of God, and they hold me accountable.

That is what Paul is saying to the church of Corinth. Nobody is holding anybody accountable. Thank God for a church that grows up under the Word and a church that can be accountable to the Word and hold their preacher accountable. And by the way, one of these days when I am out of here and a new man comes in, hold him accountable! Grow with him. Don’t criticize him. Love him, exhort him, come alongside him. Teach him. Help him to learn and he will walk with you. That is what it is all about, folks.

Well, there is accountability and there is order in what God does. He is not in the business of having an entertainment center. There is no circus here. There is integrity. And when you preach the Word of God, it is in context to what the Word of God says. That is what the church is supposed to be all about. The opposite is happening at Corinth. God had nothing to do with what was going on at Corinth. Paul is loving them and trying to jump right in the middle of a mess and trying to straighten it out.

So we see the definition of a prophet is one who speaks the Word of God to people. However you want to take that, whether the extraordinary prophets or the preachers, it still bears the same meaning. Then the duty of a prophet is to make sure he passes judgment, discernment, to make sure that the one who speaks is held accountable to what is being said. It is the Word that is the authority, not the person who speaks. That is why there has got to be accountability.

The discipline of the prophet

But then the third thing I want you to see is the discipline of a prophet. Now here is the whole key. To me it holds the real key of what Paul is saying. A prophet, one who speaks God’s Word to the people, is to be so under control of the Holy Spirit of God that he is in control of everything he says to the people of God. In other words, he has to be in control of what he is saying.

Look at the flow here in verses 30-33: “But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted; and the spirits of the prophets are subject to prophets; for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” Now the key here is in verse 32, “and the spirits of the prophets are subject to prophets.” Now, let’s ease into it.

First of all, let me say one more time, it is impossible, literally impossible in the 20th century to reconstruct the scene in the church of Corinth. We can’t do it. Our services are different. We have the completed canon. We have the complete doctrinal direction. We have all these things they did not have that were being formulated at that time. All I can say is, it was one of extreme chaos, nothing like anything we have experienced here. So Paul is unraveling this, trying to put order back into it.

Now, in the old Jewish synagogues, they had a style of teaching that really he points to. Remember in the synagogue, not only the Jews could go there, but also the Gentiles. It was sort of a meeting place in the town. And they had a style of teaching at that time that Paul alludes to in these verses that must have gotten into the church. It must have carried right on it. They wouldn’t have just one speaker, they would have two or three. And while one would be speaking, the others would be sitting. Somebody would say something over here and he would just about be ready to say something else, but this one over here said, “Whoa, whoa, I have something to add to that.” And he would stand up. Well, this one would sit down. And so he would give his revelation. Or if there was some correction to make, one would stand up and the guy would sit down. You had to always give deference to the person who wanted to speak.

Now that was the process of the synagogue and the way they would teach. Paul does almost identically the same thing. In verse 30, it seems like this is their practice there. Someone would stand to speak, probably these early extraordinary prophets that we talked about, they would have a revelation. Another would stand up and say, “Well, now let me add to that.” And then another one maybe would stand up and say, “No, that is wrong. This is what is right,” or whatever. That is not the way we do it today. Thank God, but that is the way they did it then, so you’ve got to be very careful here. We are walking in out of culture, alright. There was no complete written word at their time, so they did it differently.

Verse 30 reads, “But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, let the first keep silent.” Now that little phrase “another who is seated” tells you immediately that somebody is standing and somebody is sitting down. Only the one speaking should be standing. The others should be sitting down. You have to admit again that it is different. “For you can all prophesy one by one,” it goes on to say. Now “one by one” means exactly that. Don’t do it at the same time. Remember, the chaos at Corinth was everybody was speaking at the same time. He said, “No, no more of that. One at a time can speak and prophesy.”

Again, Paul shows that the content of what is being said is so important. He says, “For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted.” Now we need to camp out right there just for a few seconds. Why do we go to church? Why do we come together for worship? We come to learn and be exhorted. The word “learn” is the word manthano. We get the word “disciple” from it. Now that is what we are supposed to be. Everybody who claims to be a Christian is supposed to be a learner, a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you come together, you come together to learn of Him, to learn through His Word.

The word “exhorted” is the word that means to be called alongside. And in this text it means the word of God, you come so that you might learn as the Word preached is put alongside the problems you are facing in life. And the wisdom that comes from that counsels you so that when you walk out, you have a better understanding of how to walk and to live the Christian life. That is what you come together in public worship for, not to just have some emotional experience. You come to learn and be comforted with the Word of God.

Years ago someone told me, “Spend your time in that Word and when you step in the pulpit, you not only teach people but you comfort people with the word. Counsel from the pulpit. Let people know by application, don’t just observe, don’t just interpret, but apply the Word of God, apply it.” I was very encouraged when I found in scripture that is exactly why people come together, to hear a prophet that they might learn and that they might be comforted or counseled with the Word of God.

Well, you don’t learn and you are not comforted when everybody is speaking at the same time and when most of what they are saying is a gibberish that nobody can understand. You see the chaos at Corinth? What he is trying to do? Turn that thing around. The purpose of worship is for learning, for exhortation. In order for learning and exhortation to take place, a prophet must be in control of what he says to the people.

In verse 32 look and see how it flows: “and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.” Now, it is the prophet of God who must be in control of what he is saying if the people are going to learn and be comforted by the Word of God. Those who were speaking in a tongue (verses 26-28) were said by the lost people earlier in the chapter to be mad. You are crazy. In other words, you are out of control of what you are saying. Are you with me? What is a prophet to be? In control of what he is saying. He has first of all got to understand it and then secondly, be in control of relating it to the people he is speaking to. How does he do that? He is under control of the Holy Spirit of God, and then he can be in control of what he is speaking to the people of God. That is the way it works. So he is to be in control.

Now “the spirits” there is used in many ways, but in this text it refers to that part of man where he thinks and where he wills. That part of man must absolutely be under control so that he can be in control with his motive, with his thoughts in teaching the people so that they might learn and be comforted by the Word of God. Those who stand up and speak in an emotional frenzy, gibberish that nobody understands are not in control of what they are saying. And people who sit around them are not learning, nor are they being comforted by God’s Word. But when the man is teaching and admonishing with the revealed Word of God, under control, he is in control.

Why would Paul bring this out? Look at verse 33. Just keep reading. It just teaches itself: “for God is not a God of confusion.” Now, was there any confusion going on in Corinth? As a matter of fact, was there anything that wasn’t confusing going on in Corinth? Everything was confusing. Was God in charge of it? Absolutely not. It was pure flesh. Educated flesh is what it was, because they knew a lot, but it was all flesh.

So what Paul is trying to say is, “God is not the God of confusion.” The word for “confusion” there is the word that just beautifully outlays the chapter. It refers to a state of instability. Anything that is unstable is not of God. A state of disorder, or a state of disturbance; all of these things were characteristic of Corinth. And he says, God is not the God of that kind of thing. God is the author of peace, not of confusion. He goes on and says, “but of peace.” And the word there means the absence of conflict.

You’ve got to see what he is saying here. When you hear God’s Word, you can look in the context and you can understand, yes, this is exactly what he is saying. I can see it. There is something of peace that strikes your heart. Remember, as God takes the Word and puts it alongside your life, there is wisdom. And God’s wisdom is gentle and it is peaceable. So there is peace in a person’s heart when he hears the Word of God.

There is something about truth that grabs the heart and settles it and puts peace in it. That is what Paul is saying. You can’t stand up and speak in a gibberish and expect anybody to have peace out of that. You can’t stand up and everybody speak at one time and expect to have any peace out of that. You can’t teach error and expect anybody to have peace out of that. But when you are held accountable for what is being said and you speak that which is what God has to say, then God becomes the a

1 Corinthians 14:34-35

Contents

1 Introduction

2 Order in the Church – Part 3

3 The definition

4 The classification

5 A transformation

Introduction

John Ankerberg: Hi, this is John Ankerberg and today I want to present to you my very, very good friend, Dr. Wayne Barber. For 18 years he was pastor of the huge Woodland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was co-teacher with Kay Arthur for 14 years at Precept Ministries. He studied with Dr. Spiros Zodhiates and co-hosted with him the national radio and TV program “New Testament Light” for 10 years. Wayne has taught the message of living grace, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, all around the world. He is president, founder and principle speaker of Living Grace Ministries. And in February 2011 he returned to Woodland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as senior pastor. Wayne has authored several books. The most recent one is entitled Living Grace: Letting Jesus Be Jesus in You. And he’s also co-authored the Following God series of studies published by AMG. I hope that you’ll enjoy listening to Dr. Wayne Barber.

Order in the Church – Part 3

Dr. Wayne Barber: Would you turn with me this morning to 1 Corinthians 14. We’re going to be looking in verses 34-35. And I know you’re thinking, Wayne, you’re go so slow. Will you ever get out of chapter 14? Well, I want to promise you I can’t wait to get out chapter 14. I’m just having to go kind of slow so we don’t get messed up here. I think I’ve made just about everybody mad, so today I might as well complete this picture, as we’re dealing with the women speaking in the church. Oh, dear!

We’re talking about order in the church and this part 3, as Paul is trying to get some kind of integrity back into the worship experience of Corinth. There’s no way in the world—we’ve said it over and over again—that we can recreate or fully understand the chaos and the confusing situations going on in Corinth. There’s no way. Their public worship was a sham and both the men and the women were to blame. There were no spiritual leaders amongst the men and there were not many women who were willing to submit if there was. And so it’s just a real mess there and the women were out of control as well as the men. And so he’s trying to put some order back into their service.

I have so much respect for the apostle Paul. He loves these people, and for that reason he’s willing to step right in the midst of a really difficult situation, right in the midst of everything they were doing and tell them they were wrong. Now, either he’s incredibly stupid or he’s an anointed man of God, one or the other, because he just goes against the whole Corinthian denomination. He steps right in their face and says everything you’re doing is nothing more than flesh, and he tries to help them get it back on its feet to where it brings glory to God and not to the experiences of man. That took a lot of love for them and that took a lot of love for the Lord Jesus. And, you know, in 4:14, let me remind you, he didn’t say anything to them to shame them or to try to put them down. He said, “I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.”

Well in verses 27-40, after 26 verses of dealing with them speaking in this gibberish that nobody understood, finally he comes down and says, okay, now here’s the way your services are going to have to be. He puts the order back into them. In verse 27 he makes a concession. The little word et is the word that’s sort of a concession, where it sounds like saying, “alright.” I mean, he’s done this twice in this study. You can almost feel the frustration that he has of dealing with people that don’t want to be dealt with. It’s kind of the way it is today. You talk to people about what the Word of God says, they’ll throw their experience right back in your face. They don’t care. And every time you come back to the Word they’ll do the same thing.

Well, Paul was going through the same frustration. I get the feeling of that as I studied, and we see some of these words that he uses. And in verse 27 he says, “If anyone speaks in a tongue.” And if you’ve not been with us, “a tongue” is that gibberish that’s going on. He distinguishes “languages,” tongues plural, from “a tongue,” with what’s going on there in Corinth. That was nothing more than a gibberish. It came right out of their pagan worship 30 miles down the road, the oracles of Delphi, and then drug it right back into their experience there at the church. They thought it was spiritual. They even thought it was a sign to the believer. And he’s already corrected that error. And he says in verse 27, “If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each one in turn and let one interpret.”

Now the little word “if,” again, is used and he’s saying alright, alright, alright. If you’re going to do it, it’s going to have to be this way. There’s an order to it. Two, or at the most three, and you don’t do it all at one time. You do it one at a time. And there are two things he’s making sure of. It tells you a lot of what’s going on their service. One is that nobody’s speaking at the same time and there’s no more than three. Secondly, that it be interpreted, that it be interpreted. You see, when somebody speaks in a gibberish it can’t be interpreted. And so you see the subtlety of what he’s telling them right here. In other words, he’s creating a hypothetical situation. This really can’t happen, but for the sake of argument, if you’re going to do it, you’re going to have to do it this way. He cleverly slips in the nail that just sort of slams it shut. He says in verse 28, “But if there is no interpreter.” What, there’s no interpreter? What? Nobody can understand what you’re saying, then he says, alright, “let them keep silent in the church. Let him speak to himself or to God.” Because nobody else understands you, and you don’t know what you’re saying. Maybe God can get something out of it, but you don’t know what you’re saying. But don’t bring in the public worship service,” he said. No one can translate a gibberish, and that’s what he’s talking about.

Well in verses 29-33 he addresses those who speak in an understandable language. He moves from them to the prophets. Now remember, the canon was not complete. There was no formal doctrine that had been yet formulated for the church. It was being done as Paul was writing. So they had prophets a little differently, and perhaps these were the prophets of the early New Testament church. We see them phased out. We don’t have them anymore because we have the canon, we have the Word of God. But one would stand and speak and then another perhaps would give fresh revelation to what he had just said, but it all had to be accountable. And he said “Let two or three prophets speak.” And of course when a prophet would speak you had to understand what they said. “And let the others pass judgment.” And just to say this, not to go back and re-preach what we’ve already done, but in review, pass judgment means to have the discernment to be able to hold the one who had spoken or is speaking accountable to what God has said.

And so, again, you see the emphasis on the content of what one says. How can you ever say that speaking in a gibberish has any content to it, because it has no understanding to it? Even the prophets have to be accountable. And they speak in an understandable language. “But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted.”

Now their way of doing things was drastically different than today. Anybody who would go into this chapter and try to mimic that way of worship misses the whole point. That’s just the way they were doing it in that time. But the point that we can glean from them is that the one who was speaking, there was respect for him. And so what was being said, everybody else wasn’t chaotic and trying to speak at the same time. Let the one who is speaking speak, let him be accountable for what he says.

Then verse 32, “And the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.” That word “spirits” has to do with the mind, the understanding. And what he’s saying is the prophet who is doing the speaking must be in control of what he’s saying. Now, how different is this from those who would stand up and speak in a gibberish that nobody understood, totally out of control? He says, now listen, you prophets, when you speak, the other ones can’t because there won’t be an interpreter. But when you speak you’re accountable also and you be in control of what you’re saying. Don’t let it be a babbling gibberish.” Verse 33: “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” And the word “confusion” there is the word that means God is not the God of that which is out of order. God is not the God of that which is disruptive. It had to do with all that was going on in Corinth.

Now, as Paul continues his efforts now to put order back into the church, I believe now he begins to allude to the very root of the problem of all of it. Now, when I read this you’re going to think that I’m saying the women were the root of the problem. I know you are. I know you are. But don’t you do that to me. You let me finish everything I’m going to say today, because you’re going to be a lot happier than you think you’re going to be, ladies. You think I’m going to get on your case. It’s going to be a lot nicer and softer than you thought. Verse 34, however, says, “Let the women keep silent in the church.” Now don’t get mad at me, I didn’t write this. “For they are not permitted to speak, but let them subject themselves just as the law also says. And if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.”

Now what is Paul doing here? I know what he’s doing. He wrote this to get me in trouble in the 20th century. He knew that Wayne’s going to get everybody mad at him before this thing’s over. Now, what is he doing by bringing the women up? What role do they have in what’s going on, and speaking in this gibberish? That is his theme now, of all of chapter 14, is speaking in this babbling, this silliness of saying stuff that nobody can understand. He’s putting it down, putting it down big time. Why does he bring the women now, into the picture?

The definition

Well, let’s just wade into a very controversial area. Some places you go you put on hip boots, and some places you go you put on chest waders. I need a scuba tank. But let’s ease into it. First of all we need a definition. “Let the women keep silent in the churches.” That’s sort of an oxymoron, isn’t it? I heard somebody say, I was speaking in the book of the Revelation once, and I heard somebody say, “I know there’s no women going to be in heaven.” And I said “Why?” “Cause it says right here that there’s silence in heaven for 30 minutes.” I said no, no, no, okay. Everything’s fine. I’m going to dig a hole for myself before this thing’s over with.

One of the things that most women, most men, don’t know is that the word for woman and the word for wife are the same words in the Greek language. And the word for woman is gune. Now we have to determine whether he’s speaking to the women—obviously he’s speaking to women—but is he referring specifically to the wives, because the word means the same thing? There are those who say that Paul is giving a general principle that no woman can speak in church. They have to be silent. They can’t do anything in church, can’t pray, can’t speak, cannot do anything. Now, ladies, I think this is totally incorrect. So relax, I’m on your side. I’m not in the camp that they say what they’re saying. Now, you say, “Why is that, Wayne?” I’m going to explain it to you. Just stay with me.

In making our decision here we’ve got to make that determination, however. Is it a woman or is he speaking of wives specifically? Now the same thing you have to do in 1 Timothy 2:12 when it says, “But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.” Now, again, you’ve got to make up your own mind. Is he talking about wives there, a wife over a husband, or is he speaking of women and men, because the words are the same in the Greek text. You say,” Wayne, what do you think?” I’m not getting into that. I’ve got enough on my hands this morning. That’s 1 Timothy 2. But that’s the same type of thing you get into when you look at this word. You’ve got to make up your mind.

Well, if you’ll look at verse 35, I think he clears up the answer for us in 1 Corinthians 14. To me it clears up the problem. “And if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.” Now, “if they desire.” Who are the “they?” If they’re just any woman, whose husband is she going to ask? It sounds to me like he’s talking about wives. If the wives have a problem, go to their husband. Why he singles that out I don’t know, but that’s the way I see the text. If he’s saying a woman must keep silent in the church that can’t be right, because she can’t pray—we saw that back in chapter 11 where they can—and prophesy, they can’t speak or they can’t even sing. That’s not what he’s saying.

But he’s saying something different, and I think he’s speaking to the wives right here, has a very direct word for them. And I think he’s also saying to the husbands, “husbands, you be in control of your wives.” Now what was going on in the Corinthian church, again, we can’t enter into. There’s no way we’re going to be able to mimic it today. But it was so chaotic evidently there was a problem there with women and he, to set order back in the church, instead of dealing with all the women, dealt with the wives and put them under a principle. “If you’ll get back under submission to your husband then we can have order there, then we can have order within the church.”

Somehow the women were a part of the confusion that was going on in Corinth. Now, I know some people don’t like that, but he’s very clear. He didn’t say, “Children, you go home and ask your parents.” He didn’t say, “Wives, yank a knot in your husband’s head.” He said, “You wives, you women,” he said “you be quiet; and if you’ve got a question, you go home and ask your husband.” Now, there’s a cultural piece of the puzzle that might fit in here, because in the setting of the synagogues the women would sit on one side and the men would sit on another. If you go to Eastern Europe normally, now not all of them, but normally the women will be on one side, the men will be on the other side. They still do it to this day. And you can see immediately how that would create a problem. If the husband’s sitting over here and the wife’s sitting over here with another group of ladies, and it gets real emotional, look out, because how’s the husband going to keep his wife under submission? So Paul says if you can get that in check, then order can come back into the services they were having.

And to me, that’s my opinion of what he’s speaking of here. And you’ve got to check it out for yourself. I’ve never said I’m the authority. God’s Word is the authority. But as I see the text he speaks of wives and he speaks of husbands. And he’s saying you wives, you be in submissive to your husbands. And you husbands, you help me handle this problem, because if you’ll handle, if you’ll take care and put your wife under control, then we can have order within the church. So the women had something to do with the chaotic situation of speaking in a gibberish in the early Christian church. And the way Paul sees order is by telling them to get back under submission to their husbands so that they can have order in both areas.

You remember one of the judgments to Israel in the Old Testament was you’ll know you’re being judged by the fact that women shall rule over you and when women get out of control. As a matter of fact, just for a second here, turn over to 2 Timothy. I want to show you something. Now, you do understand that all that went on in the pagan situation down 30 miles of road from Corinth was a very emotional thing when those oracles of Delphi would speak in that gibberish and that babbling. Now, I’ll tell you what, ladies, you understand what I’m saying. Men are not emotional enough, but more often than not, women are very emotional and get caught up in different things and are easily deceived because of it. You say, “Now, Wayne, you’re reading that into Scripture.” Am I?

Look in 2 Timothy 3:6. He’s dealing with false teachers, and I want to show you who they prey on. A false teacher is one, he says, “For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins.” You see, that’s what’s going on in Corinth. There’s so much sin nobody’s dealing with it. And he says, “Led on by [what?] various impulses,” the emotions of the time. Now this is the same way. He said in another passage, he says Adam sinned, but Eve was deceived. And it’s very important to understand. If you can get the women and the men to get their act together, and to get the women in order at home, and the men becoming the spiritual leader of that woman, then that’s going to bring order into the church.

The classification

So in the sense of a definition here we need a definition. And I think the woman is the wife. He speaks very specifically to her. But then secondly, all of us also need a classification. What is he talking about? Especially ladies, if you want to know what’s going on here you’re going to have to know what is it you can’t speak. Verse 34: “Let the women keep silent in the churches; for they’re not permitted to speak.” Speak what? Well, the verb that is used for “speak” in verse 34 is the word laleo. It’s always used—now, it can be used in other places—but it’s always used when it comes to speaking in singular, leo. You wouldn’t use the word lego, which is the word of meaning speaking intelligently. You wouldn’t use that. You would use none of the other words that are used for speak. You only use laleo. And matter of fact, chapter 14 will show you what I’m talking about. Look in verse 2. The only word, now it’s used in other verses, but when you bring up “speaking in a tongue,” laleo.

And we covered this back in chapter 12, but for the sake of you that haven’t been with us we’ll look at it just for a second. Verse 2: “For one who speaks in a tongue [laleo] does not speak to men but to God.” Verse 4 of chapter 14: “One who speaks [laleo] “in a tongue edifies himself.” Verse 13: “Therefore let one who speaks [laleo] in a tongue.” Verse 19, and Paul is speaking of himself, but he’s contrasting what’s going on, so he uses that word. “However, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.” And then in verse 27, “If anyone speaks [laleo] in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and let one interpret.” The root meaning of the word laleo, and again it can be used in other ways, but the root understanding of it is simply by, according to Kittel’s, according to all the resources I went to, was simply a babbling; to make a noise, an uncertain noise. It was used of the sounds of animals.

Anybody in here say they understand an animal? I’ve had people tell me that. I’m thinking, you know, you were weird before you told me that, and now you’ve convinced me. I mean, understanding the sounds of animals. It’s used of musical instruments that are out of tune. Do you get the picture? Laleo, an uncertain sound, not a certain sound. Whenever God speaks, whenever His Word speaks, when the Law speaks it’s never used, the word laleo. It’s the word lego, and it’s the word for meaning intelligently speaking.

So in the context here what is he talking about? It’s not right for a woman to speak in church. What he’s saying is he’s tying the women right to the gibberish that’s going on in Corinth. And that’s what he’s driving at. This has been the context of the whole chapter. And in verse 34 that’s what he’s saying, when it’s not well, women cannot speak that gibberish within the church. If he wanted to say women cannot speak intelligently he would have changed the words, lego, but he did not. He left it laleo. His whole discussion is wrapped around the problem, the controversy that’s going on in Corinth. Lalean, the present active infinitive of laleo, has the particular and predominant meaning of make a noise, babble, an uncertain sound. Now what does that tell you? Again of the women being right in the core of this fleshly practice that’s going on in the church of Corinth.

Paul is not speaking of intelligent speak. It’s never forbidden of a woman to speak to a group as long as she’s under authority, as Timothy talks about in, to her husband and to the church. It’s never wrong for her to be able to share, to stand and share the Word of God. There are some who say it is. No sir, it’s not. But it’s always wrong for her to speak in that babbling in that gibberish.

Now, all of chapter 14 has been addressing this. But in nothing Paul is saying is he putting down women. Now, ladies, don’t get bent out of shape. Don’t get bent out of shape. Don’t get your hair uncurled over all of this stuff. He’s not putting you down. What he’s saying is he’s identifying the source of the problem, but he’s also saying not only is it wrong for you to speak, it’s wrong for your husband or any man. It’s wrong for anyone to do that within the congregation, the public worship. Back in verse 13 he says, “Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret;” anyone, it doesn’t matter who it is, man or woman. Verse 27, “If anyone,” anyone is the key, “speaks in a tongue, it must be by two, at the most three and each in turn and then let one interpret.” If he can’t interpret it, be quiet, men, women, all of them. But the reason he’s bringing up the women again is because they’re at the core of the problem of what’s going on in Corinth. He doesn’t want them speaking in the air. He says in 14:9, “so also you unless you utter by the tongue speech that is clear, understandable how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air.”

Now, I want to make sure you understand what I’m saying. He’s not putting the ladies down. He’s identifying the problem. You say, “Wayne, you’re trying to read something in.” I’m not reading anything in. I’m just telling you, I didn’t write this. But the women were at the center, core of it and it was this speaking in a babbling and a gibberish and calling it a spiritual gift and even thinking that it was a sign to believers. And earlier in the chapter he blew that theory completely out of the water. By bringing up the wives of these men, he also is indicting those husbands I want to tell you, because those husbands evidently were not leading their families as they should have been. They weren’t the spiritual leaders that they should have been, because if their wives are out of control in church, you know that they’re out of control at home.

I wonder this—and I only wonder it and I’ll probably get letters on it—but I wonder this. If you took all the women out of the movement that has been along ever since Corinth, of speaking in a gibberish and in this other language and calling it spiritual, if you took every woman out of it, what would be left of that movement? What would be left of it? If you’ve ever watched, just pay attention; did you know that 80% of all the Christian books, no matter who wrote them, are bought by women? Only 20% are bought by men. And if you’ll look at the big conferences and places and watch it on television, look at the audience. And it was the same problem in the church at Corinth. Now, ladies it’s no put down to you. But he’s going to come now to the answer.

A transformation

The last thing I want to share with you today; it’s going to take me the longest, is the answer. You have to have a definition; who’s he talking to? You have to have a classification; what is it they can’t say? And I think we’ve got that down. Then we come, there’s got to be a transformation in the Corinthian church, just like there’s got to be a transformation in the church of Jesus Christ today. If you’re going to live after the flesh all kinds of chaotic things are going to come out of your life.

Now, his specific context is this, but there are other things that you can add to that. Now what we need is a change in bringing order back into the family so when the family gets in order then the order can come into the church and the church can be in order. When you see a church that’s out of order you’ve got families that are out of order. And no wonder he addresses the wives and no wonder he addresses the husbands. Let’s look at this transformation. I think he’s alluding to the real problem, not only of Corinth, but of the church today.

Verse 34: “Let the women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak [this gibberish], but let them subject themselves,” now watch this carefully, “just as the law also says,” and then he immediately goes to husbands in verse 35. Let’s talk about this for a second. “Let them subject themselves.” What is that word? Now, men, we need to stop being so hardheaded and listen to these two words. There’s two words for subject, or to obey. And I want you to understand, this word that I’m about to tell you about is not used here. There are some men who take this as if their wife is a doormat and walk right over them. That’s not it at all. That would be the word hupakouo. That is used when the wind would obey the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. When He spoke the wind obeyed, no questions asked. It’s the word used of a child obeying his parents. It’s the word used of a believer obeying God. But it’s never used of a wife obeying her husband except in 1 Peter 3, giving the supreme example of Sarah and Abraham; the word hupakouo. So don’t get in your idea here, “It says wives, just obey your husbands, whatever they say.” No sir! That’s not it, no sir, that is not it.

But there’s another word that is used here and the context is beautiful because he’s not putting anybody down. Understand that. He’s trying to build you up. He’s trying to put order back into the family and order back into the church and make some sense out of this. It’s the word hupotasso. That’s a different word. Hupo means under, tasso means to arrange yourself or to place yourself under. It’s when you have two equals. My wife and I are equals in God’s sight. It’s when my wife chooses to submit to me by putting her life and arranging herself so that I can be in the position to lead, and therefore God can deal directly with me. And if I don’t lead He chastens and disciplines and scourges those who are His own. And so that word has the idea of two equals, but one chooses to submit to the other.

When the Southern Baptist Convention brought up women or wives submitting to their husbands it brought an uproar amongst the liberals all over our country, no matter what denomination or religion. Hey, what does God’s Word say? And why would a woman do that? I can hear a woman now saying, “That redneck. I’m more gifted than he is. I’m sharper than he is. Got a better personality. Why in the world do I have to submit to that redneck?” I’ll tell you why. Because God said so. You say, “Well, I don’t understand that.” What don’t you understand about submit? I mean, what part of it? Is it the first part of the word or the second part of the word? God said it. It’s kind of like a guy following a car. He says, “Follow me.” “Where’s he going?” I don’t know. What part of it do you not understand, “follow” or “me”? I mean, that’s what God said. That’s His order.

Now, if He’s got an order in the family He definitely has an order in the church. And what he’s saying is, you do it God’s way, period. You don’t do it man’s way. Corinth, as knowledgeable as they were, were doing it their way, and not doing it God’s way. This tells me that the fleshly attitudes of Corinth had infiltrated the family and that there was no submission of the wives to the husbands and there was no leadership of the husbands to the wives. And this is the problem when you come together for public worship: what goes on inside that house will come out some way, in a disorder, when public worship is happening. Back in chapter 7 we got a clue about how their families were all upside down. They didn’t have a clue about anything. They even thought that sexual intimacy in marriage was a sin. Paul said, “Good grief, people, what are you doing?” It took him a whole chapter to straighten them out. So their families were a mess.

But this also tells me; now, men, listen to me, this is not just an indictment to a woman. If you’ve got a wife that is out of control in a worship service, you’ve got a man somewhere that’s not fulfilling his responsibility of leading spiritually that lady. And see, even though he doesn’t bring men into the picture at all, just by bringing the wives automatically puts the men into the picture. And so there’s a twofold problem. Women that won’t submit, but men that won’t lead; not drive, lead.

I think he’s saying when you wives are willing to start submitting to your husbands, order can be restored. You know, I can hear some lady now say, “Well, why didn’t he say if you men would start living right the wives would submit?” Because the men were not the instigators of the problem at Corinth. The women were. Stay in the context. Don’t leave the context. I can’t answer all the questions, I’m just saying he’s dealing with the women and he’s saying submit to your husbands. Go home, submit to your husband. If you’ve got a question ask them, but don’t come into this body of believers and continue to crea

1 Corinthians 14:36-40

Contents

1 Introduction

2 Who Do You Think You Are?

3 If you did not write Scripture, then simply obey it

4 I am the apostle, not you

5 The consequences are going to be yours

Introduction

Who Do You Think You Are?

Dr. Wayne Barber: Turn with me this morning to 1 Corinthians 14. And God willing, before this service is over we will finish chapter 14, before the Lord has come for His church. I’ve wondered for awhile if we would ever finish chapters 12, 13 and 14. Some people that turn the television set on periodically and they don’t know that we’ve been in Corinthians for 107 messages may think we have an agenda. The only agenda we have is working our way through 1 Corinthians, and we just happen to be finishing up chapter 14 today.

My title today is “Who Do You Think You Are?” Not you, but the church of Corinth, as Paul addresses this church and wraps up all that he’s been saying for three chapters here, 12, 13 and 14. When you stop to think of it, you’ve got to feel for the apostle Paul. How would you like the assignment of dealing with the carnal, fleshly-minded church of Corinth, a church that had no concern for its own: to the degree that a man could live and sleep with his father’s wife, his stepmother, he could commit incest and adultery at the same time; everybody know about it and nobody deal with it? They did not love each other at all. In fact, a church that had no biblical concept of what the family was all about. A church that didn’t have any kind of relationships that were godly because they were suing each other at the drop of a hat. A church with no sensitivity to people around them, that did not understand the message of grace. A church that had no reverence at all when they’d come to the Lord’s Supper. As a matter of fact, they made it a mockery. And a church with no grasp of spiritual matters, no balance whatsoever, to the point that they were willing to take their emotional experiences and actually characterize them as spiritual things that are happening to them day by day.

Well, Paul did deal with them. He dealt with them biblically; he dealt with them firmly; and he dealt with them lovingly. And we’ve been his audience for 14 chapters as we’ve watched him deal with these people. We’ve seen the exasperation in his life. The two times he uses that concession word in chapter 14, when it’s almost like he just comes to the point and says “Oh, good grief!” and he starts over again with them, just the exasperation of dealing with hard-headed people who don’t want to hear what the Word of God has to say.

The Corinthian believers were a tough group. The saddest thing was they had been taught by the Word of God, the best-taught church in the New Testament. Paul had been their pastor; Apollos had been their pastor. But they didn’t want to live up underneath the authority of God’s Word. This was evidenced by the way they deified their emotional experiences and they put it above God’s Word. They began to live outside of what God’s Word had to say. You see, when a person is living after his flesh, not living surrendered to Christ, that person does not care about doctrine. Doctrine is not important to him; experience is all that matters, what gratifies the flesh, what pleases the flesh. Back in chapter 4 in verse 6 Paul said “Now these things brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to exceed what is written.” That’s what they were doing, exceeding that which was written.

Their public meetings could not be called anything close to a worship service; it was so confusing and chaotic. By their fleshly living the only message they were communicating to the lost world around them in Corinth was that God must be a God of confusion and disorder. That’s all they were saying to the people that were there. First Corinthians 14:33, this led Paul to say very emphatically, “for God is not a God of confusion,” and that word means disorder, things that are disruptive. He says, “but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” In other words, He didn’t change the standard for Corinth. It’s that way in every one of the churches that God dealt with and we see in the New Testament. God’s character is a character that is one of order. It’s a character of integrity, decency, order.

And remember, 12:4-6, as we were talking about, as easing through into his teaching on the error in Corinth. And he says it’s the same spirit who gives the gifts, the same Lord that gives the ministry, the same God the Father that gives the effects. You see, His character doesn’t change. Now the way He does things is different with one and another, but His character is immutable, it’s unchangeable. The behavior that He produces in us therefore is a behavior of order, a behavior that is decent. That’s when God is working because that’s who He is and He doesn’t change and He’s the same yesterday, today and forever. But contrary to God’s character which is unchangeable, our character and our flesh, rather is changeable. And because it’s changeable it’s fickle and therefore it’s not trustworthy.

All that was happening in Corinth was a result of people attaching themselves to their own untrustworthy and worthless flesh. And, folks, I want to tell you, just like Paul said in Romans, any time we attach ourselves to the flesh we are serving the law of sin. And there’s no other way around it: no matter if you want to call it religious or whatever else, it’s serving the law of sin. We’ve got to be attached to Christ, living in surrender to His Spirit.

Well, in our context this morning he’s summing up chapters 12, 13 and 14. He’s trying to put some order back into their services. His specific topic cannot be missed and cannot be forgotten, but his specific topic has been the foolish gibberish that’s going on in Corinth, a non-language. And he says this is not right because it cannot be interpreted and when God speaks He speaks so that people can hear and people can understand.

Well, let’s look at verses 36 and following, down to the last verse of chapter 14. Verse 36, he says, “Was it from you that the word of God first went forth? Or has it come to you only? If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write,” Paul says, “to you are the Lord’s commandment. But if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy and do not forbid to speak in tongues. But let all things be done properly and in an orderly manner.”

If you did not write Scripture, then simply obey it

Now, summing up all of these thoughts, I’m going to bring four things to you this morning. And remember, I’m not the absolute; the Word of God is. But here’s what I see in my study and I want to share it with you. First of all, to the people of Corinth, who do you think you are? If you did not write Scripture then simply obey it. Now there are two questions Paul brings up in verse 36. Let’s look at them. First of all he says, “Was it from you that the word of God first went forth?” Was it from you, you flesh and blood Corinthians, that the word of God came from? Wow, man, you are spiritual. Whoa, if the word came out of you!

Now, see, what he’s doing is very facetious here. What he’s saying is it’s a fallacy to think that you have an authority. God’s Word has the authority. It doesn’t come from man, it comes from God. We need to understand that the flesh and blood are different from the sphere of the Spirit. God is Spirit. We’re flesh and blood. These are in two different spheres altogether, two different worlds. John says in John 4:24, “God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.” Now, as Spirit, God originates not from this earth, but, as a matter of fact, He doesn’t originate, because God is God; He’s always been. And it’s, see, a significant thing here. In John 3:31, “He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.” He’s in a different category. He’s in a different sphere. He’s in a different world than man is in.

The moment man, his fleshly arrogance, begins to add to or take away from what God’s Word has to say is the moment he’s just tried to put himself into a sphere that only God dwells. He has committed the ultimate act of stupidity. But, you see, flesh always seeks to do just that, doesn’t it. Romans 1, remember Paul says in verse 22, “Professing to be wise they became fools.” You know, in chapter 1 he’s saying God revealed Himself to them. They knew Him, but they chose not to bow to Him. They chose to be the authority rather than what God had given to them. As a matter of fact, the context of that is interesting. In verse 21 of Romans 1 he says, “For even though they knew God they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened.” And then it says, “Professing to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man.”

Man loves to worship man. He loves to brag of what he can do, what he knows and what he has. That’s Jeremiah 9:23. And the very moment we begin to question or step above, exceed what’s written, we become like the Corinthians. We become very foolish. We step in a sphere that we cannot step into, when the Word of God didn’t come from man, the Word of God came from God. It’s by choosing to do things their way they projected themselves into a sphere that only God dwells.

It’s so sad when this mentality creeps into the church as it had in Corinth. They’ve done the same thing. They’ve exalted their experiences above that which is written. Verse 36 says, “Was it from you that the Word of God first went forth?” The word “from you” is the word, should be “out of you.” Now there’s a difference in two prepositions. Let me teach you the word. “From you” is apo. Apo would mean my pen is beside my pocket. And if I took it from it, I took it away from it, but it never was a part of my pocket, it was just alongside it. That’s apo, that’s from, away from. But if you put the pen inside the pocket, now it’s part of the pocket. To take it out of, ek, would mean to take the pen out of the pocket, the pocket is missing something now because something came out of it.

Now that’s the first preposition of this little two words there that makes it one Greek word. There are two words that make up one word: ek, and then the word exerchomai, which means to come. He said, “Did the word of God originate within you and did it come forth out of you? Is that where the word of God came from?” Wow! You Corinthians certainly are spiritual. See how facetious and what he’s doing here? What he’s telling them is, “Who do you think you are? The Word of God didn’t come from you. The Word of God came from Him. He’s got the design and you must bow before His design.”

Now the term, “the word of God” begins with the understanding that the word of God, the living Word of God, is the Lord Jesus Christ. John 1:1, “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God,” verse 14, “and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Christ didn’t come from God, He came out of because He is God, you see. And therefore that which He says comes out of God. It doesn’t come from man or from God. It comes out of the very heart, the very mouth of God. Second Timothy says the Scripture is “God-breathed.” I mean, it comes right out of the very mouth of God. It’s what God said, totally different sphere than where man dwells.

So Paul is simply saying to the Corinthians that had gone beyond and exceeded what was written, and he’s saying, “Who do you think you are? Did the word of God come out of you? Did it originate with you? Is that it?” You know, it’s not much different today, is it, when people put themselves above and beyond the Word of God? As a matter of fact there’s a church out in California that has what they call an open canon. Therefore they have, still have, prophets and apostles they say in the office now. And they say they’re continuing to give revelations to what the Word of God has to say. And the apostle Paul would have fun with that one, wouldn’t he. He’d say, “What? Did the word of God come out of you?”

You see, as a matter of fact, it was in the paper a couple of weeks ago, probably you saw it, about Andy Griffith. There’s a church that’s doing “the gospel according to Andy Griffith,” and they’re going back to his old programs and they’re getting values out of it. And, oh gosh. I mean, would Paul have a time in the 20th century? I mean, they didn’t have television back then. But this is the kind of stuff we’re talking about. When people think there’s a source outside of that which God has spoken. That comes out of the mouth of God. And anything that comes out of man is not worth fooling with because it comes out of untrustworthy and un, and worthless flesh. But then the flesh enjoys to be in control, doesn’t it.

So the first question, did you write Scripture? Hey, Corinthians, hey, come on, come on, did Scripture come out of you? Who do you think you are? In other words, if it didn’t come out of you then get busy and obey it. Quit trying to rewrite it. The second question is in verse 36, the last part of it. “Or has it come to you only?” Now, if they could answer the first question—that didn’t come out of us—then Paul would say, “Alright, do you have some private hold on it, some private understanding of it?” It’s the same thing Paul is doing here that I believe that Peter does in his epistle, second epistle. And of course the second epistles normally are dealing with false teachers. And Peter says in 2 Peter 1:20, “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.” If I stand up here and interpret it one way, you interpret it another way, both of us must need to come together and begin to pray, because one of us is wrong. And as soon as you change your mind everything will be okay. No, but one of us is wrong. The Scriptures of not private interpretation.

You’ve been with me for 18 years. How many times have you heard me stand up here, many, many times and say, “I’m wrong; I need to change that,” because it is of no private interpretation. “Corinthians, you mean what you’re doing is somehow something that nobody else got? Do you have this new revelation towards these experiences, etc., that’s going on and somehow it means something to you, but it doesn’t mean anything to the other people? Who do you think you are?”

“Or has it come to you only?” In other words, has it stopped with you? The word “coming to you only,” is the word katantao. Kata means down, and tao means to meet. Coming down and meeting something and stop it. Has it stopped just with you? Are you so special that you have a special revelation that nobody else has? When experience is chosen to replace what God says, someone has placed themselves in a very authoritative position. They are now exceeding the Word of God. They’ve put themselves above it. Either their experience or whatever else it is. They’re acting as if they’re the source of God’s Word. They’re acting as if they have the handle on it that nobody else has. Corinth had this attitude. “We’re the right ones. The rest of you are wrong. Don’t tell me what Scripture says. We’re writing it as we go.”

You know, some of the letters I’ve gotten in this series—and it’s not just been bad; I make it sound a lot worse than it is—none of them have dealt with the text. I told you that the last time. Nobody deals with the text anymore. It doesn’t matter to anybody anymore. “Hey brother, you don’t understand, son. You haven’t been where I’ve been. You haven’t experienced what I’ve experienced.” Well, I don’t know what to say back because I’m not the apostle Paul. The apostle Paul was in an office they don’t even have today. But I can say that he would have said, “Who do you think that you are? Just who do you think you are?”

You’d better be careful, because one of the evidences of the Antichrist being in this world is the focus upon signs and wonders. If you have not studied Matthew 24-25, if you haven’t studied 2 Thessalonians, you don’t know what I’m talking about. But it would do you some good to study it because when he comes he’s going to seek to deceive the elect with signs and wonders. And I’ll tell you, the emphasis that people are putting on signs and wonders and all this other stuff, I’m telling you, folks, it’s telling you something. Paul is trying to correct the church in Corinth. We need to be corrected today. Come back to the Word of God. Leave that experience out there. It’ll follow you. You come, you pursue Christ and His righteousness and pursue His Word. Don’t step outside what God’s Word has to say. Who do you think you are Corinthians? Did you write the Scripture? Did it come out of you? Do you have a special understanding of it?

I am the apostle, not you

Then secondly, he says in my understanding of it, “Who do you think you are? I am the apostle, not you.” Now you know the difference, and this is where it becomes important. I’ve had people come up and say, oh, they still have apostles today. No, they do not. Now if you want to take it in the generic form I don’t care. The word in the Latin for “missionary” is the word “apostle.” If you want to do that, help yourself. But there is no office of apostle as it was in the New Testament. And this right now makes that doctrine very important. Paul says, “Who in the world do you think you are? I’m the apostle, not you. You’re saying this as if you are the authority. No sir, you are not the authority. God’s Word is, and I’m the authority because I’m the apostle, and we’re writing it as we go,” he would say.

Verse 37: “If anyone thinks he’s a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment.” Now, the present tense is used here: If anyone’s walking around thinking. In other words, this is not a one-time thought that went through his mind, as he had pizza the night before. This is a person living in this kind of mindset. The word “if” is an iffy word. He could have changed that word and put another word for “if;” that would have made it an absolute fact. But he’s not trying to nail them to the wall. Very facetiously though, they know what’s going on; he says if and it’s iffy, “But if anyone’s walking around professing to be a prophet, thinking himself to be a prophet.” The word “thinking” means it’s totally engrossed into his mind to where that’s all he can think about. I’m a prophet, buddy I’m a prophet. “If anyone’s walking around thinking himself to be a prophet.”

Now a prophet was one who got a message from God and took it and delivered it to the people, or it was one who foretold events in the future. So they had two basic areas of being a prophet. Paul said if any of you are going around saying that you’re a prophet, you’re speaking as if you have the authority of a prophet. And then he says, he goes on “If anybody thinks he’s a prophet, or thinks he’s spiritual.” And the word “spiritual” there means directed by the Spirit of God. Now there are a lot of people today who want to say “I’m a prophet and I’m spiritual,” and Paul says, “Okay, if that’s what you’re thinking and that’s the way you’re living,” then he goes on. He said, “Then let him [let that one who’s thinking that way] recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandments.” Now that word “recognize” means to fully grasp and understand.

In other words, it’s kind of like my momma used to say to me, “Wayne Allen.” Buddy, I want to tell you, when she was mad at me she’d say, “Wayne Allen” “Yes ma’am,” and I said yes ma’am, because, buddy, she could whip me. She was 5’ 6” and could stand up on a chair and smack me in the knee, but she’d take me down, buddy. She was upset when she was upset. And she’d say, “Wayne Allen.” “Yes ma’am.” “Now you listen to me.” “I’m listening to you.” “Don’t you miss a word I’m saying. You understand me?” That’s what Paul’s saying by using the word epiginosko. In other words, you get everything I’m saying to you. Don’t you miss a single word. Understand what I’m about to tell you, alright?

“Let him recognize” what? What is he fully to understand? “Let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment.” The things I write to you are the Lord’s commandment. The letter that Paul is writing to the Corinthians is not just simply a letter he wrote on a whim, on a nice afternoon when he had some time. But it’s written by the authority of God Himself. Paul seems to be saying, “Hello, Lord, help me out here. Help me out.” Paul seems to be saying, “I don’t know who you think you are, you people who exceed the word of God, you people who, by your experiences, tell others that you’re prophets under God’s direction.” But he says, “I don’t know who you think you are, but I know who I am, and I’m an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what I’m telling you is by the authority God has put upon my life.”

Now, folks, we don’t have the office of prophet today, but you know what we do have? We have the book that they gave to us. Ephesians 2:20, “Our faith is built upon the prophets and the apostles.” So what does that tell us? That tells me that when I stand up here and I’ve got the Word of God in my hand and somebody is in this room and you’re exceeding what is written I can say to you with the same authority the apostle Paul said, “You are wrong. This is right and until you come to this you’ll never understand what God wants to do in your life.” Now, that’s exciting to me. There’s no authority in me, there’s authority in this book. And that’s what Paul is saying. “Listen, I don’t care what you people are doing. I don’t care how spiritual you think he is. I don’t care what experiences you’re having. Listen to me. If it’s not in God’s Word, back away. I’m telling you what God says. Who do you think you are in living the way you choose?”

I tell you what, this man gets his point across really well. There’s so much going on in Christianity today that makes me think that it’s just like reading the newspaper. People are still doing the same thing. One of the largest movements in America today; I was just in a meeting several weeks ago. And a pastor friend of mine went, and this is from him, this is not rumor. This is what he was told face to face. One of the biggest movements that’s going on in Christianity today, the pastor of the individual who began that movement had a vision a few months ago. Now here’s his vision. His vision was the vision of the blue guitar, the vision. And here what it says. He told this friend of mine, he said, “Now God has put on my heart that He’s going to do away with the church and do away with all this preaching in the Word. He’s going to bring revival through music.” He said the mantle was on Elvis Presley, but the guy just got too big and died. He was on the Beatles, but they didn’t make it. But he said God’s about to raise up a group that’s going to pull everybody together and unify them with music.

Wow, does that bless you? I thought the Spirit of God was the one who unified believers. I didn’t think there was any other way, but through the Spirit of God. That unity is only resident in Him. You know, there’s a lot of people saying a lot of things today that I guarantee the apostle Paul would absolutely, he’d have a stroke if he knew what was going on today. Folks, it’s the same thing that was going on in Corinth. Who do we think we are? God gave us His Word. We’re given everything according to life and godliness, and we’re to live in light of that. And when you exceed that which is written you have stepped on ground that’s dangerous ground, and you’ve put yourself into a position that God and God alone is going to deal with you. I’ll tell you. You better get back up under what God says. Forget your experience. Forget your emotion and get back up under Him and then let Him be your experience and everything else will take care of itself.

Who do you think you are, Corinthians? Did you write Scripture? Who do you think you are? I’m the apostle, not you. You think you’re a prophet? Do you think you’re spiritual? Then let you recognize this, you better grasp it. Don’t miss a word I’m telling you. What I’m telling you is from God. Whatever you’re doing is from man and there’s a huge difference.

The consequences are going to be yours

Then thirdly, who do you think you are, Corinthians? If you ignore what I’m telling you, then the consequences are going to be yours. You know, the apostle Paul kind of understood they’re going to ignore him. Most of the people in Corinth were so hard-headed they didn’t want to hear anybody anyway. One of the things that dawned on me, he writes this letter. That sorry sucker; wait until I talk to him in heaven. It’s a little tougher when you have to face them face on. But he wrote them and that’s one of the reasons he can be so tough I think.

Verse 38 of chapter 14: “But if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.” Now we have a little difficulty here. If you’ve got a King James you’ve got a better translation than this one. I don’t know why they did this. I don’t know whether or not they ran to see what the meaning of it was or what. But the words “does not recognize,” the word is agnoeo. Agnoeo is the word that means don’t understand. It was used earlier in 1 Corinthians. Remember back in chapter 12 he said I don’t want you to remain unaware, ignorant, brethren. It’s the word we get the word ignoramus from. In other words, if somebody does not—now, he puts it in a tense that makes a lot of sense out of it here—he says, “If anyone continues and remains ignorant of what I’m telling you here.” And he puts it in the present indicative active. That’s a lifestyle and that’s a choice. You choose to remain ignorant of it. You choose not to understand it. You’d rather have your experience than have what I have to say to you.

Then Paul says, “Let him not be recognized.” Now, I wouldn’t translate it quite that way. I’d say let him remain ignorant, which is the way the King James translated it. And I think maybe he stretches it to say, yeah, let him remain ignorant and the consequences of remaining ignorant is that you will not recognize him as a spiritual man or a prophet. “Don’t even get near him if he doesn’t recognize and understand what I’ve just told you,” is basically what Paul is saying. “Don’t pay attention to those who don’t pay attention to me,” Paul says. And we would say today don’t pay attention to people who don’t pay attention to God’s Word. Back away because there’s all kinds of danger in that.

Listen, if you have a 1,000 bottles of milk and you poison five of them, but you don’t know which five you’ve poisoned you’ve just poisoned all 1,000 of them. And that’s what’s going on today. It’s amazing to me how many people will go hear some ignorant preacher and don’t understand what gets into your mind that you can’t get out unless you get back in the Word of God. It’s incredible how error is like a hook and our flesh loves it because it’s emotional, it’s sensual; you can see it, touch it, feel it. And once we see it and once we experience it, look out. So Paul says don’t even pay attention to it. Don’t even pay attention to it. Let them be ignorant. Just go on and let them be ignorant. If they choose to remain ignorant and not understand what I’m saying, that’s fine; but they’re going to enjoy the consequences of every bit of that.

I was watching TV and I heard one of the big “gurus”. He was teaching out of James 1. I spent a whole year of my life in James and I know what James says. I said, “Uh huh, this is going to be good. Let’s just see what he’s got to say.” Verse 2: “Count it all joy, brethren, when you encounter various trials.” He took the word “trials,” peirasmos. I said, “Hey he’s right. That’s exactly right. Maybe this guy’s not so bad after all.” Then he says, “Now that’s a form of the word peirazo, which is found down in verse 13.” I said, “Yeah, somebody’s done some homework.” And he goes down there, “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone for evil.” And you know what that man did? He took that truth—so far he’s doing fine—ripped it out of context and made this statement. He said, “Since God can’t tempt you and can’t be tempted, then your trials are never from God. They’re only from the devil. Take authority over them.” What? Good night alivin’! Man, if I could have had a brick I’d had one less television.

That’s what I’m talking about. You know how many people sit at home and watch that kind of stuff and don’t have a clue that they’re listening to error and that error is taking hooks into their min

1 Corinthians 15

Up From the Grave, He Arose!

We are not finished with chapter 14, but I want to look at a topic that I want to call, “Up From The Grave, He Arose.” These words and many others are the words of Christians all around the world celebrating the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of all of Christianity. In fact, if one could prove that Jesus did not bodily resurrect from the grave, then Christianity is dead. There is no Christianity. There is no risen Christ. There is no ascended Christ. There is no glorified Christ, therefore, there is no means of salvation. It has been the goal of lost humanity for centuries to try to disprove the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are still those around today who choose to deny it and seek to prove it.

My question to all of us is, “Do we believe it?” Do you believe it? Obviously, if you don’t, then you cannot claim to be a born-again believer. You must believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ in order to be a believer. That is who you put your faith into, that is who comes to live in you. It is the keystone really of our Christianity.

At the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon said that a certain stone house was the key to the whole battle. If they could take that house, then victory could be won. It was against this house that he hurled all of his forces. But the men were driven back every single time. If he had taken that house, Waterloo might now stand as a French victory. And in the same sense, the enemies of Christ hurl all their forces against the resurrection of Jesus, knowing that if they can disprove that, they will have secured a victory for all the forces of hell. So we are going to seek to show you from God’s Word the proof of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In fact, we are going to walk into a courtroom with the great lawyer, the apostle Paul. Don’t you love him? As a matter of fact, his epistle to the Romans was used in law school for years to show lawyers how to build a case. He is going to seek to prove in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is going to do it by producing eyewitnesses of that account. One by one, they will come and testify, “Yes, we witnessed Christ resurrected after He had been crucified on Calvary.” It is upon their testimony that this proof lies.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 15. Paul is methodically going to go about proving the resurrection of Christ. He is too careful a man to base his belief on a hoax. He knows that. He knows that Christ resurrected and he wants to make sure the Corinthian church understands that He bodily resurrected.

There are some people who say that He spiritually resurrected, but He did not bodily resurrect. Paul is going to show you that He bodily resurrected from the grave. When he wrote 1 Corinthians it was 25 years after the resurrection had occurred. One of his key arguments is that there were witnesses living that day who saw Him, who were still alive, who somebody could go and ask and check it out. That is one of his key arguments about the proof of the resurrection.

But before we consider all the witnesses that Paul brings out, this is just a thought and something to park in the back of your mind. Back in their day, women were not looked upon favorably to give testimony in trial. In fact, as I was researching this, I found that when a woman would say anything in a court case, she could not be a credible witness. Now, isn’t it interesting that the first witnesses of the empty tomb were Mary Magdalene and the women who were with her? You see, if this had been a hoax, if this had been something that somebody had been trying to make up or to dream up and to try to get other people to believe, no man in his right mind would have recorded the fact that the first ones who saw the empty tomb were women, because in their day, they would not have been a credible witness. Those were already there, these proofs are already there.

What we are going to look at is only in chapter 15. Look with me beginning with verse 1 of chapter 15. He says, “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures [that is part of the gospel here], and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of who remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain.”

The problem of the resurrection

Now there are three things that I want us to see as walk into this courtroom and the apostle Paul seeks to prove the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, he addresses the problem that they are having there in Corinth concerning the resurrection. The very fact that he spends so much time proving it shows you there is a lot of doubt that has begun to seep into the church there at Corinth. Verse 12 says, “Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”

Now we know the church of Corinth. We kind of get an idea of the people we are dealing with here. We have got a bunch of people who would rather figure it out than they would truly trust God. We have an educated group, but we have got a lot of people who are intellectually trying to figure out the things of God. They had made up their tiny little minds that since they couldn’t figure out how humanly possible this could be, much less divinely possible, nobody could be resurrected from the dead. So because of that, they had just shut it down and said there could not be a resurrection of Jesus.

How many people still have the same struggle today? Because they can’t figure out a miraculous, biblical truth, they tend to discard it. Immediately God is no bigger than our minds, which completely obliterates what God does in His work. Because we cannot understand how it happened, we discount it as false and our human logic wins again. But it is the epitome of ignorance when a person denies known facts and reliable observations just to hold on to his own lack of understanding how it could have taken place.

Paul would produce credible witnesses, eyewitnesses who have seen Him. He does not attempt to prove their credibility. Although as he shares them, the credibility is already there. His purpose is to dispel this idea that Jesus could not have resurrected because we can’t figure it out. He wants to dispel that by saying, “Now listen, you are going to have to deal with these witnesses. They saw Him. Can’t you just simply believe it because God said it? Stop trying to figure it out.”

Well, you see, when you begin to try to figure out biblical truths, you fall into a dark hole. I have been there, you’ve been there, we’ve all been there. As a matter of fact, try to figure out the election of God and the responsibility of man. Hello! And there are many people who think they have it figured out. What I have heard from them, I don’t think they have it figured out very well at all. You just accept it. You believe it because it is in God’s Word. Both are taught in Scripture. But how about the sovereignty of God and God’s command to pray? Why pray if God is already sovereign? People argue about these things and try to figure them out. Or how do you figure out the virgin birth? I mean, there are so many things in scripture that are far beyond our ability to comprehend. However, we believe them because God said them, and it is by faith we stand upon them.

Isn’t it interesting how we try to figure everything out? When I was growing up I remember they said, “You cannot go into space. It is impossible to put a man into space.” My grandmother is in heaven. She never believed that we went to the moon, never, no, sir. She said until the day she died that was staged and somebody filmed it and Hollywood did it and they made it look like somebody had gone to the moon. But every Thursday night she watched wrestling, professional wrestling on television! I sat in the other room and watched her because it was better than the wrestling match. She would just get into it. She didn’t weigh 80 pounds soaking wet. But she believed that was real. She didn’t believe we went to the moon, though.

The fallacy is when you can’t grasp something mentally, that doesn’t mean you shut it out. There are many things in God’s Word that we will never understand. We just simply believe it because God said it. For us to make the assumption that the resurrection of Christ is impossible puts our minds above the one who actually accomplished that feat there at the cross. A miracle such as the resurrection is not going to be understood. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “Now I know in part.” And I think that is where we have got to camp out. We just back off and say, “God, you said it and I believe it and I couldn’t begin to understand how it took place, but I accept it as your Word. I stand upon that truth.”

God can at any time, and has many times, altered the natural in order to reveal Himself to man. So Paul goes about proving the resurrection mainly by bringing forth these witnesses that say to these disbelieving Corinthians, “You see, just because you can’t understand doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.” These people saw Him and you are going to have to reckon with that truth before you go any further. We must get over the logic factor.

As a matter of fact, let me throw another one at you. You know, if you are struggling with how He resurrected, go with this one. How did He resurrect Himself? Technically, Christ resurrected Himself. Technically, He dismissed His own human spirit and resurrected Himself from the cross. You say, how in the world did you get that? Look in Ephesians 1:18. The apostle Paul has a wonderful, wonderful epistle here and it is his first prayer in chapter 1. He says, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He [and it implies there God the Father] brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.”

Now it is pretty interesting there that the scripture focuses in and says God the Father raised Him from the dead. It is the same thing in Galatians 1:1, God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. But here is the key. Most of us know that Christ equaled His power with the power of the Father when He said in John 2:19, “Jesus answered and said to them, destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it up.” Then in verse 21 we find out what He is speaking about. But He was speaking of the temple of His body. In John 10:17 we read, “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may, that I may, that I may take it again.” Verse 18 says, “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” Now He didn’t say, My Father was going to take up My life for Me, My Father was going to lay down My life for Me. I am laying it down and I am taking it up. So technically the Lord Jesus dismisses His own human spirit and resurrects Himself from the grave. Now if you have trouble figuring out the resurrection, throw that one in the mix. And it continues to stretch our minds. We cannot, we cannot comprehend that.

Why don’t we do just what the disciples did, when they saw Him? Immediately they believed. John 2:22 tells us, “When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.” That is Paul’s whole argument to the Corinthian church. We’ve got these witnesses. Do as the disciples did. They didn’t even believe it when He was going to the cross. They didn’t seem to even understand that He was going to have to die. They didn’t understand His resurrection. But when they saw Him, they believed the scriptures.

Paul is going to say, “Here are those who have seen Him. Now Corinthians, believe, believe what the scriptures have said.” That is the problem he is dealing with. So often we think we are doubting God when we think we can’t understand something He says. No, no, no. You will never understand it. You just receive it by faith.

The proof of the resurrection

But then comes the proof of the resurrection. He was seen. He was seen. Now that is what you have to reckon with. Christ, after His death on the cross, was seen by credible witnesses. We know from studying Deuteronomy that by the mouth of two or three witnesses somebody can be put to death. The mouth of two or three witnesses confirm a truth. This is a powerful witness when somebody has seen something with their own eyes. They become a witness that can bring about a verdict down the road. So in this courtroom we need some witnesses.

Paul begins. The first one he calls up is Cephas. Of course, we know that to be Simon Peter. Look at 1 Corinthians 15:5. It says, “and that He appeared to Cephas.” Cephas is Simon Peter. That is his Aramaic name, and it means the same thing his Greek name meant, stone or rock. And what a witness we have in the story of Simon Peter. None of the disciples could have been as sad as Simon Peter on Resurrection Sunday. Simon Peter is the one who said, “If all the others may desert you, Lord, I am not going to desert you.” Not only did he desert the Lord Jesus, but he denied Him three times before the cock crowed that night.

Luke records the sad event. When they took Him to the high priest’s house and Peter was outside by the campfire, he was following along. He was outside by the campfire and he denied him three times. And one of the gospel writers said, he cursed and said, “I do not know the man.” Luke records how sad it was when Jesus came walking out. In Luke 22:61 it says, “And the Lord turned and looked at Peter and Peter remembered the word of the Lord how He had told him, Before a cock crows today, you shall deny me three times. And he went out and wept bitterly.” Can you imagine the Lord Jesus turning and not saying a word, but looking right over at Simon Peter, and Simon Peter, the conviction running all the way through his body, and then going out and weeping bitterly and then having to witness the Lord Jesus being crucified on that cruel cross?

How beautiful is the story that on Resurrection Sunday, he is one of the first ones Jesus made His way, to make sure He appeared to Simon Peter. The angel made the announcement in Luke 24:34 saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then over in Mark we see the command. The angel says, “But go, tell His disciples and Peter [making sure Peter is included] that He is going before you into Galilee. There you will see Him just as He said to you.”

It was at Pentecost when the New Covenant was inaugurated, when the Spirit came to dwell in us, that we see Simon Peter totally changed by the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. Now that he has seen Him, now that the Lord has come to live in him, we see Simon Peter who was so meek and so weak that he would deny Him three times before a fire, standing before the people who accused him and preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified and resurrected and ascended and glorified. He was put to death under the wicked rule of Nero.

I want to share something with you. The credibility of his witness shouts at us today. Here is a man who was drastically transformed by the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. Not only did he see Him, he experienced Him and then lived his life to the day that he was martyred for the faith. Tradition says that he was not crucified hanging right side up. He was crucified upside down because he didn’t feel like he measured in any way to be put to death like his Master had been put to death. Isn’t it interesting that this is the first witness Paul calls forth? Simon Peter, the unsung leader of the twelve, the head of the church in an unsung way in that time.

Back in 1 Corinthians 1:15 it says, “Some of you are of Paul, some of you are of Apollos, some of you are of Cephas.” What has Cephas got to do with it? He is the unsung hero of the whole church at that time. Here is the first one up who said, “I saw Him. I saw Him. Now how are you going to reckon with that? People, skeptic, come on, son, come on, I saw Him. What are you going to do about that?

Paul moves from one person to a group, a very special group. It says in 15:5 that He appeared to Cephas, “then to the twelve.” Now the word “appeared” there is the word that means in the Greek “He chose to appear.” This is not haphazard. God is very much orchestrating the way He chose to appear and to who He appeared. That is what I want you to see. He appeared to the twelve. Now the word “twelve” there is a word used to denote the disciples. It doesn’t necessarily mean twelve of them, but the twelve was a term that was used to denote them. As a matter of fact, Paul is recounting the gospel writer in John 20:19-21 and then Luke 24:36-43. Every time he recounts this, there are two people missing: Judas who had hanged himself and Thomas.

So why would he say twelve when there were only ten there? No, the twelve designated the disciples. There was another term that designated the disciples and that was the eleven. In Luke 24:33 it says, “And they arose that very hour and returned to Jerusalem [this is after the Emmaus walk] and gathered together the eleven and those who were with them.” You see, the eleven distinguishes the disciples, the group of disciples there.

Verse 33 shows us there were others with them because he says, “those who were with them.” The most reliable witnesses, witnesses that we can totally rely on, would be Simon Peter and the twelve, and that is the first ones he calls forth. We have seen the resurrected Lord Jesus. But if that is not enough, I love what he does here.

In verse 6 he says, “After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of who remain until now, but some have fallen asleep.” Now, what about five hundred at one shot. Boy, you can hear the skeptic trying to get around this one? You can deceive one at a time, but five hundred at one shot? It would be very difficult to deceive that whole bunch. The appearance was probably in Galilee. Matthew records in Matthew 28:10, “Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid, go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee and there they shall see Me.”

Now some people think that is just the disciples, but if that was just the disciples that could have happened in Judea, Jerusalem or Capernaum. I believe what he is saying here is “all those.” The place to have a big crowd with less attention would be over in Galilee and the hill country of Galilee. Can you imagine that appointed day? People slipping out of villages and slipping out of towns and saying, “Oh, we are going to see the Lord Jesus. He said to meet Him there.” And they come. And five hundred of them come together and He appears.

Now the phrase, “at one time” is a great translation. That is exactly the author’s point, at one time. He says, “After that He had appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time.” You see, “one time” means everybody witnessing Him at the same time. Five hundred people cannot be deceived at one time. It is as if Paul says when he goes on to say, “most of who remain until now,” I love it. It is almost like he is saying, “Do you want to question that? Hey, I will give you the guys’ telephone numbers.” They didn’t have telephones. I will give you their addresses. Go check it out, man. Email him. Go find it out. You go talk to them yourself. They are still living today.

As I was studying this, I came across a something somebody said. If they took a deposition from them, six minutes apiece, there would be fifty hours of uninterrupted eyewitness testimony of having seen the Lord Jesus Christ after He had been crucified and had been resurrected. Fifty uninterrupted hours of testimony.

Well, then in verse 7 Paul moves again. He has gone from Peter: Can you deny the credibility of Peter who died for his faith? Can you deny the twelve disciples, most of who suffered violent deaths because they believed in Him? Can you deny five hundred people at one shot? I mean, that is the weight of the whole thing. They were all there and saw Him at the same time and many are still alive. Go ask them. And then in verse 7 Paul brings up an even greater witness. He says, “then He appeared to James.” Now this is a tender one because James is His half-brother. Why do I say half-brother? Because Jesus did not have an earthly father. This is one of His brothers. And why is this so special? Because it says earlier on in the book of John that His brothers did not believe Him. They did not believe Him. As a matter of fact, they were constantly trying to get Him to do miracles.

John 7:5 says, “Not even His brothers were believing in Him.” What a moment, what a moment, when Jesus came to James. James, full of doubts, did not even believe who his brother was, his half-brother, the Lord Jesus, born of the virgin. He didn’t believe that He was the Christ, but now he has seen Him and when He came and appeared to him, something about the resurrected appearance of the Lord Jesus in James’ life transformed him forever. As a matter of fact, the next time you find James, he is the leader of the church there in Jerusalem. He is the head of the church, the head elder of the church of Jerusalem. It eternally changed James’ life.

Then Paul goes on and says something else in verse 7: “then to all the apostles.” The apostles are really the same group as the disciples. Why would he call them disciples in verse 5 and then in verse 7 call them apostles? I don’t know, but here is a thought. A disciple is a learner, but an apostle is one sent forth to tell what he has learned. And perhaps because of the resurrection of Christ, this shows the difference in the roles that these men had assumed now that Jesus had resurrected. You see it in every one of their lives. We get our scriptures, our New Testament from the apostles. Our faith is built upon the apostles and prophets.

Well, it is interesting that after mentioning the apostles, Paul now comes to give his own account of having witnessed the resurrected Lord Jesus. In verse 8 he says, “and last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Now, if you have ever studied anything about the life of Paul, you’ve got to understand the integrity of this man’s life. Here was a man who was the most intelligent man, other than Jesus, in the New Testament that I can find. He could stand on Mars Hill in Athens and argue with all the Greek philosophers till the day ended, till they turned blue in the face, and he could hold his own. They had a little sign there that says, To the unknown god. He got up there and said, “I see you have a sign here to the unknown god. I know Him. Let me tell you who He is.” He took them on all day long. He is a man who was schooled under Gamaliel. He is a man who understood the law from the very A to Z, everything about the law, very, very intelligent.

Do you think this man, who was sane and intelligent and strong as he was, would by any reason, any method of deduction refuse his upbringing, literally be a man without a country? When he changed over to become a believer, when he received the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of the Damascus Road, everybody disowned him. He was a man without a country. He had stood there when Stephen had been stoned to death. He persecuted Christians. He was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians when he got arrested by the Christ of Christianity. Do you think this man with this kind of integrity, this kind of sanity, this kind of intelligence, would refute all of that and put his life into the Lord Jesus Christ and then be martyred for the faith without a penny in his pocket, as 2 Timothy 4 tells us all about? It was no fluke that induced him to forsake it all.

If Christ did not resurrect, this man is a fool; Simon Peter is a fool; the disciples are fools; and the 500 are liars. We have to reckon with the fact that He was seen and the integrity of those who saw Him. It is no small evidence of the resurrection of Jesus that the apostle Paul says, “I saw Him. He appeared to me also.”

So the problem that he was dealing with there was that they didn’t seem to accept witnesses of those who had seen Him. Since they couldn’t figure it out, evidently He didn’t resurrect. In other words, if they couldn’t figure it out, then they weren’t going to believe it. And Paul says, why aren’t you like the disciples? They saw Him and as a result of seeing Him, they believed. Let me show you the ones who have seen Him. And he walks them down through the list.

The power of the resurrection

But finally, we have the power of the resurrection, or the resurrected Christ. Paul was living proof of the power of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. He says in verse 9, “For I am the least of the apostles, who is not fitted to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am and His grace toward me did not prove vain.” Now here is a man who stands humble before God. He opens himself up to all who would want to read what he shares. He remembers what he was and now he testifies as to what God in His resurrected power has done to change his life.

Now this is where we have been headed all along. The key is, do you believe that Jesus raised from the dead? If you do, you believe He ascended and you believe He was glorified. If you do, then you believe He died for your sin. And if you do, you put your faith into Him and you become a believer. Let’s take it a step further. Now that He is in your life, have you experienced the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ? Resurrection implies the term death, to resurrect something that is dead and bring it back to life. Do you realize what this means to us?

Paul said in Philippians 3:10, “I want to know Him.” The word “know” means to experientially know Him. And I want to know the power of His resurrection. I want to experience Him daily in my life. I know when I am not apart from Him and I want to experience His life in me day by day, moment by moment. My question is, “Do you believe first of all that Jesus resurrected?” If you pass that hurdle and if you have come to understand why He came to be crucified and all that took place as a result of that and you are a believer, great.

But have you passed the second hurdle? Have you learned to live in the resurrection power of God day by day? I tell you what, we are living in this day, folks, and we have seen it in 1 Corinthians. We are living in this emotional kind of stuff. If I don’t feel Him, it must not be right. If I don’t sense Him or experience Him in some feely, sensual way, then I must not be living the way He wants me to live. Do you know what I am discovering more and more in my life, is that feelings have little to do with it at all. Somebody said that my will is the engine, but my feelings ought to be the caboose. And if you ever put that caboose up here where the engine ought to be, you are going to get off track real quickly.

My son many times will call me and we will discuss back and forth. He says, “Daddy, I just don’t feel anything. It is dead in my life, it is dry in my life, but I am doing everything that God has told me to do as far as I know. I am surrendering to Him and I am asking Him.” Listen, folks, there are going to be days like that, but you are still living in the power of the resurrection power of Christ. It doesn’t mean you want to sing a song like the choir every minute. It doesn’t mean you have music in your ears. You are choosing, you are making the right choice and at some point those emotions will catch up with you. But are you living in the resurrection power of Christ?

I went over to our church one Sunday morning recently and I noticed when I walked in that I didn’t have an emotion in my body. Has that ever happened to you? You walk into church and you think, “Well, where do emotions go? I must not be right with God because I don’t have an emotion in my body.” It is amazing to me when you just confess that before Him and say, “O God, I know you in me can change anything that needs to be changed so I just surrender myself to you” things change. I noticed when I started preaching God just brought the word alive to me. I began to think, “That is it, that is it.”

When you just come to Him with no feeling and say, “O God, you are in me what I could never be myself. I want to experience that resurrection power. Take from me the death and bring life in the midst of it. Resurrect that in me,” then God begins to do what only God can do through your life.

I’ll tell you what, there are a lot of people on Easter Sunday morning every year who literally walk away from services and never understand how just to say yes and bow before the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ and live in His resurrection power that which changes us, that which transforms us. He can take a family and turn it around or He can turn you around in the midst of the family, depending on how He decides to do it. He can change your perception towards others. When you have somebody you can’t love, His resurrection power in you resurrects that love in you and He loves people through you when you couldn’t love yourself. That is Christ. That is the resurrection Christ.

The apostle Paul to me is enough proof of the resurrection. You don’t have to tell me about the witnesses. You don’t have to tell me about who saw Him. I can look at his life and see the change that came on the Damascus Road. And I know that didn’t come from Paul, that had to have come from Christ. To make a man live the way he lived and then to die with not a penny in his pocket and look back and say, “I don’t have a single regret in my life. I am looking forward to the reward He has for me one day in glory.” That proves the resurrection to me. He has got to be alive. And He is not only alive at the right hand of the Father, He is alive in us as bel

1 Corinthians 15:1-8

Contents

1 The Resurrection of the Dead

2 He reminds them of the gospel they received

3 He rehearses for them what the gospel is all about

4 He reveals the proof of Christ’s resurrection

The Resurrection of the Dead

Dr. Wayne Barber: Turn with me this morning, hallelujah, to 1 Corinthians 15. I’m so glad to get out chapter 14. I think the apostle Paul was too, don’t you. He was just dealing with some very, very difficult things, and now we get into a little bit, it’s still difficult what he deals with in 15, but it changes gears a little bit. And we’re going to start a series today entitled “The Resurrection of the Dead.” And this is part 1 of that series which is going to take a while to complete.

A lot of things in life baffle me. I wake up in a new world every morning and that’s no shock to anybody. But time-release vitamins; now, can you get a concept of that? I see it. It says time-release vitamins. Now you’ve got everything you need in that vitamin in one shot. You take it with some water and you drink it and you swallow it. You’ve got all of that vitamin; you’ve got every bit of it; however, you don’t experience it all at the same time. Now that’s an enigma to me. Do you take it and suddenly inside your system, there’s a little something inside that vitamin that says okay, now you go. That’s enough, that’s enough; and boom, you have a burst of energy. And then maybe at noontime something inside that vitamin says, okay, a little bit more. That’s enough, that’s enough; and boom you have another surge of energy. And then that night you have another surge of energy and somehow it happens in different phases. But you’ve got it all when you took the pill. Now how’s that work? I haven’t got the slightest idea. But it baffles me how that works. How you can have it all, but not experience it all at the same time.

Well, you know it’s amazing to me that salvation is very much like a time-release vitamin. You get it all when you receive the Lord Jesus Christ. The difference is the Word of God helps us understand a little bit more about salvation than any of us will ever understand about a time-release vitamin. The gospel is the most wonderful news man could ever hear or especially ever receive.

There are three stages to our salvation. You get it all when you receive Christ, but there are three stages to it, kind of like a time-release vitamin. First of all it’s an event. Salvation is an event that takes place at a given time, once and for all. We have been saved. When? By faith Christ comes to live in our hearts and frees us from the penalty of sin. That’s comes on the revelation that only the Holy Spirit can bring to our lives that we’re lost. Man does not discover that on his own. God has to reveal that to his spirit, and also to reveal to him the way of salvation. And when a man bows and receives Christ into his heart, by the very grace God even allows him to receive it, then salvation takes place, and it’s an event.

It’s a birth. Births are not progressive. They are once and for all. It’s a birth. Act 2:21 says “And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” That’s aorist tense, once and for all, at that moment. In Romans 5:1, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The word “justified,” aorist passive, at a specific moment in time, passive voice. You did not initiate it. God initiated it. You were justified. He justified you. You can’t justify yourself. The word “justified” means to be acquitted of the penalty of sin. And Romans 6 says that now that you’ve become a believer, by putting, placing your faith into the Lord Jesus Christ, Him coming to live in you, you are now in Christ. Romans 6:3 says, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized in Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” And then Paul says in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.” No condemnation whatsoever. Salvation involves being saved from the penalty of sin. It involves being in Christ. That’s one phase of salvation. And that’s once and for all; you got it all when you received Him.

But secondly, salvation involves being saved from the power of sin, not just the penalty of sin, but the power of sin. We are being saved. We have been saved from the penalty of sin. We are being saved from the power of sin. Christ now comes to live in us in the person of His Spirit. We are in Him; He is in us. The Holy Spirit now is there to save us daily from the power of sin. Oh, there are so many verses we could go to about the being saved. We’re in the process of it right now. First Corinthians 1:18, for instance, “For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved [present tense] it is the power of God.” Being saved in the present tense, daily we’re to be learning to reckon ourselves dead, not so that we can be dead, but because we are dead to sin. We reckon ourselves; we count it as a conclusion from what Paul has taught us in the book of Romans. We’re dead to sin. So therefore we can say yes to Christ. And when we say yes to Christ we can live in the victory He offers to us. Romans 5:10 says, “For is while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by, or in His life.”

But being saved from the penalty of sin, being saved daily from the power of sin is not all of our salvation. All that we received back here involves many more things. It also involves one day being saved from the presence of sin. We’re to be saved from the awful wrath that is coming one day that’s going to deal with all the presence of sin. We are in Him, He is in us and one day we shall be like Him. In Romans 5:9, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” There’s a terrible day coming on this earth when God will deal with all sin and unrighteousness. Why will we escape this wrath on His coming? Because we’ve received the Lamb. The psalmist says, “Who has known the wrath of God?” Only one, that’s the Lord Jesus Christ, when His Father turned His face away from Him as He hung there on the cross for the penalty of all of our sin. The wrath fell upon the Lamb. You either receive the Lamb or receive the wrath. We’ve received the Lamb.

Thank God we escape the wrath. That’s what Paul said. And by escaping the wrath God’s going to take us out of here. He’s coming for His church some day. He will take us to be with Him. And John says when we see Him we shall be like Him. We’re going to have glorified body. We’re going to be saved from the very presence of sin. We are saved from the penalty of sin. We’re being saved from the power of sin. And one day we shall be saved from the presence of sin. Romans 8:23 says, “And not only this, but also, we ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons.” And then he says what that means, “the redemption of our body.” One day we’re going to have a glorified body.

I was thinking about this and I’ve got a quirky mind anyway, but I would love to dunk a basketball with a glorified body. I would like to do that just one time, maybe during the millennium when we have our glorified bodies. I don’t know exactly what it’ll all be like. We’ll be serving Him. Basketball probably won’t be a part of it. But I would just like to do that one time. We’re going to have a glorified body. Looking in the mirror this morning, I’m looking forward to the glorified body that’s coming one day. That’s a promise. That has not happened yet. We have been saved; we are being saved; we shall be saved.

Now it’s this third area, we shall be saved, that gives us the hope for our future of what’s coming. We know that one day we’re going to be taken out of here and given a glorified body. And the reason we are is because Jesus Christ set the pattern for us. By His bodily resurrection from the dead He led the way for us. He became the firstfruits. The “firstfruits” means He sets the pattern for the rest to come behind. One day, because His body was changed and glorified, our body will be changed and glorified. What He went through we will now go through. But He has already set the pattern for us. He’s already conquered and prepared the way. But everything that we hope for in the future, which hinges on what we already have in Christ, all of it is dependent on the fact that Jesus Christ resurrected bodily from the grave.

Now this brings us to the problem we’re dealing with in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians. The Corinthians, many of them, were going around questioning whether or not Jesus Christ raised from the dead. Therefore without realizing it they’re questioning the very gospel that they say they believe, and they also are bringing detriment to the future hope that one day we will have resurrected and glorified bodies. Look in 15:12. This is what Paul is doing here. This is what he’s dealing with. It says in verse 12, “Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” Again, welcome to Corinth. The Greek mindset of the Corinthians, same way in Athens or other places in Greece, was to question everything. And of course when the flesh is dominant everything’s going to be questioned. And if they could not understand it then they did not believe it. The resurrection of Christ from the dead was something that no man’s mind will ever comprehend.

I’ve dealt with this with my son many times. He will call me and say “Daddy, I know I believe He resurrected, but somehow I can’t understand in my mind. Does that mean I don’t believe?” I said, “No, no, no! Son, we don’t comprehend how that took place. We believe it because God said it. Don’t confuse total understanding and comprehension with belief, because you believe it is because God said it. But we don’t have a full comprehension of this.” But the Corinthian mindset was they’ve got to figure it out. They’ve got to analyze it. And if they can’t understand it, then they don’t believe it. They had forgotten that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a major part of the gospel by which they had been saved. And all of chapter 15 is dealing with the future event of that glorification of the body of believers, what’s waiting for us one day because Christ raised from the dead.

The term “body” is used five times in chapter 15. The term “raised,” in the sense of raising the body from the dead, is used 15 times in chapter 15. It was definitely a question that Paul was dealing with. We will benefit much, I think, from the answers that he gives.

He reminds them of the gospel they received

Well, let’s jump in. Let’s see how far we can get this morning. I’ve got a lot to say and I doubt real seriously I’m going to get it all said, so we’ll just go as far as we can. First of all, Paul reminds them of the gospel that they had received. Isn’t it interesting? You can get saved back here and tell everybody you’re saved, and all of a sudden you start watching a person live and you wonder if he really had anything back here. You can’t walk away from salvation. The gospel of Jesus Christ never grows old. It’s not a philosophy that can be exchanged for another new philosophy. That’s not what it is. It’s the power of God, Romans 1:16 says. You see, by denying the resurrection of Jesus these Corinthians were denying the very power of their own salvation.

Look at verse 1: “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand.” Now, that word “make known” has the idea of “I want to remind you of something. I want to bring to your memories. I want to make you mindful of something.” How many times the word “remind”—although this is not the exact word; it’s a synonym—is used over and over in Scripture. How we need to be reminded. I’m sure the people that do the counseling in our church, when a couple walks in and denies everything that they say that they received, they’re denying the very power of that which they say they received back here by not being willing daily to live in the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ, the power to transform their lives. All of us tend to do this. And this is why Paul is saying, “Now, wait a minute, wait a minute. You need to be reminded of something. You need to be mindful of something.”

They would not have been believers, I suppose, unless Paul himself—of course, God is sovereign; He could have done it a different way—but in the course of what we know in history they would not have been believers had Paul not gone to Corinth. That supreme desire that he had in his life to tell the gospel, he said, “the gospel which I preached you,” and he brings them back to Acts 18 when he first went there and he’s reminding them of that. You know, it’s interesting he just said in the last verse of chapter 14, that the earnest desire all of us should have it to proclaim, to share the word of God with others no matter what the language they speak. He says in verse 39, “Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in languages.” Do not forbid to do that because people of all languages need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And Paul is the living witness of his own message. Again he’s talking about when he first went there. He went there and he met Priscilla and Aquila there at Corinth. Soon Timothy and Silas came and they began to witness and drop their tentmaking and started sharing the word and a church was born. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, was one of the first ones that was saved. And Paul is reminding them of the gospel that they had heard from him. “Now I make known to you [I remind you], brethren, the gospel which I preached to you.” The word “gospel” the good news, the good news, “which I preached to you.” The word “preached” is the word “euaggelizo.” It’s the word that means to evangelize. Paul went with a heart to share the gospel with these Corinthians that had not heard it, to preach the good news of Jesus Christ.

Now, not only did they hear the gospel from Paul, but they received the gospel from Paul. The word “received” there, he said “that which you also received.” The word “received” is the word “paralambano.” It means to take to one’s self; to receive to oneself. That “para” has that idea of nearness, to bring it right home individually to your heart. It’s in the aorist active indicative. At one point in time they had, of their own choice, received the gospel message. They were not forced to in any way. It was an act of their will that they received. That word “received” is also the word meaning to welcome it.

You know, there’s an enigma that pops up here and it’s just things—I think this is something you need to jot in the back of your mind—that the phrase “you received” brings up. It’s an interesting phrase, an interesting point. You see, the election of God is in Scripture. Jesus said you didn’t choose Me, I choose you. No man seeketh after God. No man can come to Christ except the Father draw him. However, the responsibility of man to choose is also taught in Scripture. This is aorist indicative active. You, of your own volition, not being forced to initiating the action, you received the gospel. And there’s your plumb bob you have to drop: on one side the election of God; on the other side the responsibility of man. And don’t move it either way cause if you move it either way you’re out of balance. Both are taught in Scripture and here it’s very clear. I suppose that’s why Paul calls salvation a mystery in Ephesians 3. He called it a mystery; I can certainly call it a mystery. I’m just glad, God, You chose, I chose, somebody chose. Just take your shoes off and walk in on holy ground. Salvation is awesome.

But the next phrase is very important. “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received.” Now look at this: “In which also you stand.” If you’ve received it, you stand in it. The perfect tense is used. Perfect tense means something happened back here that causes me to be in the state that I’m in up here. It describes a place that cannot be altered. Now, there are some people that believe you can lose your salvation. Cut this verse out of your Bible; it doesn’t fit that kind of doctrine. If you received it, truly received it, you stand in it. You are eternally in that state.

As a matter of fact you can illustrate that from Romans 5:2. It says, “Through whom,” Christ, he’s speaking of, “also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.” And it’s the same idea, perfect tense. We stand in that grace.

Now you’ve got to ask a question. Why does the apostle Paul begin the 15th chapter by reminding them of the gospel? Why does he do that? What is his purpose here? We know what he’s dealing with. Why does he take them back to the gospel? He’s dealing with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Well, to me he seems to be saying the salvation you were supposed to have experienced back there, this salvation continues to work in you. You can’t just walk away from the message of the gospel. The resurrection of Christ, you see, is a very key element of the gospel you said you believed back there. He says in verse 2, “By which also you are saved.”

The Greek word for “you are saved,” sozo, actually means you are being saved. I love this. I love this. Paul says, you think salvation is static? You think you can receive it back here and live like you want to down here? You think you can receive it back here and question the very tenets of the gospel over here? Now something’s wrong here, because it is continuing to save you. It’s in a present indicative form, continuous action. He speaks of the salvation that had its roots in the past, but has its effect in the future. It continues. It goes right on. You see, they’re denying the very salvation experience that they’re supposed to have had. By denying the resurrection of Christ they’re denying the very gospel they said saved them. And that gospel cannot be walked away from. The Christ presented to us in the gospels not only saved us in the past, but continues to save us now. We saw that earlier. We’re saved, we are being saved, He will ever save us, and one day He will again save us from the presence of sin.

So again, salvation’s not static. It’s dynamic. It’s ever progressing. Once it begins in us it never ends. The illustration of a child when he’s born on this earth and breathes in that air. Have you ever watched a baby when it was born? They had me in the operating room or whatever you call that room when my daughter was born. I didn’t want to be there. I was in the waiting room reading the paper. Man, I wanted to be in Houston, Texas, reading about it in the paper. But they said, “No, the doctor wants you in the room.” I saw the birth of my daughter, and I saw her when she first came out. And the first thing she did was breathe. And when she breathed, life began to be initiated in her life. But I want to tell you something. That first breath, that first breath in order for the life that it had initiated there, needed to be repeated a million times in her life for that life to be sustained. She breathed once and life was there, but she needs to breathe every day of her life, now, to sustain what came with that breathe.

The same way with salvation. You can’t say you got saved back here and then up here be living as if you need nothing of that which you said you needed back here. You see, that which sustains the life that we received at salvation, or that which it initiated, is that which sustains it even now. You see, our daily salvation from the power of sin is, Colossians 2:6, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus, so walk ye in Him.” And Paul again is trying to show these Corinthians, how can you deny a major tenet of the gospel and then tell others you’re saved? What do you think you have a hold of? A philosophy, a program? The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. You don’t walk away from any part of it and claim to have any of it. You can’t do that.

Paul goes on to show to the degree that we hold on to it is to the degree that we’re affected by its power. Now, we’ve seen this over and over again. We have it all; it was received when we received Christ. But to the degree we hold on to it is to the degree we experience His power. “By which also” he says, “you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you.” It must be held fast in the manner in which it was preached to them and when they first received it. It must be held fast. The word katecho is the word for “hold fast.” Some translations say be reminded. No, no, no, no, no. The word katecho means to be possessed; and as a prize possession, it must be possessed. And so why would Paul say, “If you hold fast the word which I preached to you?” I wonder if he doesn’t have in mind that some of them may have never received it to begin with. As far as I can tell that’s exactly what he’s doing. As a matter of fact, look at the next phrase, “unless you believed in vain.” Paul is saying if you don’t possess it now, it means you exercised the wrong kind of faith back then. You can’t get it back here and lose it up here. If you don’t have it here you didn’t have it there.

You see, that’s the key. And he says unless you received it in vain or believed in vain. Perhaps it was merely an intellectual assent. I’ve known people like that. Have you known people like that? The parable of the soil, a beautiful picture; there’s only one good soil, and that’s the soil that received the Word and held on to it and therefore bore fruit from it. You see, if there’s a root there’s fruit. And what he’s saying to them, hey, maybe you didn’t have the right kind of belief. Maybe you intellectually understood it. Maybe your heart was not there to receive it, but you understood it. You knew that God died for you and you knew that Jesus died for you, but you never bowed before Him.

The apostle James describes this kind of faith when he says, “You believe that there is one God, you do well. The devils believe and tremble.” Big deal; so that you believed. Big deal; that you understand. Have you bowed to Christ? Have you truly received it? Because if you have, you’re going to find that the tenets of that gospel are that He died, He was buried, He rose again. And if you received that you’re not going to deny it down here, because that gospel in you continues to work in you and will not allow you to do this. So Corinthians be reminded, if you’re going to doubt the resurrection of Jesus you’re doubting your very salvation because it’s a tenet of the gospel you say you received.

In Paul’s second epistle he does bring another thing out. He comes very clear. He tells them in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Test yourselves to see if you’re in the faith.” And I think he gives the hint of it over here in 1 Corinthians. He says, you know, maybe you received this in vain. Maybe you were coerced emotionally at a youth camp and you went forward and gave your life to a tree. I mean, you can tell an emotional dying dog story at a youth camp and people give their life to anything. Maybe that’s what happened to you. You didn’t understand what you were doing. Or maybe you came forward at a Vacation Bible School like I did when I was 9 years old and the preacher asked me did I ever sin, and I’m thinking sin, sin, I know I have. What’s sin? He said, “Have you ever lied to your mother?” I’m thinking, good grief, how do you think I lived to be 9 years old? He said, “All you have to do is be baptized and you can be a believer. You can be a member of the church.” And, hey, I joined the church, but I missed Jesus about a million miles. And when I was 32 years old one night I cried till my nose bled when God showed me you had an intellectual assent to it, but you never bowed before Me. And I bowed and was saved and I track my salvation back to 32, not back to 9 years old.

You see, you can’t have it back here and then over here begin to deny the very tenets that you said you received back there. Something’s amiss, something’s wrong. Did you believe in vain? Was it the wrong kind of faith to begin with? So Paul begins the chapter like the lawyer he is, by building his case. You’re going to deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ friend, you’re denying your very salvation. You’re denying the very gospel by which you were saved. The resurrection of Christ was a part of that gospel. You can’t walk away from one part of it and claim to have any of it. No sir! He reminds them of the gospel.

He rehearses for them what the gospel is all about

Secondly, he does something else. He rehearses for them what the gospel is. I mean, in other words, he mentions the gospel, but then he says now, let me make sure you remember what it is. Let’s rehearse it for you, okay. Paul says, since you received the gospel and put your faith into Christ it might be good for you to remember what the gospel is that you received. Verse 3: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” The word “delivered” here is the word paradidomi. It’s the word that means to give over to you. I gave over something to you; I delivered to you; I told you something for your benefit. “For I delivered to you as of first importance.” The word “first importance” there means the highest priority. I love this about Paul. The highest priority of his life was always in sharing the gospel with somebody. That was the highest priority of his life, sharing the word of God with others, that which stands above everything else in priorities in his life. That was the highest importance to him, not anything else, just the word of God.

He said, “I shared with you that which I also received.” Now, that is so important to realize. What was going on in Corinth originated with man, but what Paul shared with them did not originate with himself. It originated with God. He had to receive it himself. “It didn’t come from me,” Paul said.” It came from God.” It was according to the Scriptures. He had to receive it just like they had to receive it. So remember, Paul’s just an apostle, a mouthpiece with a message that God had given to him. Verse 3, again, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.” And what was that? He says, “That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” What a powerful statement. “Christ died for our sins.”

It is said that when Abraham Lincoln died and they were bringing his body in a processional to the cemetery and the people were standing, lining the streets, a black lady held up her small baby over the crowd and said, “Take a long look at him, child, he is the one who died for you.” Do you remember the tenets of Abraham Lincoln, of wanting freedom and abolition of slavery? He’s the one who died for you. And the apostle Paul is doing essentially the same thing. He’s saying, “What in the world are you people doing? Let me hold this back up for you one more time, one more time. Take a long look at it. Christ, the one you’re denying that He resurrected from the grave, died for your sin. Corinth, take a long hard look at this. You’re walking away from everything you say that you are and everything you say that you believe”. He’s holding it up so that all can see. Jesus Christ came to this earth to die for us.

When I was in Mississippi the Moonies came to town. You ever been around any Moonies? They stand on a corner and hand out flowers. And I’d pulled up to a stop light one day and this guy tried to start talking to me about Moon and who this guy was and about being a Moonie. And I started talking to him about Jesus and he left me and gave the flower to somebody else. But you know what they said? They said that Adam was the first man and he failed, he failed to produce a perfect race. Jesus Christ, the second Adam came, and He failed to produce a perfect race because He never had a chance to get married. He died at 33. They killed Him. By accident they killed Him. But there’s another one coming that will produce a perfect race. Guess who that is? Moon, himself.

And I want to say no, no, no! You’ve got it all wrong. It wasn’t an accident that He died. It was the very purpose for which He came. John the Baptist said that in John 1:29. He said, “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and he said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’” The very terminology of Lamb, they would have understood that immediately, the sacrificial lamb, the pure, not just innocent, but perfect Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world. The author of Hebrews writes in 10:5, “Therefore when He comes into the world, He says, ‘Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, But a body You have prepared for Me.’” Why did He prepare a body? Because a body can die. He came to die.

1 Corinthians 15:8-10

Contents

1 Introduction

2 A Man that God Can Use

2.1 Paul knew what he did not deserve

2.2 Paul knew what he did not design

2.3 Paul knew what he did not do

Introduction

A Man that God Can Use

Dr. Wayne Barber: Turn with me this morning to 1 Corinthians 15. We’re going to talk today about a man that God can use. We’re going to look at a godly man. Every man in here—and that doesn’t mean the ladies are off the hook—but the guys, it’s just sort of zeroed in on us today. We’re going to be looking at the apostle Paul and I want to read with you the verses that we will look at in a few moments, verses 8-10 of chapter 15. He says in verse 8, “And last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” What does it mean to be a godly man, whether a godly father or a godly husband, a godly employer, a godly employee? What are the characteristics of a person who could be called a godly man, a person who God can do His work through, a person that is a vessel that brings only the glory back to God? We’re going to look at a man this morning who was just that. Our model is the apostle Paul himself. God used him to write about two thirds of the New Testament. In fact, when you by the gospels anything you read just about was written by the apostle Paul. Certainly there was Peter and James, but most of it is written by the apostle Paul. And I believe we must learn from him, men. Ladies, I don’t want you to take a vacation this morning, but, men, we need to learn from the apostle Paul how we can be the vessels like he was a vessel through which God can do His work. It’s amazing to me when I studied Romans 15:17-18, the contrasts that I saw in Paul of Philippians 3. In chapter 3, when he gives his testimony of his past, he gives his pedigree. You can sense that before he came to know Christ he was a very arrogant and proud man, a man who could do religion, a man who knew how to work for God. But over in Romans 15 you find a broken man, a man who’s learned it’s not what he can do for God, it’s how God can do through him. And the difference, the contrast, is like black and white. It’s like night and day. Romans 15:17 says, “Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God; for I would not presume to speak of anything.” That word means I would not dare to make a noise in a crowded room to speak of anything, “except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles in word and deed, or by word and deed.” What an amazing change had come in Paul. If you remember Philippians 3, what he said, you know, they were having trouble with those adding law to grace and he’s dealing with them. And he says, you want to talk about the flesh? You want to talk about how men can pride themselves in the flesh? He said I far more. In Ephesians 3:4 he says “If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more; circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law, a Pharisee.” You know, the Pharisees were the strictest sect of all the religions of that time. And then in verse 6, “As to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.” What? Paul what do you mean here, “as to the righteousness found in the law found blameless”? Only one man, flesh and blood, ever stood before the moral law of God and say He can be found blameless, and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-Man. So, Paul, what are you talking about? He must be talking about the 612 commandments the Pharisees added, and these were the laws that they could do, and these were the laws that they did and then justified themselves by and turned around and condemned everybody else. And Paul said there was a day I had obeyed 612 laws. “Look at me. You want to brag. I can brag.” But then in Romans we have quite a different man, a man who now has realized it’s what God does through him, not what he does for God. The arrogant old religionist now had become a surrendered vessel which God could actually use. Well, in our context we’re going to see this today. I want to get a running start at it, so let’s go to verses 1-2. He starts off the chapter after coming out of chapter 14, and we’re so grateful to get out of that chapter. He comes out of it and in verses 1-2 reminds the Corinthian believers of the gospel that he had preached to them, that they had received and that they were saved by. He says in verse 1, “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which was preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” And then he goes back and rehearses what the gospel is. This is the gospel they had walked away from. In verse 3, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures”—the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ—and you believed that. You received that, most of you. And you were saved because of it. Then in verses 5-8, he spends his time proving the resurrection which becomes a foundation for the rest of the chapter. The whole chapter hinges off this main truth of the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in verse 5, “He appeared to Cephas.” Cephas is Simon Peter, and he picks the unsung hero of the Christian church of that time and says, “Now listen, you respect Simon Peter, he saw the resurrected Christ.” He also picks the twelve, the actual twelve that walked with Him in verse 5. He says, “Then to the twelve.” Now that was simply a term that designated His disciples. Then in verse 6 he says He appeared to more than 500 eyewitnesses at one time. “After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time,” verse 6 says, “most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. He then appeared to His half-brother James.” Why do we say half-brother? Because Jesus was born of a virgin, but later on James was in that family, and so He was in a way kin to James. And he says, “Then He appeared to James.” And the appearance of the resurrected Lord Jesus in James’ life led him to become the main elder, the head of the church in Jerusalem. He goes on and says “He appeared to the apostles,” which is just his way of saying that those disciples also were, became the apostles which God used to give us the New Testament. He says, “Then to all the apostles,” in verse 7. And then he brings it home. And in verse 8 that begins our text today he says, “And last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.” Now, in the verses that we’re going to study today as I was studying it, God so ministered it to my heart. The thing you see about a man that is used to write two thirds of the New Testament is the humility that just bleeds out of him. The word humility is not used in the next three verses, but it’s modeled by the apostle Paul. The word “humility” is the word tapeinos. Tapeinos means to get down as flat as you possibly can. John the Baptist understood that. He said, “I must decrease that He must increase,” and that’s the idea of humility. It’s a mindset that one has when he understands the greatness and the awesomeness of God. He gets down. He gets down as far as he can. He doesn’t want anybody to see him. He wants everyone to see the God that lives in him. That’s humility. And that’s what we’re going to see in the apostle Paul. He’s come out of the Jacob mindset of the Pharisees in which says, “I can do it, I can do it, I can do it, I can.” Paul was now a broken man. Paul is a man who knew what he wasn’t, apart from the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we’re going to be used of God this morning we have got to come to this understanding in our life. No wonder he says in Romans 12:3, “For through the grace given to me.” I love that statement. And I think you’ll understand it better. I hope you will after the message today. “Through the grace given to me, I say to every man.” In other words, he said I couldn’t say anything to you had it not been for the grace of God. I have no reason to stand before you were it not for the grace of God. He said, “I say to you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think.” Oh, that we could all come to this realization this morning. I’ll tell you what. When you look in the mirror in the morning that’s the biggest problem you’re going to face all day long, same with me. No big I’s, no you’s. We all fight the same old thing. The middle letter of the word “pride” and the middle letter of the word “sin” tells the whole story, doesn’t it? Take that letter out, you don’t even have a word. Big old “I.” As a matter of fact, do you know the word “I” in Greek is the word ego? We get the word “ego” from it. That’s the Greek word for “I.” Oh, I wish we could catch Paul’s attitude. He says, “And last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.” I want us to observe the humility of this man this morning, a man God could use, a man that when God used him, never took any glory for himself. He took it and pointed it back to where it came from. A man who’s a product of the grace of God. There are three things that I want you to see in verses 8-10.

Paul knew what he did not deserve

First of all I want you to see about him, and I want us to learn from it. Men, I want us to learn from it. I want to learn from him. First of all Paul knew what he did not deserve. One of the first things you’ve got to learn if we’re going to be servants of God, and vessels that He can use, we’ve got to learn the meaning of the word “grace.” The word is something that is not really used until verse 10, but it’s defined in everything that we see and it’s something that cannot be deserved in any way whatsoever. The word is charis. It’s found in verse 10 of our text as I said. It’s an interesting history behind the word. You know the word “grace” most people think of it as what God does, but they forget that the word grace begins with who He is. Who He is determines what He does. As a matter of fact, if you’ll trace a history of the word—and I enjoyed doing that; I know it’s a little quirky in my mind, but I like to follow it all the way back. But when the word first began to be used and finally was baptized into what we understand in Scripture, the word had to do with a beautiful person. A person is beautiful because they’re beautiful inwardly, not necessarily outwardly. You know, 1 Peter talks about that, how let your beauty be that of the heart, from the inward part of you. And that’s what a beautiful person was, someone who’s inwardly beautiful. Have you ever known somebody like that, that was so inwardly beautiful, that even though their outward features did not look that well, it caused them to look beautiful when you’re around them because you knew what they were really like? And then it became, if a person’s beautiful inward, he’s a person that gives to others. And then it came on; it continued to evolve. A person that gives to others that’s truly beautiful, and if this is a wonderful characteristic, then they’ll give to people who cannot give back to them. And so the word “grace” here is a word that not only describes what a person does, the beautiful things that he does, but it describes the beautiful person that they are. And so grace is who God is. Grace is who Christ is in us. So it began then with the person, but then it extended to what that beautiful person did. If anyone could qualify for grace in any way, whether it be baptism, any work that you can think of that somehow would qualify for grace, it nullifies the whole word. Man cannot deserve it. It is totally unmerited in a person’s life. And again the source of it, the well of grace is the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:1, “Be strong in the grace that is found in Christ Jesus.” He’s the only well we can run to. That’s where the grace is. That’s the beautiful God that we serve. That’s the beautiful One that lives in our hearts. Paul of all men understood this. And it begins to show this in verse 8, “And last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.” Now look at the phrase. Take out the middle phrase and put the two phrases together. He says, “And last of all,” and then skip that middle phrase, “He appeared to me also.” What Paul is doing here is putting himself into a class all by himself. While the other disciples were serving Christ, he was out persecuting Christians. And Paul understands his unworthiness. You know, if you read it with a little more emphasis, “And last of all He appeared to me, and last of all He appeared to me,” of all people, He appeared to me. You see, Paul never lost the awe of his salvation. A man that’s going to be used of God can never get over the fact that God appeared to him, that God found him and he didn’t find God. That’s the very basis of it. This is where gratitude flows out of a human heart, is when a person is overwhelmed daily at the awesomeness that God found me, and he lives in this. It motivates everything that’s about him. He never lost the awe of his salvation. Vance Havner said, “You know what’s wrong with Christianity today? We’ve lost the wonder of our salvation.” And that little man would walk in and just when he opened his mouth the mercies of God flowed out of him. He was a vessel that you could see God all over him, and he said the thing that keeps me going is the wonder of my salvation. If we’re going to be used of God we can’t get over the fact that God found me. He said, “and last of all He appeared to me.” And that middle phrase is so important. He says, “as it were to one untimely born.” You know what that word is used for? Ektroma is the word that’s used to describe a miscarriage. It means literally that which is unfit to live, ektroma. When you would use it describing yourself would be used as a debasing term. And what Paul was saying is, “I’m unworthy. I’m unworthy. Don’t anybody give me any glory. I’m unworthy of being an apostle. I’m unworthy of ever being called. I’m unworthy that He revealed Himself to me.” He considered himself to be the least of all saints, totally unworthy. But it was God’s grace and God’s grace alone that came and revealed Himself to Paul. Oh, how Paul understood God’s grace. If you’ve ever studied any of his epistles; when I get to heaven one day and I see the Lord Jesus for about a million years then I want to spend some time with the apostle Paul. No, it won’t be that way, I know. But I’m so impressed with him as I study the epistles. When I went to Jerusalem and went to Israel four different times I’ve enjoyed every trip. I enjoyed Petra. I enjoyed the seven churches of Asia Minor. But I’ll tell you what I really enjoy, I really enjoyed Greece. I really enjoyed going to Philippi to Thessalonica and then going down to Athens and going to Corinth. I really enjoyed that because this is a man I’ve been studying verse by verse, I’ve been reading his life for so long, to understand the old legalist really understood grace. Can’t you see the council, the Godhead looking down one day. He says, you know, we need a preacher of God’s grace. I think we need a legalist. I think we’re just going to have Paul born in a Jewish family in Tarsus. We’re going to raise him up to where he knows the law. It’s going to be tattooed on his nose. We’re going to put him over here and study under Gamaliel in Jerusalem. And then one day we’re going to pop his bubble. On the way to Damascus we’re going to stop him in his tracks, blind him for three days and overwhelm him with the message of grace and let that man preach that message to all the world. What a beautiful picture here of a man who understood grace. If you’ve studied his epistles you already know this. Ephesians 3:8 he says, “To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ.” He says man, it’s all by grace. I get to do this; I get to preach this message. Romans 12:3, “For through the grace given to me I say to every man.” I couldn’t open my mouth had it not been for God’s grace. Romans 1:1, “Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures. And concerning His Son who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.” And then in verse 5, of that chapter, he says, “Through whom we have received grace and apostleship.” We didn’t achieve it; we received it and it was only by grace. Romans 15:15 he says, “But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again because of the grace that was given me from God.” First Corinthians 3:10 he says, “According to the grace of God which was given to me as a wise master builder I laid a foundation.” In 2 Corinthians 1:12, “For our proud confidence is this, the testimony of our conscience that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially towards you.” Paul lived and existed in the transforming enabling power of the grace of God. I mean, here’s a man, when he mentions the word he understands it, lives in it and depends upon it day in and day out. In 2 Corinthians 12, after he’s been exalted into the third heaven—and if he were living today, we’d have the third heavenites. A denomination would grow out of it. John had the same experience, got to write the book of the Revelation. John got to write a book—Paul got a thorn and the thorn was to keep him from exalting himself. And so Paul goes before the Lord, says, “God, this is Paul, the greatest missionary on earth. Now would You take this thorn out of my flesh?” And God says no three times. And then He says in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “And he has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you; for power is perfected in weakness.’” And so Paul is led to say, “Most gladly therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” Now Paul thought, felt, that this grace, and he was right, was extended to him before he was ever born. Do you understand that in your life today? God knew you before you were ever born, before you ever knew Him. Paul says in Galatians 1:15, “But when He who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.” You know, I love the song “Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound,” but if there’s one person who understood it like nobody else, it seems to me, was the apostle Paul, because he knew what he had that he didn’t deserve. To Paul, God’s grace was the enabling power that it caused him to be able to be who he was. Galatians 2:20, we quote it all the time, “I’ve been crucified with Christ, and it’s no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself up for me.” And then verse 21, which we rarely quote; he says in verse 21, “I do not nullify the grace of God.” In other words, I don’t frustrate the grace of God. “For if righteousness comes through the law then Christ died needlessly.” Paul knew what he did not deserve. He knew that it was only by God’s grace that he was an apostle. Paul gratefully lived in God’s power daily. Let me ask a question of all the men that are here this morning and, ladies, you know I’m asking you too, but just really the men. Men, do you know this morning what you have that you do not deserve? Do you recognize that? You may be a pagan here this morning and you’ve been invited by somebody and you don’t realize that everything you have in this life still finds its roots in the grace of God. You say, “But brother Wayne, I don’t have what you have, and I don’t have this and I don’t have that.” Listen, anything less than hell is grace. We must start there to understand everything that we have that is good is because of the grace of God. There’s so much pride in all of us that it renders us unusable. We forget what we are apart from His grace. John Stott, the great Scottish preacher was praying one day and a little arrogance slipped out. Sometimes that happens to preachers; quite frequently, as a matter of fact. And he said, “Oh, God, give me Scotland or I die.” And there was an old preacher there with him when he was praying and he corrected him, as if to say, who do you think you are? And the preacher said, “You’re praying wrong.” He said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Die and then maybe God will give you Scotland.” The attitude of self slips into the very best of our intentions. How many of us here this morning understand what we have that we do not deserve? That’s step number one in being usable by God.

Paul knew what he did not design

But the second thing is that Paul knew something else: Paul knew what he did not design. The very fact that he was an apostle had nothing to do with Paul’s ambitions. This is not something he went out to achieve. This was in the heart and the mind of God. It was not Paul’s design that he would become an apostle of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, he was on his way to Damascus breathing threats. He was going to arrest some more Christians; stood there and watched Stephen stoned to death, one of the great Christians of the early New Testament. And God stopped him in the road, blinded him for three days, and turned him around. As a matter of fact, in 1 Corinthians 1:1 it says “Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God.” And he says almost the same thing here in our text in verse 9 of chapter 15. He says, “For I am the least of the apostles and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Now, I want you to examine this with me for a moment. That term, “the least of the apostles,” the word elachistos. It was the word that is the extreme of something. It stretches it way out. You know what a superlative is. A superlative takes a truth that is a truth and then extends it as far out as you possibly can. It does that with the word mikros. Mikros means small or least, but this word means beyond that. The very smallest, the very least. Because of the stigma of his past, the apostle Paul, when he put himself with the other apostles, said, “I’m the least of the apostles.” He says, “For I am the least of the apostles and not fit to be called an apostle.” That term “not fit” is the word hikanos. Hikanos means there’s nothing within me that is competent. There’s nothing in me that’s worthy of being called an apostle. Oh, how we need to learn this lesson, not only of what we don’t deserve, but of what we have that we didn’t design. When I think of all of this, I was in Clinton, Mississippi, Mississippi College. I went there two years. I flunked out. I loved college. I just hated class. And I went to speak just a few months ago at my sister-in-law’s church. And Doc Quick, he was the dean of men, had been all these years. And he was retiring this year, showed up for the conference, at noon session on the first day. And I looked back there, saw Doc Quick and big old smile is on his face, and I had a smile because I remember that night that we put toilet paper in all the trees on the campus and I didn’t really have a lot to do with it. I just sort of followed along, of course. And it was going to rain the next day and Doc Quick came out there and he said head’s are going to roll boys. Heads are going to roll, but you know who he was looking at. He looked right at me. Doc Quick came up to me after I finished speaking at that noon session. That was the sweetest time. I loved that man. God just did that for me. And he came up and put his arms around me and he said, “Wayne, you see the gray hair in my head?” I said “Yes sir.” He said “You put 80% of it there.” But he said, “Seeing you today and hearing you today overwhelms me at the grace of God.” We have got to understand this if we’re ever going to be usable of God. We’ve got to realize that what we are is not by our design, it’s by His design and His eternal and divine intervention into our life. We often forget what we’re not apart from Him. We become opinionated, arrogant and, personally, if He would move over we could really do a better job. Paul remembers what he was before Christ found him. He says, “I am the least of the apostles and not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.” That was his past. You know my past. What’s your past this morning? What was the day where you were like before God’s grace found you? You say, “Brother Wayne, He hadn’t found me yet.” Well, maybe He’ll find you in this service this morning. Be honest as to what you’re not. You become a candidate for His grace in your life. “Why I am the least of the apostles and not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.” You know, I don’t know how many of you have bad remembrances of your past. Mine aren’t too good. I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what, you’ve got to be encouraged by the apostle Paul. Can you imagine the nights he was tormented thinking about the fact that he actually stood there and condoned Stephen being stoned to death? Can you, in your mind for a second, understand what it meant to be stoned to death, the rocks bashing one’s brains out, the awful, awful way in which a person would die? Well, he said in Philippians 3:13 something that might encourage you this morning. He says, “I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal.” Paul had learned something. He had to put that under grace. He had to put that under the blood, but never did he forget what he was like before. Oh, the damage that Paul had done to Christianity before Christ found him on the Damascus road. Paul experienced the power of God unto salvation. Now, folks, listen, that power could have destroyed him, but because of who God is that power saved him. Now I want us to remember that this morning. If we’re going to be used guys we’ve got to understand what we don’t deserve that we have. But secondly, we’ve got to realize what we are that we didn’t design if God is doing anything in our life at all. Paul never came up with the design God had for his life. It was His design from the start. Paul knew it. So I ask the question of the men this morning: do you know what you have that you don’t deserve? Do you realize what you are is not by your design?

Paul knew what he did not do

Now third thing, and the last thing I want to share with you this morning, Paul knew what he did not do. History has already been written of all the accomplishments that God did through the apostle Paul. But I’ll tell you what, the man who was the least impressed was the apostle Paul himself. He knew; he knew who actually did it. He was just a cooperative partner in the whole process. Verse 10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” You know, sometimes Christians can strut sitting down. You ever known anybody like that? And they give token credit to God, but they really are patting themselves on the back. They know, they believe what they have done for God. They live as if to say “look at me, look what I’ve done.” I heard about the frog, it was trying to get to the other end of a cornfield. And the only thing he could figure out was his arms weren’t strong enough to hold on. But he said, you know, I’ve got a big mouth and if I can talk a bird into putting a string around its feet, and putting that string in my mouth I think I can hold on, and I believe I can get to the other end of the field. So sure enough he called his buddy the hawk in, and he said, “Hey, I’ve got a plan here. And if I tie this thing around your foot and I hold on by my mouth will you take me to the other end of the field?” And the hawk said, “You can’t do that.” He said, “Oh man, I can do it. I can do it. I can.” So he put the string in his mouth. The hawk began to flap his wings. It took him a little while to get off the ground. He finally got up and up and up and up and up and got in the air current and finally everything was going super. And they were almost to the other side of the field when two farmers standing in the field looked up and said, “Whoa, look at that. That’s a frog holding on to a string by his mouth wrapped around the foot of that hawk. Who in the world came up with such and ingenious plan?” And the frog said, “I did.” Splat! What a contrast in the apostle Paul. What a contrast. He said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am.” I’m not a self-m

1 Corinthians 15:11-19

Contents

1 Introduction

2 Christ the Solid Rock

2.1 If there’s no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised

2.2 If Christ was not raised then our faith is vain

2.3 If Christ was not raised, all witnessed of the resurrection are liars

2.4 If Christ was not raise, we remain in our sin

2.5 If Christ was not raised, then all are eternally damned

2.6 If Christ was not raised, all Christians are fools and to be pitied

Introduction

Christ the Solid Rock

Dr. Wayne Barber: Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15. We’re going to pick up in verse 11, go down through verse 19, cover a little bit more territory today. I’ve struggled with a title. I gave another title at the first service, but I’m going to change this to “Christ, the Solid Rock.” I enjoy so much that hymn, “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” And when you hear the message this morning perhaps you’ll even understand that maybe a little bit more. The hope of every believer is to one day see the Lord Jesus Christ. He is coming again. And I’ve said many times, your eschatology, I’m not going to fight you over it. I believe we’re going to go before the 70 th week of Daniel. He’s going to come and rapture His church to be with Him. But if you disagree with that, that’s alright, stay if you want to. Send me a postcard, but we’re going to see Him one day. We’re going to see. And John says in his epistle that when we see Him we shall be what? Like Him. Now that does not mean we’re going to be God. Oh, there’s some crazy theology going around today that we become gods. No! But we’ll be like Him. We’ll have a glorified body like His. He has set the pattern for us in the bodily resurrection of the dead. Verse 20, we’re not going to get there today, we’ll just touch on it. Next time we’ll cover it. It says, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.” The word “first fruits” there, as we’ll see later on, is a very important term. It has basically the idea of sets the pattern for the rest of the harvest. In other words, the first fruits could not be harvested until the rest of the harvest was ready to be harvested. So when the first fruits were taken, that set the pattern for what was going to happen to the rest of the harvest. In God’s eyes, He sees us in Christ, ready at this moment to be glorified. And time is of no essence to Him; because of what has happened through Christ and in Christ we will one day be glorified. The very fact that the Holy Spirit lives in us, that is the earnest of our inheritance. He’s the down payment for the full payment that’s coming later on. Now this fact, that one day if, for instance, we die before the Lord comes—Paul has some other things to say in this chapter even about if we’re living when Christ comes, we’ll still be glorified—but the fact that dead bodies will raise from the dead was a problem to the Corinthian believers. They were the intellectuals. You know in Corinth, that was Greece, and they loved to argue about anything. And so they couldn’t understand how a dead body could raise up, and they could not get it. So since they could not figure it out in their intellectual debates, they came up with the conclusion that there must not be a resurrection of the dead. But what they did not realize was, if you say that the dead will not raise, you’re saying also that Jesus did not raise bodily from the grave. They didn’t realize that they were pulling out one of the major facets of the gospel itself. If there’s no resurrection of Christ there’d be no more gospel. You see the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus are the tenets of the gospel, but the major pivot of all of that is the resurrection of Jesus. Without it there is no gospel. Without it there is no hope for mankind. Now in verse 11 of chapter 15 Paul says, “Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.” By using the word “they” he refers to the apostles, the prophets, other preachers, the 500, those that had witnessed His resurrection. He just refers to, that this was the common message of all the preaching of that day. And he says, regardless if it was me preaching it, or maybe you heard it from them, he says, you believed it, and believing it you believed the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and you received it. And earlier on he says by that you were saved unless you believed in vain. Now, New Testament Christianity knows nothing of a gospel without a resurrected Lord. You have no good news without a resurrected Lord. Paul has laid out the facts of the witnesses of the resurrection. He mentions it as a tenet of the gospel, then in verses 5-10, he talks about all the people that He appeared to. If you were going to have a court case on something, you’d call forth witnesses; and Paul calls them forth. And even at one particular point he said there were 500 at one time that saw Him and most of these people are living today. Go ask them yourself. And then he says, “I saw Him. I’m a witness of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.” But Paul knows something that we know even today. I mean, studying Corinthians, hasn’t it been like reading the newspaper? Like Ecclesiastes says, there’s nothing new under the sun. There’s some people who are going to believe only what they want to believe. They believe this part of it, but they don’t believe that part of it, as if to say, don’t bother me with the facts. You know, we’re living in that kind of day even today. People are saying, “Oh, doctrine’s not that important, friend. We just need to love each other.” That’s absolutely stupid. That’s just stupid. Doctrine is important. We saw in chapter 13 that when you love, it rejoices in the truth. If you truly love somebody with the love that God has produced in your life, you care about what the Word of God has to say. And there are many people who take this and go away from that, and take this and don’t take that, and it’s what was going on in Corinth. And they said, “We can’t figure it out. We can’t understand how a body could resurrect; therefore we don’t believe it.” And that’s the point that Paul is attacking. He says in verse 12, “Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead.” By the way, it’s not from the dead, it’s ek, out from among the dead, because He was a part of them. It says in verse 12, “Now if Christ is preached, that He’s been raised out from among the dead, how do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?” Now the word “say” there is the verb form of the word logos. Logos means to speak intelligently, rationally, logically. And you see what he’s saying: “How can you intelligently say as if it’s logical that there’s no resurrection of the dead?” Now, this just really draws a picture for me, because I’ve been to seminary in the days seminaries weren’t the place to be. Thank God for what He’s doing in the Southern Baptist Convention right now, and I hear in other seminaries, as well. But He’s turned it around and made it much more solid. But in the days that I went to seminary it was the JDE and P theory. “Our mother which art in heaven,” and that Browning’s works in the Old Testament were probably more inspired than most of the Old Testament. That’ll bless you. But we had a teacher there that the Southern Baptists paid for, by the way, during those days. You want to know what liberalism can do to schools. And this particular professor there had a tremendous intellect. In fact, his vocabulary was one that I almost had to carry a dictionary to class. He was one who taught that Jesus did not bodily raise from the dead. It was a spiritual resurrection, which Paul is refuting that very thing right here in 1 Corinthians 15. Well, we had a fellow that went to school with me and also went to seminary with me and his first name was Sonny. He invented the word “redneck.” Sonny was from a hollow somewhere in the mountains over here, I don’t know where it was. I mean, I don’t think he ever got out of it till he went to school. And he was the funniest human being I think I’ve ever been around, loved him to death. He was sharp as a tack. He didn’t have all the vocabulary, but, buddy, he had a quick mind. And we’d be in class and this particular professor would walk around, and if you asked him a question he would make you feel like a fool if you asked him because he was such of an academic mindset that he couldn’t be even challenged in certain things, so he’d just make you feel like a fool. So therefore nobody asked any questions. Old Sonny, at the end of every class period we would be leaving and Sonny would raise his hand. He’d raise his hand and the professor would look over. And it started off thinking he had an honest question, and, well he did, but the professor didn’t like it. He’d say, “Doctor ____, let me ask you a question.” And you hear that twangy voice from up in the mountains of North Carolina. He said, “Let me ask you a question.” He’d say, “Okay, brother, ask me.” He said, “Is what you said today in class, is that theory or is it fact?” Son, it was great! And he had this big learned man standing up against the wall, friend, and he’d, “Well, I guess if you ask it that way it’s theory.” And he’d turn around and walk out. The next class, “Is it theory?” Every day. It got to where he wouldn’t even look at him and started walking out of the class and Sonny would say, “Hey, that must be theory,” as he’d walk out of the door. And this is exactly the picture I get of the Corinthian church. They just loved to sit around and argue about stuff that the mind will never ever figure out, rather than receiving it by faith. Since they couldn’t come up with the understanding of how the dead could raise that therefore they just simply said it cannot happen. But by doing that they were undermining the very gospel itself. Now the apostle Paul is a lawyer. I’ve told you this over and over again. I mean, he builds a case, and when he finishes the case today, I mean it, the case is over, pool’s closed, everybody out of the water. I mean, there’s nothing else to be said. He knows how to build a case. He starts with the facts and makes his conclusions based on the facts. He doesn’t talk about hearsay or anything else. He makes it based on the facts. Now, Paul is going to tell them in the passage we’re going to study today that by saying that there’s no resurrection of the dead is to totally wipe out the very gospel itself. In other words, he’s saying, “What are you people doing? Did you receive the gospel in vain or something? How can you even question this, because when you question this, you’ve got to take that argument a little further and question this over here?” But you see when you get into an intellectual discussion you’ve got to carry it all the way out. Don’t just stop there. Hey, so you can’t figure out the resurrection of the dead; so what? Can you figure out how Jesus was born of a virgin? Can you figure out how He raised from the dead? And what you’re doing, by discounting this you’re discounting all the rest. This was the futility of this kind of vain arguing that they were going through.

If there’s no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised

Well, in verses 13-19 he’s going to show us now the importance of the resurrection of the dead, particularly the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there’s six things that I want you to see and that’ll be our message this morning. First of all, if there’s no bodily resurrection, then Christ was not resurrected. Verse 13: “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised.” Oops! Now who are the people that he’s arguing with here? Who’s he debating with here? They could not have been converts from Judaism to Christianity. Even though the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, the Pharisees and the orthodox Jews believed in it to the point that history records many of them were martyred over that very fact. So you’re not going to have to deal much with a converted Jewish person. However, the Greek mindset, the pagan Greece, oh, this is what he’s dealing with. Corinth is in Greece. This is where it’s coming from. The idea of resurrection from the dead was not only new, but it was very unwelcomed. In secular Greek literature you may find an occasional reference to immortality of the soul. But the idea of the body resurrection from the dead was not only unheard of, but totally unwelcomed amongst their thinking. When Paul began to preach, for instance, the resurrection in Athens, his hearers missed the point of the resurrection to the place that they thought the resurrection referred to a god. They didn’t even know what it was. Acts 17:18, “And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, ‘What would this idle babbler wish to say?’ Others, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities.’“ Now why? “Because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.” They thought the resurrection was another deity. They didn’t even understand it from the word go. When converts from Greek paganism entered into the church many times they would drag with them these deep prejudices that they had. Now as a result of that they brought in that kind of thinking, as a result of that, you know what system developed as a result of that? It was Gnosticism, and Gnosticism has all kinds of form. Paul dealt with it in Colossians. John dealt with this Corinthian heresy in writing his epistles of 1 John. And the Sethian heresy, all this was a gnostic idea, this dualism that Jesus, Oh no, He couldn’t have even had a body, much less been killed physically and much less bodily resurrection. Ten years after writing to the Corinthians the apostle Paul wrote in the pastoral epistles to Timothy something that’s very key. He said watch out for these false teachers. Among them are Hermogenes and Phygelus. He said men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place and they upset the faith of some. You see this mindset got into Christianity and this is some of the early heresies that were being dealt with and it was coming up in Corinth. Now what did they mean about the resurrection had already taken place? Well, these people at that time, the Greek mindset, believed that when a person got saved, when he turned away from sin, then he figuratively went through a resurrection. It was a spiritual resurrection. When he repented, when he received Christ this was like a spiritual resurrection. Then secondly, in keeping with the Greek idea of the supremacy of the spirit, they believed as we believe that when the body dies the spirit goes on to be with Christ. And they looked at that as the resurrection. But to think of the body resurrecting from the dead, they couldn’t fathom it and they did not welcome it into their thinking. So they went around preaching the resurrection’s already taken place. You got saved, didn’t you. You were resurrected from your old self into your new self, and when you die your spirit resurrects from the body. But the body, no, no, no, that’s not what he’s talking about, they would say. And so therefore that became their argument. The Corinthian doubter felt that to believe in a resurrection from the grave was to debase all the other truths that they had come up with through their intellectualism. Well, when it came to their belief about the resurrection of Christ, now they had to come up with an answer. If you say that we’re not going to bodily resurrect, then you’re going to have to come back and deal with this over here if you still call yourself a believer. Well they had their answers that they came up with. They believed, many wrongly thought, that since He was divine He couldn’t have had a physical body. No way a divine person of God, deity, would invade a human body. They wrongly believed that He was like a ghost, an apparition. He appeared to be human, but He really wasn’t. He appeared to die, but He really did not. And that’s the way they answered that question. But Paul is saying, whatever their wrong thinking is—and that wrong thinking is going on in Corinth—it doesn’t square with the gospel preaching of the New Testament. It doesn’t square with the tenets of the gospel. Listen to Peter, after Pentecost now. This is the revived Simon Peter; the Spirit of God has come to live in him. And he says in Acts 2:22, “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man” a man, not an apparition, not a ghost, “attested to you by God with miracles, wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst just as you yourselves know—this Man delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross.” You nailed that physical man to a cross. “By the hands of godless men and put Him to death.” He physically, bodily died on the cross. Now in verse 31 of Acts chapter 2, “he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay. This Jesus God raised up again, which we are all witnesses.” In other words, He physically died and He physically was raised from the dead. Now listen, human logic will never figure out the resurrection from the dead, not in a million years. It must be received like all the gospel by faith. Some people say, “Well, if I could understand I would believe.” No, no, no; you believe and then God in His time will give you understanding. It doesn’t work the other way around. And many of us go through that since we can’t understand it, we think we don’t believe it. No sir. When you receive it by faith, then you stand on it even though your mind cannot fully comprehend it. Like I said earlier, how do you comprehend the Trinity, the virgin birth? You can’t comprehend these things. You receive it by faith because we stand upon the solid rock of the Word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what sounds good to the logical ear in an argument, in a classroom many times won’t hold water with what the Word of God has to say. So in other words, back off the argument and bow down and receive what God says by faith.

If Christ was not raised then our faith is vain

So point number 1: if there’s no resurrection of the dead then Christ did not resurrect from the grave. Now that leads to the second one. If Christ did not resurrect from the dead then our faith is vain. Whoa! There’s no gospel without the resurrection. There is no gospel. There is no hope. We’re all doomed. We’re going to be in hell forever, separated from God if Jesus did not resurrect from the dead. He says, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain.” The word “our preaching is vain,” who’s “our”? He refers to himself as an apostle, all the other apostles, the prophets, and the preachers of that day. He said it’s vain. The word “vain” is kenos, and it means empty. It means totally devoid of truth. It means of no useful purpose. It means nothing in it that benefits anyone. But not only is our preaching in vain, Paul says, he says, “your faith is in vain.” By faith you have received; he refers here to the act of receiving Christ and all that comes along, all the benefits that comes along with it. And he said every bit of it’s empty. Every bit of it, it’s a joke. It’s nothing to it if Christ did not resurrect from the grave. All the mission efforts to preach the word; all the evangelistic efforts to preach the word; all the teaching and preaching; all of it period is in vain if Christ did not resurrect from the grave. Hell has not been conquered. Sin has not been conquered. The devil has not been conquered. We’re all doomed. There is no good news. The light at the end of the tunnel is another train. There is no hope for any of us if Christ did not resurrect from the grave. Those who were mocked and scourged and imprisoned and stoned and afflicted and ill treated in the Scriptures were done so in vain. In Hebrews 11, instead of calling it the hall of faith, you’d call it the hall of the foolish if Jesus has not resurrected from the grave. All believers of all age have believed for nothing, lived for nothing and died for nothing if there’s no resurrection from the dead by the Lord Jesus Christ we’re all doomed to hell forever. So now, Corinthians, what else would you like to talk about? Now, to me he could stop right there and go home, but he doesn’t. I mean, he just nails it right to the wall. You flippantly say through your intellectual pursuit that you can’t understand the resurrection of the dead. Well, okay, fine. If you conclude that it cannot happen, you have just undermined the gospel. You have no hope. Go home. You’re doomed. Shoot yourself; you’d be better off.

If Christ was not raised, all witnessed of the resurrection are liars

Well, thirdly: if Christ did not resurrect from the dead bodily, then all witnesses of the resurrection of Christ are liars. I’m telling you what. I love the way Paul just minces his words. Don’t you like that? He’s just so inhibited; he just can’t seem to say what he thinks. Verse 15: “Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses.” We are even found to be false witnesses “of God, because we witnessed against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.” Now he says there, we are even found. The word “found” there means to discover something. Uh oh, you found us out. If Jesus was not raised from the dead, you have discovered now that we’re liars. We’ve told a lie. Now this has to be referring to those who have literally witnessed the resurrected body of Christ. And the interesting thing, Paul includes himself. He says, “We are found to be false witnesses of God.” It’s almost as if he’s saying, “And you’ve attached yourself to me and I’m a liar? Well, if that’s the case then you’re a fool. Because 1 Corinthians 1:12 says some of you are of Paul, some of you are of Apollos, some of you are of Cephas. What are you doing following us? If you believe there’s no resurrection of Christ bodily, then you’re a fool for attaching yourself to us because we’re nothing more than liars and you’re going to have to reckon with. Not only us but the 500 at one time. What are you going to do with that?” You see, he’s saying, what are you doing with this argument? It won’t go anywhere. First Corinthians 15:15: “Moreover we are found to be false witnesses, because we’ve witnessed against God that He raised Christ.” They’d said they’d seen Him when actually they didn’t. “Whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.” You see, to deny the resurrection of the dead is to deny the resurrection of Christ is to call every apostle—the only way you could be an apostle was to witness the resurrected Lord Jesus—and you’re calling every one of them a liar. You’re calling James and Peter and John and Paul and all of them, calling them liars. As a matter of fact, they must be absolutely foolish liars because almost every one of them were martyred for their faith in the one that they said they had seen. And he says, come on, man, this doesn’t hold water. If Christ was not raised from the dead they were not only not sent by God with a message, but they were liars and they had to conspire together to make it harmonious in the gospel. How are they going to do that? They even, some of them lived at different times and different places. If the apostles and prophets of the New Testament lied about the resurrection of Christ then they cannot be believed in anything else that they said, anything else that they said. All the New Testament truths that stand upon the authority that God gave to the apostles you cannot believe anymore. There are no promises whatsoever. So stop talking about provision, and stop talking about healing, and stop talking about hope, because they’re not there. Because if they lied about one area they lied about it all and you cannot convince them. So therefore if the resurrection of the dead can’t take place Christ was not resurrected from the dead, and if that’s the case all the apostles are liars and you can’t depend upon the Word of God. Now, although Paul doesn’t mention it, but it’s implied, Christ Himself lied if He did not raise from the dead. Did He not say I’ll see you in three days? He said you tear this temple down and in three days I will raise it up and I’ll meet you. He kept His appointment. So this whole argument smells with an odor because it undermines everything that the gospel has to say from Genesis to Revelation, not just in the New Testament, all the prophesies, everything is a sham if He did not raise from the dead. And obviously He wasn’t the Son of God if He didn’t raise from the dead. So, intelligent Corinthians, what were you saying? What is it you want to talk about today?

If Christ was not raise, we remain in our sin

If there’s no resurrection from the dead, number 1, then Christ did not resurrect; number 2, if Christ did not resurrect our faith is in vain; number 3, all witnesses of the resurrection are liars, all the apostles, and therefore if they lied in one area everything’s a sham. Fourthly, if Christ did not bodily resurrect from the dead then we would remain in our sin. He says in verse 16, “For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.” Now in other words, He’d be only a dead good man. That’s all He was. He came and did a lot of good things, but He died on the cross and didn’t quite make it. He says in verse 17, “and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” Man, I’ll tell you what, how in the world they could allow themselves even to question the resurrection of the dead with all of this at stake, and yet, that’s the Greek mindset. They’ll find something to argue about. He condemned, but basically he’s saying that if you’re right in what you’re saying—and you’re wrong, but if you would be right—then there is nothing. There is absolutely nothing and no hope for mankind whatsoever. In verse 14 he’s already said “if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is vain and your faith is vain, empty.” Now he tells them, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless,” same idea. He says, “you are still in your sins.” Oh man, can you imagine, can you imagine a person coming forward and bowing and receiving Christ in their heart at least by faith, and then finding out that the whole thing’s a sham, that he’s still in his sins, he’s still condemned? All he has to do is look around the world around him and he sees the corruption everywhere. He knows the world is under the curse of corruption and he sees what’s happening, and then he realizes he’s still in his own sin. The very reason we received Christ was because of the sin that was in our life, the exposure and the revelation the Holy Spirit made that we’re sinners, and that He came to pay the price of all sin, and we receive Him and ask Him to forgive us and cleanse us of that sin. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It was for our sin that He died. But if He didn’t resurrect then His death meant nothing. His death meant nothing. We’re still in our sins. But Christ did raise from the dead. In 15:3 he says, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scripture and that He was buried and that He was raised on the third day,” how? “according to the Scriptures.” The Scripture says He was raised. Now who are you going to believe, the Scriptures or some argumentative intellect? Who are we going to believe? Romans 4:24 says “But for our sake also to whom it will be reckoned as those who believed in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, crucified, and was raised up because of our justification.” And so he says hey, this is what the Scriptures teach. To deny that Jesus bodily resurrected from the dead denies everything that Christians have believed since the very birth and inception of Christianity. You see, the futility of the Corinthian error is they don’t understand how far that thing’s going to go. If you could doubt that the human body cannot be raised from the dead, as God said it will be, then you’re doubting that Christ’s human body did not raise from the dead, and it did and He was glorified and we are also one day going to be glorified.

If Christ was not raised, then all are eternally damned. So if dead bodies don’t resurrect then Christ did not resurrect.

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1 Corinthians Commentary - Wayne Barber

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