Good morning again. Let's open
up this morning's service to the hymn on number 176, number
176, and instead of the word beyond, it's throughout. Number
176, Break Thou the Bread of Life, if you could please stand. Break thou the bread of life,
dear Lord, to me, as thou didst break the load beside the sea. Throughout the sacred page, I
seek Thee, Lord. My spirit pants for Thee, O Living
Word. Bless Thou the truth, dear Lord,
to me, to me. As Thou didst bless the bread
by Galilee, Then shall all bondage cease, all fetters flow, And
I shall find my peace, my all in all. Thou art the bread of life, O
Lord, to me. Thy holy word, the truth that
saveth me. Give me to eat and live with
Thee above. Teach me to love Thy truth, for
Thou art love. O send Thy Spirit, Lord, now
unto me. That He may touch my eye and
make me see. Show me the truth concealed within
Thy Word. And in thy book revealed, I see
the Lord. You can be seated. That's a good hymn. I hope that's
our prayer this morning. He'll open His Word, be pleased
to bless us with His presence. That's His promise. So, let's
go to Him in prayer and ask Him. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
that we can come before You and Have the hope of knowing that
you are a God who's faithful to your word, that you've promised that where
two or three are gathered together in thy name, there you are in
the midst of them. You've promised, Lord, to draw us unto thyself and to Give us hope and peace and rest
in thy dear son. We ask now that you would send
your Holy Spirit in power, that you would open what no man can
shut. Pray that you would open your
word. Pray that you would open our hearts. Father, we pray for Peggy and
we ask Lord that your hand of healing would be upon her and
that you would restore her to her full strength and pray that
you would use this time of trial to comfort her heart in Christ. We ask it in his name. Peggy is at home recovering from
surgery this week and I hope she'll be able to be with us
again soon. You have your Bibles, let's open
them together to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I want to welcome Tia Ticketson,
who's here from Louisville, Kentucky, where Fred Evans pastors. Tia watches our services and
listens to the messages here. And Fred's wife's mother, who attends
the church in Houston, where David Pledger is the pastor,
passed away this past week, and so Fred and his wife are in Houston
attending to the services and the family there. So, Lord enables
you to remember Fred and his wife. I know that Tia would want
you to pray for her pastor. Alright. Last week we looked
at Acts chapter 18 and saw the events that took place in the
Lord's good providence as Paul went to Corinth and preached
the gospel and the church there was planted and the Lord had
many people in that city. You remember he told Paul, he
said, don't be afraid. and yet at the end of those two-and-a-half
to three years of preaching the gospel uh... the the jews took
all they could handle and they they drugged paul and and sauce
the knees and and uh... silas before the roman governor
and the governor said you take care of this yourself and sauce
the knees remember was beaten and now Paul has left Corinth
with Sosthenes, and Sosthenes now has become a traveling partner
and a co-laborer with the Apostle Paul in the furtherance of the
gospel. So we see that, you know, the
Lord purpose Sosthenes to be with Paul and to help him in
the preaching of the gospel and used the event of his beating
to accomplish that end. And so Paul introduces himself
simply as Paul. He doesn't call himself Elder
Paul, Pastor Paul, Reverend Paul, the Apostle Paul. He calls himself
Paul. Now Paul's name translated means
little or small. You remember his name used to
be Saul. Saul's name means desired. Before the conversion of the
Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus desired a name
for himself. The scripture says of his own
testimony that he excelled among his peers. He was a member of
the ruling class of the Jews. And if he wasn't a member of
the Sanhedrin, He certainly was vying for a position on the Sanhedrin. And he had a desire for making
a name for himself and being a somebody. And after the Lord
converted him, how sweet humility is. Changed his name from desired
to small. And made him a nobody. And yet, in God's providence,
the Lord used him powerfully, and now for 2,000 years, in the
eyes of God's people, he's been somebody, hasn't he? An apostle,
sent of God. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
20. This is a lesson that is extremely valuable to the church. You've heard me say, and it says
in the scriptures, that strife and vainglory go together. Anytime that there is strife,
it's because somebody doesn't feel like they're getting the
glory that they deserve. And the Lord calls it bane glory. And this work of grace in the
heart humbles us so that we look to Christ for all glory. And what a difference it makes
in a family, in a church, for God's people to glorify Christ
and not themselves. and to be servants for one another,
not ruling authority and mastering over someone. Do you understand
that respect can never be demanded? Can't be demanded. You can't
demand respect in your home. You can't demand respect in a
church. I hope that you don't try to
demand respect on your job. You might get submission to authority,
but you're not going to get respect. Respect has to be earned. It
has to be earned. And it's earned through service. That's how you earn someone's
respect, by serving them, not by lording over them. Look at
Matthew chapter 20 at verse 20. Then came to him the mother of
Zebedee's children with their sons, worshiping him and desiring
a certain thing from him. Now this is James and John's
mother. And she comes to the Lord, and the Lord said to her,
what wilt thou? And she said unto him, grant
that these two my sons may sit the one on thy right hand and
the other on thy left in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and
said, you know not what you ask. Are you able to drink of the
cup that I shall drink of and be baptized with the baptism
that I shall be baptized with? And they said, you see, they're
standing there with Mama. Mama's pleading their case to
the Lord and the Lord says to them, you don't know what you're
asking for. And he said, are you able to
be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with? And what a
look at what they said. We are able. We are able. Oh, that's the beginning
of a fall, isn't it? Pride preceded the fall. We're
able. We can do it. We can do it. He's talking about when the Lord
talked about his baptism and the cup, he's talking about that
cup that he asked the Lord if there's any way that it could
pass from him. It was the bitter dregs of God's wrath when the
Lord Jesus Christ became our sin bearer on Calvary's cross. Father, if there be any way this
cup can pass from me, let it be. And so the Lord said, can
you drink of that cup? You want to sit at my right hand?
You're going to have to drink of the cup of God's judgment
and God's wrath for sin. Can you do that? You're going
to be immersed in the baptism of death? You're going to do
that? Oh, we can do it. They didn't
know what the Lord was talking about. We're able. And look at
what the Lord said, And he said unto them, You shall drink indeed
of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized
with. Now what was the Lord saying?
When I drink of that cup, you'll be drinking of it. When I'm baptized
into death, you'll be baptized into death. You shall indeed
drink of the cup that I'm going to drink of and be baptized with
the baptism I'm going to be baptized with by virtue of your union
with me. Not because you're able, but
because I'm able. I'm able to suffer the wrath
of God's judgment for the sins of my people and be victorious
over death. You're not able, but you're going
to do it in me. In me. But to sit on my right hand and
on my left, it is not of mine to give, but it shall be given
to them for whom it is prepared of my father. That's not my place. It's my father's place in glory. And when the 10 heard it, they
were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But Jesus called
unto them unto him and said, you know, By the way, the two
that sit on the right and on the left, we see them on the
Mount of Transfiguration. Elijah and Moses. The prophets
and the law sitting on the right and the left hand of the Lord
Jesus Christ. When the other disciples heard
the attempt of James and John to get that place of honor, here's
what the Lord said to them. Verse 25. but jesus called onto
the uh... but jesus called them onto him
and said you know that the princes of the gentiles exercise dominion
over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them
the gentiles all the ones who demand respect and demand submission
and you'll get it is long as the consequences of the law are
great enough to create fear to submission. That's all it does,
isn't it? It's all it does. But it shall
not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you, let
him be your minister. And whosoever shall be chief
among you, let him be your servant. You hear that? You want to be
great? Be a minister. You want to be
first? Be last. Be a servant to all. You'll earn the respect of your
children and of your spouse and of your peers through service. even as the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister and gave his life a
ransom for many." So, the Apostle Paul is not our example. The
Lord Jesus Christ is our example. the paul in another place said
follow me as i follow christ so those who are following after
christ uh... submit themselves as ministers
and servants to god's people and what that does is it puts
away all strife it puts away all contention it puts away all
pride and uh... creates peace creates peace doesn't
it when each of God's people believe themselves to be in need
of grace more than anyone else. then and only then are they able
to esteem one another more highly than themselves. And Paul calls
himself, I'm just a little man. God's changed me from Saul of
Tarsus, a somebody, one who desired authority and desired position
and desired prestige, to Paul, a servant, a minister. an apostle
he calls himself never does the term apostle is the term apostle
used as a title in the scriptures god is given to the church some
uh... apostles and some uh... profits
and some evangelist and some pastors and teachers for that
edifying of the church to the work of the ministry to the building
up of the body of Christ until we all become perfect and complete
so these are offices that the Lord has put in the church and
in the strictest sense of the word the apostolic office is
no longer the prophetic office is no longer and so the church
now with the with the ministry of the prophets and the apostles
we have right here. We have the prophets and the
apostles in the word of God. And now what the Lord has for
his people is pastors and teachers and evangelists to preach the
gospel, teach the word of God, to build up the body of Christ.
And let's go back to our text. There's no place for self-promotion. There's no place for demanding
respect and exercising authority. It's service and it's humility
that the Lord blesses in His church among His people. Paul
called, called. It wasn't a career, it was his
vocation. He's called of God to do what? To be a messenger. That's what
an apostle is. It's a messenger. To carry the
message of God, the message of salvation, the gospel of God's
free grace out into the world. And so he says, Paul called to
be an apostle of Jesus Christ. He's the message. I'm gonna just
speak of Christ. We'll tell men about Christ and
who He is and what He's accomplished. And God will use the message
of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach Christ and
Him crucified and profess to know nothing among you, save
Christ and Him crucified. The Lord Jesus Christ is who
you need, is who I need. It's who we need to hear about,
isn't it? And so Paul's saying, I was sent by Christ to speak
of Christ. and pointing men to Christ. Behold the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sins of the world. He's the one I need to know about.
He's the one I've got to have. I've got to have Him. So Paul
said, that's who sent me and that's who I'm here to talk about.
Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will
of God. This is God's will. This is God's
gospel. God called him. You know, what
we're doing here is God's will. We have a messenger from God
in the Word of God. And we have a voice that's just
pointing us to what this messenger has told us about Christ. and
we have the promise that that he'll be with us and meet with
us and and bless us with his presence he inhabits the praise
of his people he walks among the candlesticks uh... here he
is and so we're we're we're here gather together paul says i'm
a i'm an apostle of jesus christ by the will of god and sauce
the knees we looked at sauce the knees last week our brother
our brother Now, anytime we react against error, we err in the
other direction. It's like a pendulum. If we're
reacting against one thing that's bad, we're prone to go in the
other direction. I've told you all before, I'm
very careful about who I call my brother. religious people
men in the world they love to throw that word around very lightly
you'll you'll have religious people call you bro and all sorts
of things that you know that you know we don't do that we
don't we we reserve I don't call my blood brother brother I don't
calling by his first name that this word is reserved very specially
for my brothers my sisters in Christ and it's very it's very
affectionate and very meaningful to me when I refer to someone
as a brother and the reason I started this by saying that if we act
against error I know people, men that I would call
my brother, that never used the term brother. They'll call you their friend,
they'll call you their bud, they'll call you by your name, but that
they've reacted against the abuse of brother in the religious world
by letting the religious world steal that word from them. It's
a biblical term. And it's to be used and preserved
among the brethren. And it's used many, many times
in the scriptures. Sosthenes, our brother. that were brother you look it
up it means literally translated it means birthed from the same
womb that's what it means and uh... and we're birthed into
the family of god in this food through the same womb same gospel
same message what a precious thing it is to have brethren
in christ and uh... So, I hope that we'll be very
careful about the way we use it, but that we'll be very meaningful
and affectionate in the way we refer to one another as brothers
and sisters in Christ. Verse 2. Unto the church. This is a word from God to the
church. Now, I knew for years before
the Lord was pleased to save me that the word church means
called out ones. I knew that's what the translation
of the word was. It's exactly what it means, called
out ones. And yet, in my blindness, I was
never able to make the connection that that god does the calling
i thought well you know called out ones are the ones who respond
to the call you know kinda like an rsvp you know i've been called
to a banquet but not everybody's gonna come only those who respond
will call no no when god calls that call is a factual It's not
an RSVP attached to it. It's you come. And it's an irresistible
call. And they will come. And everyone
that's called of God is a member of the Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Has God called me? Has He called
me? Have I heard His voice? Am I
looking to Christ? I'm following after Him. He's
my Lord. He's my righteousness. He's all
my justification before God. I know my sheep. I call them
by name as He called me. Unto the church. All of this
is unto the church. Only those who are called are
going to hear. I'm able to hear the Word of
God, rejoice in it, believe it. That's the evidence that I've
been called. Faith. I believe God's Word. I don't
if and or but it. I don't change it. I don't try
to adjust it to meet my needs. I just bow to it. Unto the church of God. It's God's church. Not your church,
not my church, it's God's church. Oh, that the Lord would enable
us to remember that. These are God's people. This
is God's church. This is God's work. He's the
one who calls us out. He's the one who knits our hearts
together in faith. He's the one that's going to
grow us according to his will and purpose in number and in
grace. And he's the one that we depend
upon. Lord, make us, make us children
that look to our Heavenly Father for all their strength, all their
hope, all their salvation. And notice he says to the church,
at corinth at corinth now again uh... i hear preachers on from
a gospel preachers now that uh... the whale the moral decline of
our country as if things are worse today than they've ever
been in the history of mankind it's not true it's not true Have
we experienced a moral decline in the last 50 years in America?
Yes. Yes. Does it grieve our souls?
Yes. But does the moral condition
of our generation, is it different from Corinth translated means
satiate? satiate means to indulge your
yourself in pleasure until you're bored with it i've been to court there i i
could tell you some things about corinth and private conversation
uh... the the sexual perversions of
that city unbelievable unbelievable uh... the the the rule of the
Roman Empire and the things that went on amongst the worship of
the Greek gods. I'm saying this to you in order
to encourage you. Because sometimes we think, you
know, we live in a dry and thirsty land, and we do. And we live
in a morally perverted society, and we do. But what I want to
say to you is that so did these believers. So do these believers. And God gave them the grace to
remain faithful to the gospel in the midst of a very, very
wicked world that they lived in. So don't use the evil of our
society. Certainly don't use it to justify
sin and don't use it to think, well, you know, other believers
didn't have to deal with the things that I have to deal with.
Yes, they did. Yes, they did. And God gave them
the grace to remain faithful to Christ in the midst of a wicked,
wicked generation. Corinth, satiate. The people of Corinth could not
get satisfied with the indulgences of their flesh. And the church
had to deal with a lot of those things. A lot of those things,
the result of those things affected the church, didn't it? Paul has
to deal with several of those issues as he preaches the gospel
to them. Is that an encouragement to you?
To know that, you know, this isn't the worst generation that
there's ever been. Is it an unbelieving generation?
Yeah. Is it a wicked generation? Do
we celebrate things now that we used to be ashamed of? Yes.
Are we losing our moral compass and our moral convictions as
a culture? Yes. Yes. But those things have
been cyclical through history. And if it gets bad enough, men
will experience a moral resurgence and things will get better. They
were bad in Corinth. Real bad. Yet God had a people there. He
had a people there. And this word was, to the church
which is at Corinth, to them which are sanctified. For by one offering, Hebrews
10, 14, he hath perfected forever them which are sanctified. Now to be sanctified means to
be made holy. It means to be set apart. It
means to be perfect before God. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross for all of his people. It's the only hope we have. The
only hope we have for acceptance before God is to be in the Beloved. And we are accepted in the Beloved
because He's holy and He hath sanctified. In Acts chapter 21, Paul's talking
to the elders at Ephesus. He speaks to them about the importance
of being faithful to the gospel for the church of God, which
are sanctified, which are set apart, which are made holy. Holiness is something that, it's
an absolute. It's not something you get better
at. It's just like righteousness.
It's just like justification. You're either completely holy,
completely righteous, and completely justified before God, or you're
not. There's no degree of it. There's
no measure of it. And so the Lord's writing, it's the only thing that causes
me to cry out to God to restrain my flesh. People say, well you can't tell
people that they're perfect, that they're holy, that they're
sanctified before God and it doesn't matter what they do. It'll lead to sin. No it won't. No it won't. Believing that I
am perfectly holy before God, that I am already sanctified,
that I'm perfect in the sight of God is the love of Christ
that constraineth me. It's the thing that causes me
to say, oh Lord, what a wicked man that I am who shall deliver
me from this body of death. Lord, restrain my flesh. Called, called, Notice the verb to be is in italics. God calls his people saints. Saints. Let the Catholic Church talk
about who the saints are and who the saints aren't. All that
are in Christ, God calls saints. Saints. They are sanctified.
Called saints. with all that in every place
call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours."
This is a description of every child of God. Not the elite,
not the special, not the ones who have achieved some level
of righteousness and holiness beyond another. This is the condition
of every child of God in every generation in every church. Thank God. Thank God. All right, let's take a break. th