Good morning again. Let's open
up this morning's service in the hardback hymnal number 13.
Number 13, if you all could please stand. Number 13, praise ye the
Lord, the Almighty. Praise ye the Lord, the Almighty,
the King of creation. O my soul, praise Him, for He
is thy health and salvation. All ye who hear, Now to His temple
draw near. Join me in glad adoration. Praise ye the Lord, who o'er
all things so wondrously reigneth. Shelters thee under his wings,
yea, so gently sustaineth. Hast thou not seen how thy desires
e'er have been Granted in what he ordained? Praise ye the Lord, who with
marvelous wisdom hath made thee, decked thee with health and with
loving, and guided and stayed thee. How often grieved hath
not He brought thee relief, Spreading His wings for to shade thee. Praise ye the Lord, O let all
that is in me adore Him. All that hath life and breath,
come now with praises before Him. Let the airmen sound from
his people again. Gladly for I, we adore him. Be seated, please. Good morning. We're going to begin a study
in 1 Corinthians this morning, but before we look at our text,
I would like for you to turn with me in your Bibles to Acts
chapter 18, and we'll just read with very few comments the experience
that the Apostle Paul had when he first went to Corinth and
how that church was established. We spent several months going
through 2 Corinthians recently and now we're going to go backwards
to this first epistle that the Lord gave to the church. And
our hope is that it will be a word that He will give to you and
to me. Let's pray together and ask the
Lord's blessings. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're thankful that you've called us to this place. To. Have a desire in our hearts to
do what we just sang to praise you. To worship you. Lord, in
order for that to be. We are completely dependent upon
you to enable us. To open the eyes of our understanding.
Cause us to glory in thy dear son. Lord, to worship you in
the power of your spirit and according to the truth of your
word, we ask, Lord, that you would
be pleased to make yourself known, that you would bless us with
your presence, that you would draw us to thyself, that you
would cause Christ to be lifted up in our hearts, we would be
brought by your spirit to set our affections on him. For we
ask it in his name. Amen. In Acts chapter 18, the apostle
Paul goes from Athens. You remember
in Acts chapter 17, Athens is where Paul met with the Stoic
and the Epicurean philosophers on Mars Hill and preached the
gospel there. And now he's leaving Athens and
going a short distance away to the city of Corinth. And so Acts
chapter 18 begins with these words. After these things Paul
departed from Athens and came to Corinth. and found a certain
Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, later come from Italy with his
wife Priscilla because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart
from Rome and came unto them. Now Claudius was one of the Caesars
in Rome that reigned from 41 to 53 BC. His wife poisoned him to death. He was an evil, evil ruler and
yet God used him to bring Priscilla and Aquila to Corinth to hear
the gospel. What an encouragement to us that
the wrath of man shall praise him. Claudius was a servant of
God as are all men. And the Lord uses the most horrific
events in history and the most disturbing circumstances in your
life and in my life to accomplish His good end. I'm so thankful
for that. I'm thankful to serve a God who
controls the affairs of all men for the salvation and the good
of His children. I believe that. and I'm, you
know, this man, you read the history of him, he was evil.
And his wife was just as bad. But here the Lord gives us this
information to tell us that it was Claudius' decree that exiled
all Jews from Rome that brought Aquila and Priscilla to Corinth,
hiding out from the Caesar to hear the gospel. Our God is no
less able in your life and in my life to use every detail and
every circumstance for our good. And I'm very grateful to serve
a God who's merciful. I know the thoughts that I have
for you, thoughts for good, not for evil. to bring you to your
expected end. The Lord's going to get us to
our expected end. And sometimes, and I'm sure that
Aquila and Priscilla were fearful for their lives in leaving Rome,
but here they are brought in the providence of God to meet
up with the Apostle Paul and to hear the gospel. And because
he was of the same craft, Aquila and Priscilla were temp-makers,
and so was the Apostle Paul, and so that was a common bond
that they had, and because they were of the same craft, he abode
with him and wrought, or worked, for by their occupation they
were tent makers and he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath
and persuaded the jews and the greeks so on the sabbath day
the apostle paul went to the synagogue to preach the gospel
to the jews first they're the ones that have the law they're
the ones that have the word of god They're the ones that the
Lord sent the gospel to first. And so he goes to the synagogue
and reasons with the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and
Timothy were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in his spirit
and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. Now I'm sure he didn't wait for
Timothy and Silas to get there before he told them that, but
now with the confirmation and here we have... two or three
witnesses strengthens the testimony, doesn't it? And so that's the
idea here, that Paul was witnessing on his own before Timothy and
Silas came. But now that Timothy and Silas
have come, now there's the strength of three witnesses confirming
the same truth. And what a blessing it is for
the Lord to unite our hearts together in the gospel and to
give us agreement so that when we preach, when we witness, we're
joining our testimony together in saying, Amen. That's what
I believe. That's the truth. And the power
of that testimony has an effect on people. the testimony of two
or three witnesses availeth much. And when they opposed themselves,
I love the way the Holy Spirit says that. And child of God,
here's something to remember. When men resist the gospel, when
they want to fight with you and argue with you, don't take it
personal. They're not resisting you. They're resisting themselves. They're not even resisting God.
I mean, it's like you're sharing the gospel with somebody and while you're talking to them,
they're beating themselves in the face by rejecting the truth. That's what they're doing. They're
not beating you. They're not resisting God. They're
resisting themselves. And what a sad thing to talk
to somebody about the only hope that they have for their soul,
and here they are beating themselves up while you're trying to help
them. So they resisted themselves. Don't resist yourself. Don't
beat yourself up. Don't slam your head against
the wall. It's lunacy. It doesn't make sense, but that's
what men do naturally. They opposed themselves and blasphemed. He shook his raiment and said
unto them, Your blood be upon your own head. I am clean. From
henceforth I will go to the Gentiles. You had an opportunity to hear
the gospel. I'm not going to cast my pearls before swine anymore.
There comes a point in talking to a person about the gospel
who opposes themselves to the point to where you just say,
I can't say anything more. If you, if you in any time in
the future have an interest in what I've told you, please let
me know. But I'm not going to, I'm not going to give to the
dogs that which is sacred and throw, cast my pearls before
swine anymore. And that's what Paul's doing
here. Shakes his garment, says I'm not guilty. You've opposed
yourself. Your blood be upon your own head. Verse seven, and he departed
thence, now all this happens in Corinth, all this happens
in Corinth, and he departed thence and entered into a certain man's
house named Justice, one that worshiped God, whose house was
hard pressed to the synagogue. And interesting, Justice's house
is still there, remnants of it at least, and the remnants of
the synagogue are still there in Corinth. They're ruins, but
it's all still there. And that's where the Apostle
Paul went. and chrispus the chief ruler
of the synagogue believed on the lord with all his house and
many of the corinthians hearing believed and were baptized so
the lord was pleased to to save the leader of the synagogue uh... chrispus who was a jew and uh... god-fearing man who lived right
next door to the synagogue uh... and many of the corinthians who
heard the gospel believed so here's the planting of the church. Notice the last part of verse
8. And we're baptized. And we're baptized. I would never talk to any individual
about the importance of them. I would never initiate a conversation,
let me put it like that, with a person about their need to
be baptized. That's something that the Lord's
got to put on your heart, and I wouldn't want anybody to do
it because I told them they needed to. But I want you to know that
my soul is burdened for those who say they believe the gospel,
but they've never followed Christ in baptism. They've never professed
Him publicly. uh... or their baptism was uh...
nothing more than a water ritual that that took place before they
ever heard the gospel which means that it was nothing so in the
scriptures everyone who believes It's like the first confession
of faith is to profess Christ in baptism, to follow Him in
baptism, to do it gladly. I've got to profess Christ. He's
done a work of grace in my heart. He's revealed Himself to me,
and I want to publicly profess Him and identify with Him. profess my union with him in
his death, in his crucifixion, in his death, in his burial,
and in his resurrection. We are buried with Christ in
baptism and raised to walk a new life in Christ Jesus. Is baptism
essential for salvation? No. No. Baptism is sort of like a marriage
ceremony. Can a man and a woman live together
without publicly committing themselves in marriage to one another? Yeah,
people do it all the time. Is that a committed relationship? It's really not. It's really
not. So that's the best analogy I
can think of as far as the importance of baptism. Verse 9. I didn't mean to spend
this much time on Acts 18, but I think it's important for us
as we go through the book of Corinthians to see what happened
in Corinth. Verse 9, "...then spake the Lord
to Paul in the night by a vision." Now, Paul was a penman of Scripture. Mysticism believes that God still
gives visions and intuitions and speaks audibly to men's hearts. It's not true. If God's going
to speak to you and to me, He's going to speak to us by His Word.
But the men that God used to write His Word God spoke to them
in inspiration. So there's a difference between
inspiration and revelation. Inspiration is the direct influence
of the Spirit of God on the penman of Scripture, inspiring them
to write the inerrant Word of God. That's inspiration. That's
over with. Revelation is when that same
spirit takes those words that were inspired to these men and
reveals the truth of them to his people today. So we're looking
for revelation. Lord, reveal Christ to me. We're
not looking for inspiration in the literal sense of the word.
But the Apostle Paul receives an inspiration here. He receives
a vision from God. and uh... and what is what is
this what is this vision by the way you understand that that
is the i mean we could we could we could uh... list a lot of
problems with roman catholicism but that's where it begins that's
where begins uh... the roman catholic church the
doctrine of the roman catholic church is that god is still speaking
through the popes to the church and that there is inspiration
still available for the church through the pope. And that doctrine
goes on to say that since God is still speaking to the church
in inspiration through the popes, therefore the revelation or the
inspiration that's been given to these popes is more current
and consequently more relevant than the scriptures. and so there's
two books in the Catholic Church there's the Bible and there's
church tradition church tradition is more current and therefore
more relevant than scripture and so anytime that scripture
is in conflict with church tradition church tradition always trumps
scripture and as soon as you open that door As soon as you
open that door, then you've destroyed the gospel, you build everything
on a faulty foundation at that point. What's my point? We believe
that every word is inspired of God, that men did not speak by
private interpretation, that this is the Word of God and it's
the only Word of God. And so, that's, what sayeth the
scriptures? That's the only question we have
to ask. When it comes to any question about life or doctrine,
what sayeth the scriptures? The scriptures settle every controversy. So here's the vision. Then spake
the Lord, verse 9, to Paul in the night by a vision, be not
afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace. Now Paul received
that word directly from God in a vision. You and I get to receive
it right now by revelation. Be not afraid. Speak. Don't fear men. If God be for
you, who can be against you? Be ready always to give an answer
to them that ask you for the hope that's within you and do
it with meekness and do it with fear. But don't fear men. Don't fear men. Fear is such
a devastating thing, isn't it? It controls us so much. And it's just the fear of men. And it's in our nature to fear
men. But the Lord is speaking to us
now and He says, don't fear them. Don't be afraid of them. Fear
not, in another place the Lord Himself said, fear not him who
can kill the body. What can man do to me? Well,
he can kill me. That's as much as he can do.
but fear him rather who has the power to throw both body and
soul into hell." Fear God. See, the point is we're either
going to fear God or we're going to fear men, aren't we? And the fear of man
is the root of so many problems. In our homes, our marriages,
in our workplaces, in our, you know, just we We love the praise
of men, don't we? We do. And I hope the Lord will
speak to our hearts and say, don't be afraid of them. They're
as messed up as you are. You understand that, don't you?
You know, we think, well, you know, they've got it together
and I don't. No, they don't. No, they don't. I am with thee. Hold not thy peace. I am with
thee. And if God be for me, who can
be against me? Who can be against me? I am with thee, and no man shall
set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city."
Now that was a unique, special revelation given to the Apostle
Paul. We can't claim that. We can't claim that as a promise
from God for us here. We can't say that, I mean, unless
you call what we have here much people, we can't say God has
much people in this city. We don't know. I hope He does.
But we don't know that. And we can't say with authority
that they won't kill us. We don't have that promise from
God. But that was a promise that God gave the Apostle Paul. Paul,
don't worry about them. Speak with boldness. Preach the
gospel. I have much people in this city.
I'm going to protect you. They're going to hate you, but
I'm going to protect you. And so for the next year and a half,
the apostle Paul preaches the gospel in Corinth with this band
of believers that the Lord has called out together. Look what
he says. And he continued there a year and six months teaching
the word of God among them. What, uh, what glorious days. those were. The Lord first banded us together
and gave us the freshness of His grace and our prayers are
that that spirit of grace will grow and be renewed and that
in a lot of ways, in a lot of ways things are more special
now than they were even then, aren't they? And when Galeo was the deputy
of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul
and brought him to the judgment seat. So after a year and a half,
the Jews had enough. Too many Jews have been converted
and renounced the legalism of Judaism and professed faith in
Christ. And so the leaders of the Jews
are being threatened now by this gospel. And so they have an opportunity
now to go to this governor, Galeo, who's over Achaia. Achaia is
Athens, Corinth, both of those cities are southern Greece. What
we know now as southern Greece, that's Achaia. And Macedonia,
which we read about earlier, is north of that. So now the
governor, appointed by the Roman emperor over Achaia, gives the
Jews a hearing. But he doesn't really, look what
happens. So they brought Paul to the judgment of Galileo, saying,
this fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. You know that accusation hasn't
changed. It hasn't changed. When religious people hear what
we believe, the first conclusion they come to is antinomianism. And if you haven't been accused
of being an antinomian, you've not preached the gospel. What
do they say? Well, you can't do that. That's
going to lead to sin. That's gonna lead to licentious
living. You can't take the law away from
people. You can't say that the law has
already been fulfilled in Christ and that we're not under the
law, we're under grace. That'll lead people to sin. Why
would a person say that? Because it would lead them to
sin. That's why they say that. They need the law to restrain
them. A person who knows nothing of
grace has to have the law. And so when they hear of grace,
they're making personal application of that message to themselves
and they're saying, you can't take the law away from people.
This fellow is persuading people to believe a message of salvation
that's contrary to the law. Well, first of all, it's not
contrary to the law. It's the fulfillment of the law. But you
see why people would say that. Because they know in their own
unregenerated experience that they need the law to restrain
them. Does God people need the law
to restrain them? No. No. What do we say? Lord, I believe
my new man believes you wholeheartedly. I believe with all my heart,
all my mind and all my soul. I believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the son of the living God. I believe that his righteousness
is the only righteousness that I had before God. I believe that
his death on Calvary's cross is the only hope that I have
of having my sins put away. I believe that He is ascended
into glory and that He is seated at the right hand of God and
that He ever lives to intercede for me. And the only hope that
I have of acceptance before God is to be found in Him. I believe
that with all my heart, no question about it. I believe that He that
sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all as one. I
believe that I am holy in Christ. I believe that perfectly in my
new man. Lord help thou mine unbelief. Where is that? Where is your
unbelief? It's in your flesh. Your flesh
never believed God for a minute. And so what are we saying? Lord
I believe you. Restrain my flesh. Lord have
grace upon me and keep my flesh in bay. Lord keep my flesh from
breaking out. help thou mine unbelief we're
not saying that well you know I sort of believe and I need
to believe more no we believe the new man believes God's given
you faith you don't have any question about the gospel you're
persuaded that he is able to keep that which you've committed
unto him against that day and you've committed everything to
him everything But while your new man stands sure in Christ,
you've got an old man who's never believed God. And he fights against your new
man, doesn't he? The spirit wars against flesh,
and the flesh against spirit. Lord, cause that old man to drive
me to Christ. Help thou mine unbelief. This fellow persuadeth men to
worship God contrary to the law. That's a lie. We don't persuade
men to worship God contrary to the law. What we're persuading
men is that where you worship God, by the Spirit of God. The Lord told that woman at the
well in John chapter 4, the day cometh and now is that God seeketh
those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. Not where you worship,
it's the Spirit in which we worship. And Lord, we are dependent upon
Your Spirit to move our spirit to worship you according to the
truth of the gospel. And the truth of the gospel is
that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. We're not under the law. But
that's what men say. Well, you're preaching a message
contrary to the law. No. We're under the law of grace.
We're under the law of love. We're under the law of the Spirit.
And that's a whole lot better. It's a whole lot better than
that law that's condemning and judging and will ultimately kill
you. This law gives life. This is
the law of life. James calls it the law of liberty. It's the law of liberty. Stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free and
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. That's the old
law, isn't it? Nothing's changed. Same thing's
happening right now here in Apopka and on your workplace and in
your homes where you try to speak for Christ that happened then. This is Corinth. This is Corinth. This Word from God is timeless
and relevant. I hate it when I hear people
say, well, you know, you need to make the Word of God relevant. And you've got to package it
up in such a way as to speak to our culture. That's the glory
of God's Word. It's living. It's powerful. It
has spoken to every heart and every culture ever since it was
written. But it speaks only by the power
of the Spirit of God. People are trying to make the
Word of God relevant, are just trying to find some fleshly application
to these things, of these things to their life. So is this relevant to you? Is
this relevant to where you are? Verse 14, and when Paul now,
about to open his mouth, was now about to open his mouth,
Galeo said unto the Jews, if it were a matter of wrong or
wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with
you." So Galeo, now this governor of Achaia, he listens to their
accusation and he says, now if this man was doing something
to threaten people, in terms of lawlessness in our society,
I would stand in judgment. But that's not what this is about. But if it be a question of words
and names and of your law, look ye to it, and I will be no judge
of such matters. So Galea, I mean, he's a Roman
under Claudius. He's, you know, he's a pagan.
He doesn't care about what the Jews believe or what the Christians
believe. This is a religious matter. You all handle this yourself. I'm not going to get involved.
and he draved them from the judgment seat. Then all the Greeks took
Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before
the judgment seat. And Galeo cared for none of these
things. And Paul, after this, tarried
there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren."
So Paul was in Corinth for about two years. And the The ministry ended with Sosthenes,
the ruler of the synagogue, who was a believing Jew, a converted
Jew, being beaten by the Greeks, and Galeo watched it and just
didn't do anything. All right? Now, just very quickly, with me to 1 Corinthians. I just
want to make the connection between Acts 18 and 1 Corinthians, and
we'll get into 1 Corinthians, Lord willing, next week. Paul
called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God
and Sosthenes, our brother. So when Paul left Corinth, Sosthenes
went with him. He was a target of persecution
and had been beaten for the gospel. And goes with Paul to Ephesus
and Paul writes, this is his, actually it was later because
Paul writes, 1 Corinthians chapter 5 tells us that he had written
a previous epistle to the church at Corinth. for which the spirit
of god did not see fit to put that first letter that paul wrote
in the canon of scripture so first corinthians is really the
second letter that the apostle paul wrote which says to me that
these penman of scripture who received direct revelation from
god everything they said in wrote wasn't by direct revelation. It wasn't by direct inspiration.
You see, they weren't like Christ. Every word that proceeded out
of His mouth was perfect, was the Word of God. But these men
had to be moved by the Holy Spirit in order to be able to write
the things that were inspired of God, and that doesn't make
everything they did inspiration. So, Paul writes 1 Corinthians
from Ephesus, years later, and Sosthenes, the one that was beaten
there in Acts 18, is with him. I pray to the Lord to bless this
study and that it will be encouragement to our hearts. Let's take a break. th th