Acts chapter 18 begins with the
words that after these things Paul departed from Athens and
came to Corinth. I'd like us to take a bit of
a diversion from Acts for a little while, not sure how long, but
for today anyway, I'd like us to have a look at 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. So if you turn in your scriptures there, we have
We have in this world lots of trials and troubles and we, the
saints of God, go through all of the infirmities that the rest
of the world go through and we have a good deal more than the
world knows about because we have the care and the burden,
as it were, burden of the trials that our brothers and sisters
around the world go through, so it would be good for you to
be in prayer for those that you know that have things coming
down the road that are not going to be easy for them. Merrin's
mum and dad aren't well, Simon's dad's in a situation where, as
all of us are, but we don't realise it, we're all in the hands of
the Lord every moment. were in the hands of the Lord,
and I'm sure Simon and his family would appreciate your prayers
for them, and that the Lord would come and speak comfort and peace
to the hearts of his people. As I've said so often, the reality
is that in every situation we're in, the circumstances are too
big for us. And the times when we think we
are under control and we've got this thing all sorted, the times
when we're actually deluded. Because the reality is that everything
that lies before us all the time is too big for us. And that is
why, that is why When it comes to the scriptures, we're actually
wanting, as the saints of God did, they're wanting to see the
Lord Jesus Christ exalted and they're wanting to see Him build
His Kingdom as He alone can do. And He builds with stones that
no one else would build with. and he builds with circumstances
that no one else would put anyone else through in terms of building
them and growing them. And he builds them with preachers
that no one else would esteem in any way whatsoever as preachers. But Paul as we have followed
he, and I'm I trust that I keep reminding myself and reminding
you that we're actually following the footsteps of the Lord Jesus
Christ as we go through the Book of Acts. And those footsteps
are the footsteps that the Lord's people will see right here and
right now today and right throughout this world. They are, this is
the Lord Jesus Christ, that resurrected King of this universe who rules
and reigns over all things, going throughout this world and saying,
I bought that one. I bought that wine and he's mine,
and she's mine. And the circumstances that she's
in now are not the circumstances that she will be in the future,
but the circumstances that she's in now and going through now
are the circumstances that I have ordained. It's good for us to
sort of contemplate, isn't it, the story of Paul and the life
of Paul, because what was Paul's preparation for gospel ministry? What was Paul's preparation?
Paul's preparation was to be a religious Pharisee, and Paul's
preparation was to be a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and Paul's preparation
was for him to be a murderer, a murderer and a blasphemer. That was his preparation. And
when it comes to the Corinthians, the city of Corinth, we have
been through the great cities of the ancient world in our journey
through Acts, haven't we? We've been to Jerusalem. Jerusalem
had the most extraordinary privilege of any group of people on planet
Earth. They had been the ones that had
come out of the exodus of Egypt and they had come out of the
Babylonian captivity and they had been brought back. That great
nation of 2 million people across the Red Sea was reduced to just
40-something thousand as they came out of Babylon. And they
were determined, they were determined to live in that world and not
to suffer all that again. And yet, with all of their religious
privileges, they had this Bible and they knew it well and they
had it preached to them, day in and day out. And when the
one whom all of this Bible is about turned up on their doorstep,
as promised on time, doing exactly as was promised through all of
the scriptures that they read every day, they treated him as
a nothing. they put him aside. So that great
religious city with all of those privileges, as many privileges
as you could ever wish to have historically. That great city
Athens that we've looked at recently was a great city of learning
and philosophy and wisdom, the seat of democracy. And yet in
that city Paul goes there and he preaches the Lord Jesus Christ.
When he goes back to Jerusalem, when he's concerned about what
is happening in Jerusalem, he goes back there and he preaches
the Lord Jesus Christ to them. And now he comes to this other
great city, a great city that Corinth had almost, in some of
those times, equalled Rome in its splendor. It was a remarkable
city. But it was also remarkable for
its depravity. There was one temple in Corinth
that had a thousand prostitutes in it. And Paul, as we read there
in Acts 18.1, he came to Corinth. He came to this city. And he
came and he just preached the Lord Jesus Christ in that city
and God says, they're mine, they're mine, they're mine. And then
when we come to this letter of 1 Corinthians, the Corinthians
had the most extraordinary privileges. They had Paul pastoring their
church and preaching there with Timothy. And Silvanus, he had these remarkable
men sent by God into their presence, and they stayed there 18 months
under command of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet, within a short
time, and this letter is written, what is going on in the Corinthian
church is extraordinary, isn't it? There are divisions among
them. We are divided. There is open
wickedness going on in the Corinthian church. All sorts of open wickedness. Instead of having the Lord's
Supper as a communal meal, some of them were getting there early
and getting stuck into the wine and the others were turning up
and they were drunk. They were drunk at the Lord's Supper. It
wouldn't happen in a church anywhere in this world today, would it?
And there was someone in there, there was a man in there, who
was sleeping with his stepmother. And the Corinthians did nothing
about it, and they were boasting about it. They had the remarkable
privilege of having spiritual gifts given to them by the hand
of the Apostle Paul. Then they turned around and they
were exalting themselves in these spiritual gifts, and operating
them in such a way that they could boast over the others.
On and on and on it went in the Corinthian church. What do you do as the apostle
when you love these people? You love these people, you'd
been with them 18 months, you'd grown close to them, and you'd
seen them behaving in all of these extraordinary ways. What
do you do? What do you do? In this world, what would you
do? The natural way, you'd think, is I'm going to come back with
a great big stick, aren't I? And I'm going to bring a whole
bunch of laws, and I'll also have this, this, this, this, this,
this, this in place. And I'll sort you Corinthians
out, and I'll have you all lined up in all little ducks in a row.
What does he do? Lead of the Spirit of God. Turn
with me to 1 Corinthians 1. I just want you to remember who
he's writing to. These people are living in open wickedness. Open division and separation
from one another. Open bragging about their own
spiritual gifts and other things. Openly abusing the Lord's table. Openly abusing one another. And
what does he do? What does he do? I want you to
bear in mind what he does in relation to what happened just
over the sea in a place called Galatia. In those churches, what
was happening in the Galatian churches, there they were competing
with each other to be as outwardly moral and religious as you could
ever get. They were doing their Bible studies,
they were doing their verse memorisation, they were tithing, they were
doing all of it. They were as religious and as nice as you
could possibly get. And Paul writes to those Galatians,
see we misunderstand the kingdom of God because it's a spiritual
kingdom. We misunderstand the purposes and the work of God
because it's a spiritual work and not a physical work. It works
in this realm, but it's a spiritual activity that God is doing in
the hearts of his people. And if he begins it, then he'll
continue it. When Paul wrote to those Galatians, he says he's
in doubt of them. He rebukes the Galatians as clearly
and as strongly as he possibly can. And yet to the Corinthians, who
were living in open wickedness, what does he do? Let's read. Let's read this opening chapter
of 1 Corinthians and just listen. Listen to a God-sent pastor,
a pastor after God's own heart, and contemplate it in terms of
your trials and the journey that you have in this world, and think
of the multitude of times when you have behaved and lived like
a Corinthian. The balm that God's people need is the balm that
Paul brings to these people. I love how he begins, he says
Paul, he doesn't say Apostle Paul, he doesn't say mighty preacher
Paul, he doesn't say anything, just Paul. He's on the same level
of the rest of humanity. He is called out to be an apostle,
and so don't treat him as less than that, but Paul, he's just
a man. Paul called to be an apostle
of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sosthenes, our brother. We read about Sosthenes in Acts
chapter 18. He was the leader of that synagogue
in Corinth. And then he writes to them. He's
called Sosthenes our brother. You see, the first, at the very
beginning, at the very beginning, what he wants to do is establish
fellowship, doesn't he? He says, Sosthenes our brother. And then he speaks to the church.
It says, under the Church of God, the Church that God owns,
the Church that God formed, which is of coherence to them that
are sanctified in Christ Jesus. And that word sanctified means
to make holy. He doesn't say that in all of
your open wickedness you are no longer sanctified, Church
of God. He says you are sanctified in
Christ Jesus. He reminds them of what the Lord
Jesus Christ has done. And you're called to be saints,
you're called to be separate ones, you're called to be holy
ones. That's the call of God upon these people. And then this
letter is written to us, brothers and sisters in Christ. Just read
it there. With all that in every place,
call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. So the letter of 1 Corinthians
is written to us. Do you call upon the name of the Lord? Do
you call upon him in the character that he's revealed in the text
scripture? Call upon him. Grace be unto
you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. What a remarkable way to begin
a letter to a bunch of people who are behaving in the most
openly wicked, profligate way you could possibly imagine. Then
he says, verse 4, I thank my God always on your behalf for
the grace of God which is given you by Christ Jesus. If you are a recipient of grace,
every ounce of grace you will ever have is a blood-bought ounce.
It will come, it all must come as a gift, as a gift to you by
Jesus Christ. that in everything you are enriched
by him in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony
of Christ was confirmed in you." The testimony of Christ is confirmed
in the hearts of his people. Paul just came preaching and
testifying to who the Lord Jesus Christ was, and he waited and
saw and heard the Lord doing His work. It was confirmed in
you. You say that you come behind
in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're
all waiting, brothers and sisters, aren't we? It's very hard in
our fleshly world, and especially in a world where there is so
much on offer for us, and so much to draw our hearts to, that
I don't know, I just have to confess that sometimes I wish
he'd tarry a bit longer so I can get a few jobs done, get a few
things, and enjoy this a little bit longer. Is that your confession?
It's mine. I'm horrified by it. I'm horrified
by it. We wait for his coming. He'll
come. He comes in the preaching of
the gospel. He comes to his people in their
times of need. He comes and reveals himself
in powerful, powerful ways. He is a God who is near. And then it says in verse 8,
to these people that are behaving so badly, who shall also confirm
you unto the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our
Lord Jesus Christ. If you are a recipient of His
grace, if the testimony of Christ is confirmed in you, if you are
a recipient of the gifts that come with the Blessed Holy Spirit,
and the greatest gift and the only gift that matters is the
gift of Himself. And He will confirm you. I'm
so pleased that the confirmation, the confirmation of our faith
is something that He does in the hearts of His people, and
it doesn't rely upon my testimony and my activities. It's something
that He must do. And He'll confirm you to the
end. All the saints in Corinth, all the saints in Corinth, all
the saints everywhere else throughout the world that call on the name
of the Lord will be confirmed by Him and then He will declare
you blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. There wasn't
one blameless person in the Corinthian church. There wasn't one blameless
person. but they're blameless in Him.
He'll confirm them blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that day when we meet Him, that day when He comes back
to this earth. And then He describes the name
of the Lord, isn't it? God is faithful. God is faithful. God is faithful, brothers and
sisters. He's faithful to his word. He's faithful to his promises.
He's faithful to his covenant. He is faithful. Faithful. What's unbelief? How does it operate in the hearts
of people? It's to deny his faithfulness,
isn't it? It's to deny his faithfulness. His faithfulness expressed, isn't
it, in verse 9, by whom you were called into the fellowship of
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. It's interesting when you step
back and look at the big picture of the of the issues in 1 Corinthians
and 2 Corinthians, these people that Paul loved so much and spent
so much time with, and the Holy Spirit has recorded not only
his time there, but has recorded these remarkable letters for
us and caused him to write them. This is, of course, the second
letter that he's written to them. In chapter 5, verse 9, you'll
see that he actually wrote to them before. So not only did
these people behave wickedly, but they'd ignored his first
letter. And he's writing, this is the second letter he's written
to them. But in 1 Corinthians, the first issue that he deals
with in the church, the first issue, and they've got all these
other issues. People are dying under the judgment of God because
of the way they're abusing the Lord's table. And there are heresies
among them. And they're proud of the fact
that they have in this This fellowship of theirs, this man who's sleeping
with his stepmother, and they do nothing about it. They have
all of these problems. They all have all of these issues.
But the first and the biggest issue that draws Paul's attention,
and he draws their attention to them, the first issue he deals
with is the issue of fellowship. issue of fellowship. Look at
there, God is faithful, verse 9, by whom you are called into
the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord. The antidote
to broken fellowship is the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Remind them of who God is and how he does things. In
2 Corinthians the big problem seems to be the false teachers.
They have plenty of other problems, don't get me wrong, but in 2
Corinthians the problem is the false teachers. And the antidote
is what? You preach the gospel to them.
You remind them of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Let's go to
verse 10. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, that there
be no divisions among you, and that you be perfectly joined
together in the same mind and in the same judgment. The issue
that shows that these Corinthians have lost sight of the Gospel
is the broken fellowship. That's a broken fellowship. The
antidote is the Gospel. Verse 11, For it has been declared
unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house
of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that
every one of you say, that I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am
of Cephas Peter, and I of Christ. Verse 13, His Christ divided,
was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name
of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Christus and
Gaius, lest any should say I had baptized in mine own name. And
I baptized also the house of Stephanus. Besides, I know not
whether I baptized any other. Four, Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. And when the gospel is really
preached, it's not preached with the wisdom of words. It's not
preached with the enticing words of man's reasoning and man's
wisdom. It's preached with simplicity. It's preached with clarity. As
Paul said to those Galatians, the Lord Jesus Christ was evidently
set before you crucified. He declared him crucified. He
declared the reality of the crucifixion. He declared the reality of his
resurrection. And that's what he says. Let's go back to, let's turn
over to chapter 15 and we'll see what he did preach. This
is what he preached. And this is how he preached it.
He preached it in the simplicity. He preached it out of the Old
Testament. He preached it again and again, wherever he went,
he preached it. He preached it to people who were sinners, he
preached it to people who were philosophers, he preached it
to people who were religious, because all of them are in exactly
the same state. Verse one of chapter 15, this
is a great declaration of the gospel. Moreover brethren, I
love how he keeps using that word brethren. The word brethren
means to be born of the same womb, to be born of a mother,
of the same mother, Jerusalem above is the mother of us all.
They're born into that. They're born of that womb. They're
born spiritually from above again in this world. Moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which
also you have received and wherein you stand, by which also you
are saved. If you keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain, perish
the thought. What a horrible thing to think,
isn't it? That people will believe and it will be an empty thing
for them. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins. So the issue is not just that
the Lord Jesus Christ hung on Calvary's tree, the issue is
how that Christ died for our sins. And those little words
in Scripture mean so much. That word for, that word for
means to stand over. to be someone to be bending over,
to bend over, to stand over, to shield or to defend. That was the fall of the cross
of Calvary. He stood between us and the wrath
of God and he bore it all in his own body on the tree. He died for our sins. according to the Scriptures.
And he was buried, and he rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures. God is faithful. All the Gospel
is about a declaration of the faithfulness of our great God.
And he was seen of Cephas then of the twelve, and after that
he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the
greater part remain under the present. You can go back to Galilee,
he's saying, and you can interview five hundred people who saw him.
But some have fallen asleep. After that he was seen of James,
and of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of
me also, as one born out of due time. For I am the least of the
apostles, and I am not meet to be called an apostle, because
I persecuted the church of God. But But by the grace of God I
am what I am, and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not
in vain. But I laboured more abundantly
than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with
me. Therefore, whether it were I
or they, so we preached, and so you have believed. It's a simple message, isn't
it? A declaration of the God-man fulfilling all the promises of
God, coming exactly as the Old Testament Scriptures had declared
him to become, coming as the God-man. For the preaching, this
preaching of the cross, verse 18 of 1 Corinthians chapter 1,
for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. It just seems like a foolish
message, doesn't it? To declare God putting God the
Son to death and God raising God the Son from that grave and
God exalting God the Son and making Him both Lord and Christ. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and I will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. The world in its wisdom
knows not God. The world in its wisdom creates
all sorts of idols and all sorts of philosophy. But see, it's in the wisdom of
God, it's in the wisdom of God and it's in the power of God
that the preaching of the cross will be the means by which God's
people are drawn out of this world and by which God's people
will see that it pleased God, verse 21, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. It's a foolish thing, isn't it?
It seems like a foolish thing. I am so immune to it these days,
but it's extraordinary how often when someone meets you and they
ask you what you do, and I try and say, I'm a preacher of the
gospel, or I'm a pastor of a church, and you just see the shutters
come down. And anyone who has known me for
any length of time immediately wants to say, well, tell me about
your children. Well, if they've been around
here, well, what's happening on your farm? And they've known that
I haven't done anything on the farm of any note for 20 years,
but they just, it just seems foolish, doesn't
it? You can take the Apostle Paul, An extraordinary man used
of God in so many remarkable ways, and you can treat him like
nothing in all the arenas of this world. But it pleased God. See, it pleases God. This is
what pleases God. The preaching of the Gospel pleases
God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Because the Greeks require
a sign. You remember those Greeks? The Jews require a sign. The
Jews were always asking the Lord Jesus, show us a sign, show us
a sign, show us a sign. And it'll suffice. The Jews require
a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. The Jews couldn't possibly conceive
of a Christ who died in shame and ignominy on a cross of Calvary. They could understand a Christ
who had come as a reigning king and be another David. They are
always looking, as all people in this world do, they are always
looking at a physical kingdom. And he came with a spiritual
purpose. for a spiritual kingdom. And
we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews the stumbling block
and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." There
was a Queen of England who I believe was a believer a long, long time
ago and she was with a preacher and she said, I am so thankful
for the letter M. Because there she was. Here she
was in the eyes of this world, mighty and noble. And it didn't say not any, it
just said not many. But God, God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. God has chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty. And
the base things of the world, and the things which are despised,
God has chosen, yea, and the things which are not, to bring
to naught the things that are. God chose. God chose by the foolishness
of preaching. God chose the foolishness of preaching
by the base things of the world and the things which are despised
as God chosen, the things which are naught, the things which
are nothing. That's exactly what Herod did
to the Lord Jesus Christ, didn't he? He brought the Lord Jesus
Christ, God Almighty, into his presence, and Herod and his soldiers
in Luke 23, 11, they set him at naught. He was just an object
to be mocked. of God when he came to this world. But in this Kingdom of God, everything
is turned upside down, brothers and sisters. Everything is turned
upside down. He's chosen the base things in
the world and the things which are despised. God has chosen
the things which are not to bring to naught the things that are. See, Paul was a something, and
he became a nothing. Paul the Pharisee was a something,
and he became a nothing. Dionysius in the Areopagus walked
into the Areopagus that day, that great court in Athens. The
head of this extraordinary philosophical legacy, he walked in there as
a something, didn't he? and he walked out as a nothing. And the reason for it is in verse
29, that no flesh, no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him, of him, are ye in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made unto us. Wisdom. It's the only wisdom
you have, brothers and sisters, in Christ. And if you have Him
for your wisdom, you have all the wisdom of this world. And
we face situations again and again and again where we have
to say, well, how do I figure my way through this? How do I
intellectually put all this together? How can I be wise and not a fool
in this situation? The answer always, brothers and
sisters, is Christ is your wisdom. You go to Him. This is His situation. This is His universe. He's put
you in those circumstances and He'll bring you through those
circumstances. He's made unto us wisdom. He is the wisdom of
God. He's made unto us Righteousness,
God has made him unto us righteousness. There is no righteousness except
the righteousness of God that matters at all. All of man's
righteousness is just filthy rags. It is nothing. He's made
unto God, he's made who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification. He's all of our sanctification.
He's all the holiness that we ever will have. You will be no
more holy in heaven, my brothers and sisters in Christ, than you
are right now. All you're doing is changing
rooms in the house. If He is made your sanctification,
you have all the sanctification that God ever requires of you.
And He's our redemption. He's paid a price. He's paid
a price to buy us back, buy us out of hell, to buy us out of
Satan's clutches, to buy us out of this world. He's paid the
price, and He gets what He's paid for, our great God. That according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. That's how you write. to a bunch of believers who were
behaving in the most outwardly wicked way you could possibly
imagine. The Corinthians were behaving
in that church like almost unlike any other church you would ever
hear. It'd have to be the most ratbag Pentecostals that would
even contemplate behaving like them. No decent place that called
itself a church in this world would ever be able to hold up
a sign outside and say they're a church and behave like the
Corinthians. What do you do to them? This world would bring
religion to them. This world would bring law to
them. This world would bring all those things. A whole bunch
of do's and don'ts and rules and regulations. Paul confronts
a situation that grieved his heart because he loved these
people. He loved them intensely and their wickedness hurt him
personally and intensely. But if something was going to
be done about it, Paul didn't have the power to do it, and
neither did the law. But God did. God did. He wrote them another letter,
2 Corinthians, and he spoke of the fact He says
in verse 5, He says, For when we came into Macedonia, our flesh
had no rest, but we were troubled on every side, without were fightings,
within were fears. Nevertheless God that comforted
us, those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of
Titus. And not by his coming only, but
by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when
he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind
toward me, so that I rejoiced the more. For though I made you
sorry with my letter, I didn't repent. Though I did repent,
for I perceived that the same epistle has made you sorry, though
it were but for a season, now I rejoice." Now I rejoice. He rejoices. He rejoices because
of the restoration of fellowship. He was fearful that these Corinthians,
in the destruction of their fellowship, were going to turn from the gospel,
and yet they receive him and they bring him great comfort.
And I, brethren, when I came to you, when I came to you, I
came not with excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto you
the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and my preaching
were not with the enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power, that your faith, that your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. For you who have been tossed
around, for you who are going through trials, for you who have
lived like a Corinthian in some ways, the gospel, the gospel
is the balm to the souls of God's people. The gospel is the only
power of God unto salvation. May he May he cause us to respond
to the gospel as the Corinthians did, and to find it a refreshment
to our souls.