We'll look a verse at a time.
1 Corinthians 1 10. Now I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that
you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment. You can see how much already
is in that one verse. He's saying, here's that word,
beseech. It's translated a little differently in other places,
but it's this word that means to call to one side. Paul is
saying, I call you to my side. Let's walk together, let's talk,
let's reason together about this. And we'll see that, but this
is the way he says that. I call you to my side, brethren.
Brethren, this is not an argument, this is not Paul proving somebody
wrong, this is a heartfelt and cordial exhortation to them. Come here, let's reason about
this, my brothers, my brothers. By the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, this is how sober this exhortation is. I beseech you
by the name of Christ, there's more at stake here than just
your pride. And we'll talk quite a bit about
pride tonight because of the text. But he says there's more
at stake here. This matter that Paul is about
to address, there's more at stake than you can even comprehend,
he said. So I beseech you by the name
of Christ. When there are divisions, when
there are disputes and discord, it's the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ that is dishonored and disrespected. We have to understand
that. as his church. And I'm not sure
we do, to be honest. And I say that not just of us
here, but in general as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
not sure that we often conduct ourselves in this frame of mind,
that we bear his name. I beseech you by his name. Somebody's
proud, as I've said recently, when there's contention. And
I didn't just make that up. I didn't just come up with that
by observation. Always remember this verse of
scripture, Proverbs 13, 10. Listen to every word of this.
Very short and to the point and very profound. Only by pride
cometh contention. Only by pride. Somebody's proud. Somebody's self-righteous. Somebody
values their own feelings more than the ministry of Christ.
Somebody does. And we should all be asking with
the disciples at the last supper, is it I? Lord, is it I? Speak
the same thing, he says here. Speak the same thing. Remember,
we recently defined the word confess. It means to say the
same thing as another. And so this is a similar word. It's the church's commission
to go and preach, speak the same thing. So we're messengers by
nature as a church. The nature of a church is there's
a message to be delivered. It needs to be a unified one. There can't be this division.
There can't be this disagreement. There can't be these schisms
in the church. It's an institution with a message. And all within that institution
must give voice to that same message. Not all are preachers
or teachers, but all must confess Christ. To say the same thing
as him, if we all do that, if we all confess him, then we're
saying the same thing as one another. The essence of the church
is the message. Go and preach. And so may we be unified. We
don't preach ourselves, Paul said, I don't preach myself,
not anybody else or anything else. Imagine a political organization
that professed to be loyal to a certain candidate, but all
the people that work there, many of them are loyal to different
candidates. It wouldn't be a very successful
organization for any candidate. if they're all divided and they're
not working together for one purpose. Even in earthly endeavors, in
companies and governments and whatever it might be, there must
be unity. All must be working for the same
purpose. The purpose of a church is to
glorify and set forth Christ to all who hear, to all who hear
the gospel we preach, to glorify him and set him forth. No divisions
among you, he said. Paul is addressing now a particular
issue in this church, that any and all division is condemned,
that there be no division among you. And most importantly, the very
nature of a church, because of who Christ is, Now think about
this, because of who we serve and our purpose, our commission
in this world, the result of any division and the cause, the result of
division is a hindrance of the ministry, the message. And that type of thing, of course,
everybody's gonna know about it. Everybody's gonna know about
it. Chloe told Paul, so the house
of Chloe, oh, you need, there's something going on over there,
you know, in our text. And it's gonna be noticed. It's
gonna be a discouragement to people. It's gonna be, or maybe
a delight to some who may be our enemies. But here's the cause. of all division, and again, this
is by necessity because of who Christ is. The cause of division
is always this, and it doesn't matter what people say it is.
The pews are too close together. We literally had somebody leave
the church. I think Dee was there at the
time, maybe. Someone literally left the church because they
said the pews are too close together. And I think they were too close
together, but what difference does it make? I mean, it didn't
bother me, it like helped me because I like to put my leg
up, you know, and it would like keep it from, anyway, I digress. But just, you know, it doesn't
matter what they say it is, I'm telling you right now, division
or leaving or whatever it is, and if somebody's just moving
or something, If there's a dispute, if there's a disagreement, it's
because Christ is not enough. You think about it every time.
Christ is not enough. Look forward at verses 23 and
24. This is what it was in this case. We preach Christ crucified. Unto
the Jews a 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. We preach Christ. And
if that's enough, if he's enough, what have you got to complain
about? What problem do you have in the church? That's the point
here now. Notice the three questions that
Paul asks in verse 13. These also, very critical, and
we'll look at them, Lord willing, in a minute here closely. But
all three of these questions have one point. You think about
what it is as we read them. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name
of Paul? It's pretty clear what the point
of all of those three questions is. And it is the point. It's what we read in 23 and 24.
It's the point of the church. It's why we're here. You came
here to hear Him preached. And these three questions are
clearly rhetorical and have one purpose, to point us back to
Christ. To glorify Him. To expose the
fact that this division is dishonoring to Him. That's the problem with
it. Division takes away from that. We preach Christ crucified. the
power, the wisdom, and the power of God. And that's why of necessity,
when something diminishes that, it's about that. That's the problem
with it. That's the reason it's bad. It's
not just because maybe somebody's feelings got hurt. That's not
good either, but that's not the point of this. That's why Paul asks these questions,
because what is happening warrants these questions being asked.
And please don't miss this now. All division and discord warrants
the same questions that all of these three amount to. Are we going to deny Christ for
the sake of our petty pride? Are we really going to do that? That's the question begged by
all three of those questions. Are we gonna let anything get
in the way of Christ and what he did for us and what we are
as a church? Is Christ divided? Talk about
that a little more in a minute, Lord willing. He said, be perfectly
joined together in two things. This is key now. This has practical
application right now, right here. He said, you'd be perfectly
joined together in two things, in mind and in judgment. Now, if we agree that Christ
is all, that truth is going to affect every decision we make,
together and separate, as it pertains to this church. I decide
what I say, how I deal with situations, What I say when I stand up here,
based on what? We're of one mind in this, Christ
is all, Christ is the point, Christ is salvation, Christ is
comfort, peace, rest, everything we need. He's why we're here. We agree on that and so we're
also unified in judgment, which is deciding. It's what we decide. When you
decide to pop off about something or somebody in a divisive way
or a derogatory way, say something, you made a decision to do that. When you decide that you're going
to behave yourself in a certain way, you're going to take this
attitude toward this or that or whatever it is. This is the
way I'm going to go. You just made a decision. We've
got to be together. If we're together in mind about
who Christ is and that he's all, then we should be together in
saying, let's don't do, say, or even think anything that would detract from the ministry. God help us. God help us. If we agree that Christ is all, then we will
not take pride in pedigree or prejudice. But God forbid, we'll
say with Paul, God forbid that we should glory. This is how
we reckon things. Because of what we know, you
see, mind, judgment. They go together. How I think,
is gonna determine what I decide. May what we think be all the same. Perfectly joined
together, he said, in those things. What we know and what we decide. Separately and together as a
church. If we agree that Christ is all,
then we will not pledge our allegiance to men, but to Christ. And you'll see that in the specific,
you're familiar with this passage, you know what they were arguing
about, what they were divided over. Knowing and agreeing that
our hope, all our hope, is that the Lord Jesus Christ died for
us, and that he is salvation. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? What answers that question? Who's
gonna condemn me? Who's gonna lay anything to my
charge? The answer to that question is this, Christ died for me.
That's all you need to know. That answers it, doesn't it?
How would you come up with a better answer than that? And so knowing that, agreeing
that, here's what we thus judge in the language of Paul in another
place, that we should not henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto
him which died for us and rose again. You see, knowledge of
the person and judgment concerning everything, they go together. Verse 11, back in our text. For it hath been declared unto
me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you. See, there was a buzz about
it. It was spread around. Everybody was like, what in the
world is going on over there? They've all got a problem with
one another. This may just seem to be the lowdown on how Paul
found out about this, but it causes us to consider what a
discouragement this must have been. Here, you know, Chloe is
coming to Paul with it and saying, or the house of Chloe, different
ones, maybe all of them together, I don't know. But with what heavy
heart must the house of Chloe have relayed to Paul the terrible condition
of this church? Every individual's actions and
words within a church affects everybody else. Have we not experienced that?
Has not every church experienced that? So not only are you not
looking to, and I'm not saying that that's true of us. I could
commend us in many cases regarding this. I'm just saying, this is
very important teaching. Very important teaching. So not only now, if we're willing,
in all of us, this is our evil nature. that we still have to
reckon with, with God's grace and help. We will look to ourselves and
honor ourselves and not the Lord. But not only that, we're hindering
others in that same regard. causing others to look to problems
and people rather than set your affection on things
above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. It's
discouraging, it's hindering. Verse 12, now this I say, that
every one of you saith, I'm of Paul and I of Apollos and I of
Cephas, An eye of Christ. Now this is the specific case.
We're coming to what he means by division in this case. All
types of, all the same elements are there, aren't they? The flesh,
pride, foolish pride and self-righteousness. Taking our eyes off of Christ
who is supreme in his glory and must. be looked at as such. But this is the specific case.
It became a matter of pride among them to be associated with different
men for whatever reasons in the gospel. It was probably based
on who was preaching when the Lord saved them. And whose style
of preaching maybe they prefer or they thought this one was
smarter than this one. You know they created these schisms And this separated them from
one another Look at a chapter 3 of 1st Corinthians verse 1 He's Addressing them in consideration
of this issue that was going on. Listen to what he says. And
I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but
as unto carnal, fleshly, even as unto babes in Christ. I fed
you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able
to bear it, neither yet now are you able, for you are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you
envying and strife and divisions, are you not carnal and walk as
men or natural men? You're walking like unbelievers. For while one saith I'm of Paul
and another I'm of Apollos, are you not carnal? Are you not fleshly? Are you not missing the point?
So that's what Paul was dealing with here. And then look at 2
Corinthians 12. In verse 20. 2 Corinthians 12, 20. For I fear,
lest when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and
that I shall be found unto you such as you would not, lest there
be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings,
swellings, tumults." So that word swelling is a puffing up
of the mind. We know what that is. So he saw
these things in them and he's warning them direly throughout
both of these letters. They were written apparently
close together. And he's dealing very strongly
with this issue and was gonna come and visit them and deal
with it strongly. Because it's just simply vital. Verse 13, back in our text, here's
these three questions that he asks. Is Christ divided? Now
these are rhetorical questions, the answers are obvious. Asking
them is not about receiving or conveying information. That's what you call a rhetorical,
you're not expecting an answer because it's a question to prove
a point, not to get information. Or it's about pointing out the obvious
in order to rebuke them. Christ divided is that what I'm
seeing is that what where we are By asking these questions Paul
is stating very clearly and pointedly that the problem with all that
they were doing is That Christ was being deeply dishonored by
it It's the dividing of the body of Christ again Do we Consider that as the church of the Lord. Is
Christ divided? God forbid. You're acting as
if it's just fine for the body of Christ to be divided. It's
necessary. You're saying by your actions
and your attitude, you're saying, well, it's necessary that we
be divided because those who are loyal to one man are just
not as informed. They're just, it's fine, they're
not lost or anything, they're just not as informed as we are.
They're not as perceptive, they're not as spiritual as we are. Or they would be in our group. Listen to 1 Corinthians 12, 12,
for as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members
of that one body being many are one body, So also is Christ. So you're acting like, now that's
just a fact. The body of Christ is one body,
so to act otherwise is to act like a lost person, like you're
not even part of the church. That's what he was saying. Now
you are the body of Christ and members in particular. We may
not have anything else in common. We have everything in common
if we have Christ in common if we think the same regarding him
and make our judgments regarding things Based on that knowledge
of him We are not Autonomous in this We are one One Lord one
faith one baptism one birth One hope of our calling. That's just
a fact. If we're his, if we are his church
indeed. And the division here is not
just a matter of people not getting along. It's a matter of Christ
being divided. There is no autonomy in the church.
We're many, we're not the same in many other ways, but when
it comes to him, his doctrine, His glory, His worship, His ministry. We are united. All who are His are one. And
we need to act like it for His glory. That's the exhortation here.
Anything else is carnal, fleshly pride. Only by pride cometh contention. That's a verse since I saw that
recently. I don't know that I can forget
that for a while now. We've got to search our own hearts
for the glory of the Lord. Fleshly pride, self-righteousness,
selfishness. Here's the second question. Was
Paul crucified for you? Clearly that's blasphemy. He's
not saying it in a blasphemous way. but he's pointing out to
them that to do what you're doing, you're honoring me and these
other men like they did something for you. Like they're the ones
that deserve your allegiance. Remember when Simon, when they
healed that, the two disciples healed that lame man, and everybody
gathered around and started praising them, you know, and looking at
them, and they said, why are you looking at us as though we
did anything? This is Jesus of Nazareth, whom
you crucify. That's what Paul is doing here.
The way you're acting suggests that you don't even know who
died for you. You don't know who deserves the
glory. The one you were of Christ was
crucified for you and you're gonna say, I'm of Paul? Really? The one you are of is the one
who loved you from eternity. That's who you're of, the one
who chose you, bought you to himself and saved you in every
way that a person can be saved. That's who you're of. He holds you in his hand right
now, lest you fall. That's who you're of. And you have no business saying
anything else otherwise. Again, all discord is a matter
of glorifying self and not Christ. Every time. Pride, only by pride. Saying I'm of Paul, Might be
glorifying Paul too inordinately, but the real point is I'm a little
better than you because my loyalty is in the right place and my
judgment is better than yours. Or you would agree with me. Also, you might think that those
that said I'm of Christ got it right. I wouldn't bet on that. If saying that was a way of them
separating themselves from their other brethren, then they were
just using Christ's name to promote themselves just like the others
were. I don't know, but Paul lumps
them in with all of the ones that are saying this and that
and the other thing because of the reason they were saying it.
It's true, we are of Christ, but if you're saying that, using
his name to promote division, you need to shut up just as bad
as everybody else does. Now, the very reason that you
can even be called part of the church or the member of a church
is because Christ died for you. And you're gonna distinguish
yourself from other sinners by using the name of another sinner Are you not carnal and walk as
a natural man? Someone who does not even know
the Lord. If we know the Lord and we all
agree in that knowledge, we're not going to reckon things that
way. We're going to honor and glorify him alone who saved us
with his precious blood. And then thirdly, were you baptized
in Paul's name? Now this teaches us something
about baptism. It also furthers Paul's point here about what is actually going
on. Now these were pledging their
allegiance to these various men that they associated themselves
with, but when a sinner is baptized, it's a confession of faith in
Christ. It is the confession of faith
in Christ. And it is a pledge of allegiance
to him alone. You're saying I'm his. I belong
to the one who died for me, was buried, and rose again. The one
who laid his life down of his own self and took it up again
that he might redeem me from sin and save me and make me acceptable
to God. And so that's what you're saying,
you're alleging, you're pledging your allegiance to him. And we're
in allegiance to one another in a sense, but Christ only is
our bond. He is our allegiance even to
one another. Compatible personalities is not
our bond. We're not all together here tonight
because we have a lot in common. We have the same personalities. Agreement on points of doctrine.
It's not our bond, though we might well agree. I
don't think I've ever had an argument or a dispute or even
a question with anybody here about doctrine. Superior intellect is not our
bond. We're not some kind of spiritual
Mensa group or any other kind. We rejoice
in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Your flesh, my flesh, all flesh
gets a vote of no confidence from us. Look at verses 14 through 16
together. You can see that these go together
as we read them. I thank God that I baptized none
of you, but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had
baptized in my own name. Apparently, one of the things
that divided these men was not only that maybe the Lord saved
them under the preaching of one or another different ones, but
different ones had baptized them. And they took that as a matter
of pride. And Paul is saying, I thank the
Lord. I didn't hardly baptize any of you, unless you say that
I was baptizing you in my name, unless you give me some kind
of glory for that. I baptized also, verse 16, the
house of Stephanas. Besides, I know not whether I
baptized any other. He wasn't keeping the record
of it. I forget who I've baptized, but I'll tell you this. Baptizing
some of you, many of you, is one of the greatest blessings
of my life. No question about that. When Paul says here in
the next verse, Christ didn't send me to baptize, he's not
saying it didn't rejoice his heart, not only to baptize sinners,
but to see them baptized. But the point is not the result
of the preaching. The point is the preaching. Because,
and here's what I'm saying, not a real result of the preaching
that God saved you, that is kind of the point, but what I'm saying
is we don't look for results. God didn't send me to get results. I've been involved in enough
church organizations to know that that's what this world's
religion is in the business of, results. I was a member of a
church once, and I was pretty close to the pastor, and I say
church loosely in this case. And the funding that you got
from the association, whatever it was, I think it was, it wasn't
the Southern Baptist Convention in this case, it was some kind
of, I think it was the World Baptist Fellowship. They would
send funding to the churches based on how many baptisms. I kid you not. That's what Paul's
talking about here. God didn't, the Lord didn't send
me to baptize. He sent me to preach the gospel.
That's the power of God unto salvation, not getting wet in
front of people. So that's what Paul is dealing
with here. He was thankful to the Lord that
he had not baptized very many of them in this case. in this
particular church because of what was going on there. That
would give those who said, I am of Paul, more reason to glorify
Paul. And it also might have resulted
in more of them saying that if he had baptized them. And so
he was glad it didn't happen that way. And as I said, now
baptizing many of you is something I consider to be maybe the greatest
honor and blessing of my life. What's better than that? What
a joyful thing. But Paul is making the point
here that instead of honoring the man or even the ordinance
itself of baptism, the whole point of baptism is honoring
him. That's what happens in there. We show forth his death until
he come. We personally confess Christ
crucified. Be hard pressed to point to a moment in your
life better than that. And I thank God that I baptized
some of you and was there when many, I was there when Janie
was baptized. What a blessing. What a glorious thing. I can't
ever forget that. That's the moment that a sinner
confessed to Christ saying, the Lord is my salvation. He's all
my hope. Verse 17, for Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect. Paul is not saying here that
he wasn't supposed to baptize anybody. We have examples of
people he did in order to refute that idea right there in the
text. Clearly, it was part of what
he did, but he's saying here clearly, and just as plain as he can,
that the point of the ministry of Christ is not results. Baptism, always remember this,
baptism is what has been replaced by religion with coming down
to the front and making a decision. You're not gonna find anybody
coming down anywhere and making decisions when they were saved
in the scriptures. You're not gonna find that. You're
not gonna find, you know, they've replaced, you know, raising
your hand and coming to the front. They've replaced baptism with
those things, making a decision for Jesus. We don't do that. That's not scriptural. You confess
Christ in baptism. That's how you confess Him. You
confess your sins in baptism. You confess, my only hope, I'm
so wretched that God had to die for me. And you confess Christ
crucified as your only hope, and that honors Him rather than
your decision making and your will. If all the focus is, oh,
you need to make that all-important decision, I bet I've heard that
a thousand times. Probably more than that. You
didn't even make that all up. Nobody looking around. Now raise
your hand if you, if you, you know, want to make a decision
for Jesus tonight, or if you want to rededicate your life
to the Lord. Raise your, nobody look. Nobody
looking. We don't want to embarrass anybody. We don't want to confess
Christ publicly. I mean, I was scared. You know,
what a horrible experience that would be. They, They pull them into that kind
of nonsense just a degree at a time. They're sneaky about
it. Sneaky about it. First of all, the only reason
they ever came to that church is because they got a basketball
court. And then while they're there,
you know, they shame them into saying, now, if you don't raise
your hand, basically you hate God and you're going to hell. And then when you raise your
hand now, they'll say like, if you raise your hand now, you
come down here and confess the Lord before everybody. Sneaky,
subtle. Nobody ever finds out who God
is, who Christ is, or how God saves a sinner. It's all about
the result. If 20 people got baptized that
week, it doesn't matter whether they bow to Christ as the sovereign
son of God or not. It's all about their names on
that list. Paul said, that ain't why I'm
here. They'll sing, I have decided
to follow Jesus about 800 times while everybody's coming down
to the front. God may have just decided to put you in hell while
you were deciding that. God's the one that makes the
decisions, not you. It's not of him that willeth
or of him that striveth, it's of God that showeth mercy. And
here's what unifies us now, the rest of verse 17. Look at this
beautiful language. And we're gonna spend more time,
this is a whole message in and of itself, almost certainly,
next time, if the Lord is willing and gives us some wisdom on this. But look at this. I'm here to
preach the gospel. And that works out real good
because you're here to hear the gospel. You want to hear the
good news of Christ and who he is. Isn't it good news that he's
not the little Jesus in the corner that religion talks about? Isn't
it good news tonight that you can go and cast yourself at the
feet of the sovereign son of God, who can do whatever he will. Lord, if you will, you can save
me. Lord, if you will, you can heal
me. Lord, if you will, you can save my children. Lord, if you
will, that dear friend of mine that just, he's blind as a bat
though, when it comes to the Lord and the things of God, have
mercy. If you want to, you can save
him right now. Lord, make him interested, cause
him to come and hear the gospel with me sometime and give him
faith in God's son. Boy, that's good. That's real
good news that he's sovereign and does as he pleases. It's
real good news that his precious blood actually saves sinners.
It's not a crapshoot. It's not making salvation available
to people that don't want it and never will without His grace.
Good news. Here's what unifies us. Here's
our bond now. Not who was preaching when we
believed or who's preaching we prefer, not who baptized us,
but it's the gospel we preach that brings us together. Christ
himself being the gospel. He is our bond. He is our unity. We are his body. If all you're
focusing on is decisions and getting people saved, as in our
text, how many were baptized this month, then you will compromise
the gospel and preach another gospel, which is not another.
But if you focus because of who you know, Your judgment is this,
let's glorify him. No matter what else happens here
tonight, let's preach the truth concerning him. Let's glorify
God and exalt his son in the salvation of sinners. And sinners
will confess him in God's good time and gracious providence. Sinners will confess him in baptism. As many as are ordained by the
Lord to eternal life will believe, and whosoever believeth and is
baptized." God said, I'll save them. Well, that's good news. Not with wisdom of man's words,
he said, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
We will, Lord will, and speak on this in more depth next time.
Wisdom of words here is any kind of language designed to impress
the flesh, puff up the intellect. Paul wrote to this same church
in 1 Corinthians 8.1, knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth
up. Does our preaching inform the
mind only? Is the point of our preaching
that we can say, I know more than them? Or is the result of our preaching that sinners fall in love with
the Savior? May God make it so. Amen.