The title of the lesson is Oneness,
Not Division. Oneness, Not Division. Now Paul,
he started out being gentle with the Corinthians. He loved them. And he is an example of how we
should deal with one another. He deals with them gently starting
out. And now he's going to address
one of several problems that was going on in this church. This is a church that if you and I were to go
back there and visit it, we might have a hard time believing it
was a church. They had so many problems. But
we have to remember also that they were just babes in Christ. They were just infants in Christ. And what God had brought them
out of, paganism, idolatry, to believe the gospel. My, what
a powerful, powerful work of God in that church. And something
else to notice here in the way Paul dealt with them, he does
not use his powers as an apostle, he could have said, I command
you, I command you. But as Paul, as Paul in his manner,
in his kindness and graciousness and handling the Lord's children,
he says, I beseech you. I beseech you. That's what he
says over in Romans 12. I beseech you by the mercies
of God. I beseech you. And here he says, I beseech you
in the name of Jesus Christ. Now that Paul has prepared them
for what he's about to deal with, and he's about to rebuke them.
But before he does that, it's like a parent, a good parent,
a wise parent who is going to deal with a problem that their
child has, and that parent says, come over here and sit down.
Let's talk. There's something I want to talk to you about.
And deals with it so wisely, so wisely. And Paul, like a skillful
surgeon, he's going to do surgery on this congregation, but he's
going to do it so skillfully and so kindly. And he says here
in verse 10, he says that there be no divisions among you. There's a problem here. There's
a problem. A problem of division. The ancient
Greek word for division is schismata. It's where we get the word schism
from. And we look at it as meaning
party or faction. But the true meaning of this
word is to tear or rend. And what he's saying here, stop ripping
each other apart. That's what he says, stop ripping
each other apart by your division, your factions. Quit doing damage
to the body of Christ. We are in the body of Christ
and we are one in the body of Christ. And to have division
in the body of Christ is nothing more than self-mutilation. That's
what Paul is saying you're doing. You're self-mutilating yourself. Stop doing that. Stop doing damage
to the body of Christ by your division. Now, the opposite of
division is what Paul says here to them. To be joined together. Not to be divided, but to be
joined together. To be of the same mind. As in the body of Christ, we
think alike. We think of the glory of Christ. We seek the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and we seek the good of one another. Be of the same mind. Be joined
together. Speak the same things. Our Lord said in John 17, He's praying for His people. He said He prayed for them that
they be one. He said, I pray that they be
one as we are one. Unity. But now here where he says, be
joined together of the same mind, same speech, but to be joined
together, here's the idea. The idea is that of bones being
broken or fractured. And they need to be joined together
again. And that's what he's saying.
You've been fractured. There's a fracture going on here.
and you need to be joined together, the body of Christ is not to
be broken or fractured. Even when our Lord was hanging
on the cross, and His visage was so marred more than any man,
not one bone was broken. He was tortured, He was tormented,
He was lashed, But not one bone was broken. The body of Christ
is not broken. And he's saying here, he's saying
here, mend this problem. Mend this problem. Get it taken care of. And he
says, I know this, and the reason I'm writing this is I know this.
This is not speculation. Some representatives of the house
of Chloe has come to me and told me that there's contention among
you. There's contention going on at
Corinth. Here's a woman who sees the evil
of what's going on, and she sends word to Paul. about what's going
on here. This woman had real spiritual
discernment. God had given this woman some
real spiritual discernment and she sees that this division is
destroying the witness of the gospel in Corinth and that it
is destroying the body of Christ there. What is one of Satan's
greatest tools? It's division. It's division. Now we're not talking about dividing
over the gospel. It wasn't the gospel they were
dividing over. It was, I'm of Paul. I am a disciple
of Paul. Well, I'm a disciple of Apollos. That's what they were dividing
over. Who? Let's say it this way, whose
pastor is the best pastor? Whose pastor is the best pastor?
I tell you whose pastor is the best pastor, the one God gave
you. The one God gave you. And not somebody else's. If God's given you a pastor,
if he's given another congregation a pastor, that's the best pastor
for that congregation. That's the best one for that
congregation. Now he says, there's contentions among you. The contentions
cause people in the church to divide up into these parties. As I said, I am a disciple of
Paul, and this is what they're saying. I am a disciple of Paul. Then others said, well, I'm a
disciple of Apollos. Apollos was a well-educated man,
well-spoken man. They said, I'm a disciple of
Apollos. And those said, well, I'm a disciple
of Cephas, of Peter. And then the other ones, these
are the super Christians. I'm a disciple of Christ. I don't
need any of those guys. Oh, yes, you do. Oh, yes, you
do. God has given men to preach the
gospel. God has given pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the body of Christ. So you don't go there and say,
well, I don't need anybody. I follow Christ. This is what
they're saying. I follow Christ. I don't follow
any man. Somebody told me, said to me,
said to me one time, said, you're just following Mahan. I said, what's your point? What's
your point? Paul said, follow me as I follow
Christ. Yes, I followed him, I followed
him as he followed Christ. I followed him in the preaching
of the gospel. And these last ones are saying,
we don't need Paul, don't need Apollos, we don't need Cephas,
we don't follow them, we follow Jesus Christ. Well, you can't
do without these men, because God's given these men, and he's
given, as I said, pastors and teachers. But what they're doing
here, each one is declaring to be of the right party. And it
caused division. They were dividing up, they were
taking sides, you know, it's kind of like spitting on our
hands and taking sides. And this is a tool, this is just
a tool of Satan to get the people's mind and the pastor off the gospel. to get them off the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Paul said, I have
determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. He is the message. He's the message. And every church, every congregation,
every local assembly is gonna have its problems. They're gonna
have their problems. I read a story this past week of an old Quaker. He said he went from one meeting
to another, never finding the true church. And someone once
said to him, well, what church are you in now? Because he was
going to try to find that perfect church with no trouble. He said,
I'm in the true church at last. And the man said, how many belong
to it? He said, just myself and my wife. And I'm not sure about
her. I'm not too sure about her. But if you're looking for the
perfect church or the perfect congregation where there's no
trouble, you ain't going to find it. You're not going to find
it. We have our problems. We have our problems. But Paul
says here, Paul says, this is not good. What you're
doing is not good. It's wrong. This dividing up
over your favorite preachers. And I know we have, I know that,
you know, we have, trying to figure out how to say this, but
we shouldn't have favorites, but we do. I know that. I know that. I know that some
men's preaching, the manner in which they deliver the message
is easier to listen to. There are just some men, when
I hear them preach, and it just may be me, but I get more out
of it. I might not put that out over there, but I do. I'm just being honest. Honest
as I can be. But it's just something that's
easier to listen to and I get more out of it, I do. And it does seem to me that sometimes
God has empowered some to preach the gospel in a way that others
are not preaching it. After saying that though, we
are to never make that an issue or to hold a man in such a manner
or to put him in such a lofty position that it's sinful, because
he's still just a sinner saved by grace. And his ability to
preach is of God, who is sufficient for these things. God is our
sufficiency. It's God who gives the ability
to preach. It's God who gives the power
to the message. I can't give power to a message. Shouting is not power in a message. It's not power. That doesn't
give power to a message. Power comes from God. The power
of preaching comes from God. And we recognize this and let
us not forget that, that it's of God. Matthew Poole said this, we are
not bound to make every minister our pastor, but we are to respect
every minister. We are to respect everyone whom
God puts in the ministry to preach the gospel, but we're not bound
to make them our pastor. And Paul asked this question
in verse 13, is Christ divided? You say, I'm a Paul, I'm a Paulus,
I'm a Cephas, and I'm of Christ. Is Christ divided? Is the body
of Christ divided? And what he's saying here, the
Lord Jesus Christ does not belong to any party. We belong to Him,
all of us. It's one body. You know, this
body here has different members. I have hands, arms, legs, feet,
and so on. It has many members, but really
what you're looking at is my body. It's my body. It's one body. It all functions
together. It all functions together. And
for my body to be divided, it wouldn't function anymore,
would it? It would not function if my body is divided. If my
right side wants to go to the right and my left side wants
to go to the left, I'm going to wind up not going anywhere.
It's what happens. It's not divided. Is Christ divided? Someone said, This is spiritual
elitism. I thought this was a good statement.
I never thought of it before, never read it before, but this
is spiritual elitism and is not acceptable no matter whose name
it's being done in. I'm of Paul. You know, they were
popping their suspenders when they were saying, I'm Paul, I'm
of Paulus, I'm of Cephas, and I'm of Christ. The body of Christ,
he says, is not divided, it's all one. What you're doing is
wrong. It's wrong. It's spiritual elitism
is what you're doing. Here's a serious question that
Paul asked them. Was Paul crucified for you? You say, I'm of Paul. You know,
you're making much of Paul, you're making much of Apollos, you're
making much of Cephas, Was Paul crucified for you? Baptized? Paul is showing here how foolish
it is to be focused on any one person other than Jesus Christ. If we focus on any one person
other than Christ, we are going to end up being disappointed. Because in one way or another,
we all fail. From the pulpit to the back pew.
In one way or another, we all fail. Jesus Christ is the only
one who cannot fail. Behold my servant, he shall not
fail. He shall not fail. And then in verses 14 through
17, Paul says, I thank God I baptized none of you. And then he remembered,
well, I did baptize a few, Crispus, Gaius, and a household of Stephanus. But I thank God that I baptized
only a few of you because it's easier to put out a small fire
than it is a big fire. There's just a few of them that
was baptized to Paul. Can you imagine this? He said,
I only baptized a household of Crispus and Gaius and Stephanus.
And that little household, that little party, I mean, just a
handful there. He said, I'm glad I just baptized
a few of you. Lest, and here's why, lest it
be thought that I was baptizing in my own name, that I was based,
in other words, that I was starting my own church or getting my own
following. Let me say this to you. Who baptizes you adds nothing. It adds absolutely nothing to
your salvation. Nothing. Well, I was baptized
to Paul. Who were you baptized by? It means nothing. You know what
really means everything in this matter of baptism? Is that the
Holy Spirit has baptized you into the body of Christ. Now
that matters. That matters. But who baptizes
me doesn't matter. It doesn't add anything to it,
is what I'm saying. It doesn't add to it. And Paul
said, I'm glad I didn't baptize hardly any of you. And he says here in verse 17,
for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Paul
was called to preach, not go around performing baptism. He said, God didn't call me to
go around performing baptism. And now Paul is not diminishing
the importance of baptism. He's not diminishing it. He's
not saying it's not important. You know, the Lord gave to the
church two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's table. And Paul
said, the Lord didn't call me just to perform these two ordinances.
He called me to preach the gospel. My responsibility, and listen,
my responsibility here as the pastor, first and foremost, is to preach Christ and Him crucified.
That's my first responsibility. And I have to be careful and
guarded that I don't let anything come in the way of that. that I don't get sidetracked
on something else. It's so easy for the preacher
to go or to get sidetracked if they don't give attention to
this. Christ sent me not to baptize
but to preach the gospel. And in preaching the gospel,
I'm not going to preach it with wisdom of words. And what he's saying here is
cleverness of speech. You know, a really good orator
can move. They can move a people. Now,
you really list a real good orator and the way he can use words,
it's like a master builder building a house. and they could literally,
just logically convince you to do something or to believe something
or to act on something by the power of their speech, the ability
to speak. And Paul says that I'm not preaching
the gospel and you know this, you know this, I didn't come
to you with wisdom of words, cleverness of speech. I didn't
use human intellect to persuade you to believe. I
didn't use human logic to persuade you to believe. You know, it's
something, for example, it's like human logic would be something
like, don't you want to go to heaven when you die? Wouldn't you rather go to heaven
when you die? Anybody's got enough sense coming out of the rain
would rather go to heaven When they die, they go under torment. That's human logic. Paul came to them from Athens. And it appears that it wasn't
what we would call, I'm gonna, I try to say it wasn't a lot
of success, but if one person was saved whom the Lord purposed
to save, that was successful, right? It accomplished God's
purpose. My word will not return to me
void. But he didn't have that congregation,
that much people in Athens that he has here in Corinth. But in
Athens, he had to deal with this Greek philosophy and all this
intellectualism. And when he comes to Corinth,
he comes to Corinth with this determination. I am determined
to preach the gospel to you. I am determined to preach nothing
else but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I am determined to
preach it and to preach it simply and to preach it as God has given
it to us. And he says, lest the cross of
Christ should be made of non-effect. Do you know there are ways of
preaching the cross of Christ that deprives it of its power? Using human reasoning instead
of God's plain word deprives it of its power. He said, lest
the cross of Christ should become ineffective by preaching it with
cleverness, with intellectualism, And Paul was very well educated. Paul could have used intellectualism
with him, but he didn't. He preached with the plainest
of preaching, speaking. I think one of the greatest compliments
any preacher can get is when someone says, your preaching is just so simple.
It's so simple. And not meaning that by that
stupid, but meaning by that it's so easy to grasp, to listen,
to listen to, to understand. We have to strive. I don't have
to strive too hard, but some have to strive to keep it simple. Just keep it simple, plain, plain. For the preaching of the cross
is foolishness, nonsense, nonsense to them that are perishing. It
makes no sense. To them that are perishing, preaching
justification by faith alone makes no sense. Preaching atonement
by the blood of another makes no sense. Preaching satisfaction
by the obedience of another makes no sense. To the world, that
makes no sense. But to us who are being saved,
it makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? To us who are being saved,
it's the power of God. It's the way God saved us. When the gospel comes in power, it changes lives. When the gospel
comes in power, as Paul said to those Thessalonians, you turn
from your idols to serve the living God. When God saved you, what was going on? That's what
Paul asked over in Galatians 3. When God saved you, what was
going on? I could tell you exactly what
was going on. The preaching of Christ and Him crucified. And God changed your life. you
heard the gospel, you gained an interest in Jesus Christ,
you sought mercy, you sought grace, you sought forgiveness. And that came through the preaching
of the gospel under the power of the Holy Spirit. We will see as we go through
this book, this church had a lot of problems. And the first one
that's dealt with is division. The body of Christ is not to
be divided. What's the old saying? And this
is Satan, divide and conquer. If you can divide them, you can
conquer them. He says, you're one, be one. The same mind, same
speech, be one. In all things in Christ, be one.
Let no division ever be among you. All right.