1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul
called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God
and Sosthenes, our brother, unto the church of God which is at
Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be
saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus
Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you and
peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I
thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is
given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything ye are enriched
by him in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony
of Christ was confirmed in you, so that ye come behind in no
gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the
day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom ye were
called unto the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the
same thing. that there be no divisions among
you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment. For it had been declared unto
me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions, or quarrels, among you. Now this
I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of
Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is 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 Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had
baptized in my own name. And I baptized also the household
of Stephanas. Besides, I know not whether I
baptized any other. 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. For the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.
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. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But 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. Because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. For ye see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. And base things of the world
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh
should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord." Now Paul begins his letter to the
Corinthians in much the same fashion in which he begins many
of his letters. And you know, he said to these
same Corinthians that he was not mighty in speech when he
was among them. In fact, he said he was weak.
And they considered that he was not that great of a preacher
or an orator when he was with them, but they said his letters
were powerful. So he was given the gift of writing
powerful letters But we know also by what he said, it's not
the words that he spoke when he was with them, but the power
that came with it. Because one thing, it is a true
thing, and that is that the power of God in the Word of God cannot
be resisted by the people of God. Now, the men of the world
out there, the Word of God can roll off of their back like a
duck. It just has no effect on them. You know, there's plenty
of preachers that try to scare folks, and they try to threaten
folks, and they try to do all sorts of things. But it really
is to no avail. You might scare a man into making
some sort of a decision in the flesh. You might get him to agree
with you for a while, but after a while, when he's away from
you, all that stuff will wear off. But you see, when the Lord
causes the Word of God to take root in a man's soul, then that
becomes a precious thing to him. And he may even try to ignore
it. See, the world, they don't try
to ignore the Word of God. They just have no concern for
it. Oftentimes, God's people, because of the flesh we still
dwell in and dwells in us, we might try to ignore the Word
of God. But you can't ignore the Word of God if the Spirit
of God is in you, because He'll bring it to your mind. Now you
might think you're getting by and you're going down the road
and you're not thinking about it that much, but the Lord, when
His time's right, He'll bring it to your mind. He'll make you
aware of what the truth is. And the other thing is He'll
make you know that it's the truth. Now you see, the men of the world,
they dispute. and whether or not the Word of
God is true. I mean, how are you going to prove to a man that
the Bible is true? Now, there are plenty of books
that have been written on that, how to prove that the Bible is
true. Well, you cannot prove the Bible
is true to a man who does not believe it. It is impossible. How does a man get to the place
where he believes that the Bible is the Word of God? There is
only one answer. It's because of the mercy of
God. It's because of the grace of God. It opens the mind and
the heart to receive it. And so it is that Paul comes
and he's preaching and teaching to these Corinthians the Word
of God. Paul called to be an apostle
through the will of God. Now let me ask you something. Can something occur in the world
that is not according to the will of God? No, I couldn't. Now, there's plenty of things
I can't understand, and I wouldn't sit up here today and try to
explain to you how all those things are, but I know this,
that the God of this Bible, He says that He does according to
His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And there is none that can stay his hand or say
unto him, What doest thou? So Paul says, I am an apostle,
not according to my will. Paul wasn't willing to be an
apostle, was he? I mean, he was threatening, breathing
out threatenings and slaughters against the people of God. He
was going down to Damascus with letters in his hand to have some
of them killed. He wasn't an apostle by the will
of Paul. He was an apostle by the will
of God. And dear brethren, when God's
willing for something to occur, I guarantee you one thing, it
will happen. I mean, that's going to occur.
It's going to be according to the will of God. And then he
says, Sosthenes, our brother, is with us. Now you know the
love of the brethren is that which is wrought again by the
Spirit of God. I mean, you can't love the people
of God by yourself. I mean, it's not amazing to me
when I am out here in the world that the world doesn't want to
be around the people of God. I mean, because that kind of
rubs them the wrong way. I mean, we have opinions about
things that they don't share. And so consequently, we're at
odds with them. But when the Lord is pleased
to give brethren a love for one another, Then they love fellowship
one with the other. That's just the way that it is.
And so Paul mentions Sosthenes, his brother, unto the church
of God, which is at Corinth. Now, you know, some have taken
that name, the church of God, and painted it on a sign. But
you can't become the church of God by painting it on a sign. I mean, you can call yourself
anything you want to, But that's not going to make it so. I mean,
we can call ourselves whatever we want to be, but it's not necessarily
true. It's like that song we sang there
a moment ago. Let us ask the important question,
brethren, be not too secure, what it is to be a Christian.
Now that is the place where we ought to be seeking to find,
not taking comfort in what we claim to be. but desiring that
we might find that which the Lord has made to occur unto the
church of God which is at Corinth. And that is really how churches
ought to be named. I mean, we're the church at Grace
Chapel. We're not Grace Chapel Church
or whatever. We're the church of God at Grace
Chapel. if indeed we be the followers
of Christ. Now we can call ourselves that,
but that doesn't make it so, does it? Only the grace of God
can make it so. The church of God which is at
Corinth, that is, and he's speaking about a local church, he's speaking
about the fact that the Lord has a people which he calls his
church and they are scattered abroad upon the earth. And they
meet at various locations according to His purpose. The church of
God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ
Jesus. Now when I was growing up, I
remember there was some folks they used to talk about they
were going to get sanctified. And you still hear that from
time to time, somebody, they claim, well, I believed in Christ,
but now I'm going to go get sanctified. Well, dear brethren, the only
sanctification that we have is that which is ours in Christ. We're sanctified in Christ. We're
sanctified by Christ. And the word sanctified simply
means to be set apart, a peculiar people, a people who are unlike. of the rest of the world unto
the church of God, which is according to them that are sanctified in
Christ Jesus." He's not talking about a particular group that's
within the church at Corinth, but he's talking about the church
at Corinth, those people who were set apart by Jesus Christ
according to His purpose, called to be saints. Now, we read that passage every
now and then in Romans 828 I believe it is. For we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
who are thee called according to His purpose. Now sometimes
people leave out the thee. That's a bad mistake because
the thee is there. It is a specific people that
the Lord calls all things to work together for their good.
It is the church of God, whether it is at Corinth, or whether
it is at Brantford, or whether it is in Nigeria, or whether
it is at Live Oak, or whether it is O'Brien, it does not matter.
The Lord has a people that He has set apart. He has sanctified
them. He has loved them with an everlasting
love, and they belong to Him. And they have been called to
be saints. Now, we believe, as the Scripture
would indicate, that the Lord has loved His people from before
the foundation of the world. But they have not always been
called to be saints, have they? Because you see, a calling is
something that you hear. When your mama called you for
supper, you could hear. That was a calling, was it not?
I mean, when you were out in the yard playing, You didn't
run in the house for supper because you wasn't thinking about supper.
But when your mother said, Supper's ready, then she called you and
you came. If you knew what was good for
you, you did. And so when she called, you came. And so it is that the people
of God, it says right here, they're called to be saints. And that
is, there is a calling out of those whom the Lord has loved
from before the foundation of the world. It is a work of God. And He is that one who calls
men. Now, can I explain how that occurs? Not exactly. I mean, talking
to this brother from Russia, or he's actually from Venezuela
originally, but, you know, the Lord called him without anybody
being around. I mean, he just became so depressed
and he began to read the Word of God. Now, who caused him to
read the Word of God? I mean, why did he do that? Why
didn't he read somebody's book? Or why didn't he read that book?
Now some would say, well, he just decided to do it. Well,
he did decide to do it. I can't argue with that. He did
decide to do it. He saw the book and he picked
it up and he started to read it. But why did he do that? He
did that because of the grace of God that put him in the right
place at the right time and the right book in his hands. And
it caused him to read it. Now there's a multitude of people
that have read the Bible over and over again but don't know
what it is. But he, in his time, is able
to call his people through that book. Now why did he believe
it? Because of the grace of God.
Those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints, called
with all that in every place, called upon the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ our Lord. Now see what he says here? He
says, you here at Corinth who are called to be saints, and
the same calling, same one. See, the Lord doesn't call some
people to be one kind of a Christian and some people to be called
to be another kind. There's only one kind, that those
that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, set apart and called. And it is because they're set
apart that they are called. There's no other kind of calling.
There's no other people that are called. except those whom
the Lord our God shall call, even as Peter said on the day
of Pentecost. He said the promise is unto you
and to your children, even as many as the Lord our God shall
call. And that is what he is speaking
about here, that they are called to be saints with all that in
every place, called upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we are called by the Lord. There is a two-fold calling taking
place here. He says we are called to be saints,
but he said we are calling upon the Lord. Now the evidence that
a man is called by the Lord is that he will call upon the Lord. Isn't that amazing how that works?
I mean, a man won't call upon the Lord until the Lord has called
him. Now, you can get a man to sign
a paper, you can get him to fill out a certificate, you can do
all kinds of things. And he can go through the motions
and he can say some things. But until a man is brokenhearted
by the Spirit of God teaching him what he is by nature, And
who Christ is, he will not call upon the name of the Lord. Now,
if you know you've got a certain kind of a disease, you're not going to come calling
on me. You're not going to come down to Brantford Park City and
say, look, I've got cancer and I need for you to help me. Are
you? Because you know there's nothing
in the store there that's going to help you with that. No, you're
going to call on somebody that you think might help you. You're
going to go to a doctor that's trained in that sort of thing
and you're going to call on him. And so it is in the same fashion
that when a man is made aware of what he is by nature and who
the solution to his problem is, he's going to begin to call on
that. He doesn't necessarily know what the solution to his
problem is. But somehow or other, the Spirit
of God will teach a man who it is that he's called upon, and
he will begin to call upon the Lord. But keep this in mind that
he doesn't begin that process until the Lord has called him.
And so when the Lord calls him, then in every place they call
upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord, Jesus Christ
our Lord, both theirs and ours. Now all of the people of God
who are the people of God, who are the called according to His
purpose, are all calling upon the same Lord. Now, that doesn't
mean that everybody that says, Lord, Lord, is calling upon the
Lord. Because the Lord plainly said
in the seventh chapter of Matthew, Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
which doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Now who are
they that do the will of the Father which is in heaven but
those who are called by Him who call upon Him? And so the Lord
will not forsake those that call upon Him. But because a man says
that he calls upon Him does not mean that he does, but it is
the work of the Spirit of God in a man that calls him to call.
And so that is what he is saying there. Every place call upon
the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. There is only one Lord, one faith,
one baptism. There is only one. He stood before His disciples
and He says, I am the way, the truth and the life. Now there
was an uproar the other day. I saw a headline somewhere It
was online, but somebody had really taken issue with this
fellow who had put on a church somewhere out on the marquee
that there is only one God and His name is not Allah. And some
people got all upset. Oh no, we are all calling on
the same God. Dear brethren, the Lord Jesus said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me." Now, you can call on any name you want to call on,
but those who are the called according to God's purpose are
those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what he says right here. They're called and they call. Not just our Lord, both theirs
and ours. Now one of my pet peeves is when
people say the term, y'all forgive me, my Jesus. Now I don't know why that rankles
me so bad, but I hate to hear that. So if you're in the habit
of saying that, please don't say it around me, okay? Because
He's not your Jesus, okay? He's not my Jesus. He is the
eternal God. He is that One who is Himself. He is our Lord. If you want to
say, My Lord, I don't have any problem with that. My Master,
My King. But you see, that term is often
used like, I've got a little special insight with Him. Well, Paul says, listen, all
of those who call upon the name of the Lord call upon the same
One. He is ours. He is that One who
has given Himself for us and we call upon Him, but He is not
ours, both theirs and ours. Grace be
unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ.