And then they write Paul, they
write Paul a letter, because there's many divisions among
the brethren. There's spiritual gift, there's divisions on spiritual
gifts. There's divisions on what you
could call preacher worship. There was factions that had been
set aside for certain preachers, vaulting up man instead of Christ.
And there was even a group that was vaulting up Christ in that
sense, but putting him among those men. So there's much division amongst
the brethren. And please note as we go through,
as we go through here, there's one, Paul doesn't chide them.
Now he gets into some doctrinal issues later on down the road
in the book, but at first he doesn't chide them. What does
he do? He refocuses them upon Christ. So note how many times
he mentions the word Christ, Lord Jesus Christ, how many times
he gets their minds set upon him. And that's the name of the
message is refocusing on Christ. Now many of the church were converted
under Paul's preaching. So he is a very heartfelt connection
with these folks. Look in verse one, it says, Paul
called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. There. It's like he's
taking a musical tuning fork, and think this, as we see the
name of Christ mentioned, he's taking a musical tuning fork,
and he's going ding, and he's focusing them right on our king.
Right on our king. Paul called to be an apostle
of Jesus Christ through the will of God. And Sonetheus, our brother,
Paul was called to be a preacher. He was called of God. He wasn't
called of his own will, but it was God's doing. God called Paul. And beloved, every blood-bought
saint of God is called. If you're here and you're saved,
you are called of God. It's his work. We would never
have come to him. if he hadn't called us. And notice right off the bat,
the first mention of Christ. Right off the bat. So he's focusing
them right on that which is most important. And it wasn't by chance,
you hear people talk about chance or luck, it was by the will of
God. There's no such, that's nonsense,
chance and luck. It's just nonsense. Spurgeon
said we Christians should cast the word luck out of their vocabulary,
because there's no such thing. And we saw in the verses and
Acts that it was God's will for Paul to go and preach to Corinth,
because he had much people in the city. Look at verse 2. Unto
the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified
in Christ Jesus. Ting, there it again. He's just
keeping them right on there. called to be saints, with all
that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our
Lord, both theirs and ours. Now this letter is written to
called ones. Called ones. The Greek word for
church is ekklesia. It means a called out assembly.
Every church is an ekklesia. They're called out ones. Called
out ones. And here again, Paul refocuses
them again. He tells him that the church
in Corinth is sanctified, made holy by Christ. He's our sanctification. He's our wisdom. He's our redemption. He's our all in all. This is
why we must focus upon him. This is why we must keep our
eyes on him. Vicki and I, this is a life thing
for us. And you know, Vicki's always
saying, laser beam on the Lord. And it's true. Just keep your
eyes on him. Keep your eyes on him. And notice here it says, called
to be saints. All God's people, all God's people
are saints. I remember telling my mom, who
was a Catholic, that I was a saint. She about fell over. She couldn't,
you know, don't say that. But the Bible says that. It's
not something I'm boasting in, just the Lord calls us saints.
And we had a false prophet going through our land, right? Who
supposedly says he has the power to make saints. Only God can
call people to be saints. Only God. Only Him. And so all God's people are saints.
And Paul also, in this verse here, he mentioned the universality
of the church. With all that in every place,
call upon the name of the Lord. So there's the church universal. Verse three. Grace be unto you
and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Again, do you see? You notice he's just keep hitting,
he's hitting that nail, isn't he? Every single time. Christ. And he says the Lord Jesus Christ.
And look here, it says grace unto you and peace. Beloved,
grace always precedes peace. No grace, no peace. But if the
Lord gives you grace, oh, you have peace. You have peace. And it's all from the Lord Jesus
Christ. Again, Paul just keeps chiming
out Christ to the brethren, just keeps chiming it out. Verse 4, I thank my God always
on your behalf. God's people are very thankful
people, very thankful people. For the grace of God, which is,
look at this, given you, you don't earn it. Grace isn't earned,
it's given. And it's a gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Doesn't that make your heart
rejoice? That's not based upon our doing. That's based upon
what Christ did, what He did. And Paul was very thankful for
the brethren, and we should be as well. We should be as well.
because we have been given the same grace as them. We've all
been given the same grace, and it's only in Christ. And it was
mercifully received. It's not what we deserve, but
we get mercy, mercy. Look at verse five. That in everything
ye are enriched by him, in all utterance and in all knowledge.
Beloved, all spiritual blessings are in Christ. They're nowhere
else, nowhere else. So again, he's just, he's keeping
their eyes set upon Christ. And notice, notice he hasn't
said that they're not saved. He hasn't said that, he hasn't
even rebuked them. He's just focusing them on Christ,
focusing them on him. And all spiritual blessings are
in Christ, and all those blessings are the result of God's grace
to us. And remember this too, look,
it says, in all utterance and in all knowledge, any knowledge
or light we receive comes from God, comes from Him. What we learn as preachers or
teachers, we pass on to others. Every preacher learns as he's
putting a sermon together. Every preacher's focusing his
eyes on Christ as he puts a message together. And what we learn,
we just pass on. And we're all taught of God.
We're all taught of God because therefore there's no room for
boast or pride. None. None. And it's wonderful. And God's people wouldn't have
it any other way. No other way. Look at verse 6 and 7. Even as
a testimony of Christ. Ting! There it is again. I love
it. Was confirmed in you, so that
ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Again, Paul mentions Christ again twice. And notice
also that they look for the second coming of Christ. Oh, don't we
yearn for our King to come back? And every believer has through
all the ages. And we yearn for Him. Even so,
come quickly, Lord. But it's in His timing. It's
in His timing. No man knows the hour of the
day. But He will come again. Verse 8. Who shall also confirm
you unto the end that ye may be blameless in the day of our
Lord Jesus Christ, So we saw earlier that God has set a people
apart, an ecclesia, a called out assembly. And they're in
Christ, they're nowhere else. And beloved, is this not great
comfort? Who shall confirm you unto the
end? Who he saves, he preserves. That he may be blameless in the
day of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Greek word for blameless
there, I looked in the normal fire and the normal definition,
And then I went to an expository dictionary and it said something
that just absolutely, it said without acquittal, it's not an
acquittal, it's as if it never happened. You're blameless. And Brother John mentioned something
when we were talking about it. As far as the East is from the
West, your sins are gone. Gone. Now that's great cause
for rejoicing for God's people. because it's being paid for in
Christ. So when we reach glory, we'll
be absolutely blameless. Now we're blameless before the
law of God now, but we still have the presence of sin, don't
we? Every one of us, we know we do. But there'll be one day
when we'll be totally blameless. We'll be in a place where there's
no sin. Jude says this, Jude verse 24. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling, there's the preservation. Who he saves,
he keeps. He keeps. And to present you,
okay, sinners, all of us. Those of us who are saved, sinners,
right? By nature, by choice, and by
birth. Jude 24 says, and to present you faultless. Faultless. Look at this, it continues. Before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. God will present
his people faultless with joy. Not just joy, exceeding joy.
Oh my. What a great salvation we have
in Christ. What a great God who can redeem
us and cleanse us from all our sin. All our sin. Oh, it's marvelous. In the Greek word for blameless, that cannot be called into account
unapprovable, unaccused, blameless. Good news. Good news for sinners. Good news. 1 Corinthians 1.9, God is faithful. By whom you were called into
the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Here are three
very comforting words for every believer. God is faithful. Or not always, but he is. He
is. He is. And that's a sure place to rest.
That's a sure place to rest. And Paul repeats this in chapter
10, verse 13. He repeats that God is faithful.
Joshua, after I had my hernia surgery, I'd been reading through
Corinthians, and I asked him just to read chapter 10 for me,
and this statement just jumped out at me. God is faithful. And it ministered to me. He's
faithful no matter what. No matter what. Even when things
don't always work out for what we thought, God's still faithful. He's still faithful. And it's such a blessing. May
we just burn that into our hearts, that our great King is faithful.
And we're called into fellowship in Jesus Christ our Lord. And
again, we don't make Him Lord. We've looked at that before a
few times ago when I was here. We don't make Him Lord. He's
already Lord. He's already Lord. And our unity, now we're going
to look at a couple verses here. Our unity, verse 10, is only
in Christ. It's only in Christ. Look, he
says, Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that ye all speak the same, that there be no divisions
among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment. So, Paul's gonna deal with some
division issues here now. And remember, unity is only in
Christ. It's nowhere else. Unity's only
in the gospel. It's only in the preaching of
Christ. Look at verse 11. For it hath
been declared unto me of you, My brethren, by them which are
of the house of Chloe, that there be contentions among you, striving. And this letter is in response
to Paul being informed of the divisions in the church. And
remember, these folks are very dear to him. Contentions in the great means
quarreling or arguing. Look at verse 12. Here we come
to the preacher factions. The commentators I read said
people had broken off into factions supporting different preachers.
And some of them aren't even the preachers. Not the preacher that they're
preaching to. Look at this. Now I say that every one of you
saith I am of Paul, I am of Paul, and I am of Cephas, and I'm a
Christ. As I said, we have folks dividing
into factions. headed by which preacher they
favored. And see, Paul, Paul, this is
why he's been chiming Christ. You see, it's wonderful. He's
not, even when we go through this, we're gonna see, he just
points them right to Christ again. So there's a Paul faction, and
there's an Apollos faction, and there's a Cephas, which is Peter,
faction. In a faction that seemed to be more pompous than the rest
and said, well, we're of Christ. So lumping Christ within those
men. But beloved, all believers belong
to Christ. So he should not be claimed as
another faction. Paul and Apollos and Cephas are
but servants of Christ. And every gospel preacher will
tell you, don't follow me. Love Christ. Love to Him. We're
just conduits. We just proclaim Christ. Now, we can love one another,
of course we do. Scripture says our hearts are
knit together in love. I'm not saying that, but Paul's
clearly seen here. We're going to see what Paul
says in the next verse. And remember, Christ is God in
the flesh. These other men are just men. Look at what Paul says. I love this. He says, is Christ
divided? No. Scripture says there's one
body and one head, and were many members. And look what he says. And then he says this, was Paul
crucified for you? No. No. And then he says, oh, were you
baptized in the name of Paul? No. Believers are united in Christ. This is where our unity comes
from, is Christ and him alone. For believers to be, think of
this too, for believers to be divided into the factions, contradicts
the very nature of the church. Because as I said, we are many
members but one body, one head, one preeminent one. He's the head, we're but the
body. So there's no place for factions
in the church. From what we see here, there
is no place for that. As I said, we can love preachers.
And there's many that we get along with and love. But as I
said, I bet you could talk to every preacher. They don't want
you to fall on them. They want you to fall on Christ. Fall on Christ. And that's our
hope, isn't it? That's our focus, isn't it? And
you guys have had faithful men come in and proclaim Christ.
That's what it's about. It's wonderful. And that's where
our unity comes, and that's where our joy comes, and the Lord just
knits your hearts together. And Paul asked, was I crucified for
you? Or were you baptized in the name
of Paul? And obviously the answer is no, no. Christ bore the justice
and law of God for his people. Christ was the sinner's substitute. Preachers are but servants of
God, saved just like every other one of God's people. It's wonderful.
We're just proclaiming the great things God has done for us, and
that you must flee to Christ. There's no other hope. Look what
he says in verse 14 and 16. I thank God that I baptized none
of you. He's thankful that he didn't
baptize any of them, because then they'd vault him up again.
He didn't want that. But Crispus and Gaius, lest any
should say that I had baptized in mine own name, and I baptized
unto the household of Stephanus beside, I know not whether I
baptized any other. And Paul continues to deal with
the division issues. And notice, he's not hammering
them, is he? He's not shearing the sheep.
That's not his job. He's gently rebuking them, but
he's not shearing them. He's pointing them to Christ.
Look at verse 17, and here we go. 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. So Paul
gets to the heart of the matter right here, right here. He states
that he is sent to preach the gospel, not with man's wisdom.
And remember the times, it's Greek. Greek philosophy is huge. Greek wisdom is huge. And he's
saying, no, you're not saved by that. You're saved by Christ,
the wisdom of God. And he preaches the plainness
of the gospel. Look at verse 18, for the preaching of the
cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us what's
saved is the power of God. Same word used in Roman 1.16,
the dynamite of God. The dynamite of God, it's the
power of God. God must move in order for us to be saved. Look at verse 19 and 20. For
it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and 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? So Paul showed them how God destroys
the wisdom of man. The wisdom of God utterly destroys
the wisdom of man. Isaiah says this in verse Chapter
29, verse 14, and most commentators believe this is where Paul is
quoting from. Therefore, behold, I will proceed
to do a marvelous work among the people, even a marvelous
work and a wonder, for the wisdom of the wise men shall perish,
and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. Isaiah
29, 14. He destroyed the wisdom of the
world. So, we can ask, where are the
worldly wise? Where are they? Where's Plato? Where's Socrates? Where's Aristotle? Gone. But our God still reigns. Our God still reigns. They have perished, but God still
reigns. Look at verse 21. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Man is spiritually blind
unless God reveals himself. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Beloved, what the world
considers foolish, this is the very thing that God uses to save
his people. Again, we see God's wisdom contrasted
with worldly wisdom. For the Jews require a sign,
verse 22, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. In the Gospels,
we constantly see the Jews seeking a sign, and the Lord refuses because
they don't believe the miracles he's done. It's right in front
of them, but they can't see. They don't have spiritual eyes.
And to the Greeks, it was absurd for them to think that God would
take flesh and die for the guilty. That's where it says the Greeks
seek after wisdom. But further back, it says that
it's foolishness to the Greeks. For them to think that, well,
they had many gods, but for them to think that God would become
a man was utterly foolish to them. Which leads right into our next
verse. But we preach Christ crucified. Paul was determined to preach
one thing. There it is again. Ting, again. Refocusing us. It's wonderful. But we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block, and unto the
Greeks foolishness. Beloved gospel preachers do not
preach themselves. They preach Christ. They preach
Christ. They don't promote themselves.
How do you measure a man's preaching? Who gets the glory? God or man? God or man? And as we looked at earlier,
to the Greeks it made no sense. No sense at all. But look at
verse 24, but unto them which are called a lot. And this is a constant vein that
he's been going through too. The called ones, the ekklesia,
the called out of sin. To them which are called, both
Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of
God. So let us marvel at this, that
God's people, and this here shows how the church is universal,
both Jews and Gentiles, both Jews and Gentiles. And beloved, but unto them which
are called, it's invincible calling. Irresistible. You can't resist
it. God will get his sheep. If you have loved ones and we
don't know who's saved or lost, right, we don't know, and we
pray for our lost ones, our lost loved ones, don't ever give up.
Keep praying until they breathe their last breath. Just keep
praying. Because if they're one of God's
sheep, he's gonna get them. He's gonna get them. Under them which are called,
Is Christ the power of God? Is He not the power of God to
you who believe? Is He not everything? If you're saved, you know you
didn't do anything. You know it was all by God's grace and
mercy. And it fills us with joy. Because it's not based upon our
doing. But it's based upon what Christ has done. What He's done. May God give us who believe grace
to continuously flee to him. And if you don't know Christ,
may God grant you faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved.