Now, the city of Corinth that
Paul wrote this where he wrote this letter to was a seaport
city. At that time, it was a great
center of trade and commerce. And because of that, it became
a very wealthy city. And also, it was a city at that
time known for fornication. Someone that used the phrase
a Corinthian woman was referring to a prostitute. And this city, with all this
going on, was the city where the Lord sent the gospel. He
sent the apostle Paul to this city, which tells me grace has
always been for the guilty. There are some guilty folks here
and the Lord sent the gospel there and a very large church
was formed in this city. If you look over Acts 18, here's
where Paul first came to Corinth. In Acts 18, verse 7, And he departed thence, and entered
into a certain man's house, named Justice, one that worshipped
God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus,
the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all
his house, and many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in
the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not
thy peace, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee
to hurt For I have much people in this city. And he continued
there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among
them. Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching the word
of God among them because, Lord, I have much people in that city.
And I guarantee you this, those much people were called out. They were called to faith in
Christ. They heard the gospel and they believed it. And a very
large church was formed in this city. Now, without question,
the people here in this city were greatly blessed of God.
But they, you know the story, the church at Corinth, they still,
despite the great blessing that the Lord gave them, they still
fell into some gross error. Error of doctrine, error of conduct. They fell into that because of
false teachers that crept in among them, and also because
of the influence of the sinful city that they lived in. And
Paul's writing this letter to correct those errors. And this
letter is not just written for their learning, it's written
for our learning, that we could hopefully learn to avoid some
of these things. And when situations like this crop up, God's word
teaches us how to handle these situations. And we think, well,
that's not going to happen here. What happened at this mighty
church of Corinth, it could happen anywhere. So these things are
written for our learning. That's what we hope to learn
here in this study of 1 and 2 Corinthians. So he begins in chapter 1 of
1 Corinthians, and he says, 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. He's the Lord of both their Lord
and He's our Lord. Now, this is Paul's normal salutation. And the Corinthians knew full
well Paul's apostleship. They knew him. He was there with
them every day for a year and a half, preaching to them. They
listened to him preach for a year and a half. They knew the gift
of the ministry that God had given the apostle Paul. But he
still pointed out that he's the apostle. And you know this, we'll
see this as we go through there. He may have pointed out that
he was an apostle because false prophets had come to the people
questioning Paul's apostleship, questioning his apostolic authority
and questioning his message. That's one of the errors that
Paul will deal with in this letter. But he's an apostle and he's
Sosthenes, our brother, was with Paul. He was a ruler of the Jews,
had been converted and believed Christ. He's with Paul at this
time. And he's writing to the church
at Corinth. The collection of believers that God had called
out there met in that city. Most all of them had been converted
under the ministry of Paul during that year and a half. So Paul
knew them. He loved them. He watched the
Lord reveal himself to them. He loved them. He knew them.
And he says that they're sanctified. They've been set apart and made
holy, set apart for God's holy use. And that's the description
of every believer, not just these at Corinth, but every believer.
They've been set apart by God from all of eternity. When God
elected them unto salvation, he chose them. He set them apart
from Adam's holy race, from his Adam's fallen race, and made
them part of Christ's holy race. He put them in his son and they've
been made holy in Christ. They've been washed in the blood
of Christ, clothed in the righteousness of Christ. They're sanctified.
That new man that's born and a believer is holy, made holy
in Christ. And we have to remember now,
this is in Christ. Paul said in Hebrews 10, for
by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified,
or sanctified by the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul says, secondly,
they're called to be saints. Now, you know, we think of saints
as somebody that lived a long, long, long time ago, who is somehow
superhuman and lived a holy life different from you and me. I thought when I was driving
over here this morning, saints are always dead. Usually they've
been dead a long time because somebody's reputation typically
improves when they die. You know, this, what they really,
you know, nobody thought they were a saint when they were around,
but after they've been dead a while, you know, we kind of remember
them more fondly than we did when they were here. That's how
they got to be called a saint, you know, by some group of men
that sat around and decided to name them a saint. But saints
are real human beings, not just dead ones. Paul's not writing
to dead people. He's writing to the church, the
people that meet at Corinth, and he calls them saints. They've been made holy in Christ. It's not, you know, the patron
saint of lost causes or something. It's Saint Cecil. Saints. That's who believers are. We've
been called to be saints. Called through the Gospel by
God the Holy Spirit. Calling us to faith and repentance. Now, we weren't born that way.
These Corinthians weren't born that way. They were born just
exactly like you and me. Falling in Adam. Born unholy
and unclean. But God called them to His Son
and made them holy. He made them a saint. And Paul
addresses this letter also to all believers, everywhere, who
call on the name of Christ. They're sanctified, called to
be saints, just like these Corinthian believers. That's who he's writing
to. And this is interesting. Now, you know the story of these
Corinthian believers, and the believers now have fallen into
many different kinds of errors. But they're still called sanctified. They're still called saints,
despite how they'd fallen. I'm telling you, salvation is
all of grace. I mean, every iota, every minute
detail of salvation is by grace from beginning to end and everywhere
in between. At no moment do we keep ourselves. It's all of grace, even that
despite the many times that we fall, even after the Lord reveals
himself to us, it's of grace. It's of his keeping grace. And this is good for us to remember.
It's good for us to remember for ourselves when we fall, so
maybe we won't be quite so hard on ourselves and certainly on
our brethren when we see our brethren fall. Don't be quite
so hard on them now. Even believers fall. They fall
into different types of sinful behavior. But here's the key. A child of God can be corrected. This behavior didn't continue
after this letter was read at the Church of Corinth. It didn't
continue because sheep can be corrected and led. You can't
correct a goat, but you can a sheep. God's word will correct a sheep
and correct these different ways that we fall. That's why it's
so important that we constantly read the Word and study the Word
and preach the Word, because it's the Word that corrects and
guides us. Now, verse three, he goes on,
he says, Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and
from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Paul gives his usual salutation
and then he gives his usual prayer that he puts at the start of
all his epistles. But you know what? He may as
well give this usual prayer. because it can't be improved
upon. He gives this prayer to everyone that he writes to because
you can't improve on the prayer for grace and peace. He prays
that these people would have grace from God, unmerited favor,
undeserved favor, getting what we don't deserve. Now, that's
a blessing, grace. That's a good thing to pray for.
And he prays that we'd have peace, peace with God, Peace in our
own hearts and peace with one another. And I say this prayer
cannot be improved upon. The longer I live, the more I'm
exposed, the more time I spend exposed to this world, the more
I long for grace and peace. Just long for it. The more I
learn of myself, the more I see of myself and the world that
I live in, The more I long for the grace of God to cover me,
the more I long for God's grace every moment, the more I learn
of myself, the more time I spend in this world, the more precious
peace becomes to me. To have a life of peace, to despite
this horrible world that we live in, to have peace in the heart,
to see everything that's going on around us, to still have peace,
to have peace with God. The more I learn of myself, the
more amazed I become that I could have peace with God. The more
I long for that, the more I enjoy the moments of peace in the heart,
the peace of the soul, because I'm telling you the truth that
cannot be found anywhere in this world. The only place you'll
find grace, the only place you'll find peace, is from God, through
the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, this prayer can't be
improved upon, can it? Grace and peace. He goes on in
verse 4, he says, I thank my God always on your behalf. Every time I think of you, I
thank my God for you. For the grace of God which is
given unto you by Christ Jesus. Now, Paul prayed for grace. He
prayed for more grace. But he was careful to give thanks
for the grace that the Lord had already given them. They had
already been just overflowed with God's grace. And that applies
to us too. It applies to every believer.
You think of the grace that God's bestowed upon us. Electing grace. That's undeserved. Electing grace. God would choose you, put you
in his Son. Calling grace. That God would
take the time to send His servant to call you through the preaching
of the gospel. Saving grace. That He would give you, as a
free gift of His grace, faith in His Son. Saving grace. That
He would send His Son to shed His blood to die to save your
soul. Saving grace. Regenerating grace. That the Spirit would move in
miraculous power and give you life. Eternal life. Life you cannot lose. Justifying
grace. Despite all of our sin, to be
justified. All our sin put away. That's
grace. Keeping grace. Not just that
the Lord calls you, then leaves you alone to run the rest of
the race. It's keeping grace that keeps
you and preserves you to the end. And then there are all the
graces of the Spirit that the Lord gives. He gives repentance.
That's a gift of grace. Faith in Christ. Love for God. Love for his people. That's a
gift of the Spirit. And the Lord gave many gifts
of the Spirit to this group at Corinth. We'll see this as we
go through the epistle. They were gifted beyond just
unusually in preaching. They had the gift of tongues.
The gift of giving and they're just renowned for the gifts that
the Lord had given them. And you think about those gifts
of grace that the Lord's given us. How we should be a thankful
people, thankful for the abundance of grace the Lord had given us,
because I promise you, we didn't deserve any of it. Quite the
opposite, we deserve judgment. But the Lord gave grace. Because
that's his character, to be gracious. He gave us this gift as a free
gift of his sovereign grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. Look over
at chapter 4 here, 1 Corinthians. And we need to be thankful. Don't get puffed up because the
Lord's given us a gift. Look what he says in chapter
4, verse 7. Now who maketh thee to differ
from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?
Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou
hast not received it? Why do you glory as if you've
made this up of yourself? Be thankful. Don't glory in it.
Be thankful. Because everything we have is
a gift from God. Now, verse 5, back in our text
here in chapter 1, he goes on giving thanks that in everything
ye are enriched by him in all utterance and all knowledge.
Now, Paul's still giving thanks. He says, you are enriched. in
every way. You've been spiritually enriched. And that applies to every believer. Sinners. We're born, you think
of how we're born, sinners. Morally, spiritually bankrupt. Void of anything good. Void of
any value whatsoever. Yet, in Christ, we're made rich. Look over 2 Corinthians 8. Here's
how we're made rich. Here's how we're enriched. 2
Corinthians 8, verse 9. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, he has all intrinsic
value in himself. He's rich beyond words. Yet, for your sakes, He became
poor that ye through his poverty might be enriched. We are enriched
in Christ because he took our place. He traded places with
us and gave us everything that he is, everything that he has.
We've been enriched in Christ. But this church at Corinth is
also enriched in many different gifts, many different spiritual
gifts. If you're still there in chapter
8 of 2 Corinthians, look up at verse 7. Paul says, therefore,
as you abound in everything, you abound in every gift, in
faith, in utterance and in knowledge and in all diligence and in your
love to us, see that you abound in this grace also. And he's
talking about they're the grace of giving. These folks were just
gifted, enriched in the ability to preach, teach the word, They
were enriched in faith, faith to Christ. They had unusual knowledge
of the Scriptures. They were given the gift of diligence
and worship diligence and following Christ. They were given a love
for Christ, a special love for believers. And I bet after they
read this, what Paul has to say in 2 Corinthians 8 about giving,
they abounded in giving as well. The Lord enriched them. And those
things are gifts from God. Those things do not come naturally
to man. We're not born with faith. Faith
is not natural to a human being. We're not born with any knowledge
of the scripture, any knowledge of who God is. This is a closed
book to us until God opens our eyes, gives us a gift to understand
it. We're not born with any diligence,
any desire to worship God or follow Christ in any way. We're
not born with a heart that loves anybody but ourselves. We're
born with a heart that is hateful, deceitful. We're born selfish. We're surely not born with a
heart that's giving. It's selfish. It wants to keep
everything for ourselves. Those things are gifts of God. That's why the Lord gives a new
nature. A nature that has faith. A nature
that has some understanding of the Scripture. that seeks God's
will, seeks His way, a nature that loves Christ, that loves
one another. Those things are gifts of God.
And some people are more gifted in those areas than others. Some
people do have stronger faith than others. But we should be
thankful for whatever the Lord's given, whatever level of the
gift He's given us, we should be thankful and pray that the
Lord would increase it. He increased those gifts to the
believers in Corinthian. And of course, maybe he would
us too. Could be. Maybe he would if we'd ask for
it. Might be. Well, verse 6, back in chapter
1. He says, you're gifted in all utterance and knowledge,
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. Now, he's
still giving facts here. He said, not only do you believe
the gospel, They believed the truth of the gospel. They believed
the different doctrines of the gospel, the truths of those things.
But it went more than that. This is not just a head knowledge.
This is a heart knowledge. It's confirmed in you, Paul says. The gospel was confirmed and
established in their hearts. Despite the areas that they'd
fallen, these things were established, confirmed in them. In verse 7
he says, Come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ. This church was so blessed in
an unusual way. Paul said, you're second to none
in all these gifts of the Spirit. Second to none. And they were
truly looking to Christ. They were looking to him and
they were already looking for the return of Christ. Just like
we studied in 2 Peter last night. These folks believed the promise
of his coming, and they were already looking for him, waiting
for him. They were waiting and desiring
to be made perfect because they knew when Christ appears, then
I'll be made like him. They were looking for him. Despite
all the gifts that they had, they weren't full of themselves
and thinking they were already perfect. They were anxiously
waiting the coming of Christ because they desired to be made
like him. Now, you read those first verses
in Paul's salutation and description of these folks. Man, that sounds
like utopia, doesn't it? I mean, my goodness sakes, they're
blessed with all utterance and all the ability to preach and
understand the Scriptures. They're blessed with how much
they love one another. Just the faith that they all
had towards Christ. It just must have been wonderful
to be with that group. I mean, it just sounds like utopia.
I wish I could go there. Well, it may have been. It probably
was for a time. But you know, no matter how much
the Lord blesses, what situations He may put us in that are very
beneficial, sin is still in this world, and it's still in us.
Now, we've been cleansed from all of our sin. All of our sin
has been put away under the blood of Christ, but there's still
a sinful nature in us. And we'll ruin anything. I mean,
just absolutely ruin anything. There is no utopia here. The
closest thing that ever has been to utopia was the garden that
God put Adam in. And he ruined it, didn't he?
Just ruined it. That utopia became cursed for
Adam's sake, because of his sin. And we have Adam's nature. We'll
still ruin anything if God allows it. And that's what had begun
to happen here in Corinth, which is why this letter that Paul
was writing then became necessary. Now verse 8 says, You are looking
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. Now these folks are like us,
waiting for the coming of Christ, waiting to be made like Him.
That's our desire. And Paul assures them, he assures
us, you will have your heart's desire one day, and you're going
to have it. You'll be made like Him. We might think, boy, that's a
long way away. That's a long way away. I've
got to go through a lot of dark valleys between now and then.
I've got to go through many hard trials, just like some of you
are going through now. How am I going to make it? Sometimes
I worry. I don't even worry about how
I'm going to make it to the next number of years until Christ
comes for me. How am I going to make it through today? How
am I going to make it through tomorrow? This is dark. This
is deep. What am I going to do? I have
to go through many days left that are filled with sin, sorrow,
sickness, disappointment, heartache, days of uncertainty. It's so
uncertain. How am I going to be certain
that I really will make it to that day, the day that Christ
returns? Because the Lord will not leave
you nor forsake you, because He will keep you to the end. You trust in him. You'll be disappointed
in everything you ever see, every person you ever meet and come
to love. In this world, you'll be disappointed
in him someday. Just give it long enough. You
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You will never be disappointed. The day of his return will not
be a day of disappointment to you. It will be a day of joy.
Every believer will be kept and confirmed unto the end because
the Lord will keep us. He's begun a good work in you.
You can rest assured He'll finish it. That's so. The work of God
is eternal. The love He has for His people
is eternal. He's not going to stop. Now or
ever. His grace is eternal. It gives
eternal life. You'll have it. He'll come for
you. You'll have it. The gift of all the gifts of
the Spirit are without repentance. He's not going to take them back
because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
If the Lord's called you, He'll not cast you out. He'll keep
you to the end, to the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the day of His return. And the day of His return, when
He comes to judge the world in righteousness, the righteous
judge is going to call you blameless. If you trust in Christ, He's
going to call you blameless. Blameless because you've been
washed in the blood of Christ. Your blame has been washed away.
The righteousness of Christ is imputed to you. You stand before
God righteous and you're blameless. And if you're blameless in that
day, you're blameless right now. I don't feel blameless. I blame
myself for a lot, don't you? Either Christ bore your blame
or he didn't. It's one or the other. And if
Christ bore your blame, you're blameless. Look at Ephesians
chapter 1. If Christ bore your blame, you
are blameless. Ephesians 1 verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He has
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. We've been made
without blame. And Paul remembers giving this
promise to people who have fallen into a lot of error, different
sinful situations. And if we're honest with ourselves,
we can identify with them because we've done the same things, fallen
into bad habits, bad, just fallen. But Paul still calls them blameless.
Not because we haven't done something we deserve to be blamed for.
It's because Christ bore our blame. That's why we're blameless.
That's why we're holy and blameless before him, because Christ bore
our blame. And if we're in Christ, We'll
have a holy walk. Now, that doesn't mean we're
never going to stumble, because we will. But the general direction
of our life is holiness and godliness. And like I said a minute ago,
sheep, they'll fall, they'll stumble, they'll stray, but sheep
can be corrected. Sheep, through the Word, will
be brought back into the way because the Lord will finish
the work be done. He's not going to leave it to
us to finish it. He's going to finish it. And we're so confident
in our salvation. We're so confident that we'll
be found blameless in the day of judgment because look at verse
nine, because God is faithful by whom you're called into the
fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. We're confident
that we'll remain faithful because God's faithful. He is faithful
that promised. And sinners, like you and me,
sinners, are called into the fellowship of Christ, the fellowship
with God's Son. Now, parents are very careful,
especially when our children are little. But even as they
grow, we watch who hangs around them, we know as much as we can
who's around them, even when they go two hours away. We make
it our business to know as much as we can about the people that
are around them, because we're careful who has access to our
children, who has access to fellowship with our children. We would never
allow a wretch like us, if we could see ourselves as we truly
are, we'd never let a wretch like us get near our children.
But God, calls wretches into the fellowship of his son. He
washes them in the blood of his son. He changes them. He gives
them a new nature and gives them fellowship with his son. I'm thankful that God calls sinners
to repentance. I look this word fellowship up
in the dictionary. It means companionship, camaraderie,
and friendship. Now, this is a miracle for the
sinner. Someone born a sinner can have companionship with God's
Son, to be his companion, to have camaraderie with God's Son
and to have the friendship of God's Son. And this word, as
Paul used in the original, first of all, means communion. By God's
grace, we have communion. We can commune freely. with the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly,
it means joint participation. We've been joined to Christ and
have been made to participate in everything that He is. Joint
heirs with Christ. And thirdly, it means intimacy. That's the relationship, the
intimate relationship between a husband and a wife. A close,
intimate relationship with Christ. So close, so intimate we are
with God's Son that we're one with Him. When God sees us, He
sees His Son. When God sees us, He loves us. He loves His people like He loves
His Son because we have such an intimate relationship with
Him. We're one with Him. Now, what can top that? What
possibly can top that? I finished up my notes Friday
night, and I thought, how is it possible
that I'm ever ungrateful? You just can't top that.