1 Corinthians chapter 16. I hope this morning to complete
our study of 1 Corinthians. The title of the lesson today
is found down in verse 13 where Paul tells them to quit ye like
men. Believers are men and women,
sinners all. Sinners. You know that's a foreign
word in religious circles today. Sinners. Sinners. I hear them talk about personal
righteousness and godliness and all kinds of things, but I don't
hear them talk about being sinners. I don't hear them talk about
remorse for their sins. I don't see any turning from
their sins. But believers are sinners Yet
in this flesh were sinners saved by grace through faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. You know, in Romans chapter 7, Paul describing
this very thing, this sinfulness of man, even in the believer
who wants to do good. He said, the good that I would.
There is a want to. To do good. We all do. We want
to do good. We want to do what pleases God. But he said, the good that I
would, I do not. I fail in my endeavor. And the evil that I wouldn't
do, that's what I do. I know it's wrong. I can see
that it's wrong. I've learned in the Word of God
that it's wrong. And yet my temper flares up,
or I'll say something I wish I hadn't said, or I feel certain
things toward somebody, anger or something toward somebody.
And he said, the evil that I wouldn't do, that's what I do. And now
listen to what he says. Here's how he sums it all up.
He said, Oh wretched man that I am. Not that I used to be. That I am. Oh Richard, who's
going to deliver me from the body of this death? Believers
are sinners all, saved by grace, through faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We still inhabit bodies of flesh,
fallen sinful flesh, but we've been washed in regeneration and
renewed by the Holy Ghost. Oh Pritchard, what's that mean?
What does that mean? That means we have the mind of
Christ. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have the mind of Christ. We understand how God can be
just and justify us, sinners. We understand how God can be
just and justify us. We understand how God can be
merciful. and gracious, yet just and holy
and all without compromising his character. We understand
that the bulk of worldly religion is a religion of deception and
lies. We understand these things. We
have the mind of Christ. We understand that worldly philosophy
is based on natural reasoning and fallen logic. And that it has no biblical foundation
whatsoever. How do we know that? We have
the mind of Christ. Men, Paul tells us in Ephesians
4, 17, deceive men. In that day, he was preaching
to Gentiles. He's talking about Gentiles over
here in Ephesians chapter 4. And he said, don't be like you
used to be. Don't be like the heathens who
walk in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened,
being alienated from God through the ignorance that's in them.
And then in the Corinthians, in one of our former studies,
I gave you this. He gives us this long list of
ungodly acts describing the condition of natural men. And then he says,
and such were some of you, but ye are washed. ye are washed,
and ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." You cannot reason gospel principles
with a natural man. It goes against the grain. It's
contrary to him. He said that This mind, this
carnal mind is enmity against God. It's rebellious toward God. You're not going to take a natural
man and reason with him. Not going to happen. Even if you don't say anything,
you're not getting to first base with him. The Spirit of our God must go
before us and prepare men and women to hear. He prepares them
to hear. He makes them willing. He makes
them submissive. He makes them to listen. The Spirit of our God must go
before us. Now, as Paul closes this letter,
he'll leave these men. He's been dealing with them as
natural men, dealing with their sins and dealing with their lack
of restraint and all these things. But mostly, He's dealing with
them for their disconcern of the gospel. The gospel had taken
a back seat to everything under the sun, and they had allowed
that to be. And He goes through, and in all
of these things, He shows them that without this, without this,
Without this knowledge, without this light of Christ, this is
what's going to happen. You're just going to get worse
and worse and worse. So he closes this letter, and
he wants to leave them with some instructions. And he begins concerning
gifts and collections for the saints. And he deals with why
these things are given. Let's look here in verse 1. Now
concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order
to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day
of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God
hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come."
Now there are four things here that I want you to look at. First
of all, why this money was to be collected? Why do we take
up offerings? What's these offerings all about?
I see different ones handing to our treasurer money in offerings,
and sometimes they're handed to me, but what's this offering
all about? What's these things for? Why
do we give? Why do we take money that we've
earned from this job or that job and give it. He says here, for the saints. For the saints. The offerings
and gifts received by the church is for the saints. It's for their
care and preservation. It's for their spiritual well-being. In another place, and this is
a very I dare say there's not a person
in here who hadn't heard this from somebody in their lifetime.
You're going to reap what you sow. Do you know what that's
talking about? What that's talking about is
offerings. He's talking about the gifts
of the saints to the church. You're going to reap what you
sow. In other words, You go down here somewhere, and you buy your
big, fine recliner, and you get up in that thing, and you reap
the benefits of it. Take your money, and you spend
it on that, and you spend it on your comfort and your welfare
at home, and you get the best stuff that money can buy, and
you're going to reap the benefits of that. You crack back that
big recliner. I got one at home. Boy, I just
rest in it. Same thing goes for offerings
to the church. You're going to reap what you
sow. Now, if you provide for the ministry and provide for
these things which are critical to the salvation of your soul,
you're going to reap the benefits of it. And if you ignore it,
you're going to reap the benefits of that too. You're going to
reap what you sow. You look that Scripture up and
see if I'm not telling you the truth. It talks about offerings. So it's for your spiritual well-being,
and it's for a place to worship. A place to gather together. Do
you know how rare it is? It's nearly impossible for me
to even illustrate to you how rare it is for saints to have
a place to gather to worship. We've been online now for a long,
long time, and we've located different places in the country,
but you know there's a gap that runs up to the middle of this
country about three states wide that runs from Canada all the
way down to Mexico, and there's nothing. Nothing there. And in these big places, a lot
of these well-populated areas, nothing. Nothing. It's a rarity. And when the Lord
does raise up a church, and He does raise up a group of saints,
I tell you, it's nice to have a place to get together and worship
in it. I tell you, if I don't have a place to worship, I'm
hurting, ain't you? I got nowhere else to go. I burnt my bridges.
I can't go back there. I can't go back to religion.
Somebody said, there's a church on every corner. Not for me,
there's not. The only thing I read about on
every corner is brothels in the Scripture. And we give not only
for a place to worship, but for the furtherance of the Gospel.
Now, here's the second thing. Who's responsible to give? Who's responsible? He said, let
every one of you. Isn't that what it says there? Let every one of you. Well, I
thought this people that was well off gave. No, let every one of you. Let
every one of you. Offerings unto the Lord, my brothers
and sisters, that's a part of worship. Paul didn't say, alright,
now on Thursday afternoon, lay by and store. No! He said on
the first day of the week when you assemble yourselves together
to worship. That's when you lay by and store
and you bring those offerings on that day. And those offerings
are a part of worship. Now you can, if you look at this,
you'll find out The significance of the first day of the week,
that's the day the Lord first appeared to His disciples after
His resurrection. On the first day He appeared
to them, spoke to them. And then over in the book of
Acts, chapter 20, verse 7, He talks about a meeting on the
first day of the week. And often in the book of Acts,
you'll find a meeting on the first day of the week. This was
the time when they generally assembled, and maybe some of
them met on Saturday, maybe some of them met on Wednesday, but
this was the main time when the saints gathered together for
worship. And he said, this is when you need to bring your offerings. And everybody that assembled
were commanded of Paul to give. Third thing I want you to see
is how these gifts were given. Willingly. Willingly. I know some folks would argue
and try to promote tithing. Tithing is a tax. It's not a
gift. It's a tax. Tithing was instituted
under the law for the support of the tabernacle and the priestly
tribe, the Levites. It was to support them. And the
Lord set down a certain amount, ten percent. And they would bring
that ten percent in and that ten percent was to take care
of the priesthood and take care of all the tabernacle and all
the upkeep and that these men could minister full time in that
and so on. But God's saints are not under
the law. And they're not under that law of tithing. But they are under an obligation
of love and gratitude. Know anything about that? Love
and gratitude. Oh, I tell you what. Richard, he singled you out. You think about it. out of the
multitude. Nothing to recommend you. Nothing
to... He singled you out by His grace and love and called you
to Himself. Don't you feel obligated? Oh
my soul, I'm obligated. It's love that obligates saints,
not love. It's love. It's gratitude. Why
me? of all men on the face of the
earth, why me? Why did God choose me? Because
He would. Because He would. How could He love me? Because
He could. That's why we give. We're obligated
by love. And the Lord's people are generous. And I'll tell you this, being
under an obligation of love and gratitude, mature believers will
not be outdone by the law. They give themselves. They give what they can give
and more. They give themselves. The Lord's people are generous,
they're kind, they're ready to give themselves to the work of
the ministry. And then the fourth thing is,
how much should I give? Listen to this. Let every one
of you lay by in store, that is, hold back for this offering,
as God has prospered him. Proportionately. You take a man
who makes $10,000 a year, he can't give what that man making
$200,000 a year can give. He can't do that. That a man
give in proportion as God has prospered him. Actually, if you
think about it, tithing is kind of like a tax loophole for a
rich man, isn't it? He just has to give 10%. While
our laws in this land that tax that man are greater than that,
aren't they? As your income goes up, don't
your taxes go up? And then in 2 Corinthians 8,
Paul speaks of these gifts proving the sincerity of your love. These gifts. And then he tells us that if
there first be a willing mind, it's accepted according to that
a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. Alright,
that's enough about that. The next thing I want you to
see in our text is that Paul did not want to involve himself
in these collections. And the reason he didn't want
involved in them is lest somebody accuse him of being covetous.
He didn't want involved in it. He said, you take care of this
before I get there. You do it. Don't wait on me to
get there. You collect it. You do this among
yourselves. You take care of this before
I get there, and you select certain men to bring these gifts wherever
they're needed. You know, as your pastor, sometimes
I see or hear of a need, and I direct you, as I did this morning,
to help relieve it. But I don't really care to get
involved in it. I'd rather you do it. I'd rather
you do it. You take care of it. You take
the gifts. You collect the gifts. You give them, and you give it
to where the need is. Give it to them. You remember
the apostles. There was a huge amount of people,
3,000 souls in a single day. I can't imagine 3,000 people and trying to pastor that
people and trying to see to all their needs. I can't even imagine
it. Sometimes it's more than I can
do, just this little group. But they finally, they got together
and they said, you know, we need to What we need is somebody else
to do this. Because this is becoming a distraction
to what we're trying to do. So let's get some men and that's
how deacons came to be. They set apart certain men and
these deacons would look and when they saw need or the pastor
found out about a need of somebody, he'd go to them and they'd take
care of it. He didn't have to worry about it any more. He'd
just point them in that direction and they took care of it and
run with it. Took that burden off of him. And a lot of these
other things that are distracting. But anything I can do to distance
myself from those things, I try to do it. And then Paul expresses
his desire to be with them. He tells them in verse 5, Now
I will come to you, when I shall pass through Macedonia, and I
will pass through Macedonia. And it may be that I abide with
you, yea, and winter with you, that you may bring me on my journey,
whithersoever I go. For I will not see you now, by
the way, but I trust to carry a while with you, if the Lord
permit. Now here is what I see in that.
It's the will of God that determines when, where, and how a preacher
goes. It's in His hands. Our Lord told
His disciples that He sent out, He said, don't you even take
two coats with you. You just take one. I'll take
care of you. I know where you're going. And
I've got people there and I know how to work in their hearts.
You don't take two pair of shoes. You don't take two coats. You
just take what you need and go. You don't have to wait until
you have a hundred or two hundred thousand dollars set back in
the bank and a big retirement and then say, all right, I'm
ready to pray. No, that ain't how it works.
Not how it works. It's the will of God that determines
where and how and when a preacher goes somewhere. Listen to this scripture over
in Romans chapter 10. How can he preach except he be
sent? How can he preach? You know,
we desire certain places and times, but they don't always
work out. Don't always work out. Nevertheless,
we must make plans and not work like ignorant men. We do make
plans, but we subject those plans to the will of God, don't we?
That's how we're taught to pray. Not my will, but your will be
done. I know the Lord has called me into the ministry, and that
that ministry is to spread the gospel. It's to preach that gospel
to every creature. I know that. But I'll tell you,
it's a big world, and I can't preach to this whole world. I
can just preach where He opens doors. And that's what I try
to do. And some doors are closed. Sometimes
He shuts the door. You're not going there right
now. You go there when I'm ready. And He just closes the door.
And if He closes it, you can't open it. It's closed. But I don't
want to go where He don't want me. Do you? I don't want to do
that. I don't want to do that. And
we desire certain places and times, They just don't always
work out. But we do make plans. You know,
we've been working on a new building up here. Been working on it almost
a year. And hopefully one of these days
we'll get up there. And we're making plans that direction.
But I tell you, the Lord can pull the plug on that anytime.
Anytime. And we subject those things to
the will of God. Verse 8, But he said, I will
tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great door and effectual
is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. Paul was
one of the greatest missionaries this world has ever known. And
when a missionary falls upon hearing ears and willing hearts,
it's a great blessing to him. All my soul, to find somebody
willing to listen, rejoicing in the truth, living in the light,
hungry. You find a group of men that's
hungry and they will wear you... I went out to San Diego before
they got their pastor. I spent three days preaching
to them out there. I'm telling you, I was wore out
when I got home. I thought, well, surely when
I preach this morning, that will satisfy them. Oh, no, they won't
talk all afternoon. They'll talk all night if you
stay there and talk. They were hungry to hear. And
when a missionary, especially a missionary, when he falls on
hearing ears and a willing heart, people with an appetite for these
things that he preaches, he's not leaving. He's going to stay
there. And you can write it down, whenever
this happens, they're going to be adversaries. They're going
to be enemies. Oh, the enemy don't like that.
He doesn't like when the gospel flourishes, he don't like that. It's accompanied with opposition.
I read to you Paul's testimony last week where he said, after
the manner of men, I fought with beasts at Ephesus. Now this is
what he's talking about in our lesson today. He's talking about
these adversaries. He's at Ephesus. He's going to
stay there to Pentecost because there's many adversaries. And
he's fighting with these men. He calls them beasts. Our adversary,
the devil, has a whole world full of organized religion, anti-Christ
religion, and who together form a strong opposition, adversaries. And then on top of that, there
are principalities and powers at work over which we have no
control whatsoever. He said in this one place, he's
talking to them, I think it's in one of the books of Timothy
or Titus But anyway, he's talking to us about men being drawn astray
and us going to them and trying to restore them again unto the
truth. And he tells us to be careful when you do this. Be
careful. Don't go in there all puffed
up and full of pride. You be careful because Satan
can take you at his will. At his will. And you be careful. And that's how that man was overtaken. There's principalities and powers
at work over which we have no control, but Christ our Lord
is head over all principalities and powers. And what Paul is
saying in all this is that his presence was needful at Ephesus
because of these adversaries who resisted the truth and would
destroy this young congregation. Now if Timotheus come, Timothy,
see that he may be with you without fear, for he worketh the work
of the Lord as also I do. Let no man therefore despise
him, but conduct him forth in peace that he may come unto me,
for I look for him with the breath God's ministers are Christ's
gifts to His church. If you look it up, you'll see
He that descended, when He ascended back into glory, He gave to the
church. He gave prophets, He gave apostles,
He gave evangelists, He gave pastors and teachers. That's
Christ's ascension gifts to the church. And it's by them that
the work of the ministry is carried out, that saints are established
and rooted in the faith, and men are edified in the body of
Christ. And not for these men's personalities'
sake, but for their work's sake, they are to be respected and
honored for their office, for their office. And whenever I
leave and I leave somebody here to speak in my absence, I hope
you will respect what he's doing. And if he's never done it before,
I guarantee you when he's done, he'll respect that office too.
He'll respect it. And give that man an honest hearing.
And that's all he's telling here about Timothy. He's a preacher.
He's a preacher. Recognize him as a preacher and
an ambassador of God and treat him that way. Verse 12, as touching our brother
Apollos, I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren,
but his will was not at all to come at this time. But he will
come when he shall have convenient time. It's God's will that we desire
to be done, not ours. But when His will is done, He
doesn't work contrary to our will. But He works in us both
to will and to do if He is good pleasure. And when He works in us and supporters
willingly support and they give to the church, preachers willingly
go where they are sent. And you can pretty much write
it down. If a man is not willing to go, God is not willing at
that time to send him. Because when He is, He'll be
willing. He'll be willing. You'll be willing. He'll be willing.
God will be willing. And that's what Paul's saying.
Don't think bad about Apollos. He can't come right now. There's
extenuating circumstances. Something else is going on. He
can't come right now. But He'll come. He'll come. He'll
come when the time's right. Now, he tells in verse 13, Stand
fast in the faith, and quit ye like men. Be strong. The believers are often told
to watch. It says that the pastors who have the rule over them,
watch for your souls as they who must give an account. And
this watching is both positive and negative. We watch in the
positive for opportunities. We watch for our Lord's return.
We watch for one another. We watch in the positive. But
we also watch in the negative. We watch for the enemies of our
souls. We watch for troublemakers. And we watch for false prophets.
And then He tells them not only to watch, but to quit ye like
men. Quit chasing their idle dreams. Quit running after their soap
bubbles. Quit ye like men. Quit lusting
after these things. Quit walking in the way they
walk. Quit following their examples
of worship. Quit listening to their lies.
Quit ye like men. Don't be like other men. You're
not like other men. You've been washed. You've been
regenerated. You have the light. You have
the truth. You have everlasting life if
you have Christ. You have the mind of Christ,
so don't be like men. Don't operate on their principles. Be strong. Be strong. Strong in the faith. Be a pillar
of the church. Be a strong shoulder to lean
on. Be strong in the faith. And let
all your things, verse 14, be done in charity. That is, in
love toward God and one another. And then, I'll leave you with
this. Verse 15, I beseech you, brethren, You know the house
of Stephanus, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that
they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,
that you submit yourselves unto such, and to everyone that helpeth
us and laboreth." This family was the beginning of that church. This was the beginning, the house
of Stephanus. And he remained faithful from
that day throughout the years. And he was to be respected for
it. We've got some in this church who was here in the very beginning.
One of them sitting right here on the front bench. This lady
here, right behind me. Georgia Fay. They've been here
since the beginning. The Curtis's. They've been here.
They've been here all these years. And Paul says something here
about them that I don't think he ever said of anybody else. If he did, I don't recall it.
He said, they have addicted themselves to the ministry. I think that's
the only time that word appears in the Scripture. We know what
addiction is in this day of drugs. They was addicted. They addicted
themselves on purpose to the ministry. addicted themselves. That is, their whole life revolved
around this.