Our study this morning is in
1 Corinthians, and we'll be looking at verses 11 through 17. And I'll ask this question, or he
asked this question in these verses, is Christ divided? What was trouble in the heart
of the Apostle is what sets the precedence for everything that
he's got to say in these next several chapters regarding gospel
preaching and those who are called to that office. Last week, I
did my best to show you the basis of our reasoning and of our fellowship
and the attitude of grace that ought to be found in all who
truly believe. It's actually our experience
that sets our attitude. Now, we learn things. We learn
things from the scriptures. And those things help to motivate
us. But the main motivation comes
through our knowledge of who we are and who He is and that
initial saving grace that He bestows on us when He saves us
and when He calls us. We're made to take our place
as a sinner. And we see Him as the sovereign
Lord of glory. And we see His sovereign grace.
And it leaves us loving Him. And it leaves us thankful to
Him. And that sets the motivation
for all that we do. Now this week, I want you to
see the reason why He writes these things. And the reason
why He took time to establish these things up front. Let's
begin here in verse 11. For it hath been declared unto
me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you." Now Paul gives the name
of the family who wrote to him and who made the complaint, probably
a reputable family. Almost every writer that I read
on this subject believes that this family was a very reputable
family in that church. had been there for a long, long
time. And Paul wants them to know he mentions their name because,
well, first of all, he wants to establish this problem in
the mouth of two or three witnesses before he begins to deal with
it. But secondly, he wants them to know that this thing he's
dealing with isn't something he read about that happened 200
years ago. It was going on right now in
that church. And if need be, he had a witness
he could call. If they didn't want to own up
to these things or say that this was just an unfounded complaint
and the preacher just up there harping on something, he mentions
who gave him the complaint. And if there's any questions,
we'll all get together and we'll get these facts established.
These were not groundless speculations, but facts written to him and
written by one of their own. You know, sometimes I touch on
certain subjects, and I see people turn around and look to see if
somebody that they thought needed to hear that was listening to
it. I'm talking to everybody in here
when I talk. I'm not picking somebody out. And somebody said,
well, boy, you're talking to me. Well, I hope so. I hope I'm
not just talking to somebody over in China somewhere. I hope
I've got enough insight and enough heart about me to be dealing
with problems here and dealing with things that you need to
know here, personally. And it's the fact, you know,
when these things are personal, that's what causes the barb.
When you get down and begin to deal with people personally,
there's a barb to it. You're sensitive to that. But
if I'm just talking to the air, well, nobody's sensitive of it.
Nobody's affected by it. Nobody's motivated by it. And
Paul didn't want that. So he establishes at the outset
that there are witnesses, which could be called if necessary,
and that what he was dealing with was indeed a real problem.
Now here's the accusation. Look at it here in verse 12.
Now this I say, that every one of you saith, In other words,
there was a lot of people in that church, and they were all
saying this. They were all guilty of this
problem. And this is the thing. When problems are unattended,
they eat like a cancer, and they spread like a contagious disease,
and they spread into the whole church. And he said, this I say,
that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, And I am of Apollos,
and I of Cephas, and I of Christ." Now, their contentions were over
whose ministry they were saved under. That was the contention.
That was the problem. They looked at their personalities,
and they looked at their gifts, and their offices, and even at
the impact of their ministry. And so he gave more value. Some
of these men did. They gave more value to the work
done in them by certain ones and not by certain others. And
I find here that Paul's selection of preachers is very interesting. I looked at that for a long time.
He begins by selecting two apostles. Two apostles. One called by Christ. to walk with Him all the way
through His death and His resurrection, even present at Pentecost. And I want to be careful how
I say this, but at the same time, I want you to see what Paul says.
He even mentions Christ in this, those who were converted under
Christ, who heard Christ personally. And he deals with this. And the
work of faith and repentance, the work of regeneration is the
work of the Holy Ghost. It's the work of the Holy Spirit
working in men and women to reveal Christ and Him crucified to them
so that he or she might come to Him and trust in Him and look
to Him for mercy and grace. And even the spoken words of
Christ added nothing to the work of the Holy Spirit, nothing whatsoever. And those who were saved under
the ministry of Christ Himself were no more saved than those
under Paul, under Peter, under Apollos, or Timothy, or any other
preacher that's ever preached the gospel of God's sovereign
grace. Those men are just as saved as those men saved under
the preaching of Christ. That salvation is the same. And
we're not talking about gifts here or offices, but the conversion. of chosen sinners by the means
that God has ordained and the presence and power of the Holy
Ghost. I was converted under the ministry
of Henry Mahan. And he was perhaps one of the
greatest pastors and evangelists of the 20th century. That's what
men are writing about him. Does that add anything to my
conversion? Nothing whatsoever. Does that
give me a superiority over everybody else? Not at all. Not at all. Does that make me any more spiritual
or of any more value than somebody else? Absolutely not. So you
see what Paul is dealing with here in this church? My friend
God has ordained gospel preaching as the means of conversion and
calling. He did that. That wasn't my idea. It's not something that some
preacher in the past drug up and decided to make a statement
on and then try to defend. Let me read this scripture to
you and you just listen to me as I read it. I've quoted it
to you often. 2 Thessalonians 2.13. Listen
to this. sanctification of the Spirit,
and belief of the truth. Whereunto, or because of this,
he hath called you by our gospel." That's pretty plain, isn't it?
This is God's ordained means. Now, turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 3. Here's what we're talking about.
We're talking about contentions in this church over gospel preachers
and the idea that who they are somehow adds something to the
work of God. And that's not so. That's just
not so. Gospel preachers are ordained
of God. How shall you hear without a
preacher? Gospel preaching is the seed of regeneration. Paul
said, I have begotten you. through the gospel. But gospel
preachers do not add anything to the work of the Holy Ghost. Now watch this here in 1 Corinthians
3 verse 5. Who is Paul? Well, he said he
was a minister. That's what he said. But who
is Paul? And who is Apollos? But ministers
by whom you believed even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollos watered,
but God gave the increase. So then, neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.
For we are laborers, verse 9, we are laborers together with
God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. Paul likens
this thing of preaching to a farmer. Our Lord did that. He said a
sower went out and sowed. Farmer. We're fellow laborers
with God. And this is His husbandry. He
has a farm out here. He has a garden. And He likens
this thing of preaching unto a farmer. And that farmer, he
looks at the seed and he knows good seed from bad seed. He's
a farmer. Now if he's not a farmer, he's
liable to plant anything. But if he's a farmer, And God's
talented him and gifted him to that vocation. He knows good
seed from bad seed. And he gets rid of the bad seed
and he gets the good seed and he goes out and plants. And he's
got a helper. And this helper comes along and
he waters. It's hot and it's dry like it
is down here sometimes. You've got to get a little water
out there on it. And he puts some water out there on it. But
he didn't have nothing to do with that plant coming up. Huh? God did that. And that's a miracle. Watch that old dry piece of corn
go into that ground, deader than a rock. Ain't a bit of life in
it anymore. And that thing sprouts up and
comes up. That's the preacher. The preacher
just plants seed. But brethren, if there ain't
no seed planted, ain't gonna be no crop. Ain't gonna be no
crop. You see what I'm saying? Now,
gospel preaching is necessary. It's the means ordained of God. I want to stress that because
my generation don't know that. They deny that. Gospel preaching
is necessary. These men would not have went
out and martyred themselves for nothing. They could have just
snuck into town, passed out tracks, you know, and headed out, got
out of there. But they didn't. They went in
there and preached because preaching was necessary. And then he likes the same thing
to God's building. You're God's husband or you're
God's building. He's building something, the
Lord is. And we all have a special affection for men who ministered
Christ to us. I do. I'll always have a special
place in my heart for Henry Mahan. He's the man that God used to
minister Christ to me. And I love him. But be careful
that you don't begin to glorify men and attribute things to men
that belongs to God. And what gives sanction to their
work is God's purpose of grace, the message of Christ, and the
presence and power of the Holy Ghost. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 13. Now
you ask this, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you or
were you baptized in the name of Paul? Is Christ divided? Does part of the same efficacy
of His work, does part of that belong to preachers? No, sir. All belongs to Him. All belongs
to Him. I can't impart any kind of a
gift to you whatsoever. Whatsoever. And Christ is not
divided from the work of the Spirit through the gospel ministry.
We preach Christ. It's not just preaching. It's
not just standing up behind a pulpit and coming up with a message
of some kind, and then blabber on for an hour about this, that,
and the next thing, or getting on some political issue, or begging
men to do something for Jesus, and all this kind of... That's
not preaching. Preaching is preaching Christ
and Him crucified. Telling men who the Savior is.
Telling them what the Savior has done for you. Telling them
where He is at. He is on the throne of glory.
Telling them why He came. He was appointed of God, anointed
of God. He came to save sinners. We preach Christ and the Spirit
of God reveals Christ in you, the hope of glory. And He conforms
us to His image. and were rooted and grounded
in Him. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily." You're complete in Him. And Christ is
the sum of the ministry of the Word. His ordinances confess
Him and profess Him. They show His death and picture
His union with us. How careful some men are about
how they're baptized and who baptizes them. There's churches,
organized religions in this world, who try to trace back your heritage
to see that each one of the forerunners of these men that baptized you
was baptized correctly. And they try to go back and they're
careful about who they get to baptize them, but they don't
pay any attention to the ordinance itself and what it's confessing. And so Paul says this, was Christ
divided? Was Paul crucified for you? That's
not what I'm preaching. You can't be saved apart from
the crucifixion. You must have a substitute, a
propitiation for your sins. Did the preacher die for you?
Is he your propitiation? Did he die for your sins? Is
he partly responsible for your atonement? Were you baptized
in his name? Somebody told me a while back
that I couldn't scripturally baptize anybody in this baptistry
because I didn't go down into the water. Well, my friend, you're
not being buried with me. You're being buried with Christ.
You and I go in the water, and we're going to go down sinners
and come up sinners. You're buried with Him, buried
with Christ. Buried with Him in baptism, he
says over in Colossians chapter 2, wherein also you are risen
with Him through the faith of the operation of God who has
raised Him from the dead. And then listen to this one over
in Romans chapter 6 verse 3. Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?
Therefore, we are buried with Him by baptism into death. that like as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. For if we've been planted together
in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness
of His resurrection. Baptism is not about the baptizer. It's a confession of a good conscience
toward God. Old Noah, Peter used Noah of
all people. He used a picture of baptism.
He picked out Noah. And Noah confessed his faith
when he entered into the ark. That's when this world really
understood what he believed. Noah entered into that ark and
confessed his faith and was buried in that watery grave and was
raised up out of it to walk in newness of life. Now listen to
what Peter says, the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also
now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
but the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection
of Christ. Preaching is about Christ. The
ordinances are about Christ. Conversion is about Christ. It's Christ in you. And preaching
is necessary, being ordained of God, yet preachers are not
to be glorified in any way, as though they added something to
the work of Christ. Am I getting across? Am I getting
through to you on this? When I tell people that preaching
is necessary, that God has chosen gospel preachers and set them
aside for this work, and you have to hear the gospel. How
shall you hear without a preacher? That's what the Holy Ghost asks.
Well, then you're assigning to the preacher some supernatural
power. Oh, no. No, I'm just planting
a seed. I'm just planting a seed. But it's necessary to plant.
Necessary to plant. We preach because God has purposed
it as the means to call out His elect, and He gives us no reason
anywhere in the Scripture to believe that He'll use any other
means. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 14. Paul says to these people, he
said, I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius,
lest any should say that I baptized in my own name. And I baptized
also the household of Stephanus. 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. The business of the church, the
business of the pastor and the preacher is to preach the gospel. And this is the gospel age. This
is the gospel age. And nothing will ever change
in the heart of men until God sends them a preacher and gives
them eyes and ears and a heart to understand what that man is
saying. And when they do, they won't
fall down on their face and worship the preacher. Because they'll
understand what He's preaching and who He's preaching about.
And they'll fall down on their face and they'll worship Him.
And they'll rest in Him. And they'll believe in Him. And
they'll trust in Him. And they'll follow Him. Through gospel preaching the
saints are matured. And the work of the ministry
is fulfilled. And unity is established in the
church. The ordinances are about Christ.
The ministry is about Christ. And the problem was that men
and ordinances were given too much glory, and too much attention,
and too much power. See, when men don't know God,
that's what they do. They take these things of God,
the things of God, and they say, This bread is not
just bread. It has to have some spiritual
value. And so they think about it and meditate about it. Now,
I know what I'm going to do. This bread, when you eat it,
turns into the body of Christ. No, it don't. When you eat it,
it's just bread. It's what that bread pictures.
It pictures the body of Christ, the broken body of Christ. And
that wine, it don't actually turn into the blood of Christ.
That wine is just wine. It's wine when it's in the bottle.
It's wine when it's in the glass. And it's wine when it goes down
your neck. But it's what that wine pictures.
This is the blood of the New Testament. This is what this
pictures. And we drink it and we glorify Him. We glorify Him. But we don't glorify man.