If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to 1 Corinthians. We're going to begin a new study
this morning in the book of 1 Corinthians. This place called Corinth was what they call an isthmus. It was a little narrow strip
of land. In fact, it was the only thing
that kept the big island out there of Greece, the big southern
tip of Greece. It was the only thing that kept
that from being an island was this little isthmus that connected
it to mainland Greece. And because of where it was and
what it was, it made the perfect seaport. And if any of you have
ever been around a seaport, you know what that's all about. And
especially back in this day, it was just One old writer said
it was filled with opportunities for the indulgent of corrupt
natures. That's what it was. It was the
perfect place for people who wanted to have a good time. And
it was full of bars and drinking and you name it. And the more
you read about Corinth, the less likely it might seem for God
to raise up a church. in this place. This is the last
place I would have chosen. Corinth. You go there and when
you read through these letters, I'm going to venture a guess
this morning and I'm going to say that more counsel is given
by pastors to troubled people out of these two books than any
other book in the Bible. Almost every problem was dealt
with. Almost every problem was experienced
and dealt with by the apostle in this church that was at Corinth. And more counsel and instruction
to troubled sinners has come from Paul's letters to the church
than, I believe, than all the others put together. So as we
go through these things, may the Holy Spirit be our guide
and teacher and guide us as we study these divinely inspired
letters. Now the epistle begins with this
word Paul. It seems like an unusual way
to begin a letter to a church, but he just identifies himself
as Paul. He'd been called lovingly by
the church throughout hundreds and hundreds of years, St. Paul. But you never hear himself
call himself St. Paul. He just Paul. There was a time when he wanted
to be known as Saul of Tarsus. If you were to greet him, that's
what you were going to call him, Saul of Tarsus. And that name
carried a reputation with it. But not after the Lord did His
work in his heart, he was just Paul after that. And some of
us have had names and titles and reputations, but after the
Lord began to do a work in our heart, I'm just Darwin now. That's it. I'm not Darwin B-something, I'm
just Darwin. Just Darwin. And that's the way
with Paul. He was just Paul. There was a
time when his name may have been preceded with some letters of
recognition. I'll tell you what we call him
today, Dr. Paul. Dr. Paul. And perhaps even a few more letters.
The man was schooled under the greatest Jewish teacher of the
day, Gamaliel. He was schooled and taught under
him. And this man was a knowledgeable man. It's obvious through his
preaching that he was well-read wherever he went. He could, like
down there in Greece, perhaps right here at Corinth, but down
there in Greece at Mars Hill, he was over in Athens, not too
far from Corinth. He went down there and he addressed
all those philosophers and all that and he started quoting their
own poets to them. He was well-read, he was well-educated,
but he was still just Paul. Just Paul. He was trained in
the law of Moses, and he knew the prophets and the Psalms inside
out. He was of a perfect bloodline,
and as touching the law, he himself said, I was blameless. That is,
outwardly he was blameless. And then after his conversion,
he said there was none his equal. None his equal. He said, the
least of the saints. But he said, I'm not one whit
behind any one of them. Not one whit behind any one of
them. There was none his equal in his
understanding of the Scriptures. And even Peter, when he mentioned
the writings of Paul, said, and there's some things that Paul
taught that were hard to be understood. This man knew the Scriptures. And he knew the doctrines of
grace. And he was perhaps the greatest missionary who ever
lived. And he wrote nearly half the
New Testament. It was penned by this man, Paul. And yet there is a humility in
this man who never refers to himself by any other recognition
than just Paul. Let me tell you something. The salvation of God's elect,
this thing of being called of God. This thing called faith. It's the gift of God. It's the
gift of God. And those sent to preach it and
those chosen to hear it are both given their ability to do so
by the Lord. You look at a man standing up
and this man is gifted and he has talents. I'm just going to
use Brother Mahan as an example because I knew him better than
any of the ones that are today preaching, but Henry was a man
who was talented. He was gifted of God. He never
forgot anything. He could meet you one time, remember
your name, and he traveled constantly, met hundreds and hundreds and
hundreds of people, and he could see you two or three years later
and call you by name. That amazes me. Just absolutely
amazes me. And his memory of things and
the way he read, he could just grab things out of the newspaper
and out of magazines and just things that he remembered and
convert those things into illustrations and apply what he was teaching.
And he was perhaps the best teacher of scripture I've ever, ever
said of him. I just, I can't, his gifts were
just astounding. God gifted him. God gifted him. And when he calls his preachers
and teachers, he gifts them. And he gifts them according to
his purpose and according to the people he's sending them
to. He had a special work for Henry and he gifted him for that
work. And he was successful at that work, and the Lord blessed
it, and so on and so forth. And Peter was not Paul, and Paul
was not Peter. And so these men, when they identified
themselves by name, although God inspired all the writings,
He equally inspired Peter as He did Paul. But He had a little
different purpose with Peter than He did with Paul. A little
different purpose. And He gifted them accordingly. But no man's worthy of his calling. No man is deserving of any spiritual
recognition. And no man is deserving of a
robe of distinction and special titles. It's foolishness. He's
just a man. He's just Paul. Just Paul. Now having said that, let me
say this. He's a certain man. He's Paul. He's Paul. And Paul's name indicates
a particular man. God uses particular men. He chooses men to use in the
ministry. He sets them apart. He singles
them out. He calls them. He gifts them. He sends them. How shall they
preach except they be sent? You can go and make noise, and
you can go and stir up activity, and you can go and promote, and
you can go and do all kinds of things, but you can't do the
work of God unless God calls you and equips you. And at the same time, He joins
your heart to the people. And you can't explain that. There's
no way of explaining that. I know young men who are gifted. They're much more gifted than
I am. But God's never called them. He's never called them.
I knew one man in particular. He held a master's degree in
theology from Temple University. And all he ever wanted to do
was preach and pastor. That's all he wanted to do. And
he went everywhere. He went with Henry and preached
there at the church and went to the preacher school. And he
did all of these things. But God never called him to the
ministry. Never did. God gifts a certain
man. And when Paul wrote to this church,
he said, I'm Paul. Well, Paul's just a man. But
he's a particular man. He's God's man. He's God's man. And you didn't have to tell the
people of God that. They knew it. They knew it. He was a particular man. I was
talking to Tim James the other day and I told him, I said, you
know, we were talking about going and preaching at other churches
and conferences and things. And I told him about our new
building and told him I'd like for him to come down when we
have our dedication and preach for us. And I was talking to
him and I said, you know, when I go away, I love going away.
I love going visit with the people. But I very seldom have the liberty
there that I have here. And he said, you know why that
is? And I said, no. He said, because God's joined
your heart to those people. And He's joined their heart to
yours, and you both know it. You both know it. This is Paul, and he was a man
and no more. A man subject to to all these
temptations and fears and sufferings. He told this very people, he
said in chapter 2, he said, I was with you. When I come to you,
I was with you in fear and trembling and weakness. So I'm just like
you. Just like you. I'm just a man.
And he knew what it was to suffer and to be persecuted. But he
was also a particular man, a certain man, a man called of God and
separated from his mother's womb and called by God's grace, a
sent man. How shall they preach except
to be sent? And then secondly, he writes
these Corinthians and he tells them that he's called to be an
apostle. What in the world is that? What's
that mean? You read these epistles, and
it opens up, and they begin to talk to you about who they are,
and these men call themselves apostles. What is that? Do we have any apostles today? What is an apostle? Well, an
apostle is the highest office in the church. They had authority
over everybody. These men not only had authority
where they preached, but they had authority in all of these
churches that was established under them, all the churches
of God. These were apostles. And then,
secondly, apostles were men taught of the Lord Himself. Paul, being an apostle called
out of due season, he was caught up, the Scripture said, up into
the third heaven. and taught by Christ Himself.
There was no question, not only about His authority, but there
was no question about His doctrine because He received His doctrine
of the Lord personally. It wasn't Gamaliel anymore. Now
it's Christ. And Christ taught Him. And He
told those Thessalonians, I think it's in chapter 2, somewhere
around verse 16, He said, I thank God for you, beloved. Because
when you receive the Word which you heard of us, you received
it not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of
God. God gave us our doctrine. And He inspired us to write these
things, and they're to be taken as the Word of God, He said.
This is an apostle. He's an apostle. Now, I'm going
to tell you something, because I've heard this a lot from different
men and women. Don't try to pattern your calling
after an apostle. You're not an apostle. I remember
one time one of the old evangelists, Rock Barnard, if any of you has
ever heard him, you know why a young man would want to pattern
himself after him. He was a very charismatic man
and he would go into places who'd never heard the gospel before
and he'd stir that place up like a hornet's nest. And he just
had that character that you wanted to be like him. And I was just
beginning to preach and And I got up one night at 13th Street,
and I preached a message, and I sounded just like Rothbard,
and I was doing all that. And Henry called me aside that
night, and he said, let me tell you something, son. You ain't
Rothbard. Just be yourself. Just be yourself. And we're not Paul the Apostle.
And don't try to pattern your calling after these apostles.
These were men who would pen the New Testament Scriptures.
These were men who walked personally with the Lord, who sat around
the campfire and listened to Him. And He put His arm around
them and taught them and He loved them. It's just amazing that
these men, the difference between these men and us who are called. Now, we share a likeness, we
share that calling of the Lord, but not in the same manner as
these apostles. And I've heard people say when
I'm preaching on the necessity of gospel preaching, they say,
well, Paul was on a big white horse riding around and God unhorsed
him and threw his face in the mud. Well, if you believe that's
the way God saves sinners, you need to go get on a big white
horse and just ride it around until He throws you down in the
mud. But if I were you, I'd come over here to 1 Corinthians, and
we'll get into that just a little bit later on, and I'd find out
what God teaches about conversion and how man's called of God through
the preaching of the gospel. But they always want to take
these exceptions and make them the rule. And Paul was an apostle,
and I'm telling you this for your own good. Don't try to pattern
your calling after these men. Just don't try to do it. They
were chosen to a special office and calling. And Paul's calling
was miraculous. It was totally miraculous. And
he struck blind by a heavenly light and had to be led about
by the hand. And God come down and troubled
the heart of a man and then sent Paul down there to him to further
humiliate him and sent him down. He had to be led down there by
the hand and listen to this man preach the gospel. The Lord spoke to him with an
audible voice. It would be something to hear
from the Lord, wouldn't it? Well, he did. This man did. And then his ministry. His preparation
was miraculous. Caught up to the third heaven
and his ministry was miraculous. He was inspired as he wrote these
letters to pen the Word of God. These men were chosen witnesses
of Christ and were gifted of God to write the whole of the
New Testament. He wrote to the Ephesian church
and told them that they were built. Why don't you listen to
this? He's talking about their faith.
He said, you're built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.
And their gifts were miraculous. Hebrews 2, verse 3 tells us that
this salvation was first clearly declared by Christ Himself and
then confirmed unto us by them that heard Him. Now listen to
this, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and
diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His
own will. God gifted His apostles with
gifts of tongues. Not some unknown gibberish. That's
not what that's talking about there, but gifts to speak and
understand foreign languages. You know, back in Genesis, when
we were going through that study in the book of Genesis, back
in Genesis 11, mankind all got together and they were going
to build a tower. that they could access heaven
from this tower. That's what religion's all about.
They're all trying with their own righteousness and with their
own works, they're all trying to build, they get together and
try to build this great big tower. And all that tower's about is
trying to access heaven by their own works. And that's what was
going on in this place called Babel. Going to take heaven by
their works and will and the power of man. And God confounded
man in his language. so that he couldn't do it. They couldn't understand one
another's speech, and so it continues to this day, separated in language. But the gifts of tongues was
the gift to both speak and to understand these languages. In
Acts 2, verse 4, it said they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave
them utterance. And there dwelling at Jerusalem
were Jews, devout men of every nation under heaven. Who knows
how many languages that these men who had gathered there spoke. And every man heard them speak
in his own language. That's the gift of tongues. That's
the gift of tongues. supernatural gifts not only of
tongues and languages. And I'm not talking about a man,
we've got some men today, Milton Howard and Walter Gruber, they
speak Spanish probably better than the Spanish. And they can
speak that language in the jungle slang that the people grew up
with. And the people understand them
and they understand the people and they can do it. But they
didn't do it overnight. These men were given this gift
and immediately they could understand these languages and they could
speak in them. They had supernatural gifts of
healing. People carried their sick and
laid them down lest the shadow of Peter would touch them and
they would be healed. Supernatural gifts. Raised the dead. Cleansed lepers. They had gifts
of discernment. Ananias and his wife kept back
a portion that they'd promised to God. They said they'd prayed
about this thing, and they said, we need to sell our property,
and we're going to take the money, and we're going to give it to
the Lord. And then a little later on, they decided, well, we got
the money now, and we sold it. But that's a lot of money. Why
don't we keep part of this back? Peter knew that. They didn't
tell him. I didn't tell anybody that they
did this. How did Peter know? Because he had this supernatural
gift of discernment. And he could discern their hearts. He could discern what was going
on in them. They had supernatural gifts.
And these men were the beginning of the New Testament age. They
were the beginning of the last days. And God confirmed their
ministry in such a way that no man could doubt their calling
except those blinded by the God of this world. And Paul said,
I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ. I'm not just... I'm Paul. I'm
just a man. But I'm a particular man. I'm
God's man. I'm Paul. God gave me this name
Paul. I didn't think it up. God gave
it to me. And then he said, I'm an apostle. And then he said,
I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ. That is by the King's appointment.
Isn't that what he's saying there? by the king's appointment, by
his decree, by his authority. I'm not here on my own account.
But I'm an apostle by the commandment of Jesus Christ. And I'm not
here by the authority of some denomination or school or committee. I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ. And everything concerning true
religion is of Jesus Christ. Without Jesus Christ, there is
no point to anything. There's no point to creation.
There's no point to religion. There's no point to anything
apart from Jesus Christ. He's the source of all things.
But more importantly, He's the reason behind it. He's the beginning
before the beginning. In Colossians 1.18, Paul said,
and He created all things. and by whom all things were created. They were created not only by
Him, but they were created for Him. And He is the head of the
body of the church who is the beginning. The beginning of what? The beginning of everything.
He is the beginning of creation. He is the beginning of salvation.
He is the beginning of understanding. He is the beginning of regeneration.
You go on and on. He is the beginning. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
4. This is significant. I don't
want you just to read through these introductions to these
epistles and just slide over these things without giving these
things some thought. This was an apostle. This was
an apostle. And not only that, but he was
an apostle of Jesus Christ. And that name tells not only
of His office as the Christ, but it declares who it is that
makes that claim. Jesus of Nazareth. And this man
Jesus died on the cross, He was buried, rose from the dead on
the third day, and afterward ascended up into heaven where
He sits at God's right hand. Now if He don't sit there at
God's right hand, if He's not seated on the throne, Then there's
no authority behind these apostles and there's no authority behind
pastors of churches. There's no authority behind the
preaching of the gospel if he's not seated on the throne. He
calls men. He gifts men. He appoints apostles. And that's what Paul said. Now
watch this over here in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 10. He said, he that descended is
the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he
might fill all things. And he, that is this ascended
Christ, gave some apostles. Who did? The seated king. He gave some apostles, and some
prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastor-teachers. Paul
was an apostle of Jesus Christ. And then fourthly, he tells us
that his calling and office and authority is by the will of God. By the will of God. Something
we better get through these thick skulls is that everything that's
done in true religion, true salvation, true conversion, true worship
is through the will of God. It's not about your will, it's
about His. It's about His. Now you pray for those things
that you desire. And most of the time, we don't
know what to pray for as we ought. It says that in the Scriptures.
But when you get done praying, you say this, not my will, but
Thy will be done. Because that's the will that's
going to be done. I just don't believe we ought
to follow these old apostolic guidelines. I think we ought
to build a structure into the church. I think we ought to have
a hierarchy. I think we ought to get together
and write up some papers, and I think we ought to have us a
pope. I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll follow the old history
of the church, and we'll go over to Rome, and we'll make that
the holy city. Was Rome ever the holy city at
any time, anywhere in the scripture? But that's what we're going to
do. We're going to have it in Rome. And we're going to have
this Pope, and then we're going to have some cardinals under
him, and we're going to have some bishops, and we're going
to have this and that. And we'll get all these things
prepared. And no, sir, that's not what's
going to happen. Christ is the head of the church.
It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.
He's going to have the preeminence. He gives the gifts. And He fills
the offices. And you'll submit to God's means
and His men and His message, or you'll go to hell. There's just one King on the
throne, and that's Christ. And man has no say in it. Christ
reigns. He is the blessed and only potentate
King of kings and Lord of lords. What does that mean? That means
He runs the show. Well, it just seems to me that
doesn't matter. That doesn't even matter to me.
How much less would it matter to God? You see what Paul is saying?
Paul has something to say. And he's the man that God's chosen
to save. And he's telling you that he
has this office and he has this authority and he has these things
by the will of God and the seated King. Now, you better listen
to it. We go through these books and
we look at these various things. We better get it settled in our
mind and quit worrying about what Dad taught or what Uncle
Joe taught or Grandma taught. We better find out what God's
got to say. Paul had all those things to
glory in too. And I'll tell you what he said
over there in the last part of Romans 2 and Romans 3. He said,
let God be true and every man a liar. That's what he said.
He found out who God is. The words according to Paul's
letter to Timothy are able to make thee wise unto salvation. And they're profitable for doctrine
and reproof and correction and instruction and righteousness.
The writers of these books were just men, ordinary men, fishermen,
and tax collectors, and shepherds, and doctors, and so on. But they
were certain men. And they were men called of God,
and gifted of God, and men sent of God. Men whose whole ministry
was accompanied by God. And these were apostles, writers
of scriptures, beginners of local churches. And all they did was
according to the will of God. Wouldn't it be something if God
worked His will here today? Wouldn't that be something? He
does. And He is. Let's think about
these things. Let's think about what this man
is saying. Let's think about this authority that is given
of the seated king, whose authority is according to the will of God. Thank you.