Paul went to Corinth, and in
the midst of much difficulty, labored faithfully preaching
the gospel for 18 months. And God was pleased to raise
up a gospel church. A good many people in that large,
wealthy, pagan town were converted. But after Paul left, false teachers
came in, subverting the souls of many. And one of the primary
things by which they attempted to attack Paul's message was
by attacking him. And they accused him of not being
really an apostle of Christ, but rather a servant of himself. So when Paul writes this first
epistle to the Corinthians, he begins the epistle by reminding
them of a fact, a fact that many of them must not be able to put
aside. He tells them that he is an apostle
of Jesus Christ through the will of God. I'm God's messenger. I've been
sent with God's message, not just an ordinary messenger like
the one who's talking to you now. But a man who took his pen
and wrote this letter as he was directed infallibly by God the
Holy Spirit, he said, Now you'll hear me or you will not hear
me at the peril of your own souls. I've come to you as an apostle
of Jesus Christ. And then in verses 2 and verse
4 of chapter 1, He reminds them of who they are. Now, look at
this, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them
that are sanctified, not to them that are being sanctified, to
them that are sanctified, quite literally, to them who having
been sanctified are called, called to be saints. God sanctified
you, and then he called you to be saints. with all that in every
place call upon the name of the Lord, of Jesus Christ our Lord,
both theirs and ours, verse 3, grace be to you." Now, this is
not a wish, it's not a desire, it's a declaration of fact. It's
a benediction, but it's an inspired benediction. Grace be to you,
and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
God Almighty is going to give you grace and peace, just like
he has already. Now look at verse 4. I thank
my God on your behalf. Wait a minute, Paul. These are
the folks who have so disdainfully looked upon you. These are the
folks who have been talking about you behind your back. These are
the folks who haven't treated you like you ought to have been
treated. I thank my God always on your behalf. For the grace
of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything
you are enriched by him, in all utterance and in all knowledge,
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, made sure
in you, so that you came behind in no waiting for the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ." What a great commendation! He speaks
just about as highly of these fellows as you can speak of anybody.
Verse 7, you will come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he makes another promise, who
shall also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom
you were called under the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord." Now, I cannot imagine a church anywhere, large or small,
at any time, at any place in history, with more evil, more
corruption, more horrid, horrid things. than the church of Corinth. I have on a few occasions, not
many, I look at church signs, I don't pay too much attention
to them. I've forgotten where I travel now, but I travel some
place fairly regularly, and I see a sign that says, Corinth Baptist
Church. And I think, why? Why? Why would anybody name the church
Corinth Baptist Church? If it was the name of the town,
I'd change the name of the town. Corinth Baptist Church. Let me
remind you of this, Church. Horrid immorality was winked
at as a matter of indifference. Horrid immorality! A man had
taken his father's wife and was living in open incest with his
father's wife, and they winked at it. Yet these same people
seems unbelievably inconsistent, but its most consistent thing
I observe everywhere I go. These same people, these folks
who looked at this incestuous man living with his father's
wife, they were convinced of the idea that somehow if they
would abstain from physical pleasure, If they would abstain from things
that are natural and acceptable, perfectly all right, such as
marriage, abstain from taking a wife, they could make themselves
more holy, and more useful, and more spiritual. Now these are
the folks who are weak, the fellow living in the incidents. But
we're good people, and we know that the evil, it's not really
in us, it's our children. God's faithful servants by whom
they were taught the gospel were scorned and derided by them.
Pride caused them to disdain the poor and the weak among them.
Those who possessed or thought they possessed superior knowledge
and spiritual gifts looked down their noses at those who they
thought were less spiritual, less knowledgeable, had less
gifts. Though the Corinthian church was probably the wealthiest
of all the New Testament churches, As Paul writes to them, it's
obvious they were the most miserly in their giving. They had the
ability to do the most and did the least. They horribly abused
the ordinances of God, making the person by whom they were
baptized a matter of pride. Paul said, I thank God I didn't
baptize any of you, except this fellow and this fellow and that
fellow, lest any of you share Paul baptized me. They thought,
boy, Peter baptized me, that makes me special. Paul baptized
me, that makes, oh, Apollos, that great orator, he's going
to baptize me, that makes me something else. And they denied
the resurrection of the dead. They flat denied the resurrection
of the dead, denied the resurrection of Christ. All these things divided
the local church. And yet, when Paul addresses
this Corinthian church, whose divisions threaten to destroy
the Church itself, he writes to them in the very beginning
as those who are sanctified in Jesus Christ, called of God to
be saints. And assures them, he assures
these Corinthian believers, that God Almighty will confirm them
to the end until the day when he presents them blameless in
Jesus Christ at the throne of his grace. I emphasize that because
in the very outset I want you to see this very, very meaningful,
important lesson. God's saints in this world are
often plagued with weaknesses, poor judgment, spiritual evil,
and horrible doctrinal error. I want to repeat that. so that
you hear it exactly as I've stated it. God's saints in this world
are often plagued with moral weaknesses, poor judgment, spiritual
evil, and horrible doctrinal error. The fact is, so long as
we live in this world, God's saints, all of us, no exception,
are sinners still. We dare not, we must not, we
will not make excuse and justify our ungodliness or anyone else's. We dare not make excuse for or
justify the ungodliness of another. But even more importantly, we
dare not make ourselves to be judges over our brethren, pronouncing
those cursed whom God has sanctified. We dare not do it. We dare not
do it. And there is a reason for me
saying this, multitudes do. If men and women profess to believe
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ, they
are to be received and embraced by us as our brethren, as our
sisters in Christ Jesus. not to doubtful despitations,
but as our brethren, one with us in Christ Jesus. Paul addressed
the Romans and said, Who art thou that judgest another manservant?
To his own master he standeth or followeth. Yea, he shall be holden up, for
God is able to make him stand. Sometimes people ask me, Do you
think so-and-so saved? I say, What business have you
got to ask that kind of question? Who are you to think such a thing? And who do you think I am to
answer it? Do you think so-and-so saved? You see, judgment is God's
work. It's not our work. There are
many who think they have the ability to distinguish between
sheep and goats. between tares and wheat, between
good fish and bad, and they try to make it their business to
separate one from the other. I had a preacher's wife tell
me one time, she said, I can look at men and tell them what and how
they're saved. Isn't that wonderful? I asked her, I said, what does
a saved fellow look like? What do you look like? They foolishly
and arrogantly think they have the ability to determine who's
saved and who's lost. The fact is, no one, no one,
no one has that ability. Our Lord Jesus pointedly tells
us, turn back on, I want you to look at it, Matthew 13. He
pointedly tells us to let the wheat and the tares grow together.
And he tells us to for a good reason, Matthew 13. After giving
the parable of tares and wheat, He says, verse 30, Let both go
together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest I will
say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and
bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into
my barn. If we try to separate the good
from the bad, we will do so basing our judgment on what we see. That's all we can do, isn't it?
I can't judge anything, anything, except on the basis of what I
see. I don't like to base any kind of judgment on anything
but what I see, what I personally see. And if we judge anybody
on the basis of what we see, we see nothing but what's outside. And we're always deceived by
what's outside. Not once in a while, always. Always. The Lord said to Samuel,
Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature,
because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man
seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, that's all he can see. But the Lord looketh on
the heart. Oh, he sees good. If it were
left to us we would always, if it were left to our judgment,
if it were left to our judgment. I'm talking to you not as a young
man, full of zeal, with no knowledge or experience. I've been preaching
the gospel of God's grace for thirty-seven years. I've had
some experience about the very thing I am sternly warning you
against. If it were left to us, We would
always run off the sheep and hug the goats. We'd do it every
time. We'd pull up the wheat and cultivate
the calves. We'd throw out the good fish
and keep the carps. Our business is to cast out the
gospel man. Just cast it out. And gather
in all the sheep God puts in the good and bad, and leave it
to him to separate them. That's our business. Knowing
that where Christ plants his wheat, Satan plants his tares. And where Christ gathers his
sheep, Satan brings in goats. It is the business of God's church
and of God's servants simply to faithfully preach the gospel
And as we do, God will, by the preaching of the gospel, separate
the precious from the vile, and gather the wheat into his barn,
and bind up the tares to burn them. The gospel fan is in our
Lord's hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor. But that's his
business, not mine, and certainly not yours. I'm a preacher. Are you suggesting that Everybody
who professes to believe in Jesus, we're to embrace them as a lover
of God and as a brother or sister in Christ? Of course not. Of
course not. Of course not. The devils say
they believe in Jesus. Of course not. Anybody who does
not believe the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ
does not know God. Read 2 John 9 and 10. Plain as
it can be, man brings not the doctrine of Christ, has no fellowship
with him, has nothing to do with him. But any man or woman who
professes to believe the gospel of God's free grace in Christ,
we are to receive and embrace as our brother without questioning
him." Paul wrote four letters to the Corinthian church. It
was during his two years at Ephesus that he became aware of the problems
in this congregation and began corresponding with them about
their problems. He wrote a letter to them before this one, and
then they wrote back to him, and this letter is a reply to
their letter to him. Then he wrote a third letter
to them that's also lost. You say, well, you mean part
of the word of God is lost? No. Those two weren't inspired. That's the reason they're lost.
These two are. And this fourth letter, or the
fourth letter they wrote to them, is what we have in 2 In the first
letter that he had written to them, which he mentions in chapter
5, verse 9, Paul had obviously rebuked the Corinthians sharply,
because of the many things that brought reproach upon the name
of Christ and the gospel of God's grace in their conduct. But the
evil practices continued. But he did at least get their
attention, and they wrote to him and asked him some questions.
Paul writes this letter in response to that, writes it by divine
inspiration, and answers the questions they raised by divine
inspiration. So his instruction is given to
us by God the Holy Spirit, and it is written for our learning
and our instruction and our edification as well as theirs. In the first
six chapters he addresses the problems in the Church. Chapters
7 to 16 he answers the questions they raised. Before answering
their questions, though, Paul confronted the issues dividing
that church, and urged them to unite their hearts in the cause
of Christ. Look at verse 10 of chapter 1.
Now I beseech you, brethren, for a tender way to speak. I
beg you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for
the name of God, in the name of God I beg you, that you speak
the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that
you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment. Then in verse 13, he says, Is
Christ divided? Is Christ divided? Of course
not. Of course I'll soon be 54 years old, and
I've been involved in a lot of difficulties over the years.
I quit answering men a long time ago. I just quit answering accusations. I quit answering charges. I quit
engaging in debates. Somebody writes to me and wants
to learn something, I'll spend the whole day answering the letter
of a child. I've done it many times. But
I won't spend two seconds answering the cavils of religious men who
want to argue in front of us. I'm tired of it. And I'm convinced
that all hell hoots and roars with laughter at the division
and strife that exists among true servants of God and the
people of God in this world. It ought not be. It ought not
be. And it ought never be true in
a local church. Never. Never. Let us ever bend
over backwards swallowing our pride and biting our tongue to
promote the unity of God's church and his kingdom. Listen to what
Paul says in Ephesians 4. You don't need to turn there.
Listen. I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that
you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. Walk
worthy of being called the children of God. That doesn't have a thing
on earth to do with whether you wear a beard or don't wear a
beard. It doesn't have a thing on earth to do whether you ladies
wear slacks or don't wear slacks. It doesn't have one thing on
this earth to do with whether you look like your neighbor looks
and dress like your neighbor dresses. As a matter of fact,
I kind of encourage you to dress like other folks. You'd look
odd if you didn't. You'd look funny if you dressed different.
Oh, that's what we want to do. We want to look funny. Well,
folks succeed. They manage that pretty easy. No, no, no, no. Walking worthy. of being called
the children of God is walking with your hearts joined together. That's what it is. And if your
hearts are joined together, nothing's going to divide you. That's right. That's right. Shelby's
been putting up with me for nearly 35 years, because our hearts
are joined together. That's all. Our hearts are joined
together. If your hearts are joined together
in the grace of God, in the love of Christ, nothing is going to
divide you. Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called,
with all loneliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing
one another, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit,
even as you call him, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all
and through all and in you all. Now look at chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians
and verse 16 and understand how serious it is. But Solomon warns
us repeatedly about the evil of men sowing strife and discord
between friends and brethren. What a horrible, horrible, horrible
evil. Now look at how dangerous this
is in the kingdom of God. Verse 16, 1 Corinthians 3. Know
ye not that you are the temple of God? Now he's talking here
about the gathered assembly of God's saints. Right here, right
now, sitting right here in Danville, Kentucky, in this little building,
you're the temple of God. The word is in the plural. And
the Spirit of God dwelling in you. For two or three gathered
together in my name, what did our Master say? Dare I mind the
mystery of it? Have we come in his name to worship
him? You're the temple of God. The Spirit of God is here meeting
with us. The word is divide or destroy,
the temple of God. Him will God destroy. For the temple of God is holy,
which temple you are. The problems dividing the Saints
at Corinth were basically two. The root of both problems, but
basically two problems stood out. And Paul addresses both
of them in the first six chapters. The first was that there were
some who just too highly admired their favorite preachers, idolized
them. Some claimed to be followers
of Apollos, and some claimed to be followers of Peter, and
some claimed to be followers of Paul. Apollos, the great Greek
orator, he was a faithful man. He just happened to be a fellow
who could really preach. He could preach. And he was trained
as an orator, and he was recognized as such. Peter, he was the apostle
to the Gentiles, the one who stood out among the Jews. Paul,
he was the brilliant rhetorical, logical, precise, well-trained,
academic, who stood head and shoulders above the others in
that regard, the apostle to the Gentiles. And each group, we
follow, we follow Apollos. Boy, a man couldn't preach like
him, he wouldn't. We follow Peter, he's the one. We follow Paul, he's our favorite,
he's our favorite. We wouldn't say anything bad
about each other, but all three groups, they're saying what we're
really telling you is we've got a corner on God's truth, and
we've got life you don't have. and knowledge you don't have.
We're just a step or two higher than you." And then some folks,
real pious, they said, We're followers of Jesus. We follow
Christ. Oh, that's a good way to do it.
Not the way they intended to do it. What they were saying
is that Christ is ours. You fellas don't know it. Christ
is ours. We've got real questions about
you. We've got a corner on this thing. He's our peculiar possession.
The cause of the division was clearly an infatuation with carnal
worldly wisdom, with carnal worldly understanding, and an utter failure
to understand that the preaching of the gospel is itself the wisdom
of God. The Corinthians vainly imagined,
as many do today, that people could actually be persuaded to
believe God, that they could be converted that they could
be brought to Christ by the excellent logic and argument of a man like
Paul, or the religious history of a man like Peter, or the spellbinding
oratory of a man like Apollos. And Paul spends the first two
chapters saying, you fellows don't understand anything right.
In chapter 1, verses 18-25, He declares that the only method
by which God Almighty calls out and saves his elect is the preaching
of the gospel. He says this and this alone is
the power of God and the wisdom of God, nothing else. Then in
verses 26 through 31, he tells us that the instruments God is
pleased to use as his voices, the instruments by which he performs
this great work of calling out his elect, well, they're just
nothings. They're nothing. He uses nothings
and nobodies to call out his elect, and it does it that no
flesh should glory in his presence. And then in chapter 2, look at
this one. He tells us that the power of the gospel Now listen
carefully. The power of the gospel preached
is not the intellectual ability or the rhetorical ability or
the oratorical ability of the preacher, but the gospel preached. Did you get that? The power of
the gospel is not in the man preaching it, but the message
preached. Sunday morning, Sunday night,
Brother Ron's going to be bringing the messages here. And it ought not matter one whit
to anybody here, or who might be here, whether Ron's the one
doing the preaching or Don's the one doing the preaching.
Not one speck. If you didn't preach the same
message I do, you wouldn't be preaching here. It's just that
simple. And the power is not in the messenger. The only power I have over you
is carnal, personality, worldly power. And the power of God is
not in the messenger. Oh, I just don't want to hear
anybody preaching for the love of God. You didn't pay me a compliment.
I disdain that. I disdain it. I disdain it. Oh, I can't tell you how I disdain
it. It's evil. It's horrible. It's ungodly.
It ain't right. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2,
verse 1, I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech. Now, wait a minute, Paul. This
is the brilliant fellow. Yep, I deliberately came to you
without the excellency of speech or of wisdom. I hear fellas get
up and they recite this fella and that fella, this theologian
and that theologian, this point in history and that point in
history. And they try to talk to folks about Greek and Hebrew
and Aramaic and everybody says, oh, he's so smart. He got what
he wanted. He got what he wanted. But there
ain't any gospel in it. And there ain't any power in
it. And there's nothing in it, Donna God. For I determined not
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling,
and in not talking about being afraid of you, not talking about
being weak in the flesh, weak before God, fearful of my responsibility,
trembling with the weight of responsibility. Verse 4, And
my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, I didn't try to catch you on your blind side and get
you to get religious all of a sudden. But in demonstration of the Holy
Spirit and power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of man, but in the power of God. When I was in college, both of
the Bible colleges, religious schools I went to, whatever you
want to call them, they used to tell us how to, you build
up to a crescendo. You just, you prepare your message
to build folks up to an emotional high, and you strike while the
iron's hot, catch folks off guard, and they'll make the decision
for Jesus. No. We proclaim the free grace of
God and pray that God Almighty will drive it home to your heart
and effect your power. And if He does, nobody can talk
you out of it. And if your faith only stands
in what you've heard this man preach or heard another man preach
because he was able to convince you of something by his marvelous
learning and logic and you couldn't disprove, well, I guess I have
to believe it. There's no faith in it and somebody smarter than
me will come along and talk you out of it. In verses 3 and 4, Paul shows
us clearly who God's servants are, and how they serve the cause
of Christ. He has shown us that God's servants
are all men with one message, Jesus Christ and him crucified.
In chapter 3, he tells us they are all totally insignificant
and meaningless in themselves. Now, surely you don't mean that.
Look at verse 7, So then neither is he that planteth anything,
neither he that watereth. Sounds to me like he said, Apollos
and Peter and Paul were nothing, were just nothing. Hoes and hoses
with which God Almighty tills and plants and waters his garden,
nothing else, nothing else. And yet he carefully points out
that those instruments God uses by which he carries his gospel
to his people, are to be respected as laborers together with God,
ministers of Jesus Christ, ministers by whom you believe. Then in
the 3rd chapter he speaks of that one foundation on which
the church and kingdom of God is built. And that one foundation
is Jesus Christ which God has laid. Lots of folks do lots of
things to get people to come to church and join the church.
Lots of things. Lots of things. Over the years,
I've had well-meaning, maybe, well-meaning friends suggesting
that we need to do something. We need to have this program
or that program. You know, the church down the road, every time
I go and see our grandbabies at Tate's Creek, whatever it
is up there. No, it's a manual church. They've
got a thing out. of divorce recovery seminars. Isn't that wonderful? That'll
get them coming. Yeah, buddy. Everybody's involved in that.
Folks have special ministries for this group and that group,
and they've got special things for this group and that group.
Let me tell you what happens when you have a special ministry
for singles, and a unique ministry for children, and a loving ministry
for grandpas and grandmas. You compromise the gospel to
meet the folks you're trying to reach, not occasionally, every
blessed time. We'll have some movies, and we'll
have some games, and we'll entertain folks with this, that, and the
other thing. People come to church that way. They just won't come
in these days just to hear a man preach. Oh, they won't. They
won't. God's people will. And you build
the churches, and do you know what that means? It's wood, hay,
and stubble. And you've already seen it burn.
Churches have got to have such a turnover. They couldn't stay
going if they didn't have turnover every week. How come? Because
the wood, hay, and stubble burns. And it's going to burn in the
day of judgment. Only that gold, silver, and precious stone built
upon the rock Christ Jesus through the preaching of the gospel in
the power of God's Spirit will stand forever. The only work
any church does that lasts forever is the preaching of Jesus Christ
and him crucified. Then in the fourth chapter, Paul
asserts that God's servants are but the stewards of God in God's
house. And stewards, you know they are
only concerned for one thing? Only one thing, a good steward.
A good steward. He's running a business for another
man. He's got one responsibility.
It really doesn't much matter whether anybody in that shop
likes him or not. It really doesn't matter. It's
nice if they do, but it really doesn't matter. It doesn't matter
if the fellow running the business next door approves of them or
not. It's nice if he does, but it really doesn't matter. A faithful
steward is concerned for only one thing. the honor of his master,
and faithfulness to his master." That's all. Paul said in chapter
4, you judge me, I don't think anything about that, I don't
even judge myself. There's one that judges me, and in the day
of judgment, God Almighty is going to reveal everything in
his true light, and I'll wait till then. I frequently refer
to these first verses of chapter 4. Folks, they'll Make some snide
remark or some comment. And if I can't put them off any
other way, I just tell them, well, soon we'll find out, because
we're going to stand before God Almighty. And I'm prepared to
wait. I'm prepared to wait. I have
no interest in a man's opinion, what men think, what men approve
of. God requires just one thing of
stewards. Look in verse 2. It is required of stewards that
a man be found faithful. That's all. Faithful to the word
of God, the gospel of his grace, the glory of God, the souls of
men. That's all. Faithful. Faithful
to that which God has put in his hands. Now, some stewards
appear to be more successful than others. Some stewards seem
to have greater recognition than others. Some stewards, though
it looks like God is really using them, rejoice in it. God doesn't require the steward
to be successful or recognized. or even useful. That's altogether
up to God. Altogether up to him. And if
one's useful and another's not, one seems to get a lot done and
another doesn't, it's God who makes the difference. And that's
the context in which we find this tremendous statement in
verse 7. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Nay,
if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst
not received it?" Someone was asking me about two
preachers in the same town just this week, and it meant well,
but it revealed a terrible lack of understanding. One of the
churches is flourishing, just thriving, just growing, packed
house all the time. Another church in the last year,
in God's providence, Three-quarters of the congregation moved out
and they didn't have the three-quarters to start with. And this lady
asked me, she said, why is that church so little and hers so
big? I said, God does what he will. And that's all. I know both pastors. They're
both faithful men. Have been for years. Faithful men. And
continue faithful. God Almighty does what he will
with his Savior. The only thing he requires of
his servants is that we serve him. That's all. The other problem
these Corinthians had was worldliness, love of the world. It was their
love of the world that caused them to wink at this incestuous
man. After all, this was common among
the Gentiles. This was common in the pagan
Roman world, that the Corinthian city had a temple to Aphrodite,
goddess of love, and they offered on regular basis a thousand prostitutes
to their worshipers, constantly there. Oh, this is the way they
live. This is acceptable. We can't look down our noses
on that. We can't let folks think we disapprove of them. They'll
think we're condemning them. It was the love of the world,
their desire for acceptance among men. that caused them to receive
and embrace this man. Paul says, Christ, our Passover,
will sacrifice for us. You sacrifice yourself to him.
And keep the feast of faith and the feast of the Lord's table
with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. In chapter
6, these men, our brothers, were such lovers of the world. such graspers after wealth, money,
and property, that they went to court with one another before
unbelievers." These folks who shall sit in judgment over angels
are now going to court before unbelievers, bickering over money
and land. Paul speaks sharply about foolishness,
how degrading But you know how he seeks to correct the evil? Oh, he'll go take out the whip
of the law and get after them. No. He knew he was dealing with
believers, God's children. And they're not ruled by the
base elements of the world. And they're not motivated by
fear or promise of reward. They're ruled by the grace of
God and motivated by faith and love and gratitude. So he simply
reminds them of what Christ has done for them. Look at verse
9, chapter 6. The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. Then he describes who they are. Verse 11, he says,
And such were some of you. But you are washed, you are sanctified,
you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the
Spirit of our God. Verse 19. What? Know ye not that your body,
you individually, is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? You've
been bought with the price of glorified God in your body and
in your spirits, which are God's. In chapter 7, the Corinthians
had raised questions, and Paul here begins to answer them. One
was a matter of asceticism. They really thought that if they
would abstain from physical pleasure that is perfectly lawful. Physical pleasure, not prohibited
physical pleasure, physical pleasure. then they'd really be spiritual
and holy, close to God, useful. And so Paul said, we've heard
that it'd be best for a man not to marry. And if it's best for
a fellow not to marry, if he can really be closer to God by
not marrying, more serviceable to God, then maybe those who
are married ought to divorce their wives, so they could really
be devoted to God. Because you see, it's our understanding
now, we've grown to this level of spiritual maturity, The evil
we experience is not really our problem. It's not really in us. It's our character. So nobody
thinks like that. That seems ridiculous. You know,
I met a fellow once, several years ago. As a matter of fact,
he brought his family hundreds of miles to listen to me preach.
He regretted it later, but he brought them down to hear me
preach the first time I was in Alamo, Michigan. Came down from the remote, high
mountains up in Canada. And I asked him, How far back
do you live? He said, Oh, the nearest neighbor
is a hundred miles away, literally. I said, Why on this earth do
you live back under? He said, Well, I moved up there
to keep myself and my family whole there. Oh, the problem is that we don't
drink, cuss, smoke, or chew, and we don't run to folks who
do, because that's evil, that's evil. And Paul, essentially in
1 Corinthians 7, he says, anything that God didn't prohibit you
from using, use it and enjoy it. For the intention for which
God gave it. Anything. Oh, but you don't dare
say that. Well, I did. I did. And enjoy it. God didn't save
you to make you miserable, Bob. He saved you to make you useful.
Religion ought not make those miserable. Well, religion will,
but Christ won't. And then in the 8th chapter, it begins to
deal with matters of worship, going through chapter 14. And
the folks would have meats offered to idols. Is it all right to
eat meats offered to idols? Well, if you go down there and
you buy it for idols, nothing, and the meat offered to idols,
nothing, and just don't ask any questions about it, it's good
to be alone, it's a good piece of steak, go ahead and buy it and eat it.
But if the fellow makes an issue out of it, then you don't have
to have it. Use your liberty wisely in the love of Christ
for his people. Don't offend your brother, and
give no cause for stumbling to a brother. In chapter 9, he assures
them of his apostleship, and he tells them that the Lord had
called him. When he was at Corinth, you'll
remember, he labored with Aquila and Priscilla, making tents,
so he could provide for himself, so he could have some peanut
butter and jelly to eat when he went to bed at night, because
those folks starved him to death. And he would not allow anyone
to think he preached for his own gain. You know what they
did? They said, well, since he's willing
to work for his living, he must not really be a preacher. He must not really be an apostle.
He's a fake. You see, when men are looking
for a reason to accuse you, they'll find it. You don't have to worry
about that. And Paul seizes the opportunity here and says, those
who preach the gospel, not only should they not be allowed to
provide for themselves. You ought to see to it they are
taken care of. They that preach the gospel are to live of the
gospel. In chapter 10, he tells them, apparently they had incorporated
in their services both the pagan practices of the Gentiles around
them and the legal practices of the Jews, and brought it all
together so everything was perverted. And Paul says, everything went
on the Old Testament, all of it. will happen as an example
for us on whom the end of the world has come, to teach us the
things of God. In chapter 11, he begins to deal
with orderly worship. They wrote to him and asked him
about the place of women in the church, and gifts in the church,
and all those things. Paul says to them, the women
are to keep silent, not because they're less than men, but because
of God's order. and everything is to be done
decently and in order, with thoughtful reverence and preparation." We're
worshipping God. We're worshipping God. And then
when it gets to chapter 15, he's astounded. He's utterly astounded. There were folks here in Corinth who didn't believe Christ was
raised from the dead. They were too smart to believe
such a thing. They didn't believe the Son of God actually rose
from the dead. And they didn't believe in the
resurrection glory of God's saints. So Paul begins the chapter by
saying, listen, not only did Christ rise from the dead, there
is but one gospel, and his resurrection from the dead is vital to the
gospel of his grace. If he didn't rise from the dead,
you're still in your sins, because he didn't put them away. And
then in verses 5 through 11, He tells them, not only is this
vital to the gospel, this is a well-established, undeniable
fact of history. It can't be denied, not with
any sense of reason at all. And then in the latter part of
the chapter, verses 16 down through verse 58, Paul assures these
believers at Corinth that Christ rose from the dead, and his resurrection
from the dead is the guarantee. of our resurrection from the
dead and our everlasting glory with him. In chapter 60, they
had one more question. I get a lot of letters, as you
know. Y'all give me just a minute. I'll wrap this up. I get a lot
of letters. And frequently, fellows will
write to me and want instruction about how to give and how much
to give. And you know what I've discovered? Every time I hear from somebody
who wants to know, well, how much should I give to this or
that or anything? How much should I pay the church? How much should I pay the preacher?
How much should I give to the missionary? How much should that
fellow next door to me give? You know what I've discovered? It is always really this question. How little can I give? And how
much ought this fellow to give? That's really the issue. And
so Paul answers it real simple. He says, when you come to the
house of God every Sunday, bring your gifts to the house of God and give with all the liberality
of love for God and love for your brethren. Someone asked in the book on
the Church of God, the first published, don't you think you
ought to put a warning in there, tell folks not to give too much?
I said, well if I ever experience that, I'll do that. Oh no, give
as an act of worship and faith in the house of God by the liberality
of Christ's love to you and your love to him and his people. And then Paul wraps this book
up in the last three verses. with a combined word of condemnation
against all who love not the Lord Jesus Christ, and a benediction
of grace upon all who do. Whichever fits, take it to you.
If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be damned
the Lord's coming. Thank God it doesn't end there.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. And if it's with you, it's always
with you. Sufficient for you. Abundant
with you. My love be with you all.