When Paul said, singing to yourselves
in psalms and hymns and spiritual psalms, I think that that is
an example of the spiritual songs and hymns that we sing. I love that hymn. I've entitled the message for
tonight, The Church at Corinth. I like saying this, I've been
preaching for over 40 years. Something vain for me to say
that, I'm sure, but I still like saying it. And I know that I
have gone over each one of the epistles of Paul at least three
times. But haven't done one of Paul's
epistles for about five years. And I felt led to bring an exposition, Lord willing,
on this epistle, 1 Corinthians. Now more is known about this
church than any of the other New Testament churches. Why is
that? Well, Paul wrote to seven churches. He wrote to Rome. He wrote to
the Corinthians twice that we have in the canon of scripture. He wrote an epistle to the churches
at Galatia, an epistle to the church at Ephesus, Philippi,
Colossa, and two more to the church at Thessalonica. And do
you know that over 40% of Paul's writings is dedicated to the
church at Corinth? So we know more about the church
at Corinth than any of the other churches. It was a church like every other
church filled with problems. That would describe every church
because there are people like me and you that make up those
churches. Yet, look how Paul addresses
them. Look in verse 2. under the church
of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ
Jesus, called, notice to be is in italics, called saints, with
all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord, both theirs and ours. Look in verse four, he says to
this church, I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace
of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. Now that's the
way he addressed this church. And this church that was fraught
with problems, that is the way he addressed this church. As a matter of fact, if you look
in the writings of Paul to the churches, there's only one church
that he expressed doubt toward. That was the church of Galatia.
Remember when he actually said, I stand in doubt of you. But he begins this epistle with
such a commendation. Now Corinth was the largest city
in Greece, and it was established really as a Roman colony. It was known for three things.
Like I said, what I read, they were saying the population could
have been anywhere upwards of 600,000 people. And it was known
for three things. First, prosperity and commerce. And the reason being, if you
look at Greece on a map, there are two parts of Greece, and
they're connected by a little isthmus. Is that what you call
it? Isthmus? Only four miles wide. And when people were traveling,
with cargo, instead of going around the Peloponnesian peninsula,
the lower part of Greece, which could be very dangerous, they'd
stop at that peninsula, that isthmus, four miles wide, and
they'd put their boats on logs and roll them to the other side,
rather than take that longer journey that would take much
longer. So you can imagine all the trade that came through that
place. Every one of these boats would
stop at that isthmus where the church at Corinth was, the city
of Corinth. So it was known for prosperity.
It was known for much trade. Secondly, it was known for sports.
The main Olympics were at Athens, but the second largest sporting
event was in Corinth, and people from all over the world came
to that. And thirdly, Corinth was famous
for immorality and debauchery. There was a temple on the highest
hill, the Acropolis of Corinth. And it employed over 1,000 prostitutes. And that was used in their religion. So you can imagine what an immoral
place Corinth was. And that is where Paul came by
himself into this big city. I love to think about this. He
shows up by himself without any support. He finds Aquila and
Priscilla. You can read about it in Acts
chapter 18 starts making tents. He didn't have any other support.
He had to support himself. He started making tents and going
into the synagogue every Sabbath day to preach. That is the way
the church began. And if you'll remember in Acts
chapter 18, the Lord appeared to Paul and said, fear not, hold
not thy peace. I have much people in this city. And so he knew that the Lord
was going to bless the preaching of the gospel there, the church
at Corinth. Now a large part of both 1st
and 2nd Corinthians is dealing with the problems in the church. And there were problems. And
there is not a church anywhere that doesn't have problems. Why? Because they're sinful people
in those churches. The church of God is made up
of sinners saved by grace. Now listen to this real carefully.
Where there is salvation, there will always be a change in that
sinner that God has saved. Always. If there's no change,
there's been no salvation. I love that scripture in Revelation
14, 13. That's what I preached on in
the funeral service for Cecil yesterday. I'm drawing a blank. Turn to
Revelation 14. I got it memorized, but I'm slipping. I've asked Lynn, when I get unbearable,
let me know so I can just hang it up and people, y'all can find
somebody else to preach. Verse 13, Revelation 14, I heard
a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, I love that, write. Thank God for the scriptures.
Write this down so everybody can see it. Write, blessed are
the dead which die in the Lord, From henceforth, yea, saith the
Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works
do follow them. With regard to every single one
of them, their works do follow them. Now, they don't come out
front as the cause of salvation. They don't walk along the side
as a ground of assurance. I must be saved because I do
this or I do that, but they follow them. I think we had a beautiful
example that Wednesday night with Noah. What proved Noah believed
God? He built the ark. His works followed
Him. And that's true of every believer. And these were people that God
has saved, but they are still people with the same nature they
were born with. The nature that never gets better,
and we will struggle with this nature and consequently with
sin into the day we die. That's what the scripture teaches
with regard to the natural man. I remember one time asking my
grandfather, and it was shortly before he died, Jeff Thornberry. I said, Granddad, does it ever
get better? He said, no. I know that from my experience. Now I would like you to follow
along and open up your Bibles to 1 Corinthians. And I want
us to look at the things that were going on in this church,
and probably over half the message is gonna be dealing with those
things, not doing anything other than pointing them out. Look
in verse 10. Paul says of chapter one, now
I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that you all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions, no
schisms among you, but that you be perfectly joined together
in the same mind, in the same judgment. 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. Look in verse 14. Paul says,
I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius,
lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name. Now,
he had had experience with these people, and he knew what they
would accuse him of. Well, you're baptizing in your own name. You
think you're somebody. You think you're very important. Accusations. Look in chapter
three, verse one. And I, brethren, I couldn't speak
unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto
babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with
meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither now
are you able. For you are yet carnal, for whereas there is
among you envying and strife and divisions. Are you not carnal
and walk as men? Now he's speaking to the church. Look in chapter four. Paul says in verse three, but
with me it's a very small thing that I should be judged of you
or of man's judgment. Now what is he saying? He could
feel that these people were sitting in judgment on him. He knew it
was going on. And I almost feel his pain when
he says, it's a small thing for me to be judged of you. That's
the way he dealt with it. Instead of saying, and it was
inspired by the Holy Spirit, I realize that, but I'm sure
it broke Paul's heart that these people were standing continually
in judgment, questioning his authority, questioning his apostleship. Look in verse 14 of the same
chapter. I write not these things to shame you, Beloved sons, I
warn you, for though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ,
you've got plenty of people to instruct, yet have you not many
fathers, not many mature men? For in Christ
Jesus have I begotten you through the gospel. Look in verse 18,
chapter four. Now some of you are puffed up,
you're swollen, you're filled with pride. that I would not
come to you. Look in chapter five, verse one.
It's reported commonly, this is common knowledge, that there
is fornication among you, and such fornication is not so much
as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's
wife. Why, this would be a shameful thing to Gentiles, and you have
it going on, and you're puffed up, verse two. No big deal. and have not rather
mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away
from you. Look in chapter six, verse one. Dare any of you, having a matter
against another, go to law before the just and not before the saints?
Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if
the world be judged by the saints, are you unworthy to judge the
smallest matters? Know you not that we shall judge
angels? How much more then things that pertain to this life? If
then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set
them to judge your least esteemed among the church. I speak to
your shame. Is it so that there's not a wise
man among you? No one that shall be able to judge between his
brethren, but brother goeth to brother, Goeth the law with brother,
and that before the unbelievers. Now, therefore, that's utterly
a fault among you." Now here, they have people litigating against
each other, taking each other to court, trying to sue each
other. They're in this church. He said, this is utterly a fault. This is totally contrary to the
gospel, to the spirit of grace. But here it was. Look in verse
15. Now remember the way I talked
about the 1,000 prostitutes? Look at this verse. Know ye not
that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take
the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot?
God forbid. What? Know ye not that he which
is joined to an harlot is one body? For two saith he shall
be one flesh, for he that's joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
Flee, fornication! Every sin that a man doeth is
without the body, but he that committed fornication sinneth
against his own body. Now, that was going on in this
church. Chapter seven deals with all
the problems of marriage, divorce, and remarriage. And it's a very
long chapter. Look in chapter eight, verse
one, now is touching things offered to idols. We know that we all
have knowledge. And then he makes this statement,
that I hope hits me like a ton of bricks, and I hope it hits
you like a ton of bricks. Knowledge puffs up. Swells one
with pride. Charity builds up. It edifies. Knowledge without charity is
useless knowledge. Look in verse 8, the same chapter. But meek commendeth this not
to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, neither if
we eat not are we the worse. But take heed, lest by any mean
this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to them that
are weak, a total non-caring attitude toward the weak brother.
For if any man see thee which has knowledge sit at meat in
the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him that which
is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered
to idols? And through thy knowledge shall thy weak brother perish
for whom Christ died? But when you sin so against the
brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. They had those who were just
indifferent about their weaker brethren. If you read 1 Corinthians
9, it's about their failure to support Paul. And what's the
one church we have record of? And it was probably the largest
church. What's the one church where Paul had to support himself?
The church at Corinth. He said, I robbed other churches
to take wages of them for you. Look in 1 Corinthians 10 verse
6. Now these things were our examples
to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as
also they lusted. Neither be ye idolaters as were
some of them. As it's written, the people sat
down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit
fornication as some of them. committed, and fell in one day
three and twenty thousand, neither let us tempt Christ, as some
of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither
murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed
of the destroyer." All this stuff was going on in the Church of
Corinth, that he's giving these Old Testament examples. First
Corinthians 11, he gives instructions with regard to men and women,
proper protocol, the representation of head coverings, and then he
went into the Lord's table. And you'll remember, he said,
some of you, he said, I tell you, you're not coming together
for the better, but for the worse when you come together for the
Lord's table. You know what was going on in the Lord's table?
There were people becoming intoxicated during that time. And there were
cliques developing, where one group would be over here, and
one group would be over there. And he rebukes them about this
in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Now, 1 Corinthians chapter 12
through 14 is about the gifts. the gifts. He says, now concerning
spiritual gifts. And what they had going on there
was the abuse of the gifts. You can read particularly about
it in chapter 14 where you had people you know, speaking other
languages. You know, they did have the gift
of tongues then. They had the ability to speak other languages.
Now, what if I wanted to show off to you all my amazing gift
of tongues and all of a sudden I started speaking in some other
language and everybody would be impressed? Wow! But you wouldn't
hear one understood one word I said. And that was going on
there. People abusing these gifts. You
had women preaching. You had all kinds of factions
going on. He ends up that section by saying,
let all things be done decently and in proper order. There was
no proper order. It was chaos. It was a mess in
this church. Look in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 12. Now if Christ be preached,
that he rose from the dead. How say some among you that there's
no resurrection of the dead? That was going on in this church,
and he addresses that problem. Second Corinthians, chapter one. Somebody says, when are you gonna
get off on all this? Well, pretty soon. I'm not gonna
say much more, but I'm just wanting you to see what was going on
in this church before we consider what Paul had to say. Verse 17,
when I therefore was thus minded that I use likeness, or the things
that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that
with me there should be yea and nay? Now that's what they were
accusing him of. He's light. He says one thing
and he does another. He speaks out of both sides of
his mouth. That's what he's saying, no I didn't. Look in chapter
two, verse six. Remember in chapter five of first
Corinthians where that man was with his mother, his father's
wife, I guess his, uh, whatever relation that is. And he said,
such things should not be done even among the Gentiles. Well,
they dealt with it and look in verse six, chapter two. Sufficient is such a man as the
punishment which was afflicted as many, so that, contrariwise,
ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps
such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow." They
held this guy off now, and they wanted to punish him because
they were more righteous than he was, they thought, and they
were going to put him under the gun. That was going on at this
time. Chapter 3, do we begin again
to commend ourselves or need we as others epistles of commendation
to you or letters of commendation from you? They were saying, Paul,
what's your credentials? Give us some proof that you have
some authority. Give us what credentials you have. Show us
what degrees you have. Show us what experience you have.
They were all the time, this church was all the time calling
into question the authority of Paul. You had one, I'm of Apollos. Another, I'm of Cephas. And the
real pious one said, well, I don't follow any man. I just follow
Christ. You can read that in 1 Corinthians 1. This is what
was going on there. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 11. He says, O ye Corinthians, our
mouth is open to you. Our heart is enlarged. You've
not straightened in us, but you've straightened in your own bowels.
Look how he says in verse 13, be ye also enlarged. They were
not enlarged toward Paul. In chapter six, second Corinthians,
verse 11. I'm already there. Oh, you Corinthians are, well,
There's something else I wanted to say out of that chapter, but
I can't read my writing. Chapters 8 and 9 are devoted to giving
in 2 Corinthians. They're devoted to giving because
the Corinthians had a real problem in this area, this thing of giving.
They did not give. 2 Corinthians 10, verses 10 and
11. These were people in the church
saying this, for his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful,
but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible. He's not a very good speaker,
and he doesn't draw anything but contempt the way he looks. Look in 2 Corinthians 11, verse
3, he said to the church of Corinth, I fear, lest by any means, as
the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. That is what
he was afraid of, them being corrupted from that simplicity. Look in verses 7 and 8. He says,
Have I committed an offense and abasing myself that you might
be exalted because I preached to you the gospel of God freely
and didn't expect anything out of you? I robbed other churches
taking wages of them to do you service. Look in chapter 12 verses
11 through 13, he says to them, I've become a fool and glory,
and you've compelled me for I to have been commended of you, for
in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be
nothing. I love the way Paul understood that. I'm nothing. Truly the signs of an apostle
were wrought among you in all patience and signs and wonders
with mighty deeds. For what was it wherein you were
inferior to other churches except that I myself was not burdensome
to you? Forgive me this wrong. Look what he says in verse 20.
For I fear, lest when I come, I shall not find you such as
I would, but that I shall find you such as you would not, lest
there be debates, endings, wrath, stripes, backbiting, whispering,
swellings, and tumults. And lest when I come again, my
God will humble me among you, that I shall bewail many which
have sinned already and not repented of the uncleanness and fornication
and lasciviousness which they've committed. Now, I've spent too
long on that. But I wanted to read all those
passages of scripture with regard to the church at Corinth. Now, this was a true church. You see all the things that was
going on there. Yet this is a true church, a church made of sinners
saved by grace. You know, I couldn't help but
think When I was thinking about this, there was a man some years
ago that was visiting the church and was thinking about moving
here. And when he observed the church after a couple of days,
he says, well, I'm not going to move there because there's
too much sin in that church. I agree. Do you? Any sin is too much sin. Any sin at all is too much sin.
But this man betrayed a complete ignorance of his own sin. He would be no different than
that Pharisee. In Luke chapter 18, he said,
God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are. He was comparing
himself with others. Now this is a reminder to us
also that the only reason to leave a church is if the gospel's
not preached. That's the only reason to leave.
If the gospel's not preached, you say, well, I just don't like
the way people are living there. Well, the only reason to leave
is because the gospel is not preached. And yet Paul begins,
let's go back to our text. Paul begins this epistle, and
you see, he was, well aware of what was going on in that church,
yet he begins this epistle with commendation. And let me say
this. Somebody says, well, Paul was
just trying to be positive, trying to deal with another kind of
a positive way of looking at things. No, this is the gospel.
He wasn't just trying to be positive as opposed to negative. I'm trying
to give you some positives before I deal with the negative. I've
heard that before you say something negative, give three positives.
Well, that's probably good advice, but it doesn't have anything
to do with the gospel. Paul was preaching the gospel to these
people, and that is what he says to them. It's not just trying
to overlook things. Look how he says it in verse two. Verse one, Paul called to be
an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. An apostle is
someone who has seen Christ in the flesh and been taught directly
by him. There are only 12 apostles. If
someone claims to be an apostle, right now they're liars. We read
of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. Paul took the place of Judas.
There are 12 apostles. An apostle was somebody who had
seen Christ in the flesh and was taught the gospel directly
by Jesus Christ. Remember when he was taken into
the third heavens? You remember when the Lord appeared to him
in Acts chapter 9? The Lord dealt with him personally. And Sosthenes, our brother, now
if you look in the account in Acts chapter 18, Sosthenes was
the ruler of the synagogue. And he was opposed to Paul, but
evidently during that time, the Lord saved Sosthenes. And now
he's right with Paul in the preaching of the gospel. Verse two. Under the church of God. Now
what a combination of this church. under the church of God. I wish you and I, I hope we do,
have a high view of the church of God. Paul did. He knew exactly
what these people were doing. What does he call them? The church
of God. God's church. Now in the scripture,
the church is known in two different Aspects first, there's the Universal
Church and that's taught in the scripture Ephesians 5 25 says
husbands love your wives as Christ also loved the church and Gave
himself for it Who's the church all of the elect Everyone to
ever believe now what I think is glorious about this church
It never loses a member And it never gains a member It's made
up of all of the elect, the general assembly and church of the firstborn,
whose names are written among heaven. The spirits of just men
made perfect. Isn't that a beautiful description
of a believer? The spirits of just men made perfect. Feed the church of God, which
he purchased with his own blood. Upon this rock will I build my
church, the church of God. There's the universal aspect
of the church, and there's the local aspect of the church. The
Todd's Road Grace Church is a local church. The Church of Corinth
was a local church. Now, let me tell you this, about
every local church, it has a mixed membership, made up of wheat
and tares. All of them, all of them. Whenever
somebody says, I'm gonna try to make this church pure, get
rid of all the tares, you know, the Lord gave a parable about
that. He said, you remember the parable of the wheat and the
tares? You know, wheat and tares look just alike. You can't really
tell the difference. And the servant said, you want us to
go bundle up the tares and get rid of them? And what was the
saying of the master? No, because you'll end up ripping
up the wheat. Let him go alone, and Judgment Day will take care
of everything. I love what Paul said, judge
nothing before the time. It'll come out then. but you
and I do not have enough sense to try to tear out the wheat.
We'll tear out the wrong people. You can just write that down,
that's us. Well, he says, under the church
of God, which is Corinth, and look at this description of the
church. To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints,
with all that every that in every place call upon the name of Jesus
Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Now, if I would pick
out the word in the Bible that most completely describes God's
salvation, I would pick out the word sanctification. Sanctification. What's the word mean? It means
to make something separate apart, set apart, to take something
common and ordinary, like the vessels of the temple. They weren't
holy in and of themselves, but when God set them apart for that
purpose, they were holy. God declared them to be so. Set
apart. Ask Belshazzar, when he brought
the vessels of the Lord into the temple to use in his party,
what happened to him. If God says they're holy, they're
holy. Set apart. Now every believer,
now this word sanctification, it's in the perfect tense. Passive
voice. Do you know that if God has sanctified
you, you are completely sanctified? You can't get any more sanctified
than you are. Holy. You know, sanctification
doesn't know anything of degrees. They're not degrees of sanctification.
When people talk about progressive sanctification, that's a term
that's used. And it's really a denial of what the word means
in the first place, because if I'm progressively sanctified,
that means I'm progressively becoming more holy and less sinful. You're not gonna find the scripture
supporting that. Sanctification, what's it mean? Well, every believer
was sanctified by God the Father in eternal election, set apart
to be holy. According as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him. Sanctified by Jesus Christ
the Son on Calvary's tree. The scripture says, by the which
will we are sanctified once for all. Once again, in the perfect
tense, perfectly completed, never to be repeated, we are sanctified
once for all through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
Through his death, every believer is holy. And then there's the
sanctification of the spirit. I think of that scripture, 2
Thessalonians 2.13, but we're bound to thank God always for
you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has, from the
beginning, chosen you to salvation through Sanctification of the
Spirit. You know what that is? That's
being born again. That's being given a holy nature. That's being
given a new nature. Somebody says, what's a holy
nature? It's a nature that does not sin. He that's born of God
doth not commit sin. Every believer has these two
natures. A holy nature, born of God, sanctified
by the Spirit. Every believer is a saint. You
know, I'm in the habit, Richard Bergmaier, both in the habit
of reading Paul Prather's religious article in the Herald-Leader
every week. And was it last week? He said, my mom's a real saint.
I guess everybody's mom's a real saint. Everybody's mom's in heaven. Dad's in hell. But mom, she's
probably, you know. But he was just talking about
her sainthood, how great she was. And I'm all for that. But don't call human behavior
a saint. A saint is somebody that God
has declared, he's mine. Chosen before time began, Christ
put away their sin so that they have no sin. God the Holy Spirit
gave them a new nature, a new heart. St. Todd. St. Todd. If you're a believer,
put saint before your name, because that's the best description of
you. We read of believers twice. We read of Christians three times. We read of saints 61 times in
the New Testament. Called saints. Every believer is called saints
with All that in every place call upon the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. Now here's what
saints do. Every one of them, they call
upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what faith is. It's calling on his name. When
you're calling on his name, it's not just audibly saying something. His name is his attributes. When I call upon his name, Through
the Son, I say, Lord, save me as an act of your sovereign will,
will my salvation. Save me by your righteousness. Save me by your mercy. Save me
by your grace. Save me by your love. All of
his attributes. You know, any aspect I have or
any belief I have of salvation that's contrary to the attributes
of God is just wrong. We call upon his name, his attributes,
his character. We call upon his name, Lord,
save me. That's what Peter was saying
when he was walking on the water and began to seek. Lord, he knew
who the Lord was, the one whose will must be done. Lord, save
me. That's what God's people do. That's what the church does. Verse three. Grace be unto you
and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice the order. Very important. God's a God of order. What comes
first? Grace. What comes out of that? Peace. If salvation really is
all of grace, I'm at peace. God's at peace
with me. Everything he requires of me,
I have in Christ Jesus. Grace and peace. This is not meaningless words. These are precious words. This
is not just his opening statement. Grace and peace from God our
Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church of Corinth sanctified, called saints, folks who call
upon the name of the Lord, saved by the grace of God and the peace
that comes from his gospel. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
word. And Lord, I ask in Christ's name, the high and holy name of thy
son, the name at which angels fall at his feet. We ask in his
name that we might be sanctified. by your sovereign election, by
the redeeming work of your son, by the regenerating work of the
Holy Spirit, that we might be saints, that we might be called
and call on your name, that we might be saved by your grace,
that we might have the joy and the peace of believing. Lord,
give us grace, bless this word, cause us to be patient, be gracious,
be forgiving, cause us to be filled with love to one another, and we thank you for your gospel.
In Christ's name we pray, amen.