and those freezing things. If anybody's wondering, maybe
they're not. 1 Corinthians 1. Beginning in verse 10, Now, I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
same thing. And that there be no divisions
among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto
many of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of
Chloe, and that's a feminine name, it was a woman, that there
are contentions, divisions among you. Now this I say, that every
one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas,
and I of Christ. Before I go on reading, I've
entitled this lesson, The Birth of Denominations. And here we
have it, the idea of denominations, divisions within the body of
Christ. Verse 13, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or
were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none
of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I baptized
in mine 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 be made of none effect. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are saved. It is the power of God. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name. Lord, we wouldn't dare approach
you any other way. And we pray that we might be
found in him. We pray that he would be preached.
This morning. And that we would be given ears
to hear. And eyes to see. And hearts to
receive. Lord, we confess our sins. We
can't. Ever come into your presence
without some awareness of our sin, and we confess our sins
and we pray for forgiveness and cleansing and how we thank you
for the blood of thy son that does cleanse us from all sin.
Lord, we pray for our nation. We pray for your. Guidance upon
our leaders that we might live a quiet and peaceable life and
all godliness and honesty. Lord, will you give us each a
hunger and thirst after thyself. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Have you ever wondered about
denominations? Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Church of Christ,
Christian Church, on and on, Lutheran, so many different denominations. They're not in the Bible. I know that probably Many would
claim that they find their roots in the Bible, but there's no
denomination in the Bible. None at all. And each one of
these denominations, they probably for the most part would not say,
well, the people in this denomination are not saved. They're just saying
we're a little better. We have a clear understanding
of things. We've got more on the ball. We're more scriptural than these
other denominations that lack. Well, I think the birth of at
least the thought of denominations is found in this passage of scripture. This is what was going on at
the church of Corinth. Look in verse 10. Now, I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
same thing. No difference. No difference. There is no reason for any believers
to speak differently. This is not talking about uniformity
to where we all look alike and dress alike and try to have the
same cliches. You know that's not what he's
talking about. But he's talking about with regard to the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no reason for believers
to speak anything differently. And he's praying for that. He
says, I beseech you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that
you all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among
you. Now he's now addressing the first
problem at the Church of Corinth. He's talking about these divisions
that are taking place. But that you be perfectly joined
together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Now he's dealing with And this
was going on in the Church of Corinth, look in chapter three. And I, brethren, could not speak
unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto
babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and 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 according to the natural man? For while one
saith, I'm of Paul, and another, I'm of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Utterly fleshly, to even be thinking
in this respect. Look at the end of 2 Corinthians.
Now, 2 Corinthians, most people, was written about a month after
1 Corinthians, so it's not like there were years between. And
he says this with regard to the church at Corinth a month later
in verse 20 of chapter 12. For I fear, lest when I come
I shall not find you such as I would, that I shall be found
unto you such as you would not, lest there be debates, envyings,
wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swelling, tumults. He said, this is what I fear
I'm gonna find. Now, somebody's gonna ask the question, can that kind
of stuff be going on in a gospel church? Well, I can answer that real
easily by asking this one question. Are saints still sinners? Yes, they are. These things ought
not to be going on It's a shame if they are, but wherever you
got men and women, you can have this kind of stuff. Now he had been so positive with
him in these first nine verses, calling them faithful brethren.
And they were, he wasn't trying to butter them up. He wasn't
using flattery. He really believed these people were brothers and
sisters in Christ. Now, verse 10 again. Now I beseech
you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, his appeal
is the name of Christ for his sake, for his sake. Because of him, these things
ought not be going on. Now that is an appeal to a believer,
for his sake, for his glory, for his namesake. And this is
his appeal for his namesake. He says, this is by the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing,
that there be no divisions, schisms among you, but that you be perfectly
joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Now, somebody said this to me
about this passage of scripture. I thought it was a good question.
They said, is this the way believers ought to be or the way they are? Yes. It's the way believers ought
to be. Yes. And it's the way they are
deep down. Every believer believes the same
thing. There is no differences, but
there were here and divisions is where we get the word disunity
and dissension. I love what, um, The wise man
said in Proverbs 13.10, listen to these words, by pride only
cometh contention. The only reason there is ever
contention or division is because pride has lifted up its ugly
head. I've got it. You've got it. It's a horrible thing. It's groundless. It's baseless. What in the world
do any of us have to be proud about to protect? Yet by pride
only, I love the way he said only, by pride only cometh contentions. That's always what's behind it.
Now here he tells us what is behind this pride. And here's
where I say we get the idea of denominations in this passage
of scripture. Now this I say that every one
of you saith, I'm a Paul. I've learned the gospel through
him. I like his style. I like his preaching. I'm a Paul. Somebody else says, well, I'm
of a Paul-less. You know, Apollos was an eloquent man. Paul, evidently,
was not an eloquent speaker, but Apollos was. He was an eloquent
man, mighty in the scriptures, and some people think he might
have been the pastor of this church after Paul founded it.
It began with Paul and Barnabas, and then, all of a sudden, Apollos
is the preacher, and people say, I prefer Apollos. I'm an Apollosite. There were
Paulites. There were Apollosites. And then
somebody said, not me. I like Cephas. That's Peter. That's Peter. There's no proof
that Peter was ever at this church, but maybe he was. Because some
people said, I like Peter. I guess he was the guest speaker.
He came in, and there he was. It's kind of like a conference.
We hear these people at conference think, well, how come pastor
can't preach like that? I mean, these people really like Cephas. We're Cephasites. And then you had real pious ones.
I don't follow any man. I follow Christ. That sounds
pious. As a matter of fact, I think
these people were worse than the rest of them. I follow only Christ. I don't follow any man. And you
know, there's a movement right now. No church, no pastor. So here you had people who were
preacher worshipers. And you had people who were preacher-despisers. They were together, but what
it is, there were these divisions. There were these differences.
There's the Paul brand of Christians, and there's the Apollos brand
of Christians. And then there's the safest brand of Christians,
and then there's the Christians that don't have any need of any
man whatsoever. They say, I follow Christ. I don't need any man. Now, all that kind of thinking
does is make division. You make yourself different from
others. I think the best way to illustrate
this is Peter. In Galatians chapter two, he
is eating with the Gentiles, having fellowship with them.
Having a good time. I don't know what all they were
talking about. I bet he was eating pork though. I bet he was just thinking,
boy, this is great. And all of a sudden, some people from Jerusalem
come, the church at Jerusalem who were Jewish. Now they would
have frowned upon Peter doing this. So what does Peter do?
He doesn't say anything. He gets up, leaves the Gentiles,
and sits down with the Jews. That's all he did. Now, what
was he saying by that? He was saying by that, I'm not
saying that the Gentiles are not saved, but you're a little
bit more pleasing to God by eating at the Jewish table and observing
Jewish law. They weren't eating pork. They
were more pleasing to God. And Paul at that time publicly
rebuked Peter because what Peter was doing, I don't think it was
in his mind that he's doing it, but what he was doing was denying
that Jesus Christ is all. He's saying you can be a little
bit more pleasing to God by being over here on the Jewish table
than you are on the Gentile table. And Paul publicly rebuked him
for what he called his hypocrisy. Now somebody says, Paul was too
hard then. Well, no, he wasn't. No, he wasn't. I know he was
the apostle. But this is what is going on in this thought of
denominations. It's completely carnal, this
way of thinking, of division within God's people, some being
this way and some being that way. Look in 1 Corinthians 3
again. He says in verse 3, for you are yet carnal. Now when
he's saying that, he said what you're acting like is unbelievers.
You act like people who don't know the gospel. You are yet
carnal, for as there's among you envy and strife and division,
are you not yet carnal? And walk as men, for while one
saith, I'm of Paul, and another, I'm of Apollos, are you not yet
carnal? Acting like an unbeliever. Now that's a pretty strong language. Now all Christian denominations
are man-made. Wouldn't you agree with that?
I shouldn't even ask you that, it's just so. Whether you agree
with it or not, they're all man-made. You can't find them in the Bible.
They're unfounded by scripture and that makes them all wrong. Denominations. That makes them
all wrong. Now look back in verse 13, Paul
shows the ludicrousness of this kind of thinking. He says, is Christ divided? Are there denominations within
the body of Christ? Different divisions, different,
is Christ divided? He takes it even stronger. Was
Paul crucified for you? You talk about being a Paulite.
I'm a Paul. Was Paul crucified for you? Did
he have anything to do with the putting away of your sins? Why
such thoughts are offensive, aren't they? Is Paul crucified
for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Now, by
asking those questions, he shows how wrong and how ludicrous and
contrary to the gospel, this thinking of divisions within
the body of Christ, one that has a little bit clearer grasp
of the truth than the other one. All it's doing is denying that
Christ is all in salvation. That's all it's doing. Look what he says in verse 14.
He says, I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and
Gaius. Lest any should say that I baptized
in my own name. He said, I'm thankful I didn't
baptize you guys. He says, I baptized also the
house of Stephanus. And besides, I know not whether
I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. Now, I think it's interesting,
interesting is not the right word, but some people use this
to say baptism is no longer necessary. Paul said, Christ didn't send
me to baptize. That was part of New Testament
times. It's over. Baptism is no longer
necessary. Well, baptism isn't necessary
to save you, but baptism is necessary for you to confess Christ and
believe it's baptism. It's very, very important. I
love what the Lord said, who so believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Now, what he is teaching us at
that time is that the requirement for baptism is belief. Believing
the gospel. If you believe the gospel, you
ought to be baptized. Now he says that, but he says,
Christ didn't send me to baptize. I'm not sent for results and
people and things. Christ didn't send me to baptize.
That's not my purpose. My purpose is to preach the gospel. And this is so important. Here's our reason for being here
to preach the gospel. There's only one gospel, not
a gospel, the gospel. And this is where unity comes
from. Not, well here we need to speak
the same thing, although he says that, but when he, here's what
unifies God's people, the gospel. The gospel, this is something
that will speak on a fundamental level to every believer, the
gospel. That's what we have unity in,
the gospel. He says, God sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words. You know what wisdom words are?
Here's an example. Christ died for those who believe. True. But a coverup. You don't want
to say Christ died for the elect. That might offend somebody. You
don't want to say Christ died for the sheep and accomplish
their salvation. You want to say Christ died for
those who believe. Anybody can accept that. That's all anybody
can accept it. That's dressing up the truth
with wisdom of words to try to make it more appealing to the
natural man and to take away the offense from the gospel.
Wisdom of words. Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words. In other
words, what we need is the naked truth, not dressed up by men
so you can't even recognize it. The naked truth, and here it
is, verse 18, for the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved. Notice that.
We have two different kinds of people, them that are perishing
and us which are saved. And what is the difference? Their
thought on the cross. The preaching of the cross is
literally the word of the cross. the doctrine of the cross, that
which the cross declares. Now, here is something that unites
God's people. There may be strife, there may
be division among God's people. There shouldn't be. But there
was a Corinth, obviously. And we really know more about
the Church of Corinth than any of the other churches because
more is addressed to him that Paul does. And there was this
stuff going on there. And what does he do? He goes
back to the word of the cross. The word of the cross to them
that are perishing, it's foolishness. They don't see any glory in this,
but unto us, which are saved. The cross is the whole counsel
of God. Any disagreement there? Well,
if there is, Lord hadn't saved you. You agree. The cross is the whole counsel
of God. The cross is God's purpose, his
eternal purpose. Revelation 13, eight, the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. The cross is why God
created the universe for the cross. The cross is why God allowed
man to fall. for the manifestation of the
cross. That's the full character of God displayed in the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The cross is the only way a sinner
is saved. Now there's complete unity here
with God's people in there. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We speak the same thing. Christ crucified is all. We're
perfectly joined together in the same mind, in the same judgment. Christ Jesus is all. You know,
we're all saved the same way, aren't we? If you're saved, you're
saved because God elected you. You're saved because Christ died
for you and worked out a perfect righteousness for you. If you're
saved, you're saved because God the Holy Spirit gave you life,
regenerated you, you were birth of God. It's what Jude calls
the common salvation. I like that term, the common
salvation. The salvation that all of God's people have in common,
saved the same way, believe the same thing. Every one of God's
people, it's called the common faith. Every one of God's people
believe precisely like Christ is all in salvation. Christ is
all in everything. You know, we have the same book.
We're being taught from this book, the Bible, same book. You
know, it kills me when people have confessions. You can say,
well, I believe the Bible's the word of God. Why do you have
other stuff then? Why do you have these confessions
and these creeds and these catechisms? Who needs it? Well, the Bible's
a big book. Yeah, but it's only got one message.
And if you know the meaning of scripture, you know it's only
got one message. And all these things, these confessions and
catechisms, I think they're all foolishness. They're additions
to the word of God. And people that use them, They'll
say, we believe the Bible is the word of God, but they look
to those confessions to find out what they believe and what
they're doing. Here's what's right. Forget that
kind of stuff. We have the same book. Turn to Ephesians chapter four. You know, anything other than
the Bible is not any good. Just don't want to have anything
to do with it. Anything that's not other than the Bible is wrong. Any
man-made tradition is wrong. Look what he says in Ephesians
4. There is one body, verse 4. He's talking about the church.
There's one body. He's talking about here on earth.
There's one body, not different denominations. There's one body.
And one spirit, God, the Holy Spirit, even as you're called
in one hope of your calling, we have one hope. You know, the
only hope I have is that Jesus Christ lived and died for me.
I don't have any other hope, but I'm so satisfied with that
hope. God is satisfied with what he did. I am too. That's the
one hope, Jesus Christ. One Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the ruler of all. There's one faith, the faith
of God's elect. There's one baptism. One God
and father of all who's above all and through all and in you
all. One. One. Now, how ugly it is for
there to be differences between believers. They're all wrong.
They're all, it happened in Corinth. Somebody says, can that happen
in a true church? Well, as long as me or you were there, it can.
I love that. Somebody says, I'm afraid to
join that church. Too many hypocrites there. Well,
you ought to feel just at home. You ought to feel real good there.
You'd fit in right well. Too many sinners there. You ought
to feel good there. Let's close by looking at Psalm
133. Psalm 133, verse one. This is by David. Behold how
good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in
unity. Speaking the same thing, believing
the same thing, having the same love, having the same gospel,
there's nothing, there's no room for division. There's no room
for, anytime there's any division, remember, by pride only, my human
pride, by pride only cometh contention. It's like the precious ointment
upon the head that ran down over the beard, even Aaron's beard
that went down to the skirts of his garments. As the dew of
Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for
there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. How good and how pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity, okay.