Would you turn with me to the
fourth chapter of First Corinthians? This message, I've been thinking
about it for several weeks, I feel, I don't know how else to say
it, but a burden in bringing this particular message. I've
entitled this message Instructors or Fathers. Let's begin reading
in verse 8 and read down through verse 17 of 1 Corinthians chapter
4. Paul says, Now you are full. Now you are rich. You have reigned
as kings without us. And I would to God you did reign,
that we also might reign with you, for I think that God has
set forth us, the apostles, last, as it were, appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle unto
the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's
sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you strong. You are honorable, but we are
despised. Even unto this present hour,
we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and
have no certain dwelling place. And labor, working with our own
hands, being reviled, we bless. being persecuted, we suffer it. Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the
world and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.
I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons,
I warn For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ,
yet have ye not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I have begotten
you through the gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye
followers of me. For this cause have I sent unto
you Timotheus, who is my beloved Son and faithful Lord, who shall
bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ,
as I teach everywhere in every church." Now, you probably noticed in
reading this passage of Scripture that this is indeed a very unique
passage of Scripture. There are not many, if any, more
like it in the Word of God. Now, in this passage of Scripture,
inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul the Apostle uses biting
sarcasm to get his point across. Now, sarcasm can be very hurtful
or very good, depending upon what the motive is behind it.
Sarcasm can be so ugly. You know that. You've experienced
it. It can make the user of it appear so ugly. But if the right
motive is behind it, it can be very effective. Do you remember
how Elijah used sarcasm on Mount Carmel? Remember, they were praying,
the false prophets, the prophets of Baal, they were praying for
the fire to come down from heaven and their God would hear them.
They were praying to Baal. And Elijah said, where is your
God? Is he out of town? Is he asleep? Perhaps he's pursuing,
the King James Version says. You know what that means? Perhaps
he's in the bathroom. Why can't he hear you? Now, that's
Elijah's sarcasm inspired by the Holy Spirit. You say, well,
that's crass. He said it, not me, and I'm simply
quoting the way he used that sarcasm. Why doesn't your God
answer you? So we see that sarcasm has its
place. Now, the Church of Corinth was
a very proud bunch of people, and Paul is using this sarcasm
to show them how off base they were. in these inflated views
they had of themselves. As a matter of fact, four times
in the book of Corinthians, he says this to them. He said, you're
puffed up. You're filled with hot air, you're
filled with self-importance, you have a high view of yourself
that you ought not have. Now, there are two things that
struck me while thinking about what's being said in this passage
of scripture, this passage of scripture that I just read, thinking
about the church at Corinth, thinking of the Apostle Paul,
And the first thing that struck me when I see how Paul spoke
to these people, you know, it's really sad how far a true believer
can fall in their attitude about themselves. It's sad, isn't it? The way he talks to these people,
what happened to them? There was a time when they rejoiced
in the gospel. And look how Paul has to go to
sarcasm like this to get their attention. It's sad that a true
believer, one who actually knows the Lord, can fall into such
a hideous state the way these people did. And I tell you what,
this church at Corinth, it had troubles. glory. You know that
as you look at this whole epistle to the Church of Corinth. So
the first thing that hits me about it when I read the way
Paul used this sarcasm, I think of how sad it is. But secondly, it makes me want and desire to
live as a Christian in this world. Whatever that means. Don't you
want to do that? I want to live as a Christian
in this world. Oh, I want to so desperately,
whatever that means. And I pray that the Lord will
give us some understanding of what it means to live as a Christian
in this world. I've entitled this message, and
fathers. He said, you have 10,000 instructors,
but you don't have many fathers. Now, in verse 8, he says, now
you are full. And the word there is literally
gluttonized. You're full, full, increased
with goods and have needed nothing, like the church at Laodicea.
Now you're rich, so you think. And that's exactly what the Lord
said to the church at Laodicea. You remember that the last of
the churches that he's speaking to in the book of Revelation,
he said, you're full. So you think you are increased
with goods and you have need of nothing. You're in good shape
and you don't know that you're naked and poor and wretched and
miserable and blind. Paul's using the same way of
speaking to this group of people. He says, you're full. You're
rich. He says, You've reigned as kings
without us. Who needs the apostles? We're
getting along just fine without them. Things are fine and dandy. We don't need the apostles. We
don't need the apostle Paul. We're doing just fine. Thank
you. I'm OK. You're OK. We don't need
your help. Everything is just fine. He says,
You've reigned as kings without us. And he said, I would to God
that you did reign. I would do God that the things
that you think about yourself are true, but they're not. Not
in any way. He said, if you did reign, we'd
be reigning with you. I would do God that you did reign.
And look what he says in verse nine. For I think that God hath
set forth us, the apostles, last. As it were, appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle unto
the world, and unto angels, and unto men. Now remember, this
is the language of sarcasm. While you're full and rich and
reigning, that's not the case with us. Humanly speaking, our
lives are miserable. If you want to just look at things
from the outward appearance. Our lives are miserable. We're
last, as it were, appointed to death. We don't have a good time. We're in want. We're in need. We're despised. We're a spectacle unto the world.
The world looks at us as utterly foolish. We're a spectacle to
men, making fun of us. We're a spectacle to angels,
both good and bad. Then he says, we are fools for
Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. Now, why is that?
Why is it that I'm viewed, Paul says, as a fool and nothing more,
and you're viewed as wise? Why is this? We are weak. looked upon as weak and helpless,
nothing to them. But the world views you as strong. You are honorable. You're the
toast of the town. You're looked upon in a high
view. And yet we are despised. Now, remember, Paul subjected
himself to this lifestyle willingly. Why? All right, let's go on reading. Verse 11. He says, even unto this present
hour, we're hungry. Literally? Literally. We don't
have enough to eat. We're thirsty. We're naked. We don't even have sufficient
clothing. We're buffeted. We're mistreated. And we don't
even have a place called home. You know, we're going to go home
tonight to our own homes and our own beds. What a blessing
that is. I'm thankful for that, aren't
you? A place to lay your head down. Paul said, I don't have
a home to go to. Paul is what we would have called
a street person. He had no certain dwelling place.
Whoever let him stay in their home, that's where he'd stay.
He didn't have anything that he could call his own. He says in verse 12, we labor,
working with our own hands. You know, he made tents to support
himself while he was at the church of Corinth. We labor, working
with our own hands. He obviously wasn't after their
money. He supported himself. He wasn't looking for their help.
He says, being reviled, and how they were reviled, here's how
we respond. We bless. Being persecuted, we endure it. What can we do
about it? Being persecuted, we suffer it. Being defamed, verse 13, we entreat
We seek to encourage. We're made, now look at this
description, this is how the world views us. He said, we are
made as the filth of the world, that which is washed off and
goes down the drain. We're made the off-scouring of
all things, that which you scrape off and throw away. Now, why
is it Paul is saying that we're viewed this way by the world? And you Corinthians are honored. and esteemed and held in high
repute. Why this difference? And he says in verse 14, I write
not these things to shame you. I'm not just trying to make you
ashamed of yourselves, although they ought to be ashamed of themselves. Something's wrong. If the world
views Paul this way and the world views them the way he describes,
And he's saying, I'm not writing these things merely to shame
you and make you ashamed of yourself, but as my beloved sons, I warn you. For though you have, verse 15,
10,000 instructors in Christ. Now, what's
an instructor? Well, the Greek word is a pedagogue. It's not really a teacher, one
who gives instruction so much. Remember this church of Corinth
was not a Jewish church. It was a Gentile. It's a bunch
of Gentiles. And in the Greek culture, what
they had, the more wealthy families, when they were trying to educate
the kids, they would have a pedagogue that would follow them around
and pop them, whip them if they got out alive. They could tell
them what was wrong. They didn't really give any instructions.
They were not teachers. But wherever the kid went, that
pedagogue would follow them and smack them if they got out of
line. They were able to criticize. They were able to be critics.
They could tell you what's wrong. They were good at that. And Paul
said, you've got plenty of those. You've got plenty of critics.
You've got plenty of instructors who can tell you what's wrong
and smack you for being wrong. But you don't have many fathers. Plenty of critics. 10,000 critics, but very few fathers. And he describes what this father
is. He says in verse 15, for in Christ Jesus, I have begotten
you through the gospel. Now, in Christ, I was the instrument
through whom you were born again by the gospel I preached. Now,
I'm just straightening you up. Always ready to correct people
and straighten up people. And Paul says, that's not what
I was about. I, through God in Christ, birthed you. God birthed
you through my preaching, is what he's saying. You were begotten
through the gospel. Life comes from God, not the
preacher, but from God. Preachers are the instrument.
The gospel is the seed that the Spirit uses through the preacher's
preaching to beget life. Now, there are lots of instructors,
tens of thousands of them, but there are very few fathers. So look what he says in verse
16. Wherefore, I beseech you, Be ye followers of me. Now Paul tells these people,
you think about what he's saying. You follow me. And Paul said this on numerous
occasions. Do what I do. Believe what I believe. Walk
as I walk. Conduct yourself as I conduct
myself. You be a follower of me. Look over in 1 Corinthians 11. Verse one. He says this again to the church
of Corinth. Be ye followers of me. Even as I also am of Christ. Now, if I'm following Christ.
You can follow me, can't you? Now, if I'm not following Christ,
you don't want to follow me. But if I'm following Christ,
you can follow me. Look what he says in Philippians
chapter 4. Verse 9. Those things which you have both
learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God
of peace shall be with you. Now, if I follow Paul, who followed
Christ, I'm not going to be winning any popularity contest, am I?
He says we're viewed as the off-scouring, that which is scraped off and
thrown away. We're viewed as the off-scouring
of all things, as the filth of the world. Now look what he says
in verse 17 of our text. For this cause have I sent unto
you Timotheus, who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord,
who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ,
as I teach everywhere in every church. I don't have one message
one place and another message somewhere else. I have the same
message wherever I go. And I'm sending you, Timothy,
to bring you into remembrance of my ways. Now, obviously, Paul
suffered a lot of persecution. Now, you see that clearly from
this passage of Scripture. You see how he was viewed by
the world. He suffered a lot of persecution, and the persecution
that he suffered was not because he mistreated people or was rude
and cruel to people. Look back in our text at verse
12. 1 Corinthians 4, verse 12, we labor, working with our hands,
being reviled. What do we do? Do we revile back?
No, we bless. Being persecuted, what do we
do? We suffer it. We endure it. We put up with
it. Being defamed and spoken evil
of and having our name drugged through the mud, what do we do?
We entreat. Now, some people in their supposed effort To present the
truth. There are people who are arrogant. Obnoxious jerks. And they try
to influence people through their manipulation. And, you know,
people naturally enough are going to dislike them because of their
conduct, because of their attitude, because of the things they say.
And they mistake that for persecution. Well, I'm being persecuted for
Christ's sake. No, you're not being persecuted
for Christ's sake. You're being persecuted because you're a jerk.
That's why. That's the only answer. And that's
so true. That's so true. I wonder how
many times that could be said of me. I wonder how many times that could
be said of me. Why was Paul persecuted so much? It was not because of him mistreating
people. As we've seen, that's not the
case. He was persecuted for the same
reason his Lord was persecuted. Men hate the gospel. You know, when you go to work
tomorrow and you're around those people, do you realize that those
people you're around in all like, if they're not believers, They
hate Jesus Christ. And they hate his gospel. Turn to John chapter 15 for a
moment. Beginning in verse 18. And the Lord is speaking to his
disciples shortly before his death. And he says in verse 18,
if the world hate you. You know that it hated me. Before
it hated you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own, but because you're not of the world.
But I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated
you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, the servant is no greater than his Lord. If they persecuted
me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my saying,
they'll keep yours also. But all these things will they
do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that
sent me. If I'd not come and spoken unto
them, they'd had no sin, but now they have no cloak for their
sin. He that hateth me. You know, there are people who
hate the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, they don't hate the false
Christ that's preached that nobody be scared of anyway. I mean,
the weak, Jesus who can't do anything unless we let him. Nobody
hates that Jesus. He's not somebody even worth
hating. You're not even afraid of him. But he says, he that
hated me, hateth my father also. If I had not done among them
the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. But now they have both seen and
hated, both me and my father. But this cometh to pass, that
the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They
hated me without a cause. Now, if you and I and you listen
to me real carefully. I'm speaking to myself, I'm speaking
to you. If you and I are not being persecuted. For Christ's sake, and I'm talking
about being persecuted for the gospel, we believe not because
of arrogant ill conduct, but because of the gospel, we believe.
If we're not being persecuted for Christ's sake, quite frankly,
we're simply not telling anybody what we believe. Is that so? If we're not being persecuted
for Christ's sake, we are simply not telling anybody what we believe. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse
12, we read these words by Paul the Apostle to Timothy. All,
now listen, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution. All of them? All of them. And if I am not in some measure
suffering persecution, you can be sure that I'm not living godly
in Christ Jesus. I'm not confessing him before
me. Would you turn with me over to
Galatians, chapter five for a moment. Paul makes this statement in
verse 11. Galatians, chapter five, verse 11. If I yet preach circumcision,
now what do you mean by preaching circumcision? Well, everybody
here knows what circumcision means, but what it represents
is salvation by law, salvation by work, salvation from something
you do. You know, circumcision, as far
as that goes, you take all the commandments of God. Circumcision
physically would be the easiest one to get. You know, it's easier
to be circumcised and put yourself through that than it is to keep
from telling a lie, isn't it? To never lie again? Or to never
hate? That's the easiest one to keep.
But Paul says, if I preach circumcision, if I preach salvation by law,
salvation in some way conditioned upon something you do, why am
I suffering persecution? You see, if you preach salvation
by works in any form, you will not be persecuted for that message.
As a matter of fact, the world will love you. That's what the
world believes. The world rejoices in that message.
Now, Paul says, I'm being persecuted for what I'm preaching. Evidently,
I'm not preaching circumcision. He said, then look at this last
phrase of Galatians, chapter five, verse 11. Then is the offense. The offense of the cross ceased. If I preach circumcision, salvation
by works, I've removed the offense from the cross. And when I remove
the offense from the cross, I remove the saving power. Did you know that all men, this
is including me and this is including you, all men by nature, find
the gospel to be offensive? Something that arouses disgust
and prejudice and anger. How can they believe something
that ridiculous? How can they believe something that stupid?
Why never believe anything like that? When the gospel is preached
in its naked simplicity and truthfulness and presented before the people,
it will always arouse offense. Why, that's scandalous. Who can
believe something like that? Why? That kind of teaching and
that kind of preaching will lead me to sin. If you really believe
that salvation is all by grace, the way you say you do, why does
it matter how you live? That will lead people to immoral
lives. Why, this is scandalous. This
is disgusting that anybody would believe something this ridiculous. Do you know that the Gospel is
calculated to arouse these feelings in men. The gospel we believe,
I mean God's gospel, the gospel of God is calculated to arouse
this offense. I want you to think about this. The gospel we believe, first
of all, it offends men's sense of dignity. Because it addresses
all men, the rich, the poor, the educated, the uneducated,
the moral and the religious and the immoral and the gutter dwellers,
the black, the white. It doesn't matter what the distinction
is, it addresses all men in this one way as sinners and nothing
more. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter what your state
in life is. It doesn't matter what your position is. All you
are is a sinner before God. Name it. He was a great man, so we thought,
who happened to be a leper. He didn't know he was nothing
more than a leper who happened to be a great man. The gospel offends men's sense
of dignity because it puts everybody on the same plane, on the same
level. Nothing but sinners subject to
the wrath and the condemnation of God. Now remember, when I
say you're a sinner, when the Bible says it, when the Bible
says I'm a sinner, it's not this, well, we're all seeing, we're
all human. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about somebody
who ought to be sent to hell forever. And if God gave us what
we deserve, that's exactly what he would do right now. That's the truth. And that offends
men's dignity. The gospel offends men's wisdom.
Because it says that you can't figure this thing out. I don't
care how much you study. I don't care how much you apply
yourself. I don't care about how much you know and how much
you read and all that kind of stuff. You are totally dependent
and I'm totally dependent upon God to reveal Himself. We're in the hands of a sovereign
God. It's up to Him as to whether or not I'm going to know or understand
anything. Listen to me. Do you know you can't understand
the Gospel and you're incapable of it unless God is pleased to
reveal it to you? That's something, isn't it? Oh, you can't figure
it out? You're too... And when I'm saying
you, I'm talking about me, too. Don't get me wrong. It's not
like I'm you all the time. No, no. We're too spiritually
stupid to understand. It's above us. Can't stay out
by searching, find out God? No. No. The gospel offends men's sense
of personal rights. Because it says we don't have
any. Everybody's concerned about rights in our day. That's probably
one of the biggest things going. I want my rights. I want my rights. I got this coming to me. I got
that coming to me. I'm entitled to this. You got
to treat me this way. You got to treat me that way.
And when people hear the gospel of God's grace, how he saves
whom he will, he can save you or he can pass you by. Well,
that's not fair. How can that be right for him
to save my neighbor and not save me? It is right. Whatever he does is right. And
the fact of the matter is, you and I, before a holy God, do
not have any rights. None at all. The true gospel offends men's
sense of pride because it's a message that's all of grace. And this is good news. Talk about
this. This is not negative. This is positive. Salvation is
all of grace. That's good news if you're a
sinner. That's good news if you don't deserve anything but hell. That's good news if you don't
have any rights and you can't. There's grace for the filthy.
It's a message of free, complete grace given to undeserving sinners
for Christ's sake. Is that good news to you? That
salvation is all of grace and not of works in any respect?
You don't have anything to be proud about. Paul, the Apostle
Paul, said, I am what I am by the grace of God. One of the
things I love about Paul, when he first became an apostle,
He said, I'm the least of the apostles. There in the middle
of his life, he said with full conviction, I'm less than the
least of all the saints. And right before he died, you
know what his confession about himself was. He said, I'm the
chief of sinners. I'm the chief. You know, while
I was on vacation, September 19th. I was thinking about that.
That's one year. That was my one year anniversary of the surgery
I had. And I was thinking, boy, you'd
think after the Lord put me through that, you'd think I'd have learned
something. And I'm just as worthless as I ever was. I got so depressed
thinking about that. I mean, I just got depressed.
I got down. I got blue. And I thought, well, I sure am
thankful. that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. Move over, Paul. I'm going to take that place
from you. Well, I sure hope I mean that.
I hope it's not mock humility. That scares me as much as anything
else. The gospel fends men's love of
self because we're called upon to what? Deny ourselves. Deny. Take up our cross, that
persecution that comes with confessing Christ. Now the cross isn't some
kind of, when he talks about taking up your cross and following
him, he's not talking about taking up, well, here's my cross, I've
got bad legs or I've got bad eyes or poor eyes, some kind
of disease. That's not the cross he's talking
about. He's talking about the cross of confessing the Lord
Jesus Christ and the hatred and the persecution that that will
bring on you for doing so. Gospel offends men love of self
because it calls upon us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross
daily and to follow Him. And if we're not being persecuted
by this world, particularly this religious world, it's because
we're not standing for the truth. Now Paul willingly subjected
himself to this, and what a life he had. Hungry, he said, even
to this present hour, right now while I'm writing this letter,
I'm hungry. I haven't had enough. It would seem like if he had
God's blessing that wouldn't be the case. Oh, he had God's blessing.
But he said, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty. I'm naked. I don't even have sufficient
clothing. I'm buffeted. I'm mistreated. And even right
now, I don't even have a place to go home to. I'm going to have
to ask somebody if I can stay at their house tonight. Paul,
the apostle, willingly subjected himself to this. Was it worth
it? Was it worth it? A thousand times yes, this is
a blessing of grace. I want to look at a few scriptures
to close with. Would you turn with me to Philippians
chapter 1? Verse 29, For unto you it is given in the
behalf of Christ or for the sake of Christ, not only to believe
on Him. Now, if you believe on Him, you
know it was given to you, don't you? You know that the only reason
you have faith is because He gave it to you. He says, now
unto you it's given, not only to believe on Him, but also to
suffer for His sake. That's a blessing of grace. To
be allowed to suffer for his sake. True story in Fox's book
of Martyrs. One of the martyrs, tied to the
stake, had the wood underneath him and they lit the wood and
he began to burn. He said, to die for Christ. It is an honor I don't deserve. Now, I'm not looking for persecution
as such, but I sure want to be persecuted for Christ's sake,
don't you? It's a blessing of His grace. And I ask the Lord
to give me grace, not just to be persecuted for persecution's
sake, but to be so honest in preaching the gospel, to be so
glad. This is what we want, isn't it? as his witnesses that will
be persecuted for his sake because of our clarity, clearness in
preaching the truth. Look over at Acts chapter 5. And to him they agreed, and when
they had called the apostles and beaten them, they commanded
them that they should not speak in the name of Jesus Christ and
let them go. Now, I want you to picture this
in your mind. They had been beaten. Painful, painful. Verse 41, And they departed from
the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted
worthy to suffer shame for His name. Would you rejoice and count
it a blessing of His grace? to be candid worthy to suffer
shame for his name." And one final scripture and one concluding
thought, Acts chapter 19. Verse 13, Then certain of the vagabond
Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil
spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you
by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of
one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And
the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus, I know. And Paul, I know. You know, Paul's name
was known in hell. But who are you? And the man in whom the evil
spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed
against them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded." Would my life, my confession of the
gospel, ever catch a demon's attention? You know, he said, Paul, I know. I'm scared when I say that. I
don't want to be known by, I don't like to talk about the demons
or anything like that. But here we have this passage
of scripture where he said, Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know. And it is my prayer that every
member of this church is going to be a witness of the Lord Jesus
Christ and His gospel so that our names will be known in the
same way. I say that with fear. I say that
with trembling. But may God give us grace to
live as Christians in this world. Don't you want
to? May God give us grace. Let's
bring together.