I would like for you to get your
Bibles and open them to the first chapter of 1 Corinthians. I'm going to preach today on
the subject, Christ, Our First Love. But I'm going to go verse
by verse in just a little while in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians. So if you have your Bible ready,
when I come to that part of the message, you can follow as I
preach. Now Paul preached in Corinth
about two years. The Lord told him to stay in
Corinth and preach there. He said, because I have much
people in this city. They'll not hurt you. They'll
not lay hands on you. You stay there and preach because
I have much people in this city. And Paul stayed there about 18
months or nearly two years. And he left Corinth and he sailed
to Syria. And during his absence, some
bad things happened down in Corinth, to the church of Corinth. Several
bad things took place there in the church. I'll give you a few
of them. False teachers and preachers crept into the church with false
doctrine and unscriptural practices and led the people astray. And
then the church became divided over their preachers. Some of
the people said, well, I like Paul better than Cephas and some
said we like Peter better than we like Paul. Some said we like
Apollos best. And some of them said, well,
we don't like any of them. We like Christ. And Paul said, is Christ
divided? Were you baptized in the name
of Peter, Paul, or Apollos? And then the church not only
became divided over their preachers, but there was a misuse of gifts.
Some of them had special, unusual gifts, and they just misused
them. And folks began to go to court
with one another. They began to sue one another
and went to law with each other. And then questions arose about
marriage and divorce, conflict over that. And then some people
even questioned the resurrection of the dead. Paul says, if Christ
be risen, I say some among you there's no resurrection. I say
some among you. So some of them doubted the resurrection
and some had some very, very bad conduct. And they were abusing
the Lord's table. They were making a feast out
of the Lord's table and some of them were getting drunk. And
all of these things took place in the absence of the apostle.
Now what's the solution? What did Paul do? Well, Paul,
by the power of the Holy Spirit, wrote this book, this epistle
to the Corinthian church. He sent this epistle to them. And in this book he deals with
each of these problems. He deals with them fully and
completely, each of these problems. But the real solution he deals
with in chapter 1. Chapter 1 is where he deals with
and gives them the real solution. He talks about these problems
on through the book. But here in chapter 1 he gives
them the only way to deal with trial. The only way to put a
church on the right course. The only way to give the frame
of mind that ought to be in everybody in the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that is to return to their first love, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Make everything for Christ's
sake, everything in the name of Christ, everything for the
glory of Christ. That's where it is. You see,
over in the book of Revelation chapter two, and verse 4, the
Lord said to the church at Ephesus. He said this directly to the
church at Ephesus. He said, I have somewhat against
you. He talked about all the things
they had done and all the successful things that they had enjoyed,
all of the blessings that he'd given them. Then he said, I've
got something against you. I have somewhat against you because
you left your first love. You left your first love, and
that's what leads to all of these problems, to leave your first
love. You become involved in all manner of works and activities
and relationships and programs and socials and sports and all
of these other things, and you've left your first love, which is
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our first love, and our
relationship with Him will make all other relationships right.
if the relationship with Christ is right. Somebody wrote a poem
years ago. Listen to it. He was grieving
over his state, and he said, Where is the blessedness I knew
when first I saw the Lord? Where is that soul-refreshing
view of the Lord Jesus and His Word? Oh, what peaceful hours
I once enjoyed! How sweet The memory's still,
but now there's an aching void that no one can ever fill. What's the problem? People call
it backsliding. They call it all these different
things, but I'll tell you the problem. It's in Revelation 2,
4. I have somewhat against you. You've left your first love.
That's your whole problem. You've left your first love.
Christ is our first love. He said, seek ye first. the kingdom
of God and His righteousness. You seek Him first and all these
other things will be added unto you. Our Lord said this, if any
man love father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister, yea, his
own life also, more than me, he's not worthy of me. And then
He said in John 15, I'm the vine, I'm the vine, you're the branches.
If you abide in me and I in you, the same bringeth forth much
fruit. Without me, you can do nothing. You see, this is what
happens. This is what happens when we
get divided and when people misbehave and the church has divisions
and conflicts and all of these other things. We've left our
first love. Abide in me and I in you. You'll ask what you will,
and it shall be done. I'm the vine, you're the branches.
He that abideth in me continues in me, and I in him. The same
bringeth forth much fruit. Without me you can do nothing."
And he said this, if you abide not in me, and that's what's
happening here, dwelling in Christ, abiding in Christ, loving Christ,
Christ first, and His glory first in all things. He said, if you
abide not in me, You're cast forth as a branch, withered,
shrunk up, fit for the fire. Oh my, cling to your first love. That's the solution. Go back
to where you were when you fell in love with the Redeemer. Back
to where you were. A young couple stands before
me. I see this so often, more than I want to. and more in the
last few years than ever before. A young couple stands before
me and they're going to be married. And they only have eyes for one
another. My, they're in love. You just look at them. They don't
know anybody's in the congregation or around them. They love each
other. They're together. And they start life that way,
together. They build their home together, just enjoying every
nail that goes in it and have a carpet just laid down. They
do it together. Then along comes the first child.
I'm invited to come to the hospital and see the baby. And there's
the three of them. Oh, my goodness, how happy. In
love with one another. First love. First love. First child. First love. Happiness
abounding. Happiness in everything. Love
of one another together. Love of family. Then a few years
pass. And they established separate
careers. That's what everybody's got to
have his career, you know. And the wife has her career,
and the husband has his career, and then the children have their
careers too now. Separate friends, separate interests. They leave their first love.
And then one day, they stand before a judge, separated. What happened? They left their
first love. And now here they are dividing
the spoils of their separate careers. What happened? Well, you can name all the things.
Somebody else is involved, or this, that, and the other, or
financial troubles, and in-law trouble, just name it, anything
you want to. They got the same in-laws they had when they got
married. All these things are the same, but they left their
first, they stopped loving each other. Now that's just, that's
all there is to it. Christ said, if you abide in
me and my words abide in you, you'll bring forth fruit, fruit
of the Spirit, love, grace, joy, peace, longsuffering, patience,
gentleness, kindness, longsuffering. It's all there, but it's based
on one thing, because you love each other. He said, as you have
received Christ Jesus, walk in Him, continue in Him. Paul wrote
to the Galatians in Galatians 4, 19. This is the key. This
is the key. It's Christ in you. That's the
hope of glory. He wrote to the Galatian church.
He said, my little children, I travail, what's that word mean? As a woman giving birth to a
child. That's what he's talking, I travail.
As a woman does in trying to bring forth a child, I travail
to Christ be formed in you, in you. Christ in you. That's life. That's life. Permanently. Christ in you. That's the hope
of glory, he said in Colossians 1.27. Colossians 3.4. Christ is my life. Somebody says, is Christ the
most important thing in your life? Not by any means. He's
not a thing. He's not a part of my life. He
is my life. Without Him, I have no life.
If I don't abide in Him, I'm fit for the burning. I'm a withered
branch. I don't have any life. I John
5 verse 11 and 12 says this is the record. You can write this
down. This is the record. God has given us eternal life
and this life's in His Son. You leave your first love, you've
left life, truth, peace, rest, God. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. My friends, it's not the church
that saves. You know that. It's Christ. It's
not even the cross that saves. No, sir. It's Christ. Let others
who will praise the cross of the Christ. The Christ of the
cross is my theme. And while I cherish the old rugged
cross, It's the Christ of the cross that redeems. It's not
the cross that saves me. It's Christ who hung on that
cross. It's not the mother who saves
me. It's not the mother who's my
mediator. It's the master, Christ. It's not the brotherhood. The
brotherhood can't help me if I don't have the bridegroom.
You see that? If I leave the bridegroom, the
brotherhood's of no use to me. It's not the rosary. It's the
Redeemer. Things don't help me, the person. It's the blood that
makes the atonement for the soul. I'm somewhat against you, God
said. You've left your first love. And the mess you're in
is of your own making. You see Christ, this hymn writer
said, Christ as our mediator stands between our souls and
God. And upon both he lays his hand,
upon God and me. presenting his precious blood.
Christ is the rock on him I build. He's my life, my love, my all,
and his promise shall be fulfilled. He'll never let me fall. My friend,
look to Christ. Continue in Christ. Cling to
Christ. Learn of Christ. Don't allow
anything or anyone or any circumstances, or any promotion, or any fluency,
or poverty, to turn you from the simplicity, the oneness,
the singleness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I quoted that verse a
while ago, as you have received Him, so walk in Him, so walk
the rest of your life. As you receive Christ, where
is the blessedness that once I knew when first I met the Lord?
How'd you meet him? How'd you receive him? Well,
I received him as my savior. He's still my savior. I received
him as my Lord. He's still my Lord. I received
him as my master. He's still my master. I received
him as my life. He's still my life. I received
him as my high priest. He's still my high priest. I
received him as my hope and my only hope. And he's still my
only hope. The apostle Paul writing to the
Corinthian church in the second epistle expresses a great fear
for these people, a great fear. Paul didn't fear many things,
but this he did. He feared this. He feared a distraction
from Christ. He feared a departure from Christ. He feared what our Lord said
about the church at Ephesus, you left your first love. That's
what Paul feared. And this is what he said, 2 Corinthians
11, 3. But I fear, I fear, lest anyone
by any means, as Satan beguiled Eve, our mother, anyone or anything
should divert you from Christ or corrupt your minds from the
simplicity, from the simplicity. of Jesus Christ. The all-sufficiency
of Jesus Christ. The oneness, the singleness of
Jesus Christ. The fullness of Christ. He's
all in all. He's everything to us. He's our
wisdom. He's our righteousness. He's
our sanctification. He's our redemption. And to depart
from Christ is our only real fear. Because He's all in all. And when we leave Him, we've
left everything. When we leave Christ, And this is why Paul
wrote to this troubled church, and he deals with all these problems
that they have. He deals with them later, but
here in this first chapter, now you get it out there, that first
chapter, this first chapter is filled with the person to whom
they must return, to whom they must look, to whom they must
cling. They can do all these other things
to straighten out these other problems, but Christ is the answer.
Christ is the answer, right here, right here, the glory of Jesus
Christ. And if you go down through here, the first 10 verses in
chapter 1, and mark Jesus Christ's name, and see how many times
Paul mentions there in chapter 1, 1 Corinthians, before he ever
deals with their problems, he calls them to Christ, to Christ.
Everything's in him, in him. Now watch here, let's go to verse
1. Paul says, I'm called to be an apostle, not of the church, of Jesus Christ. We who preach, we're ambassadors
of Christ. We're messengers of Christ. We're
the servants of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're sent to declare
unto you the words of God, the words of Christ. We preach not
ourselves. Paul says that over in another
verse. He said, we preach not ourselves. We don't preach our denominations
or ourselves or our program. We preach Christ. We preach Christ. Jesus our Lord. Ourselves are
your servants for Jesus' sake. But He's Alpha and Omega. That's
beginning and end. He's the first and the last.
He's the author and finisher of our faith. We are ambassadors
of Christ. We preach Christ. That's what
we preachers. We need to return to preaching
Christ every service, every service. A sermon that doesn't exalt Christ
and magnify Christ and present Christ and Him crucified really
ought not to have been preached. We're the apostles and ambassadors
and messengers of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 2. Unto the church
of God, which is at Corinth, who are the sanctified in Christ
Jesus. That's right. You're made holy
in Him, not in your works and your righteousness. You're holy
in Him. All spiritual blessings are in Christ. Listen to Paul
in Ephesians 1. God has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Christ Jesus. That's where all the blessings
are, in Christ. You're sanctified in Christ.
We're justified by His grace through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. We're clothed in the righteousness
of Christ Jesus. We're accepted in the beloved
Christ Jesus. We're translated out of the kingdom
of darkness into the kingdom of His Son, Christ Jesus. Of God are you in Christ Jesus,
who is made unto you all things. So, Paul's taking them to the
real solution. It's Christ. He says we're servants
of Christ. We're apostles of Christ. Believers
are justified in Christ. They're sanctified in Christ.
And now he says in verse 2, and we all call upon the name of
Christ Jesus, our Lord, both your Lord and my Lord. We call
on his name. That's how we're saved. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's how
we're saved, by calling on his name, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah
Sidkenu. Jehovah my shepherd, Jehovah
my banner, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be saved. There's none other name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved. We pray in His name. He said,
if you ask the Father anything in my name, He'll give it to
you. Anything worth having, anything
eternal, anything spiritual is yours in the name of Christ.
We serve in His name. If you give a cup of cold water
in His name, you'll not lose your reward. What we do, we do
for His glory. Everything's in His name. He's
all. Look at verse 3. Grace be unto
you, and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peace comes through Christ. Peace with God. Peace. This is so important right here.
Listen to me. How can a son of Adam, a sinner, have peace with
God? Peace means to be reconciled.
Peace means to be accepted. Peace means to be forgiven. Peace
means the war is over. There's no judgment. Well, how
can we have peace with God? We're not sons of peace. We're
sons of Adam. How can we have peace with the
Holy God? How can He be reconciled? Here's the answer. Colossians
1.20, And having made peace, with God through the blood of
His cross. Having made peace with God through
the blood of His cross, that's how it's made, by Christ to reconcile
all things to Himself. Reconcile. You know when two
people fall out and somebody hears their back to you and they
say, well, they were reconciled. What do you mean? They're friends.
And that's what Christ did. We were enemies by our wicked
works. Enemies by birth and nature and
Christ came and on the cross of Calvary God was in Christ
Reconciling the world unto himself and that's what this is saying
Having made peace with God through the blood of his cross By Christ
to reconcile all things to himself by Christ I say Whether they
be things in earth or things in heaven when I see the blood
God said I'll pass over you How long has it been since you heard
a message on the blood of Christ? The all-sufficient blood of Christ. The effectual, saving, cleansing,
sanctifying blood of Christ Jesus. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. There's no salvation. We have
today a bloodless religion. It's a religion of philosophy
and psychology and ideology and all of these other things. We
need to get back to the simplicity of the gospel. the simplicity
of Christ, the blood. There's a trail of blood throughout
the whole Bible. From Genesis 321, when Adam and
Eve stood naked before God and the first blood was shed, the
first blood, first blood shed on this earth wasn't Cain killing
Abel. The first blood shed was God
slew an animal and clothed Adam and Eve with the skins of that
animal. And from that blood, all the
way through the Bible, till we meet in Revelation, the Lamb
slain on the throne. There's a trail of blood, trail
of blood. It started in the garden and
it was consummated, fulfilled, and finished on the cross of
Calvary. You need to study, you need to
study the simplicity of Christ, the three R's. When you're talking
about a preacher, what do you know Education is kind of summed
up in the three R's, reading, writing, and repenting. Well,
there are three R's to the scripture. No sermon ought to be preached
that doesn't contain the three R's. You know what they are?
Ruined by the fall, what happened in the garden, ruined by the
fall. By one man's sin entered this world, and death by sin,
so death passed upon all men, ruined by the fall. Secondly
is redemption, redemption by the blood, what happened on the
cross. Christ, by His blood, cleanses us from all sin. The
third R is regeneration. What happens in a sinner's heart
when the Holy Ghost takes the Word of God and gives him new
life, makes him a new creature, reveals the Son of God to him,
and sheds all the love of God in his heart? That's the three
R's. Ruin, redemption, and regeneration. What happens in a garden? What
happened on the cross? What happened when God saves
the sinner? Look at verse 4. I thank God, Paul said, always
on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by
Jesus Christ. What is the grace of God? It's
the favor of God. Noah found favor with God. Mary
found favor with God. It's the forgiveness of God.
I remember this sin no more. It's the love of God, unchangeable.
It's the electing grace, saving grace, daily grace, keeping grace,
dying grace. It's the grace of God. Where
is it found? In Christ Jesus. It's given us by Jesus Christ.
That's where it is. And you'll not experience it
unless you lay hold on Christ. And verse 5. In fact, in everything,
Paul said, you are enriched by the Lord Jesus Christ. You're
enriched. You know, whatever the Lord's,
whatever the lot of the Lord's people on this earth, whatever
the lot. I know some mighty poor believers and I know some rich
believers. But whatever the lot of a believer on this earth,
they are really actually never poor. We may not have a large
supply of material things, but we're not poor. The Word of God
says, My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. Oh, the depths of the riches,
both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. He'll show us the riches
of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
I hope it's not said about you ever, I have somewhat against
you. You've left your first love.
You've left your first love. Christ Jesus is our first love.
You know, when he said to Peter there in John 21, he said, do
you love me? Yea, Lord, thou knowest I love
thee. Order this tape, Christ, Our
First Love, and on the back of it is the Bible, the Word of
God. Till next week, God bless you.