Sermon text this morning comes from 1 Corinthians 1, verses 10 through eight. I ask that if you are able, that you would stand for the reading of the sermon text. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 10, found on page 1118 in the Pew Bible. And this is a very impassioned plea of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, a church that was in trouble. And so this is the first kind of correction he deals out for that church. And so you can hear his heart going out to the Corinthians. So 1 Corinthians 10, chapter one, verse 10. Now I plead with 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 has been declared to me concerning you, brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas, or I am of Christ. 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 except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanus. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Amen. You may be seated. Please pray with me. Lord God, we thank you that you have given us the saving message, the message of the cross. Thank you, our Father, that you demonstrated your love toward us in sending your son to die for sinners and then to make them into saints. Thank you, Lord, for this grace. Thank you for this mercy. And we pray, Lord, that your spirit would teach us and convict us of sin, of righteousness, of judgment, and salvation through your son, Lord Jesus. We thank you and we praise you. And we're grateful, Lord, that you give us these blessings In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. The sermon title this morning is United in the Gospel. United in the Gospel. Where one message, the cross. One message, the cross. And as I mentioned earlier, the church at Corinth had lots of problems. But the first Paul addresses is a spirit of disunity, division, and contention. And the reason he approaches this difficulty is that unity is a lot more important than we typically think. Unity is a lot more important than we typically think. is a reflection of the perfect character and person of God. God is a unity. God is one, but at the same time, the scriptures reveal him as three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Three persons, yet one God forever blessed. Amen. And even though there are three persons having distinct roles, these are perfectly united in the works of creation, providence, and redemption. So the Father has his role in creation, in providence, in redemption. The Son has his roles in the same and the Holy Spirit has his roles and they all are united in purpose because they work towards the same goal. And so Paul uses the strongest language he can to beg and beseech the Corinthian believers in Jesus' name that they be completely united. Now the word they are completely united is a term that we've seen before in the gospels. When the disciples, before Jesus called them, they were mending their nets. They're making sure the nets were completely united and tied together so that none of the fish would be lost. And so we need to be completely united or mended together, knit together in Christian love. Amen? And so he says, I urge you to speak the same thing. I urge you that there be no divisions or no schisms among you. I urge you that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and same judgment. Now, how can we speak the same thing and all have the same mind and have the same judgment? Do we have this? Are we completely united? as we are called to in the scripture. Well, I want to urge you with the same urgency. We also need to have one message. And that message is the cross of Christ. What does it say in verse 10? Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing. And then also, Verse 18, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God. And so we need to have that same message, the message of the cross. Now, how is it that that is what will unite us. How is it that the cross is the thing that will unite the body of Christ? Well, unity, in this case, comes from our being one in the only way possible to make sinners into saints. And that is through the cross of Jesus Christ. And so at the cross, we are all found to be sinners in need of God's grace, in need of the blood of Jesus to wash away the filth of our sin. And it's at the cross that sinners are declared saints. And there's no other place and there's no other way where that happens, amen? Why is it? Well, at the cross, we have applied to us the active righteousness of Christ and the passive righteousness of Christ. Only one person had perfect active righteousness ever in the history of the human race, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. He could have kept that act of righteousness for himself, but he wanted to share it. And the way he shared it was at the cross, so that it could be conferred to us, so that there could be that great exchange, so that our unrighteousness would fall on him, and his righteousness would fall on us. And that's the only way that sinners can be made into saints. And that's the only basis of our unity. We all come to him through the cross and only through the cross. Amen? And so that's our message. And so it's silly to start talking about, well, I'm of Apollos, or I'm of Cephas, or Paul, Or, I'm more spiritual than you, I'm of Christ. And so even taking the name of Christ as a means of division. And Paul says what? Is Jesus Christ divided? No, he's not divided. There's one way, truth, and life. No, we ought not be divided. We ought to believe the truth and walk it out by faith. And so, excuse me, we are united. And as Victor read in Ephesians, there is one body. And that's a reality. And we need to believe the reality that there is one body. And believe the reality of the union of the believer with Christ and the union of believers with one another. So there's this supernatural unity that we have that we need to believe that we have. Now the world would say, well, what about all the denominations? And it's true there are denominations, but the question is, are we gathered around a denomination or we gathered around Jesus, the King of kings and the Lord of lords and the one who died on the cross. Paul wasn't crucified for us. Jesus was crucified for us. And that's the basis of our unity. And so we need to believe the truth regarding the supernatural unity we have in Christ. In verse 13, it says, is Christ divided? Literally, it's is Christ cut into pieces? And the answer is no. And so we should not be about personalities, ministries, denominations. Who are Paul and Apollos and Cephas? They're workers that God uses. The key is that we are about the message of the cross. And so we need to believe the truth that we are united in Christ and united to one another. As we read in Ephesians, there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. And that's what God's word says about it, there is this oneness that we have. And so we are called to bear with one another in love and strive to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. In other words, there is a unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace that there is that we need to keep or preserve. And so in order to keep it, we need to believe that it's there. And then after we believe it is there, then we endeavor to preserve that. And so, beloved, are you endeavoring to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace? How do we do that? Well, we do that, verse two tells us, in all lowliness and gentleness. It takes humility. It takes gentleness. We can't be like a bull in a china cabinet. Anyone ever be like a bull in a china cabinet? You need to be gentle with fragile things, but gotta get the work done, and then you break things. been there, done that, let's be humble, completely humble and gentle with one another and do what we can to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And so believe the truth that there is a supernatural unity that God has given to his body, the church. And then also we want to Be united in the power of the cross. Be united in the power of the cross. There is power in the message of the cross. The message of the cross kills us. Right? It kills the fleshly part of us that wants to put itself forward that wants to be the best, wants recognition. And when we do that, then that hurts the unity. That hurts the unity of the church. Because we're not to be about self, we're to be about Jesus. And we're not to be about man-made ways to make ourselves right with God. we're to be about God's only way to make men and women right with God, and that is through the cross of Jesus Christ. And so the danger is that we trust in wisdom of words, and then the cross message is liable to be made void, says in verse 17. In verse 17, Paul says, for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. Sometimes we get excited about the way we're able to put a phrase or a way we're able to present a truth and And what Paul's saying here is, no, it's not the way you do it, it's the message, and it's the message of the cross of Christ. And so, don't trust in your wisdom of words, don't trust in your methods, trust in the message of Jesus. And then the truth is, And we need to believe this also, that the message of the cross is the power of God for those who are being saved. It's the message of the cross and nothing else. Do you know that, beloved? Do you believe that? Well, let's be united in that power of the cross. The message of the cross is that thing which we should be perfectly knit and joined together in. And so, beloved, know the truth that we are supernaturally united together, and be united in the power of the cross, that mighty message that is power for our salvation. And so Paul, in another place, says this, God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. There's nothing else to boast in except the cross of Christ. And how powerful that cross is to make that separation between us and the world and the world and us. So if we're having difficulties with disunity or difficulties with worldliness, we need a strong dose of the message of the cross and that'll be good medicine for our souls and good medicine for the unity of the church. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you. Thank you that you did not leave us in sin, but you sent your only son, your only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Thank you, Lord. Jesus for perishing in our place on the cross, but then after three days, rising up again to new life, to give us new life in you. And so Lord, we pray that we would live out the unity that you have given us in the cross. And we pray, Lord, that that the world would be crucified to us and us to the world. And so we want to be divided off from the world and worldliness and yet united to you and to one another. And so we ask for this mighty work to be done in us by the power of your Holy Spirit and for your glory, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.