First Corinthians chapter one is our text. If you haven't turned there, I invite you to do that now. And as always, before we go to the word, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, again, we are grateful now to open your word together, to hear your word, not only read, but also now preached. We pray that you would bless this moment of the preaching of your word for your people. And we ask this blessing over us now in the name of Jesus. Amen. So as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I wanted to start a journey through the letter that Paul writes to the Corinthians, this first letter, that he writes to the Corinthian church. And so we start that this morning with Paul's own introductory words that he writes to this church in Corinth. And I think there's a lot that we can glean from the way that Paul talks about this church in Corinth. Because as we read through this letter, and if you're familiar with it in any way, shape or form, you know that this is one of the troubled churches. in the area in the New Testament that we have. This is a church that is marked by division within the church. It is marked by a certain amount of immorality and not only immorality, but the acceptance of that immorality, which we'll also take a look at as well. It is here in First Corinthians, for example, over in chapter 11. which I usually read when we observe the Lord's Supper together. This is where Paul talks about the intention of the observance of the Lord's Supper. But in 1 Corinthians, the reason that he goes into that detail is because the Lord's Supper and the taking of communion together, even that moment of what was supposed to be a unifying moment for the church was instead a moment that had caused great division in this church in Corinth. And so this is a very troubled church that Paul writes to in a lot of different ways. They are having trouble with understanding the purpose of tongues and the gifts of the spirit. They're having trouble, as I said, with division. They're having trouble with partiality. They're having trouble with immorality. And so Paul is dealing with a lot when he writes this letter to this troubled church in Corinth. And yet, he still addresses this church the way that he addresses them when he opens this letter to them. As troubled as they are, and as many problems as they have, Paul still addresses them with the language of Beloved, with the language of the children of God. with the language of who they are in Christ. And we see that in these first, not just simply three verses, but really all the way down to verse nine, as he even says, as he typically does, I give thanks to God always for you. And so this is a church that as I said, while it's troubled and while it has problems and while it has issues, this is a church that Paul loves because this is a church that Christ loves because it is a part of his bride. And the bridegrooms always love his bride. So how does Paul then address this church with so many problems, so many needs for corrections? How does Paul address this church? And the first thing I want you to see here as we think about the blessed ones of God, which I've titled this sermon, The Blessed Ones of God, is that he addresses them, and therefore, by the way, how he addresses them is the same truth for us as the people of God, that we are the sought ones. That's the number one in your outline. We are the sought ones of God. First, or we see this rather in the way that Paul opens by saying that he is called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. In order to understand why it is that I would call this that we are the salt ones of God is that we have to ask and answer the question, what does Paul mean by this calling that he has upon his life? This divine calling by the will of God that he has. Now, obviously this calling, he says, is to be an apostle. But what does that calling entail? One place that we can go. is in Paul's own words in the letter that he writes to the Galatians. There he sort of defends his apostolic credentials. And in speaking of that, he tells the Galatians in chapter one, verse 11, I would have you know, brothers, the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel, for I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. He goes on to say there in Galatians in verse 15, but when he had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace, when he was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I didn't immediately consult anyone or go to Jerusalem, but I went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. This was Paul's understanding of his calling. that he was intended to preach the gospel among the Gentiles. Paul's journey there to Arabia and then returning again to Damascus, that was about three years. And then he does head to Jerusalem after that, according to his words in Galatians. And then after he goes to Jerusalem, he goes on to Syria and to Cilicia. And then after 14 years, he winds up back in Jerusalem again And he is seeking there the approval of the apostles. And when he returns to Jerusalem after all of these years, after 14 years or so, he tells them this, or he says this rather, of that encounter in Galatians chapter two, verse seven, he says, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, For he worked through Peter, he being God, worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised. He worked also through me for my ministry to the Gentiles. This was how Paul viewed his calling. He was set apart as a minister of the gospel to the Gentiles. That was Paul's understanding of his ministry. And that was his primary focus of his ministry. Now in his journeys, we know from reading the book of Acts and even in some of his letters, the way that he talks, he would always start in the towns that he went to, he would always start in the Jewish synagogues before he would branch out to the Gentile population. Because as we see Paul say over and over, he understood that the gospel was to the Jew first and then also to the Greek. And so he always began in the Jewish synagogues. And then he would branch out from there. And Paul saw his primary ministry success in his ministry to the Gentiles, in reaching the Gentiles. Peter stayed in Jerusalem and primarily ministered to the Jews. Paul went all across Asia Minor on these missionary journeys, ministering to the Gentiles. And so we realize that Paul saw his calling as being a missionary preacher who would travel and bring the gospel to the world. He tells Timothy in 1st Timothy 2.7, for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. As another example, he comes to Antioch in Acts chapter 13, and here he's preaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath and many follow the way. And then a week later on the next Sabbath, a large crowd gathers and the Jewish leadership of Antioch begins to contradict what Paul was teaching. And here's how he responds to them. He says, it was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you, that's to the Jews, since you thrust it aside and judge yourself unworthy of eternal life. Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us saying, I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And so then you come all the way to the end of the book of Acts and you read, therefore, let it be known to you in the words of Paul, that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen. Now, what's the point I'm making with all of this apostolic credential of Paul and this apostolic calling of Paul. And the point that I'm making is that when Paul says here that he was called by the will of God as an apostle, there was a specific mission in mind when he understood that calling. He saw his calling as going to the Gentiles. And this reminds us that we are not Christians by accident. We did not sort of trip into the kingdom, across the threshold of the gates of the city. We didn't stumble across the doorframe into the household of God. We didn't look into it or draw the right cards or draw the long straw in the handful of straws. We, as the people of God, are a sought people. He sought us out. each of us even individually. This is Jesus' own words. You remember after his encounter with Zacchaeus, he says, today, after Zacchaeus says what he says, Jesus says, today salvation has come to this house since he also is a son of Abraham for the son of man came to do what? To seek and to save the lost. He didn't come just to save, but to seek us. And he does seek us and he finds us. And not only does he find us, but he draws us. That is God's sovereign power in salvation. He sought me as we love to sing in the great hymn, Victory in Jesus. He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood. Or how about the one we just sang? Oh, how I love Jesus. Why? Because he first loved me. That's right out of 1 John 4, 19. We love him because he first loved us. Why did we choose God? Because he first chose us. Why did we love God? Because he first loved us. God initiated salvation. He sought us. There's an old book I read years ago, it's not actually a book per se, it's a collection of essays, but they were essays on the atoning work of Christ. Various, not perspectives, but various vantage points and aspects of the atoning work of Christ. And the title of that book was, From Heaven He Came and Sought Her. And it was a good title to the book. Don't mistake then why you are a Christian. Don't mistake why you are a part of the household of God. We are Christians and we belong to Him because of divine intention, not because of human ingenuity or imagination. He sought us and drew us and saved us through faith. When we see that here, not only in Paul's mentioning of his calling, but in his statement that it is by the will of God that he was called an apostle. It was the will of God that sent Paul on his missionary journeys. It was the will of God that sent him to the Gentiles to bring into this fold other sheep that are not of this fold, which is exactly what Jesus said. In John chapter 10, I have other sheep not of this fold and I must bring them in also. How's he going to do it? He's going to send preachers and missionaries and men of God to go out to seek them, to bring them into the kingdom. This is how Paul understood then his own commission. I mean, we know it must be the case because when Paul became a Christian, he's on the road to Damascus without any thought about being a preacher for God, without any thought about being a preacher of the gospel, without any thought about being a preacher of the name of Christ and the salvation of sins in Jesus Christ only. Instead, he was heading for Damascus in order to persecute the church in the name of God and in service, so he thought, to the God of Israel. And then Jesus shows up on the road and Paul is miraculously converted because he sought him. And when the time was right and when the divine timetable said, he saved Paul. And then he commissioned him and Paul began his work with his stint into Arabia and so forth. And then after that, being commissioned and sent out on his missionary journey. So first we are the sought ones of God. Never forget that God initiated our salvation. Not only are we here described as the salt ones, we are described as the sanctified ones. The sanctified ones, he says in verse two, to the church of God that is incorrent to those sanctified in Christ Jesus. powerful word there, sanctified. It's a word that means to set something apart unto holiness or in biblical language, it is something that is set apart or someone that is set apart unto the Lord. This might bring to mind some questions, for example, by whom are we set apart? By whom are we set apart? Are we set apart by ourselves? Are we set apart by some priest or Holy Father sanctifying us, maybe tapping us on the shoulder with a sword as they do to knight somebody? Who is it that sanctifies us? The answer is that we are set apart by God. We're not set apart by man. Again, not by human imagination or ingenuity or clairvoyance. And we're certainly not set apart by our own works or our own merit or our own efforts to appease God on our behalf. We're not even set apart by our own choice or by our own desires. We are set apart first and foremost by God's own choice. and by God's own desires. Look, Paul even mentions it in that that I read from Galatians, right? He set me apart when? Before the foundation of the world. God wasn't just watching history move along and saw this guy, Paul, and thought, oh, that's a smart cookie right there. That's a sharp knife to put in my drawer. That's a good intellect to put into my service. That'll be a useful tool in order to perpetuate the church and the gospel. Let's use him. Jesus, go get him. Paul says, no, I was set apart even before the foundation of the world. We're set apart first and foremost by God's own choice and by God's own desire. And so we have been set apart by God and by God alone. Not only this, there's another important reality to remember. We are not only set apart by God, but we are set apart for God. We belong to the Lord. As his people, we belong to God. The great hymn in Christ alone has a line in it that says, I am his and he is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ. And this is a vitally important New Testament truth. Peter says in 1 Peter 2.9, you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. And so he reminds us in 1 Peter 3.18, Christ suffered once for sin, the righteous for the unrighteous in order that he might bring us to God. We're saved in order to enter into his presence because we belong to him. Paul says to the Colossians that we've been reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present us holy and blameless and above reproach before him. You know that old saying, I mean, we're not saved to get to heaven. We're saved to get into the presence of God. We were saved for him. And so we're not sanctified. We're not set apart for nothing. We're set apart for God. We're set apart for a reason. We're set apart to rejoice over him, to bless his name and to give him honor and to give him glory and to give him praise and adoration for all that he's done for us in Christ. And that's the last part here as we think about this sanctification. We are sanctified by God, for God, and in Christ. We are sanctified in Christ Jesus, he says there in the middle of verse two. That's the way then that God has made for us to be set apart. When God saves sinners, it is not done in a willy nilly fashion. He doesn't do it by sweeping our sin under the rug and saying it's no big deal and saying, you know, just don't worry about it. Just kind of move on from that. Salvation came with a price. Now, from our vantage point, salvation is the free gift of God. But from a divine perspective, that does not mean that it did not come with a price. Salvation costs the death of the Son of God to accomplish. That is the blessedness of being sanctified in Christ Jesus. It is the reminder that God has accomplished all that is required for that sanctification to happen for us in Christ Jesus. That is the gift of salvation that God has paid all the price, that God has done all that is required in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. We have all that we need for our salvation. And so we simply as sinners receive it by faith. He saves us by himself, for himself, through faith and in Christ. And so we are the sanctified ones of God. Now this is a good place to pause because we're gonna get to dive a little bit deeper into that concept next week with the rest of the verse. Before this morning, two realities so far that we see as being the blessed ones of God. We are the sought ones of God and we are the sanctified ones of God. And just to prepare you for what's coming next week, the final two points on your outline is that we are the sainted ones of God and we are the sustained ones of God. So that'll whet your appetite for next week as we come back together. But for now, let's pray and be dismissed. Father, again, we thank you for this time that we have this morning to come together again for a moment of worship. We thank you for the Blessing of what it means that Christ has come to save us, that we are the sought ones, that you have sought us, that you have drawn us to yourself, and that you have given life to our hearts, that we might choose you and that we might love you because you first loved us. This blessing that we are the sanctified ones set apart for you and belonging to you and being your possession. We thank you for what this means for us. We thank you for the journey that we now go on together as we begin a new letter, a new book of your word. May you bless this time that we have in 1 Corinthians and strengthen our faith as we go through it together. We ask this blessing now in the name of Jesus, amen.