Without introduction, I'd simply like to read the scripture text before us this morning. First Corinthians three verses 18 through 23. Under inspiration of the Spirit of God, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers, saying in First Corinthians three verse 18, let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool. that he may become wise for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God for it is written he catches the wise in their own craftiness and again it is written verse twenty the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are futile. Therefore, let no one boast in men for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come. All are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's. By way of simple proposition, I have written at the top of your nose, the Corinthians fellow Sophia or the Corinthians love of wisdom permeated their culture and perverted their church. Consequently, there was deception within and divisions among themselves. Those are the themes of these early chapters of First Corinthians and consequently. Human wisdom caused the Corinthian church to be carnal, namely deception and division. From First Corinthians three verses 18 through 23, I've prepared a message titled Deception and Division in Corinth. Let's pause for prayer before we go to God's word. Lord, thank you so much for the privilege we have just now to open your holy word in freedom and in liberty and to study the scriptures in our own language. But Lord, we ask for the aid of your Holy Spirit so that we might understand these truths. And Lord, we pray for the conviction of the Holy Spirit so that we might go from this place changed. God, I pray for me, the preacher, the teacher just now, that you would enable and equip me to preach and teach better than I know how, that I might accurately present the meaning of this text in its context. Lord, I pray for the hearer just now, that they might be acutely attentive to what your word and your spirit says. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse number 18, let no one deceive himself. Number one in your notes, if you're following my outline deception within ourselves, deception within ourselves. There was a little boy who was overheard talking to himself as he strutted through the backyard wearing his baseball cap and holding a ball and bat. I'm the greatest hitter in the world. He exclaimed and he took that ball and he tossed it into the air. He swung his bat and he missed. Strike one, he cried. But undaunted, he picked up the ball and he said again, I am the greatest hitter in all the world. Again, he tossed the ball into the air, he swung and he missed a second time. Strike two. The boy then paused for a moment to examine his ball and bat very carefully. He spit on his hands and he rubbed them together, straightened his baseball cap and said once more, I'm the greatest hitter in all the world. Again, he tossed the ball into the air. He he swung his bat and he missed strike three. Wow, the boy exclaimed, I'm the greatest pitcher in all the world. But self-deception is not only a problem for children. Self-deception is a problem for adults and self-deception is a spiritual problem. There is nothing more foolish than thinking or believing something about ourselves that is in fact not true. And that is letter A in your notes the folly of self-deception. Galatians 6 3 says that if we think we are something when we are in fact nothing, we deceive ourselves. First John 1 verse number eight says that that if we if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. James 1 says the one who claims to be religious but does not bridle his tongue is the one who deceives his own heart. And Jesus warned that many will say in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not done wonderful things in your name? But they will be condemned in their self-deception. Depart from me. I never knew you, Jesus will say. For that reason, Proverbs 3, verse 7 says, Do not be wise in your own eyes. The folly of self-deception, the challenge for us, though, is some point number one, recognizing our self-deception, recognizing our self-deception. If we are sincere, very sincere, But if we're sincerely wrong, how do we know? If you have a blind spot in your life, how can you tell? It's often wondered, do insane people know that they're insane? Self-deception on occasion, I've gotten dressed in the dark. It's not a good idea for in the dark, the black socks and the blue socks, they both look dark. And in the dark, I'm not sure if I button my shirt correctly or if my tie is straight. Whatever the case may be, until I turn on the light and I look in the mirror, I don't recognize the reality of what I look like. In the Old Testament, before they were sent into the sanctuary to minister, the priests had to pay a visit to the brazen labor. And the labor was made of bronze or or brass, and its base was made from bronze mirrors. Exodus 38, verse number eight. And as the priests would approach the labor there for their ceremonial cleansing, the mirrors would reveal their defilement. so that they could then wash with the water in the labor and remove their dishonor. And in the very same manner, we need to look into the mirror of God's word and recognize the needs that we have, what needs to change. In fact, James chapter one explains that God's word is, in fact, like that near the very near to reveal to us the blemishes that we don't see. to reveal to us who we truly are, and it is then that we might perceive or recognize the self-deception that is within us. That is why David wrote in Psalm 119, How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to God's word. We recognize our own self-deception in the mirror of God's holy word letter or I'm sorry, number two, their number to some point. Number two is rectifying that self-deception after we've recognized that. How do we rectify it or fix it? And there at the end of verse 18, first Corinthians 318. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. that is rectifying self-deception. Self-deception dies very, very hard, but when we recognize what fools we are in our self-deception, we must then rectify that matter by becoming fools in the world's eyes and embracing the wisdom of God. That is how we rectify our situation. You say, Pastor Matt, I missed that. Can you explain that further? Turn your outlines over to the back, where I've copied a piece from John Stott, who explains it this way. John Stott says, I believe that this let him become a fool. First Corinthians three verse 18 is one of the hardest words of Scripture to the proud hearts and minds of men. Like the brilliant intellectuals of ancient Greece, think the city of Corinth in Greece. Our contemporaries have unbounded confidence in human reason. They want to think their way to God by themselves and to gain credit for discovering God by their own effort. But God resists such swellings of pride on the part of the finite creature. Of course, men have been given minds to use and they are never to stifle or smother them, but they must humble them. Reverently, before the revelation of God becoming, in Paul's words, fools. You see, that is one of the great paradoxes of scripture. The wisdom of the world is foolishness with God and the wisdom of God is foolishness to the world. When when the five young missionaries were martyred by the Indians, January 8th of 1956. The world said, what a waste. Here are five bright young men who are college-trained. Their lives are before them, promising careers, inviting them. What a waste. Yet for the evangelization of a remote and barbaric Indian tribe, they became fools in the eyes of the world. Jim Elliott answered those who branded him as a fool in this way. Jim Elliott said he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep. to gain what he cannot lose. But yet, in the eyes of the world, in the minds of the world, it's foolishness. And so the solution for our own self-deception that is the rectifying of our own self-deception is that we must become worldly foolish and godly wise. And again, I cite God's Word, Psalm 119. David said that God's Word made him wiser than my enemies. I have more understanding than all of my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients because I keep your precepts. Perhaps you want to draw a bracket next to some points, number one and two. And write, write God's Word, the scripture, The Holy Bible, God's Word is the answer for both recognizing and rectifying the folly of our self-deception. This is the revelation of God. This is the wisdom of God. And this will help us to recognize our self-deception. And this will rectify our self-deception. But in addition to the folly of self-deception, letter B, I submit the futility of self-deception. the futility of self-deception letter b and i point your attention back to the scripture verses 19 and 20 first corinthians 3 verse 19 for the wisdom of the world is foolishness with god that has already been well established in these early chapters of first corinthians for it is written he catches the wise in their own craftiness and again it is written again another place Verse 20, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are futile. There's the word, the futile or the futility of self-deception. Our self-deception is not only what we think of ourselves. I'm the greatest hitter in the world. I'm the greatest pitcher in the world. But also our self-deception is what we think about God. You see, in our foolishness, we believe that we are more than we are. And in our foolishness, we think that God is less than he is. Specifically, in our text, Paul describes our deception in thinking that God does not see, verse number 19, and God does not know, verse number 20. But David wrote in Psalm 139, you formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed. God knows. God sees. And it is futility to think otherwise. It is futile. Remember Jonah. In futility, Jonah tried to run from God to hide from God as if he could escape God's eye. And so it was from the belly of the of the fish there that Jonah cried out to the Lord, saying, I have been cast out of your sight. No, you haven't been cast out of God's sight, and God could see Jonah there in the fish. But self-deception is futile if we self-deceive ourselves, thinking God does not see. God does not know. Proverbs 15, three, for the eyes of the Lord are in every place. Beholding good and evil. I'm glad for that. God sees your circumstance, God knows your circumstance, and it is futile to think otherwise. First, number one, God sees through crafty people. God sees through crafty people. Verse number 19 is a quotation, a citation from the Old Testament Book of Job, Job 5, verse 13. The only time that Job is cited or quoted in the New Testament. The statement that is made here in verse number 19 from Job 513 is a statement made in the first speech of Eliphaz. It was a wrong charge against Job, but it was a right statement about God. God sees through the craftiness of us as human beings. We are so crafty. We devise little schemes that we think will allow us to have our cake and eat it too. We do ethical gymnastics to justify our actions. We create logical excuses to soothe our conscience. We won't get caught. Nobody will get hurt. But God warns us, do not be deceived. God will not be mocked. Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. God sees through crafty people. But the deception is, the self-deception is, God doesn't see, God doesn't know, and if I work it just right, if I handle the situation just right, I can commit the perfect crime. Well, be sure your sin will find you out. Not because of circumstantial happenstance, but because God sees and God knows, and it is futile to think otherwise. God sees through crafty people. Number two, God sees through clever people, through clever people. Verse number 20. Verse 20 is a quotation from the Old Testament book of Psalm, Psalm 94. The thoughts of this world's clever people are futile or vain in God's sight is what the end of verse 20 says. It really means void of result. We might not be crafty in the negative sense. We might be clever in the positive sense, that is ingenious with our logic and with our our reason. We might be eloquent with our rhetoric. But remember, the philosophy or the love of wisdom permeated the Corinthians culture and it perverted the Corinthians church so that no matter how savvy we are, God sees through us. It doesn't matter how educated we are. It doesn't matter how experienced we are. May we not deceive ourselves, but acknowledge that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, says the Lord. Isaiah 55, verse number nine. And that is why Paul wrote earlier in this very letter, When I came to you, Corinthians, I did not come with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. He said, My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith might not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. God sees through clever people, and oh, may there not be deception among ourselves, the self-deception that comes from human wisdom. It is foolish or folly and it is futile. I regret that I have had occasions where believers have sat before me over coffee or in my office, they've said, Pastor Matt, I can handle it. I know what I'm doing. And I've confronted them with their sin, I've held up the mirror of God's word to show them their error. And in self-deception, they've denied that being their case. It's folly, and it's futile. The final charge from Paul at the end of 1 Corinthians 3 is not only regarding deception within. And I believe that's really the theme of 1 Corinthians 3 verses 18, 19, and 20. But the final charge is not only regarding deception within but also division among and that's number two divisions. Among ourselves. Divisions among ourselves division in the church. Here the church in Corinth had been a primary theme of these early chapters and the believers were divided because of their pride and divided toward different personalities. In fact look back. Across the page, perhaps the chapter three versus three and four. Chapter three versus three and four, Paul says, you are still carnal. You are characterized by the flesh for where there are envy, strife and divisions among you, are you not carnal, fleshly and behaving like mere men? For when one says, I'm of Paul and others, I'm of a power. Are you not carnal? As we will discover in the book of First Corinthians, Paul addresses a number of matters of carnality, issues of fleshliness, and we will come to those in the coming weeks. But here, the first point of address is the division among the people there in that church. And Paul gives them letter A, the expectation, the expectation for verse 21. Therefore, let no one boast in men. For men are only men and flaws can be found in every man. Abraham, of course, the great patriarch of the Hebrew people, called the friend of God in the Bible. Abraham failed when he went down to Egypt. Remember that occasion? Abraham failed when he went down to Philistia. Moses was a great man of God, called the meekest man. But he disobeyed when he struck the rock a second time. David was a great king. David called the man after God's own heart, yet he sinned with Bathsheba. He murdered her husband, Uriah, and then he probably numbered Israel. John Kelvin was a good man, but he was not adverse to burning his enemies at the stake. Martin Luther was a brave man of conviction. In fact, later this month, October 31st marks the anniversary of his nailing the 95 theses against the sale of indulgences on the church door in Wittenberg Germany Martin Luther was a great reformer, but he never understood the error in Rome's doctrine of transubstantiation or their baby baptism And you see men have feet of clay Therefore you hear me therefore we must not glory in men and whether it is the Apostle Paul, whether it is a policy, whether it is Cephas or in ourselves as men for that deception will create division. And so the expectation from the Apostle Paul in first Corinthians three verse twenty one. Therefore, let no one boast in men that we not glory in men. And then the explanation letter B, the explanation follows in verses twenty one and twenty two. Why ought we not to boast in men and be divided in that the end of verse 21 for all things are yours? whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or Whether the world or whether life or death or whether things present or things to come all are yours And you are Christ and Christ is God. What does that mean twice? twice there Pulses all things are yours Neither that is an exaggerated religious cliche or it's literally true. Here's what Paul is saying. Paul is saying this. Why do you limit yourself by boasting in yourself or by claiming to belong to a personality? In our case, it would be this. It would be I'm of RW Clearwaters. No, I'm of Doug McLaughlin. No, I'm of Ernest Pickering. I'm of Matt Morrell. These are the pastors of Fourth Baptist Church over the last many generations. But do you not realize, people of Fourth Baptist Church, that your spiritual blessings belong to you in Christ, with or without these guys, with or without Clearwaters, McLaughlin, Pickering, or Morrell? In fact, far from enriching yourselves by your divisions, you are impoverishing yourself because of your divisions. All things are yours. You are spiritually enriched in everything because of Jesus Christ. In a lyrical way, then Paul assures his spiritual brethren that all things are theirs. And I don't have these as sub points for you. There's not room in the notes, but I have four categories. four categories under some point number one, the number one of our possessions in Christ. All things are yours. Here they are. Number one, our possessions in Christ. And then I have four categories that I find directly in the text. And I want you to see it in the text with me. Looking at the end of verse twenty, well, the beginning of verse twenty two, there are three names that are that are cited, Paul, Apollos and Cephas, I would say. this would be let me see it in an outline it would be some point will lowercase letter a under some point number one no matter who no matter who the ministers of Paul a policy that no matter who they are those men are their ministries were a gift to the Corinthians. How would you like it if your pastors were Paul a policy that that would be a great deal when you can say yes that would be a a great deal but but Look back to chapter three verse number five. Who then is Paul? Who is Apollos? Who are these guys? They're only ministers. They're servants through whom you believe as the Lord gave to each one. So our possessions in Christ are our possessions no matter who. Paul, Apollos, Cephas, Pastor Matt, or anyone else. Secondly, the second sub-point under the sub-point, this is I think lowercase letter B if you're crowding it there, no matter where. no matter where, and you see it there in verse 22 or the world. The world is ours, and this was not a case of Jerusalem over Rome, or that the cities Paul evangelized were more important than the cities in which Peter preached. Alexandria was not more important than Corinth. God has given us the world, so it's no matter who, it's no matter what. Third, it's, I'm sorry, no matter where, no matter who, no matter where, and then thirdly, no matter what. Life or death, you see it there in verse 22. Life or death, only a believer can know abundant life in Christ. And Christians are the only ones who really know how to die. So no matter what occurs, we're sure of life after life. And then fourth, no matter when, no matter when. And that's at the end of verse 22. Things present or things to come. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. And we will also rejoice in our future things to come include the inheritance, all of the inheritance of those that are joint heirs with Christ. And so Paul twice says, don't be divided among yourselves over personalities or people. Don't you understand that all things are yours, your possessions in Christ, no matter who, no matter where, no matter what, no matter when. But in addition to your possessions in Christ, this is where it gets really, really good. Verse 23. And you are Christ's. What more can be said? In Christ, we have identity. In Christ, we have security. In Christ, we have the riches of his goodness, the riches of his grace, the riches of his glory. This is some point number two. our position in Christ. Now, don't put your things away just yet. I know your notes are complete, but turn back with me a page or two to First Corinthians chapter number one, verse 30. And here we can connect Paul's dots and understand the case that he is made making first Corinthians one verse number 30 But of him you are in Christ Jesus. This is your position Corinthians or believers at fourth baptist who became for us wisdom from God Never mind the wisdom of man never mind the wisdom of this world your position in Jesus Christ is wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption Verse 31 that as it is written he who glories let him glory in the Lord Amen We don't boast in our own wisdom We aren't self-deceived in who we think we are or how smart we think we are. We aren't divided among each other by personalities or by people because our position is in Jesus Christ. We boast in Jesus Christ. Let us not be wise in our own eyes, for that self-deception will lead to divisions among us. And let us not boast in the wisdom of man, either our man or other men, but be grateful for and glory in the Lord. If you turn your notes over one more time. A poem, a hymn by Isaac Watts, I think captures the sense here of our of our scripture this morning. No more, my God, I boast no more of all the duties I have done. I quit the hopes I held before in order to trust the merits of my son. Now, for the love I bear his name, what was my gain, I count my loss. My former pride I call my shame and now my glory to his cross. Yes, and I must and will esteem all things but loss for Jesus sake. Oh, may my soul be found in him and of his righteousness partake. The best obedience of my hands dares not appear before thy throne. But faith can answer thy demands. By pleading what my Lord has done, Now wait, wait, look at the second to that last line. But faith can answer thy demands. Folks, that is foolishness to the world. But that is the wisdom of God. God's demands were satisfied in the person in the work of Jesus Christ. And if we but simply believe. If we transfer our trust and we have faith in the person of Jesus Christ, it will answer the demands of God and we will be saved. Don't be self-deceived this morning. Don't be wise in your own eyes. We are simply the creatures. He is the creator. We are sinners that need a savior. But alas, the wisdom of man will cause us to be carnal We will have deception within ourselves and division among ourselves. Let's pray. Father, God, forgive us for our human earthly wisdom. God, we want to become fools. That we might know. Your wisdom, we want to know the wisdom of the revelation of God and the person of Jesus Christ and recorded in the pages of Scripture. That I pray that you would protect us from ourselves. Lord, may we not boast or glory in ourselves or in one another. But in the cross of Jesus Christ, Jesus blood and righteousness alone for our salvation and our sanctification, I pray this in in Jesus name. Amen.