Let me read again the text for today's message, which is found in 1 Corinthians 11, verses 17 to 19, and this time I want to give you my own translation of the Greek original. In giving you this instruction, I do not praise you. for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church there are schisms among you, and to some extent I believe it. For there must also be heresies among you to show which of you have God's approval. Now those of you who have been following this series on the letter of Paul to the Corinthians will appreciate the fact that we here come to a point of transition. We are moving out of one section and into a new one And that is the very thing that makes it a little bit difficult to know for sure what Paul means when he says, in these instructions that I have given you, I do not praise you. Literally in the Greek, in giving these instructions, I do not praise you." What he could mean is that these instructions he's just been giving us in chapter 11 verses 2 to 16, instructions about the status of women, And he could mean, in spite of that rather positive feature in the life of the Church of Corinth, yet I can't praise you because of some of these other things. Or it could mean that he is looking forward, as the New International Version really suggests, and he is thinking of the directives he's going to give God's people, and saying that in that, He is not able to praise them. As is so often true in the Bible, in some of these things where we really can't make a hard and fast decision, it really makes very little difference. Because, whether the apostle is looking back, to start with, when he speaks of these instructions, Or whether he's looking forward, one thing is absolutely certain. And that is the fact that in spite of some virtues in the Church of Corinth, some praiseworthy features, yet the Apostle felt that he could not praise them because of a most serious deficiency. Now that means that when you really take stock of the church, you have to look at the whole picture. I suppose any congregation that you could find almost anywhere will have certain virtues. But according to God's holy word, we must learn to look at the whole picture. What really is the whole truth about this congregation? Is it in a good state spiritually in the eyes of God? Well, the Church of Corinth was not. There were such serious defects, in fact, that the Apostle says, your meetings do more harm than good. Now that's a striking thing, isn't it? Here was a Christian Church founded by the great Apostle to the Gentiles, the greatest missionary in the history of the Christian Church, one of the great Apostles of Christ, who was still alive on the earth when he wrote these words, and yet he is already compelled to say, I'm sorry folks, but when you come together, it's not for the better, it's for the worse. Now that really is an astounding statement, and I really wonder If the Apostle Paul, by divine inspiration, speaking as the mouthpiece of Christ in glory, if he would say that about Corinth, what would he say about this congregation in Carson? Would he say, I can't praise you people because when you come together, it's really not for the better, but for the worse? That might be the Lord's estimate of us. And that is a very serious matter. Now, why did Paul make that very serious statement? Well, our text teaches us three very important things. The reason for that statement is that they had divisions among them. Schisms it is in the Greek language. The second thing he tells us is that the cause of those schisms was heresy. In the plural, heresy. That's actually the Greek word that he uses, just simply read as it is in the Greek language, heresies. That's the very word in the Greek itself, for the English word heresies comes right out of the Greek New Testament. And then having said that, he goes on to tell us that God has a sovereign purpose even in this sad fact. Now why were there divisions in the church of Corinth? And what was the reason that Paul came to this conclusion? Well, notice what he says, I hear that when you come together as a church there are divisions among you and to some extent I believe it. Now, it's quite obvious that Paul had to reach his conclusion on the basis of hearsay evidence. I hear that there are divisions among you. You see, Paul wasn't in Corinth when he wrote this letter. He hadn't been there for some time. One of the things he tried to do in his apostolic ministry was to look after all the churches, and that was a tremendously big job. He could only be in one place at one time. So, there he was, maybe in a place like Ephesus, and he heard the news that there were divisions in the church of Corinth. Now, Paul was a very careful man, and he teaches us that we are to be very careful people. We should not lightly hear slanderous accusations. The Bible says you need two or three witnesses that every fact may be established. So if you hear news that the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Bridgewater, South Dakota is having all kinds of trouble, be very careful before you believe it all. Don't believe everything you hear. Don't be ready to believe the worst Just because you've heard it from one or two people. Be very careful. And Paul was very careful. Nevertheless, he says, I do believe it to some extent. Now, why did he believe it to some extent? Well, I would suggest the following reasons. And they come out of the Bible. One of the reasons is that Christ Jesus before he was crucified and then taken to glory, gave a great sermon outside the temple in which he prophesied the future. It's in Matthew 24 and Mark 14 and Luke 21. It's called the great prophetic discourse of Jesus. And in that prophecy, our Lord Jesus warned of this phenomenon. The devil is a great adversary. He never will leave a faithful and true church alone. He will always try to destroy it. And so he will send false prophets. And if possible, he will mislead God's people with false Christs and the like. And so Paul the Apostle knew very well that Satan would do his utmost to cause divisions in the church. And he knew that from the faithful witness, our Lord Jesus Christ. But not only that, we also know from Paul's first letter to Timothy, chapter 3, that the Holy Spirit, in other words, by divine inspiration, had expressly warned him that in the latter days some would depart from the faith. He had been expressly warned, in other words, of this very phenomenon. And we know that it was very much on his mind because in the book of Acts, chapter 20, when he went on from Corinth to Ephesus, He called for the elders of the church of Ephesus, and when they came together, this was the burden of his warning, for he said, you're not going to see my face again. But I know that after my departure, grievous wolves will come in, not sparing the flock. And not only that, he said, but even from among yourselves, men will arise speaking perverse things seeking to draw away disciples after them. So from Christ and also by direct revelation and inspiration of the Spirit, Paul the Apostle knew very well that what he had heard was going on in Corinth was almost certainly true to some extent. And so, he believed it in part. He didn't believe the worst possible scenario, but he did believe it in part. And when you hear testimony from a distant place, from two or three witnesses, and you know that that testimony is confirmed by what the Bible says, infallibly, then you also can begin to believe it. And the reports were that there were schisms among them. Now what are schisms? Well, if you had a shirt and it began to tear, the Greeks would say, ah, there's a little schism there. That's the word. If you had a house built on a stone foundation and one of the stones had a little crack in it, you never saw it before, but this week you saw that little crack in the foundation, they'd call that a schism. Now that schism can be a very small thing to begin with. It may not even be serious. And if you take care of it right away, it may never be very serious. Now you know that's true with the foundation of a house where a crack starts to show up. You know that's even true of a garment. If you repair it right away, you can stop it from getting any worse. But if you don't do anything about a little schism in your garment, you know what's going to happen. It's going to get worse. And you know what happens if there's a little schism, a little crack in the stone of your foundation. You don't do anything about it. You let the weather get in there and so on. It is most certainly going to get worse. That's why around Carson every year they get the old tar out and they go over the streets to keep them from getting worse because the cracks are there and they're trying to keep them from getting any worse. Well, it's the same with the body of Christ. You see, the body of Christ is supposed to be a unity. One Lord. One faith. We all believe the same thing. Supposed to. One baptism, which signifies our union with Christ. One Lord and Father of all. One commander-in-chief, Jesus Christ, whose word is our command. That's what we profess as Christians. And when that unity begins to crack a little, begins to tear a little, and we don't repair it, well then, you have the makings of the destruction of the church. And this was the situation which now had come to exist in the Church of Corinth. Instead of being a beautiful thing, the assembly of God's people in the Church of Corinth was not quite so beautiful anymore. There were cracks. There were tears in the garment of Jesus Christ. And so, when they came together, it was not for the better, but for the worse. And that was a very distressing and depressing fact. Now, if that's all Paul said, we would really be left in the lurch, wouldn't we? We'd say, well, that could happen to us, and then what could we do about it? And we wouldn't even understand the cause of it. Well, what is the cause of this phenomenon in the church? The answer is this. To some extent I believe it because there must also be heresies among you in order that Those that are approved may manifest among you. So the source of schism is heresy. And in the Greek language, the word heresy means a self-chosen opinion. You see, brothers and sisters, We are not supposed to have any self-chosen opinions in the Church of God. Do you realize that? Not a one. What do the Scriptures principally teach? Shorter Catechism. Well, the answer is, the Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, And what duty God requires of man. Now where is there anything that originates from man in that? Nothing. God tells you what to believe. And God tells you what is right and wrong. And that is the whole of the Christian faith. You're not supposed to believe what you want to believe. You're supposed to believe what God tells you to believe. And you're not supposed to do what you want to do. You're supposed to do what God tells you to do. That's what it means when you confess Christ as your Savior and Lord. You know what Lord means? It means boss, king, ruler, supreme authority. So, as Christians, we profess to say, well, Lord, from now on, you tell me what I should believe. And I'll believe it. And Lord, you tell me what is right and wrong, and by your grace I will do it. That's ideally the way it should be in the church of God. That's the way it actually is to a remarkable degree when a church is in a good spiritual state. But you and I both know how there is in every one of us a tendency in another direction. Now, what is that tendency? Is it not to find the things in the Bible that we like and pull them out, as it were, and leave the things that we don't like? In the years that I've been a pastor, I've noticed over and over again this phenomenon in God's people. Now, it can be shown in many different ways. Here's one way. You read the Bible, but you only read certain passages of the Bible that you like. You're doing exactly what we're talking about when you do that. You don't want to get involved in heavy Bible study, because you might run into things you don't like. That's why you don't get involved in heavy Bible study. Don't burden me with things I don't want to hear. No thank you. Well, that's heresy, friends. That's exactly what it is. Self-chosen opinions. So you take out of the Bible things you like, like God is love. Everybody likes that. Well, if you take that out of the Bible and leave the other part that God is also holy, so holy in fact that not one single sin ever committed in the whole universe of God will ever escape punishment. That's an absolutely true statement. And if you don't like that, you see, you can screen that out and just let your grid receive things you like. And the result is heresy. And that is the cause of divisions. Now I could show you how in the history of the church every great heresy that has ever come in to destroy the church really comes from this. How many of you have ever heard of the great Unitarian apostasy in New England? You know, the Pilgrim Fathers that came to this country were reformed Christians like we are. And then came that enormous disaster of Unitarianism in New England. Now, what is the basis of Unitarianism? Well, it is one truth taken out of the Bible, leaving the part you don't like. That's all it is. Unitarianism is, God is one. Well, that's true, isn't it? There's only one God. Well, that's true, isn't it? Sure, that's true. But if that's the only truth you take out of the Bible, you know what you end up doing? You end up saying Jesus Christ is not God, and that's what the Unitarians said. And so they rejected Jesus Christ as the divine Savior. Or again, you can take out of the Bible, can't you, the truth that Jesus Christ is human. Isn't Christ human? To be sure, Christ is human. As the old creeds of the church put it, He is very man, fully man. As our catechism puts it, when Jesus Christ became incarnate, He took unto Himself a true, a real body, flesh and bone body, and a reasonable or thinking soul, same as you have. Fine, well now take that out of the Bible as the whole truth and the only truth and what do you end up? You end up a Jehovah's Witness. And you say Jesus Christ is only a creature, that's all he is, just a man. Liberal theology has gone the same way. Here is another one. Doesn't the Bible say salvation is by grace through faith and through faith alone? Is it not true that we are justified by faith and not by works? Sure that's true. Well, we all like that, don't we? That's a good one. We all like that one. Okay, we'll let that one in. But do you know that the Bible says, without sanctification, no man shall see the Lord? Do you know it says that? Do you know the Bible says, faith without works is dead? Do you know that the Bible says, you are my disciples if you keep my commandments? And if you don't, you're not. A lot of people don't like that, so they screen it right out. And so you have the enormous heresy of antinomianism, which means people live as if there is no law of God that they have to obey. They do what they please. And notably on the Lord's Day, if they don't want to keep the Sabbath holy, they don't. And they think they're Christians, but they're not. Because Christ said, you are my disciples if you keep my commands. And you can't strain that out of the Bible any more than you can the other. Now that is the cause of divisions. When anyone in the church of God takes one aspect of the truth that he likes and makes that his theology, Then you have heresy. You have self-chosen opinion. And that is what causes the tear to start to show in the garment. That is what brings a crack in the foundation. And if nothing is done about it, it gets worse. And then when the congregation comes together, it's not for the better, it's for the worse. Now that's one reason why I personally am very thankful to be a part of a confessional church. You know what a confessional church is, don't you? It's a church that has a creed, a confession, that has been transmitted through the ages of the history of God's church on earth. Because we're not the first people that ever read the Bible. We're not the first people that ever confessed faith in Christ. And what are the great creeds of the Christian Church? They are the corporate testimony of the Body of Christ. We believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord, and so on. And one of the greatest of all the confessions is the Reformation confession that we have right here in our Trinity Hymnal, the Westminster Confession of Faith. And one of the things that that confession helps to protect us against is our own one-sidedness. And one of the things that the shorter and larger catechism help to protect us against is our own one-sidedness. If you study the Shorter Catechism, I guarantee you there are going to be things there you like, and there will be things there you don't like. And all I can say about the things you don't like is too bad for you. You're going to have to change. You're going to have to change, you see. That's what God's whole program is all about, changing people. And if you don't want to be changed, well, you don't want to be a part of His Kingdom. It's as simple as that. You don't want to be changed, you sure don't want to be a part of the Kingdom of Heaven, because the Kingdom of Heaven is only going to be composed of changed people. And if you're not going to be one of them, well, all I can say for you is, too bad. But all the same, Divisions are a sad thing in the church, aren't they? And they harm the church, the body of Christ. When there's really not that deep down spiritual unity, it harms the body of Christ. And you wonder sometimes, why does God allow it? If there's anything that church history teaches is that it happens over and over and over again. Our church came into existence 50 years ago, and we already have some cracks in the foundation. Just 50 years. And you go through the history of the church, you see it over and over and over again. Starts out with glorious unity and then pretty soon the cracks start to show. Now why does God allow that? Why does God permit that? Well, notice our text says, and I'm giving you now a literal translation, for there must also be heresies among you." That's literally the Greek. There must also be, now that's a strong statement. It's like the statement of Christ who said, it must needs be that offenses come, but woe be unto that man through whom the offenses come. What's he talking about? Well, he's talking about Judas. And he's saying there has to be a Judas. That's part of God's plan and program. And was there a Judas in God's plan and program? Oh yes, for Christ knew from the beginning, says the Bible, who would betray him. Was Judas' career predestined by God? Not a doubt in the world about that. It says so right in the Bible. For it says that these things which were done, God had foreordained to be done, in the book of Acts chapter 4. Certainly, and that is a mystery that we can't fathom completely, how God, the Holy God, can foreordain and predestine evil things without himself in any way being a part of the evil. But that's true, you know that's true. If you know anything at all about the Christian faith, you know that's true because from the foundation of the world, God planned the death of his son for sinners, didn't he? The Lamb of God, says the book of Revelation, was slain from before the foundation of the world in the mind of God. That was God's plan. And that's the greatest evil that ever took place. and became the instrument of the greatest good in the universe. The most horrible crime ever committed was the means that God used to destroy the very devil himself and all his works. Now that's an amazing thing. But it teaches us that God does ordain things that are not good, and yet he ordains them for good. Killing Christ was not good. God ordained it, though, for good. And there lies the whole difference. Well, God also ordains divisions in the church for good. The divisions aren't good, but they are for good. And what is the good that they are for? Well, the answer is this. to show which of you have God's approval. So that out of this division problem, God will show who has His approval. Now if you know anything about the history of our church fifty years ago, When Professor Machen was battling for the Bible in the Presbyterian Church USA, you'll know that the division was there in the Church for a long time before it came to the point of division of the Church. And did any good come out of that? Oh yes, it certainly did. Because it made perfectly clear, as clear as the noonday sun, who loved the Bible and who didn't. Who loved God's word and who didn't. And whenever there are divisions in the church, that's what always happens. It brings into open manifestation who loves God and who doesn't. Now there are already little divisions right here. In this church, I've learned that in a year and a half. And I'm going to speak bluntly today because I think you need to hear the truth. I believe that in this congregation there are some who love the Bible and some who don't really love it. Some who are hungering and thirsting to hear it and some who aren't. Some you can't keep away from God's house, and some you can't hardly get to God's house, and they're part of the same congregation. Now, if that isn't division, you tell me what is. I would love with all my heart to preach to a whole congregation hungering and thirsting to hear the Word, but I know that is not the way it is. That's sad, but God also uses that for good, because He makes manifest who has His approval. And I'll tell you who has His approval. It's those who honor the Sabbath day, and faithfully come to His house, and love to hear the Word. They are the ones who have His approval. And that is a good thing in the church. When the division is there, let's see it. The better we see it, the better it is. And then, by the grace of God, we can try to do something about it. And the number one thing that we should do about it is to speak the truth and love across the lines of that division. so that those who do not have his approval are warned, made aware of their perilous spiritual state, and called back to faithfulness to Jesus Christ. Now I just ask every one of you today this simple question. Is what I said true or isn't it? Is there division? If there is, on what side of the division are you? Are you one of the ones that loves the Bible? Are you studying it every day? Not only the passages you like, but also the passages you don't like? And are you faithfully coming to God's house to hear the Word? Or are you really following your own self-chosen opinion? For sure it's one of the two. Which is it? And what are you going to do about it if you're on the wrong side of that schism? Well, there's an awful lot that Paul's going to go on to tell us in this passage about the problems in Corinth. But here at the beginning, he gives us the fundamental diagnosis And if you want to understand our problem as a church here in Carson, here is the place to grasp it. There are many details you can go into, but here is the principal thing. There are divisions. And because there are, it may even be that our meetings do more harm than good in some instances. And if that's the case, we need to do something about it. I plead with you then to search your own heart before God, that we might together, as a body of Christ, strive to overcome our divisions. Amen. Let us pray. We thank you today, dear Father, for Paul's faithful ministry, how it must have hurt him to say this to a young church that he had founded not so long before. in Corinth. And we thank you that he spoke the truth in love. And we thank you too that people in Corinth took to heart his words. And we thank you, Lord, that your word is still powerful and mighty. O Lord, bless your word to our hearts. and grant through the mighty power of your Holy Spirit, attesting your word, applying it to our hearts, to our consciences and lives, that we ourselves may be changed by it after the image of Jesus. In his dear name we pray. Amen.