1 Corinthians 1. Today we'll read verses 1 through 3 as our text. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, and them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. As I considered about what to preach this morning and what to bring this morning, My mind was a lot of different places, but I ended up just going with, just sticking to the plan, just sticking to the plan. You know, a couple of weeks ago, I had started a series on 1 Corinthians, just kind of an introduction. As I read and considered and meditated over this first portion of Paul's epistle to the church of Corinth. There's a lot here that, uh, that, that is good and comforting even, uh, to consider this morning. Even though we are separated by some 2,000 years, there's much even in these first few verses that we can unpack and glean from and benefit from. All scripture is truly profitable. So as we begin with this exposition of 1 Corinthians here in these first three verses, He starts it out with his name, Paul. Letters in those days aren't like letters in our day. We sign our names at the end. They started with their name at the beginning. And Paul is a familiar writer to us as we've journeyed through different passages of scripture. Not only me, but other preachers have been here before. And you who have read through your New Testament, you're very familiar with Paul. We've gone together through the book of Acts. We finished that up some time ago, but we're currently going through Galatians on Wednesday night. Paul is one of those, men from the New Testament that if you miss him, as you read through the New Testament, you weren't paying attention. He's not the main character of the New Testament, but he certainly is somebody. The main character, the main focus of the New Testament is Jesus. But Paul is definitely somebody in the story. The Lord used him in some great ways during the early days of church history, and certainly we're thankful for that. We're thankful for brother Paul. As I often do, I think about sometimes, you know, those questions. If you could sit down and have dinner with anybody from history, who would it be? Well, Paul ranks up there pretty high in my list. If you could go and visit the places of history, where do you want to go? Well, going to Places where Paul went is pretty high on my list. I would love to journey through Athens and Corinth and go through Galatia and some of those places. There's some hero of the faith. Paul's up there pretty high. We're thankful for Brother Paul. And I like how he starts this out as he's writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And he says, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. All the glory, all the praise goes to God. He doesn't start out with some great elaborate introduction of who he is. Very, very simple. In fact, the church at Corinth knew very well who he was. As a matter of fact, as you continue reading, it's very, very, very clear Verse 12, it says, now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. He says, 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, but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name. And so this church was very familiar with Paul. They were actually in a divisive sort of way. In fact, as they were throwing mud at each other and and all of that sort of thing, and being divided. Paul's name was coming up. Some were saying, I'm of Paul. Some were saying, I'm of Peter and Apollos. Paul doesn't say, well, you know, I understand why you'd want to follow me. That Peter guy, I'm not so sure about. And Apollos, no, no, he doesn't say all that. He says, who is Paul? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? You see, he sets the record straight, very humble, understanding that he himself was just a man. If you go back to Acts chapter 18, we see We can kind of catch a glimpse too of how he had worked with them in Acts chapter 18, beginning of verse one and going down to verse 17. After these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth. and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because the Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he bowed with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean from henceforth. I will go into the Gentiles. He departed thence and entered into a certain man's house. named justice, one that worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace, for I'm with thee and no man shall sit on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. And he continued there, a year and six months. So Paul was there for a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. When Galileo, was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, brought him to the judgment seat, saying, this fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. When Paul was now about to open his mouth, Galileo said unto the Jews, if it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. But if it be a question of words and names of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge of such matters.' And he drove them from the judgment seat. Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. Galio cared for none of those things. So we get a clear picture here of what Paul was doing amongst them. He spent a year and six months with them. They believed, they were baptized. Essentially, a church was started there. This is the church that Paul is writing to in 1 Corinthians. Paul is writing this letter to them. Some time has passed. He's writing actually from Ephesus to that church at Corinth. You'll notice, beloved, that as I read there in Acts chapter 18, you'll notice That Paul's not the only name mentioned in Acts 18, Luke records another name. The Greeks, verse 17, the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue and beat him before the judgment seat. Sostenese. That is the other name that is mentioned in our text there. Now, Sostenese. Oops, let's see here. Get to the right page here in my notes. Sosthenes, as Luke records it, he was the chief ruler of the synagogue. That would have been, that would have been actually, one of the leaders there of the synagogue. But by the time that Paul writes his letter to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians chapter one, he says, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sosthenes, not the chief ruler of the synagogue. He says, Sosthenes, our brother. We rejoice over the salvation of Saul of Tarsus, and that is a big deal in the New Testament. to see how the Lord worked in the life of Saul and in Paul's life and what he became, but let us not forget that the Lord works in other people's lives as well. And while it may not be as dramatic as what we read about when we read about Paul's conversion, It's all important, it's all important. And it ought to make our hearts rejoice when we see the changes that happen in a person's life. Sosonese thought he was somebody. Chief ruler of the synagogue. there in Corinth. But he was really nobody without the Lord. Now, it appears that Sosthenes was probably Paul's secretary. He was there with Paul as he wrote this letter, but Ultimately, the best part of it all is that Sosthenes is our brother. Sosthenes is our brother. Our brother in Christ. These are the only two passages that I was able to find about Sosthenes, but oh, I'm thankful. for men and women who are saved. I'm thankful for the work they do, even if it is kind of in the background, even if it is kind of not so out there, not everybody's gonna be a Paul. Not everybody's gonna be so prominent in the work of the Lord like Paul was, but I'm thankful. that Sosthenes is mentioned in this letter. I'm thankful that Paul does this very often as he wrote under the inspiration of the Spirit. He mentions people that otherwise we wouldn't know or know what happened to them. I'm thankful that he's there as our brother. You and I, we've known people in our lives. Some close, maybe some not so close. We've known them as friends. We've known them as coworkers. We've known them as children. We've known them as maybe parents, bosses, employers, whatever it may be. But oh, what a joy it is to know. when they become our brother, when they are our sister, when they are in the family of God. Because whatever our relationships are here in this world, those things are great, but how much better they are when we have that relationship with Christ. I think about my dad. I think about the funeral that we just had. Funerals are hard. They're so much easier knowing when we know he's our brother. He's our brother. Life is so much easier when we know he's our brother. He's my brother. Sosthenes, our brother, those three words meant so much, no doubt, to the readers there at Corinth. You know, there may have been people there that said, wonder what happened to Sosthenes? I remember him. Someone may have read this letter and said, oh, Sosthenes, I remember that guy. I haven't seen him in a long while. He's working with Paul? I don't know that for sure, but, you know, you think about things like that. What joy that must have brought to their hearts, and what joy it must bring to our hearts. When we hear of a childhood friend or a co-worker, and we haven't seen them for a long while, and then we see them, or we hear about them, and we find out they've been saved. It ought to bring great joy to our hearts. Verse two, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. This letter is not a general epistle, meaning that it was written to God's people everywhere. This was written primarily to a specific church in a specific place. It was written to the church at Corinth. So as we read this, we can't lose sight of that. It was initially a letter that was written to the church at Corinth. And that's normally how that Greek word, ekklesia, is translated, a church in a specific place, a group, a called out group, group, an assembly there at Corinth. Just like we understand there's a church that assembles here, so it is, so it was there. There was a church that assembled at Corinth. But he didn't just call it a church, did he? He called it the Church of God, which is at Corinth. Now, this isn't some denominational name. In our day, there are denominational names that have the Church of God within them. There are churches that take that and put that over their sign, over their door. That may or may not be true. But what was Paul meaning here in the original context? He says, he's meaning that this church belongs to God. This is God's church. Many times in your Bibles is this phrase used. It's used that way in the King James Church of God. Same thing in the Legacy Standard Bible. Twice it's used in the letters of 1st and 2nd Corinthians. So he addresses them as the Church of God. Twice, now, this is important, right away that we understand he addresses them as the church of God. The church at Corinth, as we go through this, and you who've read your Bibles, you know that church had drifted away on some things. They were in a mess. Now in our day, If a church gets to be in such a mess, we get people who say, well, there's no way that church over there can be a real church. Be careful about that. Be careful about that. Now, there are some churches out there who aren't real churches. In fact, there are three categories of churches, I believe. I believe that there are still churches of God that still exist, the Lord's churches. I believe they've existed throughout all time since the beginning when Jesus organized, started his church during his earthly ministry and continued on the last 2000 years. I believe that he's always had churches that have existed. But then there's other churches. There are imitations. Satan is out there. I believe there are some churches which are satanic churches. Satan is a deceiver, he has his own missionaries, he has his own churches, and then he has his own preachers. There are churches out there which promote false gospels and deceive many. But that's not all. There are some man-made churches as well. The Church of Corinth was a church of the Lord, a church of God. And even though she was going through a tough time, there were some things that they had done wrong, very wrong. Paul was writing to correct some of that in this epistle. And to address some of those issues, she was still the Church of God. It is not up to you, me, or some Pope or some council, some group of preachers, no matter how prominent they may be, to declare whether a true church is no longer a true church. We're not out to remove candlesticks and all of that sort of thing. That's language that's reserved for the Lord Jesus Christ only. We see the other times that this phrase is used, this church of God phrase is used is in places like Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20 and verse 28. He told the elders there at, At Ephesus, or the Ephesian elders, as he met them, he said, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. Again, in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, So we call it the church at Ephesus, the church of God. Then 1 Corinthians 10, verse 32. Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God. Chapter 11 in verse 22. What, have you not houses to eat and to drink in, or despise ye the church of God? Shame them that have not. What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. Now chapter 15 and verse nine. For I am the least of the apostles, that I am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. Spoken about how he persecuted the church of Jerusalem, the church of God. Galatians chapter one, Galatians chapter one, verse 13. For you have heard of my conversation, my, my conduct, my way of living in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. How that he tried to destroy the church. He said, you've heard about that. How that I persecuted the church of God. And then lastly, in 1 Timothy chapter three, verse five, qualifications for the overseer or the bishop here. He says, for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? So I enjoy doing word studies and connecting these dots and say, all right, when is this phrase used, this church of God phraseology? But did you catch something else here? I was pretty intrigued by this as well. You know, when we talked about inspiration and how that God gave the scriptures, I said he used men. and how that their writing styles were different. You can tell Paul's writing different than Peter's and so on. This phrase, church of God, this expression is something that's peculiar to Paul. Peter doesn't use it. John doesn't use it. Paul uses it. He writes under inspiration of spirit. I believe it's a good term. You know, he's expressing in all of these, in all of these times that this is, that the church belongs to God. It's not Timothy's church. It's not Peter's church. It's not Paul's church. It's the church of God. And so it is here. This isn't David Green's church. It's not Reggie Moore's church. It's not your church either. It's the church of God. He's given us his word. He's given us his word. He's given us his church. And so we thank him for it. And then as he continues on in the introduction there in 1 Corinthians chapter one, he says, to them who are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints. What does he mean here? Well, he's describing what it means to be a church member. Churches are made up of regenerate, born-again believers, sanctified in Christ Jesus, not sanctified in the keeping of the law, not sanctified in the baptism or the addition of the whatever else. In fact, we talked about this some in our studies in Galatians there in Galatians three verses one through three. He says there, Oh foolish Galatians who have bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you. This only what I learned of you received you the spirit by the works of the law. or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? The law doesn't justify, nor does it sanctify. Paul is bearing that out clearly to the churches of Galatia, but also in the letter to the church at Corinth when he says, sanctified in Christ Jesus. It's not about circumcision or uncircumcision. You know, it's not about the keeping of the law and all of those sorts of things. Not about And I don't want to be reckless with my words, but it's not about the clothes you wear or the number of times you read your Bible or you pray or whatever. All of those things are important. Don't get me wrong. I saw a picture on Facebook. And it must have been a pretty large church. It was in the back of the church. So if you imagine, we had a bulletin board back there on the right side. We used to have one at King's Edition. It was pretty neat. We used to hang stuff up there, different themes, pictures. sometimes mission reports and stuff like that. At this particular church, I don't know where it was at or what was going on there, but it had Malachi, will the man rob God, and it had non-tithers this month. And they had a list, pretty big list as a matter of fact. That's why I say I think it was a big church because their list of non-tithers was bigger than our church. That's legalism. Is tithing, giving to the church, is it important that that happens? Well, yes, absolutely. These lights don't turn themselves on. You know, I'm thankful for the air conditioner in the summer and the heat in the winter. You know, we don't have bake sales and all that to try to raise money for the church. And certainly I'm thankful for the support that I get because that gives me time to be able to study and things like that so I don't have to work a bunch of overtime. But what am I getting at? What I'm getting at is that Paul is not giving us a list of things in which to say, well, sanctified by attending this and doing this and having this work and that work. He says sanctified. in Christ Jesus called to be saints. Everybody in that church was on an equal field. And the reality is we didn't become a Christian by the natural birth, it's through the spiritual birth. The flesh will not get us into faith and it won't keep us into faith. And if we focus on the outward, the works of the flesh, we've missed the whole point. And in fact, we'll go train wreck on this thing. And indeed, church becomes a list of rules, regulations, all of that. We become no better than the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Judaizers. as terrible as it sounds, they were more interested in whether or not you've been circumcised than whether or not you were actually in the faith. They weren't interested in your heart. They were interested in the outward appearance. You see, we have responsibilities, yes. We're saved by grace and we'll be kept by grace. Philippians chapter one in verse six. Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. We're sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. The church is set apart, separated from the heathen around them. That church of Corinth, they lived in a terrible society. So do we. For such a privilege as this, they were called. It wasn't some action that came about. because they were great, because they were such good tithers, or because they dressed just this perfect way, or because, because they, because their Facebook was in such a good way about them and all. Of course, they didn't have Facebook, but if they would have, I'm sure there would have been a Judaizer that would have been out inspecting that too. 2 Timothy chapter one and verse nine. who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. You see, saved us, called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace. given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Praise God. It's not about us. It's all of Christ. And that's what he's giving here in this introduction, which if we're not careful, we just breeze through it. This is just the introduction. It's deep and it's so deep. But I must move on in verse three. Oh, sorry. First of all, finishing up verse two, I can't miss this. With all that in every place called upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. Paul had an attachment, not only to the church of Corinth, but to other churches as well. And he expected that this letter would be circulated, not only to the Church of Corinth, to the membership there, but also to other churches as well. And indeed, it's been copied, transcribed, translated countless times to be circulated among the people of God and other churches of God all the way until we are here today. Papuaville, Hortense, Georgia, some 2000 years later, and reading it in a language that it wasn't even originally written. Relevant to us? Absolutely. Absolutely. Still is. Still is. Because as we go through this, we'll find the same thing we found in the other epistles, and that is this. Times may change, but God doesn't. Times may change, but God's people don't. And we find this is not an ancient book. As someone said, this is an eternal book. And we thank God for it. He says, grace be to you in peace. These words are the ordinary apostolic benediction. Paul uses them at the beginning of all his epistles, including mercy in the pastoral epistles. He employs grace at the close of all of them. Grace, of course, is unmerited favor, the favor of God toward man. Newton called it amazing. Certainly it is. We don't deserve it. The second word, peace. Translation of the Hebrew, the salutation, shalom, just the general meaning, welfare, prosperity. Whether it's to be taken in this broad sense or in the more limited sense, peace of the Greek word is debatable, but however way you take it, understand this, he says, grace be to you and peace from God our Father, from the Lord Jesus Christ. Where does grace and peace come from? Ultimately from God our Father, immediately from Jesus Christ. If it were not for the work of our great God, we wouldn't have grace or peace. And ultimately it comes down to this, as I bring this to a close, do you know Jesus? If you do, then you know peace, you know grace. But if you don't, there'll be no peace and there'll be no grace. What do we find in this introduction? Paul isn't writing to brag about himself, but all the glory, the honor, and the praise goes to our God. He is boasting, and not in himself, but in Jesus Christ. May it be that with us in our lives. even in the letters that we write, the things that we do, places we go, people we have contact with. May others see Jesus in us, our words as well as our deeds. May God add a blessing to the preaching of his word.