morning is Ephesians chapter 4. If you'd like to follow along as I read Ephesians chapter 4. We're going to continue in our new series on 1 Corinthians, but you'll see the connection here as we proceed through that in a few minutes. Ephesians chapter 4. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There's one body and one spirit. Just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower regions of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ. from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." Well, if you'd like to learn a little bit more about what all this ascending and descending and so forth is about, we're into chapter four now in our study of Ephesians that is always online by Wednesday morning if you're following along with that or if you would like to follow along. Let's come then to our series here, part two of of First Corinthians. I tweaked the title a little bit as I studied through it some more, looked at the content overall in the chapters here. And I think a more appropriate title than the one that was on your handout last time is the one we're going to go with here is One Lord, One Faith, and One Baptism. That really sums up this entire And as we proceed through it, you will see why. So I wanted to make, well, a kind of announcement and a kind of a mini-sermon here. So here we go. I have been reading, I think I've told most of you, I've been reading a few of Ann Rule's true crime books, stories, novels. They're not really novels because they're true. And they're a real education. I'm rereading one that I read quite some time ago. It's called Dead by Sunset. If you drive over the hill here and go on into Portland on the Sunset Highway, you come down near the area of Sylvan and the zoo exit, those kind of things, and you'll see an exit for 72nd, 72nd Street exit. Well, right there is where in 1986 a lady was murdered and they, let's see, Cheryl Keaton was her name. She was only 36 years old, I think it was, and she was an attorney, but her soon-to-be ex-husband murdered her and dumped her in her car. He used a club on her head and it was, It was ghastly and vicious. And he, they were about to start divorce proceedings, custody of the kids and all this stuff. And he put her in the car behind the, her car behind the wheel and then let it coast on broadside across the eastbound lanes of the Sunset Highway. And it was night time, he didn't care, he wanted somebody else to come around the corner and smash into her and sort of make it look like she was killed in a car wreck and so forth. But fortunately another fella came along and saw her in time, got the car over and they recognized quickly that it was just a little fender bender ding on her van. There's no way that that accident traffic could explain the serious, serious injuries that killed her. The guy that killed her was Brad Cunningham. He's still in Salem right now serving a life without parole sentence. If you want an education about evil and how it works in this whole arena, in this case, well, in a lot of ways, but especially in marriage, read that one. Now, largely here, I'm talking to you young people in the back, all right? You got to wise up because we're living in evil days. This lady, Cheryl, that got murdered, she fell head over heels in love with him. He was a psychopath. Psychopaths have the ability to charm. I think Satan is, like, in them, empowering them, whatever. But, I mean, she was an intelligent, sharp attorney, and she fell for him head over heels. After he killed her, he, in fact, he'd already begun, he cast his spell upon a brilliant anesthesiologist lady over at Providence Hospital. and the misery that she went through. They didn't even check. They were so smitten with him, they didn't even check into his background when they married him, had kids with him. Well, he'd been married four times before, and he had a whole history of two of the previous wives were already in hiding for fear that he would kill them. So why am I talking about this? These are evil days. If you violate God's law, then you are setting yourself up for the, in each of these cases, these ladies that were smitten by this guy yielded to pressure to start entering into sexual, immoral relations with him. And they were hooked. That was it. and that pressure is going to come at you. It's going to come at you and in a moment like that, if you don't obey the Lord, your whole life can be out the window that fast. Now, listen to this. This is really interesting to me that John Bunyan, so long ago, and we're going to be reading this book here before too long together, The Life and Death of Mr. Badman. John Bunyan knew about these guys. And in this particular chapter here, I'll just read you a few paragraphs about Mr. Badman. Well, there's lots of these kind of people around. And for men, some of these people are women. That's what Proverbs opens up talking about, right? But listen to this. He, that is, Mr. Badman, was looking for a rich wife. And now I've come to some more of how he invented and devised and planned a detestable deceit which will affirm him to be a most desperate and wicked sinner. The thing was this. He wanted a wife. But what he really wanted was money because as for a woman, he could have his prostitutes, right? And that was another one of his evils. But all he had to do was whistle, they'd come to his bidding. But as I said, he wanted money and decided he must get it through a wife or no way at all. He didn't want to work for it. He couldn't easily get a wife either. Unless he became an artist in deceit and he couldn't successfully deceive people who could put on an act as well as he could, now see what he's saying there is he would have more trouble deceiving a wicked woman where he's going to succeed in deceiving a rich woman, is he decides, I will find a young woman, and there's one that lives near me who is godly, and she's also wealthy. But how to get her? This would take all of his cunning. And so he called together a council of his evil friends, sly companions, shared his thoughts and motives with them, that he decided to marry. He also told them to whom. But he said, how will I accomplish my goal? She is religious, and I'm not. And what they tell him, and what he does is, you've got to be a fake Christian. And that's what he does. And he deceives her, and she marries him, and her life is ruined. So there you go. Beware. Beware. We live in evil days and the world is saying, sexually and so forth, anything goes. I mean, that's what's all happening around us and so forth. In fact, one of the girls, she was only 17 and he was like 28 when he hooked her. And she was just smitten. Actually, he wasn't that much older. He was like 19. He had just graduated from high school. So she knew that he was the all-star athlete, and everybody, oh, look at Brad, yeah, and all the girls oohing and aahing over him. And then some of her friends came to her, because he had asked this girl out on a date, and they said, Now, you know the one thing about him. You're very fortunate, but the one thing about him, you know, and everybody knows it, is you're going to have to go to bed with him if you go on a date with him. That's just a given. And she's like, oh, OK. And she's still smitten. And well, I could go on and on. Read the book. Read the book, Dead by Sunset. There it is. We've had young people in this church, numerous ones, do just exactly that, the same thing. Go off and marry a worldling, fall for it, and there you are. Don't do it. Ben Warren, obey God's law, obey God's word. Let's recite together the Apostles' Creed again. It's there in your handout. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day, he rose from the dead. he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there, he shall come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, my communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting, amen. Father, we ask your blessing on your word now as we come to Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. We pray that your spirit would teach us and help us to understand these truths and grow in grace. And we pray this all in the Lord Jesus' name, amen. This then is the word of God. I've printed it out here for you. The first nine verses, here's the introductory part of Paul's letter. And you can follow along as I read these words and kind of just discipline yourself to recognize now we turn to God's word. This is God's word, all right? And we are to believe it and receive it then as such. Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother, to the Church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling. With all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you're not lacking in any gift awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end. blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, just by way of a bit of a review, we looked at some introductory matters about this letter last time. John Calvin does the same. Let's hear from him and just refresh our thoughts about about who these Corinthians were and where they were at and so forth. Calvin says Corinth, as everyone knows, was a wealthy city, a wealthy and celebrated city of Achaia. Now, Achaia is a region of Greece, all right? That's where they were. It was in a very strategic position, situated for imports and exports between the Ionian and Aegean seas. In other words, it had two harbors. And by the one, the Aegean side, they could ship to Asia. And by the other side, the Ionian side, they could go to the west, to Italy. So that tells you a lot about this place and why it was so prosperous. Paul had been in Corinth teaching them for 18 months. But after he left, false apostles had crept in. And you can see those false apostles addressed particularly in 2 Corinthians. They prided themselves in the splendor and magnificence of their oratory. Classic Greek stuff, right? Being puffed up with an empty loftiness of speech. They looked upon Paul's simplicity. We'll see that at the beginning of chapter two. And even the gospel itself. They started to look at it with contempt. By their ambitions, they gave occasion for the church to be split into various parties, and they made it their aim to promote their own honor rather than Christ's kingdom and the people's welfare. And remember, we heard from Gordon Fee last time in a quote that said he believes that the fundamental thing that was happening at Corinth was that All of these other things were symptoms of was that the people at Corinth had been turned against and were alienated from their founder, the Apostle Paul himself. That was the fun. It's Paul that they're rejecting, and thus God's word. Vices prevailed at Corinth. Luxury, pride, vanity, effeminacy, covetousness, and these found their way into the church itself. Purity of doctrine had already begun to decline, so that the main article of religion, that is, the resurrection of the dead, was called into question. Paul will say, how does some of you say there's no resurrection of the dead? If there's no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ is raised. We're still dead in our sins. In spite of all this, in spite of all these troubles, The Corinthian believers grew quite satisfied with themselves, as though everything were on solid footing. Such are Satan's devices. If he cannot entirely alienate men's minds from the gospel, he leads them, little by little, to deviate from it. There's with that last line, that is so typical. How is it that denominations of churches and seminaries that were once solid and sound are this pathetic, liberal, gospel-denying monstrosity now? Well, Satan started to lead them little by little by little. They changed. That's why Paul is so powerful in his denunciation of false teachers in Galatians chapter 1. If anyone preaches another gospel, let him be damned by God, right? That's how we have to stand. Now Paul, very typically, when he's going to write one of his letters, his epistles, he very often, and if you'll watch for this, it'll help you a lot. identifies his major theme or themes right in the opening words of the letter. And that's what we have here as we're going to see, specifically, holiness and unity. Holiness and unity. Even in the first couple of chapters, we see, as Calvin already noted here, that Corinth was a church that was suffering from Conformity to the world. Conformity to the world around it, in its practice and its thinking. Conformity in the sense of pride. There was a key word, pride. This root of sin. They were seeking a deeper wisdom. Paul's going to show them that you've got everything you need in Christ, all the wisdom that you need in Christ. Seek wisdom there. You know the Greeks, remember how Paul said when he went to Athens that these various Epicurean philosophers, they did nothing every day except trying to come across something new. That's academia by the way of our day, trying to come up with something new. Of course, the newness is a distortion of the old, more often than not. But they created various schools of thought, because that's what the philosophers did, rather than seeing the unity of Christ and his church. And they rated the apostles, I am of Apollos, I am of Paul, I am of Cephas, and so forth, by the world's criteria. Oh, I follow him, because we like the nuances that we see in him. Well, Paul is setting out then in this letter to show them how foolish they are, and he's showing them the greatness of their salvation in Christ and who they were as a result. They were sanctified. They were saints by calling. They were in need of nothing more than Christ. They had it all. Why are you going to these separate, worldly sources, and so on. You've got it all in Christ. Here's Gordon Fee again here. This is a good introductory comment as well. They are also called to be holy, as we are. This term, called and holy, has its origins in Exodus 19, where the people of God are called His holy people. Remember? You shall be holy, for I am holy. I'm making you a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. This is another Old Testament term, holy people, for Israel, especially Israel is God's elect. The best translation is God's holy people. You Corinthians, you are called to be God's holy people. The Corinthian believers, are God's new people by divine calling, just as Paul was an apostle by divine calling. And as such, they are to reflect God's character. One might note in passing that this is not their strong suit, to be holy and reflect God's character. In too many ways, the Corinthians look far more like Corinth. than they look like God's holy people who happen to be in Corinth, you see. And that's an excellent observation. That's the exact situation that we find ourselves in today. How many professing Christians and local churches look more like the world rather than looking like God's holy people who happen to be in the world. And this calls for much self-examination for ourselves. Well, let's talk about the saints and the members of the church universal. Verse two, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. Now, one little note here before we look at the church universal here, and that is, isn't it interesting, as we have already seen a kind of a summary, an overview, of all the troubles, the sin, the division, the toleration of sexual immorality, some who were denying the resurrection and They were going to court and suing one another, all kinds of problems there and sin in the church. Isn't it interesting that Paul addresses them as saints, and he addresses them to the Church of God, which is in Corinth? And you would think, you know, Calvin noticed this. He said, I mean, is it even a church? practicing church discipline, apparently. Paul's going to have to get on him for that in Chapter 5. Can you even call that thing a church? Now, what Calvin concluded was that because they were still observing the Lord's Supper, but there again in Chapter 11, there was all kinds of problems with sin in their observation of the Lord's Supper. But Calvin says that Because Paul addresses them as the church of God, this tells us that as fouled up as it was, God still had his remnant there. And furthermore, if people in the church who profess to be Christians, if in fact they were Christians, then when Paul gets done with them, they are going to repent. All right? You'll see it. So he's being gracious here to them. He's still addressing them as saints. He's still telling that they've been sanctified and called out of the world by God's powerful word. And he's addressing them as the Church of God. And time will tell if they really were then. or not. Well, they're called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. So what you've got here is you have Paul's major themes. And I'd say there's two major themes mentioned, addressed right here in this one verse. They are found in his phrases. called to be saints, and together with all who call upon the name of the Lord." Called to be saints, what's that? Holiness, all right? There's that issue. They weren't living as holy ones. You know, that's where we get the word saint. Hagioi. All that word, it means holy or holy ones, right? So you guys are holy ones. aren't acting like it. And then also, this whole matter of there was all this division in the church, but he's reminding them here of there's another fundamental thing you guys need to get a hold of, unity in Christ, the church universal. We just recited the Apostles' Creed. We said that we believe in one holy, Catholic, or universal church, one, and the communion of the saints. So that our brothers and sisters in Christ that are following us online and everyone that's in Christ here, we are one in every place who call upon the name of the Lord. You see, there's unity. But these things were not being lived out very well in Corinth, in the church at Corinth. Holiness. and unity. So the world was in the church. Like somebody has said, a ship has to be in the water. But the water can't get into the ship. If it does, there's big trouble. Well, there was a whole lot of water, the world, in the church at Corinth. And Paul's letter is an attempt to pump it out and get this thing floating then again. Sanctified, saints by calling. This calling thing, doctrine, is a very important one. We talked about it in the study, in our Ephesian study. What does it mean? A Christian is a saint by calling. Sanctified. Sanctified, saint, that same haggios root. Holy, the idea of holy. Called out of the world. Why is it termed calling, or why is a Christian a person who has been called? What does that mean? Well, it means that the powerful, creative word of God, in the form of the gospel, has come to us, come to his elect, God's appointed time and called us out of darkness into light. And it's not an invitation. God's word, when God saves us, when God saves us, when we're born again, it's an act of creation. It's God's creative word. So that at some point, Some people can pin it down better than others and so on, but at some point, if you're a Christian, if you've really been born again, there was a time when God's word came to you, you heard the gospel, and it came to you in his creative power. It's like Jesus, John 10, the good shepherd, come, follow me. He went up to James and John, and was it Philip and Andrew? Anyway, they're fishermen, right? And he did it a couple of times. And here they were with their father and the boats and mending the nets and the business and all this stuff. And here comes Jesus walking along. And he said, you, come and follow me. I'll make you fishers of men. And then this incredible thing. And they did it. They got up and they followed him. And it's his word of power. In that moment, when he says, come and follow me, he calls us out of darkness and into light. And he makes us, in a flash, a new creation. And Paul's reminding the Corinthians of this. You are called out of darkness into light. Don't live like the darkness anymore. That's not who you are at all. You know, the I, the letter I in tulip, it's irresistible grace. And that is that when God calls one of his elect out of darkness into light and saves them, it's irresistible. They're coming. Forget this business of free will. If it was a free will issue, nobody would ever come. But in that powerful call to come and follow him, he works faith in us so that, I think the Confessions of Faith put it something like that, so that we We freely come. We freely choose. And it's at that moment that, for the first time in our lives, we've been truly free. And we follow him. Now, the Corinthians had yielded to the pressure of the world that was around them, being conformed to the world in so many ways. Why was this? Well, they were deceived, but also it was a matter of yielding to the pressure that was in the world around. So we have to decide as Christians, we have to exercise our faith that God's given us, follow him, believe his word, obey him, and recognize that in doing so, I am not going to be popular with the world. I'm going to be hated by the world. Jesus said so. This unholy world does not like a holy people. It doesn't like them. And you're seen as a troublemaker. in an unholy and fallen world. If we're going to follow Christ, he calls us. We follow him. Corinthians, you've got to stop being conformed to the world. You've got to be who you are. Yes, the world's going to call you a fool. The world's going to call you a fool. But you follow Christ, because that is where real wisdom then is. You know, one of the biggest, you've heard me say this many times before, but I say it many times because the Bible says it many times. One of the biggest obstacles to following Christ is family. That is the biggest, I mean, so many people, when it comes right down to it, they hear the gospel, maybe they'll profess to be a Christian, But it's always the idol of family. And Jesus said, if you're not willing to be hated by father, mother, sister, and brother, come and follow me. I won't have you. You cannot be my disciple, you see. And so lots of costs to following Christ. Well, don't miss this part then. With all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. The body of Christ is one. Paul will go on to really drive home this truth and its importance. And he's going to admonish the Corinthians. He's going to admonish them. Because a report has come to him. I've received a report from Chloe's household that there's divisions among you. And in part, I believe this. Some of you are saying, I'm of Apollos, and I am of Paul, and so on. And down they went. And so he's teaching them here, right in this introductory phrase, that the church consists of people in every place. every nation, you see, who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's the same Lord Jesus Christ. He will go on to say there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism. There's one church universal consisting of the communion of the saints. It's that unity of the spirit that we read about in chapter 4. Listen to it again. Paul says, to be eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body. Notice that over and over again, one, one body, one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of, all, who's over all, and through all, and in all. That's the communion of the saints. That's the unity of the spirit. That is the body of Christ, you see. And the Corinthians were not living like that. They were living like the world. They were divided. Now, Paul is not teaching here. In his teaching here about unity, he is not teaching some ecumenicity that's of man's creation. And so often, that's what people in churches talk about. We've got to be one. No, you are one if you're in Christ. It's the unity of the spirit. It's not the unity that we create, it's the unity of the spirit. It's not an organizational unity. Come on, let's get all the church, you know, I get these things, emails and so forth. I tell them, take me off their list, but they still, you know, there's nothing more obnoxious than a pious Christian, right? Well, we'll bring this guy around here, you'll see, and then just back in your face again. But it's like, Come on, we're forming this community organization. All of us churches, we're all going to get together and we're putting on this event. And it's going to be something else. After all, you know, we're all supposed to be one. Well, that's not the unity of the spirit. Because I can point to plenty of examples in these churches that are absolutely inconsistent. than with Scripture. But the unity is the unity of the Spirit that's created by the Holy Spirit between Christ and his people and between his people and his people, between one another. And our job is, what's our job? Our job is to be diligent to preserve it. Our job is, you know, it's like this. We don't create it. But we can mess it up, right? And that's what Paul is telling us. Be diligent here to acknowledge the unity of the spirit. What is the primary and typical evil that quenches the unity of the spirit? It's pride. And we're going to see this right on through this whole epistle. These Corinthians were puffed up. You know, they should have been putting the wicked man out from among themselves, chapter 5. But Paul tells them, but instead, you are arrogant. You are arrogant. You know, people who claim to be Christian, but they boast about how loving and merciful. You know, our church, it just loves everybody. And Paul would come back and say, that's not love. You are arrogant. You are arrogant. That man is to be put out from among you, you see. And so he admonishes them for that, this pride, this diatrophies syndrome. You know, diatrophies in 3 John. Here it is. John says, I've written something to the church, but diatrophies, and here's the punchline, who likes to put himself first. Have you ever known people in churches that crave to be first? We've had plenty of them come through this church over the years, right? They crave to be first. It's like, why do you even bother with Christianity? Because they see the local church as a place where they can exalt themselves. That's what it's all about. Well, that's diatrophies. And John deals with them. He says, Diotrephes wants to be first. He doesn't acknowledge our authority. He didn't even acknowledge the authority of the apostles. So if I come, what does John say? Does John say, now we just got to be patient with Diotrephes. We have to love one another. And I know, yeah, he can be difficult, but Jesus wants us to love one another. Is that what John? This is what John says. If I come, I'll bring up what he's doing. And what he means is, I'm going to tell the whole church, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to, and puts them out of the church. So he, in his arrogance, he's trying to get a following, and he's disrupting, then, the unity of the spirit. Well, the church at Corinth was deeply infected with that terrible sin of pride. And it's unworthy of who they were in Christ, sanctified, you see. Was Christ arrogant? He was God. He wasn't arrogant. He was humble. He came into this world humbly emptying himself that he might be our redeemer. We should shudder to think that we would then be arrogant. The Corinthians were really being, as they listened to these false teachers, they were really being ashamed of Christ because they didn't want to be regarded as foolish. They were being ashamed of him. Like another guy I read about recently, he was born half Native American. And he hated the fact, I don't know why, but he hated the fact that he was half Native American. So he even had some plastic surgery and stuff done so that nobody'd know about his heritage. Well, that's kind of what it was at Corinth. They wanted to be Christians, but, you know, they weren't Christians, but, you know, they didn't really want to look like one. It's too costly, you see. The world's notion is that Christianity and Christians are fools. Anybody that would believe this stuff, like the resurrection of the dead, is a fool. So if you're going to remain popular in Corinth, with Corinth, Then, well, I don't know if I can do that and follow Christ. Well, you're right. You can't do it and follow Christ. You have to make, then, a decision. And we need to make that same choice. You know, I think a good thing to think about, we probably don't actually think about it as such, but we need to. What starts going through your head the first thing in the morning when you wake up, other than the fact that the older you get, the achier you are, and all those kind of things? and that sort of stuff. But what's the first thing you're going to think about? This thing can be so subtle because we can be so used to it. Well, today, what am I going to do today to have people like me? What am I going to do today to be popular in the world, you know? Those kind of thoughts. Listen to this passage from Mark, Mark 8. For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. In contrast to that, Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. So we need to wake up in the morning ready to not be ashamed of Christ, to follow Christ, and to glorify him. But like I said, this sin of wanting to be popular with the world, it can become characteristic of us. Can you think of your, I'll remind you, I don't know how your high school years were, but my high school years, Probably a lot more than I can remember. How many of the things did I do during my high school year so that when I went to school that day, I would be popular? I would be liked, right? I mean the way that you dress, the way that you talk, all those kinds of things. That's the pressure then of the world. If the Corinthians were going to live as saints, they had to be willing to pay the price. The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. So you see it in Christian, in Pilgrim's Progress, right? City of Destruction. He's got a, here's this man, a book in his hand and a burden on his back. And he sets out. And as soon as he sets out on his journey, on his pilgrimage, he starts getting mocked right away. He's just mocking left and right and attacks and so on. But that burden on his back, he's got to be free of. The Lord has worked to convict him of his sin. He's, that book he's carrying is the Bible. He's read it. He knows if he stays in the city of destruction, he's going to go down to hell with the rest of them. And so he sets out, you see. Now, once again, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord, and ours. And what Paul is doing right off the bat, as I said, that's just in verse 2. He dives right into it, and he said, the church, the true church consists of all people in every place, every nation, all people in every nation, and in heaven as well, those saints that have gone before us, that is the church, that is the body of Christ. And we need to live in light of that, if we're Christians. We need to live. Like, look at, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. If we're born again, that is who we are. And that's true ecumenicity, right? That's true ecumenicity, true oneness. And how do you become? One, how do you become a member of the true body of Christ? Well, you must be born again. And Paul's going to ask them, how many Christs are there? How many Gospels are there? How many churches are there? And the answer is one, one, one. How come you guys aren't living like that? How come you are? Now, we all have to admit that if you study the history of the Christian church, that unity, that oneness of the spirit, that oneness in Christ is not always that evident, is it? The history of the church, the visible church, is a history of, sadly, division. And we see all kinds of, I mean, just think of it. Just think of it here. How many local churches are there in this town? It's pretty incredible. You go to the small communities, even smaller than this one, and you look at how many churches are in here, and you get this list of all of these different churches. And it's like, wow. I think R.C. Sproul had kind of a funny story joke about that, about two guys stranded on an island together and how many churches were there? Two, right? They couldn't even get together, you see. But you have these divisions. George Whitefield, back in the 1700s, was cruelly and harshly criticized by his own fellow clergyman. He was a priest in the Church of England. He was regarded as a fool and criticized by them, largely due to the fact that he saw that the true church, shocker of shockers, the true church was not the Church of England, right? But it consists of all people in every nation who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said that the one thing that he was concerned with in cooperating with someone in ministry was, were they born again? Did they truly know Christ? Were they genuine members of the true church? Was the gospel they believed and preached the true gospel? And if the answer to those questions is yes, Then he said, they are my fellows, my brothers and sisters in Christ. We are one in the one church. Now, this does not mean that he would have got together with everybody. George Whitefield was not going to work with Rome. He didn't consider Rome, of course, a true church. And this oneness, this unity of the spirit, this communion of the saints and unity of the church does not mean then, and I think this is a little repetitious, but it doesn't mean that we dive in as a church and, oh, there's a ministerial association in our community. We've got to be one in Christ. We're one in Christ there, so we'd better join up. No, it's only where we find true Christians and true churches. That is the unity that the Apostle Paul is talking about here, you see. Who's welcome in this church? Who's welcome in this church? Well, we would welcome someone who's genuinely seeking Christ, who wants to hear the gospel, The Lord's working on them. And other than that, there would be the people that are welcome here are people that are born again, that truly know Christ. By welcoming them, we confess our belief in one universal church. Paul is going to say to them, verses 10 and 11 here, I appeal to you brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree. that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it's been reported to me by Chloe's people that there's quarreling among you, my brothers." Now, there are divisions. Let me back up. There are times when division must occur, right? He's not, Paul is not saying there should never be division. He's gonna, he tells us things like come out from among them and be separate. This sort of a thing. We're not to, what does he say at the end of chapter five? Don't even eat with such. If there's a guy who claims to be a Christian, but he's walking in sin, don't even eat with such a one. Don't do that. So he's not pushing some kind of false unity here. But the divisions there in Corinth apparently were primarily over nuances, preferences, opinions, Secondary, well, I like Apollos better than Paul, and that sort of thing. There were some out-and-out heresies there, like the denial of the resurrection and so forth, but I don't think that's what Paul has in mind. Let's apply this to today, all right? What kinds of things divide the church today? What kinds of things divide? Well, on the positive side, as we've said, We are divided from Rome. Or really, we should say, Rome's divided from us. We are divided from heresy, from false doctrine. But the kind of division that Paul is rebuking here, to put it into terms of today, would be over issues like, well, what kinds of things do people in local churches quarrel and divide about? We saw it, for instance, when we were a member church in Arbca. And what happened there? Somebody decided in the leadership, decided to make it a big issue. And they drew up this long paper study. And you had to sign on to this or you couldn't be a member of Arbca. And it had something to do with some esoteric, does God have emotion? Or is he some crazy thing like this and they were And there was all this bickering and fighting. That's the kind of thing that Paul is condemning and rebuking them for. So you can go down the typical list of things that divide. In this place, we only used the King James Version. Get out if you don't, that kind of a thing. Should we use musical instruments in worship? Churches battle with each other over that. Here it used to be 30 years ago, it's like, are we going to put carpet on the floor or not? And there's factions forming and sinful, stupid stuff. What kind of music should we sing? Was Luther or Calvin right? in their understanding of the Lord's Supper? Who was right there? Are we to baptize infants, or do we baptize only those who knowingly confess Christ? What else did I have here on a list? Oh, then there's divisions over, well, we are of RC Sproul, or people's preference and that sort of thing. But this stuff is fueled by pride. That's what it's fueled by. I'm right, I know, and you are wrong. But the true church is united, and it's united around the fundamentals, then, of the faith. You know, every one of us has to recognize, and this is something that the Corinthians had failed to do. We have to recognize. We haven't arrived yet. God's not done teaching us. We, you know, in a way, don't you think that the Bible is kind of an introductory volume? We're going to learn so much more and grow in all eternity. But so as soon as we start thinking, well, I know. I absolutely know on this question, then. I'm right, and everybody else is wrong. And we're going to be, and you can just hit the road, If you don't agree, then you see with me. This question has always kind of intrigued me. This is interesting. I mentioned the issue of baptism. Do we baptize infants, or do we only baptize professing people who are old enough to profess Christ. And so here's this issue, and it's been kind of a hot topic down through the history of the church. We're a Reformed Baptist church, so we practice believer's baptism. But our congregation consists of people that have different views on that subject. How do we address that? And what has intrigued me so much is that down through many centuries of the church, Godly people, genuine Christian people, have been unable to agree, to come to a, oh, I see that. I see this. So for example, so many of the theologians and pastors from olden days that we often listen to here read their sermons and so forth. Let's see, well, of course, from more recent times, R.C. Sproul, but you've got J.C. Ryle, you got, let's see, John Calvin, Martin Luther, all of these giants of the faith that we respect and that we're blessed by. All kinds of systematic theologies, J. Oliver, Buswell, and others on my shelf here at home that are, they're all covenantal infant baptism people. That's their position. But Martin Lloyd-Jones and Charles Spurgeon and others are more like, they're They're Credo Baptists. They baptize believers. And the more you think about that, you think, you know, somebody must be right. Somebody must be wrong. How come we haven't been able to sort it out? How come? The believers, the Credo Baptist people will say, we've got it sorted out. And you guys are wrong. But then our other brothers in the Lord over here will say, no, we've got it sorted out, and you don't. And I think, why does this happen? And I think I know. I can suggest at least one reason. I think this much I can say. I think that the Lord gives us these, well, let me back up. He could have solved the whole problem if he would have just put one verse in the Bible in addition and said, you shall baptize infants, you shall not baptize infants. But he didn't do that. And this isn't the only issue that he didn't do that on. And I think that he purposely does this to test us. How are you going to handle differences when you have them with your brothers in Christ? Are you going to love one another? Are you going to function as you really are, one in the body of Christ? Or are you going to quarrel and duke it out like the like the Corinthians did, you know. I wasn't sure if I could give this example or not, but I think that I will. The, you know, I can remember five, six, seven years ago, something like that, I can remember a man in this church that was a teacher in the church talking that he was, his wife was there and some others were there, talking about how he was going to teach on why infant baptism was wrong, right? And his wife, who was right there, I remember it clearly, she said, haven't you covered that enough? Haven't you taught on that? Haven't we considered that subject enough? No. He's going to go ahead. And we were subjected to quite a few more weeks and months of this, topic and I can remember sitting at the back of the class and I can remember, I was uneasy. I didn't, I didn't, I should have probably said more but I was uneasy because it was like, you know, this just seems kind of prideful to me, it seems kind of like I'm right and I'm going to show you guys that I'm right. That's the stuff that was going on in Corinth and it, it, it's sin, it, it is, It undermines and it erodes the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. We need to love one another and consider one another. And to consider we have not fully arrived yet. Someday we're going to know. when we are with the Lord, isn't it going to be a lot better if we were humble now and we recognize we didn't know everything, so that then when the Lord maybe Well, maybe he'll keep us guessing. I don't know. Maybe we'll never know which was right and which was wrong. But I think what he's most interested in is will we love one another or are we going to be arrogant and fight with one another? And so, well, all of these things we're going to be learning some more about in 1 Corinthians. Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for being so Patient with us. Thank you for forgiving us when we become haughty. We pray that you would, when pride begins to creep into our lives and our thinking, we pray that you would, you would just catch us up short right away. Your spirit would reveal that to us that we might turn from it and ask your forgiveness and humble ourselves. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.