Going right now into this rather lengthy study we're going to do here on New Testament epistles Called how should we live and I want you to look at 1st Corinthians chapter 1 if you would I trust you all have a sheet And if you don't have your personal sheet you can look on with somebody that's close by I think we had a few more come that have been coming tonight, so Didn't probably didn't print enough so Let's get right in to our study tonight. We begin talking about what was spoiling the paradise of fellowship that had started back in Acts chapter 18 at this church at Corinth and something had gone wrong. And we talked about the first week there, kind of described that city and the darkness that was there and how, what just a morally bankrupt place that Corinth was. We talked about how they had everything going for them economically, everything going for them culturally, everything going for them In many ways, it was a trade route, land route, north and south. It was a huge transportation hub, east and west, by way of the boats that would come through there, the great barges doing all kinds of trade and commerce. And it had a lot going for it, but it didn't have much going for it morally. It was known for the temple to Aphrodite and the thousand temple prostitutes. It was known for the lifestyle of a Corinthian. In fact, to Corinthianize was just about to live as low as you could possibly live there. And so Paul ended up going there, and of course, everywhere Paul went, he did his best to preach the gospel, and he did. And people began to get saved. And so as a result of that, he was there 18 months in total. Quite a thriving church was left there. A great number of believers. In fact, it was a very gifted church. We talked about it. Let's look at our Bibles and read now and pick up the story. keep moving forward beginning at verse number 10. I'm going to read through the end of the chapter. Now, I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you'd be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you." See, the paradise is breaking up. Now I say this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas, or I am of Christ. 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 except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Somebody must have reminded him. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect." Now let's read right down through the end. We read that last week. Now I want to go right to the end of the chapter and we'll finish it up this evening. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since the wisdom of God for since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe." A little bit of a tricky verse to read. Let's read that one again and you follow along and let me make sure I get the punctuation correct because without punctuation that sentence doesn't make any sense. Now just make sure you listen carefully. For since In the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God. It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those that believe. For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Don't assume that God is foolish or God is weak. That's not the point. The point is, is if there were a weak point, it would be so much greater than mankind. There would be no comparison. Verse 26, For you see your calling brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But my God, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame things which are mighty. and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. It seems that Paul takes a right turn from the theme he is talking about, but if you continue to read through these chapters 2 and 3, you'll find out, especially in chapter 3, that he comes right back to this whole issue of division in the church. And that's what he's talking about. And even though that seems like it might not be the right subject, it certainly is the right subject. And he continues right straight through talking about the cross. And we're going to see how the cross solves the problem of division. And that's what we're going to look at as we keep moving forward in this service and in this study tonight. There was no place in Corinth to find real answers to the questions that Roman pragmatism and Greek philosophy had left unanswered. The questions that people are trying to answer today are the same questions they were trying to answer then. Things like, who am I? What am I here for? And where am I headed? There was all kinds of pragmatism in Rome. There were practical answers. There was all kinds of philosophy and knowledge in Greece, but they left people completely without an answer concerning the real issues of life. What a shock that churches that have been given the truth could have problems. It's too bad, but it is also very, very true. These problems, as we mentioned, manifested themselves, and I think this is already written on your sheet. It manifested themselves in those first verses in disunity. The church wasn't unified. They didn't speak the same thing. They didn't act the same way. They were becoming disunified. There was contention. That goes a little further than just being disunified. They were sharp words between one another. They were wrangling. There was strife. There was all kinds of words going on between them. There was super spirituality in the sense of I am of Paul and I is the emphasis on the I. I'm better because I associate with this one. I'm better because I associate with that one. And there was Paul, and they mentioned Apollos, and Cephas, whose name was changed to Pebble. I talked to you about that last week. Peter, Pebble, same thing. And so they get it in their head that they were better because they were associated with certain people, or the idea that I am going to be closer to God because I'm closer to this brother. There's a lot of Christians today that think that way. Sort of ride in on someone else's spiritual skirt, as it were, and God looks more favorably on us because of who we associate with, or more favorably on us because of who we refuse to associate with, because that's what was happening here. Everyone said, well, I'm better off with God because I'm with Apollos. I'm not with Paul. Paul, he's too intellectual. I've got this real preacher, Apollos, over here. Somebody else said, well, you know what? I'm with the first preacher on Pentecost. I love this Peter. You know what? He's the most eminent of all of them, and I'm with him. I don't like these guys that try to get up there and say flowery things like Apollos did. He's the eloquent one. I don't go in for all that eloquence. Just give me Peter. So they were defining their spirituality according to who they were associating with. And then of course that led to the fourth thing you had, sectarianism, or better known as we would call it today, spiritual cliques. And you might write that down. Verse 13 is where that started off, and the question is asked in verse number 13. It says, is Christ divided? And personality cults are alive and well in the church today. They were alive and well in that church, the church at Corinth. Now you have to keep in mind that the church at Corinth may have been a church that met in several locations, it may have met in one location from time to time, but they were little groups and they were becoming cliques and they were organizing around powerful personalities and they were lining themselves up according to the person that they followed. And quite frankly, our nation and our Christianity in the United States today, and not just today, but over the last century, has very much been defined by personality cults. Entire denominations have risen and fallen on the basis of a certain charismatic or powerful leader with a strong personality. And we could go into that real deep, but sectarianism. And when the man becomes larger than the message, we are doing damage to the gospel. Always remember that. When we attach When we attach more significance to the way somebody says something than what they say, or if we attach more, I mean, I'm not saying a person shouldn't be full of passion and zeal, that's another subject. But the point is, is that if one is more eloquent, one more intellectual, one more eminent, one with bigger reputation, and we attach importance to the message based on the messenger instead of on the message, we are messed up. What I want to say to you today is that we always have to understand that the power of the gospel does not eradicate in the person who says it, but in the gospel itself. The Bible says in Romans 116, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, because it Not the one speaking it. It is the power of God, to the Jew first, also to the Greek, and it goes on there. So, we have to understand that personality cults were alive and well in Corinth, and they're alive and well today. Now, cliques do some things. The first thing they do, and write this down, is when you have cliques inside the body of Christ, the first thing they do is try to divide Christ. Try to divide him up. Colossians 1.18 says that's impossible. He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, and that in all things he might have the preeminence. And so you can't divide Christ. You can't take him and say he's on your team, or we have more of him than somebody else. Something else, probably even more serious, because dividing Christ is an impossibility, what it does do, and that's the second letter B, clicks make saviors of men. When a pastor, a preacher, a spiritual leader becomes larger than life, when everything he says is taken hook, line, and sinker without comparing it to the scripture. And you know, I'm amazed, I mean, I've even been in services where the one speaking would say, just put your Bible under your seat now and look right up here. I've been in services when they said that. Something's wrong. You know, the Bereans were commended by Paul, and if there was ever a doctrinal preacher, if there was ever a preacher that would write on doctrinally, it was the Apostle Paul. He commended those that checked out everything he said, the Bereans. He said they were more noble. He said they were more godly. He said they checked out everything I said. They compared it with the Scriptures. And that's what you are supposed to do, the people that you hear. This is going to get really important as you go through this book of 1 Corinthians. Don't make a savior of a man. In Acts 4, 10-12, we find out that to all the people of Israel that in the name of Jesus, who they crucified, God raised the dead. And then it goes on to say, there is no salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Saved in the name of one person and one person only this afternoon I was doing a lot of preparation for a sermon that I'm going to preach on Matthew chapter Matthew chapter 7 verse 13 and 14 it talks about the narrow gate and the broad gate the broad way and the narrow way and the fact that You know, the end of the people who enter the narrow gate is eternal life, and the ones who enter in at the broad gate and stay on that road go to eternal damnation. And I was just looking at that and studying it, and somebody might say, well, I was thinking about it this afternoon of just how narrow that is. It is just very, very, very, very narrow to say that there is just one small little gate that you can only go through one person at a time. And that person, the gate itself is not a gate, but it's a person. Because Jesus said, I am the door, I am the gate to the sheepfold. Nobody's going in or out except they go through me. You can't come to the Father unless you come through me. That sounds narrow. That sounds like it just can't happen like that. Well, we make saviors of men. We make men, preachers and so on, like Hippolytus, like Paul, like Peter. We make them larger than life. We give them credit that God never intended to give to them. Of course, Acts 5.30 says, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging Him on a tree. Him has God exalted to the right hand to be Prince and Savior and to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin. So anytime you exalt anyone who is a messenger out of measure, then you are robbing who? Who is it that gets robbed when you exalt the messenger? God does. Well, the Bible says in Isaiah chapter 45, I am God, there is no other, and I will not give my glory to another. He's just not going to do it. And he will remove his glory. He'll take his hand off. And the third thing is cliques make followers of men instead of disciples of Christ. When a person gets involved in a religious personality cult that becomes a clique, then they become disciples of that person. They follow him. In fact, if you'll remember when Ananias and Sapphira, or when Peter first came to a certain area in Caesarea, And he was preaching there over in 13 and 14 of the book of Acts. He got there and they didn't know anything about the Spirit and didn't know anything about baptism. All we knew about was the gospel that Apollos preached. Well, he didn't have the full story, but he was very eloquent. They said they were Apollos' disciples. In fact, John had some disciples, John the Baptist. had disciples, if you'll remember, and Jesus even talked about that. Cliques make followers of men instead of disciples of Christ. I'm going to jump this one section, except I want to say something about this little verse here where it talks about baptism. I'm going to come back to it in just a minute. It says, let's see, were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Now, Crispus and Gaius were the people there in the city of Corinth, the first two that came to Christ, and Paul was probably the only one there available to do the baptizing. But a little later than that, he baptized Stephanus, who was actually from another city and actually was a proselyte and came and moved to Corinth. He baptized him in another place, but then he says something very, very interesting. And at the end of verse 16, he says, besides, I don't know whether I baptized any other. And then in verse number 17, he said, for Christ did not send me to baptize. Now, I want to just address something here for just a moment, if I could. If there was ever a strong passage in the New Testament that negates the idea of baptismal regeneration, it is this passage of Scripture that I just read to you. Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, who probably preached to more people in his life than anyone except perhaps Jesus Christ, had the greatest influence for missionary effort to spread to the world, eventually to Europe, and of course from Europe to the United States. Paul said, Christ didn't send me to baptize, he sent me to preach. Paul wrote books in the New Testament to some of his protégés in the faith, and he didn't give those protégés any instructions on the subject of water baptism. Now, there are many religions out there that try to make baptism part of the message of salvation, and that if you're not baptized in water, then you are not saved. Well, why in the world would the Apostle Paul say, Christ did not send me, if he did send him to baptize, then Paul would have been pulling around a tank behind his chariot. He would have been, I mean, that would have been easy, you know, but it's a whole lot easier to just baptize people than it is to get people to actually understand salvation and make an internal decision to trust Christ. Just pull a baptismal tank around behind your pickup truck, pull into a neighborhood, grab people, dunk them, and everything will be alright. But you see, it's not baptismal, people are not saved by baptism. But there are a lot of people who think that. Now there's a lot of religions that, and I don't want to go real deep here tonight, that a lot of churches, a lot of religions go back and they try to say that you baptize them when they're born and they're going to be safe until the time that they're saved. There are others that baptize them when they're born and they say that made them Christians because they were christened, and then there are others that will say somewhere along the line they get baptized or they'll add baptism to salvation and say that baptism is the actual seal of the salvation event. The Bible teaches no such thing. Somebody's going to say, well, what Mark 16, 15 says, go and preach and if anybody, if they'll be baptized, they'll be saved. Then the very next verse says, yeah, but if they don't believe, They won't be saved. So, this Paul, it's very interesting that Paul put that in there, right here at this point, and I think that that has a lot to do with the whole subject at hand because a lot of those people, some of them have been baptized by Paul, some of them have been baptized by Apollos, apparently Peter arrived on the scene somewhere along the line, baptized a few of them, and they got it in their mind because that person baptized me, that's my person, that's my hero, that's the person. And so Paul says, were you baptized in my name, the name of Paul, or whose name were you baptized in? You're baptized in the name of who? Jesus. And that's who you're supposed to be baptized. Now let me just move a little bit further forward here. He mentions here at the end in verse 17, Christ didn't send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. You say, well, how in the world are you going to make the cross of Christ of no effect? Well, you start adding things to grace and to salvation, you're going to start making the cross of Christ of no effect. There are ways, I have a lot to say about this in the future, but there are ways to preach the gospel of Christ that actually nullifies the message that you're going to preach. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved is the Bible message. That's the message for sinners. Saved people, people who are saved and are growing in grace might can get involved with predetermination, election, and predestination. I might talk about that without getting them mixed up. But predestination and predetermination and election is not the message for sinners. The message for sinners is, as Paul said in Acts 16, verse 31, when he was asked a direct question, what must I do to be saved? The answer was given, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved in your house. Very simple. And so you can preach Christ to a point that it's of none effect. Now let's take it the other way. Some like to start with the sovereignty of God at the very first moment, and the guy's sitting there, and you say, you may be called, you may not be called. You may be predestinated, you may not be. You may be the elect, you may... We don't know. I can't find your label. I don't know if you're... So what's a lost sinner supposed to think? I can, I can't. Maybe I should, maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I believe, maybe I don't. Maybe I'm chosen, maybe I'm not. He's mixed up with a termite and a yo-yo. He doesn't know. You know, I mean, he just doesn't have a clue. The other side of that, you can preach it to none effect too. You can tell a person, well, you're saved today, but you might be lost tomorrow. You know, you're saved right now, but I don't know what's going to happen to you in the future. You know, you just, you know, if you don't live it and walk it, and if you're just not, you know, if you don't start eradicating that flesh, and if you don't get the second blessing, you can preach Christ until he's none effect. There's two opposites there. And so Paul preached Christ and Him crucified. He's going to say that here as we get to read a little bit further. He preached the cross of Christ to the lost and dying so that they could believe and be saved. And he goes on and he talks about that very, very carefully. So making the gospel of no effect is very important. So we've got this church that it's got cliques in it. They're disunified. They are contentious. They've got super saints and super spiritual people. And I mean this church that started off so wonderfully in the middle of this dark place turned on the light of the gospel, their light is starting to dim because on the inside they're starting to rot. Do you know that the darkness on the outside of Grace Church will never inhibit the gospel message of this church going out? But disunity and rot on the inside will put the light out. We need to pray and we need to make sure that we pay attention to what God teaches us, what the Lord says to us here through His Apostle Paul. Here's some medicines for a misguided church. I just put it down that way. It doesn't call them medicines in there, but I'm just trying to be cute so that you can try to remember these things. Medicines. Fixits, antidotes if you want to call it, medicines for a misguided church. How do you proceed to solve these problems? Do you dismiss the whole congregation and start over? Of course not. You speak the truth in love and you do it with the Word of God. Several things that I want you to take note of there as we go through this. The first thing that he says, and in a little bit it's going to back up and look at what he said again in the early verses and then move on ahead. The first thing we have to do is understand that we were called, they were called, to holiness. Look at chapter, if you would, chapter 1, verse 2, to the church of God, which is incarnate to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus our Lord, both theirs and ours. He actually says he is calling them to be holy, and he says it two times. They are called holy and separated. And then he's called these holy and separated ones to live holy and separated lives. There was nothing holy about this unity. There was nothing holy, nothing godly about their contention, their arguing, their contentious spirit. There was nothing holy about that. There was no sweet savor about it. It was not the fragrance of Christ. It did not give the peace, joy, love message that the Lord wanted them to give. And so, because of that, they needed to go back and understand that they were called to holiness. And there's many other areas in this book we're going to get to that they were messing up in the morality and the holiness area. But they had to understand that point one is that when the Lord called them, He didn't call them just to have fire insurance just so that they could go to heaven. That is not our only calling. Now, that may have been the greatest attraction to you the day you heard the gospel. The day you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, the thing that attracted you the most may have been, I was a sinner, I was on my road to hell, now I hear this wonderful message of the gospel, I can believe in Jesus and be saved, and I miss hell, and I go to heaven. But that is the beginning of the gospel. and the beginning of what God is doing in our life. He's called you to be holy. That is separated unto Himself. He's called you to live holy. That means to live a life like He would want us to live. Holy ones called to live holy lives. They're separated unto Him. The next thing is we have to understand that we're called to a fellowship. He mentions that when you get back down there to verse 9. It says, God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. I mentioned last time in 1 John 1, verse 1 to 3, it points out that we are to have fellowship one with another in Christ and that that fellowship is based on a vertical fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And that is the fellowship that the Lord has called us into. Show me a person that loves the Lord God, and I'll show you a person that loves the Lord God's children. You show me a person, show me a person that has a good outlook on his brothers and sisters in Christ and wants to be with them and wants to encourage them, wants to be a blessing to them, I'll show you somebody that's in fellowship with the Father in heaven. Because how can you love God in heaven, 1 John 2 says, if you can't love your brother? How can you love a God that you cannot see? If you cannot love your brother that you can see. And so when somebody says to me, well, you know, I like God and I like Jesus and I'm looking forward to my heavenly home and all that, I just don't like His family here on earth. I don't want to mess with them. I don't want to be bothered. I don't want to help anybody, talk to anybody, pray for anybody. I don't want to be part of a small group, mid-sized group, big group. I don't want to come to an extra service on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. I don't want to be bothered. All I want to do is just come over there and get my little dose on Sunday morning and that's it. I know I'm preaching to the wrong crowd right now. But I'm just telling you, show me the person that wants to be with his brothers and sisters in Christ, I'll show you somebody that's also doing really well with their Heavenly Father in Heaven. Show me somebody that's doing well with their Father in Heaven and with His Son, Jesus Christ. I'll show you somebody that's not running from the fellowship. You see, He's called us to a fellowship. And isn't that what's going on in 1 Corinthians? As you read this book, we go through it, we're going to find out. I think I showed you some of the problems. I gave you a big list of what we're going to look at. Boy, if you want a complete litany and a plethora of the problems that could possibly go on in a church, this is the church. They're all happening here. And it is all destroying what? The fellowship, the community, the communion, the love that they're supposed to have one for another. It's destroying them. So here's how we do this. We're going to understand it by a series of questions. The questions that are going to be asked are these. Here are the series of questions. The first one is, you've already got it written on your sheet there. Can Christ be divided? Those are verses 10 to 13. Was there a different Jesus for each one? One for Paul, one for Apollos, one for Cephas. Did they have an angle? Did they have some corner on the relationship with Jesus? Did each one know something about Jesus and His nature that the rest of them didn't? No, they didn't, because there was just one Christ. In fact, Galatians 1, 6-9 says Paul was preaching to another church and he told them, he says, you're talking about another Christ, a divided Christ. You're preaching another Christ. Now I'm telling you, here and now, he said it two times. If you preach another Christ other than the one that I have preached to you, the one that came, died, was buried, and rose again, if you preach another Christ, and I want you to know, here's my thought for you. You are anathema. You say, well, okay, what does that mean? Well, you couldn't say anything. You could not say anything. more strongly to another individual than to say that that person was under your anathema. Because to be an anathema would be to say, let hell open wide open and let this person drop right in. That's what he thought of the false preacher that preached another Christ. Serious stuff. So he can't be divided. There's not even any sense in talking about that. Jesus is not divided. Was the messenger bigger than the message? Paul's going to hit it in chapter 3, but it's wrong to compare various preachers one to another and pick favorites. He says, he goes on in chapter 3, we'll see it, Paul says, Paul is nothing, Apollos is nothing, but together they are co-workers with God, and that only God can give the increase. One person plants, another person waters, and God gives the increase. When we were studying going public with your faith, we talked about the fact that we work together as teams. That we may be a person who plants the seed, but may not be the same person that gets the opportunity to see that seed sprout, grow, and actually have a harvest of a soul. But as we work together in God's family, each one of us doing our part, we can see people come to know Jesus, and then they can begin to grow and do their part. But if we think we're going to be lone rangers, and we're going to do it all, then we're going to, first of all, slow down the process, and second of all, we're going to rob God of His glory. This keeps coming up. this messenger thing in 1 Corinthians. Denominations, Christian colleges, and movements many times revolve around a person more than it revolves around the Word of God or the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in whose name were you baptized? Those are some questions that sort of clear this up and shows them that there's a problem in the fellowship. Somehow this issue seemed to be at the root of everything. Paul had baptized a few of the original members and they were claiming that they were of Paul. Others, Apollos must have baptized, maybe even Peter baptized a few. As I said, baptism was not the message of salvation itself, but it is the act of declaring yourself a believer to others and associating yourself with Christ and His family. It's so simple. Baptism is a proclamation, it's an identification, it's a declaration. I'm saying when I'm baptized, look for me to follow Christ. I'm a believer. I am showing you that I believe in the one who died, was buried, and rose again. Now, should we be baptized? I sound like I'm minimizing baptism here. I'm just pointing out baptism doesn't save you. But it is very, very important. It is the first commandment in the life of a new believer. They should be baptized. In fact, Peter, in Acts chapter 13, when he was there with those new followers of Apollos and they received the Spirit and needed to be baptized, the Bible says he commanded that they be baptized. He didn't baptize them, but he commanded that they be baptized. It's interesting. Jesus didn't baptize. Paul avoided it. Peter seldom did it. They usually left baptism to others that were there to help. Baptism is to be done in the name of Jesus. Baptism is not to make disciples of men, but disciples of Jesus Christ. Baptism does not identify us with the person who baptizes us. It identifies us with the Jesus Christ, our Lord, who died and was buried and rose again. And it's very important, but it is not It is not a sacramental step toward salvation. No, it is the step of obedience and identification. The next question that Paul asks there when he's trying to get this mess straightened out, he says, who was crucified for you? Was Paul crucified for you? Paul addresses the problem of the contention and party politics in the church by talking about Christian unity, Christian baptism. And now he comes to the big subject, the cross. The cross. It's interesting that he comes to talk about the cross. The whole section from verses 18 to 24 talks about the cross. In fact, it's even going to go on further into chapter 2. There is no greater way to solve problems in a church than to point to the cross, preach the cross, kneel at the cross. When there are any kind of whatever the problem whether I don't care what's going whether it's doctrinal difficulty whether it's disunity disharmony whether it's lack of instruction or direction whether it's a church that's just Meandering and not knowing where to go if you want to correct church problems point to the cross Because it is at the cross that all people are humbled because nobody else could have died for you but Jesus. It is at the cross that we find out who was the Redeemer of our souls and paid for our sin debt. It is at the cross that we're reminded who really is in charge of the church. It is at the cross that we understand the sacrifice that the Father made through His Son and that is the Son made for the Father to buy us back to Him. It is at the cross that the great message of Christianity comes forward. And so you know what Paul does? He says, I've determined to know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified. That's my only message. Paul came to town and he preached one thing. Let me stand up and just take my text this morning from John chapter 3 and preach to you Christ and Him crucified. Every time he would come to town, he would preach to them about Jesus and how He died on the cross for them. That's what he was determined to know. Why? Because this was the city of wisdom. This was the city of, if you'll pardon me, smarty pants. This was the city of know-it-alls. This was the center of Gnosticism. This was the city where everybody knew so much and they were just so uppity-uppity and they had so much education. They had everything figured out and for them to hear the message of the cross was irritating to them. It offended them. They didn't like it. We're going to see that in just a minute. But Paul made up his mind. When I come, if I come again to you, you're not even going to get another single message. I'm going to preach it to you over and over again. So what we have to understand here is the next point. Write this down. We have to understand the triumph of the cross. You want to solve church problems, disunity, disharmony, dysfunction. You want to solve lack of direction. Then preach the cross. Look at verse number 18 there and let's see what it says. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Drop down to verse number 21. For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached. to save those who believed. And so he's going to preach the message of the cross. Well, there was an initial reaction when he first came to town, and he tells them this. There's always a reaction to the cross, to the preaching of the cross. Write that down. There's a reaction to the cross. And he mentions that the cross divides people into two groups. The cross of Jesus Christ always divides. You say, now wait a minute. I thought you said if you're going to have harmony in the church, you've got to preach the cross, and you just got done saying that if you preach the cross, it's going to divide. The cross, the preaching of the cross of Jesus is always going to divide people into two groups. Those who think it's foolishness, and those who are being saved. Those who are believers in Jesus. Those who, for lack of a better way of saying it, swallow it hook, line, and sinker. There are those who reject, and there are those who receive. There are those who mock, and there are those who can't believe the mercy of God. There are those who laugh, and then there are those that are longing for the Savior that died for them to come. There's two groups in the world. There's just two groups, and that's what he says. He says here that this is what's going to happen. It divides the people into two groups. The ones that are perishing, and the ones that are being saved. And it's easy to identify these groups. Because the perishing think that the cross is foolishness, it's poppycock, it's empty talk, it's nonsense. To point, now listen to this statement, to point to a poverty stricken, unemployed carpenter that took up a religious itinerant position to ultimately die the death of a criminal and then point to him as the savior of the world is ridiculous to those that are perishing and they laugh it to scorn. Think about that. You point to this guy who's dying, who died the death... They don't know the whole story, but you say, Jesus, Son of God, came to earth, born of a virgin, lived His life, went about doing good, and He died. Yeah, He died the death of a criminal. What does that have to do with me? I'm not a criminal. It's foolishness. It's poppycock. It's just so much nothing. It's empty talk. It's nonsense. That's the people that are perishing. Then there's the other group, those that are being saved. They know it's the power of God. To the believer, the death of Jesus was the unleashing of all of the power of the universe on our behalf so that a sinner could be set free. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ tonight, you know something about the power of the gospel. You know about the cleansing of your sin. You know about that guilt that has been taken away and the freedom that God has given you. You know about the moments of difficulty and crisis in your life that you have hope when others don't have hope. You know of the hope of a future. You know of eternal life. You have a confident faith. You've put your faith in very sound things. Not some blind leap in the dark. But you believe in the Christ of Calvary and the heroes again. And it has created in you a spirit of belief. And you stick with it. You don't fade away from it. Because to us, the death on the cross and the resurrection of Jesus unleashed the greatest power in all the universe. And we can say with Paul, I want to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. But to the world, to the Greeks, to the Gentiles, to the unbeliever, is just so much foolishness. It's ridiculous to say that a dying criminal is the answer to the world. The perishing, those that are being saved. What are the reasons for their reaction? Well, the rejecters, that is, the Jews, including the scribes, stumble. Look if you would there. It says, verse 22, the Jews request a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block, and to the Greeks, foolishness. Well, the Jews, including the scribes, who had gotten so far away from God and His Word and created their own righteousness. They forgot about God's righteousness that was going to be offered them through the sacrifice of His own Son. They went about trying to establish their own righteousness through spurious deeds and multiplying those original laws that God gave in the Old Testament, both the ceremonial and the sacrificial laws. Multiplying them by 100 and having so many stupid laws, they thought they were making themselves super spiritual. Now, I want to tell you, that the road to destruction and the road to eternal life many times runs right under the pulpit. It runs right by an altar through a Baptist street. It runs right because people get in their mind that they are doing things, obeying things, and learning things in order to become the child of God. No one is so lost as a religious person who thinks he's not lost. It's interesting, isn't it? But see, here's what He's saying to those Jews. Those Jews stumbled at the cross. And why did they stumble? They stumbled because they were seeking signs of power. They were looking for the glorious return of a monarch. They had been waiting on someone to come sit on the throne of David. They stumbled when their quote-unquote Messiah, who they thought might be the Messiah, like Judas did, they thought He might be the one, But when Judas, like many like him, saw that this king, this messiah, this suffering servant was going to be belittled, made fun of, mocked, ridiculed by the religious establishment, and refused to use his unbelievable power to establish himself, They stumbled because they were not looking for that suffering Savior. They were looking for a reigning monarch. Now the Greeks, they cried, foolishness, including these debating wise philosophers, because they just wanted more worldly wisdom. They were and are still trying to solve all the world's ills through technology, science, and knowledge. That's the way that they were trying to serve it. They were the wise. They were the disputers, the arguers, the debaters. They loved nothing more, like at Mars Hill, to sit and debate things. They were so glad to have Paul come talk of a God they hadn't heard about yet. Oh, they loved it! Knowledge! Just, give me more! And that's what they wanted. They stumbled at it. They thought, no, it can't be so simple as to just put faith and believe in someone who died. There has to be something I can do. Do you know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the most offensive thing on earth to a person who's trying to save themselves? A person who is trying to keep rules and keep regulations and go through rituals and trying to obey this and do that and they study and they work and they plan and they just do and do and do. You know the difference between Christianity and the religions of the world is Christianity is a religion of done and the rest of the religions of the world is a religion of do. do this, do that, keep this, keep that, do this rule, that rule. And that's what was happening there. These Greeks, they knew too much, they studied too much, they were super intellectual. Now, I'm not putting down study, because Paul later is going to say, study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. He's not interested in our ignorance. But we're supposed to learn, but that's not the point. These people thought that they were making themselves better than everyone else and acceptable to God through their learning, through their knowledge, through their technology, through their science. Science, which is the accumulation of knowledge. And so the believers are a third group. They have wisdom and power. They have both. You see, the Jews were looking for this powerful, miracle-working, dynamic leader. The Greeks were looking for this extremely wise person to come give them secret information. And whereas the believers didn't do anything but believe and be saved, they received the wisdom and the power. And the question goes on, where are the wise, the scribes and the debaters when all is said and done? Well, when it comes to the wise, the debaters of this world, there's a whole lot more said than done. But when Jesus said three little words, he did it all. It is finished is all that need to be said. when he died on the cross to take our sins away. Now you've got to look at verse 21 where I hesitated as I was reading a little bit earlier and you've got to get a good grip on that. For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those that believe. You say, now that's clear as mud. Now, let's just make sure you get this. I want you to understand it. For, it says, because God in His unbelievable wisdom and foreknowledge made the wise decision to not let salvation and coming to God be a question of wisdom and smarts, But he decided that through the foolishness of the message preached and simple faith people could be saved, he took salvation away from just the elite and he gave it to the entire world. You see, salvation is for the little child that's four or five years old that understands that he needs a Savior. Salvation is for Ray Rubel's dying Jewish father back just the day after Christmas when he called out on the Lord and said, it's for him and it's for everybody in between. And I hear this and I think about this so often. as I stood on hillsides in Peru with people who cannot even read their own language, yet when you preach to them the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is powerful, it's sharper than any two-edged sword, it gets their attention like you have never heard, and when they hear that there is a good, loving, and benevolent God who wants to be their Father and will care for them, and that they no longer have to sacrifice to little hot and tots on the sides of hills, And they don't have to put food out, which they don't have in the first place, to put food out for demon spirits that live in the mountains, that kill their children. When they come to understand that there's a loving God that sent His, they weep, they call on Him, they're not wise, they don't have technology, they can't even read. But God in His wisdom, decided that it didn't have anything to do with what your educational level was, what your economic level was, what your brilliance level was. It has to do, can you hear, will you understand, and will you believe? Now that is the wisdom of God. He decided it wasn't going to be for the elite. Now, did you ever hear of the Gnostics? Well, the Gnostics were all about knowing. They believed that they were the sect of people that were the specially initiated, gifted, brilliant, that had special knowledge. And so they loved to collect religions and collect knowledge and collect all of the knowledge they could. And they believed the more knowledge they had, the better off they would be. And so salvation was only going to be given to those that were, quote unquote, in the know. That's not our God, our God. says, by what the world considers to be foolishness and nonsense, the preaching of the cross, anybody can get saved and become the child of God. And that's a wonderful, wonderful message. God's too wise for the wisdom of man. And so he proved it. Now, we have to understand that. Now, finally, you have to understand our purpose is to glorify God. Look at verse number 26. For you see, your calling, brethren, not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame things which are mighty, and the base things of the world which are despised, God has chosen the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are. That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us, for us, wisdom from God, the righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That, as it is written, he who glories let him glory in the Lord. Now the Corinthians had a tendency to be puffed up. It says so, chapter 4, verse 6, verse 18 to 19, chapter 5, verse 2. They were proud, very, very, very puffed up and proud and cocky about many things. The gospel of God's grace leaves no room for personal boasting. God is not impressed with our looks, our social position, our achievements, our natural heritage, or our financial status or statement. Note that God wrote many, not many, nobler called. He did not say not any, because there were some nobles that were called. In fact, Paul in his own ministry said that there were of the leading women, not a few began to believe when he preached in certain cities. The New Testament, we do meet some believers with high social standing, but there are not many because it's very difficult for a person who has accomplished to also understand that they have a need. And here's the answer that he says, several things that they needed to remember. And the first thing that they, and of course we need to remember, in verse number 26 is the tendency the Corinthians had many today is to glorify self. And what we have to do is remember that the Church of Jesus Christ is made up of mostly ordinary people and not nobles, not high-minded, not highfalutin, high society. The Church of Jesus Christ is just not made up of those people. And let me just say a word about star-studded Christianity for a moment. You say, what is star-studded Christianity? Well, it's my own term that I give to the idea that if we could just get Elvis saved, that Elvis would just, I mean, man, I mean, you know, Elvis rocks, they say, you know, and I mean, he would be, boy, if we just get a guy like, or we could just get this football player saved, or this, you know, Larry Bird, or we could just, you know, and I pray Larry Bird and every football player, I pray they all get saved. But to immediately put a microphone in front of those people just because they got saved and make some sort of super Christian out of them and let them be the final authority on everything when they have not grown in grace and they have not had time to mature like everybody has to mature is an absolute disgrace. And my wife just told me the story this afternoon of a young lady that they did that too that it ruined her and it hadn't been but two or three years ago. The world is not going to be saved because famous is not going to get the gospel and become saved because famous people get saved and their testimony and their witness is going to be any more powerful than anyone else's. I'm asked from time to time, Pastor, why don't you get some of these heavy hitters to come in here and be a part and preach here at the church? Well, I invite people. I'm certainly not diatrophies, and it's not that I don't want people to come and preach here, but I'll tell you what I do want. I want them to be mature in the faith, at least more mature than the people they're teaching. And I don't want them to be a novice. You know, the Bible is very clear about that, isn't it? It says, don't lay hands quickly on anyone and don't put anybody up that's a novice unless they become puffed up. We think we've got everything figured out and we're smarter than God. Oh, but if we could just get this guy, you know, I mean, he used to be this, that and the other. And if we, boy, he's saved now, he's been saved six months. Let's have him. And he'll just come in and he's just going to rock the world. You're not doing them any favors. You're not doing them any favors. They're not ready to do that. And second of all, not many noble, not many mighty, not many of that group are going to be able to have the influence that you think. Fanny Crosby was blind and wrote over 5,000 hymns. Nobody knew who she was until she was almost dead. God uses the small things of the world. God uses the things that man cast off. Somebody said that God can strike a mighty lick with a crooked stick. He can. And God does more with those that don't seem to be so mighty than he does with those that are mighty. Everybody knows who William Carey is. How many of you ever heard of William Carey? William Carey, that great missionary that went to China, he said, expect great things from God, attempt great things for God. That was his motto in life. He went to China and he never went to India and he never came home. India never came home. He just went and he just served and he just did everything. We know all about William Carey, but William Carey had a bedridden sister. He had a bedridden sister that never was able to get off her bed of affliction. And one day, another missionary was in London and went to see and wanted to see how she was doing and said to her, Sarah, why, I mean, aren't you just so sad about this? I mean, you've been in bed so long. Oh, no, no, no. I know my brother William is in India, and he is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ over there, and I know he cannot be there unless somebody is undergirding him and holding him up in prayer. And I've been praying for my brother for the last 21 years all day, every day. Time and again, I lift up my brother William Carey in prayer and say, God, he's attempting great things for you. He's expecting great things from you. And I am here doing what you want me to do. And I'm here to tell you right here and right now that we are going to be really, really surprised when God hands out the rewards in heaven. Because those, like Paul said, that seem to be pillars are not going to be pillars, they're going to be ornaments, and they're going to be in the corner when the real saints of God that God used step forward, and he identifies them here, are the prayer warriors, here are the servants, here are the water bucket carriers, here are those who wash the feet of the disciples, here are those, and God is going to point out the ones that were really upholding the kingdom. Think about that. Whatever service you have, You think, well, I'm not mighty. I'm not noble. You know, I could never preach. I could never do, you know, and I'm going to tell you what, the preachers have the greater condemnation. And I'm learning a whole lot about that as I study more and more of how much responsibility I carry as a pastor to stand up here and preach the Word of God to you and how I'm going to answer for every single word. But I'm here to tell you that it's not people like me that are the mouthpieces that make this thing go at Grace Church. But it's people like Judy and like Dolores that are going to be here Saturday to have the meal for the Baker family because Wendell died this morning and his funeral is going to be Saturday. And here's some quiet servants of God that are getting no fanfare, no recognition. Nobody blows the horn, blows the trumpet. Nobody sends them special offerings at Christmas time. Nobody does any of that. But God Almighty sees the silent service of His people and He is keeping record. You see, that's the way that God does things. Not many, not mighty, not many noble. Remember what we were. Remember why we were called. Twenty seven to twenty nine. God chose the few foolish, the weak, the base and the despised to show the proud world their need and his grace. The lost world admires birth, social status, financial success, power and recognition. None of these things can guarantee eternal life. None of these things guarantee Reward and when we glory in ourselves or other people we rob God of his glory third We have to remember what God has given us Look at verse 30 and 31 now. We're talking about healing this church preach the cross and remember what he's done Verse 30 but of him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption That as it is written he who glories let him glory in the Lord. Remember what God has given We are complete in Christ Jesus 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 3 and 4 says we had everything we need for life and godliness if that's true If I have everything I need, why should I allow envy and jealousy to enter my mind about what God has given to you or given to another person in Christ? You say, well, that sure seems a little bit extreme. Where do you see that they're going to be envious? You remember, you've got to read the whole letter before you get the whole picture. But these people envied each other. They were jealous of who had what spiritual gift, who got to talk, and who got to do what in the church. I mean, they were jealous of one another, arguing with one another, debating one another over who could speak better, and who could talk in tongues better, and who had better visions, and who had better interpretations. They were arguing about these things. They talked about who got baptized by whom and which personality cult. And they talked about who was the most tolerant. They were bragging, chapter 5, over who was the most tolerant of gross sin. They were patting themselves on the back for tolerating sin in the church. Boy, you know what? We live in a society that is just bent on the idea of you are really somebody if you tolerate everything and everybody. Well, you know what? That may have been the degradation of Corinth, but it's not supposed to have been the degradation of the church of Corinth. That's not supposed to be our degradation. We're not supposed to do that. And so, their focus was completely wrong. They were focused on themselves and not on Christ. Here's a summary statement, very important. Anytime our church experience is about us, more than about God and His glory, we are sure to begin to have problems. Think about that. They had already made the Church of Corinth about them, about their gift, their preference, their favorite preacher. It was all about what they wanted. Anytime your church experience becomes about you or me, more than about God and his glory, it is sure to begin to have problems. They did it in Corinth and it could happen in Des Moines. It could happen in any city, church, anywhere. Verse 31 is a reference to what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 9, 23. Listen to Jeremiah 9.23. It's just fantastic how the Bible goes together. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory in his might. Nor let the rich man glory in his riches. But let him who glories glory in this. that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these I delight, says the Lord." Isn't that something? Instead of glorying in your accomplishment, in your bank account, instead of glorying in your knowledge or wisdom or any of those things, let a righteous man glory in the fact that he just simply knows me. And it is who you know that really counts. And who you know, if you're a believer, is Jesus Christ and the Father who He came to represent. We are to glory in God, in His Christ, and not in ourselves or our abilities. What God has given all of us in the person of Christ, you say, well, we're not noble, we're not high-minded, we're not mighty, we're not, you know, okay, pastor, you said all of that, but, I mean, what are we? Well, now when you receive Christ and you are in Him, Here's what you are. It says there in verse number 24, to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, the wisdom of God. And then down here at verse number 30, but of him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Wisdom, Colossians 2, 3 says, in Jesus are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Timothy was told that the scriptures had made him wise unto salvation. The wisdom of God is revealed in the person of Christ. And what the Bible tells you and me, it tells us that we have the mind of Christ. Now stop and think about that. Or as the Old Testament would say, Selah. We have the mind of Christ. That is, if you dwell in Him, abide in Him, John 14, John 15, abide in Christ and He in you, you have the mind of Christ. You're going to be discerning. You're going to be wise. You're going to be able to tell the difference between right and wrong. You're going to stop and pray over decisions. You're not going to go hurrying through life. You're not going to knee-jerk your way through life. No, no, no. You're going to have the mind of Christ who has all the wisdom of the universe. Let me go on. When we receive Christ, we receive His wisdom. We receive His righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. This has to do with our standing before Him as justified. It means because of the righteousness that Christ provides for us, we are, this moment, saved, safe, and justified. But he's also our sanctification. John 17, 19 says, and for their sakes, Jesus praying, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified by the truth. He goes on to say, Thy word is truth. Here's the point. Jesus is our sanctification. He is the one that has set us apart for God. And we are in Him set apart for God. And not only that, we are growing in grace. We are being saved. Did it catch you? Did you catch that at the very first? I emphasized it every time I read it. That we are being saved. I didn't say we are saved. I said we are being saved. That's because salvation is an accomplished feat, I'm already saved. Salvation is a work in process. I am being saved. That is, I am becoming more and more like Christ every day through the process of sanctification. And then redemption. Christ provides our redemptions. Romans 3.23 says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Need to keep reading sometimes instead of just quoting that. Being justified. freely by His grace through what? Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. What does this have to do with? It has to do with the fact that we have been set free by the price He paid and that also we will be with Him by the redemption of our bodies at the resurrection. That is the future. So we have been saved, we are being saved, and the redemption promises that body, soul, and spirit will be saved. All of this is wrapped up to say that a person, a person who is not high and mighty and noble in this world like these people at Corinth thought they were, and they were worshipping the knowledge and the might, and they were worshipping the notoriety of all of these people, Paul's even going to point that out in a little bit concerning himself, that he was just nothing compared to them. Now watch. He says to them, he says, in spite of all this, I want you to know that most of you are ordinary people, but you're not just ordinary, you're extraordinary because you have the wisdom of God. You have the righteousness of God, you have the sanctification of God, and you have the redemption of God, and it all came in a person. And that's why it says, enter into the narrow gate, because the gate is a person. And there's only one way to enter in and receive all that at one time. The sufficiency of Christ Jesus for our life is beyond anything that we could possibly understand. You know a person that's young or a person when they first come to Christ, the only thing they know is Jesus died for them and he came into their heart and he saved them from their sin and hallelujah, they're on their road to heaven. That is wonderful. But that is to say that that's all there is to salvation and the person of Christ would be like saying that all Mount McKinley is is a big molehill. What I'm telling you today is that what Jesus is for us and what He provides for us by being our Savior is so much more than fire insurance if we would just learn about Him. So Paul says, I preach the cross, I preach Christ, I preach Him crucified, and you need to learn the unbelievable wisdom that's involved in Jesus. Let's bow for prayer.