Let's open our Bibles up to the book of 1 Corinthians again. We are still in chapter 1. We are going to look this morning at verses 11 through 13. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We're going to look at three verses this morning. We're going to talk about contentions about clergy in the congregation. Contentions about clergy in the congregation. It's important before we embark on this study to be reminded that this takes place in a local church. It's important that you understand that because there is going to be contentions among people outside of the church all the time. But these quarrels are taking place within the church and it's about who the preacher is. So let's look at verses 11 through 13 and let's examine contentions about clergy in the church or in the congregation. Verse 11 says, "'For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I am Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" Now, when we talk about contentions, contentions merely means a quarrel. an argument, a dispute. It's where people are divided and have drawn upsides and are engaged with one another in an argument or a fight, if you will. That's what a contention is. So when we look at this text, in these three verses here, all Paul does is lay out how he's going to handle this and what's wrong with it. The first thing I want you to notice in verse 11 is settling contentions. Paul gives us some guidelines for how to settle contentions in the church, how to settle quarrels, how to settle these arguments. And I think that we can learn a lot about how to handle these problems just from verse 11 alone. Look at it with me again. "'For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.'" Now Paul here in verse 11 is dealing with what we would probably call hearsay. Paul didn't see this. Paul didn't experience this. Paul was told this. So notice how he addresses the problem. Up until this point, Paul has been very Gracious to them. He's pointed out some of the things about the Corinthian believers that he really admires in them. He points out that God has saved them and the work of God in them. So Paul has begun with a very gracious start. You'll never settle disputes and quarrels by the first words coming out of your mouth being what's wrong with the people who are fighting. You must start from a kind and gracious platform and that's what he does. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren." Paul states here that he has been told this. He's admitting that he could be wrong about this. You see, when you've been told something by somebody, that doesn't necessarily mean it's true, does it? Do all of you have access to the Internet? Do you believe everything you read on it? Why not? Well, brother, hell, it's on the internet. They got Photoshop and people write lies all the time. Well, it's not that the internet itself is producing lies and altering photographs. It's that people have access to the internet and they print lies and produce altered photographs. So because someone tells you something does not necessarily mean it's so. And Paul, in addressing a quarrel, says, I've been told this. It's been made known to me. I've discovered this." Then he says, my brethren, he doesn't say, you idiots. I mean, sometimes that's what we would like to say. We would like to refer to people who they really are. They're stupid. Hey, you moron. But we can't do that. How would we settle a dispute? Instead, we would find ourselves wrapped up in another contention. Not just between these two parties, but we would be the third wheel, calling two idiots out. He says, it's been declared unto me by someone about you, my brethren. He's identifying himself as one of them. And folks, if you're going to be a mediator between two parties, you have to stand on level footing with those two parties. Otherwise, you get this statement. You don't know me. You can't judge me. You don't know what I've been through. Is this somehow we have to walk about seven billion miles just like you in order to understand right from wrong? Paul says here, my brethren, identifying himself as one of them and worthy to weigh in on the matter. And let's be honest, if you're not capable of weighing in on the matter, maybe you should just shut up. If you're not able to settle an argument, maybe you shouldn't butt in. Because if you're not able to help and you're getting involved, it would seem to me you're just taking in gossip. If your only goal in getting involved in an argument is to hear what both parties have to say, You don't need to hear it. There's not a solution being sought. You ought to stay out. Paul here, in settling these contentions, dresses them as brethren, tells them that he's been told this, and then here's a key point. Look at the next phrase there in verse 11. "...by them which are of the house of Chloe." Now, I want to spend some time here for just a moment. Has someone ever approached you with something that they wanted to tell you? And they wouldn't tell you where they heard it from? Have you ever heard someone say this, now you didn't hear it from me? Yeah, I did. It came out of your mouth. I think I know what my ears are hearing and my eyes are seeing your mouth move. I did hear this from you. Why would someone say, now you didn't hear it from me? They don't want anybody to know they told, right? People will come to me as the pastor a lot of times. It hasn't been so much lately, but looking back over my ministry, I've heard this a lot. Preacher, everybody in the church is saying, wait a minute, who's everybody in the church? Preacher, there are people in the church saying this. Well, by people, let's put first and last names in front of them. Who is it? Oh, it's someone that wants to be unnamed, unmentioned. Well, evidently, they don't have a problem because they don't want to talk about it. I'm here to talk about problems. If these people don't want to talk about the problems, then I don't really want to hear what you have to say. Oh, but preacher, listen, if you can't give your source, shut your mouth. That's pretty simple and cut and dry, isn't it? If you've been given secret information, it was secret for a reason. One of two reasons. The person that wanted it kept secret, didn't want to deal with it, or the person that told it, Probably wasn't being honest, so they didn't want it to get out. Paul says, I've been told by them of the household of Chloe. In other words, Paul said, I'm telling the whole church who told me this about you. Now, if you've got a problem with somebody in the church and you're not willing to put your name on it, you ought to just keep it in your own pocket and don't let it out. Because if we're going to talk about generalities and pronouns of they, them, and we, and us, we're not going to get anywhere, because we don't know who the problems are. Where in the world we got this idea of secrecy, secreticism, or however you pronounce it, whatever the word is, secrecy, wherever we got this idea in the church, I don't know, but it didn't come from Scripture. We don't vote by secret ballot. I don't want anybody to know how I voted. Why not? We're all members of this body. If someone is opposed to everyone else, I think the rest of the body ought to know about it. Oh no, no, no. I want secrecy. I don't. I want transparency. I don't mind telling you how I vote. I'd like to know how you vote. Paul didn't have a problem with transparency. He said, I've been told this. by them of the household of Chloe." Now, I know a lot of people who believe that in the Bible, when someone got baptized, they baptized everybody in their family regardless. Infant baptism, that's how they promote it. Let me ask you something. Paul was informed by the household of Chloe that this was going on. Do you know any infants that can write letters to their pastor and explain theological problems in their church? You ever had a baby? I mean, I've only been a pastor now for some ten years. I have never had someone in the nursery come up to me and say, Pastor Harold, I'd like to talk to you about some theological issues within our body of believers here at Lee Creek. To be honest with you, I don't hear that much from adults. So when we're talking about a household being baptized, it's not implying they were all babies. It just means people under that household. And it can mean slaves, it can mean servants, it can mean employees, and it can mean children. And somebody in this household was old enough to either write a letter and get it from Corinth to Ephesus, or old enough to travel from Corinth to Ephesus. And it wasn't just one of them, it was some of them because it's plural. Settling contentions deals with this. The sources must be shared in order to know what contentions we have. When you talk in vague generalities, you get to the bottom of nothing. When you start naming names, people straighten up. Have you noticed when you go into a convenience store, sometimes there will be a big sign that says, smile, you're on camera? Have you noticed that? Why would they put that on there? Why would they want you to know that you're being filmed so you don't go in there and act like an idiot and they can prove it? Right? They don't want you to act like an idiot, so they're telling you up front, hey, we're videoing you. If you come here and tear this place up, we'll plaster your picture all over 5 News on Crimestoppers. You're being videoed. When you put your name on something, you're not worried about it going in the wrong place because you see it as a problem that needs to be addressed. When you're hiding from it and cowering from it and saying someone else ought to deal with it, you're not serious about it, and we'll never get to the bottom of your problems because you don't take them personally. I didn't realize all that was in verse 11. But Paul does it so common sense, logically. He does it over and over and over. He doesn't have to write all this out. He just simply tells us what he did in this letter, and we look at it and see how Paul responds. The gist of the matter. He's been told this. It's hearsay. It's second-hand information. But he says it's from Chloe. And by attaching Chloe's name on it, this would tell the people who it was that said this. Now, let's be honest here. If some wino comes in off the street half-drunk and comes up to you and says, I've got a problem with your preacher, are you going to take him serious? Now, what if some Saintly member of the congregation comes to you and says, I have a problem with Brother Harold. That carries more weight than the wino on the street, doesn't it not? Huh? It does. When he wrote down Chloe's name and that she had a household, a family in the church at Corinth, he's talking about someone that carried weight in the congregation and he said, if Chloe's willing to throw this out, then guess what? It's a real problem and she's willing to put her name on it. What did Chloe's household throw out? That there are contentions among you. The word contentions, as we said, means quarrels, disputes, fights, arguments. It doesn't say a contention, but it says contentions, plural. You know, when I was a little kid, I liked to watch wrestling. Didn't you like to watch it when you were little? Some of you won't admit it in church, but you like to watch it when you're older, too. But wrestling was fun, and then every once in a while, they would have a tag team match. Boy, that was real fun. Because then you had two guys fighting in the ring, and then you had two guys outside of the ring, like throwing chairs in and kicking through the fence and fighting with other people. And then every once in a while, they would have something called a cage match. I remember my dad loading me up when I was five years old and we went to Steer Palace over here in between Van Buren and Alma, and they were having a cage match. And every hero wrestler I knew as a child was going to be in the cage at the same time in an all-out war. And they had a pole. And they greased it with tractor grease. And they put a clothespin at the top with a $100 bill on it. And it was a grease pole match. Now, in the generation we live in, most people wouldn't even attempt to climb a pole for a $100 bill. But back then, that was a lot of money. And in this ring, there were two guys over here fighting, two guys over here fighting, two guys over here fighting, three guys taking turns punching everybody over here in the middle. And this was all going on at the same time. And you just couldn't pick out where to start. I mean, your bad guy would be winning over here, and you'd be rooting for the good guy. And somebody would say, hey, look, look over here, the missing link has them down. And we'd all turn over there, and then the volunerics would turn around and come back. And this was just amazing. A Greece pole match should never be a description of what's taking place in a church, should it? However, when there are contentions in the church, that means multiple fights taking place at the exact same time. This is a serious matter, is it not? Wouldn't you think a small rift in the church would be a serious matter? What if we had people over here fighting, people over here fighting, people back there fighting, and everywhere in the church, it was just a cage match? Sadly, that's taking place in a majority of Baptist churches around America today. You say, well, Brother Harold, I've not seen it. You've not looked close because it takes place. It takes place in almost every church I've ever been in. Multiple quarrels, multiple contentions taking place at the same time with different issues. So here we look at this text. He says, these are in the church. Now listen, pay attention here, this is important. These quarrels are taking place within the body at Corinth. In other words, it's a single solitary church that all this is taking place in. There's going to be quarrels in town, but we're not talking about town. There's a quarrel going on in our town right now about getting the right to sell alcoholic beverages in Crawford County. You say, that's not a quarrel. Oh, yeah, it is. I saw a video where two people were punching each other over a sign the petition to get liquor in Crawford County signed yesterday. If two people punch each other, that's a quarrel. I don't care what your version of the English dictionary is. That's a quarrel. That's taking place. There's a quarrel in Van Buren over whether we should have city parks or not and increase the budget or not. There's a quarrel about what to do with the historic downtown district. There's a quarrel about who built the new jail. There's multiple quarrels going on in the city of Van Buren and that's not our business. Our business is what's happening in the church. There's quarrels going on within the Southern Baptist Convention, and I can gladly say, that's really none of my business. I could care less what those idiots do. I shouldn't say that. I should care less, as Paul said, what my brethren do. I'm learning just like you, I'm learning. There's all kinds of fussing and fighting within our denomination. And guess what? You're never going to stop that because the denomination is a man-made thing. The church is a heaven-built organism. It was built by Christ. You may have quarrels among churches, plural. You may have quarrels among the Christian religion. You may have quarrels among conventions. And all of that's to be expected. But in the confines of a local church, it should not be tolerated. We will always be at odds with the world and other religions, other churches, with other views, but we should not be at odds with one another. So Paul here gives the source, then he states the facts, now he's going to deal with it. Folks, that's how you handle a quarrel. You call the parties in, you tell them what you know, and then you say, all right, here's what we're going to do. Now Paul lays it out in verse 12. Here we have the schisms by clergy. Schisms by clergy. Settling the contentions, Paul lays out what he knows in verse 11, and here's the schism, here's the division. And they're divided by who the clergy are, who the preachers are. Isn't this interesting? Verse 12. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, I am Cephas, Christ. Man! Now, he says, now this I say. You know what, that's Greek for here's what I mean. Okay? Here's what I'm talking about. Here's what I mean. Every one of you said, question, does this mean 100% of the church fell into one of these camps? I always use this illustration. A few years back, when George Bush was the president, he came to Van Buren and spoke at Central Middle School. Now, that's a big deal for the President of the United States to come to Crawford County. I don't know if that has ever taken place with any of the previous presidents, but it was a big deal. The President of the United States was in his bulletproof limo driving to Central Middle School in Van Buren. You know what the news media said? Everyone is here today to see the president." I'm like, I'm not there. I had to work. I couldn't go see that. Other people were not there. The banks didn't close. The production line didn't shut down. Everyone didn't go. Well, do you think the news was trying to imply that 100% of Crawford County residents were at the school to hear the president? No. They were just making a statement that a lot of people showed up here. When Paul says, every one of you, he doesn't mean every single solitary person was in this group or that group or this group or that group. He's just saying this is a great majority of you have fallen into one of these parties of promoting a specific preacher. Now let's look at these parties. A bunch of them said, I am of Paul. Well, I would say that you're probably on solid ground. You know it. I like Paul. We were talking this morning at breakfast. Somebody said, I heard another denomination and they named him a Methodist. They said, I heard another denomination that they were wanting to get rid of the teachings of Paul. And it's true. There is a movement within another unnamed Methodist denomination that is wanting to get rid of the teachings of Paul from the Bible. Now listen, I kind of like what Paul says. I find it to be biblically accurate. It helps me. I wouldn't want to get rid of Paul. I find it to be biblical. So if someone says, I believe the writings of Paul, I say, praise God. The problem was, they weren't just saying, I believe what Paul preached. They were saying, I believe what Paul preached and I don't care about all the other guys that preach. Now, why would you be on good ground to say, I am of Paul? Well, Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles. He wrote two-thirds of your New Testament. I'd say if you followed the teachings of Paul, you'd probably turn out all right. Another fellow says here in verse 12, another fellow, another group, and I of Apollos. Now, who in the world's Apollos? Apollos came to Corinth from Alexandria and he was a great preacher. And the Bible says he was mighty in the Scriptures. In other words, he knew the Word of God and he could preach it. Apollos was a great preacher. Some people believe that Apollos was one of the greatest as far as speakers of the early church. He just had a way of laying out God's Word and people liked it. And he was a great preacher. And if you said, hey, I believe what Apollos says, you know what? You're on good ground. Apollos is a good preacher. He knows the Bible. He's telling you the truth. The problem with the people that say, I'm of Apollos, they're saying, we like Apollos and not anyone else. Third group, I am a Cephas. Cephas. Peter. Peter. The Apostle Peter, that's who that is. I am of Cephas. That's the Aramaic rendering of Peter. I am of Cephas. Now, if you followed the teachings of Peter, would you be okay? First time the guy preached publicly after Christ died, 3,000 people got saved. I'd say that guy had a gift that nobody today carries. Peter, yes. He was an apostle. I would say if you listened to Peter's preaching, you probably had insight that Paul didn't have because Peter traveled and lived with Jesus Christ for three years. He saw all the miracles. He saw all the miracles in the early church. And Paul didn't come around until chapter 9. Peter could tell you stuff that Paul had never seen. I'm of Peter. I'm of Cephas. Praise God. Problem with that is, I like Cephas and nobody else. Now, the super spiritual, you ready? Group number four. This is a four-man cage match. And this ain't the only fight taking place. The fourth person, the fourth party here, I am of Christ. Well, aren't you spiritual? I'm a Christian. Oh, really? What do you believe about Christ? Oh, I just believe in Christ. I just love Jesus. You ever talk to someone whose entire theology is this? I love Jesus. What do you love about Him? Well, I just love Him. Well, how do you serve Him? I just love Him. I just love Him with all my heart. Well, what does that look like? What does the loving of Jesus Christ look like? Honest question. You want Christ's own answer? If you love me, keep my commandments. Them that love Me will keep My commandments." So if you claim to love Christ, I suggest you find out who He is and what He expects of you and do it because He said, those are the ones that love Me. So when someone says, I don't follow Paul, I don't follow Peter, I don't follow Apollos, I'm just following Christ. That's not real spiritual. That's actually worse. Where did you find out about Christ? Did He stand at the foot of your bed and give you insight none of the rest of us got? How did you find out about Christ here today? Did you go outside on a clear starry night and see something written in the stars about Christ? Oh, you read it from the pages of the Bible just like the rest of us, recorded by who? Men like Paul, Peter. You never met Christ personally. Not in the flesh, nor heard Him speak. nor laid eyes on him, and he did not write any books himself." You heard it from someone like Peter or Paul or Apollos. You see, when we look at this text, these people have all isolated themselves from any other preacher except their own personal preference. Interesting thing, Peter, Paul, Apollos, and Christ all preached the exact same gospel. Peter, Paul, Apollos, Christ all preached the same doctrine. Their views on church, their views on theology were all the same. There was no difference in any of these four speakers, yet some people said, oh, I don't like that one, I don't like this one, This is the preaching I like. If they don't preach like Peter, they're not preaching. If they don't preach like Paul, they're not preaching. My friends, listen to me. The clergy are not the cause of this division. They are just the subjects of this division. Did Jesus Christ cause this division in the church? Was it Jesus' preaching that these people had never heard that made Jesus Christ be the preferred teacher? No. Was it Paul going around saying, now if Peter comes along, nobody listen to Peter. Was it Apollos saying, I'm better than everyone else? No. Then how did this division, this contention occur? It occurred Because, not who the preacher was, it occurred because of the people. Yet, it's always the preacher that gets the blame. Brother Harold, you're just divisive. Really? Well, so was Paul, I guess. So was Apollos, I guess. So was Peter, I guess. You see, when you open God's Word and teach from it every week, you don't have to try to be divisive. Your subject is divisive. The Bible is divisive. It turns brother against brother, father against son, mother against daughter. Why? This is an absolute truth and most people will never accept it. So when you lay this out, you've opened yourself up to the claim of being divisive. When we look here at the schisms by clergy, it's not the clergy that caused the divisions. It's the clergy that was subject. to the divisions. Interesting thing here, we look at this text, all four of these preachers, Christ included, are all the subjects of a contention. However, all four of them are opposed to it. But let me tell you what Apollos thought about this. In 1 Corinthians chapter 16, let me read you verse 12. As touching our brother, touching means concerning, as concerning our brother Apollos, I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren." Paul is planning a trip from Ephesus to Corinth. And guess who's in Ephesus with Paul when he gets this information? He and Apollos. And you know what? They like each other. They're friends. They work in the ministry together. And Paul gets this news from Chloe's house and he says, Apollos, I'm going to have to go down there and collect an offering to take back to Jerusalem. You ought to go with me. Now, if Apollos was involved in this, This would be a prime opportunity to go down and line them out. Here's what Apollos says. But his will was not at all to come at this time, but he will come when he shall have convenient time. In other words, Apollos is not the least bit interested in coming down there and appeasing anybody that loves him more than anybody else. But Apollos, they love you in Corinth. I don't care. I don't have time for that mess. Apollos was not impressed. Apollos was opposed to this contention. How about Peter? What does Peter think of Paul? Well, we have Peter's account in 2 Peter 3, verses 15 and 16, and account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul. Also, according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you. What does Peter think of Paul's writing? He says it's God-given wisdom. He said it's a gift from God. What? Paul's preaching a God-given wisdom and the letter is a gift from God? Notice this, verse 16, "...as also in all his epistles." Because I know what you were thinking. Well, he was talking about Galatians. He wasn't talking about Corinthians. He was talking about Philippians. He wasn't talking about Corinthians. Peter says all of Paul's epistles are God-given gifts to the church. Seems like Peter's not interested in dividing Paul and Apollos and Christ. "...and which are some things hard to be understood, which they which are unlearned and unstable wrestle, as they do also with other scriptures, unto their own destruction." You see, the problem was not that Paul wasn't a good preacher or Apollos was too good of a preacher. or that Peter had a better testimony than anyone else, or that Christ was the perfect God-man bodily and spiritually. The problem was immature people. And Peter says, the people that wrestle with what Paul says, wrestle with other Scriptures too, and they do it to their own destruction. If you can't recognize a good preacher, and appreciating for who he is, you're going to have problems all throughout your Christian life. If you're constantly going around trying to find a preacher that tells you what you want to hear, and never upsets you, and never challenges you, and never calls you into correction, then guess what? You're going to grow up to be the biggest brat of a Christian the world has ever known. Because if a child despises discipline, he'll grow up to be a brat. And if a parent refuses to discipline their children, they'll grow up to be brats. And God doesn't go around beating His children over the head. But He does send them preachers. He did give them His Word for their instruction so that they grow up and be thoroughly furnished and become a child of God that needeth not be ashamed. and none of the clergy wanted. I can assure you Christ did not go to heaven and go, alright God the Father, now that I'm here, let's send the Spirit down and split the church up. No, Christ is opposed to division in the church. That brings us to verse 13. Paul here talks about solidified or solidarity in Christ. What's the solution to this cage match in the church? What's the solution to these contentions, plural, that are taking place all over the place? It's Christ. Have you ever watched one of those wrestling matches? Y'all seem to like wrestling this morning. We can talk about it a little more if that make you feel better. Take you back down memory lane. Have you ever seen one of these wrestling matches where people were all in there fighting and then out of the dressing room? Nobody even knew he was in this part of the country, but he was in the dressing room getting his tights on, lacing his boots up, putting the face paint on, and they're like, oh no, here comes so-and-so. And this guy comes out of the dressing room like nobody knew he was in the back of this little arena, getting dressed behind the nacho stand, you know. unannounced to everyone there. Then in comes this guy that's head and shoulders taller than everybody else, stronger than everybody else. Everybody else has been wrestling for 30 minutes and they're gassed. He's fresh. He comes in and starts picking them up and throwing them out of the ring, picking them up. All right. You know what Paul says? The solution to all these little quarrels that are taking place, these little unrily fights that are going on here and there, he says, here comes Christ. Let's put Christ in the ring and let Him clear out all of the arguments, all of the fussing, all of the fighting. Here comes a supreme fighter able to crush all opposition. It's Christ. Look at verse 13 with me. Paul says, "'Is Christ divided?' Look at the rest of it. Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? When we look at solidified in Christ, what Paul is throwing on the table is that nothing that pertains to your Christian religion, your relationship with God, your salvation, had anything to do with anybody but Christ. And he's not promoting the Christ party, those that said, I am of Christ. He's saying, is Christ divided? He begins with that phrase. In other words, does Christ have a multitude of ways in which you could be saved? No? There's only one way to be saved? Is that what the Bible says? There's only one person that can save? Is that what the Bible says? Okay, Paul throws out this truth bomb. You ever watched in the movies when they're in combat and all of a sudden, like in slow motion, you hear the pink of the pin coming out of the grenade and the band falls off of it and that grenade rolls around and everybody in the room looks at it? And then, I mean, it's like scrambling, right? This is a truth bomb. Paul pulls the pin, throws it on the page and says, is Christ divided? Now, if you got four parties in your church, Would Christ approve of those four parties? Is He divided? No way. He's not divided in the Godhead. Although uniquely different in His person from God the Father and the Holy Spirit, He is at one in His nature, character, and being. He's not divided from the Godhead, nor is He divided from the believer. He comes and dwells in us. He is one with us. Though now for a season separated bodily, but united spiritually in Christ with God. He's not divided, nor has He been divided in the Godhead, in the believer, nor is He divided in the church. You cannot divide Christ from His church. You can't have a church apart from Christ. If Christ is no longer in the church, you no longer have a church. You have a building full of people. Without Christ, no church. Is Christ divided? I say no. Here's another interesting fact to me. Christ is not divided from his ministers either. Is Peter called to preach the gospel, the apostle Peter? Some of you are kind of wondering about this. Maybe we need to do a study on the twelve apostles. You have not chosen me, but I've chosen you. Go forth into all nations preaching the gospel." Yes, Peter, if anybody's called to preach the gospel, it's Peter. God calls Peter. Is Paul called to preach the gospel? Huh? Paul, yeah, he was struck blind on the road to Damascus. Blind for three days, sent Ananias with a direct message from Christ. And he says, you're going to be a preacher. Apollos, yes, Paul recognizes him as a preacher. Jesus Christ, prophet, priest, and king. Yes, he came to be a preacher. Jesus Christ is not divided from his ministers, nor has he divided his ministers. In other words, Jesus didn't say, I want four groups of people in four different areas, all opposed to everyone else, solely hung to their person. No, no. Christ appointed these men, every single one of them, He Himself being a preacher. So let's go back and deal with this Christ, the Jesus party I call. Those that say, I unto Christ, I'm of Christ. You ought, if you're going to say, I'm a Christian. Well, what kind of Christian? I'm just a Christian. I just love Jesus." If you're going to do that, shouldn't you be in a church somewhere with other Christians? I'm asking. Don't you think that'd be logical? Is the old saying from the Farmer's Almanac even halfway true? Birds of a feather flock together? Kind of odd when they don't. I mean, have you ever seen a cowbird flying in a flock of blackbirds? So if you say, I'm of Christ, I love Jesus. Okay. Next question. Where do you go to church at? Oh, I'm just a Christian. Well, the most basic of Christians, the most simplest of Christians, the youngest of Christians all have a God-given desire to be around other Christians. You know what I've found? Children have a God-given desire to be around their mother. You notice that? They do. I drove down in the cow pasture last night and I got to watching this one calf out there all by itself running around. I thought, something's wrong with that calf. That calf couldn't find his mom. So I got to driving around looking at the calf. It started bawling. Well, guess who heard bawling? Mama. About 300 yards away, here comes a big old cow running down there. Running down there, started licking that baby. Baby started standing next to mama. You mean to tell me God made you a new creature? completely different from anyone else in the world, gave you a heart and a spirit that longs to serve Him, made you a new creature, gave you a whole new set of ideas, a whole new set of desires, a whole new program, a whole new destination after heaven, and you don't want to be around anybody else in the world that has that same program? I think you're a liar. I'll be honest with you, I think you're a liar. If you can be a Christian and not go to church somewhere. Interesting part here, I think you're a liar if you don't have a pastor. A minister, a clergy. Christ gave pastor-teachers to the church for the strengthening of the body. Have you ever known a child that never ate and grew up to be a healthy, strong young boy? No. I found those healthy, strong kids will eat you out of house and home. Have you noticed that too? I mean, when my grocery bill goes up, the next month the clothing bill goes up because they outgrew what they had. And it's in direct correlation to groceries. Question, how do Christians grow without spiritual groceries when God appointed pastors to shell out spiritual groceries? Feed my sheep, he told Peter. My stars, friend, if you claim to be of the Jesus party, yet you will not accept a church, you will not accept a minister, I don't really think you're in the Jesus party. Nor do I think these who proudly said, I'm of Christ." No, you're just a rebellious person in the church who does not think you need a human teacher. Well, I already know more about the Bible than most people in your church. Well, why aren't you pastoring one of your own? I can say that because I used to think that myself. That's what God impressed upon me. Alright, smarty pants, if you know it all, get up and try to preach yourself. Turned out to be a lot harder than I expected. Solidified in Christ. Notice what else he says in verse 12. I'm sorry, verse 13. Was Paul crucified for you? Who atoned for your sins? Brother Harold, no, I couldn't atone for my own. I couldn't atone for any of mine. I'm like Paul. All my works are as filthy rags, rubbish, dung, he says in one place. Everything I've done to try to make amends with God's, a pile of dung. How in the world could Paul atone for anyone? You know what Paul said about himself in Scripture? He said, I'm the chief of sinners. Anybody want the chief of sinners dying for them? You want the worst of the worst to be your atonement? No. No. I want the best of the best, the only one that measured up to God's standards. What Paul is saying here is he's saying, did anyone other than Christ atone for your sins? Is there anybody else that could be thanked for you? I remember leading a man to Christ one time and it's exactly what I did. I led him to Christ. He came in the next week and he had some troubles. And he said, well, ever since that day you saved me. I didn't hear anything else he said. I said, wait a minute, what? You know, the day you saved me, I said, man, I didn't save you. Yeah, you did. You saved me. I thought this guy did not understand anything we talked about. And I baptized him a week ago. Well, that's scary for me as a person that has to stand before God and give an account for what I preach. And here I'm baptizing a guy that thinks I saved him. My friends, if anyone is saved, it is not because I did something or you did something or even the person that we're talking about who was saved did something. It's because it was Christ who atoned for their sins. Look at that last phrase there in verse 13. Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Baptism. That is our public demonstration that Christ has died for us and raised us again and made us a new creature. And we're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I'm glad. It's funny to me how some churches will baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and then if you're not baptized by the Church of Christ, you're not going to heaven. Interesting. Funny how we're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but if you've been sprinkled in the Catholic Church, you're going to heaven. No. No. Paul said, there's no other name that makes a valid baptism other than the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. I don't care who the preacher is. You weren't baptized in his name even if he was the preacher doing it. People make a big deal out of baptism. Too big a deal. We'll deal with it tonight in the next verses that are on baptism. But here's what they do. They narrow down baptism to the point that if you weren't baptized by the right person, you're not going to heaven. That error is called baptismal regeneration. It's promoted by the Church of Christ, who follow the teachings of Alexander Campbell, and there's Churches of Christ all over our town, all around our area, everywhere you live, there's Churches of Christ, and they say their baptism is the only one. I've got a problem with that. Hey, guess what? I've got a contention with them. I've got a quarrel going on with them. Paul said, who were you baptized by? It don't matter. Let me ask you a question. All 12 apostles went out and baptized under the teaching of Christ, right? Can you imagine about a week after Jesus was crucified and rose from the grave and you got word that Judas Iscariot had hung himself and killed himself and betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver and it was Judas Iscariot that baptized you? That'd bother me just at first glance. There's 12 guys baptized, and I picked the one dude that turns in Christ to the authorities. There's 12 guys baptized. I got in one line, and my guy sold the Son of God for 30 pieces of silver and killed himself. The Bible calls him the son of perdition. That's my baptizer. I'll tell you what, if it wasn't for verse 13 in 1 Corinthians, I would really be concerned if I'd been baptized. But Paul says, you're not baptized in the name of the God that baptized you. You're baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. You know what? Luther Oglesby baptized me in 1982. And I don't know anything about Luther Oglesby, whether he was truly saved or not, nor do I care. I was baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It's a public demonstration of what God had already done on the inside. That did me some good if it didn't help anybody else. What is Paul doing here? By throwing Christ into the ring and demonstrating what Christ does in all of these things, He demonstrates the silliness of these four parties. Nothing will end the fight quicker than showing how silly everyone in the party looks. When everyone sees the foolishness and the error of their ways, they quickly pick up other things. You see, in order for us to handle contentions, We must lay out Christ as the standard. Now listen, pay attention here. Christ as standard will only work between two Christian parties. If you're not a Christian, you don't have any respect for Jesus Christ anyway. But if two people are Christians, we can add Christ into the mix and everybody that's a true believer starts to feel foolish for the arguments they've made. That's exactly what Paul does. So what do we take away from this today? There's nothing wrong with recognizing a gifted preacher. Nothing wrong with that. If God has gifted someone to preach the gospel, and they've done a marvelous job of it, there's nothing wrong with enjoying one particular preacher. I particularly like Charles Spurgeon. I like Martin Lloyd Jones. I do. I like these men. I like A.W. Tozer. I like A.W. Pink. I enjoy what these men preached. But I'm never going to say I am a Spurgeonite. I follow the teachings of Charles Spurgeon. I am a Spurgeonist. No. I'm following Jesus Christ. Call me a Christian, that's it. And I'm not being taught by Christ. He's not my only preacher. I'm learning from other godly men just like you are. Some preachers like to boast that they do not use a commentary. They get all their sermons exclusively from the Bible, to which I always respond, it shows in your preaching. It shows in your preaching. You're too proud to learn from someone else, you're never ever going to be much of a preacher. There's nothing wrong with recognizing gifted men, but not to the point that you quarrel with other ministers. Well, if you don't like our guy and our guy exclusive, we don't like you. My friends, that's going on today. in our churches and in the circles that we're in. But just because we shouldn't divide over preachers, does not mean that we should never divide. Just because we shouldn't be in contention over who the preacher is, does not mean that we should not have any contention. The divisions that we make, are over the gospel. Remember what we said about Peter? Preach the same gospel that Paul preached. And Paul preached the same gospel that Christ preached. And Apollos preached the same gospel that Christ preached. And all these guys had the same doctrine, had the same gospel. There should be no division where the gospel is correct. Well, where does the divisions occur? They occur when the gospel changes. If someone has another gospel, Paul told us what to do in the book of Galatians. You remember? Any man, preach any other gospel to you, even if he's an angel from heaven, Paul said, let him be accursed. Paul says, if I ever start preaching a different gospel, let me be accursed. Again I say unto you. Can you imagine Paul saying that? If someone's preaching a different gospel, let them be accursed. Even if it's me, let me say it again, if anybody preaches another gospel, let him be accursed. Do you know what that means? There's going to be some quarrels. There's going to be some convention. And rightfully so when someone's preaching a different gospel under the guise of our God. If that doesn't stir you up and make you half mad, I question your salvation. If you're okay with someone preaching a false gospel and leading people to hell thinking they're right with God, you've got a problem. You do. Why don't you go take the bridge out signs down and watch people run off into the river? You're doing the same thing by your silence. What do we take from this? Four preachers, one gospel. So if we all agree on the gospel, there should be no contention among us. But we ought to. equally contend for the faith with those that preach a different gospel." I like what Jude said in Jude verse 3, the latter part. He said, "...and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend." Same word. that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints, we ought to contend for a biblical gospel." I don't know if all of you got a bulletin, but if you did, you'll notice a little cartoon picture in here. Joel Osteen's book. I don't know what the name of it actually was. I think it's How to Have Your Best Life Now or whatever, one of those books. The caption on this one says, How to Get Rich by Lying to Christians. seven steps to duping Christians by preaching a false gospel. Joel Osteen. I've had people come in here and read a cartoon like that in our bulletin. And when church is over, come up to me with their bulletin out and go, I don't think that's funny. And I go, I don't think it is either. I don't know why you would say that about Joel Osteen. You know, my response always is, I don't know why Joel Osteen would say that about our God. That's a different gospel. That's a different gospel. And if that doesn't upset you a little bit, if that doesn't stir you up a little bit, it's your problem, not mine. If you can't see the difference between what Joel Osteen is preaching and what Paul and Apollos and Peter and Christ are preaching, what gospel do you believe? What gospel do you believe? You say, how is this gospel any different than yours? Very simply, at the end of every one of his messages on TV, he'll say, do you want to be saved today? Repeat after me. He'll lead somebody in a sinner's prayer over the TV and then he'll smile real big and go, now friend, if you prayed that prayer right there, we believe you got born again. I got a problem with that. I know about 9 billion people that have prayed that prayer and nothing changed in their life. That's a different gospel. That prayer doesn't save anybody. Jesus Christ is the only one that atoned for your sins. And unless you're willing to repent of your sins before God, see yourself as a sinner deserving hell, a sinner who needs to be saved by a holy God, you will not go to Him. You'll say, I prayed the prayer that Joel Osteen led me in and he believed I got born again. Well, if it makes any difference, I don't believe you did. So now we're 50-50. You must repent of your sins. You must confess yourself a sinner before God. And then you need to find a solution for your sins. You've admitted you're a sinner. You know that God's right to judge you because of your sins. You know that sin brings death and you're a sinner and you're worthy of death, eternal death in hell. Then guess what? How do you atone for that? You need somebody to right the wrong. You know you're wrong. That's where Christ comes in. You have to, by faith, confess Christ and His death to be the atonement. for your sins. And guess what happens when you trust what Christ did on the cross? You say, well, brother, how can trusting in Christ correct my sin problem? He never sinned. He never had your problem. He never deserved to die. When Christ died on the cross, he never sinned, never deserved death. So when he died on the cross, God laid on Him the sins of us who would believe. And guess what? If you can, by faith, trust that what Christ did on the cross was sufficient for you and repent of your sins towards God, guess what happens? You've confessed Christ to be your Savior. Well, have you boiled that down into a prayer I can repeat after you? No. I've left it up to a holy God who will change your outlook on life. I've left it up to God to convert you from who you were to what God's called you to be. If I've got to put the words in your mouth, nothing has happened in your life. But if God gets a hold of you, you will cry out to God for mercy and beg Christ to save you. That gospel. what Paul preached. That gospel is what Apollos preached. That gospel is what Peter preached. That gospel is what Christ preached. My friend, I'm contending for that gospel. Now you've heard it. The question becomes this. What will you do about it? You've been told you're a sinner. I know that may not make you happy. You may not like it. But that's the way it is. It's what the Bible says and I believe it. I don't care how good you've been. There's no way that you can atone for your sins. The question becomes, will you go to God and repent of your sins? And then when you repent of your sins, will you trust that Christ is sufficient? Pay for your sins. Not just the sins you've committed. I've got good news. Christ atones for the sins you're going to commit. Because you're not ever going to be perfect. Isn't it marvelous, Christian, to know? that when Christ died for us 2,000 years ago, He died for every single solitary sin. Not just your great big ones. Your little white lies you think nobody knows about. All of those atoned by Christ. My friend, I don't care who's preaching that. If they're preaching that, they're our friend. They're preaching that, they're worthy of our support. If they're preaching that gospel, they're worthy of our respect. And if they preach it better than we ever could, they're still worthy of our respect. You know why? We rejoice that that gospel's being preached. Because it's not what you're hearing on TV. It's not what you're hearing on the radio. It's not what you're reading on the internet. But it's the same gospel. And if that gospel's being preached, I don't care who's preaching it. I rejoice in it. I pray that you do too. Amen?