And I kind of picked that song because grace is part of these verses that we're going to be looking at as a significant part. And really it's a significant part of all of the message of the gospel. But Paul highlights this in these opening verses, which we'll see is pretty common that He highlights the grace of God because it's all of grace. Nothing that we can do, nothing to earn it, nothing we can do to keep it. It's all of God's grace. So let's go to Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you, Father, that it is your word. and because of that, Father, it is able to penetrate into our hearts and bring, Father, the hope of the gospel to bring conviction of sin, but also, Father, to point us to your Son, the Lord Jesus, that we might fall upon Him and cast our care upon Him, that we might place our faith in Him, that, Father, we might follow Him and be obedient to Him. So, Father, we pray that You'll be glorified in Christ, exalted in your Holy Spirit, move in power as we study these few verses from this opening of 1 Corinthians. So Father, we ask you to bless your word. We ask it in Jesus name, amen. So last week I tried to give a little bit of background. We looked over in chapter, I think 18 of Acts, to see some of the background of the church being established at Corinth. Again, this is a major city. It supplanted Athens, really as a center of philosophy. That's why Paul emphasizes that he did not come to them in wisdom, but he came in weakness. We talked about that a little bit last week. Because there was great pride in Corinth with their philosophy and their various groups of Stoics and Epicureans and all various groups that would debate and debate and debate. And took pride in their debating, but Paul says... power he came in and what he glories in is the cross of Jesus Christ. And so we'll see that as we get into chapter one and chapter two. So he says Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus in our brother Sosthenes. Now some make a point that he separates Sosthenes from this apostleship, because again, as we talked last week, this particular role as an apostle, I believe was reserved for the 11 and Paul, and maybe Matthias, we can maybe include Matthias there, but Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles who had that apostolic authority. There's no one living since then that has that apostolic authority individually. The apostolic authority is in the word of God, is in the New Testament particularly. And that's where the authority comes from. It's why the Bible and the gospel has power because it's God's gospel, it's God's word. And because it's God's word, it has authority. And it is a source, the source of truth. to the church of God that is in Corinth to those sanctified in Christ Jesus. And I think this is very important. This church was very troubled. There was divisions in the church. There was misuse of the spiritual gifts. There was abuse of the Lord's Supper. There was a man living with his stepmother and being sexually involved with her. There's an immorality, intolerance of that immorality going on. And it seems that Paul had written a previous letter that has been lost and probably by the will of God. to indicate that it did not have the apostolic authority in it. In chapter 5, verse 9, he says, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. Now, I need to finish that verse because Verse 10 says, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or adulterers since you would need to go out into the world. OK, so Paul's not being a bigot here. He said, I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. He's talking about believers that are involved in sexual immorality. That's what he's talking about. He says that not all meaning the sexual and moral of this world, those who are lost, we need to take the gospel to them. Okay. Are the greedy or the swindlers or the idolaters? Okay. So Paul's not calling for isolation. He's not calling for rejecting those who are lost. He's calling to not associate with those who named the name of Christ. who are involved in sexual immorality. And we'll get into that further. But my point is, I wrote to you in my letter. So it seems that Paul wrote a previous letter before 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. But we don't have that letter. It's not been preserved. And that's probably by the will of God. The books of the New Testament, the 27 books in the New Testament, we believe are inspired by God, but also preserved by God and brought to us, and ultimately brought to us in our language or the language of many people so that they could read the word of God themselves. So Paul's reminding these people who they are, and that's very important. We need to remember who we are in Christ. So he says to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus. Now, what does that word sanctify mean? It means to be set apart. When we come to the Lord in saving faith, we're set apart for him. We belong to him. And we don't belong to ourselves anymore. As he'll speak later, he said, we've been bought with a price. That's why he says not to get involved in sexual immorality because we have been bought with a price, a precious price of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, his death. He's redeemed us. He loved us enough to die in our place. And so this word sanctified means to be set apart in Christ Jesus. Now that's very important. We're just not set apart disconnected from the gospel, disconnected from the Lord Jesus Christ, we're set apart in Christ Jesus. Okay, what it'll say in 2 Corinthians 5.17, a very familiar verse, therefore if any man be, where? In Christ Jesus. He's a new creation. The old has passed and the new has become. Okay, so this is very important and what it'll say in a very significant verse. Let me see. Yeah, verse nine, where it says, God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship, the koinonia, that's what that word is, the koinonia, of his son Jesus Christ our Lord. And let me just double check real quick. Here it is. The faithful God who has called you into Ecclesia, which means Ecclesia, who called you into Koinonia with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. That Koinonia means, it was a medical term that meant to take a broken bone and put it back together and wrap it up and do whatever you're gonna do to it. And as that broken bone was mending, and I've heard this all ever since I was a little boy, that where that bone breaks, it's stronger where that bone breaks than it was before because it's knitting itself together and being in almost interlocking that those tissues, that bone tissue is interlocking and becoming tremendously strong, stronger than it was before it was broken. And that's the picture of this koinonia. God has called us into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. So this is very important. The first thing that Paul is doing. Now, when he wrote to the Galatians, he was pretty upset. And he doesn't even greet them in Galatians. He goes right to the point of them being deceived by a false gospel. And well, he does say grace to you and peace from God, our father, Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and father to whom be. Lord forever and ever. And then he goes in verse six, I'm astonished that you're so quickly deserting him who called you into the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. He gets right to the point. Now, this church at Corinth, again, was very troubled. But the first thing that Paul does is calling them back to who they are, reminding them of who they are. Peter does a similar thing when he writes to these believers in the dysphoria, where... Let me just start in verse three of 2 Peter 1. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them, that's the word of God, you may become partakers of the divine nature, being in union with Christ. It doesn't make, we don't become little gods like some of these guys on TV and radio and write books about. No, we are in Christ. We are joined with him. We're in relationship with him. Having escaped from the corruption that is in this world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness. and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's the verse I was thinking about. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. So Peter's doing basically the same thing, telling these believers in dysphoria that God has given them everything they need and they just need to take advantage of that and pursue Christ and grow in faith, grow in virtue, grow in knowledge, grow in self-control, grow in steadfastness, grow in godliness, and grow in brotherly affection, and grow in love agape love for if these qualities are yours and are increasing they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord jesus christ and if they're not present it's because we've forgotten who we are now that's the same thing paul is doing here i believe in first corinthians he's reminding them who they are to the church of god this is god's church And I know in churches, I've been in them, I've served in them. Sometimes a group of people think they are in charge. It's their church. Sometimes preachers talk about my church. I do that all the time, but I try to do it kind of in a generic way. I don't believe it's really my, it's God's church. It's the Lord Jesus church. It's his bride. He, he paid the price for us. So I don't think I tried to do it in a prideful way, but sometimes people are proudful and they say, this is my church and we're going to do things my way or it's the highway. And unfortunately that happens more often than is beneficial for the name of Christ. But whose church is it? It's God's church, it's the Lord Jesus. There's one head of the body, and that's the Lord Jesus. There's not multiple heads, there's one head. It's not the preacher, it's not the deacons, it's not a Sunday school teacher, it's not the wealthiest family in the church, it's one, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, the church of God that's in Corinth, sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, Again, that's the same is connected to that word sanctified. Called to be saints, the ones that are set apart. Haggai, the one who has been set apart for a purpose. That purpose is to follow Christ. But we've been set apart together. Okay. Called to be saints together. And one of the first thing that Paul addresses in this letter is division in the church. And what he's saying to these believers, that should not be so, because of who we are. We've been called to be saints together, and not just in this local church at Corinth, but he's saying together with all those who are in every place, who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. And so there, and I believe there is among all true believers. There's this sense of brotherhood and I could say sisterhood, but there's a sense of connection I've experienced when I've gone overseas. I went to Crimea back in 95, 96. I don't speak Russian. I don't speak Ukrainian, but even though there was a language barrier, In some ways, an economic barrier. And in some ways, to a certain extent, some cultural barriers. I was united with these believers in Jankoy, in the Crimea, because of the Lord Jesus Christ. We were and are brothers and sisters in Christ. When I went to Bulgaria, I went to Bulgaria in 2001 and taught in their Baptist seminary. They would have seminary classes at least twice a year. And the Bulgarian Baptist Union paid the salaries of the pastors in Bulgaria. And one requirement of receiving your salary was to come to these seminary classes and be trained. And so I was able to go in 2001 to Bulgaria, to Sofia, the capital, and spend basically four and a half days teaching a group of 70 pastors from Bulgaria. But we, there were a bond between us. I don't speak Bulgarian, still don't speak Bulgarian. In fact, my translator, I'm friends with him on Facebook. Now it's been 22 years, but I kind of keep up with him on Facebook. And because we had a bond together. When I was there, he was only, I think, 21 or 22. So now he's in his mid 40s or early 40s. But we had an instant bond and a connection. In fact, it was my best experience of working with a translator. My translators in the Crimea weren't believers. And so there was a little bit of disconnect because they didn't really understand sometimes what I was saying, the spiritual import of it. But my translator in Bulgaria, he was a young believer and actually having a sense of call to ministry. So it took us our first session together to kind of gel, but once we kind of gelled, man, it was smooth sailing. And part of that reason is because we had the same mind together of following Christ. We are saints together with all those in every place who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says grace you in peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I give thanks to my God always for you, here it is, because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus. The abundance of God's provision, we just, sometimes we just don't meditate upon that enough to realize what God has given us in his son. That's what Paul, our Peter says there in 2 Peter 1. God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Where? Well he says in his precious promises, but who do those precious promises point to? The Lord Jesus Christ. What he'll say in 1 Corinthians, I think chapter 1, he says all the promises of God are yes, King James says yea, are yes in Christ Jesus. So when he says these great and precious promises, he's really talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians 1, as surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes or no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaim among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not yes or no, but in Him, it is always yes, for all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. That wasn't just for Paul and Timothy and Silvanus, that was for all these believers he's talking to. That's for us. So Paul says, I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus. That in every way you were enriched in him. Now, Paul says in Ephesians that we've been blessed with every spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. And, Blessed be the God and Father, Ephesians 1, 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved, in him, the Lord Jesus. We have redemption through his blood. We have the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth. I could go on, he just unpacks that. But my point is, let's not just throw grace around without meditating upon it and the fullness of that grace. In fact, as we study Romans, one of my favorite thoughts about this is in chapter five of Romans. Where it says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access by faith. We've obtained, we've attained access by faith. Into this grace. In which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. This grace in which we stand. I try to picture this. I just try to draw a circle. And in Christ Jesus, I'm in that circle. And that circle is a circle of grace. And everything that I need is in that circle because the Lord Jesus Christ is in that circle. Paul says we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We take our stand. We plant ourself there. This is what Paul is doing with these Corinthian believers. He's reminding them of who they are. So he says, he says, in every way you were enriched in him, in all speech and knowledge. Now this is where they got in a little bit of trouble. Again, Corinth was famous for their philosophers and their philosophical discussions and this pursuit of knowledge. And so some of these Corinthian believers were pulling on that and taking great pride in their knowledge. That's why he says over in chapter 13, if I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love, I am a noisy gong and a clanking cymbal. If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries, and I have all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Okay, so Paul's affirming that they've been blessed in all speech and all knowledge. But it must be exercised in the spirit of love. I speak the truth in love. What Paul says in Galatians, let me see if I can find the verse real quick. He says the only thing that matters is faith expressing itself in love. I don't know if I can remember. that verse, that verse six of Galatians 5. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working or expressing itself through love. So in every way you've been enriched in Christ, in him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, that's his second coming. And in the meanwhile, who will sustain you to the end? The Lord Jesus will sustain us until he's revealed. Okay. Very similar to Philippians 1.6, being confident of this very thing that he, who began a good work in you. And that, by the way, that word you is plural. He's talking to the body there at Philippi. being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful. He's the faithful one. Now, let me say this real quick. Our time's about gone. Spiritual gifts are not a sign of spirituality and being spiritual. These believers, were blessed with all kinds of spiritual gifts, but they were abusing them. The evidence of spirituality or the working of the Spirit in our life is the fruit of the Spirit, which I believe is the very character and nature of the Lord Jesus. Okay. And if we want to discern if a person is on that spiritual journey, look for the fruit of the spirit in his life, in her life. Galatians 5, 17. Let me start with verse 16. But I say walk in the Spirit or by the Spirit, and you will not gratify or fulfill the lust or desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit. King James says that the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. The Spirit lusts against the flesh. They're diametrically opposed. For these are opposed to each other. To keep you from doing the things you want to do, But if you are led by the spirit, you're not under the law. Now, the works of the flesh are evidence, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies. And things like these, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such thing will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit, and this is the evidence of the Spirit working in our life, this is the evidence of walking in the Spirit, or walking by the Spirit, this is evidence of being led by the Spirit, which Paul says over in Romans 8, if the Spirit of God is not in us, we don't belong to Him. What are the fruits of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with his passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, Let us also walk by the Spirit. That literally says, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Now our time is basically gone, I believe. But I want to just finish these next couple of verses. So that you're not lacking any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Basically what Paul's saying, from this moment on, from the moment of your conversion until the Lord Jesus comes back or until you die. This is what we're to pursue. There's no retirement in the Christian life. We're to pursue Christ all the way to our last breath or until the trumpet sounds. who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called into that koinonia, that fellowship, as I mentioned earlier, that union of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, I'm going to stop there because our time's gone. But before Paul goes in and starts detailing all these problems and responding to them, the first thing he does is saying, hey, this is who you are. You are sanctified in Christ Jesus. You are called to be set apart together with all the saints. And you've been graced by God in Christ Jesus. In every way, you're enriched in Him, in all speech and knowledge. You're not lacking any spiritual gift that's necessary. I think what Paul's saying, that's necessary. Not every believer has every spiritual gift. What he's saying to this body, that God has gifted them sufficiently to be a light in the midst of darkness, to be a testimony to the grace of Christ, that they're not lacking in anything, primarily because they're in Christ, but God has equipped them to accomplish the task he sets before them, and that he is faithful to sustain us to the end. John says in 1 John, we love him because he first loved us. Now, before he says that in chapter three, verses one through three, he says, Behold, what manner of love the Father has, King James says, bestowed upon us, better translated, has lavished upon us, that we should be called the sons of God, the children of God. He says, that's what we are. What John is saying there, linger at the cross, linger at the open tomb, linger in the gospels at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, what he did and what he said, how he, excuse me, how he lived in obedience to the father, how he willingly laid down his life to die in our place, how he was raised with power from that grave, how he's been exalted to the right hand of the father and bring all things in subjection of his feet. And one day that trumpet's going to sound and the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be revealed. I think Paul's saying, go back to that point. Go back to that point, that joy of salvation, where you sense the forgiveness of your sin. Go back to that point where God, by his grace, blessed you with everything he has to offer in his son. and live from that point. Renew that point in your mind day by day and rejoice in who we are in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you, Father, for your grace in calling us to salvation. I pray, Father, that anyone might be watching this broadcast that Father, you would help them understand if they have not trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is their only hope. He is their only peace. He is their only source of forgiveness. He is their only source of love and joy. And Father, call them to Jesus tonight by your saving grace. It's all of your grace, and we give you glory for that. So Father, we pray your word will transform our lives by the working of your Holy Spirit, and by our obedience. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Lord bless you, and I kind of paused with Daniel last Sunday to kind of focus on kind of a Father's Day message. It really wasn't necessarily how to be a great father, but it was just a call to Adam, where are you? Where are you in your life? Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you been forgiven and received the gift of everlasting life? So I'm gonna go back to Daniel. I think we'll start chapter two this week. It's what I'm kind of working on and looking at. So if you have a church home, be faithful to your church home. If not, join us at Antioch. We're at 18319 Wild Horse Creek Road in Chesterfield. Our Bible study's at 930 and then worship's at 1045. If you have a church home, be faithful, but join us later on Facebook. God bless you and we'll see you next week.