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You're listening to a message preached at Front Range Baptist Church by Pastor Dean Miller. It is our prayer that this message will be a help and an encouragement to you in your spiritual walk. Now, here's Pastor Miller.

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Well, are you glad you're saved tonight? Man, the words of that song are so good. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the sinless Son of God, that you look on him and pardon us. Lord, we are so grateful for the gift that we have in Jesus Christ. And now, Lord, I pray that as we go through your word, we would be good stewards of that unspeakable gift. And Lord, that we would learn and grow in your word, that we would apply these truths. Even flying over a book, we learn so much. And I just pray tonight you would open our eyes and our hearts to receive spiritual truth in Jesus' name. Amen. Tonight we are flying, you can be seated, we are flying over 1 Corinthians. So find that in your Bible. 1 Corinthians, we are, this is flight 66. If you're new with us, we've been flying over every book of the Bible from cruising altitude. You've got a window seat looking right down on the landscape. And we're learning, we've we've been, we started in Genesis. We've been through every single book. There were a few times I was tempted at joining up some of the minor prophets into one lesson, and I thought, nope, we're going through all 66. It's flight 66. And uh so we're gonna go through all of them. Hey, speaking of that, um, while we're in here, I am so grateful for what God's doing across the property. Our youth department is is growing, and um and Pastor Ethan and Miss Caitlin are doing a great job. Uh there's been some things that I've been concerned with over the last few years in our youth department, but man, God's doing a spiritual work there and God's using them. So pray for them. And then last week was the kickoff to Iwana, and we had uh we had 91 kids in Iwana, 25 workers. So I've heard of I've heard from some of the workers who used to be in here with us on Wednesday night. Um, hey, how do we get the I'm like, listen, just go online and you can get the lesson online. You can go back on YouTube or something and watch the lesson, but they're missing out on Flight 66. But they're over there with our kids, and uh, we had this week we had the 100th one registered for Iwana. So think about that. Aren't you glad you're over here? All right. So there's a hundred kids running around over there in the cubbies and the TNTs and all of them in Iwana, but they're learning the word of God. And uh, if you're not familiar, I wana comes from uh the verse, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. And so Awana is a little acronym of a worker not ashamed. And uh we're trying to get the word of God hidden in their hearts, and so pray for Pastor John and Miss Stacy, and they're doing a great job with our kids, and there's a work going on, people being discipled tonight around the property, and so it's just good to see what God's doing at front range. And uh tonight we're gonna get into 1 Corinthians, all right? This is um this is a confused church, not this church, uh, this church is a confused church. I would wager to say that many of us would have never joined the Church of Corinth. And yet the Lord loved them, and he corrected them, and he desired to make them a glorious church, and uh, we are an imperfect church, and we should desire to be made into a glorious church, a church that can be used for God's glory. Uh, and so Paul's gonna get into this uh with with the Church of Corinth. The gospel of Jesus Christ must shape not only what the church believes, but how the church behaves. The gospel of Jesus Christ must shape not just what the church believes, but what how the church behaves. And Paul's gonna write in chapter 3, verse 11, he's gonna write these words. For other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. This is kind of a key verse for the book of 1 Corinthians, because what Paul's gonna do, he's gonna take the church of Corinth and he's gonna come back down to their foundation on Christ and in the gospel. And he's gonna say, in the light of this, in the light that you have been placed into Christ, built upon Jesus Christ, in light of that, your life ought to be demonstrating the gospel of Jesus Christ. But they were not, they were a gifted church. In fact, in this book, Paul's gonna say, you're gifted above every other church. There are so many spiritually gifted people in the church. But spiritual gifts don't always equal spirituality. Spiritual gifts are things, and we'll talk about this in a minute, they're things that you're given by grace at salvation. Not only did I receive the gift of salvation, but I received spiritual gifts with that so that God can make me a gift to the church. But spiritual gifts functioning outside of spiritual power become confusion. And this is where it creates trouble in the church. This church had division, this church had immorality, this church had lawsuits among the believers. This church had massive questions about marriage, and rightfully so. They had confusion about Christian liberty. There was disorder in the way they worshiped, they were misusing their spiritual gifts, and they were even having questions about the resurrection. And so Paul doesn't abandon this messy church. He brings them back issue by issue to Christ, the cross, and the gospel. And that's exactly what he does. And I love that because uh it would have been easy for Paul to just run up to Thessalonica and say, let's get back here to an ideal church, to these guys who the gospel has sounded out all through Macedonia from this church, they didn't really have a whole lot of problems. But we've got to get into a church that's really messy. And can I just tell you, church, sometimes church gets messy. In Jesus' parables on the kingdom of God in Matthew 13, there's an interesting parable that Jesus gets about a man who finds a treasure in a field, and he goes and sells everything that he has to buy the field so that he can have the treasure. Well, this is an incredible picture of Christ and his church. Uh the Lord Jesus, God saw the church as a treasure in the field, and he paid for that with everything to buy the whole field. He died for the whole world. Right? And uh and so sometimes what happens is we come to a church and we forget that a church is in a field. It's a treasure in a field. And sometimes we come to the church and we're like, wow, what a treasure. This is a great fellowship. This is a man, we like the singing, we like the fellowship of believers, we enjoy the preaching or we whatever, but we we see the treasure in the church. And then eventually we start seeing weeds. And we see some things that, wait a minute, why is that lizard? Uh well, because the church is in a field, but he didn't discard the treasure, he bought the whole field. And so sometimes you got to take the field with the treasure. And if you're gonna be a part of the body of Christ, sometimes you've got to deal with some weeds. But we don't let the weeds take over. Amen. So this is what Paul's gonna do. He's gonna come back issue by issue to the church, to Christ, to the cross, and to the gospel. Uh, let's let's talk about Corinth for just a minute, just to give us a little bit of background before we start running through the book. Corinth occupied a strategic position on the narrow isthmus that connects northern and southern Greece. So coming out of Athens and coming down to the south, you come across a narrow strip of land called an isthmus. And on that strip of land, Corinth was strategically positioned there. It was a prosperous city, it was a cosmopolitan, it was a commercially important city, but it was known for one thing. Did anybody know what it was known for? Moral sin. In fact, Corinth became a byword. Somewhere in the Roman Empire, if a person was living an immoral, fornicating life, they would say he acts the Corinthian. It was a byword in those days. It was a wicked, wicked city. Paul first came to Corinth during his second missionary journey in Acts chapter 18. This is where he met the cute couple. Anybody remember the cute couple? Little coffee mug couple? Aquila and Priscilla. And he worked with them as a temp maker in this city. He preached in the synagogue that was in Corinth, and he eventually remained in Corinth for about a year and six months in Acts 18, 11. He was there a year and a half, 18 months. When Paul left, a church was established. But bringing people out of Corinth proved to be an easier task than getting Corinth out of the people. And so that tension explains Paul's letter. Alright? Everybody with me on this? So here we go. Number one, I want you to see in the first four chapters, we see a church divided. This church had some serious problems. Now, the household of Chloe tattled on the church. Paul talks about it here in the book. He said, Hey, I'm going to tell you that I heard some things from the household of Chloe, and she's told me that there are some serious problems. And Paul, in the first six chapters, is going to deal with, he's going to deal with known problems in the church. Chapters 1 through 6, known problems in the church. I know this is a problem in the church. Chapters 7 through 16, he's going to deal with their questions. The church has unanswered questions. Paul's going to help them to settle some things that he didn't really necessarily know were going on, but they were wondering about things about marriage and so forth. But one of the things that Paul knew was happening was division in the church. Look at chapter 1 and verse 10. He says, Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all be, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. I want you to have the same mind and I want you to have the same spiritual discernment about things. I want you to think spiritually here. I want you to be in the same mind. Paul would later write to the church at Philippi and say to them, I want you to be all of one mind and of one heart, striving together for the faith of the gospel. This church was striving together in division when they should have been striving together for the faith of the gospel. Paul said in verse number 11, 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 says, I'm of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I have Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptize none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I baptized in my own name, and I baptize also the household of Stephanos. Besides, I know not whether I baptize any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. It's one of the greatest verses to use on whether or not baptism is necessary for salvation. Paul did not, Paul wasn't sent to baptize, he was sent to preach the gospel. And then those elders that would come in, so Paul was there for 18 months. What was he doing? He was declaring the gospel. He was winning people to Jesus Christ. Once those people got saved, he brought in Timothy. He brought in these men that would be pastors, then those people were baptized into one body, into a church. And so Paul said, Listen, you guys are fighting over the personalities. The church had developed into factions. This person said, I'm of Paul. Then you had these people who say, I like Apollos, and I'm of Cephas, and there were the real spiritual ones. Well, I follow Christ. And what had happened was this. And by the way, it's the same today. No different. The personalities have become bigger than the purpose. Today we we seek out teachers that we like. There are people who come to this church and they say, you know, I really like the fellowship and I really like some of the things, and I got friends here, but I just don't really like the preaching. I want more somber kind of preaching. And okay. There are some people, you may not believe this or not, but there are people who don't like my preaching. And my wife is one of them. She reminds me of it all the time. Didn't you hear what you said on Sunday? You should listen to your preaching. I will tell you this, I know there's one person in this church that doesn't like my preaching. It's me. And anytime I hear it, I just recoil it like, turn that off. I don't want to listen to that guy. But personalities become bigger than their purpose. You know, people will seek out somebody that, man, I just really connect with that guy. I like the way that they teach. Well, that's good. There are people that God will use, but we got to be very careful that we don't get so enamored of following a teacher that will teach it like we like it, that we lose sight of the message that's being preached. So what was Paul's answer to them? Paul's answer in verse number 15 or 17 was for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words. You know what that was? That was a shot across the bow of the people who followed Apollos. Because Apollos was eloquent. Apollos was an orator. Apollos could stand in an assembly, and he could speak in a way that would draw people in, wisdom of words. And he said, I didn't come to you with wisdom of words. And it's not wrong for someone to come to you with wisdom of words. We need Apollos in the body of Christ. Thank God for the Apollos. He said, I didn't come to you with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us that are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolishness the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Listen, I'm all for apologetics, and I'm all for engaging and coming up with answers and having a theological debate with somebody, but I want to tell you something. Most of the time in apologetics, we're winning an argument and we're not winning souls.

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Amen.

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And if I can explain to everybody about where everything came from, and I can explain to everybody all of my theological arguments and my, and I'm all for apologetics. I think we ought to know why we believe what we believe, and we should be able to state that when it's challenged. I believe that. But I'm going to tell you something. If none of that points back to the efficacy of the cross of Christ, then it's all for naught. It's just theological debate. We need to be able to get down to the business of what are you going to do with Jesus? So Paul brought them back to the cross. The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us that are saved, it is the power of God. Corinth admired eloquence. They admired philosophy. I mean, they were just down the, they were a stone's throw from Athens and Mars Hill, where Paul was battling with the philosophers who loved to come and hear a new thing. And some of these philosophers would just trickle down the hill into Corinth to go have their little fun and live in the moment and live in human wisdom and status. And Corinth admired all that, but Paul reminded them that Christianity rests on something that the world considers foolish: a crucified Savior. You know what we all are here? God got on a cross and he died and shed his blood for us. And if that didn't happen, we have nothing. There were three corrections to the divisions that Paul gives in the first few chapters here. First of all, he said, and I think this will help all of us when we have division in the church. Number one, remember who saved you? Christ. Paul said, I wasn't was Paul crucified for you? I wasn't crucified for you. Listen, this is why we shouldn't build churches on personalities. This is one of the reasons why, you know, we try so so desperately here to let other people on Wednesdays come and teach and we promote connection groups and connections within the body. Why? If I step in front of a bus tomorrow and I check out, this church needs to go forward. I have in my desk, I'll show it to you. I have in my desk a three by five card right in the drawer that says, Dean, you are an interim pastor. We boast not ourselves of tomorrow. A church cannot be built on one person, it's built on Jesus Christ. And we need to understand that there are giftings in the church that God will use. And Paul said, You only follow me if I follow Christ. But you're following Christ. And if I check out, he still lives. He ever liveth. So you follow him. Remember who saved you. Number two, remember what saved you. The gospel. Not philosophy, not personality, not human wisdom. It was the gospel. Then he said, number three, remember what ministers are. Ministers are servants. These are some of my, these are some of my life verses. Verse 26. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things that are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught the things that are. Why? That no flesh should glory in his presence, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who is of who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. My life verses I have to always remember is that who does God call? He calls the weak, he calls the foolish, he calls the base, he calls these things to confound the wise. God's not looking for a bunch of qualified people, he's looking for yielded people, surrendered people, and then he'll qualify them. What is the servant? If you read chapter 2 and uh and chapter 3, Paul said in chapter 2, I didn't come to you with excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He said, I was with you in much weakness and trembling. I didn't have eloquent words this week. I just came to you. I'm in this wicked city, and I knocked on your doors, and I told you about Jesus Christ with fear and trembling, that this fornicating, wicked, vile city, would they would they accept the gospel? But I gave that to you in my weakness, and God used that weakness to confound you and to bring you to your knees in salvation. He said, I wasn't standing on some podium with an eloquent speech. I was trembling as I shared with you the gospel. That gives me courage. Because I can do that. Other people can preach the gospel better than me, but no one can preach the gospel a better gospel than me. What does he say in chapter three? Look down here in verse number three, or chapter three, verse one. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with meat. For hitherto were you not able to bear it, neither now are you able, for you're yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and division, are you not carnal and walk as men? Listen, he said, you know what the problem in this church is? You're you're you're just babies. And you're fighting over the toy. And I'm Apollos' friend. Well, I'm Cephas's friend. He cut a guy's ear off. I like that guy. He's rough and tough. He's a fisherman. Well, I like Apollos because he is just an orator and he just expounds things so well. Well, I like Paul because Paul is deep in the truth. Well, I just follow Jesus. And Paul said, you know what all of you are? You're babies. You're fighting. And um, and he said, You're walking as men. And he said, What you need to remember is who ministers are. Verse number five, who then is Paul and who is Apollos? But ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted Apollos' water, but God gave the increase. We are just servants of the Lord. The lesson from the first three chapters, fourth chapters, is never build a church around a personality. We are laborers together with God. And what Paul got their eyes on is this, and I want everybody in this church to hear this. Chapter 4, verse 1. In this context, Paul turns and says, Let a man sow account of us as the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mystery of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. Basically, what Paul was just saying is, listen, all of us have been given this great gift of God. We are to steward this and to serve in the body faithfully. That's what God's looking for. Is God's not looking for orators, God's not looking for theologians, God's not looking for all of these big strength things. God's just looking for some people who are faithful. I've said this before, but the two greatest abilities that any Christian can ever have availability and dependability. You want to see discouragement in pastors. I preach to pastors quite a bit, and I will tell you one of the number one things that pastors are discouraged about is the lack of willingness in the church for service. We can't find people to work. We can't find people to take care of. We have all these needs and few people to serve. And what Paul was saying to this church is you're wanting to fight and bicker over how somebody teaches, but none of you are willing to get your hands dirty. Let's all get in the trenches and serve. Amen. The ministry is not about who gets the credit, it's about whether God gets the glory. So, number two, we fly to chapters five through six. So we saw a church divided, and now we see a church defiled. In chapter five, Paul says, horrible words, it is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles. I mean, even the Roman world rejected this kind of fornication, that one should have his father's wife. There was an issue going on in the church where there was a man who was having a sexual affair with his father's wife, would have been his stepmother in the Roman world. And this was something that was absolutely unthinkable even among the Romans. But it was commonly reported in the church, and look at how they look at how they behaved about it. Look at verse number two. And ye are puffed up. I mean, you're proud of that. You know what you're probably proud of? Look at how gracious we are. Look at how loving we are. We just love everybody. I mean, look at, I mean, the gospel's a big tent, man. It's even for this guy. He said, You have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For verily, as absent in body but present in spirit, I have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. When ye are gathered together when you come, when you're the church, when you church, when you get together in my spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. So what was happening here was there was a shocking case of sexual immorality that was being tolerated in the church. And Paul's concern was not that sin existed. Sin exists. I mean, there's if we knew the sin that was in this room tonight, we would weep. All of us are sinners. The Lord doesn't make any unrealistic expectations that there's no sin in the church or that sinners aren't in the church. That's what we are. It wasn't that sin merely existed. It was that sin was not being confronted, it was being flaunted. That's a problem. The shocking thing was they were puffed up. They had been comfortable with what should have grieved them. This is the principle of church purity. For the last few years, I've been in the trenches in many ways, dealing with things that are, as a pastor and as a shepherd, one-on-one, confronting impurities. And sometimes the church doesn't see that, that work of a shepherd. Dealing with people in biblical, in biblical ways. Matthew 18 talks about dealing with things with one-on-one and giving people space and time to repent, and then taking other people with you to be witnesses that this has been confronted and that there's an accountability here with the desire for repentance. And then when they will not hear that, to bring it to the church. And bringing it to the church, if you study out, doesn't necessarily always mean that we stand in front of the General Assembly with everybody and expose sin, but that we take it to elders and elected officials within the church, within the governing body of the church, pastor and deacons, and we deal with sin in a capacity that is officially set apart for that purpose. And then church leadership deal with sin. And we look at people and have to say, look, you cannot be in this assembly and behave like that. And our deacons can tell you that in the last in the last while, we've had to do that. And it's a hard thing to have to do. But Paul is confronting it. See, this is the issue that churches, Christians don't like to hear this. But if you read Joshua chapter 7, how did God deal with Achan? Severely. And you know what he gave? He gave an answer. Now I understand that this is an old testament, this is an Old Testament story, but it's got a New Testament implication. But God had Moses deal or Joshua deal with that severely. Why? God gives a reason for that. He said, lest theft and deceit and covetousness become the way with you. In other words, in other words, if you don't deal with this in this moment, it becomes a culture. And the culture for my people is a culture of holiness. We are pursuing holiness. We are not tolerating sin. Let me tell you something. If you want to set a culture in your home, you'll set a culture by the things you tolerate and the things you confront. A culture is set in a church by what a church tolerates and by what a church confronts. Now that doesn't mean that there needs to be somebody with a police hat on running around telling everybody, hey, don't put your kids in the Christian school. Christian school kids are horrible. Look at the problems with these kids. I mean, we don't need police officers running around saying, hey, you know, the youth group's going to hell in a handbasket and pull your kids out. We don't need somebody running around the church policing everybody else. That's that's not what, that's not church discipline. That's busybodies. But there is a proper way to handle sin in the church. And it's spiritually handled. This is a principle of church purity. Chapter 5, verse 6 says, Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? See, here's what happens. When sin is tolerated, it eventually becomes normalized. And what becomes normalized sets the culture. And then the culture of the church at that point becomes sin. Now let me tell you something. Many people recoil at this at this kind of teaching. Because the modern day cry in the church is for love. You know, we want to be proud of, like, well, we love everybody. Well, yeah. But can I tell you what love is not? Love is not more important than truth. So what we say when we say we love is what we're actually saying is what we tolerate. Love is not, love is not more important than truth. And I'll prove it to you. If you met your spouse when you were dating, and your spouse told you that they were wealthy, that they had this job of, you know, they were a CEO of a company, and you dated, and they kind of flaunted around some money and took you to these nice things and really charmed you over, and then right on the night before you marry that person that you are madly in love with, you find out that they actually sell bicycles in Georgia. Well, let me ask you a question. In what way would the lack of truth diminish love? You see, if if you have deceit, you cannot build love on top of that. One thing that a Christian has to be rooted and grounded in is the truth. And truth is more important than love because love is founded on truth. You want me to prove it to you? Start deceiving each other in your marriage and find out what that does to your love. You cannot love deception and love people. Deception blocks love. And a church cannot accurately love unless a church is founded on truth. So Paul teaches the necessity of biblical church discipline. So Paul is going to give them in chapter 5, verse number 9, I wrote unto you as in an epistle, not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, nor with the covetous, nor with extortioners, nor with the idolaters, for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written, he said, doesn't mean that you can't live in a neighborhood where there's fornicators. Those are unsaved people. I'm talking about like bringing that into the church. That's normal in the world. But then Paul says in verse, he goes through here that talking about how we are to remove the leaven from the lump. And we have to cut out that thing and we have to judge within. Some people say, Well, don't judge me. Well, the church has to have some judgment. There has to be some discernment. Listen, we always say, well, don't judge. And then you tell your kids, well, don't hang out with those kids. Well, you just judged. There's a good judgment. We use discernment. When the Bible says not to judge, it means that we're setting ourselves in a position to bring condemnation upon. We're actually giving the sentence. But I can have discernment. And so Paul's going to deal with church discipline and what biblical church discipline looks like. And what is church discipline for? It is not for revenge. There's three things that Paul explains in this book that church discipline does. And remember, we're just flying over, so I don't want to get in the weeds. Number one, church discipline is for the restoration of the sinner. It's so that he would be put out with no protection. This is the turning him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. Listen, he's saved. Satan cannot have his soul. But if he's going to live in sin, then Satan can destroy the flesh. He's going to get venereal disease. He's going to have the wages of his sin, they're going to take a physical toll on his body. I've said this before. One of the hardest things in the world to bear is the consequences of forgiven sins. Christ forgives, nature never does. You can spend your life smoking whatever you want to smoke and then get saved. And when you come away from that, man, you got a clean spirit and soul, but your lungs are still affected. So, okay, let that guy go. Satan can sift him as wheat, but he cannot have him. And if you do that, the spirit is saved, but not the body. He's given himself over to his flesh. So you want to put him out so that there's some shame, so that there's restoration and repentance. The restoration of the sinner is the important thing. The second thing, why you do it, is for the protection of the church. Because a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Eventually, that becomes a culture and it spreads like wildfire through the church because that's what sin does. And then the third thing you have church discipline for is to honor Christ. So he deals with that in chapter 5. In chapter 6, he addresses the fact that there was church members who were suing each other in the court of law. And there was an openness with sexual immorality. This is what had happened now. We were seeing the church was devolving. And so believers are taking other believers to court and suing them. And Paul's like, guys, do you understand that the church is actually going to judge? We're going to actually judge angels. There's going to be judgment that the church got, like, why are we going to the unsaved world when we should be, we are the ones who have the truth and the instructions? Listen, all the laws that are on the land, all the world is looking for truth, justice, and equity. And we have it. The laws of this land are predicated on this book. If you can't handle things in the church, why are you going to take it to an unsaved judge and say, hey, me and my brother here can't get along? We had a lady years ago in Mississippi trip and fall going out of our church on a big yellow curb. She hurt her knee and they called the ambulance and she went to the hospital, and about six weeks later, we got served papers that we were being sued. So I called a lady and I said, Hey, is it true that that we're being sued for this fall? She said, Yes. And I said, Do you know that there's a law in Mississippi that you cannot sue yourself? She said, What? I said, You can't sue yourself. Well, I'm not suing me. I said, Are you a member of this church? Yeah. Well, then you can't sue yourself. Like you're bringing a lawsuit against yourself if you sue the church. Like we can handle things. Like if you have needs, if you have medical expenses, you can come and talk to us and we can help you with that. But why would you drag your church in front of an unsaved judge to bring fault to another brother in Christ for what? A few thousand dollars? And this is what Paul's saying like, what are we doing? We are members of one another. We don't go to the unjust for justice. You don't go to the unsaved for justice and equity. The church can arbitrate, the church can handle, and he talked about how you handle that. He talked about honoring Christ in your sexual immorality by understanding that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. That's one of the greatest statements about the believer's body, is that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. There was a belief in Gnosticism and in the philosophies of the Greeks that you could have, your spirit was eternal, your body didn't really matter, so you could do whatever you wanted to do in your body, and it was okay. And Paul said, no, no, no, your body is the house that is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So before you paint it and put graffiti on it or put a hole in it or put something on it or put something in it, you ought to ask yourself the question: what does the resident who lives in here think about that? I mean, before I go put something all over my body, I probably should ask the Holy Spirit, would this, is this good? Paul gives the greatest statement here that we're the temple of the Holy Ghost. Then he says in verse number 20, you're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. And this is a key truth. Christianity does not merely change where we go when we die, it changes how we live while we're alive. It doesn't just change my eternity, it has effect in life. So then in chapter 7, we got to fly fast and we'll close. But chapter 7, he talks about church in the home. So now he's gonna pivot. So the first part of it was problems that he knew were in the church and he was dealing with those. Now he's gonna start answering questions. In chapter 7, he says, Hey, now concerning the things wherever you wrote unto me, one of the hardest things about chapter 7 and determining what chapter 7 is all about, why it's so difficult is because 1 Corinthians chapter 7, we have all of Paul's answers to their questions, but we have none of the questions. So you have to read and do a forensic study on the book. You have to read the chapter and find Paul's answers and then kind of reverse engineer to ask what was the question. And so you can kind of do that as you go through it. In fact, you can do that if you do a careful study of it, but we also have to, in our Western world, stop and say, okay, he's gonna deal with marriage. He's gonna talk about marriage, he's gonna talk about sex, he's gonna talk about singleness, he's gonna talk about separation, he's gonna talk about divorce, he's gonna talk about remarriage, and he's gonna talk ultimately about, in all of that, contentment. And when you get into this, you have to really be careful with this passage of scripture because in the Roman world there were four types of marriage. There was just, we have two of them. We have the ceremonial marriage that we celebrate with a ceremony, and there's an official um holy matrimony in ceremony. Number two, there's a common law marriage. If you live together long enough with somebody, after a while, you're just married. And um, that's not really the Lord's way, but but but it was recognized as marriage, and we have those in our society. But in the Roman world, there was also a union of slaves that a master could orchestrate so that he could have, he could breed a stable of slaves. And we don't have that. And then there was the debtor marriage. So if you were a wealthy man and I owed you a debt, then I could pay you with one of my daughters, and my daughter would then be married to you and have, you would have all the rights and privileges with her until my debt was settled, and then she would be released of that and no longer married. So you have to be kind of careful because when you read into this text, you you have to really understand that there was a lot of nuance in the different types of marriages. So Paul talks about three classes of people in chapter 7. He talks about virgins, people who've never been married. He talks about widows, people who have been married and have lost their spouse to death. And then he talks about the unmarried. Some people think, well, the unmarried is just a general class of virgins and widows. But Paul distinguishes it by saying, and let me say this to the virgins and the unmarried. And then he says, and let me say this to the widows and the unmarried. So he makes the unmarried its own class. These are people who are not virgins and they're not widowed, so who are they? They are people who have obviously been in a union and are no longer in that union. So divorced, separated, debtor slaves, whatever, these are people who have been who have been damaged goods in that way. So you have to be careful when you read into this text. But Paul's overreaching concern in chapter 7 is that every Christian honor Christ in his or her present circumstance. Chapter 7, verse 17, he says, But as God hath distributed to every man as the Lord called everyone, so let him walk. Marriage is honorable, singleness can be useful. Neither marital status makes someone more spiritual than the other. The big overreaching question is how can I faithfully serve Christ where God has placed me? I've had to tell this to my girls many times. There is something worse than being single, and it's being married to the wrong person. Be content with what you're doing. You have, and God will give you what He wants you to have. But in that, it will not satisfy you. You will still need Him and be content with the things that God has given you. Chapters 8 through 10, He talks about the church and Christian liberty. Now, this is where we all live. Because in chapter 8, he said, Now is touching the things offered unto idols. So they had written about, hey, what do we do about these things offered to idols? Now you understand, in Corinth, in the Roman world, they would have brought a big ox, they'd have taken it into a city, into the city square, they would have made a big oblation of ovation to their gods, then they would have sacrificed this thing to their gods, and then they would have cut all that meat up, and they would have immediately sold it to the restaurants because no refrigeration, we've got to get rid of this meat. And so it would have been sold at a cheap price in the market. And believers are like, should we eat that? After they offered that to idols. And uh some Christians are like, Yeah, that's fine, it's cheap, it's good meat, man. Why let it go? Don't let it go to waste. Idol are nothing anyway. Dig in. Others are like, oh, hold you for it, man. I really think that there's a problem here. And believers had an issue over something that wasn't clear in Scripture. Can we eat meat offered to idols? And so what it really became is it became basically a symbol for what do believers do when something is debatable? So some of you were saved out of a background that you listened to certain kinds of music that was so atrocious that when you got saved, you became very conservative in your musical tastes. Because you didn't want any kind of reminder of that life. And if you get in somebody's car and they turn on some kind of Christian music and it's got drums going, you're like, whoa! And they're like, man, isn't this great? Tears are running in their face. I love Jesus. How can you love Jesus? Listen to this witchcraft, you know? And then you get these debates. And Christians fight over all that. I mean, what's appropriate for a woman to wear in dress? What's inappropriate? I think we all know what is inappropriate. But what Paul was dealing with here was how does Christian liberty work? We're flying, so I'm gonna give you four questions to ask in Christian liberty. The first thing he asks, look back, and he asked this question back about the body in chapter 6, but he's gonna build on this in chapters eight through ten. Chapter 6, verse 12, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Paul's gonna build on that in chapters eight through ten, and he's gonna ask four questions about personal liberty. And by the way, let me just say this. There's no question about it if the scripture clearly says no. And if the Bible clearly says, hey, don't eat that, don't drink that, well then don't eat it and don't drink it, and there's no questions asked. Well, the Bible is clear about that. But if we're like, well, what does the Bible really say about it? And then we start getting doubtful disputations, we start disputing over things that we can't prove, it's just a personal preference, how do you navigate personal Christian liberties? It's a big question, and this is what causes a lot of contention in churches. There are people who think, listen, there are people who think that I am a compromised Christian because I do not have a certain standard that they would have in their life. But if we were to really go to the Bible and say, does this standard exist as an absolute biblical conviction that the Bible clearly states that? Well, no. So there are people who draw lines on all kinds of places and then impose their line on you as a measurement of whether you're right with God or not. And so, as Christians, I think the Puritans, who were very separated people, the Puritans had a great rule of thumb. They said, on all the essentials, unity. You better know who Jesus is, you better know that he was virgin born, buried, rose again, and all sufficient. On the essentials, unity, on the non-essentials, liberty, but in all things, charity. The rule of thumb is you may have a different line somewhere. For instance, my dad and I. My dad took me to a football game, John Elway versus Joe Montana, Monday night, Mile High Stadium. I was a little kid, I was out of my mind. The banker gave us 50-yard line seats. I'm looking at the 50-yard line. Joe Montana and John Elway were about to play. I was going crazy. And my dad looks at me and says, We gotta go. Game haven't even started. I said, What do you mean we gotta go? He said, People drinking all this booze and look at all this, you know, and it was a snow game. The cheerleaders were in snowsuits. I mean, they they were not there, it was the year, it was the game that the snowball got thrown, if anybody remembers that, and the Broncos won on a snowball, but and then everybody was wearing shirts, I threw the snowball. But uh, listen, it was a big game. But but I remember looking at my dad like I didn't see any of that. Now, listen, dad came out of a background where he was in the bars, he saw all the wickedness of that. I was looking at Joe Montana and John Elway. I mean, good night, you got you got Jerry Rice out there. Vance Johnson. I mean, this is football. I was a little kid, I was a kid in a candy shop. To the pure, all things were pure. But my dad had a different understanding of where he should draw lines because of his past. And so the questions that we need to ask ourselves when we govern our liberty is number one, is it permissible? And Paul answers the question I mean, all things are lawful for me. Am I allowed to do that as a believer? And the answer may be yes. Is it permissible? Now, if the Bible says no, then it's not. But if it's permissible, then okay, second question, is it helpful? It's lawful, I'm permitted to do it, but is it expedient? Is it helpful for me? Because if I do this thing that I'm allowed to do, could this thing bring me under its bondage and enslave me? Would I be addicted to this? Would I be enslaved to this? Paul said, I don't want to be brought under the power of that. I don't want that to be my master. There's only one master, there's one Lord in my life. The third thing he asked is, will it hurt another believer? Wherefore, if he says in chapter 8, verse 13, wherefore if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth. Look, I mean, listen, if you if you're gonna go down to the market and you're gonna buy meat that's offered to an idol and your brother sees you down there and that offends him, you need to love him more than you love that meat. So you don't put your brother in that position. And then number four, does it glorify God? He's gonna ask in verse 31 of chapter 10, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Christian liberty does not just ask, can I? Christian maturity and Christian liberty asks, should I? And love asks, how will this affect them? See, selfishness gets in the way and says, you know what, I'm allowed to do this. I mean, I'm not gonna go to hell. I can do this, I don't see anything wrong with it. But if that will stumble your brother, be careful with that. I don't have time because we're over time. I've got to finish the book. But but there's a there's a lot of teaching in that. Verses uh chapters 11 through 14, we see the church in worship. Paul now addresses public worship in chapter 11. Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. I mean, there has to be a pastor and somebody leading the General Assembly. He said, Now I praise you, brethren, that ye are that remember me in all things and keep the ordinances that I deliver them to you. I mean, the Lord has forced spiritual authority, and God has set those in the assembly to have order, but all of it should lead to the worship of Jesus Christ. And in the case of the Church of Corinth, they were having some serious issues in their public worship. In chapter 11, there was a women's lib movement in Corinth. And by the way, can I tell you that that always goes hand in hand with pornographic and fornicating societies? When women are elevated as sex objects, then there is abuse made of that. Then the Me Too movements start. And back in the in the earlier part of last century, the ERA movements and women start coming out and saying, We're not going back in the kitchen, we're going, we can do this ourselves. And the in the and the and the uh riveting Janes come along, and a Rosie the Riveter says, We can do it, we're we're just as equal with you. And the problem was is that when women have been objectified and used as objects for men's pleasures, then abuses took place, and then women came up and said, We're not going to be abused anymore, we're in control. And then what happened when that heavy feminism starts, what happens is when women come into places of masculinity, masculine men go into places of femininity. And you get role reversals. America's living that today. Women have a vital place and a specific place, but anything out of place is going to be damaging. So Paul gives them instructions on how the church is to be led in order and how there is not to be confusion in the order of the worship. And the world can call that misogynistic all they want to. But look at the mess the world is in. You go from a place of saying, Well, hey, you know, men can do whatever they want and abuse the women, and the women stand up and say, No, no, no, no, we're not doing that. We're, we're, you know, we've been abused, we're in charge now. And then you have a full role reversal, and then you have a nation that chases after homosexuality and so forth, and then you get to a place of confusion where we don't even know what a woman is. By the way, this is not the first time in human history that we've run this gamut, and we're running this gamut in America right now. So the Lord has a specific order for a specific reason, and everything is beautiful in its place and in its time, and there's no demeaning, there's no inequality. My wife is not, my wife is not, even though she I'm the head of the home, doesn't mean that I'm she's inferior to me. She's superior to me in so many ways. And one of the ways she's superior to me is being a woman. She's a much better woman than I am. She fills the role of womanhood in our home. Because I have to fill the role of the manhood in the home, and I have, I have responsibilities and shows as she. But anyway, so Paul takes all that back. And what had happened was that because things were out of order, there was order lacking in the Lord's Supper. They had corrupted the Lord's Supper through selfishness and division. They were dividing it over here. Poor people were not allowed to eat. Other people were bringing great feasts, they were calling them great love feasts and so forth. And Paul said, What are you doing? This is to be bread eaten by the whole church and a cup drunk by the whole church, and we're to wait on one another and serve one another, and we show the Lord's death till he come. And the Lord's Supper is to be taking a backward look at his death, an inward look at uh at our own hearts, and then a forward look until he come. And so he puts things in order in the church. And I've got to I've got to hustle through this, but in chapter 12, he deals with spiritual gifts. He talks about the order of the gifts. They were using their spiritual gifts as toys. And Paul was explaining that they're tools. God gives you spiritual gifts not for your enjoyment, he gives you spiritual gifts for your employment. This is not for you to say, oh, I've got this great gift. God wants you to use this gift. There's a diversity of gifts, but it's the same Spirit who is orchestrating. In other words, we're a giant choir, and the Holy Spirit is the conductor. And some of us are bass and some of us are alto, but the Holy Spirit's going to get us all to sing the same song in different parts so that there is harmony and there is a beautiful melody. So, chapter 13, he said all of that needs to be motivated by love. Right in the middle of Paul's discussion of spiritual gifts comes one of the most famous chapters. Why? Because giftedness without love becomes destructive. Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass and tingling cymbal. In other words, I give an uncertain sound. Paul describes God's charity. Charity suffereth long, it's kind, and he gives a great thing. This is often used at weddings and so forth. But I want to tell you, in the original setting, it's about church conflict and spiritual gifts. You need to be looking at does this, does my love in this church fit this description? You are, Paul was essentially telling the Corinthians, you're arguing about who's the most spiritual while behaving unspiritually. And a powerful church principle is this spiritual gifts demonstrate what God can do through you. Spiritual love demonstrates what God has done in you. Think about the work that God has done in me, and then the work of God through me, that's when glory goes to him. Chapter 14, Paul deals with the church operating in order. He returns to spiritual gifts, and particularly to tongues and prophecies. And his overreaching principle here is edification. Listen, if nobody understands what you're saying, nobody is edified. If I bring a man in here in Romanian and he tells us a great story about a missionary who came to Romania and all these people got saved, but he speaks in his language, tears will be rolling down his face, and we're all going to say, Man, that guy's enjoying what he's saying, but we don't know what he's saying. But if somebody said, Hey, I can speak that and they get up and they speak it, and we all hear how God sent this missionary, and this whole family got saved, and all of these great things happened, we would all be weeping and we would all be edified because there was an interpreter. But some people thought that they could get up and speak in a tongue, and everybody thought, ooh, they're spiritual. But tongues were never supposed to be for signs to other believers. They were only to be for signs for unbelievers to hear the gospel. So Paul's answer to that is, let all things be done unto edifying. If your gift is not building up, then it's not being used properly. And then he says in verse number 40 of chapter 14, let all things be done decently and in order. Biblical worship should never be designed merely around excitement and spectacle or individual expression. The question that every believer should ask is, does this build up the body of Christ? Am I strengthening this church? Chapter 15, the church had some serious problems on resurrection. So, Paul, this is a theological summit of the book, and I've got to really fly right over this quick, but but Paul reminds them of the gospels. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures, he was buried, and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. That's the gospel. Christianity rises and falls on the resurrection. So Paul makes one thing in this, in one argument, unmistakable. If Christ be not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is vain. But Christ did rise. But now is Christ risen, he says in verse 20, from the dead and become the first fruits of them that sleep. And he goes back to a Jewish feast of firstfruits, which was the only feast day done on a Sunday. And Jesus was raised on a Sunday. And on the first day of the week, he was that firstfruit of that wave offering who was way before the Lord to say, This is the first fruits of the harvest. There's a greater harvest just like it coming behind it. And he was the first fruits, and we will be the harvest. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? Paul's conclusion is, therefore, my beloved brethren, because Jesus died and rose again, and because you will also rise again, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Resurrection doctrine should produce resurrection determination. If Christ is risen, our labor is not in vain. And then chapter 16, it's the church at work. I love chapter 16. I wish I really wanted to take time, but I'm way over time. The final chapter looks like a miscellaneous closing instructions, but what it really shows us is what Christianity looks like on Monday morning. Paul's talking about an offering that's being collected, and chapter 16 sometimes gets abused to teach about tithes and offerings in the church, and there are other pastor scriptures we can use to teach that, but this is about a collection for the saints in Jerusalem. They were taking a love offering that was a relief offering for persecuted saints in Jerusalem. And Paul talks about a Christian should have a heart of charity and giving in verses 1 through 4. He talks about in 5 through 9, he talks about planning. He's talking about, I'm going to come to you, and when I pass through Macedonia, I'm going to abide, and then I'm going to winter with you. And he's talking about his plan that he has. I'm going to come see you, and this is my plan. And a Christian should have a plan in the will of God. He talks about how we should order our life. And then in verses 10 through 12, he talks about serving. He talks about Timothy coming to you, and let no man despise him, for I'm sending him to you. He's got a specific task to do at the church. And he talks about people who are serving in the church. In verses 15 through 18, he talks about leadership and what it looks like to lead. Let all things be done with charity. I beseech you, brethren, you know the house of Stephanus that is the first fruits of Achai. And they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. By the way, if you're going to be addicted, be addicted to ministry. That you submit yourselves unto such, to everyone that helpeth with us and laboreth. There's a thing about leadership and submission within the church. And then he talks about fellowship, verses 19 through 24. What he's really doing in chapter 16 is he's giving them a snapshot of what a church in order looks like. A church that's in proper order is a church that is giving, a church that has a plan, a church that is serving each other, a church that has leadership, and a church that has fellowship. And then Paul closes it by saying in verse 13 and 14 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity. This is what summarizes a mature Christian life. Watch, stand, be courageous, be strong, and love each other. Amen.