Two Journeys

I'd like to ask that you turn in your Bibles to 1st Corinthians 6, we're looking this morning at Verses 1-11. And as we do that, I want to present again to you my conviction that the most powerful weapon in the hand of Almighty God for the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a healthy local church. Is a powerful thing in the hands of God, a community of believers that have covenanted together to follow Christ, have made that baptismal commitment that we heard Julia just make a moment ago, that we're going to follow Christ, by the power of the Spirit, we've received forgiveness of sins and that we're in a family, we're not alone, we're brothers and sisters. And it's a beautiful thing to be part of the family of God and that we can present holiness and love and the word of God in a very compelling way to a world that needs it so much, the world is watching all the time. And so the most powerful weapon... And I use weapon language because it is a violent advance we're talking about here. The kingdom of heaven is taking enemy territory from Satan and his demons. It's a different kind of warfare, it's a spiritual warfare and this weapon is the most powerful thing in the hands of God, a healthy local church.

That includes even a great mission agency like the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. The mission agency is a good thing, but what that mission agency seeks to do all over the world, is to win individuals to faith in Christ and then settle them in healthy local churches. They're to be taught to obey everything Christ has commanded, and that's in the context of a healthy church, and that's where 1 Corinthians is so powerful for us because it seems that Corinthian church was not a healthy local church. Are you getting that sense? Chapter after chapter of dysfunction. And I think the thing that's so powerful for me, as a pastor, is to realize there are no perfect churches. Churches can be healthy, but there are no perfect churches. And the kind of issues that the Corinthians were facing we face, they're still with us today. The corruption of the human heart is essentially the same and the call of God towards holiness is the same and we need this timeless wisdom. We can't say, "Look, that was 20 centuries ago, we don't deal with those kinds of things anymore." Oh, we really do.

And so, we come to a kind of an interesting point in 1st Corinthians on lawsuits among believers. You're like, "Okay that's what we're doing today?" Yes, we're talking about lawsuits among believers, taking one another to court. It's a very practical thing. And you're saying, "Was that actually going on in the Corinthian church?" Well, it was. And as Paul answers it and addresses it, he addressed it in a timeless sort of way to help us to see the responsibility that we Christians have toward the watching pagan world, the unbelieving world that's watching us all the time. So, let's look at this Corinthian church, this hugely messed up local church with all kinds of dysfunctionality. Apparently what happened here, what are the facts of the case, it seems to me that one brother, we'll call him Brother B, had defrauded another, call him Brother A, in business. He had a swindled him in some way, taking advantage of him. To deal with this, Brother A, the cheated Brother, took Brother B to court in front of the Corinthian pagans, the authorities. Took him to court to get his money back.

So, you can imagine the scene, Brother A, Brother B standing before some non-Christian Roman official to have this case argued so that Brother A could get his money back from Brother B. This was horrible, according to the Apostle Paul. Scandalous, shameful. The Christian church was out there airing their dirty laundry in front of everybody to be seen, the very people they're going to try to witness to next week. Now they've got to deal with this court trial.

It's a shameful thing. Paul's tone here is very strong, he's aghast, he's horrified. He uses the shame language, look at verse 5. He says, "I say this to your shame." The issue was that they're witness to a lost and dying world, there in Corinth. And so, there are layers of shame here. Not just one, not one simple shameful thing, but there are layers of shame.

Shame #1: Completely Defeated by Even Having Lawsuits at All

Shame layer number one is in verse 7 Paul says they are completely defeated by even having lawsuits at all. Look at verse 7, "The very fact that you have lawsuits among you, means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?" Rather than go to court. That's what Paul is saying. That's shame level number one.

Shame #2: That Someone Who Was Claiming to Be a Christian Would Defraud another Brother in Christ

Shame level number two is that an individual in their church, someone who is claiming to be a Christian, could actually defraud another brother for money, that's shameful. Look at Verse 8, "Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong and you do this to your brothers."

Shame #3: That They Would Expose Their Dirty Laundry to the Lost People They Were Supposed to be Winning

Shame level number three is that they would expose their dirty laundry to the lost people that they are supposed to be winning to Christ. They would go out in public with this, look at verse 6, "but instead, one brother goes to law against another and this in front of unbelievers."

Shame #4: There Was No One Wise Enough in the Church to Settle This Temporal Matter

And then, Shame level number four is that there's no one, it seems, wise enough in your church to handle a temporal case like this. That's where he actually used the word shame, look at verse five, "I say this to shame you." "Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?" So, this is what's going on, this is the mess. Paul has to bring light into this darkness. He's seeking to bring health to the disease of this local church.

Now, for us, we have to just step aside from this and look big picture at Christ's message and his laws of loving witness that I think are relevant to this case and this issue of lawsuits among believers. Let's start with the basic permission, it seems, that Jesus gives to the unbelieving world, the watching world, to judge us by whether we love one another. Jesus said this in John 13:35, "By this will all people know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." So, to some degree, you're saying outside world, watching world, if you want to know if you're dealing with my disciples, watch and see if they love one another, that's how you'll know. John 13:35.

As Paul will later say in this very epistle, 1 Corinthians, 13, famous love chapter. He says, "Love is patient, love is kind, it doesn't envy, it doesn't boast, it's not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs." So all of that is what love means here. How does that line up with a lawsuit? Also, Jesus said, "You are the light of the world." We talk about this, it seems, regularly in 1 Corinthians. This is continually on Paul's mind, what Jesus said in the Sermon of the Mount, Matthew Chapter 5, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." That's a really powerful expression, isn't it? By watching your good deeds, it seems Jesus is saying they'll end up in Heaven glorifying the father. That's incredible. So that's part of the evangelistic package is your good behavior. It's the context for the Gospel words that we preach.

We also have the parable that Jesus gave us of the 10,000 talents, a parable about forgiveness. You remember how Peter initiated that conversation? "Lord how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Thinking he was being generous. And Jesus said, "I tell you not seven times, but seventy times seven times." 490, don't do the math. And don't count, don't keep that list, remember? You're up to 146, hope you know. You're running out of coupons. That's not what he's saying, he's saying there's just limitless forgiveness.

The Parable of the Ten Thousand Talents

And then he told the Parable of the 10,000 talents. You remember the king wanted to settle accounts with his servants, and there was found a man who owed him 10,000 talents, an incalculable sum. A talent, 75 pounds of a precious metal. So, in today's value it'd be billions of dollars. And it was gone, he had squandered it. Staggering. And since the man was unable to pay, the king ordered that he be sold into slavery, he and his wife and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. Impossible, but he'd be in prison forever. And the man fell on his knees before the king and said, "Be patient with me and I will pay back everything." But the king, in mercy, cancelled all of that debt and let him go, but then that man went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii, which is 100 days wages for a day labor, so that's a considerable sum, probably $15,000-20,000 in our amount, but far less than 10,000 talents. And he grabbed him and began to choke him, "Pay back what you owe me." He was unable to pay, and so he begged for forgiveness, but he refused. Instead he went off and had the man thrown in prison till he should pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were obviously distressed. Went back and told the king, and the king hauled that man back in and said, "You wicked servant. I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?" And in anger, in anger the king handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back his debt, the 10,000 talents. And Jesus summed it all up saying, "That is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." It's very powerful. It's maybe one of Jesus most powerful parables.

Jesus also told us in Matthew chapter 5, that we disciples should turn the other cheek. When we're dealing with others, with enemies who would attack us and hurt us, he gives us a whole different ethic. Matthew 5, "You have heard that it was said, eye for eye and tooth for tooth, but I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Listen to this, in light of the lawsuits issue. "And if someone wants to sue you and take your cloak, let him have your tunic as well." In other words, Jesus would almost say, settle out of court and give him what he wants and more besides. Interesting.

"And if someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said: 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Sermon on the Mount. So these clear teachings are part of Christianity. Turn the other cheek. Someone sues you, give them what they're demanding, give them more than they're demanding. Don't resist them, don't defend yourself. Then Paul gives us a similar teaching in Romans, Chapter 12, dealing with enemies, dealing with outsiders, dealing with people who hate us. "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for the wrath of God for it is written, 'It is mine to avenge, I will repay.' On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

Well, all of that, the most recent verses I've been giving you, have to do with dealing with outsiders, enemies, persecutors. I would say it's a how much more ethic in terms of with brothers and sisters within the church, how much more would we seek to be gracious? How much more would we seek to be kind and loving to them?

The Beautiful Ethics of the Early Jerusalem Church

Now, the early church seemed to have drunk in all of Christ beautiful teachings of this ethical life together and they lived it. After the day of Pentecost, when they heard the message of the Gospel, 3,000 were added to the church that day and their life together is described incredibly at the end of Acts 2:44-45. It says, "All the believers are together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need." That's the loving, cohesive community that was there after the day of Pentecost. How does suing a brother and recovering your loss line up with that? It doesn't.

And then, again, in Chapter 4, we have the church's sacrificial attitude, Acts 4:32-33, and it shows how their loving attitude toward one another was the power for their evangelism. Their evangelistic fruit came from this healthy covenantal life of a local church together. Listen to Acts 4:32-33, "All the believers were one in heart and mind, no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the Apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and much grace was upon them all."

Now, the Corinthians, it seems, at least one of these brothers, had turned away from this lifestyle entirely, took a brother to court and tried to recover his lost revenue. It seems the Corinthians misunderstood their lives in this world. We are aliens and strangers, and all that we have in this world is a temporary gift of God, it's useful for the advance of the Gospel, we can't take any of it with us. It's just a tool down here to seek to win the loss and sustain the people of God.

Not only did the Corinthians misunderstand their lives in this world, they misunderstand our exalted, misunderstood our exalted future in the next world. Verses 2-3 gives us a glimpse into the future that we would have no other way, it's interesting. Look at verses 2-3, "Do you do not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you were to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?" Verse 3, "Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life?" This is a remarkable revelation about the future. Christianity is a revealed religion. It teaches us things that are going to happen in the future and this gives us incredible insights about the role we're going to play in the future world that Christ will establish. And the logic here is given our exalted role in the future world, we should be able to handle mundane earthly things. It's a how much more argument here. We should be able to handle little things in the church.

Bombshell #1: The Saints Will Judge the World

So he drops a couple of bomb shells here. It's really quite interesting. Like bomb shell number one, "The saints will judge the world." Wow. Now, this could refer to some role Christians will have together with Christ in condemning the unbelieving world to their just fade on Judgment Day... Possibly. The entire anti-God system, that we read about in the book of Revelation. The anti-Christ system will come crashing down in judgment and the saints will have a role in that final justice. So the entire thing will be reversed from what was going on in Corinth, the wicked will stand before the righteous. In that case seems to be the logic here, then why would the saints voluntarily reverse it and stand before the wicked to receive verdict? It could refer to what follows Judgment Day, so the saints will play a role in the eternal kingdom, ruling and reigning with Christ, judging with him, like Revelation 3:21 says, "To him who overcomes, I'll give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my father in his throne." So, there's a sense of ruling with Christ.

Bombshell #1: The Saints Will Judge Angels

Bomb shell number two is that the saints will judge angels. How can this be? This is amazing, some commentators wonder is this referring only to the devil and his fallen angels, demons. Romans 16:20 says, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." So, we'll get to have a role with Christ in pulling the trigger on sending them to the lake of fire. That's how some commentators answer. Others think it refers to all angels, Holy Angels. Doesn't say demons here, but holy angels. So, that will, in some sense, no longer made a little lower than the angels, but in a resurrected glorified state, above the angels and ruling over them in some sense. I don't know.  When I don't know, I say I don't know. But I do know how Paul's using all this and he's arguing, as I said a moment ago, if that's our future, how much more should we handle the present? That's how he's arguing.

 So the remedy is humble mediation within the church, appoint wise individuals within the church to mediate.

Therefore, if you have disputes against such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account within the church. That's one possible translation. But then in verse five, he says, "I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there's nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?" So this is just like the advice Jethro, Moses' father in law gave to him. Don't sit on every case, appoint wise individuals who can judge lesser cases under you and handle all of that. And so that's basically the role. Get individuals who are wise, discerning, Godly men, and they can handle these kind of disputes in-house. We don't take it in front of the pagans to deal with it.

That's the logic that he's giving here. Verse 4 is notoriously difficult to translate. There are a lot of different... The NIV is going to read a little bit differently. The ESV it's going to read differently than KJV. It's a hard verse. ESV gives us, "If you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?" As though those people, the people of little repute are the outsiders. Why would you go to them? That's the ESV approach. NIV gives the idea that you could choose even the most humble believer, somebody with no reputation within the church and they could do the job. Difficult to know which way to go, but the point is clear, appoint Godly men and handle it in-house, mediate it in-house and don't go to the pagans.

Now, above all of this, is renew your commitment to the Christian principles that we've talked about a few minutes ago. Remember that we'll be known as Christ disciples if we love one another, that's far more important than who's right or wrong, who wins the arbitration case. Genuine reconciliation between brother A and brother B, that's what we need here. Not who wins the case, who is proved right or wrong, or who gets the money. Far more important is, do you love one another? Have you forgiven one another? Far more important? The deepest attitude here is a powerful kind of transferable principle here that Paul gives in verse 7. The very fact that you have lawsuits among you, means you've been completely defeated already. Listen to these words, "Why not rather be wronged?"

It's hard for me to overstate how powerful that verse can... What a powerful impact that verse can have on your marriage, your family life, your church life, your work life, Why not rather be wronged? It's just another way of saying, turn the other cheek. Don't seek your own vindication, leave it to God. Allow yourself to be wrong. Don't retaliate, don't argue back, don't answer back, allow yourself to be misunderstood. Why not rather be wrong rather than be a bad witness to the outside world? Alright. So for most of this, I think, most of the verses I've been walking through, I think Paul has turned his guns on Brother A, the plaintiff, the one who initiated the lawsuit. But now he turns and gives his attention, I think, to Brother B, the one who defrauded or swindled his brother. Look at Verse 8. "Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong and you do this to your brothers."

And then he brings in Verses 9-11, in context, I think Verses 9-11, which is a remarkable sin list and has great import for our ministry in this day. And we're going to talk about it much more fully next week, but I just want you to see it in context here with the lawsuits and Brother A, Brother B. There's a deeper warning he's given to Brother B, the one who committed... It seems he committed the crime of defrauding his brother. And look what he says, Verse 9-11. "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes or homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers. What's the next one, nor swindlers, the last one on the list, will inherit the Kingdom of God, and very famously the statement, such were some of you."

That's what you used to be, "but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." So, you swindler I'm worried about your soul, I'm worried about whether you're actually what you say you are, a Christian. I'm very concerned about that. You may win the case, you may get away with it, but God sees everything and I'm very concerned that you will not look good on judgment day, and that is far more important than any money that would pass between the two of you. What is going on in your soul? That's how Verses 9-11 functions in the flow of the chapter.

Now, for us in our day and age, with such questions about homosexuality and other issues, it is worthwhile for us to go back over it, and we will next week Verses 9-11, and especially the incredible impactful statement, "Such were some of you." So I want to unfold all of that next week. But I had Verse 9-11 read this time because I think it completes Paul's argument with Brother A and Brother B. Paul's basically saying to the swindler, "I fear for your soul, I fear for your soul."

Alright, so that's the text. Walk through it. Now, how do we apply it? How do we apply it? I said to some of the guys this week, I said, "I feel like I'm carrying eight cans of worms up here to the pulpit with a can opener." [laughter] And which can will I open? I'm not even going to name the cans, I've got a list in my head of what the cans are. But just to name them, I'm starting to open them and they'll start crawling all over the pulpit. What about this, what about that, what about the ethics of the other? And on and on it goes. And I got to tell you, I don't know, I don't know all the ethical implications of this. I'm safest to stick to home-base which is don't sue another brother in Christ.

One thing I do want to say given our present setting, before we even get into my attempt at applying this. Many of you are aware of what's happened in the Southern Baptist Conventional last couple of weeks in terms of sexual predators that were in some way protected by Southern Baptist churches and never brought to justice. I don't think this text gives any right for a church not to hand over such a criminal to the authorities. The elders of our church, we are absolutely committed to the protection of our children. We discussed this at length on Monday and ways we can take steps. Many things are already in place in terms of background checks and things like that. So this passage does not give a cloak of secrecy by which sexual predators, behind which they can hide. I'm not saying that doesn't happen. Crime gets committed, they should be handed over to the authorities and there's a lot more I could say about that. That itself is its own can of worms, but I wanted to say that.

Alright, so what question is in front of us? Can Christians ever go to court at all? And if so, when and how and for what? I don't believe this passage rules out all involvement of Christians in lawsuits. Paul himself regularly was in court. And he actually used the court's mechanisms and appeal process for his own defense and for the spread of the Gospel. "I appealed to Caesar," was a legal thing he could do as a Roman citizen. Paul wrote Romans 13 saying that, we must... All Christians must submit ourselves for the Lord's sake, to the governing authorities because there is no authority except what God has established. Remember in Acts 16 when Paul and Silas were wrongfully without trial, beaten publicly and thrown in the Philippian jail, remember that? And how God sent this amazing surgical strike earthquake, in which all the chains fell off and the prison doors flew open and that's amazing.

As a mechanical engineer, I'm like, "I don't know how that happens." But it happened, it's incredible. The Philippian jail was converted as a result of that. But this prisoners didn't run away. Paul didn't run away. He could have. The next day, the magistrates sent word saying, "Paul and Silas, you can go." Paul's like, "No chance. We were beaten publicly without trial and now you want to kind of get rid of us secretly, no way. Let them come themselves and escort us out." Now, why is he doing that? I think he's carving out religious freedom for the new church that's being planted there in Philippi. And so he's using the legal situation to do that. Now, let's keep it simple ethically here, in terms of application. Don't take another Christian to court. That's just the simple teaching here.

It's not addressing, "Should you defend yourself against non-Christians?" I've read a lot of what we should do with non-Christian type verses. But within the church, do not take another Christian to court. I would have a hard time skirting the clear teaching in this passage. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? It's very clear. It's better to be defrauded than to take the brother or sister to court. It's better to lose the money. It's better to lose the portion of the business than to litigate and press your rights and win the case, but show no regard for your Christian witness in front of the watching pagan world. That is a bad thing, so don't do it. We should care much more about the souls of the people involved in that process. The law enforcement officials and the district attorney in the courtroom and all of that, we should care about their souls, more than the money we can win back.

The basic rule here in terms of involvement in the court system must be your motive. Why do you want to go? Now if the issue like with Paul and Silas is a matter of principle concerning other people, their rights, their freedoms, and not just your own selfish rights or advantages, it may be necessary to go to court. We could imagine a Christian public defender whose whole life is spent in court defending the poor, the weak, the needy from attacks by the powerful. Such a Christian would spend most of their days in court. You could just as well imagine a Christian district attorney whose whole life is spent prosecuting criminals and upholding Romans 13.

And there maybe many examples of Christians going to court for the benefit of the gospel or for religious freedom. Like the rights we've seen of certain individuals like Christian bakers, to not necessarily have to bake a cake for a gay marriage, something like that. Or the rights of families to publicly or to educate their children and not have to go to the government schools, which many countries in Europe do not have. It's illegal. They have to go to the government schools, but Christians went to court to carve out the freedom to educate, religiously educate their own children. The issue here in 1 Corinthians 6 seems to be carnal. "I was wronged, I want my money back," and a sense of indication. That's I think home base for what not to do.

Central issue then must be our loving witness to a dying world. We are surrounded every day by people who are without hope and without God in the world. They don't have that anchor that I prayed about it, at the beginning of my message here. They're dead in their transgressions and sins, they need hope. We are here to give it to them. Nothing that you would lose in a court trial or something like that is anywhere near as important as that. People are watching us. So let's, as a church, go back over the basic rules that Christ has given us. If an outsider came into our church, a meeting, a home fellowship, Sunday morning worship, would they know that we are Christians because we evidently love each other? Start there.

John 13:35. Are we acting like the lights of the world here in the Raleigh-Durham area? Do people see our good works and glorify God? Will they glorify God in heaven, because they saw how we were living? Having had our infinite sin debt covered, our 10,000 talents, are we living out a life of forgiveness toward people who have sinned against us? Are we characterized by gracious, loving forgiveness toward people who have sinned against us or are we unforgiving and choking the person saying to them, "Pay me what you owe me"? Do we turn the other cheek? Do we give our tonic as well? Do we go the extra mile with people who are trying to hurt us? Do we see our temporal blessings as less important than the souls of the people we're dealing with?

Can we take the words, "Why not rather be wronged?" and see how many hundred different ways we could live them out in the next week? Don't defend yourself, don't argue. Don't try to prove that what you did was the right thing, be humble. How would that affect your marriage, let's say? How would that affect your relationship with your kids or your relationship with your parents? How would it affect your relationship with your neighbors or with co-workers? "Why not rather be wrong? Why not rather be wrong, rather than press your case and win your case? "Why not rather be wronged for the sake of the gospel? Now, as we finish this message, I can't help but just call to any that are here that don't know Christ. Every week I pray that God would bring people who have never heard, who have not yet come to Christ or have not yet yielded.

I think about what God did in Julia's life. And I don't know what stories are unfolding among those of you that are not yet Christians in your life. I don't know what resistance that you have. It may be that you're battling depression. It may be that you have guilty feelings for things that you've done. Do you realize what a great savior Jesus Christ is, how He came to seek and to save lost people like you and me? And there's no sin that we can commit, no manner of sin or blasphemy that the Son of Man, Jesus, cannot forgive. And so I'm calling on you to just look to him with the eyes of faith. Look to him and ask him to be your savior. There is a court trial coming and there's no escape from the judgment of God. He sees everything. We're going to have to give an account for everything we've ever done. Christ is the only one who can vindicate you on that final day and he is a great savior. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. And we would love to hear your story next chance we get, when you stand up in the baptismal area and tell us what happened and how God saved you.

Now we're going to turn in the service now to an observance of the Lord's Supper. I'm going to close this sermon time in prayer and then I'm going to ask the deacons to come and help serve. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the time we've had to walk through 1 Corinthians 6:1-11. Thank You for the power of the word of God. And thank you that your Spirit's been here. Now, we ask for fresh ministry of the Holy Spirit in the ordinance of baptism. Ordinance of the Lord Supper. Thank you, oh Lord, for the Lord Supper. Thank you for communion. Thank you, Lord, that we have the opportunity to do this, and I pray that you would please be with us through the spirit that we would experience it fully and powerfully. In Jesus name. Amen.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on John 1:1-5. The main subject of the sermon is how Christ's giving of life compels us to preserve it.

There are two images of God and I've told you this a number of times before, but they are very much on my mind right now that are biblical and powerful and difficult for us to harmonize. One of them is that our God is a consuming fire. The other is that our God is the father of the prodigal son. They are very difficult for us to harmonize because God is a consuming fire, as a God of terror, a God of justice, a God of wrath, a God of power, a God, who is not to be trifled with a God that we have to deal with as sinners and to know that we face judgment and condemnation and hell for our sins, and deserved and God has the power to condemn us and that we should tremble before such a God. There are many verses that teach this. But then you have that incredible parable of the Prodigal Son in which the Father is there. I picture him at the end of the driveway waiting day after day for his son to come back, and when he sees him, he runs to meet him and embraces him and weeps over him and is delighted to welcome him back. I think you see the same dynamic in John the Baptist preaching that was predicted through Isaiah the prophet a voice of one calling in the desert, "Prepare the way for the Lord, every valley shall be raised up, and every mountain and hill made low." John the Baptist was not a civil engineer, he didn't come to actually literally build roads in the desert.

So what are the valleys that need to be raised up? What are the mountains that need to be leveled? It must have to do with the disposition of his hearers. They're spiritual demeanor, their attitude what's going on in their lives, how are they responding to the ministry of the Word? And there were some that were like mountains of arrogance, and rebellion that needed to be leveled for the Word of God to make progress in their lives. And then there are others that are like valleys and they are so broken and low by sin that they can barely hear and they think there's no hope for them. There's no possibility of forgiveness, there's no possibility of reconciliation with such a Holy God, and they have given up and they have to be lifted up and be told there is a savior, there is a redeemer who is coming, who sandals, I'm not worthy to untie and he has the power to forgive sins. And so as we come to the topic of abortion this morning, I'm just thinking about different individuals on this issue.

I'm thinking about legislators that are cheering the right to kill a baby at 40 weeks, they're cheering it. Some of you saw that video, as democratic politicians in the State of New York. And I'm not shrinking back from saying what their political party affiliation is, Democratic. State representatives cheered a law that codified really what was already involved in Roe vs. Wade, the right to kill, right to the end, and they cheered it. And perhaps you saw that, and it was sickening. What is there to cheer? But the shocks were going to get worse as the days followed other states like Rhode Island and Virginia, wanted to have similar laws. I think the pro-abortion forces are afraid of what the Supreme Court might do. And so they're trying to get ahead of the curve and codify these rights as they see them.

And in the state of Virginia a bill was introduced by the Democratic Virginia delegate Kathy Tran, that would significantly roll back restrictions on late-term abortions. Under current Virginia law, in order for a woman to abort her baby in the third trimester, three doctors had to together certify that continuing the pregnancy would likely cause the mother's death or "substantially and irremediably impair," her mental or physical health. Well, Kathy Tran's proposed bill would reduce the number of doctors from three to one and remove the "substantially and irremediably impair" qualifier. All that was needed thus for a late-term abortion was one doctor saying that the mother felt greater emotional distress over giving birth, then she did over having an abortion and it would be legal.

In the committee hearing, (and this was on YouTube and on Twitter), another Virginia delegate pressed Kathy Tran to answer the question, "Does your bill allow for abortions, even if the mother is in labor?" After some hemming and hawing, she finally came out and told the truth with these words, "There are no restrictions in my bill." But worse shocks followed two days later, the Democratic Governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, was asked about the bill in a radio interview (also viewable on YouTube) and he addressed what would happen if a child were born after a failed attempt at a late-term abortion. He said this, "If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated, if that's what the mother and family desired, and then discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother." Now for me, that's absolutely staggering the word "If." We're talking about a baby that's been born, it's separated from its mother, it's fully alive and like all newborn children in that state need direct care in order to stay alive. Human babies are born completely dependent on others to give care. The baby, according to the governor, the Democratic Governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, said, "Would receive that care if that's what the mother and family wanted." If not, then the baby, it seems, would be allowed to die. There would be a discussion that would ensue, concerning whether to allow the baby to live or die.

Well, for me, this seemed like a key moment to stand up and speak again on the issue of life. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl, instead they put it up on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven."

So we're called on as Christians, to shine light in this present darkness, and to do it with courage, and clarity. So I'm moved by these recent events. I'm horrified by what I see in some of these hard-hearted individuals concerning abortion, but I'm also mindful that it's quite possible that I'm addressing individuals in this church that feel intensely guilty over past sins in this area. Maybe women that have chosen to get an abortion, maybe men that have pressured other women in getting abortion. Maybe there are individuals that have been involved in the legislative side, or the medical side and feel terribly guilty. There's just so much guilt to go around for all of us. And even if we haven't done any of those things, we live as Isaiah said in a people of unclean lips, and we ourselves are people of unclean lips, all of us need salvation. And so, I can't be hamstrung, or straight-jacketed by over-concern about the one to not address the other. But I can't be so un-feeling as I address the other to not realize about the first. And so we just have to venture ahead.

And I was talking to Andy this morning as I'm doing scripture memory in Hosea. Hosea 6, you ought to look at it. Hosea 5 and 6 show us that God's word wounds and then heals. That's the rhythm, it seems, of our salvation. We get wounded by conviction, and healed by the redemption of Christ. And so maybe for some of you, it's not my desire that any of you be ultimately hurt or wounded, it's my desire that you be healed but maybe God's will is that you feel wounded for a time, and then find forgiveness in Christ, which is there.

So, my desire is to look at Christ. I've preached many pro-life sermons from this pulpit, but I just want to get close to Jesus this morning. There's just a desire I have to think of Christ and life and God, I think led me to John 1:1-5 and also, verse 14. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made in him was life and that life is a light of men, and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not understood it." So I began with this, Jesus... In Jesus is life physically. Physical life is staggeringly complex, it is crafted, by God. Some time ago, I was doing a talk some work on a talk on creation evolution.

And number of years ago, as I was working on that talk I came across a website that was offering an origin of life prize. This was an evolutionary group that was working on what they considered to be a great weakness in their evolutionary argument. I would agree, I think it's a fatal flaw. And that is, "Not how did apes evolve into humans?" Let's go way back to the beginning, "How did life evolve from non-life?" Tremendous weakness. Planet earth, nothing but non-living chemicals then suddenly you have the first living cell. Head scratcher. The website was offering a $1.5 million prize on just a plausible scenario whereby that could come about. And they define the first living cell as having nine attributes or you wouldn't win the prize.

So the cell had to have a cell wall, a membrane that separated it from its surrounding environments through which things could pass. It had to have information on how to live, how to make chemicals and all that, just how to live all that information. Staggeringly complex. It had to be able to move from information to the chemicals needed for life. It had to be able to eat, which is taking nutrients from its surrounding and deal well with it. It had to be able to reproduce because it probably wasn't going to live long and we needed cell number two, soon after. So it had to pass on all of this information on to its progeny. It had to be able to heal which is to self-monitor things that would happen and be able to deal with its deteriorating aspects, it had to be able to grow from immaturity to maturity, whatever that means, for a single cell thing. It had to be able to deal with its environment. Productively relate to environmental stimuli, light and heat and things like that. It had to be stable yet adaptable that was the most interesting of them all, listen to this. It had to possess genetic stability to maintain its identity yet sufficient diversity to allow for adaptation and the obvious evolution that's coming.

Fascinating. In an instant, non-life to first living cell. No one ever collected the prize. I marvel at that. Actually I don't. But here's the thing, that's a single cell. Imagine something as staggeringly complex as a human body. In which you've got massive systems of specialized cells that do their own particular work within that system, but are dependent on other specialized cells to do their work, interdependent. You got the skeletal system, you got the circulatory system, the nervous system, respiratory system, digestive system, and all the rest, each of them made up of billions of specialized cell each with its own job to do. Physical life is staggeringly complex. It's amazing. And so the Psalmist says in Psalm 139 verse 14, "I praise you, because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful. I know that full well."

The Psalmist there in Psalm 139, celebrates the direct activity of God in crafting his physical body. Psalm 139:13. "For you created my in most being, you knit me together in my mother's womb." Now, don't you think knitting is an interesting verb to use? Knitting? I think I can picture the skillful fingers of a craftsman, a woman let's say, who's just knitting and making a scarf or a sweater or something, blanket. Shows intricacy and skill. And so it is as God knits together every single human being that's ever born. Knits their bodies together in their mother's womb. Cell upon cell, system upon system if you could picture with a knitting analogy, row upon row of complexity unbelievable, it's amazing. And every hour that the embryo is being formed more and more majestic complexity is being combined to craft a living body. And life is not only complex, but it's very fragile. Just the re-ordering of a few cells in a fully developed body like through a knife thrust or a bullet can end life just a few cells rearranged.

So you got this knitting image. I remember a few years ago, my daughter and I were traveling. I hate to bring up a painful memory, but you know exactly what I'm going to talk about. This was after 9/11, and we were in Paris, in route to a missions conference. And she was working on a knitting project, I don't know what it was, but she was working on knitting. And the security at the Paris airport thought that my 12 or 13-year-old daughter was a threat to the plane with her knitting needles and slid them out of her project. I don't know whatever happened to that, but I can imagine it unraveled or began to unravel, I thought that was unjust. But that says nothing to the devastation of abortion. Instantly stopping the knitting process. Inserting ourselves into what God is doing line upon line, complexity upon complexity.

Friends, there are no accidental human beings on planet Earth. God doesn't reluctantly or unwillingly knit babies together in their mother's wombs. I understand there are different life circumstances for how people get together, and babies are conceived. I understand there's different levels of intentionality on the part of the parents. I understand all that. And there are incredibly difficult socioeconomic situation going on there. I'm just saying in terms of God's activity in the womb, he's not doing that reluctantly, he's not under compulsion, he is doing this because He delights in life. And all physical life is in Jesus Christ.

It's in Christ, it's sustained by Him, it exists in Him and it's sustained by Him. Jesus is called "The Word" in Verse 1. That's tied to God's use of words (I think) to create everything. As you read the Genesis account that John clearly wants us to think about "In the beginning..." Just like Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." In John 1,"In the beginning, was the word." And so if you read the Genesis account, God says, "Let there be light, and there was light." God says, "Let the land produce vegetation…" and there is vegetation. God says "Let there be birds and let there be fish." And they're birds, and they're fish. God speaks and it is. It's by the Word of God, that all these things happen. And Psalm 33:6 says, "By the Word of the Lord where the heavens made their starry host by the breath of His mouth." So by God's Word He makes everything. And Jesus is, that word.

God the father, did everything through Jesus. He is the word of God. And so God speaks life through Jesus Christ, and I mean not only in original creation way back when or even the new creature, being born, but in Jesus all life is sustained every moment, every single day, on planet Earth. Life is sustained and continues in Jesus. In Hebrews  it says very plainly, "The Son [Jesus] is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word." Sustaining all things Jesus does. So, that means, every porpoise that's playing in the sea, every bird that's just winging its way across the sky as the sun sets, every living thing on earth, every human being in whatever walk of life whatever they're doing. Children that are playing, bankers that are going to work, engineers that are designing things. In Christ, they continue to exist. In Christ, they live and move and have their being. So as you think about embryonic development we must think about the direct activity of God through Jesus Christ. It is in Christ that the embryo continues to develop.

Now, Christ became flesh, that means He took on a human body, He embraced personally embraced physical life. Look again at verse 14, "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the only begotten Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Well, this is the miracle that we Christian celebrate... Of the incarnation of God the Son becoming human in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Remember how the Angel Gabriel came to Mary, and said, You this is Luke 1, "'You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus… He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of his father David and his kingdom will never end.' Mary asked the angel, 'How will this be since I am a virgin?' The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God." So this passage shows, that Jesus was a human from the moment of conception he was the son of David from the moment of conception. He did not become human or become the son of David, when he came out or emerged out of the womb. Now Jesus came to share in our humanity, he embraced the physical life we know as a full human being.

Secondly in Jesus's life eternally, in Jesus's life eternally. The life that John celebrated is clearly more than just physical life, look at verses 4 and 5, "In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood it." So clearly, that's going beyond merely physical life. We're talking about the significance of Jesus' life as He came to earth, Jesus' life was the light of the world, specifically because he showed us the true nature of God. Look again at Verse 14, "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us and we have seen his glory, the glory of the only begotten who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." So by looking at Jesus, you're seeing God, you're seeing the nature of God, the glory of God. Look at verse 18, in the same chapter. "No one has ever seen God, but God, the only begotten [that's Jesus] who is at the father side, has made him known." he has explained him, he has revealed him.

So, when we look at Jesus, you're seeing what God is like. So, Jesus came to teach us the true meaning of life, and that is knowing God, and He defines eternal life as knowing God, in John 17:3, in his prayer, Jesus prays to his father, said, "Now, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." So that's life is to know God and to know Christ. Now, eternal life was determined in the mind of God before the world began. We should not shrink back from the Bible is clear teaching on this. God elected people, chose people before the world began to be holy and blameless in a site. Ephesians 1 says it this way, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him [that is in Christ] before the creation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight, in love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ."

So all of that's in Christ in Him is eternal life. So what that means is, babies have a destiny, even in the womb. Even in the womb, they have a purpose of destiny. Jeremiah 1:5, speaks of this, God spoke to the prophet, Jeremiah. "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." It is not ours to interfere with that to insert ourselves in that, that's God's work. Now, spiritually apart from Christ, we were all dead spiritually dead. Ephesians 2 makes this very plain, as for you he says, "You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you follow the ways of this world or the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient." All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

Apart from Christ, we are all dead in sin even while we live and we follow Satan, the spirit who is ruling this world. That's the condition now, I believe abortion is a subset of a larger problem of sin. In the world, and it comes because people are spiritually dead while they live. All of our lusts and our sinful desires come from seeking defined meaning and purpose and pleasure and fulfillment in the physical things of this world and not in God. That's the essence of being dead while you live. Sexual immorality, which is behind the overwhelming majority of abortions comes from men and women who are idolaters seeking meaning and temporary pleasures and end up getting pregnant. Sinful selfishness, then leads men to turn away from their responsibilities, walk away from them as the father of the child and women in the course of time have sought to have similar sexual freedom that men have. They think it's unjust that the men can walk away and the women can't. And so they desire to be able to engage in sexual freedom with no responsibility, is able to just walk away like the man does. This doesn't cover every single case, but it covers the overwhelming majority of the cases. The ultimate outcome of all of this is death, the wage of sin is death, and so we are in a culture of death. It's what abortion is, it's the killing of a person. And so it's a culture of death that we're seeing. Now Satan, I believe is powerfully active behind all of this culture of death.

He is the unseen mover behind all of this, he is the spirit of this age, Jesus says of him. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. But I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly." And so Jesus came to give us life, Satan comes to steal and kill and destroy. Jesus said of Satan in John 8:44, "He [he devil] was a murderer from the beginning not holding to the truth for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language for he is a liar and the father of lies." Now, I cannot overstate how satanic, how demonic this whole abortion the thing is. I will never forget years ago being overwhelmed the feelings that I had being part of a pro-life ministry in Brookline, Massachusetts. We would go down to an abortion clinic on Saturday mornings early, very early and there would be anti-life forces down the pro-abortion forces waiting to meet us. And our task was to try to persuade women at the 11th hour, the last possible minute to turn away to keep her baby that we would surround her with resources, with help, with counsel, with money, whatever is needed. And there forget the savage looks on the faces. Some men as they are assuring the women in and don't want any input at all at that point. And so the men were sometimes fiercer in their faces.

It was a hard ministry. Hardest I've ever done. And I remember getting in my car and driving it, it was around noon. We were done and driving back and driving too fast through the streets of Brookline because I felt I was being chased. It was like a paranoia that was on me gripping me and I would go home, it was early in my marriage, and I would just sleep through the afternoon, I had no strength left. So hard because there's a demonic force around that place. It's like a cloud of demonic power, it's satanic. Now, Jesus came, praise God, to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8. "The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work," and the way he did this was by dying for us, sacrificing himself for us.

 So the third point I want to make is in Jesus is life sacrificially. Hebrews 2:14-15 says this, "Since the children [us] have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity." He became flesh and blood, "so that by His death, He might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil--And free those who all their lives, were held in slavery by their fear of death." Jesus by becoming human was enabled to shed His blood for us as an atoning sacrifice, to set us free from Satan and from fear of death. He has that power and he gave it gave his life to win that power. So I said, minutes ago, numbers of people feel horribly guilty about this topic and I don't think there's any way you can hear this without feeling hurt, feeling wounded. But like I said from Hosea 6, God's desire is to wound so that he can heal like a surgeon. And Christ's death on the cross is sufficient for our sins, it is an ocean of grace, it is enough for sinners like you and me, but we have to repent. It's not enough to just be cleanse and not feel guilty anymore. We have to turn away from the sins that made us feel guilty, we have to turn away from the lifestyle of sin and walk in newness of life, that's the salvation that we're talking about here.

I love 1 Timothy 1:15 cling to this. If you're feeling guilty, crushed by sin, listen to 1 Timothy 1:15, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserve full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst." 1 Timothy 1:15, cling to it. It is by dying, that Jesus took away our guilt. So call on him as a merciful and loving Savior and then live sacrificially like him. 1 John 3:16, "This is how we know what life, what love is, Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." So the church is called on to be willing to lay down our lives for the suffering, the weak, the loss, the dying. The only way the church can win this battle is by sacrificially denying ourselves for others while we tell the truth. That's the combination of costly love and a bull telling of the truth will win. We don't win by arguing better with feisty arguments. That's not how the church wins.

I remember when I was first involved in the pro-life movement in that ministry I mentioned the pro-abortion demonstrated used to yell at us, we cared nothing for the women and we don't care anything for the babies after they're born. Well, the Church of Jesus Christ has ended that in the years since that time over 2500 crisis pregnancy centers have been started by Christians that have surrounded women in crisis pregnancies with truth, with the word of God and other ministries come alongside to give resources money, to help the woman keep her baby if she desires, give the baby up for adoption, all kinds of... And so many people have been one to Christ through that kind of sacrificial ministry and it continues on to this day. Most Crisis Pregnancy Centers and the network of life that surrounds them show that by sacrificially loving those that are in crisis, the Gospel shines and the arguments can be heard at that point, they're able to hear and listen. One of the most powerful things these crisis pregnancies centers have are those 4D ultrasound machines that you can see your baby, you can see his or her little face and moving like a movie, they're expensive but incredibly powerful and they're effective in enabling women to see their babies is what they are human babies and to a desire to protect them.

So finally, Jesus calls on us to fight for life sacrificially. So there's a spiritual war going on in our country in New York and Virginia and Washington and Christians have to stand up and courageously speak the truth. We have to make the pro-life case, make the biblical case. Life begins from conception, it's just biblically clear, we don't have to wonder about it. So in Luke chapter 1, when Elizabeth gives a very old age advanced age becomes pregnant with John the Baptist and Mary is already pregnant with Jesus and they come together, there's an incredible encounter there and Elizabeth fill that the Holy Spirit gives us some insights into what's happening inside the womb. She feels John leap inside her and speaks by the power of the spirit saying as soon as the sound of your greeting reach my ears, the baby in my womb left for joy. The keywords are for joy. Human, person, filled with joy. That was just John, that was his zeal for Jesus. But even more significantly, Elizabeth calls Mary the mother of my Lord, she's already a mother of her Lord and Jesus is just weeks after conception at that point. Human with identity from conception.

If I can just say in a side this is I think why they fight so viciously for late-term abortion. It's all or nothing friends. It's either human from conception, or it's not. And it's hard to see a 40-week baby as not human and that's why it's an untenable ethical position. It's just very, very difficult to make but it's an all-or-nothing argument. That's why they're fighting for it. There's only one other way station along the way and it's this movable line called viability. I don't know what that keeps changing as medical science becomes more and more amazing. It's human before the moment of viability, everybody knows that it's human from conception. But the Bible makes it clear, we don't have to wonder. David, the Psalmist in Psalm 51:5 said, "Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me." The only way you can be sinful is if you're human. And so he's human from conception, Psalm 51:5.

So we have to make the biblical case. You have to make the biological case. Concerning the development of the child, prior to the earliest abortions, the unborn already has every body part, he or she will ever have. At 18 days after conception, the heart is forming and the eye start to develop, 18 days. By 21 days, the heart is not only beating but pumping blood through the body. By 28 days, the unborn has budding arms and legs. By 30 days, the baby has multiplied in size 10000 times. The baby now has a brain and blood is flowing through his or her veins. By 35 days, mouth, ears and nose are already taking shape. By 40 days, the baby's brain waves can be measured, the child's heart beat which started three weeks before that can now be heard by an ultrasonic stethoscope. By 42 days, the skeleton is formed and the brain is controlling the movements of muscles and organs, the unborn reflexively response to stimulus and may already be capable of feeling pain, all this before the earliest abortions take place.

And from that point on, nothing happens except they just get bigger and more developed and more capable, which continues. So I've noted long after they're born. Then there's the legal case, 37 states maybe more now, at this point, have feed homicide laws but yet all 37 of these states also permit abortion. What's a fetal homicide law? What it means is, if an individual attacks a woman to the point where it causes a miscarriage, then the person is guilty of manslaughter if the woman wants the child. But if she doesn't want the child, she has the freedom to aboard it. Do you not see how horrendous a legal ethic that is? That is a might makes right ethic in which the strong-defined life for the weak. That cannot be that because an individual male or female, woman, man, father, mother says you're human then your human. If I say you're not, then you're not. That makes no sense. Legally, it's this legal schizophrenia.

The medical case have already noted. Neonatal care is staggering and developing all the time, people are working on the ability to even do surgery in utero. But in the same hospital and even more developed baby could be aborted. It doesn't make any sense. It's a medical schizophrenia. And then ethically when you have competing rights, the person with the greater right must win out. So you think about no one being deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. What that means is, life is greater than liberty and liberty is greater than property. There's an order of things. And so therefore, if you've got a woman whose life is going to be hugely impacted by the pregnancy and then the subsequent parenting, no doubt that's a claim, an ethical or legal claim, but the babies claimed to life is greater. Finally concerning government, we need to define what governments even for, what it's even about.

What is the purpose of government? To establish righteousness and justice, to protect as it says in the Declaration of Independence. The inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That no government would ever deprive another of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Any governmental leader who doesn't understand that basic premise is not fit to govern, everything else is less than that. I'm not that interested in being charged of being a one-issue voter. This is so important that the government realizes that they're there to protect, the strong is there to protect the weak, they're not fit to government.

Let's not mince words. We have a basic two-party system. Democratic Party, Republican Party. The Democratic Party will not embrace a pro-life candidate, or platform, it's just not part of their make up. So, anything else that they want to do is suspect below it the higher level of protection of life. I cannot and will not vote for any candidate (Republican either) that does not uphold the right to life. And so, if there are aspects of the democratic party that are appealing or attractive then put pressure on them to change this unjust platform or plank, but I just can't vote for any candidate like that on either side of the aisle. So educate yourself on this, go through the things that I've looked at, and look at it and see if it's so biblically, look at the facts and see if it's so biologically, look at the facts about fetal homicide laws and see what you think about that legal schizophrenia. Get up on these kinds of things and then boldly speak and be willing to serve, be willing to serve in this issue of sanctity of human life. Pregnancy support services - PSS, we've partnered with them locally, they've moved their center more toward Chapel Hill a number of years ago, but I've heard they want to move another or have another center back here in Durham.

It's going to take time, energy, money. It's going to take sacrifice. And I think people from our church and from other good church around here need to step up so that we have yet another healthy Crisis Pregnancy Center. And for those that have gifting and abilities to step in there, you're going to be ministering to people who are at absolutely a fork in their road and you'll be able to speak the words of the life and gospel in and see people cross over from death to life in marvelous ways.

Close with me in prayer. Father, one final application in the sermon is to pray and we're doing that right now. Father, we know that we can't defeat Satan, he is absolutely determined not to give up this ground. As you said to one of the churches in Asia Minor in the seven churches. "I know where you live, where Satan has his throne." And Father, I pray that you would please show yourself more powerful in this throne, this dark throne of abortion satanic throne of abortion, topple him from this throne. Father, I pray that we'd be faithful to pray for the political process, for the Supreme Court, for the justice is to not waffle on their convictions, but to be strong and stand up for life. I ask O Lord, that the states would do their responsibilities until finally then, we can deal properly with women in crisis pregnancies and with the surrounding issues about the baby that will be born and the life that has to be led after that. I pray that you'll help the church to shine in this dark hour. In Jesus name, Amen.

So turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 5, we're looking for a second week at practical aspects this week, practical aspects of healthy church discipline. As we read the Bible, we learn that the first sin that occurred centered around something very simple, something as simple as eating a piece of fruit. But then it quickly metastasized to something worse and worse, soon to murder and beyond that to being so great a universal problem that the hearts of human beings were only evil all the time in the days right before the flood. God put Adam and Eve in the beautiful Garden of Eden, and given them total freedom in that place, to eat from any tree that they wanted, any tree that is except one: The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam was forbidden by God to eat from that tree, and he was warned that if he did eat from that tree, he would surely die.

He was specifically put in the garden, it says in Genesis 2:15, to serve it and protect it; those are good translation of those two Hebrew verbs. And the word protect could also be translated to guard it, as a night watchman would guard a defenseless city or as a sentry guards a sleeping army at night. The word implies danger and the need for watchfulness. And that word guard will show up again in a moment in my message. But Adam failed to do his duty, the serpent came and deceived his wife, and Adam stood idly by while that evil conversation went on. Eve was deceived and ate from the forbidden fruit. Adam was rebellious and ate as well, and sin entered the world, and death through sin.

And the Bible teaches us that the wages of sin is death, but Adam and Eve didn't die right away. Actually, first death came in the very next chapter when their two sons, Cain and Abel, were grown men. Both of them made offerings to God, but Abel followed God's command to offer animal sacrifice, and Cain did not. God looked with favor on Abel's obedience and his offering, but He did not look with favor on Cain's disobedience and his offering. And Cain was jealous and hated his brother, the text tells us, and rose up and killed Abel in the field. God confronted Cain, saying, "Where is your brother Abel?" And Cain answered, "I don't know… am I my brother's keeper?" Now, that word comes from the same word that I mentioned earlier in Genesis 2:15. That's what Adam was told he was supposed to do with the garden: To be its guardian, its watchman, its protector. Cain is saying, "Am I the one who's supposed to be the guardian, the watchman, the protector of my brother?"

Now, in the New Testament, John in his epistle, likens that sinful disregard for others and that sinning toward others to Cain's hatred of his brother, Abel. And that cold-hearted question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" especially hypocritical in that he had been his brother's murderer. But in the church of Jesus Christ, we have agreed to be each other's keeper. We have agreed to be each other's guardians, we have agreed to be each other's night watchmen. In our church covenant, which we just read this morning, we have agreed to watch over one another in brotherly love, not like Cain, who murdered his brother, and then it seems hid his body in the field. Not like the priest and the Levite in Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan, who saw a man lying by the side of the road bleeding and just crossed by on the other side, passed by on the other side. Jesus is very clear to say they both saw him but they walked by on the other side, the priest and the Levite. Not my business. Live and let live. I'm not getting involved, not like that. But instead, like the Good Samaritan that, at great personal cost, did get involved, got invested himself, and cared for this individual.

But instead, we've agreed that we are going to have each other's back spiritually. That's one expression we use. If you say that I've got your back, I think that means I'm going to protect your blind side, I'm going to protect you where you're vulnerable, your blind spots, where an enemy could sneak up on you and attack you unawares. So in promising to watch over one another in brotherly love, we are not merely promising to care for each other physically. We are doing that, and most churches are going to do that, they're going to bring meals to the sick, they're going to bring money we're needed if there's some financial need, they're going to do those physical things, and we should do them; I'm not minimizing it.

1 John talks about seeing a brother in need and caring for the material needs. We do that, but we know it means so much more. Most of the things we promise to do in our church covenant are spiritual, and so when we say we're going to watch over one or another in brotherly love, we're really going to shepherd each other's souls. We're going to care about what's happening in each other's lives spiritually, because all of us are under constant assault by invisible spiritual enemies, that would destroy our souls, the world, the flesh, the devil, constantly assaulted. And we need help.

Now, Christ's answer for us is multifaceted and powerful. We begin with God Almighty, sovereign power over the world and the universe, and His protection of His people as the almighty king of the universe, that's the central security that we have. And Jesus' own intercessory ministry for us, and His kingly power, and that all authority in heaven and earth has been granted to Him, and He rules over everything for the benefit of His church. And then the Holy Spirit's ongoing power within us to keep transforming us and to guide us and direct us. So the Father, the Son, the Spirit, that's the greatest power that we have, but part of Christ's multifaceted protection of us in our great danger is the local church. Covenant membership in a healthy local church, a church which does commit to watch over one another souls in brotherly love.

So this morning we're going to look for a second Sunday at a healthy exercise of biblical church discipline. And I want to expand it beyond what we looked at last week, which was the issue of excommunication. And I want to go to a more comprehensive vision of how a local church fights sin in each other's lives, long before we ever get to excommunication. How we should be active in fighting sin in each other's lives, helping each other growing spiritually, that's what we're going to talk about today.

So let's begin by reviewing what we saw last week in 1 Corinthians 5. It's the most important and detailed chapter on church discipline in the Bible. And the real issue that we're dealing with, just as the Corinthians were dealing with, is the danger of indwelling sin and God's amazing wisdom in settling his children in local churches, where we can know and be known.

Now, I mentioned that our powerful enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil. We need to be mindful of that all the time, we tend to forget that we have a warfare going on. Changing the order a little bit to the devil, the world, and the flesh, let's start with the devil. The devil is the ancient serpent, also called Satan, the accuser. Paul calls him, "The god of this age," who blinds the minds of unbelievers so they can't see the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ. He also is served in an evil organized kingdom by demons who are skillful in tempting people as the devil himself is. Satan is shrewd, he's clever, he's filled with schemes which tempt us towards sin. And then once we have sin, he turns and accuses us of those very sins. In this way, as I said to the BFL class, he is the greatest hypocrite in the universe, both aggressively alluring people to sin and then righteously accusing them of the very sins he tempted them to do.

Then there's the world, the world system. By this we don't mean the planet Earth, etcetera, but we mean the evil system that Satan has crafted in the kingdoms of the world all over, which constantly allure people toward the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the boastful pride of life; these are the things that are in the world. And then there's the flesh, our own internal enemy, which if you could picture your soul like a walled fortress, it's the traitor that gets up in the middle of the night and unlocks the gate to let the outside enemy in. That's what the flesh is. It's interested in and attracted to the lusts of the eyes, and the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. It connects with it and wants it, it is evil and wicked. It is, as Paul says, "Sin living in me," Romans 7. So these three enemies conspire against our souls every day. And local churches are responsible for the holiness and the health of the souls of the covenant members. We're committing to do this for each other.

Now, in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul confronts the Corinthian church about one of their members who is sinning in a very noteworthy way, a scandalous way, scandalous sexual sin, and the Corinthian church has done nothing about it. And Paul clearly commands the church in Chapter 5:2, to expel this individual from church membership. That's the end of church discipline, there's no step beyond it, there's nothing that goes beyond it, that's it. Excommunication. And he says it four times. Look at verse 2, he says, "You should have put this one out of your fellowship." Verse 5, he says, "Hand this man over to Satan." To explain last week is just put them out in the world. He's not an insider anymore, he's not in any more. Paul says to get rid of the old yeast of wickedness. So there's that same image of expelling, getting rid of. And then he says it very plainly at the end, again verse 13, "Expel this wicked man from among you," four times. Very clear what he wants done. And it exactly lines up with what Jesus said, as we saw last week in Matthew 18, about a stubborn sinner who will not repent despite being confronted by an individual, by a group of individuals, by the whole church, will not repent. Jesus said, "Treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector." It's consistency.

Now last week we saw five motivations for church discipline.

The Glory of God

The first, as it is the motivation for everything we do in the Christian life, is the glory of God. We were created for His glory, we were redeemed for His glory. What this means is to put God on display, to put His attributes in a very radiant, shining way and display. So we are to do that, we are to be the light of the world, shining the glory of God, but a church that will not confront sin does not shine with the glory of God, does not glorify God. And so we do church discipline so that we can glorify God.

The Possible Repentance and Final Salvation of the Sinner

The second motivation is the possible repentance and the final salvation of the sinner in question. "Hand this man over to Satan so that his flesh may be destroyed and his spirit saved in the day of the Lord." Final salvation, that's the goal, and that is the hope. And it's interesting, it seems many scholars believe that the same one that was disciplined, expelled from membership, was urged by Paul later in 2 Corinthians 2 to be welcomed back into church fellowship. Show your love to him, extend forgiveness to him, be kind to him and welcome him back in order that Satan might not outwit us, for we're not unaware of his schemes. That's amazing. So it's kind of like Paul's saying, "Hand him over to Satan, and then when he repents, get them back from Satan." And here we see that Satan's working both sides of the equation on this issue of church discipline, generally works on the church to be lax and lazy and indolent about sin issues, and not do church discipline, and not deal with it at all. But if the church will do discipline, it's going to push the church to become legalistic, and harsh, and unloving.

Think of that individual there in Corinth, he's repented, he's grieved, he's brokenhearted, he trusts in Jesus, loves him, but he's got no church that will welcome him in because there was only one church then. And that would be very much to Satan's purpose to say effectively to that individual, "You have committed the unforgivable sin, you're cast out forever; there's no hope for you." Now, what effect would that have on the whole church of those that hadn't crossed the line yet? They're all into a legalistic works vision of the Christian life, and that's exactly what Satan wants. In order that Satan might not outwit us, welcome him back and be gracious to him. So that's the hope.

Practically speaking, what that means is somebody is excommunicated; though you don't socialize with them, you should evangelize, you should reach out spiritually, treat him as you would a pain or tax collector would be. You're going to share the gospel, you're going to be appealing through the word of God to this individual. And as I mentioned, many times in Baptist churches, the individual would be encouraged to come on Sunday morning. We open our Sunday mornings to everybody to come. We want them to hear the word of God, we want them to drink in the word. And then many times in Baptists past, the individuals would repent and come back, and you had the chance to observe their life before that happened, and then it's like, "Yeah, they brought forth fruit and keeping the repentance, they're back in." And so that's the healthy practicality.

The Protection of the Church from the Internal Spread of Sin

The third motive is the protection of the church from internal sin. Even if motive number two never happens, you still have done good, a good work in the life of the church. And that is you protected the church from the spread, the contagion of evil. It's like a disease that spreads, like yeast that works through the whole lump, and if you don't deal with it, it's going to spread. And so we've at least protected the church from thinking that sin is okay.

The Restoration of Unity in the Church

A fourth motivation is the restoration of the unity of the church, and that is sin has a rending effect, it rips families apart, rips individuals, there's anger and frustration and all that. When sin is dealt with biblically, that can be healed, the rupturing that sin causes can be healed, and they can maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace by dealing directly and helpfully with sin.

The Reputation of the Church and of the Lord in the Community

And the fifth is the reputation of the church and ultimately of the Lord in that community. This was a scandalous sin, it was reported, people knew about it. If the church didn't deal with it then the church would lose its reputation as salt and light, it would lose its power to call sinners to repent from their sin and cross over into Christ's kingdom. And Christ Himself, His reputation would be harmed, as it says in Romans 2:24, "God's name is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you." And so those are the five motivations we talked about last time for church discipline.

Now I want to talk about some common objections and issues that come up with church discipline. And last week I mentioned that the American church context, in our context, most churches have basically forsaken the practice of church discipline. A LifeWay survey showed... They surveyed pastors, and more than 80% of the pastors that they surveyed said that their churches had disciplined no church member in the last year, 80% had done no church discipline at all. More than half of those same pastors actually hadn't heard of anyone that had done any church discipline. In their realm, in their network, they didn't know anyone that did. Half of the pastors hadn't even heard of it being done. 55% of the pastors said that no member of any of the churches they had ever pastored had been disciplined, so not just the last year, in their entire career as pastors, a little more than a half of them said we've never done this, ever. The pastors almost universally admitted that this was a topic that was almost never discussed at all.

“It’s Not Loving”

So why don't churches do this? And we talked about a number of these reasons last time, but the number one thing that we bumped into right away when we sought to proceed in really a clear church discipline case was we were told that it was unloving. Well, we're supposed to love one another, this is not loving. Seemed harsh. But let me give you a medical analogy. Imagine you saw somebody with the symptoms of a possibly fatal disease, and they were unaware of their condition. Would it not be actually unloving to not address it, to not talk about it, to not say, "Hey, I see something in your skin, and I know enough to know that you ought to go get this looked at." Or "I see something in your eyes, or something in your mannerisms, there's something that you've got a serious medical issue." How could it be loving to say nothing, I'm just not getting involved. It's even worse if that condition is highly contagious. So that even if they don't have any interest in getting any med... What about their family, the people that are around them? You should show some love to them and address it.

But the idea, we're just not going to get involved, I think that people who argued that church discipline is unloving invariably are underestimating the danger and damage of sin. Greatly underestimating sin, that's why. And so they also have a wrong idea of what love is, but that's just one of many arguments that people make.

Chuck Lawless listed Twelve Reasons Churches Don’t Practice Church Discipline

 My friend Chuck Lawless, who's a professor at Southeastern, wrote an article on 12 reasons that churches don't practice church discipline. I'm not going to go through an articulation of each of these, but it was a helpful list.

First, he said, they don't know the Bible's teaching on discipline. They just have never heard it. Nobody's ever walked through 1 Corinthians 5, or Matthew 18. So they don't even know that it's there.

Secondly, they've never seen it done before, they have no pattern set up in their lives, they just don't even think this is part of a healthy church life.

Thirdly, they don't want to appear judgmental. Jesus said, "Judge not, lest you be judged. And yet, right here in the passage at the end, Paul says, "Are you not to judge those inside the church? God will judge those outside." So there's some judging you must do and some you must not do and you just need to be discerning which is Which.

Fourthly, the church has a wide open front door policy. This would be in the vernacular here, down in the south. Y'all come. I'm not going to do that often, but from time to time. I'm never going to say "All y'all. I'm never going to get to that point, but I've heard it said, and I think I understand what it means. But the idea is we welcome anybody and everybody and that's fine, to worship. It's fine Sunday morning, but they're talking about even membership. It's just an openness to membership. Anybody can come in. They're not discerning at all. So they have very low expectations of church membership. They're not serious about their covenant. They're not serious about the new member process. You could join the church right there on Sunday come forward. They read your name and you're in, they vote you in.

Fifthly, they've had a bad experience with church discipline in the past. It wasn't handled properly. It was done harshly or not biblically and so or maybe not just done it all and they weren't ready to accept it.

Six. The church is afraid to open a Pandora's Box. They fear it's a slippery slope and there's no way to... When does it end? Am I going to get voted out if, such and such? And we'll talk about that at the end of the sermon, how we address sin at a multifaceted level. No, we don't wheel out ex-communication for everything. Not at all, but they just think it's Pandora's Box, we're in a slippery slope. We're never going to get all this figured out.

Seventh. They have no guidelines for discipline. They don't know what to do, how to go about it.

Eighth. They fear losing members and dollars. Now, I don't know everything about the history of our church, but I do know this church regularly practiced church discipline at the end of the 19th century, and regularly did not from the 1930s on. And you may ask why, and I don't know why, but I'd have a guess. And I think it has to do with the building that we're all in here today. It was expensive and built on borrowed money, and then, that was in 1927, and then in 1929, the stock market crashed, and they still owed money. And many churches had to foreclose, but this church had an intense subscription list in terms of finances and made significant sacrifices financially. But one thing I'm just noting is, from around then on no church discipline. Also I noted no church planting either. Those two things stopped from that point. And you can kind of see why, financial conservativism. Want to protect the church's resources. So if you do church discipline you might lose members and money.

Number nine. Their vision of Christianity is individualized and privatized. It's just me and Christ. I don't really, I barely even need to know, I barely even need the church. You can get all kinds of good preaching and stream it right to your devices. Why would I even need to go? And so people are very individualized about their Christianity, very privatized and they don't have a corporate vision the way they need to.

As I've already said, number ten. They fear being legalistic. They use that word regularly. They use legalistic.

And number eleven. They hope for transfer growth, and this is how it works. The person will grow when they transfer out of our church. So let some other church deal with it. The problem is other churches don't know about it, because they don't ask questions. One of the questions we ask at new members interviews, Are you under any disciplinary proceeding with another local church? Often like a foreign language to the people we talk to, because they don't even know what we're talking about. But then educated people would know what they're talking about.

And then twelve, Leaders are sometimes dealing with their own sin issues, and so they don't want to be hypocritical just in their own lives, and so they're held back from being faithful in this area.

The Most Common Sin Addressed: Forsaking Assembling Together

Well, what kinds of things get disciplined? Well, the first church discipline case of the type we're talking about here, excommunication, that happened in my 20 years here, happened a few years into my ministry here. And it had to do with a very tragic scenario, of a woman who had met another man, and was in the process of leaving her husband and her children for this other man, and numbers of people went to confront this individual, many godly women went to talk to her, but she was adamant and entrenched and angry. And actually got to the point where she said that she was going to call the authorities if any more FBC people came to her door. Kind of like a universal restraining order for anyone at FBC, I don't know if that's even legal, but those were the thoughts in her mind. She didn't want any more contact from the church, and that's when we had to deal with whether it's loving or not. And so, we had to address it. Filled with grief, Paul told them to put out of fellowship the one who did this. It was sad. And we kept praying for her repentance, even for years after. And we've lost track of this family. They're not part of the church, either one now.

However, such cases are rare, by far, by far the most common church discipline action we've taken has to do with Covenant members who stop attending Sunday morning worship. That's by far. Now sometimes, we don't actually even know where they are. We've lost touch with them or they don't return our calls, but they're just not here. And so that is a very important issue for us as elders. We generally follow the, if there's smoke, there's fire approach. If you stop attending worship, and you're able-bodied. Now, keep that in mind. I'm not saying you're a shut-in, homebound, I'm talking about you're out at work during the week, playing golf on Saturday, or shopping or something like that, but you're just not making it to church on Sunday. Something's up and we just want to find out what's happening, want to ask questions, want to bring them back to a healthy involvement in not forsaking the assembling of themselves together. We want them to be involved in the life of the church. By far, that's been the most common thing that we've voted people out for. But again, it's always after a process of trying to win them back in.

The elders consistently go over our membership list. We consistently, as we have elder meetings, we ask, Are there any problems? Are any indications of difficulty? We actually just don't have time to talk about members that are doing well. And we'll talk more about that in a moment, but we're looking for early indicators of some changes in the person's life, so that we can nip something in the bud. That's how we shepherd.

Alright. Now I want to turn our attention to the key concept, and that is, we will watch over one another in brotherly love. And I'd like to ask that you turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 3, 12, and 13. Those of you that have been through the new member process know how important this text is for us. The commitment we have to watch over one another in brotherly love, we take first and foremost, to mean spiritually, not physically. We're not saying that we don't care about each other physically, we do, but we care very much how people's walks with the Lord is going, and this is a key text for us. Hebrews 3:12-13. It says this, "See to it brothers that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God, but encourage one another daily as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Hebrews 3:1213.

We believe this is probably the number one answer to the question, "Why should you be a covenant member of a healthy local church the rest of your life until you die?" And the answer simply is to protect yourself from your own sinfulness, to get the help you need in reference to your own internal sin nature. That's why. There are many other reasons, but that's the number one reason. We all have indwelling sin. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 7, "The very thing I hate, I do. The thing that I want to do, I do not do. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it's no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it." And so we want help with that.

The Great Danger: Apostasy

Now, if you look at verse 12, the great danger here is generally called, apostasy. Verse 12, "A sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God." That's what we're dealing with. Do you see it there in verse 12? Hebrews 3:12. The danger is that we would turn away from following Christ and that we would go into a life of open rebellion. That's apostasy. Now, if any one of you thinks that could never happen to you, you don't know your own heart, and frankly, you don't know the inroads Satan and sin has already made into your heart. You should absolutely think this could happen to me, if the Lord doesn't hold. As the hymn we sang earlier in, Come Thou Fount, "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love." Every one of us who knows our own hearts knows that that is true. We have to be tethered to Christ because we are so prone to wander.

Well, how does it happen? How does a person who professes faith in Christ later turn away from the living God, having a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God? Well, verse 13 tells us the mechanism. They have become hardened by sin's deceitfulness. That's how it happens. We are progressively hardened by sin's deceitfulness; Verse 13. Temptation and sin are exceedingly deceitful. They do not tell us the truth about their basic nature, what they intend. Sin doesn't knock on the door of your heart and when you open up and look at it, say, "Hello, I'm sin and I'm here to destroy your world. I'm here to steal, and kill, and destroy. I'm here to take everything from you that you value. I'm here to take away your family, your wife, your children. I'm here to take away your possessions. I'm here to take away your job. I'm here to take away your reputation in the community. I'm here to take away your sense of peacefulness in your own heart and your joy in life. I'm here to take away your health, and I would like to take away your very life and your soul." And that's what sin intends, but sin doesn't do that, it deceives. It lies to us. It promises rewards of pleasure.

Furthermore, it talks about being hardened by sin's deceitfulness. Remember I said, "I got your back." Means I've got you at your blind spot. Well, we all have blind spots, and so, sin's deceiving in ways we don't see. And it has a hardening effect on our hearts. What that means is the heart being hardened is less submissive to God. It's less yielded. It's hard when the Holy Spirit speaks. We don't listen anymore. We don't hear Him speaking anymore. It's exactly the same I think of being stiff-necked. I think it's just different words for the same thing. Stiff neck, equals hard-hearted. It means you're not yielded. We're like the seed in the soils. It's like the seed that hits the concrete pavement. There's no yieldedness. And so, sin's deceitfulness gradually hardens our hearts. What happens is things that we were aghast at and shocked at in others or even in ourselves early on, the more that we are involved in them, little by little they're not so shocking anymore. We become callous and unfeeling. Furthermore, then we don't hear the still small voice of the Lord through the Holy Spirit calling us to prayer, calling us to the Word, calling us to patterns of obedience. We're not listening anymore, because we don't really hear him. We became hard of hearing.

Sin's deceitfulness, and our minds become more and more worldly. We're thinking about worldly things more, about the pleasures of this world, and the entertainments of this world, and the possessions of this world. And after a while, we have developed a sinful heart of unbelief that's heading toward turning away from the living God, that's how it happens. Alright, so what's the remedy? Well, the remedy here in this text is the church. There are the remedies I've already talked about, but here I'm focusing on the church. See to it brothers that none of you has this happening in their lives. So were supposed to see to it. It's literally see, look, so open your eyes.

Now, I believe the eyesight of the soul is faith. So by faith, see what's happening, but also physically, what's happening physically in their lives. What's going on. See. Now, above all the elders are called to do this. One of the words for elders in the Greek is overseers. Those that are seeing from above. It doesn't mean that they're better than anyone else, but they're up on a hill, like a shepherd, looking down on the flock to see who's wandering.

The Elders: Those Who Must Give an Account

And so, the author to Hebrew says, "Obey your leaders and submit to their authority, they keep watch over your souls, like those who must give an account." So we have to give an account for the folk. And so, that's elders are definitely supposed to watch over one another in brotherly love, but we're just all supposed to do it. So we see it and we're going to watch and we're going to see if there are new habit patterns. Is someone drifting, drifting in their lives? Are there new patterns that are hurting them? We're going to see that none of us has a sinful unbelieving heart, not one of us. We don't want to lose anybody, and so there's that mutual shepherding. So we're going to see that. And then the remedy is encourage one another daily as long as it is called today.

Now, be at peace. We're not advocating daily church right now. But we can encourage without being a church. Now, the word encourage is a very beautiful Greek word also used to speak of the counselor, the comforter, the Holy Spirit in John 14, and the one called alongside to help. But it's a multi-faceted word, sometimes translated encourage, sometimes exhort, sometimes warn or admonish, different things for this word. We're supposed to do that for each other, speak to each other, talk about it with each other. And it says daily, so that's day by day by day. There's such a theology of today. Today, if you hear His voice don't harden your heart. So the today, talk to each other, today. So we can get on the phone with each other, we can text each other, we can hang out with each other during the week, but we do this for each other. And watch each other's life pattern and say, What's going on in so and so's life that could be causing them spiritual trouble? It it prosperity? Maybe some success? Money? Power? Or maybe it's the opposite? Scarcity, maybe they lost their job and they're in financial straits.

Okay. We've got a physical need, but what's going on spiritually? Could this be a temptation that's causing them to drift? Or maybe a medical need? They're afflicted medically, alright, that's their physical condition. What's going on in their hearts? Are they continuing to be healthy with Christ through that affliction or not? Keep in mind, and this is so important, remember how Jesus said to Simon Peter when he knew exactly what Peter was going to do that night? Remember, the night before Jesus was crucified, He said this, "Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you... " Plural. "All of you like wheat. But I've prayed for you Simon that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." Jesus is the right hand of God, and is interceding for us that our faith will not fail. So that's how we should watch over one another in brotherly love. That so-and-so's faith will not fail. That they'll continue to love Jesus and walk with Jesus through this trial. That's how it works. That's how we should pray for each other and minister to each other.

Now, as we close, I want to talk about the multi-faceted response we should have to sin. And I gave you a bulletin insert, probably should have projected on the screens as well, but I'm so old school. I'm still learning to use technology. Please don't tell my alma mater anything about that. It's terrible. One of the biggest misunderstandings about church discipline is that we will excommunicate people for minor infractions. Friends, we will not excommunicate people for minor infractions. What we want is we want an appropriate response to differing situations. Now, church discipline always has to do with sin, the threat of sin, always. So the approach is that we should use the minimum amount of interaction needed to bring someone to repentance. Don't wheel out the heavy artillery when it's not needed. So around the time that I was writing a chapter on church discipline, I was also building a tree house. It was a ridiculous thing, but I love it, and it's just how it is, and I enjoyed building it.

And as I was thinking about church discipline, I was thinking about the different tools I used to build the tree house. And I noticed that I used four different hammers. I used an 8lb maul, like a sledgehammer, to drive the ridge pole, the roof ridge, the 2 x 10 in place. I was whanging on that thing, and I never used the maul again, that was it. Then I had a 28oz framing hammer that was longer than your average hammer. It was really heavy, and I got really strong in my right hand forearm, it got to be very big, as I was driving those big spikes in the platform and the other things, the frame. Then the third hammer I used was a more ordinary looking hammer, a 16oz hammer. When you think of a hammer, you probably think of that. And the last hammer I used was a tack hammer, which was just 5oz, and it was tap, tap, tap, tap with these tiny little nails for the molding around the windows. I'm just going to use the right hammer for the right job.

Now, it occurred to me as I was driving in this morning. Friends, we're not talking about hammering people. You do realize that. I didn't realize till today what a terrible illustration this is, but I got to go with it now, alright. So we're talking about addressing sin in each other's lives, we're not talking about hammering people. That's exactly what we're not saying. We're trying to use the minimum amount of influence or force to bring someone to repentance, that's the desire. Why would we do that? Look at Jesus in Matthew 18, "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you." It's interesting, isn't it? Let's keep the circle of knowing. Now it's a different kind of sin than in 1 Corinthians 5. But that's how we get the idea of keeping the circle of knowledge small, keeping the amount of force, or whatever is needed to bring the person to repentance.

Alright, take a look at the insert now. And across the top there are four headings. Member condition, spiritual danger, proper response and scriptural support. So the idea is, What's going on in the life of the member? Okay? In every case, there's a danger with that person, that has to do with sin. What would be the words the New Testament translations tend to use to address that? There's a lot of words that're supposed to do with each other. And you'll see them listed there, and then there's scriptural support behind them that you can look up later. I'm not going to go to the cross-references. So first, the member condition, the member is living fruitfully. I already told you we don't spend a lot of time at elder's meetings talking about those in this condition. We're glad they're living fruitfully, but it doesn't mean you don't care about them. The danger is that they'll stop living fruitfully. We want them to continue to do it.

And so there's a number of words that I would give would be, encourage or praise. You should praise brothers and sisters that are doing well as Epaphroditus was praised in Philippians 2. We should say like in 1 Thessalonians 4:1, "You're doing this, now we ask you to do it more and more…" so I see this already at work, in you. Let's do it more and more." So that's praise. And I praised you folks last week for being the kind of church that doesn't fight on church discipline. You want to do it just as long as it's done biblically and faithfully. So I praise you for that, let's just do it more and more. So, that's encouragement and praise. Second member condition is, lacking information. So that'll be somebody that just is ignorant of doctrine. They don't know key verses that are relevant to their situation. The biblical response then would be a teaching ministry, an instruction ministry. This is what some people call, formative church discipline, as opposed to punitive church discipline. Formative goes ahead of the sin and heads it off at the pass by giving you a good biblical instruction and what not to do or what to do.

So you teach people like that, teach them the Word of God, so that they will not sin in the future. Okay, the third member condition is, the need to get moving, to get up off the dime, to get off square zero, okay? The problem here is laziness or neglect, sins of omission, through just not being active as you should be in a certain area. All of us tend to do that. We know what we should be doing, but we're not doing it. You don't need any more instruction. You already know, but you're not doing it. So what verbs would the New Testament use? There you would go to, exhort. Or spur on. I love that, spur one another on toward loving good deeds. Think of an old western, that round piece of metal with the sharp edges to encourage the horse to get going. So the horse is encouraged, or spurred on toward moving. And so the author uses this. Let's spur one another on toward love and good deeds. That's what we should do. So you exhort. Come on, let's go, let's move. You urge.

Fourth member condition is somebody going through a trial. They're going through difficulties. They're going through afflictions. And the danger, spiritual danger for them, is discouragement men or depression. So the Biblical words there would be comfort or console that person. Mourn with those who mourn, be with them, don't be Job's friends, judging the person, get alongside them and love them and get them through the trial. Member condition could be starting to go astray. They're starting to go in a decisively sinful direction, but they've just begun to go in that direction. You're really trying to nip the sin in the bud. It's a new sin pattern. The New Testament uses words like, warn, admonish. The word, admonish or correct. So you give the warning there. Many verses speak of this. What about somebody that's determined to wander? You've already warned them, and they just keep on doing it. Well, there you get into the biblical word we see frequently, rebuke, but rarely do. What is a rebuke but a verbal spanking basically. Strong rebuke, like Jesus to Peter, "Get behind me Satan." That's a rebuke.

So it's a very strong word. I'm not saying you should say, "Get behind me Satan." To somebody who needs to be rebuked. But what I'm saying is, it's a serious thing and you really want to wake them up to the danger. The word rebuke is used. And then finally, stubborn and repentance. Or you could say notorious and egregious sin. That's where Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 5 would be different. And that's where you bring out excommunication. Does that make sense? So there's just different levels of addressing sin in the life of the church.

Now, as I finish, I just want to say, as I did in my prayer, I know that not... I don't know this, but I assume that not all of you are born again, not all of you are Christians and not all of you members of a healthy church. This has been for church members. If you walked in here this morning, not yet born again, this is not what you need. What you need is to repent of your sins universally and turn to Christ. Christ is the savior for sins. He's a savior for sinners just like you and me, and all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And there is only one Savior. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven, given to men, by which we must be saved. Turn to Christ. Trust in Christ, and then once that's happened, get water baptized and join a healthy church like this one, where you can receive the benefits of people who will know you and you'll know them.

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time that we've had these two weeks to look at details of church discipline. We thank you for the array of responses that we can have as members to other people's sins. Father, I pray that you would strengthen us to do our duty in each other's lives. Help us to be faithful. Help us to care enough, to care enough about how others are doing, to get close to them and be effective through the Holy Spirit in bringing them to repentance. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

So turning your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 5. We are looking today as you just heard John read for us verses 1-13. And as we do, we're looking this morning at the church, specifically, that I mean the local church. What is a church? Is it wherever two or three are gathered in Jesus' name? Is that a church? Or is it more than that? Is a faithful street evangelist up on a podium in Central Park, New York City faithfully preaching the gospel to a mixed group, is that a church? Or how about a campus fellowship on Friday night as college students gather in a room and listen to a Christian topic being unfolded from the Scripture, is that a church? During the 16th century, when the Reformation was going on, the Roman Catholic Church, which was basically the only game in town at that point in Europe rejected the reforms that Martin Luther and the other reformers were pressing based on the Scripture of justification by faith alone and all, that they rejected and excommunicated anyone that followed those doctrines.

They kicked them out of the Roman Catholic Church, whereupon, I think in response, but also just in general trying to study the Word, the reformers started asking the question, "What is a church? What is a real church?" If they knew that they were not heretics, they felt that they had been kicked out by a heretic church, and so they were asking questions, "What is a true church?" And they began to derive theological answers. Some of the theologians discerned three key items. First, where the Word of God is preached faithfully in Christ's name; and second, where the ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, are scripturally followed or administered; and where church discipline is faithfully practiced, there, you have a church. Those three things. Now, in history, Baptists, which were part of that stream of Baptist history, made their contribution by coming to the conviction that the local church should, as much as possible, be made up of born again people. That only truly regenerate people should be members, covenant members, of that local church.

In this, they rejected the idea of a state church where a whole nation would be Lutheran or a whole nation would be Roman Catholic or a whole nation would be Reformed etcetera, and if you were a baby born in that that's what your religion was going to be. Whatever the ruler of that state was, all of his people would be that. Well, the Baptists rejected that idea cause they rejected infant baptism and they felt that as much as possible the local church should be made up of only believers, only born again people. And there were two great safeguards the Baptists presented. First was believer baptism, that only those who could give a credible profession of faith in Christ should be water-baptized. And secondly, church discipline. When individuals who are members of the church began to act like pagans, began to act like unbelievers, they should be excommunicated from that local church. These were the two safeguards to a Believer Church.

Now behind the zeal for church discipline, there is a far greater a biblical zeal for holiness, the personal holiness of the individuals in the church, the holiness of the local church. And this comes from Leviticus 11:44 quoted in 1 Peter 1:16, where God Almighty says to his people, "Be holy, because I am holy." Now many people have a negative view of holiness, as though it's essentially misery, as though God were some kind of cosmic killjoy up there, looking over the parapets of heaven and trying to see if there's anyone having a good time, anyone enjoying anything at all and saying effectively, "Now, cut it out." That's the vision that they have of holiness. I remember reading a critique of the Puritan movement, and puritanical is almost always used negatively in the English language, that kind of thing. But in a similar vein, saying defining Puritanism as "The haunting fear that somewhere on earth someone is happy." So that's a very bad view, not only of Puritanism but of holiness.

But people who fear holiness and hate holiness do so I think from a deep-seated misunderstanding of what holiness really is, a deep seated misunderstanding of the evil of sin and the beauty of perfect goodness. How attractive and how beautiful it would be to live in a world with nothing but perfect goodness and no evil at all. And that stems from the essential nature of God himself, 1 John 1:5, "God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all." Or again, in Psalm 29:2, it says, "Give unto the Lord the glory due his name and worship the Lord," listen to this, "in the beauty of holiness." There is just a beauty to holiness. There's a perfect beauty then to that holy world we are going to. I just looked it up as I was in the pew there, I wanted to confirm that that adjective is used, the Holy City, and it is. Revelation 21, the Holy City, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. The Holy City, a city in which righteousness dwells and no evil, in which it's pure light and no darkness at all, just like God. Well, what would it be like to be in a world like that, a perfectly holy world?

Jonathan Edwards was meditating on holiness in one of his private meditations, in his journal, and he likened holiness to the beautiful simplicity of a spring flower, like a wild flower, which lay low and humble in the ground very low, and which opened up its petals to the flow of sunlight and drank in the sunlight, and gave off a beautiful fragrancy. And then he extended it to a whole field of these wild flowers drinking in light and putting off fragrance and beauty. That's his picture of holiness. And heaven is a place of perfect holiness, and therefore, also a place of perfect happiness. So, we should understand sin as the greatest enemy the people of God will ever face. It ruins that beautiful holiness that God intends. It is the damaging enemy that has come into this universe that God made. So therefore a healthy church must address the sin of its people, to be glorifying to God and fruitful as well as truly happy and truly blessed in peace.

So let's talk about our context, and by that I mean we as American Christians. America's prevailing spirit is one of relativism and tolerance of sin. In the post-modern era, there is an absolute uncertainty about absolute truth, and along with that comes relativism in which we're going to say like Pontius Pilate, "What is truth?" And not wait for the answer, because truth is relative to your perspective wherever you're standing, that's what truth is for you. We also have a radical individualism, where every person is an island unto him or herself, on their own, and mutual accountability, covenant faithfulness within a group is avoided. Beyond that, there's a tendency of us to question authority. You can even see those two words, sometimes on cars, "Question authority." And below that is just, "What right do you have to tell me what to do about anything?"

And then the idea of tolerance, being America's greatest virtue. American educators have imbibed this. They mixed a potent cocktail of self-esteem plus tolerance as the ideal for interpersonal relationships. Think very highly of yourself and tolerate everything in others, opening the door to tolerating, even embracing, even celebrating things that the Bible rejects as immoral and wicked such as homosexuality, to be tolerant of these things and the attitude would be the unbiblical slogan, "Live and let live." And then the misunderstood biblical slogan. "Judge not, lest you be judged." And so that's our context. As a result then, churches, local churches, more and more walked away from healthy church discipline. They just didn't do it. Now, my good friend Greg Wills who's a Baptist historian at Southern Seminary wrote a book on church discipline practiced by Baptists in the 19th and the early part of the 20th century, and he said to a 19th century Baptist, a church without discipline would hardly have counted as a church at all. If there's no discipline that's not a church.

He said his statistic show that mith century Baptist churches disciplined on average 2% of their members every year. But as things unfolded, church has just abandoned that practice. Stopped doing it. Why? What happened? Well, Greg Wills says some of it was legalism. The way that church discipline would be applied unevenly on various moral standards that weren't necessarily biblical or might have been a few steps removed from biblical standards. For example, card-playing and dancing were frequently sins that Baptist churches disciplined because they were worldly. Greg Wills zeroed in on dancing in particular, and he said, "Dancing was the rock on which the ship of discipline foundered in the early part of the 20th century." So they sank on the rock of dancing. Now, some of you are like, "What in the world? I'm not even sure what world you're talking to me about. Churches actually disciplined people for dancing?" They did, but it became harder and harder to justify it biblically, they were getting further and further away from biblical absolutes. And so, just in general, Baptist churches just chucked the whole thing. Stopped doing discipline. As a result, sin's deadly plague in local churches went on unchecked.

More than anything, churches were accommodating themselves to the liberalism of the society theologically and just socially, accepting things more and more, and getting rid of any idea of discipline within the church. Sin is a deadly plague and as J L Dagg said, "When discipline leaves, Christ goes with it." And so we have to address it and when we allow sin to spread unchecked, we are begging for disaster. The church loses all of its power. Sinners are no longer converted, professing Christians are in constant danger of backsliding, nothing is going to be done to check it. The end result is that churches end up not much different than the world, they're just the same. Now let me talk about our context here at First Baptist Durham. I was saying to some of the other leaders of the church just how glad I am to pastor this church. I mean, even specifically this morning. I am not in any fear of preaching faithfully 1 Corinthians 5 before you, I don't think that there is going to be any faction that will rise up against what I'm speaking as long as I carefully go through the text and say, "We're not doing that," etcetera.

And you need to know just how unusual that is sadly, in so many Baptist churches, how many of my brother pastors would preach this text faithfully with fear and trembling, of what the people will say and think. Our church when I first got here 20 years ago was not actively consistently practicing church discipline. But little by little, the church began to embrace, based on biblical truth, its responsibility and certain cases came along, the church was faithful to do its task, and now we are in a regular pattern, and developing pattern, of doing church discipline. And I'm grateful for that, I thank God for being in a healthy church. My desire is just be faithful to this passage, which is the next passage in 1 Corinthians and just to urge that we continue and even grow more and more in this area that I feel like the Lord has led us to do well in. Now, next week, God willing, I'm going to talk more about details about how church discipline should be done in a local church.

This morning, my task is mostly just to walk through 1 Corinthians and try to understand what Paul says here. But I'm going to begin by looking at Matthew 18 briefly. There are two great passages on church discipline, Matthew 18. You can turn and look there if you like, verses 15-17. I'm not going to spend much time here. But Matthew 18 plus 1 Corinthians 5, these are the two great passages on local church discipline. Now, they're different from one another because I think they have a slightly different focus. There are different kinds of sins being addressed. Mathew 18 seems to be more into interpersonal sin, person A, person B. Some carnal behavior might happen between person A and person B, and a person is wronged and they address it privately, just between the two of them, they can get it worked out. So Jesus says in Matthew 18:15-17, "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault just between the two of you, and if he listens to you, you have won your brother over, but if he will not listen, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen to the church, then treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector." That's Jesus's words, Matthew 18:15-17. Now, I'm not going to walk through that, but that gives you a process to go through person A to person B when you're affronted by an individual.

Now, if you go over to 1 Corinthians 5, you're going to see a different kind of sin and a different kind of response. There it's dealing with a more public and scandalous sin for which I would say an individual's assurance of, "I'm sorry," and all that is not going to be good enough because the reputation of the church is at stake. And so I think they're just different, so you don't see the steps that Jesus lays out being laid out here by Paul in 1 Corinthians 5. There is a way to harmonize them, they're just different, different sins being dealt with there. It's more of a public issues.

So let's look at what Paul is dealing with. And the context here in 1 Corinthians 5 is of a notorious and scandalous sin that's occurring in the body of Christ. It's a sin, Paul says, that would make all of pagan Corinth sit up and take notice and gossip about those Christians in their city. Paul himself seemed shocked. So look at verse 1, 1 Corinthians 5:1, "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans, a man has his father's wife."

So Paul is clear that, and he'll be even clearer in the next chapter, chapter 6, that all sexual immorality is sin, very serious sin. But the kind that's going on here as we said would make even the pagans be shocked. They know that this is wicked. And not only that the sin is being reported, people are talking about it, it's being noised around. Gossip is already spreading. Now, probably what's going on is that a man was having a sexual relationship with his stepmother, I think. He doesn't say a man has his mother, but a man has his father's wife. So I think it's probably that he is sleeping with his stepmother. But it's shocking. Even worse, the Corinthians are responding with pride. Look at verse 2, "And you are proud." This is a consistent problem with this local church. They are arrogant people, they're prideful people. They're proud of their leaders. "I follow Paul…I follow Apollos…I follow Cephas…" They're proud people, they're proud of their spiritual gifts. We'll be talking about that toward the end of this book. They're very proud of speaking in tongues or prophecies or other things. They're proud of their status in the community there.

Now here, I don't think you should imagine that they're proud of the sin. I don't think that's what's going on. It's more they're proud in spite of their sin. The sin hasn't in any way harmed how proud they are of their church. They were proud of themselves despite their sin of omission, of not doing something they should have done. And so, Paul's job here is to shock them to their senses with their duty. Look at verse 2 again, "You are proud, shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and put out of your fellowship the man who did this?" So now we come directly to the issue of what's called excommunication. The person is no longer seen to be a member of that church. They're not going to be able to communicate, in other words, take part in communion, they're not a member of the church. Excommunication, that's what the word means. So, you should have put out of your fellowship. This is the final stage of discipline in which a member is put out of the church because of sin. Now, God willing, next week, I'm going to talk about subordinate steps that healthy churches do to address sin in the church, long before excommunication. We'll talk about that, God willing, next week. The whole array of proper responses to a whole array of sins. Excommunication though is the final step.

Keep in mind, in history, the Roman Catholic Church did things like the Spanish Inquisition and other things in which they would actually torture sinners or heretics, burn them at the stake and do different things. These things are not mentioned at all in the text. They are not approved at all by the Scripture. They were never in view. The final step of what a local church could do is this, "You're no longer a member of our church." That's the end. And nothing more that the church would do, but they needed to do it and they weren't doing it.

So look at Paul's commands and his reasons verse by verse, verse 3, "Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit, and I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present." Notice that Paul uses judgment language. He is sitting in judgment on this case, and he's going to do it again at the end of the passage. Look at verses 12 and 13, "What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside, expel the wicked man from among them."

So clearly, this passage is the limiting passage or a boundary passage on Jesus' statement in the Sermon of the Mount, "Judge not, lest you be judged." Apparently, there are some judgments that it is sinful to make, and there are some judgments that it's sinful not to make, and you just have to be discerning which is which. In this case, it's sinful for them not to pass judgment on this individual and excommunicate him. That would be wrong for them not to do that. So Paul in verse 3 is speaking as an apostle who represents the authority of Christ in a church matter. He is there with the authority of Jesus, as though Christ himself were rendering this judgment through him. That's the feeling you get. And Paul says, "I've already passed judgment on the sinner." Now, the church in order to stay faithful to Jesus needs to do the same. Paul says, his power is present through the Holy Spirit. I think that's the implication, "When I am with you in spirit." And I think the same is true for any healthy church in the 21st century. Paul's power can be present with us as we need to fulfill this, because really we've always known the issue is not Paul anyway, it's Christ through Paul, or it's the Holy Spirit using Paul as he wrote this text. So the power of Paul's words is still with us, even in the 21st century.

The Remedy Commanded

Now, Paul clearly wants this sin to be dealt with immediately, no delay. So he commands this remedy. Look at verses 4 and 5, "When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and I am with you in spirit and the power of our Lord Jesus is present," verse 5, "hand this man over to Satan so that the flesh may be destroyed and his spirit saved in the Day of the Lord." So Paul is giving us formal sentence like in a court trial in this matter. He's telling the local church precisely what they should do with this sinner. First, the discipline must be done in public assembly, not in private, in public. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus. Secondly, Paul is saying he is with him in spirit, so the church must honor Christ's authority speaking through him to obey what he's telling them to do. And through the Holy Spirit, he is with them in spirit, so the Holy Spirit is there, it's a very serious thing.

We should remember the ominous assembly in Acts chapter 5 of Ananias and Sapphira, they're all together. Peter was the apostle dealing with that case. You remember the story, they lied about money, they individually did it, first Ananias, the husband, then Sapphira, the wife. They spoke the lie, and Peter said, "How could you agree to lie to the Holy Spirit?" And they both dropped down dead, so there's that serious sense of direct judgment, so very serious. And later in this book, 1 Corinthians 11, he's talking about excesses with the Lord's Supper. They were getting drunk at the Lord's Supper, they were gorging themselves, they had no thought about the others, they were not recognizing the seriousness of the Lord's Supper. So he says in 1 Corinthians 11, "Anyone who eats and drinks the Lord's Supper without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself." That is why, listen to this, "Many of you are weak and sick and a number of you have died, have fallen asleep." This is a very serious thing that Paul is talking about here.

So Paul then says, At this solemn assembly, you should "hand this man over to Satan." Now, that's just a different way of saying the same thing he says three different times. Look at verse 2. They should have put the man out of the fellowship. "Hand this man over to Satan," is in this verse, but verse 7, they should get rid of the old yeast. And then at the very end, verse 13, in case they missed what they're supposed to do, "Expel the wicked man from among you." He's very clear what has to happen, no doubt about it.

Hand this man over to Satan.

Now, here the text says, "Hand this man over to Satan." Now, here's where you need to understand how Paul sees the local church. He talks about it at the end of this text, inside, outside language. Inside, outside, inside, outside. So there's a sense of a boundary, and it's not architectural. It's not walls, like you're going to have armed guards or a bouncer, and you're going to get the person physically out of the building. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about a sense of who is that local church and who is not. And so the boundary is one of, really a list of names and a knowledge of who our flock is.

And he says, your business is with those people, not the outsiders. So there's a sense of an outside world out there. And then he's using a language of Satan here, Satan's in-charge of that world. He is the God of this age. He's deceiving the whole world. Put the man out into Satan's kingdom so he can live out there, because that seems to be his allegiance. He's acting like a non-Christian, send him out to follow the dictates of Satan out into Satan's world. That's what's excommunicated. Jesus used the language, "Treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector." Outsider, that's what it means. So just out in the pagan world, just see him that way. So that he says, "The flesh may be destroyed." One translation has sinful nature, but that's a leap for me exegetically. I don't know that I can say that he's urging that his sinful nature be destroyed. The word is just flesh. So, let Satan work him over. There could even be fleshly effects of the sin. There could be disease, there could be other things that might happen. His body might be destroyed, but he's hoping that his spirit will be saved in the Day of the Lord. So there could be some bad things that will happen to him physically, but his real hope is that his spirit will be saved on Judgment Day.

The Example of the Yeast

Alright, verses 6-8, he gives us the analogy of yeast, "Your boasting is not good, don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast, as you really are." Interesting statement, "As you really are." Get rid of the yeast so you can be what you are. You are pure, now be pure. That's just the way justification and sanctification works. God has declared you clean, now live clean. So he's saying the same thing to the church, "Get rid of the yeast so you can be what you are which is a lump with no yeast, no evil. So be what you are," that's what he's saying. "For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed, therefore, let us keep the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread made without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth."

So now we got this image of yeast, now we got a chemistry lesson. Alright, what is yeast? It's a one-celled fungus that spreads rapidly throughout a lump of dough, let's say, simply by dividing in two, and it's used in baking to give breads and cakes a nice fluffy texture. Right in my outline here, I describe how that happens but that is so geeky and most of you don't want to know about the carbon dioxide bubbles, but that's what happens. It spreads and it makes cakes and muffins light and airy, and if there's no yeast, it's like crackers, like dry... You know, very unleavened bread. So Paul actually is reaching for the Jewish traditions around Passover, and they were commanded to eat bread without yeast and get rid of all the yeast in their homes. And so, the Jewish people would go through all their homes and get rid of the yeast. Just get rid of all the old yeast, so that their homes will be free of yeast. And it's a picture of permeation and spreading. It's not necessarily bad or good.

Jesus said, that the kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman makes into a large amount of flour until it permeated the whole lump. He's talking about the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven spreads invisibly through the world. No one can see it, but it spreads. That's a good thing. But in this case, it's bad. Sin spreads, it metastasizes, it's contagious. And so, just like that we are to be even better. We're in the New Covenant now, not the Old Covenant. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. He's better than any lamb ever was. So we should be even more committed to holiness and purity than the Jewish people ever were before. That's the language he's using. So let's get rid of all of the wickedness and sin.

The Prohibition from Associating with Immoral So-Called Brothers

Now, in verses 9-11, he says, "I'm putting on you a strict prohibition in terms of who you will consort with, who you will eat with." Verses 9-11, "I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. Not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters. In that case, you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard, or a swindler. With such a man, do not even eat." So here, Paul gets to the end result of the expulsion. When you kick this man out, do not set up a lunch date with him. Don't hang out with him. He needs to know it's not okay what's happened. So he's dealing with the idea of the danger of this individual.

Now, Paul is clear there's a big difference between unbelievers, the people of this world who live in constant sin all the time. Those people are enough of a threat, they can influence the church. That's true. But they're doing it clearly saying they're not Christians, they're pagans, I'm not a believer. And Paul says, "I'm not telling you not to eat or drink with them or not to spend time with them or do business with them or different things, I'm not saying that. Because in that case, you would have to leave this world." Look at the example of Jesus, he ate and drank with pagans and tax collectors all the time. He was never polluted by them, but he spent time with them. And then in his high priestly prayer in John 17, he said, "My prayer is not that you take them out of this world, but that you protect them from the evil one."

So we're supposed to be salt and light, we're supposed to be in the world influencing. So he said, "I'm not saying don't consort with those sinful people who are worldly. What I am saying is don't hang out with someone who calls himself a brother but lives in that kind of habitual sin. With that kind of person, don't even eat." Now, this is where groups like the Amish and other Anabaptistic groups and others had a practice known as shunning. And it does raise very practical questions like... I mean, how far does this go? Jonathan Edwards helpfully explains some of these things in church discipline. It doesn't mean we shouldn't give basic human kindness to someone who's been excommunicated, medical assistance if they're in need, common acts of kindness such as opening a door when you go through ahead of them, or picking something up they may drop. Nor does it mean within families that husband shouldn't eat with wives or wives shouldn't eat with husbands if one of them has been excommunicated, or parents with children, children with parents, like ongoing human relationships need to be maintained so he would not say that you would stop eating dinner together if you're married or you're in the same family.

But it does say, "I don't want to communicate to the excommunicated person that what they've done is okay. I want them to know I'm deeply troubled, that I'm praying for their soul. I want them to repent." And what's so beautiful is in 2 Corinthians 2, it seems like the sinner who was kicked out, and we'll talk about this more next week, repented and they were welcomed back into the church. They needed to be welcomed back in. So that's the desire. We want the person to repent and flee from Satan and come back into the colony of heaven that the church is. It's what he's talking about here. And then finally in verse 12 and 13, judging those outside or inside, not those outside of the church. "What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside." I mean, the wrath of God is onto the pagan world. You don't need to worry, but God's going to take care of that. Our business in this chapter is with those who are part of the covenant fellowship and who have sinned in this grievous way. Expel the wicked man from among you. So that's 1 Corinthians 5:1-13.

Now, let's talk about the purposes of church discipline. And like I said, God willing, we'll come back to this topic next week.

Above All Things: The Glory of God

The top purpose for everything in the Christian life is always the same: The glory of God. And so, we, local churches, must practice biblical church discipline for the glory of God. We want to put God on display in the world. We want to shine like a light up on a stand, we want to be a city on a hill. We want to put the glory of God on display and if we don't do church discipline, we will not glorify God. We want to put His attributes on display: His justice, his mercy, his wrath, his grace, his patience. We want these attributes on display and a church that tolerates sin does not glorify God.

The Salvation of the Individual

Secondly, the salvation of the individual. Paul said, "Hand this man over to Satan so that his flesh may be destroyed, but his spirit saved in the Day of the Lord." The desire is that the individual will be saved while there's time. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God, and he will freely pardon him. Say those kinds of things to this individual. I want you to be saved, I want you to give up the sin, I want you to turn away from this wickedness while there's still time. There's a pleading that goes on with this, the salvation of the individual. We don't want them to hear these dreadful words, "I never knew you, away from me you evildoer" on Judgement Day. While there's still time, we want them to flee to Christ.

The Purity of the Church

Thirdly, the purity of the church. Listen, even if the individual never repents, good was still done by biblical church discipline, because the church needs to be protected from the metastasizing tumor of sin, needs to be protected from the evil yeast spreading through the whole group. The idea, the logic is, if you don't address it, it's going to spread. And church history has borne this out, churches that get weak on church discipline start having the problem multiplying in there. And not the exact same sin, but there will be other sins like it. And so, for the purity of the church, you have to practice biblical church discipline.

The Restoration of Unity in the Church

Fourthly, for the restoration of the unity of the church. Sin divides churches, it rends unity. And so for the sake of the unity of the church sin has to be addressed, the church has to come together and agree again, to the pattern of holiness we all love and we're going to live it out and it brings us together as a church. And then finally, fifthly, the reputation of the church in the community. It matters a lot how the outsiders see the church. We are supposed to be the salt of the earth, retarding the spread of corruption in society. We're supposed to be the light of the world, we're supposed to hold out the word of truth, as we shine like stars in the universe, Paul says in Philippians. We're supposed to be shining and holding out a pure gospel. We need to have the reputation in the community, as a church that is committed to biblical holiness.

So the glory of God, the salvation of the sinning individual, the purity of the church, the restoration of unity within the church, and the reputation of the Lord and of the church in that community. Those are the motives. Now, next week, we're going to talk about more practical questions. One of the number one lessons I'll try to give next week is how this is the ultimate step. There's lots of shepherding, and lots of discipleship, and lots of conversations that can happen long ago, or long before we get to this point. You want to try to nip sin in the bud. And so, we'll talk more about that next time, but let me just close by making an appeal based on the holiness that we've discussed here to those of you who have not yet come to faith in Christ. This, this is church business that we've been talking about today, this is for Christians who have drawn together in a covenant fellowship, that we should be holy. But the question is, "What about you?" Do you know, and can you see the principles of sin in your own life? All of us, we're saved by knowing and recognizing ourselves to be sinners, that we are under the judgment of God apart from Christ. That we have violated the 10 Commandments. We have violated the two great Commandments.

We have been angry with other people enough, perhaps even to want them dead. We have lusted after other people, we have lusted in our hearts, we've broken those spiritual commandments that God gave and we've not loved God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors ourself. We need a Savior. And I don't know how you got here today, if you're an unbeliever, but maybe you were invited by a church member and I'm pleading with you while there's time, find salvation through faith in Christ. You don't need to do anything, no works could ever pay for your sins. But Jesus died on the cross for sinners like you and me and all you need to do is trust in Him and you'll receive full forgiveness of sins. And when you've done that, you can testify to that by water baptism, and you'd be ready to be welcomed into a healthy local church. And part of that health is a church that cares about sin. And we'll address it as we've discussed today. Close with me in prayer.

One of the things that I like to do as I travel through different cities is go to art museums. Now, some of you would be very excited about that. Others wonder, "why in the world would one want to spend their afternoon in an art museum?" But I do. I'm not talented at all as an artist, but I like to see skillful art. I like to see the way that especially painters are able to capture light and show faces and things like that. And so a number of years ago and actually a couple of times I've been to The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and I've seen the work of the Dutch masters. And they are able to capture with just incredible skill portraits of faces.

And you can just see that different individuals leaders, people that don't maybe mean anything to me as an American, but they're part of Dutch history or just perhaps even random individuals from society. And just the ability to capture a look, a gleam in an eye facial expression. Obviously the most famous of all these is not in Amsterdam, but in the Louvre, the Mona Lisa, the ability to capture the look on her face and what in the world she was thinking about and how she's able to look at you as you walk from left to right. I don't know how that can be, but that's the skill of a portrait artist.

John Bunyan in his spiritual allegory, his classic Pilgrim's Progress uses this image as Christian goes to a place called Interpreter’s House at the beginning of his pilgrimage from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, he is shown by the interpreter many scenes or vignette's, or different things that will help him in his journey. It's going to be a very dangerous journey the Christian life is a dangerous journey and the first thing that interpreters shows him is a portrait. A framed picture and this is how it's described. Interpreter showed him Christian, a picture of a very grave that means a serious person hang up against the wall, and this was the fashion of it.

"It had eyes, lift up to heaven, the best of books in his hand, the law of truth was written upon his lips, the world was behind his back. It stood as if it pleaded with men, and a crown of gold did hang over his head." So, Christians there looking at this portrait. This picture up on the wall. Then said Christian, "What means this?"

Interpreter answered, "The man who's picture this is, is one of a thousand. He can beget children, he can travail in birth with children and nurse them himself, when they are born. And whereas thou seeth him with his eyes, lift up to heaven, the best of books in his hand, and the law of truth writ on his lips, it is to show thee that his work is to know and unfold dark things to sinners. Even as thou also seeth him stand as if he pleaded with men and whereas thou seeth the world as cast behind him and that a crown hangs over his head, this is to show thee that sliding and despising the things that are present in this world for the love that he hath to his master service he is sure in the world to come next to have his glory for his reward."

Now said the interpreter, "I have showed thee this picture first because the man whose portrait this is, is the only man whom the Lord of the place whether thou art going have authorized to be thy guide and all the difficult places, thou mayest meet with on the way."

So this is the Puritan portrait of a Godly pastor. And as you look at that, this is the guide that you will need as you make your way along the way. This is the first thing that the interpreter wanted to show Christian. And look at the descriptions, one of a thousand. This is a rare individual. He's grave, serious in demeanor, like a powerful warrior. Life is serious, and like Jesus was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering so this individual is a serious-minded person. He understands there's a war going on. He is able, it says to beget children, to travail in birth with children. A bit of a strange image. We'll talk more about it in a moment, but he's able to nurse them up after they're born.

He has his eyes lifted up to Heaven, he's heavenly minded. And he has the world cast behind his back, he thinks very little of the honors and privileges and rewards of this world. He despises the lust of this world and its worldly prizes. And he has the law of truth in his lips meaning he speaks the word of God consistently he has the best of books, the 'book of book's in his hands, namely the Bible. And he unfolds deep mysterious things doctrines from the Word of God. He's a faithful teacher, of the Word of God. And He's got a crown of gold over his head, namely he has a future eternal reward for all his labors.

Now for me, as a pastor, I look at this and I think this is an incredibly challenging image. "How could I ever live up to this portrait?"

But the more that I look at it, I think there is one man that lived up to it, better than anyone that has ever been in church history, and that is the apostle Paul. And Paul here gives us in this text, that you just heard Chris read, basically a portrait of a spiritual leader or guide or perhaps better right from the text, a spiritual father. And what's amazing is Paul's fathering of souls, has continued across the centuries, through the Word that He wrote through 1 Corinthians through Romans through all of the things that God laid in his heart, he is able to continue to, in some amazing way, beget children, raise them up and train them. He's also a challenge to all that would like to be, yearned to be, spiritual leaders in their generation, that we would live up to this portrait.

Paul Uses Many Metaphors for the Ministry

Now, Paul uses a lot of images for the pastoral ministry, there's a lot of different things even in 1 Corinthians. For example, the image of being a servant or a slave. First Corinthians 3:5. "What after all is Apollos? What is Paul, only servants? Through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each his task." So, a pastor, a godly leader is a servant.

Also farmers. He's got a farming image here. "I planted the seed, Apollos watered, but God made it grow." Also got an architectural or kind of a construction image, a building image. In 1 Corinthians 3:10. He says, "By the grace God gave me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder. Someone else is building on it."

Also we got the image in chapter 4 the beginning of this same chapter, of stewards. That's a servant with a special task who's managing the master's possessions or property. So look at verses 1-2, he says "This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ." I already covered that. But also "stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of servants or stewards that they be found trustworthy." Later in this book, he will talk about himself as a witness, somewhat like at a court trial. We get this in Acts chapter 1:8 "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses." So Paul talks about in the 1 Corinthians 15:15, he basically said, "We were witnesses of Christ that God raised Him from the dead." So witnesses.

Also the image of shepherds comes across in Paul's language frequently, especially in Acts 20:28 when he gathered the elders from the church at Ephesus, and He said, "Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood." So there's that image of being an overseer or shepherd. In 2 Timothy 1 he uses the image of a herald. A herald will be somebody who comes into the town square and announces news from a king. He also in 2 Corinthians 5, uses the image of an ambassador, someone who is the official representative of a distant King. All of these are images of the pastoral ministry.

But here he's got, I think, the most emotionally poignant one, the most powerful one, and that is of a spiritual father. Look what he says in verse 15, "Even though you have 10,000 guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers for in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the gospel."

Father: A Picture of Committed Love PLUS Authority

So this is a picture of committed love, plus fatherly authority. We're going to talk about that in the verses that you just heard. Paul is laboring here to re-establish his spiritual authority to speak into the lives of the Corinthian Christians. He has the right to speak into their lives, he has the right to evaluate their behavior and to speak words of judgment and give disciplines as an authority figure, as a father. There were some in that Corinthian church that were questioning Paul, they were challenging him, pushing back at him. It wasn't enough that they said "I follow Apollos… or "I follow Cephas…" or "I follow Christ…" they said "I don't follow Paul." And so he's got to deal with a faction, a group within the church that's becoming increasingly hostile to him, anti-Paul.

And he deals with it openly throughout pretty much the whole of 2 Corinthians. He's establishing, throughout that whole book his reputation, his right to give commands his, his ministry as over against a group of false teachers who Paul says they are like masquerading as servants of righteousness like an angel of light, like Satan masquerading as an angel of light. So these are false teachers but then there are others that weren't false teachers either way, they just were Corinthian Christians who were doubting Paul, challenging him and increasingly unable to hear from him and because of Paul's unique role in redemptive history, the apostle of Jesus Christ to the Gentile world. It was vital for them to be able to continue to drink in truth from this spiritual father to be able to sit at Paul's feet, and drink in truth from him. And to not push back. And so it is vital for us I think to continue to be ministered to by Paul, God entrusted a lot of controversial topics to Paul. A lot of them are right in this book.

Like I said, if I go verse by verse, and you stick with me, at some point, I will offend each one of you, I don't intend to, but it's just the nature of the kind of topics that are covered in 1 Corinthians. God gave Christ gave to Paul a lot of heavy lifting to do a lot of controversial issues and so therefore there's frequently a push back against Paul. I don't like Paul. And so that was going on in the Corinthian church. Beyond that however, there is the importance for us to understand these elements or these aspects of being a spiritual father because it's the lasting pattern that we can, to some degree, inherit if we're going to be spiritual leaders as well. The Lord is pouring into our geographical region more and more people. They are pouring in here, by the hundreds and by the thousands. And many of them are un-church, many of them are unbelievers.

And the only spiritual dynamic that's going to be suitable or sufficient to meet these rising numbers in this great challenge, a great opportunity for us is spiritual multiplication and by spiritual multiplication. I mean, we are able to lead individual people to Christ, and then mentor them or disciple them and raise them up to maturity so that they can do the same thing in the lives of others. And so, we have here, I think a lasting pattern for being a spiritual mentor or leader similar to the Apostle Paul. Now he'll be unique in history, but that we could follow that. So let's look at some of these elements.

And it begins, simply with this. A spiritual father has spiritual children.

You don't become a father until you have a child, and so you don't become a spiritual father until you have led someone to Christ. Look at verse 15, "Even though you have 10,000 guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel." Now, the term he uses here translated guardians. Would be a slave in a large household who's entrusted specifically with the responsibility of training the future heir. The son who will inherit the mansion and all the property and he trains him, he's intelligent, this guardian he's pouring truth in him and He's preparing him for all of his social, financial, economic obligations. That was the Greek term that Paul uses here. He said, "You Corinthians, you have 10,000 of those. You have a lot of people who influenced you for Christ. But you have only one father."

Now that's what he's saying here. You have a lot of people who have... So I think he would say Apollos even Peter other individuals, gifted teachers, they are your influencers they are to some degree guardians but you have a unique relationship with your spiritual father and that's what he's claiming for himself. Paul came to Corinth as a trail blazing, frontier church planting apostle to the Gentiles. And he, by faithful preaching, of Christ and him crucified, laid the foundation for that church. He is not claiming to be their Savior He didn't shed his blood for their sins. He wasn't raised from the dead on the third day he is not the savior of the world. He proclaimed Christ crucified and resurrected as their only savior. But in that he had a unique role at the human level of seeing them come to Christ. Furthermore, we know that only through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, can anyone be born again.

The Holy Spirit alone can move someone from spiritual death to spiritual life, and so Jesus said that you have to be born of the Spirit in order to enter Heaven, you have to be born again born by the spirit. He said to Nicodemus. And so this is something only the Holy Spirit of God can do. No human individual can do this. God saves sinners by sovereign... By His sovereign power. By the blood of Christ by the resurrection of Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit of God that's how God sovereignly saves sinners. But He uses human servants in that process, and He used Paul in bringing these Corinthian Christians to saving faith. He was their spiritual father in the Gospel.

Now, Paul fathered many children. Everywhere he went, he fathered spiritual children, and he uses this image frequently. For example, in Galatians 4, I think this is exactly where Bunyan got his image that this man, this warrior is able to give birth to children and travail and birth over them until they're developed. I think he's taken that right from Galatians 4. Where that church in Galatia was dealing with false doctrine, that Judaizers the false doctrine in Galatia... That the Galatians were being drawn in by. And this... He uses the language, Galatians 4:19-20, "My dear children for whom I am again in the pains of child birth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone because I am perplexed about you." Is an amazing image for Paul to use. And he says, again, "I was in child birth with you the first time, and now it seems I've got to do that all over again."

He's also the spiritual father of many churches, not just this Corinthian church, but for example, the Thessalonian Church. 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12, he says, "You know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting you, and urging you to live lives worthy of the God." So he was their spiritual father and he dealt with them gently and lovingly. He's also the spiritual father of individuals. For example, Onesimus the runaway slave who bumped into Paul in Rome. And Paul in the little letter to Philemon in Verse 10 he says, "I appeal to you for my child, whom I fathered while I was in chains, Onesimus." It's pretty powerful. He also calls right in this text, Timothy, his own son, and he does that many times, and he calls Titus his spiritual son.

So Paul by faithfully preaching the gospel was privileged to lead countless souls to Christ, and in that way, he would say he became their spiritual father. So let me just stop and apply that to us, to you, to each one of us. Have you done this? Have you been able to be a spiritual parent, a father, or mother, to lead someone, an individual, to Christ, It's an incredible privilege. It's never going to be, you alone if you're the one there when they're born again be assured the Lord's been working in them for days, weeks, months, years, before you. But what a great joy it is to be there at the moment of life. Because especially, it's not just that, but then you have a responsibility an obligation then to disciple that person to train them up, but what a great joy. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever been able to lead someone to Christ? And if not, I just want to create inside of you a yearning that that would happen. Oh God, in 2019 let me lead someone to Christ. Please give me the opportunity to see someone cross over from death to life, from darkness to light. I just want to... I want to be there when it happens. Well, in order for that to happen, you got to share the gospel.

You got to share the Gospel with people and it's like, "Oh God, I would love that to happen." So that's a yearning I have inside my heart and for each one of you. Every Mother's Day, we have a baby dedication. One of my favorite times... It's a... It's a fun time, it's a noisy part of our service. You guys know exactly what I'm talking. It's really fun. It's all the parents of babies that were born in the past year are standing there and get a chance to have their babies pray for. I think our church is very fruitful. Have you noticed? We're a fruitful church. Alright, praise God, that's awesome. But wouldn't it be awesome to have just as many spiritual babes, baptized, water baptized and then discipled and trained in their first steps of Christian obedience? How sweet would that be? That's my desire.

Secondly, a spiritual father loves his spiritual children. He has a tremendous tone of affection for them. Throughout 1 and 2 Corinthians, He clearly loves them. And He deeply loves these people, and they aren't easy to love. They are not easy. They are a dysfunctional church, they are prideful, they're fractious, they push back against Him, they give Him a lot of grief but He just clearly loves them. And you get that a lot in 2 Corinthians... 2 Corinthians 6:11-13, listen to this, "We have spoken freely to you Corinthians, our hearts are opened wide to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. I speak as to my children as a fair exchange, open-wide your hearts to us also."

He loves them. He just wants them to love Him too, or again, later in that same book, 2 Corinthians 12, I love this, 14-15, "After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children." A number of you college students are saying "Amen." I think that's absolutely right. But it is right. Parents save up resources so they can bless their children with them. It's not called on the other way. And so Paul then says this, "So I'll very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well." "Because I'm a spiritual father who will give you everything I have." What's sad is that this church is not doing well spiritually. They're not walking in the Word that he taught them. So this is really very much the opposite of what John says in 3 John in Verse 4, where he says, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." Well, Paul has the opposite sorrow here where he hears that these Corinthians are in many ways not walking in the truth and it brings him grief. They are struggling in their walk with Christ. Now Paul is willing to spend himself and to be spent for them.

Thirdly, a spiritual father does not shame, but warns His children. Look again at verse 14, we saw it last week, he said "I'm not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children."

Now part of the role of a wise spiritual father is to be willing to speak hard truths, when needed. But also he has to know when enough is enough, to not be too severe with them. Now, Paul, as we saw last week, has really laid into them in this chapter, really laid in. You remember last week as we went over these words in verses 8-13, "Already you have all you want, already, you have become rich, you've become kings, and that without us. How I wish that you really had become kings, so that we could be kings with you, for it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display, at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. We are fools for Christ, but you, you are so wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, we are dishonored. To this very hour, we go hungry and thirsty, we're in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands, when we are cursed we bless, when we're persecuted, we endure it, when we are slandered we answer kindly. Up to this moment, we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world."

Now, if you hear that, you feel that is weighty. He is laying it into them, he is pressing on their consciences, he's worried about them, that they are becoming worldly and they care too much what their pagan Corinthian neighbors think and they want a comfortable easy life, prosperous, honored, easy, go to heaven. See and that's not the kind of life we're living, that's not what my life is like, Paul is saying. So he has turned it way up. Then in Verse 14, he turns it back down again, it's remarkable. Look again at verse 14, "I'm not saying this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children." It's a remarkable statement. Now shame is a powerful thing in life, isn't it? It's one of the things we fear the most, public shame. It's a burning sense of public embarrassment of being exposed especially in the eyes of people you care about, whose opinion matters to you. Shame has a role in our sanctification, similar to physical pain in this life. Physical pain warns you that something's wrong. Stop leaning on that hot thing you're burning your hand or you've got some internal serious organic problem with yourself, you need to get treated. Pain does that, shame is similar spiritually in this world.

When we sin, we're supposed to take it seriously. There's supposed to be a burning sense of hatred for that so that we don't ever do it, again. There is a reasonable place for that. Do you remember when Peter the night that Jesus was arrested, denied, three times knowing that he hadn't ever heard of Jesus to the point of even calling down curses on himself. Then suddenly the rooster crows, he remembers which Jesus had predicted. Jesus is walking by being taken from one place to the other in bonds. He looks right at Peter, at the moment the rooster is crowing. I can't imagine what that felt like. And then he went outside and wept bitterly. What was he feeling at that moment? You can say shame is no part of my Christian life. Alright, give it another word then. But what was he feeling at that moment?

And did it play a role in the rest of his life? Jesus gently lovingly restored him, forgave him, re-established him in public ministry, but he never forgot that night. Never. It's like, "Oh God deliver me from fear, of man, deliver me from fear, of incarceration, deliver me from fear of death, deliver me so that I can be faithful in my preaching Ministry, of thee youth." So it had a role to play.

And yet Paul here says, "I'm not writing this to shame you." It's interesting because in the very next chapter, 1 Corinthians 5, it seems like he want them to feel ashamed, that's a church discipline passage, remember, where he says, "It's actually reported that there is someone among you that is sinning in a way that pagans don't even do, a man has his father's wife. And you were proud. Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief?"

Alright, alright, filled with grief, but I can imagine Paul is saying, "You ought to be ashamed of yourselves, that you're tolerating this sin in your life, in your church," there's that sense. But you're like, "He doesn't use the word shame." Okay, fine. Go up to Chapter 6, Verse 5, and he says there about court cases within the church. He says, "Is this actually possible that there's no one amongst you wise enough to judge a case from Brother to Brother, so you have to go to the pagans? I say this to your shame." Oh, there it is. And he's going to do it again in Chapter 15 where he talked about the resurrection and there he says, "Come back to your senses, as you ought, and stop sinning, for there are some there who are ignorant of God. I say this to your shame." That's in the same epistle.

So why here in verse 14, does he say, "I'm not writing this to shame you but to warn you,"? because he knows he has come on strong. He knows he has turned it way up to level 10, and it's time now to back off. A godly father knows when enough is enough. He's going to warn his children, but then when he has made his point, he's going to back off. Lots of fathers err on each side of this equation. They're either too soft, and negligent and lazy and they don't address the sins of their children or they're way too harsh and really abusive, verbally, emotionally maybe even physically abusive.

You see this a lot, even in the sports world. I've been around some fathers that seem to be living their sports fantasies through their children and you guys know what I'm talking about. But I was reading about one major league baseball player named Rafael Palmeiro, and his father Jose, was this kind of a father. He was a senior in high school and he lashed a line drive 396 feet long, hit the middle of the wall and rolled. And he got a double. His father ran out in the field and said, "If you are any kind of man at all, you would have cleared that fence." On the field, in a varsity baseball game. And he did this his whole life. Every time you go two for four, his dad would call him and say, "What about the other two at-bats?" This is kind of man that he was. And Rafael Palmeiro said, "This drove me onto excellence." Yeah, well, it'll drive some people on excellence, other people it would be destructive. History is actually filled with abusive fathers who pour acid on their kids verbally, deprive them of affection, provoke them to wrath.

Paul wasn't that kind of a spiritual father but he did not neglect to warn them of the danger they were in. He just knew enough was enough.

Fourthly, a spiritual father sets the example for his children. Look at Verse 16, "Therefore, I urge you to imitate me." So much of the Christian life is caught as well as taught. I don't think that there's anything in the Christian life that's not taught first, and then caught. But there are just some things that you just live out, like you're instructed in the Word and then it's lived out. You should pray but then they watch Jesus praying and say, "Teach us to pray." And so there's that combination of example and then instruction. Jesus came to this world, primarily to die on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, that His blood would be shed on the cross. But friends, He could have done that in an afternoon. God could have incarnated Him as a fully grown man, orchestrated instantly, His death on the cross, raised Him from the dead on the third day and take Him back up to Heaven, but He had 30 years of perfect life before that, for a lot of theological reasons. But one of them is to give us "an example that we should follow in His steps." 1 Peter 2:21.

Paul knew the importance of example as well. In Chapter 11 in the same book, verse 1, he says, "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ." So Paul set up his lifestyle as an example, for the Corinthians to follow. No one in history suffered as much for the Gospel as Paul. So he's not asking them to do anything, he's not living out. He's pointing to his example in terms of his suffering for the Gospel. Follow my example. So a spiritual father is willing to set his lifestyle before his children as an example. Children see right through hypocrisy, they just do, they just see right through, "Do as I say, not as I do." But a spiritual father is able to present his life, not perfectly, there are no perfect spiritual fathers, but that you practice what you preach. Now, Paul was so confident of his role modeling that he knew he couldn't go, but he was willing to send his number one spiritual son Timothy, in his place. Look at verse 17, "For this reason, I'm sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord and he will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus." He has absorbed my example, he has absorbed my way of life, and he will be able to teach it to you." That's marvelous, that's spiritual multiplication, isn't it?

V. A Spiritual Father Teaches His Children

Fifthly, a spiritual father teaches his children. Look, again in Verse 17, "Timothy will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus which agrees with what I teach everywhere, in every church." There is a clear marriage of doctrine and lifestyle and so Timothy's lifestyle is an example of what he teaches everywhere in every church.

Teaching is the most important part of the gospel ministry. Jesus, when He landed and saw a large crowd, it says He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. So He taught them many things. That's before He fed the 5000, before He healed them. His top priority was teaching them the Word of God. Mark 6:34. So the essence of being a spiritual father is a teaching ministry. Children come into the world, perfectly ignorant of everything. I mean, they have some instincts. They certainly know how to cry and other things as well, but they don't have a big repertoire, I've noticed.

But they have to be instructed, about everything, that's definitely true of Christian doctrine. And so, teaching is at the center of spiritual fathering. And so Paul was a phenomenal teacher of the Word. He said again to the Ephesian elders, Acts 20:20, "You know that I have not hesitated to preach, anything that would be helpful to you, but have taught you publicly and from house to house." He also says, Acts 20:27, "I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole Will of God." So, you fathers, are you pouring the Word of God into your children? You disciplers, both men and women, when you get together with your disciples. Are you just chatting over coffee? You talking about current events? You talking about hobbies or sports or are you and all that's fine initially, but are you getting down and doing some work in the Word of God? Is there actually a teaching aspect to your discipleship relationship? It's foundation.

Six, a spiritual father disciplines his children. Now, this passage ends on a very serious, and very stern note. Look at verses 18-21, "Some of you have become arrogant as if I were not coming to you, but I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking but what power they have, for the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power." Verse 20. Let me say that again, "For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power, and what do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod or in love and with a gentle spirit?" So like I told you, there are anti-Paul people there and specifically we're going to find out in 2 Corinthians, there are false teachers there, too.

They call themselves the super Apostles, better than apostle. "We're apostle version two." Paul's like, "Really? Okay, alright, let's talk about it. I'm going to come there and I'm going to find out one thing, what kind of power do you have? We're going to have a power contest. It's easy to boast about things that you can't produce. So, let's see if you actually have any kind of power." The Kingdom of God is a powerful thing. And it's not merely a matter of talk. This reminds me of the time you remember when Jesus was doing all these healings, and someone brought to Him a paralyzed man, some friends, and they couldn't get near Jesus, remember this? And so they climbed up on the roof and dug through the roof and lowered this paralyzed man in front of Jesus. I picture that in my mind, is there pieces of plaster falling down on people's necks while that's going on? Wait, they didn't have plaster.

Were they just digging through branches that were there? I don't know what digging through the roof, look like, but they got to get a full grown paralyzed man, lowered down through there. Must have taken some time. I wonder if Jesus continued His teaching until they were ready. I don't know. Why am I doing this? Anyway, focus. So, they lower him down and it says powerfully when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralyzed man, "Take heart son, your sins are forgiven." That's awesome, but Jesus's enemies heard Him and in their mind they said this fellow is blasphemy. Who can forgive sins but God alone. Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Why do you challenge me, or why do you challenge what I'm saying in your hearts?" Then He said this, "Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or to say rise up and walk?"  Let's ponder that one. I just said both of them a moment ago. I think your sins are forgiven, is longer, it has more syllables than rise and walk. Jesus, you know exactly what He's talking about. There's nothing in the saying, the question is, is there any power behind it?

"But so that you may know that there's power behind my statement, your sins are forgiven," He said to the paralyzed man, "Rise and walk." Now, that's awesome. By the way, that's a great passage to memorize in order to share the gospel because it's an incredible miracle that Jesus did, but it leads right to the forgiveness of sins. Jesus when He says, "Your sins are forgiven," friends, they're forgiven, they are forgiven, and He has that kind of power. This is the same kind of thing though. Do these arrogant people have any power behind their boasts? Is there any power behind what they say? Because the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power.

Now the threat here I think is first of all negative because he talks about a rod, "What do you prefer? Shall I come with a rod or with a gentle spirit?" So there's a sense of discipline here, godly fathers discipline their children, and so he's going to deal with them. Those are that are not false teachers and servants of Satan, those are the just deceived and are anti-Paul, but they've been captured by that mentality. He wants to deal with them either way. And so there's an implied threat here.

Now you folks remember the story in Acts Chapter 5 of Ananias and Sapphira? You know what happened. That was the Apostle Peter, not Paul but there was power, when He dealt with Ananias who lied over the money and then later he dealt with Sapphira who lied over the money, both of them dropped dead, dropped dead. So that's the sense of a rod. That's the sense of discipline. But I don't even think that's the power that Paul has in mind here. Back in 1 Corinthians 2, he said, "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power." The power was power to build them up, power to change their lives. Power such as in 1 Corinthian 6, where some are fornicators, adulterous, homosexuals, and he says, "Such were some of you." Transforming power.

He's going to say in 2 Corinthians, "A lot of people need letters of recommendation for their ministries. I don't need them. You are our letters of recommendation. Your transformed lives are a display of my apostolic power." I'm not denying he could be referring to signs and wonders and miracles, signs of the apostles. He said, "They were done among you with great perseverance. I did miracles, I did healings." But I don't think that's what he's talking about. He says, "I do have the power to bring a rod such as Ananias and Sapphira, people dropping dead. But even more I have the power through the ministry God has given me to bring life, transformed lives, a church that's flourishing, a church that's bearing disciples for the glory of God. Do they have that kind of power?" That's what he's saying here. Then he says, "Look, what do you want, which do you prefer?"

I remember distinctly thinking about this day, as I was driving, not with a pleasant memory. I was a little kid, and I had done something really, really bad with my mom that afternoon. I was locked up in my bedroom and told one statement, maybe you've heard it before, "Wait till your father gets home." Do you ever have a day like that? I will never forget as long as I live. My room had Venetian blinds, my mother drew them so I was in the dark in my room waiting for my father to get home. A car would go by, I'd look through the slats of the Venetian blind. It was a kind of a hard thought. So Paul is saying, "You choose. What would you like my next visit to you to be like? You make the choice, what do you prefer? Would you like me to come with a rod or would you like me to come with a fatherly gentle love? It's your decision."

Alright, well that's a text. Let's talk about some applications. The central issue here is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And I have already encouraged each of you, if there are any here who do not know the Lord, have not yet come to faith in Christ, all I can do is plead with you, that you cross over from death to life. You don't need to go anywhere, you don't need to do anything. You've heard the Gospel, Jesus has the power based on His death on the cross, the power to forgive your sins, all you have to do is ask Him to do it. Confess your sins and seek forgiveness in Him and He will forgive you. Right even while you sit there call in the name of the Lord and you will be saved. That's the most important thing. But for those of you that are Christians, just have this lasting image of the Apostle Paul, as a healthy, vibrant, productive spiritual father and for the rest of your lives, we are going to be sitting, all of us are going to be sitting at his feet, reading Romans, reading 1 Corinthians, reading Galatians and Ephesians, and drinking in the wisdom that God channeled and poured through him. He can continue to mentor us, continue to train us. He is unique. There's no one like him. But then beyond that, I would just commend all of you mature Christians both men and women to yearn to be a spiritual leader, to yearn to be able to lead someone to Christ and disciple that person.

I think this is also a great pattern, for elders, for men, godly men to lead in their families first, and then lead in church, here as well by these same principles that we've laid out today. Close with me in prayer, "Father, we thank You for the time we've had to walk this morning through 1 Corinthians 4, thank You for the truth that the Apostle Paul gave us. It's timeless, it's powerful and I ask, oh Lord, that You would strengthen each one of us in that truth, help us to drink it in, to allow it to transform us. Lord, I pray that there would be power in this church. The power to transform lives, I pray that we would understand what Paul meant when he said the kingdom of God is not a matter of words, not a matter of talk, but of power. Oh Lord that we would see the power of broken sin, sin habits, that slip out of our lives, because we have resisted by the power of the Holy Spirit. And even more to see lives change, from those who did not know or love Jesus to those that are walking with Him. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.    

Well, one of the great privileges of my life is to stand before you week after week and unfold the Word of God, the perfect Word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed," is breathed out by God, it's spoken by the Spirit. And it is "useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." And so I ask week after week, "what do you want to say to us by this text?" And there are times that the Word of God must speak a word of rebuke or correction or warning, and this is one of those times. The Word of God, we are told in Hebrews Chapter 4, is "living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight, everything's uncovered and laid there before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account."  Hebrews 4:12-13.

And as I look at that, I think about Jesus and the vision that the Apostle John had on the Island of Patmos, of the resurrected glorified Christ moving through the seven golden lampstands representing local churches, and as He moves through the seven golden lampstands He is described in many ways, but one of the things said of Him is that he has eyes like blazing fire. Holy eyes to see us straight through. And we see evidence of that in Jesus's life when He would just look at a man sitting under a tree and say, "Now, here is a true Israelite, [Nathaniel] in whom there is nothing false." "How do you know me?" Jesus said, "I saw you while you were under the fig tree." Or the rich young ruler would come and they had that conversation, all these things I have capped, I've done all this. He looked at him and said, "One thing you lack…" that's Jesus.

And so for me, I just want to lay this morning under His holy gaze. I want Him to look at me, I want Him to know me, and all of you, I want you to do the same. I want you, like Psalm 139 where it says, "Search me O God and know my heart, test me and show me if there's any anxious way in me. Show me if there's anything offensive in me and lead me in the way everlasting." This text that we're coming to this morning has been on my mind and pressing on my soul for probably, I would say 10 years. As I was going through, doing a study, the words that Topher just read, arrested me and pressed on me. And I think it should be anyway, one of the most challenging passages for thoughtful American Evangelical Christians to lay under and allow it to search us.

If you know what to look for. I want the Lord through His Spirit to just hover over us and show us, and rebuke us, correct us, train us in righteousness so that we can do His will. As I wrote this sermon, I was sitting in comfort in a heated room with books open on a nice desk, and I wore a nice comfortable clothes and there was no threat to me of being arrested or dragged away. All of us for the most part, I think just passed a very pleasant Christmas season, holiday season in which we enjoyed some of the best things of our American life. We enjoyed gifts and friendships and comfortable houses and lavish meals and wonderful aromas and flavors and all kinds of lavish gifts. And so I think about our context, the context we live in, what we experience week by week, and then I think about the text and through that a portal into my understanding of church history, and I think about our brothers and sisters, and the glorious trail of blood there's been from the upper room in Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth, the spread of the Gospel, I'm aware of our greatest brothers and sisters that stood firm during the days of the Roman persecution, whose blood wet the sands of the Colosseum because they would not yield to Caesar and continue to declare that Jesus is Lord.

I’m mindful of the 6th century monks trained by Columba, the Irish missionary, who these monks were filled with fiery zeal and they spread the Gospel throughout Europe often at risk of their lives among fierce barbarian tribes in Germania and other places. I'm aware of humble brothers and sisters slaughtered by conquerors like the Vikings and the Huns and the Mongols, as those bloodthirsty warriors built pagan empires and ripped apart the bodies of humble Christians to do it, and they testified to their faith in Christ and in the end, won many of those savages to Christ but at great cost. I'm aware of the deprivations of missionaries that moved to inland regions in China and Africa and paid a great price to do it, who were hardly ever welcomed by the communities they settled in, they lived in very difficult settings to share the Gospel, sometimes starving in order to be able to preach to people who'd never heard the name of Christ. I'm aware that these kinds of sufferings are going on in certain countries all over the world as I mentioned quite recently. For example, in North Korea, the worst place on earth to be a Christian. And then I read the warning that Paul is giving to the Corinthian Christians, which I could summarize in a lot of ways, went like this; the danger of seeking the crown without the cross.

A warning specifically to the Corinthians to not misunderstand their setting in that pagan city, and to not dream of being showered by their pagan neighbors with accolades, and rewards, and money and all kinds of comfortable living gifts from their pagan neighbors, to not yield to that but instead to imitate Paul and the apostles in a life of suffering for the cause of Christ, a life in which Paul was hated and rejected and beaten and imprisoned. And then I look at how I live, how comfortably we pass our days, how we have the best of everything here, the best technology, the best clothing, the best food, the best medical care, the best jobs, the best comforts that human ingenuity can devise. And I ask God, "How can I read these words and not feel ashamed?" But Paul said he did not write it to shame me but to warn me. So I'm not supposed to feel ashamed, I'm not supposed to make you feel ashamed, but if I do the task of this text, I am supposed to warn you, and I have to figure out what that warning is here. What is the warning that the Holy Spirit would speak to us through the words of the Apostle Paul? And that's what my task is this morning, and I would ask just that the Holy Spirit would just work in our midst and that you would all just willingly lay under the text and let it do its work. I don't know what the applications are going to be for all of you, but I just want to drink in the warning because that's what the text is, it's a warning to us.

Now, Jesus calls on us to follow Him as disciples. To follow Him, to die outside the gates. He said in Luke 9:23, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself daily and take up his cross and follow me, for whoever wants to save his life in this world will lose it, but whoever loses his life in this world for me and for the Gospel, find it for eternity." The author to Hebrew says in Hebrews 13:12-13, "Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make His people holy through His own blood, let us then go to Him outside the camp bearing the disgrace he bore." So the image there that the author to Hebrews is giving us outside the gates, outside the camp is a place of societal rejection, to be rejected by the society, to be kicked out. Let's go to Him out there, that's where He is, and let's stand under the cross and bear the reproach He bore, for here we do not have an enduring city. So this is the time let's call over all Christians to not seek to be welcomed and celebrated, and applauded and rewarded in our present age. And this is for us, our hardest trial. So Paul here warns his dear children of their danger and ours. One of the basic convictions I have about the Scripture, there's two basic convictions, one is the immutability of God, the immutability of the God of the Bible, He never changes.

He's the same yesterday, and today and forever, so the God the Bible teaches is the same God we deal with.

Secondly, we sinners, we descendants of Adam don't essentially change either. We're dealing with the same things they dealt with, our technologies are more advanced, it's true but that doesn't change our core nature. And so the sins that the Corinthians were dealing with, we have to deal with too, that's what makes the Bible permanently relevant. And so I feel the best thing for me to do as a 21st century Christian is to say, "How am I like the Corinthians? How are we as a church like the Corinthians that the best way that the text can serve me and us?" And as we read this we see the techniques that Paul is using here. There is overpowering rhetorical power here, he's wheeling out heavy weaponry verbally. He uses overwhelming irony and sarcasm here, and he uses compare and contrast here. When I was an engineer, we had to prepare certain metals for certain processes in semiconductor manufacture, and so we had to get them cleaned up, and we put these pieces of metal in something called an acid bath, and it would vigorously clean the metal. So this text I think is like that, it's an acid bath. And he just dips the Corinthians down and they're to be in it for a while until all of the spiritual filth that's come on their souls and their misunderstanding of their life in this world gets cleaned up.

Paul Desires to Warn, not Shame

He uses strong techniques, his words, his powerful words display, it seems a great danger he sees for them, a great danger for them and I think for us. So it would be easy for us American Christians with a sensitive heart to feel ashamed given our context, but if you look again in verse 14, look what he says in Verse 14, He says, "I'm not writing this to shame you but to warn you as my dear children." So what that means is if you do a good job reading the text, you will be tempted to feel ashamed, but that's not where he wants you to be, he wants you to instead to be warned about a spiritual danger, that's the best way we can deal with the text. So what's he dealing with here? Well, the danger of boasting pridefully in God's gifts, the Corinthians were terrible boasters, they were very arrogant. They were incredibly gifted, they had lots of spiritual gifts at work and because of that they thought they were better than other people, they were very arrogant. In the very next chapter in Chapter 5, he deals with a church discipline issue, and he says, "You should have dealt with the sin instead you are proud."

So they were very proud people, they're very puffed up. The text here in Verse 6 implies that there's a kind of being puffed up in them, they're arrogant, they're prideful. And so he takes this teaching and he applies this to himself and to Apollos for their benefit. So for their benefit, so that the Corinthians may learn from them the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written, then you will not take pride in one man against another," verse 6, so he's trying to humble them. That's the lesson, that's what he's getting at here.

You remember the issue in the first three chapters, where there are factions and divisions. "I follow Paul… I follow Apollos… I follow Cephas…" etcetera. They're very arrogant, and so they go from celebrating and delighting in a good teacher, Paul, Apollos, Cephas, etcetera, to an arrogant factionalism in which they are boasting about their guy and putting everyone else down, and they think that they're superior. So they're very arrogant in this. And he says, "Look, I have tried to level us," Paul and Apollos and Cephas, "We're just servants, we're serving God, we're trying to minister. God's the only one that can give the growth. We've applied all of this to ourselves." So then he says, "So that you may know the meaning of the saying, 'Do not go beyond what is written.'" Topher and I were talking about this and he said, "Pastor, what do you think that means?" I said, "I don't know." And that's a studied I don't know.

I've worked hard for that I don't know. Do not go beyond what is written. When I read a bunch of commentaries, when I meditate, when I pray and I still say effectively, my best answer is, "I don't know what that means." I think simply the written must be Scripture in some sense. So don't go beyond Scripture about yourself, don't go too far. Maybe that's the idea, is don't think too highly of yourself, don't go beyond what Scripture says about yourself. Don't have grandiose opinions about yourself, that could be what he's saying. But he lands in this, "Don't have an arrogant attitude or take pride one man against another." So in order to humble them, in order to slay their pride. And by the way, I was talking to Daphne as we walked in, I said, "What's the difference between being humble and being humbled?"  To be humble is a good thing, to be humbled as a process. And so Paul is seeking to humble them here, and he works it with three searching questions, he presses three questions to the end that they would be humbled.

Question number one, in Verse 7, "who makes you different than anyone else?" That's the first question, Verse 7. "Who makes you different than anyone else?" Now, one way to look at that is to say... In a way, you're saying you're not any different than anyone else, what makes you different? That's why we say... We all put our pants on one leg at a time. We're all humans. And so I think that's a valid way to understand it to some degree, I don't think that's what he's saying, but I think it is valid to say, "Look, I'm no different than you, we're all the same. We are created in the image of God, we have fallen into sin, we violated God's laws, we are sinners and if we have been by faith in Christ saved, we are sinners saved by grace." That's what we are, we're not any different than anybody else. Someday we're going to die, someday we're going to give an account to God for our lives, that's just like everybody, we're just like everybody else. But I don't actually think that's what Paul's saying here, there're actually are differences, we're not identical. We have different roles to play in the body of Christ. Later, he will say, "There's one body with many members, and the members don't all have the same function." There's a hand, there's a foot, there's an eye, etcetera, there're different spiritual gifts and not only that, some people have spiritual gifts in exceeding measure beyond others.

There are some teachers of the Word that are exquisitely skillful, and then there are others that have a normal measure of that gift, and both of them are useful but they have it in different measure. So it is with all the spiritual gifts, there are differences. But what is Paul asking? Look carefully what he asked, "Who makes you different than anyone else?" You are different, but who made you that way? And when we get to heaven and we see the differences, because star will differ from star and glory, and there will be some radiantly, massively bright and others not as bright but still bright, we'll ask the same question, who made them different? God did. It's essentially God that makes us different from each other.

That's the difference. But that should humble you. If I'm different than you, if I'm better or worse or whatever in terms of the level of spiritual gifting or whatever, it's God that's humbling. Who makes you different?

Question number two; "what do you have that you did not receive?" Very humbling question. Look at all of your gifts, "Every good and perfect gift that you have ever received comes down from the Father of the heavenly lights who doesn't change like shifting shadows." James 1. Everything you have you received. Where you were born, when you were born, who your parents were, what your intellectual gifts are, what your physical gifts are, what your spiritual gifts are, how you were converted, all of these things, you received, you received, you receive, you receive, they were gifts to you.

What do you have that's yours that you did not receive? Very humbling. We should be far more thankful than we are, don't you think? Praise the Lord O my soul, O my innermost being praise His holy name. Praise the Lord O my soul and forget not all His benefits. We forget many of His benefits. Everything we have is a gift from God, everything, all of our possessions, our clothing, our houses, our cars, our money, all of it, we received.

Third question, "And if you did receive it, then why do you boast as though you did not?" The gift glorifies the giver, not the receiver. The glory goes to the giver and so all of these gifts, will redound in Heaven to the glory of God. We're going to find out how they were given, how they were dispensed and what God... And all of it will go up, we'll all be casting crowns and giving God the glory. I think we ought to just lay under those three questions, continually. They are very humbling. They scour pride off of us and so that's what Paul is doing to them. They should not be arrogant, they should be humble. Then he turns to the danger as I've said, of seeking a crown without a cross. He rolls up his sleeves and now he pours on his strongest acid bath on them.

The fundamental problem I think is that they are seeking the comforts and the eternal glories of Christianity without the process of suffering, that must lead to it. They wanted the Glory of Heaven without the suffering. Our flesh seeks a life of comfort and praise, and success and pleasure. No one naturally wants to be hated or be assaulted or be imprisoned or be impoverished or be slaughtered. Nobody wants that. It's not normal to want those things. And so we would all seek to avoid them. The Corinthians, are no different than us. And the danger is the same for us as it was for them. However, the more we avoid the cross, the more we are going to build with wood, hay and stubble, day after day. And the more we avoid the cross, the more alluring the world will be to us, and the more enticed we'll be after worldly things. So Paul seeks to some degree to shock us out of our complacency, into a lifestyle, more aligned with him as he follows Christ.

The Already – Not Yet

Now, here we get to a problem of what theologians called eschatology or realized eschatology. Eschatology is end time things. But there is in Christianity, what we call an already and not yet aspect. There are some things we already have and some things we do not yet have. Christ has already come. He has already lived, He has already died on the cross for sinners like you and me and He has already been raised from the dead, and He has already ascended to the right hand of God, that is our gospel. And Christians, people on Earth are have and are already hearing that message and are receiving full forgiveness of their sins through faith in Christ. And let me just stop and say, if that's not happened to you I thank God that you're here. I'm glad that you're here to see, the baptism of those two sisters, I'm glad that you're able to hear the Gospel from me now, all that you need to do to have full forgiveness of sins is you don't have to move from your pew, you just have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and died on the cross for you, and that you needed that done or else you would go to hell, that you need a Savior and that Jesus is your savior and call on Him in your heart. Say, "Save me," and you'll be saved. That's the Gospel. That's already... That's here. And if that happens, and it's just instantaneously you have received forgiveness and then already adopted as sons and daughters of the living God, already already, already, already, but there are some not yet things.

Christ's kingdom is not yet fully come, so we pray in the Lord's prayer, "May your kingdom come, and may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That's not yet. Many of the elect have not yet been converted. They live in other countries, they've not yet heard of Jesus, and the great work of salvation has not yet happened, in their lives. Satan, and his evil forces are not yet evicted from their thrones of power. They still hold sway here on planet Earth. We here on earth are not yet free of indwelling sin. We're still in danger here from our sins. We are not yet in glory. I don't mean to surprise you, but you have not yet received your resurrection body. Some of you know that very well, others of you, maybe you didn't know that, but I'm saying, you have not yet received your resurrection body you're not shining like the sun in the kingdom of your Father, and you're not there yet, either. You're not in the new Jerusalem, it's not descended from Heaven, like a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. These things have not yet happened.

But the Corinthians were acting like the work is done, they're already there. And they weren't. They wanted a separate peace with the pagan world that surrounded them. They wanted the Christ's enemies in Corinth to love them and praise them, and shower benefits on them. They wanted to be esteemed and honored and welcomed and celebrated and given the pleasure of a comfortable easy successful life. And my image is that they were sleep walking toward a cliff. And Paul has to stab them broad awake with these words. And so he uses sarcasm and irony here. Look at Verse 8, "Already you have all you want. Already, you have become rich." So he starts with their feelings of complacency about their earthly prosperity. Their wealth, material wealth, they look like they're satisfied, like somebody who has gorged himself in some feast and is laying down sleeping on a couch. Totally satisfied. You have everything you want now.

But like the Laodiceans who said, "I'm rich, I have acquired wealth and I don't need a thing." And they don't realize that they're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked, and they need to be woken up. It's similar here. Not exactly the same, but similar with the Corinthians. They need to be woken up to the facts. And he says, "Already, you have become kings." Someday we will reign with Christ, in His eternal kingdom. We're going to reign, just not yet. But they're acting like they're already there, they've already had their coronation. And then Paul and this is the key, this is the interpretive key to the whole thing that I know he's using irony, "How I wish you really were kings. So we could be kings with you." So that's the key to the whole thing. He doesn't think they're rich, he doesn't think that they have become kings, he doesn't as he's going to say, in a minute think that they're wise and that they're strong and all that. He doesn't think any of those things about them. But they think them about themselves, he doesn't think them about them.

The Condition of the Apostles

And so he says, "I wish you had been kings because then we would be kings with you." We apostles seem to have been left behind from your party, left behind, we're not included. I wish you were true, but look at our lives, Verse 9, "It seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe to angels, as well as to men." Powerful image, a horrifying spectacle. Paul uses the Greek word from which we get our word theater. We are a theater of horror actually. We're on a stage and people are watching us. We've been put on display. And actually we're on display before the whole universe. Angels as well as men are watching us, everyone's watching us. The image, perhaps is the arena where the gladiators would fight as you know the story, and they would stand before Caesar and they would say, "We who are about to die, salute you." And then they would fight to the death and the Roman citizens would watch the horrifying spectacle of blood and guts and cheer like crazy, like wicked pagans."

Maybe that's the image here of the arena but other commentators prefer the idea of a Roman procession, a triumphal procession after a battle and the Romans would do this after a big battle in some distant Pagan land. The conquering General would come back and have a procession down the street of Rome, and he would be honored, up in front and his conquering soldiers would be honored and it'd be all that. But Paul is not saying that's us. He's saying, "No we're at the end of the procession." Well, who is at the end? Those were the prisoners of war who had been captured and were trudging in chains behind the triumphal procession. Trudging in chains with the commander if he still lived, there hated by the populist, hated by them. "They're showering them with insults and pelting them with mud and filth, and garbage and rocks and we are at the end, condemned to die in the arena. That's my life," Paul is saying. "That's what I'm living, Oh Corinthians."

"And the angels are watching too," he says, "We have been made a spectacle… to angels, as well as to men." So the angels are up in heaven watching this. Oh, they could do something about it. Oh yes, they could, they could step in at any moment and rescue a martyr as he was being stoned to death, they could have rescued Stephen, no doubt about it. It's like angels, you could see them leaning forward, "Just give me the chance, I’ll take care of it." But then they would have killed Saul of Tarsus, so they hold back. But if you read in the Book of Revelation, and they are at some points, unleashed to pour judgment on the Earth, they don't hesitate at all and they say God is righteous to turn the water into blood because they shed the blood of your people, and now you have given them blood to drink as they deserve. So the angels are watching this whole thing. We've been made a spectacle to them.

Paul Continues the Contrast

And then he goes on to continue the contrast. Look at Verses 10-13, "We are fools for Christ. But you? You're so wise in Christ. We are weak, but you? You are strong, you are honored. We are dishonored, to this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we're in rags, we're brutally treated, we are homeless, we work hard with our own hands when we're cursed, we bless, when we are persecuted, we endure it, when we are slandered, we answer kindly, up to this moment, we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world." That's who we are, Corinthians." So this is what English professors call a compare and contrast. Compare your life to ours. Let's put them side by side. The Corinthians, by in their hearts in some way making peace with Christ's enemies, the pagans there in Corn, by making peace with anti-Christian society, they were lining themselves up with the God-hating world. And if you look at it, the image here is the Corinthians want to go up up up. And that they would like to become more comfortable, more powerful, wealthier. They'll like to go up. Up, up, up, always be seen as wise, and prosperous and powerful and honored by them up and up and up.

But Paul and the Apostles, as they spread this hated gospel and more and more places were experiencing more and more rejection, more and more hostility, more and more hatred, opposition, attacks, they're going down, down, down, down. So I picture a massive multi-level department store in a major city like a Macy's or something like that, and you got the escalators. You ever been on that? And you're going and you can pass them by, you can shake hands, not advised, but you're going right by and Paul says, "You folks are on the up escalator. We apostles we're on the down escalator. And as I perceive we're going down probably to execution. The Holy Spirit warns me, that in every city prison and hardships are awaiting me. So we're on the down." Now what is he saying to them? Get off the up escalator, on the next floor, cross-around to the down and start going down, become a fool for Christ's sake.

Start being hated by the pagans, start being offensive to them in a godly way by preaching the Gospel. That's what he's telling them. Get off the up escalator. Look at the details, he said, "We are fools for Christ. You are so wise in Christ." Really? The Gospel is seemed to be foolish. We've been dealing with that from Chapter 1. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. There is no way to make the gospel of a bloody, dead Jewish man dead on a Roman cross, there's no way to make it appear as anything but foolish and offensive to the unconverted mind. There's no way we can pretty it up, nor should we try. The apostles had lost everything for this message. Why were the Corinthians seeking to be wise? Then he says, "We are weak, but you? You are strong." The weakness was seen in the apostles when they would preach a message that was almost universally mocked in both the Jewish synagogue and the Greek market place.

The weakness was seen even more when they were subsequently arrested by the authorities and dragged places they did not want to go. They looked very weak then. The weakness was on full display, when they are on trial and they were condemned. But the Corinthians wanted to be strong in this world, counted among the powerful, and the influential. Then he says, "You are honored, we are dishonored." In the same way the Corinthians wanted to be held in honor by the world. They wanted to be celebrated and loved and esteemed by the pagan world. How could they be? Jesus said this in John 15:19, "If you belong to the world, the world would love you as its own as it is I have saved you out of the world. That's why the world hates you." John 15:19.

So how could they be honored while Paul is disordered? And He says to this very hour this is not a distant memory but a present reality. And look at the physical trials, to this very hour, this is what we're living right now. We go hungry and thirsty, we're in rags, we're brutally treated, we're homeless, we work hard with our own hands, when we are cursed, we bless when we're persecuted, we endure it, when we are slandered" we answer kindly, we are living out Christianity in the midst of people who hate us. And we're winning a very small number of them to faith in Christ. Most of them not. That's our life.

And then the final indignity Verse 13, this is about a strong language as you can ever find, "Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world." Lot of different translations of that, but that's a good translation, I think. We're like what's at the bottom of the dumpster on a hot August day, to the world. We stink, we're disgusting to them, they hate us, because we testify about them that their sins are evil and that they need to repent and believe in Jesus in order to be saved, they hate that. And so we are disgusting to them, the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world. Now, what about you, Corinthians? Now, I could have ended the text, the section I was preaching on verse 13, but I just couldn't do it. I had to go over to verse 14 and say, "You know," Paul is saying, "You know, I'm not writing this to shame you but to warn you." It's almost like as you read it, it's like you feel like he could say this, "You ought to be ashamed for how you're living your life in this world, Oh Corinthians. But that's not what I want you to feel. I just want to warn you about what the future looks like, if you don't change."

Now, next week, we're going to talk about Paul as a spiritual father. He says, "You're like my children, you have lots of counselors, lots of friends, but I became your father through the gospel," Paul said. And so he say, "I'm giving you a fatherly loving warning."

Now it's easy for us in our American setting to feel ashamed, deeply guilty, for our love of pleasure and ease for the fact that every facet of our lives is in some way climate-controlled, everything is geared for our comfort and convenience, our national government was set up with Freedom for Religion, expressly in reaction to the persecution that Christians had experienced in Continental Europe, and in England for centuries. So our government guarantees Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom of Speech, so I can say these things to you. I can preach the gospel without any fear of governmental intervention. Also in America, you're not going to get beaten for your faith in the name of the society, in the name of the government, in the name of the laws of that state. That will not happen if you are beaten for your faith, it will be by criminals who then probably be arrested and persecuted or prosecuted for assault and battery. So you're not going to get beaten here, you're not going to get incarcerated for believing in Jesus here.

Furthermore, you're not going to have family members here, who will hunt you down because you betrayed the idolatrous wicked religion of your ancestors by turning to Christ, genuine faith in Christ and then your brothers or your father will hunt you down and kill you. That's not going to happen here in America. That would be illegal, it would be criminal. Furthermore, we live in a land of lavish economic opportunities. This is a good land that God has given us. And it's been that way for centuries and so people can come and prosper here and because of our freedoms, our government, because of our economic opportunities and natural resources, the best and the brightest, the most gifted from nations all over the world have chosen to come and live here and give us the benefits of their insights and their genius. So we have technologies that have come because people have come and been really smart here and we can work for their companies that they started. And we can make a good living. Now none of these things should make us feel ashamed. But what do we have that we didn't receive?

Some of our brothers and sisters around the world live in constant fear of arrest, seizure of property, incarceration, in some places, death is threatened, that's what they're going through. Most of us will never know these kinds of sufferings and we shouldn't feel ashamed of that, but I think this text says, "Not ashamed, but warned." What are the dangers for us here? And so, I'm going to finish the sermon, by talking about that. The danger is that we would misunderstand our lives in this world and that we will forget that this world is no friend to our faith. The danger is that we will seek in very inappropriate ways to be honored and celebrated by unbelievers in America and do whatever is necessary. The danger is that we will forsake the two journeys, that will forsake the internal journey of holiness, because it will make us more and more unpopular with non-Christian co-workers and relatives and neighbors. The danger even more pronounced perhaps, is that we'll forsake the external journey of evangelism and missions because that will definitely make us unpopular and unloved by our surrounding neighbors here in the Raleigh-Durham area.

The danger is that we will not realize how much danger flows through digital media into our souls, corrupting us, by worldliness, by the lust of the eyes or the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. We need to be warned that biblical Christianity is going to become more and more unpopular in America. Our stands on sexuality and gender and marriage, and abortion, and the exclusivity of Christ and other key doctrines will make us more and more unpopular in America. We need to be warned about that. We need to be warned that Christ and Him crucified, will never be acceptable to an unconverted mind. That person will either fight against Chris and Him crucified or believe and become a Christian. We need to be warned that the overwhelming push toward prosperity and health, which is part of the American dream is the opposite of the lifestyle that Paul and the apostles were following. Therefore we need to be warned against the prosperity gospel.

I think this passage should destroy it, blow it up, that what Jesus wants for your life is health and wealth. That is so clearly not true from this passage. We need to be warned of the effects of the world on your spiritual disciplines, the effects of the world on your prayer life and your Bible intake, the effects of the world on your assembling together with Christians and your Christian service. The world will tell you that all of these things are a complete waste of time. Judgment Day will reveal the opposite. We need to be warned against thinking, now hear me on this, that we American Christians because of our prosperity, and our education are essentially intrinsically better than our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world. Judgment day will show that the opposite is the truth.

It might be hard for us to take, but we have effectively been chosen by God for a lower position on Judgment Day, than them. Now, some of us can choose to forsake certain aspects of these comforts and go and suffer in other places, but I'm just saying this is the greater the suffering and the greater their courage, the greater their valor, the greater the reward. We need to be warned against living in ignorance and I'm concerned about the persecuted church around the world and not care what they're going through, and show it by not praying for them at all. Now, a final word, we are not saved from our sins by our suffering. We are saved from our sins by Christ's suffering once for all for us on the cross. As it says in 1 Peter 2:24, "He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live for righteousness, by His wounds, we have been healed." Now, any other application of this sermon? I just leave to you in the Holy Spirit. Just lay under the text and say, "Search me, Oh God, and know my heart and show me what you want me to do with my lifestyle, with my money with my time. Show me how to serve you well from now until the day I die."

Close with me in prayer. Father, thank You for the truth of the Bible, thank You for how it speaks to us, thank You for how it rebukes us and correct us where we need to be, thank You, that Paul did not want to shame us here, but to warn us. Help us to heed these warnings and not seek a comfortable, easy life in this world that is very pleasing to non-Christian Americans. Please help us instead to be salt and light and shine with the Gospel truth. We pray in your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.

So turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians, Chapter 4, be looking this morning at verses 1-5. And as I pray just a moment ago, 1 Corinthians 4 is a marvelous chapter in which we're going to be swimming in the mindset of the apostle Paul as he talks about his own view towards life, and his own view toward ministry. And we're going to begin by looking at Verses 1-5. And as I did this morning as I was praying about this text, and about what I was about to preach, I was consumed by a kind of a unifying theme here to introduce. And that is, I want to ask you the question, just think about human life, what is the fuel that propels the drive for greatness among people? What is the fuel that propels a drive for excellence in every field of human endeavor? What makes an aviator get in a single engine, single seat plane and fly for 33 and a half hours (Charles Lindberg), across the Atlantic to arrive near Paris, France? What motivated him to do that?

What motivates a pharmaceutical researcher to spend long hours in lab, pursuing a cure to a disease like the common cold or cancer? What motivates all of those hours? What motivates an explorer, to be the first to stand on the North Pole? Wherever that is. And one after the other said, "I got there." And then science said, "No, you didn't." Then the next one guy, "I was the first." "No, you weren't." But anyway, that's another journey for another day. But what motivated all of those explorers to be that one? Or what motivates a physicist to sit in a patent office and scribble out formulas that would change the way that people saw physics for the entire 21st century? What was the motivation behind that?

Or an Olympic athlete? Imagine a female figure skater that gets up way before sunrise and goes again to the rink, and works again on the quad, again and again, hitting the ice more times than she can count, more bruises, more cuts. What is the motivation behind all of that suffering?

There are many motives, but there's one I have that dominates my mind and that is the love of honor. Love of honor. It's one of the major drives in human experience toward amazing achievement and excellence in every field. I read some time ago, Napoleon when he was traveling en route to his final destination to the remote island of Saint Helena where he would die, after he had led armies 600,000 strong and more marching over the battlefields of Europe and he built a French empire that dominated continental Europe, and men fanatically followed him across the snows of Russia. Even into burnt out Moscow itself and then on to the blood soaked battlefields of Waterloo. What motivated their loyalty? And he was musing on this, and he said, this, "A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon." For a bit of colored ribbon.

Well, it's not the ribbon, but it's the honor that it represents. That's why his soldiers made those kinds of sacrifices. Charles Lindberg, when he landed, after 33 and a half hours, landed to tens of thousands of cheering Frenchmen. And I know you'll say a $10,000 prize. So you're saying that was some of the motivation, but I don't think that's what really moved him. In 1921, Albert Einstein was paraded through the streets of New York with a ticker tape parade. The most famous physicist of our day, of their day. Many Olympic gold medal winners have done so to complete that perfect gold medal winning performance, and just stand there, the music's over and the cheers just come cascading down and then she gets to climb up to the top podium and bend over and receive the gold medal. There's just honor in all of that.

Now, there are twisted aspects of this. Our love of honor can be perverted. It can be twisted and it all started with Satan's love of his own honor recorded for us, the primordial movement in Heaven, recorded I think in Isaiah 14, where he said, "I will ascend to Heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God… I will make myself like the most high." And then his servants, human servants, followed in his footsteps with the same mentality. We see it again and again in Scripture, but my mind was led this morning to Genesis 11, the men of the Tower of Babel, who said, "Come let us build ourselves a city with a tower in it that reaches up to the Heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves." The culmination of this twisted wicked self-focused love of honor, we see in Satan's temptation of Jesus in the desert where he says to Jesus, "If you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread." But then just minutes later, he shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their honor and splendor. And said, "I'll give all of this to you if you will bow down and worship me."

Now, how in the world does a creature like Satan was... Creature is a created being, get to the point where he's saying to his Creator, "Fall down on the ground and worship me." So that's the twisted, sick aspect of love, of honor or ambition, would be another way to talk about it. Thomas Brooks, the puritan said this, "Ambition is a gilded misery, a secret poison. Ambition is a hidden plague, the engineer of deceit, the mother of hypocrisy, the parent of envy, the original vice of the angels, and of Adam and Eve. Ambition is the destroyer of virtue, the blinder of hearts. High seats are never but uneasy, and every crown is stuffed with thorns."

Well, that's Thomas Brooks, the puritan talking about ambition. So one would think that all ambition is evil, all love of glory or love of honor is corrupt, but not so. The apostle Paul used the word, translated ambition, three times in his writing. The original Greek is literally, "love of honor." In Romans 15 he said, "It's always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not named so I would not be building on someone else's foundation rather as it is written. 'Those who were not told about him will hear and those who have not heard will understand.'" The overwhelming ambition of Paul's apostolic life, and ministry was to preach the Gospel in uncharted territories. The word literally is love of honor. "I wanted the honor of doing it." That's what Paul's saying.

But then you get a different use of the word in 1 Thessalonians 4:11, where he writes to Thessalonian believers, very average brothers and sisters in Christ, who are not called on to be frontier, trail blazing apostles to the gentiles, but just to lead normal lives, he uses the same word, "Make it your ambition, [have the love of the honor] of leading a quiet life, minding your own business, and working hard with your own hands so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and you won't be dependent on anybody." Same word, love of honor different calling though. Very different calling. And then the one that binds them all together, 2 Corinthians 5:9, Paul says, "So then whether we are at home or away from the body, we make it our aim, or we have the ambition, to please Christ." My ambition... I would love the honor of pleasing Christ every moment of my life. Love of honor.

Now if the motive is that Christ will honor us for serving him and that Christ will be pleased with us in everything that we do, actually that motive is not evil, it is not twisted. I would say it's required. The alternative here is not live a life with no ambition at all. Too many people are doing that. We're surrounded by them every day. They seem to live for nothing. But instead that we would have a burning ambition and the apostle Paul is probably the best in church history to point the way on how to do that. What are the mindsets of servant hood? What are the mindsets that lead to a life that's going to be lavishly honored and praised by God? But I would say it's required and there are many texts behind this. For example, Hebrews 11:6, where it says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him." In other words, if you diligently seek Him every day, He will reward you. And actually you can't please him if you don't think like that.

Or again Romans 2:7-8, the Apostle Paul is describing in Romans 2, two different ways to live and this is what he says. In Romans 2:7-8, he says, "To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, to them He'll give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking, who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger." Those are just the two different ways to live in this world. So the Christian life is a life of people who by persistence in doing good work seek glory, honor, and immortality. Now, we're not seeking that God would be immortal. He already is. So therefore, it's immortality for us that we would live forever. That we would seek to live forever. So then the other two are self-referential as well. That we would seek to be glorious in Heaven, to shine like the sun, and that we would seek the honor that God will give to faithful servants. That's the way you should live your life.

Now, I believe that we are still corrupted in our sin nature. We're still tempted toward vain glory. We're still tempted towards selfish ambition, and so we need to be very careful about this topic. But this is really how I see it. It really just has to do with the vertical axis and the horizontal. If your focus is continually vertical and you're saying at every moment, "All I want is to please and glorify and honor my heavenly Father," He will reward you and honor you. But if you are focused, horizontally and saying, "What I want is to please this audience, or that audience, the others. I want tens of thousands waiting for me outside of Paris, cheering me when I land my plane. I want a whole stadium of people cheering me when I finish my routine. I want the ticker tape parade where everyone sees that I'm the greatest physicist that has ever lived."

Now that is the twisted and sick aspect. I'm not saying that any of those individuals did feel that. I don't know what Charles Lindberg thought when he was landing. I think he was straight exhausted, been awake for 55 hours and he just needed to get to a hotel room and go to bed. And I don't know what Dorothy Hamill or Peggy Fleming thought when they won the gold medal. I don't know. I don't know what Albert Einstein was thinking as he's driving down surrounded by a ticker tape swirling. I don't know.

But my concerns with your hearts and mine, so we have to be careful. We have to be that, like Paul says of the true Jew, the one whose circumcision is not physical, but spiritual by the Holy Spirit. Such a person's praise is not from men, but from God. Praise from God? Is that... Yeah, that's what we're talking about today. That you, as a servant would live your whole life seeking to please your master so much so that he will say at the end of your life, not just once but many times and not just once, but for all eternity. "Well done, good and faithful servant." That's what we're talking about.

 And so Paul is our role model. Now, this is the first of three sermons in 1st Corinthians 4, that's going to set Paul up as a role model for us. And so we're going to look and sit at his feet, and we're going to just basically follow his example, so we desire to be faithful servants. We're going to walk through what it means to be a faithful servant of Christ and we're going to begin at verse 1, Paul servant... Sorry, Christ's servants are stewards of the mystery of God. Mysteries of God. Look at verse 1.

"So then men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God." So the question in front of us in verse 1 is, how should people regard us? Now the us is not us first. We need to stay in the text. It's how should we regard Paul and the other apostles and the fellow servants of the word of God. That's what that word us means there. But then we're going to try to follow him and try to imitate his example as best we can. So how should people regard Paul?

Paul here I think has been walking a tight rope. Remember the problem in 1 Corinthians 1 through 3 has been their overwhelming love for human agency, human servants and workers and all that. They love eloquence, they love gifts, and all that sort of stuff. And so, they were saying, "I follow Paul…I follow Apollos…I follow Cephas…" and all that kind of thing, and Paul's trying to strip that away, and he does it very vigorously in Chapter 3, where he says very plainly, verse 5, "What after all is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered, but God made it grow so neither he who plants, nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes him grow." So if you take all that and boil it down, Paul is saying, "I am nothing. God is everything." But on the other hand, like I said, he's walking a tight rope. He has to go the other way and say, "Yes, but however, I am the apostle to the gentiles, and I am a conduit of God's truth and of the mysteries of God. And you need to not think too lowly of me either." So don't think too highly of me, I am just a servant, but don't think too lowly either and say, "I can't hear anything from Paul."

So he's got to say, "Yes, but I've got a special role to play." And so he has to work against Satan's work to slander Paul and this is going on all the time. Paul was one of the most slandered people that's ever lived. And so they're saying like, "I can hear the word from Apollos and I can hear it from Peter, but I just can't hear it from Paul. I'm done with Paul." Paul's shut down. He's like, "Don't do that. You need to regard me properly. And how would you regard me? Well, you have to regard me, us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. That's how you should look at me." So he wants them to know that he is a servant, but he really isn't their servant. He is Christ's servant. He's answerable to Jesus. And not ultimately them. It's really important to understand that. Some churches I think need to understand this more than they do. Now, I thank God that FBC Durham is not one of them.

I think this church has a very healthy esteem for elders and teachers of the Word and pastors and I'm grateful for that, but not every church does. There's some churches who treat their pastors like employees and though they may not say it, they say, "Look, we pay your salary. You're answerable to us." Paul would say, "Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm not answerable to you or to any human court at all. I am answerable to Christ who called me on the road to Damascus, who could have struck me dead on the road to the Damascus, but didn't. Instead now said, "Now get up and go into the city and you'll be told what you must do." I'm answerable to Him. My life is in his hands, my calling is I am Christ's servant."

That's what he's saying. So people ought to regard us. That's how you ought to see us. Apostles, me, as would Paul say, the apostle, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God, we serve Christ. He is the master to whom we're going to give an account on Judgment Day. We're going to stand before Jesus and tell him everything that we did in the body, whether good or bad. We're going to talk to Jesus about that, 7 Corinthians 5:10. Not to you. So Christ is the master and we are faithful ministers of the Word and we have to answer to him. And ultimately, Paul says we are also stewards of the mysteries of God. Now, a steward is a servant in a household who manages the master's material possessions. The stuff that the steward manages doesn't belong to him. It's not his stuff. He is under the master managing his money, managing his kegs of wheat, barrels of wheat or of oil, olive oil or wine, whatever it is. He's managing but it's not his stuff. It belongs to the master. But he has to give an account for his management. He's going to give an account.

And he says, we are "stewards of the mysteries of God." Now we have sung some hymns this morning that have just melted my heart and I just wept, praise God for your gifts, just we're swimming in the mystery of the cross. How can we fully understand Almighty God dying for us? I mean, do we have the ability to plumb the depths of that mystery? Do we understand the mystery of the incarnation? Paul says, beyond all question the mystery of Godliness is great. He appeared in a body and was worshipped by angels. How do you figure that out? Christianity is a religion of mysteries. What that means is, things hidden in the mind of God, but then at the right time revealed and made known through the ministry of the Word. And so, there are mysteries that are unfolding in Christianity, things that we wouldn't know any other way, and they focus on Christ. In Christ are hidden all the mysteries of wisdom and knowledge. All of it's wrapped up in Him. Christ in us, the hope of glory is called a mystery.

There are mysteries about the future that we don't fully understand, like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, "Behold I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed." So there is a future generation of people who will not die physically, they'll be alive when Jesus returns at the second coming of Christ. But they will be transformed, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, and so they have to have resurrection bodies. That's all a mystery. We are stewards of these mysteries, the mysteries of God. The greatest mystery of all is, what's this all about, what's the purpose of all of this? He says in Ephesians 1:9-10, "And he made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He first purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment, that's the end of everything, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head even Christ." That's a mystery, that's what this is all about. So these mysteries will take the rest of our lives and we still won't plumb the depths of them.

Paul says, "You ought to see us as servants of Christ and stewards of these mysteries. So don't think too lightly or lowly of me, because you're going to miss some of the mysteries, you're going to miss some of the instruction. You need to stay under my teaching as I continue to be a faithful steward of the mysteries of God."

Secondly, Christ servants requirements is faithfulness. What do we... What does Christ want out of us? Faithfulness. Look at Verse 2, "Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful," that's all that Christ wants of his servants, faithfulness, faithfulness. I'm going to set you up each of you, my sons and daughters, I'm going to set you up in a ministry, in a life and it's going to be in some ways very common and similar to others, but in some way unique to you, tailor-made for you. I'm going to set you up in a calling, and I want one thing from you, be faithful to what I gave you to do. Be faithful. If you're a husband, be faithful, be a faithful husband. If you're a wife, be a faithful wife. If you're a mother, be a faithful... Be faithful to being a mother. If you're a father, be faithful to being a father. If you're a pastor, be a faithful Shepherd. Be faithful to what I gave you to do. Faithfulness.

Now for me, faithfulness, just means obedience, just do what I told you to do, you can't do any better than what Christ commanded you to do. This just destroys all worldly ambitions. There's so many ambitions that men and women have. It's like, I want this and I want that and I want to do great, it's like, you can't do any better than what Christ wants you to do. That's the highest calling you can ever have. I actually reject what Martin Lloyd-Jones and some others say, the highest calling is preaching the Word. I actually don't think that's true. The highest calling for any servant is what the master called you to do. There is no higher calling than that for you. So just be obedient. What that means is, you're a soldier, you're put at a post, stay at your post. Do what your commanding officer told you to do, and don't get lured by temptations toward treason or cowardice. Stay at your post, don't give yourself over and become a traitor, having been bought with gold and silver, worldliness. Don't become a traitor to Christ and don't be a coward when the bullets start flying, stay at your post and do what you're... Even if you have to die, that's what courageous soldiers do. Stay at your post, don't give yourself... Be faithful to what I've told you to do.

Paul met this criteria in amazing ways. He said to King Agrippa, "So then King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision," "I did what Christ wanted me to do. Everywhere I go, I'm beaten up for the Gospel, and I'm still at my post, I'm still doing what Christ called me to do on the road to Damascus."

So the question before all of us, just right in the middle of the sermon, I just want to apply this. How about you? What is your calling? What are your spiritual gifts? Where are you positioned? Are you being faithful? Are you being faithful? Now, you may be in a process of preparation, you may not really know what your spiritual gifts are, you might be a teenager, for example, you know Christ as your Lord and Savior, but you don't know what your spiritual gifts are yet. I understand that, there's a process, but you know... And it could be even beyond that. You still don't know, but in the end, what are you gifted, what are you called to do and are you being faithful to your calling? That's all that the Lord requires of us.

Now, Paul's clarity on this, frees him up entirely from human evaluation. It brings us to point 3, Christ servant's freedom is concerned over human judgments. This is a very bold Verse, I love it. 1 Corinthians 4:3, Paul says this, "I care very little if I'm judged by you or by any human court." There are a lot of ways I could rephrase that. I'll try to be careful, not give him an attitude he really didn't have, but "I don't give a flip what you think about me." We are at that point now, I really don't care. The funny thing is, he clearly does care in other ways, but he doesn't care like we think he cares. He writes basically, almost all of 2 Corinthians to defend himself and his ministry against the super Apostles, so he does care very much what they think about him, but not in the way you and I, through our ego-maniacal ways would, not like that. He says, "I care what you think about me in that I want to be certain you can continue to receive the Word of God from me." But in an ultimate sort of sense, I have seen the resurrected glorified Jesus. I've seen Christ. I know I deserve to die on the road to Damascus. Paul wrote the words, "If anyone destroys God's church, God will destroy him."

 "I deserve to die. So my death sentence is a suspended sentence and I'm walking under that and I realize that my life, for the rest of my life, isn't mine anymore. It was bought with a price. I am a servant of the king. So putting it a little more gently, I care very little what you think about me, and frankly, I care very little what any human being thinks about me."

It's a very powerful thing. Because we are so dominated by concern about other people's opinions. I remember watching years and years ago, one of my first children was a little baby getting a little bit older, starting to be aware of other human beings did something that everyone in the room thought was funny. And he liked that so much, he did it again and again and again until it wasn't funny anymore, alright? But I was just thinking about that feedback loop from infancy, how we care about facial expressions and expressions of pleasure. And I like you and I'm happy with what you're doing. And then we become addicted to that.

And we have to have that severed in some very vigorous ways in order to serve Christ as faithfully as we can. So Paul says, "I care very little if I'm judged by you or by any human court." Now, no one was in my opinion, I don't know anybody in church history that was arraigned before more human courts than the Apostle Paul. I mean, it's almost like the last third of the Book of Acts it is court trial after court trial, after court trial. That's just Paul on trial. So he knew what it was like to be arraigned before human tribunals. But he said, "I'm actually freed up. I'm freed up from what they think, I'm freed up from what Agrippa thinks about me, or Herod thinks about me. I'm freed up from what any of the Romans think about me. I'm freed up from what the Emperor Nero thinks about me, I'm freed up from that. And I'm freed up Corinthians from what you think about me. I care very little. It's a light thing." Their judgment of him will mean literally zero on Judgment Day. Do you understand that? Literally nothing. What anybody thinks of you, any other human being will vanish into nothingness when you stand before Christ.

As Paul wrote in Romans 8:31, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Or you could it say this way, "If God is for us, who cares who's against us." Or "If God is for us, what does it matter what anybody is either for or against us?" None of it matters. All that matters is God is for us. But so, also, when it comes to evaluation, all that matters is what God, what Christ thinks about us.

And you know, it's interesting, Paul here includes himself in this. He says, "I don't even judge myself." "I don't even evaluate my own life in ministry. My own evaluation of my life, my deeds, the seeds I planted, the harvest that came from it, I don't know." Frankly God hides most of our fruitfulness from us. We are called on to broadcast seed sow, and just sowing and sowing and sowing, and sowing. We don't know. I have no idea how fruitful I've been. And I'm pretty convinced God doesn't want me to know, because I'm pretty convinced that I can't handle it if it's good. If I find out, I've been incredibly used by God, I will become an egomaniac, and none of you will want to be around me. So God does a lot of things to humble me, and he does a lot of things to humble you.

Now I believe in heaven we'll be able to handle the truth and we will see our full harvest of righteousness then. But it won't matter at all, what any human audience thought or what I thought about myself. All that will matter is what Christ thought about me. Now he says, "My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent." Do you realize how important a statement that is? Hey, I have a clear conscience. I have a clear conscience. People say that. I have a clear conscience, as though that's the final word. Friends, it isn't. Your opinion about yourself is not the final word on you. Christ's word is the final word on you. And so, just because you have a clear conscience doesn't mean you're innocent. Now, don't go too far. Conscience is important, it's part of the original equipment that God gave us in the image of God. It's that internal part of you that presses you to do right and not do wrong, and then evaluates you after the fact of whether it thinks you did right or wrong. And it's a good thing. And so Paul says, "there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked, so I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man."

It is a very good thing to have a clear conscience. It's not a bad thing. As a matter of fact, as a Christian, I can say, I think almost 100% of the time, if you violate your conscience, you have sinned. So don't violate your conscience, don't do something your conscience tells you not to do. Now, if you press me and say, "Pastor, what's the difference between the voice of conscience and the voice of the Holy Spirit?" I'll say, "Let's have a long discussion over coffee. I don't know that I can tell the difference. But I do know that our conscience can be corrupted and hardened, but then it can be healed and redeemed, and the Holy Spirit can use it. So Paul mentions it positively. All he's saying is, his clear conscience is not the final word on his life. Christ's evaluation is all that matters.

Fourthly, Christ servant's judgment secrets exposed, rewards given. Look at verse 5, "Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time. Wait till the Lord comes, He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of people's hearts."

Well, since human judgments mean nothing, he's saying to them, "Stop evaluating my ministry. Stop weighing it." Now listen, it is essential that Paul be proven as a faithful minister of the Word of God, that's essential. And all congregations should evaluate their teachers, their pastors, their elders continually in some sense. Because it is possible that elders, pastors, teachers of the Word can be wolves in sheep's clothing. But keep in mind, Jesus said, "By their fruit, you will recognize them." He taught that you would be able to identify wolf-ish behavior and be able to see the snarling teeth under the sheep clothing. So it is important to evaluate the teachers of the Word, and also Luke in Acts 17:11 talked about the Bereans, you remember the Bereans? He said, "Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness, and then examined the scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true."

Let me ask you a question, do you think I'm going to be offended if I find out that you guys went home today and read over 1 Corinthians 4:1-5, to see if what I said was true? No, please do it. Please go back over the Scripture and see if what I said is true, see if this is what Paul is teaching about how a faithful servant of Christ should be. If on some point you think differently, let's talk about it, etcetera. But that's exactly what Bereans should do. But once you've settled, if the pastors are faithfully expositing the Word of God and are faithfully teaching the Word of God, then be thankful for them. And keep receiving the Word from them. That's what Paul's zealous about here. However, ultimately only Judgment Day when Christ returns will we be able to see the final truth. Like was said of George Whitfield, he said he wanted this in this tomb, here lies George Whitfield, what sort of man he was that day will reveal. In other words, that's all there needs to be said about George Whitfield. At the second coming of Christ, wait till the Lord comes, and on that day, everyone's works are going to be tested, and there'll be gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay and straw, there's going to be all of that, all of that will be revealed on that day.

Final analysis. The Lord alone then can read the human heart. Christ is going to lay bare all of our hearts, he's going to lay bare our motives, why we did what we did. Some people, we will find serve the Lord from pure motives, as much as sinners can ever do that, love for God vertically, love for others horizontally as best as we can do it, never perfect. Our works all need to be purified. But the motives, why we did what we did will be laid bare. Jesus said to the church in Revelation 2:23, "I am He who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds." So he's going to test our motives. Why we did what we did? And our works, what we did? So the Psalmist says in Psalm 1:39, "O Lord, You have searched me and You know me." I think one of the best things we can do as servants of Christ to say, at the end of the Psalm, "O Lord, search me and know me. Try me, and test me and show me myself, and see if there's any hurtful way in me, any unrighteous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:23-24, do that. Just say, "Oh God search me, give me a fore taste of that judgment, so I can do a course correction."

Christ servant's reward ultimately is praise from God. Now, we come full circle to where I began. 1 Corinthians 4:5 is, in my opinion, one of the most important Verses in the Bible on rewards. If you were to ask me, what are the rewards, what are we getting? I want to boil it down to these three words, in one of the translations. Praise from God. ESV has commendation, that's fine, but I just like simply praise from God, not praise for God, we'll be doing that for all eternity, giving God the praise, giving God the glory.

No, this is something else, this is God praising us. And this is not in the sense of fall down and worship me, it's not that. It's the sense of a pleased father commending a beloved son, or daughter. This is good fathering, we'll talk about this at the end of the chapter. But Godly fathers commend their children and say, "Well done." And so Godly master say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." And I love the rest of that statement. Not so famous, but I've talked about it so many times. "Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful of a few things. I'm going to put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your Master." That's the reward.

Come, you and me, Father, Heavenly Father, and adopted son or daughter, let's the two of us share together the joy that I had over that particular good work. Let's have a relationship over the time you went into your room, closed the door and prayed to your Father as unseen and I will reward you with how much that pleased me. The time that you gave to the poor and needy, and no one knew what you did, no one knew what your right hand or your left hand was doing, you just did it to please me, I saw it, well done. Enter into my joy over that. That's the reward, praise from God. And my feeling is, this is the very thing that Jesus told you to store up in heaven. When he talked about your giving and your praying and your fasting, none of those things should be seen by others, to be praised by them. You should do them all vertically that God would see you and praise you and He will and then he said, "Do not store for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also.

Store up, praise from God. Store it up, store it up, every day, store it up this afternoon. Store it up tonight, store it up tomorrow morning, that God would praise you, praise you, praise you, praise you for what you did. Such as, I'm pleased with you, I'm pleased with you, I'm pleased with you. So many Scriptures teach this. Paul says in Ephesians says to find out what pleases the Lord. Don't you think the implication is to do it. Find out what makes God pleased with you, and just for you to have a father-centered life, and say, "I just want everything I do to please you Father, all the time," and he will express it to you. And actually, Hebrews 11:6 says that you must believe that He will express it to you some day.

Alright, so that's 1 Corinthians 4:1-5, let's apply it. Let me just start by speaking to you, who are as yet perhaps unbelievers. Maybe you're invited here today, maybe you came in off the street or maybe you've been coming to church for a long time, but you know that you're not a Christian. Here's the thing, the Bible makes it very plain in Romans Chapter 2, that we're either storing up praise from God or storing up wrath from God. One or the other.

There's no third option. Every single day, if you're an unbeliever, you're storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. But here's the beauty of the Gospel, we've already sung it, we praise Jesus for this. God sent His son to stand under His righteous justice and wrath against you and take it from you on the cross, so that He, Jesus stands before you and says, "Give me all of your sin and guilt and I will absorb the wrath of God for that and you'll be free, there'll be no condemnation for you." And all you need to do for that is trust in Him. No good works will merit him doing that for you, He just offers that to you freely by grace through faith. So trust in Christ. And once you do that, once you trust in Him, you will immediately flip and start storing up treasure in Heaven, start storing up praise, praise from God in heaven. That's a whole different way to live.

Secondly, let me just speak to you who are already redeemed. You came in here, you're believers, you've been listening, I just want to set before you an ambition. Just have an overwhelming ambition all the time. 2 Corinthians 5:9 tells us to please God every moment of your life. Don't live a flaccid, lazy, pleasure-seeking, indulgent kind of... I could keep going and will next week, American life that seeks a truce with the surrounding Christ-hating world and seeks a lazy, pleasure-seeking, sodded way of life that is so endemic here in the west. Let's not live like that. Let's instead live a life of ambition, a life of fiery ambition. I don't know, some of you might be like Paul called on to go overseas and preach the Gospel where Christ has never been named. There's still unreached people groups.

Others of you may be more called like 1 Thessalonians 4:11 to lead a quiet life, mind your own business, work hard with your hands and live a glorious life. There's an honor in that too, but whatever God's calling you to do, live every moment, a life of ambition. I want to please my master every moment. In order to do that, finally I just would urge you more and more free yourself from care about what other people think about you.

What difference does it make what your acquaintance in the cubicle over there or the person sitting next to you on the plane, or the neighbor diagonally across the street or your unsaved relative thinks about you? What difference does it make? If that's hindering you from sharing the Gospel with them, get over it. It doesn't matter what they think about you. Free yourself up and then say, "Lord," vertically, "All I want in each of these relationships is to please you," and God will give you power to share the Gospel with each of them. Close with me in prayer.

Father, thank you for the Apostle Paul, thank you for the things that he taught us, thank you for the example that he is to us. And Father, I pray that you would please strengthen each of us, free us up from fanatical commitment to self. Free us up from caring too much what people think about us. Free us up O Lord, to do the river of good works that you have prepared in advance for us. Help this church to be on fire for Christ, to be on fire for souls, to see more and more people in the community and even to the ends of the earth, brought over into safety and salvation through faith in Christ. Strengthen us Lord, and fill us with your spirit. Thank you that you've loved us enough to tell us the truth in Jesus's name, Amen.

Turning your Bibles to First Corinthians Chapter 3, we're continuing our study in this incredible book. This morning I was thinking about a slight moment of discouragement that happened to me when I was a missionary in Japan. My wife and I served with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist in Japan, 1993-95, and I had a little moment, a tinge of disappointment that occurred the day after I had built a marvelous sand castle with my two older kids, Nathaniel and Jenny along one of the causeways there in Japan. We had spent a lot of time on that sand castle, and it was the best I had ever made, maybe still to this day, the best I had ever made, though there's no evidence of it because that next day, all that was left was a raised mound on the beach.

Now you are thinking, "Why were you disappointed? What did you expect? When you build a sand castle it has to be built out of wet sand, where do you think it got its moisture from? From the oncoming tide. What do you think was going to happen to all of your labors, to all your meticulous care? It was going to get washed out to sea," and so it did. Christy and I had another moment, a similar moment of disappointment when we found out a number of years after we had returned to the US, that the house that we had been in for those two years had been razed. It was gone. And that was sad for us because we spent some really special times with our growing kids in that house. It was just another opportunity for us to remember the truth, that the Bible teaches, that's testified to again and again, all flesh is grass and all their glory is like the flower of the fields.

It says this in Isaiah 40, it says it also in Psalm 103. "As for man, he is like a grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field…" And then the breath of God blows on it, and it withers. And it says right in Psalm 103, "its place remembers it no more." So if we went back to Tokoshima, if we went to Yoshi Homa Bogi, to that address and walked there. There is no one, I'm convinced there is no one there that would remember us or know anything about us at all, as though we had never been.

But we are told in the Bible that because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our labor in the Lord is not in vain. We actually can labor on some things that will survive the transition from the first creation to the second creation from the old creation, to the new... We can actually build something that will last for all eternity, and that should be incredibly encouraging to you this morning.

Now we're right in the middle of 1 Corinthians 3 and we've been talking about living lives that will survive the scrutiny that's going to come on judgment day. How all of our works are going to be assembled and we're going to give an account for them all the things we've done, while in the body, whether good or bad, we're going to give an account. And it seems that 1 Corinthians 3, breaks them into two categories. Our works could be as gold, silver, costly stones in the category of those things that will survive the fire of judgment day. And then you've got wood, hay, and straw, in those things that are in the category of those that will not survive judgment day. Now there may be differentiations between them, there's some gold actions and silver actions and costly stone actions, and it's good to have some sense of differing levels of glory that there will be in heaven but still that we would labor on those things that will be eternally consequential.

And so Paul's been using an analogy here, we've been in the midst of an analogy. He first started, as you remember in 1 Corinthian 3 with an agricultural analogy, that we are God's field and that Paul planted the seed Apollos watered, but God made it grow and then he shifted. He said you are God's field, God's building. And so in Verse 16, he calls on us to be holy because we are God's temple. Verse 16, "do you not know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" Now, we would not know that, except that we are instructed by the Word of God, faith is the eyesight of the soul, by which we can see invisible spiritual realities and this world's history is centered around a massive building project that's going on all over the world, a spiritual building project, a spiritual structure that is rising day by day through evangelism and missions, and through the work of discipleship, the work of pastoring, the work of parenting, the work of Christian friends influencing one another. There is this glorious temple rising and getting more and more glorious, by the day, and we're called on to be holy for you are God's temple.

Now, the context of this assertion, Paul, as we were reminded, is writing to the Corinthian church that he helped plant, it was a talented church with many spiritual gifts. But they were also a dysfunctional church, through their own sinfulness. And one of the issues is that they were bickering among themselves, as we remember, they were factions. There were divisions within the Corinthian church. Back in 1:12, he lays out like this. "One of you says 'I follow Paul'; another. 'I follow Apollos'; another 'I follow Cephas.'" This prideful bickering was destroying the church. It also displayed terrible worldliness, and spiritual immaturity. If you look at the beginning of this chapter, 3:2-4, Paul says he couldn't address them as spiritual but as worldly. He said "I gave you milk, not meat for you're not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly for since there is this kind of jealousy and quarreling among you, or are you not worldly?" You're acting like you're unconverted people. So that's at the beginning of the chapter, this division.

Paul then puts all these leaders into perspective, "what after all is Apollos? What is Paul? Only servants through whom you came to believe, as a Lord assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants, nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth." So we are as nothing. Their focus on human leaders was worldly it was immature and it was destroying the unity of the church, and so Paul wants to establish as clearly as possible, the doctrine of Christ church and of the essential unity that we have with one another in Christ. And the role that each skillful leader plays in building the church.

And so he makes this assertion, verse 16, "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you." Now, this is an amazing statement to make to a bunch of recent converts from paganism. These were gentiles, these were Greeks, these Corinthians. They would have been excluded from the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, they would not have been allowed to enter. As a matter of fact, the Jews of Jerusalem, started a riot one day when they saw Paul with a Greek and assumed that Paul had brought the Greek into the temple. His name was Trophimus and they had wrongly assumed that Paul had brought him in there, which Paul didn't do, but they started a riot over it. Because there were clear laws against gentiles coming into the Temple of God, the Old Covenant was set against it, and the Romans who ruled Palestine, who politically ruled Jerusalem, upheld this Jewish distinction with their law, so that even a Roman soldier went into the temple area, he would be liable to punishment, even to execution.

But in the new covenant, we're told in Ephesians chapter 2 that Jesus Christ, by his death on the cross, has abolished the dividing wall of hostility that separated Jews and Gentiles. He's taking it away in his flesh, his blood shed has removed that barrier, the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility that was set up through the law of Moses. And in that same chapter, Ephesians 2, Paul makes it clear that Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians are together part of a spiritual temple that is rising up to the glory of God. Ephesians 2, 21-22, it says, "In him, [Christ] the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord and in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit." Now, we would not know that except by faith, except because we are told these. You can't see this building, this massive structure that rise except by faith.

Now, the fact that we are God's temple is true of each one of us individually. Paul will make this clear later in this same book, in 1 Corinthians 6. You can turn over and look if you'd like. Chapter 6, verses 18-20, there, he talks about sexual immorality and he says there, "Flee from sexual immorality," and then he says "he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God. You are not your own, you are bought at a price, therefore glorify God with your body." So there, he's saying each Christian individually is a temple of the Holy Spirit, we have the indwelling Spirit in us and as matter of fact Romans 8 says, if you don't have the indwelling Spirit, you're not a Christian. So if you are born again, you have the Spirit living inside you individually.

But the image here in chapter three, if you go back to chapter three at the end of what we're looking at today, is a collective image, it's a corporate image. We are together the temple of the Holy Spirit and therefore their disunity one with another, their factions and divisions, was rending that unity badly. And so he says in verse 16, "Do you not know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you." The indwelling Spirit is the essence of this temple image. It's what makes the temple, more than just a dead structure.

I like to go to cathedrals when I'm in Europe. I don't know why I have a thing for them. And some of you have been to the chapel on Duke's campus as well. It's built in that same kind of cathedral style of Europe, but I've been in all of these structures and many of these cathedrals and massive church buildings are made of stone. They have stone floors and they have stone walls and they echo with your footsteps and they feel a little bit like tombs. And in many of those places they are spiritually dead, they're spiritually tombs, because the Gospel hasn't been preached there in centuries. And as a matter of fact, many of them are literally tombs because some lords and ladies have their crypts there.

But what is it that makes this structure is something that is not a tomb? It is the indwelling Spirit, it is the presence of the Holy Spirit in this temple that makes it alive. Crackling with energy, powerful, vibrant, in every generation. It's the presence of the Spirit, it's always been so.

When the tabernacle was made, you remember when Moses finished the construction of the tent, the movable tent, out in the desert, the glory cloud, the Shekinah glory, the dwelling glory of God came and filled it, so that they could not enter. Same thing happened when Solomon built his temple, same thing happen, the miraculous glory cloud appeared and filled that temple and no one could enter it. And so Paul's just taken that image in saying, the Spirit of God is dwelling in you. Jesus' death prepared the way, that we're not talking geographical here, we're not talking about a location, a place where you can go, where you make a physical pilgrimage three times a year.

As you remember, he said to the Samaritan woman, you know how the Jews and the Samaritans, were bickering over the proper place of the temple where they would go. "We believe it's on this mountain, you Jews believe it's on that mountain... " and Jesus set her straight about the future. He told that Samaritan woman, some things he wasn't telling anyone else. He was so beautifully clear with her, they had a marvelous conversation, but it all came down to worship and he said to her, in John Chapter 4, 23-24, "Time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." So the point is not the location the time will come when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father, it's not about location, it's about the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God coming and filling us so that we offer to him, true spiritual worship.

So the New Covenant temple focuses then on the work of the Holy Spirit uniting different people from different backgrounds every tribe, and language, and people in nation, people from all over the world being called out, being rescued out of Satan's dark kingdom and we are told by Peter with the same kind of temple image that we are living stones built into a spiritual house, to offer spiritual sacrifices. And so, I look on us as quarried out of Satan's dark kingdom, we've been quarried out by some ninja commandos that have gone over Satan's dark wall, they've gone over the wall and they've gotten some living stones out. They've been rescued by the power of God, and this structure is rising. And all of us are living stones and we're set in these spiritual walls. You can't see it with your eyes, but this is what's going on in the world. This is the work.

Now we are one, we are united, we are a spiritual temple made one by the spirit. But their sins, their prideful bickering and their sexual immorality and their pagan idolatry, were rending the unity of the church, ripping it apart, and so he says in verse 17, God's temple is sacred and you are that temple. God's temple is sacred, it's holy, it's set apart unto God for his special use. That's what holy means, that we belong to God, we are his. And so we are holy. And so he calls on us to be holy because we are God's temple. The essence of holiness in this sense, is purity from evil. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all, 1 John 15. And so it should be for us. Be holy, because, I, the Lord, your God, am holy, as we heard last week from Bryan Young, beautiful.

So Paul's going to deal with all the aspects of their unholiness. He's going to go right down Main Street and deal with all of them and call them out on it, he's going to address their terrible worldliness in chapter four, the desire they have to be rich and powerful and popular there in Corinth, he'll deal with that in chapter four. In chapter five, he's going to deal with one of their own members who's committing egregious sexual immorality with his father's wife.

And he's going to say, You need to put that man out. It's church discipline. Chapter 6, he's going to deal with sexual purity, the practice that some of them had of claiming to be Christians, but visiting the temple prostitutes, and carrying on with the temple prostitutes. The very passage, I just read to you a moment ago. And he's going to address marital problems that they were having in chapter seven, he's going to address meat sacrifice to idols and their paganism and their idolatry in chapters eight through 10. He's going to address the fact that some of them are getting drunk at the Lord's Supper. And some of them were, were struck dead because of it. So he's going to address all of their sinfulness, but he's calling on them here because they are God's temple to be holy.

Now here, specifically, he's finishing the issue of their bickering, their prideful factions and divisions, among themselves. Because God's temple is sacred and because you are that temple, you must be holy in all you do.

So part two, be warned because God is zealous for his temple. Look at verse 16-17, "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you. If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is sacred and you are that temple." So here, this is a clear warning that God is serious about his temple, he's zealous for his temple. And they should not underestimate the zeal that God has for the purity and the protection of his temple.

Now what does he mean when he says that, "If anyone destroys God's temple God will destroy him"? Well, at one level, it would just be anybody that uses their earthly power and position to hinder the work of Christ and to assault or attack in some way, Christians. So here we come face-to-face with the issue of the persecuted church. The fact that this invisible structure is rising all over the world but in most, in many parts of the world, it is openly attacked, or assaulted; it is a warfare that has to go on to build this church.

So you get the picture in the Old Testament, you remember of Nehemiah building the wall with a sword and a trowel. A sword in one hand and the trowel in the other, because they had enemies that were seeking to stop the work, well make that all spiritual now. It's a spiritual work, so it has spiritual enemies, servants of Satan that use their positions to stop or to hinder the work of Christ in the world.

It's going on all over the world. And so, we have communist governments or Muslim countries, where you have imams or clerics, Islamic clerics, that use their position to stop the work of Christ and the spread of the Gospel. Every year, Open Doors, ministry called Open Doors publishes something called the World Watch List, which compiles facts and trends concerning the persecution of Christian worldwide. Over 200 million of our brothers and sisters in the world experience according to them, Open Doors, very high levels of persecution in their lives, 200 million Christians worldwide. North Korea remains for the 14th consecutive year the most dangerous place on earth to be a Christian. And we're very well aware of the way that that government has been hostile and aggressive in seeking to eradicate Christianity. Most of the nations in the top 50 list are Islamic, 35 out of 50 are dominated by Islam, Islam extremism remains the dominant global driver of persecution responsible for initiating oppression and conflict in 35 out of those 50 nations.

However, that's not the only force, we also have ethnic nationalism rising, especially in India. Open Doors noted that India rose to its highest rank ever in terms of persecution, number 15, amid the continued rise of Hindu nationalism. An average of 40 incidents were reported per month, a little over one-a-day, including pastors being beaten, churches burned, Christians harassed. Of the 64 million Christians in India, approximately 39 million experience direct daily persecution for their faith. The most violent in terms of attacks and deaths was Pakistan, which rose to number four on the list for a level of violence exceeding even Northern Nigeria.

So what I'm saying is, all over the world, it is extremely dangerous to be a Christian, and people are using their power and their influence to try to stop the building of Christ Church. And so, this is a clear warning from God, if anyone attacks God's church, God will attack him. If anyone seeks to destroy God's church, God will destroy him, that's what he's saying. He's not going to sit idly by.

Now, we just finished over the last couple of years, a verse by verse unfolding of the Book of Revelation. And if you look at the Book of Revelation, so much of the judgment that comes from heaven to Earth is done specifically because of how the people on Earth treated God's people. Because they were persecuting them savagely. For example, the angel pouring out the bowls of judgment, the third angel...  Revelation 16:4-6, "The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers, and springs of water and they became blood. And then I heard the angel in charge of the water say, 'You are just in these judgments, you are and you were the holy one, because you have so judged. For they shed the blood of your saints, the prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.'"

In other words, the fact that they're physically unable to drink the fresh water anymore, because it was blood, makes perfect sense to the angel, because of how they were persecuting God's people. Now, I find it fascinating. Think about... Look at verse 17 again, "If anyone destroys God's church, God will destroy him." I want you to think about that verse and compare it to this one, Acts 8:3, "But Saul began to destroy the church." Ponder that with me. Dragging off men and women, throwing them in prison. So the very one who wrote 1 Corinthians 3:17, "If anyone destroys God's church, God will destroy him" and I used to be someone who destroyed God's church.

And when Jesus stopped Saul of Tarsus, breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples on the road to Damascus, he could have killed him in his tracks that day. Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you Lord? I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. And now, you are a dead man, depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Could he have said that? Yes. Would Saul have deserved it? Yes. Is that what Jesus did? No.

Instead, he said, "Now get up and go into the city and you'll be told what you must do." You'll stop destroying my church, you'll start building it. And frankly, in the end, those are the two options, you're either going to destroy or you're going to build. "Whoever does not gather with me," Jesus said, "Scatters." Whoever does not scatter, gathers. It's just one or the other. And so, we are called into the service of God. Isn't it amazing the grace that God showed to Saul of Tarsus, and that he did not destroy him? And so, we hope that some North Korean and some Chinese and some Islamic persecutors and some Indian nationalist persecutors will like Saul of Tarsus crossover from death to life and become builders of the church and what an incredible testimony that will be. But this is a warning to those that are seeking to destroy the church. He's going to in the end destroy both soul and body in hell, if they don't repent.

Destroy Could Mean Defile

Now, this statement here, also could be translated slightly differently, because the word "destroy" could mean defile. And so, this may talk about sexual immorality and pollution of the church as well. False teachers in Corinth and their doctrine leading to immorality. The defilement here seems to be related to impurity and the fact that they were polluting the church. And so, he is going to be very clear about sexual immorality in Chapter 5 and Chapter 6, and he's going to call on the church to be pure and to be holy, because God is pure and holy.

Thirdly, be wise for God says the world is foolish. From verses 18-20, he says, "Do not deceive yourselves, if any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age. He should become a fool so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written, 'he catches the wise in their craftiness.' And again, 'The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.'"

So he begins this section, by saying, "Do not deceive yourself," it is very easy to lie to yourself about your true spiritual condition. And usually when Paul says this, "Do you not deceive yourself," or "do not be deceived." He says this frequently, it usually has to do is some worldly way of thinking that's gotten into the Christian mindset and is making them polluted in the way that they're living their lives. So he says in chapter 6:9, "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived... " And then he lists a bunch of sexual sinners and other types of sinners who will not inherit the kingdom of God. Don't be deceived about this. Or he says the same thing in Galatians 6:7, generally about the kind of life you're living. "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." If you reap to the flesh, from the flesh you're going to reap destruction, if you sow to the flesh, from the flesh you'll reap destruction. If sow to the Spirit, from the Spirit you'll reap eternal life. So don't be deceived about how you're living.

So, what he says here is, don't be deceived about your worldly pagan mentality, your pagan mindset. He's warning them against their worldly man-centered thinking that was dominating their dispute. "I follow Paul… I follow Apollos… I follow Cephas…" Even worse is their pagan thinking about Jesus. "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing." And so, the Corinthians were seeking to be seen as wise as their unconverted pagan neighbors. We're going to talk more about this in the next chapter, but they wanted to be thought well of by the unconverted surrounding them in their lives.

Oh, this is a great danger for us Americans too, that we would be well-esteemed in the Twitterverse. Does that exist? The Twitterverse? To be well thought of by all those weird people that say really mean things. And we want to be well thought of by all our unconverted co-workers and unconverted neighbors and unconverted family members, even. Unconverted professors and fellow students, we want to be thought well of by the pagan world around us. So don't be deceived about all this.

If you want to really be wise, you need to be thought of as a fool by them. You need to be thought of as wasting your life and living foolishly. The way they look at it, you need to cross over. And so, don't be a fool, an eternal fool. Be a fool for Christ, burn the bridge, burn the bridge, fly your flag, be a Christian and don't worry what they think about you. Become an intellectual outcast, so that you will be seen of as wise in God's sight and then vindicated on Judgment Day, when the Gospel is vindicated as the only wisdom there ever was.

For God will effectively hunt down the worldly wise and he's going to catch them. Look at Verse 19, "he catches the wise in their craftiness." Paul calls quotes Job here. To the end that God is actively working in this world to expose the worldly wise as fools. He catches the wise in their craftiness. He's a hunter. God's a hunter, and he lays traps for the pagans and their atheistic ways. he lays traps for them so that they can be exposed as fools. Like you remember when a Haman built the gallows for Mordecai, and then, he and his sons ended up hanging on it.

Or you think about the Roman emperors that used to burn Christians to light their dinner parties and then within two centuries, the Gospel of Jesus Christ had spiritually conquered the Roman Empire. The vindication that comes from it. When the Chinese Communist Party under MoU sought to aggressively stop the spread of the Gospel in China, and they used means that actually fostered the spread of the Gospel throughout China. That's God laughing in a Psalm two-way. You try to fight and you watch what I will do. He catches the wise in their craftiness. To the pure, God shows himself pure. But to the crooked he shows himself astute. That means trickier than they are. God plays chess at a deeper level than any of us can possibly imagine. And so, he catches the wise in their craftiness. And the Lord has searched the mind of the wise and he knows that their thoughts are futile. So, be truly wise and stop trying to impress your pagan neighbors. Stop trying to imitate your pagan neighbors and become a fool for Christ sake, that's what he's saying.

And then he says, "Be centered, God-centered for God owns you." Look at Verses 21-23. "So then, no more boasting about men. All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or the present or the future, all are yours and you are of Christ and Christ is of God." So now, Paul comes full circle and finishes this topic of "I follow Paul… I follow Apollos… I follow Cephas…" We've been dealing with it for three chapters, and this is the end now, Chapter 4, it'll go on to other things. So he's finishing now their factions and their divisions. So in saying, "I follow Paul" versus, "I follow Apollos," they were being man-centered. They were boasting in human wisdom, human eloquence, human power. Even worse, they didn't understand their true spiritual situation. Paul and Apollos, and Peter, and in fact all Godly teachers are all part of the same body sent by the same Lord to achieve the same end, namely their perfection in Christ.

They are all coming from the same source and teaching by the same Spirit. The Corinthians were actually constricting or limiting their blessings. Because this is how it works, the rival factions were saying, "I follow Paul and not Apollos." "Oh yeah? Well, I follow Apollos and not Paul." "Oh yeah? Well, I don't follow either of your heroes, I follow Peter, the first Apostle." And not any of those. So you're saying, "What's the end not?" Stop doing that. Say, "I follow Paul as he follows Christ, and I follow Apollos too, as he follows Christ, and I follow Cephas, also as he follows Christ. I get them all. I get Paul and I get Apollos and I get Cephas, all of them belong to me," that's what he's saying. Different teachers are different pipelines of grace, different conduits of grace. And if they are teaching the truth, they are here for your benefit, they're not in controversy with each other, they're not fighting each other, they're here to help you.

And so, I'm not in competition with any other pastor. I'm not in competition with any of you guys listening to podcasts of other preachers. There are definitely more gifted preachers and teachers than me. Drink it in! I would only ask that you be a Berean and take everything they say back to the Word and see if it's so. But if it's so, then drink. Follow Paul and Apollos and Cephas, follow them all. And so, we can go through and say, all of these come from God. Augustine is here for your service in so far as he's teaching the Word. And John Calvin is here to serve you in so far as he's teaching the Word. And John Wesley is here to help you grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ, in so far as he's teaching the word. And so, you actually can drink from both John Calvin and John Wesley. Some of you are like, "No, not possible, can't be done." I know exactly why you're saying that. It is true on Soteriology they disagree, but on many aspects of the Christian life, they're in perfect agreement.

And one of them is right and one of them is wrong, and I have a sense of which of the two it is, but we can talk about that afterwards. But we take everything back to the Word of God and we drink wherever we can from these conduits of blessing. Don't limit it. And not only that, everything in this world that seems even those things that seem to be against you are here to help you. Look what he says in Verse 22, "Whether the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours." The world may seem to be against your salvation, but it actually is God's servant in that sense, to finish your salvation. Because God is sovereign over it. And life, life is orchestrated by God, the circumstances of your life are actually set up providentially to help finish your salvation. They are God's servants to serve you. Even death, the final enemy is going to serve you by ushering you out of this world of pain and suffering and temptation into a perfect world of righteousness. Death will be your final friend in that sense, not your final enemy. Death is yours in Christ.

And time itself, the present and the future, and frankly Paul didn't say it, but I'll add the past, I love church history. And so, we can lean on whatever God did in the past, what he's doing now in the present, and even the future. All of these things are yours. They all belong to you, because they are serving your soul. Now, there's a beautiful parallel text of this in Romans 8. Don't turn there, just listen. In Romans 8 he says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those whom God foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. And what shall we say then in response of this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him graciously what, give us all things."

All of the things that you need for your soul are yours, they're all ready to serve you, all things are yours. In the ends there in Romans 8 saying, "I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus." So, those things are not going to separate you. Paul here in 1 Corinthians 3, goes even further. Not only are they not going to separate you, they're actually going to work together to finish your salvation under the sovereign hand of God. So, all things are yours. So, it's not I belong to Paul, it's Paul belongs to me. It's not I belong to Apollos, it's Apollos belongs to me, to serve my salvation, right? So he says all that. But he says, "You're not done, you're not done thinking." That's true. All of those things are yours, but you belong to Christ.

You are Christ's, you are his possession, he owns you, he shed his blood for you, and you are his possession. You are bought with a price, and then in the end, Christ is God's, all things come back up to God, the Father who gave them all. So stop boasting about men.

Alarm to the Unconverted

Applications. Well, first, just a simple alarm to the unconverted. I just want to wake you up. It's a New Year. God graciously let you live into the year 2019. You should not presume that you'll live another day, or another year, but God has graciously allowed you to live. Do not be deceived, if you're unconverted, if you're not yet a Christian, do not be deceived about the world's apparent dominant wisdom and prosperity and success, don't be deceived. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. The powerful and the influential people of this world, and the brilliant people of this world, and the wealthy people this world, all of them will fade away like the wild flower. They are as nothing. If they don't know Christ, if they are not saved by faith in Christ, they will pass away like nothing.

This text calls on you to become a fool for Christ. Turn your back on all that, turn your back on all the worldly goals and ambitions you've had and cross over through faith in Christ. You've heard the Gospel this morning, you've heard how God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, who lived a sinless life, who died an atoning death on the cross for sinners like you and me, and all you need to do is trust in him and all your sins will be forgiven. Become a fool for Christ.

Christians: Meditate Deeply on the Fact that We are TOGETHER the Temple of the Living God

Now, if you're a Christian, meditate deeply on the fact that we are together, the temple of the living God. We're meant to be together, we're meant to be interconnected together with each other by the Spirit. So that means at least Covenant membership in a healthy local church. Be a member of a healthy local church. And then, don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Let's meet together... As a matter of fact, let's do this again next week, what do you say?

Alright, next week, let's get together again. And let's just keep on doing... Let's make a habit of doing that, and not make a habit of forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, some do. And let's... Within that, let's make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. If you're holding anything against anyone in this body, go work it out. If they've sinned against you, forgive them, bring them to reconcile... If you sin against them, if you know they have something against you, leave your gift in front of the altar and then go be in reconcile to your brother or sister. Make it right, give and receive forgiveness.

Think of All the Symbolism of the Temple

And then finally, think of the beautiful symbolism of the temple. The temple was built by actual physical materials and the law was that they were hewn, and they were cut and hewn and shaped off site. No sound of tool or chisel or saw was heard on the workplace.

What it's saying is, it's constructed not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of God. And so, God is in the process of shaping us now and getting us ready for our heavenly dwelling. So keep that in mind, that beautiful image. Secondly, the temple was magnificent in beauty. But not because of its physical stature. No, the glory of God through the Spirit is what makes us beautiful. So it is with the believer's soul, the radiance of God indwelling in you by the Spirit, that's what gives us beauty that attracts Christ to us and attracts us to others. Thirdly, the temple was sacred to God, it was a holy place. So each one of you must be consecrated to personal holiness.

I want to, especially, commend... We're not there yet in 1 Corinthians, but sexual purity. Whatever commitments you need to make to sexual purity, make them. If you're defiling the church by sexual immorality, repent. Revelation in chapter 2, Jesus with eyes of blazing fire says to the church of Thyatira, "he is going to punish Jezebel and her followers. Anyone that follows into sexual immorality," he says, "I'll strike her children dead. And then, all churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each person according to what he has done," that's Jesus. So let's be holy because he is holy.

Fourthly, the temple was a place of physical sacrifices, animal sacrifices. So now our church is to be a place of spiritual sacrifices. We are to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. We are to present all of our resources, our time, our energy, our money to God in service to him. We are to offer our days. We are to give up sacrifices of caring for lost people, through Evangelism and poor people through financial giving. We are to be lifting up spiritual sacrifices daily. The temple was a place of sweet fellowship between God and people, and so must we be. To have fellowship with God through the Spirit, walk with God through the week. Walk with God, have a quiet time.

Feed your soul in the Word and then just walk with him through the day. Send up prayers, pray without ceasing. Tell Jesus, you love him at 2:00 in the afternoon and just have fellowship. And then when we come together, have fellowship with other brothers and sisters. Let no member of this church feel isolated or lonely in this world. And then finally, the temple was to be a house of prayer for all nations. We need to be zealous for the spread of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. A number of our people just got back from The CROSS Conference and there's such a focus there, I heard on the local church. And a local church is a sending entity. We need to be better senders than ever before. Send more people, yes, but send better. Let's stay in touch with our missionaries. Let's stay in touch with those that are laboring. Let's pray for unreached people groups. Let's make this a house of prayer for all nations throughout this year. Let's close in prayer.

Father, thank you for the things that we've learned from 1 Corinthians 3. Thank you for the ways that you've instructed us. And Lord I pray that you would sustain each of us for this New Year. Help us to feed on your word. Help us to not allow pockets of darkness or sin within us. Help us, O Lord, that we would be strengthened through the Spirit to love one another and serve one another, and forgive one another. Father, I pray again for any that walked in here lost, that they would look to Christ now while there's time and find a sweet salvation in him, a savior. Lord, I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 9. We're gonna be looking just at one part of the verse. In 1858, the great Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, called the Prince of Preachers, began a sermon relating an experience in which he stood by the seashore at nighttime while a powerful storm was raging. And the sea and the sky seemed to be competing with each other as to which of them could raise a greater clamor, and the sea was roaring with wave upon wave, crashing down in a mighty tumult. You can picture it in your mind's eye. But the storm clouds above the sea were answering back with claps of thunder, flashes of lightning. And the stormy seas sought to drown out the claps of thunder, and the thunder would respond with even louder crashes. And Spurgeon, as he stood there and looked, they seemed to battle to a draw. He couldn't tell which of them was more powerful, it was very dark. It was a dark night, so that the storm clouds were hiding the light of every star. Could not see a single one.

But then suddenly, far away on the horizon, he saw a glimmering light, a silvery light, as if miles away on the water. It was the light of the moon, which snuck down under the clouds in a tiny little tear in the clouds to light the ocean as it was heaving, and he could see not the moon, but he could see the light coming down and just glancing on the water. And Spurgeon, this brought to mind the introduction of the text that you just heard read for us today. More than 26 centuries ago, the Prophet Isaiah was lifted above the storms and darkness of his immediate circumstances to see beyond to a distant future. A light that would someday shine but wasn't shining yet. And with the supernatural vision of the future that only a true prophet of God could ever have, Isaiah saw the coming of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and Savior into this world. And he wrote of it with these marvelous words. Look at verse 2, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, and those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.”

Now, the darkness of Isaiah's day was in some ways very different than the darkness of our day, but in some ways exactly like our own. Now, Isaiah lived seven centuries before Jesus was born, and he prophesied at a time when the northern Kingdom of Israel was threatened by the mighty nation of Assyria. And because of their great wickedness and idolatry, in turning away from the living God to serve idols, God had finally decreed that the northern Kingdom of Israel should come to an end. And in his lifetime, they were taken away in exile by Assyria.

Well, that was the darkness of his day. The politics of our day and the stresses and the struggles of our day are different, but the root issues are still the same: sin and death. That's the essence of the darkness that we're talking about today. From the Garden of Eden, God established an insoluble link between sin and death.

He forbade Adam from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and affixed the death penalty to disobedience. From the day you eat of it, you will surely die. And Adam did eat of that tree and brought both himself and all of his descendants under the death penalty. Though he didn't die immediately, didn't die that day in the garden, he walked the rest of his life under the shadow of death.

And so do we. Born as descendants of Adam under his original sin, we live all of our lives under the shadow of death, and we would be enslaved to sin and receive the final punishment that we deserve for our sins, not merely physical death, but eternal death and hell, eternal separation from God. “For the wages of sin is death,” Romans 6:23. If it were not for the gift of Jesus Christ, and that's exactly this great light that verse 2 is talking about. 

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light and those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned, and this light is none other than Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. And Isaiah predicted Him in these unforgettable words. Look at verse 6 and 7, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing it, and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

So Christmastime is a time of celebration of this child born, the son who was given, this king who'll rule for the glory of God. And fully unfolding each phrase of this incredible passage would be a treasure beyond compare. But that's not what I'm gonna do today. I decided to make my life a little bit easier and yours too. So I'm gonna zero in on just one little phrase. His name will be called Wonderful. That's what Spurgeon did with it, and I thought that's a good idea. I think I'm gonna keep it simple. His name will be called Wonderful.

Now, some translations, I think, to some degree, rightly link these eight words in four couplets: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And I've noted and then consumed with the fact that there is a beautiful mingling of the human and the divine in these words, some of them very normal, some of them supernatural. The child who would be born, the son who would be given is called Mighty God, that's enough to blow the circuits right there. How is that even possible? But that's the essence of the incarnation. A baby born is called Mighty God. 

So, the translations joined the couplets together, and I'm fine with that. The most famous and widespread English translations, the authorized version, commonly known as the King James Version, KJV. And I put a famous little comment in between the first two, Wonderful, Counselor. Not a big fan of the comma, and yet here I am preaching it. But why not slow down? Alright, we're all busy all the time, and why rush right in? Why not just meditate on this one idea, His name will be called Wonderful? And so, Spurgeon, that's what he did, he honored the comma so much, he preached two different sermons. Week one, his name will be called Wonderful; week two, His name will be called Counselor. I'm not going to do that, I'm just doing Isaiah 96a and a half.

But I love the simplicity of zeroing in on this, and I've marveled in it. Begin with this: His name. His name. This is Jesus Christ. This is the child born to the Virgin Mary. The word name biblically refers to one's reputation, how he is understood, how he will be perceived and spoken of. It's a combination of his essential personhood and his achievements, what he has done, his name. And the text makes a prediction because Isaiah saw Jesus seven centuries before he was born. Honestly, his foresight is by faith, it's the exact same dynamic for us to look back by faith, neither one of us can see him. And both saw by faith, but his was special in that Jesus hadn't even been born yet, prophetic vision.

And so he predicted his name will be called in the future, and that's still true for us. The elect from every tribe and language and people and nation worldwide, from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria and to the distant valleys and the islands and the coast lands, and the hill tops where the messengers of the gospel carry that name will find the people who have never heard of his name before. And his name will be called Wonderful by them. So his name. 

And then we have this word, wonderful. Now, there are a lot of words that we use too much, and sometimes we attach them to things that they don't really deserve to be attached to. We don't use the word wonderful as much as maybe they did 150 years ago. So I was thinking of a similar word, the word awesome. Awesome. One of my kids turned off a light switch in the room and told me about it and I said, That's awesome. I was like, What am I saying? It was a minor effort, it was a small achievement, and with this great effort, they flicked the switch down and I said it was awesome. Now, I've seen some awesome things on planet Earth, that really wasn't one of them. 

This word, wonderful, is similarly overused and we attach it to things that really don't deserve it. Here it's a great understatement. And honestly, we're gonna spend eternity finding out how much of an understatement every word is when connected with Jesus. But his name will be called Wonderful, and it carries with it a kind of weight of the miraculous. Like miracle counselor, you almost could say it that way, and it points to Jesus's supernatural identity that he wouldn't have been born apart from a miracle of God's Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. So the Angel Gabriel said in Luke 1:35, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And so the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Only by a miracle could this happen.

We also would think it refers to the river of miracles that flowed through Jesus. No one had ever done or ever has done as many miracles. There were amazing miracles as Jesus did. The apostles worked miracles, it's true. Others, they worked miracles but the quantity and quality of Jesus's miracles are different than any other wonder worker there's ever been.

So in Matthew 4:24, it says, News about him spread all over Syria and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, the paralytics, and He healed them all. He didn't have any medical specialties, he wasn't a specialist. He was a generalist. There was no disease he couldn't cure. Or again, Jesus describing his own ministry to the messengers of John the Baptist. In John the Baptist's darkest hour when he was in prison, right before he was beheaded. He sent messengers saying, Are you the one who was to come? Or should we expect someone else? Someone else. 

And so Jesus did miracles in front of the messengers and then said, Go back and report to John what you see and hear. The blind received sight, the lame walked, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of me. 

River of miracles. But for our purposes, we can zero in on the word as we usually use it, wonderful relating to our sense or reaction to him. He creates within us a sense of wonder, a sense of awe, a sense of amazement. Now, in Jewish culture, to say someone's name is character, that man, that was an attribute that characterize them. So Jesus is essentially amazing. There's something essentially wonderful about Jesus.

Now, I love this three-part division, Jesus deserves to be called Wonderful for what he was in the past, Wonderful for what he is now in the present, and Wonderful for what he will be in the future. And my desire is to rekindle within each one of us by the ministry of the Word, by the Spirit, a sense of wonder in Jesus. It's very easy for us, like the church at Ephesus, to forsake our first love and to not be so amazed anymore at that, which should still amaze us.

Christmas is a wonderful time. But it's especially wonderful when you're around children, their eyes sparkle. I remember when my parents took me to downtown Boston at Christmastime the first time. I don't remember how old I was, but I'll never forget it. The lights strung all over the trees in the Boston Common. We went to a very expensive toy store, and my list got really long that evening, I was like, I want that, I want that, I want that. And I was just so filled with wonder at the season, 'cause it was all new to me. And there were some other supernatural things that were part of my childhood that are no longer part of it, 'cause I realized that they were a lie, and I'm not allowed to say what they are because some of you may be saying those kinds of things to your kids, and it's up to you to tell them the truth.

I circumlocute. But I remember waiting through midnight into the wee hours of the morning to hear certain sounds that I never heard. I also knew that when I was in college, I lost all sense of wonder and all I wanted was a good night's sleep. So I lost any sense of wonder, the amazement of what was under the tree. I set all that aside. That should never happen to us when it comes to Jesus, that we should lose our sense of wonder and amazement at who he is.

Now you're gonna spend all eternity doing it, but let's do a little of it now. And I think this three-part outline is beautiful, it exactly parallels Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. So let's just link the two together, Jesus is Wonderful yesterday, Wonderful today, will be Wonderful tomorrow.                                                       

First, Jesus was wonderful for what he was in the past, and here we have to start with the origins of which there is no origin; the eternal existence of Jesus Christ. Christ has existed from eternity past as God, co-equal with the Father. The Jehovah's Witnesses have propagated the old heresy first taught by Arius, the Arian controversy, that Jesus is actually a created being, that he had a beginning. He's the greatest of all of God's creatures. The slogan is, There was when He was not, there was a time that he didn't exist. It's a heresy. The Gospel of John makes it very plain from the beginning. John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created by him, and through him, and without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. And this word, it became flesh, and his name is Jesus Christ.” All of that's in the prologue, John 1:1-18, very, very plain.

So also the Prophet Micah, predicting the location of Jesus's birth, said this, Micah 5:2, But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, listen to this, whose origins are from old, from ancient times. He's eternally God. Athenasios, God raised him up to fight this battle against Arianism, to defend the Nicene Creed of orthodoxy. We believe in one God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages. God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made. Of the same essence of the Father, through him all things were made for us and for our salvation, He came down from heaven and became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made human. That's the Nicene Creed.

The eternality of Jesus Christ is wonderful, it's incomprehensible to us, it staggers us. In Revelation 1, the Apostle John in exile on the island of Patmos had a vision of Jesus, very different from how we perceive Jesus. Do you remember the detail, in particular, Revelation 1:14? His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. So the head and hair represents the eternality of Jesus. He is eternally experienced, been through it all, seen it all, and the eyes of blazing fire, if I can tell you just exudes energy and power. Jesus Christ is still in his prime, but he is the Ancient of Days. Jesus Christ is older than the earth, he's older than the rocks of the mountains, older than the crashing waves of the sea, he's older than the oldest oak tree, older than the sun, the moon, and the stars.

The externality of Christ is wonderful, and the incarnation therefore is wonderful, the concept that this eternal being who with the Father created the universe became a helpless baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger is wonderful, just boggles the mind. Mary could not fully fathom it as she cared for her newborn son. Luke 2:19, "Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." You must imagine this quiet young Jewish girl was stimulated to wonder by these thoughts.

Joseph knew that Mary's account of her pregnancy was true, because the same angel had told him so, "What is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." But how could he contemplate the fullness of this wonder. The shepherds went to see this baby, because the angel appeared in the glory of the Lord, shown around. And what were they told?" Today in the City of David, a savior has been born to you." Listen to this, "He is Christ the Lord." That is God's name. You're gonna go see God in a manger. The Magi would come and they would offer their gifts, but how could they fully take in the wonder of a baby born to be King of the Jews, for whom a celestial star led them geographically, accurately, and specifically to the house where he was laid.

Even the angels that appeared and celebrated the birth of Jesus, long to look into these things. So angelic wonder, it exists, it's real. They long to look into them, they're interested in these things, they're enticed by them, and they find them amazing. They don’t fully comprehend all of it. But not only that, His death was wonderful, it's staggering to understand the link between the body that Jesus took on and the body that was nailed to the cross for the sins of the world. How could the infinite Son of God lower Himself to be so debased by his enemy, so humiliated, so despised and abused by them? How could Jesus still the storm with a word and raise Lazarus up from the tomb after four days effortlessly, and yet allow his face to be smashed with a rod, his scalp to be lacerated by thorns, his back to be shredded by a whip, for him to be mocked right up the streets of Jerusalem until he went outside the gate and was crucified like a piece of refuse outside the gate to be scorned and mocked to be nailed and to hang there and bleed out until he was dead, and then a lance in his side, how could he allow all of this?

And this is the very thing that his enemies said, proves he's not the Son of God. All of us would have retaliated, we would have used whatever power we had to save ourselves. In Matthew 27, his enemies said, "He saved others, but he can't save himself. He's the king of Israel. Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God, let God rescue him now, if He wants Him, for He said, I am the Son of God," that mockery. The fact that he was suffering there and that He died proves he's not the Son of God to them.

How can we fully comprehend the cup of wrath and anguish and wow that he drank to its bottom? To understand this is too high for us. It is too wonderful, it should create wonder or amazement inside our hearts. How can we fully understand the love of Christ poured out in an unending stream over his enemies, us. While we're still enemies, He died for us. Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life where his friends," but we weren't his friends. We were his enemies, we were rebels, we had violated His laws, we had blasphemed his name. And we repaid all of his kindness with sins, more sins than we can recount, more numerous than the hairs of our head. 

How can we measure that love or the humility that goes down, down ever downward from celestial glory down to death on a cross? It's too high for us. It's infinite, it's beyond our ability to comprehend. And so also Jesus triumph over death on the third day, his mighty resurrection victory. It is too wonderful for us to comprehend, These are chains around us we could not break for all of our cleverness and all of our scientific prowess and our medical inventions and achievements in this City of Medicine or in Boston, another city of medicine, or in the Mayo Clinic, we have made progress and we have not defeated death and we never will. Never will. These are chains we cannot break.

The mightiest ruler, the wealthiest tycoon, the most popular athlete or entertainer will someday find those same chains wrapped around him or her, and they cannot break them. But like a mighty Samson, Jesus snapped those chains like they were charged threads on the third day. Death could not hold him, there was no way for the grave to hold him back. And death has no power over him ever again. He will never die again. He was raised in a resurrection body that cannot perish, spoil or fade, the first like it and the rest of us will join the harvest someday, we will be part of that, 'cause he's first fruit, we'll get the rest. This is too high for us to comprehend, is too marvelous. 

So this morning, if you have eyes of faith, you can't... You just listening to me speak, but you can just picture with eyes of faith, you could see Jesus standing before all of us like he did before the Apostle John on the island of Patmos. Revelation 1:18, saying, "I am the living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive and I live forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades." So his name is wonderful for what he was in the past.

Secondly, Christ is wonderful for what he is now in the present. With eyes of faith, we can see him in his present position. We believe that after His resurrection, He ascended from the surface of the earth, and He moved through the sky and the cloud hid him from their sight, and he moved up through the heavenly realms to sit at the right hand of the Majesty of heaven, of God. At the right hand of God. And Hebrews 4:13 says, "We have a great high priest." Listen to this, "Who has passed through the heavens." He didn't stop there, he didn't stop at this heaven or that heaven, he passed through all of them, he's above all created realms, above the highest heavens, which cannot contain Him. 

And so he has this power. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to him. His heavenly Father said, "Sit at my right hand until I make all your enemies a footstool for your feet." Ephesians 1 says that God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church. That's the power. And from that place, He rules actively over planet Earth for the benefit of his elect people. And we can't see or fully understand that. We think things don't make much sense, why is this happening with this government, why is that happening over there with that government, why is... We don't understand the plans of Almighty God in the way that Jesus is exerting His authority, but He is, and He is working through the Holy Spirit fulfilling the very thing he said before His crucifixion in John 12:32, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself."

And so he is magnetically drawing the elect and they will come. As John 6 said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me.” Not most of them. Not almost all of them, all of them are gonna come. All the elect will someday come to Christ, because through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, He will draw them to himself, and that's what's going on now, every single day. And that is wonderful. That is wonderful.

And he's also protecting a sheep with a mighty hand. He's not gonna allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. He's filtering your temptations. He is a mighty lion roaring over you, he is like an eagle protecting her young. He is powerful, and you will make it through this sin-cursed world, you're going to make it, you're going to get through. He is your good shepherd, and you are His sheep. And he has you in His hand. As he said in John 10, he holds on to you and no one can snatch them out of His hand, and that is wonderful, and he will protect you.

So I just wanna say, stop right now and just say, "Is he wonderful to you right now? Was he wonderful when you woke up this morning? Is he to you wonderful as a savior, wonderful as Almighty God, wonderfully worthy of your worship? Have you crossed over from death to life? Have you trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins? Or are you still walking in darkness in fear of death, not willing maybe to admit it, saying you're not afraid of anything, but you should be. You should be.

If you're not in Christ, you should be terrified of death and what follows, the judgment that follows. I feel like for us as evangelists, one of our jobs is to get people who are not afraid to die, but who should be, get them to be afraid, so that they can cross over from darkness and death into light and life, and find joy, the kind of joy celebrated in Isaiah 9, like a great harvest, like a great victory in which you divide the plunder, that's what it's like. You don't have to do anything, you just have to hear these words and believe that they're true. All the things that I've said about Jesus past, that's the Gospel, and all you have to do is trust in it, your sins will be forgiven and that will be eternally wonderful for you.

Well, finally, Christ will be wonderful for what he will be in the future. You haven't seen anything yet, friends. You're like Nathaniel, who when Jesus came and said, "You have no guiles like, You're the Son of God, you're the king of Israel." He said, "Is that it? Because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree you believe? You're gonna see greater things than these."

So will all of us, Jesus is going to show infinite dimensions of his amazing character and achievement for all eternity, this is the only way I understand Isaiah 9:7, in which there is no birth, there's no marrying or giving in marriage in heaven, and yet his kingdom eternally increases in the estimation of His people of how wonderful Jesus the King really is and was, and even will be in the future.

And so he's gonna be a wonderful Savior too, for the rest of your life. He said, "I will never leave you, I will never forsake you." You're not going to fall away, he's going to wonderfully protect you, he's gonna wonderfully arrange good works for you to walk in, and by the power of the Spirit, you're gonna do them, and you're wonderfully on judgment day going to get your gold and silver and costly stones purified and handed to you as an eternal reward, and that will be wonderful. But it won't be anywhere near as wonderful as realizing it's only by Christ that you did them all. And not just you, but all of your brothers and sisters.

You look at all their glittering crowns and all of their glittering rewards, and you'll see them and honor them horizontally, but you'll give Him the glory because He deserves it. And he's gonna be infinitely wonderful at His second coming. As Revelation 1:7 says, "Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him. And all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be. Amen." Matthew 24, "As lightning that flashes in the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." That's gonna be wonderful.

And then he's gonna gather all the nations together, and they'll assemble there, and that will be astonishing. And he's gonna sit on His throne in Heavenly glory, and He's gonna separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he's gonna put the sheep, his elect on his right, and he's gonna put the goats on his left. Every single person will be dealt with, and how terrifying will it be to hear from his majestic truthful lips, "Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 

And the clearing out of all of the wicked, and all of the demons and Satan himself and the condemnation that they will receive will at that time be wonderful because he will do it. And then how wonderful would it be for you if you have faith in Christ, to hear him say, "Come you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world." And then to be ushered into that kingdom, to see it last with your own eyes, the New Jerusalem radiant and shining with his glory, no sun, no moon, no star is just the radiant glory of Christ in every direction. And how wonderful will that be?

And you're gonna spend eternity around the throne, studying his face, you'll see his face, and you'll see the light of the glory of God flowing through Him, and you will spend eternity serving him and studying His good deeds of the past and finding wonder and amazement at what he is made in the world, you are there, and then the new things you will do, I don't know what they're gonna be, but they're gonna be wonderful. And you'll spend eternity saying, his name is wonderful.

I wanna close with the words that Spurgeon used when he preached that sermon, and they moved my heart, this is what Spurgeon said, "There have been times when you and I have said of Christ, His name is wonderful indeed, for we have been by it transported entirely above the world and carried upward to the very gates of heaven itself. I pity you, beloved if you do not understand the rhapsody I'm about to use. There are moments when the Christian feels the charms of earth all broken, and his wings are loosed, and he begins to fly, and up he soars till he forgets earth sorrows and leaves them far behind, and up he goes even further till he forgets earth's joys and leaves them like the mountain tops far below, as when the eagle flies to meet the sun. And up, up, up, he goes with his Savior, full before him almost in beatific vision. His heart is full of Christ. His soul beholds his Savior, and the cloud that darkened his view of his Saviors face seems to be dispersed. Well, how is that rapture produced? By the music of flute and harp, other instruments? No. How then does this transport occur? By riches, by fame, by wealth, absolutely not. Does it occur by a strong mind, by a lively disposition? No, not at all. HOW THEN? By this and this alone, by the WONDERFUL name of Jesus, ministered to you by the Holy Spirit, that one name is all-sufficient to lead the Christian into heights of transport that verge upon the region where the angels fly in cloudless days.”

And you're like, "Oh, I would like some of that. Oh, God, lift me up." He's not talking about dying, he's not talking about the second coming of Christ, he's talking about a vision in the heart based on the word, through the spirit that he ministers to you now, today, that His name is wonderful, I pray that God would give all of you that. 

Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for this incredible text, so ancient 26 centuries old and more, I thank you for the vision it gives us as Christ, one of the clearest descriptions of who Jesus is, that baby laid in the manger, and God, we've zeroed in on just one little detail of it, I pray that our hearts would be moved again to wonder. I pray that we would not be stale and hardened and stiff toward the wonder of Christmas, but that we would be softened by the Spirit. Softened by the ministry of the word to be able to receive the goodness of God in these words, and that we'd be able to see in Christ all the wonder that we should see. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians Chapter 3. We will be looking again morning, again, at verses 10-15. Now, two summers ago, I had the opportunity in my service as a Trustee to the International Mission Board to be in London and I was meeting with some missionaries there, and I find myself during that time, walking through Trafalgar Square in London. And there was a huge crowd gathered. There's a lot of things going on in Trafalgar Square all the time, but these individuals are gathered around an artist who is using chalk to draw a picture on the sidewalk.

And I couldn't really get close enough to see what he was drawing. So I went up the steps of the National Gallery right there, near where he was drawing and then I could gain some perspective. And as I looked down, I almost caught my breath. I couldn't believe how amazing this sidewalk chalk drawing was of St. Paul's Cathedral and it was just architecturally correct. It would seem to be three-dimensional, seem to almost be alive. Like you could kind of dive right in, which would have been a bad idea because it's still a sidewalk but it was just amazing the skill that this artist had and people were putting money in his bucket. So it seemed that this is something that he did regularly.

Now a year later, this past summer, I had the chance to be in London again and walked through and in that exact area where that incredible drawing of St. Paul's Cathedral had been, there was a group of jugglers. And there was not a trace under their feet of that magnificent drawing. Now, I don't want you to think I was shocked by that. I knew very well we were talking about sidewalk chalk. My guess is that feet walked across it later that evening, or when the dew settled, it had already started to smear and certainly by the next time there was any kind of downpour, which is a regular thing in London, it was gone entirely. The Bible reveals that that's what it will be like for everything that we build with our hands on Earth. All of the glory, the physical glory of the world, all of the kingdoms and splendor of this world will one day be blown away like chaff on a threshing floor, in the summer.

That's the image in Daniel Chapter 2. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, and a statue, head of gold, and chest and arms of silver, and belly and thighs of bronze, and legs of iron and feet partly iron and partly clay, and the stone was cut out but not by human hands struck this statue which represented the sequence of empires, one after the other, and the whole thing became a pile of shrapnel, of shards, that then a wind came and blew away without leaving a trace. But the rock that was cut out, but not by human hands, grew and became a huge mountain that filled the whole earth. And then this incredible dream, that's really just a picture of all of human history, which will someday be swept away like chaff on a threshing floor, in the summer. Represents the temporary nature of all the kingdoms of the world in their splendor. As one poet put it a number of years ago, "The lesson is clear, only one life 'till soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last."

There is a building being built. There is a structure rising, but you can't see it with your eyes, it's a spiritual structure. And we've spoken of it many times. It is the church of Jesus Christ. It's not the building in which the church, local church is assembled to meet. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about a spiritual temple rising, being built with living stones that are quarried out of Satan's dark kingdom day after day after day, by evangelism and missions. And that structure will last for all eternity. And this text that we're studying here, calls on us to be active in building it. And it's amazing, the grace of God, that He's given us to not just wash away all of our sins in the blood of Christ that we would someday stand before His judgment throne blameless, and unafraid, cleansed of all of our sins by the grace of God, through faith in Christ, not by works, but by His work by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, that we would stand blameless and unafraid.

But not only that, that we actually have the privilege of not wasting our lives on things that will be like sidewalk chalk, washed away without leaving a trace. And that's incredible grace that we have been forgiven of our sins, and reconciled to God, by faith in Christ, not by works as Ephesians 2:8-9. So clearly says, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast." But then the next verse says, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God ordained or prepared in advance that we should walk in them."

The Ministry of the Apostle Paul

So this is the very life that the Apostle Paul was living, after God called him out of serving Satan and serving darkness and sin, though he's a very morally upright and righteous and energetic zealous religion, religionist in the spirit that he understood in Judaism, advancing in Judaism, beyond any of the other Jews of his day, still serving Satan and attacking the Church of Christ that God called him out of darkness into light on the road to Damascus, famous, the most famous conversion story in the history of the church and set him working. "Get up and go into the city," Christ told him, "and you will be told what you must do."

And what he must do is build the church of Jesus Christ and so in 1 Corinthians 2, he talks about how he did that in Corinth. 1 Corinthians 2:1-4, "When I came to you brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God for I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power." And so in that way, Paul says he laid a foundation, he laid a foundation for that local church, but then in time after he had done some discipleship and leadership training and development and setting that local church up, God called on him to continue his overall ministry of being a trail blazing frontier missionary, apostle to the Gentiles, to go to another place and leave the work at Corinth in the hands of others.

In 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, it's his call to those that he had entrusted the work to be faithful and to be careful how they build. Now, he had already said in the earlier part of the chapter, we are "only servants. What is Paul? What is Apollos? We're just servants. "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants and he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow." He uses that agriculture analogy and then he shifts, "You are God's field, God's building," so he goes over then to an architectural image, but he says, "Look, we are servants, we are nothing. God is everything, God's work is everything, but still, you human servants need to be careful how you work." It actually matters how you live, it matters how you do the work.

And so he says in verse 10 and following, "By the grace that God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder. And now someone else is building on it, but each one should be careful how he builds, for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the day will bring it to light. It will be a revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each one's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward, if it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved but only as one escaping through the flames."

Now, last time that we looked at this a couple of weeks ago, I focused more negatively on the warning of wood, hay, and straw, urging you negatively don't waste your life. Don't just do sidewalk chalk art, that gets swept away and there's nothing left, and so, wood, hay and straw is anything that would be burned up on Judgment Day, is of no value at all, clearly sins. But even those things that really are fine morally, but they're just a waste of time in the end that we indulged in too much. And Paul says that when Christ tests all of our life's work, some of it's proven to be wood, hay, and straw, it's going to burn up.

The Reality: Every Christian Must Give an Account

Now this is what I believe: every true Christian that stands before Christ gives an account for everything done in the body, whether good or bad. Many Christians don't know this. They think that we get to skip Judgment Day evaluation of our lives because there's no condemnation for those are in Christ Jesus. It is not true, you will give an account to Christ for everything done in the body, whether good or bad.

And there will be good and bad. And you know that this is true, there will be gold, silver, costly stones and there will be wood, hay, and straw. If there is nothing of value to your life, you're not born again. If there is nothing that survives, you're not alive. If you are a branch in Christ to some degree, and you bear zero fruit, you're cut off and those branches are collected, and burned in the fire, John 15. But the question is proportions. How much of your life will survive the Judgment Day testing? That's what's in front of us here. And so my task is to minimize your loss and maximize your return on investment. I feel like a financial advisor, spiritual financial... I want you to minimize your loss. Want you to maximize your retirement portfolio, for your eternal retirement.

And so I'm going to be advocating some blue chip stock this morning that I think you ought to invest in that will survive and give you a very good return on investment. Enough of that, I'm way out of my depth in this, alright? If I keep talking like this, I'm going to make some mistakes. Paul wants us to be aware of the possibility of wood, hay, and straw, loss. What are you investing your time, your energy, your money in? Do they have eternal value? If they don't, they will burn. And you need to know that now so you stop, like the saying "Don't throw good money after bad." You can't do anything about the waste of last year or 10 years ago, but you can learn the lessons and say, I'm not going to keep doing that, I don't want to throw good money after bad. Let's shift it. I don't want to throw a good time after lost time, good energy after lost energy, good money after lost money. I want to invest my resources and things that matter for all eternity.

So what I want to do now is talk about the gold and silver and costly stones. I want to give you a theology of rewards. So that you'll understand what is going to survive the fire. Now, in order to do a theology of rewards, first of all, I have to just make a case for it at all, period. Christians seem squeamish about this. "Oh, you know, I don't need anything, I don't want anything, I just want to serve Christ." I understand that, that's a good attitude, but you should not despise rewards. You should not think it's a bad thing to want rewards. I'm actually urging you to be rich in good works, to be rich in things that Christ will reward and not be squeamish about it at all.

Rewards Clearly Taught In Scripture

Our passage clearly teaches it, look at verse 14, "If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward." It's right there in the text, in verse 14. It's earlier in the same chapter, in verse 8, 1 Corinthians 3:8, "The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his labor." So twice in the same chapter, we have the promise of rewards for faithful service. This is all over the new testament. I could multiply scriptures on this. I don't think we realize how many verses there are on this topic. Ephesians 6:8, "The Lord will reward each one for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free." Ephesians 6:8. Colossians 3:23-24, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for people, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward, it is the Lord Christ you are serving." And the implication is, and it is the Lord Christ, who will reward you.

Jesus taught more clearly about rewards than anyone, and I would commend Matthew 6, as the most in-depth treatise on how to protect your rewards so that you will not lose them. Jesus said in Matthew 6, "Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

He's very clear about this. And then after all that he sums it all up. I think you need to see it in context. People often, too often, just go over to the financial side or the materialism side. But in Matthew 6:19-21, He says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also." In context. He's talking about rewards. Very clearly, store up heavenly rewards. Have as many heavenly rewards as you possibly can. Be rich in heavenly rewards, so there should be no squeamishness about rewards here at all. Jesus openly teaches this in the Sermon on the Mount. So this is what the goal, the silver and the costly stones are, that we're storing up by our faithful service to Christ.

Now, we need to be clear, I have to be so clear about this. This storing up has nothing to do with your sins at all. You can't store up righteousness in order to pay for your sins. That is the essence of legalism. That's the essence of justification by works, that is something we absolutely deny. You can never use your good works to pay for your sins. That is something you are not storing up in treasure in Heaven. That's not happening. We maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law, Romans 3:28. It's very clear, we're justified by faith in Christ, not by works, or Titus 3:5 say, "He saved us, not because of righteous things we have done, but because of His mercy." Now rewards come therefore after justification by faith. Every human being on earth is storing up something. Before you are converted, you are storing up wrath for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

All of that wrath that you've stored up by your sins, the moment you come to Christ, the moment you're born again, in God's mind gets poured on Jesus, at the cross, and He died under the wrath of God for our sins, and at that moment you begin storing up treasure. Storing up treasure in Heaven. And so that's what we're talking about here. But that is... Do you not see it? By grace, it's lavish grace that you even get to do this. God didn't have to include us, He did not have to entrust the ministry of reconciliation to sinners like you and me. It's incredibly inefficient. It really is. We are inefficient evangelists and inefficient missionaries and inefficient laborers. We don't do a great job. Angels, awesome. They get sent, they work, they get it done.

All by the Grace of God

But He's entrusted to us over 20 centuries, the ministry of reconciliation and God, by His grace, has called us. Look at verse 10, Paul says, "By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder." I am doing this work, by the grace of God. He says later in the same book, 1 Corinthians 15, he says, "I am the least of the apostles, and I don't even deserve to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God, but by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace, to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them, yet, not I, but the grace of God that was working in me." So all of this rewards it's all by grace.

We don't deserve any of it, as servants Luke 17:7-10, says, when we're working in the field working hard when we come in. He doesn't say, "You sit down and I'm going to feed you." No, he says, "You get yourself ready, and you cook for me, and you give me my meal. After that, you may eat." So also, Jesus said, "When you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants, we have only done our duty.'" So that's a good attitude to have but yet, for all of that, He has promised to reward you. So do you not see how much grace that is? Lavish grace that we get to do this? Furthermore, our works are imperfect.

Anyone of you ever want to say? "Yeah, but that one afternoon that was a perfect afternoon that was a perfect work when I did that." It could have been evangelism giving to the poor, needy. Maybe you serve some people. That was a perfect work. Do you really want to say that? The gold, the silver, the costly stones have to be passed through fire to make it into Heaven. And so the fire doesn't just burn up the wood, hay, and straw. It purifies the gold. And it purifies the silver, it even purifies the diamonds. Because we don't do anything pure. And so it says in Malachi 3:3, that Christ will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He'll purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness.

So our best works need to be purified, and so they will by grace. So we should desire rewards because Jesus commanded us effectively to store up treasure and to want rewards. Paul is telling us, that we'll be rewarded, we should want to have a life rich in good works and be rich and heavenly treasure. And we should build on the foundation that we inherited from previous generations of Christians. We should build on it in our generation and be faithful to do it, until we die, and hand it off to the next generation. This is our time to build on this foundation that we inherited.

Okay, so that's the theology generally, what is the reward, what are we talking about here? Well, in the very next chapter, if you look over in 1 Corinthians 4, I think verse 5 makes it very plain. What I think is the simplest answer to that question, what is the reward? And in 1 Corinthians 4-5 says, Wait 'til the Lord comes to evaluate my ministry. "Wait until the Lord comes, He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time, each will receive his praise from God." So those three words in English, that's the essence of reward. Praise from God, not praise for God, or praise of God that's something we will do in Heaven forever and I'm looking forward to that. Just Worshipping Christ, but this is something that's turned around where the throne... The one seated on the throne God, praises us and commends us, that's the essence of the reward praise from God.

The more famous passage is Matthew 25, 21 and also 23 which are identical. In the parable of the five talents and the two talents and the one talent. The one with the five talents, goes out, works with it, gains five more his master says, "Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your Master." So I take that whole thing as the essence of reward, commendation from the Lord well done. And then enter into the joy of your Master. Now, that could be just the general joy that God has in being God and He's a very joyful God. He enjoys being God, He's a God of pleasure and delight. And in His presence, is fullness of joy. So it could be just that general pleasure of being near Him, and that's fine.

But I think in context, it might be... I want to let you know how much joy I had in your five talents that you gained. I want to talk about each of the five talents you gained and how much joy it brought me. So it's a shared relational experience over your good works. I want you to know the delight I had in you, my child. When you went into your room and closed the door and prayed to your father, is unseen. Or when you gave to the poor and needy and nobody knew what you did or when you shared the Gospel. I want to share my pleasure with you over that good work.

More Than a One-Time "Well Done"

Now, when I first heard the statement, "Well done, good and faithful servant." And then I realized, people know that and they talk about it a lot. I always kind of pictured it and then when I heard people talk about it, it was almost like something said just at the beginning, and that's it, kind of like it's written over the entry to Heaven. "Well done, good and faithful servant." And then you go and then you spend the rest of the time bowing down before the throne praising God, and that's fine. But then it kind of struck me that it's deeper and richer and fuller than that and more eternal. It's not like the husband who says, "You know, the day I married you, I told you, I love you if anything changes, I'll let you know." "I was pleased with your good work. If anything changes, I let you know, enjoy Heaven." No, I want you to know forever how much I delight in your good works and not only that, I want you to know how much I delight in his good works, and her good works and whatever, and you'll delight in them, too, so we end up delighting in everyone's good works. Because when one part of the body is honored, the whole body is honored with it. And so we will delight in each other's good works, as much as Him. That's why it's much to my benefit that you all ratchet it up and have as many good works as you possibly can. Because I want to have as much heavenly joy in you and with you as we possibly can. I am totally off my outline here, so let me find out where I am.

Crowns of Honor

Alright, another is the symbol and we hear much about this, crowns. This is related very much to rewards. The idea of crowns that created beings wear in Heaven. I'm not speaking of the crowns that Jesus wears as it says in Revelation 19, on his head are many crowns. But the crown symbolize honor and glory and authority. And it is spoken of in many places that servants of Christ get crowns for example, 1 Thessalonians 2:19, Paul says, to the Thessalonian church that he planted. "What is our hope, our joy or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes. Is it not you? Indeed you are a glory and joy." We have glory in the fact that you are Christians, and we planted that church. You are my crown. Paul said that to the Thessalonians.

He speaks in 1 Corinthians 9, about runners that are training for a race, and they get it... They do it to get a crown that will not last like a wreath, you can imagine of olive branches or something like that, that they wore, but it would fade and wither. But we do it to get a crown that will last forever. So Paul says, "Therefore, I don't run like a man running aimlessly. I don't fight like someone beating the air, but I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I preach to others, I won't be disqualified for the prize." Philippians 4:1, "Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, this is how you should stand firm in the Lord dear friends," and many other verses.

Of course the most famous of this is in Revelation 4:4, where it says, "Surrounding the throne were 24 other thrones and seated on them 24 elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads," and they would continually cast them down the casting crowns." But it seems, also, there was a rhythm to that, where they would take them back up and put them back on, and then in pulses and rhythms, they would cast them again. And by the casting of the crown, they were saying to Christ, "Every glory, and honor, I have in my life is due to you. All of my good works, You work them in me. I don't deserve a crown but I have one." And it represents a life of faithful service to you, but to God be the glory, all of my honor goes to You. But they're our crowns to cast and we get to cast them whenever we want in Heaven.

So these crowns represent honor that come to us. But also, heavenly authority, there are different positions of authority in Heaven. There are. So we will actually have works, we'll have authority in heaven. Different ones. And so, the 24 elders with their crowns on thrones represent individuals created beings that have positions of authority in heaven. As a matter fact, James and John were very well aware of this at least at some level, because they finagle their mother. You remember this, to go to Jesus and say, "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other your left in your kingdom." Jesus said to them, "You don't know what you're asking." Amen, hallelujah. You don't have any idea what kind of glory and thrones and crowns we're even talking about. You don't understand what you're asking. "James and John, "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink." "We can." they said. I believe they had no idea what that cup was. They were just so fixed on the glory of the crown... Of the throne. Jesus said, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit in my right or left is not for me to grant. Those places belong to those four whom they are prepared by My Father."

So he doesn't deny that there are thrones and crowns in heaven. He doesn't criticize James and John for seeking it. He didn't say such places don't exist. What he says is, I want you to know the rules by which those places are given. First of all they're given by predestination and the ordination of my Heavenly Father. But beyond that, He'd already asked them one question, and then He teaches them another lesson. The first question He asked is, "Can you drink my cup?" And what is that cup? It is the cup of suffering for the purpose of God, for the glory of God. We will not drink Christ's cup itself, that's a cup of God draft what he drank down to the dregs for our salvation, but there is suffering that spills out from Christ's cup that they will drink and He said, "You will drink from my cup." Well, you remember what happened? The 10 disciples when they heard about this were indignant with the two disciples James and John and were pretty upset. Why? Because they wish they thought of it themselves.

And now they've been maneuvered and angled out of position in the coming kingdom and they're frustrated about that. Jesus said, "You're thinking about this whole thing wrong." "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercised authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." So there it is, those are the rules. Cup and service, put it together. Suffering servanthood for others to the glory of God, those are the rules. The more you suffer, and the more you serve, the greater your reward will be.

Are there any other criteria? Yes, 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." So what that means is, little things and big things whatever it is, eating and drinking is a little thing, big things, do it all for the glory of God. What does that mean? Put God on display as a great glorious God by everything you say and do, and He'll reward you. Or Romans 14:23, "Anything that does not come from faith is sin." Turn it around, anything that does come from faith, He will reward. And that involves obedience, obey His commands. "If you love me, you'll obey my commands." So by faith, obeying his command, if you obey any command by faith, He will reward you. And then finally, 1 Corinthians 13:3-5, Paul says, "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames but have not love, I gain nothing." In other words, I won't get rewarded for that.

That's incredible. Here's an individual who gave everything he owned to the poor, and he laid down his life as a martyr, and he gets no reward for it. Why? Because he didn't have love. "Love is patient, love is kind. It doesn't envy it doesn't boast, not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, it's not self-seeking." That's a demeanor, it's attitude of love. Did the people you gave all your money to feel loved by you? Did they sense that you did it in love? Heart of love. Is there a tenderness and a humility and a love in your service? So putting it all together, when Christ test our works and there's gold and silver and costly stones, that's what we're talking about here. Anything done for the glory of God, done by faith in the word of God in obedience to His commands, large or small. Anything done meeting those criteria with a loving demeanor, for God loves a cheerful giver, not a grumpy giver. That's going to survive Judgment Day.

Now you're saying to me that is a high standard. Yeah, but you can meet it by the power of the Holy Spirit. We're not going to be empty-handed, we're going to have gifts. So yes, our gifts will need to be purified, but you can do it.

So, now final question, how are gold, silver, and costly stones different from each other? Are they all the same thing? No, they're not. Gold is more precious than silver. In Solomon's day, the silver's like stones on the street, they didn't even look at it, there was so much of it. So, gold is more precious than silver, and costly stones like you can imagine diamonds more precious than gold. So it's just a hierarchy of value. So, as I said, it's the level of sacrifice and suffering.

Can you drink the cup I'm going to drink? And are you a servant or slave of all? Now, the cup of suffering is not given equally to all and sacrifice is not equal for all. Think of the widow who put in her two copper coins and she put in, Jesus said, more than everyone else because she put in everything she had to live on. Her level of sacrifice is something Christ alone can measure. He knows what it cost her to do that, and she's going to get rewarded more than anyone else who gave that day, because there's a level of sacrifice. Now for us, we are never going to measure up to the level of some of our brothers and sisters in suffering for Jesus. Well, let's start with the Apostle Paul. We can't carry his shoes. Five times he was beaten with a 40 lashes minus one. Three times beaten with rods, that's eight severe beatings for Jesus. I've not had one and don't expect ever to have one. Once he was stoned and left for dead. Shipwrecked twice, started at least three riots in which everyone there would like to have killed him. In prisoned more times than we even can count. The Holy Spirit warned him in every city, prison and hardships were facing him.

Do you not sense that he should have a greater reward than you or me? I feel like it would be unjust for him not to and there's not just him, but there are brothers and sisters for 20 centuries as the church advanced who laid down their lives, whose blood was shed for the spread of the gospel it's going on right now in other parts of the world. There are pastors in China right now, some of them we even read about this week who are incarcerated for their faith, who are taken away from their families, they're taken away from their ministries, threatened with physical further bodily harm. We don't know if they'll be tortured or killed but they might be, you don't know. Then there are Christians in the Horn of Africa and other places where radical Islamic fundamentalism mobilizes people to hunt down Christians and kill them. Such as in Somalia, or in Sudan, or other places. So not everybody's going to get equally rewarded.

For over a year, I read of Adoniram and Nancy Judson who laid down their lives for the gospel. They weren't murdered, but Judson buried two wives who died of tropical fever, and two children, which they would not have faced if they stayed in Massachusetts, and had a country parsonage there. And he was arrested during the war with England, just cause he was a Westerner, it wasn't direct religious persecution, but because he was white, because he was a Westerner, they arrested him and shackled him and hung him upside down by his feet and he was bitten mercilessly by mosquitoes. In some ways, his wife suffered more because she continually every day made intercession for him to the authorities to let him go, and she was starving to death. So I just have a feeling, I just feel like I would like it to be that Adoniram and Nancy Judson get a higher reward than me, I don't know what the rest of my life holds, maybe a comparable suffering, maybe no. But when you talk about gold, and silver, and costly stones, there's different levels of lives.

For all of that however, even a cup of cold water given to one of the Lord servants, you'll never lose your reward. So, that's silver. So I have lots of silver. You can say pastor, "I'm just an average Christian. I'm just living here in America. What should I do?" And I understand that and I wanna talk about that.

So by way of application, let me just begin by going back to the gospel. I want to appeal to all of you who came in here outside of Christ, who are not yet Christians. Like I said, you are storing something up but it's not rewards, it's not gold, and silver, and costly stones. Not at all. You're storing up wrath. But the good news of the gospel is Christ wants to take all of that wrath that you deserve for your sins on Himself, and He then wants to make you rich in heaven. As 2 Corinthians 8 says, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake, He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich." That's really what Christmas is about.

And so, I'm begging you, while there's time repent of your sins, and find salvation through faith in Christ. He died on the cross for sinners like you and me, He was raised from the dead on the third day, He ascended to Heaven, and now sits at the right hand of God. He is the only Savior there is, trust in Him. And then once you do, all your sins are forgiven, you begin storing up treasure gold, and silver, and costly stones.

Alright, "So, Pastor, I'm already a Christian. I've been a Christian for a while. What do I do?" Well, I want to begin by just urging you to redeem the time, redeem the time. That's from Ephesians 5:16. Usually a translation these days don't stick with literalistic translation, only the KJV does, King James Version. "Redeeming the time because the days are evil." Usually they just say, making the most of every opportunity, but I like the idea of redeeming because it's the idea of buying a slave or a kidnapped victim out of danger by the payment of a price.

So what that means is time is kidnapped, time is in chains. You need to get up and seize the day, like they used to say, "Go rescue the day." Don't be a sluggard. Redeem the time because the days are evil. So what that means to me is that every day start straw. It just starts straw and just like that, weird tale, Rumpelstiltskin. I tell you the Grimm brothers were weird. Every one of their... How did we ever tell these stories to our children? They're weird. But you remember the story about the Miller boasting to the king of his daughter? "Oh, my daughter can spin straw into gold." Do you remember that story? And like the king is not going to test it out. "Great to hear, bring her in." So she gets locked up in the room. How she has to pay for her father's loose tongue… It's just so unfair. But there she is in a room, stone room, with a room full of hay, and a spinning wheel. Weeping her eyes out then suddenly some weird imp gnome shows up and he's willing to turn the straw into gold for her necklace.

Stop right there, weird. Dude, if you can do that to straw, you don't need a necklace. But anyway, not the question. Alright. Just, I'm not supposed to be deconstructing these Grimm fairy tales, but this is what happened, and he had the ability to spin straw into gold and then just kept going. I'm not going to tell you, because it's just so weird. I won't tell you what happens. But to some degree, we need to be... Don't quote me on this, but spiritual Rumpelstiltskins.

Alright? You need to take today's straw and spin it into gold. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, as for the Lord and for his glory, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do. So your everyday life, your secular job, your education in college. Whatever you do, your ordinary life, do it all for the glory of God. Be filled with the spirit, see the moment as a gift from God and enrich all of your normal everyday life actions for the glory of God. So start there, but that's not enough. Secondly, ask God how you can move into a higher investment bracket. Find some ministry that will cost you time, energy, money, and sacrifice and start doing that. It could be a whole new thing, it could be an entire life change. Some of our members of our church left us recently to go live in Morocco to start businesses there for the glory of God, and the spread of the Gospel in Morocco. You know, most of you who I'm talking about. You don't have to, however, be a missionary and go oversees. Very few are called to do that, but you can hold the ropes for missionaries by giving sacrificially, by staying in touch with them throughout the year, asking how you can pray for them, step up into a higher bracket.

Look at your life and change it. Whatever you can do to pour out service to God and sacrificial love to others, do it. It's going to be different for all of you. It might be mercy ministry, something here in Durham. It might be an evangelistic ministry, it might be a series of smaller good works. Use your spiritual gift, have a spiritual gift ministry, make that the center of your good works. It could be hospitality, it could be prayer. But whatever you're called on to do, do it with all your might, and you will store up treasure in Heaven. And some day, the Lord will reward you. Close with me in prayer.

Father, we thank You for the time we've had to study. We thank You for the mercy that You've shown us in Christ. And Father, I just want to thank You for forgiving us our sins, we are such sinners, and it's revealed day after day. And we just want to thank You for the grace of the Gospel, the simple grace of forgiveness through faith in Christ. Lord, I also want to thank You for the grace of being able to store up gold and silver, and diamonds. And I pray that you would enable us to, with faith, be more courageous and more faith-filled and more... Have a greater heavenly perspective than we've ever had before. For Your glory and the building of your church worldwide, in Jesus' name. Amen.