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First Corinthians chapter One, verse 11.
Or it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the House of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you faith I am of all, and I have a Paulus, and I have Cephas, and I have Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you but Christmas and Gaius.
Last thing he should say that I had baptized in my own name, and I baptized also the household of stuff in US. Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words. Plus the cross of Christ should be made of none, of fact. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, It is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the freedom.
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Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
Or after that in the wisdom of God. The world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
Or you see your calling, brother, and how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God had chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and base things of the world, and things which are despised. Half God chosen, yeah, and things which are not to bring to not things that are.
That no flesh should glory in his presence.
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written, he that Gloria, let him glory in the Lord.
I could just read a few more verses in the third chapter before we get into discussing this. If I put chapter 3.
And verse 3.
For ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are you not carnal, and walk as men? For one step I am a fall, and another I am of apartheid policy. Are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, And who is Apollo's, but ministers by whom you believed, as the Lord gave to every man I have planted, Apollo's watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything.
Neither he that watereth but God to giveth the increase.
The awful evil of division was pointed up to us as being.
The principal and worst problem at Corinth, and it's worthy to consider the reason one.
When God.
Chose Abraham out of idolatry and revealed himself to him.
That family and the nation that resulted from it was the only worshipper of the true God in the world. And Deuteronomy 6 and verse four. It says here, O Israel, God thy God is 1 God.
The principal testimony given to Israel was the one true God.
Consequently, when they fell into idolatry, like the nations around them, they became.
No longer God's chosen in the world? Asked authority to the Gentiles.
Passed upon them the sentence of not my people.
And so when we bring that comparison into the assembly.
One of the principal responsibilities of the assembly in the world is to be testimony to the fact there is one body.
And so to go into division is a denial of the cardinal truth given to the assembly.
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We might read God's thoughts as to this in the Epistle of First Peter.
No, it's James, Chapter 3.
The end of James Chapter 3.
It's sense and these are God's thoughts about strife and division.
Verse 16.
For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work, And that's the reason we can say that division in the assembly is so heinous in the sight of God.
Where there is strength and envying emulation.
There is every evil work and confusion. God is not the author of confusion and has read to us there in First Corinthians 3. Are you not Carlin Walker? According to man, when man's?
Ideas and principles are brought into the assembly. It's a negation of the truth of God, and it brings in confusion.
And this is not, of course so this is the reason that we say that division is so heinous and such a.
Capital evil amongst the people of God.
The Apostle first brings up the question of baptism because as we had quoted I believe earlier, there is one faith 1 Lord 1 Baptism. And so we have that truth that there is that. And many believers don't understand what baptism does. And maybe we could just turn to Galatians chapter 3 and verse 27 to see what it does. People will tell you what does it do. While I had a brother tell me the other day that his pastor told him that it imparted new birth.
And the Holy Ghost, another man says, well, it doesn't do anything, but it's the outward sign of an inward work. And don't make people make all kinds of statements without understanding the simple truth of what what baptism does. And I believe there would be a lot less division if this was understood. Let's just turn to Galatians.
For as many of you as have been baptized, Galatians 3 and 27 for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Now the baptism there is not into the body of Christ, but it's into the profession of Christianity. And so the name of Christ has been put upon a man by baptism, or been put upon a person by baptism. That's what it does.
That's why we should be careful about what we put on, what we wear on our shirts, so to speak, what we associate ourselves with. Because by baptism, the name of Christ has been put upon you.
And so This is why he's raising the question of some say I'm a Paul or I'm a Paulus or I'm a Cephas and people just we don't aren't simple enough about this. Mrs. Green is going to marry Mr. Black. And so she decides she wants to be Mrs. White. And she said, well, Mrs. Mr. White's a nice man. I'm going to take his name. But by baptism the name of Christ has been put upon us. And there would be if we were simple about that he's going to go on and.
Develop these routes of division. But man has taken the very thing, the very admission by which we're brought into the profession of Christianity, and he's made it a source of division.
In order scripture that you quoted Neil from Galatians the better rendering is baptized onto Christ. By baptism we are not put into Christ. Now I don't know the original, but this word can be translated into or unto. But baptism doesn't bring us into Christ. It makes us a disciple going into all the world.
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Making disciples, baptizing them, that's the order. Correct order in Matthew and then teaching them. Teaching doesn't precede baptism. That follows if you read Mr. Davis translation. So baptism.
Puts us in an outward position among the disciples of the Lord Jesus, and that does not require that one is born again and is saved before 1 can become.
A disciple And but I wanted to mention too that divisions. We sometimes speak of the divisions among brethren. That's not a proper way of putting it, because the way I understand it here is divisions are internal within an existing assembly. When there are outward risks, they are properly referred to as sects, not as divisions.
I think that's a good distinction to see that difference when there are internal rifts, although they're going on still collectively, there's a divided state. And unfortunately that happens many times even in local assemblies today. And that is not a good state, and it is usually brought about by putting too much emphasis on some individual.
We're going by so and so following him, and I hope we do not fall into that trap. Paul says the imitators of me as I am of Christ. You know, the true servant of Christ will not attach people to himself. His ministry will attach souls to Christ and make them follow Christ, not man.
Of course, sometimes the servant himself might not seek that place, but people give it to him. You know, that is the danger that we follow men. Well, there is leadership in the Church, but scriptural leadership is those who will lead souls to follow Christ.
I thought that should be added that divisions are internal sects. When there are external risks amongst God's people, we do not rightly refer to the divisions among brethren. When they are outward rifts, they are sects, you know. That is, I believe, the proper way of presenting it.
There's a comment on verse 10.
I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's that name which we all profess, which unites us. It's common to to all Christians. They they, they know the name of the Lord Jesus, that you all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you but that should be. Now there's three words here in this translation.
Translating one word in the original perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. I won't turn you to it, but I'll refer you to it. In Matthew, I think it's four. The Lord found Peter and and Andrew were casting their Nets, and then James and John were mending the Nets. Now you're not going to catch many fish.
With a net that's torn and got holes in it because the fish will then escape through the holes. So the mending of the Nets is very important.
It helps the evangelist. The casting of the net is a picture of an evangelist. The mending the net is a picture of a shepherd.
A pastor that that mends the net. That's exactly the same word in the Greek.
That's translated mending the net as it's translated perfectly joined together. So Howard, James and John and they they see this net and it's torn. And so they put together those torn pieces, maybe they even replace the spot there with with another piece of the net. They fix the tear and so they restore the net to a like new condition without any holes in it, so that when someone casts it and it catches the fish, they don't escape.
Well, it's interesting that that's what that's the same word as perfectly joined together. So we need men in the assembly not only who cast the net and go out and and bring souls in through our evangelists, but we need those that mend the tears in the net, that perfectly join together these frayed ends, put it together so the net is whole again and will contain the the fish.
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In Galatians 6 you have the same word again.
I'll have to refer to it.
From what I've just said, you'll know what the word is, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. Considering thyself less, thou also be tempted. The word restore is that same word. So a restored net is amended net, and when a soul is restored.
To Fellowship and back into a place of usefulness in the assembly. Then that is mended, the terror is repaired, and they go on together. That's what's meant here in verse 10, that she'd be perfectly joined together. That includes restoration, that includes mending, the tear and all that has caused a rupture and a tear in the net. And then it can be used as intended.
When Christians are divided, that's the worst state they can be in. Because the net is torn, there are holes in it and the truth can can leak out and souls can go away and so on. They won't be kept. So I think the the the way the.
Well, the etymology of that word is very precious to follow out, and it's amended net and a restored brother. Then the net is whole again, and they are perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. And that's what's so needed today, isn't it?
Satan is the great adversary and he's trying to divide us no matter what it is. He doesn't care. He has no principles.
You use anything to divide us and it's only that we who are seeking to go on in the truth.
We have principals who we might want to maintain and we do want to maintain them, but it has to be done.
In a way that is according to the grace of Christ and according to the Word of God.
It seems to be one of the most natural tendencies of the human heart to want to have a human leader, doesn't it? So as someone has mentioned a few minutes ago, there are dangers on both sides. There's a danger of a man taking a position of prominence and wanting to have a party that he draws away after him. There's a danger of people wanting to make a man the head of a party and to flock around him if in fact he has some appealing characteristics or gift or teaching or something like that.
And so both are warned against here, aren't they? The apostle warns against those who would.
Make parties, and he warns against those who would follow those.
Who made that kind of a party? But it's one of the most natural and, sad to say, the most evil weeds of the human heart to want to do that. And so the apostle guards against it right at the beginning of the epistle, doesn't he?
I might point out what Keith read in the third chapter.
Where Paul says, who then is Paul and who is Apollos as ministers by whom you believe? It wasn't really that they were following their at Corinth, that they were following Paul and Apollos, but he used his name and he used the policy's name to illustrate the principle in chapter 4 verse six, he says.
And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes, that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another, or who make it the difference. So on now if he had, if he had.
Named these men, then then they would have said you're just jealous.
You're just jealous there. He had his enemies there at Corinth. You're just jealous of these men. So he doesn't name them. But he puts Paul, he puts his name and the palace's name there to illustrate the principle that if you're going to be followers of us, you see there were men there that were false apostles, deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. They were promoting themselves and they wanted to gain followers. But he doesn't name them. But he puts his name in a policy's name to illustrate.
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That if you follow man, regardless of who it is, me or Apollos that is not.
Following Christ. And that's just making a party, and we won't have any part of that. So he puts his name in and the policies to illustrate the principle that he's bringing up.
To see how Paul desired not to promote himself and what he says here in the 14th 1St, I thank God that I baptized none of you. He actually got down and thanked the Lord that he hadn't baptized them. He wasn't trying to promote himself. He was glad they were baptized, but he was glad he wasn't the one that did it. And because what he had in view was the blessing of the Saints, it wasn't Paul and Paul having a place. And that's really the test of it is is my heart's desire? Is your heart's desire to see the blessing of the Saints, or is it to have a place for self?
And so he could actually thank the Lord that he wasn't the one that did it.
Now we know there's a reason, and he goes on to tell us that that.
He was not sent to baptize.
Because Paul's Commission that was committed to the 12 apostles and it had to do with earthly things and Paul had to do with heavenly things. There were the 12 apostles. You get that in first Corinthians 15 and then you get the apostles that are mentioned in Ephesians and he gave some apostles. I believe those are the New Testament apostles that gave us the truth of the church and the truth of glorified Christ. And Paul was not involved in the.
The administration of that, though, he did baptize.
You could say if you were baptized by Brother Jones, she's just one of the Brethren. No one knows who he is. And I was baptized by Paul.
I was baptized by Paul. You were just baptized by Brother Jones. I'm a cut above you because the Apostle Paul baptized me, and I think that that when we go down to these other countries that are poorer and so on, one of them ought to do the baptizing and not any of the visitors.
We have recused to baptize. At least I have refused to baptize people in India or other countries. They have asked me to do that. I tell them no, that's your business. You have labored with them. It's your business to baptize them. And what is important for us to understand that baptism was not only practiced by Christians. Philosophers baptized their disciples in their own name.
And they became disciples of the philosopher that baptized them. That helps us to understand that Paul says, I didn't baptize in my name. Yes, I baptized, but I baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. You became not a fellow follower of the one that baptized you. You became a follower of the Lord Jesus. That's the point. And water baptism is not connected with church membership. The Baptists make it that way, and many other.
Denominations when we were in Malawi, not this last time. Time before we had a question and answer period on Saturday and one brother said is it OK to be baptized over again? And I thought that he was referring to infant baptism. And so I answered, I said if somebody has been baptized.
He doesn't really need to be baptized again because he is in the Christian profession and.
But Mr. Darby himself says that if somebody isn't satisfied with his infant baptism, baptize him again if they have a conscience about it. But I didn't understand it, and I found it out the next day, is that they had been baptized as adults in some other denomination.
Now they came in amongst the gathered Saints, and they thought they had to be baptized again by brethren. Well, we cleared that up afterwards, not understanding the question correctly. What a baptism is not connected with church membership.
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Spirit's baptism has is connected with the truth of the body of Christ, and that took place on the day of Pentecost and.
Water baptism brings you into the Kingdom. It's connected with Kingdom truth. There are two ways how you are brought into the Kingdom in reality by new birth. John, Chapter 3. Unless you're born again, you cannot see the Kingdom, you cannot enter it. So you enter by proof, but in reality by new birth the Kingdom but by profession. Your answer that enter the Kingdom by water baptism.
And this is important for young people to get ahold of that yes, it is correct for somebody who has never been baptized when they accept the Lord Jesus as savior, that they also publicly take their stand among the followers and the disciples of the Lord Jesus. It would not be good to receive somebody at the Lord's table, which has to do with the inner circle of the truth of the body of Christ, if he's not willing.
To take his place in the circle of profession, I'm referring to Ephesians 4. You know the inner circle is the body of Christ. The outer circle is the sphere of profession, and every baptized person is in that sphere. Whether you were baptized as a child or baptized as an adult before you were saved, you are professingly amongst the Christians, the early Christians.
Were persecuted the day when they publicly took their stand amongst the Christians and were baptized. That's when they were subject to persecution. The Jews sometimes understand baptism better than the Christians because when somebody amongst the Jews is influenced by the gospel, they labor with that person, the Jews, trying to persuade him from becoming a Christian.
But the moment he has been baptized, they have a funeral service. That's the Orthodox Jews. They realize that he has been cut off by water baptism from his former connections, and in that sense he is saved.
Baptism does say, but not the soul. But from my former connections and associations, and they're now identified with the Christian company through baptism, and the Jew recognizes that. So they are no longer Jews, they're now identified with the Christians, and that is what water baptism does. And as Christian parents, we can take our children with us into the position where we are.
Identified with the Christian testimony, and it's wonderful truth to lay hold of one of the compromises that Pharaoh offered to the children of Israel in Egypt was leave your children in Egypt either. Amen. Go.
No way was that acceptable. We take our children with us and separate them before they are personally saved outwardly from the associations of the world and identify them with the Christian testimony. I hope this will be a help to some. Water baptism is not connected with the truth of the body of Christ and the church truth. That's why Paul said I wasn't sent to baptize, he was the minister of the church.
The truth of the body of Christ and the Church truth came to us through Paul's ministry and water baptism is connected with Kingdom truth. Let me just quickly summarize the just quickly say the person who does the baptizing is not important. It's the name to which we are baptized that is important. And if you read Acts 2 and Acts 10, I just read them, I'll read Acts 10. Peter's speaking. Can any man forbid water that he should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we and he commanded them to be baptized? He did not do the baptism.
He did not do the baptizing. Peter did not. He commanded them that they be baptized. The same thing is true in the second chapter, if you read it carefully. And I think there's a reason for that, and that's the reason we're bringing out. It's it's not important who does the baptizing. It's the name to which we're baptized that is important. And that is why if you've been baptized to that name, no need to be baptized to that name again. And it is not that he gave commandment to those who had been saved to submit to the baptized. He commanded those who came with him who had not seen that vision on top of the roof.
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Took an Apostolic command for them to be willing to baptize these gentiles.
That's the see, that's one of the arguments. They say it's an act of obedience.
Description never commands a person to be obedient to submit to baptism, but to baptize. That's the commandment. And so.
Get a hold of these things. When I grew up in Europe, I didn't understand that truth. And Chuck and I, when we were early in our contact with each other, we would argue. I would argue believers baptism and he was arguing household baptism.
Well, I tell you, I'm thankful that the Lord cleared me up on that about we can live in peace with our brethren who don't agree with us on household baptism. I believe as long as we believe that one who is saved needs to be baptized, we can live with these different views that exist amongst the same brother.
Chapter Brown and Brother Macmillan I understand.
The one believed in household baptism and the other believed in believers baptism, and they labored together amongst the Saints.
And when somebody came to build a Macmillan and one of his family to be baptized, he set to chapter. He is one for you. And if somebody is a believer wanted to be baptized, Bob said, here's one for you. So we were ought not to allow the difference to divide us. But I'm thankful and I believe with all my heart that we as Christian parents can take our children with us on Christian ground. We won't leave them in Egypt.
Perhaps I could just recount a story that would because I believe that this troubles a lot of young people, this question. And you said that a safe person should be baptized and they feel like they've been caught in a dusty Rd. with the dust blowing everywhere and they don't see clear. I visited a high school friend that grew up in a Christian denomination and they didn't know anything about what it was to be saved. And he got saved and he raised a family and I was in the home and I was with his 16 year old boy and he told me, he said I'm praying that my grandmother would become a Christian.
And I try to talk to her and she said I'm confused. I am a Christian and.
I pointed out to him that she had been baptized. She had the name of Christ put upon her. She was baptized onto Christ, and she bore that responsibility of bearing that name, even though she wasn't a real believer.
And he said, you mean baptism puts the name of Christ upon a person. And I said, yes. He said, well, I'm a real believer. And I could see the young man really was. And I said, he said, but I'm not baptized. And I said, well, you know, your uncle's the base commander of the Canadian Forces base in this city. What would you think if he never wore the uniform of the Canadian Armed Forces? He said, well, that would be a strange thing. And I said that's really the condition that you're in.
You really are in the position of the profession of Christianity, and you've never put on the name of Christ by baptism. I said the next time I see you, I want to see you with the uniform on. And so that's really what it is. To put it in a simple language, it ties this all together. If we understand what baptism does, it puts the name of Christ upon a person, and it brings with it a responsibility that we bear about when we go about that. That one's a Christian. They bear the name of responsibility, and it helps us understand not to digress.
But much of what's in the Gospels, which is not understood, that there are those that are in a place of privilege and responsibility, that don't have life. And so you get a verse like.
Take that wicked servant and slay him before me. He's not talking about one who was saved, but he's talking about.
Who bore the name of Christ in this world? And he's going to be judged as such differently than a heathen who never bore the name of Christ. But if you're a believer and you've never had the name of Christ been put upon you, I know it's been said that the command is not the one being baptized, that it's a privilege to bear the name of Christ, and you ought to bear that name by baptism.
It's also very important to understand that an individual can go through these outward processes.
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Even professing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and going through the baptism process and be outwardly identified as a Christian without reality. And that's what creates so much confusion in the processing church today.
Those who persecute Christians do not ask whether this is a real believer.
They persecute those who are baptized under Christ.
All right, let's move on.
Verse 12 Very important verse.
Now this I say that everyone of you say it. I am appalled and I have Apollo's. Now we saw from the 4th chapter, he just puts his name in Apollo's name in there. And I have Cephas and I have Christ.
Some have wondered, well, what's wrong with that, saying I am of Christ what it does?
It makes Christ the head of a party.
He's not the head of a party, he's not the head of part of the church. He's the head of the church, the whole church. And so really.
Another illustration of I am of Christ is.
But I don't go to the meeting. I don't get much out of the meeting. That's where Christ is in the midst. But I stay home and I read my Bible for myself, and I'm of Christ and and I don't need those others to teach me. That's despising the gifts that the Lord has given for the good of all.
But I think the the I am of Christ group is the one that thinks themselves superior.
To anyone else, I don't need Paul, I don't need Apollos, I don't need Cephas. I just have the Lord for myself, and they despise the gifts that the Lord has given for the good and blessing of the Saints. So that's an independent kind of an attitude, and it's not of God. We do need one another and we shouldn't despise any of the gifts the Lord has given. So we can make two mistakes. We can we can make too much of an individual gift and say I am of him.
Or we can make nothing of those gifts, despise them, and say I am of Christ. I don't follow any of these. Well, we're not to follow man. That's right. But we should value what Christ is given. So you can make a mistake on both sides of the of the streets, so to speak, despising the gifts and saying I am of Christ. Or making too much of A gift and following an individual instead of Christ himself. We should value all that Christ has given.
And.
To stay home, there's some that they take the attitude. Well, I can read my Bible at home and I get just as much out of it or read ministry. But there's something you can't get at your home. You can't get the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of his gathered Saints. You can't get that you're missing that at home. He's not there. He's with you. Individually, we've had that pointed out, but not collectively. And when you don't go to meeting where the Lord is in the midst, collectively, you miss that. You miss His presence.
And that's very serious.
Says of the Passover Lamb, a bone of him shall not be broken when the Lord Jesus is hanging on the cross. Soldiers would not were not allowed to break his legs. They came to him and they found he was dead already, so that a bone of him would not be broken. The oneness of the body of Christ is something that God had before him back then, when he gave the institution of the Passover. A bone of him shall not be broken. It's something that is very, very important to God.
And it's to be It takes spiritual energy on our part to keep this before our hearts. It's easy to get following a man, but God has before us Christ, and that's the remedy to any division among Christians. Any separation. The 1St 10 verses in this chapter, almost every verse brings before us the full title of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we go down through it, we'll see that God said that before us, the Lord Jesus Christ, His name, the oneness of His name, the oneness of His body.
And we need to keep constantly, as we see our eyes are scattered toward this man, that man, this group, that group to keep looking back. And if we keep focusing back on the Lord Jesus Christ, whether he takes that away, doesn't it? That's God's remedy course.
This is looking at Christ as just another man, isn't it in our verse?
12 Now this I say that everyone of you, Seth, I am appalled. Who was he? He was a natural man.
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And I have a polis, I have Cephas, and I have Christ.
Was this just, was he just a natural man? Well, turn over to the fifth chapter and I think of that verse 16.
And I think this has been the answer to me wherefore henceforth.
No way. No man after the flesh.
He was the Divine Person.
Are we going to classify him with we're just.
Other men, natural men, He was a divine person, therefore.
Wherefore, henceforth know we no man after the flesh. Yeah, though we have known Christ, yet now henceforth know we him no more. That seemed to be the answer to that thought of including the Christ, including Christ peoples there, and he believed on the various ones.
May I add to that?
The disciples before the cross were in a relationship to the Lord Jesus as the Messiah.
And that came to an end.
They now, after his death and resurrection, were linked with him in a new way, altogether, as the head of a new race and the head of the body of Christ. And for us the practical application is.
Do we esteem a brother because of his higher education?
Do we esteem him because he has a high position in the world?
He's wealthy, so we give him a special place of prominence.
I have sometimes suggested what if the government of this state would get saved?
And learns the truth of gathering and wants to be gathered. What we receive him as the governor of this state? No way.
He would be received as a brother in Christ.
We don't know any man after the flesh. But I like to add to what Chuck said as to I am of Christ. There's nothing wrong to say I belong to Christ, but so do you, all of us belonging to him. That is different than to say I am of Christ. You know, I'm just adding that to what Chuck said. There's nothing wrong in recognizing.
His claims upon us that we are belonging to him. He has bought us with a great price. We belong to Him, and we want to recognize that. But that is not what Paul is touching on here. They make Christ a point of division. That's terrible, and I hope we are not guilty of that. I trust we recognize that we simply belong to him and recognize his claims upon us.
As individually and also collectively.
But it follows there too, doesn't it? In the next verse, is Christ divided?
Is.
Was Paul crucified for you?
Or were you baptized in Or was Paul crucified for you? Or the baptizing name of Paul? No, it was Christ.
He had now gone into death for them, and he was a he was a glorified man.
So he could not be placed put in a position of justice. Another man this was he was in now new creation. And so it's so it seems that it fits together there to describe why it says that being saying Eye of Christ is not is not the right thing to do. Not to say that.
Verse 17. But Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish.
Foolishness. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.
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What man calls foolishness is the wisdom of God and the power of God.
Anne's wisdom would never come up.
With the with the book like this, never, not in a billion years, a man's wisdom never rises to such heights that the salvation of God can flow from a man crucified on a gibbet, on a cross of ignominy and shame. And that there God paid for in the person of his Son all of our sins that would never enter the mind of that. That's God's wisdom.
The cross of Christ is the end of man in the flesh. Get ahold of that. The cross of Christ is the end of man in the flesh. And therefore worldly wisdom, human wisdom, and the divine things will not avail. That is what answers to plugging the world with earth. Bringing human and worldly wisdom in the things of God stops the flow of blessing.
So we have to make that distinction. Remember what Moses learned. One of the lessons that he had to learn is that the wisdom of Egypt, and he was instructed in all the wisdom of Egypt.
Did not qualify him to become the deliverer of the children of Israel. He had to unlearn that the 40 years behind the wilderness in the school of God, if there was anything that was humbling to one that was in line to the throne of Egypt, which is believed to be the case with him.
Was to be a shepherd.
To shepherd somebody else's sheep because.
That was an abomination in the eyes of an Egyptian, a shepherd.
So that is what was apartment to get him off his high horse. He did definitely think at first because of his position, he could help his brethren, but he had to unlearn that and he had to come to see that the wisdom of this world, the wisdom of Egypt, the world is a picture of Egypt did not qualify him to become a deliverer, and even when he ended up there in the land of Median helping Jethro's daughter.
He even looked like an Egyptian. An Egyptian had helped us. I hope we don't want to look like the world outwardly. There is such a thing as outwardly looking different than the world. I'm sure when he went back to Pharaoh O after 40 years behind the wilderness, he didn't look like an Egyptian anymore. He looked like a shepherd.
You know, so these are practical things that we do well to remember because we outwardly many times don't see a difference between a Christian and a World clinic.
But Osis looked like an Egyptian. But I'm sure when he came back 40 years later, he didn't look like one anymore and he did not rely on the wisdom of Egypt in leading God's people out.
I would like to just attempt to clarify in the minds, especially the young people, what has been said as the cross being the end of man and the flesh.
Therefore by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin that was Adam's sin. And from that point the entire history of man was God putting man to the task to see whether or not there was any response to God in the human heart.
And when we say the cross is the end of the flesh, it means simply that all of the 4000 years of testing of man proved man to be a total failure. And God wiped the first man, Adam and all of his children completely off the scene and began afresh. And a risen, glorified Christ the new man has replaced the old man Adam, which is the term their dislike. So God.
Gave every opportunity.
For man to respond, even coming himself and the person of the Son, to seek to elicit from man something for God and the cross proves when they said we will not have him, it proves the total ruin and complete failure of the first man and all of his generation. That's why choice was really over at the cross, because man was tested, it was tested and that choices were put before him but after the cross.
00:55:17
God said.
God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. He's commanded a blessing and man has to disobey God to go to hell.
It's not. We put it as you know you've got a choice between what you do. God's commanded all men everywhere to repent. He views man as incompetent to make a proper choice, and so he tells them. But the only right choice is.
And as far as the worldly wisdom was concerned, I was thinking this. I met a real believer and he asked me, what church are you a member of? I looked at him. I said the same one you are.
He said, well, what's the name of it? I said, he said Everybody's got to have a name.
I said I have a name.
And, you know, that's worldly wisdom is everybody's got to have a name, they've got to have a society and so on. But the cross has severed us from the world, and the world has a system. You form a company, you form a human society. And it's got to have a name, It's got to have a human organization connected with it. But Christ is not divided. And we've been made, He added to his church daily, such as should be saved. And we've been made members. And we're thankful that we're in a place where we can practically express that truth as we had this morning.
But the wisdom of man steps in, and he starts to bring human thoughts into this. And really this epistle to Corinthians seeks to set aside those human thoughts.
Could we suggest that that's what links what we've been discussing in verses 11:00 and 12:00 with the latter part of the chapter?
That is, if I am going to want to take a place, if man is going to want to be somebody, what kind of a man does the world want? Do they want a man who submits to the death on the cross? Do they want a man who goes through all that Ignominion shame?
Oh no. And when the Lord Jesus and the 6th of John outlines clearly that it's only through his death that there could be any blessing, it says, Then many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Why? Because they didn't want that kind of a man. They didn't want that kind of a person to follow. They wanted someone who would be victorious, someone who would take the lead, someone who would lead them to victory. But that way, Oh no.
And so to do what we have had in verses 11 and 12, to party, make to want to take positions and so on, was going contrary to the whole spirit of the Master, wasn't it? The Lord Jesus could tell his disciples when they strove to be the greatest. He could say, Oh no, that's the way of the world, That's what the Gentiles do. But ye shall not be so. Whosoever will be the greatest among you, let him be the servant of all.
The Son of Man came not to minister, to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. And so the whole current of the latter half of this chapter, we would suggest, is to show those dear Corinthians, and us too, that all that was going on there, in the way that we have in the earlier verses here, was running totally contrary to the very name that they claimed to bear.
I like why the preaching of the cross is foolishness to the natural man. I like to.
Make some comments. Some young people might say. Brother Heinz, you spoke of Worldly wisdom doesn't qualify us in the things of God. Why should I go to school? Why should I go to college? I'm not trying to discourage anybody from being a diligent student.
If you go to school, try to be a good student.
And if somebody wants to become a doctor, and if he does not allow that to interfere with his Christianity, by all means become a doctor. But remember that this is not what qualifies you to lead amongst God's people. And be careful in the schools of men beginning from elementary school. They teach you things that are contrary to this word and psychology.
And all of this nonsense that is being pushed, even in so-called Christian circles, that's worldly wisdom. Mr. Hunt has rightly expressed it this way, The seduction of Christianity. Be careful about those things. But there are things that you better apply yourself reading, writing and arithmetic and this kind of a thing. And nowadays, if you want to.
01:00:23
Get a halfway decent job. You have to become familiar with the computer.
And this kind of a thing. But remember, don't ever make those kinds of things the purpose in your life. Don't let it take the priorities away from you. What are the priorities? The spiritual things.
My brother-in-law wanted to become a doctor and he revealed this to me before he did talk to anybody in the family and he said what do you think Heinz, about me becoming a doctor I mean pre Med Well I said to him if.
You require to spend all your energy and every effort to just get through medical school and you lose out spiritually. You're setting your goal too high. But if you can go through medical school and not lose out spiritually, I find nothing wrong with it. You know what? He did not only go to everything, he continued to have a Sunday school class and he excelled in school. So there's nothing wrong with.
Studying and applying yourself. I don't want to give that impression at all, but make sure.
That you have your priorities straight, and that the Lord does not lose out that He is the object in your life.
E 17 and 18th verses here should have a profound practical effect on how we give the gospel something. Because if the gospel is something that is, as her brother was saying, can can be received by the free will of man, then we need to figure out how to give it the best way to get the free will of man. To choose the gospel, we have to present it in such a light that it will be appealing that we'll be able to reason and answer all the the.
Questions of reasoning, minds. But if the gospel doesn't come that way, and it comes by the cross of Christ and what seems foolish to man, the way we're to present it is to present it in its simplicity, its truth.
And leave it to the Spirit of God to open the heart's door. Not to be ignorant, we don't want to present it in ignorance, and we don't want to turn aside honest questions that are asked. But no amount of our reasoning abilities and no amount of our persuasiveness is going to turn someone from death to life. That's the work of the Spirit of God, who are born not of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but by the it's by the will of God, and it's by the word of God. So the best thing we can do to communicate the gospel.
Is not to take a bunch of courses on how to effectively evangelize, but to acquaint ourselves with the truth of the gospel and live in a relationship with the Jesus Christ of the gospel and the Spirit of God will give us utterance. And that is, I believe what we find in Scripture is the effective way to give the gospel, to rejoin that to what Brother Ewell has said and what Brother Heinz said. Psychology is not all foolishness. If your boy won't eat and you put the piece of something on the end of a fork and say this is an airplane, open the hangar.
That's psychology, and there's a place for that. But as you've been saying, the natural man cannot be coaxed or brought into blessing that way, that it is through the preaching. And Mr. Darby made a very helpful comment.
Is it preach facts? We're living in a nation that is largely ignorant of the simple facts of the gospel, who the Lord Jesus Christ is, what he came to do, the facts of what he did. I know that sometimes as a younger brother, I had a real terrible time standing up and saying, well, what am I going to preach on in the Gospel meeting? And it's fine to use stories and it's fine to relate things, but the facts of the gospel and even among the Saints is.
The difference between propitiation and substitution.
Who the Lord Jesus Christ is, There's great as to his moral character, there's great vagueness and uncertainty in the world, and we need to preach those facts.
And as you said, in communion with the Lord. Really, that's the secret.
01:10:22
Last two verses.
Oh my devil.