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General meetings Montreal, October 1971 First reading meeting.
I'm sorry, chapter 3. I meant to say First Corinthians chapter 3.
And thy brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual.
But as under carnal, even as unto faith in Christ.
I have met you with milk.
For hitherto he were not able to bear neither yet now are ye able, for ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you, and being, and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal, And walketh man for a while once said, I am appalled, and another I am a false are ye not carnal?
Who then is Paul, and who is a false but ministers by whom he believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted a fallen water, but God gave the increase.
So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that walketh.
But God that giveth the increase, now he the plant, and he that water are water, and every man shall receive his old reward according to his full labor.
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For we are laborers together with golf.
Ye are golf husbands. Ye are golf building.
According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another build of their own. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereof all.
Other foundations And no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stone, wood, Hayes, double, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work.
Of what sort it is?
If any man were to buy which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive her award.
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
Know enough that we are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you if any man defile the temple of God.
If shall God destroy? For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool. That he may be was For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own practice.
And the game the Lord knoweth the butts of the wives, that they are vain. Therefore let no man's glory in men. For all things are yours, whether false or false, or sequence, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours, and ye are Christ, and Christ is the.
With the Corinthian Saints at this time.
Although he had some things to say to them.
In the way of correction.
And we all need correction, because that's the way of life we read in Scripture.
He still began by commanding them in the first chapter, for all that he could commend them.
And he speaks of them in the first chapter.
In the seventh verse, so that you come behind, and no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom here we're called under the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now, brethren, this is a wonderful thing, that when when God speaks to us in the way of seeking to show us the path that we should walk in, He does so from the basis of where we are, where Christ has put us in His Word and.
He shows us here that everything we have, as we notice in our chapter, rests on that one foundation.
Jesus Christ and that precious blood that he shed, and I believe that's what Paul had before him as he communicates to these Saints. He says in the second chapter that he would know nothing among them that Jesus Christ and crucified. And it's on this basis that he communicates to the Saints to show them that what they need and what we need today is to have this one pure object before our souls.
The.
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We find that the impossible makes three classes. That is, if you ask the end of the second chapter.
The natural man receive us not to make the spirit of God, for there are foolishness. Again, either can know them because they are spiritually concerned. Oh, we're not. We drive by the neighbors.
I don't understand the hospital or the clothes that are.
Natural men without the spirit of all and it's impossible for them to get 100 times a day to falls hurt. I think it was your father pulled a man from the hill. But if it's an unbeliever and if he could understand this Bible, you can put it apart burn it up because it's a little false book that I.
That is an amazing.
Natural mask to save us nothing. So there's so therefore they're foolishness, their foolishness.
Oh, no wonder there is so much.
As things that build your soul and find joy because it's impossible. It's impossible for him to receive them until he receives a new life of God. The fact Nicodemus.
When he came to Jesus and said Master of our teachers come from God.
Rabbis are the teacher come songs, Lord says, except the man is born again. He cannot see the Kingdom of God, that is there must have to work. He must be born from above, have a new life before he can even see, much less.
To possess or understand.
For God, I'm just giving a brief and then there we get the the spiritual man who discern it from all things.
Who walks with God?
Whose ways are the answer of those spoken of as pertaining to the car? Have those?
Envy strike division. If one is going on in a state of soul like that, full of envy and strife and division, you couldn't consider him a spiritual man.
Thank God there are those spiritual men, and I think that no one among God's children would set themselves up and say that they were spiritual. I believe that they did. That would prove they were not. And then you get the carnival Christian He's a child of God, a real believer, and if he's in a state, such a state that all.
Realizes that he cannot communicate to him.
The truth of God's word.
He speaks there in the second chapter in the sixth verse, albeit we speak with among them.
Perfect, yet not the reason of this word, or the Princess of this world that comes in love, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory.
How Paul realized that it was useless. It would be only a hindrance to try to give the mysteries and all receive different mysteries directly from the Lord, But to expound these mysteries to the Corinthians?
Would only hinder the work of God. That was necessary and yet, as our brother just read in the first chapter.
They came behind in no gift. They were gifted group of Christians. I'm sure they could speak very awkwardly and very forcefully the things that they knew, but they were not a state to enter into.
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The hard truths that are so precious to those who enter into them. And then he gives their reason in this chapter because they were carnal.
And let's not forget this, beloved. It should be a serious word to our consciences.
Have walked past men.
Couldn't that strike a warning to our souls? Are we walking like other men?
Our business transactions.
Our our conversation among our neighbors.
Lord, we where we where we live.
No, not Christ, just man of the world.
Well, the Spirit of God never brings the truth before our souls, but he gives a word to exercise of conscience and soul to lead us to judge what is inconsistent and would hinder the truth of God.
For entering the soul with all its bliss.
And if there is a state that is not consistent with the truth, the danger is that perhaps the result will be that it will only become head knowledge.
Which is a very dangerous state or a believer to be in.
I'd like to contrast for a moment the.
What we have in respect to the church in Ephesians with what we have here in Corinthians, I feel that taking up this official to the Corinthians.
Will be very helpful to us as it is a very practical portion of the word of God.
In Ephesians, we have the Church.
Universal brought before us. We have the Church, you might say dispensationally to as including every believer from Pentecost to the Rapture. And then we have the Church in its universal character as the body of Christ. And we know that every believer living on the face of the earth today is a part of that Church.
But when we come to Corinthians, I believe we have the practical carrying out of that truth. In the locality where these members of the body of Christ reside, we know that the church, universal as such, does not convene.
That is the the church looked at in its character universally as consisting of every believer.
On the Lord Jesus Christ does not function as such, but the Church functions in its in a local way, in the various localities where the members of the body of Christ live. And I feel that that is where this is very helpful to us today, because we find that when we seek to walk according to the truth of the assembly, the Church of God.
In the localities where we live, we find that.
Then there are problems and difficulties arise.
As long as we remain on the line of the universal character of the church and speak of the body of Christ universally consisting of all of the members of the body of Christ, well, there's not much difficulty with that. But when it comes to carrying this out locally, where we reside, seeking to walk with those who are Christ, then we find difficulties arise, just as it did in Corinth.
There were divisions there. There were parties. There was strife, there was confusion. And it seems to me that in the first two chapters of this epistle we have three things brought before us that must be recognized and entered into in order that we might be able to go along together locally, as walking together as members of the body of Christ. For really this epistle to the Corinthians is written to regulate us.
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In our various localities, as we seek to walk together as members of the body of Christ, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and as I.
I believe there are three things in the first two chapters that we need to recognize and enter into we find in chapter one the cross of Christ is brought before us and made prominent. Not the death of Christ, of course. It refers to the same thing, but it's presented as the cross of Christ, as the end of man in the flesh. The condemnation of the first man, the cross of Christ. We need to see that God has.
Put an end if it were to.
Man in the flesh before himself, he has no standing before God. And then we have Christ brought before us as made unto us wisdom. Christ on high is the wisdom of God. And he's you might say he's spoken of in the second chapter as he is, as the Lord of glory. He is the beginning, as it were, of of that world to come, a new order of things which God has brought us into.
Christ as on high, the wisdom of God, you might say, that sets aside this world in all of its glory. The first, the cross of Christ said to man, set aside man in the flesh. Christ on high is the wisdom of God, the Lord of glory, which none of the Princess of this world knew, sets aside the world in all of its glory. And then thirdly, we have the presence of the Holy Spirit not only in the individual, but dwelling in the House of God, the Holy Spirit down here that sets aside all of the wisdom of man.
And unless these three things are recognized and entered into.
Where the results will be, as we have in the Corinthian assembly here, divisions and stripes. But I feel that these are foundational truths in connection with our seeking to go on together in our localities, seeking to carry out the truth of the assembly as set forth in the word of God, the first man set aside in the cross, the world set aside in all of its glory, in Christ on high as the Lord of glory.
And man in all of his wisdom in his way, set aside in the presence of the Holy Spirit down here.
But it's nice to notice, dear brethren, that his babes in Christ.
The Apostle, although he does have to speak to the way as being carnal, and that he cannot give them any further meat until.
These envies and stripes and divisions are corrected, and they began to walk as spiritual still, their babies in Christ. And the standing is there. Now there is such a thing, you know, as newborn babes desiring the sincere milk of the worst. We have that in Peter, and that's a very healthy state to be in, even for those who are, as it were, mature.
Continually desiring the the.
Your mental milk of the word. But here he has something to say to the Corinthian Saints.
Even though they are faiths in Christ, and perhaps he has something to say to us this morning, dear brethren. And that is the reason that we are Colonel. If this be the case is because there's envy, because there's strife, and because there is there are factions or divisions.
And I believe that as we are thus in the presence of God this morning.
We should allow these words to reach into our hearts and consciences because whatever the individual is, that assembly is and we should be exercised that we are not contributing.
To the general failure that's coming in among God's people so that we might go back to these foundation truths.
We might learn to stay close to that precious truth of.
The work of Christ has been presented here in the first chapter, The Cross of Christ, the freshest blood that was shed for us.
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And the Spirit of God that now communicates to us and gives us the ability to communicate to others and also to discern, as we have in the second chapter.
And then Christ is the foundation that we have here, upon which we build in connection with any service.
For Christ, as we have in this chapter and the first verse.
He says, And I'd rather not speak unto you as unto spiritual.
I like to picture the Apostle Paul writing this.
It must have been a great burden for him to have to write in this way.
To the assembly, of course.
He must have been grieved.
It must have been something that really weighed on his heart.
That he would have to write like this.
I could not speak unto you as unto spiritually, because of rather but all.
What a stake they're in, but far must be faithful. And it's a faithful the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ, because it's God by his Spirit speaking through the Apostle Paul, and it's the faithfulness of the Lord connection with his assembly that's coming out.
But in contrast with this we have in verse 15.
On chapter two, he that is spiritual judges all things. That is, that word judges is discerning all things, the spiritual one.
Deserves all things.
Why is the spiritual person?
One who is occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ and he's not conscious of it.
Anyone thinks he's spiritual. He's not spiritual at all because he's occupied with himself.
When we're occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ, we're not conscious of any spirituality, I believe we'll be conscious of our nothing, our other nothingness, and we will not be striving for anything for ourselves at all. And we will seek only the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
All he that is spiritual discerns all things.
But the Corinthians have gotten into a state now where the apostle had to say, I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual What was the matter?
Occupied with their own things.
Oh, how solid and beloved.
If the Apostle would speak to us today, if he were to write a letter to us, what would he have to say?
Well, certainly he would have to say the same thing, wouldn't he? The very same thing.
And it is said to us because you notice.
In the first chapter.
He says in verse 2.
Unto the Church of God, which is at Corinth.
To them that are sacrificed in Christ Jesus called Saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. So it's written to all that in every place.
Call upon the name of Jesus Christ. It's written to us.
Yes, it's up to date.
And certainly this fits up.
It's probably here to see in this first verse that was first chapter that was right to us on the eighth and ninth verse, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that he may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called, unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. If their state was so low, it surely was, and no doubt ours is too.
Isn't a glass of the sea that he begins by Speaking of their perfect and unchanging standing? And not only that it was thought that time, but it would be preserved till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is an encouragement to us in a dark day, that as we look upon the Saints of John, that we can see them in this standing, and we can also look forward rather than rejoice.
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That there is a time coming that everyone who is a member of the body of Christ will be in that place blameless before the Lord Jesus. And so because this is so, therefore he speaks to them that their state might be brought to correspond with their standing. And when he saw those things that grieve them, he didn't give up, nor did he put them under law, but instead he brought before them.
Now that which would correct the things that were wrong, but never losing sight of this wonderful truth, now that we are perfect as to our standing in Christ, And as our brother Barry remarked, there are two classes of Christians the.
The one who is indwelled by the Spirit of God is capable of entering into all the things that are given to us in the Word by the Spirit, but we're not all in the enjoyment of them. And so the one who is saved has the capability of entering into all these things. It says that we have the Spirit, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, but alas, because we have allowed other things to come in.
There is a hindrance, but the capability is there because the spirit of God indwells us. And another thing that I thought was nice in the first part here of this chapter, that he didn't say he had given up because he didn't feed the couldn't feed them with meat. He didn't say that he wasn't feeding them at all. Instead, if he couldn't feed them with meat, he was feeding them with milk. And it may be that there needs to be with us that.
Ministry of Simple Things.
That would touch our hearts, that would quicken our affections, so that there might be a renewed desire with us to go on for the Lord, for the.
Things that lead to carnality are often things that are quite hidden and unnoticed.
Envy is something that's not outward.
Stripe is an outward thing, but it begins by something that's inward.
And this is the thing, brethren, I believe we have to judge the beginnings of departure in our hearts. Are we looking at others, as our brother remarked, or are we looking at Christ? Do we have some person before us instead of the Lord Jesus? Well, may the Lord grant that we will be fast, so that whatever departure there has been, our affections will be quickened. But let us never doubt this blessed, this wondrous truth that as to our standing.
Perfect in Christ.
I believe we have another very important truth in this chapter, or rather in the first chapter it has already been referred to many times, and that is the Lordship of Christ. The Lordship of Christ you find in the first chapter the Apostle brings before the Corinthians 6 times in the 1St 10 verses the Lordship of Christ.
How very important this is. We not only know him as our savior, but he's my Lord. He's one who has all authority over me.
And I'm duty bound to obey him. And I was thinking what we have in the 11Th chapter, First Corinthians verse 23. For I am received of the Lord Again we have the Lordship of Christ brought in. I do believe brethren is very important for us to remember that Blessed One is our Lord, not merely our Savior. Thank God He is that. But He is one who has all authority over me. He has the right to tell me what to do and how to walk and how to live.
And it's my responsibility to respond to him in all these things. And so the apostle Paul, at the order in which he first knew the Lord isn't it as the Lord from the glory. And so he invariably speaks of him as the Lord Jesus Christ. But the others, Peter, James, and John, they invariably speak of him as Jesus Christ. And that's the order in which they first knew him during the days of his earthly ministry down here.
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And so we find this this epistle. We have one addressing the Corinthians who first knew him as Lord, and so he brings in the Lordship of Christ before them constantly.
In this successful and beating them with self, seeing how the truth of the Lord is coming, the way the substance before the Saints behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep with thee.
Be changed in a moment. A quick thing of an eye at the last Trump so.
Where are those truths that you would think of as milk?
Well, undoubtedly he brings in some other things in the Epistle, but he was seeking to lead them on, and we find that in the latter part of the epistle. But I believe he was seeking to lead it on their souls in occupation with Christ, and indeed even in this chapter.
He brings before us the judgment seat of Christ, when our lives will pass into review, something that we all have to have constantly before us.
All has so often spoke of that day he lived in view of that day. He thought that it would be so in the Corinthians.
That they wouldn't just look at things as they appeared in the present in man's day, but as they appeared.
In the day of Christ.
Now I believe that he does bring before them deeper truths as the epistle goes on.
But I believe that when the soul is prepared by a ministry of Christ, it is often able to receive the deeper truth. Because, as you remark, there is the capability in every believer to enter into these things because the Spirit of God dwells in US, and as the teacher, we should desire that too, shouldn't we, brother? I was thinking of what Peter says in his first epistle in the second chapter.
In our fast food here, he said, Paul could say, I have met you with meat, with milk, and not with meat. That is the basic and truth concerning the person of the Christ. Well then, Peter, in first Peter two and verse one. Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile and hypocrisies and entities, and all evil speakings, as no board fades, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow there by well the Apostle Paul.
Tells the Corinthians he is fed them with milk.
That is the the basic, the simple truth of the person of Christ. And Peter says that we should desire that No. The sincere milk of the word of God. Well, I believe this is an exercise on our part. He desires to beat us with milk. What is our what is our response? What is our desire? Should we have that desire for the sincere milk of the word of God, that we might grow thereby? This is how children grow. This is how they grow, no?
I believe that.
The Apostle and this epistle brings before them.
The fact that it wasn't simply their gifts that were so important.
But.
He sat before them the example of his own law, his own trials and testings. We have much of it in the second Epistle, and that they might experience practically the truth.
That they're giving out.
I believe it occurs in this epistle, that expression I have believed, therefore have I spoken. Now that's ministry in the spirit.
It's just simply carry on and pass on something we heard may not be ministry in the spirit, but where the apostle himself has experienced and felt with the Saints the truth that he's giving out.
That's more in line with what the apostles setting before them.
We get the truth of it in the 100 and 126 Psalm, I believe the one that goes forth, weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again. Rejoicing. That is the the entrance is that the one who was sowing seed, his crop had failed, so he had to resold, and he was using the very food that he was going to eat that year.
And so he wept as he sewed it well.
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I believe that that's really what the apostle feels for the Saints here, that it wasn't simply setting forth thoughts that they had gained, but it was. They're experiencing with the Saints, the trials, the testings, all of the path of faith, cause for here to walk with them, to feel with them, to weep with them. And the apostles certainly entered into it, and that's what he really is bringing before the Saints.
Vessel because there were two particular evils in Corinth, and one was division among them, and the other was the tendency towards the worship of intermediate beings. He warns of that in the second epistle in the 11Th chapter. And then the apostle later has to take it up in Colossians, those who might appear as angels of light to deceive them.
Although the Apostle says I offend you with milk.
It's not his desire that we should always be on the milk bottle. Not the Lord's desire either, but that we should grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him. I was thinking what we have in the 4th chapter of Hebrews.
5th chapter I'm sorry verse 13.
For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is obeyed.
But strongly belongs to them that are full age, even though so by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
So the milk is all very well in its place, but you never expect to keep a baby on milk all its life. And although we are very fast, yet the Lord wants us to feed on strong meat as well. That'd be my growth thereby and be strengthened in the inner manner.
Talk to Big Brother flying that.
Sought to find his first Peter, second-half, desiring the sincere milk of the word, is an entirely different thought. That is, every Leaver in the Lord Jesus should always have that healthy, normal desire, or the things of Christ. He's not entering into the doctrinal side of things there.
But here in Corinthian, there's another thought. Milk, instead of being just looked at us as that which feeds the soul, whatever subject or truth it is setting forth is the fundamental, the football fixed up when he came upon them as bizarre. They should know nothing but Jesus Christ's guilt crucified. That is the subtle truth of the past.
I believe that carnality and this place.
And the reason why he had to feed them was?
It was milk and hot was meat is because of this state, this carnality.
Saying I'm a full name of the policy, so on, but in Hebrews it was more of a legal state of things. They're putting themselves under law and in that way they they were not.
Growing.
They should and pass the 6th Chapter Shores going on to 12 road that is leading on to the enjoyment of a glorified Christ.
In the verse referred to in Hebrews 5, we might notice what it says in verse 12.
It says there and are become such.
As a need of milk and not a strong meat.
This seems to be a second childhood that referred to.
It seems that at one time they were going on well and as a brother Barry mentioned, they were going back to the lawn now and it was going back to second childhood.
But in our Scripture, 1St Corinthians 3.
It wore the glass state they'd never gotten out of there, baby state.
And this is a solemn thing. But it's possible for us to be made in both ways. To remain in the baby state, never grow, but having enjoyed, on the other hand, having enjoyed the things of the Lord and then going back, going into a second childhood.
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Doesn't it bring before us what constant danger is before? Oh, how we do need to be cast upon the Lord and look to Him for grace and mercy to help us at all times that we might grow?
Embrace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and not go back all we're in danger of going back.
And that's why we have these exhortations now, right? That's part of what is spoken of as the mute.
When the apostle has to occupy us with our failures, with our low state, surely that's real. That's not the strong meat of the word, but it's necessary.
It comes to a point in our state of soul where this is necessary, and it's part of what I believe Scripture speaks of as exhortation. We need to be stirred up.
But it isn't that we need extradition all the time. We need the positive side too, to build us up. We need the edification as well as the encouragement. But how sad it is. And when we get into a low stake, God has to occupy it with that state.
And when they're in the state like that, the Spirit of God is grieved. And you can't really occupy us with Christ as it would when you have to occupy us with that failure, that sin. But if we come to a point where we judge it and confess it to him, then we're cleansed from the defilement of it that the Spirit of God can minister to us in fullness again.
But all how we get ourselves into a state where.
We're hindered. We're deprived of what God really wants us to have. All this should exercise as deeply.
Say, Brother Anderson, that the early state is seen in the 10th of Hebrews and the 32nd verse.
Down to the 34.
The call to remembers the former, days in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endure a great fight of afflictions. That's a good state of soul, partly whilst you were made a gazing star, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while she became companions of them that were so used, for he had compassion of me in my bonds.
And took joyfully the spiraling of your guns, knowing in your sounds that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance cast not away. Therefore your confidence, which at great recompense a reward velocity former state, that's the early state. That's the good state, isn't it?
Sounds like Caleb and Joshua, who having had a taste of the good fruits of the land that was at the end of the journey.
Share the laundry of the children of Israel for those 40 years and during those 40 years, their whole delight, I'm sure, was in the prospect that when the years were ended, they were going to be able, by the grace of God, to enter into that heritage that they had set their foot upon and had seen.
So I believe that even though our state is, as it has been described by the wonderful grace of God, we can rejoice, and we not in that heritage which is even now ours, as though.
That there is that glorious future that is assured to us. I was thinking too, in connection with the strong means, which I trust by the grace of God we may really have an appetite for. For there's something wrong with us. If we listen to the sound ministry of the deeper truths of the word of God, and find that they don't have an attraction for our heart, we can well search our hearts as to.
These things don't.
Reach our souls and build us up as they ought to. I was thinking of the Lord enjoying a meal with Abram and Sarah, and how the actor recorded the meat that was served to him that day as being tender and good.
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Well, this has occurred to me in connection with the ministry of that which is me that.
Eva marriage was served to the Lord. That day was put down engulf word of being hinder and good, and I wonder if it might be an exercise to us, perhaps in seeking to minister such truths of the word of God, that they might be ministered in such a way as would have that same flavor and attraction to those who hear it.
Is it not possible, perhaps, that the meat of the word of God might be ministered in such a way as would fail to reach the appetite part of those who hear?
There are refined in the next episode that Paul wrote the first epistle with many tears.
And that gives us a little insight into his feelings about these dear Saints. There was no harshness, no unkind feelings towards them.
No thought of deserting them, for they were tears flowing down the fossils cheeks while he was writing what we're reading here this morning and as our brother mentioned.
When he says I could not speak on the US spiritual but on the car, we can think of it here for the Apostle Paul feeling so sad and so distressed.
Is such a danger going on together of getting into a state of legality with one another?
That never is risen.
Encouraging unsaciousness in any way, but when there is faithfulness, it should always be attempted, it always should be with that tenderness, love, and desire, and concern for the wealth of any of those that are the Lord that are out of the way.
There's always a constant, isn't there? And I was thinking of Jonathan.
And you were speaking about the Hebrew believers, how happy Jonathan was when David had won the victory. And he came and presented everything that he had to David and wanted to follow him. But there came a time when he realized it was going to cost something to identify himself with David. It was going to mean a break with those things that had been very clear to him, and he waited thoroughly.
Was he willing to break with the court of Saul and all that it meant to him to follow a rejected king? God's rejected king? Well, when he considered it, he made a decision that from that time there was a going back instead of forward. We know that Jonathan will be in glory. We know that there was much that the Spirit of God has been pleased to record a desire for the Lord in the life of Jonathan. But that point came in his life when there was a particular decision to be made.
As to whether he would count the cost and follow Christ, or go back and follow Saul, and all of the court of Saul stood for what I believe. This comes in our lives too, and particularly in these days when it means something to go on for the Lord. And perhaps in these meetings. Such a a time comes in our lives when the truth of God is set before us, when the blessedness of following Christ is brought out in the meetings.
Now then, we might decide something. Do we? Are we satisfied to say, Well, I know I'm saved. I know I'll be in glory, but I just don't want to follow the Lord wholeheartedly. Well, I believe that's the thing that we have brought before us here. There's no doubt about the salvation of these Corinthian believers, but they were allowing things to come in that hindered them from really following the Lord.
01:00:06
And the apostle writes this pestle.
To stir them up, to point them as we sat on to what was ahead, and to show them the blessed privileges of the present too, in living for the Lord.
The things they were allowing were religious or spiritual in the fight, saying there was the divisions among the people of God. It wasn't necessarily an awkward worldliness, although perhaps there was that too, as we see later. But it began with this.
Report from the House of Chloe that there were factions starting among them. Well, this was right in the Assembly itself, and that was what made it so serious.
We see the wisdom of God in meeting this situation, that Paul uses his own name and the name of Apollos and later of Cephas. But in reality they were not saying I am a Paul and I have Apollos and I have Seepas. They were actually using the names of their own leaders. If you turn to the 4th chapter, you'll see this, the sixth verse.
And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos, for your sakes.
That she might learn in us not to think of man above that which is written, and that no one of you be pumped up for one against another. That is, they were using the names of their own leaders, such as Stephanus and others, perhaps. And if Paul had pointed this out and brought it before them, they might have said, well, Paul, you wouldn't mind if we were saying I'm a follower of Paul or one of your coworkers of Paulus, but you don't like it because we've chosen our own leaders?
So in the wisdom of God, he uses his own name and the name of his fellow workers to show in them not to think of man above that which is written. Well, I just call attention to this because very often when we want to correct the state of things, we're often blunt and unwise, and we spoil what we could perhaps do if we met the situation in the wisdom of God. And here it's very beautiful to see this divine wisdom.
Given of Paul that he didn't want followers for himself any more than he wanted them to have followers of their own. He wanted them to be occupied with the Lord Jesus and to follow him.
Of a story.
Of a brother in a in a certain meeting. I suppose it was years ago this happened, but this brother wasn't coming out to the meetings anymore.
And this has been going on, I believe for some time.
And it was the concern of his brother in the assembly.
And I believe it was discussed in the in the brothers meeting, the care meetings.
And so one brother took it upon himself, and no doubt with the fellowship of his brother, to go and visit this brother that was forsaking the meetings.
While he was much before the Lord about meeting the situation with wisdom, he was looking to the Lord.
And he went to this brother's home.
And they greeted one another.
And then they sat down. They were sitting beside the fireplace and no one said anything. The other one said anything. They just sat there looking at the fire.
Well, one of the embers burst out from the log and fell on the heart. Well it would, blowing red.
For a little while.
But then after a bit, cooled off and it became black.
The visiting brother, he picked up this black amber and he put it back in the fire and he began to glow again.
The brother had been missing the meeting, he says. I'll be back at meeting next large day. He got the point. It was wisdom. Not a word was said.
But the Spirit of God used it all. How we need to be before the Lord, that we might all be a help to one another. And I was thinking a connection with this expression. Walking as men makes me think of something. If you read the 16th chapter of Judges, you'll find that he speaks of that being like any other man. I believe three times.
01:05:24
Well, what was Samson? He was a separated man. He was a Nazarite separated under God.
He was toying with his separation to God. He was careless about it. And finally.
That which marked him out as a separated man was taken away from him.
And he did become like any other man when we lose.
Our place of separation or state of separation separation onto the bar.
Then we become like any other man. And then what was the consequence? Samson's eyes were put out. He couldn't see. We lose discernment. We can't see. We're not spiritual any longer. We're not able to discern. We can't see or to solemn thing.
May we value being separated unto the Lord and not be like any other man, or walk like men.
Thank you, thank you, I'm there. Fifth verse. What? John the Baptist replied to those who were jealous for him because they said that rabbi he that was with me beyond Jordan, baptizes and all. Then come unto him.
As all that would set up a rivalry between the Blessed Lord and John the Baptist, well, John the Baptist just simply wipes himself out.
He just uses the Rob hood to watch an entirely dispose of himself.
So that no one there would see anybody but Christ.
Story says I'm must, he must increase, I must decrease. I think that last word we have from John the Baptist is one of the most touchy and precious.
Subjects and we could consider all that man within the forerunner who have been so mightily used the full name that turned gone down to Jordan and been baptized. And when they thought of getting in the way, whatever of the progress and the ministry of the Blessed Lord, she would just step out of the picture all together, he says. I'm just the voice.
The one crying in the world.
Instructive forests below that the man that formed the Lord says.
There hath not a risk of greater than John the Baptist. That was a man. And asked who art thou that we may tell others about you, He says. I'm just a voice, I'm nothing. Now that's the man the Lord says is the greatest man born of women, is a man that was willing to be nothing.
So that Christ might be everything.
The last of that for that fifth verse.
Perhaps the thought is as the Lord hath given to each, that is, it's explained in the next verse.
One plants and another water.
That is, every member of the body has his place.
And no one is single.
As having a special place, each one has their place to fulfill.
The apostle was said that before the Saints here, lest they think that one was more important than the other. Now, it's true that God does set some in certain places, like the Apostle Paul of prominence, but it was only for their blessing. And so Paul says, who are they? Why, they're they're just ministering servants, that's all by whom you believe, and that's the purpose of it. So every part of the body functions in his own place.
01:10:09
There's no rivalry in the Church of God. There may be among men, but this should never be introduced among the people of God.
One gift, I think it's in the 12Th chapter of Romans and we need to remember, and that is after mentioning a number of other gifts, he says helps, helps. Well, that's a gift that every believer can possess.
And refuse them in a most valuable way.
Maybe very little things may be very hollow things by saying things took them over.
Adding something, helping our brother, maybe even in connection with several things and when we think of those who have planned these meetings and are preparing the meals for us.
Doing all that service, isn't that a help He does. If it wasn't for their kindness and their efforts, such a meeting as this would be impossible.
The power that enables.
Any work to be carried on, so the credit goes to God.
The member brother Walter Gill, pardon me, his father, brother Frank Gill, getting an illustration that I had never forgotten in connection with this, we were watching before a meal at the Des Moines conference years ago.
And our dear brother was standing there washing his hands, and he pretended that one hand was crippled and he was trying to wash the one hand all alone. And I noticed this. And he looked up and smiled. He said, Did you ever try to wash one hand when the other was bandaged or crippled?
He went through the motions as though he were trying to do it, and then he just worked the two together. He said the left hand washes the right, the right hand washes the left. And he picked up the towel and he said, and when the hands are clean, the left hand dries the right and the right hand drives the left, the job is done. And he walked out the door. He just left me standing there thinking of what a wonderful, beautiful land that was as members of the same body. How ridiculous.
The thought of envy.
Could ever, ever be. I'm. I'm a right-handed man and I go off to work. More than likely by the end of the day the right hand will be quite soiled and the left may not. And the left goes to work to clean the right without any word of complaint. Never says you're always getting dirty. I'm always having to clean you up.
And if there's any skilled work to be done, you'll always get it. And I never have anything like that to do except to keep you clean. No, there's no such thing as envy or rivalry. If we remember that we were members of the same body, that little lesson at the wash base in that day was one that.
Has often come before me. I don't say I really learned it as I ought to, but I think it's very, very beautiful to realize that these various functions and these helps are that which the Lord so widely is able to use for the blessing of His people.
The same epistle where I enjoyed this this verse.
The 18th verse of the 12Th chapter.
In connection with what you've been saying, Brother Albert.
The 18th verse. But now as God set members, every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him. That's the what the thought isn't. He ascended in the body and has pleased him.
That's nice to notice that.
As it pleased him is for himself.
For the Lord himself. And let's remember that.
When we seek to serve as servants, as members of the Body of Christ, whom are we serving?
He served the Lord Christ, and if we have that before us, I'm sure it will help to regulate our service too.
01:15:09
I was thinking, brother, behold, of your comments about Jonathan. And Jonathan could say to David, thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee.
Was he? No. He missed that privilege. Why? Because practical and precious aggravations that we've been having this morning.
And which he knew too, a walking company with David, Sharon, David protection. And walking in the truth, he went back into the city with the enemies of David and he lost that right reward and that position of nearness to David.
Well, may we not be like Jonathan, thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee.
He lost it all.