Buena Park Conference: 1989
Table of Contents
Loved of God
The Assembly Privilege Responsibility
1 Corinthians Outline of the Book
Address—C. Hendricks
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Chapter 1, verse one.
Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God.
And Sosthenes our brother unto the Church of God, which is at Corinth.
To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called Saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Both theirs and ours.
I would suggest you turn that down a little bit. There's too much ringing. I can speak louder and there won't be the ringing.
Verse 3 Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which has given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything you are enriched by Him, in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come behind in 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 you were called under the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now we have This is the introduction to the epistle, and you'll notice that it's written to the Church of God, which is at Corinth.
That is, it's written to the Assembly of God in a place in the city of Corinth.
What we have in these two epistles to the Corinthians is instruction from the Spirit of God through the pen of the apostle Paul.
To a local assembly residing in a place such as we have here in Buena Park.
And this was the assembly that was at Corinth, the Assembly of God.
And then he says he enlarges it. He says with all that in every place, call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. You know, there are those that that tell us that the address to the Corinthians here was dealing with specific local problems that existed only there at current and they don't have an application today.
That's absolutely false. It's it's with all that in every place, call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.
And this is emphasized over and over again in the epistle.
Let's just look at the instances chapter 4, verse 17.
For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord.
Who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere.
In every church, that is, he wasn't teaching something specifically for Corinth here, and he taught differently in another assembly, but this was the teaching of the apostle Paul. So what we read here applies to every assembly and to all that in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, and it applies at all times as I teach everywhere.
In every church. Chapter 7.
Verse 17 But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called everyone, so let him walk, and so ordain I in all the churches. That is the order that he's setting down here. This 7th chapter has to do with marriage, the marriage relationship. And he's now setting down instruction not only for the assembly at Corinth, but everywhere, as I ordained in all the churches.
Again in Chapter 11.
Verse 16.
Here this verse is the conclusion of the section that deals with the woman's place.
And the covering that she's to wear when she prays or prophecies and all that discussion that preceded it. And he says, but if any man seemed to be contentious, and this is the most contended.
Portion of this epistle today in Christendom he says we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. That is the the custom that he had established here. The normal order of the woman having her head covered when she prays or prophecies and the man not so because of the headships God, Christ, man, woman.
That's the order of headship, and he gives other reasons and even appeals to the teaching of nature.
To establish this, but the point I'm making here is that he says neither the churches of God, in other words, what he's teaching here to the Corinthians applies universally to every local assembly wherever they're found. And lastly, in chapter 14, where he's dealing with the exercise of gift.
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He says in verse 33 God is not the author of confusion.
But of peace as in all churches of the Saints.
So I think that's enough to show that the instruction that is given to us in this epistle has especially been guarded by the Spirit of God, by these expressions, the very first one at the beginning to all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. This is not just for some specific.
Local problems that existed there at Corinth.
For the whole Church of God, wherever there is an assembly.
Gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus in a place the instruction that we have given us here.
Is for us very, very needed instruction that we have in these two epistles. Now let's go back to the to the first chapter. I want to just quickly.
Go through the epistle.
Uh, before touching upon some points that I have it on my heart to.
Bring before you.
He says in verse.
4 of chapter 1 I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God, which has given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything you are enriched by Him, in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come behind in no gift.
Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In my margin of my Bible for coming, it reads Revelation and I believe that's the correct reading. This is not the rapture that he's talking about, but he's talking about that time when the Lord will come back and all that we have done and all that has happened down here will be.
Unveiled. That's what that word revelation mean. It's the unveiling. It'll all be manifested.
So we have his the revelation that is brought before these Saints at Corinth, his coming so that everything is revealed in the light whether God approved of it or didn't approve of it. It's a very searching a very searching thought. They came short in no gift, a very gifted assembly, one who moved amongst us in the past who's now with the Lord used to say that gift is not godliness and we.
Certainly see that from the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Because they came short and no gift. They were abundantly gifted as an assembly, and yet they were carnal.
They were walking as men. They had all kinds of things that had to be addressed and had to be corrected that existed in their midst. And we will just briefly go through the epistle and then come back to this chapter to trace out what those things were.
We sometimes get a little bit discouraged because we see some of the tendencies in the assemblies where we travel about and some of the conditions, but I don't think I've ever been in an assembly that was so plagued with problems, so many problems of different kinds that we have here in First Corinthians.
We can be thankful for the fact that God allowed an assembly in those early days.
Such as Corinth with these problems so that we could see how the Spirit of God using the apostle Paul.
Address those problems and corrected them in His spiritual ministry that He gave us.
In this epistle.
He says in verse 8, Who shall also confirm you unto the end.
That she may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's quite an astounding statement.
When you think of how full of blame this assembly was, they were, they could be blamed on many counts. But he looks on to that day and he says that in that day you're going to be blameless. He's going to present us to himself a church glorious without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. He looks on to the day when all the ills that beset us now and all the failures and all that which may be blamed in.
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Will be forever past and gone. The day when we will be found blameless before him in that day.
And then he goes on to say, God is faithful. We haven't been faithful, but God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. We're called to a fellowship, and it's the fellowship of his Son. And that's true of all believers. All believers called into that blessed fellowship.
Now, verse 10.
Now he gets into the problems.
That which is that which he blames them for.
That which he deals with now in spiritual ministry.
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Now that's the name that unites us.
He starts out this exhortation, this beseeching, by appealing to the name, the name to which we're gathered.
The name in the power of which were gathered. And he says, I beseech you by that name.
The name which makes US1 Because we all name that blessed name, and we all take joy and delight in that blessed name. There is none other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. And so he says, I beseech you, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you name that name, I named that name, your brother and sister names that name. And so that's what.
Becomes the central point of unity.
It's the name that you all speak the same thing.
And that there be no divisions among you.
But that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same.
Judgment or opinion, For 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, everyone of you saith. I am of Paul.
And I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I have Christ.
Is Christ divided?
And then at the end of the chapter.
We just outlining it now, not going into the specifics of the verses.
He talks about the cross, which is foolishness.
The very preaching of the cross is foolishness to man. It is that which sets aside the first man. It is that which takes everything that we glory in the wisdom of this world and the the strength that we like to glory in in the first man and and ends it. The cross is the end of the history.
The moral history of the first man.
And so he brings the cross to bear.
The preaching of the cross, verse 18 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 bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
God has made foolish the wisdom of this world. These Corinthians they had.
Gifts and they were wise as to this world. They were walking as men. They were living on the level of the first man. They were carnal Christians. They were not spiritual, they were.
They were huddled into little divisions and parties.
In the assembly at Corinth, there there were divisions, among them contentions. They were rallying under leaders. I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas. And then there was that super spiritual party that said we don't need them, I am of Christ.
They were probably the most dangerous.
Those that thought they could get along without some of their brethren, and especially those whom the Lord had given for the help and blessing and benefit of the assembly.
In ministry to them.
I've had, I've come across sometimes in my travels, those that will stay home from the reading meeting and they'll say, well, I read my Bible and I'll read Mr. Darby or one of the early writers, which is all well and good, but not, not on the night when the assembly is together over the Word, in prayer and in the reading of the Word, That's when we ought to be together.
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That is a time when we ought to be discharging our collective responsibilities.
And there's a time when we ought to be discharging our individual responsibility. But don't make those two in conflict with one another. We need both. And so we need our brethren. This is the very, this is the very cardinal fundamental principle and truth of the one body. One member cannot say, I have no need of you.
We need one another, and so God has given gifts. That's developed later on in this epistle. They came short and no gift.
But we can make too much of gift and we can say I'm of Paul, like him, I'm of Apollos, I like his eloquence. I'm of Cephas, I like his straightforwardness and his dynamic personality. And then the group that says I am of Christ. We can either make too much of man, or we can make too little and despise what Christ is given for the blessing of the assembly. Both are wrong.
Both are wrong.
And will fall into these errors if we walk on the level of man and that's what they were doing here at Corinth brings out notice what he says in verse 25. He says the foolishness of God is wiser than men. The weakness of God is stronger than men.
Now, when you're living on the level of the natural man, you make a lot out of man's wisdom and all his attainments and all that he has gained by his knowledge and by his strength and power.
And you make hero worshippers of the various ones that are great in this world. That's what they were doing at Corinth. That was the level upon which they were operating.
And so he brings before them the foolishness of God. He says that's wiser than men. Where is the foolishness of God? It's the cross, God saving, God's salvation being established.
Through a man crucified in utter weakness and apparent helplessness, that to the natural man is foolishness and that's weakness. And Paul says the foolishness of God's wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men, what man despises by nature.
Is the very thing that God uses to bring about the accomplishment of His purposes.
And his blessings for man God hath chosen, Verse 27 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. Have God chosen yay, and things which are not to bring to not things that are to what end? To what purpose? That no flesh, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
And then he tells them in the next chapter.
All those last verses of chapter 1 is that in Christ we have everything He has made to us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. And so God has provided us with all the wisdom that we need in him. And we don't have to go about seeking to establish our own righteousness. Christ is our righteousness.
Our redemption is found in Him, a redeemed people.
All is Him, all is in Him, our sanctification, it's all in Christ. And then he tells them that when he came to Corinth, he came with fear and trembling. And he says in chapter 2, I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with Excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
You know he knew.
Because they were set upon this kind of thing that he could have dazzled them with.
Certain a line of ministry.
That.
Would have told them about when he was caught up to the 3rd heaven.
But when he finally does tell them in the second epistle, he says, I knew a man in Christ.
14 above 14 years ago, whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell. God knows such a man caught up to the 3rd heaven and he heard and he saw unspeakable things.
Now if I had been caught up to the 3rd heaven yesterday, you would have heard about it today.
But Paul waited 14 years.
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Disclose it.
He wasn't bringing it forward to bring any credit to himself. He wasn't bringing it forward to make himself look.
Anything special, he brought it forward in the second epistle in order to meet their particular state and need. But when he first came to Corinth, he knew the kind of thing that would have appealed to them.
Because they were living on a certain level.
And that's the very thing he avoided. He brought before them the cross, the person.
And the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
He knew far more than that. He knew Christ in glory, he says in verse 6 of chapter 2. Howbeit we do speak wisdom among them that are perfect.
Yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the pedestrian, the secret Christ and the assembly. That's not what he brought to Corinth, though he unfolds that to the Ephesians. But here he brings Christ and Christ crucified to bear upon their state.
It's a crucified Christ, which is what they needed. They needed to see the end of the history of the first man. They needed to see what the flesh is before God. They were operating on a level of carnality, making much of men, making too much of gifts or despising gifts. On the other hand.
And both Iran, both are the flesh, both are not of God.
And so in this 2nd chapter he tells them how he had come to them. At the end of the chapter he tells them verse 14. We're just touching on parts of this just to give the the character of the epistle. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned, but he that is spiritual.
Discerneth, judgeth, or discerneth all things.
Yet he himself is discerned of no man.
So the spiritual man is the one who has the Spirit of God.
And he is capacitated to enter in to God's thoughts. The natural man doesn't know them, nor can he. And they were living on that kind of a level where they gave a lot of credit to the wisdom of this world.
He says, I'm just passing down for a minute, Chapter 3, verse 19. He says for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Young people, if you're going to college and you're learning the wisdom of this world, remember that whatever they give you in the way of wisdom when it deals with moral or spiritual issues is foolishness with God.
Foolishness with God.
Beware, Paul says to the Colossians, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For, it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. The worldly wise men of this world are not trustworthy for the Christian. Their their thoughts are vain, They are wrong and false, because they leave God out.
I was talking to a young man once and he said let's just suppose.
That now we have to prove whether God exists. Let's start with that. And we start out with the, with the the main premise, does God exist? I said stop. I said I won't go one step farther with you because that is not an open issue.
Does God exist? Is not a question that is unanswerable.
God has answered it in 1000 different ways in witness.
In creation and in all his mighty works.
No. So we didn't go any further, I said. You are doubting where the Word of God begins. In the beginning, God, In the beginning God. And if we don't begin with God, in all our reasoning, in all our thinking processes, in all our wisdom, we are fools.
And that's what the wisdom of this world is. It is foolishness with God. Now the Corinthians were giving.
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A lot of weight. They were operating on such a level, a low level of spirituality, though they came short and no gift.
That they were listening to these things, the wisdom of this world.
Verse 1 of chapter 3. I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual.
But as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ, I fed you with milk, not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able, for ye are yet carnal.
How do they how does he know they were carnal? He tells them why for whereas there is among you envying.
And strive and divisions, are ye not carnal?
And walk as men.
For while one saith I am of power, and another I am of a palace. Are you not carnal now? They weren't actually doing that.
They weren't actually saying I'm of Paul and I'm of Apollos.
The proof of that is found in chapter 4, verse 6. And these things, brethren, I have transferred in a figure.
Or in their application, Mr. Darby's translation.
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. For what hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received it, why, glorious thou boast, is thou as though thou hast not received it? They were, they were glorying in the flesh.
Now, they weren't really saying I am of Paul and I am of Apollos, but Paul puts his name and Apollo's name in there to illustrate what they were doing. They were really rallying upon men there at Corinth, men who were vying for the the leadership, men who were vying for a place of recognition and a place of headship in the assembly, and they were discrediting the apostle Paul.
They were really Paul's enemies and he didn't name them.
He didn't say it's brother so and so and brother so and so. He didn't name them. He says you're rallying under Paul and the police to illustrate what they were doing. They weren't really rallying under Paul and Nepalis, but he uses their names to bring before them what they were doing.
They were carnal, they were under different.
Men and all broken up into little groups. Well, I like so and so, and I like so and so, and this one like so and so, and we have our little pockets.
I remember visiting the first time I came to California. I came to an assembly, a little small assembly, and I had never met the brother before.
And I sat down in his living room and he sat across from me and he threw this question at me. He said what's the greatest problem amongst us?
And I answered the question then the same as I would answer it today. The greatest problem amongst us is divisions.
A lack of unity, A lack of oneness.
I would answer that the same way today. The enemy knows what he is about.
And if he can divide the Saints?
Into systems, internal divisions, intentions, and stripes and pockets of opinion.
He will have gained A tremendous advantage.
Hard to fight against unity.
Hard to get his wedge in when there's that oneness of thought.
And.
That's a tremendous problem that we have to deal with.
They were operating on the level of the first man.
In chapter 4, he says in verse 15.
Verse 14 I write not these things to shame you as my beloved sons. I warn you. What were they doing?
They were living as kings.
He says in verse 8, Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye arraigned as kings.
Without us, without us, the apostles.
And then he gives a list, a catalog of suffering.
And mistreatment that he and the other apostles were subjected to that was so totally different than the way they were living their lives.
And at the end of it, he says, I'm not writing this to shame you, beloved, But he says, as my beloved sons, I warn you.
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For though, you have 10,000 instructors in Christ.
Yet had he not many fathers?
These men that are vying to be your teachers and that want the 1St place and recognition, they're not really fathers. They're not really concerned about you.
They're not really concerned about how you get on. They're not really concerned about your spiritual wealth.
And you're going on with the Lord? They're content to have their little party.
And another one here to have their little party. They're content with that.
The spiritual man will have none of that. The Apostle Paul would have none of that.
None of that.
This goes way back in 1845 at Plymouth there was a man that was running that assembly of the 1500 strong back in those days. Small meetings, no large.
The mall sitting up in front of the meeting room.
They were the ones that were the leaders there. They were the ones that were to be listened to. And it got so bad that if a hymn would be raised by a commoner, they wouldn't even sing it. They would shuffle their feet and try to drown it out if someone tries to try to raise the tune. Mr. Darby sat in the back. He didn't sit up front. He was one of the educated. He'd have no part in that, no part in it whatsoever.
Wicked device of the enemy to ruin.
To ruin at its very inception and beginning.
The truth of being gathered to the Lord's name. Losing sight.
Of all but him.
Getting occupied with men, gifted men, educated men.
Talented men. This is where Corinth was.
The Apostle Paul deals with it in the power of the Holy Spirit.
So he said you don't have many fathers, you don't have many that have a real heart for you. Timothy was like that, you know, he says in Philippians, he says I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state or who will feel with genuine feeling how you get on how the Saints get on that they're really going on with the Lord. This was the burden and this is the burden of every true.
Father.
Desiring the blessing of the Lord's people, so he says in verse 16. Wherefore I beseech you, verse chapter 4, be ye imitators of me.
Of.
He says to the Philippians in chapter 2, he says yeah, and if I be poured out as a drink offering as a libation upon the sacrifice and service of your faith.
He was content to be that.
He was content. He was the great apostle Paul. He was content to be just a little drink offering poured out on top of the sacrifice. The whole value was in the sacrifice, the little drink offering that's poured on top of it, so insignificant in comparison with the sacrifice, he says. I'm content to be that.
Are you, am I, are we content to be?
Nothing. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
The lowly.
That others might be blessed.
He gave up everything that you and I might be blessed. That was the mind that was in Christ Jesus.
Well, let's go on in this epistle. Finally in chapter.
Well, the last verse of chapter 4, he asked them a question. He says, what will ye shall I come to you with a rod? He, he was an apostle and he had Apostolic authority, which we don't have today. And he could have come with a rod and dealt with all the evil that was there. But instead he gives ministry.
Which they could act upon. He sought to bring their state up from the kernel level where it was, to a spiritual one, where they could act according to God and deal with the evils that were in their midst, according to the mind of God and according to Christ.
And according to the Spirit of God, he says, What will ye shall I come to you with a rod?
Or in love and in the spirit of meekness.
He tells them elsewhere that he hadn't come to them to spare them.
They charged him with fickleness of purpose. He said he was coming and now he doesn't come. Well, he didn't come because he didn't want to come with a rod.
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He had such love for the Saints of Corinth, he tells us in the second epistle. When he wrote that first epistle, he wrote it with tears.
Tears streaming down his cheeks as he thought of the.
The state of the Saints at Corinth. And then he says in one place.
He even regretted having written that first epistle. He had that emotion flood through his soul. Or maybe I've alienated them. Maybe I've turned them away from me. Maybe I was too hard on them.
I think some of us parents have gone through that. Maybe we've had to discipline, severely punish a child and we've maybe thought maybe I was too hard on it.
And maybe he won't love me anymore.
And then when they come and throw their arms around you, you know it wasn't that way.
And that's what happened with Paul. When Titus came with a message of how they had affection for Paul, he hadn't alienated them by his faithful ministry.
They realized it was it was done in love. That makes all the difference, doesn't it?
When we discipline in love.
Now he finally comes to a very serious problem. In Chapter 5, he said it is commonly reported there is fornication among you.
And such fornication is not so much as even named among the Gentiles that one should have as father's wife.
And you are puffed up.
Their state was so low.
So bad, so carnal were they?
So divided were they, there was such lack of unity amongst them that this gross immorality that existed in their midst and it was even known.
Didn't bother me.
Satan knows why he divides us first.
He can get us divided so that we don't talk to one another anymore.
You can get us into that kind of a frame of mind. That's just the level of the natural man.
We have little pockets and one pocket doesn't talk to another pocket.
Then something like this comes in our midst and we're powerless to deal with it.
Because the unity is gone.
And the Spirit of God is breathed.
The Lord's name has not been that which bonds us together as it ought to. He says, I beseech you by the name.
Of Jesus Christ our Lord, that you all think the same thing.
Have the same mind, be of the same opinion and same judgment.
That there be no divisions among you.
That's the first evil mentioned at Corinth. It wasn't fornication, it wasn't lawsuits. That's the next chapter. It wasn't. He goes all the way to the 15th chapter when he talks about the error as to the resurrection, a very serious error, we'll come to that. But the first thing he mentions.
Our divisions.
Internal stripes. Contentions.
Serious So now comes this case of immorality. And there was there was an apathy about it in their midst. He has to raise the level of their spiritual.
Judgment on this so that they deal with it.
Sometimes where we attack the problem is not where the real problem is.
The real problem lie in divisions.
That's where the real problem was, and that opened the door for all these other evils to come in.
And rendered them powerless to handle them.
And to arrive at a common judgment.
You have these divisions in the assembly. A case of immorality breaks out in division C.
Aha. How's that going to be handled? Well, those in B&A take a strong stand against it, but those in C sympathize with it because after all, the part of that group.
That's carnality.
And that's the way the enemy.
Paralyzes.
And assembly.
And here we have the Apostle Paul could have dealt with the evil doer.
He had the Apostolic authority and he come to Corinth and done so.
The assembly would have been left right where it was as to their spiritual exercises, and they wouldn't have profited by it. And what the apostle does is he brings the assembly.
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To a common judgment.
The Lord's judgment against the evil. The evils that were there in their midst.
So that they could unitedly now.
Not fragmented into divisions, but unitedly arrive at a common judgment.
The Lord's judgment.
About these things.
He ends the chapter by saying, Put away from among you, that wicked person.
It turns out from the second epistle that that man was truly the Lord's. He wasn't put away as a brother. He was put away as a wicked person. He was a brother.
But we don't put brethren away, we put wicked persons away. And if one isn't a wicked person, he shouldn't be put away.
Put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
Turns out that he was repentant and.
And then he was received back as a brother.
As a brother.
Chapter 6. There any of you having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the Saints. I was just sharing this thought with some brethren before the meeting, that I was reading this with a brother and breakfast at his table, and I read the chapter many times, but it never struck me with the same force that it did on this reading.
Paul says, Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the wicked, or before the unsaved, or before the ungodly, or before the lost? Not before the Saints. No, he says, before the unjust. You expect justice from the unjust.
That's where you're going to go to get justice to the unjust.
Every word of God is inspired. He shows the utter folly. He says you're going to take your case before the unjust.
And expect that they will render a correct and just and righteous decision.
What following?
What folly to go to the world for wisdom? What folly to carry your.
Problems to a tribunal which is characterized as being unjust.
What folly.
They were operating on the level of the world. I have rights after all, and I'm insisting on my rights and I'm going to get my rights. Let's take it to court.
That's the level of the world. They were operating as natural men.
Not spiritual kernel.
Nay, you do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren.
Why don't you rather take wrong?
Oh, if we would be in the enjoyment of that eternal inheritance that we have in Christ, we could say like Mephibosheth did when David finally says, I have said thou and sigh. But divide the inheritance, he says, Nay, let him take all.
Let him have it all.
Or you return to Jerusalem in peace.
All he wanted was David back.
And he was willing to give it all up.
The 7th chapter.
They needed instruction on the marriage relationship.
He says now concerning the things whereof he wrote unto me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman, and then he gives a lot of very needed instruction on the relationship in marriage.
Verse chapter 8 he says now is touching things offered unto idols we know and then he.
Gives instruction on that idol is nothing.
But the example that one sets in doing some of these things can stumble another. And he says, When you do that, through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish. He sees you doing it, he'll do it, but he does it with a bad conscience, and so he really loses the joy of his salvation. And he says, When you sow sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Wherefore if me make my brother to offend, I'll eat no flesh forever.
While the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.
You have a bone of contention with to be.
Fought for in the assembly, and you know that if you stand for this, it's not a fundamental issue. You're going to cause trouble.
Follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.
This principle of grace if meat made my brother to offend if doing this or that.
Make my brother to offend, causes them to stumble, gives offense to them. I won't do it.
I want flesh forever, Paul says. That's Christian grace. That's just the opposite of insisting on your rights.
But they weren't operating on that plane. They were operating on the right on the plane of we have rights and let's stand up for our rights. They went to law with one another.
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And now the apostle has to bring these Christian principles to bear upon.
Some of their practical practices connection with eating things sacrificed to idols. In Chapter 9, they were questioning his apostleship and he says, am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you for the seal of mine apostleship are ye and the Lord. They existed as his children. They were saved through his ministry. He was certainly.
Apostle to them to know others. He was an apostle to them. He was sent of God to Corinth.
And he says you're the seal of it. And yet it was being questioned. He was being attacked. That's another effort of the enemy. The enemy will always attack the vessel that is bearing the testimony of the Lord, that is, that is the spiritual vessel.
And if you can just attack the vessel.
And bring and defame the vessel. Then his message will be lost.
That's another tactic.
Of the enemy.
The 10th chapter he warns them. He says that as many left Egypt.
And they were.
All our fathers were under the cloud, and they all passed through the sea, the Red Sea. They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual meat, and they all drank the same spiritual food. They all partook of the same outward privileges and blessings. Yet he says, with many of them God was not well pleased.
So he's warning them, he's saying, he's implying here there are, there may be some among you.
That aren't real.
There may be some among you. You've taken your place with the Saints.
You're enjoying all the outward privileges of the assembly and partaking of these things as Israel did.
But there were those in Israel that fell in the wilderness. They never made it to the promised land. They weren't real.
It fell because of underneath.
They were overthrown in the wilderness.
And this is a word to the conscience of those that profess to be the people of God, but the way they're living their lives.
Is a lie.
They're not real.
And so he warns against idolatry, against lusting.
Against committing fornication, against tempting Christ, against murmuring, all these things Israel did. This is what characterizes.
Characterized that people.
And yet outwardly, they were saved people.
And then he deals with.
The Lord's Table.
They were eating the Lord's Supper at the Lord's Table, drinking the Lord's cup.
They were also going to the demons table.
And Paul says you can't do that.
These are two different. These two tables represent 2 mutually exclusive systems of things. One is paganism.
Eben ISM, idolatry and the other speaks of the unity of the body of Christ and the glory of Christ.
You can't mix these two things. Impossible, he says.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. It doesn't mean they couldn't physically do it. They were doing it. But he says you can't do it with true understanding of what these two cups represent. You cannot part be partakers of the Lords table and of the table of demons. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? You go on in that way. He says to these Corinthians, God will come in.
And deal.
He will not tolerate his name to be identified with that which is the direct opposite to it.
And then in the 11TH chapter he.
He deals with the place of women at the first part of the chapter, the headship of a man, and the wonderful place that God has assigned to the woman.
And then he talks about. He says there must be divisions among you that the.
Well, no, that's wrong, he says in verse 18. First of all, when you come together in the church.
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Come together in assembly character. I hear that there be divisions among you, There be divisions among them. Those existed at Corinth, and they partly believe it, for there must be also heresies.
That is, the outward breaks into.
Divisions, we call them divisions today, but sex and parties calling themselves by different names where they're not meeting in the same place any longer. And Christendom is filled with this. There must be also heresies among you.
They which are approved may be made manifest among you.
Then he says, When you come together therefore into one place, this is not to leave the Lord's Supper.
Now, does he mean that they weren't eating the Lord's Supper? No, I don't think he means that. He says the purpose of your coming together is not really the main focus of the of your coming together is not really to eat the Lord's Supper.
And he immediately goes on to say, for in eating everyone taketh before other his own supper. They were acting in a very selfish, self-centered way.
In their love feast, their fellowship, those that had a lot of money, they come with their sumptuous feast and spread it out for their family and didn't share it with anyone else. And then there were others that had nothing.
Thankfully, that's not the way we do it. We put it all out and everyone can partake. That's the Christian way. That's not the way they were operating here. They were operating in a very carnal level and the Lord had come in so much. So he says when he come together, it's not to eat the Lord's Supper. That's not the main purpose of your coming together. You've put something ahead of that. You've put your own supper first.
And when you think of all these things that were wrong at Corinth and that verse in the first chapter.
That at the revelation of Jesus Christ we're going to be presented blameless.
Look at all the blame that could be attached to current.
And then in the 12TH chapter, you have the gifts.
In Two Timothy 1, Paul says to Timothy, God has not given us the spirit of.
Fear but of power. 1 Corinthians 12 you have the spirit of power.
Equipping the assembly with gifts.
For the blessing of all.
He's not given us the spirit of fear, but of power. That's one Corinthians 12 and of love.
That's the 13th chapter.
And then the 14th chapter is the spirit of a sound mind that you might.
With the spirit of a sound mind, know how to use the gifts for the blessing of all.
They weren't doing that.
They didn't have the spirit of a sound mind. They had the power all right. They came short and no gift.
But they weren't using those gifts in love for the blessing of all, but instead they were flaunting their signed gifts.
And they're speaking in tongues and those things that would bring credit to themselves. Look at me, I can speak in tongues and you can't. That kind of thing.
And he says in verse of chapter 14, verse 20, he says, brethren, be not children in understanding.
Albeit in malice be children, but in understanding be men.
Don't act like children.
In the way you use these gifts, they're not given to you for yourself. Exaltation. Never has a gift been given to exalt man, but only to exalt Christ and for the blessing of the assembly.
Misusing it and then the 4th 15th chapter verse 12 he says.
Now if Christ be preached, this is the great resurrection chapter. If Christ be preached, that he rose from the dead.
How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
That was a serious error. He waits. He waits till the very end of the epistle to bring it out.
First, what he brings out is divisions.
If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain? And your faith is also vain? Yeah, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ whom He raised not up. If so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, neither is Christ raised. And if Christ is not raised, your faith is vain.
You're yet in your sins. Everything is lost.
How ably the apostle just demolishes the error?
That was there, but he waits till the very end.
To deal with it.
Now quickly the first chapter.
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Time is up, but I just call your attention once again.
To the problem of all these problems that we've gone over in this meeting that existed at Corinth.
All the evils that beset that assembly.
Someone asked Mr. Darby once how much evil is necessary before an assembly is no longer an Assembly of God. His answer was very simple. He says any amount that isn't the issue, how much the issue is whether they are exercised about these things and deal with them.
Whether they realize these things exist and are crying to God.
The most crippling thing for a united crying to God concerning the problems that beset us.
Our divisions.
We can't even get on our knees together because we look askance one at another.
We've lost that confidence one in another. There's age group barriers, brethren, This is the sign of carnality and we need to judge it in the very root. And we need to throw our arms around one another and say I love you. I need you.
As a fellow Member.
Of the body of Christ. If you're having trouble in your home, a husband and wife.
You can't say to the other, on applying the truth of the one body to this situation, I don't need you. You can't say that. You can't say that. She's a member of the body of Christ and he's a member of the body of Christ. And what you can say is throw your arms around one another and say I do need you.
And that's, that's what we need to come into the good of that these theoretical truths, they are not theoretical. They are very practical. We just have to put them, put them into practice and we'll find how wonderfully the Lord undertakes for us.
Contend for the Faith