Ministers of Christ are called to be faithful stewards of God's mysteries, not seeking the approval of men but the judgment of the Lord. Paul contrasts his own suffering and humility as an apostle with the perceived comfort and pride of the Corinthian church, highlighting that true reigning with Christ involves suffering for His sake. The sermon emphasizes that faithfulness and unselfishness, exemplified by Paul, are not achieved by personal strength but by Christ living within the believer, enabling them to endure hardship and serve God. Ultimately, the Christian life is empowered by Christ's indwelling presence, allowing believers to live for Him and share in His glory.
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First Corinthians chapter four. This will be our twentieth message, I think, on First Corinthians. I started out hoping we would get through before I left for Canada a month tomorrow morning, but we'll not get through, although we will try to take up one chapter each Sunday from now on. Fourth chapter this morning, the fifth chapter. tonight and in the next Sunday, chapter six and seven. So I trust you'll read chapter six or seven be with us next week. Verse one of chapter four. Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful, but with me it is very small, very small thing that I should be judged of you, all of man's judgment. Yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself, for against myself, yet am I not hereby justified, but he that judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the Lord, or before the time come. until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart.
Then shall every man have praise over praise from God. And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes, that ye may 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 who maketh thee to differ from another, and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not receive it? Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us, and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.
For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as it were, appointed to death. For we are made thy spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools, for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong. Ye are honorable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place. And labor, working with our hands, our own hands, being reviled, we bless, being persecuted, we suffer it, being defamed, we entreat, we are made as the filth of the world and now the offscoring of all things unto this day.
I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you, for though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, ye have ye, yet have ye not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. 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 every place where in every church.
Now some are puffed up as though I would not come to you, but I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. What will ye shall I come unto you with a rod or in love, but in the spirit of meekness? Well, this is a lovely chapter. It's got many things in it that I think we'll profit from. In chapter one, we were speaking about the divisions in the church at Corinth, and there were four different groups.
in that church, right in the midst of that big, wicked, yet educated cultured city. In chapter two, we were pointing out what to preach and how to preach the wisdom of God. Only one way to do that is in the power of the Holy Spirit. Chapter three, we were speaking about the work of God, where we're to build, and what to build. Where do we build on the one foundation, Jesus Christ, is that foundation? And what are we to build? We pointed out gold, silver, and precious stone. That which will abide His presence and not the other that was mentioned, wood, hay, and stubble, for that will not abide the presence of God.
Only what abides the presence of God, or only what we do here, in fellowship with God, will abide his presence there and be rewarded. But now we come to chapter four, and we have the responsibilities of the ministers of God. It's remarkable what Paul says about himself and his fellow laborers, and this is what he says in verse one, let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ. That's wonderful. And stewards of the mysteries of God. Now, that's what the Apostle said about himself and his fellow laborers.
We are ministers of Christ, and also we are stewards of the mysteries of God. In another place, he says this about himself and his fellow laborers, because they were under attack from the Church of God. He says in Second Corinthians five, I think it is, and twenty-three, or at eighth and twenty-three, whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellow helper concerning you, or our brethren, if you inquire of our brethren, they are the messengers of the churches and the glory of Christ. Now, that's quite a compliment, isn't it?
The Apostle Paul is speaking about himself, Timothy and Titus and these other men, and he puts them on a pedestal, but he also gives a warning, let no man think of others or us more than they ought to think. In other words, it's dangerous to think too much, lest that one make a mistake and your Faith be destroyed, and Paul is pointing that out very strongly in this passage. You'll notice, too, about the stewards that we were referring to a week or two ago. You have a number. The steward with a high honor in Titus One-Seven, he says we're stewards of God.
Isn't that a high honor? If you were a steward of some great man on earth or some king, a custodian, That would be wonderful, but to be stewards of God, custodians of the truth of God. That's a high honor. You can't serve a more noble purpose than to serve the nobility of getting the gospel out to the unsaid and the ministry of God's word to God's beloved people. There you have a high honor, a steward of God. Then the steward... A good steward. You have that in First Peter, chapter four and verse ten.
What does he say about a good steward in First Peter four ten? He says, we're stewards of the manifold grace of God. Isn't that wonderful? Here you have a great trust. We're entrusted with the manifold grace of God. That's a trust. And God's given this to every Christian. You are a custodian of the manifold grace of God to pass it on. This is a marvelous trust. God has entrusted you, he has entrusted me with the marvelous grace of himself. And then a faithful steward, this is a noble aim.
And what does he say in First Corinthians four, too? We notice that here in our chapter, It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. Here is a noble aim. No greater aim. A man to be made and be faithful. Faithfulness is a wonderful thing. And here is a noble aim for every Christian to be faithful to God. to be faithful as a wife, to be faithful as a husband, to be faithful as a mother, to be faithful as a father, to be faithful as a Sunday school teacher. Be faithful. Yes, faithful to the meetings, how wonderful to see.
Faithfulness in regards to the things of God. Then you also have another thing said about a steward, a man, a steward with a discerning mind. He's a wise steward. And this is what was said about this. wise steward with a discerning mind in Luke twelve forty two. Who is that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household and give them their portion in due season? Now there you have a faithful and wise and a discerning steward. Last week, I think it was a week before, we spoke about an unjust or a steward who was selfish.
He was caught in a trap. He was dealing unwisely and unjustly with his Lord's goods. And you remember the story, what am I going to do? I'm going to lose my job. I'm going to lose my stewardship. And he called some of the customers in. He said, how much do you owe to my boss? and he said a hundred miles or a hundred miles measures or more sit down write fifty now the one how much you owe unto my lord oh so much flour well sit down and write eighty and so he made a lot of friends out of his bosses customers that when he lost his job he'd have some friends now the lord didn't recommend this man or in any way praise him for this but just to see how the people of this world in their investments and in their behavior than the children of life.
That's quite a text found in that chapter twelve. If you would imitate some of the ways people of this world are so shrewd and so keen and so concerned about affairs in this life, some of the things we could well imitate, a lot we couldn't. no deception, but there are some things the way they intend death is deserving of our concern. If we exercised our wisdom and also our interest in things spiritual like people in the world, in death, in things material, I'll tell you, Christians would be a lot happier.
But I was struck with this, referring to that steward, that unjust steward, And it just struck me that he mentions I five times. And this is what he says. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? For my Lord take away from me the stewardship. I cannot dig. To beg, I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into the house. Five times, he says, I. He was a selfish man.
And I thought, no, I believe that Pharisee over in Luke eighteen used I five times, and I looked turned over to it, and sure he did. The Pharisees stood and prayed thus for themselves. God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are. Extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. Yes, I possess. Five times. Either I specialist. Both of them are I specialists. All they talked about was I, I, I, I, or me, me, me, me, me. He's a selfish person.
All he thinks about is me, me. My interests, my concern, my happiness, my security. Me. Very selfish. Very selfish. Just thinking about number one. As for thinking about others and the needs and concerns of others, no. When they look in the mirror, oh, that's Mr. Me. How proud they are of Mr. Me. Every hair is in the place, and everything, oh, so, so, so. And they've got two and others, got the minister unto me. Yes, there are a lot of people just like that. They live for me.
They think God put this planet here, and all the people on it, they serve them. They want all the attention, all... The handouts, yes, me, the world owes me all the attention I can get. Yes, there are people just like that. And so we have now compared to that the unselfish motive of the Apostle Paul as a steward. He says in verse one that a man so account of us or considers us as the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. And when you look at this chapter, as we read it, and we'll seek to speak on it, I don't know a character outside the Lord Jesus Christ that was so unselfish as the Apostle Paul, an unselfish motive.
He says we're stewards of the mysteries of God. Now that word mystery means something that's unknown, unexplained, or not understood. Now when this was written, those hidden things, things hidden in the Old Testament, were known. They've been revealed. And so the Apostles, speaking of those things that have been made known, and they're unveiled, and they've been revealed, and there's no need of there being any mystery. at all about these things. For instance, you go back to the Old Testament. Here you have Abel's Lamb.
What would we think about Abel's Lamb were it not from the New Testament? It would have no meaning. And what would we think about the Ark, the story of the Ark? Well, just an Old Testament story. What would we think about the Passover Lamb? Well, just an incident in the nation of Israel's history. Or what about the cities of refuge? And what about the serpent on the grass, on the poles? as graver and such. They have little meaning, but the New Testament puts great meaning and significance upon these incidents in the Old Testament. The New Testament gives them their value, and the meaning of those incidents are revealed in the Gospel.
Why the Apostle refers to Abel's Lamb in the first and opening verses of Hebrews chapter eleven. What's the lesson with Abel's Lamb? Abel's Lamb tells us there's only one way of approach to God, and that's through precious blood. That story is told on the very front doorstep of the history of the human race. Here is Cain, and he was going to approach God on the basis of himself, and what he did. and what a lovely altar he had, and how he decorated it with all the best vegetables and fruits.
And God rejected it. But God accepted Abel, because Abel got a lamb. And he put that lamb upon the altar, and he slurped, and he stood beside him with a bowed head and a bowed heart. Oh, God! My sins deserve death, but this little lamb is dying in my stead. Abel offered unto God a more acceptable sacrifice than came. Do you see the significance the New Testament puts on Abel's offering? No approach to God nor being accepted by God unless you come the same way.
But Label's Lamb is referred to in John one, twenty-nine. Jesus Christ, behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. Then you come to the ark, and the ark is a beautiful picture of how to be rescued and saved from the judgment, the storm that is to come. You've got to get into the ark. The ark got all the judgment. All the rain fell in the ark. All the waves beat against the ark. Not a drop of water was in the ark. And all those who accept Jesus Christ and by faith walked in through the door of salvation, they are preserved from coming judgment, because Jesus Christ bore the judgment of God for my sin at Calvary.
So the New Testament opens up that incident. And you can go on to the Passover in the twelfth of Exodus. Those who fled to the cities of refuge, those who fled to the cities of refuge, there was determined whether this person died to their hand or whether there was an accident. They got justice. Also you have the serpent of wrath. The Lord Jesus refers to this in John three, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. So the New Testament unveils the truths of the Old Testament, and there's no need of being in the dark.
These things are revealed. No longer are the mysteries. Now you have six men spoken of. in the New Testament as being faithful men. Now, faithfulness is a divine attribute, a divine quality. God is faithful. He couldn't be anything else. Jesus Christ is faithful. He's the faithful and true witness. And when a person bears the fruit of faithfulness, it's the Spirit of God in them, producing God-likeness, Christ-likeness, And those four individuals are Paul himself, which he says in First Timothy, One, Twelve.
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who have enabled me, for that he's counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. And Paul speaks of Timothy. Paul says, My beloved son and faithful in the Lord. How wonderful. God, Paul could speak of Timothy as his beloved and faithful son in the Lord. Antichicus over Ephesians six. Paul says, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the law, Epaphras. And you find concerning him in Colossians one, seven, and Paul could say, as he also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant who is for you a faithful minister of Christ.
These individuals were faithful men. Also, you have Onesimus, that runaway slave, who ran away from Philemon, his master, and he ran to Rome. And evidently he had met Paul when he was a servant in Philemon's house, or he knew that Paul was in Rome, but he was in prison. And this poor slave condemned because of what he did, he ran away from his master, who was a wonderful Christian. He stole from him. He looked up Paul. in Rome, and Paul led him to Christ in the prison in Rome. And Paul gave him a letter to take back to his old boss, Old Philemon.
And what does Paul say concerning this runaway slave on Esimus? He is a faithful and a beloved brother. Isn't that wonderful? Paul didn't say, here's your old slave, and slaves were really looked down on in those days. But now this man, Onesimus, had gotten saved, and Paul says he's a faithful and he's a beloved brother. Philemon could say, I'll never trust that rascal again. He stole from me, ran away. I can't forget. Oh, says Paul, hold on, that man saved. He's a new creature in Christ. He's a faithful and beloved brother.
And also there's another one, Silvanus and Peter speaks of him as a faithful brother. And so stewards are to be faithful. Then there's another thing about stewards. They must not fear the judgments of men. A faithful steward will fear God. And I want you to know there's four men in these verses. They're very interesting. And verse three. But with me, says Paul, it is a very small thing, an insignificant thing, that I should be judged of you, Corinthians. You're intelligent, you come behind in no gift, and you're criticizing me.
He said, I'm not even going to worry about that. It's of small importance that you should judge me. Then he goes on in verse four. For I know, and he also says the end of verse three, but with me it is a very small thing that I shall be judged of you, or of man's judgment, other men's judgment. The word. I am not concerned what the world says about me, says the apostle. And he closes verse three with, yea, I judge not my own self. I don't know anything against myself. But that doesn't mean the same. that he was without blame. For I know nothing against myself.
Isn't that something? The apostle knew nothing against himself. He said, My conscience is clear before God and man. And yet he points out, Yet am I not here by justice? With all my knowledge of myself, my private and public life, I know nothing of which I am ashamed it can be put out in the front window. Yet he says, God doesn't mean that I'm right. I could be wrong. And so he comes to the fourth person. First he says, you, Corinthians, then the men of the world, then himself. But what does he say at the close of verse four?
That he that judges me is the Lord. That's it. And that's what comes. The Lord knows everything and he's right. Now my friends may say some nice things about me, that's true. They may be very tight. And as to the world, I don't expect much from them. They likely would say something good and something bad. But as to myself, I could err either way. I could think too much of myself or too late. But he says, He that judges me is the Lord. And it's what the Lord thinks of me and says of me is what counts.
All the rest doesn't. Now that's what he means in those two verses, verses three and four. And I trust we'll get the message in reference to that. He that judges me is the Lord. If we're right before God. Our conscience is clear before God. We do not have to fear what men shall say or what men shall do. So you have the steward must be faithful. He must not fear the judgments of men, and he must remember that all he has, he has received. What hast thou, thou hast not received? He takes that up in verse seven and verse eight.
And now I want to get right into this, the heart of this chapter. Verses eight to thirteen, here Paul is telling us about his nothingness. As the world sees him, he contrasts the state of the Corinthians with his own condition. What does he say? Ye are full, ye are rich, and ye are reigning. Did you notice that? In verse eight, now you're full, now you're rich, you have reigned as kings without us, and I would, to God. There's a little ironical language here. You reigned as kings without us, and I would, to God, you did reign, but we also might reign with us.
Paul says, you, Corinthians, have got it so well. Why, you've got it made is the word, sir. You have your comfortable hold, you have everything you want in the way of luxury, you're educated. Why, he says, you're fine. And he said, you reign now like all the churches going to reign in the future. But he points out, this is not the reigning time, this is the suffering time. You Christians are not being persecuted, he says. You have need of nothing. And you're living as though this is the millennium. You have it all. He said you're not being persecuted.
You're not being talked against like we are. He says this is not the raining time, however. And in the raining time, only those who suffer for Christ on earth are going to rain there. But the Bible says if we suffer for Him here, we'll rain there. That's very clearly taught in your Bible. how Paul would recall in his sufferings those words spoken by Ananias in Acts nine after he got saved. God says, Ananias, you tell Paul this, for I will show him, Paul, how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. And Paul really suffered.
He had made God's people suffer. Now he's going to reap that, and he's going to suffer. In verse nine, and on you'll find eighteen things. And I want you to notice the thing, what Paul says about himself and his fellow liberals. He says we're appointed unto death, for we're criminals condemned to die. We're a spectacle to the world, to the unregenerable. We are also a spectacle to angels. The angels are looking down and watching us suffering. And we're a spectacle to men of the world, carnal men.
We are fools, he says, but fools for Christ, but you're wise. You don't make your stand for Christ. You take the path of least resistance. He says, we are weak, ye are strong. We are despised, but you're honorable. We hunger, thirst, without decent clothes. We're buffeted, no home, no salary. We work with our hands. We're reviled. We're persecuted, defamed. Made as the filth of the world, the offscoring of all things, like worthless filth, scrapings of everybody's feet with a door mat. All for Christ's sake. Imagine the Apostle suffering like that.
I'd like to see the preachers. who works, paying that price to get out of the gospel. They've got big salaries and fringe benefits. They're almost like a Rockefeller. They don't know nothing, don't know anything about suffering for Christ. But here you have Paul's unselfishness and how he suffered as a minister of the gospel. And it's something for us to consider. Are we suffering or enduring hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ? That's a question only you can answer. Very few today, if you're up in years, you know some of the hardships your parents had.
We don't suffer as our fathers or forefathers or our founding fathers did. We're in the centennial years. Two hundred years ago, read the story of those people who came across the Atlantic at great cost, and they loved Christ, and many of them were devoted Christians. But oh, the hardships they passed through. We know nothing of that in America. Some Christians around the world in some of these communist lands are paying a price for their feet, but here in America we're reigning like kings. Do you have all we need?
Three meals a day, and if you want four or five, you can have it. And some do because of the way you can look at them. Yes. Eat all your life. When you like. How you like. You've got it. Oh, we're raining. Compared to the Apostle Paul, we live like King. Think of how he lives. And these disciples live. He says, God's made us last. And look at the specter. We are looked upon to spy, rejected. Looked like a bunch of hobos. No home. No sense.
We're going to get some money. We've got to work with our hand. This was true of the apostles back in those days. Paul says, be ye followers of me in verse sixteen. Only a true born-again Christian could do this, and say to some people, well, if you want to see a true Christian, you follow me. That takes some. Paul could say that. Look what he suffered. Oh, to think of what the Apostle Paul suffered to get out the gospel, the price he paid. I think it was St. Augustine who said to myself, I will show a heart of steel.
To my fellow man, I'll show a heart of love. But to God, I'll show a heart of flame. I'll be on fire for the Lord. The Christian doctor was tending to a patient. It was quite a serious case. When he got word that He'd better hurry on home. Something was wrong. He didn't like to be interfered with the intrusion, but reluctantly he left his patient and started home. And he wasn't far in the way when somebody said, Doctor, your house is on fire. And he saw the smoke and flame billowing up, and he hurried on. And as he got near the plates, another man knew him, heard of him.
He said, Doctor, it's all right. He said, it's your neighbor. Neighbor's house. What do you say? He said, thank the Lord. It's not my house, it's my neighbor. He said it in the spirit of a moment, and when it dawned, he rebuked himself. How can I thank God for my neighbor is being burned out instead of me? Where would the man be, and what a Christian spirit he would manifest if he said, Well, I'd thank God it was my house and not my neighbor. That was the unselfish spirit of the Apostle Paul.
He was willing to go through anything, suffer anything, for the sake of others, to get others. He said, I die daily. In other words, I get up in the morning as a man sentenced to death. This is my last day. What a difference when you compare what the Apostle Paul and those faithful men, all those faithful men, had to suffer and endure that we might have the gospel as we have it today. Alongside a football field and a stadium where the players practiced every day, a young boy used to watch It went up and down the field and all his eye was glued on the halfback.
He became quite a little pet to these players. They saw the smiling face as he grew up and down there regularly at every practice. One day they missed him. And they inquired as to why the boy wasn't there. They'd all become fond of this little fellow. They found out he had a very, very strange disease and serious, and a rare type of blood, a rare type of blood. And he needed some blood. You know that football team went as a man, because the last man they all went, offered their blood.
And the man's blood who matched this boy was the tackle, and he gave his blood. And this little boy began to recover. So as he began to recover, the father would sit beside him and say, Son, you're getting well. You're getting well. Boy, I said, when you grow up, you're going to be the greatest full-back in the world or half-back in the world. One day, when the father said that, he said, Daddy, I can't be the greatest half-back in the country. Surprised, Father says, why not?
He says, because I got the blood of a tackle. He says, I got tackle blood in me, I'm going to be the greatest tackle in the country. Yeah, that's nice, isn't it? The life of the flesh is in the blood. And that laddie thought, because I've got the blood of a tackle in me, I've got to do what that tackle does. Play as he does. I got the blood of a tackle. When you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, and remember when you do, it's all through his blood. The Spirit of God takes his abode up in you.
You look at what the apostles suffer. You say it's impossible. It would be were it not that you have the life of Christ in you. Yes, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I. Christ, living than me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Oh, to realize what that boy realized, were it not for that tackles, I would have been dead. But now I've got his blood, and he felt he had the very life of that tackle.
He had the true of that tackle. Friend, if it weren't for the death of Christ and the blood he shed, I'd be a lost sinner on the way to hell, if not already there. And the reason I've come these fifty years and accomplished what I have is simply because I have the life of that one. that tackle in me. That one who tackled anything and everything to the glory of God. I can't do it within myself. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. I wonder if you are a Christian this morning. Are you born again?
Have you trusted the blood of Christ? And you can say, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Yes, you can only live up to what the Bible presents. You can only get victory over the world of flesh and the devil. You can only suffer for Christ in the measure that Christ liveth in you. How wonderful. Christ liveth in me. He is the source of all the strength, the wisdom, the energy, the power that you need to live the Christian life. God would not Tell us to do something that's impossible, it would be mockery.
Paul says, I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. Yes, it means an unselfish motive. It means to love others better than you love yourself. Lay down your life, he says, for the devil. That's quite a high standard. You cannot get the victory over the world less and less than less. You know, something of the power, the efficacy of the blood of Christ to cleanse from sin, and have the full resources of an ungrieved Holy Spirit in your heart, and you're drawing upon that power.
It's not in me. It's in Christ, for Christ liveth in me. That's true. of every Christian. And if you're not saved, you come to Christ. Not only will you suffer in this life, if you're not a Christian, you'll suffer in the next. When God's long-suffering ends concerning this world, your long-suffering will begin. It'll be for eternity. A sad one at that. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come before thee. We ask thy blessing upon thy word for the benefit and edification of thy people.
We hang our head with shame. We blush as we think of what the apostle and his friend, his fellow laborers, suffered and went through for the sake of the gospel. How we here today we have all earth's comforts, it seems. and yet we're so afraid of suffering for Christ. Speak up for Christ. Oh God, we're afraid of a little persecution, the curl of the lip, and the cold look because we belong to Christ. Oh, Father, help us to suffer for Christ here, and then we'll reign with him there. Ungrateful be our reward.
Speak to any unsaved one. May all such who are not Christians come to Christ and come this morning. We ask it in his worthy name. Amen.