Glorying in men is a false practice that stems from a man-centered view of Christianity, which was prevalent in the Corinthian church and continues today. The sermon emphasizes that all believers are Christ's, and Christ is God, meaning believers possess all things, including ministers like Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, as well as the world, life, death, things present, and things to come. True wealth and spiritual maturity come from recognizing our relationship with Christ and God, rather than focusing on human leaders or earthly possessions. The ultimate conclusion is that believers should not glory in men but in Christ, understanding the unfathomable wealth and spiritual riches available through Him.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 1.89 → restored 3.87
with fellowship together. We are turning this morning to First Corinthians chapter three. We return to this great epistle, First Corinthians chapter three. And we begin our reading at verse twenty one. Verse twenty one begins with the word therefore. And this word therefore summarizes what he had said thus far. Those of you who have followed in the exposition of First Corinthians, I'm sure you remember, for I've mentioned it many times, that the first four chapters of First Corinthians form the introduction to this book.
And what he has said up to this time is now summarized in a few verses. Verse twenty-one, therefore, Let no man glory in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours, and ye are Christ, and Christ is God. 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.
Now may the Lord bless the reading of these words. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Now let us again just look to the Lord in thanksgiving. Loving Father, We ask you to open our hearts in a special way now. Grant us to behold the glory of thy dear son and what is really ours in him. And we'll thank you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We stand at a unique place again this morning.
We are here, the first Lord's day of the new year. And this portion of the word of God should challenge us, this portion that we read this morning, especially when you read words like this. Therefore let no man glory in them, for all things are yours. And we want to examine what he's ours this morning as the children of God. How wealthy are we? What are we giving to God in return for all that he's done for us? Are we glorying in them? Are we rejoicing in the Lord? Now, let me again impress you with the fact that First Corinthians is the most contemporary epistle in the New Testament.
By contemporary, I mean that it is like twentieth century Christianity. The problems that we face today in Christendom were faced by the church at Corinth. Now, the problem... A carpent from which all other problems sprang. And this church had problems. And the problem from which all others sprang, there was a pervasive man-centeredness there. And it was a man-centeredness rather than a God-centeredness. And if we could be God-centered in our thinking, it would deliver us from the problems you had at carpent.
And it would deliver the church in the twentieth century from the problems that we have today. And the same conditions exist today that existed then. Now, one of the results of this pervasive man-centeredness at Corinth was a false view of Christian leadership. They were attached to men. You have this in the opening section of Corinthians. In First Corinthians one, we find that they were calling themselves after men, I am of Paul. I am of Apollos. I'm of Peter. And then there were those who said, I'm of Christ.
And then they were even introduced baptism into this area. And Paul had to remind them, were you baptized in the name of Paul? Were you baptized in the name of Peter? These men were only servants through whom God worked, and God used them to bring you to faith in him. It is Christ, as God has revealed him in the Word of God, that is important. Now, when you're attached to men, these Corinthians refuse to grow up.
They refused to grow up spiritually. Do you know what? At the beginning of nineteen eighty-seven, I could point my finger at people that I know and ask them, are you going to continue to refuse to grow up spiritually? In nineteen eighty-seven, the people at Corinth, these men, they refused to grow up in the Lord. Now Paul's concern for them was not that they were primarily babies and that their feeding habits, which is normal for babies, there's nothing wrong for a baby to desire milk.
It's perfectly normal for babies. But beloved, when a person has grown and they still want spiritual milk and the clear mark of a spiritual baby, is when he has appetite only for spiritual milk and can't get on with the deep things of God. Arguments, beloved, that deflect the mind from the centrality of Christ and his cross are fleshly and carnal and they hinder development. Now what Paul saw with distress and with apprehension in Corinth was that they were not producing men that were spiritual.
That was Paul's concern. They weren't producing spiritual men. And as we begin in nineteen seventy-seven, and I want to talk to the men for just a second, brethren, are you spiritual? Are you spiritual? Tonight, I'm going to take up the subject, spirituality. What is it? We talk about it, but if you had to give a definition, what would you say it is? Are we spiritual? Beloved, this is a question that we must face.
Now, last time we were together, which was five weeks ago, Noah, A bit longer than that. It's about ten weeks ago that we were in the book of First Corinthians. If it's before, I went away to have a series of meetings in Raleigh. It's a long time to remember these things. But the last time we were together, we examined the three principles that Paul laid down in First Corinthians three and to which we must give attention. God's primary concern is with the worker. and not with a worker. And beloved, if you and I recognize that we are laborers together with God in the vineyards, then God's primary concern is with us.
For if he can get us, where the virtues of the Spirit of God are manifested in us, the work will take care of itself. He's more concerned with the condition of the worker. What is the condition of my heart in relation to the Lord, the worker? And then the second thing that we notice is that the work is God's and it isn't ours. A lot of times we get the idea, it's our work. And we build a fence around it. I tell you that's a sad thing.
I remember, you all remember, I'm sure, Brother John Mike Thomas, a young man that was at Chapel Hill for a little while. What a preacher he was. And God is using him in Staten Island. What a preacher he was. What a delight. I still remember going to see him and we sat together discussing the truths of the grace of God. What a delight he was. But I wanted to visit one day with him, a neighbor that lived right up the street from the chapel there in Chapel Hill, outside of Chapel Hill, because I had witness to that man, and I wanted John Mike to be able to go.
And when I went to see John Mike, he was in no condition to go visit anybody. What was the problem? It wasn't sin in his life. It was the men that he had to deal with. He was dealing with a group of men in that assembly that were not spiritual. They were carnal. They viewed the work as their work, not God's work. And he had such a heavy heart. He was in no condition to visit a person who Jesus helped. And beloved, you and I can get in this same condition.
If we don't realize that the work is God's work, it isn't our work. And the third principle that Paul lays down here in First Corinthians three, God's work must be done God's way. God's work must be done God's way. And you start something, beloved, and you build an appetite Then you have to feed that appetite. And in the church, whatever appetite that you create, that you have to feed. And beloved, if we can create an appetite for spirituality, an appetite to be like Christ, then that appetite can only be fed with the Word of God.
It's the only thing that will feed us. Now today we come to the final three verses in First Corinthians chapter three. Now we want to examine these verses both forward and backward. First, when you read this passage you'll notice something that's very important. For Paul says, Therefore let no man glory in men for all things are yours. And then he builds a pyramid, a verbal pyramid. All things are yours. Ye are Christ and Christ is God. However, when he enumerates the things that are ours, he begins with Paul, Apollos, and Peter. He puts himself at the very bottom.
He's at the very bottom. He's not at the top, though he's an apostle. An apostle was the highest position that God ever created in the church. For through the apostles he gave to us the New Testament. Yet Paul takes his place at the bottom. And he builds from the bottom to the top of the pyramid. And at the top of the pyramid he's God. All things are yours. Ye are Christ and Christ is God. Furthermore, when you come into chapter four in verse one, you read there, Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Now the word there that he uses for ministers is quite unique. It is not the ordinary word that is used in the New Testament. The ordinary word that is used is diakonos. And that is a word from which we get our word, deacon. But here the word is huperity. And the word means an under-rower, a third-galley slave on a ship. Paul puts himself all the way at the bottom. You look at me as being great? You want to be baptized in my name? You're foolish. I'm only a third galley slave. That's all I am in the service of God. Beloved, let no man think of himself more highly than he ought to think.
So says the Word of God. Now, these chapters that have been laying much stress upon men, Paul begins in his verbal pyramid at the very place where they laid their stress. on men, Paul and Apollos and Peter. That's where he began, you see. But now we want to turn this around. And we want to look at this pyramid in a threefold way, but different. We want to look at it from Christy God. What does that mean? Ye are Christ.
What does that mean? And then how wealthy are you? All things are yours. So we want to go backward to this text. For I believe it says you go backward to the text that it becomes real and meaningful to you. First of all, Christ is God. If someone were to ask you, in what way is Christ God? How would you answer that? I believe that this is most important. And once we see this, then we can understand what it means to be Christ. In what way are we Christ? And then we'll have a new grip of things.
All things are yours and they'll become meaningful to us. You'll notice when we speak of Christ is God and ye are Christ, we're talking about relationships. And relationships are always The most important thing in life. Relationships. Relationships. You can easily do without things. But you cannot do without relationships. Relationships are most important. Number one, Christ is God. First of all, Christ is God's by eternal union.
Philippians two six speaks of Christ. Thought it not a thing. of European something that should be grasped at to be God. He was God. John one, one, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Or as the Greek text says, God was the Word. In other words, our Lord Jesus is God by eternal union. First Timothy, three, sixteen, four without controversy, great is a mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
So Christ is God by eternal union. He ever was with a father. Proverbs chapter eight tells us that I was with him when creation was accomplished. I was by him as one brought up with him. He was right there. And Ephesians chapter three and verse ten says that God created all things by Jesus Christ. So he's his by eternal union. But second, he is his by incarnation. He is the only begotten of the Father.
John one fourteen says, And the word became flesh and tabernacle among us, and we beheld his glory, the glorious of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, the only begotten. John three sixteen, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Colossians one and fifteen says that Christ is the image of the invisible God. The invisible God has been made known to us in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells.
For it pleased the Father that in him all fullness should dwell. So that in Ephesians or Hebrews chapter one and verse three we read that he is the express image of God's person. When I worked at the electrical trade, I did a lot of work in a machine shop. And in this particular machine shop, they also made dyes that were used in punch presses. A press that a piece of steel is put under the press, a button is pushed, and the press comes down. And as that press comes down, that dye forms that metal into the very...
nature of itself. And I'm sure each one of you has eaten at one time or another at a great food that is produced in Pennsylvania called Hershey Kisses or Hershey Candy Bars. Be they milk chocolate or whatever. And you'll notice you take that piece of candy out of the wrapper and there you see the name Hershey right across it. I saw the dye. I was in the machine shop that made the dye and the mold. As that machine came down, and when that came down, it became the express image of the dye.
And beloved our Lord Jesus Christ is the express image of the Godhead. So we read in Hebrews chapter one and verse three. So when we read that Christ is God, He is not only His by eternal union. He is His in the incarnation. He could say to the Father, when He cometh into the world, a body hath thou prepared me. And to Philip, that night in which he was betrayed, he said to him, He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father. He is not only His by eternal union.
He is not only His by the incarnation, but He became His by volition. Our Lord Jesus could say, as we read in John six, verse thirty-nine, I came down from heaven. Not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. I came down from heaven, and I had submitted my will to the will of the Father. Christ. is God by volition. I do always those things that please the Father. But then second, our text says that we are Christ.
Now we are Christ in a five-fold way. Number one, we are His by creation. It is God who made us, and not we ourselves. We learn this in Psalm Acts chapter seventeen Paul says we are the offspring of God and in as much as we are the offspring of God we shouldn't worship idols which the Athenians have been doing we are his by creation God made us a hundred and thirty ninth Psalm declares that God takes full responsibility for you He knew every one of your members before they ever existed.
That's what I read in the hundred thirty-nine psalm. You are the product of God. You are his by creation. But more than that, we who know Christ are his by divine bestowment. In other words, that passage, that glorious passage of the Scriptures, John chapter seventeen, six times over in the seventeenth of John, our Lord Jesus speaks of us, the redeemed family, as those who were given to him by the Father. I want you to turn to John seventeen.
I want you to notice how impressive this chapter is. And that it is a chapter devoted to prayer, the prayer of our blessed Lord. And he's praying for us. If you're his this morning, in the new life that's in Christ, you are in that company that was given to him, our Lord Jesus, as a love gift by the Father. Verse two. He says, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
Notice we were given to Christ. Verse six, I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Verse nine, I pray for them. I pray not for the world. but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Verse eleven, the end of the verse, those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. Verse twelve, while I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I have kept.
Verse twenty-four, Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. What do I learn? We are given to Christ as a love gift by God the Father. I am his not only by creation. He made me. I am his by divine bestowment. I was given to Christ by God the Father. As we read in Ephesians one in verse four. we were chosen in him. Furthermore, we were given to him, John seventeen, and in John chapter seventeen, we are kept by him.
We are Christ by creation, by divine bestowment. But third, we are Christ by redemption. Christ by redemption. First Peter, one-eighteen says, We were redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with a precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. We are His by redemption. His by redemption. To redeem means to buy back, to buy out of the slave market. And the stories told concerning redemption of the little boy who lived by the river and he made himself a boat, a small boat.
He worked on it and he worked on it and he carved it and he would take it to the river and he would play with it. And one day the current just took his boat. It was a beautiful thing. It was beautiful. It just swept it away. Months later. He found that very boat for sale in a hardware store. Someone had found that boat and it had been swept along by the current down stream somewhere and it was so well done. He sold it. And now it is for sale. The little boy went in to the store and he said, that's my boat.
That's my boat. Oh, the man says, well, you may have it for a certain price. It's my boat. I made it. I made it. Well, the man says you can't have it unless you produce the money. Well, the little boy worked, and he worked. He wanted his boat back. And beloved sin has so ruined the human family. God who created us, he wants us. And in order to have us, that little boy one day, went into that store and he pumped the money on the counter. And he said, I want my boat.
And going out the store, he said, he talked to his boat. He said, I made you. But you got away. But now I've bought you your mind forever. And beloved at the cross on Calvary's Hill, our Lord Jesus paid the debt. In order that we might be his, And if we're His this morning, we are His. Not only by creation and by divine bestowment, we are His by redemption. He redeemed us. He made us His own. More than that, we are His by divine providence. We are His by divine providence, and I love this.
You and I belong to a family in which all things work together for good to them that love God. Divine providence. We don't think much of divine providence, but we need to meditate upon it. I had a friend who is now with a Lord who had a daughter that was born with a deformed back. She had five operations before she was five years old. And he said every operation is more serious. And he said she called the stretcher the banana cart. That's what she called it. And the last operation that she had, she just clung to her daddy and she cried out, Daddy, don't let them put me on that banana cart.
And he said, You don't know how I broke my heart to pull her little hands away from my neck and put her down on that cart. But he says, Since she's grown, she has thanked me many a time that as a loving father, I wasn't overruled by my emotions. but I was overruled by wisdom. And you and I are in a family that God may permit things that hurt, and the reason he permits it, it is for our good and for his glory. Divine providence, we know that all things do work together for good to them that love God. So we can say with a poet, ill that God blesses is our good, and unblessed good is ill, and all is right that seems most wrong.
if it be his sweet will. You see, he knows what he's doing. We're in a family that's ruled by divine providence. But more than that, we are his bivolition. Just as Christ is God's bivolition, he says, I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. You and I who have trusted Christ as Lord and Savior, we have submitted ourselves to him. We own his lordship. And from our hearts we cry, Lord, I want to do your will. Oh, that that were true in nineteen seventy-seven.
I'm yours, O Lord, Bible issue. We must move on. Our text says all things are yours. How wealthy are you? Well, he begins with Paul. whether Paul or Apollos or Peter. Here's the first clue. Who are they? They're ministering brethren. They're the gifts that God has given to the church. God has given to the church gifts. And they're ours. They're ours to make us wealthy in him. Paul says, don't glory in men. All things are yours. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas. Where would you be this morning?
If Paul were ministering at the First Baptist Church. Well, I'll tell you where I'd like to be. I'd like to be there listening to him. What a joy to listen to that man preach. Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ. Well, beloved, I don't need a prayer. I have more of Paul than they could ever get at First Baptist this morning if he came to preach. I have his writings. He wrote most of the New Testament. I am more appalled than the Corinthians had. I am more appalled than the Galatians had.
And beloved these gifts, as Luther in that great hymn, you know, a mighty fortress is our God. I don't know if you think of the words in the third stanza. It says the spirit and the gifts are ours. Spirit and the gift. How wealthy are you? All things are yours. You have to move on. He takes up the world. The world is ours. Now it's one thing to have the world. It's another thing for the world to have you. Do you have the world or does the world have you? I told this story often about the missionary from Maltuna, Calvary Baptist, and Maltuna that has been in Africa for forty-some years.
And this was during the days of the five and dime stores. I think you remember Macquarie's, I do. Macquarie's especially. And Grants and all these others. And when she came back to Altoona, they took her through one of these large five and dime stores. They took about three hours for she stopped at every counter. And these ladies couldn't wait to rush to when she got off. She never bought anything. When she came up, they said, well, what did you think? Oh, she said, isn't it wonderful? Isn't it wonderful? All the things you can do without. Let me ask you this morning, do you have the world or does the world have you?
All things are yours. The world is ours. But then he says, life. Life is the possession of the believer. John, seventeen, fifteen, the Lord Jesus prayed, Father, I will not let you take them out of the world. Now there's only two ways for me to leave the world, either by the rapture or by death. And it's the will of God that I don't go out of the world. That's why I'm still here. Father, I will not let you take them out of the world. It is the will of God for us to live physically. Oh, the morning that I learned that I worship. I'm not going to die before my time. And, beloved, when it's my time to go home to be with the Lord, there isn't a team of doctors that can keep me here.
And before it's my time to go home to be with the Lord, there isn't an army on earth that can take me. That should give us strength and encouragement day by day to proclaim the message of the gospel. All things are yours. Minister and give. The world is ours. Life is ours. And the child of God is the only one who really enjoys life. Now, I've worked with a lot of rough characters in my time. And I remember at an off moment one of the men who was quite a bird. He said to me, Bonnie, he said, you're the only one who is happy all the time.
What makes a difference? Life is ours. It's ours, beloved. More than that, death is ours. Death doesn't have us. We have it. Oh, that we might grasp this. Why is it ours? Well, because Christ conquered it for us. He threw death. And through death, he destroyed him who has the power of death. Death is ours. And death becomes a very servant of the child of God that ushers us into the presence of the Lord. I don't know if you get excited about this, but I do. I want to live as long as I can.
But I tell you, the thought of going home to be with the Lord is a precious thought for me. And you see, last week I had the funeral for our brother Julius Murphy, who's been on our prayer list for years. He had a broken back. And he was... From here on down, he was a vegetable. If I may use that expression. He just had no feeling. And the night before he passed away, I was at his bedside. I had to get down, and I could hardly hear what he said. He was at his weakest point. And the next morning, Christmas Day, he was home in glory.
Home in glory, Christmas Day. And I thought, As I prepared that message of the sixteenth of Luke, in Luke sixteen the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man died, he was buried. But the beggar, he was carried by the angels. Death is ours, beloved. It's ours. It's our servant. More than that, he speaks of things present. Things present. God has so ordered all things that they belong to the believer. For God's glory. Do we possess things or do things possess us?
Finally, he talks about things to come. Hebrews chapter one or chapter two, verse six says, God has not put into subjection the world to come, the angels, but he has given it to us. Things to come. Things to come. It says, all are yours, you are Christ, and Christ is God. In closing, I want to ask a couple questions. Number one, do you realize how wealthy you are? Don't measure your wealth by things of earth. It's all going to pass away. The things that are most important have to do with relationships. A relationship with Jesus Christ brings you into this unfathomable wealth.
that is ours in him. Do you know it? Do you realize it? Or if you're not saved, a question for you, do you realize how poor you are? Those of us this morning were saved, how wealthy we are. But if you're not saved, do you know how poor you are? And you're poor because of things that really count you don't have. Why not come to Christ today? Trust Him. Let's pray together. Oh God, our Father, we ask thee in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to make us aware of what we really have, what is ours.
We thank you again for all things. And that because of this, we can say we are Christ. And Christ is God. He dismisses with thy blessing. Bring us together again this afternoon for a joyous time as we behold the obedience of these two in their identification with our Lord Jesus Christ. And then again tonight, and we'll thank you in his wordy name, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.