The divisions and carnality in the Corinthian church stemmed from a man-centered focus rather than a God-centered one, as evidenced by their attachment to human leaders like Paul and Apollos. Paul's correction emphasizes that ministers are merely servants of God, and only God gives the increase, urging believers to avoid pride and jealousy. True spirituality is demonstrated by a Christ-centered life, humility, and recognizing the equality of all believers as God's building, with individual rewards determined by their faithful labor upon the foundation of Jesus Christ.
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We want to turn this morning to First Corinthians chapter three, and we want to begin our reading at verse one. First Corinthians chapter three. May I say very quickly, it's nice to be back home. Being away for three Sundays is a long time. Nevertheless, I can say the Lord blessed the ministry of the word of God in Bermuda, but it's always good to be home. I Corinthians three, verse one, and I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
For ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you, envying in strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? For while one saith I am of Paul, and another I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labor.
For we are laborers together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed, how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Now may the Lord bless the reading of his word. Let's pray. Our loving Father, as we bow in thy holy presence, we thank you for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we thank you for that grace which sought us when we were enemies in our minds by wicked works when we were lost undone ungodly we thank you that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us because you commend your love toward us and we rejoice this morning in this love in action which we know of as thy wondrous grace.
Now we ask as we're gathered together this morning that we may hear the voice of the great shepherd of the sheep, speaking to his own, calling his own sheep by name, and ministering to their souls. And then we pray not only for ourselves, but we ask on behalf of the missionary family. We ask you for them. We think of Mrs. Patterson in St. Croix, and we ask that she may know thy rich blessing. We think of the Latins there in Puerto Rico who have carried on for thee over the years, whose ministry you are blessed, and who continue to labor faithfully for thee.
We think of the Stephens and ask thy blessing upon them. And we pray for Sarah Murdoch. There in Bolivia, learning the language, ministering to the boys and girls, seeking to build up the family of God. Oh, we thank you for those who have gone forth. And we ask our God for our own assembly here, that thou wilt build us up in love, in fellowship, in joy, in praise, and in every way necessary to truly bring glory and honor to the risen head of the church, the one in whose name we meet, even our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. Thank you. Turn, please, in two eighty-seven.
In two eighty-seven. One day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, of my dream treasure, and now I am free, all because Jesus was prepared for me.
Dying for me, dying for me. There on the cross he was dying for me. Now in his death my redemption I sinned. Oh, because Jesus was dying for me. Risen for me, risen for me.
Up from the grave, he has risen for me. Now evermore, from death's name I am free. All become strangers as risen for me. Living for me, living for me. A bill of God is living for me.
Giving His willing and praying for me. Oh, because Jesus is willing for me. coming for me, coming for me. One day to life is coming for me. Then with cross joy is dear place I shall flee. Lord, I praise him. He's coming for me. Well, the precious promise he's coming for me.
Before the ministry of the word this morning, hymn two ninety. Hymn two ninety. Shall we stand, please, as we sing together? Hymn two ninety. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength is known, Come to thee, I'll be thy faith, Thy name be thy love. Jesus made it all, all to him I owe.
Since I left the crimson tree, he washed his lawyer's rule. Lord, now indeed I find thy final rome, and change all that first thought, and melt the heart of stone. Jesus made it all, how to hear my own. See in hand that thou crimson's ring, He washed his iron store.
For nothing good have I, Whereby thy grace we claim, I'll wash my garments dry in the blood of Calvary's land. Jesus, say it all, I'll be here my own. He had left a crimson string. He watched it wider so. And when before a throne I stand in him the queen, Jesus died, my soul he saved, my lips shall still repeat.
Jesus paid his own, up to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson sin, he watched it while he was so. Now let us look to the Lord in prayer. Now, Father, as we open our precious word together, we earnestly pray that thou will open our hearts, that the name of our blessed Lord will be honored and glorified in our midst.
Deliver us from anything that would hinder, and may we know that blessed joy that comes from having our souls fed. with the good things from thy precious word. We pray giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The first four chapters of First Corinthians form the foundation as well as an introduction to this great epistle, First Corinthians. Now all that he's dealt with elsewhere in this great epistle finds its meaning and its first mention in one way or another in these first four chapters.
Now that is why these first four chapters are so important. Now there were problems at Corinth. Corinth was what I would call the contemporary church. It is contemporary with a church in all centuries down to the history of the church. And the Corinthian epistle is a contemporary epistle in the New Testament. And you can find something, and it almost appears like a mirror when you look into this book. Now, one of the major problems, if not the major problem at Corinth, was a man-centeredness instead of a God-centeredness.
They were man-centered in their thinking instead of being God-centered. That made for wrong thinking and that made for wrong living. Any person who is man-centered in their thinking is going to live in a wrong way before God and before other believers. We must be Christ-centered in our thinking. and in our living. You see, one of the results of this man-centeredness at Corinth was their wrong view of leadership. And this wrong view of leadership declares itself in chapter three, for you see they were attached to men instead of being attached to the living Lord.
Now this is very important. Why did God save us? What is God's purpose? in saving us. Ephesians chapter one verse four says, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that's God's electing love, God's divine eternal purpose, he's chosen in him before the foundation of the world, the next verse says that we should be holy. That is the objective of God to make us to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ.
That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. When you read this third chapter of First Corinthians, you become aware immediately that Paul's concern for them was not that they were primarily babies. For there's nothing wrong with being a baby. We all were, both physically and physically. And if you're saved this morning, you were spiritually. Because when we're saved, we're born into the family of God, and it is necessary for us to grow. But in the natural, if the things that persist in babyhood, and you know what the things that persist in babyhood are, you know?
Even a little girl like my granddaughter, it's my ball. It's my this. It's my that. They're grasping. And if you don't play my way, we're not going to do it at all. These things are marks of babyhood. And when these babyhood habits persist in the later life as believers, it's a clear mark, beloved. that a spiritual baby is when the appetite of a person who has been saved for a number of years is only for milk.
And we have no desire to get down into the deeper things of the Word of God. Not a march of carnality were very evident at Corinth. They were jealousy and strife, arguing and quarreling among themselves, and they formed little groups that had a very pious sound. I'm of Paul. Well, that sounds good, doesn't it? I'm of Apollos. Boy, he was a great preacher. But that group that said, I'm of Christ. That sounded better yet for the natural man. But you see, beloved arguments that deflect the mind from the centrality of Christ and His cross.
They are fleshly, they are carnal, and they hinder development in the child of God. God saves us with a purpose. No one can walk the Christian walk unless they have first of all been born into the family of God. If we're trying to walk the Christian life or the Word of God commands us, walk in the Spirit, and he will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now it's impossible to walk in the Spirit if we don't have the Spirit. So therefore the new birth is so important. If we have been saved by the grace of God, then, then we are commanded to walk readily of the Lord.
In other words, my life should be one of increasing in holiness and devotion to the Lord. Now Paul in verses five through nine gives us the remedy for the divisions that existed at current. And this remedy is so important. In verse five he says, what then is Paul? Did you notice the way I put it? I put it the way it is in the original. In the King James translation it says, who then is Paul? Now that would be proper grammar. But Paul, who wrote by divine inspiration, was not as much interested in grammar as he was in applying truth.
And the verse really says, what then is Paul? He uses the neutered gender. What is Paul? What is Apollos? And really what he's saying is Paul and Apollos are nothing. According to verse seven, so then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth. It is God who gives the increase who is all in all. Now what Paul saw with distress and apprehension in Corinth was that they were not producing men who were spiritual. Paul looked for spirituality.
And what did he find? He found carnality. And beloved, we need to ask ourselves the question, am I spiritual as God sees me? Now, let me illustrate that for a moment. In today's world, no matter what you watch on television, whether you watch the World Series, and someone said to me last night they're ready to say play ball when we were at the banquet together and it was a banquet by the way but nevertheless someone says just about time for them to say play ball but in the midst of it all no matter if it's a football game or a baseball game or a tennis match what happens you see advertising.
And all of us are bombarded by the advertising medium of the day. Here's a man who is advertising, say, Dr. Pepper or Coca-Cola or some other soft drink. But the real issue, beloved is, does a man who's doing the advertising drink the stuff himself when he's in his own home? That's the real issue. Does he drink it himself? Or is he just there doing a job? So now we apply it to ourselves, and I'm going to apply it to myself. Does a preacher drink what he himself hands out from the platform, from the pulpit?
Do I drink that which I hand out to others from the platform, you see? This is a question that's being asked by the child of our time, who has been burned by the publicity of advertising. And advertising takes a lot of place in many people's lives, for it has been proven you advertise your product on television, you're going to sell it in the department store. Now, it's not, does a preacher work hard on his preaching? That is not the issue. The issue is, does the preacher quench his thirst with a word of God?
That's the issue. That's the issue. In other words, to put it in a different way, where is the center of gravity in his own life? Is the center of gravity in God, in the glory of God, in the gospel of God, in the cause of God? Is this where the center of gravity is, or is it somewhere else? You see, at the end of verse three, and the beginning of verse four, he says, you are behaving like ordinary men. That's what Paul had to say to the people at Corinth.
A people who had been called by God, who had been saved by God, who had been gifted by God, who had every blessing of God, he had to say to them, you're acting like ordinary men. And that's what the word carnality means. Were it not for the fact that they had been saved by the grace of God, you couldn't tell the difference between them and the ordinary person of the world. You see, jealousy and quarreling are the real test of character. Now let's apply that for a moment. I have to ask myself the question, can I truly be glad when God is blessing and using someone else in a way that he is not blessing and using me?
You know, there was a time in my life when I looked at verses like in Romans fourteen where it says that we're to rejoice with them that rejoice and to weep with them that weep. I used to think, oh, it's a lot. easier to rejoice with them that rejoice than it is to weep with them that weep. But I'm not so sure about that. I tell you, it's a lot easier to weep with those who weep than it is to rejoice with those who do rejoice. I think of it much differently now. When you see God blessing someone else, And you long for that blessing and it isn't yours.
Does it create jealousy? Does it create a quarrelsomeness? Can you rejoice with those who rejoice as well as weep with those who weep? You see, it's another thing to genuinely enter into the joy of someone else. And that we are called upon to do as the Lord's people. As an Aaron Jensen, that great missionary to Burma, when he finished his studies at Andover Theological Seminary, and he was about to sail for Burma, he wrote this in his journal.
And I'm going to quote what he wrote. He said in his journal, I crave from God such a pure zeal for his glory that I may have a holy disinterest in whom he uses so long as the name of my dear Savior is honored and his kingdom grows. Beloved, that is Christ-centeredness. give me a holy disinterest in whom he uses just so the Lord is glorified.
Now that's what God wants from us. Now beloved this is a need among God's people today. The jealousy and the strife which were so evident at Corinth are not so far removed from our own hearts. In this our day now we have to realize a few things what's the remedy number one the work is God's work not our work notice again in verse five who then excuse me what then is Paul I have to use the grammar of the New Testament what then is Paul and what is Apollos but ministers And that word, minister, is the word diakone in the Greek.
And it's a word from which we get our word, deacon. It was meant just the one who waits on the table, just one who serves another. That's all that the word means in the basic issue. And if you look down at chapter four, verse one. He says, Paul writes, and he says, Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ. Now, that word there for minister is not the aconist. It isn't that word there. The word there is who parodies. And it means an under-roar on a ship. It means I'm just a third galley slave.
I'm at the very bottom. I'm at the very bottom. Now take a look at the last three verses of chapter three. Verses that we didn't read. Verse twenty one says, Therefore let no man glory and men for all things are yours. What things are yours? Whether Paul or Apollos or Peter or the world or life or death or things present or things to come. All are yours. What is Paul saying? By divine inspiration, he's saying, we are your servants. What then is Paul?
What is Apollos? We are nothing. God is everything. It is God who gives the increase. So the last verse says, ye are Christ, and Christ is God. Now back to verse six. Verse six, Paul says, I have planted. Apollos watered. But God giveth the increase. And apart from God giving the increase, all the planting and the watering mean nothing. So you notice, first of all, because it is God's work that is most important, and God will not give his glory to another, we read in Psalm one hundred eighteen, I think it is, this truth must be kept before us.
The work of God in the world is God's work. It is not our work. Now this calls for something. And we want to lay stress on verse seven and verse eight. For in verse seven we notice it calls for humility before God. He says, so then neither is he the plant of anything. You see why in verse five he says, what then is Paul? In verse seven he says, he is nothing. Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.
Humility, beloved, is so important. And humility is not groveling. Groveling is not humility. Groveling is a self-serving, self-pleasing attitude that men have. Groveling has no part. In biblical Christianity. It does have a part, however, in the works of Charles Dickens. In David Copperfield. I don't know if you've read David Copperfield. Many think it was the autobiography of Charles Dickens. But in David Copperfield, you remember Uriah Heap?
He was that groveling... Little monster who always said, I'm just a humble man, Mr. Copperfield. I'm just a humble man, Mr. Copperfield. That's what he said, but he wasn't humble at all. You see, he was always parading his humility, and he didn't believe it for a moment. He had a sense of his own importance and a driving ambition. And in order to cover it up, I'm just an humble man, Mr. Copperfield. You see, I don't know if you've read that work of Charles Dickens or not, but it's years ago when I read it.
That's something I read when I was in high school. But you see, groveling, and this fellow was just a groveler, Uriah heap. He was saturated with his own self-importance. And he tried to appear the opposite. That is not humility. That's groveling. Genuine humility, beloved, is a fruit of Christ's likeness. Lowliness of heart is something that those who haven't are quite unconscious of the fact that it's theirs. It's like the experience of Moses on Mount Sinai with the Lord.
When he came down from the presence of the Lord, his face shone, and he didn't know it. He wished it not. That means it was a genuine thing. Humility of heart. Oh, how we need this in a genuine way. Now, this is a principle, beloved, that runs throughout the chapters. God-centeredness rather than man-centeredness in our thinking, in our living, and in our serving. True humility and loneliness of mind are really come from a Christ-centeredness, and that's why it is so costly.
Not true humility is not the same thing as having an effect. If we are a people who go around trying to have an effect on others, we've missed it. That's not true humility. True humility is not the same thing as having a retiring personality. It's not that either. In fact, true humility doesn't have much to do with personality. True humility flows from divine grace and divine grace alone. In Scotland, the great church of three St.
George's, they had that great preacher, Alexander White. And you've often heard me speak of Alexander White. He's written a book on, or the series of books on the Bible characters, White's Bible characters, and he also has written a series on Bunyan's characters. the characters in Bunyan's various works, especially Pilgrim's Progress. And Alexander White was a great preacher in the days of great preaching in Scotland. There were many great preachers, and he preached at three St. George's. Well, there was a young man who was much lionized in the papers of the day for when a man was a great preacher many times the sermons were taken down in shorthand and they were published in the paper during the week and there was a young man he was a rising star coming in Scotland and my the newspapers made much of him and he was going to preach for Dr.
White at three St. George's on the Sunday night and the place was packed And he bounded up the pulpit. He didn't have a Bible. He didn't have a note. He had nothing. And he was so sure of himself, you know. And then when he got up to preach, something happened, which often happens to preachers. His mind went blank. And there he stood. And whenever your mind goes blank, especially when you're in the platform, I tell you, you can't think.
It's a strange thing. Your mind goes and you're in real trouble. And this young father, he just about crawled out of the pulpit. And he met the great Dr. White afterward. And he said, to him, what went wrong? Well, he said, young Radi, if you would have went up the way you can dune, you might have come dune the way you went up. And you see, he just about was right. He was right. That's true humility. The young man thought he would be the cause of his own effect.
But he wasn't. true humility. But not only if we realize that the work is God's and not ours, that brings us to verse eight. Not only must we have humility before God, but it calls for equality before one another. For verse eight says, the he that planteth and he that watereth are one. Now let me just inject something here. I've mentioned a number of times that the first four chapters of First Corinthians are introductory to this epistle. And they lay a foundation for everything else that's going to be dealt with.
In chapter twelve of First Corinthians, you have the great chapter on the gifts. And one gift parading above another. Those who had the showing gifts wanted to show them off. And Paul in chapter twelve, he deals with a body and that all the members of the body are important for God has gifted each member. Now, well, that's exactly what he's saying here. He's laying the foundation for what he's going to give later. If you miss it here, it will not have the effect that it should have in chapter twelve. He says in verse eight, now he that planted and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.
Beloved, the same sinister spirit which creates a lack of humility also creates a lack of equality. The same pride which refuses to give God his place refuses to give my brother his place. They work together. Now these two men's labors are vital, but they are both equal. Paul and Apollos are equal. They are different. Paul was an apostle. He could claim certain things for himself, certain authority.
He says so in chapter nine of first Corinthians. He says, am I not an apostle? There are things that Paul could have done, but he didn't. Why? He saw the truth of the body of Christ. That's what he saw. You see, neither of the gifts must affect a superiority over the other. No, it's possible to have this attitude. And to refuse equality to a brother or a sister, we can affect superiority. It can be done in various ways. It can be done by age.
We can use our age to do it. I'm not going to say much about that, but we can use our age to affect superiority. More than that, we can use our intellect to do it. We can use the gift that God has given us. We can use our status. I'm here longer than anybody else. Status can be used. And when these things happen, they love it. Anything that takes us away from Christ, it makes us grossly unteachable.
We become unteachable. Verse eight B says, Each shall receive... His own reward are according to His own labor. It's God who's going to make the assessment. And it's going to be made at the judgment seat of Christ. And we read those verses. It's going to be made at the judgment seat of Christ. And while I spoke on the judgment seat of Christ about eight or nine Sundays ago, maybe ten or eleven, but remember what I said. Performance in the family determines position in the kingdom.
Beloved, we're only in this life for a few paltry years. The Word of God says, teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. We don't do that. We number our years. How old are you? On thirty-nine and some month. But you see, the word of God says, teach us to number our days. Boast not thyself of tomorrow. Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth, not a year, but a day. God says, teach us to number our days.
And our days on earth are very few. The older you get, the more rapid the years move. And we're here such a short time. And we've forgotten the last stanza of amazing grace. Oh, we sing it. And many would claim that's my favorite song. What we live is, oh, the last stanza doesn't mean anything. When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as a sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we've first. begun. Performance in the family determines position in the kingdom.
Is all your activity geared to this life? Or is it geared for eternity? Concerning Moses, it says that he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. That means he refused the kingship of Egypt. He could have been the Pharaoh of Egypt. He refused it all. He re-esteemed the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. That is what Paul is saying in regards to one another. Equality does not imply similarity. Some people think everybody has to be rubber-stamped.
just like they are. Aren't you glad there's only one of me? Everybody thinks you have to be rubber-stamped. You don't. It doesn't imply similarity. My hand is different than my foot. That's a teaching of First Corinthians twelve. My eye has a different function than my ear. That is a teaching of First Corinthians twelve also. You see, equality does not mean similarity, nor does it mean identity.