The church is called to be God-centered, not man-centered, recognizing that believers are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul admonishes the Corinthians for their divisions and pride, urging them to build on the foundation of Christ with materials that will endure judgment, such as gold, silver, and precious stones, rather than wood, hay, or stubble. The sermon highlights that worldly wisdom is foolishness with God and that unchecked sin, like leaven, can corrupt the entire body of believers. Ultimately, believers are called to live in the holiness of God, recognizing their high position as those who will judge the world and angels, and to glorify God in spirit and body.
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Returning tonight to First Corinthians chapter three. And while we turn, let me just say that my wife's temperature is not as high as it has been. It has been going up very rapidly like a cannon. Normal one minute and the next minute way up. But it hasn't been going up as high. The highest today from the records is a hundred point five. So that's a lot better than a hundred four point five and a hundred three point five and things like this. So we thank the Lord for that. All her tests are good.
Remember to also to pray for Mrs. Betty Braxton. She's had a rough time of it with illness. She's had a bug too. And we want to remember her in our prayers and You just thank God for the Christians in a fellowship. I'm just giving the illustration. Mrs. Edgerton said, you know, I can't sit through a meeting yet, but I could come to your house and stay with Phyllis tomorrow morning in case you would have been home today. I could come to your house and stay with her and be company for her while you go to the meeting.
You just want to thank God for... these kind of people that are in the family of God and we rely on each other and on each other's prayers and we can thank the Lord for the assembly of God's people. Now we're in First Corinthians three tonight and we want to read a few verses beginning at verse sixteen. First Corinthians three verse sixteen where the apostle Paul says, No ye not, that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.
For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are? Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. 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 knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Wherefore, or therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours. And then he tells us what these all things are, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come.
All are yours. and your Christ and Christ is God's. Now let us pray together. Our Father, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we marvel that you can be so interested in us. We marvel at your love and grace bestowed upon us through Christ Jesus our Lord. We thank you that this grace which is ours was given us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. But it came to be known by us in time through the preaching of the gospel, through the revelation you've given in the gospel, and we thank you for the faith which you gave us to believe that message, and to rejoice in the knowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, He's Savior, He's exalted at thy right hand, He is a king upon his throne.
Truly, all the glorious names, a wisdom, love, and power that mortals ever knew, that angels ever bore. There's none like the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we thank you tonight that we can cast our burdens upon thee. We pray especially tonight for Betty Braxton. We pray for Kate Toxler's son. who's a diabetic, we ask you to undertake on his behalf as well. We pray for Mrs. Edgerton and for Phyllis, for Mrs. Rudd. And then there's that vast list on the prayer list, little Bobby Bartlett and all the other problems that they possess.
And for J.T. there in Oklahoma and others. We thank you that we can cast every burden upon you for you care for us. We have a blessed comforter who lives within the Spirit of God. We have a great intercessor in that high priest at thy right hand, for all authority is in his hands. He has crushed the serpent's head. He has risen victorious over the grave. And with him we sing the deathless song. O death, where is I sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Father, with these things before us, we can ask on behalf of others and receive because you delight to give.
And we ask that as we study together tonight, you will give us that which pleases you and enables us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray in his worthy name. Amen. The church of the Corinthians, or the church of Corinth, is very contemporary with the church of the twentieth century. Do you want to understand the church in which you and I live in today? You have to be acquainted with First Corinthians. And I believe the main reason for this is the man-centeredness of the Corinthians and the man-centeredness that exists today among God's people rather than God-centeredness.
Being God-centered is the thrust of the New Testament, not man-centered. We're so preacher-oriented today, and this one oriented, and that one oriented. We should be God-oriented. Now, to be man-centered brings its problems with it, especially as it relates to conduct. before the Lord and as it relates to conduct in the local church. The saints of Corinth are now told by the Apostle the importance of building in the light of the judgment seat of Christ.
What you have in First Corinthians chapter three is the judgment. And he tells them that he laid the foundation. As the foundation layer, you don't see much of a man who's working on the foundation of a building. He digs deep to lay a solid foundation. And Paul laid a solid foundation. And he tells us this. When we look at verse nine, he says, We are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry. You're God's farm. You are God's building. he brings a thought of a farm there and he brings a thought of a building there then he adds 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 because no other foundation can be laid than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ in other words he has the retention riveted on the person and work of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now he says you can build on this foundation and there are different kinds of material. There's gold, there's silver, there's precious stones. There is wood, there is hay, there is stubble. And of course you know you can get a big load of hay for a little bit of gold. You can get a big load of wood for a diamond. Maybe you can get a couple loads. You see the importance. Fire will burn the wood, the hay, and the stubble. But it will only make a diamond more brilliant.
It will take impurities out of gold. And of course, gold is our contemplation of God. Silver is our proclamation of redemption. And, of course, precious stones are our evaluation of souls. This is what is brought before us. And therefore, he says in verse fifteen, if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. And therefore, that leads us to verse sixteen where we began with the first of these in first corinthians eight times over the apostle paul says know ye not i don't know if you've ever studied the know ye nots of first corinthians but the lord has been impressing these upon me for the past month know ye not and the know ye not here i want you to notice is the first and because they are wrong here the others follow in natural sequence.
I want to read them all at this time. Notice verse fifteen. If any, or verse sixteen, know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. Now that leads us over to chapter five for the next one. And verse six. He says to them in this fifth chapter, Your glorying is not good. know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. And then we go to the third, chapter six and verse two. Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?
And then in verse three, know ye not that we shall judge angels? Tremendous questions. Now we go down to the fifth one, down in verse nine. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived. Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind. It appears that the church of our lot is cast. The church of today doesn't know this. They have an idea that a homosexual is all right. They have an idea that you can commit adultery and everything is all right.
That's the church of today, because the church of today is man-centered rather than God-centered. What does man think about this? What do the scholars say? Not what does God say. There's a big difference. And Paul says, No ye not, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived. And then, of course, Number six is in chapter six and verse fifteen. He says to them, Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ. Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot?
God forbid. The next one is verse sixteen. What? Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body. For two saith he shall be one flesh. And then finally, in verse nineteen, he almost comes back here, but not in the same way. And we'll deal with this a bit tonight. What? Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own. For ye are bought with of Christ, therefore glorify God, and your spirits, and your bodies and spirits, which are gods.
This expression, no ye not, appears here in this epistle, and they are all related to the first usage. Here we have eight things that the Corinthian believers didn't seem to know, and the very us that Paul taught them. Otherwise he wouldn't have said, no ye not. He took for granted that they knew these things, for he taught them at Corinth when he sowed the seed. but they had become so interested in what other men had to say when Paul left. They became man-centered rather than God-centered. And in doing so, Paul has to write back to them and tell them these things and quiz them on these things that are so important.
Now, the first one that we read about tonight is in verse sixteen of the third chapter. Here we have the corporate indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Did you notice how I put that? I put that in the context in which it's found. Here you have not the individual indwelling of the Spirit, though to have the corporate, you must have the individual, which you find in First Corinthians six, our bodies being the temple of the Holy Spirit. But when the church of Jesus Christ is gathered together, you have the corporate indwelling of the Spirit of God.
In other words, the Spirit of God indwells the church when the church is met together. So when we come to verse seventeen, he says, If any man defile, that word defile in verse seventeen could be translated more, deface. If any man defaced The temple of God. If any man defaced the church, God will mar that man. That man will be marred by him. Why? For the temple of God. The church of God is holy.
The church of God is a living organism. It is not an organization. It is an organism. Why do you think? This came to me the other morning thinking about these truths as I was shaving. I said, why do you think that the church is likened to a body? In my body, all the members work together. It was created by God. In the church, for all the members to work together, it calls for a supernatural purpose.
activity of God. We are a colony of heaven, living on earth, awaiting our Lord from glory. We don't belong here. Our citizenship is in heaven, and we're expecting to go home. You see, God used the Apostle Paul to break new ground at Corinth. He used him to sow the seed of the gospel at Corinth. And when he writes to them, he says in chapter two, I determined to know nothing among you save Christ and him crucified.
Now Paul left them. And other brethren have come in, and their ignorance of the Spirit's indwelling left them and other brethren to be man-centered. in their thinking. How man-centered were they? Well, if you'll notice in chapter one, Paul says to them, some say I'm of Paul. Others say I'm of Apollos. Some say I'm of Cephas or Peter. And others say I'm of Christ. They are man-centered in their activity. But God says that his church is holy.
God expects holiness in the midst of these people. Now, in this very area of being man-centered rather than God-centered, a man can be deceived, and he can deceive himself. For he says in verse eighteen, Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool. What does that really mean? Does God expect us to act foolishly? No, it doesn't. I'd like you to turn to a passage we used at the wedding just a little over a week ago.
Let us turn to First Kings chapter three. First Kings chapter three and we're going to begin our reading. at verse five. First Kings three, verse five. In Gideon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God says, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, Thou hast showed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with thee And thou hast kept for him this great kindness that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day.
And now, O Lord, my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father. And I am but a little child. Now Solomon was not a child. Solomon was a grown man. He didn't. Take a haughty position before God. Oh, Lord, you can depend on me. I know what I'm doing. No. He said, I'm but a little child. I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people. He saw the Israel over whom he ruled.
as a people of God. Thy servant is in the midst of thy people, which thou hast chosen. A great people that cannot be numbered for or counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart. To judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad, for who is able to judge this thy so great a people. And the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. and God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment.
Behold, I have done according to thy words, lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart, so that there is none like like thee before thee neither shall there arise any like unto thee and then God goes on and then further in the chapter he demonstrates with wisdom how he used what God gave him at that particular time our text in first Corinthians he says know ye not that the spirit of God corporately indwells God's people.
May I ask you a question very simply. Is the Spirit of God enough to lead God's people? He sure is. He sure is. And oftentimes in our man-centeredness, we get in the way of the Spirit of God from working in the midst of His people. He's well able. The church is a holy organism before God. We can deceive ourselves.
He says, let no man deceive you. Let him become a fool and he may be wise. Why? He says in verse nineteen, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. You see, God is not impressed with man's wisdom. And God is not impressed with man's expressions. No matter how good they sound to us. We don't impress God. We never do. We never will. But to have the wisdom of God is what The church needs to have the wisdom of God is what builders need.
Leaders. The problem at Corinth became a leadership problem. The builders were not building with gold and silver and precious stones. They were building with things that are going to burn at the judgment seat of Christ. So he adds in this area... The wisdom of the world that produces man's centeredness is foolishness with God. Why? Because their thoughts are vain. That's what he tells us. God's admonition is in verses twenty one through twenty three. Wherefore let no man glory in men.
Do we see the feet of clay that all men have? No matter how great a person is, they are feet of clay. Paul had feet of clay. God honored Paul in a unique way. Harry Aronside had feet of clay. No matter who you choose among God's people, they have feet of clay. Therefore, let no man, glory, and men, for all things are yours. You are in an organism. that works together. God has said it so, and where the Spirit of God is ignored, where man-centeredness prevails instead of God-centeredness, there can be nothing but trouble.
Oh, for a God-centered desire on the part of all God's people. The sad thing is this group, myth, the corporate indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And then when you get over to chapter six, they miss the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In verses nineteen and twenty that we read, what? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which you have of God, and you're not your own, you're bought with a price. So you see, if you miss it on the one hand, you're missing it on the other.
And if we have it on the one, we'll have it on the other. That's the way it works. For if we recognize that the Spirit of God indwells every brother and every sister that has been born into the family of God, then we won't have any trouble recognizing the holy nature of the body of Christ. Know ye not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now where this is missing, we move over to chapter five and see what happens. Unjudged sin was present in the church.
It was present there in the camp at Corinth. Men were too interested in themselves. That they could become interested in the holiness of God. And in the glory of God. How do I know? Well, look at verse one. It says, It is commonly reported that there is fornication among you. And such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. Now that's the sin. But notice the next verse. And you are puffed up. They were so occupied with each other. They were puffed up.
He says, you haven't mourned over sin. You're not grieving over sin. The holiness of God's presence was lacking. They were missing this truth of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. You notice the word holy is an adjective. It describes what kind of a spirit he is. He is the Holy Spirit. sin grieves the Holy Spirit. And he says, you're puffed up. You're so filled with yourself that you're missing God. You're missing the glorious one who's in your midst to lead the worship of God's people.
You're missing this glorious one. And he says, you are puffed up and I've not rather mourned that he that has done this deep. This deed might be taken away from among you. And so when he gets down to verse six, he says, Your glorying is not good. Why? They're glorying in the wrong thing. In chapter one, he says, He the glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. But they were glorying in each other. Your glorying, he said, is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole long. In other words, he is telling us that a little sin will do a great harm.
The Word of God tells us that it is the little foxes that spoil the vines in the Song of Solomon. The little foxes. We must remember that we are indwell by the Holy Spirit. A little leaven. Just a little bit of sin, working underhanded, will cause the trouble. For you see, a leaven is a principle, a sin principle. The woman in Matthew thirteen in the parable of the leaven, she hid the leaven in three measures of meal. What was the meal, the food for the priests? The thought is the showbread that was before the Lord in the temple.
But a woman had hidden the leaven in it. And leaven stands for sin working underhandedly. So in the scriptures we have the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. You have the leaven of the Sadducees, which is liberalism. They were the liberals of the day. You have the leaven of Herod, which is world conformity. You have the leaven of false doctrine in the epistle to the Galatians. Leaven is sin working subtly. An unchecked sin. A little leaven. He says, don't you know this? That a little leaven leaven the whole lump.
When you put yeast, that principle of permeation into bread that you're making, the yeast leavens the whole lump that you're working with. Now, It affects all that it contacts. The man who sinned was a brother. We know that from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. His sin was worse than that which the Gentiles committed, according to verse one. The worst thing that I read in this chapter, it says, it is commonly reported among you. There are three things when you come to the Corinthian epistle.
In chapter one, Paul deals with the things that were told him by the house of Chloe. When you get to chapter seven, he deals with answering the questions that they had written to him about. And then when you get over to chapter twelve, he deals with the spiritual things, not concerning spirituals. He begins in chapter twelve. But here it's commonly reported. The world knew all about it. The world was talking about it. But the church did nothing about it. You see, this sin was known to the world.
What is the church going to do about it? How can men build properly when a wrong attitude is present? It's impossible. They were occupied with themselves. They were split into segments and groups. because they were occupied with our leaders. They were not occupied with the Lord. They were puffed up. And this is a result of being occupied with themselves. And what were they not doing? They were not tending the sheep of the flock.
It was the sheep that were suffering. Remember King Saul? First Samuel chapter fifteen. One of the saddest things in first Samuel fifteen is King Saul. God rejected him from being king. And when Samuel told him, he said, I have performed the word of the Lord. And Samuel says, What meaneth the bleeding of the sheep and the lowering of the oxen that I hear? The sheep were bleeding, they were not cared for. The oxen were lowing, they were not cared for.
King Saul was taken care of King Saul. And after God rejected him, he said, Oh, honor me now before the people. Samuel said, I'm sorry, God rejected you. And from that point in his life, he spent his time fighting David, the man after God's own heart, instead of dealing and humbling himself before the Lord. This is a church of Corinth. The church of Corinth was so occupied with himself, they were missing being occupied with the Lord.
Instead of mourning over the sin in their midst, they were inflated with their own importance may God deliver us may God deliver us from this for when we get into the next chapter in chapter six God has placed us in a position that's so great for when you get to chapter six in the opening verses he says there any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the saints. You'll never know how that came home to me one day when I was going with a man from Somerset, Pennsylvania to Salisbury, Maryland.
He was delivering some printing to a church in Salisbury, to a Grace Brethren church. And I said to this man, I said, Why don't you fellowship with a Grace Brethren there at Listic? Listie was a little coal mining town right outside of Somerset, Pennsylvania. I preached there are many times I saw blessing in that place. He said, Brother Phil, they've gone to law with each other and it's been spread throughout the newspaper. What a rebuke. Our Lord says here, dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints.
In other words, God has equipped his church to be self-sufficient. Not that we don't depend on each other. It means that we do depend on each other to such an extent that we accept the judgments of one another. We don't need the courts of law. What we need is confidence in one another because our attitude is toward the Lord. He says, don't you know that the saints shall judge the world? I don't know what all that means and I don't know when this particular judgment is going to take place.
There's an awful lot I don't know. But he says, don't you know? And in all probability he taught this truth. There's a day coming that God's going to use us to judge the world. And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge your smallest matters? Can't you deal with this? This is a small matter. Deal with it. And then in the next verse he says, Don't you know that we shall judge angels? Angels are much higher than we are. They're a higher order of spiritual being. And when our Lord became a man, he made himself lower than the angels for the suffering of death.
An angel sinned. But God did not redeem angels. God spared not the angels that sinned. There isn't an angel that sinned, but saved. They're all lost. That's something to think about. Why are we saved? God's amazing grace. All right, please God, it's out of the race of mankind. He would save a people that will glorify him. And that's where we are tonight. It's the highest position possible to be saved by God's grace.
What? know ye not that we shall judge angels? Much more the things that pertain unto this life. This is the position God has placed us in as the children of God. But we can be occupied with man to such an extent that we miss the corporate indwelling of the Spirit, the personal indwelling of the Spirit, become puffed up, and fail to recognize our unique position before God. Oh, may God deliver us in this twentieth century and enable us to see what we really are to one another for His name's sake.
Let's pray. My Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we bow before you. We thank you that you have chosen us in Christ. You have placed us in the family of God, the body of Christ. A people called by the Lord. A people cleansed by the Lord. A people who are going to eventually reign with the Lord. All we ask you to take this word. and with us search our hearts in order that we may know thy blessing and thy power and thy wisdom for Jesus' sake.