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Let us begin by reading a sample from the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. The Lord will, in this session and the sessions on Monday, we shall be studying this First Epistle, uh, to the Corinthians together, not, of course, in any close detail, seeking rather to to come at the spiritual principles according to which Paul seeks to answer some of the problems that arose in this Christian church. Let us begin in chapter one and verse one. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sosthenes, our brother. Unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, even them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything ye were enriched in him, in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye be unreprovable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been signified unto me concerning you, my brethren, by them which are of the household of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I mean that each one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you, save Crispus and Gaius, lest any man should say that you were baptized into my name. I baptized also the household of Stephanas. Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made void. For the word of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness, but unto us which are being saved, it is the power of God, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the wi- prudence of the prudent will I reject. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure, through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe, seeing that the Jews ask for signs and Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, unto Jews a stumbling block and unto Gentiles foolishness, but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For behold your calling, brethren, how that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God called, God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame them that are wise, and God chose the weak things of the world that he might put to shame the things that are strong, and the base things of the world, and the things that are despised did God choose, yea, and the things that are not, that he might bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh should glory before God. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. And God give us good understanding of his holy word. The subject that in some quarters is called the theology of the church, and in other quarters is called church truth, is perhaps one of the thorniest in all, uh, the New Testament and in all the Christian experience. I suppose the divisions that have arisen over this matter are responsible for more divisions amongst Christians than any other topic. And we are aware, as Christian people, of the sad bitterness, amounting on times to positive persecution, that has arisen from differing opinions amongst Christian people on the topic of the church. We are all painfully aware, I am sure, of the scandal of this thing. The sorry, divided, self-destroying kind of situation that the church appears to be to the world outside. It is therefore quite understandable that many people, particularly of evangelical persuasions, have long since come to conclusion that this is a topic far better left alone, so that one might concentrate on the positive work of spreading the gospel, bringing men and women into the kingdom of God. If people thereafter must meet in churches, well, let them be free to go according to their own taste. But have the decency not to discuss the matter, not to argue the matter, and certainly not to take it very seriously. I well remember this particular attitude being put to me. I suppose it kind of gave me a traumatic experience or something that I remember it to this present day. I was ascending from the bathrooms in Hule's Court in Trinity. Not a time, I suppose, to talk theology. When a great friend, a man of God whom I, uh, admired exceedingly for the gift of soul-winning that God had given him. Not only did I admire him for his gift, but for his faithful use of it. He was a tremendous testimony around the university. And he met me, as I say, so recently ascended from the bath, and, uh, informed me that he was going down at the end of term, so we wouldn't see each other now for a while. And I asked him what he was going to do, and he told me, and then presently he asked me what I was going to do, and without allowing me to reply, he said, you know, you ought to take a church and teach. And then, thinking himself, he said, oh, yes, but you hold some curious views, don't you, on the church? I said, I didn't know I did. And, uh, uh, he replied by listing some of the things that he regarded curious in me. Rather than prolong, uh, a conversation about details, uh, in such an inappropriate, uh, uh, position and condition, I thought I would support what seemed to me to be fundamental in this matter. Well, I said, actually, uh, my position, I- I think, is nothing all that curious. It is simply this, that where scripture speaks on these matters, in many places, of course, it doesn't, but where scripture speaks on this mat- these matters, scripture is final and authoritative. Oh, nonsense, said he, nonsense. Oh, no. No, when it comes to, uh, how we proceed in our churches, then we are free to do as the occasion demands or as policy dictates. If history takes a turn and it seems good to us that the church should be joined with the state, we, it's the right thing to do to join it with the state. If presently history takes another turn and it doesn't seem advantageous to be joined to the state, well, we divorce it from the state, that's all, but we are perfectly free to do a- as occasion demands. That raises, does it not, a very big issue. Is it the fact that when we come to the question of how we run our churches, are we free simply to do as occasion demands? Immediately, of course, my mind would go to such scriptures as you'll find later in this particular epistle, where Paul, having, uh, talked about sundry matters, adds, and if anybody thinketh himself to be spiritual or a prophet, let him recognize that the things that I write are the commandment of the Lord. That is perhaps only a straw in the wind. But evidently, in the apostles' day, he has expected his converts and the churches in general to regard what he said about their conduct as a command of the Lord. I find it also helpful to observe what the New Testament says about the nature and purpose of the church. It certainly is a subject that we cannot avoid. In fact, we shall find it impossible to take the view, ah well, so long as I give myself to evangelical work and bring men and women into the kingdom of God, I can afford to neglect this matter of what I am to do about the church, about church fellowship, and so forth, if for no other reason than this, that our experience in the church is designed of God to be an integral part of our salvation. Let me hurry to explain what I mean. In one Corinthians chapter three, in such passages as one Peter chapter two, the apostles indicate one of the goals of our salvation. Why has God saved us? Well, there is a stock answer that runs like this: we are saved to serve. And who could find fault with that, I wonder? But then, uh, just a moment, we shall have to define that a little bit more, can't we? You mean you are saved in order to serve God by preaching the gospel and getting other folks into the kingdom. Very good. What will you do when the last person has been converted? Shall we be left with no other reason for being saved? Well, of course not. One of the goals of our salvation, according to the New Testament, it may be only one, but it is one, is that Christian people are being built together into a temple that is steadily growing, in which God might dwell, through which God will make himself known both in this age and in the age to come. They are being built together as a temple, as a spiritual house or temple, that they might exercise their ministry toward God. For, as you might expect, God is the goal of our salvation. And certainly one of the subsidiary things in our work for God will be bringing other men and women into this same knowledge of salvation. But even in that aspect, God is its goal. We are bringing these men and women to God. And any idea and concept of salvation that does not have God as its final goal is inevitably and a- a- and invariably inadequate. Hence, therefore, we cannot neglect this matter of the church. It is one of the church's prime functions now, as it will be eternally. The people meet together, are brought together, are built together, a spiritual house of priests, uh, to undertake a spiritual ministry towards God. Obviously, if this matter of the church, uh, is so intimately bound up with the goal of our salvation, I say obviously, but it seems to me quite obviously, I would expect that God hasn't left its arrangement altogether to our whim and fancy. In the second place, we could observe from other scriptures that a good deal of God's grace towards us is by God's deliberate design mediated to us through other members of the church. I think when I say this of passages like one Corinthians twelve, thirteen uh and fourteen, of Romans chapter twelve, of the epistle to the Ephesians chapter four, where the Holy Spirit is at pains to point out that a great deal of God's grace, and indeed his saving grace, comes to us not directly, so to speak, from God to me, it comes mediated to me through the fellow members of the body, through the other members of the church. If that be so, it is understandable, it would seem to me, that God and his apostles would be exceedingly concerned to correct any tendency in behavior or organization that would interfere with these channels of supplies. We shall be dealing with that, uh, God willing, in a later study, but obviously. If God has ordained that part of your salvation, part of his grace that will bring you strength to resist temptation, that will bring you into deeper knowledge of God, part of your salvation is to be mediated to you through other members of the church, and he has provided a plurality of such gifts within the church. God will not look kindly on any organization that prohibits the function of a good many of those members, and so narrows the channel of the supply of his grace to you. All right? So again, it would seem to me, as I, uh, survey one or two general concepts, this matter of the church, it is not likely that God will leave it to our women fancy what we do. It is most likely that he will, in some part, prescribe for it on this ground, that the way we organize our churches in the end will have an impact on our grip on salvation. And then, of course, you might further divide that general observation, mightn't you? Into the plain statement of Holy Writ in a number of places, Acts chapter twenty, if you will, or one Timothy chapter three, or one Peter chapter five. That God has, in his wisdom, seen fit and necessary that his people shall be provided with shepherds. God likens his people to sheep. Who, if they are to prosper in health and not to be chased hither and thither, and at the mercy of wild beast and enemy, must be provided with shepherds to guide them, and sometimes shepherds to discipline them. And if God has made provision for me, in my weakness, that men appointed by him a fatherly heart and spiritual experience should supervise my life and guide and shepherd me. It would be errant independence on my part, would it not, to say to God, I don't need such men. No, of course not. It is an integral part in my salvation, if I may use that term in its broader sense, that I should cherish and submit to those gracious provisions of shepherd care that God has instituted in the church. Setting his bishops or overseers, his elders, call them what you will, in each company of his people. Finally, in this general sort of survey, not only do you see do we have a church, and a church is set up by God to function because it has a ministry Godward. This is one of the goals of salvation. Not only do we have churches because by the, uh, mediating of God's grace through the members, each individual man's salvation is promoted, but there is the question of the church's testimony in the world. I think, for instance, of such a passage as one P- uh, 1 Timothy chapter three, where the church, the house of God, church of the living God, as is described as pillar and ground of the truth. Just like, if I might borrow an analogy and an illustration, in Solomon's temple, house of living God, once more, there were standing in the court just inside outside the porch for all comers thereto to observe two pillars, and on their tops, beautiful capitals carved and adorned with pomegranates and flower, uh, pomegranates and checker work, and there they stood in all their glory, upheld by these two pillars. Presumably for decoration and attraction, let alone what, uh, deeper symbolism they had, may have had in God's mind when he instructed the architects to make them. So is a church. It has a role to play to the outside world, so to speak, that it shall be a pillar and ground to hold up the truth. And because that is so, Paul lays it down quite, uh, uh, firmly to Timothy that elders and deacons in the church must be this, and they must be that, and they must do this, and they must do that. Because of the tremendous dignity and solemnity of the responsibility that is given to each individual Christian church to be a witness for God in the world. But someone will say, granted all that, does it really matter in in the smaller details how we run our churches? Couldn't we do all those things and still be left in many particulars to our own devices to decide. Well, of course, it is the evident fact. And in a multitude of details, God has left his churches to decide. Never independently, we hope, of the conscience and a mind exercised to seek God and his will, to seek the direction of his Holy Spirit. But if the New Testament be the, the confines of your investigations, you will search them in vain for any direction as to how long the breaking of bread should take, what, uh, form of introduction there should be, or what should follow it, or whether you should have one meeting of the church per week or a half a dozen. It is the fact that many details that have been adopted and observed rigidly by many Christians have no authority in the New Testament, either for or against. And where God has not legislated, I personally presume that each church is free to act in the fear of God. But my thesis tonight, my main thesis, is this, that whereas there are multitudinous details in which God has left us free to decide according to each local need and our occasion. There are, on the other hand, deep lying and fundamental spiritual experience, uh, spiritual considerations. That will most definitely control us. Considerations to which every proposed scheme of organization will have to bow, and any mode of behavior will have to bow. Because, as I say, our experience in the church is first and foremost an experience of divine persons. Anything that interferes or detracts from our experience of our relations with these divine persons, you will find the New Testament outlaws it. And anything that restricts the movements of the Holy Spirit in ministering the grace of God to us, these things too you will find outlawed. Let me take one more simple illustration. I refer to something I have already mentioned. When Paul comes to discuss the ministry of the church in this epistle to the Corinthians, he says that the gifts, uh, function in the church in the manner of the members of a human body. Not all are prophets, not all apostles. Not all have the gift of tongues, and certainly not all the gift of healing. Not all are teachers, of course not, and not all are evangelists. But there is a multiplicity of gift, each gift given by the Holy Spirit and under his control. Now I ask you to observe that this notion that in each church there is a multiplicity of gift, which must have freedom for its exercise, this is not... a something that the extreme left wing of the church thought of, prompted thereto by proletarian democracy or something of the kind. This isn't an idea that you are free, or I am free to scrap. If, uh, it occurs to us that possibly some other system might prove better. We are not free to scrap it. Do you not see it is an integral part of our salvation and our relation not only with one another, but with the blessed Holy Spirit? How did you come to be members in this body, if not by the very baptism of the Holy Ghost. Come, come, sir. You can't be allowed to scrap what the Holy Ghost has brought into existence, what Christ has brought into existence, what God has brought into existence with deliberate care by baptizing people in his Holy Ghost. You can't be allowed to scrap that. You're putting aside an integral part of our relationship with God, an integral part of our salvation. Now, I want to take that general kind of underlying thesis, that underlying principle, and deal tonight at some length with a problem that arose in the Church of Corinth. And I am concerned to try and point out, not merely that the thing that happened was bad and that it was banned. I'm more concerned to point out the reasons that the apostle adduces, the way he goes about it, the way he looks at it, the kind of considerations that move him in protesting against, uh, this particular form of behavior that began to appear in the Church of Corinth. Because I'm much more concerned to get across this basic notion that the organization of our churches is a matter that must be watched very, very carefully so it doesn't foul any of these basic spiritual principles that are permanent and eternal. Than I am to try and stand here and correct the superficial things that, uh, one or another might feel wrong in the present state of the church. The, uh, unfortunate, uh, behavior pattern that was beginning to, uh, uh, emerge in Corinth is the one we read of in chapter one of First Corinthians, where people were beginning to divide themselves up in sectarian spirit and say, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I of Cephas, I of Christ. Now, it is patent, it does not need to be labored, that that kind of thing is wrong and is outlawed. Both I should submit to you, the underlying sectarian spirit and the external labelings that go therewith. This matter of taking the names of some prominent servant of Christ, and maneuvering oneself around him in a kind of spiritual clique. This itself is wrong within a church. How much worse, one might say, to do it on the grander scale and organize whole strings of churches on that same principle. Now that it is wrong, you, as I say, you will not need me to labor. It must not be done. It is a defiance of Holy Scripture. If I take to myself a name that is not common to all Christians. You say this is a very small matter, surely? Well, perhaps it is. I notice, en passant, so to speak, that Paul spends four chapters over it. Perhaps you would care at this stage, it will help to wake us up, if nothing else, uh, to recur to your text of the Bible and have a look how Paul does in fact spend four whole chapters on this problem. That he is talking about it in chapter one is obvious. In chapter two, he seems to go off, uh, and talk about the Holy Spirit. But you will observe, uh, that he hasn't digressed to forget his subject altogether, for in the opening words of chapter three, he recurs to the topic, verse three: for ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal and walk after the manner of men? For when one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos, are ye not men? And so forth and so on. You will observe that when he comes to the end of chapter three, if you cast your eye down to the end of that chapter, that he is still talking of this same topic. Verse twenty one: wherefore let no one glory in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death. You will observe that in chapter four verse six he is still and again talking of this matter. Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us ye might learn not to go beyond the things which are written. A topic that takes up four solid chapters of an inspired New Testament epistle cannot surely be a topic of minor importance. But what I would like us to do now is briefly, uh, to get some bird's eye view of the kind of arguments Paul uses against, uh, this thing. What kind of considerations does he bring to bear on it? First of all, let us observe chapter one and verse thirteen. His first indignant protest that anybody should do any such thing, says he, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into my name, by any chance? In a word, he will outlaw this whole system of behavior by pointing out to us that it is derogatory to the unique glory of Jesus Christ our Lord. Let none say that it is an innocent little matter if your supposed innocent little matter detracts from the unique glory of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Was Paul crucified? You can hear him, the shock of the suggestion has almost taken his breath away. Who is Paul? Well, yes, who is he? He might be a mighty man of God. He might be the man that God has used to bring you into the light of God's salvation. But when all is said and done, it is one thing to preach about Christ, it is another thing altogether to be Christ. To expound the significance of the atonement is a very blessed thing, but it doesn't begin to be in the same category as to be the atoning sacrifice itself. Between the preacher and the gospel preached, between the servant who preaches the cross and the Lord who died upon that cross, there is an impassable gulf. How would it ever occur to anybody to bracket two names together? Still less to substitute some other name for Christ's name. Oh, you say, come off it. It's only a little thing. What's in your name? Yes, it is a little thing. You're not so sure? You'll think me absurd when I say this, utterly ludicrous. Well, let me be ludicrous then. Suppose your name was Smith. Now, in your bachelor days, you had a good friend by the name of Brown. One day, Brown did you an exceedingly good turn. He introduced to you a charming lady, who eventually became your wife. She became Mrs. Smith. One day she was rumbling in her handbag, and onto the floor they dropped a visiting card, and being a very good gentleman, a husband to boot, you picked it up. You picked it up. You read it. Mrs. Brown Smith. Oh, she said, you know, lots of Smiths in this world. You must make some distinction, mustn't you? So I call myself by the name of the man who introduced me to you. I wonder, I won't take a vote on it now. You may care to to tell me afterwards. I wonder how many of you husbands would regard it as a little matter of no significance. I think I know one or two men who would scarce control their feeling. And certainly if Mrs. Smith weren't in for a bad time for the next five minutes, Mr. Brown would be in a bad time for the next five days. It wouldn't happen. I submit to you, we wouldn't take the view that names are only small things. When it came to that little matter. And will you publicly take the name of the man that led you to Christ, and let yourself be known in the world by that name. Whether in addition to or in place of. The sole name of Jesus Christ our Lord. No, surely you won't. Not if you have any concept of the uniqueness of his person and of his work, who was crucified for you. Why shouldn't we take names thus and group ourselves in little groups? With labels less than are common to all God's people. As far as I can see it, the next reason that he gives, and it occupies by and large the rest of that chapter, is such a practice not only is derogatory to the unique glory of Jesus Christ our Lord. But it is utterly contrary to the deliberate strategy of God. Says Paul, when I came to you, I came to preach, not in wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made void. I came with a message that was apparently foolish. The word of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness. But actually, though it appears to be folly, it is part of a very deliberate strategy on God's part. You know, it isn't the fact that God set the gospel going, and now in nineteen sixty nine he begins to think it's a little bit outmoded, uh, uh, uh, uh, and it's old hat and doesn't really match up to modern, uh, things, you know, and therefore it ought to be changed. God knew from the very first it it sounded foolish. He deliberately chose that message. He observed that in the wisdom of God, the world by its wisdom knew not God. And the world's wisdom by itself is quite unable and inadequate to bring a man to God, to bring a man to repentance, to bring a man to eternal life. And God has deliberately chosen a message which will force upon men the realization of the difference. This is not a humanly devised message. No man would have dared to have invented such an absurd thing. Of course, God isn't ashamed of it, because for God's apparent folly, God's apparent weakness is wiser and stronger than men anyway, and it works. It is, in fact, the power to salvation. God isn't particularly ashamed of it. He reckons he's got more converts through his gospel than people have got through existentialism. I mean real converts. Men that have had a spiritual revolution, have been saved from sinning. Lies have been cleaned up. It works. And then God has been deliberate in the instruments he has chosen. Verses twenty six to the end of that chapter show us that God has deliberately chosen foolish things, apparently so. Behold your calling, brethren. Let us behold it now, if it will not offend our pride. That, uh, not many noble, not many mighty are called. That oughtn't to surprise you, that oughtn't to stumble you. This is deliberate policy on God's part. And God has chosen deliberately the weak things of the world, the base things, the things that are despised, done it deliberately. What for? That no flesh should glory before God. Do you observe the deliberate policy? Summing up then this deliberate strategy, says Paul by inspiration, verse thirty. and as you read it, would you notice the order of the words, deliberately so put in their original tongue that we catch the emphasis. But of him are you in Christ Jesus. Operative words, of him, that is not by somebody else. It's of him that you're in Christ Jesus. Then, as if that were not enough, he does not merely say who was made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, though that would be true. But he says that he was made unto us wisdom from God. It's by him and from him. With this deliberate intent that in order that according as it is written, he that makes his boast, let him make his boast in the law. In a word, I want to suggest that in this paragraph, Paul is pointing to God's deliberate strategy. That deliberate strategy to make it evident to every single man that his being placed in Christ was altogether of God. If God had used some eminent means, if God had trusted in men's wisdom, then having found yourself in Christ, you might have looked back and supposed that your position in Christ was in part due to the eminence of the man who brought you, of the wisdom of the man who preached the night you got converted. And what a damage to your soul that would be. I'm glad my conversion doesn't rest on the cunning argument of some gospel preacher, aren't you? You all heard the story, I suppose, of that famous Methodist preacher, great man of God he was, up in the, uh, coal mining distrin- district of East County Durham. Man used of God to lead multitudes of men and women into salvation. Like all preachers, he had under his ministry men confess salvation, uh, that were not genuine, and soon showed it by their, uh, the way they behaved. He met such a man coming out of a pub on a Sunday afternoon, and as he slouched up the street, he met the preacher. Ah, he says, I'm one of your converts. He said, you must be, otherwise you wouldn't be like walking like that. If your salvation rested on the appeal charm of the evangelist, you might well quake in your shoes, but even evangelists get gray hair and go bald. If your salvation and being in Christ rests on the fact that you met a very clever man who could beat all the existential arguments into a cocked hat and all the rest of them as well, and that's all it is, you might very well have good reason to fear because one of these days you might meet such a clever existentialist that he'd beat the evangelist. And what would you do? God has so ordained it that when you get saved, you will see that the instrument was as a nothing, and that you are in Christ because God put you in Christ. And all those great resources that Christ has, wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption, how did they come realities to your soul? God made them realities. And it was from God they came. That being so, do not perceive how Paul is advancing this as a reason why you should not take any other name than Christ's. Lest it direct you to put your faith in any part in the instrument that God used to bring you to Christ. God demands that you, he remain the sole object of your faith and confidence, that your boasting, your confidence be in God and in none other. I once suggested in chapter two— have I five more minutes, Mr. Carroll, to suggest it? Good. Ten more minutes to suggest it? Fifteen more minutes to suggest it. Well, that is, as you, you perceive, Mr. Karl's, uh, responsibility. One suggests that in chapter two, he is in fact, though he might not superficially appear to be, he is in fact urging another argument apropos this general theme. He comes now to the work of the Holy Spirit. He has talked of the matter in relation to the glory of Christ. He has talked of the matter in relation to the strategy of God. He will now talk of the matter in relation to the Holy Spirit. I wonder, do I make part of my general thesis clear? That you have to be very careful how you organize the churches. Lest it detract from our relationships with the divine persons. In chapter two, Paul observes that when he came to them, he came not with man's wisdom, he came i- i- with a message that seemed to be foolish. So that their faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Then he adds, how be it we speak of wisdom among them that are perfect, yet even so not a wisdom of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, which are coming to naught. He observes that the rulers of this world were so ignorant in their way that when they had the Lord of glory before them, they failed to recognize him or to see beyond their noses what a strategical mistake it was on their part to go and crucify him. If they had seen what were the blessed outcomes of this piece of God's strategy in allowing Christ to be crucified, they never would have crucified him. But being short-sighted as they are, they went and crucified him to their own eventual undoing. But now this wonderful wisdom, it is not available to the world, says Paul in verses 8 and 9 and and ten. but God has revealed these hidden, wonderful, blessed things to us. We who, by definitions, are mere nothings, not the mighty, not the great in this world. And how is it come to pass that believers can understand them when the world cannot understand? Uh, Judas, not Iscariot, asked the Lord that question outright, didn't he? When the Lord was saying, I will manifest myself to you, I shall rise again from the dead, and I will manifest myself to you. And Judas asked him, well, what exactly do you mean, Lord, when, when, when you say you will manifest yourself to us, and yet the world won't see us? How can it possibly be? The answer is, of course, uh, that, um... the things of God are only disclosed in their fullness by the Spirit of God. Who knows the things of a man, say the Spirit of a man. Likewise, none knoweth the things of God, say the Spirit of God. If, therefore, a man is to understand the deep things of God, it will be solely, in the last analysis, that is, by the Holy Spirit. Now, please do not understand, not do not, uh, take out what I say, that I am against education or the use of our intellects. Far from it. To use a crude analogy, um, there are all sorts of intellects, and I suppose all of them are good. There are different grades of them. You might liken them, on the one hand, to Rolls-Royces, and on the other to mini miners, perhaps. So. But neither mini miner nor Rolls-Royce would go without petrol. If, therefore, I had to choose between a mini miner with a tank full of petrol and a Rolls-Royce without any petrol, as a means for getting somewhere, I hope I should have the sense to choose the mini miner with a tank full of petrol. And even if, uh, the Rolls-Royce, uh, eventually got its petrol too. And the owner thereof got there, well, he'll get there before me in my Mini Minor, doubtless, but, you know, he'll only get there. And so will the Mini eventually. Our intellects may differ. God wants us to use these gifts that he has given, but let us have the sense to see that in the last analysis... Ah, you thought the illustration very crude, didn't you? It isn't so crude, actually, because, um, uh, the Lord Jesus would have used olive oil, perhaps, as an illustration of the matter, not petrol. He talked about some good virgin- virgins that had oil in their lamps. Perhaps that's a better analogy to use, and some good virgins that didn't have any oil. When it comes to understanding the deep things of God, you can have a Mercedes-Benz of an intellect, but if you haven't the Holy Spirit, you will understand nothing. You see... Tell me another illustration to get the, the, the point emphasized and underlined. The world cannot receive it. These things have got to be received by men that are spiritual. They have got to be communicated to him by the Holy Spirit of God. Worldly man who has not the Holy Spirit will not see it. I could take, uh, something into your lounge and show it to you without your dog seeing it, even though he's looking at it. You say, what? Well, I could show you all the wealth of character in a portrait by Rembrandt. I could show that to you with your dog looking at it, licking it if you let him, and you would see it and he wouldn't. Why wouldn't he see it? It hasn't got a human spirit. Now, when it comes to God's wisdom, it will take the Holy Spirit to reveal. All right. Why all this fuss, Paul? Let me have a word in your ear, my brethren, he said. Chapter three, this now. He said, I could not speak unto you as spiritual, but unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. All carnal. How was it that they were in that condition? Because they had begun to foul by their behavior this cardinal principle that spiritual growth depends completely, eventually, on the Holy Spirit's power and illumination. For while you say, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I am of Cephas, are you not carnal? Without intending, maybe, they had taken the focus of a believer's outlook, and without noticing it, maybe they had removed the center of his expectation. Oh, how subtly it happens. But they had moved these things away from that blessed Holy Spirit and focused it on certain instruments and men. And it is a guaranteed way to spiritual impoverishment. If we take that believer's expectation, the focus of their outlook and confidence away from this living Holy Spirit in the church, and we focus it on the means. It's a very subtle thing. But it is, you know, a spiritual consideration, isn't it? And after all, when it comes to the way we run our church, it is the spiritual considerations that must be paramount. You must not, therefore, says Paul, call yourselves after the names of men or group yourselves round them. That would take away the believers, uh, uh, uh, uh, focus on the Holy Ghost. There are sundry other reasons. I will endeavor to go through them very briefly. Leaving out verses now down from six to nine, just let's have a look at the paragraph that goes from, uh, chapter, uh, verse ten to verse, uh, seventeen uh, of chapter three, where Paul likens the assembly to a temple. In that temple, he says, uh, the foundation is Jesus Christ, verse eleven. Eh, the Holy Spirit is the divine occupant- occupant, verse sixteen. And God himself is its divine proprietor, verse seventeen. It is a temple of God. So then this assembly at Corinth here, mark what Paul is saying, its foundation is Christ, its occupant is the Holy Spirit, its owner and proprietor is God. And he warns his fellow believers against doing anything to spoil or injure that temple, because to injure what is other people's property, saying no more is bad manners, isn't it? We'll say the assembly, a church, a Christian church, is not just a place of convenience where we go along. It's not even our place, so to speak, where we are at liberty to do as we please. The church is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit its occupant, God its proprietor. Come now, I go into many homes, and eh, I suppose as you do, you get your ideas on how homes should be run. How the furniture would be placed, I find myself saying sometimes, well, of course, if I were in this home, I wouldn't have that there. I would move that there. Hm. Suppose I came to stay with you one of these nights, and as soon as I walked into the lounge, I went over and got the, uh, old radiogram, whatever it is, and and lifted it up and shifted it to the other side of the room. Who would say what charming eccentricity the man has? But if when you came down to breakfast the next day, you found the washer removed from the scullery up into the first bedroom, and one of the, uh, comfortable chairs in the three P suite out in the kitchen, you wouldn't, uh, any longer regard it as charming eccentricity. You would feel highly outraged. Your home, you bought it. You permitted me to come on sufferance. Not mine to do what I like with. My brethren. Would you treat a church of God like that? You don't take names, says Paul. Please, you don't. You don't start grouping believers in that church at Corinth into little cliques like this around different men. Well, what would he say when he sees how we've done it in the bigger range? You don't do it because those believers are not yours to do it with. If you interfere with God's assembly like that, God will destroy you, says Paul. Do you notice the context of these often quoted verses about wood, hay, and stubble. You can't alter the foundation, but you can build. And brethren, it is a general, I know it is a general, uh, thesis. You can build wood, hay, and stubble in many directions. If you do, God will burn it up. If I were to build the wood, hay, and stubble of denominationalism in this sense into God's churches, God says it's rubbish that he will burn up as totally unacceptable. Oh, but you say it works in the world. I have indeed heard the argument advanced. It works in the world. You know, um, now the, the conservatives, to take the world of politics, they've got certain insights, and... Let's see what the others think. The, uh, the Labour politicians have certain insights. Oh, I see where I am. And so I'm told have the Liberals. And you see, having these various insights, you say, isn't it a good thing that some people who pers- people are persuaded of the conservative viewpoint all organize themselves around a certain... Now, what is his name? I've forgotten. I think some people know. Ah, yes. And then other people who are persuaded o- o- of the Labour program, uh, they, uh, organise themselves around somebody else. And the Liberals likewise, and the Communists and so forth and so on. And each party standing, oh, they have the grace, most of the time at any rate, to behave in a gentlemanly way about it. Uh, but by each pushing his own insight, you see, the great common good is achieved. You say it works in politics. So you say it's a good thing it works in the church. One man sees the tremendous importance of justification by faith, so he thinks it's a good thing if a lot of churches band themselves round together, around the man who, who has this insight, and label themselves the justification by faith churches. Or another man, he can see, he can see the im- tremendous importance, the sanctifying power of the prophetic doctrines about our Lord's advent. You say, therefore, it's a very good thing now if this man sets a whole group of churches going, and we'll call them the Second Coming churches. And by each group of churches following their own insights, so the common good, you, is that an argument that you favor? I've heard it advanced. Well, I wouldn't dispute that it is wise i- i- if it's so seen in this world. But will you hear God's comment on that kind of argument? Verse eighteen: Let no man deceive himself. If a man thinketh that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool. No argument that it works in the world, therefore why shouldn't it work in the church? What you see, and we're back where we started, when it came to saving men, to regenerating them, to bringing them out of the grip of sin, to sanctifying them, human wisdom was no good, and God had to use a message that seems foolish. Ha ha. And when it comes to running the churches, there will be places along the line where God will ask you to observe the same kind of pattern. What the world would use in its wisdom, God doesn't use. And he asks you to become a fool and submit to his wisdom. Finally, two other things. I start. I hope you are to be rewarded with a cup of tea. I don't know whether you, I don't expect you are, though, perhaps I wouldn't say it, but rewarded somehow or other for this long session. Never mind. Let me say, uh, two other things. Finally, as Paul puts it at the end of chapter three, the taking of names in this fashion demeans God's people. Paul, he says, look, all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death, all things present or things to come, all are yours. And you are Christ, and Christ is God's. All. Then don't go and demean yourself by following men. You found the little son and daughter in some lordly household falling to blows as to whether the gardener or the laundress was the best. You might, if you were his lordship or ladyship, remonstrate with them. Oh come, they're all good in their way, but you mustn't tear each other's hair about that kind of thing, for they're only your servants. And they're all yours. Gardener, laundress, and all the rest of them, they're all yours. And if you be sons of God, and all things are yours, present, eternal, Christ is yours, and God is yours. It's a sadly demeaning thing, but you should quarrel, says Paul, and be puffed up for one against another over people that are mere servants. What is more, please don't do it, says Paul anyway, for you make life ten thousand times more hard for the men themselves. We apostles, I think he said, are set forth to be the last. Look at the persecution we endure on all this, and on top of it, our responsibility as stewards to be found faithful. One man, like Peter, he has a very practical ministry. Another, like Apollos, he's a veritable orator. Paul is a tremendous intellect. And you know what happens in the churches. Some people who have tremendous intellects, they'll gravitate to the Paul's, won't they? And and some peoples who like practical stuff and are always telling preachers, now be practical, they'll gravitate to the Peters. And people who don't mind what the preacher says, so long as he says it in a good voice and eh eh with great oratory, will gravitate to the Apollosers of this world. And they make it very difficult for some. Poor old Paul was contemptible in speech. To him was committed a ministry, and he dared to otherwise and preach it. But, you know, being human, it was a great temptation when the crowds all went off to hear Paulus or Cephas or somebody else, wasn't it? Temptation to be disloyal to his stewardship, and to put it bluntly, play to the gallery. No, we would do wiser than in that way to follow men. We should be kinder, not least, to the servants of God themselves. My long discourse is at an end. I hope I've made the general principle clear. It's not merely a matter of correcting this abuse, though it does have many implications, and that you may, uh, want to question and think and talk about those implications. But my thesis for the moment has been to ask us to observe the kind of considerations that Paul brings to bear on this exceedingly practical problem. For that, it seems to me, is the kind of consideration we must ever bring to bear on the way, the problem of running on churches. Shall we just pray? O Lord, we thank thee once more for thy holy word. We rejoice in its wisdom. O God, humbly, we who are but nothings, we do praise thee for thy sovereign mercy, that thou hast chosen us of deliberate choice, nor for good or greatness in us, but that all these staggering blessings that thou hast given us might be seen to come from thee, that our hope and our confidence may be solely in thee. We pray, O Lord, that thou will give us wisdom to listen to the urgings of thy Holy Spirit. And in our churches, help us to do nothing that in any way will detract from the honor of Christ or take away from our relation with divine persons. Give us, O Lord, we beseech thee, as we think about these things in these coming hours of this weekend and in the weeks that lie ahead. Give us wisdom and sh- uh, so that we might know how these broad principles apply to our own personal situations. And give us the grace not only to be obedient, but the faith to trust thee that thy ways are indeed best and thy wisdom superlative. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.