Divisiveness, It's Worse Than You Think

Our text this morning is from 1 Corinthians 1, verses 21

-25, and I'll read in a moment starting at verse 18, so we gain the

context, we're reminded of the Apostle Paul's flow of thought, the train of thought that he has for us,

and as you might recall, the Apostle's great concern here in these first two chapters of 1

Corinthians is division in the church.

He would have them, the Corinthians, he would have us, SVRBC this morning, see

how subtle divisiveness can be, how damaging it is, and how sinful it really

is, much more than you might think.

And this is so crucial to him, to the Apostle Paul, and remember that the Apostle Paul wrote by direct

inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, so it's crucial to God that it is so important

that he addresses this issue right after the greeting, so it's sort of, greetings, it's me Paul, to

you church, let's get down to business, it is that important to him.

So keep this in mind as I read, that divisiveness in the church greatly alarmed the Apostle Paul,

it greatly alarmed therefore the Lord, if you will, and it should greatly alarm us wherever we see it.

Beginning at verse 18, again the text I'll preach from is 21 -25, but beginning at verse 18 for the reading,

for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being

saved it is the power of God, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the

discerning I will thwart.

Where is the one who is wise?

Where is the scribe?

Where is the debater of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we

preach to save those who believe.

For Jews demand signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified,

a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.

But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of

God and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men and

the weakness of God is stronger than men.

May God bless the reading and now the hearing and proclamation of this word.

Now Justin Martyr, an ancient defender of the faith, we call him an apologist, he died in

the year 165.

He had this ongoing dialogue with a Jewish rabbi named Trypho, T -R -Y -P -H -O,

Trypho, Dialogues with Trypho is what it was called, and when he tried to show Trypho that

Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in Daniel chapter 7, Trypho replied with this,

and I quote, Sir, these and such like passages of scripture

compel us to await one who is great and glorious and takes the everlasting kingdom from the ancient of days

as son of man.

But this, your so -called Christ, is without honor and glory, so that he has

fallen even into the uttermost curse that is in the law of God, for he was crucified.

In this, Trypho continued what the apostle Paul dealt with with the Corinthians and

the church today continues to deal with, that the world at large will have a God,

the world at large will even have a Christ, but only one that fits their expectations.

But our God never changes, our God does not pander to human expectations, to what mere

mortals would have of him.

And this is something the Corinthians, in their divisiveness, were guilty of when they grouped themselves

together according to their favored leader.

Now few would disagree with me if I said such behavior was divisive and harmful to the body of Christ.

Well, it is that.

It is divisive and it is harmful, but it's so much more than that.

It's so much worse than that.

In fact, divisive behavior is spiritual adultery.

It says that what God has done in demonstrating his son Jesus Christ wasn't and isn't enough to

accomplish what was intended by the cross of Jesus Christ.

Divisiveness is that serious and that's what it implies when we enter into it.

God intended for the church to be an entity unified by the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit and a

common faith that we should be one.

Read Jesus' prayer in John 17, that we should be perfectly one as I and you

are one, speaking of himself to the Father.

Divisiveness, that spiritual adultery, implies that the cross of Jesus

Christ did not accomplish what God intended by it.

So right after the greeting in this letter, verses 1 -9, Paul jumps straight into this issue of divisions.

To remind us where this came from, I want you to look at the words in chapter 1, verse 11, which

Pastor Owens preached a few weeks ago.

I want to remind you of this, that Paul says there is quarreling among you, my

brothers.

What I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas, or I follow Christ.

They had arranged themselves according to which leader would bring them the most prestige they were to stay to plainly being divisive.

This is far worse than we usually think.

The Bible calls it spiritual adultery.

We'll develop that as we go through this.

One could go so far as to call it idolatry.

So says the Apostle Paul.

So says Jesus, as we'll see in the message.

So said the prophets, especially Hosea and Ezekiel.

And this is what kept Trifo away from the Lord Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ just didn't match up to his

expectations, didn't accomplish what he thought he should accomplish for him.

The Corinthians behaved also as if Jesus wasn't enough.

Dividing into camps around their favorite teacher.

And what does this imply?

But that Jesus is great, Jesus is grand, Jesus is glorious, but he's just not quite enough because he's not quite the way

I want him to be.

In the end, they end up following Trifo, remaking the Lord to fit their estimates.

Do we do this?

We do.

Anytime we enter into any divisive behavior, be it from our lips, be it from our

actions, be it hidden in your heart.

Are you a divisive spirit in the church?

Most of us would say, no, I'm not.

And then in the quietness of your own heart, you might think something like, well, you know, I only did that because I'm

trying to hold to biblical truth and practices, and so forth.

And you know how that argument goes, and that may be true, but may be not true.

It could be that you've aligned yourself the way the Corinthians did.

It could be that pride has led you down the same path that they followed that so alarmed the Apostle Paul.

It may be spiritual pride, adultery,

but let's look at this passage together.

Let's examine ourselves before the Lord.

And before we even ask ourselves, am I guilty of this?

Let us see how severe a sin this really is.

Verse 21 is a hinge that looks back to what was said before, for since in the wisdom of God the

world did not know God through wisdom, that takes you back to 18 through 20, what he's already said,

and then it points forward to what's to come, what we're going to preach this morning.

It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

So let's jump into this text.

Let's see that divisiveness is spiritual adultery.

It is that serious.

Divisiveness, this spiritual adultery, is to demand something more of God than he in his wisdom

has already given us.

And that's verse 22 to the first half of verse 23.

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom.

In the second half of verse 23, then verse 24, tell us that a divisive spirit is to resurrect the

stumbling block that Christ by his cross has removed.

So first to demand that he give us something that he's more than he's already given, and then to resurrect this

stumbling block, beginning at verse 22.

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom.

Yes, demands.

Did you hear that?

Demanding of God, a demand set before the altar of God and saying before God,

this is what I require of you.

I, the creature, to you, the creator, demand of you something.

Paul is here reminding them of their former lives when they were immersed in Jewish traditions or Greek

philosophy.

Now there's a sort of seesaw, there's a back and forth in verses 21 to 24 that I want you to see because it goes

through the world of the church, the world of the church, and throughout this message it's here's the world

and this is the way you're not to be because you're the church.

It's not this, you're to be that.

World church, world church.

I want you to see this.

The first two parts of verse 21, I'm going to go through this very quickly.

For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom.

Who is that?

That's the world.

Then 21C as we call it, the third part of 21.

It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe, church.

Verse 22, back to the world, for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom.

That's the world.

The first part of verse 23, but we preach Christ crucified, church.

Back to the world, verse 23B, the second half of that verse, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to

Gentiles, that resurrection of the stumbling block and the foolishness that we'll talk about in the

message.

And then back to the world, back to the church, excuse me.

But to those who were called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

So when he writes how Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdoms, these are world -based behaviors

fueled by pride, a testing of God that brings only controversy and division to the church.

They brought ruin to Israel.

That's first Corinthians chapter 10.

And just as a quick side note, the way the apostle Paul puts that chapter in first Corinthians assumes that that

church, that mixed church, Jews and Gentiles and poor and rich and slave and free and

male and female and all the rest of it understood that history, that biblical history of Israel.

And we'll come back to that again later.

But our first point, what I want you to see from these first couple of verses is divisiveness is spiritual adultery.

It is that serious.

In Matthew chapter 12, in verses 38 to 42, we have this incident where

the Pharisees come to Jesus and they demand of him a sign.

They said, show us a sign proving that you are the Messiah, proving that you have authority to do these things.

You cleanse the temple.

You call it your father's house.

Prove to us that you're authorized to do that.

Show us a sign.

Show us something.

As later, when they mocked him on the cross a few years after this, and said, if you are the son of God,

take yourself down from the cross.

Show us something.

Satisfy me.

Do you see it?

Well, how did Jesus answer them?

Very much how the apostle Paul is answering the Corinthians.

And perhaps us here today.

Jesus said, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign.

Evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, demands of God

something more than God has already shown them.

As if Israel after the 10 plagues would have said, well, you know, Lord, you left the second

born.

We'll believe you if you go take care of the second born of Egypt, and maybe after that the third born, and so on.

You see how ridiculous it becomes?

Jesus says that's evil.

That is adulterous.

And this is Paul's meaning when he writes that Jews demand a sign.

It is to become adulterers, demanding God something more than what he's already given.

The flow of thought is something like this, the end of verse 21, to please God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

So why preaching?

Why did God ordain such a folly for something so important as salvation?

Here's the reason.

Because Jews demand signs.

Because Jews demand signs.

And God just doesn't pander to what men require of him.

They're unhappy with the signs that their nation had already seen, mighty works of God that delivered them from their enemies

time and time again.

And now the culmination of it all had come in Jesus Christ, and what did they say?

We'll believe you as soon as you fill in the blank.

Well, Jesus will have none of it.

He'll have none of it.

And I want you to see how bad this is.

Remember that the Apostle Paul is saying that Jews demand signs, that's them, that shouldn't be you.

And remember what the Apostle Paul's point is here, divisiveness.

Right after the greeting, hey it's me Paul, it's TU Church, let's get going.

From chapter 1 verse 10 all the way to the end of chapter 2, that's his point.

So he's not just going off on an excursus here about spiritual adultery, about Jews demanding signs, he's saying

this ought not be you.

Matthew 11, 16, again the words of Jesus Christ, and this is apropos to what we're speaking of here.

He says, to what shall I compare this generation, this evil and adulterous generation demanding signs of me?

Though that came a chapter later, but it's in the same context.

To what shall I compare this generation?

It is like children who say we played the flute for you and you did not dance.

We sang a dirge for you and you did not mourn.

You did not play the game that we want you to play.

You know what they're treating Jesus, the Son of God, as?

Remember this is the Apostle Paul's thought to the Corinthians because of their divisiveness.

This is the message to us when we're divisive, even if it's hidden in the heart.

They're treating Jesus like some kind of a dancing bear, doing tricks for his owner

so that people on the sidewalk would toss change into his cup.

We played for you, you didn't dance to our tune.

You didn't play the game the way we want you to play.

And this is just what the Apostle Paul means when he writes to the Corinthians that they, them, not you, the

church, the unconverted are the ones to demand signs.

And where does all this begin?

Again a couple of weeks ago, Pastor Olin spoke from the I follows.

If John's gospel is broken into the great I am statements, I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I am the way, the

truth, and the life.

Before Abraham was, I am.

We can break that book into these I am statements.

Here we have the great I follows.

I follow this one and I follow that one.

That's where it all began.

Grouping themselves around these favored leaders.

Cliques, groups, unresolved conflicts, any failure of love, demanding of God that he do for you.

Yes, you're demanding of God something more than what he's already done.

The spirit he's given you, the scripture he's given you, the love of the brethren

that Christ Jesus himself actually accomplished and is one of the purposes of the cross itself.

To go into this other attitude, this other demeanor, this other behavior, is

to say that God didn't actually accomplish on the cross, in his son, what he intended.

At his core, this particular sin of divisiveness is putting God to the test.

Again, the words of Jesus Christ would make this a very severe thing to put God to the test.

At the end of Matthew chapter 4, in Jesus Christ's temptation, one of his answers

to the devil, when the devil said, cast yourself down from this high pinnacle because

the word of God says he will put his angels of charge over you, he will put his angels of charge.

You won't break your foot, you won't scratch yourself, everything's going to be fine, of course.

And what did Jesus say?

It is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

Now, how does this relate to the apostle Paul and what he says to the Corinthian church then and to this

church here today?

If you want to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and remember, these people knew this history, they knew where this was

coming from.

Beginning of verse 9, the apostle Paul is speaking of one of the darkest periods of Israel's

history, when they failed before God and they went into spiritual adultery which led to physical adultery.

He writes this, we must not put Christ to the test.

Now the book of Numbers, it's the Lord God who was put to the test, and Paul very naturally says Christ because he is God.

You must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were

destroyed by the destroyer.

Which refers back to that terrible, dark day.

And it all began with grumbling.

It began with divisiveness.

And what is that?

It's to put Christ to the test.

It's spiritual adultery.

What does Jesus Christ say about adultery?

In very much the same vein, very famously he says, if a man looks after a woman to lust

after her, he's already committed adultery in his heart.

Brethren, it's the same thing.

I said a few moments ago, it doesn't have to be something that comes out of our mouth.

It doesn't have to be an action where we actually stand with another group.

It could be in the heart.

Just as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, is putting Christ to the test.

I ask you this morning, have you thought of it this way?

Have you thought of these subtle, small things, these thoughts that begin in the heart,

eventually come out the mouth?

Or maybe just stay in the heart, but result in a freezing, a cooling of the

relationship with another.

This is what divisiveness is.

This is how seriously the Apostle Paul takes it.

How Jesus Christ himself takes it.

Have you thought of it like this?

I have to tell you, it struck me pretty hard when I realized the severity of the parallels that Paul draws here.

The line goes from chapter 1 verse 12, those great eye follows, to verse 22,

Jews demanding signs.

Then to Jesus, evil and adulterous generation.

And we take that back to the prophets most especially, Hosea and Ezekiel,

and we stand naked and guilty.

Do we understand how serious it is?

Are we getting a picture of how severe it is?

These verses in 1 Corinthians are not just a theological excursus for the Apostle Paul.

He's speaking here about the division that he encountered in

Corinth.

That's how serious it is.

So what do we do?

Do we have this kind of an attitude?

Is it anywhere in us?

You find your unity then in the cross.

Because to be divisive is to imply that the cross did not accomplish unity.

We need to repent of that and find in the cross our unity.

Verse 23, here's the answer.

But we preach Christ crucified, but, by but the Apostle means rather than

that, this.

Rather than behaving like them, do this way.

Rather than being what you were before God converted you, rather than reverting back to

that, come over here by the preaching of the cross.

Rather than sliding back into that old error who tested God

by demanding signs, rather than dividing, which in itself is to demand something of God,

preach Christ crucified.

Is it just the preaching of the cross that brings us together?

Is it that simple?

Is it the folly of the cross?

Isn't that foolishness, pastor?

Are you telling me the cross is going to cure this terrible sin?

Yes.

That is what we're saying.

That is what the Apostle Paul says.

Our unity is found right there in the cross.

The cross demolishes the divisions that we once had.

The cross is the sign of all signs.

It should make sign seekers stop seeking signs beyond the sign that God has given.

I'll say that again slowly, more slowly.

The cross is the sign of all signs that should make sign seekers stop seeking

signs beyond the sign that God has given.

And by cross, as we said a couple of weeks ago, we don't mean just that piece of wood on which Jesus suffered and

died for your sins.

We mean his perfect life.

We mean his perfect sacrifice for your sins.

His perfect sacrificial death.

We mean his death, his burial, and his resurrection.

We mean all of that by the cross.

Are you telling me then, pastor, preacher, that by preaching the cross, we find unity?

Yes.

I'm saying that because the Apostle Paul says it, but we preach Christ crucified.

We preach him crucified.

The cross had to demolish any divisions there are.

Why do we say that?

What does it mean that Christ is crucified?

How does this work?

What does the preaching of the cross mean in terms of this unity that we're to have?

I'll tell you first that the cross destroyed, demolished the

barrier between you and God if your faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew chapter 27, verse 51.

This verse is right after Jesus bowed his head and died.

What does the evangelist Matthew tell us?

In Matthew 27, verse 51, he says, and behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top

to bottom.

Note those words, from top to bottom.

This thing was, I think, 30 cubits high and a cubit wide.

That means it was this thick.

Somebody didn't climb up there on a ladder and tear it with his hands.

He didn't cut it with a pair of scissors either.

It was torn from top to bottom and the earth shook and the rocks were split.

Now what was that curtain?

What was that veil?

That veil covered entrance to the holy place where only the high priest could go once a year to

address, to atone for the sins of his people, of Israel.

Anyone else would go in there, they would die.

If he went in there wrongly prepared, he would die.

It was a barrier between man and God.

When Jesus Christ died, that thing was torn from top to bottom.

Who did that?

God did it.

Signifying what?

The meaning is obvious, that the barrier between God and man, between sinful

you and our holy righteous God has been

torn in half.

It's gone.

The curtain divided God and men.

It kept us at arm's length.

This is a sign from God that all the Old Testament types and all the Old Testament prefigurements were fulfilled

in Christ Jesus and his cross.

When he died for our sins, there was no more need for the veil because our sins had been answered.

The way to God had been made clear.

Only by grace can we enter.

Only by grace can we stand.

By grace we come to the throne of God.

And that through faith.

The curtain torn from the top where no one could have reached.

From the top towards heaven to the bottom where we dwell.

And I ask you this now.

If God has removed the division between himself and you, between himself, our

perfect, holy, righteous, just God, and what we are.

If that division is gone, what about us and us?

What about me and you?

What about you and that brother or sister next to you?

What about you and any believer in the Lord Jesus Christ?

If the way has been made clear to God, if God accepts a sinner, how

can there be division between us?

Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 14 that Jesus himself is our peace who has

made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.

That's hostility first between God and man.

That's hostility then between man and man.

By abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances that he might create in himself one new

man in place of the two.

So making peace.

And might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross.

But we preach Christ crucified through the cross thereby killing the hostility.

The hostility between Jews and Gentiles broken down by the cross.

The hostility between any two people broken down by the cross because the hostility between God and

sinners has been removed by the cross.

The cross where Jesus suffered bringing unity between God and man.

How much more between man and man and brethren?

To have divisiveness.

To have divisiveness between brethren.

It says that the cross wasn't enough.

It says that the cross did not accomplish what God sent Jesus Christ to accomplish.

Divisions are no longer necessary.

Divisions are no longer appropriate.

They're no longer acceptable.

Divisive attitudes imply that the cross wasn't adequate.

Now think about it.

Think about it this way with me.

If the cross could not accomplish so small a thing as

unity between you and me and you and whoever, if the cross

cannot remove our divisive slash prideful attitudes,

if it can't do that, how could it save?

If it couldn't do the small thing, if God couldn't accomplish something so small as unity between you and

me or you and whoever, how on earth could that cross save a person from eternal damnation?

You see where I'm going with that.

But we preach Christ crucified.

This divisive attitude, this spiritual adultery, something we can repent of, something we can

cure, something God has provided in the cross, what does it mean to preach the cross?

I'm preaching the cross to you today.

What does it mean to preach the cross?

Preach the cross to yourself.

Almost every week since we've been in this small series, Pastor Owens and I have fallen back on Psalm 133.

It's just a few verses about the beautiful sight it is to God himself when believers

dwell together in unity.

We'll read it again in a little bit.

Preach that to yourself again and again.

You can read it in 30 seconds.

It's just a few verses.

Preach it to yourself.

Preach that cross to yourself.

We preach Christ crucified.

We preach a God who accomplished what the cross intended to accomplish.

There's one reason we believe in particular redemption, that Christ knew for whom he was suffering.

God knew for whom he sent Jesus Christ.

The cross accomplished what God intended it to.

Ephesians 2, verse 14, as I read to you, breaking down the hostility between God and man and man and

man.

This is Paul's point.

This is where he's going with this.

There are differences that matter.

I'm not saying that we give up every distinctive we have as a Reformed Baptist church,

as Bible -believing evangelical Christians, Oneness Pentecostals, for example.

They don't believe in the Trinity, and we cannot tolerate that.

The Jehovah's Witnesses deny the eternality and the deity of Jesus Christ, and we can't tolerate that.

But ask yourself, does that offense that I carry, that thing I'm willing to be divisive over, even if it's

only in my heart, does that rise to that level?

Is that worth destroying the unity of the body for whom Christ died, that God intended

the cross to correct?

Is it a demand for a sign?

Is it just my hobby horse?

Is it a testing of Christ to see if his cross is adequate, because that's what it implies?

Okay, I'm going to hang on to this.

I'm going to keep this attitude.

I'm going to restrain myself from full immersion into the worship with the brethren because of this

thing, and really what you're doing is saying, Christ, I'm testing you

to see if you can overcome this.

It's spiritual adultery from an evil and adulterous generation.

What does divisiveness do?

If it's that kind of adultery, if it's a testing of Christ, if it's a failure to preach the cross to

yourself or hear the preaching of the cross, it revives the offense of the cross.

Look at the second half of verse 23.

The cross is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.

Remember what this is all about.

It's about the sin of divisions in the church.

It's not about those silly Jews stumbling over the rock that is Christ.

It's about that in other places, but right here, it's a revival of that stumbling block.

It's saying you're stumbling again.

You're causing yourself to stumble.

All these comparisons are to show you how awful this is.

Spiritual adultery, testing God by setting demands before him, implying that

what he's given is not enough and that the cross was not powerful enough.

It's a stumbling block.

What does a stumbling block have to do with all this?

It's a divisive spirit in the church that is a resurrection of that stumbling block that kept and keeps people

away from Christ.

As Trifo, that quote that I began with, we don't want that Christ because he doesn't match my expectations.

There's no greater damage that can be done to the church's gospel light than the darkness of factionalism.

I try to think of an illustration of this.

And when I thought of resurrecting this stumbling block, this huge barrier, I thought of Olympic

skaters or professional ballerinas, these people with this beautiful balance.

What do they call those twirly things that they do?

Triple lutz?

I don't like skating.

It bores me, silly.

But I have to tell you, I'm amazed when I see these people, men and women alike, jump up in the air, do this thing

in the air, and come down on their toe and keep gliding.

What balance.

The high jump record is owned by a man named Javier Sotomayor.

You know, he jumped eight foot three inches.

He ran towards this bar and jumped two feet higher than I am, six foot one.

The stumbling block that is resurrected by divisiveness would knock that balanced

ballerina or gymnast on their face, and Sotomayor would not have a chance to get over it.

That's what's being brought back up.

That's what we are resurrecting in any divisive attitude.

That's what it is where he says, the Jews demand the signs, and it's a stumbling block

to them to see Christ crucified.

A stumbling stone to the Jews.

What is this Greek part of it?

It's the Greek obsession with wisdom.

And what does this have to do with divisions in the church?

It would seem that the Jewish converts lined up behind Cephas, otherwise known as Peter, because he kind of kept the rules.

He was really Jewish, so we're going to follow him.

The Gentiles grouped with their special apostle, Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.

And then the Greek converts, who loved wisdom and they loved eloquence, they were with Apollos, who Acts chapter 18, verse 24

says, was an eloquent man.

So what is this?

This grouping?

Well, it's prideful boasting.

For the wisdom seekers, it was arrogance par excellence.

It was to say to the other, oh, you poor dear thing, you're only at the Cephas level?

You're still following all those rules?

My, oh, my, I'll pray that one day you can advance to Apollosism and you'll be able to follow

his eloquent arguments.

And then the Cephasites would be saying, oh, you poor people who only like to hear the fancy speeches,

if only you understood all the rules, we'll follow Cephas and one day you'll rise to our level.

You see how this goes.

This is what so alarmed the apostle Paul and should alarm us as we look to our own hearts

to see what is in there with alarm and with

repentance, but we preach Christ crucified.

If the Jews, what is divisiveness?

This boasting is what Proverbs might call in

chapter 17, verse 5, whoever mocks the poor insults his maker.

These divisions to say the one you follow is not good enough.

Well, why?

They would be right about that.

Following Apollos is not good enough.

Following Cephas is not good enough and following Paul is not good enough.

We follow Christ, him crucified, and to do otherwise is Proverbs 17, verse

5, whoever mocks the poor mocks his maker, insults his maker.

It's an insult to God when we divide over these sorts of things, these non -essentials.

If Jews stumbled over the weakness of a crucified Messiah, if Greeks mock those who lack sophistication, here's

what it means to us who believe.

By dividing into camps, we claim ours to be superior.

We say ours is better.

We mock those who can't follow our arguments, which is to insult God their maker, which is to scoff at the

thought that Christ just might have bled for them as much as for you.

So how then are we to live out this kind of unity that Paul insists upon?

What are we to do with this?

Well, Jesus tells us, with man this is impossible, but with God all things are

possible.

You see, God provides for what he demands of us, and that's verse 24.

But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

The power and wisdom of God are in Christ.

When God gives a sign, it is a display of his power.

Christ is that power of God.

Christ, his life, his cross, as we said, his whole cross, death, burial, and resurrection.

Christ is the power of God.

His wisdom has been given to us in his word.

In the beginning was the word, says John in chapter 1, verse 1 of his gospel.

In the beginning was the word, capital W.

Word is Jesus.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, always was, always

will be God.

In chapter 1, verse 30, in 1 Corinthians, Christ, whom God made to be our wisdom.

The wisdom of God that we have in his word, the wisdom of God that Jesus Christ is.

Paul reminds them, he reminds us, that for the church there is power.

Christ is the power of God, and Christ is with us.

The power of God that overcame your sin and my rebellion.

The power that changes the leopard's spot and removes hearts of stone.

The power of God that overcomes the resurgence of our party spirit that subdues and brings us together in

Christ.

The power of God that raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

The cross of Christ, did it accomplish what God intended?

Is God's power manifest amongst us?

I ask you, is his power enough to overcome your desire

to be in a certain party?

To divide over a certain pet doctrine or hobby horse, as we might call it.

God's wisdom says something like this, and here's Psalm 133,

we've preached Christ crucified.

Here's the answer to our disunity.

Here's the answer to our factionalism, our party spirit.

Preach this to yourself.

Preach this Christ crucified to yourself over and over again.

Here's the whole psalm, behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.

It is like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his

robes.

It is like the dew of Hermon which falls on the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life

forevermore.

Now speaks of Aaron, he was Israel's first high priest.

The wisdom of this word from God tells us something remarkable about unity in the church.

It is as pleasant to God for us to dwell in unity as it is for him to have a high priest

intercede for his people's sins.

Aaron the first high priest, and when God looks down and sees the anointing oil, knowing that he will come into that holy place,

he will cross past the veil and intercede for the sins of Israel, and

the smoke from the altar rises to God as a pleasing aroma.

That is as pleasing to God as it is when he sees us dwelling together in unity.

That's Aaron sacrificing the blood of bulls and goats.

How much more when he sees the unity that Jesus Christ his Son

created, not by the blood of bulls and goats, but by his own precious perfect blood.

How pleasant is that to God to see.

How much more would he be pleased by the sacrifice of our great eternal high priest.

He is as much more pleased with our unity over theirs then as he is by the sacrifice of Jesus on

the cross over the blood of bulls and goats.

He is more pleased with our unity because it is brought to us by a more perfect sacrifice.

Not by the blood of bulls and goats which cannot take away sin, but by the blood of the Lamb of God who takes

away the sin of the world.

At the beginning of verse 24 he has a but.

Another one of those buts.

But them, not us, but to those who are called, but to the church, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ,

this power of God, this wisdom of God.

He means that where as Jews stumble and Greeks seek, we the church, we are

satisfied and supplied by his power and wisdom.

And we seek nothing else, we do only, we want only to obey, we

want to step over the lines of division.

So I ask you, do you see how serious divisiveness is in God's eyes?

How easily we fall into the trap of saying, well I'm just holding to the biblical truth.

And maybe you are.

And maybe you're holding to a truth and have to teach the rest of us what that truth is and convince us.

And we can do that without the divisive spirit.

Do you see how serious it is to even in your heart, hiding it from your

lips, hiding it from the work of your hands, the divisive spirit is?

This spiritual adultery?

First John chapter 1, 9 promises forgiveness and restoration.

For we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Preach the cross to yourself.

Preach the cross to yourself, but we preach Christ crucified.

And see there, the unity that God created in his son,

and there repent where you have detracted from it, where you have tested God,

where you have fallen into idolatry.

To fail here is to put Christ to the test.

To fail in unity is to put him to the test, to challenge him to remove the stumbling block again and again

and again.

And this is verse 25, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men,

strong to overcome even our divisive spirit.

You and I in our unity together because of our union with Christ must stand in

stark contrast to today's fractious climate where the slip of a tongue, the slip of a

single word might bring down the wrath of an entire world view upon you.

You know of what I speak, where somebody just gets one word wrong and all of a sudden this whole

ethos falls down upon you and you've denied the whole thing, which of course is absurd.

But this is the factious spirit we have out there.

And what is the church to be?

That's why I went through the world church, world church in those first few verses.

We're not that.

We stand on a better foundation.

We stand on the blood of Christ Jesus.

We preach him crucified.

We preach a cross that accomplished what God intended.

And if he intended the salvation of sinners and we believe he saved sinners from eternal

death and gave them eternal life, that's pretty big, isn't it?

How much smaller than that is mere unity?

Because I tell you, if he can't have done the smaller, we have reason to doubt the larger.

Now let the church be that shining beacon where our demeanor together proves

that God by his son's cross actually did accomplish what he intended and that his

spirit works among us, always accomplishing that purpose, our

unity, our love for one another.

The apostle Paul says to the Hebrews, and I slipped on that, the apostle to the

Hebrews who may very likely have been Paul, he says, Strive for peace with everyone and for the

holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

You see, you're no longer Jew or Gentile, much less an Apolloite or a Cephasite or a Pauline.

You are Christians who have stepped into the holy place by means of the blood of Christ.

By the cross, you see, there's no impediment to full and unfettered fellowship with God.

How then can it be otherwise with each other?

If neither height nor depth and all the rest that the apostle Paul gives us in Romans 8

can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, what can separate you from the love of brotherhood

for that Greek or for that Jew, for that man or for that woman, for that slave or that free for whom Christ also

died?

What wall will you raise from the ashes of Golgotha to bring about a division

by which you test God to see if he can break it again?

Trifle demanded a sign from God of his power other than Jesus.

That's not the church.

God willing, that's not you.

May it be in the church of God that we demand nothing of God nor seek further wisdom from him than what he has given

beyond what we have in Christ Jesus, our Lord, whose cross we preach.

And we preach Christ crucified.

Amen?

Our heavenly Father, be with us, Father, accomplishing us your will.

Give us that spirit of love for the brethren, of unity.

Take away our spirit of divisiveness.

Give us, Lord, a vision of the cross and repentance and restoration where we

need it.

Be honored and glorified in this place, for we ask in Jesus' name, amen.