WWUTT 1417 Once More on Christ Undivided (1 Corinthians 1:10-17)

This has been difficult for some people to understand, but the words that we read in the Bible that come from the

Apostle Paul are also the words of Christ. And you cannot divide

Christ from His Word when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text studying

God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing and if this has ministered to you please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you Becky. So I wanted to come back to this section again in 1

Corinthians 1 beginning in verse 10 and read through verse 19. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome.

Now I exhort you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.

For I have been informed concerning you, my brothers, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you.

Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ.

Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would say you were baptized in my name.

Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanus. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim the gospel, not in wisdom of word, so that the cross of Christ will not be made empty.

For the word of the cross is foolishness 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 cleverness of the clever

I will set aside. Now I'm planning on picking up there tomorrow, verses 18 and 19.

In fact, my reading will begin with verses 18 through 25. This is really the thesis statement to Paul's letter to the

Corinthians. First Corinthians 1 .18 is to the book of First Corinthians what

Romans 1 .16 is to the book of Romans. So think about Romans 1 .16,

for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the

Jew first and also to the Greek. Paul makes a similar statement with the Corinthians, but directed in a different way because he's having to confront with them their tendency to want to go after, well, what they believe or what they perceive to be the highest form of wisdom.

That's what the Greeks were after. So some of these are now going after Christianity because it's like, hey, look,

I've got the new big philosophy that's out there on the scene. But Paul says to them, the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

They're not going to be impressed with this wisdom that you say that you have. If you're a follower of Christ, those who are worldly will hate that.

They will say that it's foolishness, but it's to us who are being saved. This message is the power of God.

So we're going to come back to that tomorrow. We're going to look at First Corinthians 1 .18. I still want to stay in this particular section in verses 10 through 17, where Paul is saying to the church in Corinth, is

Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

I want to take this from a different approach than I was taking it yesterday, but still keeping that in the understanding of, you know,

Paul was not preaching to start Paulanism. He wasn't trying to begin a cult in the name of Paul.

So in baptizing, he's baptizing in the name of Christ. Anytime Apollos baptized, when

Peter baptized, any of the other apostles, any of the deacons, any other disciples involved in baptism, it was a baptism into Christ.

As we talked about when we were in Romans chapter six, we are buried with Christ in our sins and we're risen with Christ to new life.

And as Jesus commissioned the disciples at the end of Matthew 28, he says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore into all nations, baptizing in the name of the father and of the son and of the

Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And lo,

I am with you always to the very end of the age. I didn't quite deliver that right. Go and make disciples of all the nations.

That's specifically what Jesus says there. So he says this first, prefacing it by saying all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

And the baptism that the disciples were to do was a baptism in the name of the father and of the son and of the

Holy Spirit. This is Paul's authority. He is in full submission to Christ, who is the one who reigns.

And the baptism that he did was in the name of the father and of the son and of the

Holy Spirit. This is a Trinitarian work. The Trinity is not Paul, Apollos, and Cephas.

The Trinity is the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. It is a baptism into Christ. It is not a baptism into Paul.

And so where he says here again in verse 13, has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

So why are you setting these things against one another? There's no division that's happening here. The word that Paul has delivered is the word of Christ.

As we read in 2 Peter 3, Peter talks there about the letters that Paul had written.

I'm going to go away from the Legacy Standard Bible here for a moment and read from the

English Standard Bible. But Peter is talking with the churches that he is writing to about the words of Paul.

He says, let me begin here in verse 14, 2 Peter 3 14, Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace.

Okay, so really, Peter is calling here for a unity in the church as well. Let there be no divisions among you.

Be at peace with one another, verse 15, and count the patience of our Lord as salvation.

Just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters, when he speaks in them of these matters, there are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures.

Peter is equating Paul's letters with scripture here, and he goes on in verse 17 to say,

You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

Amen. So, it's those who stir up division that will twist the words of Paul to mean something other than Paul intended to be understood.

And they do this to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. Paul being an apostle, just as Peter is an apostle, one who is sent by Christ, carried the very word of Christ that he delivered to the churches.

What Paul says in any one of these letters is the word of God. You've heard me a few times as I read the section,

I don't do this every time. It doesn't mean that I, anyway, let me say what I'm going to say first.

So, you've heard me say a few times whenever I read the section as we're going through letters that are written by Paul, I will read the section and I'll say, this is the word of the

Lord. Yes, it was written by Paul, whether we're in Romans or 1 Corinthians or this passage that I read to you from 2

Peter. That's also the word of God. Yes, it was written by Peter, but as Peter said at the beginning of this very letter, no prophecy has been written by the will of man.

Let me read to you in chapter one, starting in verse 16, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty for when he received honor and glory from God, the father in the voice was born to him by the majestic glory.

This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven for we were with him on the holy mountain and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man.

But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

And so this is this is Peter informing the churches that he is writing to that the words that you're reading here come not from us.

They're not from man. They're from God. The Holy Spirit has given to us to say these words to you.

The office of apostle was a very distinct position. One had to have seen the risen

Lord specifically, specifically have been called by Christ. And then it would even be confirmed their apostleship through the miracles that they would be that they would perform.

Also, Paul talks about that with the Corinthians, saying that this was confirmed among you through miraculous signs and wonders.

And then we have it also in Hebrews chapter two, that the word that Christ had commissioned to go out with the gospel being spread to the world was confirmed through the miraculous signs that were done through the apostles.

So these words that the apostles wrote, even in these letters, come from God.

I mean, to make that point, I come back to that again today. I mean, to make that point so that you understand that as we're reading this, it's

Paul writing it. Yes. But this is the word of God. This is thus saith the Lord. So as I was saying earlier, even though I'll read a section, if I don't finish it by saying thus saith the

Lord, or this is the word of God, that doesn't mean what I just read was not the word of God. Sometimes I remember to do that.

And sometimes I don't. Sometimes it seems relevant to say it. And sometimes maybe not. I just want to jump back, jump right into the teaching.

But if you've listened to my teaching for any period of time, you know that I hold firmly to inerrancy and sufficiency of the scriptures.

And I don't just say that. It's affirmed in the way that I teach them. From Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, what we are reading here is the authoritative word of God.

And it has authority over everyone, whether they believe it or not. Just consider something that my pastor,

Tom Buck, pointed out this past Sunday in the sermon that he did on law and gospel.

We're going through the Sermon on the Mount right now. So talking about in Matthew 5, where Jesus said,

I have not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. So as Pastor Tom was preaching on that particular section, he's talking about the distinctives of the law and pointing to 1

Timothy 1, verse 8. Paul says here to Timothy, he's writing to Timothy, he's sent to Ephesus to preach there.

And he says, now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully.

So the law is good. It's not been abolished. It's good. It's not bad. It's still good because it reveals the good character of God.

The way that the law is described in the scriptures is they're the same words that are used to describe the character of God.

God is also good. So then Paul goes on with Timothy here in verse 9 to say, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane.

Let me just stop right there. Who is that talking about there? It's talking about everybody, right?

Is there anyone of whom it could be said that they were never lawless and disobedient?

Now the only one that could be said of is Christ. Only Jesus was fully lawful and fully obedient, who fulfilled the law and the prophets, lived a perfect life and died on the cross for our sins as that perfect spotless lamb.

God received his sacrifice and showed that he received his offering by raising him from the dead.

He was raised for our justification, as Paul says in Romans chapter 4, verse 25.

So the law is laid down for everybody else. The law is laid down for the lawless and disobedient, the ungodly and the sinners, the unholy and profane.

And even when talking about Christians, that still describes us at one point.

We were once ungodly and the law was upon us, but Christ who fulfilled the law died for us and took the wrath of God upon himself.

He appeased God's wrath on our behalf. All who believe in Jesus, he is the propitiation for our sins.

So all of God's wrath that would be poured out on the lawless and disobedient, the ungodly and the sinners was poured out on Christ when he died on the cross for us.

Now notice something else here about this. First Timothy 1 .9, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient.

If that's talking about everybody, then that means the law of God even applies to unbelievers.

Does it not? Whenever we share the gospel with somebody, it is necessary for us to show them that they are sinners in need of a savior.

And how do you show them their sin? You show a person that they are sinful by showing them the law of God, that God's law says this and you've not done that.

You've done lawlessly, you've been disobedient, you've been ungodly, you've gone a different way, you've rebelled and gone your own way.

And in doing that, you've broken the law of God. And it is by God's law that he will judge you on the last day.

So the law of God is, it applies to everybody. Enough of this talk was saying that, well, that applies to Christians, but it doesn't apply to non -Christians.

It applies to everybody. God is going to judge everyone by his word, but it is those who are in Christ who have their sins atoned for.

And we have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us that we may stand before God as righteous because of the righteousness of his son, which is imputed to us by faith.

So I'm saying this to show to you the ways in which the world divides the

Bible from God, but you cannot divide God from his word. It would be like saying to your spouse, honey,

I love you, but please don't ever talk to me. How can you say that you really like your spouse if that's the way that you're going to talk about your spouse?

Jesus said in Mark 8 38, whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels?

We read this in Psalm 138 to I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

And as it said in Mark 13 31, heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will not pass away.

As Jesus said there, it's all the word of Christ. The whole Bible is the word of God.

You cannot separate God from his word. Whatever we're reading here in scripture comes from God. That includes first Corinthians.

Thus say it, the Lord that includes first Timothy. And you're going to hear, you're going to hear teachers out there that will try to make these distinctions, make these separations saying that, well, the words in red are more important.

You have the, there's that ministry out there called red letter Christians. And it's this idea that we just need to go right back to what

Jesus said in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And we just need to focus on the red letters.

But you might notice something about that red letter Christianity group. They don't accept the red letters written in revelation.

There's a lot of red letters there too, but they don't look at those. They just want Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And I would, I would even put to you, they're not even reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It's like they say that these are the words that they're going to adhere to, but in function, they don't.

They're still parts of the gospels that they're cutting out as well. But recognize something, folks, the red letters in the gospels were written by apostles.

Matthew, Mark, who was an understudy of Peter, Luke, who was an understudy of Paul, John, who was one of the apostles.

These are apostolic words that are written there. It's not Jesus taking his pen and putting it to paper and writing stuff down as though those words are going to be more significant because they came from the pen of Christ than any other book in the

New Testament that was not exactly written by Christ. None of it was written by Jesus' hand, but it's all his word because it's his

Holy Spirit that has been given to the people who wrote the words down that we're reading in scripture. Don't let anyone tell you that there is a difference between what we read in 1

Corinthians and Matthew in terms of authority. They both are authoritative, whether it is a letter in red or a letter in black.

It all comes from God. A couple of years ago, Beth Moore had made this distinction on Twitter that there's like this difference between the word of Christ and the word of Paul.

And she said, I believe wholeheartedly all scripture is inspired by God, authoritative truth.

But the persons themselves, Paul and Jesus, are not equals. I know this is hard for some to swallow, but Paul is not our savior.

Paul would be horrified, I believe, by the way he has been deified. Who is doing that?

Maybe the Catholic Church. Maybe the Catholic Church is deifying Paul. I wouldn't say they're putting

Paul above Jesus, but there's that whole thing of you can pray to the apostles. That is, in a certain sense, deifying someone because you are giving them qualities of God.

The saints are not omnipresent. They're not everywhere all the time like God is. So you can't pray to the saints like the

Catholics practice or like the Eastern Orthodox practice. So maybe they deify Paul. But who is it among evangelical

Protestantism that is deifying Paul, which is really what Beth Moore is speaking into. She just hates the fact that people reference 1

Timothy 2, verses 11 and 12 to say that women cannot be pastors. She thinks that referencing that is deifying

Paul. Now what she's doing is separating Paul from Christ as though they are divided.

And Paul would confront that kind of teaching directly here in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 13. Has Christ been divided?

Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul? This is not an

I am of Paul or an I am of Apollos or I am of Cephas or I am of Christ. The one who reads 1

Corinthians and says this is the word of God has not divided Christ and his word.

But the one who would read 1 Corinthians and see this is a little bit different than what we read in the

Gospels or what we read in the Old Testament in terms of authority, they would say it's a different authority than they've divided

Christ from his word. Christ is not divided and we are not permitted to divide from Christ those things that are of Christ.

This word is of Christ that we are reading here. And Paul says in verse 17, Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim the gospel, not in wisdom of word so that the cross of Christ will not be made empty.

Now this talk that I am sharing with you now to say that the words of Paul are the words that Christ gave him to say for me to say that to you, there are people who will say that that's foolishness.

But now consider what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1 18 for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. That's how I mean to lead in from the previous section into this next section in verse 18 that we would recognize the those who teach falsely about the scriptures do so to their own destruction.

As Peter warned in second Peter 3 16, Christ is not divided. So we are not at liberty to divide from Christ that which is not divided from Christ.

All of this is the word of God. All of this centers around the cross for his

Paul points out in Colossians 1 20. The cross is the pivotal point in all of cosmic and human history.

It is by the cross that God is making peace by the blood of the cross of Christ. So all that is spoken pointing to Christ and his sacrifice and his resurrection from the grave.

This we would we would we would all summarize together as being the word of the cross. That's foolishness to those who are perishing.

But to us who are being saved, who are even being sanctified unto glory with God forever in heaven.

This word that we read is the power of God. And we'll pick up reading on the power of God tomorrow.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this good word. And I pray what I've said is made sense.

It was kind of all over the place. But may we be convicted in heart of what your word says.

The Bible, all of the Bible comes from God. All of it is relevant. All of it has meaning.

All of it gives us the gospel that we may know the power of God for salvation to all who believes.

And I pray this would be more than just some sort of confession of faith that we make at a moment of conversion.

But with our whole lives we submit to the authority of this word and are conformed to the likeness of Christ.