WWUTT 1478 Beyond What is Written (1 Corinthians 4:6)

1 Corinthians 4 and the Call to Stay Within What Is Written

1 Corinthians 4 -6 says, These things, brothers, I have applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to go beyond what is written when we understand the text.

You are listening to When We Understand the Text, an online Bible ministry so that we may know all the riches freely given to us by God. For questions and comments send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of 1 Corinthians 4. If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there, I'll begin reading in verse 1 and we'll go through about verse 8 or 9 here.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, Let a man consider us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found faithful.

But to me it is a very small thing that I be examined by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted, but the one who examines me is the Lord.

Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and make manifest the motives of hearts. And then each one's praise will come to him from God.

Now these things, brothers, I have applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to go beyond what is written, so that no one of you will become puffed up on behalf of one against the other.

For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have ruled without us.

And how I wish that you had ruled indeed, so that we also might rule with you. For I think that God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men.

Paul and Apollos as Servants, Not Party Leaders

We pick up where we left off yesterday, and that's in verse 6, where Paul says, Now these things, brothers, I have applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to go beyond what is written.

What is it that Paul has applied to himself and to Apollos for the sake of the Corinthians? We'll go back to the thought that Paul had begun back in chapter 3 in verse 4. He says, For when one says, I am of Paul, and then another says, I am of Apollos, are you not being mere men?

Like, I'm better because I'm of Paul, I'm better because I'm of Apollos. What then is Apollos, Paul says? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one. So Paul refers to himself and Apollos both as servants.

Now, we've had other names come up. There were some that says, I am of Cephas. There were others that said, I am of Christ. But Paul is limiting it here to just himself and Apollos, two men who were very regular to the teaching there in Corinth.

Paul goes on to provide three analogies as to how he and Apollos are both servants. They are like farmers. Verse 6 in chapter 3, I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything.

That's a wonderfully humble approach to how Paul is presenting himself and Apollos. And he is saying that this is how the Corinthians should regard them. Paul does not regard himself as anything. We're nothing but servants.

That's who we are. The one who plants, the one who waters, we're nothing. God is the one who causes the growth. I think of Abraham back in Genesis chapter 18. This was when Abraham was interceding for Sodom.

God had told Abraham what he intended to do. He was going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and lay waste to the entire valley. The angels were being sent into Sodom to rescue Abraham's kin, who was his nephew Lot, before the cities were destroyed.

But as Abraham is interceding for Sodom, because, I mean, this is thousands of people that we're talking about here. In these cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, people living in the valley that are all about to be wiped out by the judgment of God.

Abraham doesn't want to see that. Who would want that? I want to see thousands of people dead today. Of course, Abraham doesn't want to see that happen. So he begs God to show mercy. Now, Abraham does not know just how far gone these cities are in their depravity.

He thinks that there are more righteous living among them than just Lot. And God is even being sparing of Lot because of his covenant with Abraham. So Abraham draws near to God and says, Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

Suppose there are 50 righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked.

Far be it from you. Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just? And the Lord said to Abraham, If I find at Sodom 50 righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake. Now, of course, God knows that there are not 50 righteous in the city.

But the point that I'm making here, the reason why I'm reading this story or bringing it back to your memory again, is because of what Abraham says next. This is in Genesis chapter 18, verse 27. Abraham answered and said, Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.

That's the right approach. That's the right attitude that we take before God. We don't think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, as Paul said with the Romans back in Romans chapter 12. But we think with sober judgment.

Paul is saying here to the Corinthians, not only should we not think of ourselves too highly, and that was certainly going on among the Corinthians. There were those who were puffing themselves up above others.

You have that here in verse 6, which we're reading in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, so that none of you will become puffed up on behalf of one against the other. So there were those who were prideful. They thought of themselves more highly.

We even had some factions that were developing at the Lord's table that were separating the people of God when it came to coming to the table of God. We'll get to that later as we talk about that getting to chapter 11.

But for now, as Paul is confronting this particular issue, the factions that have developed because of the way they regard teachers, the way they regard Paul or the way they regard Apollos. Paul is better than Apollos.

Apollos is better than Paul. Paul presents himself to the Corinthians in such a humble way that it's almost like in his humility he makes fools out of how they're regarding their teachers. And this is the way Greeks thought of their teachers.

They put them up on a pedestal. They were like the spokesmen of the gods, right? Well, we believe in the true God, and even the one who rose from the dead, who conquered death himself, who's going to judge the living and the dead.

We believe in the one true God. So anybody who comes preaching in the name of the one true God is certainly up there, above any of these other philosophers or anybody else. So which one is closest to God?

It must be Apollos. It must be Paul. We talked about this when Paul first raised the issue back in chapter 1. This is not something that is unique to the church 2 ,000 years ago. It's still going on in the church today.

You've got churches that are divided over and named after the people that they say were right on the Bible, that are closest to God on this. You've got the Wesleyan denominations. You've got the Lutheran denominations.

You've got the Church of Christ. You've even got the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. See, all you other churches, you got this wrong for so many years. Jesus had to restart the church, and he made the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Now, we know the Mormonism is just straight-up heretical. But you get the point. You get what I'm saying? People are throwing their names on things and saying that we've got this right. We're the ones that have it correct.

And then we're even ready to write off those who might be aligned with or united with one of those particular denominations that has somebody's name on it. And you yourself may say, well, I think the Calvinists are the most correct.

Now, I would say that I'm reformed in my soteriology, but just because a person calls themselves a Calvinist, I know many preachers who call themselves Calvinists, I would never let stand in my pulpit and preach.

Just because they align themselves that way really doesn't mean that they're right on their soteriology or even in their interpretation of Scripture. Paul Washer is a man who would say that he is a Calvinist, and yet he says, I would take a Leonard Ravenhill over a hundred Calvinists, just because Leonard Ravenhill was so right on the way that he preached about repenting of sin and believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ and how passionate he was about that, was right on his doctrine in the evangelism that he did.

It just may have been some disagreements there on the soteriology, on the process and how a person comes from death to life. Nevertheless, there are people that we would divide ourselves from because of what camp they're associated with.

And I'm not saying that I'm any less guilty of this. I've done this myself. I've probably even done this this week because of certain scandals and controversies that are going on, even within my own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention.

So we still have this problem in the church today. There is still a need for us to remember our lowest state. And even that these preachers, these men, as great as they are teaching us the word of God, they are servants of God.

They're not meant to be put on pedestals and honored in any kind of way, more so or going beyond the text, because that's what Paul is saying here. That's exactly the way he puts it in chapter four, six.

These things, brothers, I have applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you may learn not to go beyond what is written. Do not consider your teachers beyond what is written in how you should regard those teachers.

So I mentioned I mentioned Abraham. So back in Abraham chapter 18, I am but dust and ashes. There you go. That's how you should consider your teachers. But you even consider the testimony that comes from the Gospels.

John the Baptist talking about Christ, who was to come and saying that his sandal straps, I'm not even fit to untie. That's how humble John considered himself. Consider the instructions that Paul gave to the Thessalonians.

First Thessalonians 512. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.

Consider also these words in Hebrews chapter 13, verses 7 and 17. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. So there is a way that we're supposed to regard our teachers with a certain sense of reverence and respect, but not going beyond what is written.

Jesus even said in Luke chapter 16 that you are to have a certain regard for the prophets. And the one who does not listen to Moses and the prophets would not even listen to somebody who rises from the dead.

Now, who was Jesus referring to there? He was referring to himself. If you weren't willing to listen to what had been written beforehand, what came in the Old Testament, what the prophets said. If you won't listen to the prophets who were sent from God, then you won't listen to the son of God who was sent from the father.

Even if he should rise from the dead, you wouldn't listen to him because of your hardness of heart and your rebellion against God. And as such, we're also supposed to regard the apostles as those who are sent from God.

What we read in the New Testament as coming from those who had been appointed by Christ to go out and speak the gospel to the nations, teaching them all that I have commanded you, as Jesus said, to reject the word of an apostle was to reject the word of Christ himself.

John talks about that in first John chapter two and says they went out from us that it might be known that they were not of us. For if they were of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might be known that they were not really of us.

That was that's in first John to 19. And the context there specifically is talking about those false teachers who went out from the apostles, who went out from the teaching of the apostolic ministry that had been appointed by Christ.

They no longer followed along with the apostles. They went their own way so that it might be seen. They were not really of those teachers that truly had the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we are supposed to regard our teachers with a certain sense of respect.

Peter says as much in first Peter five, five, you who are younger, be subject to the elders, clothe yourselves, all of you, whether you are an elder or those who are subject to the elders, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.

For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Paul understood his position well. He knew that he was, as Abraham said, but dusted ashes. He knew, as John the Baptist said, that I'm unwilling or I'm unfit to untie the sandals of my Lord.

Paul referred to himself among the apostles in first Corinthians 15, eight, which, you know, we'll get to as we're going through first Corinthians here. But he says there that I am as one untimely born.

He considered himself the least of the apostles. And so Paul presents himself this way to the Corinthians, that they would not. They would not regard these teachers more highly than they should and therefore cause divisions among themselves.

But considering these teachers rightly, Paul says, I planted, Apollos watered, but God was the one causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants or the one who waters is anything but God. Who causes the growth, we are as farmers, he goes on to say, we are as builders, your God's building.

Paul says, I laid a foundation. Let each person who builds upon that foundation be careful how he builds upon it, that he builds upon it with the precious gospel of Jesus Christ, with that which flows from the gospel that builds up into the Lord.

He regards himself as a steward. Let a man consider us in this manner, talking about himself and Apollos. As we're looking at this in that particular context, consider us as servants of Christ, as stewards of the mysteries of God.

We're caring for God's house. And there is a certain charge that a steward is given by which he's got authority over other people in the house. So the steward can tell the other servants what to do. Paul has an instruction for the Corinthians, and they're expected to follow it because the instruction that he has comes not from man, but from God.

So there was a certain regard that the Corinthians were to have about the word of an apostle, but in a right way, according to what was written. We're servants of Christ. We're stewards of the mysteries of God.

In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found faithful. Paul saying we're not doing this for ourselves. I'm not doing this to build my ministry. Apollos is not doing this to build his ministry.

We're doing this that Christ may be exalted. Going back to the example of John the Baptist again. Remember, in John three, when Jesus and his disciples were baptizing more than John and his disciples.

His disciples said something to John about it. John said, Nope, the time has now come where I must decrease and he must increase. This was not about John the Baptist building his own ministry, but preparing the way of him who is to come.

And my friends, as a pastor, I'm actually doing the same thing. I'm not trying to build my own ministry. I'm trying to prepare the way of Christ who is to come. I'm preparing you for that day when Christ will come in all his glory.

Now, what I do on the podcast is just very simply, I'm just trying to teach you the word of God. I'm giving you more devotionals that you can listen to on a daily basis and take through your week. But you've got a pastor and elders that you submit to in your own church.

And, you know, maybe your pastor is not an Alistair Begg or a John MacArthur or somebody like that. And he would probably be the first one to tell you that I'm no R .C. Sproul. I'm no Spurgeon or Calvin or any of those other guys.

But nevertheless, he's keeping watch over your soul. And as it says in Hebrews chapter 13, let him do this with joy and not with groaning. For that would be of no advantage to you. The person who is most able to help you along in your sanctification is the pastor, the elders that you are under in the church that you are a part of.

They know you. They know how to shepherd you. I'm going to be faithful with what I've been given, with the opportunities that I have to be able to use a podcast and just teach the word of God in this way.

And that it might be for your benefit, but this is not for myself. It is so the people of God would be built up in the word of God to stand before God on that day, sanctified, presented before him as a pure bride.

And it is not my work that I do this. I am merely a laborer in a field, a builder of a building, a steward in the house of God being a pastor. That's that that is an appointment that is given of pastors, as Paul says to Timothy in first Timothy, chapter one, that we are furthering the stewardship of God.

That is by faith. I'm working a field. I'm building a building. I'm a steward in a house. But it's God who does all of this. He provides the growth. It's his building. It's his house. I'm just going to be faithful with the little things that I have been given.

And doing so for your benefit. May you also take the gifts that God has given you for the benefit of others. Benefit other people in your church. Benefit people in your household. Benefiting friends. Benefiting coworkers.

Those who you might encounter who still need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Take those opportunities that you have been given and show Christ to someone through the gospel that you have heard. So that more may be added to his kingdom before his kingdom come.

Before the king returns. First Corinthians 4, 6. Now these things, brothers, I have applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes. So that in us you may learn not to go beyond what is written. So that no one of you will become puffed up on behalf of one against the other.

Humility Before God: Abraham, John the Baptist, and the Apostles

That's as far as we're going to get this week. Next week we'll pick up our study of 1 Corinthians 4. Picking up in verse 7. As tomorrow is our Old Testament study, we'll get back into our study of the book of Proverbs.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the goodness that you show to us daily. We are unworthy. We are but dust and ashes. We are unfit even to untie the sandals of our Lord Christ. And yet you call us to yourself.

You have washed us by the washing of water with the word. And we are being sanctified to be presented before you on that day. So may we continue in faithfulness. Not thinking of ourselves too highly. Not looking down pridefully on others.

But we're willing to associate with the lowly. And we put others' needs ahead of our own. All of this in service to our Lord Christ. That we may build one another up. And prepare each other for that day that we will be with Christ in glory.

Give us the things that we need today. And give us an abundance that we may share it with others. In the Holy Spirit and by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray to our Father in Heaven. Amen.

This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

Find a good, Gospel-teaching, Christ-centered church to worship with this weekend. And join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study, When We Understand the Text.