1 Corinthians 3:5-23 (God in the Ordinary Means of Grace)

The Shepherd's Church

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Well, good morning everyone. Good morning. I'm excited to be able to share

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From God's Word with you here this morning the first Sunday of a new year pretty exciting As we get going this one

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I actually wanted to do a brief aside on parenting as we start the message this morning as most of you know

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Many of you know Lena and I are the parents of three children with one more coming in mid -february So we're very excited about that.

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Obviously Personally, I really do enjoy being a parent some people Don't always enjoy being a parent.

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I don't always enjoy being a parent, but it is a because it's not easy But it is a joy nonetheless, right?

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I think I probably can share in that sentiment with most of the people here in the room today Parenting has is a joy to the life of of all people.

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I think right. It's not easy, but it's it's a good thing In my opinion, is this all right?

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Okay The the hardest part about parenting it from again from my perspective

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What makes it very difficult at times to find joy in the experience? Is that things never really seem to go quite how you might expect them to how you might hope that they would go

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All of our children, you know from time to time will act up in public They'll ask you to open up a candy cane as you're about to get up and deliver deliver a message or you know

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They'll take something from their brother. They'll whine and complain when they don't get what they want. No, they hit their brother

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Our children do this, you know, they need to be taught but the children do this, right? And so things don't always go how we expect them to go, but it's not just when our children are disobedient that things don't go

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How we expect they might go sometimes children can get hurt, right? We don't want our children to get hurt, but sometimes that happens, you know

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And far too often I'll catch myself and I think I probably learned this from my parents even Probably many others as I observe as I've observed other parents throughout my life that you know

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We'll make promises to our children that we typically aren't really capable of keeping things like don't worry, right?

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I'll never let anyone hurt you. You know, I'll always protect you. I'll make sure that no one ever hurts you. Nothing ever hurts you You know, this is a promise that we make

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Fairly often I think we're all fairly susceptible to this to try to comfort our children but then I think Back at just a few months ago when

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I went to pick up My son Calvin by his hands and as I pulled lifted him to my chest I pulled his right elbow out of its socket and he got a nursemaid's elbow

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Remember that I Felt so bad for the poor kid, you know, I was picking him up, you know,

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I love him So I'm picking him up, you know, and and I'm here I am promising I'm never let anybody hurt him and here

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I am picking him up and I'm doing it to him myself So yeah, I felt bad for him. I felt bad for myself even too

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It was brutal for both of us And so why I'd already known right that I shouldn't be making those types of promises to my children

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I shouldn't be promising. I'll never let anybody hurt you That really drove it home for me

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Right because as much as I love my children and appreciate them and and want what's best for them and and pray for them

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I want to protect them. I'm an imperfect father to them Right. I want to honor God.

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I strive to honor God by being a faithful father to my children, but I'm an imperfect man I'm prone to error to mistakes to sin in my flesh

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And what's more? I'm not powerful enough or present enough To protect my children from everything that this fallen world can throw at them

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I'm not able to protect them from all diseases that they might get I'm not able to protect them when

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I go to work I'm not able to protect them as they grow up and they move out into the world and you know

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Of course I can do my best to teach and to lead now to equip them for the future, but I'm not able to protect them perfectly or Permanently.

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I can't even again protect my three -year -old from an injury by my own hands let alone somebody else's and so it's important to keep that in mind and and as I've considered that I think about the contrast of my insufficiency and God's perfect care for us as his children

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God is our perfect omnipotent omnipresent father. He's able to provide perfect effective powerful care

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To you at every time and in every place So perfect is

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God's care for you that he can make bold and seemingly outlandish promises to you that provide the greatest comforts and assurances

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Knowing that he is perfectly powerful and capable of coming through for those promises.

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He doesn't just speak these promises to us out of turn Right. He doesn't make empty promises just to make us feel better like parents do for their children

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God speaks promises to us that not only provide comfort, but that he also intends to see through to completion

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And so this morning I want to consider one of these promises and how God Intends to keep such a promise as we pick back up in our study of 1st

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Corinthians today We're gonna be in chapter 3 of 1st Corinthians beginning in verse 5 and through verse 23 through the end of the chapter

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So if you will open up with me the words will also be on the screen behind me But first 5 or excuse me verse 5 of 1st

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Corinthians chapter 3 What then is a polis and what is

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Paul Servants through whom you believed even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.

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I Planted a polis water, but God was causing the growth So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes the growth

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Now he who plants and he who waters are one But each will receive his own reward according to his own labor for we are

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God's fellow workers. You are God's field God's building According to the grace of God, which was given to me like a wise master builder

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I laid a foundation and another is building on it But each man must be careful how he builds on it for no man can lay a foundation

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Other than the one which is laid which is Jesus Christ Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold silver precious stones wood hay straw each man's work will become evident for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire and the fire itself will

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Test the quality of each man's work If any man's work which he has built on it remains he will receive a reward

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If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved yet. So as through fire

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Do you not know that you were a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy and that is what you are

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Let no man deceive himself if any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age He must become foolish so that he may become wise for the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God For it is written

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He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness and again the Lord knows the reasonings of the wise that they are useless

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So then let no one boast in men for all things belong to you Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all things belong to you

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And you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God Let's pray Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word

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Where we thank you that you have provided to us such a a sure Foundation or the upon which we can

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Reason and learn of who you are where we can get to know you through these scriptures that you've given to the church or the teaching of the

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Apostles that's been handed downward and preserved even to today 2 ,000 years later that we can

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Learn again of who you are and rejoice in the truth of your your gospel

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Father we pray that as we consider your word this morning You would help us to have our minds be cleared of any distractions

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Lord Rid of the things that would prevent us to to comprehend the things that you would have for us Or we pray your spirit would would illuminate to us the truth where that we may be transformed here by the renewal of our mind and further grown and Conforming to the image of Christ or as we look forward to the day where our salvation will be a

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Fully accomplished in this in the sense that we would be glorified with you Receiving our inheritance to be with you forever and ever

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Lord, so we pray and this time that this would be a Moment where we can look back upon and be encouraged

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Or to be to continue in faith to continue in trusting your work among us and growing us to your image

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We pray in Christ's name. Amen Now it's a long passage right first Corinthians 5

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Or the first Corinthians 3 5 through 23 And so today we're gonna focus on the first section verses 5 through 9 in the final sentence

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Which is in verses 21 through 23 The reason why I wanted to read the full passage though is

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I really believe this is a passage that should be taken together You know, obviously Paul ordered it the way he did for a reason the

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Holy Spirit ordered the the scripture the way that he did For a reason but for the sake of time today,

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I want to break this passage up into two separate messages So today again, I mentioned already we're gonna focus on the promise revealed in verse verses 5 through 9

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And then we're gonna look at verses 21 and 23 for further understanding of that And the next time we'll focus on verses 10 through 20 as we go into a little bit more of a substance of what?

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Paul is teaching here But before we begin our exposition of this text here in first Corinthians 3

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I want to first bring into view the promise that we see here in this text from another point in Scripture in The book of Philippians another letter of Paul's to a first century church.

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He writes in chapter 1 verse 6 For I'm confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus But Paul is saying here in Philippians in just one verse sums up the promise that God has made to his people the church

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Essentially the one who saved you the author or beginner of your faith is the same one who will perfect The work who will complete the work finish the work upon the day of Christ Jesus Christians are not people who earn their salvation by doing the right things

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And they're also not people who once saved by grace maintain or confirm their salvation

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By doing the right things rather what Paul is saying here in Philippians chapter 1 is that Christians are utterly dependent

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Upon the one who began the work of salvation in them Namely God the Holy Spirit to complete that work in them throughout the course of their lives

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And that doesn't mean that our justification before God isn't sure immediately upon our conversion

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It most definitely is right. We are immediately saved from the wrath of God against sin upon our conversion immediately justified before the heavenly judgment seat

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But the Bible doesn't speak about our salvation as a single moment in our lives But rather as a lifelong process of sanctification of being set apart

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That only begins with our justification and ultimately it ends with our glorification with Christ on that great day

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And so we call this the threefold nature of salvation First our justification again, which is immediate

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Second is our sanctification which is progressive means it happens over time and third our glorification which is ultimate and eternal

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And to reiterate that point we look at Jesus's words from John 6 verse 40 He says for this is the will of my father that everyone who beholds the

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Son and believes in him will have eternal life and I myself will raise him up on the last day

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Here we can clearly see our immediate justification that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life

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We also clearly see our ultimate glorification that Jesus himself will raise those who are justified up on the last day

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And then a little bit more subtly we see a journey from our justification to our glorification

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Which again we call our sanctification that all who believe will have eternal life

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Oftentimes we think of eternal life as the life to come But I think we're mistaken when we do that Christ says that those who believe in him will never die

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Meaning that though we die in the flesh. We never truly taste death because we are already Alive to Christ living in the resurrected power of God today

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And so if we properly understand what this means This means that the eternal life that God has promised to you through faith in Christ has already begun

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Right this doesn't happen when we die the eternal life that God has promised to his people has already begun upon our conversion upon our

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Regeneration if you're a Christian here today, you're on the journey as it were of John 640, right?

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We stand justified before God risen to a new eternal Sanctified life in Christ that will culminate someday in our glorification with him on the last day.

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That's really amazing This is one of the great and joyful truths of the gospel From another perspective, however, we could interpret this truth while joyful to also create a significant obligation or at least we should

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I think God has declared us righteous in his sight and he has promised to glorify us with him on the last day and yet We remain imperfect people.

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We still stumble into sin All right. We're no longer ruled by sin, but we do still fall short and this is a dreadful thing

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Right. We're headed to glory, but we're not prepared for that glory But we do have hope the same

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God who justified us the same God who will glorify us is The same God who has taken it upon himself to sanctify us to set us apart and prepare us for that future glory

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Will never achieve sinless perfection in this life The Apostle John says it won't be until we see him face to face that we will be like him in that way with no more sin, but God has committed himself to the work of our

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Progressive sanctification of our growth in the Lord This is the promise of Philippians 1 that God has made

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To his people and it's crucial for us to keep that in mind as we interpret this passage in 1st

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Corinthians 3 And so in our study of that of this passage in 1st Corinthians 3, we're gonna see this text in three parts first We're gonna look at the promise as it's communicated to us here in this particular text second

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We're gonna see how God fulfills this promise and then third We're gonna look at why

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God makes this promise to us And so again first we'll look at the promise in this text as we saw in Philippians 1

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We have the promise that the one who began the good work in us will see it to completion for the day of Christ Jesus Jesus so we won't spend too much time reiterating the points that I've already made there

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But we'll show how this same idea is revealed here in the text of 1st Corinthians 3 So let's look at verses 5 through 7 again to see it on display

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Paul writes what then is Apollos and what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed even as the

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Lord gave opportunity to each one. I Planted Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth

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So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes the growth

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Now we'll note a few things here. First of all This statement is not a promise right at least not explicitly rather What we have here is an illustration that describes

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God's work in delivering on the promise, right? So with that in mind, it takes a little bit more effort on our part to kind of plumb a little deeper to see the diamond

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That's underneath here We have to remember that the Corinthians idolized wisdom.

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They wanted to be the wisest in their own eyes They wanted to wield that honor as power within the church

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And so they divided themselves into factions or parties based on the teachers Within the church and Paul has made it clear to them in these first few chapters that all they have is owed to grace

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Even their comprehension of the gospel of Christ crucified Was the work of the Holy Spirit's will illuminate

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Their minds to understand the teaching just as we sang with the doxology praise God from whom all blessings flow

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Paul was teaching this to them in these first few chapters of his letter here to the

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Corinthians But not wanting them to become Apathetic and complacent only relying on only only being able to say all of the spirits gonna teach me he'll do all that I don't have to do anything anymore working against that potential

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Apathy Paul rebukes their childish childish immaturity All right we talked about that last time that the requirement for diligence in the life of a

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Christian and Now not wanting them to think that they could work themselves back into power by being the most diligent now

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I can become the most powerful Paul is reminding them that not only have you relied on God to Illuminate your mind, but you are also reliant on God to grow into maturity

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And as a brief aside these passages I think are such a an example of the fine line that exists between truth and error, right?

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There's so much that seems so paradoxical so many important truths that need to be held in tension with one another as we communicate

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Biblical truth and Paul is walking that fine line in this letter, right? It's rely on the Spirit You will never understand unless the

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Spirit illuminates your mind to understand and yet you must be diligent In order to stir up grace essentially within you and yet your growth is reliant upon God So there's this very fine line that Paul is walking and shredding on and I'm sure all of us have had to do that I know

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I have in several conversations Especially if you find yourself talking about the Trinity and you're just every word is a terror that's coming out of your mouth

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You're like I don't want to say anything bad here, right? And so I'm sure all of us again. I've had to tread that line at different points, but this is a reminder

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I think to us that words matter right and definitions are important and that we should handle God's truth with great care and fear even and so while Paul is not stating a promise here necessarily

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He is showing them that the maturity that they need is Accomplished in them by God himself and this as we know is in fulfillment of God's promise to his people

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Which we are privy to from Philippians 1 6 and John 6 40 So, let's look again at verses 5 through 9 says what then is a

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Paulist and what is Paul Servants through whom you believed even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one

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I planted a Paulist water, but God was causing the growth So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes the growth

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Now he who plants and he who waters are one but each will receive his own reward According to his own labor for we are

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God's fellow workers. You are God's field God's building So in order to combat the immaturity that has bred

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These divisions within Corinth as we've looked at in past messages Paul here provides these stubborn

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Corinthians with a word picture to illustrate the reality of what is happening among them

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He's saying don't look to human teachers, whether it's Paul or Paulist as yours, right identify him with only one and we see why

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Because in verse 7 it's God who causes the growth The Christians in Corinth had a real problem when it came to their thirst for power over each other their lusts for power

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And they brought in from their culture a toxic need to be in control of others And then to serve that lust they separated themselves into parties within the church

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Essentially pitting themselves against one another under the names of certain teachers But Paul here as he has throughout the opening the letter is showing them the futility of division within the

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Church of God particularly this type of party spirit that is all in the name of centralized power as Opposed to pure doctrine dividing in a power grab as opposed to dividing over doctrine

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Which of course would be acceptable, right? We can't we were united under a pure doctrine, right?

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And so if they were dividing over such a thing Paul would have approved but they weren't dividing over doctrine They were dividing over power and who was in control and How does

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Paul kind of as he begins to kind of wrap up this this initial this? Introduction to to his letter this attack on their divisions.

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How does he? Try to to lower it down a notch if you will

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We should take note of the approach of how he does it He Paul goes after the thing which the Corinthians had made the idol

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Right, they were dividing and they were dividing under the names of certain teachers And so Paul goes after the thing that they were they were abusing in order to satisfy themselves.

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He goes after the ministers Including himself. He names himself in the list of ministers and it's often the case with idolatry in the church

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You know, we're not we're not bowing down in different poses to worship wooden statues Typically within the church but idolatry in the church often looks like us giving more weight to things into people than they are due

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Ascribing to created things what is only due to God and so Paul looks to level set them here in a sense

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The first thing we notice is in verse 5 He writes what then is a Paulist and what is Paul?

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And isn't it interesting that Paul uses the word what as opposed to who in this situation? He's referring to two people so it would stand to reason he'd refer to these people as who's instead of what's right

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Who is a Paulist and who is Paul? but this this subtlety this use of the of the word what as opposed to who is a it's actually quite powerful when we recognize what

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Paul is intending to do using what here instead of who very intentionally takes the attention off the

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Individuals takes the attention off these men as individual teachers off of the persons and in frames both of the men according to the function

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That they have within the church according to their role as ministers, right? They aren't meant to be idolized their role players in A function that God has provided to the church

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Continuing in verse 5 Paul answers further what they are. They are servants through whom you believed

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Ministers in the Church of God are not celebrities. They're not influencers. They're not thought leaders They're not even authors or counselors or preachers.

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I'd say right first and foremost a minister in God's Church is a servant The Greek word here is actually diakonoi

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Which is where we get the word deacon from and so we know Paul's not talking about the office of deacon within the church in This situation the reference here is is really to the disposition of the minister in Christ Church that they should exemplify servanthood

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Ministers in the Church of God are servants They don't become ministers because they're gifted orders like the Corinthians thought should be the case, right?

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They prize rhetoric and someone's ability to be persuasive with their speech That's not why someone should become a minister just because they're good at speaking

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They don't become ministers because they're the biggest or the strongest or the handsomest like how the Israelites chose

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Saul to be their king They're called to be servants in Christ Church last in the kingdom not first Conniving men though who can't wait to be preachers

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But aren't interested in serving the church have lost sight of Paul's teaching here Right ministers in God's Church are to serve him with all their heart soul mind and strength right there to be

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God's servants And they're also to be the servants of the church there to serve their neighbor God's Church as themselves

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And that's an important qualification here. You know we are all servants of Christ, right? So we can't just say that the ministers are

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God's servants, right? It's more than that because every Christian is a servant of Christ first and foremost, but ministers

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Paul's point are not only the servants of God through their ministerial work

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But they have been called to be the servants of God's people the church The call to ministry is not a call to glamour and to be a church planting entrepreneur

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It's a call to service to God and to his church to his people It's a call to sacrifice and deference to the needs of others

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It's a call to serve God's people and we do that through preaching and teaching and counseling

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But it's a call to service not a call to be a preacher And so to men here who who would think that maybe we're called to the ministry now

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I've included myself in this honestly. I can think back several years and thinking I can't wait to I hope to be a preacher someday right, but that's it's just such a

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Putting the cart before the horse if you will But to men here think that you may be called to ministry praise God for that That's a you know, we praise the

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Lord for for things like that, but we have to be careful to rightly examine You know if your ambition is a noble one praise the

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Lord again to serve God and service church But is it a selfish one? Is the ambition actually a selfish one?

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Is it an ambition to preach? To have more time to read and study You know or because it seems like a good thing to do with your life or you know

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Because you know being a pastor seems like a good career path. It could be a good career choice for me The call to ministry is a call to the laying down of your life for your friends following Christ To the sacrifice of yourself for the needs of others as Paul writes in Colossians 1 24

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Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions

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Now as Paul is saying here that Jesus is suffering wasn't enough for certain people. So I have to suffer for them Is that his point?

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Is that his teaching here? Of course not Right. He's saying that he and all ministers are to provide a tangible example of the sacrifice of Christ To the people of God who weren't there to see it, right?

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That's the call of the minister ministers are servants Paul says And who in their right mind?

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Would put a servant on a pedestal? All right. This is his teaching to the Corinthians The Corinthians had too high a view of ministers and it was causing them to stumble into division and so when taking that view down a notch or two

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Paul has Demonstrated the foolishness of elevating them to such idolatrous levels an important thing of note though Right, we see that we see in verse 9 that Paul isn't aiming just to completely obliterate the dignity of ministers in the church

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He he wants them to have a proper view of these men their servants. Yes, right They're their servants don't idolize them their servants, but don't abuse them either

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Right, they aren't meant to be idolized. They're also not meant to be trampled upon and dishonored

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We love and appreciate ministers as servants. That's that's Paul's point So he

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Knocks them down a few notches, but then he kind of lifts them back up here in verse 9 He says for we referring to ministers are

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God's fellow workers Ministers are not to be idolized

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They're to be regarded as honorable Among you not for their skills or their ability or the size of the ministry the success of the church, right?

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but because of their role as servants of God and servants to you his people

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They're God's fellow workers therefore hold them in esteem don't idolize them, but appreciate them

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And now in light of the this level setting that Paul has done He's going to outline what it what it is or who it is really that the

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Corinthians are actually reliant upon All right It's not which teacher they follow as if those teachers could be divided

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Into parties all the growth that they've had and they will have is the product of the work of God as he uses ministers to accomplish that work

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Ministers are not so important that they are to be valued as the ones providing the growth But they have been attributed an importance by God to be his fellow workers and have been called to a work

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Which God is pleased to use And so let's look at how God Does this work among us we'll read again verses 5 through 9

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What then is a polis and what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed even as the

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Lord gave opportunity to each one I planted a polis water, but God was causing the growth

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So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes the growth

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Now he who plants and he who waters are one but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor

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For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field God's building Here Paul has described

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How what we call the ordinary means of grace work? And by ordinary means of grace, we simply mean those things through which

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God ordinarily dispenses grace to his people the church All right

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Those means are the faithful preaching of the word the faithful administration of the sacraments of baptism in the

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Lord's Supper and prayer Basically, this is the ministry of the church of faithful churches All right, so you could see or is that personally

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I could see how the Corinthians could conflate ministers with the work of God through the ordinary means because you know, the works of the ministry are

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God's means to give grace to his people and so as a human again I can understand the natural tendency to associate the effects of the work of grace happening to me

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With the people that I see ministering to me doing these works among me, right? So we must be diligent, right?

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this is important for Christians to be diligent to look past the people ministering to me and Properly see them as God's servants working as God ministers to me through them

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And that's what a far more beautiful picture of the minister that it's God at work as the minister serves you

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It's God working through them. That's God's care for us And so we all again need to be really careful of this

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I'm sure many of us have had hard times leaving churches I know I have you know for good or bad reasons, whatever, you know You moved or you know, you didn't like the church anymore or you're having a hard time there or you know

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You move the way or whatever, you know We have a hard time leaving churches because we've elevated the ministers there to a level that they don't belong

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Right many of us may even be susceptible to think that way of pastor Kendall that we owe a certain amount of praise to him right for our growth

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You know, this is a natural tendency that we have to to attribute to created things that which only belongs to God But may

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God spare us from that type of thinking we can be thankful again for how God uses our pastors to minister to us as he works in us

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But we always need to look ultimately to the first cause that's God himself Right, we don't we're not so reliant upon individual ministers that we think

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I can't imagine my life without pastor Kendall in it Although it's hard for me sometimes

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So So, how does it work how does how does

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God do this in our midst? Well Paul answers with an illustration on agriculture And at first the

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Lord has provided the opportunity first and foremost right to his serve for his servants to work This is at the end of verse 5

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Paul says that the Lord has given opportunity And then in verse 6 Paul writes that he planted in his service to God and the church right that Paul has planted

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Gospel seeds among the Corinthians through evangelism, right? He helped to plant the church through his efforts

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We see that in Acts. I think 17 or 18 when Paul goes to Corinth and then Excuse me

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And then Apollos came along to water the seeds of faith and the eventual plants that were growing

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Through discipleship and through ongoing preaching But all along it wasn't Paul Causing the seeds to grow into plants just because he planted them

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It wasn't Apollos who caused the plants to grow just because he watered them It was God Causing the growth like a farmer who knows what he's supposed to do if he hopes for his crops to grow

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He has to plant seed. He has to take care of it Right, we farmers know that but ultimately the farmer is entirely dependent upon God to grow the fruits

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Paul says the ministers of God are utterly dependent upon God to provide the increase to cause the growth

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I was driving a Road down the street from my house the other day and like there's this row

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Farm farm stands and you could see the crops and some of them are dead like there's just a long row of dead ones, then all of a sudden it stops and Perfectly healthy crops growing right next to it and see

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I almost wonder like what did they do differently? Well, why didn't they do what they did for the other ones for all of them?

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You know what? I mean, but it was a reminder to me right that no matter what we do We they surely did the exact same thing for both sets of crops and yet one of them was one of them grew one of them didn't right and so we're reminded that as much work as Farmers do in in planting seed and taking care of it tending to that seed.

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They are utterly dependent upon God to provide that growth Again this is in part why ministers are not meant to be held in such high regard

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As the Corinthians held them in verse 7 neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything

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But God who causes the growth Think about it like this if you're making a meal for your extended family

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And it's all on you to make every morsel of food everything that's being made everything will be eaten is gonna be made by you

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But you have a few people to help you not to make the food But to plate the food to bring it to the table right so that everyone can actually sit there and eat

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Is it right to attribute inordinate amounts of praise for that meal to those who brought the food to the table

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Of course not right we appreciate them for the role that they play that they brought it to the table They plated it for us

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But at the end of the day you were the one who made the food you were the one who? Provided the food to the people to eat

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In the same way Paul is saying here that we should hold our ministers in a properly humble Regard and we should hold our

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God in an awesomely reverent regard as the one who grows us into his image

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It's not the work of the ministers that is growing us It is God through the work of the ministers through the ordinary means of grace

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And this is the proper lens through which we should view the church It is God at work in and among us to will and to work for his good pleasure

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Right therefore the efforts of any number of ministers should be seen as the one work of God in our midst

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Right Kendall is preaching through the gospel of John. I'm preaching through 1st Corinthians Are we working on?

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Two different things or we both engaged in the same one work of being servants to the people of God in this church We're engaged in the same work.

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It's one work even though. We're working on two separate things because it's God's work. That's not our work

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That's why Paul says in verse 8 that now he who plants and he who waters are one And remember our past discussions in in chapter 2 of the ministries of the

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Holy Spirit Right he is the one who teaches us who sanctifies us who regenerates us to believe

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And on the whole in the opening of this letter Paul is teaching the Corinthians that God alone is the one

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Worth following no matter what human wisdom would teach us God alone is the one who was crucified for us

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And he alone is the one who was able to teach us to grow us into maturity. God is central to everything

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This is a major major premise of what Paul is teaching here in these first three chapters And as we said last time in this letter

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This doesn't absolve us from responsibility to be diligent and stirring up the grace of God within us

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But ultimately when we stand before God and are welcomed into his presence as children, it will be entirely because of his work

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Entirely because of his work not because of ours And so God is pleased to use the work of his ministers to accomplish his purposes

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And we see a great example of that in Romans 10 verse 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

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How will they believe in him whom they have not heard and how will they hear without a preacher? But it's not for God's power accompanying those efforts there is no hope

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All right, God uses the work of ministers he uses the preaching of the word to save but it's

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Unless that is accompanied by the power of God. It is all useless It is fruitless and this is the ordinary means of grace at work.

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These are God's means of fulfilling his promise to you God has promised to Bring about the completion of the work.

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He's begun in you and he promised to do it through these ordinary means of grace And that's why we can't justify not coming to church, right?

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We can't justify closing church This is how God ministers to his people through the ordinary means of grace.

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We're gonna tell people that they can't come Well, we're gonna choose not to come

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Now As we prepare to close this morning we come come up to that time

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I want us to consider how the fulfillment of our obligations right that we don't receive the grace of God in vain

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This is 2nd Corinthians 6. I believe this is God says do not receive Paul says don't receive the grace of God in vain

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That's a major obligation. We've been told we've been given the gospel we have professed faith

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Right and like we read in Deuteronomy 23 23, let's not let that profession we profess with our lips something

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God's gonna hold us to that. And so if we profess faith and yet we are not truly in Christ The punishment for that is going to be severe

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May the grace of God not be in vain in us so as we look to and consider again the fulfillment of our obligation to persevere in faith and to To grow into the likeness of Christ as he works in us

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We see how this leads to amazing blessing right that what God has for us is far better than what the world would have for us

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God has promised that the work of sanctification will be completed in us and he's even promised to be the one to see it through to completion and now miraculously he has promised that we

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Will be blessed for it, even though he's doing the work looking at verses 21 through 23

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Paul writes so then let no one boast in men for all things belong to you whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or Things present or things to come all things belong to you and you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God The Corinthians have certainly been guilty of boasting in men right most clearly when they said that you know,

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I'm of Paul or I'm of Apollos and I have Cephas and Yet Paul tells them here that what God has for them is so much better than what they were giving themselves

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They had chosen these men as their heads their leaders But Paul tells them their folly they forgot

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They forgot their own dignity When they regarded as masters those who were meant to be their servants.

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These men are their servants not their masters and in doing so they Underappreciated the treasures of the gospel of grace and they chose cheap counterfeits over the glorious riches of heaven

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Paul here appeals to this this great dignity and destiny of the church the dignity and destiny of Christians Which belongs even to them even to these

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Corinthians as a motive to right behavior We have this great dignity and destiny and it should motivate us to yearn for the deeper things of God Paul says don't align yourself to a single teacher because you want a greater destiny because you want power

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Right the dignity and destiny God has given to you by grace is so much more than that And so act worthy of it is his point, right?

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He says that all things Belong to you and then he goes on to name these four areas in which this is true first as we've seen the ministers

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God has given ministers to the church as servants. It is designed for its edification

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Right. The ministerial work of the church is designed for the edification of the people of God The church doesn't belong to the ministers.

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The church belongs to her King Right, so don't divide under ministers. He's saying unite under Christ Second the world belongs to the church or excuse me second the world

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Belongs to the church the emphasis on the wrong syllable on that one The world belongs to the church the cosmos which is the

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Greek word here refers to the world in its widest most general sense Right, essentially the present order of things is maintained and directed to the promotion of the great work of redemption the

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Corinthians angled for power But what greater power is there than knowing that all things work together for the good of those who love

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God and are called according to Purpose all things in the world must work together for the good of the church

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Third life and death belong to the Church of God in the same spirit that all things work together for our good

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Even life and death Paul says whether it's Kings ministers believers or unbelievers When they live or die it is all according to the best interests of Christ's kingdom and Then fourth things present and things to come belong to the church belong to the church all these things belong to the church as We said earlier the ultimate end of the church of salvation is her glorification with Christ Right and with that this subjection of all things to the church is not a temporary one

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Paul is saying this is only the beginning of the permanent exaltation of the redeemed people of God All things belong to the church today all things belong to God's people forever and ever

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And why why is God giving these great blessings to such undeserving people? Verse 23 this is so beautiful You belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God since all things are subject to the church and belong to it

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The church itself can be subject to and belong to none but Jesus Christ her

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Lord her head in Him alone can the

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Church of God boast to him alone does the Church of God answer and Finally as the church is only subject to Christ.

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So Christ is only Subject to God meaning God the Father Christ the Son eternally equal in substance power and glory to the

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Father perfectly Submits to his will we read in Philippians 2 9 through 11 for this reason also

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God the Father highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name So that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth

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And that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the

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Father All things belong to the church the church belongs to Christ Christ belongs to God and God the

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Father has highly exalted Christ the ruler of all things

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What a high calling for the church and the Corinthians had cheapened it

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By lifting who are meant to be servants to them as their masters And these were good men

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Paul Apollo Cephas These are these are good ministers good men of God and Yet they had in their depravity twisted the meaning of these men to them

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To to meet their own ends to satisfy their own lusts But the promises of God are so much greater than what our sin would convince us is what we want

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And so we see that God's promise to finish the work that he has begun in us is not a baseless promise

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That he's unable or unwilling to keep like some that we might tend to make to our children All right,

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God's promises are sure they're rooted ultimately in his eternal Trinitarian nature

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You know, we often start each year with a list of New Year's resolutions All right promises that we make to ourselves to do better to go to the gym more to read more to eat healthier to budget, whatever it might be in Matters we you know, we promise to read our

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Bibles more to pray more to give more and all these things are good things You know good things that we should do but our confidence our assurance

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Isn't in our ability to keep these problems particularly spiritual ones Our our confidence and the assurance of our salvation is not because we know that we do these things

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Well, we keep these promises that we make either to ourselves or to other people or to God our confidence is

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In God himself who resolved from all eternity to appoint the elect to glory by the eternal and most

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Free purpose of his will for ordaining all the means by which he would do it all those ordinary means

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God for ordained to use those for our Glorification the Bible tells us that in Ephesians chapter 1 in love

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He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intention of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved in Him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses

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According to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us Such beautiful poetic language from Paul They're just that the richness of the of the depths of the riches that God has given to the church and Sometimes I think we lose sight of all that God has given to us, you know, we we rejoice in The simple truth, which is a good thing.

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We don't want to lose sight of that But there is so much that God has given to the church such an inheritance and we just lose sight of it because we were

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Satisfied with so little But God has given so much more And he will fulfill this promise to us again

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We can be sure of this Christ. Jesus is raised from the dead as the firstfruits of the new creation

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God has declared him the Son of God in power Through his resurrection promises in the name of Christ are sure promises

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We don't have to fear whether or not this will come true No matter what the world might look like we know all things belong to us because Christ is raised from the dead

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And what's more God has sealed us in him with the Holy Spirit of promise Who is given as a pledge of our inheritance?

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We've read that earlier as our assurance of pardon Right. We have the Holy Spirit. We know these things are true

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There's nothing that can separate us now from the love of God in Christ Jesus all of this God does not to the glory of man not not so not for us

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He does this for the glory to the praise of his glory That we may boast in that forevermore.

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So let's pray Lord God we thank you for this time of worship in your presence here this morning

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We we pray you would continue to bless it Lord as we prepare to sing a final few songs and partake in the sacrament of the

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Lord's Supper here or that you would help us as we Come to your table to be men and women who?

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Are properly discerning or what you have done what you have accomplished for us in the person of Christ Whether we are coming to the table of the

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Lord Where we are rejoicing in your presence here today Where may you bless the word that was just preached by the power of your spirit?

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Lord the we only know these that your word is Going to to truly take root in us

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Lord if you make it to be so so father we pray Humbly that you would help us in this time