Unnecessary Divisions

1 Corinthians 3 and the Problem of Unnecessary Divisions

If you'll turn with me, please, to 1 Corinthians, chapter 3. Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 3. Before we look to the Word of God together, let us pray God's blessing upon our time. Our gracious Heavenly Father, once again, we thank you for this opportunity that is ours to open your Word and consider your truth.

We would ask that during this time you would minister to our hearts, you would minister to our minds. You would during this time help to undo, by your power and by your Spirit, the damage that has been done to our Christian worldview, our minds that seek to follow after Christ by our interaction with the world this past week.

May we think in a way that would be honoring and glorifying to you. We pray in Christ's name, amen. Well, I first wish to thank you for your prayers for me over the past number of weeks, especially on that one Monday evening when I had opportunity to enter what was very proudly explained to me once I got there, to be the largest physical mosque in Europe.

I must confess that when I got off of the underground there in East London and I walked out onto the street, I felt like I had been transported to another land. You know that you're no longer in the majority when you don't see KFC, you see HFC, which stands for halal fried chicken.

I saw at least four of them as I walked to the mosque. And when wearing pants is the exception.

Rather than the rule,.

You know you are in a different part of town.

At the very least.

And so I do thank you for your prayers. The irony was that the debate that evening was nowhere near as raucous and interesting an event as the one a week later in a Baptist church. Not because I was debating any Baptists by the way, but because it was a little bit of a different group of Muslims and there were many Allahu Akbar is being cried out in the midst of that debate.

It was quite the interesting one, but the one at the mosque was actually very respectful. And, but certainly I must admit, I never ever expected a number of years ago when we made our first missions trip to Mormon land in Utah, to ever be standing in front of an audience at a mosque in London saying the Quran is wrong.

But there is evidence that you can do that and the Lord undertakes. But one of the other things I had the opportunity of doing this past week, for those of you who are past two weeks, those of you who are church history aficionados is I had the opportunity of going to what is called Lutherstadt or better known as Wittenberg.

And there I had the opportunity of seeing many things that for someone who has taught church history in the past were more than just a little bit exciting. I have a feeling I'm gonna need to update greatly my church history presentations with many graphical enhancements in the future due to the day that I spent there in Wittenberg.

And I will not suspend our time this morning giving you a travel log of that. It was fascinating to, for example, see an indulgence box, to see one of Tetzel's original indulgences, to see the place where Luther burned Exsurge Domine, the papal bull excommunicating him from the Roman Catholic communion.

And of course, to stand outside of Wittenberg's door, which currently is undergoing renovation because they realize there's only five years to go until 2017 and the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation.

And I have a feeling they're expecting a few folks to be visiting, especially sometime around the end of October. That would not be a time when I would want to be there, to be perfectly honest with you.

It wasn't overly crowded when I was there, but I can't imagine what it will be like at that particular point in time. But what is relevant to our text this morning was some of the art that I saw that I did not expect to see.

I was excited, for example, to see an original edition of Erasmus' Novum Instrumentum, the 1516 edition of Erasmus' Greek and Latin New Testament that was so important. And Luther coming to understand the difference between poenitentia agitae in Latin, due penance, and metanoeitae in Greek, repent, change one's mind, change one's direction.

It was exciting to see that, exciting to see many of the original sermons that he preached in those early years and things like that. His pulpit, the place where the table talk took place, all those things, very, very interesting.

But I could not help but notice the art, not only of that time period, the woodcuts that were done then, but also that came in the decades after Luther's death. They are kept in the museums there and they are on the walls of not only the city church where Luther would preach twice a day, seven days a week, but also in the castle church at the other end of Wittenberg from Luther's home.

And I was taken aback by what I saw. I had seen many of these things before. You can't read too many books on Luther without seeing some of the, well, let's just be honest, the propaganda of the day. I mean, it's easy for us to look back and be somewhat judgmental, but this was a matter of life and death.

There were people who were dying. You wandered across the wrong line on a map someplace and you could find yourself being burned at the stake, going either direction. We know that Luther himself had to hide out as a Junker Jorg in that time period after the Diet of Worms.

And it was a matter of life and death. This was serious stuff. And so it's understandable that there would be strong emotions and hence seeing in essence what we would call cartoons, but woodcuts of Luther with wings flying with a trumpet and as he blows the trumpet, so you see that the Pope falling off of his throne and the minions of Rome with the demons supporting them being blown away by Luther's blowing of this gospel trumpet as if he's one of the angels in the book of Revelation.

And you go, wow, okay.

But what really caught my attention was paintings that came after Luther's day found for example, in the city church. And I saw this in a number of different places where Luther, Melanchthon, other leaders in the Lutheran movement, all of a sudden they are in their normal garb of their day, their 16th century dress, they have been painted into biblical scenes.

And so there's a place where they're at the foot of the cross. And there's another one where they're at the birth of Jesus. They're by the stable at the birth of Jesus. And I'm like, that's called anachronism just a little bit.

You know, there's a little bit of a time difference there, but it was the idea that these men could be in essence transported back into these great biblical times. Now, some of them, there was a message that was being presented.

For example, there is in the city church, there is a painting. And on the one side, you have the people of Wittenberg and they are listening intently. On the other side, you have Luther and he's preaching.

In the middle, you have Christ on the cross. And the idea is the people are not looking to Luther. What they're hearing as the gospel is being preached is Christ crucified. Okay, I certainly get that.

We often pray that the person bringing the word would be hidden behind the cross. It would not be us. It would be the message of Christ. I see that. But I don't think that anyone could really argue that there was not on the part of some people at certain times, a party spirit, I am of Luther type of idea.

Certainly in the divisions that took place very early on, I am of Luther, I am of Zwingli, I am of Calvin. And those divisions actually continue to this day. And some divisions, Paul tells us it's necessary there to be divisions amongst you because if there were not divisions, then no one would be able to tell the difference between those who speak the truth and those who do not speak the truth.

And in every generation of the church, there are those who claim to be Christians, but are not. There are those who are Christians, but are ignorant of certain things. And so you have false teaching in every single generation.

And you also have what we might call sub-biblical teaching in every single generation. If there were not divisions, you would not be able to tell one from the other. There would be no purity of doctrine, et cetera, et cetera.

But there's another kind of division that the Bible speaks against, which is not necessary and which we should keep our eyes open for. And it is presented to us here in 1 Corinthians 3. Let's take a look at what Paul says.

Now, remember, whenever you look at a text, it is always best for any believer to be striving in your biblical studies to have in your mind an outline, especially of the New Testament books. Certainly it would be good for those of us who have been Christians most of our lives to have a decent outline of each of the books of the Bible in our minds.

And remember that 1 Corinthians has begun with two tremendous texts. The first two chapters are just amazing chapters. I speak on them often because they speak so much to the situation we find ourselves in in the world today.

Remember, that is where we have the discussion of the preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness and how God has made foolish the wisdom of the world. God in His wisdom has made sure that man by His wisdom will not come to know God, but that we come to know God through the foolishness of the message that is preached.

And that we are in Christ solely by the work of God and the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him, but the spiritual man discerns all these things. And all of this is how Paul begins his letter.

But clearly, at the beginning of chapter three, there is a major break. There is a major shift in focus and in what is being addressed. Up till then, up to this point, basically there is a discussion of general Christian truths that Paul wants to make sure the Corinthians understand.

But now he has to begin the correction part and there's a lot to be corrected in the church at Corinth. And so he begins in chapter three and he says, and I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual ones, spiritual men.

There are gonna be different translations of this term, but as to fleshly, the contrast that he presents is between those who are controlled by the Spirit, those who walk in the Spirit, those who have the priorities that are given to them by an understanding of the gospel, whose decisions and mindset is marked by spirituality.

And I'm not talking about this.

In the sense of the kind of negative use that we use of that term. He's so spiritually minded, he's of no earthly good. I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about people who just walk around.

Going, praise the Lord, praise the Lord,.

Every single other word. I'm not talking about that. The contrast here is between the person who, let me put it this way, has a biblical worldview that influences the entirety of their life, who can hear sound doctrine and can take that doctrine and fit it in, a person who has a solid foundation, who has grown up, who has heavenly wisdom as something that they are pursuing on a regular basis.

He can't address the Corinthians this way. Instead, he must refer to them as fleshly. In other words, the major aspect of their life, the major aspect of their way of thinking has yet to reach maturity.

They are, as described here, as babes in Christ. The foundation has not yet firmed up. There is a difficulty in building the structure because the foundation is not yet sufficient for that. He recognizes that though these are Christians, and though they are indwelt by the Spirit of God, yet there is an immaturity on their part, and that immaturity causes him to have to address the issues that are troubling them.

He says, I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, not meat, for you were not able to receive it, and indeed, and here is the problem, you are not yet able to receive that type of solid food, that type of solid teaching, for you are yet fleshly.

You are yet predominantly immature in your understanding. How is that made known? Well, it's pretty clear. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, there is jealousy and there is strife amongst you, are you not fleshly, are you not, and then this phrase here, again, somewhat difficult to translate, and it's actually very straightforward, are you not walking according to men?

Well, it's easy to translate, but what in the world does that mean? Are you not walking according to men? That is, are you not living, normally that term, to walk, means to live, it's our everyday activity.

That is, because there is jealousy and strife amongst them, that means that they're looking out for themselves, they're looking, they're promoting their own self-interests, they haven't learned the secret of Christian maturity to lay aside one's own desires and say, God, I am your servant, use me as you will.

Therefore, they are walking according to human standards, they are walking as mere men. They're not walking in the higher level, the higher plane that we as Christian believers have access to. They continue to walk as mere men because they have not yet experienced that kind of maturity to understand the key elements of what it means to be a servant of Christ.

And so he says, for since there is jealousy and strife among you, there is the evidence. And oh, how we see that in so many churches today and we pray. People might come into our midst and wonder, why do you pray some of the things that you pray?

We pray for peace in the fellowship. We pray that we would not have division. We pray that we would love one another because we recognize what happens when there is division and jealousy and strife in the church.

And let me say, knowing men who are in the ministry, knowing, as I have the opportunity, more than most people do, of traveling and speaking in churches. This last opportunity, I was in London and I spoke at a couple of churches there and I also spoke for a group in Berlin.

Knowing men as I do across a number of continents now, I can guarantee you there is nothing that is more debilitating, more discouraging, more of a burden to bear to a person who has been called to be involved in ministry than when there is strife and jealousy and division within the body that they have been called to minister to.

There is nothing that has driven more men out from behind the pulpit and into every other line of work than jealousy and strife and division and a lack of peace and harmony within the fellowship. And when we hear of church splits, we hear of divisions, I can guarantee you there are people who are hurt in the midst of that on both sides of the issue.

And given that we have had such a tremendous measure of peace in our own fellowship, when we pray and thank God for that, I think we should greatly redouble our prayers and our thanksgiving for it. For I can assure you that there are few things that are more discouraging both to the people as well as to those who seek to minister the Word of God than that kind of jealousy and division.

And it is always a demonstration that there is in the fellowship those who are not seeking after Christian maturity, but generally in my experience, it is people who believe they have obtained it and yet have not.

They are the hardest people to deal with. The hardest people to deal with are the people who are happy with their current level of spiritual development. I have been in the church forever. I have been here longer than you have.

I know what's going on.

A non-self-reflective person who has become victim of the sin of apathy and no longer has a fiery zeal to continue to make progress in the Christian life. If you think you've gotten there, if you are already comparing yourself to others, you are in danger of this very sin.

None of us ever arrive. All of us are subject to those times where we get stuck in the rut. And the worst thing when that happens is to become complacent. The worst thing is to think, ah, I'm doing okay.

Look at that other guy over there. I mean, I don't have anything to worry about. He comes every week and he's clearly struggling and I'm way ahead of him, and so I'm just not going to worry about it. Those types of people are by far the most difficult people to try to deal with.

And they are simply walking according to man. But Paul continues, for when one says, a certain one says, I indeed am of Paul.

But another one says,.

I am of Apollos. Are you not mere men? Now, here you have one of these texts that has been urged against those of us who do make distinctions in beliefs. What do I mean by that?

Well, we have a statement of faith.

We have a confession of faith. And we say, this is what we believe. And there are many people who say, you shouldn't have those things. You are introducing divisions into the body. Now, of course, the result of that is that if you don't tell people what you believe, then they can't tell the difference between you and that church down the road on Indian School Road where they'll let anybody preach pretty much any message whatsoever.

And so you can't tell who worships God the way you worship God. And they can't tell who believes in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and who believes that grace is sufficient to save.

And all the people who believe,.

All the negations of those things.

Are all just supposed to be.

One big fuzzy blob and glob.

Of theological goo. That's somehow how you avoid this.

That's not what Paul's talking about.

He's not talking here about making clear doctrinal distinctions. In fact, he has already talked about the necessity of that.

In the first two chapters.

He talks about what's true and what's false. The foolishness of the Gospel. You've got to have the Gospel for it to be able to be preached. He's talking here about something else. This is an internal sectarianism that allows you to think better of yourself than other people.

It allows you to put yourself above other people. I am of Paul. I am particularly familiar.

With Paul's teaching,.

Or in this case, I have a direct connection to Paul because I was saved by his ministry. I was one of the first people who came to know the truth through the preaching of the Apostle here in Corinth. You've come along a little bit later.

I've been around a little bit longer than you have, you know. And I've listened to Paul preach more than you have. And so I've got a little more understanding, you see.

And then there will be others.

Who say, but I'm of Apollos. I mean, he's mighty in the Scriptures. And you may have been of Paul, but he's just not the speaker that Apollos is. And I've spent much more time with him. I mean, he seems to be much more powerful in the Old Testament prophecies than Paul is.

And so you're comparing yourself with other people, and it's all meant for jealousy. And it's meant for promoting yourself. And is there danger that that can happen.

Amongst us?

You better believe there is.

I'm of Piper.

Well, I'm of Sproul. Well, I'm of Edwards,.

So I'm earlier than any of you. And there is the danger of spiritual pride, intellectual pride, Calvinistic pride,.

That well, you know,.

I just finished reading all ten volumes of the collected works of B .B. Warfield.

How about you?

Or I don't even stumble on the Latin sections in Charles Hodge's Systematic Theology. I just shred on through them.

I can't even read the Hebrew.

And we just mention these little things.

I'm of this.

And it's very easy to develop that kind of spiritual arrogance.

That ends up dividing.

I mean, we know there are certain divisions because of what they taught between well-known men of the preceding generations in our own traditions. For example, any person who takes time to look at what has been written in the field of apologetics knows there's a division amongst reformed men between the Vantillians and the Clarkians.

And I've found myself in the middle of that one before. And sometimes, to be perfectly honest with you, I'd rather be at the East London Mosque. Because Calvinists can be nasty folks. I mean, their swords can be a little bit sharper in many ways than what you might expect in other situations.

And I have met people who very clearly would fall under the prohibition of what we see here where they may not be saying I am of Paul, but they're saying I am of Vantill. I am of Clark. And then there are modern names that we could get into today.

And unfortunately, it very frequently happens amongst young theologians, young men, maybe in the seminary setting. It's really easy to fall into those traps. I've personally found that actually having to get out of the church and maybe teach the junior high schoolers is a really good antidote to that kind of thing.

You start realizing that there's other things to life than that kind of stuff. But that's the kind of division that Paul's talking about here.

He says, what then is Apollos?

And what is Paul?

They are merely servants. They are merely servants through whom you believed. So, who are these people? Why should I boast in someone who is a servant, a fellow servant like I am? Even if you do everything you're called to do, Jesus said you're an unprofitable servant.

You've just come up to the minimum.

And that's who Paul was.

And he failed. And Apollos, and he failed. We're all called to be servants like this. So why would we set someone up in this way?

What then is Apollos? What then is Paul?

Just servants through whom you believe even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. It's literally even as the Lord gave to each one. The word opportunity is being provided there.

And so what does he say?

There's no reason to boast in a Paul because all of Paul's opportunities were given to him. Everything he had was a gift of grace.

Yeah, Paul experienced some amazing things.

I mean, he was stoned. He was shipwrecked. He experienced miracles in his life. But was that because Paul himself was a special person? No, it was all of grace.

Even he says that I am what I am.

By the grace of God.

The same thing was true of Apollos. Yes, he's mighty in the Scriptures, but it was a gift of grace. We show ourselves to not really understand our utter dependence upon God and that anybody, whatever they have, is the gift from God's grace when we start elevating people.

Let me tell you something,.

When you elevate people, and when you start thinking,.

I want to be like that person.

As long as they're imitating Christ, okay, Paul says imitate me.

Even as I imitate Christ.

Yes, godly characteristics, things like that. But when it's a person,.

You are going to be disappointed.

You will find yourself being disappointed when you elevate men and do not seek to merely imitate their godly characteristics, but not the rest. They are merely servants through whom you believe. Important thing.

Be thankful for them. Be thankful that they were faithful to minister to you. But, the whole reason they had the opportunity to minister the Word to you.

Was because God gave them the opportunity.

It wasn't anything special. You never know when those opportunities are going to come. I mean, I had the opportunity on Tuesday of this week.

Almost didn't do it.

Almost gave in to the weariness of the flesh. Had two debates Monday night. Got back late to the hotel. Hadn't been getting much sleep simply because I was just so busy. I had so much going on, so much traveling and trains.

Trains, planes, and automobiles. Well, I'll tell you, that was my experience. And I had to, the next day, get a flight. Actually had to get myself. Nobody going with me. I was sort of proud of myself that I did this.

I'll be perfectly honest with you. First time I had done this, but I was going from my hotel via the train system to Gatwick Airport and flying to Inverness, Scotland. Nobody going with me. Had to do it myself.

It means there'd be a lot of walking and a lot of time. I woke up and I was dizzy but I said, I've got to do this. I really need to do this. So I went up there and the weather in Inverness was, even when the Scotsmen are saying this is bad weather,.

It's bad weather.

Let me tell you something.

We fly into, Inverness is the city at the mouth of Loch Ness.

So I was looking out the window.

Seeing if I could see Nessie. And Nessie was nowhere to be seen because the whole lake is white capped. I mean, we are flying into at least a 50 mile an hour wind which made for a wonderfully interesting landing.

And then we, it's a little teeny tiny airport. So you don't have any covering. It's not a jetway or something. You got to go down the stairs and it's raining so much. There's about this much water on the tarmac.

And you're just honestly wondering if the wind is just going to take you right off and you're going to go skidding across the tarmac. It was just incredible.

It was incredible.

But make a long story short, I took a cab from the airport to my meeting. And then when I was done, I took a cab back. And by this time I'm pretty tired. I've been talking for a long time, I've been meeting with people.

And we're in the cab and we're on our way back. And again, the weather is really bad and the wind's blowing.

And I mentioned what I had been doing in London.

And the guy says, do you believe in God?

Yes.

Well, I just, I really want to, but I just see too much evil in the world. Well, it's not like I had to be using some kind of evangelism explosion program to get that conversation started. I mean, what could you do?

And we had, it was a fairly lengthy and expensive ride, but we had a fair amount of time there. And thankfully I have preached in the Reformed Baptist Church in Inverness. And this guy's a cabbie, so I figured he can find it fairly easily enough.

And so I was able to have some confidence that after a gospel presentation to him, which he very gladly accepted and was very open to hearing it, that I was able to direct him to individuals that he would go to, a sound church, so I knew he would hear the same message that was presented to him.

Now, I took the opportunity to present the gospel to this man. I hope he's saved. I pray that he will be saved. But let's say he is. Is there something to boast in in me?

No.

I mean, think about it. There's all sorts of cab drivers.

And what were the chances.

When I called the cab company at a particular time, I need to be picked up at 3 o 'clock, my flight's at this time, etc., etc. The Lord was involved in putting the two of us together. I almost canceled the trip.

I was just feeling horrible that morning. It wasn't until later in the day that I started feeling like a human being again. And there were just so many things completely outside of my capacity, completely outside of my control.

And so it was just an opportunity that was given. And so Paul can say,.

Look, I planted.

Apollos watered.

But God was causing the growth. Paul understood the roles that we have.

He understood.

And we need to understand. I mean, I think about this trip that I just had and I think about the opportunities I had and I think about the fact that I really worried Rich tremendously, especially Monday night.

When I've got a bunch of young guys and they're watching on video, I got a bunch of young Muslim guys down here yelling alak alak bar. And the way that Rich put it is, I went Billy Sunday on them. I mean, I would not be intimidated by their trying to intimidate me.

And I went right back at them. And I said, what are you doing yelling?

Are you thinking about what's being said? Look at what you were just applauding.

And then I would take it apart and demonstrate that it was a completely fallacious argument. And they were just running on their emotions. Is this the face of Islam you want to present to the world? And they're like, who is this odd looking man in a bow tie?

Anyway, you know? And I worried some folks when I responded that way. Well, I was given the opportunity. I happen to know that the guy was debating and his followers, they go down to the speaker's corner in London every Sunday and they are used to in your face confrontations.

And they do not respect anyone who backs down from them. I had to be strong with them and I was. And people who didn't know that context, maybe watching or something like that are going,.

What is he doing?

That's not normally how he does things. Well, in that context, that's what I had to do. And if any one of those Muslim people that were there that evening, take the time to start thinking about these things.

Does that reflect on me? No, I couldn't have gotten there by myself. There were people there in London that arranged that and the people in the church and everybody who arranged the trip. I mean, I recognize all these opportunities I have.

It's not because of me. There's all sorts of folks that could do things better than I can. I just happened to be in that place at that time. The Lord gives me the opportunity. I'm going to follow through on it.

I plant someone else waters, but I recognize God's the one that has to give the growth. God's the one that's involved in these things. Now, he who plants and he who waters are one, Paul says, but each will receive his own reward.

According to his own labor.

And so, I am together with all those who are seeking to truly proclaim the true gospel to Muslims and whether they have the opportunity of doing it in the same venues as me or whether they're on a missions field and they never get that opportunity, we're still one.

We still have one purpose and each will receive his own reward.

According to his own labor.

And so, God is going to deal with me based upon the gifts that he gave me and the opportunities he gave me and the same thing with you.

You can't sit back and go,.

Well, I'm just going to let somebody else take care of these things. No, God gives you opportunities just as he does me. And I have to be faithful in the gifts that God's given me and the opportunities given me and so do you.

And you cannot say, well, he's doing it for me and I can't say you're doing it for me. Each one of us will receive his own reward according to his own labor. And that very term there is mistas,.

The Greek term mistas,.

Which means reward.

It's a wage.

It's the very same term Paul uses in Romans chapter four. When he talks about the one who works, what he receives is his wage. It would be his payment. And so, that actually then introduces the transition into the next section we're going to do this evening, which is chapter three, verses 10 and following.

And in that section, we have the one text, the primary text that the Roman Catholic Church uses to substantiate the doctrine of purgatory. Now, in case you're wondering,.

You're going,.

But we haven't heard anything that would be relevant to that right now. Well, that's because Paul's not saying it's even relevant to that subject, but since it has been used, we will be looking at that.