Glory Now or Glory Later | Sermon 11/17/2024

♪ And exchange it someday for a crown ♪ ♪

I will cling to you ♪ You may be seated, church.

Please turn with me and your Bible to the first letter of the Corinthians, chapter four.

We're gonna be in verses six through 13 today. It's been such a good series thus far, really learning from this ancient church, this early church, an immature church, which we're a new church as well.

And so there's so much that has been applicable for us. Starting in verse six of chapter four, the first letter of the

Corinthians, hear now the inerrant and infallible word of the living and true God. Now these things, brethren,

I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us, you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.

For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

You are already filled. You have already become rich. You have become kings without us.

And indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we also might reign with you.

For I think God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.

We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are prudent in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong.

You are distinguished, but we are without honor. To this present hour, we are both hungry and thirsty and are poorly clothed and are roughly treated and are homeless.

And we toil, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless. When we are persecuted, we endure.

When we are slandered, we try to conciliate. We have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.

Thus ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's go before him once more.

God, I pray today that you would show us that these moments of trials, these moments of suffering are not what we've thought.

They're not what the world says. They're not what our senses tell us.

They're not what our body tells us, what our flesh tells us. These moments, these things that we go through are working towards something bigger and higher and greater in the apostle

Paul's thought. So Lord, would you please help us to see it the way we ought to see it?

Help me now, Lord, to preach. Let the word shine forth in this moment,

Lord. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. You know, church, I can imagine as a little

Jewish boy growing up, maybe it was in the first couple centuries before the

Messiah came, and I would imagine that as a little Jewish boy, I would dream of the

Messiah's coming. I would hear the scriptures spoken in synagogue that he will rule from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth, that he will break rebellious nations with his rod of iron and shatter them like earth.

And where I'd hear these things, and I'd wonder what it was going to look like for the

Lord to make his enemies a footstool for his feet, the one who stretches out his strong scepter, and it says, and rules, rules in the midst of his enemies.

I can imagine thinking, I hope the Messiah will use me. I hope

I can witness that. I hope I can be a part of that. I hope I can serve him in his kingdom.

I'll go to Megiddo for the Messiah. I'll go anywhere. I'll fight for him. I hope he uses me.

That's what I would think if I was waiting for the Messiah as a young boy. And this is how men like Peter and John and James thought.

Peter, if you remember, who tried to fight for Christ with a sword. John and James, who were called the sons of thunder, according to scripture, tried to call down fire from heaven to burn the

Samaritans. Thomas, do you remember Thomas and John 11 said, I'll go with the

Lord. I'm ready to die. I'm ready to go. Nathanael said at the beginning of the gospel of John, he said, you are a king.

You're the king of Israel. But even he did not understand what Christ's kingship would look like.

The closest to the Messiah weren't the elite, were they? You read something like 2

Samuel 23. If you read 2 Samuel 23, you'll find the mighty men of David, the warriors of King David.

They could kill hundreds of men with their own hands. Read that. These are incredible men.

But to serve this Messiah, you have to be a servant. You have to be a servant.

They must love one another. The Messiah washes their feet right before he's about to be killed the night before.

And he says to do the same. So this is unlike anything they would have ever dreamt of.

They would have been waiting for this moment. Oh, what's he gonna do? He's gonna rise up as a king. He's gonna destroy the

Romans who are occupying our land. The Holy Land will be ours again. We'll make conquests.

The nations will stream up to the mountain of God. This is it. He's here.

Let's fight. Let's go to battle. That's not the way it came though.

The cross is foolishness in the eyes of the world. And if the cross is foolishness, then servants of the cross will likewise be called fools.

Fools. But the apostles came to accept their station in life.

They knew where they were going when they finished their races. But can the leaders of the factions of the church at Corinth do the same?

Can the pastors, can the deacons, can the teachers, can the evangelists and leaders, and even the average member accept the fact that to follow

Christ is to often be treated like Christ. That the glamor and fame the world offers is opposite.

It's opposite of what the Christian life will be like. And the apostles knew it. They weren't looking for temporary pleasure.

They were waiting for eternal glory. Will the church at Corinth see it that way?

Will we see it that way? Let's take a look. Go to verse six, okay? Paul brings his address back to the common collective.

He goes back to the brethren. Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that none of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.

So all these things that he's spoken about, him and Apollos, leaders of factions that possibly some were saying,

I am of Apollos, I'm of Peter, I am of Paul. He says these things were figurative language, figurative application.

He used him and Apollos as examples. The faction leaders, though, are the ones who should grab hold of that and realize that these men are those to emulate that they are falling short.

Apollos and Paul are far from the reality of being divided, far from the reality of being faction leaders.

He said it, they're co -laborers in Christ. They're servants of the Lord together. They're stewards of the mysteries of God.

And that's an important tool of correction and counseling and rebuke.

You don't use people who actually have this sin that you're trying to combat sometimes.

You use those who are blameless. He's using him and Apollos to serve as models.

This is wise as well, because he doesn't wanna call out any particular person in front of the entire congregation.

This whole letter will be read before everyone. And he doesn't wanna repel them immediately by his admonishment.

If he just goes out and says it, they might not listen to him. By using this figurative application, he alleviates resentment.

He makes it easier for them to accept the medicine, the chosen remedy. They're going to need to point the finger one day.

They're going to need to call out who have been the faction leaders in the church at Corinth, but it's not gonna be in his letter.

It's gotta take place personally. It's gotta happen with the leaders of the church. And so he demonstrates that he and Apollos could have used their positions for personal gain, but they didn't.

And that is more powerful. So Paul then goes on to say that the apostles and the evangelists of Christ never go beyond what is written.

Mark this verse down, by the way. Save this verse. They do not go beyond what is written.

And there's two elements to this, okay? Number one, the

Corinthians, who are the recipients of Paul's letters, are not to assume, inflate, add to, or go beyond what he has written to them.

Nothing's actually happened between him and Apollos. They don't need to read into his examples.

He has used himself and young Apollos as illustrations against their factions.

Don't go beyond what I've said. Don't ever add meaning to what is written that is not there.

Take what is written as what is and nothing else. And yet number two, the apostle has referred to this word written several times now.

He has said, just as it is written, and that's often when you quote scripture. Don't go beyond what is written.

And he has quoted now multiple times things that have been written. He quoted

Isaiah 29, on God destroying the wisdom of the wise men of the world. He quoted

Jeremiah 9, when the prophet states, if anyone boasts, he ought to boast in the

Lord alone. He quoted from Psalm 94, that the thoughts of the worldly wise are useless.

He quoted Isaiah 64, what eye has not seen and ear has not heard and what has not entered the mind, the things that God has prepared for those who love him.

And we even saw last week that Paul quoted Eliphaz, the friend of Job in Job chapter five, that God catches the worldly wise in their craftiness.

So in other words, Paul has referred to Old Testament scripture on five occasions in his letter already.

And as Paul talks about his letters and his letters we know are the word of God, then all

Christians are to never exceed what is written in the Old and New Testaments.

You never exceed them. This is the word graphe.

The word graphe is often used for the word scripture. What is written, the root word graphe used for scripture.

Graphe is scripture, so then Christians are to never go beyond scripture. They're never to assume into scripture, inflate it, add to or go beyond what

God has delivered to us in the Holy Scriptures. It is the word of God.

When you think about it, we don't change scripture, scripture changes us.

We don't add to scripture, scripture adds to us. The Bible is unalterable so that we would be altered by it.

We can't be inventors. No one's allowed to be an inventor with the word of God where we can extrapolate and come up with our own desires out of the scripture.

We don't inform the word of God, the word of God informs us. We do what it tells us to do.

We don't do what it prohibits us to do. We are called when not going beyond scripture to observe and believe and recognize as true what it says about the nature of God, the nature of creation, humanity, sin, the spiritual realm and salvation.

We see what it tells us. We do not add to its definitions or insert our own.

So the most basic way to say what this verse is, is sola scriptura, by scripture alone.

Scripture alone, no man, no institution and no other documents are equal to it.

Only scripture is the authoritative self -attesting word of God, do not exceed what is written so that no one of you will become arrogant.

The word is literally puffed up, filled up with pride against one another.

He says, Corinthians, if you go beyond the scriptures that I've referenced, if you don't adhere to what is written if you go beyond it, then you are gonna be puffed up with pride and that pride and that arrogance is gonna be weaponized against each other.

If anyone thinks they can add to or manipulate scripture, they will be puffed up.

In fact, that's what it is. It takes a prideful heart to come to the holy scriptures and think you can alter it.

You think about the popes, the popes, the vicars of Christ.

You think about false prophets, cult leaders. They've been puffed up.

They've tried to change the word of God. It always leads to personal destruction.

And this is the very heart of Lucifer. Did God say that, he says? Did God say that?

You look in the temptation of Jesus Christ in Matthew four when he's in the wilderness fasting and the devil comes to him and tempts him.

He takes the word of God, right? And he alters it, alters the word of God, causes you to question the word of God.

Those are the sins of Lucifer. And it led to his falling. The same trajectory can be the result for those who exceed what is written.

Do not exceed what is written, he says. Now, Paul will explain why. Why the

Corinthians should not be puffed up. Go to verse seven. Here's why no one has any capability to be prideful.

This is amazing. Verse seven, for who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive?

And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? Who regards you as superior?

Who regards you that way? This word regards is the same verb from verse five where he said, do not pass judgment before the time.

This is passing judgment. He said in that verse, wait for God to pass the judgment.

Wait for God to deal out reward of praise and the evaluation of works on the day of fire.

Who's declaring a judgment of superiority over you? Who has differentiated you from everyone else as the best here?

Surely not God. The time of evaluation and reward is not now.

Yes, he loves you and he saved you and he chose you and he revealed his hidden mysteries to you, but you are not to boast.

How could you think you're superior? He says, who regards you as superior?

Let me ask you, what do you have that you did not receive? What do you have that you did not receive?

And if you did receive it, and Paul knows all that they have, they've received.

All that we have, we've received. Nothing is inherent in us. He says, why do you boast as if that's not true?

As if you didn't receive it? John the Baptist agrees with this.

In John chapter three, verse 27, John the Baptist says a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.

Excuse me. If they've been puffed up with the culture around them, if they've been acting self -righteous, thinking because they're

Christians, they're elite, or better than other believers, better than unbelievers, then they need to remember salvation was a gift from God and nothing in us was the catalyst, the spark for God's grace.

What about the mysteries of God? What about the gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified?

What about those things? He says messengers brought those things. Messengers brought the mysteries of God.

The Corinthians didn't know the word of God. It was delivered to them. They received it.

Any knowledge of the truth that you and I here possess is not because of us.

It's because of God giving us access to his wisdom.

Remember, he said, who has known the mind of God? And Paul says no one, except now.

Now, because Christ came and the spirit is in you, you can know the things of God.

That's how. But God had to do that. You couldn't make that happen on your own, he says.

Some have said that the Corinthians were really spiritually gifted. Lots of spiritual giftings and callings may have puffed them up.

Maybe someone said, I'm an overseer. I'm a shepherd of the church.

I'm an evangelist. I go out, I do the work. Maybe someone said, I have the gift of healing. Oh, I can beat that.

I've got the gift of tongues, the thing that they'll talk about for centuries, right? I've got the gift of interpreting tongues.

Well, okay. I don't know who would actually boast about that part. I'm just kidding. I have the gift of prophecy.

I'm a prophet. I have this, I have that. Look, look what I can do.

I'm a teacher to the people. They listen to me. I have their influence. And Paul essentially goes to the person who says,

I've got this, I've got that, I've got that going on. I can do this. I preach, I teach.

And Paul says, hello, you weren't born with any of this. This isn't because of you.

You don't possess these things because of who you are. You possess these gifts because of the gift giver.

He gets the glory. James chapter one, verse 16 through 17. He says, do not be deceived.

My beloved brethren, every good thing given, every gift, every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

What do you have that you did not receive? And if the

Corinthians were honest here, there would be a resounding nothing that would come after that question.

Everything they have is because they've received it from God. So Paul says, why do you boast then? Why do you boast as if you already had it?

As though it wasn't given to you? In chapter one, the apostle said, no man is to boast before God.

And if you boast, boast in the Lord alone. He said in chapter three, let no one boast in men.

In chapter five, he'll end up saying to the church, your boasting is not good.

Boasting always, always attempts to steal the glory away from God and give it to ourselves, okay?

Boasting always tries to rob God of his glory and give it to ourselves.

And we see that throughout scripture, do we not? We see examples of that all the time. And when

I was contemplating this passage, I thought mostly of judges.

One of the most famous judges, you have the Judge Gideon. This is before the time of the kings of Israel.

There were judges that helped rule the land and Gideon was a judge. And if you remember, the

Midianites went up against Israel and they were praying, okay,

Lord, bring many men to fight against this nation. And there was 32 ,000

Israelites, 32 ,000. But guess what? The Lord says to Gideon, the people who are with you are too many for me to give

Midian into your hands. For Israel would then become boastful saying, my own power has delivered me.

The Lord is concerned that they will boast with 32 ,000 soldiers, take the glory away from Yahweh if he gave them the victory, right?

So what did he do? It was reduced down, the army was reduced down from 32 ,000 men to just 300 and they won, and they won.

And everyone knew it wasn't because of 300 men, it was because of God, because of God.

Sometimes God removes our boasting by taking us to a place where we recognize only he can remedy our situation.

Think about it, when all these men left and there were only 300 left, that's the original 300 movie, right?

300, kick the guy, this is Israel, right? That's the original 300, but God got the glory.

He got the glory and that's what God will do. He'll take it down and he'll get you nervous and it's like, oh

God, you're removing all these things and all these comforts and all my supports so that you would be my only support in this, that I wouldn't boast in my process, in my giftings, that I would boast in the

Lord alone. And so Paul is trying to get the Corinthians to remember, none of their gifts, none of their knowledge or callings came from them.

This is not natural to them. The supernatural decided to come to them, not the other way around, okay?

But in these next verses, Paul will now use hyperbole, but also some legitimate circumstances to put the

Corinthians side by side with the apostles for some compare and contrast.

Okay, Corinthians, this is how you wanna be, this is how you wanna act. Let me show you how we've acted.

Let me show you what the apostles of Christ look like. Go to verse eight. He's using some hyperbole, maybe some sarcasm here.

He says, you are already filled. You have already become rich. You have become kings without us and indeed

I wish that you'd become kings so that we also might reign with you.

He says, you're already filled. This is the word for satiation. Those who are satisfied, those who are satiated, we're privy to extravagance.

If you're full all the time, you're rich. You have a lot of access to you.

If it says, you have already become rich, you have wealth. He's not saying wealth is bad.

He's setting the picture up for them of what they've become in their pride. They thought themselves to be the most wise church and according to ancient writers like Epictetus, Horus or Plutarch, to have the most wisdom is to be like a king.

To have the most wisdom is to be like a king. And so Paul is using the carnal pursuits of Greeks for illustration.

Riches, wisdom, and you have satiation or luxury.

You see, a prideful person never wants to admit they're in need.

Oh, I've got all that I have. I'm satiated, I've got enough money.

And when they think they're the best, it's like they're royalty. The day of fire and praise hasn't come yet though.

They're not kings. The kingdom isn't finalized yet. Some of the

Corinthians have thought, we're kings, we're queens. The kingdom of God has come.

They thought like the apostles did when Jesus first came. We're a church of the kingdom of God.

We're kings and queens. We're wise, we're rich. They've started to seek things of the culture.

They've started to reign in the church. It's time to take my crown. But what about the apostles?

He says, you've started the party without us. Surely, if this is the time to be filled and finished with our work, we would celebrate and reign with you.

If this was the end, if the kingdom was consummate, if it's over, if Jesus returned, we'd reign with you.

And there's a sense here in which Paul is weary. He's labored for a long time and a small part of him wishes that the time for the people of God to become kings and queens was now, but it's not.

He says, you've become kings. And he says, I almost wish that that was true, that we could reign with you, that it was over.

But it's not now. There's the one king, there's Jesus Christ, King Jesus.

And he's going to remind them how that king was treated. Because the king's subjects, the apostles are treated the same way.

How can the Corinthians act like this right now? When Paul looks around him, he's writing this letter.

Maybe it's by candlelight. They're in fear of persecution. They're in fear of murder, execution.

And he's writing this letter and he's like, you think you're kings? And he looks around and he looks at the squalor that they're in.

We're hungry. We're thirsty. We have nothing. They have extreme danger.

As one commentator says, the Corinthians basic blunder is that they already see themselves as morally and spiritually perfected without having to experience the bodily struggles which

Paul sees as a sign of life in Christ. The Corinthians are not kings.

They try to reign by the wisdom of man, not God. They don't see that the king of kings throne was a wooden cross.

That the way to glory is marked with suffering. But they're trying to avoid it.

They're trying to go around it. They're trying to take the easy road. And so Paul will now go over what he believes is the way to glory.

It's not the pursuit of plenty. It's not the pursuit of riches. It's not the pursuit of royalty or a great name.

These things that the Corinthians sought, the way to glory is the pilgrim's progress.

It's the marathon, not the quick sprint. It's the hills and valleys and twists and turns of the king's highway, the road to the celestial city.

The Christians walk in this life. And ease and extravagance are often foreign experiences on this road.

Here is what the wisdom of the cross has afforded the apostles and what it gives all

Christians who pursue it in this life. Verse nine, this is what you're gonna get if you follow the road to glory.

Verse nine, for I think God has exhibit us apostles last of all as men condemned to death because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.

This is the kind of life that is gonna have works that are performed that will remain on the day of fire.

This is the kind of life that will receive, as Paul said, the rewards of God, sacrifice, selflessness, and service.

Sacrifice, selflessness, and service. But the

Corinthians, and maybe even some in the church, even in our church, often pursue the opposite.

We want what we want now. We want the kingdom now. I wanna reign now.

I wanna be a king. I wanna be a queen. The apostles admit, they say, we know we're not destined to reign in this life, but in the next.

Isn't what God has in store for us good enough? Because if you make your own kingdom, you can expect to watch it fall.

If you make your own kingdom now, you can watch it fall. But if you become a builder in the kingdom of God, you'll enjoy the king's rewards later, okay?

And this is a basic example of Jesus Christ, who set aside his glory and his majesty for you and me.

He became a slave for us. It said he was despised and rejected, scorned and shamed of man.

He says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor, so that through his poverty, you might become rich.

He says this in his second letter to them. And so naturally, those who seek to live a life of faithfulness to the

Lord will be regarded as last of all, last. It literally says, we are the most last, even though Christ appointed the apostles, what?

First, they were appointed first. He says that we're regarded as last.

We are men doomed to die, sentenced to death.

Jesus promised that this would happen. They're gonna kill you, and they're gonna think that they're making an offering to God.

They're gonna kill you and think that they're offering righteousness to God. He said in John 16, 30, the

Lord Jesus says, in this world, you will have tribulation. He doesn't say you might. He says, you will have tribulation.

Take courage. I have overcome the world. When Jesus prayed in the next chapter, in John 17, in the high priestly prayer, he says, the world hates them, just as they hated me.

The world hates my apostles, and they're gonna hate the people who believe because of their word.

It's you and me. They're gonna hate us. They're going to hate us. Can we accept that?

Can we accept that? You know, that was a sin that I enjoyed for so long.

All my life, I wanted people to love me, respect me, treat me a certain way, and Christ just throws that all away.

Can we accept the fact that we will be hated? We can't handle it on our own.

We know that. Jesus said right then in John 16, the Holy Spirit will come to aid us while the world hates us.

But can we accept suffering as part of our destiny in this life until we join our

Lord and his kingdom? And if you can't accept it, you will find yourself constantly seeking the wisdom and ease of this world, just like the

Corinthians who wanted to be kings right now. If you're faithful, though, you will become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to mortals.

This word spectacle in the Greek is theatron. It means theater. Paul says it's as if he and the other apostles are on a stage as peculiar objects to behold, and people stare at them, looking at them, sneering, jeering.

They're odd. And that's how a theater was in Roman days. They would be down at the bottom.

There'd be stadium seating in the theatron. He says, we're a spectacle.

It's like we're at the bottom of the stage, and angels and men are looking at us, scoffing.

Everyone's watching to see what we'll do next, right? And this is an invitation of sorts as well.

It's as if Paul is saying, hey, faction leaders of the church at Corinth, do you want the fame of an apostle, because some of them did.

Oh, I wish I had Peter's name. I wish I was called to be one of the 12. He said, you want to be one of the 12?

You want to be an apostle of Jesus Christ? Come join us in front of the world. Come join us in front of the world of men and angels.

Do you think everyone's looking up at us? They're looking down at us. And that's the reality of the scriptures.

Those who desire to be exalted will be humbled, and the humble shall be exalted. And can you wait for the exalted part to come in the next life, possibly?

Paul says, so be it. So be it. If the world will call us moros, that is morons, or fools, then let's just go out and say it.

We will wear that title, verse 10. We are fools for Christ's sake.

But you are prudent, Christ, right? We are weak, but you are strong. You are distinguished.

We're without honor. He says, we are willing to be regarded as fools, so that in bringing you the mysteries and wisdom of God, you might be prudent.

Apostles of Christ, followers of Christ, think not of themselves, but others.

We'll do it. We'll do whatever it takes to give this to you. We are weak, but you are strong.

You are honored, but we're without honor. Now, church, what does it communicate?

That when Christ was faithful, he was considered a fool and made weak, and was dishonored in front of the world.

What does it communicate? When the apostles, as examples of faithfulness to Christ, are regarded the same way as their master.

But what does it communicate? If the Corinthians, or even us, are not regarded that way, that we're seen as wise, strong, and distinguished, when the apostles and Christ are not by the world.

If the faithful ones get the opposite treatment, what does that make everyone else?

When everyone says, man, you're so wise, you're so distinguished, you have so much honor.

People in the world, if they tell us that, what does that mean? What does that communicate?

The world praises those who praise it, and it's wisdom. Once the world starts praising you, start doing the opposite of what you're doing, right?

Because that's false praise. You wanna know what the praise from the

Lord to one of his people is? Here's the praise of the Lord. This is it, this is what

God approves of. It's a Sermon on the Mount. Look in your printout or look in Matthew chapter five.

Look at this. These are the people that God approves of. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad for your reward. There it is. Your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

What does it say? Blessed are those who can fight really well for the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who can celebrate and become kings now.

Blessed are those who are wise, rich, prudent, and honored by the world. Blessed are those who are not spectacles, but are in the hiding places,

Christians, and no one ever sees them act faithful. Is that what it says? It doesn't say that. Because since following Christ and being appointed as an apostle of our

Lord, Paul has not known their worldly wisdom. He's not known their riches. He's not known strength.

He's not known honor from the world. Here's what he knows. Here's what Paul knows. Look at verses 11 to 13, our final verses for this morning.

He says, to this present hour, we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed and are roughly treated, and we're homeless.

And we toil, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless people. When we are persecuted, we endure through it.

When we are slandered, we try to conciliate. We have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.

He says right here, at this very moment, right now, on earth.

He says, I don't possess glory. I possess suffering. You're filled and satiated while we're hungry and thirsty even now.

We don't look good. This word poorly clothed means nearly naked.

Word naked is the root word here. Our garments have turned to rags that barely cover us and keep us warm.

We're nearly exposed to the elements and the eyes of passersby. We're poorly clothed.

We're nearly naked. You know, just think about that even for a moment.

You and I live in a day where we have dozens and dozens of sets of clothes.

We can go to whole bedrooms. Some of us have bedrooms for our clothes. Our bed, our clothes sleep in there, right?

It's radical. It's unreal. In their day, they had one good set of clothing and maybe a cloak in addition.

But if you were really fortunate, you had two sets of clothing and that's it. That's it. That's all you had.

But you and I can go and we can wear different clothes every day. We can wear a new set each day.

He says, we have nothing. We're in rags. We're exposed to the world. He says, we're roughly treated.

This is the same word that described what the soldiers and priests did to Christ. They beat and slapped Jesus with their fists.

He says, the same happens to us. The apostles are dragged about by society. They're insulted.

They receive abuses. And he says, beyond all this, we're homeless. We're wanderers.

Foxes have holes. Birds of the air have nests. But the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. And that's what happened to us too.

We have nowhere to lay our head. Jesus said that to the scribe, right?

That scribe came to him and said, I'll follow you. And Jesus says that and the man walks away. He's like,

I'll do a lot of things for Jesus, but I'll never be homeless for Jesus. That's one thing, that's the line.

I won't be homeless. He knew sometimes being faithful meant that those who were to follow him would go homeless.

But that man wasn't willing to go homeless. He says, we toil. The work in the

Greek means to work with mourning. Mourning, to mourn, to work to the point of mourning.

The image is exhaustive labor. And a man who works with his hands is a low -level laborer.

They're not men who order other men to labor. They are the laborers. They are the men who work with their hands.

And so the apostles do even menial tasks. Would the Corinthians be willing to be all this for the sake of Christ?

Would we, if we were called to, be hungry, be thirsty, be poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless and toiling for Christ?

Now, Paul says three ways the apostles are treated and how they respond to these treatments. Look at this.

Could you respond this way? When we read these, think about, could you respond this way if this happened to you?

He says, when we're reviled, persecuted and slandered.

Reviled, persecuted and slandered, they respond like Christ. What do they do? They bless, they endure and they conciliate.

When you are treated as opposite by the world and less than everyone else, we ought to do what the

Lord our God said to do. You see, back in the Sermon on the Mount, and for many centuries, they said, bless those who bless you, but those who hate you, curse them real good.

Curse them. And Jesus says, do the opposite. You've heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your

Father who is in heaven. You know, we have that on plaques above toilets and bathrooms for decoration, right?

It's ridiculous. But we won't actually take that and put it in us and say, yes,

I will pray for those who persecute me. I will love those who hate me. I will love my enemy.

No, I'm cutting them off. They're out of my life. I'm done. I'm never praying for them, curse them. I'm not trying to say that there's not a time for imprecations, but I'm trying to be faithful to what

Jesus is saying here. It's not just a hallmark thing, a decoration in the bathroom.

Yeah, I love your enemies. It's something that we're really called to do. He says, so that you may be sons of your

Father who is in heaven, for he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good. He makes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

Paul says we endure persecution. Sometimes we just feel like dying.

Sometimes we just want them to finish that beating and kill us so that we could be with the

Lord Jesus Christ, but we keep going. My life hangs by a thread, but I'll keep going to live as Christ to die as gain.

And finally, Paul says we've become the scum of the world. The dregs of all things, even until now, scum here, perikatharma, is literally the around cleaning.

The around cleaning, meaning after someone has adequately cleaned a surface, but there is still some refuse left over.

He says, that's what we are. The apostles are that. You ever see when the garbage truck comes by and lifts your can up and dumps it all?

And the kids like to see that, right? But the garbage man comes, dumps it all, but then all of a sudden some trash is still on the street.

He says, that's us. We're the trash of the trash. We're the leftover trash.

We're the around cleaning. We're the dregs of society, the dregs of all things.

That literally means the scrapings off of something else. It's like the gunk off of the bottom of one's shoe.

But here's what's interesting. In the semantic range of that word dregs is also sacrifice language.

When he says we are the dregs of all things, that can come from the blood and guts that are crusted at the bottom of a sacrifice altar.

The leftover filth. And we can't be certain, but it's almost like Paul is telling the

Corinthians, we'd be the drips of blood and plasma at the foot of the cross.

For your sakes and for Christ. You see, all of this language puts us off in this culture.

All of this is like, oh gosh, that's for them. That's not for us. The language is very unsettling.

We don't like suffering, do we? We still often think it's bad, and we've preached on it a hundred times, but we continue to tell ourselves the suffering and the trials and the afflictions we go through, they're bad.

That they don't work together for our good. And so we settle for the wisdom of the world.

We try to escape it. We try to evade suffering. And the wisdom of the world, like the friends of Job, thought that suffering only came to those who do evil.

Not according to what Paul just said. We can put Christ and the apostles in this self -sacrificing category, and we're outside of it.

That was for them. That was to get the gospel out, but that's not for us. That's never for us.

In front of the world of men and angels, what are you willing to be or go through for the sake of Christ?

Because you're either going to be the spectacle or the spectator. You're going to be the spectacle or the spectator, and I plead with all of us not to be those who just watch.

You say, Pastor Wade, what should I do then? Should I do what Paul's saying here?

Should I sell those extra clothes that you were talking about? Should I get rid of my food? Should I become homeless?

Should I work a basic labor job? That's not what Paul said. That's not what

Paul said. That's not what I'm saying. And there are whole books on this, though.

I've seen this in the last 10 years, where well -known evangelical writers, authors, and pastors have said, look at these texts of suffering.

We need to be like them. Every Christian, here's my book. I'll take your money. Now read my book, how you should give away all your money, and you should live on the streets, and we should do church in the alleyway.

There's whole books on this, and they're making money on this. That's been the philosophy of a lot of people in the past 10 years.

Oh, just abase yourself. Deprave yourself.

No, seeking self -abasement as a means of righteousness or holiness is sin.

Paul even goes into his letter to the Colossians. There were people who would hurt themselves and debase themselves and starve themselves and be kneeling on their knees for days on end, and their knees would be bloody and bruised, and they could barely walk, and they would think,

I'm offering holiness to God. I'm doing what Paul says here. The social gospel movement.

Being willing to be abased, being willing to be degraded, or to be slandered, or to suffer, to have a heart that truly would do whatever it takes to know

Christ and make Him known is what Paul's talking about. Would you do whatever it took?

And since Jesus promised suffering, it's going to come to you. Will you go through the suffering for Christ?

Will you do it? It's not seeking riches, nor seeking poverty.

Some have told us to do it. It's not seeking strength, but nor is it seeking weakness on purpose.

It's seeking Christ, to be faithful to Christ. And it's not just a willingness to suffer while we do nothing.

It's a willingness while we try to be faithful as the apostles were and as Christ always is.

You see, it's really easy to say that you're willing to suffer for Christ when we don't even labor for Christ.

Oh, I'm willing. I'm willing to be homeless. I'm willing to go without food.

I'm willing to be persecuted, as Paul said. But what about those who say they're willing, but they don't even labor for Christ, or they don't properly represent

Christ? You know, it's one thing to be enlisted in the king's army and being dropped off at the battle lines and looking across the battlefield and saying, well,

I'm glad I was willing to do this. And you look across the battlefield and go,

I'm here, right? I was enlisted. I was drafted. I was brought to the battle lines.

I'm even in the right garb. I look like a soldier of Jesus Christ.

I'm in it, right? I'm willing. I'm here, right? I'm willing. But we're standing at the battle lines and the battlefield is before us.

And that's not true willingness. True willingness is all that, plus you walk onto the battlefield with faith, going, it doesn't matter what happens to me.

My God's got me. I'll walk into this. I'll go into this.

Because he has me. He carries me. There's false glory behind me.

You know, we can put on the Christian suit. We can speak the Christian language and stand at the battle lines talking.

Say, see, I'm willing. I'm willing to be here. I'm willing to do whatever for Christ, but we won't walk into it.

We won't step out in faith. We'll never join the battle. We can be in this self -delusion that because we're there, we're just like the apostles.

No, the willingness is to go and join the battle array and to trust him that you'll be okay, no matter what happens.

And he may not make you homeless on the battlefield. He may not take away your health on the battlefield.

He may not take your life on the battlefield, but he might. He might do all those things.

And we have to go out there. We have to be willing to accept whatever he brings before us.

Think about, I titled this sermon, Glory Now or Glory Later.

Glory now or glory later. Do we want the glory that the world offers now or the glory the king gives later?

Paul said, I want to start reigning now, but that would mean that Christ is returned and our work is complete.

Sure, I want that, but until then, we are to give our entire lives as sacrifices for Christ.

And if you ever find yourself in these circumstances, because you will, if you're faithful, you will one day find yourself in the battlefield as a spectacle at the front of the crowd, and they will mock you.

And you're gonna go through things in this life, and you're gonna endure pain, and you're gonna see loss in this life.

And when you find yourself in those circumstances, number one, you remember that you are doing what's right.

And that's important. Number two, if you find yourself in one of these situations, you're in good company.

Christ and the apostles were there too. And number three, you remember when you're going through the trials, when you're going through these things, not to go back to what the world offers, not to try to be a king now, not try to get glory now, but to move forward and endure and go after the glory that God gives at the coming of the

Lord Jesus Christ and our arrival to Him when our life ends here.

Don't ever forget those things. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word.

God, these aren't just stories. We recognize that, Lord. These aren't just stories that we get to observe and poke out the sacrifice of Jesus.

We get to poke and observe the sacrifices of the apostles and the sacrifices of the early church.

Lord, they're not just for observation. They're for emulation, to see their faithfulness and to go out into the battlefield and say, whatever comes,

I know that all things work together for good for those who love God and who are called according to His purposes, that what the world intends for evil,

God intends for good. And in the Christian economy, in the Christian life,

Lord, that we might see that nothing can ultimately be bad in the

Christian life, that all things work together for good. And so,

Lord, help us to not skip out on this pathway of glory that's marked with suffering.

Lord, help us to keep our eyes fixed on the prize, to see at the end of the race, running into the arms of Jesus Christ, even though our way is fraught with trials and twists and turns and hills and valleys and sufferings.

Let us not be like what Paul is correcting with the Corinthians, who wants to rule and reign now without putting the work in, who wants to rule and reign now without Christ returning.

Let us not seek riches and glory for ourselves here, but let's seek,

Lord, the treasures of Christ now, so that we would have the treasures of Christ later.

Please, Lord, help us to be faithful. We admit it, Lord, we are weak. We in the

American church are weak. We so easily get rocked.

We so easily get moved. We're always willing to put in the towel, to call it quits,

Lord, don't let us, don't let us do it. Help us to endure, help us to be consistent, God.

Help us to not shrink back, Lord. God, we are no doubt in a time of blessing, but let us not mistake that blessing and use it for comfort and complacency.

If we have times of peace, they're not to rule and reign, they're to bring about the reign of Jesus.

They're to work, they're to labor. So God, please let us keep that in mind as we become spectacles to the world,

Lord, in the theater of the world, as men and angels watch us. I just pray that what they see are fools for Christ, faithfulness to Christ.

Pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right, well, we are now going to come and approach the table of our

Lord. This is communion. This is a time where not only are we connected with each other, but in that word, that communion, we're connected.