Consider Your Calling

Transcript

GR 1290
06-19-05
Consider Your Calling
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Gil Rugh

We're going to 1 Corinthians 1 in your Bibles. If you are here regularly at Indian Hills, you are aware that we are moving through the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, as we have begun a study of this major letter of the Apostle Paul, written to the church of God, the one being in Corinth. It's a church that is having a problem with divisions and quarrels. Paul is drawing their attention to that which will restore the unity of this church, and the strength of its testimony before the world that it should see in the church, the evidence of the mighty working of God's grace in bringing together all kinds of people who have been called by God's grace into a relationship of oneness with Himself and one another. That's the fulfillment of what Jesus prayed in the high priestly prayer in John's gospel, the 17th chapter. I pray that they may be one, Father, even as we are one.

As Paul draws attention to that which will bring unity back to the church, he comes to what is the basic issue for the church—the cross of Jesus Christ. Paul's whole life and ministry is focused on the cross. In Galatians 6:14 Paul wrote, “But [God forbid] that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” My only boast is in the cross. When we finish chapter one, Paul will conclude on that note. All of our boasting must be in God and the work that He has accomplished for us through the death of His Son to bring salvation to a lost world. It's not possible to overestimate or overemphasize the cross of Jesus Christ. All humanity is divided by Paul into one of two groups, according to 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved it is the power of God.” You are either in the group that is perishing, or you are in the group that is being saved. That is determined by your attitude toward the cross, whether you see it as God's provision for your salvation, or you see it as foolishness.

Paul's concern is that the Corinthians have taken their eyes off the cross, they have lost their focus as the church, and the result is the church has been fragmented. Different people, different groups now quarreling with one another, criticizing one another, thinking more highly of themselves and less highly of others. Division and conflict in the church is always an evidence that the church has lost its focus on the cross, because it is the cross and the work of Christ on the cross that brings unity to the church. And as soon as I lose that focus, I begin to think about myself, I begin to think about what I like and I don't like. I begin to think well this should be done this way, this should be done that way and there is no end to the ways that we can divide the body. We are a diverse people. Paul is going to emphasize this in a moment. We all have different interests, different likes and different dislikes. We all have strong opinions about one thing or another. But the unique thing about the church, not that we're all alike in the general sense, but all who are truly part of the church have been redeemed by God's grace through faith in the death of Christ on the cross. That is the unifying force in the church of Jesus Christ.

There was division in the church at Corinth. Sad to say, nothing has changed in two thousand years. It seems that the major problem in the evangelical church today is the problem of conflict and division. I read a book this past week, not primarily a theological book, it's a book evaluating evangelical churches. And I was struck by some evaluations made that relate to what we're studying here. This study started out with hundreds of evangelical churches, churches that believe the Bible is the Word of God and salvation is by grace through faith in Christ. It narrowed the study down to 52 churches, churches that had grown in their testimony and impact for Christ, there are churches that were growing in their testimony and impact for Christ. And as the evaluated these churches they found that there was a repeated theme coming up, so they devoted some time to evaluate it. And here is what they found. The study of 52 evangelical churches who had or were experiencing the blessing of God in their testimony, they identified 172 problems and struggles in these churches. So they had interviewed pastors and leaders and people and found that there were 172 problems and struggles that were mentioned. These were the things that were keeping their church from having a stronger testimony, keeping their church from being more effective in their work for the Lord. Now the startling thing is this, listen. Of the total of 172 problems and struggles, 171 of the problems were issues with other Christians in the church. Only one church mentioned non-Christians as the source of the struggle, and that source was noted only once. So think about that. You evaluate 52 evangelical churches, committed to Jesus Christ, the ministry of His Word and the testimony of the cross, and you find out there are 172 problems and struggles that the people in the churches have shared that are keeping them from being a greater testimony for Christ, or have greatly negated their testimony. And 171 of those problems came from conflicts within the church with other Christians. Now I was going to get a calculator and divide that out for the percentage, but I didn't.

The study went on to say that the greatest hindrance to a church being greatly effective in its ministry is problems and conflicts with other believers in the church. When I first read that, I read it and reread it, marked it, thought about it, then I thought about the history of our church in the years I've been here. And I have to say, what have our conflicts been about? Differences within. We can't honestly say it's the opposition of the world and their attack on us that has created our problems. The divisions and conflicts have come from within. Two thousand years after Paul writes to the Corinthian church to tell them about the necessity of dealing with divisions and quarrels by drawing their attention back to a focus on the cross of Christ, evangelical churches today have to say that the greatest hindrance to effective ministry for Christ is the battles and struggles they have within with other believers.

These people shared that over time many of them just lost their heart for pursuing and continuing the ministry. The internal conflict, the disagreements with other believers, the opposition from other believers, the criticisms just sapped all the energy and life out of people, and thus the church. And so we just struggled along without any zeal and enthusiasm for the cross, which ought to be giving it unity. That God could send His Son to die on the cross to pay the penalty for sin, and yet there are believers in the church at Corinth that think their opinions, their ideas, their likes and dislikes are more important than the unity of the church that Christ died for is a great tragedy. And if it was a great tragedy in the church at Corinth, it is even a greater tragedy two thousand years later. For the church not only has the letter to the Corinthians to saturate itself with, but the rest of God's revelation through what we call the New Testament, and yet for some reason we find it very difficult to keep our focus on the cross and to submit our likes and dislikes, opinions, grievances and realize He humbled Himself and became obedient even to death, the death of the cross, as Paul wrote to the Philippians. It doesn't matter if I get my way, it doesn't matter if it's the way I like it or want it. The unifying factor for the church is the cross.

Now Paul has demonstrated that the message of the cross is contrary to what the world would find appealing and workable. The idea that an itinerant Jewish rabbi who claimed to be the Messiah of Israel would suffer and die on the cross, rejected by His own people, the Jews, would be the One through whom God would provide salvation by the worst of possible means—crucifixion. To the world it is foolish, that's inconceivable.

But Paul wants to take a step beyond that now, as we move to the last paragraph in chapter one. And you'll note the preposition for begins verse 26. There is a further development and explanation of what he has been arguing in the previous paragraph, verses 18-25. Not only is God's work in using the cross to bring salvation totally unacceptable to the world, let's look at the people that God is choosing to save through the message of the cross. And it is totally contrary to the world's way of thinking, it is totally different than the way the world gets things done. And what has happened in the church at Corinth, the thinking of the world has infiltrated the church. What does the world do when it wants something done successfully? It gets powerful people, influential people, wealthy people. Brings them together and gets it done. What is God going to do? He's going to take the world's nobodies, the people who are of no account in the sight of the world, that are not among the wise and the mighty and the powerful, but the lowly, the despised, the base, those that people think nothing of in the world. And He's going to make them His people. So both in the message that God uses to bring salvation, the cross, and the people God chooses to save with the message of the cross, are contrary to the way the world operates.

For some reason we are all influenced by this. Well-known athletes make millions of dollars doing endorsements. I believe Tiger Woods was given a contract of $90 million to advertise Nike. I'm not quite sure why. I got a Nike golf hat and a Nike golf ball. You know what? It didn't make a bit of difference. I took some golf lessons a few years ago and things weren't going well so I told the golf pro who was giving me lessons, I think I'll probably get some new clubs. I appreciated his honesty. He says, Gil, your problems are not your clubs. He takes my golf clubs that I'm crushing the ball here and there, sets it there, cranks up, and the last I saw the ball it was out by the 300-yd marker, and that made the point. But somehow we're influenced. If we wear the clothes that this athlete wears, this famous, this wealth, this successful person, he drives a Buick. Hmm, maybe I'll get a Nike hat or a Buick, now I have it. That's the way the world does it, though, isn't it? I was interested that they had a Nike and said it was the best money they ever invested because their sales exploded.

Now I have no problem with the world doing that, that's the way the world does it, but we in our thinking come to think that. Can you believe that that's the problem that the church at Corinth was having? Every time I have a division and a conflict it really comes back to basically, I think I know better. Now there are certain doctrinal issues that have to be resolved by what the Word of God says. But usually I think I know better, I have a more clear opinion, insight, and I exalt myself.

So Paul is going to put the Corinthians in their place and show that God's work from beginning to end is inconceivable from the human perspective. There was a contrast in verses 22-24 between the world, verse 22-23 (1 Cor. 1:22-23). “The Jews ask for signs, the Greeks search for wisdom. We preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, to Gentiles foolishness. But to those who are the called, Christ, the power of God.” And he's going to pick up on the called who see Christ as the power of God. And so verse 26 begins, “For consider your calling, brethren, . . ." You, the church at Corinth who has experienced what we call the efficacious call of God, that call that reaches out to draw to salvation those that God has chosen. Consider your calling, brethren. Look at yourselves, look at those in the church at Corinth that God has called to Himself to enter into salvation through faith in Christ.

It's a remarkable thing. This call of God is always based upon His grace. Listen to 2 Timothy 1, the last part of verse eight and verse nine. Paul exhorts Timothy not to be ashamed of the gospel or of Paul, God's representative. Again a reminder, because the world views the message of Christ as foolish. Paul had to tell the Romans in chapter one, I am not ashamed of the gospel. He has to tell Timothy in his last letter, don't be ashamed of the gospel, don't be ashamed of me. Join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted to us in Christ Jesus, from all eternity. God's sovereign call is to draw out from among sinful humanity some to believe in His Son. We'll say more about this sovereign work of God in a moment.

Note those that were called. What he tells the Corinthian church is look around, look at yourselves, look at others around you. [1 Corinthians 1:26] “. . . Consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.” “According to the flesh,” means from the human perspective, as the world would look at you. Look around, there aren't many wise, those that are viewed as the exceptionally intelligent, those who have written a book that would win people over with the power of their intellect. They are in the position, recognized as the wise and intellectual in our society. The mighty, those in positions of power and influence, the movers and shakers in the world. The noble, the wellborn, those of stature and position just because of whom they are. You know we talk about the families, the Rockefellers, the Kennedys, the people, wellborn people, literally, is the word. Noble, wellborn. The people that the world takes as influential because of their wisdom, because of their power and might or wealth, because of their position in society. There just aren't many of those kinds of people in the church at Corinth. Now note, he doesn't say there were not any wise, mighty or noble. “Not many,” the “m” on the front of that is important. I imagine as they looked around at the church at Corinth they could see there were a few that we would say come from the higher strata, some from positions of influence. There are people of means. But as you look around, the overwhelming makeup of the church is not of these kinds of people. One person noted in commenting on this section. Paul's attention to questions of social identity and status reveal his concern that the values of the culture in which the Corinthians lived have inched their way into the church and are creating the division. They have become puffed up over one another.

Paul is going to get more blunt. I mean if there are divisions and conflicts and quarrels in the church at Corinth, and there are, it means people are thinking more highly of themselves than they ought to think. [Romans 12:3] They are thinking more highly, you know once I have an opinion I always like to gather a circle of people around me who share my opinion and recognize my great insights. And it doesn't take too many of those until we have division, quarrels, conflicts, disagreements. We like to paper it over with some spirituality, but the reality is, that's the problem. Paul says there are not many of those kind of people in the church.

That's been God's plan of working right down to today because he says in verse 27[and 28], “but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise . . . God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He might nullify the things which are.” You ought to highlight or underline or however you mark your Bible, three times in verses 27-28 it is stated—God has chosen, God has chosen, God has chosen. There is one person in charge, one person who is sovereign, one person determining the makeup of His church, and that is the sovereign God, the One who does the calling on the basis of His choice. There is a lot of discussion and debate that goes on over the doctrine of election in the church. Everybody has to believe in election, I realize there are different views on it, but you can't say, no, I don't believe in the doctrine of election because that's the word here God has chosen—eklego. He has elected, He has chosen. Now you may disagree on the view, but anybody who says— I don't believe in the doctrine of election is saying, I don't believe in the Bible. Now I understand you may have a different view on election and be correct, say, here is my view and understanding of election in light of what God teaches in the Word. We all as Bible-believing Christians have to believe in the doctrine of election, God's choosing. He doesn't go into that doctrine here, what he is emphasizing is God's sovereignty. God has chosen certain kind of people, certain kind of things which are true of the people that He chooses. He has chosen the foolish, the weak, the base, the despised, the things which are not.

Listen to Ephesians 1:3-4, maybe you ought to turn there, it's not good that I read you these and you don't get to see them. Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly {places} in Christ, . . ." Now note this, just as He chose us. Same word that we have in 1 Corinthians, same form of the same word. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. This is God's sovereign work, choosing. We're not going to do the doctrine of election, there are tapes, there is a booklet on this doctrine if you want to refresh your mind from our previous studies. You understand we talk about the doctrine of election, we are talking about God's choosing sovereignly from among sinful humanity. God is not obligated to save anyone. Remember when the angels followed Satan in rebellion against God? They sinned. The punishment for their sin is eternal hell. God never provided salvation for fallen angels. He is not obligated to provide salvation for sinful beings. He is only obligated to deal with them in justice.

Now it is God's sovereign plan, and I don't have any other explanation than that, verse 11 if you're still in Ephesians 1, the last part, “. . . having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,” God counseled with Himself and decided to do this. He decided He would provide salvation and choose some from among fallen humanity to come to faith in His provision and thus be saved. So just keep in mind when you talk about the doctrine of God's election or God's choosing, He is choosing from among sinful human beings, who all deserve hell. You cannot deserve mercy, you cannot deserve grace. Some people say, well it's not fair that God would choose some and not others. What do you mean fair? It's fair that all go to hell, and God is not obligated to do otherwise. Otherwise you have to say He's not dealing with the angels fairly who sinned, because He didn't provide a way for them to be saved. But He has provided punishment for them consistent with His justice. This is to magnify His grace.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 1. The point here is on God's sovereignty. This is what God has chosen, God has chosen, God has chosen. It is totally contrary to the way the world would have worked, if the world were making the choice. And he's emphasized the kind of people, the kind of things God has chosen. He has chosen the foolish, the weak, the base, the despised, the things that are not. That's quite a description. Now look around, verse 26 he says, consider your calling, look around. Most of you are not of this group—the wise, the mighty, the noble. But what you find is, you are part of the foolish, the weak, the base, the despised, the things that are not. What God has done is chosen these things to shame. Note verse 27. God has chosen the foolish things of the world, the things that the world views as foolishness, to shame the wise, to disgrace them and bring judgment on them.

I watched a little bit of one of the public access channels yesterday, the life of Mark Twain. I don't know how long it was on and I caught parts of it. But toward the end of his life, much of his writing, he despised the God of the Bible. He thought the Bible was a damnable book, that's the way he put it. And he couldn't say enough evil, bad things about the God of the Bible, what a horrible God He was and so on. With all of his wisdom, with all of his brilliance, with all of the honor given to him, God has chosen the foolish things to shame the wise, to disgrace them, to bring them under judgment, to show them their hopeless condition. With all their wisdom they cannot bring about their own salvation, they cannot bring a plan that could bring salvation to those that are under eternal condemnation for their sin. He shows them the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. The things that the world views as nothing, the people that the world views as nobodies, He's using, “to nullify,” the things that are. That word to nullify, to render them ineffective, to nullify them. In other words the people that think they are wise and mighty and noble, they are nullified by those that are nothing in the sight of the world. Look around. We are a collection of nobodies. You think a lot of yourself? Put it in perspective, what God says He has chosen. There are people, that if they walk down the street somebody wants to run over and get their picture taken with them. That usually doesn't happen to me, I don't know what they're thinking. People think it’s an honor to go and shake this person's hand and say they met them, I got their autograph. You could have pages of my autograph, put it on e-bay and see what you get. It's humbling to me to realize, you know what you are? You're a nobody. We are a collection of nobodies, brought together by God's grace. He has sovereignly chosen to do it this way. Why? It's not the way the world would do it. The things that the world looks at as effective, God hasn't chosen those.

The church needs to remember this. Listen to what one person wrote in recent comment on this passage. This is a point that our generation cannot afford to ignore. Why is it that we constantly parade Christian athletes, media personalities and pop singers? Why should we think that their opinions or their experiences of grace are any more significant than those of any other believer? When we tell outsiders about people in our church, do we instantly think of the despised and the lowly who have become Christians? Or do we love to impress people with the importance of the men and women who have become Christians. Modern western evangelicalism is deeply infected with the virus of triumphalism, and the resulting illness destroys humility, minimizes grace and offers far too much homage to the money and influence and “wisdom” of our day.

Think about it, have any of us not had the idea, the thought, if so-and-so would get saved and come to our church, that would be great. Now we're not thinking it would be great if the lost sinner got saved, we're thinking it would be great if that person of influence, that person of power, that person who has some stature at least in our city were coming to our church, who would I mention first when I talked about our church. Oh you probably know so-and-so, yeah, they're part of our church. Which says what? You know, we're not just a collection of nobodies, we have some somebodies here. And we have some people of means. We just get the idea--our church would be so effective, think of the impact of our testimony in the city if we had a number of prominent people, a number of the very wealthy people, a number of the . . . fill in the blank. Just think about it, if we could do church the world's way and not God's way. And you know the church at Corinth has slid into that, because that's what happens when you take your eyes off the cross. Then pretty soon you begin to get occupied with your own thinking and its superiority, your own better insights, the importance of your own opinion. And now the church gets fragmented and divided, and we are no longer about the cross. The cross gets pushed aside.

Why has God done it this way? He takes a message that has no credibility in the world and then through that message He gathers a group of people who are viewed as nothing in the sight of the world, and this is His work. How can you expect the world to be impressed by a collection of nobodies. Look around, how in the world are we ever going to impress the city of Lincoln with a group like this, with a preacher like this? I don't know, Lord, it's a sad group of people. You can't expect us to get much done with this, do you? We don't think that way, we think, I have a lot of good ideas and I'm a good thinker and I am . . . fill in the blank. We even twist this into thinking as a church, think of how valuable you are, Christ died for you. Have they ever read 1 Corinthians 1? Think how valuable you are, Christ died for you. Is that the point Paul is making? The nobodies, the base, the despised are those that God has saved. Think how worthless you are, think of what a base, despised nobody you are. That's what you ought to think about when you think about yourself, and then marvel at the grace of God that you sit as one that He has chosen. I just can't figure it out. How could that be? You know if we spent more time thinking about that we'd have less division in the church, because we wouldn't be so overwhelmed about why they don't take my opinions and don't grab on to my great insight. We'd be just so amazed, I can't believe the cross of Christ is God's plan, and then He saved me. Isn't that what Paul told us how we ought to think? Let each of you think of others more highly than himself. Well then I'm not so taken up with my opinions, my ideas, my hurts. I'm surrounded by people that I think are better than me. Because my amazement is that God has saved me. I can't get over the grace, I can't get over the cross. I'm saved, He chose me, He called me to Christ. And those of wisdom and might and power who by God's grace have been saved, what did James say? They have to think of themselves as nobody. The rich have to be humbled in their thinking, that God would save them. And the poor can think of the grace of God that has lifted them to the heights of the heavenlies.

Paul wrote to the Romans, talking about the same theme, God's salvation by grace through faith. In Romans 3:27 he said, “Where then is boasting?” It's excluded. So how can we be parading around thinking of our importance. Look over in 1 Corinthians 4:6, “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 . . . .” Don't go beyond the scriptures, here. You should have this last statement underlined, the purpose—”so that no one of you will become arrogant (puffed up) in behalf of one against the other.” Who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast if you have not received it. Isn't it a tragedy that when you get down to the bottom line all these divisions and fractures and conflicts we experience in the church of Jesus Christ come from believers thinking more highly of themselves than they ought to think. Taking their eyes off the cross and the wonder of God's grace poured out on them in the cross. How can I get my eyes off such a wonderful event to begin to think that I am superior, that my ideas deserve special attention, that ?they wonder why?
It is the church fractures—I—when the focus is to be Christ and the cross and I want to talk about what I think, my opinion. Paul's solution to the Corinthians is, look at yourself, look at what God has done, look at what you are apart from the grace of God. What you were before that grace grabbed hold of you.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 1:29. The purpose of it all is so that no man may boast before God. You could underline that purpose, “so that no man may boast before God.” That's it. I mean, if God is taking a message of foolishness, as the world sees it, to gather a people that the world sees as nobodies and nothings, where is the credit going to be in all this? Look around, look at the interviews, look at the focus. What does the world do? Here is a man who is a mover and shaker. He's taken this business and made something out of it, then he moved along and he made something out it. He's a man we want to learn from, he's a man who gets things done and knows how to get things done. Here's a man who puts his name on the building he builds, he doesn't say, I just want to thank God for the grace in giving me a mind that enables me to think and a body that can function. No, look at me, I'm a man who gets things done. People know I get it done and they even pay me to use my name. But what are we going to say? What's the explanation for this church? Well, now that you mention it, probably has something to do with a great preacher. And how can you have great preaching without a great preacher, and I thank you, Lord, that I am not as other preachers. But you know, what am I? I know me, I know what I was, I know what I am. There is no other explanation, and you're no different. We're a group of nobodies, and you know what that is to mean? There is to be no other explanation for this church than the grace of God, right? I don't know how you could explain that group of people and their unity and oneness, if it isn't something supernatural. People who may say I hate the message of the cross and I think they're nothing and nobody, but no I don't have an explanation or what ties them together and binds them together and gives them such a unity. But the world can't understand it. We begin to appreciate how serious the divisions we bring to the body of Christ really are. It is trying to take the glory that God says He will not give to another for ourselves. It is trying to be able to boast. I don't say it's that, but why do I think my opinions are worth dividing the body of Christ over? If I don't really think that, why do I think my ideas are important enough to divide the body of Christ over, that my hurts are worth dividing. And so we slide into thinking about ourselves and have an elevated opinion about ourselves. God's way of working is that so none of us have any reason to boast.

What's the explanation for the church of God, at Indian Hills in Lincoln? There's no good explanation. It's God's grace using the message of the cross to bring a strange and varied group of insignificant people together who have experienced the wonder of His salvation and now are a testimony to His grace.

Verse 30, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus . . . “ Do you have that underlined? That fits with his statement, God has chosen, God has chosen, God has chosen. Verse 30, but by His doing you were in Christ. You see the relentless emphasis through this section, that it is God's sovereign work. There is no room, not the littlest bit of room for you and me to take any credit, any glory, to focus any attention on ourselves. It's by His glory you are in Christ Jesus, it is His work, His work alone. You are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom. This is not the personification of wisdom in Christ, it's in the context he's talking about. We came to understand that Christ crucified is the demonstration of God's wisdom in providing salvation. The world views it as foolishness, but we understand the message of Christ crucified, a crucified Messiah. That is God's wisdom, there is no other way of salvation. There is a salvation provided for all, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, in order that whosoever believes in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life.

That wisdom in salvation is unfolded with three terms—righteousness, sanctification, redemption. Righteousness, that's our legal standing. God has declared us righteous through faith in Christ. Sanctification, that's our standing in holiness. You understand holiness must characterize the people of a holy God. You shall be holy, for I am holy. The word, “sanctification,” “sanctify,” and “holy” all come from the same basic Greek word. It means to be set apart. God is holy because He is set apart from sin. We are saints by calling, according to 1 Corinthians 1:2, called saints, those set apart from sin to God, those who are holy because of the salvation we've entered into in Christ. We've experienced redemption. The term comes from the slave market, those who have been set free from the power and penalty of sin. We are no longer in bondage, we have been redeemed.

That's God's doing, God's work in Christ, to provide a salvation in His wisdom, that will bring righteousness and sanctification and redemption to the nobodies that God has chosen, to the base and despised and weak that God has chosen. Why would He do that? Verse 31, “so that just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’” There is only one focus for the church, that is in the greatness of our God and the wonder of the salvation He has provided for us in the crucifixion of His Son. Now where can there be any division? We are all thinking about the same thing, we are all exalting the same person and it is not one of us, it is He who has done the work and brought about our salvation. He uses human instruments, but you understand, verse 30 says, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, . . .” What means He uses in using human instruments, those human instruments must not become the focus, they must not become an occasion of division in the body.

“. . . just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’” That's a quote from the Old Testament, [Psalms 20:7, 34:2] and you know this whole paragraph from verse 26-31 has been built around two verses in the book of Jeremiah. Verse 26, consider your calling, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many might, not many noble. Verse 31, so then, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Turn back to Jeremiah 9:23, “Thus says the Lord, let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not the rich man boast of his riches,” Sounds like what we read in 1 Corinthians 1:26, doesn't it? Those things which the world holds high and values, even if you do qualify as rich or mighty or boast in those things, they are not what matters. [Jeremiah 9:24] “but let him boast, boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the \Lord\ who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for I delight in these things, . . . “ I am the God, who in His sovereign wisdom has brought salvation to fallen, sinful human beings. I delight in lovingkindness, justice righteousness. The wisdom of God has brought us righteousness, sanctification, redemption. These are the things the sovereign God . . . . So there is no room for boasting in man. Man, no matter what his wisdom, no matter what his power, no matter what his riches, cannot find his own salvation. That salvation is only found when the rich, the wise, the mighty, humble themselves before the living God and declare their unworthiness, recognize their worthlessness as sinful beings and claim the grace of God through faith in Christ. That's why it's harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Why its hard for the mighty, the noble, to humble myself, to consider myself as no better, no more worthy, no more deserving, to have to come the way the most base would despise and nobody in the human race has to come. It's too much, but it's the only way.

The only room for boasting is boasting in the God who has done the work. Now where do the divisions come from? The focus of the church is the cross, the focus of the church is on the God who in wisdom, infinite divine wisdom, has provided salvation through the death of His Son on the cross. And then has sovereignly chosen from among fallen humanity, the miserable wretches, and called them to faith. And then placed the treasure of His Word, as Paul will later tell the Corinthians, in earthen vessels so all the glory may belong to God. And so the church is focused on the wisdom of God and the cross of Christ, and boasting of our God. Where do the divisions come from? How could the church at Corinth be divided and quarreling? How could the evangelical church today, as I shared the statistics of the 172 struggles and problems that are sapping the life and strength and testimony of the church, 171 of them have to deal with conflicts in the church among believers. How will we stand before the throne? What will we say? What will our excuse be? Well, Lord, you don't understand me, I felt strongly about this, maybe too strongly. But I really thought . . . . So what? Your opinions, your convictions were more important than my cross. I died to bring unity to the people that were chosen by my Father, and you divided them. But I can't help it, I have strong opinions. I don't think we'll say that on that day, because we know it won't be an excuse.

One other passage, Titus 3. You know God doesn't repeat Himself to no end. We as Christians forget. That's why Paul is reminding the Corinthians of what he had preached to them when he had brought them the message of Christ several years earlier. You know what he has to tell Titus? Remind the believers in the churches on Crete. Titus 3:1[and 2], “Remind them to be subject to rulers, authorities, be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.” Why? “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior, His love for mankind appeared,” [Titus 3:4] He saved us, verse five, according to His mercy. Verse seven, “so that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope. . .” eternally. His kindness, His love, His mercy, His grace. Remind them of what they were, the worst of sinners, the most undeserving of sinners. Good thing for you to do regularly is to sit and remind yourself of how unworthy you are to be a child of God, how undeserving you are of His grace. It's true of no one more than the one preaching to you.

Father, we praise You for Your grace. What a sad testimony it is that the church at Corinth is divided, with quarrels, and Christ had died to bring salvation. What a sad testimony it is that this church has experienced divisions and quarrels over things of no importance in light of eternity. May we be so impressed with our own unworthiness, so impressed with the wonder of Your grace. May we be willing to humble ourselves before You and before others and just marvel at the wonder of saving grace that saved people such as us. We praise You in Christ's name, amen.