Confronting Divisions in the Church

Transcript

GR 2340
03/13/2022
Confronting Divisions in the Church
1 Corinthians 1:10-17
Gil Rugh


I want to direct your attention to 1 Corinthians and while you are turning there sometime this week you ought to read through Ezekiel 38-39 in light of all that is taking place in the world today. Not now but maybe when you go home or sometime this week you can read through Ezekiel 38-39. I did contemplate maybe looking at that this morning, but we're going to continue in 1 Corinthians. But a reminder that all things are on schedule, on track, God is sovereign. The nations of the world, and we are privileged to live in a period of time when we see clearly nations like Russia, China, the European Union all fitting together.

But we're in 1 Corinthians 1 and Paul was at a key time in the Roman Empire. When he writes 1 Corinthians about 55 A.D., the Emperor Nero had been sitting on the throne about a year and within a relatively short time speaking, Nero is going to be dead at 69 A.D., so let's round numbers off and say he is going to reign for 15 years. Paul writing at the beginning of that reign and toward the end of that reign he will suffer execution at the hands of Nero. But you don't get that as the focus of his letter to the Corinthians, his concern is the church is to be the church. And the two emperors that preceded Nero weren't much better than Nero so it's not like Paul's had a good time. He would tell the Romans at the end of that letter that now your salvation is nearer than when you first believed. He lived every day expecting the return of the Lord but Paul was dead almost 30 years before John wrote the book of Revelation. And so you realize he didn't even have all the information available to him that we have.

And now 2000 years of church history and here we are. And the concern for us is to be the church that God says we are to be no matter what is going on in the world around us. The #1 responsibility for the church is to be the church. I think of that as I look at different parts of the world today and think what about believers in that particular location? What about believers that are enduring the loss of everything and such pressure and so on? And reminded they have to be what God has called them to be regardless of the circumstances around them. And so we have to maintain our focus on the Word of God, be the church that God intends us to be, not adjusting to the world around us but being the church that God has called us to be regardless of the world around us.

For the first nine verses basically we have the introduction to the letter, verses 4-9 in particular focused on God's grace. We think of the church at Corinth as a church that has problems and difficulties. I mentioned the professor I had many years ago who said you ought to do 1 Corinthians earlier in your ministry, you'll cover all the problems and difficulties because Corinth faces them. But yet Paul in those first nine verses talked about God's faithfulness, God's goodness, God's graciousness. He had saved the Corinthians, He had gifted the Corinthians. They were going to be blameless, verse 8, “who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” What a statement of a church that we note for mainly the problems, but we are reminded this is a church that God has brought together, saved by His grace and functioning, not perfectly, but as His people in that place. And verse 9, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” And that's a verse that you ought to have marked in your Bible and fixed in your mind—God is faithful. He's the One who called us into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ; into a relationship that will go for time and eternity. So whatever happens around us for good, for bad, that's all right. “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son,” into that unique, personal, binding relationship with Jesus Christ who is our Lord.

And that leads into verse 10, and that really begins the substance of this letter. And the first major division of the letter is going to go from 1 Corinthians 1:10 through 4:21, so almost four chapters he's going to talk about a problem at the church at Corinth. This church that is the recipient of God's gracious salvation, that is in existence because God is faithful and called them into fellowship with His Son, the sovereign work of God. But it's not a perfect church, it's a church of problems, it's a church of division, and that must be dealt with. So Paul is going to pick up and in 1 Corinthians 1:10 through 4:21 the subject will be the divisions in the church at Corinth. Sad as it is. We are in fellowship with Jesus Christ the Son of God as a result of the sovereign work of God and there is division. What is wrong? Well, we're going to cover some of that.

Paul begins in verse 10, we're going to look down through verse 17 and just touch on verse 18, of the divisions that are existent in the church. It's not only the church at Corinth, but a reminder, come back to John 17, just a reminder of the unity we have in Christ that Paul is talking about. John 17:20, Jesus spending this last night with His disciples, preparing them for His departure. Subsequently the church will be established then, shortly thereafter in Acts 2. John 17:20, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word.” And that comes down to today. The Apostle Paul believed through the preaching of the immediate disciples of Christ and down through 2000 years. “That they may all be one,” now note this, “that they all may be one, even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” So our work in the world is part of manifesting what God has done for us in Christ, He has made us one in Christ. “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one.” Now you come back to 1 Corinthians 1:10 and Paul is going to talk about the divisions in the church. And you say, how can you be thankful for what God has done in them, in bringing them into a relationship of oneness and now you are going to talk about divisions for the next, as we have it in our Bibles, through the fourth chapter. Well, it's to correct things, get them as they need to be, as they must be.

The church at Corinth is not primarily divided over doctrine, the church at Corinth is divided over its practice, the living out of the truth. We all agree we're all one in Christ so that's not a doctrinal issue then. But the practice of it . . . I remember years ago, many years ago now, we were having a division in our church here and I set aside a whole week and they made appointments and people came in to talk to me. And first thing they wanted to say when they sat down in my office was, this is not about doctrine. Well, what are you doing here? What's the problem? But they were telling me why they were going to be leaving. But this is not about doctrine. A reminder, we are agreed on doctrine but in the practice of it, in the implementation of that doctrine we struggle. So the church at Corinth is a practical letter for us.

Verse 10, “Now I exhort you, brethren,” fellow believers in Jesus Christ. We are a family together. “I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That connects to verse 9. Remember we looked at the repeated phrase, in every verse Paul mentions the name of Christ, except verse 5, and there he talked about “in Him.” So “I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.” We just think that should happen automatically, but it doesn't. That's why in relationship of a family, we are a spiritual family just like you have a physical family. In a physical family there is sometimes division and disagreements and conflicts. Sometimes you are reminded, now remember we are a family. So here. “I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And remember verse 9, we were “called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Now I want to exhort you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And if you are truly saved, you acknowledge the lordship of Christ. The challenge of Paul to the Corinthians is to live in light of the fact He is Lord. Now if He is Lord of the individual believer, He is Lord over the church, He is not in disagreement with Himself. So the conflict comes when we acknowledge I bow and I've placed my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, then what is the conflict? Well, it's not over doctrine because we do want to agree on doctrine, but it's on the practice and the implementation and . . . I'd have to stop and think, I mentioned an example from our church family years ago. I have to stop and think because I haven't really thought about what that was really about. Somehow whatever the issue was fades away because we still believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and I believe in the truths of the Word of God. But somehow in the implementation and the practice and the outworking of it we think we are justified.

So I am exhorting you, brethren, fellow believers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. All that He stands for, all that He is, we have been brought into fellowship with Him and our fellowship with one another is a result of our fellowship with Him. You were called into fellowship. “That you all agree.” It basically says that you all say the same thing, is what it literally says in the Greek text—you all say the same thing, which means you all agree. But now we disagree, Wait a minute, we have one Lord, we all bow before Him but we don't all agree, we don't all say the same thing, we have disagreements. Well, make a line, there are certain things that we can disagree on, that's fine. There are certain things we can't. Where the Word of God speaks, that is clear. There are things, we have a board of elders, the board of elders makes decisions. We decided that we would meet at 10 o'clock on Sunday morning for our morning worship service. There is nothing in the Scripture that says you have to meet at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning, but if you come at 1:30 there won't be anybody here, at least not having a service. Well, you could disagree about that but I willingly submit to those things. But we all say the same thing, basically we are in agreement. That's why we are together as a church family, we agree that Jesus Christ is the Lord, He is the Savior, He has brought us together in a relationship of oneness with Himself and with other believers. I exhort you that you all agree because we have the same Lord. So we ought to be in agreement on the basics, on the truths of the Word of God. And the other things, we ought to be careful about making an issue of because God hasn't made them an issue. So this is where, for example, years ago when people came and said this is not about doctrine but we're leaving this church, well, if you've found a place closer to home, blah, blah, blah, whatever. But why is it an issue? You all agree, you all say the same thing.

“There be no divisions among you.” I love the way the Spirit of God directs Paul in writing, that when you all agree it means there are no divisions among you. That word ‘divisions’, we get the word scheme from it, it's ‘schizmata’, you just drop off the ending and you have schism. That there be no divisions among you, no tears. It can be used in a variety of ways—tears in a fabric, things that would hinder our being effective for the Lord, there be no schisms among you, no divisions. But “that you be made complete.” That's a word that means you've been repaired, that we be all that God intends us to be. It's used of mending broken bones, mending fishing nets in Matthew 4:21, “they were mending their nets.” That's what the word is used here, it says “that you be made complete.” Come over to Galatians 6:1, Paul writes, “Brethren,” a reminder that when Paul has to correct he often calls them brethren. A reminder that we are of the same family, we have the same Lord. “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one,” you make that one complete, you restore him, “in a spirit of gentleness.” And be careful you don't get drawn into the sin you are trying to help him deal with. Restore, put it back together the way it is meant to be.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 1:10, “that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete,” be of the same mind. All the different ways that he expresses it—that you all agree, say the same thing, there be no divisions among you, schisms among you, that you be made complete, that you mend the fabric that has been torn, you mend the nets that have been torn, you fix the relationships, you be those who are functioning in the same mind. We think alike and that is what brings us together. What are we doing together as a church family? Well, we are in agreement, we think alike. There are places called churches in this city that don't agree at all with what we agree about and think alike about. You be of the same mind. And we have the same judgment because we have the same mind. The same mind means you have “the same judgment,” the end of verse 10, you have a conviction and you apply that conviction. So you have the same mind and that means that in the practice we all agree about the truth of the Word. This is where I want to be careful when we have disagreements as a church family, we resolve them as a family of believers. We just don't walk out, slam the door and I'm gone. I was sitting in a restaurant with family members. The family that had left, came and looked in the window, saw us sitting there, gathered all their family up, got in their car and left and went, I guess, to another restaurant. Is that what it comes to? Is that what we're all about? We're of the same mind, we have the same judgment on it. We may disagree on the clothes or the hairstyle or where you go for vacation or any variety of things, but on the core issues we are in agreement and we think alike, we function alike.

Look at verse 11, “For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren.” Note how Paul calls them brothers. In verse 10, “Now I exhort you, brethren;” verse 11, “For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren.” Paul is the insider who is an outsider; he's the insider in that he's the one that has led many of these people to Christ but he's the outsider in that he's not a regular part of this fellowship. Now he is writing back to the church at Corinth. So he doesn't live there permanently, he has spent some extended time there but he's not what you would call a regular part of the congregation. But he has kept up with them. “I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people,” Chloe's family, those connected to Chloe. We don't know anything more about Chloe. You wonder why Paul just didn't say I've been made aware that there are divisions among you, there are quarrels among you. How would you like to be Chloe, and they're reading this letter on Sunday morning and all of a sudden everybody is, oh Chloe, she's always been a tattletale. And her family, oh yeah. . . No, Paul wants to be honest. Here is Chloe, here is what she said, there are quarrels among you.

Here is what one Greek writer says, it implies wrangling, strife in words, personal contentions, quarreling, bickering. The thing that stood out to me about this word, it appears repeatedly and when Paul makes a list of vices that ought not to characterize believers quarreling is there. Come back to Romans 1:29, and this is talking about those that God gave over to a depraved mind, verse 28, “to do those things which are not proper.” And here is an example of the things that people of a depraved mind who have not been made new in Christ are doing. They are “filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife.” That's the word we just read about in 1 Corinthians 1:11 translated ‘quarrels’. Same word—strife, quarrels. Well, that's characteristic of unregenerate people. And we're reminded that Paul called these Corinthians brethren, those who have experienced God's saving grace through Paul, maybe through others as well. They have been brought together, they are brethren but there are things that are there that are characteristic of those who are not truly regenerate. And the reminder of I have to be firm with myself. There are things in me, I'm not perfected yet. I have to be sensitive to the Word.

So when he talks about the strife, the wrangling, that's something that needs to be dealt with. Come to Romans 13:13, “Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness,” we'd say that would be terrible, “not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality,” that is bad, “not in strife.” Well, that's going on in the Corinthian church. It's not like sexual promiscuity or drunkenness or carousing. Why? When it is all put together it is a manifestation of what I am apart from the saving work of Christ. So I need to deal with it. We tend to categorize sins and then we say these aren't so bad. My strife, my being upset, my quarreling, I have reason for that. Well, what's the doctrine? It's not a doctrinal issue, you try to make everything doctrinal. It's not a doctrinal issue. Then get over it, stop it. That's easy for you to say. Why is there strife in the church? Why was there strife in the church at Corinth? Paul in other places… but he doesn't say they are unbelievers. But he does say they are functioning like they should not function, like they must not function and it must be fixed. And there are numerous other references to this as well -- 2 Corinthians 12:20, Galatians 5:20, 1 Timothy 6:4, Titus 3:9-- all use this same word and it ought not to be part of what a believer is. I know, that really irritates me when they do that. Get over it, stop it. That's what Paul is saying.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 1. Chloe and those associated with Chloe, it may be slaves from Chloe's family, it may be family members. We're not told. It doesn't really matter, it's just those associated with Chloe and there is no reason for Paul to cover so Chloe… well, I don't like to be put out on a… What do you mean? What you have said is sin, it ought to stop among God's people. And Paul calls them brethren. “I have been informed concerning you,” verse 11, “my brethren… there are quarrels among you.” Well, they don't belong among us so stop them. That's the point. He is going to give a series of examples here. “For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren… there are quarrels. Now I mean this,” verse 12, so that you are not thinking, what does he mean, “Each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul,’ and ‘I am of Apollos,’ and ‘I am of Cephas,’ and ‘I am of Christ.’ ” The divisions were over personalities. We don't know whether these are actually the divisions or are they just examples Paul is using because over in 1 Corinthians 4:6, “Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes,” so you don't become arrogant one on behalf of another. So it may be that Paul has just used these as example because he uses himself in verse 12, “ ‘I am of Paul,’ and ‘I am of Apollos.’” Just examples.

What has happened is they have their favorites among those who have ministered to them, those who have taught them. So they begin to play one off against the other and the simple question is, has Christ been divided? “Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” So Paul selects himself out and he gives example here. Whether these are all that are entailed or the specific ones, or maybe like he said in 1 Corinthians 4:6, I've just applied these to myself and Apollos so you get the point. But at the church at Corinth there were factions. Which one of these people died for you? Why are you so loyal to them and not to others? Our loyalty is ultimately to Christ, that's the bottom line. Who died for you? Well, Christ died for me. Well, then that's your loyalty, right? Well, of course, but I also… We appreciate those that God has used in my life. I can think back over the years of my training for ministry and in ministry, those that God has used and I appreciate, but I want to be careful that I don't begin to focus on them to the point then, that they become a divisiveness because you may think somebody else has been used of God in my life and was used to bring me.

You know I find, I can just say this generally, I find any time we are going to have an all-church conflict, people are going to leave because they sort of attack together and then we leave together. But it's not over doctrine. So-and-so talked to so-and-so and so-and-so and pretty soon they all agree that we are here and we're this group and we're this group, this group . . . But it's not a doctrinal thing. And I say, it's not a doctrinal thing, but yet we're all going someplace else. So we're all doing this and . . . We just want to be careful. And the Lord sometimes leads His people to another place, that's fine. But I want to be careful in doing with the right attitude. I appreciate, I meet people who have been at Indian Hills at different times through the years, come up and are so friendly and talkative. That's the way it should be. If the Lord wanted them someplace else, there are other churches in town. But this idea, we left because . . . I don't know, there are pretty good names in verse 12—I am of Paul, Apollos, Cephas, that's Peter, Christ.

“Has Christ been divided?” Let's get down to it. “Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” I baptize you in the name of Paul, I baptize you in the name of Apollos. No, we have never had a baptism like that in all the years that Indian Hills has been in existence. I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Period. He is the one true and living God, eternally existing in three persons. We are identified with Him, our baptism identifies us with Him. Then what's all this division—I like so-and-so and he is my man. “I thank God,” and Paul then goes on a little sidetrack here and we want to be careful because it's not that Paul is diminishing the place of baptism but he is putting it in its proper place. “Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” So we agree Christ . . . Then it doesn't matter who baptized you, you were baptized no matter who baptized you in the name of Jesus Christ. He is the One we are identifying with and the triune God. We identify with Christ, we are identifying with the Father and with the Spirit. So to say were any of you baptized in the name of Paul, we'd say that would be ridiculous. Nobody gets baptized in the name of Paul. Well, that says something, we're talking about the unity that we have, the unity, the oneness that binds us together.

We're going to have that with the coming new senior pastor. The person who is going to assume this responsibility, be committed to the truths of the Word of God. That's what the elders have been looking for and looking into and being sure of and this man being sure and you sort through those things. But it's oh, it will just never be the same without . . . Of course it won't be but then again God doesn't intend it to be just like it was. So we want to be careful we don't go back and fall under I am of Gil, I am of another pastor in town, or I am of another. If there are doctrinal issues, they need to be dealt with. If they are not doctrinal, get over it. You can have your own opinion. We have different teachers here in this church, some I really like, so-and-so. I appreciate all of them but I really like so-and-so. That's fine, go to his class type of thing.

“I thank God,” verse 14, “that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one of you would say you were baptized in my name.” There are two things that are in play here, one is the issue of salvation and that salvation takes place by faith in Christ alone. Baptism is not part of it. You'll note Paul did not practice baptism himself. Paul will say down in verse 17, “Christ did not send me to baptize.” Now if baptism is necessary to salvation Paul is ignoring something of great importance. Paul said I really didn't do the baptism, two or three that I can think of connected with the church at Corinth, but basically you were baptized by different people. But don't identify with the person who baptized you. The purpose of baptism is what? I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it's identifying you with the finished work of Christ and bringing you into a relationship with Christ and His Father and the Holy Spirit, and not with the person who is baptizing you. So verse 13 “Paul wasn't crucified for you, was he?” You weren't baptized in the name of Paul so . . . Faith in Christ brings you salvation, now the next thing that is to be done is baptism. Now it doesn't say baptism is not important, it doesn't say it doesn't matter whether you were baptized. He does say it doesn't matter who baptized you. So baptism is a matter of being obedient to Christ as a child of God. You became a child of God through faith in Christ. Paul was careful in not practicing baptism himself, verse 15, so “that no one (of you) would say you were baptized in my name,” because you weren't baptized. It doesn't matter who baptized you, as long as you were being baptized in connection with your faith in Christ. “Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't know whether I baptized any.” It doesn't matter. He doesn't want to get into, I baptized this, this, this. It doesn't matter. If you come up with someone else I didn't include here, fine. The point is it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. It matters that you are baptized in the name of Christ.

“For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.” Crucial verse here, There are people who think, and they get their babies baptized, they look at baptism as being the assurance of salvation that cleansed me from my sin, that . . . Christ didn't send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. Well, if preaching the gospel is not sufficient to bring about the salvation of a soul, Paul was sent on a ministry of futility. Christ didn't send me to baptize, He sent me to preach the gospel. Now other people could baptize the people who believed the gospel that I preached, but that's a second step, that is distinguished and separate from. Come back to Matthew 28, this is the foundational statement on water baptism. Matthew 28:18, “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.’ ” So all authority has been given to Christ by the Father. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,” you make disciples, that's preaching the truth. The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch in the book of Acts. So a disciple is you make followers of Christ, they become believers in Christ. You make disciples of all nations and you are baptizing them and you are teaching them. You are “baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” and you are “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”

So the #1 thing is you make them a disciple; #2 you baptize them and teach them. If you are not baptized and you say I'm a believer just this week and you haven't had a chance -- you're going to be baptized. Well, I trusted Christ four years ago. Well, don't you think you need to pay attention and do what the Scripture says? Are you a follower of Christ? Are you committed to Him? Have you placed your faith in Him? Then you need to be identified with Him in water baptism. Well, I don't think baptism makes that much difference. I don't care what you think. When you become a disciple of the One who is the Lord Jesus Christ, He is sovereign, He makes the decision. He is the Lord. He says, go make disciples and then baptize those disciples and then teach them. Well, yeah, I really put an emphasis on teaching, I think good teaching is good. Wait a minute, what about the baptism? We have baptism at the end of the month, but I think that one is full. But I don't understand, is the Word clear? To back it up and we end up then saying well, we have people saved because they have been baptized and they are being taught. No, you are saved by grace through faith. So the blending of the two is an undermining on denying the truth of the Word of God.

Come over to Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” So there is the preaching of the gospel, hearing and believing the gospel brings salvation. That's it. It's not believing plus being baptized and you are saved. No, it's believing. So you can be here when I say if you say you've been saved four years ago but you are not baptized, well, that's a matter of obedience. But that doesn't mean you are not saved. Well, then that's good enough for me. Wait a minute, who is Lord in this whole situation? It's not I'm saved, now I can become Lord. No, He is Lord. But as far as salvation, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes… For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith… The righteous man shall live by faith.” That has always been true, salvation is by God's grace through faith. Period. Anyone who adds anything else, there are works that result but they are not the cause. I was saved by grace through faith, the grace of God brought me to the point of recognizing I was a sinner and needed the salvation that Christ had provided by His death on the cross, I believed in Him. I was saved for time and eternity, but then I want to be careful that I live a life now that is pleasing to Him. I was 10 when I first believed and as far as I can tell that was true, but several years went by before I was baptized. That was fine, especially for younger people. Want to be sure.

Come over to Romans 4, Romans 4 is important because it uses the example of Abraham and in Romans Paul is talking about is circumcision necessary for salvation. And the Jews said yes, some of the Judaizers. But verse 3, “What does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” It was credited to him, not because of the works he did, is the context here, but because of the faith that he had. He believed God, God credited to him as righteousness. Now the question that is asked then through Romans 4 is, was Abraham declared righteous by God before he was circumcised or after he was circumcised? And it was before he was circumcised. So circumcision can never be necessary for salvation, it never was in the Old Testament. It was a matter of obedience; and circumcision, particularly among Judaizers, for parents because you circumcise the male at eight days and he didn't have faith. But the parents were evidencing their faith in what God had promised and they circumcised him. But circumcision was not part of what was necessary for salvation.

That's all of Romans 4, down to verse 22, “Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness. Now not for his sake only… was it credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. Therefore, having been justified by faith.” Now when was Abraham ever baptized? As we know he never was. Well, it wasn't required in the Old Testament, circumcision was. Well, when was Abraham declared righteous, before he was circumcised or after? Well, before. Then circumcision wasn't necessary for salvation; baptism is not necessary for salvation. Now circumcision becomes necessary for the Jews because God required it. And those who have placed their faith in Christ now are obedient to Him and want to do what He tells them to do. For the Jews, they circumcised their sons at eight days of age. For those now in the church, when we believe in Christ we personally are baptized as a testimony of our faith. We don't practice baptism here until they are really old enough to make an independent decision without the parent's influence. That doesn't mean they are not saved at 10 or 12 or 13, but they may not be baptized until they are 18 when they can do it without their parental approval.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 1. Christ did not send Paul to baptize but to preach the gospel. So baptism is not part of the gospel that you have to believe to be saved. And you do the preaching “not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.” Not in cleverness of speech, not in clever speech, wisdom of words is what it is literally ‘sophia’, wisdom, the wisdom of words. People say, I'm a Christian but I don't talk to people because I'm not good at that. Who said you have to be good at it? How were you saved? I placed my faith in Jesus Christ, trusted Him as my Savior. Well, tell somebody else that. If you are going to be saved, you have to place your faith in Jesus Christ and trust Him and Him alone. I don't think I could do that. Let's back up again, what did you do? I trusted Christ, I placed my faith in Him. All right, now tell somebody else that. That's it. When we begin to embellish the gospel to make it more pleasing to people, we take away the power of the gospel. I was impressed with this again, reading some men. And if you sort through everything they say, they have the gospel in there but it has been canceled out by all the stuff they add to it. But if you push them, do you have to believe in . . . Yes, yes, I believed in Christ. But their presenting of it is with the wisdom of men and the cross of Christ is made void. It's just thrown in among other things. Made void means to empty, destroy, render void, of no effect. When man's wisdom is mixed with the truth of the gospel, it is rendered null and void. It doesn't mean the gospel can't be there, this is the transition the church finds itself making. We still believe the gospel, we don't preach it maybe not as clear, but we do include it in. Because we want to reach people where they are, so we begin to mix it with the wisdom of men so that it will be more palatable. And really what we are doing is canceling out the effectiveness of the gospel.

The effectiveness of the gospel is its purity, its simplicity. You are a sinner, one for whom Christ died. You must place your faith in Him and Him alone for salvation. Period. There is salvation in no one else and no place else. Christ's death on the cross was to pay the penalty for your sin, it is applied to your account when you place your faith in Him alone. You don't have to have a great intellectual bundle because you put that all there and then mix in the gospel and stir it up and you have nullified a gospel that has been made void, made powerless. This is a crucial verse on that, “so that the cross of Christ would not be made void,” not in the wisdom of speech. It's not I get clever and I can bring in this and that and the other thing and answer them. What do you want to do? Make the cross of Christ void? Doesn't say they don't mention the cross of Christ anymore. The Judaizers had their council that met in Acts 15 -- yes, that's all important but you must also be circumcised. Paul says no, you cancel the effectiveness of the gospel to bring salvation when you do that. So everyone who is truly saved can tell someone else. I can tell you what happened to me, I came to realize I was a sinner, Christ died for me. I placed my faith in Him alone, not my church, not what somebody else said. I placed my faith in Christ alone as the One who loved me and died for me and I was saved. If you are truly saved, you can tell someone else that. Now we are afraid sometimes of the response that we might get but we want to be careful we don't nullify the gospel because we are so clever. Oh, our church still believes the gospel, but then when you go to hear it, it's all mixed in.

Verse 18, just to summarize, we'll pick up with this. “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” That's the difference. We don't want to look like fools to the world so we want to dress up the gospel that will build your self-esteem and it will make you more pleased with yourself and it will do this and that. We're talking about the death of Christ because the penalty for sin is death and you need to be forgiven and made new in Christ. That's foolishness to the world. You can't get around it, we are foolish to the world. Christ died for your sins. Let's dress this up a little bit.

Years ago I was invited to the high school, a local high school on different occasions to present. And I would present, it was a family course or it was another death and dying course. I'd just start out, yes, here’s what… but here is the basic issue, here is why people die, here is the solution God has provided for death. That is His Son took our place to pay the penalty for our sin. I remember speaking at one of the universities in town. After I was done, walking back to the professor's office, he said, I knew what you were talking about, my parents believed that, I don't believe that anymore, but I knew what you were saying. Christ died for our . . . I understood that but I don't believe it. Well, I could tell you that I’ll pray for you that you will believe it. But at least he was clear. We think we did something. Well, I didn't get to really the gospel, but I was generally . . . Just get to the gospel. Then they'll think I'm a fool. Then you can say, thank You, Lord, for letting me be a fool for You.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for Your grace. Thank You for the grace that brought salvation to our hearts. Thank You for those who brought the gospel to us. Lord, we didn't maybe realize what a momentous event that was at the time, but we realize as we look back that it was then that You in grace opened our eyes to see, to believe that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture, that He was raised in victory over sin. We through faith in Him are viewed as having died with Him and now raised to new life. Pray for those who are here, Lord, those who come to this church maybe regularly and think coming to this church, listening to the sermon, that will be good to get them to glory. I pray that the Spirit will open their eyes, bring conviction so that they might see and believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior. And He's the One in whose name we pray, amen.