Today we come in the book of 1 Corinthians and
our study there to chapter 1 verse 4 through
9. Subject today is apostolic prayers and Paul's
prayer for the Corinthian church. Apostolic prayers
and Paul's prayer for the Corinthian church.
We'll read today beginning in verse 4 down to
verse 9. Hear the word of the Lord. I thank my
God always concerning you for the grace of God
which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that
you were enriched in everything by him in all
utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony
of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come
short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm
you to the end. that you may be blameless in
the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful,
by whom you were called into the fellowship of
his Son, Jesus Christ. Our Father, we bow before
you today. Lord, this wonderful prayer, as the
other prayers found in Scripture, they speak
to us, Lord, and we thank you. for the teaching,
for the love, for the sound doctrine, and for
the exhortation that they are to us. Lord, we
pray that today you would open up our hearts
and our minds, that we might see, that we might
hear, that we might believe, and that we might
trust in you. For you are faithful, and we thank
you that your love endures. Please, Lord, open
this book, open this word to us today. We pray
in Jesus' name. Amen. Psalm 92 verse 1 begins
a song for the Sabbath day. It is good to give
thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to your
name, O Most High. Indeed, it is good and right
and seemly to give thanks to our God. In many
places throughout the Holy Scriptures, we are
commanded to be a thankful and grateful people.
Ezra chapter 3 verse 11 gives us an example.
When the children of Israel were gathered together,
it says, And they sang responsively, praising
and giving thanks to the Lord, for He is good,
for His mercy endures forever toward Israel.
Then all the people shouted with a great shout
when they praised the Lord, because the foundation
of the house of the Lord was laid. Gratefulness
is the opposite of murmuring. and complaining
or being grouchy and hard to get along with.
And we're always just kind of upset with things
or carry a chip on our shoulder. Gratefulness
to God is something that we are called to do,
to give praise to the Lord. Paul begins his prayer
with, I thank my God. Now in this prayer of thanksgiving,
The apostle gives us an example of a spirit -filled
prayer for his people. Paul gives thanks to God
for a gifted church who has the testimony of
Jesus Christ. And yet they also have a lot of
problems. and needs and he writes down this prayer
to be given not only to them but to the whole
world and to all generations hereafter we are
reading today this prayer in god's word and thus
we can enter into that prayer and we can understand
the heart of paul and the heart of god in this
prayer Overseers and shepherds should pray prayers
of thanksgiving for the congregations that God
has entrusted to them. And sometimes it is good
for those prayers to be written down for the
generations to come. Now we have already considered
the greatness of God and the work that he did
in the city of Corinth as we looked at it last
Sunday. What an incredible testimony of the church
that Jesus raised up in this big city, this cosmopolitan
place, with a renowned temple dedicated to idols.
It had idol worship that included sexual immorality
as part of their worship. And the glorious thing
is that in the midst of this false and idolatrous
worship, God was raising up his people to be
salt and light. He was raising up a people to
worship God, the Father, through Jesus Christ,
by the Holy Spirit, a church of Jesus Christ.
And there are great things that are being done
in this church. There are gifts that have been
distributed to the people by God himself. And
these are wonderful gifts. One of the interesting
notes about this book. is that Paul does not
get into much deep doctrine in the book. Now,
there were a few questioning the resurrection,
and so Paul really thoroughly develops the doctrine,
the wonderful doctrine of the resurrection in
chapter 15. But most of the book is dealing with
problems that they had, were having. Most of
these problems... were not deep -rooted problems
of major doctrinal import, but were rather weaknesses,
sins of the flesh, areas where worldly thinking
and worldviews were affecting the people of God,
some of them living in the culture that they
did, and then some coming from members of this
body who had not put off the old man and his
deeds. In other words, they were in need of further
sanctification. We see this in chapter 3 at the
beginning of the chapter, verse 1 to 3. Paul
says, And I, brethren, could not speak to you
as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as
to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not
with solid food, for until now you were not able
to receive it. But even now you are still not
able for you. But this prayer is accompanied
then also by other prayers in the Bible, particularly
by the Apostle Paul for the people to whom he
is writing. In all of the other letters to churches,
except for Galatians, Paul begins with a prayer
of thanksgiving. for them. And this is no exception.
These prayers are not only addressed to God,
but they are also ways of bringing truth and
encouragement to God's people. In other words,
the prayer is edifying. It is to God, but it
is also edifying to them. This prayer does four
things in this letter besides addressing the
thanksgiving to God. Four things. First, it is
didactic. That is, it is a teacher. It is a teaching.
It reminds the people of the teaching that they
have received and that the source of that teaching
is God. The source of everything that they are
experiencing of God's grace is God himself. Secondly,
this prayer is an exhortation. It's a type of
writing that gives guidance and encouragement
and admonition to good behavior. It is pastoral.
We see here that in this prayer, he is showing
love and care for the church, even as he gives
thanks to God. And finally, this prayer also
lays the foundation for the counsel that is forthcoming
by introducing the themes of the letter. In it
all, Paul is thankful for them. He is thankful
for what God has done and what God is doing and
what God will do in them and for them. This prayer
is very God -centered. In it, Paul thanks God
for the very things that they are not using rightly.
Think of that. He is thanking God for the gifts
that he gave to them, the gifts that they're
not doing right. The particular things that are
causing them problems, their focus on utterances
and on knowledge and the spiritual and the miraculous
gifts that God gave them. Well, let's take this
prayer apart a little bit and see what we can
learn from it for ourselves. First of all, as
he says, I thank my God concerning you. I thank
my God for you, concerning you or for you. This
teaches us that even though a church has problems,
even of a very significant nature as were the
problems that we will see, yet a minister of
God, even an apostle of God as Paul was, can
be very thankful for the congregation to whom
he is writing or to whom he is ministering. This
teaches against the doctrine that everything
must be perfectly and completely pure in order
to bless the people and consider them worthy
of praise. There is no 100 % pure church. And
where there is impurity, we should seek to labor
to expose that impurity and to bring it to light
and to pray earnestly for them. But we can still
be thankful for all of the wonderful works of
God that are there. There can be commendation
and praise for the good that is there in spite
of the problems. Now we who are overseers, do
we give God thanks for the people he brings to
us? We who are parents, do we thank God for the
children he has given us? Or for the wife he
has given us? Or for the husband he has given
us? Even though they are imperfect people, of
course they are. For we all are. And yet we can
give thanks to God for the blessings of the congregation,
or of the people, or of our children, or our
husbands, our wives, our brothers and our sisters
in Christ. or even our natural siblings. We can
so easily find fault, nitpick, criticize, downplay,
disregard, and be discontent with the people
that God puts in our lives. Oh, we can do this
so easily. But it is rather that God has placed
them there, and Paul exhorts us in this prayer
by example. He says, I thank God for you. Think
of Paul. as he later speaks to them. But I'm
going to give this summary in my own paraphrase.
Now just think of this, and this is kind of an
overview of the book put together. You rowdy,
worldly -minded saints who are immature, you're
carnal, and you're babes in Christ when you should
be mature. You still even have envy and strife
and factions among you, and you can't get along
with each other. Your Lord's Supper observances
are a mess. Some of you get drunk, others go
hungry, and you don't wait for one another. The
women are disorderly and are out of place, acting
in a shameful manner. And when you get together
for worship, it sounds like a babble or a rabble,
a confused garbling of some speaking in tongues,
others trying to give a word of knowledge, and
all speaking at the same time. Y 'all are taking
each other to civil courts of the unbelievers
with lawsuits against one another. And through
your liberty, you are making weaker Christians
stumble. Even worse, some of you are still involved
in immorality and partaking in a type of idol
worship. And still worse, one of you is having
sex with his father's wife and he's boasting
about it. Even the Gentiles don't do it. And
you are puffed up and arrogant about it rather
than dealing with this sin. Talk about a royal,
carnal, confused mess. And to these people, at
the beginning of this letter, Paul says, I give
God thanks always for you. I am undone by this.
Really. This just breaks my own heart to just
think how often. We rise up in pride. Things
shouldn't be this way. No, they shouldn't be
this way. But they're our people. And we need
to love them. Because God has his hand on them.
And God is dealing with them. Now, of course,
this does not stop Paul from going on and ministering
to this people who are in this state. But how
he begins. This just, this crushes me. It just
really, it challenges me. Secondly, he goes on
and he says, I thank my God for the grace of
God, which was given you by Christ Jesus. So
he gives thanks for them as a church, but he
also gives thanks to God for the grace that they
have. God is the source of this grace, of all
of these things. The grace, the enrichment, the
gifts, the confirmation to the end, and the faithfulness
in this. He points ahead to chapter 4, verse
7, which says, For who makes you differ from
one another? And what do you have that you did
not receive? Now, if you did receive it, why
do you boast as if you had not received it? All
are gifts. are from god and in this he shows
them he teaches them in this prayer that the
source of all of their gifts is god himself and
this should humble them and bring them to abasement
and humility they were in fact endowed by god
with wonderful things and though they were boasting
wrongly about it it was nevertheless a gift from
god but this reminds us that we are tempted to
do the same things, are we not? We have great,
great gifts. We have much abundance. We have
incredible tools and resources by which we can
serve God and make His name known in the world
and glorify Him. We have abilities beyond measure
with opportunities galore. And yet, how often
the words of our mouths give us away. I, me,
my, our abilities, my gifts and resources. Oh
God, strip us of our boastfulness and our pride
because these are God's gifts to us. The word
grace here. can certainly refer to the gift of
salvation. That is the glorious gift of salvation
that God gave to them in rescuing them from paganism
and from idolatry and save them from their sins.
For they nor we are worthy. of any of these gifts.
We are not worthy. We all deserve the wrath of
God. And yet in Christ, both they and we are
called to be saints and are sanctified in Christ
Jesus. So the word grace here could refer to
that unmerited favor of God. But the grace that
is bestowed upon them also has another meaning.
And that is, it can refer to the graces or to
the grace gifts. That God gives to them. And
there's some discussion among commentators. As
to which of these Paul is referring to. But it
seems from the context of this verse. That Paul
when he speaks of grace. Is referring to the
grace gifts. God had abundantly poured out upon
the Corinthian church. Grace gifts. So much so
that Paul says. They come behind in nothing.
They have. gifts amazing and wonderful gifts
and God has given them to God has given them
God has given these great gifts to these grace
gifts to them an abundance of them now the word
for this the word gifts is the word charisma
from which we get our word charismatic So these
grace gifts that were given to them include two
kinds of gifts. There were miraculous gifts with
extraordinary powers, and there were gifts of
ministry or gifts of service to others. Miraculous
gifts are listed in chapter 12, verses 8 through
10 of this book. It's Paul deals with them about
some of these things. Some of the examples of
these miraculous gifts were gifts of healings,
working of miracles, prophecies, which I believe
there he's referring to foretelling the future,
or also of God's word being revealed to them.
Remember, the scripture was not finished yet.
Also discerning of spirits, different kinds of
tongues, and interpretation of tongues. These
were all miraculous gifts that God had given
to them. Grace gifts of ministry and service
are then also listed in Romans chapter 12. Having
then gifts differing according to the grace that
is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy,
let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Probably
referring there to preaching. Or ministry, let
us use it in our ministry. He who teaches in
teaching. He who exhorts in exhortation. He who
gives with liberality. He who leads with diligence.
He who shows mercy with cheerfulness. These are
gifts of ministry, of service to others. And
God gives us all gifts in one way or another
to bless other people. God has gifted every one
of you with some type of gifts of ministry to
others. And some of this I can observe even in
the church or afterward in the fellowship meal.
I can observe some of these gifts at work because
God has blessed us. He has endowed us with these
grace gifts. God pours out upon his church these
wonderful gifts. And while we believe that some
of these gifts, the miraculous ones, are no longer
given by God in the same way after the scripture
canon was closed, and we'll get into that later
in this book, the fact is that they were in existence
at this time in the church, and they were wonderful
gifts from God. The canon of the scripture was
not yet closed. So God was speaking through the
apostles and through the prophets, and he was
speaking to the church through miraculous gifts.
speech. God was attesting to the validity of
Jesus and to the truth through these various
miracles. Our study of 1 Corinthians will include
looking at all of these. The gifts of ministry
and service though are those that God continues
to pour out upon his people today and we are
to cultivate these gifts to ask God for them
and to promote their use within the congregation.
Now in receiving the gifts that God gave to them,
Paul says they did not come short. That is, in
my paraphrase, they didn't come short in the
gift department. They were enriched by Christ,
he says, in everything by him, in utterance and
in knowledge. These people had great knowledge.
They were able to speak great and lofty things.
They had the miraculous gift of utterance and
of tongues that were among them. So much so that
Paul says you come short in no gift in verse
6. Now these gifts were not an end in themselves,
but the congregation even promoted and exalted
the Lord Jesus Christ through those gifts. Paul
continues in verse 6. He says, even as the testimony
of Christ was confirmed in you. So they're using
these gifts. Now, there was some improper use.
We know that. But they were using these gifts
and the testimony of Jesus was confirmed among
them. It was clear and plain in this congregation
through the use of these gifts. It was a wonderful
thing to see. But of course, as is so often the
case in the lives of his people, Satan also sees
that and he begins to attack the congregation.
And we will see, we will look at the first of
these attacks, which many times happens from
within the congregation. We'll see that next
Sunday. As we consider the divisions between
Christian believers in the congregation that
happened. Satan loves to attack from within.
There are also attacks from without. Many times
there can be a quick united response to the attacks
from without. But when the attacks come from
within, it's a lot more difficult. Paul told
the Ephesian elders. when he met with them, when
what he thought was going to be the last time,
when they met on the seaside and they knelt down
and prayed together on the shore, he told them,
some of you are going to be led astray by these
false teachers of doctrine. Now these grace gifts
must not puff up. They must not fill us with
knowledge in order to be proud or boastful. With
knowledge must come wisdom. It must come a good
and practical application to the knowledge that
comes. We know that one of the things, and we'll
see this in chapter 13, is that knowledge can
puff up. It can make us proud. And that was one
of the problems that the Corinthian church had.
They were proud of their gifts. And they were
puffed up from the knowledge. But the knowledge
wasn't wrong. It's just that they weren't humble
in it. This grace will teach them how to say
no to immorality, to idolatry, and to pride,
and yes to purity of life and worship. They needed
to be taught this, reminding them that everything
they have comes from God, as is so evident in
this whole passage. Number three, they were eagerly
awaiting the coming of the Lord. eagerly waiting
for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is in the latter part of verse 7. They were
looking forward to when Jesus would return and
call his people to himself. Now one of the great
truths of the Christian faith is that all Christians
believe is that Jesus Christ will return again.
That he will be revealed. This is confessed in
all of the creeds. And it's something that we
have in common even with the various understandings
of prophecy and of the end times. Premillennials,
amillennials, and postmillennials, we are all
in agreement that Jesus will return again in
bodily form and he will raise up the dead. He
will raise both the unbelievers unto destruction
and he will raise the dead believers and he will
lift up the believers who are alive at that time.
We take great comfort in this wonderful doctrine
and we confess it right alongside our brethren
in the faith. Even though we disagree on the
timing and the state of the world when this happens,
we have this in common. And the Corinthians were
very good on this. They were eagerly looking
for the revelation of Christ. Eagerly, you know,
with zeal, with great anticipation. The manifestation
and the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is not the Greek word parousia, which refers
to our going to him. It is referring to Christ
being revealed. The revelation, the manifestation
of Christ when he comes to gather his saints
home. Paul frequently speaks of this in his introductions
about this time. He writes that we eagerly wait
for it with perseverance in Romans 8, verse 25.
And in Galatians 5, 5, we through the Spirit,
we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith, considering that the sufferings of
this present time. are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us
for the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly
waits for the revealing of the sons of God. Romans
8 verse 18 and 19. And the Corinthians come short
in no gift eagerly waiting for the revelation
of the Lord Jesus. And so even though they were
enamored with the gifts, they were proud, they
had these other things, yet they eagerly waited
for the revelation of Christ. Number four, we
now look at the faithfulness of God and the preservation.
Of the saints. He says here. You become behind
in no gift. Eagerly waiting for the revelation.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who will also confirm
you to the end. That you may be blameless. In
the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful.
By whom you were called. Into the fellowship.
Of his son. Jesus Christ. our Lord. At the end
of this prayer of thanksgiving to God for the
Corinthian church, the apostle concludes with
these two great assertions. Number one, our Lord
Jesus Christ will confirm you to the end that
you may be blameless in that day of Christ. He
will confirm you to the end. And then secondly,
God is faithful. He is the one. who called you
into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ
our Lord. So here's what is astounding. To the
Corinthian church, yes. to this church in Corinth
with all of its problems. He says, Paul says,
the apostle with apostolic authority says, Jesus
will confirm you. He will confirm you to the
end so that you will be blameless before him.
What an incredible statement. How can this be?
Well, it's because Jesus will confirm you. He
will make you firm. He will make sure that this
will happen, that you will be blameless in that
day. This is because God has called and summoned
them and God is faithful. God can do it. Jesus
will do it. And God is faithful. Sampa and Rosner
say of this, to be blameless on that day and
to wait for it calmly and joyfully is a wonderful
thing. It forms a fitting climax to this Thanksgiving.
Paul is at pains to stress. to the Corinthians
that their pardon will be due to God's grace
alone. He will confirm you. There will be no
room for Corinthian boasting on that day except
in God. End quote. Now this is the doctrine of
the preservation of the saints. The preservation
of the saints. This is a wonderful truth. God
will bring his people through. Jesus said to
the father about the apostles in John 17, verse
12, as he was praying, he said, while I was with
them in the world, I kept them in your name.
those whom you gave me I have kept and none of
them is lost except the son of perdition that
the scripture might be fulfilled the son of perdition
is Judas he's the one who betrayed Jesus and
that betrayal led to our salvation on the cross
Jesus developed this further not only of the
apostles but to all the ones of whom Paul told
the Thessalonians that God has from the beginning
chosen you for salvation through sanctification
by the Spirit and belief in the truth. Jesus
said in this great promise in John chapter 6,
verse 37 to 39, He says, All that the Father
has given will come to me. All that the Father
gives me. Will come to me. And the one who comes
to me. I will by no means cast out. For I have
come down from heaven. Not to do my own will.
But the will of him who sent me. This is the
will of the father who sent me. That of all he
has given me. Jesus says. I should lose nothing.
But should raise it up at the last day. Jesus
will hold us fast. He keeps us to the end. It
is he, Jude says in verse 24, is able to keep
you from stumbling and from falling and to present
you faultless before the presence of his glory
with exceeding joy. It is he who will maintain
us and strengthen us. Paul told the Philippians
in chapter 1 verse 6, being confident of this
very thing, that he who has begun a good work
in you. will complete it until the day of Jesus
Christ. With the teaching of the preservation
of the saints, we are also taught the perseverance
of the saints in the scriptures. Because of this
great truth, therefore, brethren, Peter says
in 2 Peter 1, verse 10, therefore, brethren,
be even more diligent. to make your call and
election sure. For if you do these things, you
will never stumble. For so an entrance will be
supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting
kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
While God preserves us, as is so clearly stated
in our text, the scriptures teach that true believers
will actively persevere in faith, in holiness,
and in good works, not to earn or maintain salvation,
but as the inevitable fruit of God's preserving
grace. God preserves us and we persevere because
of that preservation. True faith endures trials.
It repents of sin and it grows in godliness,
though imperfectly, yes, and with very real struggles
as seen in biblical examples like David and Peter.
And so these truths... which are really two sides
of a coin. They're really brought together. These
truths avoid legalism, which is salvation by
our works, and antinomianism, which is license
to sin because of security. It brings everything
together. Preservation and perseverance together.
This stops us from thinking that we will be saved
by our works or that we can sin. Because we have
grace. Therefore, the doctrine of the preservation
and perseverance of the saints is not a once
saved, always saved in a cheap grace sense that
says, I trusted in Christ, so now it doesn't
matter how I live. No, the scripture is diametrically
opposed to that kind of teaching. True conversion
changes and transforms the person. producing
a life that increasingly hates sin and pursues
godliness. Nor does it depend on human willpower
alone. Our confidence rests in God's unbreakable
promises and not in our personal performance.
God is faithful. He demonstrates that faithfulness
to the Corinthians by promising that they will
be blameless in the day of Christ. And he is
the one who called them. He is the one who has
called us who believe and who trust in him. Therefore,
we also can rely on his faithfulness to us. We
can trust in him. We can hang on to him even
when troubles mount and difficulties come and
when our faith wavers. We run to him. We cast
our cares upon him. He will maintain us. He will
keep us. Hebrews 10 verse 23. Let us hold fast
the confession of our hope without wavering.
Why? For he who promised is faithful. And again
in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 13. No temptation
has overtaken you. Except such as is common to
man. But God is faithful. Who will not allow
you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But
with the temptation will also make the way of
escape. That you are able to bear it. Number
five. This call. The call that is given here
in verse 9 to the Corinthians is to the fellowship
of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful
by whom you were called into the fellowship of
His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. In chapter 6
of Corinthians, Paul reminds them, Do you not
know that the unrighteous will not inherit the
kingdom of God? Do not, do you not, I apologize,
I jumped ahead of myself. This fellowship is
union with Christ. We are called into the fellowship
of God's Son. It is union with Christ. It is
communion. It is partnership. It is participation
with Him. So that we glory in Him and not in
ourselves. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus,
who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption. That as it
is written, He who glories, let him glory in
the Lord. This we find later in chapter 1, verse
30. When we stand before God, the dread judge
of all, on that great judgment day, and all our
works are manifest before him, those who are
in Christ will be declared righteous, redeemed
by the Father, and sanctified by the Spirit.
And we will not be proud, boasting in our great
deeds, our prowess, our perfection, or in any
way of ourselves, but rather, Boasting of him
who loved us and washed us from our sins in his
own blood. And has made us kings and priests
to his God and to his father. And to him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Revelation
chapter 1 verse 5 and 6. Now we'll see a little
bit later in the book of Corinthians. Paul does
write about how that every man's work will be
revealed. And any works that are wood, hay and
stubble will be burned up. Yeah, they will be
burned up. But the gold, the silver will remain.
So our works are manifest. The bad ones, the
ones that are filled, that are empty, that are
straw, they're burned up. But yet God retains
us and Jesus retains us by his spirit. We are
his. We'll get into that deeper when we get to
chapter three. Now in chapter six of Corinthians,
Paul reminds them, Do you not know that the unrighteous
will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be
deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom
of God. And then he says this. And such were
some of you. Such were some of you. But you were
washed. But you were sanctified, but you were
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by
the Spirit of our God. They were brought into
the fellowship of Christ. This fellowship simply
means that He loves us. And we love Him. We are
one with Him. We are united together with Christ.
Dear believer, as you have trusted in Christ
and He has washed you clean, you are united together
with Christ. He is your God. You are his people.
God is faithful who has called us and has chosen
us to be in Christ. In the letter, in a letter
in which Paul declared, verse 2, says, For I
determined not to know anything among you except
Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul then references
Jesus over and over again. Paul referenced Jesus.
Ten times in these nine verses. He loves Christ.
And he knows the Corinthians love Christ. And
that Jesus loves them. He speaks of the forgiveness
of sins. Being blameless in the day of Christ.
And then goes to their union and fellowship with
Christ in the present. Forgiveness of sins in
the past. Union and fellowship with Christ now.
And they have this. They have this. Let's give
a few applications here as we bring this to a
close. First of all, how can we read this and
not understand that God is long -suffering and
patient? God is long -suffering and patient.
Not only was he with the church in Corinth, but
he is also with us and with. our fellow believers.
Sometimes we do really stupid stuff. Sometimes
we fall into sin and God needs to smack us hard
because of it. And yet we are in Christ and God
is long -suffering and patient with us. So brothers
and sisters, let us not be too quick to judge
one another harshly, but to be patient and long
-suffering as well. And in all of our dealings,
Let love for God and our fellow man characterize
our relationships, even with those with whom
we have disagreements. Let us receive those who
are in Christ and be long -suffering and patient
with them. Second, watch out for those who speak
of many things, of many ills perhaps in society
or problems. Men who make a business of pontificating
and opining, always stirring something up, exposing
some issue or problem, fighting against others
who don't believe rightly. But watch out for
them. Do they have a fervent love of Jesus and
a love of the saints, the communion of believers?
If Paul could say these things to the Corinthian
church, how much more we, as we look around us
and we see our brothers and sisters, who sometimes
are in egregious error or in problems. And I'm
not saying that we just wash all that away. No,
we understand that. And sometimes it takes exhortation.
But we also ought to be long -suffering. And
the biggest thing is, we must be characterized
by our love of Jesus and our love of the brethren.
So even when we bring things to light, let it
be out of a heart filled with love and a fellowship
with God and His people. Let that be characteristic
of us. Not that we're always shooting from the
hip at other people. Trying to bring other people
down. Or continually lifting ourselves up in
a prideful way. I will say, this can very easily
happen with podcasting. And I'm not against listening
to podcasts. I do it myself. I'm just saying,
it can easily happen. You're not there face to
face, working together. And it's so often to
just... Use a scatter shot. It happens a lot.
So I would just say there, watch out for those
who do not show and demonstrate a fervent love
for Jesus and a union and communion with him
and a love for God's people, some of whom have
great shortcomings. If we have fellowship with
him, then we also love the brethren, those who
are united with Christ in this glorious fellowship
that we have been called to. Number three. We
also have been given many gifts. We have been
given great gifts. We have been given great tools
to use. We have the ability to publish things
or to promote things or to reach people in ways
that the apostles and the early church and for
many centuries thereafter could only dream of.
We have all of these gifts. We have great gifts
among us in our abilities, sharp minds, Good
voices. Ways of coming alongside and of loving
and caring one another. Of being hospitable.
Of being able to speak the word of God. Or even
just loving our children and raising them. God
has given us so many wonderful gifts. Let us
use them for his glory. Do not be ashamed of
them. Use the gifts that God has given to you.
But do not hide them. Do not be ashamed of them.
But give God the glory for them. Give God the
glory. And do not be proud. Lift up ourselves.
Let us use our gifts well for his sake. In the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this
wonderful prayer. For this exhortation that Paul
gives in this prayer of thanking you, oh God.
For these people. And Lord we look at them. And
we realize. All of the challenges they face.
And we look at. The church in America. Those
who profess your name Lord. And we see so many
similar things. Oh God I pray. Purify your church.
Use the word of God to cleanse us. And to purify
us. But Lord above all. Give us a fervent love
for you. And a love for your people. and a love
for the truth. Lord, I pray that you would convict
us when we sin, that you would draw us to you,
and that you would use this word, Lord, for your
honor and for your glory. We ask this in Jesus'
name. And now we open it up for public prayer.