ResponsiveReiding

Margin notes: Repentance that makes a difference

August 29th, 2019

Psalm 51:10–12 (ESV) — 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

People often conceive of repentance merely in terms of someone taking responsibility for their sin or saying they are sorry for it, they regret it. And this is right and proper, but it is just the leading edge.

Here, David models the part of genuine repentance that is most often ignored. He does not simply make an empty pledge not to do it again, but he recognizes the pollution of his own heart – that his sin is an inward problem not located simply in wrong actions. Sin is a heart problem. An issue of loving what is not good or right to love. Something that requires far more than human resolutions – it takes the work of God to purify, to cleanse, to bring the very heart to a new and restored place. To have new and better desires themselves. An inward renovation which can only be wrought by the Spirit of God within.

And then he proceeds to a most vital idea: Give me the resolution of heart and mind that I do not find within myself. Give me YOUR strength. Your resolve. Your steadfastness. Your endurance. Fill me with Your Spirit. I am helpless left to myself.

And it is in this light that he prays he will not be rejected. The rejection he fears at this juncture is not a total repudiation by God – but that his prayer will not be heard. In other words, it is a prayer of desperation. He is desperate for God’s working in his heart. He knows apart from that, all is lost.

Never settle for merely asking for forgiveness for your sins. Pray desperately for the enduement of God’s Spirit to create in you as native a love of holiness as He Himself has.

As the hymn writer expressed it:

Breathe on me Breath of God,

Fill me with life anew,

That I may love, what Thou dost love,

And do what Thou wouldst do

Heavenly Father – DO hear that prayer today for me, and for my brothers and sisters in Christ.
Margin notes: No Jennifer, Jeffrey didn’t escape.

August 28th, 2019

Revelation 21:5–8 (ESV) — 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

I read it just this week in any number of places – this from the NewsMax website: Last month, Jennifer Araoz said he had raped her when she was a 15-year-old New York City high school student. On Saturday, she was angry that Epstein won’t have to face the survivors of his abuse in court. “We have to live with the scars of his actions for the rest of our lives, while he will never face the consequences of the crimes he committed,” or the “pain and trauma he caused so many people,” Araoz said in a statement. “Epstein is gone, but justice must still be served.”

Jeffrey Epstein was by all counts and convicted pedophile, serial abuser, and unrepentantly immoral on every level. And just as he was coming to trial, he died in jail. These are facts everyone familiar with the case know. But what the Believer knows, contrary to what many of Epstein’s victims repine – is that in his death he did anything but escape justice. Indeed, if they knew the terror that awaits all who refuse to repent and seek Christ for the forgiveness of sins and for the power to live holily before God, their sense of justice not being served by our judicial system would be wiped away.

It is never right to delight in the death and ultimate demise of the lost. Be it Jeffery Epstaien or any other unrepentant man or woman. But the Christian knows full well justice cannot be escaped by physical death. For the soul lives on. And each must stand before the judgment bar of God – either clothed in the filth of their sin, or in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And if any stand their apart from Christ, the Scripture is unequivocal: [They] “also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and…will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, d.and they have no rest, day or night.”

We take no delight in their lot. But we do delight that our God will bring to rights all things amiss, unaddressed and justice seemingly thwarted in this life. And it is why we with the Apostle Paul: knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. (2 Cor. 5:11)

Hence, the Believer rests in the justice and holiness, as well as in the grace and mercy of our God in Jesus Christ. He cannot (not just will not) He cannot, fail to be fully, perfectly and eternally – just. What a miracle then salvation really is. For if Christ had not died in our place – we would face that same, eternal justice.
Margin notes: Why am I downcast?

August 27th, 2019

Psalm 42:11 – Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

This short Psalm has been a refuge for many of God’s people throughout the centuries. Its opening expressions of thirst for God are deeply moving. David is in pain. And, he is counseling himself. I think it was D. Martin Lloyd-Jones who remarked that Christians need to talk to themselves more – to take their own thoughts in hand and counsel themselves from what they know of God’s Word and from their life experiences of Him. This is David’s tack.

Now his question in this last verse is one he asks both honestly, and rhetorically.

In the first part, he lists things that reasonably bring sorrow to his soul and would make him downcast. Written when he was fleeing from his own son’s attempt at a coup for the throne, that form of betrayal and violence would deeply distress anyone. Being on the run for his life, and not in the place where he can worship with his beloved people as was his practice. Taunted by his enemies. Chased like a common criminal while family and friends plot his demise. These are reasonable causes for great despair.

But then he also asks it rhetorically as he reminds himself of the greater reality overshadowing his present distresses – and sort of chides himself: Why – even though these other things are true – why should my soul be cast down and I be full of inner turmoil? For in the final analysis, I know this: I can hope in the God who has proven Himself to me all my life. I can trust in Him that the time WILL come that I will yet praise Him. For He is my salvation. He is my God. So why in the world should I let these other things – as dire as they may be – blot out the abiding knowledge of God’s power, goodness, grace and promises?

And perhaps you and I need to ask that very same thing today as well. Let us face our trials without trying to pretend they are not there. But also face them in the full knowledge that He, IS there. And He stands above all.

This is the heritage of those reconciled to Him in Christ Jesus.
Margin notes: Psalm 40 – a “DOING” God

August 26th, 2019

Ps 40:1–4 I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. 2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD. 4 Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!

As I read this today, I could not help but be reminded about how David notes all the things God did in these short verses. And then I recalled a quote from Rober Murray Mc’Cheyne on this same passage. His words are far more eloquent than mine:

R.M. McCheyne: The difficulty of conversion.—So difficult and superhuman is the work of turning a soul from sin and Satan unto God, that God only can do it; and, accordingly, in our text, every part of the process is attributed solely to him. “1He brought me up out of an horrible pit, 2he took me from the miry clay, 3he set my feet upon a rock, 4he established my goings, and 5he put a new song in my mouth.” God, and God alone, then, is the author of conversion. He who created man at first, alone can create him anew in Christ Jesus unto good works. And the reason of this we shall see clearly by going over the parts of the work here described. The first deliverance is imaged forth to us in the words: “He brought me up out of an horrible pit;” and the counterpart or corresponding blessing to that is, “He set my feet upon a rock.”

RAF: So if He can save us – what can’t or won’t He do for those He loves? O the wonder of being Christ’s!
Margin notes: David’s epitaph

August 23rd, 2019

Ps 30:1–3 (NET) I will praise you, O Lord, for you lifted me up, and did not allow my enemies to gloat over me. 30:2 O Lord my God, I cried out to you and you healed me. 30:3 O Lord, you pulled me up from Sheol; you rescued me from among those descending into the grave.

If this Psalm is as its title purports – then it is David speaking from the grave. He penned it before Solomon built the Temple. And now it is being used at the dedication of the Temple. He prepared it ahead of time that it might be used on that occasion. We might well read it as David’s dying testimony.

In 1-3 he recalls God’s great goodness and deliverance in times of need. And hasn’t He delivered me and you from the sins which raged so fiercely against us? Indeed they still rage – but He is faithful, and the blood of the cross of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

In 4-5 David calls other Believers to give thanks to God for His faithful love. Even when He is angry with us, His good favor always restores us. He never abandons us.

Vss. 6-10 find David recalling how he foolishly trusted in his own strength, in his own faith at times, and then realizing security rests only in his God. How God withdraws at times to remind us it is so, but always hears us when we cry out because of it.

And 11-12 speak of how God in His mercy, grace and faithfulness ultimately turns our darkest hours into dancing, and our grief into joy. And so David wants his final testimony to be thanks to the Lord. For when all is seen in the light of His glory – this is the wondrous end of the saint in the hands of his or her faithful God.

I wonder what I will leave behind to give praise to Christ when I am gone from this life? Maybe it too will be a Psalm of praise and adoration and a testimony to God’s glorious faithfulness to such a wicked sinner as I am. For surely it is true.
Margin notes: How to get back at your enemies – Biblically

August 21st, 2019

1 Peter 3:8–9 (ESV) — 8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

It is the 5 qualities of vs. 8 which allow you to enter into the ministry of vss. 9 and following.

The world lives on rights. The Christian, as a citizen of the Kingdom, lives more on privileges than rights. The idea here is, for the sake of manifesting Christ’s kingdom in this present age, do not worry so much about standing on your rights, but take up the privilege of living as an agent of Christ right now, in the presence of this dark and fallen world.

So the instructions are NOT: Just grit your teeth and bear it. Nor, just be the bigger person. It is rather – for the sake of manifesting the life of Christ right here and now, respond not only in a lack of retaliation or retort, but actually BLESS the other. Do that which is making evident the Spirit of Christ right in the very midst of evil – whether they perceive it as such or not. Because you were called to suffer like this, and to respond like this, that you may also obtain the blessing that comes from God alone.

To act this way not for the sake of manipulation, but solely because this is what your Heavenly Father has called us to. THIS, is living in stupendous privilege. And to do it with Worldly Governments. With Worldly employers. If in such a circumstance, with an Unbelieving Spouse. In the home with a Believing spouse. In the Church and everywhere else.

To respond in kind is NATURAL: We’ve all heard of the verbal sparring between Winston Churchill & Lady Astor –

“Winston, you are very drunk.

Churchill: And you are very ugly, but in the morning, I will sober!”

Lady Astor: “If you were my husband, I should poison your coffee!”

Churchill: “And if I were your husband, I would drink it!”

We grin and silently applaud Churchill’s rejoinders. But we are God’s children. An office higher than the Prime Minister of Great Britain.

To refrain from a negative response is NOBLE. But to actually seek to bless in response, is nothing less than supernatural.

Want to get back at an enemy Biblically? Bless them. And in it, you’ll be blessed.
Margin notes: Joy in Trials

August 20th, 2019

James 1:2–5 (ESV) — 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

A simple misreading here can make James’ point onerous and heavy rather than sweet and helpful. The text does NOT say, consider trials in and of themselves joyous things. It is not a plea to become masochists and take pleasure in pain. He says count it all joy “when” – or, on the occasion of. Many in misreading this have tried to do the impossible and make the trials themselves joyful, only to fail and then imagine themselves as having failed God in it. Soon they come to ignore, or even resent or hate such a passage.

But the idea is not to ignore the difficulty of any trial, but to see that upon entering trials, we have an opportunity before us which is joyous. And that opportunity is at least in part to use our weakness as a place to learn dependence, to experience the sustaining power of God, and to grow in the image of Christ as we look to His Spirit in it. That by His grace we can take advantage even of the most harrowing things.

So the call is not to somehow make pain itself pleasurable. It is to say that in Christ, everything can be redeemed for our good. And that each trial presents new opportunities for that.

Now how to do that in each case, takes a wisdom we do not natively have. But it is a wisdom God delights to give when we seek Him for it. Each trial may require some new insight, some new glimmer of wisdom peculiar to that particular trial. But if we are assured in our hearts that He loves us so and desires to meet us there, we will find the prayer for that wisdom answered in due course.

Believer – keep looking to your Savior. He not only redeems your soul, but all of your experiences, trials, temptations and woes. Nothing is beyond His reach. Especially you yourself. And He holds you, in the palm of His nail-scarred hand.
August 19th, 2019
1 Corinthians Introduction

Reid A Ferguson

1 Corinthians 1:1–17

Audio for this sermon can be found here

We’re embarking today on a study of a letter penned by the Apostle Paul to the Church which was located in the cosmopolitan city of Corinth in Greece.

It was a city of about 500K inhabitants. And in Paul’s day it was the 3rd largest city in the Roman Empire.

It was a wealthy city renown for 3 things above all: Banking, Trade and Immorality. Boasting 2 major east-west sea ports it truly was a major crossroads of the empire.

And it was both a challenging and a strategic place for Christianity to be planted and thrive.

One writer noted the culture or climate of Corinth this way –

‘The people of Corinth…[were] familiar with every device and invention of an over-stimulated civilization, essentially a worldly and material set of persons, seeking money and pleasure and success.’ W.M. Ramsey

I think we’d be hard pressed to find a place with more in common with the United States today in terms of its cultural trends and atmosphere.

Politics was HUGE. And politics was built almost entirely around personalities rather than principles.

Whether or not they liked someone was more important than what they actually stood for. As long as they could win the crowd by their communication skills and their bigger than life personae – they had power.

Mere fame or recognition gave you clout.

Much like we see today where famous people – often famous only for BEING famous, or notorious (the Kardashians come to mind) – end up giving Congressional testimony on any range of topics. And their Tweets and other social medial platforms give them a voice on virtually every given topic – where it is given weight as though they are somehow super-experts.

There was a social elite which – as long as you were in that club – your voice mattered. And the rest of society – not so much.

There was a near obsession with self-promotion. If you didn’t brag on yourself, something was wrong.

And everyone was clamoring for their “rights,” clogging the courts with lawsuits. People using the courts to oppress each other – supposedly to get “their rights.” The cult of personality was everything.

Such was the state of things in Corinth. A condition, again, so much like today. And as that atmosphere prevailed in society, so it bled over into the Church. Something we wrestle with even today in the Church.

Take just the issue of Church celebrities, it’s rife among us today. With the result that people who are not very Biblically literate let alone Biblically faithful, write books, make videos, have TV and Radio shows and garner huge followings. Speaking to spiritual matters and things of great theological and eternal importance, as though they are experts to be heeded apart from any true fidelity to the Scriptures.

Now don’t get me wrong, that’s not an indictment on large ministries simply because they are large. Or popular preachers and teachers simply because they are popular. Many a sound and faithful preacher has a large or popular ministry.

But it IS an indictment against the present-day tendency among Christians as consumers whereby we make celebrities out of some of these people, whether they are sound or not.

This makes this particular NT letter powerfully appropriate for our generation and our cultural setting.

Now this is titled 1 Corinthians in our Bibles, but in the letter itself, Paul alludes to a previous letter (5:9). Then there was this letter, then a “severe” letter mentioned in 2 Cor. 2:4, and then what we have as 2 Corinthians. 4 letters in all.

Let me give you a somewhat simple outline of the letter. We’ll be breaking it up in more detail as we go, but broadly:

SIMPLIFIED OUTLINE:
1. 1:1-3 Greeting
2. 1:4-9 Opening/Thanksgiving
3. 1:10-6:20 The Problem of Disunity in the Church and the problems it brings.
4. 7:1-11:1 Questions they had written to Paul about (Singleness, Marriage, Divorce & Remarriage; Eating food offered to idols; Rights; Idolatry)
5. 11:2-14:40 Practices in the Church (Head coverings; Lord’s Supper; Spiritual gifts)
6. 15:1-58 The Resurrection
7. VII. 16:1-4 Collection for the Saints
8. VIII. 16:5-24 Closing Comments (Travel plans; exhortation; Apollos; Paul’s situation; greetings from the other Churches)
But to simplify it even more – we might look at the letter’s major theme – for everything he says to the Church there is tied back to it:

THEME: Christian Unity

The theme or backbone of the letter jumps out at you when you read it.
1. What constitutes true unity in the Church.
2. What challenges true unity in the Church.
3. What corrects true unity in the Church.
Why is Christian unity so important? Because this is part of God’s overall plan for redeemed humanity: Ephesians 2:19–22 ESV / So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

This corporate concept runs through all of Paul’s letters and ministry – as well as all of Scripture.

While the Gospel is preached and heard and responded to individually, we are not redeemed to be a disassociated mob of saved individuals. We’re saved to be part of a unified whole as the Church – even as the Trinity is a unified whole – 3-persons in one God. We are many persons joined together to be one Body and reflection of Christ Jesus.

But where there is pride, competitiveness, self-promotion, and emphasis upon personalities, rights and personal spiritual gifts – this grand corporate reality can get tragically lost in the shuffle. As a result, the Church fails to become what she – what WE – are meant to be.

Christians have to survive, and hopefully thrive – in whatever culture or environment they find themselves.

So it is Christians in China right now find themselves somewhat on the run from Government persecution – often forced to meet in underground groups.

Christians in Muslim nations – depending on various strains of Islam must remain quite under the radar altogether – as must those in North Korea where mere possession of a Bible is a capital offence.

Christians in most South American nations right now are enjoying an unprecedented time of growth and public presence that we can only hope will increase to the furtherance of the Gospel everywhere.

Christians in France and other parts of Europe are tolerated, but considered intellectually inferior, relics of a distasteful past. Societal pests. And all lumped together with virtually every other religious group – no matter how faithful to Biblical truth or how deviant from it.

And then there is Christianity in the United States – which due to the size of our nation manifests itself very differently by regions, and has diversified itself – splintered into an almost uncountable number of self-identifying clusters – large and small.

And so as our text this morning begins – Paul hits the first of the 3 things he brings before their minds in these opening verses: 1 Corinthians 1:1–3 ESV / Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it is vs. 2 where he puts down his foundation so to speak:
1. The CALL of Christ: To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours 1 Co 1:2.
One of the dangers to which we are susceptible in coming to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ – is to see our salvation wholly in terms of our own personal justification or standing before God, without any concept that we were saved FOR something, not just to BE saved.

And here Paul teases that out in 3 phrases found here and in vs. 9 – the first being:

Called to be saints

The average, everyday Joe and Jane Christian is no less “called” than the apostle himself is to his apostleship.

He is no more called than all of them – us. And we, no less called than Paul. But called to what? To be SAINTS! Holy Ones, if we were to translate it more literally. For that is what the word for saints here implies.

Each and every one of us who hears and responds believingly to the Gospel of Jesus Christ have been called to this vocation – to this office and condition of – sainthood. Now that is something for us to consider.

Truly, we need to look at our lives and ask: Am I living in accord with this high, holy, divine call upon my life? Am I pursuing the sainthood to which I’ve been called?

Now sadly, various religious traditions have made sainthood something rather mystical, ethereal and reserved for some special kind of Christian. An elite squad above the rest of us rabble. But that’s not the Bible’s conception. Not at all.

As Paul tells us here – we come to the status of sainthood right from the get-go. That is the very meaning of the words “sanctified in Christ Jesus.”

Everyone who believes has been sanctified or set apart from the whole of fallen humanity as God’s own possession and for God’s own purposes. And that is what makes us “saints.” But I wonder how many of us take this calling seriously. How many of us imagine such a calling rests upon us, and what it implies for how we live, the decisions we make, the way we speak, conduct ourselves with others, and seek God in private as well as together?

To this gifted but troubled Church at Corinth, Paul snaps their heads around as it were and thrusts upon them the need to recover this high and wondrous calling that has been granted to us.

But note secondly what else is inherent in this call to be saints: They, and we are –

Called to be common

Look at the language again in vs. 2 – 1 Corinthians 1:2 ESV / To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

We are not called to be saints alone, but saints TOGETHER with ALL those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord.

This is will become more important we move on through the letter as it seems many in the Corinthian Church began to think themselves the arbiters of Christian truth and so a little better, more spiritual and knowledgeable than other churches. In fact, they apparently had an inner ring of folk within the Church itself who saw themselves as spiritually superior to others in the same Church.

So once again, from the get-go Paul is going to challenge any notions of elitism or spiritual superiority by reminding them that their call, is the same call as everyone else in Christ. And that our sainthood is to be pursued together – not separating ourselves from those we need, and those who need us – which is all of the Body of Christ.

Called with all the rest so that striving to be “special” – or to think of oneself as special, ceases to be a motivation.

So we are called to be saints, and called together with everyone else who believes – not as lone rangers, and: 1 Corinthians 1:9 ESV / God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Called to the fellowship of Christ

Note that Paul’s idea here isn’t just called to have fellowship with Christ – that is true. But the ESV brings out a nuance here when it says we are called into THE fellowship of His Son.

The idea here is that there are no spiritual elites among us, because our call to be in Christ, means we all share in the very same life of Christ. No one more, and no one less. If we are genuine Believers, we have equal claim on being His and all the gifts and benefits which are His – through whomever and however they are bestowed upon the Church. This again will be vitally important when the whole issue of spiritual gifts gets covered in later chapters. But from the outset, Paul establishes for them and for us this starting point:

The Call of Christ

Called to be saints

Called to be common

Called to the fellowship of His Son – to our shared participation in Him.

2. The Centrality of Christ

You can’t help but notice how often “Christ Jesus” or Christ or the Lord Jesus Christ is referred to in this short opening passage: No less than 9 times in the first 9 verses.

1 Corinthians 1:1–9 ESV / Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,

To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless 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.

As the 4th Century Church Father John Chrysostom noted: “[Do you see] the constant repetition of the Name of Christ? From whence it is plain even to the most unobservant, that not by chance nor unwittingly he doe[s] this, but in order that by incessant application of that glorious Name he may [treat] their inflammation, and purge out the corruption of the disease.”

Any time Christ Himself ceases to be central, either in the individual Believer’s life, or in the life of a Church – the very focus and foundation of salvation and the Church is lost.

His Person. His Work. His Purposes. His Plans. His Provisions. His Glory. And this, rather than my plans, my purposes, my gifts, my ministry – or the Church’s plans, gifts, or ministry. Christ Jesus and His person and work must always remain at the heart and forefront of all we are about.

How can we best make Him and His glory known? And that, in all that we say and do?

To throw a spotlight upon Jesus is the very focus of the Holy Spirit Himself – and must therefore be the chief thing He produces in us.

Which brings us to the last of Paul’s opening points:

3. The Curse of Competition

Paul commends them in 4-7 1 Corinthians 1:4–7 ESV / I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

They were enriched in all speech and all knowledge. They were masters of the social media of their day – since such masters of communication were so highly prized in their culture. And they were knowledgeable.

But as is so often the case, it is our strong points which can also become our most vulnerable points. And it was so with the Corinthian Church. Speaking and knowledge were 2 things the Christians in Corinth seemed to value along with their culture built around celebrity and self-promotion. And soon, they came to OVER value both.

So that the guy or gal who knew the most…And the guy or gal who could talk the best was superior to others – Developed a following.

In this atmosphere – Giftedness trumps godliness. Popularity trumps piety. Reputation trumps righteousness. Fame trumps faithfulness. Self-promotion trumps servanthood.

The question wasn’t – how does God think He can use me best? And let me then just place myself at His disposal – But rather, how can I get the Church to recognize and use me the way I think best? The spirit of competition always takes Christ Jesus out of His central place in our lives, and puts the spotlight upon us: My Gifts. My Ministry. My Concerns. My Life.

Sky has related a story to me many times about a guy who had ministerial aspirations who was asked to help set up for a meeting but replied: “I’m a mover of men, not of chairs.”

Highest on the totem pole in Corinth were the theological eggheads with what my grandfather used to call “the gift of the blarney.” The capacity to talk whether they made any sense or not.

Now some of us here may not think we’ve imbibed any this from our culture, but I’ve got to tell you, it isn’t all that hard to detect once we’re alerted to it.

Competition makes itself known in a number of ways:

Celebrating our uniqueness compared to others. Secretly or publicly.

Comforting ourselves about our sins in comparison to others. – At least I’m not as bad as…

Condemning ourselves in comparison to others.

Justifying ourselves in comparison to others.

Turning every conversation into a discussion of my opinions, my concerns, my successes, my insights or even my failures – as long as I factor in there somewhere.

Looking down on others or a preoccupation with their sins, faults or weaknesses above my own.

So, we are confronted with a passage of Scripture and immediately say: “How does that apply to so-and-so?” Rather than – what does this call me to?

But grace militates against all comparison.

So Paul begins to tackle this head on – even as he will throughout the rest of the letter. And he strikes at the first way it was manifesting itself among them – even as it had come to him by way of a report from those of “Chloe’s people”. Probably slaves or business associates of hers who had traveled from Cenchrea – one of Corinth’s ports where Chloe lived and worshiped, to Ephesus where Paul was.

1 Corinthians 1:10–12 ESV / I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”

Volumes have been written on unpacking the real depths of what was going on here but the basic problem is evident: Pandemic among them “each one of you” – was that groups were vying for status and superiority above others – by appealing to particular ministries – perhaps those under which they were converted.

Now there is nothing wrong with having an affinity for this minister or that in the body of Christ. Paul will refer to that form of affection himself. The problem comes when one imagines that they have some sort of spiritual advantage or standing over against others because of identification with some particular personage.

In this case, Paul who first evangelized Corinth; or Apollos who was such a celebrated orator and fit the celebrity mold better.

Or Peter who as the apostle to the Jews could be held up as the champion of a more Judaistic form of Christianity – you know, being “real” Christians by recovering their Jewish roots.

Or even “I follow Jesus” as though to marginalize the Apostles, Prophets Pastors and Teachers Jesus Himself set in the Church. “I don’t need anyone to teach me – I have Jesus!” A perversion of Jesus’ own structuring of the Church.

But Paul objects to any form of this spiritual one-upmanship on any basis.

1 Corinthians 1:13–16 ESV / Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)

Is Christ divided so that some you have a lot of Him and others just a little bit? No! It doesn’t matter if I (or anyone else) baptized you – it matters whose name you were baptized unto: Christ.

It doesn’t matter if the Gospel was presented with great flourish and convincing arguments – it matters what the Gospel was: The message of Christ crucified.

And it doesn’t matter who it was that preached that Gospel to you – someone of note, or a backwards no-name: It is the Gospel itself that has the power to save. The status of the one who preached can add nothing to it, nor subtract anything from it.

And even today we can see it in the Church can’t we? I follow MacArthur. I follow Washer. I follow Piper. I follow Tim Keller or Francis Chan or Don Carson or Jeff Durbin or whomever!

And it can spill over into I’m a Baptist, I’m an Independent, I’m Reformed, Wesleyan, Presbyterian, Charismatic, Pentecostal, Calvinistic, Fundamentalist, etc., etc., ad infinitum ad nauseum.

No one has ever said I follow Ferguson – except maybe Sinclair Ferguson – but you get the drift.

This form of identification with individuals, styles, etc., had created a terrible and sinful division within the Church.

And so Paul closes this opening portion by spinning everything back around: 1 Corinthians 1:17 ESV / For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

I wasn’t sent to baptize folks so that they would identify with me. And I didn’t come with a slick way of preaching to try and fit the celebrity mold. I came to do one thing: Preach the cross of Jesus Christ. That He died for our sins, taking the just wrath of God upon Himself so that all who put their trust in His atoning work and follow Him, might have everlasting life. I came to unite you to Christ and Christ alone. Anything else, empties the cross of its power, and makes it into something else altogether.

The Gospel isn’t about wealth. It isn’t about status. It isn’t about getting a ministry or getting to exercise my gifts. It isn’t about a better marriage, nicer kids, success in business, a better job or even well-being. The Gospel is about reconciling lost sinners to the Living God. No matter who preaches it, how well or how accepted they are by any society, group or culture. Lost men and women, standing under the curse of God because of our sin and our desire to serve ourselves above God, need to be convicted of our sin and rebellion, and shown the substitutionary death of Jesus on Calvary as God’s provision for that sin to be obtained by faith alone. And then set on the course of pursuing their call to sainthood, along with everyone else who calls upon the name of the Lord all of whom have just as equal a share in Christ as every other Believer – in a Church where there are no spiritual elites: Only sinners saved by grace.

There is no sin when Believers find certain commonalities with other Believers and decide to gather around certain doctrinal distinctives or emphases. There is plenty of room for that in the Body of Christ.

But there is no room for ever allowing those distinctives to make us feel in any way superior to any other genuine Believer in any way – even if we have the best preachers, and are privy to greater or deeper knowledge.

For all of our spiritual standing is before God, and that by grace alone because of Christ alone. Differing roles? Yes. Differing abilities? Yes. Differing gifts? Yes. Differing spheres of ministry? Yes. Differing emphases? Yes. Spiritually superiority? NO! Not in any way ever.

All saved by the same grace, with the same call to be saints, by the same Gospel, indwelt by the same Spirit, to serve Christ and one another in the same Church of Jesus Christ.

The CALL of Christ

The CENTRALITY of Christ

The CURSE of COMPETITION

In the words of Jesus to each of the 7 Churches He addressed in the Revelation: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.”
Margin notes: Living blessed.

August 19th, 2019

Psalm 32:1–3 (ESV) — 1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

Contrary to all the models the World would foist on us, here is what true blessedness – true happiness consists in:

a. Knowing our sins are forgiven.

b. Knowing that God deals with us as though they are not the stains they really are – as though He does not see them.

c. Knowing we have been acquitted, pronounced righteous in the court of Heaven.

d. Knowing this is all grace – not personally deserved. That we are the recipients of the marvelous grace of God poured out in a measure commensurate with the righteousness which is accounted ours – Christ’s own.

This, is happiness. For it unites us to Him who is happiness itself – forever.

The one who knows complete forgiveness for their transgressions, covering for their nakedness, against whom the Lord counts no iniquity – is NOT the one who has deceived themselves about the reality, depth and desperate condition of their sinful souls – but who have brought all of its profane ugliness and shame to the Cross of Christ.

Hide it yourself, and you remain in some nebulous pit of self-justification. Bring them all to Him, and they are pardoned and forgiven. Judicially dismissed, and personally set aside so that there is no barrier between you and your God anymore.

Now THIS, is grace! Hallelujah! This, is blessedness.
Margin notes: The deceitfulness of sin

August 16th, 2019

Hebrews 3:12–13 (ESV) — 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

It is the Author’s observation, that sin is so deceitful, and hardens the heart against the sweet motions of the Spirit so quickly, that we need daily exhortations to guard against it.

One does not need to put butter in a blast chiller to get it to harden, they need only remove it from any heat source – just leave it alone.

This is how the souls of men are. There is an inertia to our remaining sinfulness. Even nature teaches us that a “body at rest tends to stay at rest”. If it is not moved – it will not move. Simply left to themselves, not brought near to the flame, our hearts congeal and harden without any further influence. Time in the Word, time in prayer, exposing ourselves to spiritual matters from reliable sources which bring us before the throne of grace again to warm our hearts is a constant need, not some mere, perfunctory religious duty.

Beloved, find some time today, some place, to bring your heart near the flame of Christ’s loving grace and mercy so as to melt you afresh. It takes only the shortest amount of time for the hardness to begin settling in – for sin to deceive us that something else is more important, more necessary.