Epistles of Paul 39

Well, good evening, brethren. All in 1 Corinthians, in the first few chapters, there's been a dressing number of issues, but the underlying commonality is that Christ is not divided. So it is, in a sense, a major theme in this epistle. We, as God's people, are part of the body of Christ, and we cannot pull in different directions. We gotta try our best to be united and aim for unity. That is a key goal that we all need to have. So, addressing that danger of division that was visible in the Corinthian Church, he then started addressing a number of specifics that were causing division in the body of Christ.

And basically, once again, his point is it should not be so, because Christ is not divided.

He started with specifics such as sexual purity, marriage in a faith, and eating of meat offered to idols. Defending, therefore, that Christ is not divided, Paul gave a number of personal instructions which were good principles to address and to have to address these divisive issues or divisive points. These personal instructions that he gave were clearly inspired understandings and conclusions that were given to him by God through God's Holy Spirit. And they were not just pure exegesis from Old Testament scriptures, and in the last study, I showed you some examples of that. But the Bible the basis for these personal instructions were the principles of outgoing concern, in other words, love for the brethren, not wanting, therefore, to create stumbling blocks to other brethren in the church or to other people. And to authenticate his inspired instructions he made it clear that he was an apostle of Jesus Christ, and even though he had certain rights as an apostle, he was not using some of those rights or privileges so that he would not offend anybody in the process. And so in the last study, we stopped at the beginning of chapter 10.

Once again, note that the theme of this epistle is that Christ is not divided, as we see in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 13. In verse 13, we read, is Christ divided? And so he goes on through different questions, because that is, in a sense, like his specific purpose question to the epistle.

And so to add more value to this picture that Christ is not divided, he now starts explaining very briefly, very subtly at the beginning, that we are part of Christ's spiritual body. In words, we are in Christ's spiritual body. So let's see how he brings that in, albeit subtly, but I will show you that it is a point that Paul brings up or raises up a number of times. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, in verse 1 and 2, he says, Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

The subtle hint is this baptized into Moses.

And I will go a little bit more into that in a moment. And he says, And all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

So he's very clearly saying that the rock that was with them was Christ. There's no questions about that. But how does that tie in with as being baptized or being put into that body, which is Christ's spiritual body, in this, let's call it analogy, that all were baptized into Moses in the cloud.

Use that analogy as we see that we were baptized into Moses and that we are following the same rock, Christ. In other words, we are baptized into Christ. We are part of Christ's body.

And therefore, if we are all part of the one body, how can the body be divided? How can be different parts of the body be pushing or pulling in different directions? So again, I mentioned that this is a subtle connection here. So I'm going to prove that it's more than a subtle connection, because let's first jump a little bit ahead to 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, he's talking about spiritual gifts, but then in verse 12, he says, for us the body is one and has many members. All the members of that one body being many are one body. So also is Christ. So he's clearly saying that we are members of that one body, which is Christ. In other words, Christ's spiritual body. That's where we are.

Right. For by one Spirit, verse 13, we were all baptized into one body. We were put into, baptized means immersed, we were put into that one body.

And therefore, we are now in that spiritual body, which is the Church of God. Let's continue reading. We're the Jews or Greeks, we're the slaves of free, and have all been made to drink into that one Spirit. And then look at verse 18. But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he has pleased. So God has put us as individual members, whether we are an arm or a leg or a knee or a foot or an elbow or the liver or another part of the body or even a cell or a finger or whatever it is, God has put us into that spiritual body of Christ as it pleases him. So we're all in that spiritual body, ultimately, when we will be resurrected as Spirit beings as part of this family of God. We will therefore, each one have our own responsibilities for which we are being trained. Look at verse 25 also, and he says that there should be no schism in the body, no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. So we get back to the point of love, of unity, of care for one another, so that there is no division. Look at verse 27.

Now you are the body of Christ and the members individually. We have been baptized into one body, as we read in verse 13, baptized into one body, and we are the body of Christ as we read in verse 27. So we've been baptized into Christ's spiritual body. It is important this little word into. Now let us, we're going to spend a little bit of time on this point today about baptism, because it is a point that maybe many of us have not really understood it. And what do we mean? We haven't understood about baptism. Well, we have understood a lot of things about baptism, but we're gonna look at a little bit more detail. So it's like you look at a chair, and you've looked at the chair, and now suddenly you see some little contours and little designs on the chair that you'd never noticed before. So in a sense, that's what I want to show you today. A little bit more contour or detail that is important. Now, we all know that the meaning of baptism is explained very clearly in Romans 6. So let's go back to Romans chapter 6, and starting from verse 1, and it's talking about baptism. And then in verse 4, it explains, therefore we were buried with Him, with Christ, through baptism, into death. And we always, clearly and correctly, understand and understood that the old man must be buried. That's why we make sure the baptism, that no little toe or knee is sticking out, and we make sure the whole body is symbolically representing the death of the old man.

But yeah, we have that we buried with Him. How can we bury it with Christ? Because, spiritually speaking, we're being put into that spiritual body of Christ, and just like Christ's body died, we also, because we're not part of that body, we also, in symbolic symbolism, we also die. That old man dies because we are in that spiritual body. And then likewise, just as Christ, still reading in verse four, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory, by the power of the Father, and that clearly shows Christ was dead, 100% dead, and He was 100% human, and therefore He died. He was dead. He came in the flesh, because those that say that He did not come in the flesh are the Antichrist, one John 4 verse 2. So anyway, so He did die. He was dead. He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so likewise, symbolically, in the same symbolism, because we're now part of this spiritual body of Christ, we should now also walk in newness of life. So we should be following the life of a new man, of a new person. And so we will go through that. You went through that, baptism. We all know that. But look at verse 3.

Or do you not know that as many of us were baptized into Christ Jesus, we're baptized into His death and also into, symbolically into His death, and symbolically into a future resurrection that we'll have. But now, all the man dies and a new man must come. But note that it says baptized into Christ Jesus. We baptized into that spiritual body. And we know the body of Christ is the Church of God, which there is a spiritual organism.

Right, so we were baptized into Christ.

Now look at Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3 verse 27.

Again, a well-known scripture that it says, and it says, for as many of you were baptized into Christ, we were baptized into Christ. We baptized into that spiritual body of Christ.

Right? Have put on Christ. We need to put on Christ, because we're part of that body, and so we need to, spiritually speaking, put on that new man to be like Christ is.

All right, look at Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 22 and 23. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 22 and 23.

And he put all things under his feet. You know, was he God the Father? Put all things under his Jesus Christ's feet, and gave him Jesus Christ to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body. So the Church is the body. Right? And so we baptized into the body of Christ, and so we, the Church, are part of the body of Christ, spiritually speaking, and Christ is the head of the spiritual body.

All right, look at Colossians chapter 1 verse 18. Colossians chapter 1 verse 18.

And he is the head of the body, the Church. And so we are part of the spiritual body, which is Christ. We are baptized into this body. We're baptized into this body, which is the Church, which is the body of Christ. You recall, I'm sure you recall, when you're baptized in the Church of God, words such as, I am not baptizing you into any human sect or organization. I think you clearly remember that. We were not immersed into or put into any sect or human organization. We were put into the body of Christ, the spiritual body of Christ, which we then ultimately become the family of God. And we also know in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 15, Ephesians chapter 3 verse 15 talks about 14 and 15 about the Father, for whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. So that's why the Church, the body of Christ, is named after the name of the Father, which is God. In the New Testament refers to the Father as God, and the New Testament refers to Jesus Christ as Lord. That does not mean that Christ is not God, because we're reading John 1 verse 1 that He's God, but the New Testament refers to the Father as God, and the whole family is named after Him. And that's why the body of Christ, the Church, is named after Him, His family name, which is God. That's why it's called the Church of God.

Right. Now look at John 17 verse 11. That is Christ's lost prayer. Not His lost prayer, but His lost prayer that is recorded, all the words that He recorded, all the full prayer, just before He was betrayed in John 17 verse 11 and 12. So John 17 verse 11 and 12. He says that now I'm no longer in the world. So in you, He's going to die soon, so He's no longer be involved in this world, but these are in the world, these disciples. And I come to you. I'm going to you, Father. I'm going back to you, Holy Father. Keep through your name those whom you have given Me that they may be one as we are one. So Christ is praying that we may be kept in the Father's name, the name of God. So we in that family name, while I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name and those whom you gave Me, I have kept and none of them is lost except the son of perdition. That scripture might be fulfilled. So you can see, as we summarize what I said so far, is that we are baptized into Christ. As we baptize into Christ, we're baptized into His spiritual body, and that body is the church, and that church is kept in the Father's name. Therefore the church of God. But we are the spiritual body of Christ.

Now, I haven't come yet to the point that I wanted to emphasize. So this is just preamble to set up to understand that yes, indeed, we are in the church of God, which is a spiritual body of Christ, and we are put into the spiritual body of Christ at baptism, because we're baptized into that body. Who gives us authority to do that? Christ gives us authority to do that. Looking at Acts 2, verse 38. Acts 2, verse 38. This is the well-known verse Yahweh. When Peter spoke to them, and they realized they killed the Lord and Christ, the Messiah and Yahweh, they had actually killed that eternal one. I'm not saying that those words are there in the Greek, but for them, that's for people of a Jewish background, that's what it meant to them. When suddenly they believed they had actually killed the Messiah and the very God-being that gave them life after that sermon by Peter, they said, what are we going to do? And then Peter said to them, verse 38, repent and let everyone be baptized, be immersed in the name of Jesus Christ.

Now, Yah is in the name of Jesus Christ. In this specific sentence, it's not saying baptized into Christ. It's saying that baptism into Christ is done by Christ's authority. So we are baptized into Christ by Christ's authority. In the name of Jesus Christ, it means by His authority for the remission of sins, and then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So we gotta have the authority of Christ to do this.

The analogy that I give you that helps us to understand, imagine that you go to a dealership to buy a car. For instance, it's a second-hand car or a first-hand car. You go to this dealership, and usually, the dealership, you have a salesman, a representative of that dealership, and quite often, you will be in some sort of a uniform, yes or no, representing that dealership.

But you know, he is an agent. He is an authorized dealer. He is an authorized salesman by that organization to sell you that car. Now, for instance, you're around that dealership, and there's somebody in the middle of the street, and he says, well, you want that car? Well, I will sell it to you for half or a tenth of the price, and here's the document, and I'm doing it by the authority of that dealership, but he's fake because he's not an authorized agent or representative of that dealership.

He does not have the authority to represent that dealership. And so you could go and go there and drive out the car, and maybe he had the keys or something like that. He made a copy, and he drives out, next thing, somebody's going to come off to you and says, hey, you're stealing this car because he lied to you. That salesman, fake salesman, false salesman, that false person sold you something that he did not have the authority to do that. And therefore, yeah, is a point which is important that we need to be baptized by the authority of Jesus Christ, by those that Christ has duly authorized to do so, and therefore in the name of Jesus Christ is not just words.

Well, I'm baptizing you now in Jesus Christ, and therefore it means you baptize in Jesus Christ's name. No, it means that you have to do it not just by anybody, but by somebody that is duly authorized by Christ to do so, to be in by Jesus Christ's authority. But you baptized into what? You baptized into what? Into what body? You see, that's a different question. One is who has the authority to do it to baptize you, to immerse you, and you immerse you into what?

Into the spiritual body of Christ, which is kept by the name God, right? Now, let's look at Matthew 28. Look at Matthew 28. In Matthew 28, we see Yah in verse 18, and it says, And Jesus came and spoke to them, to the disciples, and it says, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. I have the authority. I am the true agent representing the Father. I am the way, the door, the really authorized agent, representative, the word, the one that is the image that represents the Father. I have the authority, and that authority has been given to me. So, by my authority, by the authority of Jesus Christ, he says, verse 4, Go therefore, and baptize.

Make disciples and baptize. And so, we have two things. The first statement in verse 18 is, by the authority of Jesus Christ, he himself, by his authority. And so, when you baptize somebody, you're doing it in Christ's authority. In other words, in his name, because, yeah, we see in verse 18, he's saying, I have the authority.

I'm giving you the mission, the job, to go and do it. But then he says, baptizing them into the name, into that name that the spiritual body is kept. Now, in your Bible, it says, in, but the actual Greek word is into.

Now, I'm going to show you an interlinear, because the actual Greek word is is, which means into, but I'm going to show you an interlinear that you might not be aware of, which is, which is, how should I say, public domain. You can download it for free. And in this interlinear, which is the, an interlinear, structure analyzer 3, I-S-A-3, you can Google that and you can download it for free.

And in this interlinear, which does that for the Old Testament, for the New Testament, and this one, interlinear, uses this, what they call the what they call the G-N-T, which is a Greek New Testament interlinear. And you can see in verse 19-18, basically says, and this is the CLV, which stands for the Concordant Literal Version.

And it says, and approaching Jesus speaks to them, saying, given to me was all authority in heaven and on earth, going then, going, then, disciple all nations, baptized them into the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. And it says, it says, into the name, into the name, the Holy Spirit. So we baptized into that name. Right now, we'll go a little bit more and talk a little bit more about that, because this scripture is one that people sometimes get confused. But I want to show you a little bit more about what this this CLV is. And let me just look for that, if I can find it.

Let me look at that. Right, there is Concordant Literal Version. Okay, and right up. But it, I had, yeah.

Oh yeah, I've got, let me just stop the sharing of the screen and show you another screen, yeah, very briefly.

Which is the screen that shows the Concordant Literal Version, which says that it's the name for this Concordant, or English Interlinear, which is an exact representation in English of the Greek New Testament text. And then it talks about its, and it says there is an attitude in its vivid reflection of the Greek and aims to be as nearly Greek as can be understood by an English reader, with a very few exceptions.

But it is because of that. It clears uniform in its renderings, that is, whenever a given Greek word occurs, the same English word is beneath it at all times. So it is an interesting study aid that you may want to use to look at comparing words. And the point that I'm saying is that in this Matthew 28 verse 19 is saying that in verse 18 it says it's in Christ's authority. It's Christ's authority that's doing it. And in verse 19 is saying, baptizing or immersing it into what? Into that name of that family, which is God, which the name of the Father is God. The name of Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the name of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit of God. So it is into that family name. That's what we baptize, into that family name, into that body of Christ, which is kept together by that name. So this verse, Matthew 28 verse 19, is very correct and very true, does not contradict that we baptize by Christ's authority, but we baptize into the spiritual body of Christ, which is kept by the name God, as we saw Christ explain that. Now, some people object because the word Father and Son and Holy Spirit are used in the same verse, and therefore they say, haha, this verse is Trinity, and therefore it's wrong. But this verse is in every manuscript of the Bible, so it was never added or modified. So it was there long before the Catholic Church brought in the doctrine of the Trinity. So that is not true. It's not Trinitarian. Now, we need to understand clearly that the three, and I'm not talking about three beings, I'm talking about the three, the Father, the Son, and God, Spirit, have a vital role in our process of salvation. It's the Father that calls us, it's the Son that is given His life and His blood, and He's our High Priest and He is our King of Kings, and He, therefore, has an important role in our salvation, and God's Holy Spirit has an important role because by God's Holy Spirit we become the children of God, and God's Holy Spirit helps us through the process of sanctification, of renewing our minds so that we change from the old man to the new man. So the three, the Father, the Son, and their power help us to grow and to become ultimately the children of God. Now, there are many times in the Bible that the three are mentioned together. For instance, let's look at Titus chapter 3 verse 4 through 6. Titus chapter 3 verse 4 to 6. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior towards man appeared, who is the kindness and love of God our Father our Savior, the kindness and love of God towards us, who is that that appeared? That's Christ! So when Christ appeared as a man, when he became a man, when he became flesh, when he emptied himself and became a man, and therefore he appeared, that was an act of kindness and love from God the Father sending his only beloved Son. Right. And he appeared, verse 5, not because you and I were such a nice people, not by our works of righteousness, which we have done.

No, Christ didn't come because you and I are such nice people, no. But Christ came according to his mercy, according to God's mercy, Christ came and he saved us. He saved us from this world of corruption and he brought us to this new world of developing and growing and into the body of Christ so that we can be changed, that our minds can be changed.

How? How did he do that? Through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. In other words, that change happens when God's Holy Spirit begets us. That's the washing of regeneration. Beget us as a child of God, as a Son of God, and then the Holy Spirit renews our mind in a way through the process of sanctification and we become more and more like God. Our thinking becomes more God-like. And so we see the Father and Christ and the Holy Spirit being mentioned at the same time. And that Holy Spirit is poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. So that Holy Spirit is poured out on us through Christ because the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and is Jesus Christ that pours the Spirit on us. And so the physical minister baptizes you in the water by Christ's authority to put into that body symbolically, the spiritual body of Christ. But what really puts you into the spiritual body of Christ is, after that, the laying on of hands by a duly authorized minister or agent or representative, true representative of Jesus Christ, duly authorized by Jesus Christ, that he then, he asks in the prayer, by the laying on of hands and the prayer, asks for the Father to honor the promise of the Father, which is to give us his Holy Spirit. And the Father will honor that if the person has indeed in his heart believed and repented. And therefore, through Christ, that person is now receives that washing of regeneration is begotten. And he has the Holy Spirit, which is that divine seed that is going to help him to grow in God's Spirit, to grow through God's Spirit, to as a new man. Right, so we can see the three are mentioned together. Look at 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 4 through 6. And he says they are diversity of spirits, but the same spirit. So we talk about God's Holy Spirit. They are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. So we're talking about Christ. So there's spirit, there's Christ. And then he says any other verities of activities, but the same God. So yeah, we have the three together, but it's not talking about a trinity. You see, so the three together are mentioned many times in the Bible. It's not talking about three people. It's talking about three important responsibilities of the Father, of Jesus Christ, and the power of God, the Holy Spirit, in helping us to actually be ultimately be changed and renewed so that we can be a new man, ultimately at the end. So we can see the three mentioned together. Look at 2 Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 13. 2 Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 13. Yeah, we see.

Should actually be verse 14. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion.

You know, it was the fellowship, the unifying agent. What unifies us? That glue, that power that makes us one of the Holy Spirit be with you. So we see the three again being mentioned together in one verse. Yeah, in the specific case, in one verse. In Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 4 through 6, Ephesians chapter 4, verse 4 through 6, it's talking there is one body and one Spirit. So we talk about one Spirit, just as you were called into one hope and calling. One Lord, talking about Christ, one faith, one baptism, and one God, and Father of all. So we can see the three being mentioned together again. The Spirit, Christ, and God. Look at also 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 13 and 14. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 13 and 14. But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, before the Lord, because God, from the beginning, chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our Gospel for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may have the glory of Christ. So we can see that there's the work here of sanctification by the Spirit, and God has called us, and so that we ultimately may become like Christ. So which is in the image of God is our standard that we gotta look up to. Look at 1st Peter, chapter 1, verse 2. 1st Peter, chapter 1, verse 2. 1st Peter, chapter 1, verse 2. 2. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, so there's God, in the sanctification of the Spirit, there's the Spirit, obviously for obedience, and the speaking of the blood of Jesus Christ. So you can see the three again mentioned together.

So the three being mentioned together is not a statement of Trinity. You see, so once again, you and I are baptized by Christ's authority into the name of God, which is the name that we are kept into that family name, into that name, which is the name that we are kept together, but we are baptized into the body of Christ, which is the Church of God, which is kept by that name, God. The wording at the baptism, if you may recall, is pretty specific, and I'm going to give you the wording now that surely must have been given to you when you were baptized. And the wording is, first you asked, what is your full name? You asked if you believe in Jesus Christ, and then the minister says, since you, and then gives you a name, have repented of your sins, which are contrary to and against God's holy, righteous, and perfect law. And since you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, your Lord and Master, your high priest, and soon coming King, I now baptize you not into any sect or denomination of this world, but into the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And I do this in, by, and through the name and authority of Jesus Christ for the remission of all your sins. Amen. That is the complete sentence with which we baptize, and basically says, why you are being baptized, or why you're being immersed, and says that you're not immersed into this XYZ church, or that XYZ church, but you're baptized into the name which is God, which is the name of the Father, which is God, the name of the Son, which is God, and the name of God's Holy Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit, which is the power of God. We baptize into that name. In other words, we're baptized into that spiritual body of Christ, which is kept in the Father's name, because we read in John 17, that's what Christ prayed, that we all would be kept in the Father's name, so that we could be one. So, after that long detour, I want to now continue with 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 4. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 4, and he says, and they all drank. So, those, they were baptized into Moses, into Moses, but Moses was...Christ was around there. Christ was around there, and they, through Moses, became part of that body, or human physical body. And he says there, for they all drank of the same spiritual drink, and they drank of them same spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. So, Christ was there. Now, one interesting point that you may want to look at, just for interest, is that the word them that followed them, the word them, is not in the Greek. And so, of that, they drank of that spiritual rock that followed, and that rock was Christ. So, the Adam clock...

No, it's Boulinger. Boulinger says, there is no word for them. The meaning is, the miracle of the water from the rock followed that of man from heaven. So, that's one possible interpretation. But whichever way, the point is that point to Christ, and that is what we gather from here. So, that is also a very important point for us to understand. So, then we read in verse 5 and 6, but most of them, but with most of them, God was not well pleased. God was not well pleased.

And then it says, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. In other words, they had not really changed. They had not really repented. They had not really believed. Now, these things became our example. So, this is our example to the intent that we should not last after evil things as they all lasted. And so, it gives various examples, lasting idolatry, sexual immorality, tempting or testing Christ, or complaining, which is where we will continue next week.