The Great Rhetorical Question of 1st Corinthians

The title of the sermon is, The Great Rhetorical Question of 1 Corinthians. The Great Rhetorical Question of 1 Corinthians. That's the title. Are you ready to face the perilous times in which we are living? The last Barna report, and Barna and Pugh are among the top researchers in the nation, the latest Barna report states that only 4% of young Americans hold a biblical worldview. 4%. Before the COVID pandemic, the percentage was much higher. What is a biblical worldview? A biblical worldview is that God is the creator of all things, and He is actively working out a great plan of redemption for humankind. The Church has been spared much of the trauma that has rocked and shocked the world during recent times. Nominal Christians around the world are facing tremendous persecutions and are being blown to bits. Some are having their heads chopped off. ISIS has done that. In China, a lot of the Christians there are being killed.

Yet we seem to have escaped it all, but when God's service began to cry aloud and spare not, we will become the principal targets of Satan's terrorism and wrath. Satan, the demons, and his human agents will be trying to blow up the Church of God. Of course, they're already trying to blow up the Church of God. So where are we today? Some are asleep, and perhaps they don't even know it. The ten virgins of Matthew 25 are ostensibly doing the same thing, but five are wise and five are foolish. Do the foolish virgins know that they are foolish? There's something to think about. Do they really know that they are foolish?

In Matthew 25, we see that the wise and the foolish are ostensibly doing the same thing, and when the bridegroom knocks on the door, they all rise up to meet him. Five are prepared and five are not.

In Hebrews chapter 3, verse 13, the Apostle Paul exhorts us to exhort one another lest we be overcome with the deceitfulness of sin. Exhorts us to exhort one another lest we be overcome with the deceitfulness of sin. As you've heard me say from many, many years, decades, that from Genesis to Revelation, we are our brother's keeper. The foolish virgins wake up too late, so ask yourself, have I been so inured? That means hardened by the deceitfulness of sin that I can't see the forest for the trees. We're living among other things in this age, an age of distraction. There's a distraction at every ... it seems like every second of the day and an hour and a minute, almost. A distraction comes along that tends to throw us off course. Christ prophesied in Matthew 24.12, because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. And I believe that one of the main reasons why the love of many shall wax cold is because everybody will be participating in lawlessness, and they will get the idea that it's all right to follow the crowd, and peer pressure will be great. More and more, we hear on the news about people losing their jobs because they stood up for a certain principle that was right and just and good. School teachers, about every profession and vocation that you can name, people are being fired because of standing for that which is right. The Apostle Paul wrote an epistle that contains the essential keys to unity and strength that will sustain members of the household of faith in the future. This epistle is the Passover Unleavened Bread epistle of the Bible. What epistle would you say that it is? Well, that epistle is 1 Corinthians. Paul's epistle to the Romans basically focuses on how a person is to be justified before God. In his epistle to the Corinthians, the first epistle especially focuses on how to remain in a justified position before God. First Corinthians must be mastered if we're going to remain faithful members of the body of Christ. Once again, I say 1 Corinthians must be mastered if we're going to remain faithful members of the body of Christ. As we have already noted, the 10 virgins in Matthew 25 are ostensibly all doing the same thing. Apparently, all thought they were ready. They all rose up to meet the bridegroom. The Corinthians had knowledge and spiritual gifts, but they were puffed up. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 4.

One of the main things that the Corinthians were puffed up about had to do with spiritual gifts, especially that of speaking in tongues.

In 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 4, I think, my God, always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. The grace of God means His divine favor. God has showered you, you Corinthians, with great divine favor. He has called you out of this world. You are in a culture that is steeped in paganism where that great temple is located, the great temple in which they practice the evil rites of the pagan deities. That in everything you are enriched by Him in all utterance and in all knowledge. So they had utterance, that is, especially that of the ability to speak in another language, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.

Continuing now in verse 7, So that you come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall confirm you until the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, you may be blameless then, but you will have washed your robes and they are in the blood of the Lamb, that they are white, and you are ready for the return of Christ in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. So it is God who has called you, and not you yourselves, as we shall see. So one thing they were puffed up about is spiritual gifts and speaking in different languages. Now let's go to chapter 4. We'll be going back into, especially through the first 15 chapters or 16 chapters, and hardly turn into any other books. We'll do two or three other books. Now in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7. For who makes you to differ from another? And what have you that you did not receive? Now if you did receive it, why do you glory as if you had not received it? In other words, it was a gift to you. You didn't work it out. You didn't have anything really much to do with it. It was a gift to you. Now you are full. Now you are rich. You have reign as kings with us. You have reign with kings without us. And I would to God you did reign that we also might reign with you. Of course, that time had not yet come to reign in the kingdom of God. For I think that God has set forth us, the apostles, last as if they were appointed to death, for we are made as spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. See, the Corinthians had come to the point that they thought that they were more righteous and wiser than the apostle Paul, which was an incredible thing to contemplate. Now look at verse 18. 4-18.

Now you are puffed up as though I would not come to you. So they were puffed up. Oh, he's never going to visit us. He's forgotten us. He doesn't care anything about us. But I will come to you shortly if the Lord will and will know not the speech of them which are puffed up with power. Then in chapter 5 verse 4, chapter 5 or 4, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you're gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, you deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. See, they were puffed up, even having an incestuous fornicator among them and not doing anything about it. So many of them viewed themselves as more righteous than the apostle Paul. And one of the earmarks of the of Aleya to see in is that he views himself more righteous than others. And you remember the example of the Pharisee and the publican who went up in the temple to pray, and the publican beat on his chest and said, oh Lord, I thank you that I'm not like other men. I've asked twice and we can give tithes of all my arms, and I'm just so righteous. But he never confessed his sins. And then the publican smote upon his breast and said, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. And then it says, which one do you think went down to his house, justified? Obviously it was the publican.

So they boast that they are in need of nothing. What about us? Do we boast that we're in need of nothing? Do we know it all? Have we yet come to that point? Or are we digging in the scriptures daily to really find what is behind every thought that's in the Bible as much as we possibly can? In 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 13, we'll turn back there. Paul asks the great rhetorical question. Remember the title is, the great rhetorical question of 1 Corinthians. So we turn back to 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 13, and we see this great question. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I remember in the early days when I came to Big Sandy back in the late 60s and early 70s, people would boast that I was baptized by Herbert Armstrong right here in this lake at Big Sandy. And so as if that were something to boast about, it's really nothing to boast about. Paul then threw out the epistle. He asked this great rhetorical question. Then throughout this epistle, he makes it very clear from your calling to the resurrection, Christ is not divided. We're not addressing organizational division. We are addressing spiritual standing before God and Christ. Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Are you standing with a white robe ready for the return of Jesus Christ? The Corinthians were a people divided by the outward signs of righteousness, divided by the outward signs of righteousness. And once again, one of the main ones being speaking in different languages.

From the Garden of Eden to the present day, Satan and his agents have striven to divide and conquer God's people. So let's note the areas in which the Corinthians were puffed up and divided. Is Christ divided? The great rhetorical question. So in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 14, we continue after Paul asks the great rhetorical question, I thank God that I baptize none of you, I didn't baptize a single one.

But Crispus and Gaius, they were the ones that did the baptizing, lest any should boast that I had baptized in my own name.

And I baptized also the household of Stephanus, besides I know not whether I baptize any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, but the cross of Christ should be made of non-effect, so that the cross of Christ should not be made of non-effect. For preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are being saved it is the power of God. So the Corinthians were divided on who was the greatest minister. In chapter 3, they were divided once again about who was the greatest, and especially there was this division along the lines of Apollos and Paul. Paul was not an eloquent speaker. Paul had a quite weak appearance. Apparently he wore thick lens glasses, but Apollos was a mighty speaker and very polished in that way. But Paul had baptized Apollos.

Apollos had been baptized at the preaching of John the Baptist, and then when Apollos came across Paul in his preaching, Paul asked him if he had received the Holy Spirit, and they had not even heard of the Holy Spirit. So Paul then laid hands on Apollos and he received the Holy Spirit. But over the course of time, the Corinthians became divided over who was the greatest minister. So in 1 Corinthians 3, and I brethren could not speak unto you, this is verse 1, and I brethren could not speak unto you as the spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat. For hitherto you are not able to bear it, neither are you yet able, for you are yet carnal. For where is there's among you in being, in strife and divisions, are you not carnal, and walk as men? For one says, I am of Paul, and another says, I am of Apollos, and are you not carnal? If you read all Apollos epistles, you'll find that Paul in a sense reached out to Apollos at one point for him to come, and they would be joined together, but Apollos declined to accept Paul's invitation. That's a different story. Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos? But ministers by whom he believed, even as the Lord gave unto every man. I have planted Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters, but God that gives the increase. Now he that plants and he that waters are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. So they were divided on who was the greatest minister. In chapter 4 verse 17, which we've already mentioned, they were divided on whether or not Paul would come to see them, visit them. So 1 Corinthians 4, 17, For this cause have I sent unto you Timothy, who is my beloved Son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church. Now some are puffed up, though I would not come to you, but I will come to you shortly if the Lord will. And of course, they didn't want to hear what Paul had to say if he came in anger.

Now they were divided over immorality. In chapter 5, they had among them an incestuous fornicator, that a person was committing fornication with his father's wife. It is 1 Corinthians 5, when it is reported commonly that there's fornication among you and such fornication, as is not as much as named among the Gentiles. Of course, the incest is a great problem in the nation, and it's more and more becoming a problem because more and more the liberal left is pushing pedophilia and the exploitation of children in every sexual sense of the word. It is really disgusting. It is awful.

But of course, it is nothing new, but it is new in the sense of how widespread it is. It is everywhere, and the media is pushing it. And you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I barely am as embodied, but present in spirit have judged already, as though I were present concerning him that had so done this deed. So Paul disfellowshipped this person so the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord. So they were divided over how they would deal with immorality in the congregation. In chapter 6, they were divided over going to law against a brother. Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the saints? Instead of working out in the Matthew 16-18 viewpoint, that's the wrong reference, but in going to your brother as in Matthew 18, and if your brother doesn't hear it, then you take another. If he doesn't hear you, then bring it to the church. Instead of doing that, they were going to law against their brother. Now that had to do with disputes among the brethren. Of course, Paul himself appealed to Roman law. He was a Roman citizen, and he appealed to Caesar during his trial. So outside of brother to brother, there is that element of going to law against one who is not a brother. Hopefully I made that clear. They were divided over who should marry, chapter 7. Now concerning the things that I wrote to you, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. Now the reason he wrote that, he makes that clear because of the present distress. It's not that he should remain that way forever, but because of the present distress, it is good not to be married. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband, and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. And then he says in verse 5, defraud you not one another. You are not able to use whatever excuse you might come up with. Of course, there are many valid excuses. Defraud you not one another, except it be with consent for a time that you may give yourselves to fasting in prayer and stand together again, that Satan tempt you not in your concurrency. They were divided against the exercise of knowledge and meet sacrificed idols, chapter 8. Now, touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but charity, love, agape edifies, it builds up. And so what Paul admonishes here, and we'll probably come back to this, is that those who have knowledge should not judge those who do not have knowledge. Some people's conscience was defined, not defined, was, some people's conscience was bothered by eating meat offered to idols. And Paul says that if eating meat offered to idols offends my brother, I will not eat meat as long as the world stands. So they were divided on knowledge and meat offered to idols. In chapter 9, they were divided over whether or not Paul was an apostle. Many of them said that Paul was not an apostle. Apparently, one of the great hallmarks of whether or not a person was an apostle was whether or not they had seen the Lord, that they had seen Jesus Christ.

Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? I mean, Paul was the one who brought them the message. He was the one who brought the gospel to them. He was the one that was responsible for them coming to understand the truth. And yet they turned things around and say that we are more righteous than you, Paul. You're really not an apostle. And at one point, he says, I may not be an apostle, but yet I fathered you in the gospel. You wouldn't have known the gospel unless I had come to you. Then in chapter 10, he admonishes them to look to Israel's example. Chapter 10 verse 5, but with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were written for our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted. Neither be you idolaters, as were some of them as it is written. The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. That was about Aaron's calf. You know, they made the golden calf, and then they, while Moses was away, they rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day 23,000. Neither let us tempt God. So we look at verse 13.

There has been no temptation unto you as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted above that you're able to bear. But will the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it? In chapter 11, they were divided on government, especially Paul addresses government in the family.

He starts off, Be you followers of me. This is 1 Corinthians 11. Be you followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now, I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I deliver them to you. But I would have you to know that the head, in other words, you want to know what the governmental structure is for the family. And really, this is the governmental structure in the universal sense.

Who is the head of all things God? Who is next in line is Christ? Who is next in line is the husband? Who is next in line is the wife? Who's next in line is the children? This is what this is saying. We'll read it here just now. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.

So he did it in the reverse hierarchical order. But the hierarchical order of government is God, Christ, man, woman, children. Now continuing, verse 4, every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonors his head. And so there are two applications here. It's not good that a man have his hat on in church. But every woman that prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head for this is even all one, is as if she were shaven. For if a woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.

For a man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman the glory of man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for man. For this cause the woman, for this cause ought the woman to have power over her head because of the angels.

And it has to do with the protection that God affords a woman. Contrary to what the culture of the day is talking about with regard to the genders, God distinctly defines genders in the Bible. You know quite well Genesis 1, where he made them male and female.

He ordained the great institution of marriage, the second greatest institution on earth next to the church itself. And what God is doing in bringing sons and daughters to glory in his family and in his kingdom is parallel by what man and woman do in the family in producing sons and daughters, potential sons and daughters of God. So the apostle Paul says it's a shame for a man to have long hair and it's a shame for a woman to have a hair too short.

So we don't get out the ruler sticks and that kind of thing in the church. I'm just, this is what the Bible says. You can believe what the Bible says or you can believe what you want to believe. And a lot of people, I was talking to a person the other day, a person in the community who used to attend Worldwide Church of God, who no longer attends anywhere else.

And of course he remembered many of the principles and I said, but we have basically come to the point described in Judges where it repeats this four or five times in the book of Judges. In those days there was no king in Israel and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. So Paul instructs them on the governmental structure that is to be used in the family.

And then in chapter 11 they were divided on how to keep the Passover. In chapter 11 verse 17, now in this I declare unto you, I praise you not that you come together not for the better but for the worse. So they're coming to Passover, the most sacred somber time in the sacred calendar to observe and put into remembrance the death of the one who made it possible for our sins to be remitted, removed as far as the east is from the west, and for us to have access to the throne of God to come boldly before his throne. They were engaging in some kind of a meal in which some were even getting drunk at the Passover.

So Paul had to straighten them out on that division with regard to taking the Passover. It's quite amazing here what Paul says in verse 23. See, with regard to this thing of whether or not he was an apostle, he was instructed by Christ himself how to keep the Passover. Verse 23, For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take ye, this is my body, which is broken for you in this due and remembrance of me.

It is a memorial service of remembering that Christ died for the sins of the world. And after the same manner also, he took the cup which he had when he had said, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do you as often as you eat and drink in remembrance of me. So he instructed them on keeping the Passover. In chapter 12, they were divided over spiritual gifts.

In chapter 12, verse 1, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles carried away under these dumb idols even as you were led. Wherefore, I give you understanding. I give you to understand that no man speaking of the Spirit of God calls Jesus a cursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Spirit. So he instructs them on spiritual gifts and what they are for.

In chapter 13 is an inset chapter in which he shows them the more excellent way we'll be coming back to that. And then in chapter 14, he gives them the purpose of spiritual gifts.

Some people have, everybody has some kind of gift, and the chapter 14 identifies the purpose of a spiritual gift. Follow after love, the more excellent way is in chapter 13, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy. For he that speaks in an unknown language speaks not unto men but unto God. For no man understands him, how be it in the Spirit, he speaks mysteries. But he that prophesies speaking unto men to edification, exhortation, and comfort. So the purpose of spiritual gifts are those three things, edification, exhortation, and comfort. And spiritual gifts are often given, we'll look at verse 22, to unbelievers to show where God is working. Once God is working in a person's life, he may not experience the miracles or the understanding that he did leading up to that time. Verse 22, wherefore tongues or languages are for a sign, not to them that believe, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not, but prophesy and serves not for them that believe, but for them which believe. So we have church services to be instructed every day. We might sit in church services for a whole year and not really hear about what is the plan and purpose of God and what God is doing. We might not hear the trinity refuted. We might not hear that the Holy Spirit is not a person. We know that the Holy Spirit is not a person. Can we explain it? See, God is spirit. That is the essence of God. Can God be separated from his spirit? Well, of course not. And God does mighty works through his spirit.

Continuing here, verse 23, but therefore the whole church be come together into one place and all speak with languages and there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers. Will they not say that you are mad? What's going on here? Is this some kind of circus? But if all prophesy, all that come in, but if all prophesy and there come in one that believes not or unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all, and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest. And so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth.

You'll come to understand if he can understand the language that God is of a truth. So, then in chapter 15 of Corinthians, there were even some in Corinth that were saying that there was no resurrection from the dead. So, in chapter 15, verse 12, and if Christ be not preached that he rose from the dead, how say some of you that there is no resurrection of the dead? And then Paul explains the resurrection of the dead. When fully explained, each chapter of the epistle directs people back to God and Christ. So, we have seen what the divisions are. Now we're going to go back and see what the remedies are. We go back to chapter 1. In chapter 1 of Corinthians.

In chapter 1, we'll begin in verse 24.

But unto them which are called, this is 1 Corinthians 1.24, but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is stronger than man or man. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. Calling is of God, but the gospel has to be preached. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.

And the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, have God chosen, and things which are not, to bring to nothing things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. Paul had already read where Apollos is nothing, Paul is nothing, but God who gives the increase, God is the one who calls, who starts the process of conviction through when one has the gospel preached to them.

But of him, that is of God, are you in Christ. Who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord. There should be no chapter break. Continue verse one of chapter two. And I, brethren, when I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech nor wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ and him crucified, and I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech was not, and my preaching was not by enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should stand in the wisdom and should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. So he points them in every chapter and one way or another back to God and Christ, that Christ is not divided. Verse 11, for what man knows the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him, even so the things of God knows no man but the Spirit of God which ellipse is in him. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God, that you may know the things that are freely given to us by God. In chapter 3, now what are we doing now? We're showing from your calling to the resurrection, Christ is not divided. And in each chapter, Paul points them back to Christ is not divided. In chapter 3, verse 16, know you not that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you. Since the Spirit of God is not God of the Spirit, it's the Spirit of God. Once again, God cannot be separated from his Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a separate and distinct person. It is the essence of God. God is Spirit, John 4.24.

If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. Now we come down. Verse 21, therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas Peter, or the world or life or death or things present or things to come. All are yours, and you are Christ, and Christ is God's. So, once again, pointing them back to God. You belong to God. See, we are the Church of God. We're not the seventh-day Adventist Church. We're not the Church of the Messianic Jews. We're not the Pentecostal Church of God. We're not the Assembly of God Church. We're not Protestant religion, you name it, whatever it is. We're not Catholic. We're not any branch of Judaism. We're not any sect of Islam. We're not of any Eastern religion. We are the Church of God, and we belong to God. Go to Matthew 17.

No, it's John 17, sorry. John 17, and verse 11. John 17, verse 11. How can I say what I've just said? Because of this verse. And there are other verses that also confirm it. And John 17, verse 11. And now, and now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you, holy Father, keep them through your own name, those whom you have given me, that they may be one as we are one. Keep them through your own name, the Church of God, the called out ones of God. Keep them through that name. Now in chapter 4 of 1 Corinthians 4.14. You know, in 4.14, they were puffed up because Paul wouldn't visit them.

What was his answer to them saying, oh, he won't ever visit them? Well, verse 14. I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you, for though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel. I was the one who came and preached the gospel to you. You wouldn't even know about the gospel if I hadn't come and preached it to you. Therefore, I beseech you, be you followers of me. Of course, in chapter 11, which I've read, verse 1, says, be you followers of me as I follow Christ. We're not to follow a man, per se, and when Paul would say, follow me, it is understood as he follows Christ. For this cause I have sent unto you, Timothy, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into the remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church. See, it is in Christ. So that was his answer to those who said he would not come. Now, in 1 Corinthians 5, the incestuous fornicator.

We said that he was given over in verse 5. He was this fellowship that the Spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord. The last phrase in chapter 5 verse 5. Now, verse 6, your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, the old leaven, as you heard in the sermon, is sin, the way of this world, that you may be a new lump, a new lump that is totally unleavened. Then it says, as you are unleavened, which seems like a contradiction in one way. But what I believe this is saying, look, you have put out the leavening out of your homes, the physical leavening. What's most important? Most important is to put out the spiritual leavening as you are unleavened. Yeah, you put out the physical leavening, but what about the old leaven, the old man, the old characters you heard in the sermonette? For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Now the key verse of the whole epistle. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice of wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. What is the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth? The unleavened bread of sincerity and truth is the Word of God. It is the Word of God.

See, the body of the bread at Passover can represent three things. The body of Jesus Christ, which he clearly says, partake out of, this is my body, which was broken for you. The Church is spoken of as the body of Christ. Because why is it spoken of as the body of Christ? Because Christ lives in the body, in the Church. And it's also spoken of the bread as the bread of life, the Word of God. The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are truth. So you prevent sin by storing the Word of God in your heart.

In 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 1, now we're talking about the anecdote to the divisions.

There any of you go to having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints. Verse 7, now therefore there is utterly a fault among you because you go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourself to be defrauded? No, you do wrong and defraud and that your brother. Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, neither fornicators, adulterers, effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drakers, nor revelers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you as, but you are now washed, but you are sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Paul admonishes them in verse 19, what know you not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you which you have of God and you are not your own. See, Christ is not divided, you are the body of Christ. For you are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. Then he sets them straight with regard to marriage in chapter 7 and verse 39.

Chapter 7 verse 39.

The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives, but if her husband be dead she is at liberty to be married, to whom she will only in the Lord. But she is happier if she so abide after my judgment and I think also that I have the Spirit of God. So the admonition in Corinthians is to marry in the church in the body of Christ. And I know there are people who have not and it worked out quite well in the long run because they came on into the body of Christ. And sometimes one is called and the other is not. So that is another thing, but this is what the Bible says. In chapter 9.

In chapter 9, as we've already said, he tells his accusers that they are in the church because of his preaching him coming to them. Now in chapter 10, we come to two very important verses in chapter 10. In fact, when we come to take the Passover, we are affirming these two verses. Well, we'll say three.

In 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 15. I Corinthians 10 verse 15. I speak as to wise judge you what I say, so you can determine if you're wise or not. The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ. You are realizing very deeply that Christ died for your sins. The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ. Communion indicates oneness, togetherness. Those two, when you partake of it, you're in essence saying, For we being many are one bread and one body.

You see, you repent of your sins and examine yourself before Passover. The Israelites, before the first Passover, they sprinkle the blood on the doorpost first. Then God passed through the land and killed the firstborn of every household and did not have the blood sprinkled on the doorpost.

So you don't come to Passover in your sins. You come to Passover free of your sins, having repented, exercise faith in Christ, and you take the bread with a clear conscience. Then, in chapter 11, we talked about how Paul received what he received from the Lord, and how to keep the Passover. Now, in 1 Corinthians 12, 27, Wherefore whosoever eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord irreverently, Dr. Erwiller explained that last week means irreverently, which the Corinthians were not doing. They were having a festival and even some getting drunk. But let a man examine himself, so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eats and drinks irreverently eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Now, this word discerning is diacreno. It means all the way through discernment. All the way through discernment. Now, the body of Christ, the physical body of Christ was given for our sins. The body of Christ, the Church, that we're to have the same love, care, and concern, one for another. And that when we come to pass over, as we have read from 1 Corinthians 10, 17, we are affirming that we are at one, that we have done everything necessary. For he that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Not only the physical body, but the spiritual body, the Church members. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many are dead. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. See, God is going to step in and judge us if we don't judge ourselves. But when we are judged, we are chasing of the Lord, that you should not be judged with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. So the very thing that we must do is to be reconciled to God in Christ and each member of the body of Christ. Now in chapter 12, he points out the oneness. We'll start in verse 12. 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 12.

For as the body is one and hath many members, and all members of that one body being many, are one body, so also is Christ. He's one body. He dwells in the Church. And those who have the Spirit of God in them are of the body of Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body where Christ abides, whether we be Jew or Gentile, whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

Chapter 13 is an inset chapter of the more excellent way. And the more excellent way is to become love as God is love. Verse 3, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not love, it provites me nothing. Love suffers long this kind. Love envies not. Love vaults not itself, yet is not puffed up. And so on it goes, describing the various characteristics of love. And we are commanded to become love as God is love. In chapter 14, we've already noted the purpose of spiritual gifts to edify and comfort and exhort the body of Christ. In chapter 15, we read that some are saying in Corinth that the resurrection, that there is no resurrection from the dead. How could you be attending the quote, Church of God, and say there is no resurrection from the dead?

So let's pick it up where we left off.

Let's read verse 18. 1 Corinthians 15, 18. Then they also which are fallen asleep, and Christ are perished. If in this life we have hope in Christ only, we are of all men most miserable. But now has Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept, where since by man came death, by man came also, the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam, all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ had his coming. Now verse 15.

Now this I say, brethren, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So the kingdom is not here yet. We are called children of God now because we're begotten of God's Spirit. We're not yet born of God in the spiritual sense. We'll be born of God at the resurrection of the dead. Neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we all shall be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For the corruptible must put on incorruption, and the mortal must put on immortality. So when you die, you die, and you await in the grave. And the Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead will raise the dead to immortality and to a spiritual birth in the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ is the firstborn among many brethren. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, this mortal shall put on immortality, shall be brought to pass a saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. So, brethren, I hope you will master 1 Corinthians. It is a must-read for those as we approach Passover. Once again, when we're coming to the Passover, we are affirming that we have done all of the things that we have heard last week in the sermonette today. In the sermon today, the solution for anything is to go to God in Christ, examine ourselves, seek repentance and forgiveness. They go hand in hand. You really can't have forgiveness without repentance. A lot of people think that you can't, I guess. You can't have one without the other. So, brethren, we have to be reconciled to God in Christ. We have to confess, sin, cry out for forgiveness and repent. We have to be reconciled to each member of the body of Christ. We have to discern the body and blood of Christ as symbolized by the bread and also the blood of Christ as symbolized by the wine. There is no reconciliation to God, Christ, or the body of Christ apart from the sacrifice of Christ. We discern the bread of sincerity and truth, the Word of God. Believers are commanded to keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The bread represents the body of Christ, given for the sins of the world. The Church is His spiritual body where He now resides. The Word of God, the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, which we are to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And discern the body of believers that have the same love and care and concern for each other. When one member suffers, we all suffer. When one member is honored, we're all honored. When one member is honored, we all rejoice with him or her when they are honored. So, brethren, let us have a wonderful Passover and let us master 1 Corinthians.