1 Corinthians 1:1-10

The Carnal Christian

1 Corinthians 1:1

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

We will consider the opening 9 verses of the first chapter of I Corinthians. These verses give us plainly an eightfold standing which we have in Christ Jesus.

1. All Christians are sanctified Christians. Paul thus addresses the saints at Corinth: "To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus." Sanctification has a twofold setting. First of all, there is a sanctification which is ours in Christ, and secondly, there is the sanctification which is ours in practice. We are sanctified in Christ, for the simple reason that everything we have in the spiritual realm is ours in Him. In the Heavenly blessings Christ is All in all. We are justified in Christ, saved in Christ, and set apart in Christ, as those washed, cleansed, and dedicated to the service of God.

2. All Christians are called saints. Our 2d verse says, "Called to be saints." We are simply "called saints." We are saints because we are cleansed, separated, and dedicated unto God. These things may not have actually become pertinent in our lives, but they are all ours in the Lord Jesus Christ. As Charles I. Scofield used to say, "The call of God to every believer is to bring his state up to his standing in Christ."

3. All Christians may call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not ashamed to acknowledge the Lord as his Saviour. Even Jonah, the runaway, when cornered, quickly asserted, "I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of Heaven." A Christian may be carnal, and yet call upon the Name of the Lord.

4. All Christians have grace and peace. This is taught us in 1 Corinthians 1:3. We have peace, because we have grace. We have grace because we were saved by grace. We walk in grace. These things are ours because we are saved not because of what we do as saints, or, of what we are, in ourselves.

5. All Christians are enriched in utterance and in knowledge. "That in every thing ye are enriched by Him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you." Think of it! A group of people who not only knew God, but were enriched by Him! They knew how to testify for Him, and they knew a great deal about Him, for they were enriched in knowledge, and yet they were carnal, and walked as men.

6. All Christians are urged to be waiting for the Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. "So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." To the carnal, the Coming of the Lord may have much of dread in it, but nevertheless, the carnal Christian may realize the fact of the Lord's Coming, and he may be waiting for it.

7. All Christians are confirmed unto the day of Jesus Christ, and in Christ Jesus will stand blameless in that day. We must remember that when God looks at us through the Blood, He reckons us as blameless, for our sins are all upon Him.

8. All Christians are called unto the fellowship of Jesus Christ, his Lord. He may not be walking in fellowship or enjoying fellowship, but he has been called unto that fellowship. Thus we have set before you the things which we have in Christ. The 1st chapter of Ephesians should be studied by way of comparison. In that chapter there are seven things outlined which belong to all saints in Christ Jesus.

I. THE CORINTHIAN CHRISTIANS WERE CARNAL BECAUSE THERE WERE SCHISMS AND CONTENTIONS IN THEIR MIDST (1 Corinthians 1:10)

In 1 Corinthians 1:10 and 1 Corinthians 1:11, Paul says, "I beseech you, brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment."

1. They were told to speak the same things because there is but one thing to speak. There is not one Gospel or one message for a spiritual Christian, and another for a carnal. The Word is truth, and the truth should be spoken. We believe to this day that divisions in doctrine are ail due to carnalities among saints. The Holy Spirit teaches but one message concerning our Lord. He is not divided. When saints gather together under varying names, they are following carnal things.

2. They are told to be joined in the same mind, because the only mind we should have is the mind of Christ. The word, "mind," may carry with it the thought of knowledge, but it also carries with it the thought of incentives, purposes. For instance, Paul said, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Then he tells us that the mind of Christ was the mind of humiliation, and that we, too, should humble ourselves in the sight of God. Thus we need to walk in the mind of Christ, as well as in the doctrine of Christ. We need to live the same life that He lived, just as much as we need to hold the same doctrine that He taught.

3. They were told to be joined in the same judgment. In other words, this is the same basis of action. One man will judge one way, and another a different way. When, however, we come together in Christ Jesus, we will find that we will be of the same mind, and the same judgment. Paul wrote to the Philippians and said, "I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord." Both of them had their names in the Book of Life. Both of them were fellow laborers with Paul, and yet they needed to get together. Let us beware, lest there be divisions among us. All such things tend to the marring of our testimony.

II. THEY FOLLOWED MEN AND NOT CHRIST (1 Corinthians 1:11)

The Apostle wrote to the saints at Corinth and said, "For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ." To follow men is to follow the persons of men, the preachings of men, the leadership of men.

Right here is where many of God's people have utterly collapsed. There were Paul-ites in those days. They liked the deep doctrinal settings of Paul's ministry. There were Apollos-ites in those days. They liked his oratorical flights, his sweeping power over an audience. There were Cephas-ites. These people liked Peter because of his impetuousness, and his indubitable force of character.

Others said they were of Christ. They perhaps professed higher sanctification of a deeper knowledge and a closer walk than the other saints at Corinth.

The Apostle, Paul, however, seemed to throw up his hands in horror, as he cried, "Is Christ divided?" We wonder how he would feel today? There are John Wesley-ites, and John the Baptist-ites, and Luther-ites, and many kinds of "ites." There are divisions in doctrine, and divisions in ministrations, that have cut asunder the children of God. Paul said, "Was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?" We should be very careful, as ministers of the Gospel, that we do not gather people around us.

III. THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS (1 Corinthians 1:18)

Here is a great philippic: "The preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God."

1. The foolishness of preaching. The Cross is to those who perish a preaching of foolishness. There is a great deal lined up in this statement.

First of all, there is the denial of the need of a Saviour. The world goes about to establish its own righteousness. Again, there is the denial of the method of salvation. When the sinner acknowledges his sin, he begins to face a method of salvation. If he is lost, he may think that he can find himself. If he is wicked, he may think that he can renew himself.

Human salvation is builded upon one lifting himself above himself.

2. The power of God. While the Cross to the ungodly is foolishness, unto those who are saved it is the power of God. We remember how the Apostle Paul said, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

It is in the Gospel of salvation through the Blood of Christ, that the believer beholds the righteousness of God made possible through faith. How strange it is that that which is foolishness to the one, is the power of God unto the other! There is a great denial of Calvary today; there is also a great rallying to the Cross. The one calls the Blood a butcher-house religion; he says that the Blood of Christ on the Cross is of no more value than the blood of a cock-robin; he ridicules it, denies it, defames it. On the other hand, the believer delights in singing:

"In the Cross of Christ I glory,

Tow'ring o'er the wrecks of time;

All the rites of sacred story

Gather round its Head sublime."

IV. THE FOLLY OF HUMAN WISDOM (1 Corinthians 1:19)

1. Human wisdom will come to naught. 1 Corinthians 1:19 says: "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Those men who lift themselves up against the Lord Jesus Christ, and against His Cross, do it, oftentimes, under the guise of scholarship. God says, their scholarship shall be destroyed. Such men "changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator." They do not want to retain God in their knowledge, and for this cause God gives them over to "a reprobate mind."

2. Human wisdom will be made foolish. Every high look and every heart that is lifted up against God will be brought low. All of the scholarship of this world which denies Christ and His Cross, God and His grace, will be brought to nothing. "Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" We read in the Book of Romans, chapter 1, of certain men who professed themselves to be wise, and became fools. They "became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."

3. The wisdom of this world does not know God. 1 Corinthians 1:21 reads: "After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God * *." It is passingly strange, and yet true, that great men are not always wise, neither do the aged understand wisdom. In many schools and colleges, and often in the seminaries, we find a great deal of the denial of God; and, particularly, of God in the realm of redemption. The men of this world seem to know much, and yet they know but little. We will see more of this as we progress. "The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom." The saint, however, delights to sing:

"Beneath the Cross of Jesus

I fain would take my stand," etc.

V. THE GLORY OF THE CROSS (1 Corinthians 1:23)

The Holy Spirit now is giving us, through Paul, a masterful statement. It is a statement that contrasts the attitudes of the believer and the unbeliever to the Cross of Christ. The Scripture reads, "We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."

1. We see a distinction between the saved and the unsaved, whether Jew or Greek. The unregenerate have no place for the Cross. Whether Jew or Greek, the regenerate reckon the Cross as the power and wisdom of God. This shows how, through regeneration, the very thoughts of the mind are changed.

We have seen infidels and even atheists, who considered themselves absolutely impregnable to any power of the Cross. They boasted their unbelief, and prated about their denials; and yet we have seen these same men become the most ardent lovers, and faithful proclaimers of the Cross of Christ. Old things, indeed, passed away with them. When they were saved, all things became new.

2. To the believer, the Cross of Christ is the power of God unto salvation. It lifts up the fallen out of the miry pit, and places his feet upon the Rock. We have seen mighty power in the wind, or the steam, or in electricity, however, that is not comparable to the power which God wrought in Christ on the Cross, and when He brought Him forth from the dead, and seated Him at His own right hand as a Saviour.

3. To the believer the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the wisdom of God. It is the wisdom of God, because therein God found the way by which He could be just, and the justifier of those who believe.

VI. THE CALLING OF SAINTS (1 Corinthians 1:25)

We now come to some of the remarkable statements of our chapter.

1. When God calls servants from among saints, He calls "not many wise." This is because the foolishness of God, is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. God does not call many wise men after the flesh, for the simple reason that the worthy wise are often unwise in the things of God. They may know a great deal, but they know not yet anything concerning the Cross, as they ought to know it.

1 Corinthians 1:26 says, "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, * * are called." They are wise after the Spirit, but not after the flesh. We believe that many an uncouth, unlettered, and untaught saint has more Divine wisdom, more insight into the deeper meaning of Calvary, of the Resurrection, of the Ascension, and of the Return of Christ, than many of the best scholars of the country.

2. When God calls servants among saints, He calls not many noble, and not many mighty. If God called the nobility, He would call them down on their knees. They would have to acknowledge themselves as nothing but sinners saved by grace.

Everything that seems to tend toward human nobility, self-worship, and self-honor, has to go when we are born again. Those things which Paul saw were to his benefit, in the days of his reaching out after a place in the Sanhedrin, he reckoned but loss when he knew Christ. Those things which were his assets, became his liabilities. He counted everything in which he once gloried, as but refuse.

God does not call many mighty after the flesh, because they would be trusting in their own skill and power. "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are."

On the other hand, God does call foolish things, as the world reckons foolishness, to confound the wise; and the weak things of the world, as men speak of weakness, to confound the mighty; and the base things of the world, as men reckon baseness, and the things despised, yea, and the things which are not, hath God chosen to bring to nought the things that are.

VII. WHEREIN WE SHOULD GLORY (1 Corinthians 1:29)

There are three statements:

1. Let no man glory in the flesh. This is suggested in 1 Corinthians 1:29 : "That no flesh should glory in His presence." Why should we glory in the flesh? We "walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." We know, that in ourselves, there dwelleth no good thing. The flesh "is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be." If we walk after the flesh, we shall die.

The flesh could not save us, because the flesh was corrupt, and it is too impotent to accomplish any good thing. Why, then, should we glory in that which is our downfall, and our shame?

2. "Let no man glory in men." This is in chapter 3, 1 Corinthians 3:21 : "Therefore let no man glory in men." Why should we glory in men? Men may do much in the realm of the natural, but when they come into the spiritual, they are helpless.

Jesus Christ spoke of the new birth, and said, "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

3. Let no man glory, save in the Lord. Whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we should do it all to the glory of God. All things which are done in the spiritual realm, are done of God, and therefore the glory belongs to God. When we get to Heaven, there will be no glorying in the flesh and no glorying in men. The message of the redeemed is, "Thou art worthy * *, for Thou * * hast redeemed us to God by Thy Blood." Therefore, it is to the Lamb who was slain that all power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing are to be ascribed.

AN ILLUSTRATION

In the Church of the Capuchins in Rome is Guido Reni's "Archangel and the Devil," a painting symbolic of the triumph of right over wrong. The attitude of the conqueror is studied and correct. Not a fold of his garment is disturbed, not a lock of his flowing hair is astray. He is trampling upon his terrible enemy as he would pose at a social function. And so says Hawthorne's Miriam, who herself knew the awful meaning of wrong; "The archangel, how fine he looks, with his unruffled wings and his unhacked sword. No, no, I could have told Guido better. The battle was never such child's play as this dapper archangel seems to have found it."

Miriam is right. Guido is wrong. The picture does not stir. It is intended for my lady's bower only, to be festooned with honeysuckles and forget-me-nots. A recent picture by Riviere of Saint George and the Dragon contains a truer Gospel. The scaly coils of the monster are wound tight about the dying horse. The hero himself has fallen faint and breathless, while the anxious-faced princess bends over his postrate form. This tells the story of struggle, of sacrifice as the price of salvation, of remission by the shedding of blood.

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