Why Carnal Believers Are Still Blameless — 1 Corinthians 1:8-9

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, now let's just pick right up where we left off after our last program. That'll be in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and we'll review verse 7 and 8 a moment. And again, we always like to remind our audiences every day we have people calling. They've caught the program for the first time, and so we have to remind folks that we do have all of the previous programs, all the way back to Genesis 1-1, and we've put them on six-hour tapes, 12 programs to a tape, and then every tape has been transcribed into the little booklets that you'll see on the screen. And if you're interested, you give us a call on the 800 number, and what we like to do is just send out a list describing the content of all these tapes and books, and then you can fill that out and send it back to us. Okay, let's get right back into the Word, because after all, that's why we're here, and that's why so many folk tell us that they set their clocks so that they're sure to catch our program, and it's not that they're wanting to be entertained. That's why I don't like to even use any music, is that we want people to just simply get into the Book. All right, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and remember in our last program we explained that this assembly of believers had been saved out of abject idolatry, paganism, mythology, the worship of the gods and goddesses, and along with it, of course, they were grossly immoral. They had no concept of what we would call biblical morality, but as these people were saved out of that kind of a background, they weren't immediately transformed into spiritual giants. They had a lot of problems, a lot of hang-ups. They still had a lot of failures, and in spite of that, Paul teaches here so clearly that if the Lord were to come, it wouldn't only be a few of them that would be taken. They would all go. Now, I know there are those who teach an outcalling of only the spiritual believers, and that the carnal would be left behind. Well, I can't find that in my Bible, and I think these verses make it so plain that even the carnal believer, which of course most of the Corinthians were, will be taken up when the Lord comes, and they will be considered blameless because they're under the blood of Christ. And then verse 9, now let's move on. It's not because the Corinthians were faithful. It's not because you and I are faithful, but who is? God is. Now, you know I'm always stressing that when I teach the covenants. Way back in Genesis 12, when we had the Abrahamic covenant given by God to Abraham, a covenant that Israel broke over and over and over. But did that annul the covenant? No. Why? Because a covenant is something that originates and ends with God, and He will never break His covenants. And so the same way here, when He calls a person His own, and we're saved, and we become part of the elect, He will never give up on us. We may fail, miserably, but as the verse says here, verse 9, God is faithful. He'll never forsake us. He'll never leave us. And He's faithful by whom, He says, you were called unto the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And that, of course, is the same for us today as it was for the Corinthians. If we've entered into a genuine salvation experience, then we are His, and He is ours. All right, now then let's move down. We're going to pick up some of the problems. We're going to deal with them, as Paul had to do it himself. And he says, now I beseech you, brethren. Now, you see, the word beseech is not a dogmatic, legalistic commending. But what does the word beseech imply? I beg of you, see, I'm pleading with you. I didn't mean they had to or else. But on the basis of what Christ had already done, and remember, this is all just as applicable to us today as it was to the Corinthians, in view of all that Christ has done, common sense tells us, common sense tells us, that we should be obedient to His wishes and not be disobedient. And so He says, I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no, what's the next word? Divisions. So what does that tell you? That's going to be one of the problems. There are divisions in this little assembly in Corinth. Now, you want to remember, these churches that Paul writes to, all of them, these weren't humongous congregations of several thousand people. These were congregations that, for the most part, met in homes. Now, I think maybe the church at Ephesus may have had a separate church building. I feel that. I can't prove it. And maybe the Corinthians had a large enough congregation to warrant their own building. But for the most part, all the churches in the Apostolic Age were just simply meeting in homes, which means there couldn't have been more than 25 or 30 people involved. But whatever there was at Corinth, they were ought to have had the same mind, but they didn't. They had their divisions. All right? And then He says in verse 11, For it hath been declared unto me of you my brethren. Now, what does that term, my brethren, imply? They were believers. Paul wouldn't call these rascals my brethren. They're Gentiles. Now, remember, there are a lot of Jews in Corinth as well. And I'll point that up when we get down into their divisions. But He refers to all of the members of the congregation of Corinth as His brethren in Christ. All right? For He says, My brethren, by them who are of the house of Chloe. Now, that was probably the house where they were meeting. And she had no doubt sent word to the apostle, either by messenger or whatever, that, yeah, the assembly was growing, and people were probably being saved. But Chloe says, We've got problems. See? We've got divisions. And what are they? Now, He says, There's contentions among you. And now, verse 12, This I say, that every one of you saith... Now, here they come. Here are the divisions in this little assembly in Corinth. Some said, I'm of Paul. Paul is the one that I'm going to pay attention to. Paul's the only one who really has the truth, and I'm not going to have anything to do with anyone else. I belong to Paul. Some say, I am of Apollos. Oh, now we have to go back, don't we? Go all the way back into Acts chapter 18. We've got to see what kind of a man these people were clinging to. And see, that's the same danger today. Never get hung up on one man, because it's just not scriptural. And so here again, these people were getting all hung up on either Paul, or now the next one is Apollos. And let's see what kind he is back in Acts chapter 18, verse 24. Acts chapter 18, drop down to verse 24. And a certain Jew named Apollos, born in Alexandria, that's down in Egypt, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. Now, on the surface, what kind of a man was Apollos? Well, he was a speaker par excellence, and he probably had the personality and the charisma to go with it, and he could just literally magnetize his audiences. He was eloquent. All right. Verse 25. Now, this man was, and I always emphasize the next word, what? Instructed. See, now, Paul didn't have anybody instruct him. Paul never had anyone outside of his background under Gamaliel. But in the age of grace, in the doctrine of grace, Paul had no one teach him. His came by, what's the word? Revelation, inspiration, see? But Apollos was a man who had been taught by someone, and so he was instructed in the way of the Lord, being fervent in the Spirit, and he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, but knowing only, what? The baptism of John. In other words, he was a Jew, still steeped in the kingdom economy, and knew nothing of the power of the cross or the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. He was only continuing the message that John the Baptist and Christ and the Twelve had been proclaiming to Israel. But, verse 26, he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, now remember, that's the place of Jewish meeting, and whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, now I always have to flash you back a little further again, Aquila and Priscilla had been a long time with whom? Paul, in the tent making business, and we covered all that, and we taught the book of Acts, and so Paul just drummed these doctrines of grace into Priscilla and Aquila, so now when Apollos comes here to Ephesus, and knows nothing more than the kingdom gospel, what do Priscilla and Aquila do? I always say, they took him home for dinner, and across that dinner table, they just sort of let the old boy know everything that he was missing, and that's what it implies, see, whom when Aquila, verse 26 again, whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him, now that word expound is a big word, in other words, detail by detail. The other word that Paul likes to use back in Galatians is communicate, and communicate says, you leave no stone unturned, so that it's clearly understood. All right, and so Priscilla and Aquila communicated or expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly or more completely. Now what do you suppose they were telling him? Everything they'd learned from Paul, and what had Paul taught them? That the cross now made all the difference in the world. They were no longer under the kingdom economy, and they were no longer under the law. They were no longer under temple worship, that now all that had been set aside, because Christ had died, been buried, and risen from the dead. And so then, verse 27, when he, that is Apollos, was disposed to pass into Achaia, that was the state surrounding southern Greece, the brethren wrote, exhorting disciples to receive him, who when he was come helped him much, who had now believed through grace. See, his whole mind had been opened up. All right, so now later when Apollos, now come back to 1 Corinthians again, no doubt that when Apollos came on the scene to Corinth, preaching and teaching much the same thing that Paul did, but with a little more, I think, Jewish flavor, since he had been steeped in the teachings of John the Baptist and so forth, many of the Corinthian believers now sort of glued to Apollos. And he was the one that they were going to listen to, not Paul. All right, now come back to the text then in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 12 again. There was also a group in the Corinthian assembly who were still hanging on to what other man? Peter. Now, that should tell us something. That should tell us something. What kind of people are in the Corinthian church other than the pagan Corinthians? Jews. See, Jews, whom God had opened their heart and eyes to the gospel of grace, and they had come out of Judaism, and they were members of the Corinthian assembly, believers, but Jews. Now then, if you know the background of Paul's apostleship and how that he had persecuted those early Jewish believers back there in the book of Acts, and how God saved him by grace on the road to Damascus, and then took him down in the desert and revealed to him over what I think is a three year period of time these amazing doctrines of grace, it just sort of put a block between him and the Jewish people. Because just put yourself in their shoes. Here was one of their own, taught at the feet of their most famous rabbi. I'm speaking of Saul of Tarsus. And now when he comes back from his revelations, he tells the world, you're not under the law. You don't have to circumcise your children. You don't have to keep the law. You don't have to go to the temple. You don't sacrifice animals. That's all been set aside. Well, what do you suppose religious Jews thought? This guy's nuts. Let's just put it in American vernacular. He's crazy. There's no way you can turn your back on our heritage. In fact, for the average Jew today, isn't that the same argument? Sure it is. This is our heritage. This is what we have been steeped in, and this is what we have held together for thousands of years. So these Jewish believers, and no doubt they were believers, because Paul calls them elect. But who were they more prone to adhere to? Peter. See? And even though Peter may not have spent a lot of time, I have no doubt that Peter stopped by Corinth on his way to Rome or whatever. But Peter never had a ministry, as I've said over and over. Peter never had a ministry amongst the Gentiles, according to Scripture. But nevertheless, these Corinthian believers, who I feel must have been Jews, still had an affinity for Peter, because after all, Peter was the epitome of the Jew who had been under the kingdom economy. And so it stands to reason that they thought, well, Paul, you know, all our people just have hang-ups about that man. He was just something that the Jewish people couldn't get over. So Peter, they were comfortable with Peter. And so there was a division in the church that adhered to Peter. There was those that adhered to Apollos, and then of course those who were still true to the founder of their congregation, and that would be Paul. Oh, and then there's one more. And who are those? Those who say, well, I don't have anything to do with Paul or Apollos or Peter. I'm going to follow Christ. Boy, don't you hear the same thing today? Sure you do. You try to open up Paul's epistles to people and tell them here's where it's at. What's their first argument? I'm not going to listen to Paul. I go by what Jesus said. Well, bless their hearts. I know they mean well, but they're out in left field, because you see, what Jesus said, he said to the Jew under the law. And what Jesus said to the apostle Paul was from the ascended glory after the work of the cross. And that makes all the difference in the world. See, there's no direct communication between Jesus and sinful men once he ascended back to glory, except this man. And Paul claims over and over that he saw the Lord face to face, and that the Lord revealed these things. Now someday when we get to the book of Galatians, we're going to teach that verse by verse. But for now, we've got a moment. Turn back with me to Galatians. I touch on these verses quite often because of the opposition that I run into of people who want nothing to do with Paul's letters. And they're more out there than you'd like to believe. And the thing that they will not recognize is that yes, Paul never had a face to face confrontation in Christ and his earthly ministry, but he had, I think, quite a few of them after the work of the cross. And so this is where we are. In fact, I had a gentleman who wrote me a short note the other day. He was apologizing the fact that he couldn't get to one of our seminars. And I can't remember his exact words, but he said something to the effect, he says, you know, why can't folk understand that before Christ died, sinners approached God on the basis of animal blood. But he said on this side of the cross, we approach God on the basis of Christ's blood, which he says tells me that the gospels really belong to the Old Testament. He's right. See, everything in the gospels is before Christ is crucified. There's nothing in the four gospels of the shed blood of Christ. It couldn't be. It hadn't happened yet. But see, this is all Paul knows. Christ crucified. We're going to see it a little later in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18. But now in Galatians 1, that's where I've got to, isn't it? Galatians 1, beginning of verse 11. And we've used these verses many times. I know I have. Sometimes I have to tell people, no, I'm not senile yet. I do this on purpose. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me, see how he brings that in? This gospel that originated with this man is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. And then he goes on down to say that verse 16, that the whole purpose of God bringing this man into the world was to reveal his son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen, or the Gentiles. And he says, when that happened, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. So who is he referring to? The twelve. I have conferred not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem, to them who were before me, but I went into Arabia. And you go over into chapter 4 in Galatians, you'll find that the Arabia he's talking about was Sinai. And that's where I always make the point that God revealed the doctrines of grace at the same mountain that he revealed the law to Moses. And then chapter 2 of Galatians, verse 1 and 2. My, how anybody can misunderstand this, I'll never know. Plain as English can be, 14 years after, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me, and now verse 2, and I went up by revelation. In other words, who led him? Christ did. The Lord Jesus himself instructed the apostle, you go up to Jerusalem, go to this meeting with the twelve and with the Jerusalem leaders. All right, verse 2 again, and I went up by revelation and communicated. Remember in the last program I dealt on that word? It means absolute clarity. All right, I communicated unto them that gospel which I preach. Where? Among the Gentiles. Now why does He make by Holy Spirit inspiration that kind of a stipulation? Because His gospel that He preached amongst the Gentiles was something totally different than what Peter and the eleven preached to the Jew. Oh, the same God. Don't ever lose sight of that. It's the same God. But now God is going to deal not just with Israel under the law and under the kingdom economy, but now He's going to go to the Gentile world as well as the Jew, not with the gospel of the kingdom, but with the gospel of the grace of God. And that grace, as I said earlier, is something very few people comprehend, and that is how could a holy, righteous God in His own person come down amongst sinful men, walk among, take on human flesh, and go to that Roman cross to be tortured, to be crucified, to shed His blood, to be raised from the dead. For what purpose? To save lost humanity. And that's all grace. That's all grace. And yet we see the multitudes, as I always use the illustration, going up and down our streets and highways. Oh, they're just zipping up along three lanes thick. And yet how many of them ever stop to think of eternity? It just boggles the mind that no one stops to think anymore. There's a life to come. There's an eternity to be faced, and God has made provision that every human being could spend it in His presence, if they would just simply believe the gospel. But they will not. They don't want to be bothered. All right? So then Paul comes back, if you will, again to 1 Corinthians, and he says, some of you are simply saying, I want nothing to do with Paul. I want nothing to do with Paul. I want nothing to do with Peter. I just go by what Jesus said. Well, listen, they wouldn't get very far, because the words of Jesus were confined to the Jew under the law. But now, as he speaks through this apostle, of course, then grace takes its preeminence. All right, now then, verse 13, in the moments we have left, Paul says, now wait a minute. How can you divide yourselves this way? Is Christ divided? Does He have this little niche over here, and this one here, and this one here, and then deals with them all individually? No way. No way. And that's why I like to reach across the dominational line. Now, I'm not an ecumenicalist. Everybody knows that, I trust. I'm not an ecumenicalist. In other words, I'm not going to compromise in order to have unity. But oh, God knows that in every group there are people that He wants for His own. Absolutely there are. And so Paul says, divided? He said, was Paul crucified for you? How dare you people say that I'm the object of your faith? How dare you people say that you know you're going to glory because you're a student of Paul? He said, I wasn't crucified for you. All right, let's come back while they've still got this text on the screen. Were you baptized in the name of Paul? Oh, verse 14, this is a statement, I think, is I thank God I baptized none of you. Because what was the danger? Well, they were getting puffed up, and they would say, well, I was baptized by Peter. I was baptized by Apollos. I was baptized by Paul. Paul said, don't you ever do that with my name. I thank God I baptized none of you for that very reason. And then he comes back on a second thought, and he's, now wait a minute, I guess I did baptize the house of Crispus. And then another one. But other than that, he put no importance on the water baptism because of the dangers that were so evident. And it's the same way today. My, the dangers that are involved in some of these things that tend to divide the believers. And then verse 17. Verse 17, in the moments we have left, For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to what? Preach the gospel, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. Now what's he saying? Well, in plain English, Paul says, we're going to put priorities on these things. First things first. And what in the world is the use of all the various kinds of baptism if they know nothing of the gospel? Because the gospel has to open the door. It's the gospel that made these pagan Gentiles finally come out of their gross immorality. It was the gospel that made them new creatures in Christ. It was the gospel that transformed these Jewish people from legalists to people of grace. And it's the gospel that Paul is constantly referring to throughout his letters. How that, as he says in chapter 15, the first four verses, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he arose again the third day according to the scriptures. That's Paul's gospel and that's our gospel. And you see, this is the primary thing. It supersedes anything else in all of Christendom. And then, of course, other things follow in their rightful place. Naturally, we are to grow in grace. We are to grow in knowledge of the word. We are to grow in our works and our activities for the Lord's business. Absolutely, we're to be givers. Absolutely, we're to be witnesses. And this is why we're left here. Because otherwise, would the God that the moment we're saved, he could take us out of here? Be far better. You know, we shrink from it. But listen, when Paul said, after seeing the things in glory, I have seen, not seen or heard the things which were prepared for them that love it. I have to think we've got some glorious things awaiting us. And we're going to someday, if we can have that kind of memory, we're going to be sorry for the fact that we shrank from either death or the rapture. Because listen, what's ahead of us is so much better. It's going to be so glorious, joy unspeakable, righteousness, music, I think, like mortal ear has never heard. And it's all awaiting us once we enter into his presence. 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.