Sermon Central
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Studies In I Corinthians
Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 28, 2021 (message contributor)
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1. The Indwelling Spirit
Contributed on Mar 28, 2021
Men became the temple of God. This was a basic fact and essential truth of Christianity, but it was one that was difficult to grasp, and it still is today one of the most difficult concepts for Christians to make real in their lives.
In the Old Testament the emphasis is on Jehovah, the God who is above us. In the Gospels the emphasis is on Jesus, the God who is with us. In the book of Acts and the Epistles the emphasis is on the Holy Spirit, the God within us. There can be doubt that this is the age of God’s ...read more
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2. The Christian And Divorce
Contributed on Mar 28, 2021
The one thing that is clear in the Bible is that divorce is never the best way to go. Divorce is negative. Nobody ever rejoices that a divorce is a part of their life.
Dave Howell, The World Service Secretary Of The YMCA, was going to give a speech on his experience in Liberia. There were three speakers before him, and the first mentioned that Howell had come from Libya to be there, instead of Liberia. Howell whispered to the next speaker that he would ...read more
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3. Divorce And Remarriage Part 2
Contributed on Mar 28, 2021
Christian couples have an obligation to Christ, and to His body the church to make sure they get all of the marriage counseling available to avoid divorce.
I got a kick out of the story I heard the other day. This man had gone to a psychiatrist, and after a great deal of examination he asked the doctor, "What is wrong with me?" The doctor replied, "I think you are crazy." "I demand a second opinion," the man insisted. ...read more
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4. The Ideal And The Real
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
The real ideal is to always have two people married who are Christians. But the fact is, all through history you have to deal with the mixed marriage of the Christian and non-Christian.
Mary was branded as a backslider when she divorced her husband of 20 years. Her church asked her to resign from all her roles, and the outrage pastor demanded-how could you? Mary endured the pain of criticism as long as she could, and then she moved away. The pastor of her new church questioned ...read more
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5. The Pauline Privilege
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
The Bible demands that you be open to the power of exceptions, for only those who are, are open to the spirit of grace. Even under Old Testament law we see examples of exceptions that allow grace to dominate.
Thousands of young boys walked past the Bathwell Castle in England, and none ever dreamed of climbing up the chimney to carve his name at the top. There was one exception, however. One boy did the unusual, and his name was David Livingstone. That boy went on to become one of histories most famous ...read more
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6. The Third Choice
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
The choice is not, either nothing is changed, or everything is changed. There is a third choice he spells out, and it is the choice of balance, where you change some things and leave others unchanged for the sake of stability.
Hubert Humphry's father was a druggist in a small town in South Dakota. He had to come up with a way to increase profits at his soda fountain. He began to push the idea of putting an egg in his malts to enrich them. Nobody was ordering the new malt, so told his clerks to ask people if ...read more
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7. Sins And Mistakes
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
We are in a very unique portion of Scripture in this seventh chapter of I Cor. We are not dealing here with absolute issues of right and wrong. We are dealing with issues that are very complex, and where the question is not, what is right or wrong, but what is the best under the circumstances.
Bruce Larson in Dare To Live Now, tells of his experience as a new recruit during World War II. He sat down to his first breakfast in the mess hall, at Fort Benning, Georgia. He saw something in a large bowl that looked like cream of wheat. He scooped out a lot of it into his bowl, and ...read more
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8. Devotion To The Lord
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
Paul is saying it is not wrong for any Christian to get married, but there are circumstances that make it better if they are not married.
Few groups of people in history have fought a more bitter battle than the Pilgrims who came to Plymouth on the Mayflower. So many of them died from sickness, that at one point only four of the original couples still had each other. Edward Winslow and Susanna White had each lost their mates. They ...read more
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9. Love Makes The Simple Complex
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
Many Christians had no problem with relating to their pagan family and friends by eating this meat offered to idols. Life would have been so simple if other Christians had not taken an opposite view.
Dr. James H. Robinson, a great black preacher in New York, tells of how he use to sit on the steps of the public library in Knoxville. He would watch the white people go in, and he would be filled with resentment because he wanted to read and learn, but the doors were closed to blacks. He came ...read more
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10. From Start To Finish
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
Paul, like his Lord, used the examples of the world to teach Christians. He is saying that they need to stop and consider what your favorite runner goes through in terms of self-denial in order to win a perishable crown.
You don’t have to be an expert on racing to know that you don’t get a prize just for signing up, but many feel that is all that is needed to be a winner in the Christian life. They think that you do not have to budge from the starting line as long as your name is on the list of contestants. Paul, ...read more
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11. An Act Of Obedience
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
The New Testament makes it clear that all who believe in Jesus as their Savior are to be baptized, and so for those who submit to do so it is an act of obedience.
The whole duty of man is to love God and keep His commandments. From paradise lost to paradise regained this is the teaching of the Bible. The one condition for man's abiding in Paradise was obedience to God's command. In Rev. 22:14 we read, "Blessed are they who do His commandments, ...read more
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12. The Conception Of Communion Clarified
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
The Lord's Supper signifies the greatest fact in a person's life. It is a symbol of his death that men might live forever. The purpose of this memorial is that you might never forget that this is life's greatest fact.
The pyramids of Egypt are symbols of man's desire to be remembered. Man alone among all creatures builds a tomb to perpetuate his name. He builds houses, but so do muskrats and birds. He organizes into cooperative society, but so do bees. He forms armies with captains and generals, but so do ...read more
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13. A Moving Experience
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
It is the Lord's Supper, and no king, dignitary, or millionaire has ever had a supper so vast. This very night millions will meet at His table in remembrance of Him. It is the longest table on earth, for it goes around the world. There is nothing like it in all the world.
A beautiful temple was erected in ancient Greece. It was a masterpiece of architecture. When it was completed there was a vacant niche high up on the front for a sculptured work of art. The statue was to be selected by competition. On the appointed day there were two competitors for the place of ...read more
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14. The Importance Of Being Informed
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
Ignorance is one the major causes for Christians missing out on God's best. This was true in the early church, and it is still true today.
A new bride was showing a visiting friend her first garden she had ever planted. The friend notice several small green clusters at one end of the garden and asked what they were. The bride said proudly, "They are radishes." "Really," said the visitor, "most people plant ...read more
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15. Test Of The Tongue
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
Paul's absolute principle is, "No one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says, 'Jesus be cursed.'" No matter how gifted a man is, and no matter how marvelous are the wonders he performs, he is clearly a fake if he curses Jesus.
Before he became president of the United States Abraham Lincoln was a captain in the army. He was drilling his men one day during the Black Hawk War. As he marched along with his men he came to a fence with a gap in it. He wanted his men to go through that gap, but for the life of him he could ...read more
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16. Gifts Unlimited
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
Paul does not give us a listing of the gifts that is exhaustive. His list is only suggestive. Every time he writes of the gifts he mentions new ones. He is not dealing with a fixed number because he knows the Holy Spirit well enough to know that you cannot catch him in a list and limit him.
A college professor of debate thought it would be well for him to select some outstanding speaker and learn everything he could about his life, his speeches, and his writings. He chose Patrick Henry as his ideal. It was not long before the subject of Patrick Henry was becoming obnoxious to those ...read more
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17. Gifts For The Common Good
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
The reason the church has survived the changes of the centuries, and will continue to do so till the end of history is because it is designed to be adaptable to all of the cultures of the world.
Back in the mid 1800's a light-colored moth was very common in the industrial city of Manchester, England. When these moths landed on the bark of the trees they blended in so well that the moth eating birds could not see them, and the result was that they multiplied rapidly. Some of the moths ...read more
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18. The Gift Of Wisdom
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
The first gift that Paul mentions is that of wisdom, and the second is that of knowledge. These are first because without them all of the other gifts can be used foolishly and in ignorance.
A little Protestant boy came walking into his house with a big black eye. His mother said, "Where on earth did you get that shiner?" He said, "The O'Reilly kids hung it on me." "Why" she asked? He replied, "Well, I was over at their house making some cracks ...read more
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19. The Gift Of Wisdom And Knowledge
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
We will almost always miss out on something that God has for us if we try to limit the Holy Spirit, and fail to stress His love for infinite variety.
When Abraham Lincoln was a young lawyer in Springfield, he was approached by a man of wealth, who wanted to hire him to collect a debt. It seems that the poor man who owed him the two dollars and fifty cents denied the debt and refused to pay. Lincoln did not like the job, but after much ...read more
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20. Laying The Groundwork
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
Biblical faith is always based on facts, and is supported by evidence. If we would keep this in mind, we would avoid many of the foolish mistakes Christians have made.
One of the most novel debates in the history of Christianity was that over the question of whether or not Adam and Eve had a navel. The man in the street could hide his conviction, but the artist had to face the issue squarely and choose a side. His works made it clear whether he was pro or ...read more
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21. The Burial Of His Body
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
So hasty was the burial that the women who stood at a distant watching were not satisfied it had been done right, and so they got more spices and prepared to go back after the Sabbath to give Jesus a completely suitable burial.
Doctor Martin von Butchell was a London dentist who lost his wife in 1775, and was reluctant to part with her. There was no law against it, so he had her embalmed, and kept her in a glass case in his home. He introduced visitors to her as my dear departed. Word spread of this spectacle, and ...read more
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22. The Gospel And The Body
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
When Paul preached to the Greeks in Athens about the resurrection of the dead, they mocked him. The idea of the body being raised was folly to the Greeks.
Captain James Saunders of the U. S. Navy taught a graduate class on the principles of agreement. As a demonstration, he would give each member of the class a piece of white paper, and ask them to chew it. The paper had been treated with a chemical called phenylthiocarbimide. Some reported that ...read more
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23. The Contemporary Christ
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
If Jesus was still in the tomb, and not a living contemporary, then however, great a man and teacher He was, He is of no more value to us than any other dead man. Any religion will do if the best only gets you to the grave.
A mother said to the toy salesman, "Isn't this a rather complicated toy for a small child?" The salesman responded, "This madam is an educational toy. It is especially designed to help a child adjust to living in the world of today. No matter which way he puts it together, it ...read more
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24. The Immortality Of Personality
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
Salvation is not complete unless the whole person is saved. Sin is what made the body a hindrance to the spirit. Sin is what led to the body's decay and death. If Jesus died to restore all that sin has robbed us of, then that has to include the body.
\ F.W. Boreham, the great Australian preacher, made a fascinating discovery in the book of Job. Job, as you recall, was very wealthy, but in the first chapter he is totally wiped out. All of his livestock and all of his children perish is disaster. When we get to the last chapter, and the battle ...read more
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25. The Resurrection Body
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
Paul is writing this greatest of all chapters on the resurrection because of the questions of the Corinthians. Some of them were very strange questions. The saying is, there is no such thing as a foolish question, and that holds true even though Paul begins by calling their question foolish.
One of the strangest articles I have ever heard of was the one titled Who Ate Roger Williams. This great fighter for religious liberty, and the founder of the first Baptist church in America in Providence, R.I., died and was buried in a very insecure casket. The result was an apple tree broke ...read more
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26. The Mystery Of Death
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
As long as we are in these bodies there will be veils, but it is our responsibility to lift those veils and remove them where God has given knowledge. There is no merit in being ignorant of that which God wants us to see concerning death.
A librarian commented concerning a woman just leaving her desk that she could get more out of a mystery novel than anyone she knew. "How is that?" asked her co-worker. She replied, "She starts in the middle so that she not only wonders how it comes out, but also how it began." ...read more
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27. Work And Wages
Contributed on Mar 29, 2021
Jesus not only dignified labor by His life but by His choice of disciples, for He picked them, not from idleness, but from the labor force. He called them from their jobs. He wanted men who were prepared to work.
It is probably a fictitious story, but a wife who had her husband cremated was asked if she wanted his ashes in an urn. She said, “No. I want them put in an hour glass to set on the mantel. That lazy rascal never did a day’s work in his life, but I’m going to keep him busy from now on.” George ...read more