Sermon Brief
Date Written: April 03, 2014
Date Preached: April 06, 2014
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: A Series From 1 Corinthians
Sermon Title: Know What You Have!
(don’t be deceived)
Sermon Text: 1 Cor 3:18-23 [NLT]
18Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. 19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, “He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.” 20And again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise; He knows they are worthless.” 21So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you— 22whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, 23and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
Introduction:
What we have learned so far is that the church in Corinth was under spiritual duress and the Apostle Paul had written this letter to address the issues that were causing the difficulties within the church!
Paul had encouraged them by letting them know how much he loved and cared for them as a fellowship of believers! We also see Paul sharing that he believed God was NOT done with them as a fellowship!
We have learned that they had their issues BUT that Paul understood that they loved the Lord and he believed they wanted to serve God!
Two weeks ago we read and saw how Paul reminded those in the fellowship that their foundation had been laid by him…and that foundation was in Christ only… and that anyone who built upon that foundation must use WORTHY building materials…
I then encouraged you to build wisely upon the foundation of Christ in your lives as you seek to grow in Christ… to use worthy building materials and not to cut corners in building your life in Christ!
This morning as we look at the passage in v18-23 we find Paul concluding this chapter admonishing and warning those within the fellowship in Corinth to KNOW what they have in Christ and to NOT be deceived by the false teaching that was being thrown at them…
Don’t Be Deceived! V18-20
Stop Bragging! V21-22
WHY? You Belong to Christ! V23
Don’t Be Deceived! V18-20
18Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise.
There were many teachers who had come into the fellowship at Corinth and had begun to teach a gospel contrary to the one Paul had brought when he planted the church several years before…
This ‘new’ gospel being preached relied on a human wisdom and human intellect. The message that had come into their midst had caused divisions among the church as many were sectioning themselves off according to who they followed or believed…
This message had caused them to begin relying upon their own wisdom and Paul had told them that human wisdom led to misunderstanding the gospel… and these teacher had led many to discount the Cross and what Christ had accomplished on the Cross.
Paul told them that the message of the Cross was CENTRAL to their redemption and could NOT be ignored…even though the world may see it as foolishness or a stumbling block… the wisdom of God placed Christ on the Cross to die for the sin of humanity… the wisdom of humanity sees this as foolishness… the wisdom of religion sees this as a stumbling block…
These teachers had come into their midst and had begun to teach a gospel based on human wisdom and had convinced many of these believers to place their faith in this human wisdom… and here in v18 Paul decries such a thing… he urges these believers to NOT place their faith and trust in human wisdom!
He uses the phrase, ‘you need to become a fool to be truly wise’ which is Paul merely playing off his revelation that the world believes the message of the Cross is foolishness to them! They are going to think you to be a fool, but you MUST trust in the message of the Cross to be truly wise is what Paul is telling them!
My brothers and sisters I want to call you to this same conclusion… our world today does NOT believe in the message of the Cross or the supremacy of Jesus Christ as Lord!
In today’s society we face militant atheism that seeks to ban and banish all forms of faith and vestiges of God… they come out and call Christians FOOLS for believing in what they deem as foolish myths and legend!
In our society today, for one to proclaim Christ as supreme and the exclusive way to God is seen as bigoted and narrow minded. It is seen as foolish as many would point to the thousands of other religions of the world and the BILLIONS of other people who believe differently from Christians as evidence of our short sightedness and foolishness…
But like Paul told these believers, I am telling you… to become TRULY wise you must become as a fool to this world because you MUST embrace the message of the Cross and the exclusive nature of Christ. We cannot fall prey to the deception of this world and the misinformation that they try to plant within our minds.
God is sovereign and Jesus is His Son and Jesus died on the Cross for our sin and only thru Jesus can we be saved… and it does not matter what ‘evidence’ the world presents to contradict that message… it is all a fool’s errand for us to believe the world! We cannot be deceived we must stay focused on Christ and the message of the Cross!
You see the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God as Paul states in v19… then He quotes from Isaiah 5 and Job 5 about how God deals with the ‘wise’ of this world.
God traps the wise of this world in their own craftiness… this is because their wisdom cannot see past today, but God knows all and sees all and He will prevail.
God knows what the wise of this world are thinking and I am sure He gets a chuckle when he sees them so sure of themselves in their wisdom… but He knows that nothing they have is worth anything eternal! Earthly wisdom will always fail!
So DON’T be deceived is the message Paul is trying to get across to the people in Corinth and DON’T be deceived is a message that WE must listen to as well… the ruler of this world seeks to destroy your life and your witness to and for Christ!
So if we are going to avoid deception we are going to have to cling to the message of the Cross and ANYTHING that departs from that message must be dealt with as false!
Don’t be deceived! But Paul does not stop at not being deceived… he goes onto another issue that was rearing its ugly head in the church of Corinth…
First was the issue of false doctrine and how that doctrine misled the followers of Christ in Corinth, but another issue that raised its head when this human wisdom raised its ugly head and that was a prideful heart…
Stop Bragging! V21-22
21So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you— 22whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you,
Don’t brag about following a person!! Don’t allow yourself to get caught up in the notion that your wisdom OR the wisdom of who you are following sets you apart before God!
We cannot rely on human wisdom and bragging about it is even MORE foolish in God’s eyes and Paul wanted these believers to stop this foolishness and start following the message of the cross.
This has got to stop is Paul’s intention here… look at v22 where he tells the believer, “Look people you have everything in Christ, why are you looking in other places to find what you already have?”
God has granted you all things in and thru Christ… Paul is saying that he was a gift from God to them, bringing them the truth about the message of the cross and the redemption available to them in Christ!
He also tells them that Apollos and Peter were gifts from God in bringing them the message of the Cross. But then we find Paul telling them that the world… not the world in a bad sense but the planet they live on… it is a gift from God!
Then Paul gets a little more broad in what they have as gifts from God… he speaks of the world, of life, of death, the present and the future…all are gifts!
Now ALL of these things seem to be wonderful gifts but Paul includes ‘death’ as a gift from God… For the believer death IS the gift that takes us from this mortal plane to life everlasting with our Savior to be reunited with loved ones and to rest in Gods bosom for all time!
All of this is a gift FROM God thru Christ Jesus and Paul goes on to say… these gifts are a privilege… we cannot get them on our own but have been granted them thru our relationship in Christ… and that relationship is only possible THRU the message of the Cross! Thru the message of the Cross we can be united with Christ who is One with God and therefore we are ONE with God…
But the premise here from Paul is that this was a GIFT from God! Like he told the Ephesian church in Eph 2:8:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Our salvation is a gift… we cannot earn it… it is a gift from God and we learn about this salvation thru the message of the Cross! The message of the Cross is considered ‘foolish’ by the world but it is where we find salvation and eternal redemption!
These teachers in Corinth were bragging around about their message and how it was superior to what Paul had taught and that the salvation that came thru their message was true salvation. But Paul tells these believers to NOT be deceived and to NOT brag about a message that is empty!
BUT, that is just what these teachers were doing. They were ridiculing the message of the Cross as foolish and they were bragging that their message was more logical and believable…
But what does here is an attempt to make these believers see the gospel for what it was… the message of the cross was and still is a powerful message of redemption from God! It may sound foolish to the world but it is how they can know and gain redemption!
Human pride is a dangerous thing. God tells us in Scripture that pride is what leads us to destruction. Scripture also tells us that God hates a prideful heart! These teacher had become prideful and arrogant in their teaching and their approach to the gospel and Paul was warning the believers to NOT listen to them… to NOT follow them.
People when we allow our human pride to drive our desires OR to gauge what is true or not… I can tell you that our nature and actions we fail us and we will only end up destroying whatever it is we are seeking to do…
These teachers believed themselves WISE beyond God, and when humans brag about human wisdom… it is mere foolishness in God’s eyes! So, Paul wanted these believers in Corinth to see thru the smoke screen of the prideful arrogance of these teachers, and for them to see the truth found only in the message of the cross!
Do NOT be deceived and do NOT brag on your human wisdom were Paul’s 2 tidbits of instruction for the church here in this passage. Instead Paul sought for all to submit and surrender to the message of the Cross and the Savior it represented! Paul had instructed them what NOT to do and in v23 we find out WHY they were NOT to do these things…
WHY? You Belong to Christ! V23
23and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
Paul says that we are NOT to seek human wisdom, we are not to revel in human wisdom and we are not to be prideful about our human wisdom.
Humans do have wisdom that is from God, but human wisdom is always flawed, and Paul wanted these believers to NOT be fooled by human wisdom…so here Paul tells them that they belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God…
In other words, you should NEVER succumb to human wisdom, and why is that? Well you should never because you belong to Christ!
Because we belong to Christ… our lives are no longer our own, but we are His servant. Paul tells us in 2 Cor 7:23 (ESV), “…you were bought with a price, do NOT become the bondservant of men…”
To hold to this blasphemous doctrine these teachers were teaching meant that you had to abandon the message of the Cross and Calvary and had to subscribe to their personal doctrines…
Paul states in 1 Cor 6:19-20 (ESV)
19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
You have the Holy Spirit in you… that comes directly from God… He paid THE ultimate price for our soul and for our redemption so we are NOT our own anymore, we belong to Him!
So what Paul is saying here is that we should realize what we have In Christ and NOT be deceived by the message of these false teachers… it may sound wise, but it is the wisdom of the world!
If we begin to believe in the doctrines and wisdom of the world the as Christians we cannot glorify God! However, if we hold fast to doctrines and message of the cross then we deny these teachings and we glorify the God we profess to serve!
We have been bought with a price… God paid the ransom to rescue us and free us from the bondage of sin and we are in His debt… we are not our own…
God does allow us freedom of will and choice but our obedience and submission to Him cannot be contrived by what may or may NOT happen to us… it must be willing and cheerful on our parts!
Conclusion:
What can we take from this passage… well the first thing we can take away from what Paul is saying here is that we must be on guard about being deceived…
Scripture tells us that our Enemy… Satan… is seeking to destroy us by whatever means he can use. Peter put it like this in 1 Pet 5:8 (ESV) 8Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Like Paul, Peter says here to be sober minded… that means clear headed… a focused mind… watchful against all things against Christ! He goes onto say in v9 to resist Satan by being FIRM in your faith!
This is what Paul is saying here as well…don’t be deceived by this supposed wisdom these men are preaching… stay strong in your faith… the faith on which your salvation is grounded… the faith based in the message of the Cross! The world MAY deem it foolish, but it is godly wisdom and beyond their comprehension.
The second thing I can see here that we can take away from this passage is that we are admonished by Paul to NOT brag… now this particular situation is connected to the false doctrine being taught by these teachers, but there is a broader truth here that must be learned!
Our hearts must be humble before God and men…and we cannot be driven by human pride in our approach to serving God. We are sinners saved by God’s grace and NOT by our standing or position or actions!
A humble and submissive heart is pleasing to God… but a proud and arrogant spirit is offensive to Him and He will NOT stand for it… if our hearts remain prideful we will be disciplined and taken to task by the Holy Spirit.
Don’t be deceived! You have an enemy trying to deceive you EVERY day… stay firm in your faith and be clear minded in how you see things around you!
Don’t be proud or arrogant in your faith! You are saved by grace and a humble, submissive heart is what God desires and is looking for from you!
NOW… you are IN CHRIST and those IN CHRIST should never fall to the deception of the Enemy, if they are focusing on serving Him as they should!
Also those IN CHRIST should never fall prey to an arrogant or prideful heart, for they see themselves thru the eyes of Christ and understand it is only by God’s grace they have redemption.
Do you realize what it is you have when you are IN CHRIST??
You have the ability to walk humbly and yet boldly IN CHRIST in this world! Humbly before the Lord and boldly in the face of contrasting doctrines that ridicule your faith. So often we find ourselves doubting what we believe or what we have been taught because someone else seems so smart or someone is very articulate with their own belief…
The message of the cross is viewed as foolish by many, but it is the foundation of our faith… and without it (foolish as the world may believe it to be) we would NEVER know redemption or salvation!
This morning…have you been deceived by the world’s doctrines? Is there something you have fallen prey to because it sounded wise? Have you strayed from the simplicity of the message of the Cross? I call on you to surrender to Him today and confess your sin and be washed clean by His cleansing hand!
This morning…do you have an arrogant spirit? Do you have a prideful heart or attitude? Are you thinking that you have all the answers? If so, then you are in need of God’s touch in your life as well…come and allow God to soften your hardened attitude and prideful heart! Come and allow God to wash away the pride that leads to nothing but destruction!
This morning… are you wondering what you DO have IN CHRIST? Today you can come up here and pray with me… you can come up here and pray with one of the staff… or you can come up here and kneel at these steps offering yourself as a sacrificial offering to God! Come and confess… Come and pray…
This morning you may be here seeking a place to serve… knowing that God has called you to serve but you have resisted His calling.
Are you willing today to surrender to that calling and give Him control over all your life? Are you being called to serve God here at Oak Park… if so I call on you to come as Jason comes to play the hymn of invitation? As Jason leads us won’t you come?
