1 Corinthians
Paul & the Corinthians: Saved By Grace
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
January 5, 2002
INTRO:
A. [Getting into Heaven]
Little Billy, caught in mischief, was asked by his mother, "How do you expect to get into heaven?"
He thought for a moment and then said, "Well, I’ll just run in and out and keep slamming the door until they say, ’For heaven’s sake, either come in or stay out.’
Then I’ll go in."
B. As we begin a new sermon series this morning from the book of 1 Corinthians this morning I want to ask you, "How do you expect to get into heaven?"
C. This letter was written to the church at Corinth, Greece.
1. Everything about this letter is relevant to the church today.
2. The church at Corinth had many problems, even though it had all the spiritual gifts.
a. This church had some very bad problems.
1) We will consider them briefly today and go into further detail in the weeks and months to come.
2) During our study of this book we will go into great detail as to the many problems the church in Corinth had.
3) The problems that church had are just as relevant to us in 1997 Greencastle as they were in the year 55 Corinth.
b. And yet, even though they had all of these problems, Paul said in verse 7 that they had all of the spiritual gifts.
1) In verse 7 Paul said they did not lack any of the spiritual gifts.
2) Paul will go into detail about those gifts later in this book, but here at the onset he just says that they don’t lack any of them.
c. That illustrates the grace of God.
1) This shows that even though these people were sinners, God saved them - that’s grace!
2) And, even though they were saved and still sinning, God still had blessed them with all of the spiritual gifts - and that’s grace!
3. And so I believe the book of 1 Corinthains will be very instructional for us.
D. Most of the attitudes and problems that cause trouble in today’s church are addressed in this letter.
E. Let’s read our portion of the letter for this morning 1:1-9.
F. How do you expect to get into heaven?
1. This morning my sermon is entitled, "Paul and the Corinthians, Saved by Grace."
2. First let’s look at...
I. The Apostle
A. The author is Paul.
1. His background and conversion are recorded in Acts 9, 22, and 26.
2. Paul was one of the most brilliant Jewish scholars alive.
a. Paul went to college to study under the most renowned Jewish scholar of the day.
b. That man’s name was Gamaliel.
c. Paul was his best and most brilliant student.
3. Paul knew the OT scriptures backwards and forwards.
a. He knew it all from Genesis to Malachi.
b. He could quote great portions of it.
c. He knew the words of the OT as well as anyone could.
4. But Paul didn’t know God.
a. He knew the scriptures, but he didn’t know God.
b. It wasn’t until later in life that he got to know Jesus.
c. As a result of his brilliant education, Paul’s early adult life was dedicated to persecuting the church.
d. As a result of his exceptional knowledge of the scripture, Acts chapters 7 & 8 record that Paul was imprisoning and killing Christians.
e. Paul didn’t know God or Jesus whatsoever as a result of his knowledge of the scripture.
5. It wasn’t until Acts 9 that Paul came to know and believe in Jesus of Nazareth.
a. It happened on the road to Damascus.
b. Paul was blinded by a bright light from which Jesus asked Paul why he was persecuting Him.
c. Several days later Paul was healed of his blindness and got up and was baptized.
B. And sadly, there are many today that are like Paul was.
1. Many, like Paul, have gone to church their whole lives.
2. Many, like Paul, have heard many sermons from the scriptures.
3. Many, like Paul, don’t have any idea who God is; he doesn’t live in their hearts.
4. And unlike Paul, they have never had their own Damascus road.
5. They have knowledge of Christ, but they don’t have a saving knowledge of Him.
6. They have only a superficial knowledge that is never allowed to saturate their lives.
C. Are you expecting your knowledge of scripture to get you into heaven?
1. A thorough knowledge of the scripture cannot get anyone into heaven.
2. Knowing the Scripture cannot save; only knowing the Son will save!
2. Knowledge of the scripture is a good thing, but it cannot get you into heaven.
3. If you have been thinking this, the good news is that your still alive; there is still time for your Damascus road.
4. 1 John 5:13 tells us that we can be sure of our salvation.
5. If you are like Paul was, hoping your knowledge of scripture would get you into heaven, there is still hope for you!
D. After Paul’s Damascus road experience, Paul called himself an apostle.
1. He had met the resurrected Christ on that road.
2. The word "apostle" means "one sent."
3. Paul was sent, or commissioned, by Christ in Acts 9:15.
4. And so Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ.
5. Not one of the original 12, but still an apostle because he was one sent by Christ.
6. Most of the rest of the book of Acts is a record of Paul’s activities.
7. And Paul went on to write a major portion of our NT.
8. God’s grace turned Paul’s life around.
9. God’s grace turned Paul’s life from persecuting Christ to preaching Christ.
E. What can we learn from Paul this morning?
1. We are saved by grace and not by knowledge of scripture.
2. The free gift of God is the only thing that is sufficient to save us.
3. It is simply by believing that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for us that we are saved from hell and given eternal life.
4. It is a free gift of God that we receive simply by believing it!
5. We learn from Paul this morning that we are saved by grace and grace alone!
II. The Church
A. A record of the establishment of this church is found in Acts 18.
1. That chapter records where Paul went to Corinth and started this church.
2. And then Paul left Corinth and went on to Ephesus and started another church there.
3. Some years later, while again in Ephesus, Paul got a letter from the people in Corinth asking him some questions about how their church should be ran.
4. This letter that we are reading is Paul’s response to that letter.
5. Paul had established this church and was now instructing them on how to run it.
B. As I mentioned, earlier this church had numerous problems.
1. This is to be expected.
a. After all the church was made up of people.
1) If you are looking for the perfect church, you’d better leave, because Somerset is not the perfect church.
2) There is no perfect church that has any people in it.
b. But another reason it is to be expected is that the church in Corinth would have problems is because they only had the OT scriptures to follow.
1) The NT hadn’t been written.
2) Before they got this letter, all they had was the OT and it doesn’t say anything about how a church should be ran.
3) Yes, Paul based the church on OT scriptures, but Paul knew the OT scriptures a lot better than these new Christians did.
4) You recall that Paul studied the OT scriptures with Gamaliel.
5) He didn’t really understand them at first - but then Paul literally saw the light.
6) And after he had seen the light, he was able to apply the OT to life after Jesus.
7) Being able to apply the OT to life after the cross would be humanly impossible and could only be understood through the revelation of Christ.
8) No one would expect these new Christians to be able to do this.
c. So it is to be expected that they would have problems.
2. What kinds of problems did they have?
a. First, they weren’t unified: they had several different groups who were all following the teachings of different men.
b. They had sexual immorality in the church.
c. They were taking other church members to court and suing one another.
d. They were having problems staying away from prostitutes.
e. They had problems with skyrocketing divorce rates.
f. Some were trying to force their opinions on others.
g. They were making a party out of the Lord’s Supper.
h. Their Sunday worship service was close to chaos.
i. They were misusing their spiritual gifts.
j. They didn’t love each other as Christ had loved them.
k. They had trouble understanding the purpose of the gift of tongues.
l. They didn’t understand the resurrection.
m. And they didn’t understand the purpose of offerings.
C. But in spite of their problems, Paul said in 1:2 that they were "called to be holy".
1. Now I must briefly say that there is positional holiness.
a. We are set apart and positioned in Christ when we accept Him as Savior.
b. The Corinthians had this positional holiness.
2. Then there is practical holiness.
a. This applies to our Christian growth and lifestyle.
b. The Corinthians were not doing well with this aspect of holiness.
c. They were positionally holy; but they weren’t practically holy.
3. And positional holiness must come first.
a. We must be in Christ before we can grow in Christ.
b. And the Bible makes it clear that positional and practical holiness are important.
c. We must be in Christ and we must grow in Christ.
b. And we must do like the Corinthians: we must first be positionally holy (we must accept Him) and then we have to work at being practically holy.
c. Positional holiness is what saves us, but we are also commanded after we are saved to be practically holy.
d. The Corinthians were saved, but they were clearly having trouble with this practical holiness.
D. And as I said in the introduction, we can see grace here too.
1. Even though the Corinthians clearly had problems with being practically holy, verse 7 says they didn’t lack any of the spiritual gifts.
2. Even though they had sin in their lives, they still had the grace of God in their lives.
3. The question then is the same as the one Paul rose in Romans 6: "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?"
4. Paul is asking why not sin more if we get more grace when we sin?
6. His answer is that we cannot intentionally sin.
7. And the Corinthians were sinning, but they weren’t intentionally sinning; they didn’t know any better.
8. Does Paul continue to let them sin? No, he writes them a letter and tells them several things that they are doing are wrong, and they need to clean their act.
10. They cannot continue to sin and expect to continue to receive grace.
11. They wanted to do the right thing, they just didn’t know how.
12. So they wrote Paul a letter and asked some questions about what they ought to do.
13. Their hearts were certainly in the right place. They just needed to be taught.
E. So we see in Paul that we are saved by grace and in the Corinthians we learn about growing in grace.
III. The Greeting
A. "Grace and peace" (v 3)
1. "Grace" was the popular Gentile Christian greeting.
2. "Peace" was the most used Jewish Christian greeting.
B. And Paul expresses thanksgiving in 4-7.
1. Paul thanks God for grace in v 4.
a. And we need to emphasize grace.
1) Ephesians 2:1-10 says, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
2) It doesn’t matter how many good things you do.
3) It doesn’t matter how "good" you are.
4) Good deeds don’t save you.
5) Being a "good" person doesn’t save you.
6) Only Christ can save you.
7) Only grace can save you.
8) And the good deeds come after salvation.
9) We do good deeds because we are thankful for the grace we have received.
10) But the good deeds themselves don’t save us.
11) We are saved by grace!
b. And this grace comes only through Christ.
c. The biblical plan of salvation is the only means of appropriating this grace.
1) It cannot come through a knowledge of Scripture.
2) It cannot come through good deeds.
3) Grace is the ONLY means of salvation.
2. And Paul thanks God that by grace, these Corinthians have been "enriched" (v 5).
a. "in every way -- in all your speaking and in all your knowledge"
b. The testimony about Christ was confirmed in them.
c. They had all of the spiritual gifts. The grace of God had enriched their lives.
C. And Paul mentions the second coming of Christ in verses 7, 8.
1. This motivates us toward the future.
2. There is strength to be received from a knowledge of the second coming.
3. Verse 8 says, "He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."
4. We who have received His grace will stand before Him blameless on Judgment Day.
5. There are three tenses of salvation:
a. For we HAVE BEEN saved.
b. We ARE BEING saved.
c. We WILL BE saved.
d. There are Scriptural references to all three tenses of salvation: past, present, and future.
6. And Paul is telling us that our future salvation should motivate us towards practical holiness.
7. Christ has already made us blameless, so we should seek to be practically holy in response to what He has done for us on Calvary!
Conclusion: How do you expect to get into heaven?
