No Divisions!

This morning, I'm going to read two passages of scripture. One in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and then another in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. I'll give a little bit of introduction to this after we read our text. Uh so you'll know where we're going. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 beginning at verse 10, Paul writes, "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment.

For it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Khloe, that there are some contentions among you." Now this I say that every one of you that says I am of Paul and I have Apollos, I of Cphus and I have Christ, then he asked the question, is Christ divided? Was Paul or was I crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? Then jumping to 1 Corinthians 3 beginning at the first verse. And I brethren, I could not speak to you as spiritual but as carnal, as babes in Christ.

I fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto or until now you weren't able to bear it and actually neither are ye not now able still can't bear it. He said, "For you are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are you not carnal? Don't you walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos." Are you not carnal? Who then is Paul? And who is Apollos? They're ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted.

Apollos watered, but it was God that gave the increase. So then neither is he that planth anything, neither he that waterth, but God that gives the increase. He that planth and he that walth are one, or they work together. And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry. Ye are God's building. Today we are beginning a new series of lessons taken from the book of first Corinthians. So this is going to be an interesting study.

It is probably it is not probably it is the most pastoral of Paul's writings. It's much different than some of the other ones because he was specifically addressing issues and things in the church there in Corenth. Now we know from Acts chapter 18 that Paul went to Corenth after he had preached in Athens. It was there he met with Priscilla and Aquilla. And then Acts 18:4 says, "He reasoned in the synagogues every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks."

Now, it doesn't say a whole lot about how he ministered other than the fact that he reasoned or he debated or he talked uh to those in the synagogue. I don't know if he ever got the chance to actually get up and speak or if he was just discussing with those around him what he knew. And yet it does appear that he didn't have much of a breakthrough at this point. Apparently Paul's rejection, and we've covered this in some other lessons, but his rejection on Mars Hill in Athens created really a crisis moment for Paul in Paul's ministry.

He'd had one of those before, if you remember, on the road to Damascus when he was zealously pursuing the destruction of the church because he didn't believe in it as a strong Jew. And he he thought this is this is not what we grew up with. This isn't what I believed. And so he was trying to stamp out Christianity. And we know the Lord stopped him on the road to Damascus. And Paul just had to rethink his whole theology.

Now he was very knowledgeable in the scriptures, the Old Testament, and he had to go back through there and say, "Well, how do I square this now that I met Jesus? How do I figure out what did all this mean?" And so he spent some time uh doing that in Arabia before he began his ministry. Well, here was a second really crisis moment in his ministry.

He he would go into towns and the first thing he would do would go into the synagogues, which is where the Jews were, and he would preach there and then it was only after he would eventually get kicked out of the synagogues that he would go and and reach some of the Gentiles. Uh and so he was there. He went to Corinth and spent some time reflecting because he had gone to Mars Hill. Now he knew he was the apostle to the Gentiles.

So he went to Athens which was a very gentile city and steeped in philosophy and all the the things of the Greek world and the Roman there come together in in Athens. And so he was there and he decided to approach them with some of their own doctrine, some of their own philosophies and tell them or try to convince them from that that Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus had died and rose again. And of course we know the story. It said they laughed him to scorn. They said, "Well, we don't believe in a resurrection."

And you know, some of them said, "We'll talk to you later about this." And he ends up leaving and he goes to Corenth and he's spent time reflecting on his approach. Well, if I'm going to be the apostle to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles think this is a bunch of foolishness, how am I supposed to approach them? And I think it's very telling his words in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. He said this, "I, brethren, when I came to you,"

so when I came to Corinth, I didn't come with excellency excellency of speech or wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God. So this was different than his approach in Athens. He didn't go there quoting their poets and everything else. He said, "I I didn't come with that. For I determined," and I think this was the outcome of this crisis moment, if you will. He determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.

So he said, you know, it doesn't do me any good to approach you from philosophy, from what you know, your background. I just need to preach Jesus. I just need to preach him crucified. I need to preach about the blood that was shed upon the cross. He said, "And so I was with you." And this is interesting. I was in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. So this was a new approach to him that he wasn't used to. And as he he began preaching to them, he he was fearful and he was trembling.

He said, "My speech and my preaching, it was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but it was in demonstration of spirit and in power." He realized if he was going to preach the word and if he was going to reach them, it was only going to be through the Holy Ghost working through him. And he was going to preach about Jesus. And he said, "Here's the reason that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God."

So you can argue all day and you can argue philosophy and he's saying you can do all this stuff, but really it comes down to I know Jesus. I've got the power of the spirit in my life and I can tell you what God can do to change you. And so it was only according to Acts 18:5, it was only when Silas and Timothy were come from Macedonia, they had left Paul in Athens, Paul went to Corinth, they went through Macedonia and then they came back. But when they came back to Corinth, it said Paul was pressed in his spirit.

In other words, he he had been debating with the Jews and not much was going on. But when they came back, he boldly and I think the that fear and trembling kind of got him. And and maybe he needed their support. He needed Silas. He needed Timothy to be there. But when that happened, he testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. He decided, "This is what I'm going to preach." And he got up and he began to tell them Jesus is the Messiah. And that preaching caused an outright rejection among the Jews.

In fact, they got very angry at him and they threw him out of the synagogue. And it was at that point that Paul made the decision to turn exclusively to the Gentiles. And that's significant because this is what he was called to do, right? And so in Acts 16:6 it said, "And when they the Jews opposed themselves, they blasphemed and he shook his reignment and he said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads. I am clean. Henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. No doubt that was a difficult decision for Paul.

Although he had been called to be the apostle to the Gentiles, he always had this affinity and love for his fellow Jews. And he was always reaching out to them first. He would go into cities as we said first thing he'd do he would go in a synagogue where the Jews were and he would preach to them and and then there were also god-fearers or Gentiles that would sit in on the synagogues and some of them would be saved and then you know he was kind of reaching both of them but God had called them not to the Jews to the Gentiles.

And so this point I think was the crisis the the turning point in Paul's ministry when he said I'm going to focus on what God called me to do. You know, there's something about getting in God's will and doing what God wants you to do instead of just what you want to do, right? And he he wanted to reach he wanted to reach his fellow Jews. He had been one. He he had been a part of that culture. He understood what happened in his life and he wanted that for his brethren. And that's admirable. But that wasn't his calling.

And so he had to get beyond that. And here he turned to the Gentiles. And when he did, Acts 18:9 tells us this. Then the Lord spake to Paul in the night by a vision. He said, Paul, don't be afraid, but speak. Don't hold your peace, for I am with you and no man is going to hurt you because I have much people in this city. So he was telling him, you're going to have great revival, Paul, because you are now following what I asked you to do. And with that promise from God, Paul spent about a year and a half establishing a church in Corenth.

Now, these letters to Corinth, we have in our Bibles First Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. They're very interesting. Uh, but what is apparent is we don't have all of the correspondence that took place between Paul and the church. We've got a lot of it in First Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, but we don't have it all. And I can show it to you here in a minute.

It is possible that first Corinthians could actually be a combination of more than one letter, more than one of the correspondences went that went back and forth and they kind of combined it into First Corinthians. But it's also obvious there were others written that we do not have first in in First Corinthians Paul addresses several issues that the Corinthians asked him to explain and we will get into some of those in in future lessons.

Uh and we can identify those questions and those things that they asked him because Paul begins the topic now concerning the things that you wrote me or concerning this or concerning that. And so you know at that point he is answering one of the questions that they were asked and that he was asked of the Corinthians. In fact he says specifically in 1 Corinthians 7:1 Now concerning the things whereof you wrote unto me. So, it's obvious a letter had been written to Paul saying, "Hey, Paul, we've got some questions.

We've got some things that have come up. We need your answers. How do we handle this? What do we do about this?" And so, they had written him a letter. We don't have that letter. We don't know what what it is that it doesn't exist anymore. And we don't know specifically how they phrase their questions or what they asked exactly, but we can get a pretty good idea from Paul's responses what they were asking. And again in 1 Corinthians 5:9, Paul says this,"I wrote unto you an epistle."

So he had obviously written them before and we don't have that epistle either. So there was some going back and forth there, but what we have in our Bible is um enough to let us know pretty much the situation and what was going on. And finally, if Corinthians, first Corinthians specifically is a compilation of more than one letter. Perhaps that explains some of the back and forth we see in the first few chapters, chapters 1, three, and and even maybe into four seem to deal with the issue of some divisions among the church.

But the second half of chapter 1 and all of chapter 2 talk a little bit more specifically about God's wisdom about the cross and the wisdom of man. Now, that kind of dubtales in a little bit, but it really he kind of went off on a tangent, which Paul was known to do, or as they call it, a parenthetical insert, where he will talk about something else for a bit and then get back to his subject. So, we're going to concentrate today on this divisions in the church and how Paul addresses them.

I think before we really get into the depths of it, a quick description of Corinth is necessary. Corinth was built on a ismas or a small strip of land between two seas. So there was water on this side and it was just a few miles across and there was water on this side. And because most trade was done by shipping or by boats, it was a easy place to cross to get from this sea to that one, one of the narrowest areas there. And so it was it was always having a lot of traffic.

A lot of people from all across the Roman Empire uh that would be going from this area to that area would would cross through Corinth on this strip of land and because of it is its location as we said there was a lot of traffic there. It was also the capital of Aaya which was southern Greece. So it was a capital city of that area and its people had that Greek love of philosophy. So there was a lot of that. There was a lot of uh temples and things to the Greek gods.

It was noted for its wealth, for the luxurious life they lived, probably due to all this trading that was going on. Was also known for its immorality. It was a very immoral place. It was very notorious even in the pagan world. This was a a city of of a lot of vice. You know, what goes on in Corinth stays in Corinth. You know, it was one of those kind of places. The church, it was a melting pot of people who came from for this type of a lifestyle.

In addition, probably due to its location, we find that many of the Christian missionaries found themselves in Corenth going going through there or stopping there shortly after Paul left. We know that uh Paul left Corinth after that year and a half and Apollos came down and preached there. And although we don't have record of Peter being in Corinth, yet there was a contingent of Christians there that claimed allegiance to him. And so all of those set up this first part of Paul's letter.

He gives a brief introduction which we didn't read in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 the first few verses there introducing himself but he immediately begins addressing some of these problems in Corenth. Now this must not be one that he was written to about in the letter where they asked him to please help us to what to do about this and that and uh but this was a report he got and he said this.

Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, there's no divisions among you, that you be joined perfectly together in the same mind and judgment. And then he tells that he had heard from the house of Khloe that there were some tensions about all this stuff in that. I think the first word of significance that jumps out to me in that passage, I beseech you that there be no divisions among you. No divisions.

The Greek word there translated sometimes it's translated in some versions as a schism or a division. It is it's much stronger though than the English word division. Division. Sometimes there divisions or differences opinion. Sometimes there's there's just divisions because you see it your way and I see it mine, you know, and we'll we'll kind of get over it or live with it. But this word is different because it literally implies to rend or to rip or to tear apart. And so as such, it carries a much more violent idea than just simply division.

Simply you sit on this side of your church and I'm going to go sit over here because we can't quite agree. Is that how this works? No. I hope not. I know we get comfortable with wherever we're sitting. But as such, this idea was actually a tearing apart of the church. It wasn't just that some clicks had formed and so these people all fought one way and liked each other and these people couldn't get along so they all sat over here. It was much more than that. It was it was splitting the church apart into factions.

So it would it is fitting that Paul would begin his letter with this. Paul will return to this much later in his letter, but his desire in that church and his desire for the church, it was that the church would remain united. In 1 Corinthians 12, which we'll study some weeks later, Paul describes the unity of the church with the analogy of the body. He said, "As the body is one, not many, right? It is one. It hath many members and all those members are members of that one body. Being many, there are one body. So also is Christ.

For by one spirit, spirit of Jesus Christ. We're all baptized into one body. That is the church. Whether we're Jews or Gentiles, we're bond or free. We've all been made to drink into the one spirit. We've all got the same spirit of the Lord in us. And so therefore, we are all part of the body of Christ. And we should not have those divisions. The next phrase of significance that I find is he said, 'I would that you were perfectly joined together. Now sometimes when you look at at the Greek behind that, you will see three words.

One for perfectly, one for joined, one for together, one there's only one Greek word behind this phrase and it carries this idea, yes, of being perfectly joined together. But beyond that, it is to knit together or to mend that which was broken or that had been rent to to take what was torn apart. So he's using a word here so that this this fits together and as an analogy he said first off he said there are divisions among you. There is this rending. There is this tearing. So what he is visioning is something more like this.

It's not just that we can't agree. Do that with a microphone. We're actually being torn apart, rendered, ripped, torn apart. So rather than being what God wants us to be, we're becoming frayed, messed up. We're not what he intended us to be. And so he said, "What I want you to be is to be knit together. I want that rending put back together. Now, some of you sew, and if you get a cloth like this, I think about the best you can do is kind of fold it over, cut off the loose ends, and sew a seam down the middle of it.

It's not going to look the same. That's not knitting together. That's putting a patch on it. I'm going to try to make it work. Some of you may remember if you've been here a long time like I have. We had a dear sister at 13th and Graway when we were there by the name of Sister Marty Bushong. She was a master weaver. She would take garments not that had a little bit that had been ripped, a hole put in them, hole burn in them, whatever it happened to be a tear.

and she would lay that garment out and she would begin to work the threads back together and maybe add some more threads to strengthen it. I mean, I couldn't do that. All these threads and sew them back in and put them back together so that they are knit together again. And when you're done, you look at it and it looks just as whole as the rest. That's what Paul had in mind there. not a bunch of patches, not let's just cover it up and leave scars. Let's knit it back together as if it didn't happen again.

That was Paul's desire for the churches church he founded. And I know when there are divisions sometimes if we it can leave scars and it can foster great hurts and it can it can cause people to say, you know, well, I know but this happened to me and that happened to me and it it can leave us in a bad place. But only God can knit back together. That takes a work of a spirit. It takes us being willing to let him work in our lives. So what was the thing that had caused the rending of the Corinthian church?

I would say it was what I had called a culture of personalities because they looked at one another and they said, "Now this I say Paul writes that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, but I'm of Apollos and I'm of Cphus or Peter and I am Christ." It seems that it appears that each of them had their favorite preacher, the favorite person that they liked, uh the favorite teacher, the favorite singer, the whatever it happened to be. But more than likely, it wasn't just that they were favorite.

They probably looked down on those they choose not chose not to align themselves with. So, you know, I'll come to church when you're speaking, but not when you're speaking. And I'll be here when they're singing, but not when they're singing. And to the Gentiles, no doubt it was Paul and Apollos who were their heroes. We like these men because they understand where we're coming from. And Apollos was uh very eloquent. And Paul, we know his his background and knowing the scriptures.

But to the Jews, most likely it was Peter because Peter was the apostle to the Jews and he was the one that that held those keys of the kingdom and had been with Jesus for that three and a half years and was there. And so they said, you know, Paul, well, that's okay. He joined it later and you know, he he's going off in a different direction, but we like Peter and and then there were those that said, you know what, it's not Peter. It's not Paul. It's not Apollos. I only believe in Jesus. In other words, I don't want a pastor.

I'll just do it myself. Ouch. First Corinthians is going to get tough, folks. Paul's being real. It is certain that these leaders didn't condone this division. In fact, Paul asked rhetorically in 1 Corinthians 1:13, "Was I crucified for you? Were you baptized in my name?" No, none of none of that is true. He also showed that he had no hard feelings for Apollos because in later in the book in chapter 16, he says, now as touching, brother Apollos, he said, I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren.

I asked him, Apollos, why don't you go to Corinth? Let's get this straightened out. But his will was not at all to come at this time. He'll come at another time when it when it's a little more convenient for him. It's likely Apollos didn't want to join Paul because he didn't wish to just exacerbate those divisions. He didn't want to keep it being pulled apart. And he said, "Paul, do you you handle and take care of it and get it all knit back together and then maybe I'll go."

So Paul spends the rest of chapter 1 and all of chapter 2, as we we said, kind of taking a detour, but he comes back in chapter three in his opening words and he says, "And I, brethren, here here's the indictment. I could not speak unto you as spiritual, but as carnal, even as babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with meat, because you could not bear meat. Neither are you not yet able. You still can't bear meat. Paul had introduced Corinth to the gospel.

He had spent 18 months, a year and a half there building and establishing th that church. And yet he tells them here, he said, "All that time I was not able to feed you with meat. I couldn't really teach you the things of God because I still had to treat you like a bunch of babies and you couldn't bear it. I couldn't really talk to you about the things that I needed to talk to you about because you were too immature spiritually." And then he leaves Corinth and and Apollos comes there.

no doubt much more eloquent from what we we read in scripture, the one that the Bible calls he was mighty in scripture. And yet in Paul's assessment, he said, "You still can't bear meat." Even though Paulos was there and he was giving his great ministry and speeches and preaching in the power of the word of God and all these things, he said, "You're still not able to bear meat." Even Apollo's flower reticus powerful preaching were unable to produce the spiritual growth that was needed. Paul proves it in the next verse in verse three.

He said, "For you are yet carnal. You're still there." And here's how I know. If there's envy, if there's strife, if there's division, aren't you still carnal? You're still walking as men? You're not letting that Holy Ghost is if in each of you bind you together. Instead, you're pulling yourselves apart the way you want to go, the way you want to go, the way I want to go. For while one says, "I'm a Paul and another says, "I'm Apollos." Are you not yet carnal? So, this carnality stunts spiritual growth.

When it's all about what I want and how I want to see it and how I want to do it, we can't grow. Church, that word carnal, it's an interesting word. um you look behind it in in the original language, it really means fleshly or following after the flesh. In fact, you could interchange those two words and and I'll probably do that here in just a minute in the next passage we read. But it is following after the what the flesh wants to do rather than following after the spirit. It's the eye. What I want, what I think is best.

And Paul goes to great lengths to differentiate between the two in Romans 8 and5. He said, "So they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh." He could have said, "They that are carnal still act carnal, but they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit." And now he does use carnal. To be carnally minded is death. He could have said to be fleshly minded and fallen after those desires. It's the same thing. It's death. But to be spiritually minded is life and plea peace.

For the carnal mind, the fleshly mind, the one that is looking after number one, it is immity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. So then they that are in the flesh, they that are carnal, cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh. You're not carnal if you're in the spirit. If so be the spirit of God is dwelling in you.

So he's saying if I put my spirit in your life, it can help you overcome the fleshly desires and the fleshly longings and the things that this flesh wants to do, the sinful things, the things that are divessive, the things that pull us apart, the envir flesh.

earlier in first Corinthians in parts we didn't read there he had talked to them about he had said you've received this same spirit which was not of the world what you've received is of God and so he wanted them to understand what was freely available to them through the spirit he points out that the natural man or the individual without the spirit can't comprehend spiritual things he said that's why you're so carnal yeah maybe you came to church maybe you got the Holy Ghost Maybe you got baptized, but you're still following after the spirit or after the flesh and not the spirit.

And because of that, you can't discern what is right and what is wrong. And you're only doing what you want to do. And this lack of discernment, this lack of understanding, this lack of following after the spirit causes this carnal person, this fleshly person to seek to satisfy his own desires in following Christ and causes them to compromise on his fundamental principles. Bible says Paul said it this way in another place. He said they will heap together preachers having itching ears.

In other words, they will find somebody that says it the way they want to hear it. I like the way that sounds, so I'm going to start going there. We got to get to where we like what this says. It may not be what this wants to hear, but this is the words of eternal life. And if it doesn't line up with this, then it's lining up with flesh. It's what I want, not what God wants. He wanted to understand what is freely available. If you will keep the spirit at the forefront, if you will follow after the spirit, it will lead.

It will guide into all truth. Point Paul pointed out that the natural man without the spirit is unable to comprehend those things because of that lack of spiritual discernment. It may even appear foolish to you. Well, why should I believe that? that's just, you know, that's a bunch of silliness and whatever because you're acting carnal and doing what we want to do. Get in the word of God and see what the Lord wants us to do because ultimately it's his choice. You know, we can't work our way to heaven by our own plan.

How do you know it's going to get you there? It's God's heaven. And he's told us in his book how to get there. We've got to learn to follow that. Colossians 2:8, Paul identified deceptive theology. He said, "Be not deceived. Don't don't be drawn away by philosophies, by traditions of men, by the the elements of this world as a substitute for Christ. Don't go after the things of the flesh. Don't follow old traditions. Don't just look for deceptive theology. You've got to do what the word of God has to do."

It's interesting even when when Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do men say that I am?" Well, some say this, some say, "Well, who do you say I'm in?" And Peter says, "You're the Christ, the son of the living God." Jesus looks and said, "Flesh and blood didn't tell you that. You didn't get that just from what you think in your head and what you God revealed that to you." So, what we learn is that God will reveal things to us through his word if we're following after the spirit.

That's why we need to be full of the Holy Ghost and we need to read the word of God and let it come alive in our hearts. Both Peter and Paul recognize the importance of spiritual growth. Now, Peter starts at the beginning. He said, "When you're newborn babes, when you first come in, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow." In other words, take what you can at whatever age you can. You're a baby, yeah, it's milk. So if that's what it takes to grow, then you grow. But at some point, Paul says, you got to get away from that.

You got to start eating something that's a little better for you, little stronger so that you can continue to grow. Get in the meat of the word of God. So there there are several things that will promote this spiritual growth in our lives rather than promo promote this carnal culture of personality. Paul said this. So then who then is Paul? Who am I? Who is Apollos? Who is he? Here's what we are. We are ministers by whom you believed even as the Lord gave to every man.

I think spiritual maturity, one thing that helps us is to begin with a proper understanding of the ministry. When I talk ministry, I'm not necessarily talking about people with titles. I'm talking about what God has said in our lives to lead us. th this verse that he read this this final phrase by whom you believed even as the Lord gave to every man. That that's kind of an awkward translation uh in in the King James Bible. Let me read it from a different version here will kind of help clarify it. He said, "Who is Apollos? Who who am I?

Who is Apollos? We are servants who came to you to through whom you came to believe. We're the ones that raised you up. And each of us was in the ministry the Lord gave us. That's what it means there. Even as the Lord gave to every man, he he's saying the ministry that God gave to me, the ministry he gave to Apollo, God gave us. Here's the thing. God gave gifts to the church. God gave ministry to the church. He talks about that in Paul talks about in Ephesians 4.

He talks about the apostles and prophets and teachers and evangelists and and preachers. He talks about this ministry that was given to build up the church. And so he points out that Apollos and he said we were ministers. We are servants that the Lord gave. We need to understand the people that God places around us, the spiritfilled people. And that God puts them in positions and God puts them in places and it's by the ministry that the people could hear and they could believe the preached gospel of the work.

Paul later would say in 2 Corinthians 4:5, he said, "For we don't preach ourselves. I'm I didn't come to you preaching Paul, Paul, Paul." He said, "I came to you preaching Christ, Jesus the Lord, and ourselves, your servants for Jesus' sake. I'm not preaching I can save you. I'm not preaching I can do it. What I'm preaching is Jesus can do it and I'm a servant to help you understand that." And in verse five of this chapter, Paul spoke of the ministries given to he and Apollos. He said in verse six, he said, "Here's what we did.

We each did the ministry that God gave us. Mine was to plant." So, I came here and I got it all started. I dug out a work. I planted the seed. I got the church growing. But Apollos came along and he begins to pour water on it. He begins to pron. He begins to do the things to help it grow. And then he says, "But it is God that gives the increase." So don't look at Paul and say you gave the increase or Apollos and said well it's because of him. He said no God gave it. We just did our jobs in that ministry.

Jesus talked about that in Matthew 15 in the parable or 13 in the parable of the sewer. He taught that the seed is the word of God and that God's word is very productive when it hits the right soil and it will begin to grow in our lives. But it still needs to be sown. Someone has to put the seed down. That's why Paul would write. He said, "It's through the foolishness of preaching that some are saved." It may seem silly that they're just up there screaming their their lungs out and preaching, "You got to do this. The Bible says to do that."

But he said, "The seed has to be sown. It has to be put in the ground." The Psalmist said in 1266, "He that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed, he will come again rejoicing, bringing his sheav with him." In other words, he he's going to reap a harvest if he'll do the work of planting the seed. The harvest is certain when the seed is sown. If you don't put the seed in the ground, there's no harvest. It's been said, you can count the seeds in one apple, cut it apart, and count them.

But can you count all the apples in one seed once you plant it? No telling what's going to happen. We got to keep sewing the seed if we want a great harvest. He said so some plant he said and then Apollos waters following the planting of the gospel seed. We've got to water it. We've got to nurture it. We've got to care. That's what disciplehip is all about. That's why we have disciplehip classes. That's why we talk about let's disciple someone. let's reach out and help them grow.

Because Paul was only there a year and a half of planting seeds and getting it sprung up and and then he had to leave and go somewhere else and do it all over again. And it was Paul's job, whoever would follow him or someone to come in there and to begin to water and to begin to help things grow. Cultivation is the soil of the soil, working that ground, pulling the weeds out, planting po or pouring the water on it, fertilizing, whatever. All these things are necessary.

But regardless, and here's the thing, of who plants it, regardless of who waters it, it is always God who gives the increase. It's always God. So then Paul continues in three and seven. So then neither is he that planteth anything. He says, "I'm nothing. I just did my job. I put the seed in the ground." Or he that waterth, Apollos, he just did his job. But here's what it is. It's God that gives the increase. When God gives the increase, God gets the glory. The carnality of the Corinthians saw only the promotion of men.

Well, I like him because he came and started revival. We had 100 people get saved. That's where I want to be. That's where who I'm going to follow. Somebody else said, "Yeah, but I like him because, you know, the church was doing this and that and and he came in and preached to us and he really got us to to doing what we needed to be doing and so I like to follow this guy." Paul said, "You know, it doesn't matter. His job's important. His job's important. My job's important. Your job's important.

All of us need to be working together as a church. Not for personal glory. not for what I get out of it. And if we're all working to bring God glory, we're not going to worry about the role that we play. We're not going to worry about glorifying one's gifting over another. He that planth, he said in verse eight, and he that waterth are one. So you've got divisions. You're saying, I'm of a Paul and I'm of Apollos. I'm of Peter. He said, we're all one and the same. We're working together. He said, "We are laborers together with God.

You are God's husbandry. You are God's building." Husbandry would refer to someone that owned vineyards. He said, "You're that. You're God's God's planning, God's crop. You're God's building. We're just labors working to bring it all together. But God gives the increase. Word together, we see it over again in scripture. Don't have time to go through all that, but but is there over and over. Paul closes out chapter 3 with a powerful statement. He said, "Therefore, let no man glory in men, not on Paul, not on Apollos. We should not boast.

We should not glory in human achievement. There should not be a party spirit favoring one over another." Paul's writings talk over and over about unity. God is the one that is in control. God is the one that gets the preeminence. Not a preacher in a pulpit, not a person in a pew, not a teacher on a Sunday morning. Nothing else should detract from the preeminence of Jesus Christ. Remember carnality will always promote self but what is spiritual will lift up Jesus. Let's stand. He goes on to say talk about it's only of God.

And then he said and you are Christs. Notice he didn't say you're mine because I started you as a church. He didn't say you're Apollos. You're you're Peters. He said you are Christ. The only that's the only area of ownership that is important. As we study first Corinthians, we're going to see that not only were they carnal and dividing by personality, they divided themselves up in all kinds of ways. There were some that thought they were more spiritual than everybody else. And so they kind of divided.

Well, you know, this is the group that does this and this is the group that does that. And they were constantly jockeying for position. They were desiring to be seen as spiritual and showing it by the spiritual gifts they're getting. I don't want to follow in those footsteps. That's why we're going to study this book of Corinth. Let's be a church that exalts Jesus Christ, that works together, that doesn't get all messed up because someone else got a role that you wanted. It says, "You know what? Let's let God work through us."

If you feel that way, just lift a hand and ask him to help us do that. Lord, help us to put aside divisions. Put aside anything that will rend or tear us apart. And let us be knit together in your kingdom to do what you have called us to do to be the church that you want us to be. Not for our glory, Lord, but that you would get the glory. That you would have the preeminence in all things. We pray in Jesus' name. Thank you, Savior. Thank you, Savior.