Division Concluded Part 1: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 This is the words of Paul the Apostle. He got saved about five years after Christ died on the cross and ascended and he started preaching in Corinth in about 52 A.D. and wrote the letters in about 57. So, we are picking it up in chapter four. The first four chapters are focusing on division and he’s still addressing divisional members of the Corinthian church. He continues to warn them or alert them about their proud, arrogant thinking.

▶ 0:46 Remember, they were saying, “I’m of Paul, I’m of Apollos, I’m of Peter,” and one fourth said, “We’re none of those guys, we’re of Jesus.” One fourth of the people had it right. Okay, three fourths had it wrong. And remember, he got them for quarreling, being splitting and dividing into groups, being jealous of one another, thinking like a natural man instead of a spiritual man, being carnal, being babies and on the milk. After these several years, he said, you’re still on milk. You should be taking meat. And he says, you judge other ministers and other believers that you do not approve of. That’s what we read in the past three chapters.

▶ 1:38 And with motives that elevate your own pride in your beliefs, in your gifts that you receive from Christ. And remember, he said, if you receive them, what do you got to brag about? It’s the one that gave you these things that should be the one you’re praising. Remember all that? And he said, you’re distracting from Jesus Christ and the power of the gospel that gives you growth. And when we distract from the source of growth, how many of you know we stopped growing? Yeah. It’s not the church group. It’s not the minister. It’s Jesus, his gospel and the cross. That’s the power of God that changes our life causes us to grow.

▶ 2:31 Now, Paul is going to compare them in this verse eight and nine and the following verses. He’s going to compare their evaluation of themselves with real ministers of God. Did you hear that statement? He’s going to compare the two, the real ministers of God and their evaluation of themselves. Peter, Paul, Apollos and Jesus. They were the real ministers. So he says, you are full, you are rich, you reign as kings without us. And I would to God that you did reign, that we might reign with you. He says, in your mind, you are strong, you are full, you know, you don’t have any need. You have authority. He said, I wish you did have that authority. So we could have that authority with you to rule as kings.

▶ 3:32 He says, I think that God has set us apostles first or last. See, everybody wants to be first. Everybody’s wanting to be the top dog. In the kingdom, Jesus said, he that is greatest is servant of all, the lowest person. In the kingdom is one that serves the most and they are the one that has the authority. And the recognition works different in the kingdom. He says, us apostles are last. We’re appointed to death, ruin, for we are made a spectacle, a theater to the whole world, to the angels and to men. He says, but not you guys. You think you are full, you know, of food, you don’t need anything materially, you don’t need anything spiritually, you know, you’re rich, you don’t need anything materially, you don’t need anything spiritually. You guys in your mind, you got it together and us apostles are all wrong or our ministers are all wrong.

▶ 4:44 Verse 10, he says, you think of us and so does the world as fools, as foolish people with no common sense. You know, Peter and John gave up a good fishing business to go and preach the gospel. Well, that’s crazy. There’s no common sense. You do that to preach the gospel. You take a, you stop a good paying job like some have here in the church and take a low paying job at the church because you got a compassion for people to reach them with the gospel. You are an idiot. Yeah, that’s no common sense. See, that’s the way divisors, divisionary people think they got the answers and real ministers are just idiots.

▶ 5:47 And we are fools for Christ’s sake. We are thought of as fools because we choose to put Christ first and the things that he puts first first. He says, you look at us as weak, no great achievers. Yeah, we’re not out there making money. Yeah, we’re not out there, you know, being a hero in sports or a hero in the music industry or, you know, all this. You say we’re not achievers. Is this good? Yeah. And that’s the mentality of people that divide. We got to put down the real people.

▶ 6:29 He says, we’re despised. We’re looked down on without any honor. We get no respect. We hunger, we thirst, we are, we, we, we are naked. We go without clothing. We’re cold because we don’t have clothing to warm us. We’re beaten. And in Second Corinthians 11:23 through 28, he says. Are they servants of Christ, ministers of Christ? He says, I am more and I feel like an idiot talking like this, but I work harder. I’ve been in prison more frequently. I’ve been flogged or beaten more severely. I’ve been exposed to death again and again. Five times the Jews beat me. Three times I was beaten with rods.

▶ 7:21 Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a day and a night in the sea. I have been constantly on the move. I’ve been in dangers from rivers, from bandits, from my own countrymen, from the Gentiles, from in the city, in the country, in the sea, and false brethren. I have labored and toiled and have gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food. I have been cold and naked. And besides all of this natural stuff, I face daily the pressures of my concern for the churches.

▶ 8:01 Quite a lot different than these TV and radio evangelists, huh? They’re not suffering anything. In fact, they’re living high off God’s people’s money. With a gospel that isn’t changing people’s lives. You see, where do you hear anybody preaching? If you’re really going to be a minister, they’re going to take you to court. They’re going to put you in jail. They’re going to reject you. They’re not going to have anything to do with you. You don’t hear that. You said, “No, man, you be a minister. You’re the man of God.” You know, nothing’s too good for the man of God. But it didn’t happen back there.

▶ 8:41 Are you with me? If we compared ministers today to ministers in the New Testament, it’s a big difference. You know, our pastors today are successful if they got a new car. See, if the congregation buys them a new car, you know, and they got a nice house to live in and nice clothes. You know, that’s a sign that the church is successful. Paul’s saying that has nothing to do with anything. It’s the power of the gospel that has to do with everything. Isn’t this good?

▶ 9:23 And this is Paul talking. This is not your modern day church growth seminar teachers. This is Paul talking. He says, this is the way you look at us because we are experiencing these things. We don’t even have a place to live in. We got to sleep wherever people will give us a room or we have to sleep on the ground. They didn’t stay at the Hilton hotel. Like we hear today. But you’re wise. You think you are intelligent in Christ. You think you’re strong in body and mind. You think you’re honorable.

▶ 10:07 And you put us down. Verse 12. Now he’s saying the facts. Us true ministers. We labor with our own hands. Even above paying our own tithes. We use our money to reach people with the gospel. We don’t stop at tithe. And if the church can’t support us, we work to keep the gospel moving. Isn’t that beautiful?

▶ 10:48 My goodness today, if some of these churches saw their pastor digging a ditch at the church to repair something or painting a wall, they go, what are you doing? That’s for a layman.

▶ 11:07 He says, we are reviled. We’re spoken evil of. And when we’re spoken evil of, we give good words back. Wow. Did you hear that? He says, that’s the sign of a real minister. That’s the sign of a real believer that’s thinking right. Even when they’re spoken evil of and verbally abused, they speak back kindness and goodness.

▶ 11:46 Now I don’t know about you, but this is good stuff. See, this is the power that Paul is talking about, that God used to build the Corinthian church, the power of a moral, living, moral standard lifestyle of living and possessing the characteristics of God. Powerful. He says, we’re persecuted. We’re mistreated. And we permit it. Suffer means we permit it. We allow it. We just keep preaching to them. We just keep speaking the gospel. You know, we don’t retaliate back.

▶ 12:29 We are defamed. Defamation of character. I’ve gone through it several times myself. Nothing they could prove. They just wanted to challenge my character and say things that weren’t true. Defamation of character. We always try to build ourselves by putting down somebody else. He says, that’s what divisionary people do. That’s what babies do. That’s what carnal people do. You have got to come into the spiritual thing of this. We entreat. We encourage these that defame us by saying, come along. Let’s work together for the gospel and the spreading of the kingdom.

▶ 13:21 See, they’re asking for unity even when they are picked on. Has Paul got your attention? Now, is this Christianity? Yeah. This is real Christianity. He says, we’re made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of dirt, casting of dirt off of us like you wash off dirt, of all things, to this day. That’s how you people look at us. And yeah, you’re siding with Paul for your own advantage. You’re siding with Peter for your own advantage. You’re siding for Apollos for your own advantage. But then you in your bad attitude and your bad motives are knocking the other ministers and distracting from Jesus Christ and the power of the gospel.

▶ 14:09 And, church, he’s right. He’s totally right. See, dividers don’t work. They don’t spend their own money above tithes. They probably don’t even tithe to get the gospel out to others. Verse 14, “I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.” I warn you, I’m alerting you that kind of thinking, that kind of pride, that kind of motive, that kind of attitude is not good. He said, and I’m here to warn you, I’m here to alert you.

▶ 15:01 While you have 10,000 tutors in Christ, yeah, all you people get together and you tell each other about Jesus and you try to teach each other. He said there’s 10,000 like you, multitudes like you. You just talk. Your motives aren’t right. Your goals aren’t right. You just talk. You use Bible verses and you just talk. You got a lot of these kind of people talking, but you don’t have many fathers.

▶ 15:45 What’s a father? A father is the one that gives life. To a child without the man, the woman’s worthless. The father gives life and the father is also a parental guide to bring that child up to maturity. See, anybody can have kids in the natural, but not anybody sets aside the time and the labor to raise this child up in every stage to be a normal, well -balanced person serving God and asset to the community and providing from their own self when they get an adult.

▶ 16:37 He said, you guys are just talkers. You’re keeping people babies. You’re destroying the church. You need to listen to fathers. Amen. Go to a church because the pastor is going to flatter you. I can’t flatter my kids. I’ve got to be honest with them. This is a world where you got to work and it’s a tough world and it takes discipline and it takes responsibility. It takes an education. It takes a job training in the natural. It takes good hygiene and good eating habits. It takes a lot of things and in the spirit world it’s the same thing. It takes giving time to God, as Stephen said earlier, in prayer and in the Word and changing your life to represent what you read and that presence that comes when you pray. It takes work.

▶ 17:40 Paul’s good, folks. I’ve told you for 40 years, you can’t beat Peter, John and Paul as authors. There is no book that supersedes them. And these other New Testament authors. “I have begotten you through the gospel.” I’ve birthed you. See, Father’s birth, the gospel births. See, my opinions don’t birth. They don’t bring life to you. But the gospel births you. If you will receive it and embrace it, it will give you life that keeps growing.

▶ 18:27 See, when that egg and that sperm come together, that’s just, we call that conception. That’s the beginning of life. But in that beginning, there is the power to just keep growing into something beautiful and something useful. Amen. See, and just like people abort babies today, churches are aborting Christians. We’re killing them. After conception, we’re killing them with doctrines and stupid things.

▶ 19:11 So that they can’t grow anymore. Do you understand that? And the reason we don’t have any sensitivity for the unborn baby is because we don’t have any sensitivity for the Christian. See, Paul said the care of all the churches. We don’t care about people. We just want to make them feel good. Do you feel good about yourself? Are you happy? It’s got nothing to do with feeling good and being happy. It’s got to do with growing. And it’s the gospel, it’s the cross, and it’s Jesus that causes us to grow.

▶ 19:47 And when you distract from that and say, well, you know, I’m a Vineyard person. I’m a [unclear] person. I’m a Methodist person. I’m a Catholic person. Listen, you should never talk that way. It should always be, “I’m a Jesus boy. I’m a Jesus girl. I’m a gospel man.”

▶ 20:14 Hallelujah. And then he says, “Be followers of me.” And later, in the same book, he’ll say, “Be followers of me as I follow Christ.” He said, don’t follow one another. Don’t follow these little groups. Follow me. I’m a real minister. I am faithful. I have the mysteries of God. I live it. I speak it. And you can follow me. You can follow my lifestyle. You can follow what I teach that I live the lifestyle. Follow me because I’m following Christ.

▶ 20:55 And look at this. “My little children,” Galatians 4:19, “of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” So what’s the objective of the gospel? To form Christ in you so that you are a light to the world. A city set on a hill that everybody can see that imitates Jesus Christ.

▶ 21:36 See, the goal isn’t to be a believer. The goal isn’t to be a disciple. The goal is to let your faith and your discipline in Christ bring you to where Christ is formed in you. I don’t know about you, but when I read that verse as a young Christian man, that just really gave me tremendous hope because I was struggling living for Christ. And then that Holy Ghost came along. Wow, that was a big boost in my ability to say no to sin and yes to right. And then these scriptures, God is in me and he’s shaping me into himself, so I could accept where I was at while I was pursuing the goal.