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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
First Corinthians Chapter 3 this evening.
We'll be finishing First Corinthians chapter 3 tonight in
our message. Have you ever, maybe at a fair
or some other place? You ever played a game of Whack
A Mole before you ever played that?
Yeah, I, I remember the first time I played Whack A Mole, I
was a kid and we were at a fair or something like that, and my
dad had a camcorder. And some of you are old enough
to remember those camcorders. I'm not talking about like what
we have on our phone or even those little mini ones, the ones
you had to put over your shoulder and carry around.
You thought you were doing really good at a whole VHS tape
inside just to record. And I don't know why my dad
thought it would be good to record his five year old playing
Whack A Mole, but he did. So I remember this very well
because not because I necessarily remember doing it,
but because I watched the video so many times and you've seen it
before on the Midway or something like that, the buzzer
rings and all of a sudden those little moles start popping up.
You get that, you know that hammer or whatever it is and you
get the aggression out, you know what I'm saying?
And little 5 year old Adam was really excited to play Whack A
Mole. But when I watched that video
and I've watched it several times, I don't know where it is
now. That's probably for the best.
I was about a second too late on every single one of them.
And so up, down, pow, up, down, pow, up, down, pow, over and
over and over again. The next thing you know, about a
minute later, the buzzer goes off again.
And my dad zoomed in on the score, and it was 000.
And yeah, so it's like, these are why we have, you know, This
is why we record things, right, for these precious family
memories like this. I've gotten a little bit better
at it over the years, thankfully, but it's pretty bad.
But, you know, the whole idea of the whack A mole, something pops
up and you got to hit it before it pops back down.
You know, I feel like First Corinthians chapters #1 two and
three, Paul has been playing whack A mole, if you will, with
the issue of division within the church.
Because, you know, we'll be preaching for a few messages.
We're reading through these first 3 chapters.
And there comes this idea of division and he whacks it down.
And then we read a little bit more in a few chapters or a few
verses later, the idea comes up again that they're divided.
I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollo's, I'm of Cephas, and I'm of
Christ. And Paul wax it down again.
This has been happening directly or indirectly throughout the
first 3 chapters of this book. Well, we're going to get to the
place tonight where the buzzer is about to sound.
I mean, the closing buzzer in the sense that not the book is
about to end, but really this discussion that keeps popping up
over and over again about divisions within the church.
And Paul is going to make one more mighty strike against it.
And this is going to be the one that's going to really finish
the discussion. And it's important because Paul
really wants to get across the idea that if you live life with
a certain mindset, if you live your Christian life thinking a
certain way, that the idea of divisions really should be not.
So that if as a church even more specific, that Paul's not just
talking to random Christians, but he's talking to the church
at Corinth. That if a church behaves itself
in such a way that if a church decides that they are not going
to have divisions, that they won't be divisive, that that can
be achieved through what Paul gives us here.
In fact, there's going to be kind of an equation that we're
going to see that if you don't want division, then there's some
things you need to subtract from your life.
If you don't want division in the church, well, there's some
things that not just you, but that all of us have to subtract
from our lives. So we're going to read about
this starting at verse #18 And it says this, Let no man deceive
himself. If any man among you seemeth to
be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be
wise. For the wisdom of this world is
foolishness with God. For it is written, he taketh the
wise in their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knoweth the
thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
Therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours,
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world, or life or
death, or things present, or things that come, all are yours.
And look at this. And ye are Christ, and Christ is
God. So while it may not be readily
apparent from what we just read, Paul makes it clear that the end
of division is all about subtracting some divisive
thinking in our lives, that there's some mindsets that have
to be totally eradicated if we're going to be unified as a
church body. And, and after all, if we're
going to be a church and we're going to gather together and
we're going to be together three times a week, I mean, isn't it
good that we're unified? All right, good.
You agreed with that. I was a little bit worried about
how that was going to go. All right.
But isn't it? And it's not just effect.
Well, as long as we're going to be together, we might as well
get along. No, it's more than that.
We are here together espousing that we believe in Jesus Christ.
We're saying that we're Bible believers.
And so aren't we not to just live out the Bible together?
And if we can't live out the Christian life together here,
how on earth are we going to do it out in the world where people
are constantly trying to test us and anger us and trying to get
under our skin? Listen, if we can't do it here,
where can we do it? And so Peter Paul, not Peter
Paul is going to give again that last final hit to this issue
that just keeps to seem popping up over and over again.
And he says there's three things that we need to subtract if we
don't want to be divisive within the church.
There's three things that we ought to subtract.
And again, if you have a prayer, then you can write these down on
the back of that bulletin. And the first is this subtract
all worldly wisdom. Now this has come up again over
and over again in chapter 1, chapter 2 and chapter 3, hasn't
it? That really wisdom is all about,
well, the Lord is that that knowledge is coming from the
Lord, that knowledge is all truth, and that wisdom is
knowledge applied rightly. And that there is a form of
wisdom that may seem to be wise, but it's not really wisdom that
the world has this idea that it's so wise and it's so
knowledgeable, but yet we see over and over again that it's
quite the opposite. So our text tonight starts with
this. Let no man deceive himself.
And, and the verbiage there where it talks about let no man
deceive his self. If you were to, to look at it,
the verbiage there really states that really that they're already
deceiving themselves and they need to cut it out.
It's not just saying necessarily that this is a preventative
measure. And really the, the whole idea
of what we've read so far in First Corinthians gives us that
idea. They think they're being wise.
Lies. And he says this.
Stop fooling yourself. Stop kidding yourself.
You think you're doing well. You're not doing nearly as well
as you think. You think that you're wise, but
you really aren't. And really, that's a great way
to explain the wisdom of the world today, isn't it?
No, I'm not talking about the wisdom from the Word of God.
I'm talking about the wisdom of the world.
The wisdom of the world thinks that it is so intelligent, and
it really isn't as smart as it thinks it is.
What do we see from academia? Academia has a disdain for
anything else other than worldly wisdom.
Do you want to bring up what the Bible says about the creation of
the world? Do you want to bring up what the
Bible says about morality? Do you want to bring up what the
Bible says about even archaeology and history?
Because we see there's truths about those things in the Word
of God because, well, whatever the Word of God talks about is,
well, truth. And you try to bring those up in
academic holes today. And what do you get?
A nose that's turned up? You get someone that'll laugh at
you. Oh, you believe that old book
was like, well, I believe that old book a whole lot more than I
believe the books that they're pushing on us today.
And when those books they're pushing on us today disagree
with this book. Yes, I do disagree with those.
Why? Because it's worldly wisdom.
Hollywood regularly shows a disdain for Bible morals and
Bible standards. What do they say?
Oh, you live as a believer. Oh, oh, you believe that, that
there's just one God. You believe in Jesus Christ,
that he's not a curse word, but rather he's someone to be
honored and to be worshipped. No, Hollywood has no time for
that. What do they do?
They pat themselves on the back. They have big galas like they do
even just last week or a few weeks ago where they walk down a
carpet and they all pat each other on the back and they all
talk about how wonderful they are.
But what do we find out in the end?
It's all worldly wisdom. And you start to talk to some of
those people in those quiet moments.
You start to talk to some of those people when they're not in
a pack all together. And they will start to admit to
you, as they have throughout history, that that life they
live is pretty empty. That's why they roll through
substances. That's why they roll through
marriages. That's why they roll through
work after work, after work situation, because they don't
want to stop and think about how really unfulfilling their life
is. You say, well, pastor, if I had
that much money, life would sure be fulfilling.
Well, if money life was about money, it would be fulfilling.
But life's about a whole lot more than money.
And they've come to find out that they might be signing rich
contracts, but that's just worldly wisdom.
That's not the wisdom that comes from the Lord.
We see over and over again that the world has this idea and
they're and they're haughty about the worldly wisdom that
they have. And you know, those of us who
are old fashioned enough to believe the word of God.
And again, I keep using that word old fashioned, but I don't
even like to call what we believe old fashioned because
what we believe from the word of God is not about a time period.
It's not about an era. It's not about when we live.
It's really the timeless truths of the word of God.
They don't change depending on society.
They don't change depending on the era or the time period.
No, what the Bible people says today is as true as it was the
day it was penned in, the day that it was inspired of the Holy
Spirit. And that's what we are to
believe. This wisdom, this worldly wisdom
is dangerous. And it's like a poison that at
almost the lowest, most undetectable levels as such,
that if you're not careful, you can digest it for a while and
you don't even realize it until you've taken in enough that it's
got you. James talks about this in James
chapter 3 verses 15 and 16. This wisdom descendeth not from
above. What's what?
It's earthly, it's sensual, it's devilish.
For we're envying and strife is there is confusion and every
evil work. Now listen, I'm not telling you
to be afraid of the world tonight and the world's wisdom.
Listen, we need not be afraid of the world and the world's
wisdom. Listen, the Bible says greater
is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
We don't need to be afraid. But I will say this, you better
be wise in your own thought process, not the worldly wisdom,
but the wisdom that comes from God meaning this, that you need
to be aware that this thought process is out there.
You need to actively avoid this. Listen, you don't need to be
influenced by worldly wisdom. Listen, there are times that you
might have to say, you know what?
This influencer, it's even in the word on social media.
This influencer, I don't need to be influenced by him or her.
This podcast, I don't need to be influenced by him or her.
This television show, I don't need to be influenced by it.
These books, I don't need to be influenced by it.
You say, pastor, you just don't. You just think we just need to
read the Bible all day long. Well, I would say this.
That's not necessarily the case. But if we did, it wouldn't hurt
us. But I also say that when we do
consume these other things that we ought to make sure that it's
not in violation of this word. Why?
Because all wisdom comes from God.
And yes, there are those who are outside of a church building
that can speak truth, but when they speak truth, it's only
because it comes from God. Because he is truth.
No, no, he's not just the, he's not just the espouser of truth.
He's the literal embodiment of truth.
His very essence is truth. There is no error in Him.
And So what do we see? No, no, all worldly wisdom, you
got to put it off to the side. Let no man deceive himself.
If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him
become a fool that he may be wise and said, listen, if you
think that you're wise and worldly wisdom, you need to
smarten up. That's what he says.
You know how you smarten up? You become a fool.
The Greek word for fool there is moross.
So you just made the connection. I didn't have to make it.
That's great. But basically it, it says this,
that fallen man's best wisdom is moronic compared to God's
perfect wisdom. That God's perfect wisdom is
everything and anything else pales in comparison.
And even Paul understood this because he said in First
Corinthians chapter 4, verse 10 basically says this, we're fools
for Christ. He said I'm willing to look like
a fool to the world. I am willing to let myself out
there. I am willing to just say the
truth. And if it makes me not be
respectable, then it makes me not be respectable.
But I'm just going to speak the truth because of what it is.
Listen, if we go outside of this building and tell people what we
believe from this word, people will think that we're one of
those people all those years ago that had those sandwich board
signs and it's walking out there and it's like the world's going
to end. The world's going to end.
And listen, I'm not saying the world's going to end.
I know this it will end one day. But that's not the message that
I have for you. We found out yesterday that the
world was supposed to end. You hear that?
Some. Did you all hear that the
world's supposed to end yesterday?
No, I missed it. Yeah, you missed it, Rick, but
we're still here. What happened?
You know? So.
But that's worldly wisdom, is what I'm saying.
And what do we get? No.
We seem like we're the lunatics
going out there. But listen, we can't diminish
the message. We can't drop the flag.
We can't dim the light because we might look like kooks out in
the world. Why?
Because we really get down to it.
Who are the ones of the kooky ones?
I mean, I can go right down the line of all the things the world
says is normal that we know is not normal.
And we're the ones that say, oh, we better just not give them the
whole message. They might think we're crazy.
Let them think we're crazy for Christ.
You know, I know I'm not talking about trying to be a lunatic for
the sake of being a lunatic. I mean, I well, some of you
just, we could bow our heads, have the invitation right now.
How many of you? No, never mind.
But what I'm saying is this, just speaking truth will put you
outside of the norm in the world.
But that should not 'cause us diminish speaking the truth
because we're afraid of that. Listen, there are times we may
need to soften our tone, but we never need to soften our
message. You know what I'm saying?
Soften our tone. And it says, I'm not talking
about being soft, but I'm saying, but we don't need to be
pointing our fingers in someone's face and tell them no,
no, I think we need to show him Jesus Christ.
We don't diminish the message one bit, not one iota, but when
you show Him Christ and then Paul in verses 19 and 20, he
uses some Old Testament verses to explain this principle.
Look at verse #19 it says this. For the wisdom of the world is
foolishness with God. I think that just reiterates
what we're just talking about. Ford is written.
I'll stop there for just a moment.
And I want to remind you, just a Bible reading principle, a Bible
studying principle. When you're in the New Testament
specifically and you see Ford is written, what does that mean?
It was written somewhere else before it's being read right
there before it's being written right there.
So you can go into a concordance, you can find cross
references if your Bible has them, and you can just find out
where that was written. And the text that Paul is
talking about is Job 513. And what does it say in Job 513?
He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
You see, no matter how clever the wise are, God will still
catch them in their own craftiness, no matter how much
the world. It's as if the world is setting
a trap with their wisdom. But they don't realize that the
prey is them because they teach these types of ideologies.
They teach these types of thought processes, but they come
to find out that the goal at the end of the rainbow is actually
an empty pot. They teach you to follow your
heart until they realize that the heart is evil and
desperately wicked. And who can know it?
And they get to the place where they realize this isn't exactly
what I thought it would be, but that's the world's wisdom.
And it says, listen, the world will get caught up in the snare
of their own wisdom. That was true in Job's time, in
the patriarchs. That's true now.
It'll be true till Jesus comes back.
And it says this in verse #20 again, the Lord knoweth the
thoughts of the wise that they are vain.
You know that word vain? We use that word vain a lot.
Usually when we use the word vain, we use that it's saying
don't take the Lord's name in vain.
But you know that word vain when we say it's really the word
empty, meaning this don't make God's word, the word of God
empty. If you're speaking the name of
the Lord, it ought to have some real meaning behind it.
So that's not just saying necessarily, Oh my God, because
I believe that's very clearly taking God's name in vain.
But there are other ways we can make light of God's Word, and we
shouldn't do that or God's name. But it says here that emptiness
the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, the thoughts of the
wise are empty. The world's wisdom, you mount it
all up. It says if God took his cosmic
scales out, if you will, and he weighed all of the world's
wisdom against his wisdom. And spoiler alert, he wins every
single time. Do you realize that you have the
wisdom of the world in your hands this evening?
Now, I know there's other things that we need to learn about.
I understand that we go to school.
You don't just study the Bible, but there's other things that
you need to study as well. But listen, even all of that
learning branches out from biblical truths.
Do you know why 2 + 2 = 4? Because there's some immutable
truths in the world. You say 2 + 2.
I mean, nobody would question 2 + 2 = 4.
Have you been around the last few years when people would even
question the very basics of logic, the very underpinnings of
society, the very underpinnings of of mathematics and and
science and language? No, all of it.
It's worldly wisdom. It's to be discarded, to be able
to be said, no, this is not what it is.
Imagine the Boston Public Library.
I, I go there every once in a while to study, and it's a
wonderful place to study. I love the reading room.
That's unlike pretty much anywhere else that you could go
to be able to see just how ornate, how beautiful it is.
I was just looking this up. The, the Boston Public Library
has somewhere around 10 million books.
That's just at Copley Square, about 10 million books.
A repository of the world's wisdom.
But you're better off with what you have in your hand right now.
And I'm not saying that every book in the library is wrong.
I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that God's
wisdom is supreme and the world's wisdom should be
avoided. And when you're not sure if
something is God's wisdom or the world's wisdom, you know how you
find out? You check it out from the book.
Because this is the arbiter of what is wise or not, not your
feelings or my feelings or society's desires or the latest
polling from whatever company it is.
No, no, whatever God's Word says it is.
And so any kind of worldly wisdom, he says, get it out of
your mind. Stop thinking about it.
Don't, don't entertain it. Don't allow it to enter into
your mind, your heart, your thought process.
Make sure it's not on your phone.
Make sure it's not on your television.
Make sure it's not on your computer.
Make sure it's not seeping through the cracks of your
walls. Whatever you do, subtract the
world's wisdom. But we also see this not just to
subtract world's wisdom, worldly wisdom, but if we are to make
sure we're not divisive as we ought to be, we're also to
subtract all glory to man. Any kind of glory that goes to
man just needs to be discarded. Look at verse #21 just the first
few words there. Therefore, let no man glory in
men. I mean, I think that covers it,
huh. We live in a society really.
It's a an issue that's crossed. I imagine all societies where
man worship is at its peak to extol the virtues of men.
One commentary is reading said this.
We are more excited about being with the influential and famous
of this world than about being with God.
We value the gifts and honors of men more than the gifts and
honors God gives. How we need to hear.
Let no one glory in men. Man worship is a real thing.
Someone has even just a very minute amount of celebrity to
them. What does man do?
They flock to him. Everybody wants to know them.
Everybody wants to know all about them.
They want to know what they do with their lives.
That's why there's shows like Entertainment Tonight and Access
Hollywood and those, because we want to know what the stars eat
and we want to know what the stars drink and we want to know
what they drive and we want to know all the intimate details
about their life. And really, a lot of it is,
well, who cares? They've made a living lying to
us. Also called acting.
What are they doing? They, they're just playing a
part of the stage and they do so and it's filmed or they play a
part on the stage and people go and see it in the theater and
all of a sudden that that makes them to be of a greater level
than someone else. No, why do we do that?
But it's, it's something that's been done throughout the ages.
We're always trying to elevate other people.
But here's the problem. It's not just about glory being
given to other men instead of to God.
If we're not careful, we like to get the glory.
It's nice to get a little bit of glory, isn't it?
It's nice to be noticed. It's nice to be seen and listen.
It is good to be able. Somebody does something nice for
you, you should compliment them. You should thank them.
You know what that is? That's just Christian kindness.
But I will say this, if you live life to get those attaboys, then
you're probably trying to take glory that belongs to the Lord,
that doesn't belong to you. Well, do they know what I did
for them? Well, the only reason you could
do anything for them was because God gave you the strength to be
able to do that for them in the first place.
So maybe we ought to just say, when someone does bring us
glory, what do we do? We reflect that glory to where
it belongs to the Lord. Often times people will say
something to me in a complimentary fashion.
You'll hear me say something like praise the Lord, praise the
Lord. And I try to say that, not
flippantly. I try to not say that in a vain
or empty way. Why?
Because really, if you find something praiseworthy of me,
where'd it come from? Listen, I know the pastor of
this church. I know him.
I know my flesh. Listen, if you find something
good in me, if you find something valuable within me, if
you find something helpful within me, listen, the glory
doesn't go to me. It belongs to Him.
And I'll tell you where divisions start to happen, where
people start to give glory to people who don't deserve it.
And people want to receive glory when they don't deserve it and
people start getting bent out of shape.
Listen, I've seen it in churches over and over again.
You know, the pastors that I gravitate to, quite honestly,
the elder pastors, the elder pastors that I gravitate to are
the ones that have pastored big churches.
But you wouldn't actually know they pastored big churches
because they just act like, well, God's servants instead of
celebrities. Maybe you've heard Sam Davison
preach here before. He was my pastor for Diane's
pastor for four years while in Bible college.
He was Kaylee's pastor for one year.
Still, no, he's not dead, but he's retired.
So Brother Gaddis is your pastor.
Anyway, moving on to where I was anyway, so he's our pastor for
four years. I mentioned that.
All right, I need a drink of water for a second.
All right, sometimes the mouth moves faster than the brain is
engaging. And some of you've been long
enough to say, yeah, pastor, you didn't have to explain that.
We already know that. So our pastor for four years
pastored somewhere around 1718 hundred people any given time.
You know what? I could always talk to him if I
needed something. And you know what?
I thank the Lord that when I'm around him, I don't feel like
he's big time. You know why?
Because he knows who he is. I'm just a servant of the Lord.
Tatos had an opportunity to meet a, a couple, a Christian couple.
They say, hey, don't they look like Christians at a hotel?
And they said they started talking and, and it ended up
being Carter Folgers grandparents.
And we talked for a while and they got to meet him and, and,
and the, and the Folgers, some of you met the Folgers when they
came over here in, in June and they went and I think, I think
they were your Uber drivers for a few days, weren't they?
They're driving you around all these different places and all
that stuff. And just just I, I mentioned
him. Do you know, he pastored a
Church of around around 2000 people or so.
And you know, never was the aura.
I use that word lightly, but you understand what I'm saying.
Never was the the the idea that this was a big time person.
Why? Because Kevin Folger, a Sam
Davison would tell you if we did anything.
Thank worthy. The glory belongs to the Lord.
That type of attitude you can see on a man and on a woman,
that type of attitude. But when you have a church and
listen, I've seen churches of 15 people where there are people
that walk in and think they're big time.
And it's like, listen, you're just a servant.
And if you are at a Church of 1500 and you walk in, you're not
big time. Because are any of us big time
compared to the Lord? He is the great one.
We are the created ones. We we are the ones that are are
unworthy, that we're sinners on the road to hell until he saved
us. Listen, glory goes to him and
not to us. And, and when glory starts to be
given and received and place doesn't belong, that's where
fractions and factions start to occur.
James 3, verses 8 through 10. But the tongue can no man tame.
It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
Therewith blessed we God, even the Father, and therewith curse
we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
Out of the same mouth proceeded blessing and cursing.
My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
Listen, we can't bless the Lord and then turn around in His
church and not bless His creation.
We better make sure that we are on the same page.
And that means that we give glory to where it belongs.
It belongs to Him and to Him alone.
Don't take His glory. So if we want to make sure that
we are not being in a type of divisive situation, what do we
need to do? Subtract the worldly wisdom.
We subtract the the glory that goes to man.
And then #3 in case you're not sure where we go from here,
subtract all other allegiances. Everything else.
That's it, you say, pastor. Everything else.
Well, follow me for just a second.
We just stopped in verse #21 in the middle of the verse.
But we really need to continue to the second-half verse #21 and
then read #22 and 23 All things are yours, whether Paul or
Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things
present or things to come, all or the all or yours.
Now it means this. What it's saying here is this.
Why would you just glory in one man?
Why would you just glory in one group of men?
Why would you just glory in one subset of creation?
Why would you just glory in one thing?
Why wouldn't you just glory in the one who created it all?
Why would you just give that glory that all belongs to him,
to Paul or Apollos or Cephas or life or death or anything else?
Listen. Don't just give glory to this
one. Listen.
All are yours. All of it belongs to you in the
sense that you are a created being yourself.
God has created all of this. So what do we do?
We look at it and say, God, I can't give glory to any of these
one group of people or any of these individual things.
God, all the glory belongs to you.
All my allegiance, all my everything.
I'm not aligning myself with Paul.
I'm not aligning myself with Apollos.
I'm not aligning myself with Cephas.
I align myself with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Now listen, I'll say this this evening.
Well, yeah, I'm your pastor. I don't know if any of you knew
that, but yeah, I'm the pastor here.
I'm glad to be the pastor here. Your allegiance isn't to me.
It doesn't matter what man behind this pulpit that your
allegiance needs to be, not to the man, but to God.
That's the way it ought to be, I guess, where my allegiance needs
to be. Well, pastor, you to be on our
side. I love you all, but my
allegiance doesn't start with you.
My allegiance with him. You know why that's important?
Because if my allegiance is to you and not him, then my
preaching can reflect what I want you to hear instead of what
He says for you to hear. It would be easy for me to just
take the Word of God. Well, this guy may not like this
because I think he's living this way right now, so I'll delete
that. Well, she won't like this
because I know this is something she struggles with, so I better
not talk about that. And I can't bring up this issue.
I can't bring up that issue, or I can't bring up this doctrine
because there might be dissension.
I can't listen. When it comes to the Word of
God, when it comes to the preaching of the Word of God,
when it comes to whatever we do in the church, what do we do?
Our allegiance belongs to God and God alone.
You say, well, aren't we supposed to obey the pastor and
honor the pastor? And the answer is yes.
Oh, wait, that was a little too emphatic.
Probably I should calm that down a little bit.
Listen, has authority has been granted to me?
Yes. But where did that authority
come from? And who commanded you to follow
that authority? Are we supposed to obey the
government? Yes.
Where did that come from? God?
And what happens when the government gets out of step with
God's word? We ought to obey God rather than
man. Hey, I didn't make that up.
We're going to see that on Sunday that Peter was arrested
and he gets back out and they say stop preaching.
And he goes well about that. Jesus told me to preach.
You told me not to preach. My allegiance is to Jesus, and
that's where our allegiance is to Him and to Him alone.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't have an affection, a love, or
that even that we should obey those authorities who are around
us. No, no, I'm not saying that.
But I'm saying where does that authority come from?
Where does that authority stem from?
Where, where does that come from?
It comes from the fact that our allegiance is from God.
Listen, I think when your allegiance is with God, you
become better at obeying others. Listen, when you listen to the
Lord as you should, you ought to be a better citizen, you ought
to be a better employee, you ought to be a better church
member, you ought to be a better family member, whatever sphere
God has put you in. No, no, you're better at what
you're doing, even as you're following fallen man, because
you were really following a perfect Lord and Savior.
That's where it's all about. That's where it's at.
And it says this, Ye are Christ's.
That settles the matter, doesn't it?
You're Christ's. You are not your own.
You've been bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus
Christ. Well, I think that I, I think in
my life I should. Well, first of all, it's not
your life, it's his life that he's granted you and your
thought process, and my thought process is secondary to whatever
is in his word. Say, well, that that doesn't
make a whole lot of sense. Well, worldly wisdom would tell
you to strike it out on your own.
And how does that typically work out for people?
And in fact, I think a lot of us would have testimonies of times
in our life before we got saved and maybe even after we got
saved when we struck it out on our own because someone
whispered in our ear that there was a better way.
And what ended up happening? Did your life get better or did
it get worse? Why?
Well, because we didn't give our true allegiance to God and say,
listen, whatever you tell me to do, I'm going to do you're
Christ. And what does it say?
And Christ is God's Christ is our example in this.
Whatever he did in his earthly ministry, he obeyed the Father's
will. I'm gonna give you some verses.
Luke 249 And he said unto them, How is it that you sought me,
wished ye not that I must be about my father's business.
He's 12 years old. What did he say?
I got to be about my father's business.
And Joseph kind of probably went like this me and I imagine Jesus
said, no, not you. John 638 For I came down from
heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me. John 829 And he that sent me is
with me. The Father hath not left me
alone, for I do always those things that please him.
John 9, verse four. I must work the works of him
that sent me. Jesus was always about doing his
Father's will. And so it says right here,
Christ is God's, you are Christ meaning this.
What are we to do the Father's will?
All of our allegiance, all of our everything, all of our, all
of our breath, our blood, our sweat, our tears, everything.
We are what it belongs to him so we can bring glory to God.
No, no, your life isn't about bringing glory to yourself.
Your life isn't about self pleasure, self love, or self
congratulations or any of the things the world says.
No, your life is about this and this alone.
Bringing glory to God. You say, well that's an awful
way to live. It's the best way to live.
There is no other way to live because every time I bring glory
to myself, I mess things up. But when I just live, Lord, what
would You have me to do? He leads me in the paths of
righteousness for His name's sake.
And everyone loves to quote Psalm 23, but they don't like
live in Psalm 23. They like to quote Psalm 23 when
things are bad, but they don't heed the message of Psalm 23
that He will lead us in the right way in the paths of
righteousness for His name's sake.
Our allegiance are everything. It belongs to him.
Again, that's not to say that there are no other loyalties in
life, that there are no authorities in life, but it's
saying this. All of our loyalties and all of
our authorities stem from Him first.
So let's bring this back to the context of the church for a few
moments, in context of the church that we were just talking
about in the beginning, Corinth was divided.
They were a mess. They were broken up into all
these different factions. Paul is dealing with the final
word to division within the church, and the end of division
is subtracting divisive thinking.
These items, that subtracting worldly wisdom, subtracting
glory to man, subtracting all other allegiances, that when you
get to that place, that real true unity within a church can
be achieved. And why is it so important?
Because when we bring together many ideas, it only brings
confusion. But a single vision brings
results. Many ideas bring confusion in
the church house. Many ideas bring confusion, but
a single vision brings results. Jesus said this in Matthew 622,
that the light of the body is the eye.
If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body be full
of light. You know the world understands
this. A single vision.
I was looking this up, I couldn't believe this.
Do you know companies spend over $2.6 billion a year in the
United States on team building, You know, team building like
getting together and, you know, making sure that everyone's on
the same page. And sometimes they go out to
exotic locations or they do role-playing situations where
they talk about how to work through difficulties or maybe
they even go to a place where they can participate in
activities or games or stuff to bring everyone.
What are they saying? Listen, we want you to drop your
own ideologies and we want you to have one ideology.
When you're here, the company, the company, and by the way,
they're paying you. You probably ought to be doing
what the company's telling you to do.
This is the ideology, the company and and and the world,
even the world in their wisdom, and I use wisdom in quotes.
They spend a lot of money to make sure that everyone is
together and there's Fortune 500 companies that say this.
If we're going to succeed, we've got to be together.
Now listen, if that's for temporary worldly non entities
like that, how much more in God's church should we all be of
the same mind that we all are on the same page when when each
person comes into a church with their own agendas, their own
ways of doing things, the church cannot fulfill its mandate.
What's our mandate, the Great Commission that we're to reach
as many people as we can while we still have time, as long as
we are here on this earth that we're to reach as many people as
we can. And again, I know we have
different personalities. I know we have different thought
processes. I know we come from different
ways of living, but we check as much of that as we can at the
door where we we come in here and we say this, listen, when
I'm in this building, I'm reminded at every junction, at
every corner, at every thought process, I'm reminded I belong
to God. Everything that I do within this
church, and it should be this way outside this church too.
But when we're here together, it's all about him, not about
anything else. Jesus said this, you love me and
you love others and all of the law and the prophets basically
hang on that, you know, if you love God the way you're supposed
to, you would love others the way you're supposed to.
And if you love God as you show us to and others you're supposed
to. That pretty much covers
everything, doesn't it? It's why unity is so important
that we love each other the way that we ought.
Listen, there are times that petty squabbles in the church
house, they just ought to be ignored.
Just let it go. Proverbs 1911 says this.
The discretion of a man defereth his anger, and it is his glory
to Passover transgression. You know, the world takes the
smallest and magnifies it in the church house.
We ought to take those things that are bigger, and if we can,
we lessen them. But there are times that things
have to get taken care of, don't they?
There are times that there are things that have to be talked
about between brothers and sisters in Christ.
What do we do when we do that? We handle it in a way that
pleases the Lord. We handle it in Matthew 18 type
fashion where we go to someone who's offended us and we talk to
them like brothers and sisters in Christ.
If that doesn't work, we bring someone else with us to make
sure we can talk together because that's what Christians
are supposed to do. You say, well, I don't, I, I
don't really practice that. Well then you're practicing
worldly wisdom because the Bible says we're supposed to handle
things as he says, are you going to rule the Kingdom?
And you can't even rule amongst yourselves.
How are you going to do that which God has for you future, if
you can't even do what he's calling you to do amongst other
believers? We're going to find out later
that people in Corinth are taking each other to court.
They're suing each other. And basically, Paul says this,
listen, you're going to go to the world to handle your petty
squabbles. You're going to take two
believers and you're going to drag yourself in front of a
Pagan and let him decide your fate.
Why can't you guys, as believers who have the Holy Spirit inside
of you, figure it out? And that's what we're supposed
to do before we come to the church house.
Agendas are supposed to put off, be put off to the side.
Personalities should neither be reviled or revered.
Meaning this that someone's personality doesn't match with
us, that we don't revile them or have some level of disdain for
them. But if there's someone who our
personality does work out really well with, we don't Revere them,
meaning this. We talk to them and no one else
being this that you should be able to before church, after
church. I was about to say in the middle
of church, but don't talk in the middle of church, before church
or after church. Have a conversation with anybody
in this building and it ought to be blessed.
It ought to be good again. Do we get along Personalities
click better some with others, that's just natural.
But we all be brethren with one another and we ought to be able
to handle a conversation with one another.
This is church. Pride has to be put off to the
side. You know what kills most
churches is pride, pride and arrogance.
People that don't want to be wrong, they don't want to admit
they're wrong. They won't be rebuked.
They won't even be talked to in Christian love because they have
to be right. And there's nothing, there's
nothing godly about that. I'll say this, even our own
timidities and fears ought to be discarded as well, that we ought
to serve the Lord with gladness. Listen, don't be afraid to serve
the Lord in this building. I'll say that again.
Don't be afraid to serve the Lord in this building.
You ought to be able to sing in this building and know, hey,
you're amongst believers. Say, well, I don't have a good
voice. Well, you know what?
When we all sing together, it's a beautiful thing to the Lord.
It really is. Sing out, sing out.
Listen. If someone listen, if somebody
has a problem with your singing voice, guess whose problem it
is? It's theirs.
You sing unto the Lord. All right.
Now, I'm not talking about, you know, singing like you want
everyone to hear you. That's a pride issue, all right.
But I'm just saying sing, sing with joy and rapture in your
heart. You know that That's what we
ought to do. Don't, don't be afraid to listen
to to talk amongst the brethren and to, to give a testimony or,
or to do those things. Listen, If we can't support and
encourage each other here, who will?
It's OK that we can pray with one another and talk with one
other and serve with one another and do so without fear of, of
ridicule or any other thought. Man.
That's what we got to do. We got to work together.
And these things right here, they only enhance division.
If they're not taken care of when you subtract them, what
does it do? It brings unity.
I want to give you a Bible principle and reference to this
and we'll be done. I have a diagram here.
If you're watching online, you'll be able to see this in
just a moment as well. I got 3 church members here.
I don't know who they are, but it doesn't seem like they're
very unified. Look at how far apart they are
from each other. It's kind of like what's kind of
like a church service. People don't want to sit next to
each other, right? But these folks, they're,
they're not getting along with each other very well.
And these are, there's some disunity between these church
members here. There's some division between
these three people here. But when they come to church,
who are they supposed to be serving?
Supposed to be serving the Lord? Well, how do we bridge the gap?
How do we get these people to be unified in the House of the
Lord? It seems like it's
irreconcilable. And you know what often happens
at other churches? That people just give up or blow
up or something along that nature.
No, but what does God expect from us?
What does God want from us in this situation?
Well, you know what this church member needs to do?
The one at the end, the one on the left, they need to grow in
the Lord. You know what the church member
in the middle needs to do? They need to grow in the Lord.
Guess what? You know what the church member
on the right side here needs to do?
You guessed it. They got to grow in the Lord.
They got to grow in their relationship with the Lord.
This one growing in the Lord. This one growing in the Lord.
But here's something incredible.
When this one and this one and this one grow in the Lord, what
happens to them? They grow closer to each other.
They're not even worried about growing closer with one another.
They just want to grow closer to the Lord.
And as they grow closer to God, what do they do?
They grow intimately closer with one another.
By the way, this is a good principle for marriage too.
I mean, take out one of those, you know, because you got to be
clear about that nowadays, between a man and a woman.
Amen. All right, You got to get all
those things out of the way nowadays.
But listen. But the idea is you want to
improve your marriage is both draw closer to the Lord.
They're just naturally going to draw closer to one another.
So as we start to subtract some of these things from our lives,
what do we realize? We're drawing closer to God.
As we draw closer to God, we naturally draw closer to each
other. Do you know what make Liberty
Baptist Church the most unified church on earth?
I think we're pretty unified to this.
But you know what make this church so incredibly tight and
unified? Revival, a revival spirit within
our church. You can't help but love one
another. You can't help but care for one
another. Why?
Because we're all following the Lord.
And when we have that little bit of bad feeling within us, that
Holy Spirit that's inside that we're really listening to, we
realize, oh, I got to get that right.
I got to get that right with them.
And if somebody comes to you and wants to get something right in
the James chapter 5 style of manner to restore a brother,
then they will have the right attitude of saying, you know
what? I'm a little bit embarrassed
that you had to come to me. But thank you that you came to
me because I'm going to act like a mature believer and realize,
you know, that I'm not perfect and I don't even see this coming
until you brought to my attention.
But God use you, brother. God use you, sister, to bring
this into my life. Thank you.
But what, what could God do with a church that's unified like
that? What could God do with a group
of people that drew close to him and then just as a happy
byproduct, drew close to one another?
So with the point tonight, well, let's just hold hands and sing
kumbaya with each other. Well, no, because I don't want
to hold your hand and some of you don't want to sing.
So we Can't Sing kumbaya, all right.
And so we can't do that. The issue is not let's find
corny ways to get closer to each other.
Let's just truly and honestly get close to Christ.
Let's subtract the worldly wisdom.
Let's subtract glory that goes to man.
Let's subtract any other allegiance.
And if you do that and I do that, what happens?
We all grow unified together. Thank you for listening to this
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.