(#002) 1 Corinthians - Saints SinYou can't undo the cross.
Welcome To BARAH MINISTRIES a Christian Church Rory Clark Pastor-Teacher
Good Morning!
Welcome to Barah Ministries…a small, intimate, and local Christian Church with worldwide impact.
My name is Pastor Rory Clark.
At Barah Ministries, we know that Jesus Christ is God. As our Lord He is 100% Deity…He is God the Son…as Jesus Christ, He is 100% true humanity…He is our Savior. Barah Ministries makes a difference by teaching the Word of God from the Lord Jesus Christ’s perspective, and not from man’s perspective.
How our God sees things is very different from how people see things. So instead of trusting what man has to say about God, we prefer to learn what God says about Himself and His plan for mankind in the Bible…His Word…the inerrant Canon of Scripture.
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON - Saints Sin
LESSON INTRO
Everyone in the human race is born a sinner. Romans, Chapter 5, Verse 8 says…
ROMANS 5:8 But God the Father demonstrates His own unconditional love toward all mankind…in that while we were yet sinners (while we were unrighteous, ungodly, unbelievers) … Christ died (a sacrificial death) for us. At physical birth, all members of the human race are ungodly, unrighteous, and sinners as their very identity. But at the moment of salvation…at the moment any member of the human race becomes a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ…God makes them saints. Look at Paul’s introduction to First Corinthians…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:1 Paul, called (as a “sent man”) to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God…and Sosthenes our brother…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:2 …to the church belonging to God that is in Corinth…to those who have been sanctified (set apart as possessions by God…placed) in union with Christ Jesus…called to be SAINTS (thus, no longer sinners)…together with all those in every place who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…their Lord and our Lord…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:3 …grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
One of the things Christians have to come to terms with is that SAINTS SIN! When Christians (saints) can’t come to terms with the fact that they sin after salvation, they start making up or believing non-biblical, man-centered observations about why this may be happening. False teachers question the salvation of Christians who sin after salvation, all the while knowing that they sin after salvation. They’ll say that a Christian who continues to sin after salvation has a “head belief but not a heart belief.” In other words, they start “splitting hairs” about faith, making unnecessary distinctions between things when there are no differences at all. The Lord Jesus Christ has this to say about people who “split hairs” in Matthew, Chapter 15, Verses 7 to 9…
MATTHEW 15:7 “You hypocrites! Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you…”
MATTHEW 15:8 “‘This people honors Me with their lips…but their heart is far away from Me.’”
MATTHEW 15:9 “‘But in vain do they worship Me…teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’”
Faith is expressed when we take God’s word for something…when we place our confidence in Him and His Word…when we simply believe. Imagine telling a small child their name, and when they accept it as their name, we ask, “Okay do you have a head belief or a heart belief that this is your name.” This is absurd, and it is equally absurd when we split hairs about any aspect of the truth of the Word of God.
As we begin our study of the apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, which deals with issues of sin in the Corinthian Church, we’ll be looking in a mirror. Why? Because as Christians (saints) we sin, and we’ll find that we have done or are doing many of the same abhorrent things the Christians in the Corinthian Church were doing.
In today’s lesson, we’ll remind ourselves that we are no longer to think of ourselves with old thinking when we hear God’s Word. Instead, we are to think of ourselves with the new thinking of a new testament. Welcome to a place where you can learn to study the Word of God without beating yourself up.
SONG INTRO
The next artist reminds us that planet earth is not a Christian’s home… Philippians, Chapter 3, Verse 20…
PHILIPPIANS 3:20 For our citizenship (as believers in Christ) is in heaven…from which heaven also we eagerly wait for (the return of) a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ…
As believers in Christ, we know that the trials of this life have a purpose in God’s plan…they take us to the spiritual gymnasium. Therefore, we exult in our tribulations, knowing that they bring about perseverance, proven character, and absolute confidence. Here’s Laura Story with her beautiful song BLESSINGS.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
BLESSINGS Laura Story
OPENING PRAYER Let us pray...
We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…
Father, thank you for providing Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians so that we can examine our lifestyles…thank you for letting us know how much You hate to see us committing personal sins…thank you for always providing the way to escape personal sinning through the use of Your power…
Help us to realize, as we hear about the sins committed in the Corinthian Church, that not much has changed for Christians today…as saints, we still sin…keep our focus on the ways You are changing us…encourage us not to dwell on our past mistakes…help us instead to learn from our mistakes and to be comfortable with who we are and who we are not…help us to be comfortable with what we have done in the past and with what we have failed to do in our lives…all the things that have brought us to this point…
…we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name...Amen.
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON - Saints Sin
Paul’s letter to the Romans is the sixth book of the New Testament. We have just completed a seven-year study of this letter which is the foundational book of biblical Christianity. Romans teaches us what to believe (faith in Christ alone for salvation) and how to behave (the do’s and don’ts of being a Christian).
I can't know how many of the four hundred and eighty lessons you listened to, but if you now listen to one a day for a little over a year, God the Holy Spirit will have put inside of you an amazing primer on how to live.
God wants to get across to you, through the letter to the Romans, a few critical things. First, you are loved unconditionally. Romans, Chapter 8, Verses 38 and 39…
ROMANS 8:38 For I (Paul) am convinced that neither death nor life…nor angels nor principalities…nor things present nor things to come…nor powers…
ROMANS 8:39 …nor height nor depth…nor any other created thing…will be able to separate us believers in Christ from the unconditional love of God the Father, which comes from being in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.
Second, you are forgiven…Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 1…
ROMANS 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in union with Christ Jesus.
Your sins have been completely forgiven in the past, and the result is they stand forgiven forever. God has nothing against you. Do you have things against yourself?
Third, you are resident in the sphere of God’s grace…Romans, Chapter 1, Verse 7…
ROMANS 1:7 (This is Paul, writing) … to all who are the beloved (the divinely loved ones) of God the Father…resident in Rome…called as SAINTS (a term referencing believers in Christ)…grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now an insight…if you have studied the book of Romans, then your evaluation of yourself now must be different than it was before you studied Romans. When you truly know…in the depth of your soul…that you are saved…that you are loved by God unconditionally…that you are forgiven by God forever…that you reside in a sphere of grace where you are free to learn by making mistakes…as a good student, you have put away the imaginary rubber hose you use to beat yourself up when you make mistakes. You now know that you are, and always will be a nothing, and therefore you stop expecting perfection from yourself. You know that God has already made you perfect in His eyes by imputing His own righteousness to you at the moment of salvation. As saints, we sin, but God has us covered!
With that in mind, we are now going to study about a church of saints that are sinning. The apostle Paul is asked to address the situation. Let’s answer a few basic questions that Pastors ask themselves as they begin the study of a new biblical letter.
Who wrote the New Testament letter First Corinthians?
The apostle Paul
Where was Paul when he wrote the letter?
He was in Ephesus
Corinth is a city in Greece, about fifty miles from Athens.
ROME…CORINTH…EPHESUS MAP
What is the culture of Corinth like?
It is a mix of Greek Tradition and Roman Modernism…it is a city of “haves” and the “have nots”… it is a materialistic, sexual, elitist, and “worldly” city…a place people would go to get rowdy and to let loose. It is a city of commerce. It was a city with a smorgasbord of religious practices designed to tickle people’s ears. The city was the home of many cults. It was the perfect city to practice lasciviousness and immorality. If it were a United States city it would have the same reputation as cities like Las Vegas (sin city) or New York (a city of commerce where anything goes) or Atlanta (the home of some of the most “sophisticated” strip clubs). We would joke about the city, “What happens in Corinth stays in Corinth!”
When did the apostle Paul start the church at Corinth?
It is believed that Paul started the church at Corinth on his second missionary journey, around 50AD during a time described in Acts, Chapter 18, Verse 11, which says…
ACTS 18:11 And Paul settled in Corinth for a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them.
The Corinthians accepted the gospel message…they were Christians…they began to learn the Word of God from Paul. When the church was firmly established, Paul continued on his missionary journey to the city of Ephesus in western Turkey. To quote Actress Isabel Sanford who played the maid named Tillie in the classic movie, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” as soon as Paul left Corinth for Ephesus … “All hell done broke loose now!”
When Paul left, Satan, the enemy of God introduced worldliness into the church. Some of the more faithful members of the church contacted Paul with a series of questions to highlight some of the terrible things that were going on in the church.
Why is Paul writing to this church?
To correct the errors…the sins…that have been reported to him. To put Paul’s job in biblical terms, Paul is writing to REBUKE and to REPROVE the members of the church at Corinth. A Pastor’s job according to Paul in Second Timothy, Chapter 4, Verse 2, is to…
SECOND TIMOTHY 4:2 …preach the word…being ready to preach in season (when people want to listen) and out of season (when people don’t want to hear it)…to reprove… to rebuke…and to exhort…with great patience and instruction.
Pastors have to REBUKE congregations.
REBUKE To express strong disapproval of actions…to warn of the consequences of unwanted actions
Pastors have to REPROVE congregations.
REPROVE
To correct someone when they are off course
What is the structure of the letter First Corinthians?
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, like Romans, contains sixteen chapters. In the first six chapters of the letter, Paul illuminates the problems that have been reported to him. In the last ten chapters of the letter, Paul offers biblical solutions to the problems. Here are some of the problems…
THE PROBLEMS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH
1. Disunity 2. Sexual Sins (Like Incest and Consorting with Prostitutes) 3. Lawsuits
THE PROBLEMS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH
4. Marital Problems 5. Idolatry 6. Worship Problems (including conduct during the Lord’s Supper)
THE PROBLEMS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH
7. Spiritual Gifts 8. Thoughts About Resurrection 9. Giving
I asked you to begin our study of First Corinthians by reading the whole letter so that you could get the “lay of the land” … so you could see how the letter lays out. In chapters seven through sixteen, you’ll see Paul use the term … “now concerning” … as he is answering the problems he has been asked about.
When we return from our five-minute break, we’ll take the offering and then we’ll continue our look at the first chapter of the letter.
FIVE MINUTE BREAK Unconditional Love Donna Summers
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON - Saints Sin
How do we use the money you contribute to Barah Ministries? About thirty percent of it goes to rent the facility in which we worship. About forty percent of it goes it various expenses of the church like insurance, security, website, and equipment purchases that allow us to broadcast lessons worldwide via the internet. About twenty percent of it goes to a salary for the Pastor. If unexpected expenses come up, the Pastor's salary is the first thing to go. For example, when we hired a company to do social media for us at the beginning of this year, the Pastor’s salary paid for it. The Deacons and the Song Worship Leader at Barah Ministries do not get a salary for their work. Their work is, and always has been, completely voluntary. In the way we use funds, Barah Ministries is unique. We appreciate your generosity and we assure you that the funds you contribute are well managed. So please be generous as God inspires you.
Let’s welcome us Deacon Denny Goodall with the offering message.
THE OFFERING Deacon Denny Goodall
OFFERING VERSE
FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
OFFERING SONG THERE IS NONE LIKE YOU David Bauer, Instrumental
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON - Saints Sin
SONG INTRO
In the Christian Way of Living, shame is a wasted emotion. Hebrews, Chapter 4, Verse 13 says…
HEBREWS 4:13 And there is no creature hidden from God the Father’s sight…but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Since our God knows us so well, we are free to be ourselves with Him…as Ana Laura tells us in her song…COMPLETELY.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
COMPLETELY Ana Laura
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON - Saints Sin
Welcome back! Let’s take a look at First Corinthians, Chapter 1…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:1 Paul, called (as a “sent man”) to be an apostle of Jesus Christ BY THE WILL OF GOD…and Sosthenes our brother…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:2 …to the church belonging to God that is in Corinth…to those who have been sanctified (set apart as possessions by God…placed) in union with Christ Jesus…called to be saints (no longer sinners)…together with all those in every place who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…their Lord and our Lord…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:3 …grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:4 I (Paul) thank my God the Father always concerning you…for the grace of God the Father which was given you who are in union with Christ Jesus…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:5 …that in everything you were enriched in union with Christ Jesus, in all speech and all knowledge…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:6 …even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:7 …so that you are not lacking in any gift…AWAITING EAGERLY the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:8 …who will also confirm you to the end…blameless (free from condemnation and accusation) in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:9 God the Father is faithful…through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:10 Now I (Paul) exhort you, brethren (fellow believers in Christ), by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:11 For I (Paul) have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:12 Now what I mean by this is that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.”
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:13 Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:15 …so that no one would say you were baptized in my name.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:16 Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas…beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the Cross of Christ would not be made void.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:18 For the word of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing…but to us who are being saved it is the power of God the Father (divine omnipotence in action).
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:19 For it is written, “I (the Lord) will destroy the wisdom of the wise…and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.”
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God the Father made foolish the wisdom of the world?
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the Father the world through its wisdom did not come to know God…God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:23 …but we preach Christ crucified…to Jewish unbelievers a stumbling block and to Gentiles unbelievers…foolishness…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:24 …but to those who are the called ones, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God the Father and the wisdom of God the Father.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:25 Because the foolishness of God the Father is wiser than men, and the weakness of God the Father is stronger than men.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:26 For consider your calling, brethren (fellow believers in Christ), that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:27 …but God the Father has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God the Father has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:28 …and the base things of the world and the despised God the Father has chosen, the things that are not, so that God the Father may nullify the things that are…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:29 …so that no man may boast before God the Father.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:30 But by His doing you are who are in union with Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God the Father, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:31 …so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
This passage must confound false teachers. In verses one through nine, Paul makes it clear that he is writing to believers in Christ, a group of believers engaging in appalling immorality. Yet Paul is saying that this group of Christians is “confirmed by God to the end…blameless…free from condemnation and accusation…in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” How can this be? If saints keep on sinning after salvation, how can they be blameless? As we study this letter, we’ll learn to never underestimate the power of our magnificent God, of whom Abraham speaks in Romans, Chapter 4, Verses 19 to 21…
ROMANS 4:19 Without becoming weak in faith Abraham contemplated his own body… sexually dead since he was now about a hundred years old…and he contemplated the deadness of Sarah’s womb (his wife was barren)…
ROMANS 4:20 …yet, with respect to the promise of God (that Abraham and Sarah would give birth to a son…Isaac), Abraham did not waver in unbelief…but grew strong in faith…giving glory to God…
ROMANS 4:21 …being fully assured that what God the Father had promised, also He was able to perform.
We’ll continue our study of First Corinthians in the next lesson.
GOD WANTS YOU! Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life
The closing moments of our study are for the benefit of anyone who does not have a personal relationship with the Sovereign God of the Universe, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We want you to know that GOD WANTS YOU.
How often do you think about eternal things?
It’s easy for human beings to be concerned only with the here and now… a concern with the things that busy us in our time on earth…a concern with the things that are temporary. Yet we know that nobody gets out of this life alive, so there is the question of what people call “the afterlife” … the things that happen after we die…the things eternal.
How often do you think about eternal things?
The bible tells us that God's enemy, Satan, is the one who deceives us into being short-sighted in matters like this. Satan wants to keep our focus on temporary things so we don't prepare ourselves for eternal things. First Peter, Chapter 5, Verse 8 warns us to…
FIRST PETER 5:8 Be of sober spirit…be on the alert. The adversary…the devil (Satan) … prowls around like a roaring lion…seeking someone to devour.
Satan busies us with things that distract us from eternal matters. He diverts our attention to meaningless things. For example, the bible tells us how easy it is to be deceived by material wealth, a problem that pervaded the church at Laodicea. Revelation, Chapter 3, Verses 15 to 18…
REVELATION 3:15 “I (the Lord Jesus Christ) know your deeds…that you (like the water in your homes) are neither cold nor hot…I (the Lord Jesus Christ) wish that you were cold or hot.”
REVELATION 3:16 “So because you are lukewarm (like the water in your homes) … and neither hot nor cold…I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
The Lord is not fond of indecisiveness. He doesn’t want us to be oblivious.
REVELATION 3:17 “Because you Laodicean believers say, ‘I am rich…and have become wealthy…and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are (spiritually) wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked…”
REVELATION 3:18 “…I (the Lord Jesus Christ) advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become (spiritually) rich…and white garments so that you may clothe yourself (not the black wool that gave you material wealth)…so that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed…and I advise you to buy from Me eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.”
Material wealth often blinds us to our spiritual poverty. We think only about now and not about eternity. What is it that the Lord wants us to see? Matthew, Chapter 6, Verse 24…
MATTHEW 6:24 “No one can serve two masters…for either he will hate the one master and he will love the other master…or he will be devoted to one master and he will despise the other master. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
The Lord wants us to see the two ways to get to heaven. The first way to get to heaven is to be perfect like God is perfect because God demands perfection from us. Material wealth can't buy perfection, nor does it buy a relationship with God. Are you perfect enough to get into heaven?
Once we sin, we are no longer perfect according to James, Chapter 2, Verse 10…
JAMES 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point (he breaks one law) … he has become guilty of breaking the whole law.
Once you realize you’re not perfect enough to get into heaven, the only other way to get to heaven is by means of God’s grace, which is free of charge. In John, Chapter 14, Verse 6, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said…
JOHN 14:6 …to the doubting apostle, Thomas, “I am the way (to salvation), and I am the truth (through the Word of God…the gospel message), and I am the resurrection life (eternal life)…and no one comes to God the Father (in heaven) but through believing in Me.”
Once you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, God makes you perfect. At the moment of your salvation, the Lord imputes His absolute righteousness…His perfection…to you. Accepting the Lord Jesus Christ’s grace gift of eternal life saves you. As a result of the Lord’s work at the Cross…the work that paid for the sins of all mankind, including yours…sin was eliminated as a barrier between you and God. Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verse 21 says…
SECOND CORINTHIANS 5:21 God the Father made Jesus Christ who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in union with Him.
So, if you are imperfect, and you are if you don’t have a relationship with Christ, you can be made perfect by God…your admission ticket to heaven…by asking God the Father to credit your account with real wealth… spiritual wealth…His own righteousness…His own perfection. Having God’s righteousness makes you spiritually wealthy. God will honor your request, when you ask for His righteousness, and you will be saved. Acts, Chapter 16, Verse 31…
ACTS 16:31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”
John, Chapter 3, Verse 36 warns…
JOHN 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has the resurrection life right at that moment… but he who does not obey the command to believe in the Son will not see the resurrection life…instead the wrath of God (the Lake of Fire) abides on him.”
John, Chapter 3, Verse 17…
JOHN 3:17 For God the Father did not send God the Son into the world to judge the world…but God the Father sent God the Son into the world that the world might be saved through Him.
Who is this God who saves you? The apostle Paul describes the Lord Jesus Christ…in First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verses 3 and 4…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:3 For I (Paul) delivered to you as of first importance what I also received… that it was Jesus Christ who died for our sins according to the Scriptures…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:4 …and that He was buried…and that He was raised from the dead on the third day…according to the Scriptures…
Take the free gift of eternal life right now! There’s no time to waste! Just tell God the Father that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is the moment of perfection…that is the moment of eternal life…for you. NOW is the time to think about eternal things. God wants you. Real wealth happens when you decide to have a relationship with Him.
SONG INTRO
As we learned in this lesson, saints sin, yet they are saved and they can’t lose their salvation. How can this be? June murphy tell us in her song CAN’T UNDO THE CROSS.
CLOSING SONG CAN’T UNDO THE CROSS June Murphy
CLOSING PRAYER Let us pray...
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