Greetings and Thanksgiving

Husky remain standing for the reading of God's word tonight and if you would turn with me to first contents chapter 1 verses one through nine. As we begin a new series tonight on the letter to Christians at Corinth. Paul's first letter first Corinthians the first nine verses tonight.

Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother sauce. The knees to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours, grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus in every way, you were enriched in him and all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord's prayer or our sin makes us blind to the depths of our depravity and often makes us blind to the heights of your grace to us as we walk through this ancient letter that you have preserved for us over the months ahead.

May we come to see both our own sinfulness and your grace with greater clarity.

Lord made that clear to drive us to to strive for holiness in our actions, to adore you. With sincere gratitude in our worship and pray you would send forth your word now, Lord, to accomplish what you intended to accomplish for our edification and for your glory. Pray in Jesus name, amen. Be seated. Having recently finished preaching through the book of James.

I've been spending a great deal of time. These last several weeks praying and thinking about what to preach next is always a difficult decision for me to make that mean after all, all of the Bible is important.

All of it is is crucial and an relevant and profitable. And so there's no wrong decision when it comes to picking a book or a topic from Scripture to preach through for me the decision really comes down to what portions of Scripture what what topics haven't been addressed or least not addressed recently in the life of our church because a preacher's goal of course is to is to preach the whole counsel of God.

So as I processed all of this.

I eventually settled down on the book of first Corinthians, primarily because it hasn't been asked positive from start to finish, at least in recent years here grace, but as I began doing some initial preparatory work on and I began to get enthusiastic quite excited about how relevant help pertinent the subject matter really is. Paul addresses topics in this letter that come up sometimes on a weekly basis at Grace Church so I'm anxious to discover what God would have us learn and how God would have us grow as we spent time in this book of first Corinthians.

The next question in terms of preparing a lengthy sermon series is deciding how to divide it up how to divide. In this case.

16 chapters into meaningful accessible sermons and the temptation. I think when it comes to preaching through New Testament letters us to overlook or ignore or at least rush through the opening verses in order to get to the good stuff right the body. The meat of the letter the greeting with which Paul begins most of his letter sometimes seems perfunctory. It kind of seems peripheral it doesn't always seem like these opening verses are are worthy of a sermon and of themselves, because it's not always readily apparent that that these opening verses really add much to the logical argument of of the letter as a whole. However, these openings often contain important clues regarding the intention and the emphasis of the main argument of the letter. The main body of the letter. This is particularly true of Paul's epistles. It's as if the opening statement of a letter preps and primes us and to receive all the details that will be spread out over the course of the next several chapters. So the case of this epistle. First Corinthians. There is a noticeable point of emphasis in the opening greeting and that point of emphasis is the grace of God towards his church. I don't like that there's a deadline for us to turn in our sermon titles because the sermon title is kind of the last thing I do when I'm writing a sermon. And yet the greetings is due on Wednesday and the sign in all these things need a title and so I usually just make something up and hope it's somewhat close to what I'll actually be preaching when it's time to preach.

If I had it to do over again I would name this sermon. Grace ironically because that was the same sermon that Doug preach this morning. Evidently the Lord wants us thinking about grace today.

The point of emphasis in these opening verses of first Corinthians is the grace of God towards his church.

Paul through his missionary endeavors establish many congregations all around the Mediterranean Sea and some of those congregations were the apple of Paul's. I am a work full of godly selfless Christians. The church at Corinth was not one of these that they were a dysfunctional church. If ever there were one and yet Paul loved them because God loved them so this letter Paul is going to contain some pointed and and direct words of correction. Paul's missing some hard things which is why this opening statement, with its emphasis on the grace of God to his church is so important, Paul is not excommunicating Corinth is not writing to them as if they have no part in Christ. On the contrary, he's affirming them in Christ so that he can say the difficult things that need to be said. The starting point of his letter is an attempt to frame everything that is to come in the light of the grace of God to an undeserving people, you know church any interaction that we have with the word of God is just like that isn't it is grace being given to the undeserving. We like Corinth have our own issues are stumbling blocks are our blind spots are areas of faithlessness and we like Corinth are recipients of undeserved unlimited divine grace. What we see, sprinkled through these opening nine verses then are several glimpses of that divine grace.

In fact, there are at least seven glimpses of grace that I like for us to consider tonight and in considering these Paul wants us to do to learn to think less of ourselves and to think more of God's grace. So let's look at these seven glimpses of grace. The first one is seen in the fact that we have received an authoritative declaration of the gospel an authoritative declaration of the gospel.

Verse one says Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Paul begins his letter by declaring his status as an apostle.

Now, this isn't Paul trying to brag, he simply saying you must listen to what I have to say because God has made me a witness and the messenger of Jesus Christ. If Paul was an apostle, then we must listen to him as if were listening to Jesus is not because Paul is great or preeminent or the head of the church. It is because the truly preeminent one the true head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ chose 12 men to be his eyewitnesses, his spokesman after his earthly ministry was completed.

The Holy Spirit inspired these men to speak and and to write words that carry with them the full authority of the triune God and that authoritative declaration of the gospel is very much an act of grace on God's part towards us. I was disputing with the lady a few months ago about a particular moral issue that Paul addresses in one of his letters, but that is an explicitly dealt with in the four Gospels, and she didn't really like what Paul was asserting so she said to me why believe Jesus not Paul. I hope you realize that for the believer. That's not an option. Aside from the fact that there is no discrepancy in Scripture between the Gospels and in the rest of the Bible. The apostolic witness to Christ in the Bible is just as authoritative as Christ's witness of himself and not only is it authoritative it is gracious is gracious because it's God's means of revealing the gospel message to us. We must listen to Paul because he is an apostle and he's an apostle, because God in his grace has chosen to give and preserve for the church in authoritative and Eric witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul's very calling as an apostle is an indication of God's grace to his people. There's another glimpse of grace we see in verse two. While Paul is called to be an apostle. We, the church are called to be saints and and here's the grace and that not only are we called to be saints to be holy. We are also called saints got attributes to us the status of sanctified even before we've achieved sanctification. Verse two, to those sanctified past tense in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, we need to notice is a verse to convey something we are and something were supposed to be becoming words sanctified and saints share the same route. They both refer to holiness. Set apart. This Paul says we are holy and that we are to be holy. This communicates both the status that we already enjoy as well as a behavior that were expected to be pursuing it simultaneously makes a theological statement about us while making an ethical demand of us, like in the Old Testament when Joshua was told from the other side of the Jordan that he already possessed the land of Canaan and at the same time he was told to go and take possession of the land of Canaan. We are called saints. We are also called to be saints to act like who we are and both this calling, and this status are the consequences of the grace of God. God doesn't call anyone outside of Christ, the St. is a call anyone outside of Christ, the holy one, he reserves that designation for those whom he loves with an everlasting love. The church, the bride of Christ. The saints who are made holy in Christ. This call to holiness is going to come up a lot in Paul's letter to the Corinthian Christians and so he begins by establishing the fact that there called to pursue a sanctified life is grounded in the fact that God already calls them saints yet another glimpse of divine grace. The third reality in which Paul highlights the grace of God to his saints is in the fact that, as followers of Christ, we have fellowship with the church universal.

We have fellowship with the church universal.

Those who have been designated by God as saints are not some isolated insignificant ragtag band of Christ followers know we are numbered among those who verse two in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours having received saving grace we now belong to the assembly of the upright to the body of Christ to the family of God to the household of faith to the pillar and ground of truth to the temple of God for the very bride of Christ in this noble gathering of saved centers extends all the way to the ends of the earth and all the way to the beginning of time theologians refer to this as the catholicity of the church that we often confess our faith corporately here. Grace church using the apostles Creed which says I believe in the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints and all, often in the in the worship God put an explanatory*on that word Catholic because I'm afraid we have come to associate that word at too much with the Roman catholic church than with the biblical concept of catholicity of the true church. The word Catholic with a little seat simply means whole or complete or universal. It describes the reality that followers of Christ are united in Christ despite their cultural or geographical or historical differences. So to say that I believe in the holy Catholic Church is another way of saying I believe that the local church, which I'm a part grace church in Harrisburg, North Carolina in the PCA in the year 2021 is not fully representative of the whole body, for whom Christ died. It's bigger than that is more glorious than that the true Catholic Church stands across denominational barriers across language and cultural distinctions across geographical borders, even across eras of time. The catholicity of the church acknowledges that Christ's bride is bigger and broader than my personal and limited experience. Now, does that mean that there are no limits to the bride of Christ know there are people even whole religious sects that are outside of the true Catholic Church by virtue of the fact that they lack the biblical marks of a true church so don't mean that everyone who claims to be a part of the church is a part of the church only mean is it Christ bride extends beyond my local church. My local culture. My time in history. So what is all that matter what. What practical difference does it make the church is universal. Well folks, it means that the Christians in Afghanistan who are suffering are our part of our suffering we share in their suffering. It means that when our Methodist brothers and sisters are fighting for the purity of their church at the denominational letter level, it matters to us.

It means that when a sister church. General Presbytery is this unified in an crumbling we desire and pray for their preservation and restoration.

Why because the church of Jesus Christ isn't just a grace church thing. It's a universal and eternal and Catholic thing we are together in this right alongside all of those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord. Paul is going to address the importance of unity in the church. In this letter. In fact, very next sermon take up that very topic. So he begins laying the groundwork for that unity in these opening verses by reminding the Corinthians that one of the implications of divine grace is that it makes us a part of something that reaches far beyond our little provincial neighborhood.

It's part of the grace that God gives verse three gives us yet another glimpse of grace. Paul tells us in that little phrase Grace to you and peace from God tells us that grace leads to peace, we receive the grace of God which leads to peace with God of grace and peace is the standard greeting in Paul's letters as well is in the letters of Peter and John.

What's interesting is that the apostles invented this phrase by taking the conventional Greek greeting of the day and it was a word in Greek that sounded a whole lot like Grace does in Greek and combining that with the conventional Jewish greeting of the day, which was the workpiece and so they essentially co-opted these two customary greetings, a Gentile one in the Jewish want to make an entirely new Christian greeting 101 us not to miss is how this new Christian greeting, grace and peace conveys a very simple and explicit theological points. Notice how this new greeting contains the message of the gospel in just three words. Grace and peace. Grace, by the way in all of Paul's letters comes first. Peace always comes after grace that makes a theological point doesn't God sovereignly pours out his favor on sinners like us and this favorite disgrace leads to peace.

But understand, though, that the workpiece here doesn't refer to some kind of generic inner feeling of of tranquility know. It describes a much more profound sort of peace.

It's the equivalent of the Hebrew word shalom a word that refers to a restore relationship between God and man. As a result of righteousness being imparted so to say, peace be with you in this sense, is to say, may you be right with God. And may you enjoy the fruits of that right relationship to notice how the gospel is conveyed in in this simple greeting. May God give you grace that leads to peace with him.

It's shorthand for the gospel in its Paul's prayer of blessing over his church. Just another glimpse of the grace of God in these opening verses in verses four through eight in Paul transitions from his greeting of the Christians at that client to a statement of thanksgiving in which he lists several reasons for being thankful regarding the Corinthian church and even in this Thanksgiving section, we continue to see glimpses of divine grace that have been shown to God's people. Paul begins his Thanksgiving in verse four by saying I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus before we look at the specifics of Paul's words of thanks we might just pause here and ask a question, because we've already read the letter we know what's in first Corinthians we know what's coming.

We know that Paul doesn't commend much regarding the practices and attitudes of the Christians at court so we might be wondering when when Paul says here. He always thinks God concerning them is, is he being facetious when is he really genuinely thankful for this group of carnal minded believers and in their foolish choices in their idolatrous values. But notice how Paul frames his thankfulness.

He says I give thanks to my God for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus. Paul's gratitude is a gratitude that is directed to God for the grace of God. It's been shown even to the likes of these Corinthians. Notice how he doesn't focus on some innate virtue within the Corinthians church but rather incessantly makes references to God's graciousness. Grace is mentioned in verse three. Grace is mentioned again in verse four, verse seven mentions the gifts that the Corinthians have received a network gift there in verse seven is a derivative of the word grace. Even the word thanks itself in verse four is a compound word that means good grace. Paul's expression of gratitude is not primarily extolling the Corinthian believers.

They are certainly the recipients the beneficiaries of good things will Paul's gratitude over and over again is directed toward God for the rich grace that he has poured out his people at Corinth is aim here is not to make the believers in court feel good about themselves. It's to make them aware of and grateful for the divine grace they boarded and shown the gist of Paul's Thanksgiving is that the gospel has proven to be effectual to the church here in Corinth and this is particularly amazing in light of the sins that Paul would deal with in the letter. In spite of these sins, in spite of these blind spots and failures. The redemption in Christ that belongs to these Corinthians is so certain to Paul that he is able to describe even them as a sanctified saints and enriched in all speech and all knowledge, and not lacking in any gift and guiltless and called into fellowship with Jesus Christ our Lord's amazing they can speak of this church. That way, one theologian said not only the churches which bring him unmixed joy, such as the Philippians. Invite regular Thanksgiving on Paul's part, but even troublesome court for the very existence of their faith as Christians outweighs any personal inconvenience, disappointment or anguish which their less than appropriate attitudes and at times lifestyles also bring. So Paul continues giving us glimpses of divine grace, even in the Thanksgiving section here in verses four through seven God's grace to his people is demonstrated in the giving of various spiritual gifts, the church including the church at Corinth is enriched or equipped with gifts verse five that confirm into union and communion. In other words, these gifts from God make it abundantly clear that believers are united to Christ and united to each other through Christ all will address the matter spiritual gifts at length. Later in the letter, but he does give an example here of the kind of gas for the kind of enrichment. The Corinthians had received.

He says in verse five.

They were enriched in all speech and all knowledge.

In other words, they were given an ability to understand the gospel very thoroughly, and to articulate it extremely well at other people. There were given a clear knowledge of the gospel through Paul's witness to them and they were in turn able to clearly and eloquently bear verbal witness to that same gospel to others. Now, once again, I think were tempted. If we know the rest of the letter to ask whether Paul was being sincere at this point, knowing that in the very next chapter is going to be dealing with the particularly Greek idol of sophistry and lofty speech. The Corinthians loved human knowledge human wisdom and rhetoric and he's encouraging them now with the fact that they've been given this gift of enriched speech and knowledge, but at the beginning of chapter 2 is going to challenge their love of rhetoric and human logic.

Paul is not being insincere. Remember he's an apostle speaking and inspiration of the Holy Spirit when he criticizes the Corinthians. Later in the letter. He's not criticizing the gifts they've been given.

Rather, their misuse of the gifts. The gifts themselves are actually commendable and that their expressions of God's grace to his people is interesting on on a bit of a side note, someone is pointed out that it's it's it's fascinating to compare Paul's words of thanksgiving here with his Thanksgiving and other epistles and discover what he leaves out in his letter to Corinth in the opening. For example, to his letter to to the Roman church. He gives thanks that their faithful witness to the to the gospel when out like a beacon and was proclaimed in all the world and is opening to the Christians in Thessalonica. He gives thanks that their faith sounded forth like a trumpet blast everywhere in his letter to the Philippians, Paul gives thanks that the church there had shared an effective partnership with Paul in proclaiming the gospel to the lost, but in Corinth, he merely gives thanks for their knowledge and eloquence, not for their effectiveness or humility in using that knowledge and eloquence.

The Corinthians, may have been squandering the gift but they had the gift. Nevertheless, it had been given church God has blessed us with faith and abilities that are intended to magnify his grace in us. We don't always use those gifts as we should. And we don't we need correction but the gifts are ours. Nonetheless, and this then is yet another glimpse of the graciousness of God, even to the most undeserving. The next glimpse of grace is seen in the fact that we have a new attitude toward Judgment Day, new attitude toward Judgment Day. The latter part of verse seven says as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now there are different kinds of waiting.

My kids were talking to me last week about how dreadful it is to wait for discipline when they know it's coming. They do something wrong Lara or I tell me going the room till we come in. So they're sitting there waiting and knowing that the Swift sword of justice is on its way. That kind of waiting is radically different from the kind of waiting a child does say on their birthday when it's not quite time to open their presents. Verse seven is describing the act of waiting in this second sentence, it implies an eagerness and anticipation and excitement, a sense of expectancy for Judgment Day to come. How can this be how can sinners wait eagerly even longingly for Judgment Day was because they been shown grace of our professors at RTS said once that the test of a true or false.

Christian is his waiting for or dreading the revelation of Christ as your posture. What is your attitude towards judgment is one of longing or is it one of dread. If we've been shown divine grace. We have a new attitude toward Judgment Day.

But notice also, if we've been shown grace. We have a new status on judgment day. Verse eight Jesus Christ will sustain you to the end guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The reason we can eagerly wait for Christ's return is because we know that we will be found blameless on that day guiltless before the throne of God. So in verse six. Grace is demonstrated and that the gospel is confirmed to the Corinthians. But in verse eight.

Here grace is demonstrated in that the Corinthians, themselves, are confirmed before God on Judgment Day brothers and sisters. The message of these opening verses is clear. God has been gracious to undeserving people. And that knowledge erupts into praise for Paul in verse nine he says God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord. In the word faithful there in verse nine is in the emphatic position, a literal translation would be faithful! Is God. God has obligated himself to us by staking the whole covenant of grace on his character not on hours and because of this he will see it through to the end, he is faithful to keep his word.

Therefore, he will faithfully lavish grace on the redeemed and Paul begins this letter by using that scandalous grace as leverage to motivate the church at Corinth to repent and obey and love and serve with sincerity.

The Holy Spirit uses that same grace. The grace we've been shown to motivate us to repent, where we are sinning to obey what God calls us to do to love and serve those from Christ has died.

I think the objective of these opening verses is to put us in the right frame of mind for dealing with our flaws are blind spots or sins as we deal with the imperfections and shortcomings of our own church. We need to not forget who we are in Christ and who is keeping us in Christ God is faithful God is incredibly gracious suppose as descendents of Adam. It's it's one of the lingering effects of the covenant of works hanging over our heads, but I think we have a tendency to fight sin by wallowing in the laws condemnation and when I say wallow.

I mean we do exactly what Roman six tells us not to do were told in Romans six to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God to not let sin reign in our bodies to make us obey its passions and that sin will not have dominion over us since were not under the law but under grace and we have a tendency to ignore all of that so that we can guilt ourselves into obedience. The problem is that for the center. There is no obedience outside of grace, flogging ourselves with the law is not the pathway to humility section of the pathway to self-righteousness.

It's a stubborn refusal to acknowledge that in you dwells no good thing, apart from Christ, God's incomprehensible grace. On the other hand, is the biblical motivation for repentance and obedience and love and service. Paul would have us reform what needs to be reformed in our lives by starting with a long hard look at the magnitude of God's grace to us.

A grace that calls us to sainthood, even while treating us as if we are already saints grace that surrounds us with fellow pilgrims for the journey. The Catholic Church like minded sinners saved by grace, grace that puts us on speaking terms with our creator because it imparts a righteousness that leads to peace grace that confirms in us that we belong to Christ, and will belong to Christ all the way through Judgment Day to be able to deal with the things that Paul is been addressed in this letter are starting point must be an acknowledgment of our own inadequacy and of the magnitude and sufficiency of the grace of God. God is gracious and God is faithful so we can depend on him to sanctify the saints spring. Heavenly father, thank you for your grace to us grace that we we can't come close to comprehending, but a grace that we know will keep us secure and keep us blameless to the end.

May the peace that that realization brings spur us on to pursue holiness in the way you intend us to pursue holiness in a way that depends on you and glorifies you, or forgive us for underestimating your love and the power of your grace in us. Thank you Jesus for making us saints by giving us your righteousness. Thank you Holy Spirit for imparting that righteousness to us. Father, son and Holy Spirit. We look to you to keep us to the end Jesus name, amen