PAUL’S PREACHING TO THE CORINTHIANS
I have been thinking, dear friends, about these presentations of the glad tidings in the city of Corinth. God had interests there. God said he had “much people” there (Acts 18: 10), and, while there was opposition, God announced that He had many interests in the city of Corinth. Paul remained there eighteen months, which is a long time for him to be in a place, then he wrote two long epistles, which shows God’s interest in this locality of Corinth, and Paul in this fifteenth chapter begins the chapter by going over what he had preached to them, how he had presented the Saviour to them in Corinth. Now, that had been some time ago. It began at the beginning of the eighteen months and continued, I suppose, through these eighteen months, then he was absent, and things did not proceed as they ought to have. Like many of us, our Christian pathway has not been a smooth one. There have been ups and downs, a good deal of downs, and so it was at Corinth, but Paul recalls them to how they started. ‘If ye have started’, he says. He says, “unless indeed ye have believed in vain”. You know, it is a great matter to have a right start in the Christian way, to begin right, to have a solid foundation, to be sure. He says, “which I announced to you, which also ye received, in which also ye stand, by which also ye are saved”. These are very important matters. What have we received? Have we all received something? Have we all received the glad tidings? He goes on to say what the glad tidings are, but he raises this question. He says, “which also ye received”, then he says, “(if ye hold fast the word which I announced to you as the glad tidings,) unless indeed ye have believed in vain”. It seems to be possible to make a nominal assent to the glad tidings, to make a kind of superficial show, shall we say? But Paul questions them as he would question us all, “which also ye received”.
How do we receive? We receive by means of repentance. That is how we receive. The Corinthians who were real received by means of repentance. There is only one way, and that is repentance. He goes on to say, “Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures”. He is speaking to believers. But he says, “which also ye received”, and I want to emphasise we receive by repentance. We receive by acknowledging our true sinnership before God. We are sinners. Each one of us is a sinner and each one of us needs a Saviour. The Saviour is available, but it comes by way of repentance, and repentance is a deep work. It is the result of the conscience operating; it is the result of conviction. Have we all been convicted as to our sins? This is basic and very elementary, but it is extremely important that we start right by way of repentance, by way of conviction of being a sinner and of our helplessness, in need of a Saviour. The Saviour is available but there is a way in which the glad tidings are received, “which also ye received, in which also ye stand”.
There is stability in receiving by means of repentance, this inward work of conviction, of conscience and, of course, of heart too. “In which also ye stand”: that is we are to be in personal stability, assured that we have had to do with God. It is to God we repent. The Saviour is available, but it is to God we repent. It is God we have offended. It is God who has made a way for us by way of the glad tidings, but it is to God we repent. We have to do with God. We are His creatures and whether now or hereafter, we will certainly have to do with God and we receive by means of conviction and repentance.
“In which also ye stand”, there is something stable, something in our souls, that is going to stand against all the opposition, whatever it may be, persecution, reproach, or whatever it may be, “in which also ye stand, by which also ye are saved”. That is not only saved for heaven, which is very, very important, but saved in our daily walk down here “by which also ye are saved”. That is “received”, “stand, by which also ye are saved, (if ye hold fast the word which I announced to you as the glad tidings)”. “If”, he says, “if ye hold fast”. Well, if the work is real, if the work of conviction and repentance, God’s work, is real, then we will hold fast. We stand in stability and we hold fast to that. “Unless indeed ye have believed in vain”: a very solemn phrase that is! He would challenge them as to whether they were real, had made a real beginning, had a real foundation in their souls, “unless indeed ye have believed in vain”.
Then he says, “For I delivered to you, in the first place, what also I had received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures”. That is addressed to believers. “Christ died for our sins”. He died for the sins of believers. We cannot say in the same sense that He died for the sins of everybody although His propitiatory work is available for everybody, but Christ died for our sins. That is believers. What a thing to have in our souls that Christ died for our sins. Again it supposes that we own we are sinners; we own that we have sinned and therefore need to be forgiven our sins. “Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures”. That is, it is not an after-thought. It was foreknown, foreseen. From the very beginning God knew that He had the resource, the reserve. Right through the Old Testament He had the reserve to righteously be able to forgive sins. “Christ died for our sins,” - it is the Christian “our”, dear friend – “according to the scriptures; and that he was buried”.
Think of the Lord being buried! His death is one thing, His sufferings, His being abandoned by God, His sufferings on the cross, that was one thing, but to think of Jesus being buried! All the gospels tell us about His burial, being put out of sight. You know, only believers saw Him after that. Unbelievers never saw Him after He was buried. It was the end as far as they were concerned. He was buried. And He has been rejected since. He has been absent since. He was buried, buried instead of believers, “died for our sins”, and His burial is part of that, of that work. He was put out of God’s sight. Think of what it meant for God for Jesus to be buried: “and that he was buried”. Few words, but oh how deep is the meaning of them! It is simple language: “Christ died for our sins,” sins of believers, “according to the scriptures; and that he was buried”. A time is going to come when the Lord is going to be manifested, and He is going to shine. His glory is going to shine. But meantime He is absent. Meantime He is rejected. As far as the world is concerned, He was buried. He does not shine as a great hero in this world and, therefore, to be in keeping with that, with His burial, we do not expect to make a mark in this world. Our Lord is rejected. He was “buried”. There is some deep meaning in that. He was buried, put out of sight, great terminus in a sense, burial. Death is one thing, but burial is another. There is a kind of finality about burial. Not for the believer, of course, because he is going to be raised and not for the Lord Jesus because it says, “and that he was buried;” – I am impressed with that remark – “and that he was raised the third day, according to the scriptures”, “raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father” (Rom 6: 4), raised by God Himself, showing God’s infinite delight in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is where He is now as raised, “raised the third day, according to the scriptures; and that he appeared to Cephas” and these persons. There is ample proof here about the resurrection of Christ, that He is living. The fact is, dear friend, that a believer can say my sins were once on Jesus. He died for our sins. Each believer can say, ‘He died for my sins’. My sins were being borne by Him, but He is raised from the dead, and the believer can say, ‘My sins are no longer on Him and they are no longer on me either’. He is raised for our justification.
He died for our sins, raised for our justification. Wonderful thing to be justified. Justification is how God views the believer whether the believer knows it or not. God views the believer as justified. Because of his faith, his repentance towards God, his faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, God views the believer as justified and He gives the believer liberty to have the light of that, to know that he is justified in the sight of God. He is as much justified as Jesus is because Jesus once bore the believer’s sins, but He no longer bears the believer’s sins. He is free from these sins. Of course, He is! And the believer is free as well, “raised for our justification”, Rom 4: 25. To be justified is God viewing the believer, as testified, as if he had never sinned. Wonderful truth!
Well, all this is for our benefit, for our relief. We receive and we stand and we are saved and “Christ died for our sins … was buried .. raised the third day”. It is all for our benefit, and that is what the glad tidings conveys, the importance of being relieved, the importance of knowing entire relief and liberty. This is all for our benefit. We read elsewhere that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”, 1 Tim 1: 15. That is the purpose for which He came. And this is fulfilled here. And these believers can be in the good and benefit of why “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. Well, this is for our benefit, and I would like to emphasise the importance of it that we stand as having to do with God, as those for whose sins Christ has died, was buried and raised again. We need to be assured, to receive and stand and be saved in the light of what the Lord Jesus has accomplished for each one of us, for our blessing. This is for our blessing and our relief, our encouragement.
Now in the second epistle it is not only for our benefit and for our relief, but it speaks about the Son of God, “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, he who has been preached by us among you (by me and Silvanus and Timotheus). The Son of God brings in a different idea. It is not only what there is for us. 1 Corinthians 15 is the benefit we received, and I would emphasise the importance of each one of us having the benefit and being in the good of what the glad tidings would have in mind for us , for each one of us. Again I say, “received, in which ye stand, by which also ye are saved”: it is all for our benefit, for our salvation, daily salvation, encouragement, hope: all we need is available to us in the glad tidings.
But then the Son of God comes from God. It is a question of relationship. It is God’s Son, God’s ideal. He has come not only to save sinners, not only to be of benefit to sinners, but He has come that there might be some result for God. The Son of God has in view some result for God, some result for God’s glory, for God’s praise, to secure souls for the glory and the pleasure and the will of God. The Son of God has the will of God in mind. It is incidentally, of course, blessing for us, but it has in mind what is to be secured for the pleasure of God. Paul writes in this epistle about “the assembly of God” (chap 1: 1), for instance, “God’s temple” (chap 6: 16), the kingdom of God. (I don’t think there are any references to the kingdom of God in 2 Corinthians) It is a question of what is for God, what is for His pleasure now. The kingdom will be established in the future, publically, but it exists now in persons down here and it is not only for our relief, it is for the pleasure and for the glory of God, for God’s service, that there might be an answer to God. After all, you see, God made man. Man is the specialty of God’s creation, not angels. Angels are incidental. The … of angels are incidental. The great purpose of God is mankind, to have secured men for His pleasure. What a privilege it is to be secured for God’s pleasure! On the one hand, of course, I am not minimising the importance of our relief and our blessings, our future secured and all that kind of thing, but the Son of God has in mind what is for the pleasure and for the glory of God.
The Son of God is unique in that relationship. Think of the delight God had in His beloved Son down here! Think of the delight He has in His Son at His right hand, the delight the Father has in the Lord Jesus! It is distinctive, and yet believers are brought into the same relationship. Wonderful thing! He is “his only-begotten Son” (John 3: 16), but believers are brought into sonship by adoption. Wonderful truth! The Son of God has companions; the Son of God has associates; the Son of God came that He might have associates for the pleasure and glory of God, persons like Him, with Him now and eternally, sons, I say again, in the same relationship in which He is although He is always distinctive in any relationship He has. The wonderful thing is the Son of God came that God might secure sons and, dear fellow-believer, we are to be among them. How important it is, therefore, that there should be relief, and we should know our blessing and enjoy our blessing, but to have also in mind what the Son of God has in mind, and that is what is for the pleasure and for the glory of God. May we be encouraged!
That is what Paul has in mind in this epistle that they should be secured for the pleasure and glory of God. He says “whatever promises of God there are”. The Son of God comes in relation to those promises and God’s purpose. I suppose all that God purposed was in the mind of the Son of God in coming here to bring into effect – it was made possible to fulfil - the will of God. It had in mind even our blessing, of course, but then a result for God’s own pleasure. That is what the Son of God has in mind, God’s own pleasure, and He would have associates, such as ourselves, associates, with Himself, to have part in the praise and the worship of God and so eternally, but also secured now. So he goes on to say, “whatever promises of God there are, in him is the yea,” – that is in the Son of God – “and in him the amen, for glory to God by us”. Think of having part in promoting what is for the pleasure and the “glory to God by us”!
Then he says, “Now he that establishes us with you in Christ” – the “us” would, no doubt, be Paul, Silvanus and Timotheus in verse 20 – but in verse 21 it is, “Now he that establishes us with you in Christ”. God firmly attaches us to Christ, “and has anointed us”. Anointing is not just for our blessing; anointing is in view of what is for God’s pleasure. God anoints what is pleasing to Him, and the anointing would be the fulfilling of whatever is done in view of God’s pleasure and God’s satisfaction. “Now he that establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God, who also has sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”. Sealed in view of God’s pleasure! Sealed, of course, in view of our salvation; sealed in view of our happiness; but more than that, sealed in view of God’s pleasure now and eternally “and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”! The Spirit would give us the consciousness of our sins forgiven, justification, all these blessings that are for us I am not minimising, but I am trying to call attention to what the great objective is in the glad tidings, and that is what is for the pleasure and for the glory of God. Established, anointed: anointing is in view of operations down here that God is pleased with, that are for God’s pleasure, God’s glory. Any little service done, the anointing is available and it is for God’s pleasure. God has sealed us as His own property. Sealing on the one hand would give us a sense of security, of course. Again we have to refer to our blessing because it is all bound up together, our blessing, but then “sealed us” in view of His own satisfaction, and He can look upon believers as God’s own property and can say, ‘That belongs to me’, “the assembly of God which is in Corinth”, for instance, “God’s temple”, that is collective, but then individually we are sealed as divine property, divine ownership, “and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”. That is what will be our eternal enjoyment, our eternal blessing. Our eternal blessing is enjoyed now by the Spirit and what is for the pleasure and glory of God we are enabled to fulfil by the Spirit, “given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”.
Well, may the Lord encourage us on the one hand to be sure as to our foundation. Paul says “”unless indeed ye have believed in vain”. I do not think anybody here has “believed in vain”, but it is a possibility. Do not forget it is a possibility! Let us make sure of our foundation. We have received, received by means of conviction and repentance, in which we stand, of which we are firmly assured, by which we are saved. That is all for our salvation. It is so important. But then along with that and besides that there is such a thing as being secured and sealed and anointed in view of the pleasure and service of God. Think of God anointing persons and giving you the power and the dignity, the grace, to fulfil things according to His pleasure! I suppose it is the same anointing as was on the Lord Jesus. He could say, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” (Luke 4: 18), the same kind of anointing on believers now that is for God’s pleasure, for God’s satisfaction. May the Lord encourage us, therefore, and help us all for His Name’s sake!
EDINBURGH
19th June 1991
This preaching is first published here, not revised by Mr Renton
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PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH GOD
I was impressed with these verses, dear brethren, I wonder if we speak enough about our experience, how we have proved God, how we have proved the Lord. There is a very powerful testimony in telling our experience, even in the preaching. That would not be self-occupation, nor self-promotion, it would promote the One with whom we have some personal experience. Maybe to help younger people, older ones could speak more often about how they have proved the Lord; how the Lord has come in for them in difficult circumstances; how God has intervened in their life time.
It does not say here who the psalmist is, but it is ‘To the chief Musician’ as part of a contribution to the service of God. It is a song, a celebration, a psalm, a real experience. So the psalmist says, “Come, hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul”. Could we not all declare what God has done for our souls? The longer we live the more we prove what God can be to us; what a resource we have in our God as Father, in our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Have we not proved something, and can we not speak more about it? Can we not encourage one another more—“Come, hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul”. Paul was on this line, he goes over his experiences, for instance, in Acts 22, then Acts 26. I suppose one of the most powerful preachings that ever was preached was in Acts 26 when he described his own experience. He was in the midst of pomp, all the notable people were gathered, and he had them all embarrassed; they did not know what to say. Festus did not know what to say. Agrippa did not know what to say; the power of the word had everybody embarrassed because he was telling what God had done for his soul. Maybe this could enter more into our preachings. I remember a time when people used to be in the street at open air preachings, and they would give their testimony, young people told their experience, how they came to the Lord and what they found in the Lord. I think there is profit in that; we could speak more of what we have experienced for the encouragement of one another—“Come, hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul”. Let us be encouraged, dear brethren, how much God has done for each one of us in our souls; our bodies too, of course, but especially our souls— “what he hath done for my soul”.
It says, “I called unto him with my mouth”. That is prayer. Have we not experienced remarkable instances when our prayers were answered? Does that not help us in confidence in God? Would not older ones encourage younger ones by telling how God remarkably answered their prayers, so that young people might have confidence and engage more in prayer. Then he says, “Had I regarded iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not hear”. That would involve self-judgment, continual self-judgment, not to have iniquity in our hearts. He says, “Had I regarded iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not hear. But God hath heard”, that is he is a self-judged person who proved what God had done for his soul—“But God hath heard; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer”. Some of us are elderly and we certainly have had many experiences that would encourage others, especially younger people, as I said, and maybe testify to unbelievers, not only laying out the truth, but telling what we have proved, what we know by experience, and there is power in testimony by that means.
So it says, “But God hath heard; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor his loving kindness from me!” I just pass this on, I think there is some importance in it. That we could go over our own experience with ourselves for our own encouragement, and tell others what God has done for our souls. May the Lord help us!
EDINBURGH
3rd September 1991
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