Sometimes an animal just cannot help itself. It's an animal. We understand that. But we
are not animals. We have to control ourselves. Envy, strife, and divisions cannot be part
of a Christian's life. And that's what he's saying. Where there is envy, you know, the
sin of envy and jealousy is proof of their carnality. The Greek word literally means
to bull. In this verse, the word means an envious, contentious rivalry. Paul calls the
work of the flesh in Galatians 5, 19-21. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which
are adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness
robberies, and the like. In other words, if I left out anything that I didn't put in here
anything like these things, of which I told you beforehand, just as I also tell you in
times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God
This carnality we have to expunge from ourselves, or we will not inherit the kingdom of God
For when one says, I'm a Paul, and another, I'm a Paulist, are you not carnal? You know
are you not carnal? The wearing of the names of men is evidence of their yielding to their
fleshly carnal desires. Even today, there are people that follow men instead of Christ
and we have to be careful with that. I started to take this part out. A true leader would
never allow people to be used their name this way, because it came to my mind, I believe
it was Martin Luther that said, do not call yourself Lutherans after me, call yourself
Christians after Christ. He tried to stop them from doing that, yet they still did it
anyway. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 5, For who then is Paul, who is a Paulist, but ministers
through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? Both Paul and Apollos were merely
instruments of God that he used to bring these people to salvation through the obedience
of the gospel message they preached, Romans 10, 13-14. Since the Lord gave them their
talents and used each as it pleased him, men are not to be praised and followed as
heads of factions. We have got to remember, always, all the glory belongs to God, not
to the people. We are just servants. He goes on to say, I planted Apollos' water, but God
gave the increase. Notice here, I planted, Paul, he says, this refers to the first work
done in Corinth by Paul. In Romans 15-20, Paul says, for so I have made it my aim to
preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation
He is going out to the unchurched, people that have never heard Christ before, is where
Paul wants to go. Corinth was obviously a great place to do that. He says, God gave
the increase. The Greek word translation here indicates a continuous blessing from God to
both the planter and the waterer. Notice, I planted, Apollos watered. Apollos was, we
mentioned before about him, he was an eloquent man. He was not taught correctly, then he
was taught correctly by Priscilla and Aquila. He went, I am sure, being an eloquent speaker
for the Lord, he was able to continue to help and encourage that Corinthian church after
Paul had left and was not there. That is what we have to do, always be either planting
or watering is what we need to be doing. Hopefully, when you are here and encouraging each other
you are being watered. Always the glory belongs to God. So then, neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase
He is saying neither I or Apollos or anything, we are just servants of God. The conclusion
is, man is nothing without God. When I did this the other day practicing, this is where
I got to in 45 minutes, so I am going a little bit quicker. I am trying to decide, should
I continue this? I am going to go ahead and continue, so I have got five more minutes
I want us to talk before we get into verses 8-15. This section is about salvation, preaching
and evangelism. What we have got to remember is salvation is conditional. It is a conditional
gift of God requiring man's obedience. Salvation is by God's grace. We all understand that
Ephesians 2.8 and Romans 6.3. I want to look at Ephesians 2.8 in depth here a little bit
To receive the benefits of God's grace, man is required to do works of obedience, not
works of merit. Ephesians 2.8-10 says, for by the grace you have been saved through faith
which is not of yourselves, it is salvation. It, salvation, is the gift of God, not of
works, and that is talking about works of merit, lest anyone should boast, for we are
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, and that is for works of obedience
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. I will put this in parentheses
for clarity, hopefully. I want to ask you this question. People always quote, especially
in the denominational world, Ephesians 2.8-9. They don't rarely ever do they add verse 10
there, but created in Christ Jesus. How or when does created in Christ Jesus happen
That happens at baptism, exactly. I can't remember, we were in that building over there
which preacher we came, that pointed that out to me. He said, baptism is in that verse
you just got to read verse 10. That is when we are created. We are created in Christ Jesus
when we are baptized. 2 Corinthians 5.17 tells us, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creation. Again, that is when we are in the new creation. Old things have passed
away, behold, all things become new. Romans 6.3, or do you not know that as many of us
as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Galatians 3.27, for as many
of us as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Again, that is when we get into
Christ, the final act of obedience of baptism. Faith alone has never been enough for righteousness
You know, the demons have faith, James 2.17 says the demons believe and tremble, but they
are not righteous. I brought that up to a guy that was door knocking one time and talking
to him. He said, yeah, but they did not confess Christ. But if you really look at the, back
in Jesus, they did confess Christ and Jesus told them to be quiet. Not because it was
not his time. So anyway, righteousness requires faith and obedience working together. You
cannot have one without another. Why is there confusion in the religious world today concerning
the issue of faith and works? Any comments on that? Yes sir
Works of the law. I mean, Titus, every chapter of Titus, if you want good works other than James, I mean
Titus 1, 2, and 3 both say we are supposed to be zealous for good works, we are created
for good works. And you can see a person who is a Christian or a non-Christian by their
good works or their bad works. But I mean, I always go to Titus with people when they
say, zealous works, because he talks about being ready for works. You know, Timothy
That is a good point. Titus is a very good example of being, exactly. Zealous for good works, we are prepared for good works. What does that mean
Right, zealous for good works, prepared for good works. You know, the world for some reason
thinks it has got to be one extreme or the other. You know, it is either the faith only crowd or it is the works only crowd. And that leads to a lot of this confusion. But the
Bible is clear that neither of those extremes are correct. God's Word teaches that we are
counted as righteousness when we combine faith and works of obedience. I am going to get through this one little section here. It says Galatians 5, 6 tells
us, For in Christ neither circumcision or uncircumcision avails anything but faith working
through love. James 2, 18 and 22, But someone will say, You have faith I have works, show
me your faith without your works, I will show you my faith by my works. And that is
what he is saying. Do you not see that faith was working together with his works and by
works faith was made perfect. I will have to add those Titus things in next
time. But thank you for that. But yeah, it has got to work together. You know, we are
known by our fruit. We are known by our fruit. And what is our fruit? Hopefully it is because
it is obedient in Christ. So we will get to verse 8 and we will pick up there next time
Thank you very much. I appreciate your kind attention