A Challenge to Christians for Today

Open your Bibles please to 1 Corinthians chapter 16. 1 Corinthians chapter 16. Put a marker there because that's where we're gonna end up. But before we get there, we're gonna look at some other verses in the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 16 is where we will eventually be. The Corinthian church in many respects was a mess. The culture out of which the people of the church had been saved was utterly depraved.

John MacArthur says, quote, "Even by the pagan standards of its own culture, "Bartherth became so morally corrupt "that its very name became synonymous "with debauchery and moral depravity." Continuing he said, "Two Corinthian eyes "came to represent gross immorality "and drunken debauchery," end quote. It seems that a number of Corinthian believers had a really hard time fully breaking away from the culture they'd known all their lives. And it was dragging them down and holding them back. Stunting, if you will, their growth as Christians.

In this first letter to the Corinthians, it wasn't really the first one, but it's the first one we have, inspired letter. Paul dealt with divisions that had sprung up in which one group wanted to follow Apollos. Another group, Paul, another group, Peter, and I guess the super holy one said, "No, we follow Christ." Paul also had to deal directly and sharply with some egregious sin, which he said in verse one of chapter five wasn't even acceptable to pagan Gentiles, namely incest in the church. I like MacArthur's breakdown of the book in which he says that Paul first establishes a calling and benefits of sainthood.

Then he deals with this unity in the church, including laying out the need for unity and the need for servanthood. He goes on from there to deal with immorality in the church, marriage in the church, liberty in the church, worship in the church, the hope of the church, which is the resurrection. And then in chapter 16, he gives a charge to the church and concludes with his personal plans and greetings. Something I found interesting is that in four places, by my count, in 1 Corinthians, Paul says something about either the immaturity of the Corinthians in particular or about immaturity in general.

Now we're headed to chapter 16, if you've placed your marker there, but before we get there, turn to chapter two, 1 Corinthians chapter two, and let's read the first six verses there. 1 Corinthians two, verses one through six, and I'll be reading from the legacy standard Bible or the LSB this evening. Paul says that when I came to you brothers, I did not come with superiority of word or wisdom, proclaiming to you the witness of God, for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling in my word and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power so that your faith would not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Here's the key point. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature. A wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are being abolished. Did you catch it there in the first part of verse six? Among those who are mature.

The Greek word from which we get mature is teleos, and it's sometimes translated as perfect, sometimes as complete when it's not translated as mature. I found it very interesting that there is some disagreement among respected Bible commentators about what Paul was talking about in this verse. What was he saying by using teleos here? Several commentators, a number of them, including John MacArthur, said that Paul was simply talking about believers, that he was saying that we speak wisdom among those who can grasp it, namely anyone in whom the spirit of God dwells. But you know, I'm not sure I agree with that.

Now folks, anytime you read something John MacArthur writes and you come away thinking I'm not so sure I agree with that, you need to back up and take a deep breath, think it over. To be clear, I'm not saying John MacArthur's wrong about that. No, sir, not me. I'm just saying I see something else, maybe, some context clues in the letter that tell me that maybe, just maybe, Paul meant something else. And I was very happy to discover that other people who are all much more reputable than me seem to see the same thing that I saw.

It seems at least possible that Paul did mean mature in the commonly understood meaning of the word as we use it today. That he was talking about mature Christians as opposed to immature Christians. Obviously, he wasn't talking about some special class of Christian that had some special anointing or any such thing, but about true believers who had grown in their faith, who had grown in the faith because there is only one faith. He certainly wasn't talking about people who reached some higher level of hidden knowledge or higher plane of spirituality like the Gnostics talked about. That kind of thinking is heretical.

Rather, I think he may have just been talking about true Christian believers who had simply grown in sanctification, had simply grown in the tenets of the Christian faith. And I think the context of the letter lends credence to that theory. Let me show you what I mean. Turn over one more chapter to chapter three, 1 Corinthians 3, and let's look at the first three verses. 1 Corinthians chapter three, verses one to three. Paul says, "And I brothers was not able to speak to you as spiritual men, but as to fleshly men, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not able yet to receive it.

Indeed, even now, you are still not able, for you are still fleshly. For since there's jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?" You see it there? As to infants in Christ. MacArthur here says that Paul is describing believers who quote, "had come through the door of faith, but had gone no farther," end quote. The pastor, I agree with him here.

Now, Paul is actually reaching back in time in this passage and describing when he first ministered to the Corinthians, when many of them were initially born again, and it makes sense that brand new Christians, like brand new babies, would need milk rather than solid meat. But Paul fed them with milk for over 18 months, and then says in this passage, "Indeed, you are still not able to eat solid food." It's as if he was saying, "You still seem like babies when you should have grown past this point, y'all." Now turn all the way over to chapter 13, please, 1 Corinthians 13, and I just wanna look at one verse, verse 11, in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 11, Paul says this, "When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child.

When I became a man, I did away with childish things." And then let me get you to turn over one more chapter to the right to 1 Corinthians 14, and I just wanna look at verse 20, 1 Corinthians 14, verse 20. Paul said, "Brothers, do not be children in your thinking, rather in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature." So in chapter three and 14, Paul speaks directly to the Corinthians maturity level. In the common way that we understand the word maturity. And in chapter 13, he references his own maturity and contrasted it with his own former immaturity. You with me?

And then don't turn there, but in Ephesians chapter four, verses 11 to 14, Paul used very similar language. In Ephesians 4, 11 to 14, Paul wrote, "And he himself gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the service, to the building up to the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the full knowledge of the Son of God," listen, "to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, so that," listen, "we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness, into skeetful scheming, and it goes on." So for those reasons, I agree with those commentators who believe that in 1 Corinthians 2.6, Paul was maybe sort of kind of taken a shot at the Corinthians current state of immaturity.

If I'm right about that, that means that he does so in four places in the whole letter. If I'm wrong, and Dr. MacArthur is right, which he is most of the time, then there are three places in the letter in which Paul speaks about the immaturity of the believers in Corinth. Now, all of that was the introduction. Go ahead and flip over to 1 Corinthians 16, 1 Corinthians 16, and we'll look briefly at verse 13, and maybe it'll eventually make sense why I spent so much time on all of that. 1 Corinthians 16, verse 13.

Paul says to the Corinthians here, "Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." This verse can be described as a tetrad, which comes from the Greek word tetras, and it means a group of four things that are really kind of one thing. Paul isn't so much giving four separate commands here, but one command with four flavors, sort of a single four-sided command, if you will. And each of the four pieces of the whole is in the present imperative. Imperative, of course, means command, and the present means a continuous habitual action. So Paul is telling them to be watchful and keep on being watchful all the time.

He's telling them to stand firm and keep on standing firm, to act like men and keep on acting like men, to continually be strong and keep on being strong. The first portion of the command is to be watchful. Be watchful, which is also how the ESV has it. The NASB has be on the alert. The King James says, "Watch ye." And the NIV says, "Be on your guard." Matthew Henry had this to say about this phrase, be watchful, quote, "A Christian is always in danger and therefore should ever be on the watch, but the danger is greater at some times and under some circumstances. The Corinthians were in manifest danger upon many accounts.

Their feuds ran high, the irregularities among them were very great. There were deceivers among them who endeavored to corrupt their faith in the most important articles, those without which the practice of virtue and piety could never subsist. And surely in such dangerous circumstances, it was their concern to be watchful. If a Christian, Matthew Henry continuing, if a Christian would be secure, he must be on his or her guard. And the more his or her danger, the greater vigilance is needed for security. One commentator I stumbled upon talked about the terrorist threat levels using United States. You remember those?

We don't hear much about those in these days, but if you remember, you remember the days following the September 11th terror attack? You couldn't turn on the TV or the radio without hearing an update on the current threat level. Green was a low threat, blue meant a guarded level, but I don't ever remember hearing about green or blue. Yellow meant elevated, orange was high and red meant a severe threat. My memory could be wrong as it often is, but it seems like we stayed at the orange level for a mighty long time. Does anybody else remember that?

Either way, this commentator suggested that as long as believers live in this fallen world, surrounded by a culture that tries to undermine our faith at every turn and bombarded by false teachers, teaching false doctrines from every which away, it would be wise for us to maintain a red threat level with the level of watchfulness that comes with such. I can't say I disagree, but how? How can we be watchful? How can we be on our guard? How can we best elevate our awareness? How can you do that? Well, there's safety in numbers. There really is.

The writer of Ecclesiastes in chapter four, verse 12 says, "And if one can overpower him who is alone, "two can stand against him. "A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart." There is safety and strength in numbers. You are always in the most danger when you are alone, whether walking in the woods, driving through a dangerous area, or trying to walk wisely as our pastor has been urging us from the scriptures.

Maybe that's part of the reason why the writer of Hebrews said, "And let us consider how to stimulate one another "to love and good deeds, "not forsaking our own assembling together, "as is the habit of some, "but encouraging one another "and all the more as you see the day drawing near." There's safety in numbers. Regarding your Christian walk, where are those numbers, folks? They're right here inside the local church. You wanna be watchful? There's no better place than right here, alongside other brothers and sisters who also wanna be watchful, where we can help each other watch.

Look, my mom always said, "I don't have eyes in the back of my head." She was right about that. I guess it must be hereditary, 'cause I don't have them in the back of my head either. But in a local congregation of believers like we have here at Grace Life Church of Brecavon, we don't need to have eyes in the back of our heads, because there are people with eyes in the front of their heads, where they belong, by the way, sitting right behind us. Part of our role in the family of faith is to look out for others in our family, to be watchful for them, to be on guard for them, or at least to help them be on guard for themselves.

Folks, we have got to develop relationships to the point where we can come alongside others and lovingly warn them when we see danger approaching. We have got to love each other enough where we can come alongside our brother or sister and steady them when they are close to falling, or to lift them up if they have already fallen. Paul said, "Be watchful every day, all the time." That's for us. He said it to the Corinthians, but he said it to us. We need to constantly be watchful for ourselves and for each other. There's safety in numbers, folks.

Throw your life into this church so that we can help you be watchful and you can help others be watchful. Be watchful. Back to our verse. Paul then tells the Corinthians to stand firm in the faith. Most translations, or the ones I looked at anyway, have something pretty close to that. The King James uses stand fast instead of stand firm, same idea though. Now, Matthew Henry says of this phrase, "Stand firm in the faith to keep their ground, to adhere to the revelation of God and not to give it up for the wisdom of the world, nor suffer oneself to be corrupted by it.

Stand for the faith of the gospel and maintain it even to death, and stand in it so as to abide in the profession of it," and I love this, "and feel its influence and yield to its influence." Now, I love how Paul uses this phrase when he talks about standing in something. He did this quite often. You've heard me say before that one of my favorite passages is Romans 5, verses one and two, in which Paul says, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith, listen, into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God." He didn't say this grace upon which we stand, but it wouldn't have been wrong if he'd have said that.

He didn't say this grace under which we stand, and that would have been correct as well. We do stand upon grace and nothing else. There's nothing else, nothing other upon which we could stand. We do stand under grace too. If grace doesn't cover us like an impenetrable umbrella, we are toast. But Paul didn't say either of those things in Romans 5, too. He said, "Into this grace in which we stand," and I think he did that on purpose. I've talked about this from this pulpit on another occasion, but so I'm repeating myself, but it bears repeating here. When you are in something, you are surrounded by it.

You are engulfed in it, encased in it, aren't you? Think about it. All of us this evening are in this sanctuary. It's all around us. We're surrounded by it on all sides. It's in front of us, behind us, on both the left and the right of us. It's beneath our feet. It's above our heads. We are in this sanctuary. Does that make sense? If you are in water, and I mean all the water, all the way in the water, same thing. It's all around you on every side. I hope you have a snorkel. If you are in a cloud, you are enveloped. You're engulfed. It covers you on all sides, and if you breathe deeply, it's inside of you too.

You get a sense of what I'm pointing to. You have these images in your mind of what it means to be in something. Paul spoke of the grace in which we stand. Folks, if you are standing in grace, you are surrounded by it. You're enclosed by it. It's in front of you, behind you, on the left, on the right of you. It's beneath you. It's above you. You are engulfed by grace. And listen to this. If you breathe deeply, the grace you are in is also in you. Plus, when you breathe it in, you can breathe it out. And we as believers should be doing that.

We should be breathing in the grace in which we stand, and we should be breathing out toward others, the grace in which we stand. Everywhere we go. Does that make sense? Well, Paul here tells these Corinthians to stand firm in the faith. Same idea. And when he says faith here, he's talking about the truth of the gospel, the truth of the apostles doctrine, the word of God, especially as it pertains to salvation. I love this quote from John MacArthur, who says regarding this part of the verse, "Satan cannot take saving faith away from us, but he can and often does obscure the content of our faith. The sound doctrines of God's word.

If we do not hold fast to right interpretations of scripture, we are certain to slip into wrong thinking, wrong belief, and wrong behavior." So how do you do that? How do you stand firm in the faith? First, you have to know what the faith is. That's why I'm faithful Bible study, faithful Bible reading, faithful meditation over scripture and prayer are so fundamental to the Christian life. Christ will use these practices to produce a faith that surrounds you, that encloses you, that engulfs you, a faith that you can breathe in and breathe out. You can't stand in a faith you don't understand.

You can't stand in a faith with which you are not familiar. You can't stand in a faith that's not in you. Now I don't wanna be redundant here, but I'm gonna be. You can't do that alone either. You need help. You need the church. Your pastors spend countless hours preparing to teach and then teaching you what the faith is in which you are to stand firm. Sunday morning sermons, Wednesday evening messages, small group studies, all designed to help you to comprehend the riches of the faith in which Paul commands you to stand firm. You have abundant resources available to you that will help you stand firm in the faith.

You just need to take advantage of them. You need to be watchful. You need to stand firm in the faith. There's strength and safety in numbers. And you know what? There's wisdom in numbers too. Your local church, Grace Life Church in Brookhaven stands ready to help you be watchful, to help you stand firm in the faith. Now back to our verse, 1 Corinthians 16, 13. What does Paul say next? He tells the believers in Corinth to act like men. Remember all that we went through in the introduction? Well, here's the payoff for all of that.

Paul had already referred to the Corinthians as children or infants in 1 Corinthians 3 and 1 Corinthians 14 in an unflattering way. And in 1 Corinthians 13, he said, "When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things." And I still think he was kind of sort of taking a shot at their immaturity in chapter two. So at least three times he referred to immaturity, maybe four if I'm right about chapter two. So when Paul tells them here in 1 Corinthians 16, 13, to act like men, you know what he was basically telling them?

He was essentially telling them, "Grow up." He was essentially telling them to grow up. He first told them to be watchful. Children aren't watchful. That's why you have to teach your little ones to stay out of the street, right? And then when they're old enough to go into the street, what do we teach them to do before they get there? Look both ways. We teach them to be watchful because they aren't by nature, watchful. Children are also by nature very impressionable, right? Don't we as parents worry about our children being influenced by the wrong people?

Aren't we concerned that our children might give in to negative peer pressure and be persuaded towards sin and rebellion? So next he said, "Stand firm in the faith." He's telling them to grow up and to not be so gullible, not to be so persuadable, not to be so susceptible to peer pressure. Ladies, I'm gonna level with you here. I was thrilled when I discovered that Paul was essentially telling the Corinthians to grow up here because I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to apply act like men to you. Is that we have enough confusion about that in our culture today? But I have no trouble applying grow up to men or women or young folks.

Remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14, 20? He said, "Brothers, do not be children in your thinking, "rather in evil be infants, "but in your thinking be mature." I think that's the same idea. Grow up in your thinking. Grow up in your understanding. Grow up in those areas so that you can be watchful. Grow up in your thinking and in your understanding so that you can stand firm in the faith. Don't be satisfied with milk. Dig in for meat. Increase your appetite for truth, for the things of God, for sound doctrine. Here we go, broken record. But do babies grow up all on their own? Of course not.

They initially need to be fed because they don't even know how to eat. They need to be taught not only how to eat, but also what to eat. You don't give your little one nothing but chocolate cake to eat. If you do, I'm coming to your house. No, we train our children how to use a fork and a spoon, and we teach them what to eat, right? Chocolate cake is okay every now and then, but they need veggies, they need fruit, they need healthy, nutritious food that will help them grow. You may have already guessed where I'm going with this, but your church is here to help you grow.

Your pastors are here not only to feed you, but to teach you how and what to eat. Our pastor gives us meat to eat and teaches us how to digest it. Our music pastor sure does offer us some sweetness, but likewise, he gives us solid, healthy food to eat. Folks, y'all don't know how thankful you should be for our music ministry and the meat that we sing. It's a blessing. Our small group studies are filled with nutrition. There's no fluff, there's no filler, there's no empty calories. You wanna grow up in your thinking? You wanna grow up so that you can be watchful, so you can stand firm in the faith? You're in the right place.

Grace Life Church of Brookhaven is sold out for your growth. We are committed to it. There's no excuse to not grow here. Come, eat, grow up, so that you can feed others here and help them grow too. Finally, back there in 1 Corinthians 16, 13, Paul tells them to be strong. Children aren't strong. Children are weak, again, by nature. Children are easily defeated in battle, which is a pretty good reason it's a bad idea to send them into battle. So Paul tells the Corinthians to grow up and to be strong. But he wasn't telling them to hit a gym. He wasn't telling them to do push-ups and lift weights. Those are not bad things.

But rather, he was telling them to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. He was telling them to lean on Christ who strengthens His sheep. Here's John MacArthur again on this part of the verse. Quote, "The person who thinks He is strong in Himself is in the greatest danger of falling. The supreme source of all spiritual strength, of course, is Christ Himself." End quote. Paul was not, it was not a strange thing for Paul to speak this way in Philippians 4.13.

Paul says, "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." In 1 Timothy 1.12, Paul said, "I'm grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me because He regarded me faithful, putting me into service." In 2 Timothy 2.1, Paul told Timothy, "You therefore, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." And in Ephesians 6 verse 10, Paul wrote these words to which I alluded earlier, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength." Ladies and gentlemen, you can't be watchful without Christ making you watchful. You can't stand firm in the faith unless Christ makes you stand firm.

You can't be the man or woman He's called you to be unless He empowers you to do so. And you can't be strong except in His strength. Amazingly, He has empowered His local church to support you in all of that and to equip you to support others. This is a challenge to us all, especially here we are coming into a new year, right? We're easing into this new year. It's a challenge to us. In fact, the title of the message is, "A Challenge to Christians for Today." A challenge to Christians for today. Because even though Paul wrote these words so long ago, he could have written them to us this morning, couldn't he?

So here's my question to you tonight. Are you being watchful? Are you standing firm in the faith? Are you growing up? Or do you feel like you're stuck in Christian infancy? What's hindering you from growing up? Name it, not right now. If you need to, if you need to repent, then repent. And let the church help you move past it or understand it or conquer it. In the strength of Christ and with the help of His church, you can do that. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you that, as I mentioned in my closing, that even though Paul wrote--