Eugene Prewitt: 1 Corinthians 3

Eugene Prewitt

Ouachita Hills College

Neutered Sermons Do Not Produce New Births

Our Father in heaven, I ask that you would be here this morning as our teacher.

That you'd help us to understand what is true.

And I ask for this gift in the name of Jesus.

I'd like to have you memorize this morning a sentence of Scripture and then to give you a proverb and then to preach at you for about 9 minutes and let you go.

Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

1 Corinthians chapter 3 is where we find the sentence.

Let's try to say that scripture sentence together.

Can you hold that in your head for a long period of time?

I'd like it for us to have this idea that we could always say that and it would be true.

In this case, Paul was saying he had planted in Corinth.

We're going to study that for a few minutes.

Here comes the proverb, neutered sermons do not produce new births.

Neutered sermons do not produce new births.

We don't want there to be extra puppies around.

You missed our memory work already, but I'll tell you, I think you can memorize it.

We memorized 1 Corinthians 3, verse 6, the first sentence, and it says, let's try to say it together, I have planted.

The proverb says that neutered sermons do not produce new births.

1 Corinthians 3, and we're looking at verse 6, the rest of it.

I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.

So then Neither is he that plants anything, neither is he that watereth, but God that gives the increase.

Now he that planteth and he that watereth are 1, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.

If you say, I have planted, what do you plant?

You can go ahead and respond, pretend we're in a classroom.

Okay, you plant the seed, you plant Magga books, and a Bible answer would be you plant the Word of God.

And we're born, let's keep a finger here because we're coming back to this before we're done, but look at 1 Peter 1.

So The Scripture we memorize says, I have planted.

When we say it we're thinking, I've planted what?

1 Peter 1, and we're looking at verse 23, Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible.

But of incorruptible seed by the Word of God, which lives and abides forever." Here's some good news.

If you plant the Word of God, how long is it going to stick around?

If you plant it, it's going to grow because it is a seed.

And when I plant the Word of God, does it cause new births?

What does it say in the passage in Peter?

Planting the word of God causes new birth.

When you plant the word of God, it springs up as new births.

And wouldn't it be nice to say I've planted?

Because that means that God is going to give the increase, which of course is new births.

It would be a sermon that is depending on something other than the Word of God for its power.

It could be depending on show for its power, depending on humor for its power, depending on stories for its power, depending on something else for its power.

And that's what grows, and that's what causes new births.

And nurtured sermons do not produce new births.

You also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house.

So we read in Corinthians that we're God's building.

Living stones, and These living stones are we.

A holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice is acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

We are God's building, and what he's building is living stones.

That would be if we had inside of us the living Word.

So just like neutered sermons do not produce new births, neutered sermons do not produce living stones.

They might produce other kinds of stones, but most often they produce fancy straw.

1 Corinthians 3, we're moving to the theme of building, because that's what the chapter does.

According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another builds thereon Let every man take heed how he builds thereon.

So the foundation is a huge living stone It's the living Word of God namely Jesus who came to be the living Word of God There he is a huge foundation stone.

Helping Others With The Word

Our Father in Heaven, I ask this morning that you would come here.

It is by the power of your Holy Spirit that you would teach us.

We're dependent on you for that gift, and I ask for it in the name of Jesus.

Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

Yesterday I had you memorize the first sentence of verse 6, but was corrected by several people afterwards that it was really only the first phrase.

Nonetheless, it makes a perfectly good sentence, doesn't it, in English?

We're going to continue on with that sentence this morning.

1 Corinthians 3, and we're looking at verse 6.

Review of yesterday is that we want to always be able to say that.

And the word of God, when it grows up, it produces new births.

That's it, the word of God converts people.

And so is it for preachers to plant the Word of God?

And who are priests in the New Testament?

We're all female priests in the New Testament.

1 Corinthians 3, verse 6 says, I have planted Apollos' watered.

Now, I'll admit to you that the Apollos' watered is not as straightforward a metaphor in my head as I have planted.

Because, for example, I think of watering as being the work of the Holy Spirit.

And men do not distribute the Holy Spirit.

Not Apollos, not Paul, not me, and not Simon Magnus.

Simon Magnus wanted that power and what was said to him?

It's not for men to distribute the Holy Spirit.

But the answer to the enigma is not so complex.

Oh wait, do we sing that part of Isaiah 55?

Isaiah 55 verse 8 says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain cometh down and snow from heaven and returns not there but waters the earth and makes it bring forth in bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.

That's very interesting, that phrase, isn't it?

And here's this rain coming down to water the ground and pray tell, what is it?

So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth.

So if we draw the water-rain metaphor from Isaiah 55, it's very simply the Word of God.

And does the Word of God end up producing new births?

Well, it looks like the same rain that makes the seed grow is the same rain that makes the seed germinate.

But a good question is, what was it exactly that Apollos did?

And we're going to begin reading in verse 1.

I want to go through the entire chapter, so I'm going to have to go zippy fast.

18 verse 1 says, And after these things Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth.

That's relevant because we're studying 1 Corinthians, right?

And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla.

I want you to notice that Aquila and Priscilla were found by Paul, and they were tent makers, he lived with them, and it looks like he converted them, though it's never quite said that way in the chapter.

And he reasoned in the synagogues every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.

So somehow they got the Greeks to attend synagogue.

1 thing I appreciate about Brother Martinez in our last call for the program is he invited people to church.

And it's apparent to me that Greeks were attending church sometimes.

Because they were preaching in synagogues to Jews and...

And when Silas and Timotheus were coming from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and he testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah.

And when they opposed themselves, and That is a nice way to think about it.

What do people oppose when you preach the truth to them and they don't accept it?

You know, they give themselves a hard time.

The truth sets people free and if truth is preached and you don't accept it, you're opposing yourself.

And they spoke evil, that's what blasphemy means, and they, so he shook his raiment and he said unto them, Your blood be upon your heads, I am clean, from henceforth I will go to the Gentiles.

You know he wrote 2 letters there, but you should know when things started out with him that he preached in the synagogue, he was impressed to say it plainly, and they didn't accept it, and he did what you just talked about when they reject you.

When they reject you, shake your garment.

But instead of going to a different city, he just went to different folk in the same city.

It looks like he would have been ready to go to a different city, but he wasn't allowed to.

We're gonna skip verse 7 and 8 that explains that he went to a house right next to the synagogue and preached and converted a Jewish leader.

Verse 9, then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, "'Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not your peace, "'for I am with you, and no man shall set on thee "'to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city." There's so much interesting in that particular verse.

For 1 thing, God can have a lot of people in the city that don't know anything or much about his truth.

Yeah, there were too many answers to the question I was asking.

I Plant and Water and Am Nothing

Our Father in heaven, I ask that you would join us here this morning.

We repeat this request each morning because we want to confess our need of you, to show our dependence.

We expect that you will join us and that you'll be our teacher, and we ask for this gift in the name of Jesus.

In the last 2 days, I've made an effort to put 2 ideas into our mind for repeating to ourselves.

1 that I have planted, and I've planted the Word of God.

Planting, being planting the Word of God, perhaps with people who are not yet converted.

And watering, planting the Word of God with those who are converted, leading some to new birth and helping those that are already newborn.

Everyone needs the Word of God and we can spread it.

We didn't spend too much time on the last part of verse 6 Where it says but God gave the increase and Even this morning not going to spend much time on that look at verse 7 So then it neither is he that planteth anything Neither he that watereth So if I say today that I have planted, and if I say I have watered, verse 7 says in both cases I am nothing.

That's the idea I want to speak about today.

I can say, I want to be able to say, I have planted.

And I want to say I am nothing, though I have planted and though I have watered.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 40, and we're going to look at verse 15.

I want to share through this morning 4 reasons that it's true that I am nothing.

Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance.

Behold, he takes up the islands as a very little thing.

That is the famous forest of Lebanon, of proverbial size all through the Bible.

Nor the beast thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.

All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity.

1 reason that I am nothing is that I am so small.

The whole planet is nothing and I'm much smaller than the planet.

The whole bunch of us are nothing, and I'm smaller than us, and the whole collection of South Korean schools is nothing, and we're smaller than that, and all of America is nothing, and we're smaller than that.

Do you understand what I'm communicating?

1 reason that we're nothing is that we're so small and it would do well, we'd do well to keep this thought in our mind, that we are so small, it would keep us from thinking that we're so big.

In fact, when King Nebuchadnezzar came out of his 7 years of being like a cow, 1 of the very first things he did is quote this passage from Isaiah.

Daniel chapter 4 And we're looking at verse 35.

And all the inhabitants of the earth are, what does it say?

And he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.

And none can stay his hand or say unto him, What are you doing?

So How small we are and how big God is, is 1 reason to realize that though I might say I have planted, I have watered, still I should say I am nothing.

1 Corinthians 15, and we're looking at verse 8.

1 Corinthians 15, verse 8, And last of all, he, that is Jesus, was seen by me, that is Paul, also, as 1 born out of due time.

Paul has just finished describing the resurrected Jesus, how he was seen by this 1 and that 1 and those 500 and this 1 and those few.

And then after, long after that, he saw Jesus too.

Verse 9, for I am the least of the apostles and am not meet or appropriate to be called an apostle.

Maybe you know that Paul brings this up several times in his writings.

Was Paul forgiven for persecuting the church?

Was that in his pre-Christian life or in his Christian life?

But he ever kept it in his mind as a reason why he was nothing.

That is, the sin that was sufficient to cause him to be condemned, though he had been forgiven for it, though it was in his past, yet it was part of his experience and was sufficient for him to say, I am nothing, not worthy to be a worker for God.

The balance to that is in verse 9, excuse me, verse 10, But by the grace of God, I am what I am.

And his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all.

Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

The second reason why I can say I am nothing is because of my sins.

I don't only mean sins I'm not forgiven for, I mean even sins I am forgiven for, even ones that are in my past.

They are evidence that I am completely dependent on God.

If I labor more abundantly than people who have had more privileges than I.

It is not I that's doing it, but the grace of God that's working through me so that I can say I am nothing.

It says, And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

And though I give all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, I am nothing.

But if I do have charity, verse 4 says, among other things, that charity vaunteth not itself and is not puffed up.

If I put those 2 ideas together, I get a picture of someone who never has a right to be puffed up.

Does that make any sense to you, what I just said?

If I do have charity, I wouldn't even think of being anything.

Let me show this to you somewhere else, and then I'll try to make it concise, the reason.

We're looking at, we're briefly viewing verses 5 through 7.

It says in verse 5, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge.

We're going to start out with some basic faith.

We're gonna add to that a more thorough biblical knowledge.

We're going to add to that perfect self-control.

We're going to add to that being able to put up with other people who don't have perfect self-control.

And we're gonna put on top of that even more thorough holiness.

To that we're going to become really warm towards those that are without.

Beyond that, what's at the end of verse 7?

We Work Together With God

Our Father in heaven, I ask this morning that you would be our teacher.

That you would help us understand what is true and right.

I want to tell you this morning 2 stories, and then give you a short Bible study.

1 of them, if you wanted to try to follow along, although I'm not going to tell it exactly as it's there, is found in 1 Samuel 14.

That's the story about Jonathan, the man who was brave first.

Where do you find the story of David and Goliath?

You find Jonathan and his armor bearer going up alone to the camp of the enemy, winning, and then Saul and his scared few joining them, and then people coming out with their rocks and dens and wherever they were hiding, joining the battle fray, and as they're getting ready to march out to the enemy, Saul says, no, I need anything today, or something like that.

As they're going through, there was some honey.

I'm sure Jonathan was thinking, they don't understand.

And then they went on and did what they could on the little strength they had.

When they came back, Saul had a question.

Should he continue going after them or not?

He said, whoever has sinned is going to die.

That's whether it's any of you, it doesn't matter, even if it's my son Jonathan, whoever sinned is going to die.

And then he asked God to give a perfect lot.

That would be similar, if you didn't have God asking you to do it to you asking God to help you roll the right numbers on dice.

And it might seem remarkable to you that the lot came up with Jonathan, But statistically, it had a 1 in 4 chance of doing it.

The first division was between Saul's folk, that is, he and Jonathan, and the rest of the army.

Would you know which 1 was the 1 that had sinned?

All the same proves that God doesn't answer your prayer if you regard iniquity in your heart.

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Series

Eugene Prewitt: 1 Corinthians 3

Helping Others With The Word

Transcript

Parent Series

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Recorded

Eugene Prewitt: 1 Corinthians 3

Neutered Sermons Do Not Produce New Births

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Dennis Priebe Weekend 2006

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Alistair Huong: Examining Our Motives

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