Transcript

1 Corinthians 16, Paul’s final word to the church at Corinth. Let’s read verses 13 and 14 and then 19 through 24.

“Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith,” do you remember that one from this morning. “Act like men” remember that one, “be strong and let all that you do be done in love.” Verse 19, “The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Prisca greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. All the brethren greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. The greeting is in my own hand—Paul. If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Maranatha. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.”

This morning we saw the final exhortation and it was a five fold exhortation, we’ll not review that again. We talked about that at length in the early service. Then we talked about the final affirmation, that is something Paul did frequently throughout the letter, mixed in among the rebukes and corrections, and reproofs that he gives them. But then at the end here he gives them a great, gentle, sincere word of affirmation in the Lord.

Now we come to the third final word, and that is the word, or the final rather condemnation. The final condemnation. Now throughout this letter the Apostle Paul condemned a lot of actions and a lot of their behaviors. I perused through the book and just wanted to list all the different things that the apostle Paul condemned that they were doing or perhaps not doing. And I missed some of them, but listen to this. He condemned their partisan or their party spirit. Remember some were saying, well, we follow this staff member, and others saying we follow that staff member, well, we’re loyal to this staff member. He condemned that strongly. He condemned their egotism and fleshly pride. That’s also in chapter 1. Then he condemned the jealousy and the strife that existed among them in chapter 3. He condemned their judgmental spirit, that they had toward one another, chapter 4. He condemned their arrogance, they thought they knew it all and had a corner on the market of wisdom, chapter 4. He condemned the boy in the church that was living in gross sexual immorality, chapter 5. Then he condemned the church for not practicing church discipline on that boy, chapter 5. He condemned them for suing one another in secular courts, chapter 6. He condemned them for walking back into the sin of fornication, chapter 6. He condemned them for neglecting their sexual duties in marriage to one another, chapter 7. He condemned them for their unbiblical view and practice of divorce, chapter 7. He condemned them for their unscriptural view of singleness, chapter 7. He condemned them concerning their unloving attitude toward weaker brother or sisters in the church, chapter 8. He condemned them for their lack of submission to spiritual authority, chapter 9. He condemned them for their sneakiness to financially support their spiritual leaders, chapter 9. He condemned them for turning back to some degree, and to idolatry, chapter 10. He condemned them for turning back into sexual immorality, chapter 10. He condemned them for offending their weaker brothers, chapter 10. He condemned women in the church for their spirit of rebellion against their husband and their husband’s authority, chapter 11. he condemned their self centeredness and selfishness at the Lord’s table, chapter 11. He condemned them for becoming drunken at the Lord’s table, chapter 11. He condemned them for their fleshly selfish pride in their exercise of spiritual gifts, chapter 12. He condemned them for their self exalting motives which was behind their exercise of spiritual gifts, chapter 13. He condemned them for their neglect to walk in agape love, as they exercise spiritual gifts, chapter 13. He condemned them for using the gift of tongues without an interpreter, chapter 14. He condemned them for using tongues in the place of clear prophecy, chapter 14. He condemned them for disorders in their congregational assemblies, chapter 14. And he condemned them for openness to heresy concerning the doctrine of the resurrection, chapter 15. A lot of trouble in that church.

Now we’re coming to the end of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, and he gives a final condemnation. But this final condemnation is significantly different than all the other things he condemns. Because all of those other condemnations were pointed at behaviors, the actions of true believers. But now this final condemnation is not pointed at behavior, this is a condemnation aimed at a class of people within the church at Corinth, not at a particular behavior.

Now, I want us to look at this together. Under this final condemnation in verse 22. Paul says, “If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed.” Now this is a pointed shocking, and strong word of condemnation.

First of all he says, if anyone does not love the Lord. Its significant that the word love here is not the word agape, that we see used throughout the book, and especially in this last chapter. Which means that God type love, that love that’s shed abroad by the Holy Spirit when he controls our hearts. But he uses the word phileo for love. That’s another Greek word for love, and that’s the love that’s common among all of mankind, saved and unsaved alive. Its a brotherly love, the kind of natural love a brother would have for another brother, or a father would have for his children, or just within a familiar or a close bonded relationship. Its just human affection. And here’s Paul’s point. Paul said there’s some in the church, and they wear the name Christian, and they do the acts of a Christian, and they dot the i’s and cross the t’s in the religion called Christianity, but they don’t even have a human affection for Jesus Christ. They are just going through the motions. They don’t really love the Lord.

Calvin said this about these people. If anyone does not love the Lord, he said this. He said, “now Paul is not speaking of strangers, who avowedly hate the Christian name”. Now let me interject here. Paul therefore is not talking about the atheist out there in the world, or the communist out there, or the Marxists out there, or the, the pornographer, or the extreme feminists, or those many other segments and groups of culture that by their very position are anti-Christian. He’s not talking about strangers . but he’s talking about the pretenders, and the hypocrites. Who trouble the church for the sake of their own belly and for their own glory. He says these people who wear the Christian name who walk the Christian walk outwardly, but in their hearts they don’t even love God like a person would love his own family, the motive of their heart is not I love my precious lord, he’s dear to me, I would die for him, I want to honor him, their motive is for self and self advancement, and self pleasure and self glory, he says. Paul says, something very, very strong to them, he says, let them be accursed. Its the Greek word anathema. It means a person or a thing doomed to destruction.

His point is, that those people that wear the Christian name and join up in your church, but you watch them and its obvious they don’t love Jesus Christ. Its obvious that their motives are impure. He said, you are to consider them abhorrent. As a cursed thing. To call one accursed means to imply intense loathing and passionate fury. You loath them with a fury of passion in your heart. To call someone accursed. When he says these people are to be accursed, he means he’s giving a solemn denunciation of them and their evil. Concerning those that Paul say do not love the Lord and they ought to be accursed, Finley said, “a cold false heart which knowing the Lord does not really love him”.

These are those like Simon the magician as recorded in Acts chapter 8. Simon the magician the Bible says was there in the city, and he was bringing great fame and great glory to himself with his magical pagan acts that he would perform before the people. And then the Apostles came through preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so Simon the magician in his human reason said, “aha, I’ll join up with that group and that will help me get even more attention and more glory. That will serve my end”. So the Bible says Simon believed the gospel, but it was only an intellectual assent. It was only advantageous for him and his trade and his business venture and his lust for fame and attention and power and authority over the people. And then Simon the magician was walking along with the Apostles, and he noticed that special apostolic power that those men had, they would lay hands on people and those people would receive the Holy Spirit of God and give evidences in supernatural manifestations, and Simon thought “aha, I’ve got to have that”. So Simon went to the apostles and said, “I tell you what fellows, here’s some money, I want to buy it, give me that special power to lay my hands on people and this, this ability come upon them, and this holy spirit work through me”. The Apostles looked at Simon the magician as recorded in Acts 8, verse 20 and said, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money.”

These are like Ananias and Sapphira, of Acts chapter 5. You know the church as recorded in the book of Acts, the early church was there, and they were enduring extreme and, and great persecutions, many were without food, many were without clothing, most were without shelter, and so the people in the church that had any material goods whatsoever, were not required nor compelled, but voluntarily were coming in and giving everything they owned in order to help the needs of their brothers and sisters in their dire circumstance. And many were coming in and, and they would, they would gain a recognition among the church because they were giving everything they had. Ananias and Sapphira, seeing the possibility of gaining glory and fame unto themselves, brought their gift into the church and secretly kept back some of the money, which I believe would have been fine had they just been honest about it. But they came in and then they were boastful about, we’re bringing everything too, they wanted the glory and the fame, you know why? But they kept some back secretly. You know why? Because they didn’t really love the Lord. Just going through the motions, just wearing the name, just using the name of Jesus Christ and the church of Jesus Christ to their own advantage. The Bible says, God struck both Ananias and Sapphira dead. Right there before the church family.

Paraphrasing something else that Calvin said about this very verse. He says nothing is more deadly, destructive, and abhorrent, then that class of persons who prostitute and profession of faith in Christ, to the fulfillment of their own depraved ambitions. First thing Paul says is, if anyone doesn’t love the Lord, they are just in this thing because humanly they figured out this is the cultural thing to do, this is the acceptable thing to do, this is respectable in the eyes of people, this will help my business, or this will help the ladies of the community consider me, a good person to be in a church, and have membership in a church. he said, concerning those people who are just using the name of Christ, and the church of Christ for their own selfish pleasure of gain or glory, he said, let them be accursed, doomed by God to destruction.

Then he says something else that’s very interesting. He uses a phrase that was very common among the Jews and became very common among Christians in this day, he uses the word “maranatha”. Maranatha. First he says, let them be cursed of God, doomed to destruction. Then he says, “Maranatha.” Which means come Lord Jesus. Now that doesn’t make any sense much until you think about it. Maranatha. So he takes this customary form of expression, as a matter of fact, we can research historically and find out that when the Jews, the ancient Jews excommunicated someone from their fellowship, they would begin by using the word “maranatha”. Which in what they were saying was this. Come Lord Jesus, and bring the proper wrath and judgement on the pretender and on the hypocrite who has used your church and your name for self pleasure and for self glory.

So here Paul says, as he gives this final word of condemnation, he says, Lord Jesus, bring judgement and condemnation on those playing church, dishonoring you, using your name for fleshly and worldly gain and recognition and pleasure. And then he says, Lord Jesus come on now and bring that judgement to bear because they are worthy of it. Now is that strong. Is that strong. Anathema, doomed to destruction. Maranatha, come Lord Jesus and bring it on.

You know there’s something that resounds in the heart of every spirit filled believer that says oh dear God I’m so sick of the phonies, dear God I’m so sick of the games. I’m so sick of playing the denominational program when people don’t love Jesus, aren’t spirit filled and aren’t honoring him in their lives. I’m so sick and tired of rank, willful, hypocrisy and rank willful pretenders in the church. I believe in every genuine regenerate born again spirit filled child of God, there’s a resonating agreement in their heart with the Apostle Paul right now. Not because you feel like you’re better than those people, not because you glory in putting them down, but because you want your God honored. You want him esteemed, you want him blessed, you, he deserves righteousness and humility and loyalty and genuine love. And there is not a more base depraved, wicked man on earth than the man who puts on a degree of outward morality, puts his name on a church roll and the whole design of his heart is, what’s in it for me. Paul says, let that person be doomed to destruction, Lord come and bring it to there. What a strong word of condemnation he gives us, as he ends this book of the Bible.

Now he’s already eluded to this very truth. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 5. 1 Corinthians 4:5. These folks at Corinth were already concluding that some people were ungodly and some people were not and they were making wrong conclusion and so Paul gives them an explanation here. He says, “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.” You think you are getting by with it, don’t you. You think you are working this thing, don’t you. You think you are milking this thing, manipulating this thing, controlling this thing, and people think you are a pretty good lady, pretty good guy, pretty good young person, but God knows your heart. The Apostle Paul, functioning as pastor of this church says, oh God, I’m so sick of it. Dear God let them be doomed to destruction and Lord Jesus come now and bring that judgement to bear.

I want you to look at some other sections of scripture to show you how consistently this is taught in the word of God, look at the book of Jude. Jude is the book, right before Revelation, I, II, III John, then the book of Jude. Boy I am going to try to skim through here hurriedly. I just want you to pick up on the fact that the Bible has always taught that there will be a lot of people who will be false professors. There will be a lot of people who call themselves Christians who are not. And many of them are influenced, I believe even possessed by demons, and they are in the church to bring it down, to cause trouble, and I’m going to say something very strongly, I believe its God’s truth as I’m standing here. A significant percentage of Baptist churches are really controlled by people who fit this category. They don’t win souls, they don’t walk with God, they’re not humble, they are not spirit filled, they’re control freaks, they are power hungry, they control it for themselves and for their glory. And the Apostle Paul fought that kind of spirit everywhere he went.

Look how Jude talks about it. Verse, let’s just begin in verse 4. “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed,” Boy we can pause right there and preach a long time on Baptist churches, couldn’t we. They crept in and you didn’t know what they really were. They looked like Christians, but they weren’t. They crept in, we call them creeps. He continues, verse 4, “those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation”, talk about a sovereign God. “Ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” They creep into the church, they get their name on the church roll, and they look at the precious Lord Jesus, the darling of heaven, that left the portals of glory and walked upon this sinful sod. They look at him who died on the cross and took all of their ugly, vile, wicked sin, and its was, it can wash them free of sin, cleanse them of all judgement and condemnation and guilt and give them a brand new life. They look at all of that grace and they say I don’t care about that, I’m going to use this organization for me. They crept in unawares.

Let me tell you something. Are you listening to your pastor? The more spiritual a church is, the more you will identify, uproot, and run off that bunch. Are you hearing me. The more spiritual, I mean truly spiritual, I’m not talking about there’s this foe, false, phony, outward loud spirituality we see a lot on TV and other places. The more spiritual your church is, the more you identify, uproot, expose and run off that crowd. And praise God, some of them get really saved. Amen. You know how I know, some of you used to be one of them. Amen. You use to be a knucklehead and you know it, then you got saved.

You thought the church I was talking to one of our professional men the other day about another professional man that used to be a member here who never ever came. And he said, you know I was encouraging the other day, and he said, you know what that fellow told me. He said, well, you know the church is there for me, when i need it, I’ll let them know. He’s a creep. He’s snuck, sneaked in, you say, brother Jeff, why did we go to membership information class. One of the reasons so we can sit down in love and talk to somebody with the word and try to get some confirmation they really know the Lord. They just don’t know Baptist churches and Southern Baptist Conventions in the denominational program, they know him. Now we can’t know that for certain, but we, we can spend a little more than three or four minutes with them and try to find out, amen. Nothing wrong with that. Folks, that’s Bible. As a matter of fact, the elders of the church are commanded and commissioned to check folks out to keep as many of these folks out as possible. Satan’s putting them, them in all the time.

Now look at verse 5. “Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.” What’s he saying. They are among Israel, but they weren’t true believers, and God destroyed them. “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Yet in the same manner these men”, which men? The creeps of verse 3, “these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority and revile angelic majesties.” Here’s what you are going to find. These people, if you watch them long enough, they will always, at least in a subtle way, throw doubt and question on God’s leaders in the church. Mark it down, they always do. Now if they’re not bold enough to come right out and dishonor God’s leaders, they, they’ll do it subtly and they’ll do it deceptively, and they will do little things like this. Well, you know, I don’t really agree with that, but I support the pastor. Just throwing a little jab there. Well now, I just don’t think we should have gone that direction, but I want you to know I support, you know, you know. Well, bless God, if you do, you do. You don’t have to go along qualifying it all the time. They defile authority, they reject authority.

Verse 9. “But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”” Now I strongly encourage people not to talk to the devil. I strongly encourage people, don’t rebuke him, don’t cast him out, don’t even deal with him, just turn him over to Jesus Christ, who can crush his head. Michael the archangel didn’t even bring a judgement against satan, he just said, I’m going to get the Lord on you.

Verse 10. “these men” which men? Same ones we’ve been talking about. “they revile the things which they do not understand”. My friend, I have heard too many times from pastors who call and counsel with us, they’ll say something like this, brother Jeff, I show that group in my church why we were going in a certain direction, I showed them from the word of God, and I had a man stood up and say I don’t care what the Bible says, we don’t do it that way here. Does that not happen in Baptist churches? I don’t care what the Bible says. I’m telling you, Paul said, you be doomed to destruction. And Lord Jesus come and do it quickly.

These verse 10, these men revile the things which they do not understand, and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. “Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.” Remember the rebellion of Korah. That’s a group of men who came together and said, Moses, Moses, we, we, we’ve formed a committee and we want to talk to you right quick. Moses, we have decided that we’re able to lead the people of God as good as you are. And Moses, we believe we’re as godly as you are, and, and we just don’t believe all this stuff about you leading the people of God, and Moses said, well, let’s just ask God about it. So Moses went to God about it and said, God, committee’s formed over here. And they, they, they said they don’t want to follow my leadership any more, God, now, God, You know I was on the back side of the Midian desert, had been there 40 years keeping sheep, when you called me to lead these folks. I didn’t sign up for this. So God, if I’m not your man fine, but if I’m in you, if I am your man, deal with this group of troublemakers. You know what God did, the Bible says God opened up the ground, flames flew out, and swallowed up the whole band of Korah and the ground slammed back shut and that whole bunch was gone. And this was my paraphrased interpellative comment into the text. Moses then looked at the people and said, any more questions about who God’s called to lead this group.

Now Jude says in the Christian church there will be little green Korah committees formed. And they’ll use, they’ll be made up and led, now sometimes innocent baby Christians get dragged into these things. But they will be led by people who are not saved, they are pretenders, they are hypocrites, they defile authority, and they ultimately run themselves into destruction just like Korah did.

Look at verse 12. “These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts”. You know what a hidden reef is. A hidden reef is just under the surface, and if you put your boat or ship through there, it will tear it apart, you didn’t see it, but it was destruction. They come in, they feast with you, they say the right things, they act spirit filled, they act godly and man when they join your church, you think, boy we’ve got to get this guy in leadership. Let me tell you something. You always watch a man for a season first. No matter how impressive he or she may seem. You watch them for a season first. They could be a hidden reef in your love feast that satan sent in there to destroy the church. You want me to tell you something else. This is the difficult part. Often its someone you love, trusted and have known for years, it breaks your heart. Every pastor I know has been forsaken, abandoned, stabbed in the back, and worked against by men he would have swore would have stood with him through everything.

A hidden reef in the love feast. It says when they feast with you without fear. Have you ever noticed how some people just reject God, reject his word, reject the things of God and the church and they are just brass about it, bold about it, there’s no fear of God in them. That’s what he says about them. When they feast with you without fear caring for themselves. Who are they caring for, they are caring for themselves. “Clouds without water”. In other words, they praise that they are spiritual people, but there’s nothing to them. “They are clouds without water. Carried along by the wind. Autumn trees without fruit”. Fruit trees says I promise you fruit, but it doesn’t have any. These are people who say I’m spiritual, I’ve got spiritual fruit, but they really don’t have any. “Double dead uprooted. Wild ways of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam, wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.  And about these also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, ““Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”” What is Jude saying here. The same thing Paul said. Doomed to destruction. These folks are doomed to destruction.

Now, what’s a pretty good, not an absolute, but what’s a pretty good indication a person in your church might be one of these pretenders, one of these hypocrites. Look at verse 16. “They are grumblers.” Now we, any of us can have a bad week and grumble for a while, but have you ever known anybody week after week, month after month, year after year in the church family and if there’s ever a grumble, they are going to have it. Not absolutely, pretty good sign though, they may be one of the hypocrites and pretenders Paul’s talking about. You see, you know why, are you listening to me? Are you know why? Because when you know Jesus and you love him, you’re so grateful for all the sin he’s forgiven you, you don’t have enough time to find fault and grumble about other stuff. But when you’re not in love with him and you’re not overwhelmed with how much he’s forgiven you, why you just think you’re king of the hill, God’s blessing to the church, and you just grumble about everything.

“Grumblers. Finding fault. Following after their own lust. They speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage”. These are the folks that are going to come up and say, brother, I tell you what. If you and I were in leadership we could help God do some things in this church. I tell you what, I’ll make the motion on the floor and you second it. We’ll get this thing back under control, for God’s glory. Now bless God and he Lamb, I’m talking about stuff that’s happening every week in Baptist churches. Flattering, rubbing egos, getting people fired up, because they want to gain an advantage. You know what Paul said about them. Let them be doomed to destruction, Jesus come and do it quickly.

“But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.” It means they’ve never been saved, the holy spirit is not in their heart at all. Playing religion, know the denomination game, know how to act like a Baptist, but they don’t know God.

We don’t have time, but why don’t you jot down Matthew 25:31 through 46. In Matthew 25:31-46 the Lord Jesus says, when I come again and its a picture of his coming to set up the millennial kingdom, after seven years of tribulation. Lord Jesus said, when I come after the seven years of tribulation, I establish my kingdom on planet earth, he said, I’ll separate people like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. I keep putting the sheep over here on my right hand, I’ll put the goats over there, sheep over here, goat over there, a sheep over here, a goat over there. And you know the point that he’s making there is we often can’t tell the difference between the goats and the sheep, the goats are the unbelievers, the sheep are the true believers. But he said, when I come back, I’m going to separate them all out, then he said, when I get through separating all of them out, the goats will go into the eternal destruction prepared for the devil and his angels, and the sheep will go into everlasting reward and blessing. What’s he saying, the same thing Paul was saying. Same thing Paul was saying. They are accursed of God, doomed to destruction. And when the Lord Jesus comes, Paul said, he’s going to take care of all of that.

In Matthew chapter 7, verse 15. The Lord Jesus said, “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” And I’m going to turn over and read right quick Acts 20:25-31. You want to turn there with me. Acts chapter 20, verse 25 through 31. Paul called in the elders of the church at Ephesus. That was his center of command, that was the center point, or, the home base of his ministry in Ephesus. And he called together those elders who had been appointed in that church. In verse 25 he says, “And now, behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will see my face no more.” He said, I’m going away, going toward Jerusalem, I’m going to die, you won’t see me any more. He said, “Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men,” all Paul means by that is this. He said, I’ve preached it straight, I’ve preached it true. I’ve preached in love and sincerity, and if any man perishes and goes to hell after hearing me preach, its his own fault, he’s heard the gospel. Verse 27, “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.” Then look at verse 28. “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” So, Paul says, the elders, the overseers of the church have a very significant responsibility, they are to take, they are to look for people who creep in, they are to look for wolves in sheep’ clothing, they are to look for people who are impressive, who are flattering, who get, gain attention quickly, but they don’t love Jesus, so they are just there to gain an advantage and to glorify themselves.

Look at what he says in verse 29. “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.” Come on, we’ll start our own group over here, because that, that, those elders aren’t doing right. Verse 31. “Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.” All I’m saying to you is over and over and over the Bible teaches the same truth. In this very church, who knows the number of people, you’re an imposter, you’re a hypocrite, you’re a pretender, you’re walking the walk, you look like it, you act like, you’ve heard the gospel, you’ve heard the preaching of the law, you’ve heard the truth about your sinfulness, you’ve heard the glorious truth that Jesus loves you, will forgive you, and wash away your sins, you push that aside, you put your name on the church roll because you thought it was the right thing to do, its the cultural thing to do, half of the people that live in Alabama are Baptist anyway, its what mama and daddy did, after all, it helps your reputation in the community, it helps you with your wife, or it helps you with your husband, helps you look better out there in the world, whatever, and you are a pretender and you may even be in the process of pulling things to your attention and for your pleasure and for your own glory and Paul says, let the doom of God be on you. And then he said, Lord Jesus come quickly and render it on those people.

This is a great place for me to exhort you in all the sincerity of my heart. If you are not saved, come to Jesus now. Stop parading in church membership, stop wearing just a label, come to Christ. Ask yourself soberly tonight, do I know him, do I love him. Now all of us would say I don’t love him like I ought to. Well, that’s on the right track. But do you love him. Do you really love him.

So Paul as he’s wrapping up his letter to the church at Corinth, now we’ve got a little bit more to go, so don’t get too settled in on leaving just yet. Paul states with boldness and great force. Let the pretender and the hypocrite who selfishly use the name of Christ and the church of Christ for self pleasure and for self glory be damned by God and Lord come soon and render that judgement. That’s his final word of condemnation.

Now let’s go to the fourth final word. You see, Paul will not end on a word of judgement and mourning. Are you listening to me. God’s last word, God’s last word, God’s last word is never judgement. Its grace, mercy, pardon and forgiveness. Amen. Aren’t you glad of that. So Paul is not going to end there. Paul will not end on a word of judgement and mourning.

Look at verse 21. Boy there’s great emotion in verse 21. Paul says, “The greeting is in my own hand—Paul.” Now it was Paul’s custom to dictate his letters to a secretary. And that secretary would write down everything Paul said exactly the way Paul said it. but it was Paul’s custom to take the quill at the very end and with his own hand write the last few words and sketch out his own name, because he says, I love you, you’re my beloved, I care for you. Everything I’ve said to you is because I love and I want to add, emotion and emphasis to that by putting these last few words in my own scribbling. Scholars have wondered if perhaps he had a disease that made it very difficult for him to write legibly. A. T. Robertson, the Southern Baptist Greek scholar said, oh that if we just had that fragment of parchment that had signed the apostle Paul on it. Wouldn’t that be glorious to have that piece of paper. But you know what the amazing thing is, of all the transcripts, the ancient transcripts we have, we don’t have, we do not have one copy of the original document that has Paul’s signature on it. Or any of the other writers of scripture. You know why I believe God’s done that. We would be prone to worship them instead of Jesus. I’ll just be honest with you, I’d pay $10,000 to have a piece of parchment paper that had the apostle Paul’s signature on it. Lord God, I just couldn’t help it. Why, good night, this man that God used to write scripture. But see God didn’t give us that. But Paul to add emphasis and the burden of his heart says fellows, here’s my own handwriting here at the end. I mean what I’m saying and its all out of love.

Chrysostom, one of the early church fathers said, Paul helps not only with counsels, by that he means rebukes, exhortations, instructions, but with prayers. And that’s why this final word is a word of intercession. He ends with a couple of lines, verses 23 and 24, talking about interceding for them. First of all there’s a word of prayer concerning grace, and then secondly we’ll see a word of prayer about love. Notice here the word of prayer about grace in verse 23. In verse 23 he says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.” Now this is the, the grace here means the protecting and helping favor of God. he says, may God’s protecting and helping favor be on your lives and on your church. What a beautiful picture that is.

Now let me turn back real quick to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, he began the book by talking about grace. And now he’s ending the same book talking about grace. Look at 1 Corinthians 1:3-4. In Chapter 1 verse 3 and 4 he says, “Grace to you and peace” You can’t have peace before God, you can’t have peace with God, you can’t have the peace of God until grace comes first. That’s why he says in verse 3 of chapter 1, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” And then in verse 4, “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus”. Now at that point he’s talking about saving grace. He begins the letter by saying, you come to know the Lord Jesus, you’re a child of God, you’re saved, and its all grace. Now at the end of the letter, he talks about sustaining grace, but right here he’s talking about saving grace.

Folks, its all grace, grace saves you, grace sustains you, and grace will get you home. Its all grace. But now look at verse 8, even at the very beginning of the verse, chapter 1, verse 8, he also talks about sustaining grace. He said, “who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Brother Jeff, if you’re really saved, how do you know you’re always saved, how do yo know you’re really going to get to heaven, once saved, always saved, how do you baptists know that. Well, here’s a good verse. Jesus will confirm you to the end, blameless until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s his job, not mine, he does that. That’s, he’s going to sustain you with grace all the way through. Sustaining grace.

But you know, saving grace, and sustaining grace, they are both amazing grace. This is saving grace. Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, that’s conviction of sin. And grace my fears relieved. That’s faith in Jesus. How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed, that’s saving grace. Now here’s sustaining grace. Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come. Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. Now that’s sustaining grace. Whether its saving grace, or sustaining grace, its all amazing grace. So Paul gives them a word of intercessory prayer concerning grace. He prayers there, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

Now a word of prayer concerning love. Verse 24, he says, “My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.” Now what do you think the word here in the Greek is for love. Not phileo, that’s human emotion, anybody can have human emotions. See a baby, and want to help it or see a poor person and do good. That’s not what we’re talking about. This is agape. This is love that can only be manifested by the Holy Spirit in your life. One thing he’s eluding to in verse 24 is this. He’s saying, all I have said to you is because I genuinely love you with true agape love. And then he’s saying, I am praying that you will know and walk in that very same love, the love that’s shed abroad in our hearts by the holy spirit. And therefore I’m praying that, that love you have, you’ll walk in it, so that in your daily lifestyle, in your daily walk as a church, you will selflessly serve your brothers and sisters in Christ, to their good and for God’s glory. That’s what he’s saying when he prays for them to have that love. But listen you cannot, you cannot, you cannot, you cannot love that way, only that love of God working in you through the Holy Spirit can do that. Selflessly, serving brothers and sisters in Christ. For their good and for God’s glory.

Thus the old Apostle lays down his quill and another portion of the infallible authoritative inerrant word of God is completed.