The Grace of Self-Denial Pt. 3

If God’s people would please
take their Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 in answer
to your question. No, I did not lose my place.
1 Corinthians chapter 9 where we left off three weeks ago. I was gone two weeks, but I didn’t
forget my place here in our study of this great epistle. And in
those first few weeks of looking at this chapter, we had been
observing in Paul’s life and ministry what I had termed principled
integrity. That is real, genuine leadership. This is that commitment of heart
and life to modeling the standards of the organization that a person
represents. And we saw that it’s sorely lacking
in this day. But this is the individual, man
or woman, who exemplifies their company or organization’s standards. And that is the core characteristic,
I suggested, of true leadership. Not just making rules, but modeling
them. What an encouragement this has
been, given the pitiful condition of leadership in our world. Those
who are in power and make rules and pass laws that do not apply
to themselves. That kind of so-called leadership
is really not leadership at all. Well, we’ve seen thus far that
Paul indeed is a man of principled integrity, a man who was keen
to model such standards as he was to communicate them. Paul,
ever the leader, would not even consider suggesting anything
to anyone that he himself was not willing to do. Paul was no
tyrant. Paul was no dictator. Paul was
no autocrat. Paul was no two-faced politician. We’ve seen and perhaps even seen
for the first time that chapter 9 is not a rabbit trail from
the subject that was discussed in chapter 8 and then again in
chapter 10. Nor is it a clumsily inserted
unrelated subject. Chapter nine, as we have already
seen, is entirely in concert with Paul’s progression of thought
in this section of his letter. Paul is really in the middle
of a discussion of matters of conscience, remember? Those things
discussed in chapter eight regarding the issue of meat offered to
idols. But that opens the door to a
number of related issues, not the least of which is principled
integrity. And the particular principle
that Paul had already urged, that he had already modeled,
was the willingness to sacrifice a right or a freedom for the
sake of one’s brother if necessary. Paul was willing to do that.
This is how he plainly laid it out to the Corinthians at the
end of chapter eight. If food causes my brother to
stumble, I will never eat meat again. And from the outset of
this chapter, we begun to hear how Paul had
already modeled the principle of deferring to others. And he
did so without the Corinthians even realizing it. And so chapter
nine serves as a very necessary declaration of integrity by the
Apostle Paul. It’s an affirmation that he was
indeed a trustworthy leader, not a hypocritical despot. Paul’s life was indeed a life
of self-denial, and he was already living out that standard to which
he was calling the Corinthians. I’ve called this series, The
Grace of Denial. This is what Paul is addressing
here again in chapter nine. And I’ve shown how this chapter
is carefully broken up into four distinct sections. In verses
one through six, we’ve seen Paul’s consideration of self-denial,
what it is. His example of self-denial, even
in the face of criticism. In verses seven through 14, Paul
balances this idea of self-denial. He’s not backing away from it.
He’s just providing a balance to this idea of self-denial.
And then in verses 15 through 23, Paul presents his living
example of self-denial. And then finally in 24 through
27, Paul encourages the Corinthians to the exercise of self-denial
personally. If we could, I want to just read
the first 14 verses this morning, kind of take a running start
at it. We’ll get to the rest in days to come. Beginning in
verse one, am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not
seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you. For you
are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. My defense to those
who examine me is this. Do we not have a right to eat
and drink? Do we not have a right to take
along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles,
and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? Or do only Barnabas
and I not have a right to refrain from working? Who at any time
serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard
and does not eat the fruit of it? Or who tends a flock and
does not use the milk of the flock? I’m not speaking of these
things according to human judgment, am I? Or does not the law also
say these things? For it is written in the law
of Moses, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.
God is not concerned about oxen, is he? Or is he speaking altogether
for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written. Because the plowman ought to
plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing
the crops. If we sowed spiritual things
in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?
If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless,
we did not use this right, but we endure all things. so that
we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. Do you
not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food
of the temple and those who attend regularly to the altar have their
share from the altar? So also the Lord directed those
who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.
In that first section, Paul’s consideration of self-denial,
we saw that he had not only argued that he is truly an apostle,
but that more directly, his was indeed a life of self-denial.
But Paul’s detractors might still complain that he hadn’t really
sacrificed. He hadn’t really given up so
much. And if he had, It wasn’t such
a great sacrifice. And so Paul had to defend himself
against such a harsh accusation. And so he chronicles for them
just how substantial and costly was his sacrifice. This served
to show that he was indeed a leader. of integrity. He had sacrificed. It was substantial. He had already
modeled this brotherly self-sacrifice. Well, in the second section of
chapter 9, verses 7 through 14, Paul is explaining there that
there is a balance to self-denial. He wants his church to know that
his is a real sacrifice that he has a legitimate right to
the church’s support. And so to relinquish that right
is significant. Church finances is always a delicate
subject. This is not an easy section for
me to preach, but here it is in God’s word, and so we must.
And so must Paul address the same issues in this second section. And he makes three distinct arguments. in this section. All three of
these arguments are designed to justify his right to be supported
by his churches. And his arguments are these.
We’ve already looked at the first. The first was his argument from
livelihood. And we saw it there. Who serves
as a soldier? Who plants a vineyard? Who tends
a flock? who functions as a plowman in
the field or a thresher of the grain without reaping the benefit,
the profit from that. The second argument that he poses
is an argument from priorities. We’ll look at that momentarily.
And the third argument is his argument from the priesthood,
as we just heard read. We considered that first argument
a few weeks ago. Let’s consider Paul’s additional
argument here this morning. In his balance of self-denial,
there in verses seven through 10, Paul began his defense of
ministerial support by the means of the most basic of all arguments,
that everyone has to make a living. Everyone has to eat. All three
of these careers that he mentions at the outset, the soldier, the
vine grower, the shepherd, all make their living from their
particular kind of labor. It’s a very basic argument. Various
kinds of work, but they all receive back from that labor. And Paul
points out here that this idea of a church financially supporting
its shepherd is not according to human judgment. This isn’t
something that Paul came up with. It’s not by means of his well
reasoned arguments. He says that it is a principle
that originates with God himself. God proposed this plan. And he declares it in the law
of Moses, you shall not muzzle the ox while he’s threshing. On the face of it, the whole,
the precept there seems to be promoting compassionate care
for beneficial farm animals, right? We looked at this. But
this law of God was never intended only for oxen. Even when the
law was given, it had a higher, greater purpose. It taught God’s
people practical compassion, that if God made such a gracious
law for cattle by securing them an occasional mouthful of grain
for their labor, surely he had a greater care for those in his
ministry. And so this law is not just about
oxen. Its ultimate aim was to cultivate
genuine compassion for his people’s hearts, for their fellow man,
particularly those in his service and in context, the priesthood. So Paul was indeed free. He did
indeed have a right to eat and drink, even at the expense of
his churches. He surely had the right to take
along a believing wife. He had the right to refrain from
working. The Corinthian church was possibly
the most capable church of supporting Paul and his companions in ministry. And they should have been among
the most willing, as we’ll see here shortly. Well, he wants
them to know how great was his sacrifice and that it was a sacrifice
of a God-given right. And that leads us into this argument
of significance in verses 11 and 12. Would you just glance
down again at those verses? Where Paul, this is his argument.
If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we
reap material things from you? So Paul here begins his second
argument, it’s an argument by comparison, as to which is more
significant. And he compares two things, or
better, things from really two realms. The spiritual on the
one hand, heavenly if you will, and the material on the other.
Which one is of more value, Paul essentially suggests. That’s essentially the question
that he places before the Corinthians. The ultimate purpose of Paul’s
argument here is still to show the great value of that which
he sacrificed. But he takes them to a very personal
and very pointed question, to step back to the moment when
they were first confronted with the gospel. And we do this all
the time. There they were, these Corinthian
people, immersed in a heathen culture, literally dead in their
trespasses and sins, without God, without hope, and they were
still on the outside looking in as Paul began to minister
in this heathen city of Corinth. Paul began his ministry there
in the city of Corinth, as he almost always did, to whatever
Jews were present. He would go to the synagogue
and begin to preach. But in God’s sovereign providence,
as you may remember, in Acts chapter 18, the Jews rejected
Paul and his gospel outright. So much so that Paul shook out
his garments against the Jews and announced that he was turning
to the Gentiles. There just happened to be a God-fearing
Gentile right next door. You remember this story now.
He opened his home to Paul and his ministry, and the gospel
just exploded in Corinth among the heathen. And for the next
18 months, Paul would have one of the most productive seasons
of ministry in his entire apostolic career. The gospel had indeed come to
the Gentiles, and the Gentiles were receiving it eagerly. So
when Paul says here, we sowed spiritual things in you, That
statement would bring back ardent memories of those former days.
Note first that Paul does here say we, speaking also almost
certainly of his fellow workers Silas and Timothy. These two
were deeply involved in the planting and the development of the Corinthian
church. Paul wasn’t just speaking for himself here, he’s speaking
for the Christian ministry itself. Paul is making the exact point
that he made earlier, that gospel workers were to be supported
by their churches. And, somewhat ironically here,
if you look at the total context, Paul says that we sowed these
things. That agrarian image of a seed
casting farmer reaching into a bag of seed, much like the
parable of the soils. It hearkens back to his similar
ministry metaphors that we saw in verses seven through 10. A
vineyard owner, a plowman, a thresher. Of course, Paul had sown spiritual
things. He had sown the gospel, the good
news of salvation by faith in Christ. Mere men could not impart
faith or salvation or spiritual gifts, but Paul could plant seeds. Paul could disciple people. Paul
could cultivate those gifts. Paul could employ and delegate
responsibilities, and he did. but God in his mercy had chosen
to use vessels, people, men and women to sow seeds and to teach
and to baptize, to encourage, to disciple, to counsel. Paul
inquired of the Roman Christians, you remember this, how will they
hear without a preacher? It is built into God’s plan of
redemption, that we go out with the gospel and proclaim it in
sinners ears. How will sinners come to a saving
faith unless the gospel is preached? And so he concludes there in
Romans chapter 10, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
word of Christ. This is how the Corinthians heard
the gospel. Faithful believers went out proclaiming
the gospel, the simple truth of salvation by faith in Christ. And God uses this means of ministry
to impart the spiritual blessing of salvation to people. How could
they forget that? And he had taught them. Paul
not only had given them the gospel message, spiritual things, but
he had taught them spiritual things for 18 months. Can you
imagine having Paul as your Sunday school teacher? Wouldn’t that
have been a delight? You’d need a new notebook every
Sunday. These are the things of the Spirit
of God, as he discussed earlier in this epistle, chapters one
and two, the things of the Spirit of God, things which are spiritually
appraised. These are the things that only
a believer could begin to understand, as Paul taught through them,
because they now had the Spirit of God residing within them. Such things would include not
only the initial preaching of the gospel, but also discipleship,
and instruction, and godly spiritual counsel, such as Paul details
in 1 Thessalonians 5. In 1 Thessalonians 5, he says,
appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge
over you in the Lord and give you instruction. They tell you
how to live a Christian life. They give you cautions. They
give you instruction. And that would certainly include
formal instruction, such as Paul urged Timothy in his second letter,
preach the word. It would include shepherding
protection. such as Paul mentions in Acts chapter 20. Be on guard
for all the flock. That is all part of the spiritual
things that Paul is speaking of here. It’s the careful watch
over souls that Hebrews 13 17 speaks. It would include things
like instruction and and counsel Remember those who led you, Hebrews
13, 17, who spoke the word of God to you. And each one of us
can look back and find people in our lives that first spoke
the gospel and then carefully discipled us. Can we even imagine
what it’d been like to have Paul doing that? But it says that
he did it for 18 months. there for the Corinthians longer
than any other single church. As we established last week,
in addition to teaching them, Paul lived out his precepts. The value of those things, their
salvation, their discipleship is inestimable. It’s incalculable. It’s priceless. And Paul makes
his point very abruptly here. If we sowed spiritual things
in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? What is more significant? I’m sure you could have heard
a pin drop in the Corinthian Bible Church that Sunday when
this scripture was read. If we sowed spiritual things
in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you. Because here they were, these
Corinthian believers, in one of the most affluent cities of
the world at the time, blessed beyond measure, and then added
to that every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, as Paul
described to the Ephesian believers. By God’s grace, Paul had imparted
these blessings to them free of charge. Spiritual riches that money could
not buy. And all that God asked of his
people, all that God directed his people to do is to allow
him to eat and drink. If possible, to take along a
believing wife. And that Paul not have to make
tents any longer. That’s all he asked. Material blessings. The word
that Paul uses here is very graphic. It’s sarkikos, fleshly. And it can and sometimes does
have a negative connotation, but not here. He’s just talking
about earthly things, material things. things of the earth,
trivial things, things that will not endure to eternity. You cannot
take it with you. Paul uses the same language in
Romans 15, 27. The context is a bit different
there, but the contrasting words that Paul uses are exactly the
same, spiritual and material. There, Paul is urging the Romans
to participate in a material that is financial gift that was
being gathered of the Gentile churches to take to the church
in Jerusalem in great need in the midst of a famine. And his
ultimate argument there in Romans 15 27 is if the Gentile churches
have shared in the spiritual things of the Jews, that is the
gospel, which was built upon the foundation of the Jewish
faith, received first among the Jews, and then disseminated by
the converts of the Jews, if the Gentiles shared in their
spiritual things, then the Gentiles are indebted to minister to them
also in material things. It’s a simple argument. Well,
similarly here, Paul and his co-workers, sowed, that is scattered,
planted, eternal, that is spiritual seeds, the gospel. The recipients were asked only
to share in their material blessings. Those two things do not even
compare. Gospel blessings and bodily sustenance, all we not
reap, earthly things from you?” Paul asks. And he’s still abiding
with his farm-oriented metaphor here when he uses the word reap,
to harvest. That kind of gratitude Paul intimates
here ought to have been quite natural, almost axiomatic. It’s
just totally natural to respond that if you gave me the gospel,
if you taught me, if you discipled me, if you counseled me from
God’s word, then supporting you in material
is far less. In no way is this kind of response
payment. for such a gift so grand of salvation. I’ve heard that mindset from
people on many occasions. But it’s more than reasonable
that out of a heart of gratitude, a person should seek to free
up the messenger in order that more seeds should be sown, not
fewer. Writing to the Romans, Paul speaks
of this manner of overflowing gratitude. He saw it. there in
that same chapter we considered a moment ago in 1526 he said
of regarding his churches in Macedonia and Achaia that if
in that they had made a generous contribution to Paul’s cause
in Jerusalem because listen to this the Gentiles shared spiritual
things and they are indebted to minister
the material things. He ties the two thoughts together.
They were indebted. They owed it to Paul. In writing
to the Galatians chapter 6, Paul utters essentially the same exhortation. The one who is taught the word
is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. Except
that here, it’s an imperative. It’s a command. Share. Well, if they had not been so generous
with Paul, at least they were with someone. Look at verse 12, if you would.
If others share the right over you, do we not more? Uh-oh. Because what you see here is
that Paul is aware of something. that he’s probably not supposed
to know about. That they had evidently supported
some teacher, whether a true Christian teacher or no, they
were very generous with someone. And perhaps it was even Apollos.
We know that Apollos administered to them as well. Apollos had
a right to be supported by them as well. would not have been half bad
for them to support Apollos. At least it was a Christian brother
doing the work of the ministry. But the sense here is that it
was someone really that was on the fringe. Maybe even one of
the Judaizers that was thwarting Paul’s efforts and teaching contrary
to the gospel, pushing Jewish legal observations on the Corinthians. The bottom line is they were
supporting somebody very generous with somebody, and that alone
was painful for Paul to hear. Because while he and his team
had poured into the Corinthian believers 18 months, they were suffering and struggling.
And it was hard because Paul and his team, Silas, Timothy
and others, they’d imparted to these believers the message of
life. They were the ones that brought the gospel to them in
the first place. Whatever rights some traveling
teacher had over them, didn’t they enjoy that right more? They
did indeed, nevertheless, that’s right, nevertheless, They did
have a right to the church’s support. Nevertheless, kind of
an astonishing word there, isn’t it? Nevertheless, we did not
use this right. This is that statement to which
Paul has been building from verse one of this entire chapter, argument
after argument, that these servants of God did have rights. But all
he’s been doing is citing what his rights are as a minister
of the gospel. All along there has been this
undertone that these are rights only. And he basically makes
clear here that they are rights unexercised. Just like the rights
that he was urging the Corinthians to consider forsaking meat offered
to idols. some little preference issue,
some gray area that they refused to yield, some Christian liberty
that they would not let go of. Paul says, we didn’t exercise this right.
We had a God given right to be supported by these churches.
And yet, by God’s grace, we did not exercise this. We didn’t
press you. We didn’t push you. And he even goes on to say, I’m
not pushing you now. If they took up an offering,
he probably wouldn’t have accepted it. You see, what Paul is doing here is reminding by way of reminding them about
the value of things. He’s reminding them about the
value of souls. And his challenge to them is
that, are you really going to hang on to whatever Christian
liberty it is that you’re enjoying, whether it’s meat offered to
idols or a particular movie or dancing or beer or whatever the
case may be. Are you going to hang on to that
right with indifference to your brother who’s struggling? Are
you going to hang on to that privilege, that God-given privilege with complete disregard for your
brother? Paul does mean to shame them.
Paul does mean to point out the hypocrisy of such a thing. That
Christ and his goodness had mercy and saved their souls, and now
they’re gonna stand in the way of others receiving likewise? We’ll take up the third argument
next Lord’s Day, but we should consider here we should consider
Paul’s argument in its context. This isn’t a rabbit trail. Paul
didn’t lose his train of thought. Paul is arguing that we are called
many times to relinquish our God-given rights for the sake
of our brothers and our sisters in Christ. Would you examine
your heart before him? Our merciful God We pause and
we bow.