1 Corinthians 7:17-24

Blessing of the Lord and the Position of His Servants

When I consider:

God’s placing us in such a time as this (free country, beautiful culture, Christian town)

(I am humbled by His Mercy)

God’s Church and it’s ministries to the community (including that to children) and our responsibility to Ephesians 6:4 “bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

(I am humbled by His Grace)

The testimony that He has lent to me and the work that He has done to the softening to my heart

(I am humbled by His Patience)

The covenants that He has fulfilled through the Lord Jesus. From predestination to calling to justification to glorification

(I am humbled by His Faithfulness) - So faithful to us, that He makes us faithful

The revelation of His Character and Person (goodness and righteousness) His eternal salvation through Jesus and the empowerment and commission of His Church

(I am humbled by His Love and Forgiveness)

The destruction of wicked men and their evil intentions, birth pangs of revival and the turning away from sin to Jesus

(I am humbled by His Justice)

Exodus 34:6–7 “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.””

...and the work of Christ, beginning from before the foundation of the World

Continues through today and into tomorrow

Ephesians 1

Disservice to say? (w/o proper background and understanding)

God has called us out of rebellion unto something that is purposed for Him

Presupposition: The Holy Spirit has been graciously moving us from point to point

in order that we would be fully equipped to answer His call (for He is the equipper)

We are being dragged (moved, sanctified) from “faith to faith”

By the revelation of the work of Christ - do we fall in love with God

and we begin to serve Him - in the capacity that He has given to us to be faithful in

But this does not happen in a vacuum

Eph. 1:3-14

God has been faithfully setting this up from the beginning

And this has immense implications to how make decisions in our day to day

Live as you are Called

So: When the Saints are called into Christ’s service out of Corinth

Consider the radical change of mind they have

Gospel: Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand

Change your mind and your heart about God and and your rebellion towards Him

God’s Kingdom is within grasp so submit to His program

and this response will determine your eternity

READ TEXT

So where are the Saints of Corinth coming from?

Many are Pagans who have known nothing but the traditions of the culture

Many are Jews - who are unsure how to handle the law

Many are married to (and are friends with) unbelievers

The Church is planted in the World (but somehow called out from it)

*experience:

I was called to pastor this Church (and I struggled with leaving the secular realm to pursue full-time ministry)

Many pastors - called to serve and completely seek to abandon their responsibility to the world

Realization: most of my ministry happens at the Store

God has not called you into holy seclusion - but to serve Him in the world in which we are put in

many Churches seek to pull themselves out of the World (and out of the communion of the faithful within the community)

But, read the calling within it’s context

You were called here and now

to Genesis 1:26–28 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

bear the Image of God

take dominion over all of creation in the name of our Lord

We serve the same commission, but in a different context

Paul’s Calling

Gal. 1:11-24

Council at Jerusalem

But I am a Jew - I am already circumcised

I have cut the flesh - set out as holy for God

Or, I am not a Jew - ought to be grafted in properly?

Circumcision - was a shame in Roman culture

Many sought to surgically reverse the effects of there circumcision

“Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision” - this is not a picture or analogy of something deeper

Acts 15:1-12

What does circumcision count for?

We are all of the same faith.

Like Baptism:

Reminder that God had revealed to them who He was and what they were expected to do

Not merely an outward sign of an inward truth

Circumcision did not add any merit to whether or not you were saved from God

The actual “outward sign of the inward truth” was keeping the commandments of God

SO:

Become a Christian - get circumcised?

Become a Christian - divorce your pagan wife?

Become a Christian - leave your profession, your family, your community, in search of a holy seclusion and preservation of your soul?

No -

Become a Christian and represent Christ to all the World

Become a Christian and do all things to the glory of God

Become a Christian bring all things that are wicked into alignment with God’s revelation of righteousness

Minister to your wife and Children

Seek to appoint Godly representatives

Glorify God in your work

We ought to consider the blessing of the ministry that the Lord has placed us in

and much of this - is not a salvific issue

but a calling to minister the Kingdom of Heaven to a lost people

Even the slave has a great responsibility to show godly submission to his placement

Problem:

What if my condition is incompatible with the calling?

Many prostitutes, drug dealers, occultists, drunks, homosexuals

are being called into service:

are they to ‘remain in the condition in which they are called?

Slaves are being offered freedom - are they to want to be enslaved?

No!

These are salvific issues that were taking you away from the Lord

But your experiences have lent you a unique position

Solution

Whether you are enslaved to man or to sin

You have been set free.

There is only one way to free a slave - with a price that is agreed upon between the both the seller and the purchaser

Enslaved to sin? you will be freed from it only in death (what a price to pay!)

But Christ paid for your freedom

in order that you will serve Him

Even if you are a slave to man - show him what godly submission and glory to God is

b/c you are free to obey the Lord