First reading this morning is from 1 Corinthians, the 4th chapter reading verses 8 to 15, it's on Pager, 1,146. Already you have all you want. Already you have become rich. You have become kings. And that without us. How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you. For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession. Like men condemned to die in the arena. We have made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels, as well as to men. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, and we are dishonored. To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty. We are in rags. We are brutally treated. We are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless. When we are persecuted, we endure it. When we are slandered, we answer kindly. But to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world. I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children. Even though you have 10,000 guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I become your father through the gospel. This is the end of the first reading. If you would like to turn on just a few pages in your Pew Bible, to page 1164, 1164, you will find our second reading. It is taken from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians chapter 10, beginning at verse 7. You are looking only on the surface of things. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as he. Even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up, rather than pulling you down, I will not be ashamed of it. I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. For some say his letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and he is speaking amounts to nothing. Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent we will be in our actions when we are present. Now he will just look on a little way ahead now to chapter 11, verse 23. We pick it up there. Are they servants of Christ? I am out of my mind to talk like this. I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews 40 lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toil, and have often gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst, and have often gone without food. I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches, who is weak, and I do not feel weak, who is led to sin, and I do not inwardly burn. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus, the governor, under King of Rates, had the city of Damascus guarded and ought to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window, in a wall, and slipped through his hands. This is the Word of the Lord. Hallelujah, praise the Lord, that you have given us so much in your Word to the Bible. Help us now to hear God's Word, and to learn from Him. Robin, I do that. I may be wrongly from before, but I learned that when I was a doe killed, and I don't think I realized that people here didn't know it. So it's a hymn for today's church number, isn't it? Michael Bourne's own hymn book. One Corinthians 4, we've got two today. One of the greatest problems for all Christians is the tension between the not yet and the already of Christian life. The Bible says there's all who have faith in Jesus, our sons of God are ready. All who are Christians are saved already. We're Christ the people already, our sins are given already. But there are many things that are not yet ours. Knowing what is ours now, in this age, and what we have to wait for for the future is absolutely vital if we are to be mature Christians. So far in one Corinthians, all is called for them to remember that Christ crucified is in the center of the place. They cannot lean Jesus behind as they seek to deliver as Christians and as a church. They must not be crowned, or not for all they have simply been given by God. They must not abuse His gifts of the Spirit, and in since the absolute everybody has the same gifts as they do. But now in chapter 4 we're going to say if we see a major problem with the teaching of these Christians and it has to do with what is already and what is not yet. And it's a really serious issue. And Paul is quite merciful as he deals with them. I'm sure you wouldn't mind leaning to the hate from the pulpit in the way in which Paul behaves at this point in this letter. Jesus is so hard into the logic of their own thinking. They have been looking down on those who seek not to evidence to get to the Spirit called knowledge or wisdom. Their mistake was to equate spiritual maturity with having a particular gift or gifts of the Spirit. And what a contrast there is between Paul and the one hand and these people on the other. Paul is sarcastic almost as he notes flesh and their position, then secondly the station of his position. And he makes three devastating points in verse 8. Already you have all you want, that's the best one. So far so secure as they appear in their spirituality that they have all they want. The worst is very briefly associated. They're actually gores, it comes from over easy. We've had a birthday party in the family last night. I know all about it. But this is the image that he's using here. They're absolutely gores. The conclude they have taken is not proper food. It reminds us of chapter 3 verses 1 to 2. Do you remember that? Back there where Paul was talking again about food and he said he couldn't feed them on spiritual, on solid spiritual food. Or they were actually worldly, not spiritual. And so he could only give them milk. And here he picks up the idea again and points out that actually they're not recognizing that. They don't recognize the problem. They think they are absolutely gorge. Sometimes we're seen on our TVs, there's dreadful pictures you remember. A starving children who eat earth or leaves or pieces of straw helps them to feel full. But there's no goodness in what they're eating at all. They're stomachs become bloated. Eventually they die of any way of malnutrition. Now that's the standard situation that Paul is pointing to here in these friendly and Christians. They're thinking that they think that they are enjoying all the goodness and joys that God can give them. They think they are spiritually material, welfare. Or regularly says Paul, they are gorge. That is irony. There will be a time when Christians really will have all they want, but not yet. So Paul comes in already. You have to come ready. There's repeating of this word. So Paul, no readiness. See, this is their problem. They don't have it. They think they have. Paul's being ironic. All ready. You have to come rich. Look back to chapter one this time. Paul started his letter there by saying that they have been made rich or have been enriched in every way with different spiritual gifts. They had been, in other words, God had made the rich with spiritual gifts, like he was made up here in half the rich with spiritual gifts. But now Paul says, already you have become rich. You see, they started to think of the gifts as things that they do, but they can be proud of. But they can insist on. They see them as a side of spiritual maturity. They have become rich. Do you see the difference? To begin with Paul says that God has made you rich. But now he's hitting them hard because they say, we are rich. They have become rich. In other words, they're sort of feeding themselves now. It's no longer a gift. Back to what we were talking about last week, isn't it? How dare you boast about something which anyway you received simply as a gift? They've changed the whole field of what's going on in the church. Already you have become rich. They started to think of the gifts as their thing, a sign of spiritual maturity. They are rich as a homes, they say, to other persons who are not rich. Life. Well, they're fossil gold or what? But they're not rich in the way they think they are. Actually, they're still immature. And when children are giving toys of Christmas for a while, you know, they think they are rich, don't they? But through them having what they want is, or having something that's even their friends have. That's Christmas, isn't it? At least for the first five minutes of Christmas day, morning. Soon it will laugh. They're not actually as rich as they thought they were. Such riches are a far-fetched man who's been so engaged in the Caribbean theater. And then it will come into the third point where you can trust himself within. You have become king even. Now back without us. Again, the meaning of the great is not so much as they become kings. Rather than they have already launched on their rule, they've launched on their rule, the rule of the earth. And today's term for the same, they rule on death. What was wrong, sorry, that I asked you by earlier about anything. What was wrong with their teaching? When Christ came to this, the rule of the Messiah began in a very visible way on earth. The Christians had the job of communicating to people of Christ's rules that they need to retain, they need to turn to Him, and one day they will find themselves standing before Him. Yet the rule has arrived. Again, the Corinthians went wrong because the final rule of God has not yet come. Jesus has not yet returned to the last book of the New Testament to Revelation chapter 21. Verse 3, Revelation 21 verse 3, I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, there will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. They have not taken that truth on board. That is what it would be like when the rule is properly and finally established. When King Jesus returns and Paul knows very well that he is not yet experiencing that. Yes, he has much of which to be thankful for now. His salvation Christ death on the cross. He has the Holy Spirit with him to help him go through all the things that go through. But he is not yet coming to what the Bible elsewhere calls the full inheritance. Over the bad effect of the crying is misinterpretation of God's word. Oh, the effect of this is coming among the Corinthians. They could be the best minister out of this school group. The final day of dawn began up there. This is where they were asked. They take and you see part of the truth. And once again they show up and think of something that eventually was untrue. Yes, they had spiritual gifts. Yes, they were rich with gifts from God. They were in really part of the kingdom of God, the ruler of God. Because it is not until the resurrection that the full fruit will be seen. That was their problem. And then back again from one point, there is some Roman for this time. Romans chapter 8. You see, all I have to deal with is this problem. It is higher again in the early church. And it is the problem of this year and the moment that it is right in our church as well. But all those every left of the full house to right, he has to deal with this particular problem. What do we have now? And what will we have on that when it comes to return? We know that the whole creation has been growing after the paintings of Charles, right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first groups of the spirits, grown inwardly, as we went, he would either be for our reduction in some, the redemption of our bodies. What do you say? He said, we have the whole spirit. The whole spirit is the guarantee that we belong to God. He is the guarantee that we will inherit everything one day. But we are waiting. And that way he is not easy. He describes it as growing. It is not easy to be here and now on this earth. Even in the Christian, the Christians believe they had it all, and they were so proud of themselves. And it is temptation to see the kingdom of God and the rule as having already been done. And the temptation has gone all the way down through the earth from the Old Testament on downwards. In our generation, we seem liberal, we are those who teach just that. But the kingdom of God is to be seen in this world now, and the church looks after people socially. The rule of Christ is to be seen in that way. They look to be able to build Jerusalem, and even bring them to earth and land. Whatever thought of Jerusalem it may be. We smile. And of course, that is the position that that came from. And he said, total, this is an abandoned scripture, isn't it? The liberals have taught that for ages. They fail to teach. But while we have the first proof now, and he can show some things up a lot of reasons socially to live around them. Yet, we do not have utopia. And we will not have utopia in this age. So we may try to return it with a new heaven, and a new earth that we shall see the fullness of the new creation. But the problem is not just with liberals. Some of you may have heard of some of the American ministers who are during the rounds of the moment. They all travel to England station. Ministers, let me name some of them, because I've seen their books around regularly in England. Ministers like Kenneth Copeland, Jiméa Fervor, or Ken Hagen, or John Wiemmer. Among others, these leaders are influenced by people in Christian teaching that empathize as we all read, just as the Persian people did. They teach the Christians to have all of us everything now. They don't need to wait. But there is no longer the right to the Hebrew books. But there is no longer the truth of things not yet. Rather, faith is actually what we have and when we see something happen in our eyes, so a gospel of health and of prosperity is taught. When the teachers come, Hagen and Copeland teach health and wealth, there are vital verses that talk of Christians having health and prosperity both. But then the problem is these teachers think that you can all have it now. What's the problem with that? The Bible says, what's the problem? Well, the problem is that we do make up a call. This upper family is the first fruit. We do have the first fruit since God's kingdom. So when we pray, we can expect praise God to see something for real. We can expect to see some people greatly materially prosperous. And we praise God for that, as we pray. God works His purposes out. But we do not yet have the full harvest. And like the Corinthians, this is where teachers often know wrong today. They tell us we can have the full harvest now and only have enough faith. Paul is arguing the exact reverse. He is arguing completely the opposite of that. True faith and mature. But that is real mature faith. It's seen in how we are able to handle the fact that we do not yet have it all. You see the problem? Real mature faith, which is the apostles, then, here. And he's going on to consult himself with that. In the face of those how to handle the fact, which is very evidently indignant all that, the fact that we don't have it all yet. And so Paul goes on to talk of the essence of a truly spiritual life as he then goes on and looks at himself. For him, Christianity involves taking seriously the command of Christ to take up your cross and follow me. Chapter 4 verse 9. Paul is persecuted. Far from being a king, he is a spectacle to be ridiculed. Unlike the Corinthians, verse 10, who people regard as wise and hold them up this Christian community, held up by those around as people of wisdom, he is regarded as a fool for Christ. They are honored as he preaches his dishonored. People laugh at him. Far from being full of riches of his spirituality, he finds that as he travels for Christ, he's hungry. And he's thirsty. He's beaten for the faith. He's homeless. He lists a whole lot more of that sort of thing in talking to Corinthians. And he's set against by that time, this church had gone even more down the rotten path. And by that time, there were people in that church calling themselves super apostles, who were actually distinctly preaching against Paul. And if you read the rest of that passage of to Corinthians 10 and 11, you'll see how Paul has to fight to show this way of the cross as being the mature way, he's homeless. Now, wonder he can't identify with the maturity of the Corinthians. It's rather like a Sudanese Christian who is persecuted for the faith and dying for starvation at one at the same time as many of them are. Not being able to identify with an English or American spirituality that stresses that God always heals and God always wants prosperity for his people now. Try telling a dying, starving Sudanese Christian who's been persecuted, that that is the case. I mean, you can see how Paul simply can't identify with this so-called spirituality. First, well, he worked for his living among the Corinthians when he preached the gospel. No arrogance there, no easy life. He slandered, he's cursed, he's treated like scum. The word there is the stuff that you sweep up with a brush off the floor. And yet his mature spirituality is so clearly seen at precisely his weakest point because he blesses his persecutors. He endures, he answers kindly because he knows that these things are the things of now. No more than what he expects of now and that they're passing and they are only moments on the way to the full inheritance when he will see Christ face to face in glory, which is what he goes on to talk about in chapter 13. So in verse 14 and 15 he urges that they imitate him for he first preached the gospel to them. He in that sense is their father in Christ. Paul's not boasting when he says, well, imitate me after all who would want to be scum anyway. It's hardly a boasting comment, is it? After he's just described himself as the scum of the earth. What he is concerned about is that these Christians are living a lie. And that lie that they are spiritually mature that they have arrived is dividing the church and it's dishonoring God and it's hindering the gospel. The lesson Paul teaches in this passage is extremely uncomfortable and yet it's one that we must all learn. Real gospel people will suffer like the world around. We won't be exempted from the sufferings of the world around. We will suffer ill health and poverty and hunger because we are part of this world. And if that is not enough, real Christians will suffer even more than those around because along with the general sufferings of this earth they will also suffer for Christ and for the gospel. Once again here you see we find the values of this world are just turned upside down. We've talked about that before, haven't we? The whole thing that's valuable in the world Paul simply flips upside down and the reverse is valuable in the kingdom of God. Whatever boasting there is on our part, it will be in our weakness as we saw in 2 Corinthians 11 because it's in our weakness that Christ is known, not in our success or supposed advanced state of spiritual maturity. The whole of life involves suffering but it's also part and this is what Paul's been showing you see. It's also part of the gospel itself. Jesus went through it, Paul went through it, we have to go through it. God is with us by His Spirit to bring us the taste of the fullness of the future. We praise God when we see in our own midst many evidences of that. We will see many, many blessings of God and we should pray for more of them. We will know God's permanent presence with us as we live day by day but we will long for the day when Christ returns and we're raised to immortality the day when all tears and mourning and dying and pain and suffering have gone. Perhaps this morning, everything I've said is completely new to you. You came this morning because you wanted to know more of Christ. Well Christ reaches out to all people with love and forgiveness and if you want to know Him all you need to do is to turn to Him in faith and repentance. But I want to be honest with you. Come to Him because Christ Himself is calling you now and He is to serve Him and to love Him, to come into His kingdom. Come for that reason, come because He alone can forgive sins and take away the fear of death. Come because He alone can bring you one day to that time of resurrection glory that we've just described. But don't come to a lie. The Christian life is never easy. Don't come if you want an easy life and don't come if you want to feel one up on your neighbors. That was the fault of the Corinthians. And to the majority of us here who do know Christ through faith, how are we in this church? Have you grasped Paul's view? The view of life here that God has graciously given us the first fruits but we await Christ's return for the whole harvest? Are you prepared to go out and speak for the gospel no matter what insults come back on you? Or are you trying to live the Christian life? Living as if everything is okay. It's all all right now. You've arrived because at some stage you can best Christ in your heart. But you have no troubles and so you are spiritually mature. Well that is not Paul's spirituality and deep down. It probably isn't yours either. Paul's spirituality is rooted in the way of the cross. There is no other way for Christians to be. We start at the cross of Jesus where our sins were taken for us and we continue with the life of the cross, the life and way of suffering, whether you are growing spiritually and finding that the suffering Christ experienced in his time and Paul experienced is actually not so far from your experience or whether you are a new Christian who has turned to the cross of Christ for forgiveness for the first time. That is the centre of the faith. That is what Paul points us to when he says, will you imitate me? Will you imitate the apostle Paul? Let's pray. Father we thank you that you have given us your Holy Spirit as the first fruits of all the wonderful blessings that one day you will pour out on us. We thank you for those answered prayers part of the first fruits of the Spirit. We thank you for the gifts of the Spirit of all sorts of gifts that help to encourage us and to build us up here. We thank you for those first fruits but Father help us never to boast about them. Help us always to remember that we have everything by way of a gift from you and help us to look forward to the time that is not yet the time when you will rule in a new heavens and a newer and there will be no more pain or suffering, no more insults or antagonism for you will be there in our midst in Jesus' name. Amen.