Sermon Tone Analysis

I CORINTHIANS 4:6-21

“Bible Pins For Puffed Up Christians”

 

           I.

The Tough Word

              A.

An Attitude To Be Rejected - Spiritual Pride                       1.

It Is Unscriptural

                  2.

It Is Unspiritual

                  3.

It Is Unsociable

              B.

An Attitude To Be Reflected - Of Submission To                                                                                                                                       Jesus

 

          II.

The Tender Word

              A.

Remember Your Birth In Christ

              B.

Remember Your Behavior In Christ

 

 

     Paul describes these believers in Corinth in a very graphic way.

Three times in these verses Paul says to them, you are puffed up, and it is indeed a very graphic description.

It’s the picture of taking a bellows and inflating it with air.

It’s exactly what a frog would do just before it got ready to croak.

So Paul says you’re just like a swollen frog, you’re walking around so filled with yourselves, you think you’re so wonderful, you think you’re so great.

So Paul, in these verses of scripture, is going to use some Bible pins to prick their spiritual pride and bring them back down to size.

I don’t guess there is anything that is more distasteful or unnecessary than is spiritual pride on the part of a believer.

It is totally unnecessary and yet pride seems to be the inherent sin in every human being.

It is pride that changed angels into demons.

It is pride that robs us of the humble spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So pride is never to be a characteristic of a child of God.

It is totally unwarranted and it is totally unnecessary.

I heard about a young lady in a church one night in revival meeting who came forward and she said to her pastor, “Pastor, I have come forward to confess the sin of pride.”

And he said, “Well, young lady, what do you mean?”

She said, “Well, when I look in the mirror I think I’m beautiful.”

He said, “Young lady, that’s not a sin, that’s a mistake.”

And the fact of the matter is most of the time when we are filled with pride, it is not on the basis of sound consideration but it is really a mistake.

Now I want you to look at verse 14 and then down at verse 16 and notice that Paul gives two different kinds of words to these Corinthians believers.

Notice what he says in verse 14, 16.

In other words he says I want to give you, first of all, *A TOUGH WORD, *and then secondly he says I’m going to give you *A TENDER WORD.

*That is always the way the gospel is.

The gospel has a stern word and yet the gospel has a very gentle word.

The Lord Jesus Christ came and He came not only winnowing the floor and blowing away that which was not right but He also came gathering together.

The Bible says, Behold, therefore the goodness and the severity of the Lord.

Sometimes we have to have that tough word from God, sometimes God has to confront us with the sin that is in our life in a very severe and in a very difficult way.

And then sometimes God gives a tender word, a pleading word, an encouraging word.

So what I want us to do as we take some Bible pins and puncture spiritual pride.

In verses 6 down through verse 14 Paul first of all shares with us an attitude to be rejected and he’s simply saying that we as believers are to reject the attitude of spiritual pride.

Now he uses several Bible pins.

One of the pins he uses is this: he points out that spiritual pride is *UNSCRIPTURAL.

*Look at verse 6.

He says don’t think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

In other words, when we allowed pride to get in our lives we never got that attitude from the Word of God.

Everywhere in the Bible the Bible warns us against the danger of pride.

In Proverbs the Bible says pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

In the book of James the Bible says God will humble those who exalt themselves.

So, you see, all through the Bible we are told that there is no place, there is no basis for pride in the life of a believer.

But then notice also he says not only unscriptural but it is also *UNSPIRITUAL.

*Look at verse 7; he says, who makes you to differ from one another?

Now of course there is the admission there that we are different from one another, none of us are the same, we’re all different, all of us have different gifts, we have different abilities.

His question though is who makes those differences?

who is responsible for those differences?

And the answer of course is God.

And then he says what do you have that you did not receive?

and the answer to that question is you don’t have anything that you did not receive.

You see, whether God’s endowments of creation or God’s endowments of grace, everything comes from God.

For instance God’s endowments of creation: there are some things that you have simply because of your existence and God has created you that way.

You may be attractive, you may be a very beautiful, or a very handsome person.

In fact you might have been Miss Watermelon of 1945.

Well, you see, that is no basis for you to be proud, because if you are physically attractive you didn’t have a thing in the world to do with that, you were born that way and God created you that way.

You might be extremely intelligent, you might have won a spelling bee contest one time; well you don’t have anything to brag about if you’re an intelligent person, because that gift of God’s creation is something that you can take no credit for whatsoever.

So, you see, there’s really no room for us to be filled with pride on the basis of natural endowment.

And then the same thing is true in the spiritual realm, God’s endowments of grace.

The Bible says by the grace of God I am what I am.

If you’re a Bible teacher and people are blessed by your Bible teaching it’s not because you’re anybody it’s because God made you that way.

Everything we have we have due to the grace of God.

So he says why then do you glory as if you had not received it?

So spiritual pride is not only unscriptural but it is also unspiritual.

But then I want you to notice in verse 8 it is also *UNSOCIABLE.

*He says, using a little sanctified sarcasm, he says, now are you full (and he’s simply saying that they are filled with a self-sufficiency), now are you rich, (they are filled with self-satisfaction), now have you reigned as kings without us (they were filled with self-superiority).

What he’s simply pointing out is their attitude was detrimental to their fellowship with other people.

They were filled with pride and Paul punctures their pride with the Word of God.

So there is the attitude that is to be rejected.

But then I want you to notice he moves on and he talks about an attitude to be reflected.

The apostle Paul lays before us in these verses of scripture what is supposed to be the attitude of the believer as he moves in this world.

God’s child, a Christian believer, is to have an attitude of submission to the Lord Jesus and is to live a Christ-controlled life.

Now a Christ-controlled life means, first of all, that there must be *PERSONAL HUMILIATION.

*Look at verse 9. Now, you see, that was in such a contrast to what the Corinthian believers were doing.

They were walking around filled with pride, proud of themselves, swelled up in their imagined superiority.

That was so contrary to the spirit of the believer that God intended.

That was so contrary to the spirit of the apostle Paul.

Paul says we are made a spectacle unto the world.

It’s a graphic picture that the apostle Paul paints here, it is actually taken from the coliseum.

In those days thousands of people, sometimes as many as fifty thousand people, would gather in the coliseum and they would witness the athletic games.

And as the games continued they would become more and more violent.

At the end the captive slaves would be brought out and these captive slaves would engage in games that would ultimately result in their death.

Now the apostle Paul pictures believers as these captive slaves.

Sometimes in the center of that coliseum they would have a cross and that cross would be there to mimic, and to make fun of, and to ridicule believers, and many a faithful believer was martyred for his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ before the gaping eyes and before the hostile stares of an unbelieving world.

That’s all Jesus has ever promised us to expect in this world.

Jesus has never promised us that we can expect self-congratulation or that we can expect the applause of men.

In fact you can almost put it down, friend, if you live close to the Lord Jesus Christ you’re going to be an object of the scorn and the ridicule of this world.

So here were Corinthian believers filled with pride, and yet Paul says I’m made a spectacle to the world, I’m just made something that people gaze upon and laugh when I’m dead.

So, you see, here’s an attitude of self-humiliation.