It is a joy to be able to worship with you. It's been quite a few years, I think. You were in the old facility before. I see that the Lord has provided abundantly for you. Please, at this time, turn with me to our Scripture reading. And the Scripture reading is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And I will read this morning from the version I think most of you have, which is the ESV version. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and I'll read from verse 5 through to chapter 4, verse 6. What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is holy and you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile. So, let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or the present, or the future, all are yours. You are Christ's, and Christ is God's. This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Do not pronounce judgment before the time before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. I have applied all these things to myself and to Paulus for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another, for who sees anything different in you?" According to Melanchthon, one of Luther's close followers, often considered his successor, Luther, quote, wrote theses on indulgences and posted them on the Church of All Saints on 31 October 1517. This event is often considered the start of the Protestant Reformation. Thus, this week marks the 500th anniversary of this blessed event. Most of us who have studied both the history of the Reformation and the Bible itself give thanks for both, and wholeheartedly embrace the return to the Bible that Luther, Calvin, and others, by God's grace, brought about. Nevertheless, in recent years, there have been a number of cases where Protestants have reverted to the Roman Church. Among famous men, one might mention G.K. Chesterton, Richard Newhouse. Closer to home for the OPC, Scott Hahn, who once served at a church in western Pennsylvania, served that congregation ministering to its youth. He converted to Roman Catholicism and took with him several of the Church's young people, who still are in the Roman Church. Dr. Hahn published a book about his conversion that has been influential across the USA in leading many others back to Rome. Perhaps you've heard of it. The catchy title was Pernicious, Rome's Sweet Home. A bit later, there was a graduate of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary who was under care of the OPC's Presbytery of Ohio, and he too left the OPC and converted to Catholicism. Speaking personally, I should mention a roommate of mine in college, a roommate named Robert. Bob was a fellow member of the First Presbyterian Church in Schenectady, New York, a congregation which is now a PCA church. For a while, both of us were pursuing the ministry. Both of us attended Westminster Theological Seminary. Later, Bob converted to Roman Catholicism. While he was at Westminster, Bob struggled with what he considered to be a crucial question in the historical dispute between Rome and the Reformation. Although perhaps oversimplifying just a bit, we might frame that question, that issue, by means of this question. Did the church create its New Testament, or did the New Testament create the church? Another approach to essentially the same question would be this. Why do we accept our New Testament as the infallible Word of God? The answer that Rome gives is this. We accept our New Testament because in church history, the church determined that the books that now make up our New Testament belong there. In other words, according to Rome, as a matter of history, the church was responsible for the makeup of the New Testament, as we have it today. By the church, the Rome means not the church as led by the apostles in the first century, but rather the church during the second, third, and fourth centuries. The Roman Catholic view is that by the end of the period of the Apostles, that is, roughly the end of the first century, the various churches around the Roman Empire owned, respected, and utilized a variety of documents purporting to be from the Apostles or their recognized co-workers such as Luke and Mark. In the second century, especially with the rise of some books that were clearly late and heretical, it became necessary for the church to judge which writings it deemed to be the Word of God versus those which it did not. during that period from the second through the fourth centuries, the church fathers record for us a series of debates about the suitability of certain books. Church councils ultimately rejected some of those disputed but accepted others. It certainly appeared to Bob that the church had determined the contents of the New Testament. To have an infallible New Testament, therefore, the church, too, would have to have been infallibly guided by the Holy Spirit. Not simply the church of the days of the apostles, but the church of the first century, and the first century, but also the church of the second, third, and fourth centuries. If such infallibility for the church existed then, Why not today also? It's a small step from that point, that thinking, to the present-day doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope when he is said to speak ex cathedra, i.e., from his purported throne as ruler over the Church. On the other hand, is the Protestant position Our answer to the question as to why we accept our New Testament, such as it is, as the infallible Word of God, is perhaps best given by our Westminster Confession. Chapter 1, reading from paragraphs 2 and 4. Immediately after listing the books which comprise our New Testament, the Confession says this about those books. says, all which are given by inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life. They are canonical. They are the rule. Those books and none others are in our Bible, we confess, because God inspired them. Now the confession goes on in paragraph four to deny specifically the Roman Catholic view. that the church's determination is the basis for the authority of our Bible, our canon. That paragraph goes on to read, the authority of the Holy Scripture for which it ought to be believed and obeyed dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God, who is truth itself, the author thereof. and therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God." Why do we accept our New Testament? The OPC, together with other churches of the Reformation, replies, not because of the Church's decision, but simply because it is the Word of God. God himself is not only the author of Scripture, but it is he who is responsible for the New Testament as we have it today. As we confess, the makeup of the New Testament does not depend upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly on God. My college roommate, Bob, and too many others like him have been unwilling or unable to accept our position. Countering instead, the church history shows our New Testament, in fact, to have been dependent not merely upon apostolic authorship, but also upon the determination of the councils of the later church. Today, as we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we examine a heretofore poorly understood verse that virtually proves the Roman Catholic view to be contrary to the New Testament itself. Today, the focus of our attention will be on the last verse of our passage that we just read, 1 Corinthians 4, verse 6. Previously, I read from the ESV. Sadly, on this key verse, despite its strength elsewhere, it's a poor translation. You probably have a copy of several other translations of this verse on a page like this that should have been in with your bulletins. If you don't have one and you'd like one, you can raise your hand and perhaps one of the ushers can give you a copy of that page. Let me read the translation near the bottom, my own translation that I prepared. Brothers, I have figuratively applied these things to myself and Apollos for you in order that in us you may learn to keep the rule, nothing beyond what stands written, in order that none of you be puffed up for one against the other. We won't spend time on the details of this corrected translation. Suffice it to say that the spurious, means non-authentic, infinitive, to think, that is reflected in the King James Version's translation, led the church from the 4th through the 18th centuries to fail to recognize that Paul is here quoting a saying. Now, toward the end of the 19th century, Bible students began to realize this mistake in the most common New Testament text. And they slowly began to realize that Paul here is, in fact, quoting some sort of a saying. And thus the newer translations, such as those near the bottom of the handout, have incorporated this realization into their translations, and rightly so. But none of the older ones, including the ESV, which is generally following the much older RSV, none of the older translations recognize this newly discovered fact. The saying was in fact a rule which Paul had previously taught the Corinthians, a rule to which he now wants to persuade them once again to adhere. Why? Let's look more closely at this verse itself and think about it in the light of the situation Paul faced at Corinth. First, let us look at the prior context and consider its background. You may recall that in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul had rebuked the Corinthians for factions that had arisen in the church, factions which had clearly disturbed the unity of the church. In chapter 1, verses 10 through 12, reading from the New American Standard, Paul writes, Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you. but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you. Now this, I mean this, that each one of you is saying, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I am of Cephas, and I of Christ. These factions each advanced its own message, its own purported wisdom, and did so in the name of one of the famous early church leaders, such as Peter, Paul, or perhaps even Christ himself. Now, Paul knew that these claims were false, and so he rebukes all of them. Further, Paul could see that these factions were threatening the heart of the church itself. They were threatening its commitment to a right understanding of Christ and His cross. For in chapter 1, verse 17, Paul goes on to write, Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. The various man-made forms of wisdom that were being promoted by these factions under the names of these famous men actually threatened to make void the cross of Christ, or at least from the perspective of the benefit of the Corinthians. Ultimately, nothing can void the power of the cross. After contrasting God's wisdom, the gospel, the true gospel, Christ and Him crucified, with all such man-made wisdom, in chapter two of this letter, Paul returns to the heart of his concern. the integrity of the gospel foundation as it had been laid by himself and Apollos during the first several years of the existence of the Corinthian church. Beginning in chapter 3, verse 5, our passage today, Paul creates a metaphor from farming in order to describe the initial church planting that he and Apollos had done. Paul writes there, again reading from chapter 3, verse 5, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. This metaphor paints a picture of both of these men having been responsible for the foundation of the church at Corinth. After all, for a seed to grow, it must be planted and watered. In verse 9, of chapter 3, Paul finishes this parable about the church as God's farm field and then shifts to one about the church as God's temple building project. Please look again at verse 9, where the shift takes place. We are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. Beginning here in verse nine, Paul shifts to the metaphor of construction, a construction of God's own building. Or as he explains later in verses 16 and 17, to the construction of God's temple. They, the church, are God's house, God's temple. The future of the Corinthian church was in serious jeopardy. And so Paul warns in verses 16 and 17, do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. But how was that temple in jeopardy? What precisely was the peril? Whom does Paul fear might destroy God's temple, the church, and how? The answer must be sought back in verses 10 and 11. According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it, for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Here, Paul warns those who are building after him and Apollos, that is, the current ministers of the church at Corinth. He cautions them to minister, in terms of the metaphor, to build carefully. Why? Verse 11 answers the why. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. The human wisdom that was being promoted by the leaders of the several factions in the name of Paul, Apollos, and the others was threatening the very gospel foundation which Paul and Apollos had laid. Should those teachers succeed in supplanting that foundation with something which is no foundation at all, they would destroy the church, the very temple of God. Again, in verses 16 and 17, Paul warns them sharply of the grave consequences should that happen. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy. That is what you are. With this understanding of the circumstances that is the danger then present to the church at Corinth, we return to the focus of our attention to the translation of chapter four, verse six that I have offered. Brothers, I have figuratively applied these things to myself and to Paulus for you in order that in us you may learn to keep the rule, nothing beyond what stands written, in order that none of you be puffed up for one against the other. Here in the first part of this verse, Paul tells us what he has just done in the two metaphors of chapter three, and he tells us why he did it. He writes, I have figuratively applied these things to myself and to Paulus for you. He's describing the two metaphors. He has figuratively applied these things, i.e., the things from agriculture and the things from building construction, to himself and to Apollos. And then he says why. He says he did so. He tells us that his goal in crafting the two metaphors was this. It was to protect the gospel foundation of the church from the dangerous teachers who had departed from it. He explains just how that is to happen. He reminds them of the vaccine which he had previously prescribed against this pernicious malady which was afflicting them. In short, the successors of Paul and Apollos to the Corinthian pulpit must learn to obey, to keep, the rule of which he here reminds them, nothing beyond what stands written. This is a rule that Paul had imposed upon those teachers to whom he had entrusted the ministry at Corinth as he departed about four years earlier. When Paul, as an apostle, preached the gospel, he did so from memory. What he, like the other apostles, had learned from the Lord himself, he preached, he taught. As apostles, they had been authorized. They were official spokesmen for the Lord. According to John, chapters 14 through 16, the apostles were promised a special anointing by the Holy Spirit so as to accurately recall all the things that the Lord had taught them. However, the apostles did not allow others, likewise, to preach Christ from memory. That is, from what they had learned by oral tradition. Thus, very early in the life of the apostolic churches, the apostle Matthew had prepared a document, one which was recognized by the other apostles as accurate, as reliable. Although the apostles each preached the gospel from memory, and thus established churches built upon the true foundation, They did not leave those churches to be nurtured by non-apostolic teachers relying upon memory and oral tradition. Rather, from the very earliest days of the church, the apostles charged their successors with the saying, the rule, the rule that Paul had likewise imposed at Corinth, nothing beyond what's written. That is to say, as you teach and preach, you must rely upon the recognized written gospel for the content of your message about Christ, Christ and Him crucified. At Corinth, the leadership of that church had abandoned that rule. It had begun to rely rather on oral traditions, ostensibly derived from apostles. Paul knew that such traditions were, in fact, unreliable. As we see going into chapter 5 and 6, those delinquent teachers were wreaking havoc in the church, endangering its very existence as Christ's church. That gospel writing which Paul had imposed upon the Corinthian teachers was already the New Testament of the church of that time. Be sure, more would come over time, just as the prophets and other writings had been added to the Old Testament law of Moses, supplementing it that law which had been given at the start of the nation of Israel. Nevertheless, the church had a canon. It had a New Testament from its earliest days. It was created and imposed on the church, not by fallible later ministers and elders, but by the Lord through his own directly empowered apostles. The canon of the New Testament of the early Church was indeed determined by Christ through the ministry of His Spirit, as promised through His authorized apostles. Rome is grievously wrong in its pretentious claim that the post-apostolic Church is responsible for the New Testament. She is mistaken in her assertion that we accept the New Testament canon on the basis of the testimony of the later church. The church is the product of the Bible, including the New Testament. The New Testament is not the product of the church, but of Christ himself through his uniquely empowered apostles. Evidence is clear in this once obscure verse. In the second century and beyond, the Church had to defend its apostolically imposed canon against various heresies that challenged it and sought to add to it. But the Church never formed or determined the content or the extent of our New Testament, much less the Old Testament. People of God, we need to be prepared to answer Rome on this key question. If we are not, the Scott Hans of Rome will continue to draw our young people to itself and away from the only infallible God-given rule of faith and life. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we rejoice that you did not leave us to the vagaries of even our greatest church fathers of the later era. But the Lord Jesus, through his own apostles, has spoken to us and has given to us a standard. May we, as members of this congregation and of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, may we stand faithful in this. Use it, your word, to protect our young people from the errors of Rome. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.