Godly Social Order - Corinthians

The Day of Man vs. The Day of the Lord

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Sociology

Lesson: 11-49

Genre: Lecture

Track: 11

Dictation Name: RR27D7a

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us worship God. The hour cometh and now is when the true worshipper shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. When the father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God we come into Thy presence grateful for all thy mercies, confident in Thy word and Thy promises. Knowing that Thy word is aye and amen unto Thy church. And so our Father we come casting all of our cares upon Thee who careth for us. Submitting to Thy word through Thy spirit. Giving ourselves afresh unto Thy calling and to Thy service. Oh Lord our God we need Thee every hour and we Thank Thee that in Thy grace and mercy Thou hast called us and made us Thine. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Our Scripture this morning is First Corinthians 4:1-13. Our subject: The Day of Man versus The Day of the Lord. First Corinthians 4:1-13.

“Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you. For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.”

With Jesus Christ who came as the second and last Adam there are now two human races openly competing for world dominion and power.

Two different moral standards govern men and nations. That of fallen man and the new life and faith of redeemed man. Unless we recognize that these two standards are sharply apposed we shall be living under the delusion of a common standard and law of governing all men and nations. But for the world of the fallen Adam to be as God, to be one owns lawmaker and source of morality is the essence of freedom and justice. The standard of this realm is ‘let man be free’, let man be his own god. For the world of the last Adam the premise is very different. Let God be God, for he is the only true God and lawgiver. In verse one Paul tells us how he and the other apostles are to be accounted. He uses two words in the English, ministers the first and then second stewards. Now the first word means ministers, in Luke and also in Acts it means pastor, it means preacher. Now normally it means an under officer or assistant to a superior, a minister, someone who ministers in the name of a superior. The second word translated inverse one as stewards is (greek word). Virtually identical to our word economy. Steward. House manager. In the greek [greek word] is house and [another greek word] manage. Paul and the apostles are ministers of Christ and stewards of God, not of men. To view their pastors as their ministers and stewards was a serious offense. It was presumptuous to see their pastors as bound to their service rather than the Lords. All men are required to serve God, not themselves nor men in other than a secondary sense at best.

Paul in verse two says that it is a very small thing that I should be judged to be over man’s judgment. Yea I judge not mine own self. Paul does not say that their judgment does not hurt him only that it is a small thing because God is his own judge Paul does not judge himself. He obeys God law word and leaves it to God to judge to render judgment. His duty as a steward is to be found faithful. A man does not set his own pay or assess his own worth when he works for someone else. He seeks to be faithful. As a result Paul makes no judgment concerning himself. This does not justify him because the Lord is his judge. In verse three he says ‘by man’s judgment’ which means in the Greek literally ‘by man’s day’. God has his judgment day at the end of history but sinful man passes judgment daily on his fellow men. God waits until our lives are complete but we jump to judgment not only every day but sometimes more than once a day. Paul says in verse four that he knows of nothing against himself. But this is not the heart of the matter for neither he nor other men are his judge. The Lord alone is his judge. Where things and His work are concerned, God is his judge, therefore judge nothing before the time he says in verse five. There are requirements of judgment be made by us according to God’s law. We are to judge righteous judgment God says in John 7:24. Righteous in terms of God’s law.

Until the Lord come most things are to be left to God unless they are plain violations of His law. At the great judgment all things shall be made manifest. And then shall every man shall have praise of God if it be due him. Paul thus speaks not only of condemnation at the judgment but of praise also. This applies he says to your judgments about Apollos and myself. There is no zeal for the faith in such judgments by men but self-promotion. The issues are confused by partisanship so that more delinquency was disregarded in favor for their partisan views. Then in verse seven Paul states the issue. They all stand not in their merit but by God’s grace. This is one of the great verses of scripture. For whom maketh to differ from another? And what has thou that thou dids’t not receive? Now if thou did’st receive it why thou do glory as if thou did’st not received it? One of the great illusions about humanistic Christianity or churchianity is that we came to the faith with certain qualities and merits of our own. Though saved by grace we assume that what we brought to the point of conversion was ours by merit, heredity, grace or some like factor. Paul simply negates this pretension. We brought nothing to our conversion that was not already an aspect of God’s sovereign decree and grace. We are totally derivative creatures and can boast of nothing. With their inflated self-worth many in the Corinthian church saw themselves as kings in the new creation ahead.

Paul ridicules them and then adds that if the dawn of the new creation was just ahead he too would be reigning, not just they. They’re judging him as if they were kings and he was a prisoner. They are not the only possible kings if such they are. The apostles are now last in popular estimation as it were, appointed to death, a spectacle to men and to angels. We apostles are regarded as fools on account of Christ while you see yourself as wise. We are weak before men and you are strong, you are honorable, but we are despised. To be an apostle, Paul says, means persecution, hunger, thirst, reduced to nakedness, beaten and homeless. They are brutally treated, they’ve had to support themselves, most notably Paul, they are persecuted and defamed. Treated as the filth and the off scoring of the world, as human trash! The apostles were treated as scum, that’s what Paul is saying. They were accused of turning the world upside down. The world saw them not as saints but as mad men and evil. Two worlds were in collision, the world of fallen men and the world of Jesus Christ and his new human race. Paul’s grief was that men who should belong to Christ’s new humanity were giving in effect aid and comfort to the enemy, a problem with us still. Paul therefore does not spare the Corinthians because he knows that he will answer to God for them. It was not the sins of the world that upset Paul what else could he expect from fallen men?

It was the sins of the church. This is the reason for the very great relevance of First Corinthians. It is the summons to the church in every age to be Christ’s not man’s. Paul’s use of the day of men as against the day of the Lord is very telling. The prevailing poer of the day of man governs the church all too often. It is this humanistic judgment that men fear and move in terms of which is a very great sin. The day of man is a continuous backbiting judgment by men on one another whereas God’s great day is at the end of history. A present oriented people will serve the day of men and live in fear of its judgment. Paul’s total trust is in the day of the Lord. The day of man is all around us but it is a trivial matter as against the day of the Lord. The bible sees mankind divided into two groups, the humanity of the first Adam, the fallen human race and the humanity of the last Adam Jesus Christ, the redeemed human race. But the world does not want to see that kind of division and denies it in favor of races, nationalities, colors, black and white, red or yellow, whatever the case may be. It has its own lines of division even though it knows those are false. But the biblical line of division is between fallen mankind and redeemed mankind. And we must learn to live with that recognition that it is the only division that counts with God. Let us pray.

Our lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee for this Thy word. We thank Thee that Thy word is truth. That Thy word is the eternal word. Teach us to believe and to obey, teach us to serve Thee though we be despised of men as was Paul and our Lord Jesus Christ. Grant oh Lord that we be enabled by Thy grace to take bold and effectual forward steps for Thy kingdom. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our Lesson?

[Man speaking] Are there cases in scripture where the day of the Lord comes before the end?

[Rushdoony] Yes, the day of the Lord is His judgment. And there are many days of the Lord throughout the Bible, times of judgment, judgment for example on the world before the flood, judgment upon the Tower of Babal and many of the nations. In the Book of Isaiah we have a whole series of peoples upon whom judgment was soon going to ascend because the day of the Lord was coming as soon as they were concerned. The day of the Lord came upon Rome, it came upon the Renaissance and the medieval world and it’s coming upon our time. So there are installments as it were of the great judgment. Any other questions or comments?

As you can see Paul is building up a devastating argument against the Corinthians. They are the church and yet a very large percentage of them are living as though the only difference from the time before their conversion is that now they have a ticket to heaven. They are not awake to the basic fact of God’s revelation, the two humanities. The plan of salvation in the one represents in the tower of Babel and still it’s idea, the one world order without God, the other, instead of a centralized world order, a radically decentralized one which in the hearts of Christ’s people he reigns and through them reigns in their world which is reclaimed from its evil ways and made again into God’s world. Well if there are no further comments or questions, let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father we thank Thee for the majesty, the glory and the plainness of Thy world. We thank Thee that it speaks to our time and to all time. Summons us to serve Thee, tells us of Thy kingdom and gives us the assurance that if thou art for us who can be against us. Make us therefore bold in Thy service, faithful to Thy word and ever zealous for Thy church. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.