1 Corinthians 12-28-09

No Compromise Radio. Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse with no compromise.

The Introduction to 1 Corinthians and Why It Matters

Turn your Bibles please to 1 Corinthians, the book of 1 Corinthians. I'm not a big race car fan, but I did take Luke years ago to a race up in New Hampshire, race car, and I don't know what kind of race cars they were, but as they were at the starting line they were revving their engines and this big fire was coming out of the back.

I don't know what kind of, it wasn't a funny car, but it made me think of this. I can feel that heat from the fire coming out of the back of those engines. We were far up in the bleachers, but I could just feel every time they stepped on the gas, this intense heat wave was coming after me.

So I didn't know if I wanted to have the cars start and the race would go. That seemed to be pretty exciting, but it was just nice to be able to feel those burning effects pre-start, and that's what we're going to see today in 1 Corinthians.

I want to get to the race, I want to get to the start of the book where Paul deals with the issues to the church of Corinth, but that's not found in chapter 10. Verse 10, wait until we get to chapter 10, there's some interesting things in there too.

But you've got this introduction in chapter 1 verse 1 to 9 that still if we're inquisitive, if we're slow, if we're thorough, we'll say, God, that is, there's a reason why you put these verses here. And there are flaming hot with doctrine and devotion.

1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 1 through 9 contain the introduction. Two weeks ago we went through an overview of 1 Corinthians, last week we got through chapter 1 verses about 1 and part of 2, and today we'll finish up verses 2 and 3, and then we'll be on to 4 through 9 next week.

This is good for us to look at this text. This is all about Jesus. Remember last week if you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 1, Jesus Christ. Verse 2, Christ Jesus, Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 3, Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 4, Christ Jesus. Verse 5, in Him. Verse 6, Christ. Verse 7, Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 8, Lord Jesus Christ. Any guesses what's going to be found in verse 9? The Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is going to tell them, here's who Jesus is, and instead of doing a lengthy introduction for doctrine like Romans or Colossians or Ephesians, where he says, half the book or more will be doctrine, then you've got devotion and duty and other things that stem from it.

Paul had already been there for how long? Paul had been at the Church of Corinth for 18 months, and he has taught them who they are in Christ, and now he just briefly reminds them, here is Jesus. This is who He is.

Don't forget the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord King of the universe, Jesus the name that saves and Christ, Israel's King, the Messiah. And then he says in the rest of chapter 1 through chapter 6, Chloe's household has some issues and I want to address those issues with you.

I want to make sure you understand that you can have factions, you can have sin in the church without discipline, you can have people suing one another if they're Christians, you can have some kind of sexual immorality in the church and call yourself Christians, and so he deals with these reports from Chloe's household in chapters 1 through 6.

And then in chapters 7 through 16, he says, now concerning this, now concerning that, you've got specific questions, let me answer those specific questions for you. And so today we're just going to focus in at the very beginning, before we get to the issues in chapters 1 through 6, and then 7 to 16, we want to focus in again on the beginning because personally, I read through introductions and closing verses too fast.

And I don't suck the marrow out, remember the old marrow men of the scripture, the old Scott marrow men, they sucked the marrow out of the bone. You can just imagine that bone, just cutting the bone in half and breaking it and taking a look at that good marrow and you just can imagine your lips up to that bone just sucking that out.

Well, maybe you can't imagine that. Paul says in chapter 1 verse 1, Paul called as an apostle of Christ Jesus. Just with quick review, this is a Pauline epistle, this is the Spirit of God directing Paul to write this book.

There is all kinds of evidence from both liberals and conservatives that this is Pauline in nature. It is indisputable that this is of Pauline origin. And basically what happens is Paul is writing to them, not with his own authority, I'm smart, I've been trained in the school of different rabbis and different philosophers, but he said no, I'm a sent one, I'm an apostle and I've got a message from God for you.

It's like Ehud and Eglon, as Ehud kills Eglon, he said I have a message from God for you and that's what this is like. With apostolic authority, remember what's happening, you've got the false apostles, the false teachers around Corinth in 1st Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians saying Paul, don't listen to him.

And so this is a Pauline authorship, the Spirit of God writing and we believe it is the Word of God because it is the Word of God. And so we'll take it for that. I have a problem and the problem is this, people like to come to the Bible and say if I like certain parts, it's in the Bible.

If I don't like other parts, it's what? Not in the Bible. It's like you walk up to a cafeteria and it's a nice buffet and you just get to pick whatever you want. When I go overseas and especially the eastern part of the world, you sit down and they just give you food.

I kind of like to be in charge of my food and what goes on my plate. I mean, I've been to places before where I finish half of my meal and there are people rushing over to fill up my plate with more. Always happens when I'm on some kind of Atkins diet too and the carbs just keep on coming.

I like to kind of just know what's going to go on my plate. And people today too say, well, you know, the stuff that I like, forgiveness of sins, I go for that, but women's roles in the churches, that's a new age.

It's a new era. They didn't understand. I like the part that says there's a hope of heaven for me, but I don't really like the hell part. So that's kind of outdated and outmoded. Friends, we as Christians have no choice.

Truth comes from the outside of us, not from our own hearts, not from our own gizzards, not from our own internal organs. Truth comes from the outside and we have a choice. Submit to that truth or try to say we'll pick and choose.

And if you want to pick and choose, you can, but that's not called Christianity. It's like the woman who is named Sheila and she said, well, I like these parts of the Bible, but I don't like these parts.

She's basically started a new religion called Sheila-ism because Christianity is known for its acceptance of this canon of scripture. Jesus comes along and he says, by the way, Jonah was real, it's not some allegory.

Lot, Sodom, Gomorrah, Adam, Eve, Noah's Ark, he accepts them all and we like Jesus. Now not just with the Old Testament, with the New, say this is the word of God. It's from an outside source. The canon is complete, the canon is sufficient, there's apostolic message here, and we just can't pick and choose.

We might not like certain things, like with elections, Spurgeon said, I never thought you would like election. Who would? Until you mature, then you love election, don't you? So we come to this book and we realize from early church fathers to the way it's written to the background, it is Pauline of nature and Paul has apostolic authority, not just over the Church of Corinth, but over us.

Here's the tricky part for me as a pastor, I don't think our church is like Corinth. I think we struggle in our flesh and not all of us are walking in the spirit all the time. To me, sanctification is like California real estate.

It goes up eventually, well, until the second coming of Christ and the stock market is zero, it's negative 500, all the real estate is gone. But overall, that's our sanctification. And you'll see as you mature in Christ, from top to bottom of the sign wave form gets smaller.

We have our peaks and valleys, but they become smaller as we grow in Christ. And so we have to say this is for us as well, even though I don't think we're fleshly. I don't think there's incest going on in the church.

I don't think we're suing each other. I don't think there are people who are known practicing fornicators and adulterers because as those come up, then we have to deal with it. So how do I preach this message that is to a fleshly carnal church to you?

Well, I have to do it, I think skillfully, but I'm just going to preach through the passages. And if any of this resides in the nooks and crannies of our hearts, then we want God to excise it, don't we?

I had to go in for the endoscopy procedure this week and he said, we're going to take a biopsy. I mean, I thought, I don't really want them to take a biopsy of my esophagus, but the alternative is what?

I'll just kind of go on like this and what I can't see can't hurt me? No. And so we want God, the great physician, to excise any kind of sin that's still in us so that we are the opposite. I'm going to start calling you anti-Corinth, the opposite of Corinth.

And so I didn't pick this book to preach through. It'll probably take us two or three years. Translation, five. It'll probably take us that long, not because I think you need this in terms of your fleshly and carnal.

I think you need this because it will help keep in a preventative maintenance way. It'll help keep away these kinds of sins that when you see in someone else, you see in this precious church that Jesus bought.

You'll say, I don't want to act like that. And so Paul says in chapter one, verse one, Paul called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. And he writes with another brother, not another apostle, but he writes with another brother who says, I affirm it.

I agree with it. I was there in Acts chapter 18 with you. And his name is Sophonies. Paul, the way he would do it is he would show up at a synagogue. He would preach. God would be pleased to save people, influential people sometimes.

And then Paul leaves Corinth. He goes to Ephesus, which is pretty close. And then he writes first Corinthians. We noticed last week in verse two to the church of God. Paul is trying to say, this is not owned by you.

This is in BBC. Even it's not my church. It's not the eldest church. It's not your church. This is the church of God. Therefore, we can't treat it like a manmade organization. Some kind of political thing.

Whoever's the best speaker, they get to talk. Whoever's got the most money, they get to run things. Whoever gets the most. It's not run like any other business, any other corporation, any other kind of club, any other kind of anything.

This is the church and how God says to run it. We what? Run it. It's not even to be run technically. It's to be shepherded. Acts 20, the Bible says Jesus purchased the church with his own blood. He owns the church.

And so we come to the passage today in chapter one, chapter one, verse two and following. I think we're going to cover verse two and verse three today. We don't get to verse three. That's okay. We'll do that next week.

God's Wisdom in Planting a Church in Corinth

Let me just give you some encouragement from this passage. If you'd like an outline today, let me give you three encouragements for you, the church that we can glean either directly from this introduction or indirectly from this introduction.

Three encouragements for you, Bethlehem Bible Church, even though you're not Corinthian like that, you can learn from this and say, yeah, I could see how that's true. Either gleaned indirectly or directly from the passage.

Encouragement number one, you can rejoice in God's wisdom. You can rejoice in God's wisdom. Particularly. What do you mean, Pastor Mike? His wisdom of planting churches in immoral places. You can rejoice.

Matter of fact, you should rejoice that God, the almighty sovereign God who's never learned anything, says I'm going to plant a church in that pagan place. Now, I have to say from the get-go, Worcester's not like Corinth, at least externally.

But in the heart of men and women, we're going to see that our culture in just a few minutes acts just like Corinth. But let's look at the Corinthian situation first, and then we'll expand it to where we live today.

First Corinthians chapter one, verse two, to the church of God, which is what? At Corinth. It's at Corinth. And again, last week I had you do it, but I'll have you do it one more time. Turn to the back of your Bibles if you would.

I just want you to see on the map where Corinth is in this southern part of Greece, in this Roman province, close within 100 kilometers to Athens, probably about 50 miles or so. And I want you to see how much water is around Corinth for a reason.

And that reason is, this is a port city. This is a city with all kinds of sailors coming through it. This is a way that people have to go through all the time. And you can see Corinth, if you find Achaia, if you find someplace Macedonia, you go south.

If you find Achaia, it's in the northern part of Achaia. And probably you have a little map called Paul's first, second, and third missionary journeys. And I want you to see Corinth there, because A, it's this port city.

And B, there's this isthmus that's about four miles wide, that if you go through that isthmus, or rather over it with a boat, you don't have to go 250 miles around the tip of Achaia. So people would go there, and they would put smaller boats on rollers and roll it across four miles on land, so they didn't have to go the treacherous 250 miles around.

All kinds of people there. Commerce, the Isthmus Games were there, second to the Olympics. I remember when I was in Los Angeles in 1984, and they were telling us, be careful because when you go to a boxing event, people are just going to park on the freeway and just leave their keys in the car and just go to these events.

It was absolutely chaos in terms of their predictions. There's going to be all these people. When there's the Olympics in Beijing, how many different kind of people go there? I mean, it is this flood of people.

If you were up in the sky, you could see like little ants all converging, kind of like on Mecca or something like that. You just see them all go there, and now you've got all these people. It's a port city.

People come and go, and it is very, very ungodly. It is a melting pot for all the riffraff and the flotsam and jetsam of people and their lives. It is morally corrupt. It is known for its debauchery. Did you know the very term Corinthian came to mean a profligate, an immoral, sexual person?

My Lenski commentary says, to Corinthianize meant to practice whoredom, semi-colon, a whoremonger, coming from where we get a word girl or courtesan. Corinthian, a courtesan. This is a place where you've got all kinds of people because they come in and they're on furlough, as it were.

They're off the boat. They've been in the oceans for a long time, and they come and they just want to do what sinners do. And guess what sinners want to do? Sin. And so they'll find someone to sin with.

To exacerbate the problem, to make it worse, there are false gods everywhere in Corinth. We have false gods too, but they're on the cover of People magazine, and they're down in Foxborough or wherever they might be today.

We have more sophisticated gods. They had actual god-gods with statues all around. So you've got a lot of people. You've got navy kind of people. You've got Isthmian games kind of people. And then you've got these false gods.

And guess what some of these false gods say to do to worship? You're right. Adultery. Some of these false gods were, number one, Aphrodite. 1 ,500 feet above Corinth, you've got this large Acropolis. And guess what's on the top of that?

Looking down as it were. You ever see the Rio de Janeiro Jesus up there high? And they always show the picture of the Jesus looking down. You've got the love god, the sex god, Aphrodite, looking down on the city.

And what do you think people do with her blessing as it were? You know exactly what they would do. They would send every single night from this sex temple 1 ,000 priestesses down to minister to the people.

How do you commune with God? Well, for us, it would be through word and through prayer, Lord's table, et cetera, baptism. And for them, who could think of this except for Satan himself? Oh, how about we do false worship?

How about we do blasphemous worship? If worship god is pure, sacred, holy, different, godly, what could be the exact opposite? Here's the exact opposite. You commune with the god, you commune with Aphrodite as you sleep with the priestess prostitutes in the city.

We think of communion in a very different way than they did. Friends, the church is there. God could have said, you know, let's put a church someplace else. Let's do way, let's put them way over there.

Let's put one over in Crete. Oh, no, there's lazy beasts and gluttons there. We better not do that. There's a bunch of liars there. You see in the scriptures, God strategically placing churches in the most sinful places.

He puts churches where sinners are. And here we have the capital of Corinth. Some say 200 ,000 people, some say 500 ,000 people. And before the gospel got there, I'll tell you something about every one of those people.

They were not saved. They had no way to restrain the flesh. They had no way to restrain their lusts. Maybe it was because they didn't want to get caught or maybe they didn't want to have something bad happen to them.

But there's no internal dwelling spirit of God, no external word preached that would somehow impinge upon their desires. And it was a veritable free for all. Corinth, we say today, what city in our country today, when I say it, it's known as sin city.

It was Las Vegas times a thousand. And you've got hundreds of thousands of people there. Perfect for Satan, yet perfect for a local church. Aphrodite, by the way, was known as Venus. That's her other name.

Religious prostitutes, who could think of that? This is not just legal prostitution. This is worship. They've got another God there called Melchart. Melchart was kind of an interesting God. You can study Melchart sometime.

He was the God of the sailors. By the way, when you make a God, when humans make a God and they take some wood and they carve it into a God and they take the rest of the wood and make a fire and say, well, I've got to warm my hands.

Those gods end up looking like who? Themselves. Do you think Melchart, the sailor God, was admirable, courageous, loyal, faithful? You know, these gods are as corrupt as they can possibly be. You've also got in this city, not just a cult dedicated to the glorification of immoral sex.

You've got another God there in a temple, and it's called the Temple of Apollo. And he is the God of music, poetry, and songs. He also is a God who loves the male body, who loves the boy body. And there are things about this that I think are unmentionable, except to say this is a center.

This is a theater. This is the center ring in a circus for homosexuality. Poseidon is there. Athena is there. Hera is there. Hermes is there. Egyptian gods even get brought in. Isis and Serapis. And I wrote down, I don't want to joke about it, but we almost need some relief.

False gods for 500. What is blasphemy? It is the worst kind of cesspool you can find. Now, God in his justice, God in his wrath could have said, here's some more brimstone. Did they earn it? Did they merit it?

Should they have received it? Yet God is not just a God of wrath, and a God of justice, and a God of holiness. In addition to those characteristics, he's a God of kindness. Compassionate is God. Long-suffering is God.

And so what does he give them? Good crops. That would be a blessing. But you can have good crops and a blessing with that and still die and go to hell. He gives them what they never even asked for. That's how great God is.

He gives them the gospel. The good news. News about a historical event. The risen king, Jesus, who died on behalf of sinners. Even sinners who like to frequent Apollo, Aphrodite, even sailors. This is the crossroads of the Mediterranean.

And God said, that is a perfect place for a local church. They're immoral. They're licentious. They worship knowledge and Gnosticism. They worship wisdom and Sophia. But this is a perfect place for a church in a wicked, idolatrous city.

And it dawned on me, if I looked at a map of New England, guess where the center is, pretty much. Maybe if you look at population, it's basically in Worcester. It's in Worcester. I've heard Worcester being called the armpit of New England.

I've heard that. I don't, I didn't say it. I've heard that. And although it's not exactly the same as Corinth in terms of external sin, the hearts of 99 of the people in this county, in this state, in this set of six states called New England is exactly the same as those in Corinth.

It's exactly, why are we here? Why are we here in the center of New England? And you're going to find out that we're not here because it's good to all get together. And we want to, we want to make sure we spend only time with Christians.

And it's us four, no more, shut the door. We don't want any more. We come here on Sunday. Yes, to be edified. Yes, to be challenged. There's nothing like corporate worship. All these people, I'm going to worship out on the golf course and the fishing boat and blah, blah, blah.

There's nothing like corporate worship. There's nothing as God attends through his spirit. The preaching of the word, the fellowship of the saints. And we come and gather, but then we have marching orders to go live in this world.

Turn with me, if you would, to Matthew chapter five. And I want to just remind you that you Bethlehem Bible Church ought to be thankful that you are here in New England. This is a strategically placed church.

I'm not saying we're the best church in the world. I'm not saying that at all, but we have the gospel. We have been redeemed. We have been by God's sovereign wisdom placed right here. I love that. I'm the kind of guy that if I'm not careful, I'll kick against the goads.

I'm not a New Englander. This isn't my favorite place to be. Besides you, I have no relatives here at all. No blood relatives. I'm kind of an alien. And someone just said, amen. Yes, that's true. And you come to this outside guy.

But I've been here now for 13 years. And I think I have been bought with the price and what I want and what I don't want, where I want to live and where I don't want to live. It is moot. You don't ask a slave back in the Bible days.

The master doesn't ask a slave, well, where would you like? You know, it's this kind of inverse psychology. You think, I really like to be a missionary in Bahamas. So you say, Lord, send me anywhere but the Bahamas.

And you know, people have this kind of weird way to go about it. Elizabeth Elliot was right. You bloom where you're planted. So I'm here for work. I'm here because I had to take care of my mother. I'm here for X, Y, and Z reasons.

You are here in an umbrella fashion that says God, by His sovereign ordination, has you here for right now. Isn't that good to know? But see, what I think and what I feel and what I believe, it is moot.