Biblical Rededication (part 2) - [1 Corinthians 1:1-3]

Turn your Bibles please to 1st Corinthians, the book of 1st 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 and 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 1st

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 till 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, there's a reason why you put these verses here and there are flaming hot with doctrine and devotion.

1st Corinthians chapter 1 verses 1 through 9 contain the introduction. Two weeks ago we went through an overview of 1st

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 1st

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 in 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't have factions, you can't have sin in the church without discipline, you can't have people suing one another if they are

Christians, you can't 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 1

Corinthians, 2 Corinthians saying, don't listen to him. And so this is of 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 in 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 at 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'd 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 was named

Sheila and she said, well, I like these parts of the book but I don't like these parts. She's basically started a new religion called

Sheilaism 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, you're 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 incarnal.

I think you need this because it will help keep, in a preventative maintenance way, it'll help keep away these kind 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. So Paul says in chapter 1 verse 1, 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 Sothenes.

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 1

Corinthians. We noticed last week in verse 2, 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 elders church, it's not your church, this is the church of God.

Therefore, we can't treat it like a man -made 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 1, verse 2, and following,

I think we're going to cover verse 2 and verse 3 today, if we don't get to verse 3, that's okay, we'll do that next week.

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 can 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.

Let's look at the Corinthian situation first, and then we'll expand it to where we live today. 1

Corinthians 1, verse 2, to the church of God, which is what? At Corinth. It's at Corinth.

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 the southern part of Greece, in this

Roman province, close within 100 kilometers to Athens, probably about 50 miles or so.

I want you to see how much water is around Corinth for a reason. 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.

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. Probably you have a little map called Paul's first, second, and third missionary journeys.

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, Steve, I think you were there in 84 too, yeah?

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, semicolon, a whoremonger.

Coming from where we get a word girl, our 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, etc.,

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 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 lust. 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, 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 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 make sure we spend only time with Christians and it's us for 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 in the golf course and in 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.

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 5 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, become this outside guy, but I've been here now for 13 years and I think,

I have been bought with a 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, where would you like?

It's this kind of inverse psychology, you think, I'd really like to be a missionary in Bahamas. So you say, Lord send me anywhere but the

Bahamas and 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?

I'm pretty much sick of Worcester, I think it is, well I better not say that. But see what

I think and what I feel and what I believe, it is moot. Paul goes on to say, you have been bought with a price, now obey

God, honor Him with your body, glorify God with your body. And so I say, okay

Lord, Worcester is rotting. When I say Worcester, I mean the city, this area.

If you live in Framingham or you live in Connecticut or Rhode Island, you live in Haverhill, some people drive up from Taunton, wherever you live, this area here is rotting.

It is corpse -like and it is spiritually, may I say it, putrid. Why are we here?

Why are you here? Because you by the grace of God, not your own ingenuity, not because you have a higher spiritual

IQ, you have been given from an outside source, that source being God. You've been given the truth.

You know the truth. We had eight guys here yesterday in preaching discipleship and I thought, these eight guys individually probably know more than most pastors in New England do.

80 % of New England is Roman Catholic. The other 19 % is a non -saving kind of evangelicalism, some kind of liberalism.

And if you see some meat that's rotting, you don't go up and put honey on it, now do you?

There's this idea that we see the culture around us and the way we influence a culture is we make it sweet.

We say things like, you know what, you can be a Christian and you can really be cool too. You can come to Christ and nothing in your life has to change and you can go to heaven.

You can come to Christ and you know what, you can still excel at work, you can still have all your friends, everybody in the neighborhood is really going to still like you.

When friends, Jesus in Matthew 5 says, the gospel through the people isn't a honey issue, it isn't a sugar issue, it is a what?

Salt. Take a look at that in chapter 5 verse 13 when Jesus says in Matthew 5, you are the honey of the earth.

No, you're the salt of the earth. As Corinth is rotting and it needs salt of the gospel and gospel people, so too

Worcester. This world needs to be preserved, it is decaying, it is rotting.

You can just, you ever open up some meat in your refrigerator and you go, I went on vacation and open the refrigerator and you're like, whoa vacation, and you smell that.

That's a spiritual condition here. How do they preserve meat in the old days?

They'd take some salt and they'd rub that salt into it. That's how they preserve some meat now. Listen to what

G. Campbell Morgan said. He was the predecessor to Lloyd -Jones. Jesus, looking out over the multitudes of his day, saw the corruption, the disintegration of life at every point, its breakup, its spoilation.

And because of his love of the multitudes, he knew the thing they needed most was salt.

In order that the corruption should be arrested, he saw them also wrapped in gloom, sitting in darkness, groping amidst mists and fogs.

He knew what they needed above everything else. What's the very next verse in verse 14 talk about? Not just salt, not just something that's maybe from the inside, but on the outside, light.

Friends, you are salt and light to Worcester. What other salt and light do they have? I drive by almost every single church here in New England and I look at it and I go, you know, how to be a green

Christian, how to be a Christian and don't believe in hell, how to be a Christian and do all these other things. And I just think, how to believe a

Christian without believing in the literal resurrection. And I just drive by. You want to know what I do when I drive by churches? Here's what

I say often. First, I say, kids, what's a universalist and they tell me,

I say, you know, Lord, would you give me that church building? Me meaning the royal me, elder board.

Would you give me that building? And by your grace, we'll preach the gospel from that church. The text says in verse 14, you are the light of the world and we are no different.

Corinth was no different as the church at Corinth. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Where does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket?

Even your kids will tell you that. Put it under, you know, this little light of mine, put it under a bushel and no.

But on the lampstand, that's where you put the light and it gives light to all who are in the house.

The secret salt working, this external visible working of light, light unlike salt, salt preserves, light exposes.

Light is known for in the New Testament and old for truth, for purity, for knowledge, for divine revelation.

Isaiah chapter 42, a light to the nations. That was Israel's job. Light shines openly.

And you know what I like? Even though we, as a congregation, are weak, we are frail, we haven't arrived, we're not some kind of mature church as we would look maybe at a

Grace Community Church, our 10th Presbyterian Church, yet we have the same light that they do.

You can be a brand new Christian or a 30 -year -old Christian and you can say, you know,

I have that same light. I'm going to let that shine. You are in New England for a reason.

So, therefore, let your light shine. I thought about it the other day. Remember the

Dark Ages? We're in the Dark Ages. We're like in the capital of the

Dark Ages. If you include Boston with all their ideas of knowledge and wisdom and education and what they sell coming out of the universities and Harvard and other places, this is the spiritual

Dark Ages. People think about it, don't blush at Jerry Springer anymore. Is there anything for which our society today blushes?

So, what are we supposed to do? The Church of Corinth was supposed to do it. Jesus said to his disciples to do it and I say, through them to you, you are to reflect the mind and nature and person of God in your lives, but more importantly, through your message.

We've bought in the lie that friendship evangelism is the way to go. If you mean by friendship evangelism, be friends with people and then evangelize them.

I'll give you a hearty har -har for that. Hip -hip -hooray, I guess is what I wanted to say. Hearty har -har, that doesn't sound right.

Strike that from the tape. Hip -hip -hooray. Three cheers. But if you mean, they're going to see my life and you know what, 10 years later, maybe they'll ask me, why are you so different?

I'll give you a hearty har -har for that one. I don't want that one. Of course, it's difficult to evangelize friends, but why do you make friends?

Why do you have neighbors? Bethlehem Bible Church, I'll try to live by this example as God has graced me and I want you to do the same thing.

And by the way, if you're doing it, carry on. Keep going. Every person you meet, you should think, bullseye.

Somebody comes to your door, hi, would you like to buy some high -fat mint cookies?

You go, this is a soul. Supposed to love my neighbor. Who's my neighbor? Hello.

When you go get your haircut and you're sitting there and you have a captive audience the whole time, you think,

I have an opportunity. By the way, if you think you're paid to preach at work, you're not paid to preach at work, but when you're on a lunch break, fine.

We are here to tell people the gospel and they don't need good lives for their example, they need good lives that proclaim the truth.

Romans 10, verse 17, without a message about Christ, no salvation. I'll never forget when

I saw on YouTube, there's the magician team, unbelievers, Penn and Teller. And basically,

Penn said, if you really think that hell is real and you don't tell people about it, you are the most unloving group of people

I've ever heard about in my life. And we're to tell the truth.

And that truth will change people on the inside. That truth, even though people might not believe it, will still restrain society.

We're to glorify the Lord. We're to glorify the Lord, according to Matthew chapter 5.

I want you to be conspicuous as a Christian, not just a bumper sticker, not just, well, you know, everything about me is kind of Christian.

I'll never forget the pastor who said, I need to go join a gym to go work out at because I have no unbelieving friends.

Everybody I know is a Christian. You need to be purposely thinking, how do I meet people who aren't

Christians? Because this is a rotting place. When you go to the store to stop and shop or you go work out, you think,

I'm out here for a reason, I'm salt and I'm light. That's why, and I said this a couple of weeks ago, that's why it's an error to run to Montana, to run to monasticism, to run to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to run away.

Did Paul say any of that in 1 Corinthians? By the way, you're too influenced by the world and the world's got into your system, so now you run to Crete.

Now you run someplace else. You run to Ephesus. No. You don't get away from the filth of the world.

You rub salt on it and show it light. Jesus prayed in John 17, I do not ask thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. As thou dost send me into the world, I have also sent them into the world.

This is not a cultural, moral, political deal. By the way, do we have a lot more

Christians in the world now because Ronald Reagan was the president for eight years? You think from his administration, there was one extra

Christian? Well, what's the flip side? If you like President Reagan, you probably, his policies, you probably don't like President Obama's policies.

Can the policies of a country determine the gospel? Can they affect the gospel?

Can they squash the gospel? The answer is no. So let your light shine. I don't want to call it friendship evangelism anymore.

I want to call it glorification evangelism. If God is glorified no matter what I do and say, it falls underneath that rubric, then

I'm happy. If no one repents, no one believes, no one likes me, then they don't like me. Sinclair Ferguson said it well.

Cease to be different and we cease to be Christians. How slow we often are to learn this lesson.

At times, we fall into the trap of being blackmailed by a world that says, unless I find your life attractive,

Christian, on my own terms, I will not respond to the message of the gospel. Ferguson says, but if we yield at that point, we become prisoners of perpetual blackmail.

I've heard sometimes Christians witness to people in these terms. You mustn't think that being a Christian takes away your fun.

I can enjoy doing the same things you do. Being a Christian isn't a series of don'ts.

Much of this may be true, but why should the church be so concerned to tell the world that it is not really very different from the world?

The church then becomes both powerless and pointless. If you have forgiveness but lose everything else, don't you think that's a fair trade?

Until the unbelievers see that their biggest problem is not marriages, work, health, communication issues between spouses and other people.

Until they see the biggest need is, there's a wrathful God. A God who is more than wrath, but he is angry with the wicked every day.

And he has created them, and he has given them his image and his likeness. And he said, you were born for a reason, and that is to worship me.

Every person ever born was born to do Psalm 145 from their heart and soul.

I extol you, O King. And then when it is, I hate you, O King, and I will try to kill you if my arm's long enough.

That's what every unbeliever does. Unless there's an exchange where the wrath of God is poured out on Christ Jesus instead of believers, there's a big problem.

But when you realize forgiveness is at the top of my priority, then everything else about mother, father, spouse, work, you'll go, you know what, it doesn't matter because I'm going to face

God one day. The neighbors on your left, the neighbors on your right, the neighbors across the street, the person in your cubicle with you, all your friends, all your relatives, all your kids, your spouse, everybody will stand before God one day.

And then it won't be, well, I had a good portfolio. That really helped me in life. My wife and I were very romantic, and we loved each other, and all these kind of things.

It might be all fine. I'm not saying there's something wrong with that. But the issue is, how can I have forgiveness?

That is the question. That's why it's wrong for us, for Christians to say, well, come along and follow us.

You can just keep everything the way you want. And Jesus said, it might cost you everything, but if you have forgiveness, you have everything.

I'm thankful we're here at Worcester. I sometimes complain that I'm in Worcester.

I think, that wasn't meant to be funny. By the sovereign hand of God, He placed you here.

And if you're a visitor where you are, and where your church is, you're there. And we live in a culture here that doesn't worship

Aphrodite, but they might as well be. You have next door neighbors, 80 % of them, and their doctrine says this.

If you believe you're justified by faith alone, and no works, you're going to hell. That's what these people's churches believe.

They believe that Jesus' death on the cross was not sufficient. And every single day, and every single week, and every single

Sunday, He has to be slain again, when the Bible says, it is finished. 80 % of your neighbors are told this lie.

You cannot know for sure if you're going to heaven. Assurance, if you are granted. This church believes, the

Roman Catholic church believes, that if you believe you can know that you're going to heaven, 1 John 5, verse 13, you are damned.

And friends, what we do, unfortunately, is this. Well, you know, I have a friend, and they go to that other church, but they're really

Christians. Well, then, friends, if they're really Christians, why don't you love them enough to tell them to hightail it out of there?

I mean, there are Baptists, there are people here today, I'm sure, who aren't Christians. But once you know the truth, and once you tell people the truth, and by the way, what better message could you have?

Jesus saves sinners. Follow Him. The God of the universe has condescended in His love, and has given you

His Son. What more could He give you? The Creator God, who made you, who could damn you because of what you've earned, now has forgiven you.

Follow Christ Jesus. Who wouldn't want to talk about that? I bought a new car, and the guy said to me,

Well, thank you. I just want to thank you, Pastor. Most pastors I meet, they don't like to talk about the Bible. I needed to go in and sign five minutes of paperwork, and I was there for an hour, because he was asking me all these questions, and I said,

I love to talk about Jesus. He's a friend of sinners. This is not my off hours.

There aren't off hours. I love to talk about it. Don't you love to talk about how God forgives sins? If you have friends who go to some church that doesn't believe that, oughtn't you not to tell them?

I better just calm down for a minute. When you tell me with enthusiasm, and with vigor, and with sureness, they're really

Christians. I know they don't believe in all that other stuff, but they're really Christians. You've got to believe it. You mean to tell me with that kind of enthusiasm, why don't you tell them to get out of that cesspool?

How about that? You go, well, how could you call it a cesspool? With great sadness, my mother said, and I love you enough to tell you the truth, and it's going to be like me, knocking you down, a 90 year old lady, with a big shoulder pad, football player kind of shoulder pad,

I will put it into your chest, knock you down, and knock the wind out of you, because if you die in your sins, grandma, you're going to go to hell.

And you've got to have a Jesus, who's not just Jesus by name, but a Jesus who saves, because he has absorbed the wrath of God on Calvary, and he has died in the place of sinners, and you can't get grace through baptism, you can't get grace through the sacraments, you can't get grace through the

Eucharist, and grandma, if you don't believe, you're going to go to hell. And then to have her say something, not with her arm like this, but with her voice,

I've always been a Catholic, and I'm going to die a Catholic, that's our culture.

Let me ask you this, if we were in Salt Lake City, and I never told you to be loving towards your

Mormon neighbors, to preach the gospel of them, what kind of church would this be? What kind of pastor would

I be? If you're in India, and you never tell the people, listen, it's one

God, and one God alone, you can't just say you believe in Vishnu, and Ganesh, and Saraswati, you've got to believe in Jesus only, and I didn't say, we live in the culture of Hinduism, preach the good news.

You'd think we were crazy. And I get it all the time, well, you know, that's just Catholic bashing.

You know what, let's just settle the score today. I will gladly receive anyone here who says, you're a

Catholic basher. Because it's not true. And if I tell you the truth, it doesn't mean

I'm bashing anyone. It means that I love you to tell you the truth. And if I have to knock the wind out of you, then

I have to knock the wind out of you. What people say about me is irrelevant. I like to be liked, it's good to be good, and it's good to be liked.

But that's not the issue. Friends, I'll seal it right now. Church of Corinth, I know you've got problems.

Chloe's talked to me, you've got a bunch of issues, and questions and answers. But here's what you do.

The people that practice fornication and adultery and homosexuality and idolatry and greed and the list in 1

Corinthians chapter 6, they're good. They say they believe in Jesus.

They say they believe in the gospel. They say they believe in the resurrection. And they still go on living like that.

Just let them be. Is that Pauline? It has nothing to do with Paul. Paul said you were a light, you were a salt.

I'm not saying when it's Thanksgiving time you go in and just bust everybody's chops.

Although that might be good for some of you. You didn't come up with the gospel.

You didn't open your own eyes for the gospel. You didn't save yourself. You're not better than anyone else.

You are a sinner who probably is more of a sinner than your friends who are religious. But God has saved you.

And you aren't your own. And it is your job, it is your responsibility and friends' privilege to bring glory to God.

People go, well, you know, that was too long of a sermon. I remember they said that to Don Kistler his first sermon.

Pastor, you preached too long. He said, well, how long was it? 45 minutes.

And he says, too long for whom? He said, too long for me. That's who? And he said, see, that's the problem.

He said, I don't preach for you. I preach for the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm quite positive that he still loves to hear his name extolled after 45 minutes.

Now, I don't want to be callous, but I agree with Don Kistler. Blessed subtraction. Either change your mind or go find a

Sheilaism church. It's the same for us. How do we glorify God when we're afraid of the

Gospel? Friends, if the church of Corinth was meant to be salt and light, you are too. And the great news of all is what?

Jesus said in the Great Commission, and lo, I am with you always. Why would he say that?

Because it gives us strength. You know what? I'm just going to do this. This will be interesting. How many people were saved out of a

Roman Catholic life? Now, what if I were to tell all you, and by the way, we're being too mean to your family.

We're not going to proselytize them anymore. We just assume they're all going to heaven. There would be an uproar at this church.

And who would give the uproar? Lutherans? We don't have to make

Jesus attractive. We don't have to make the Bible relevant. We have to say, God, I'm scared to death.

God, I'm weak. I'm frail. I'm sinful myself. And I want people to like me. And I want people to not be mad at me.

I don't want to cause family fights. But your glory is at stake. And their destiny is at stake.

And so give me the words to say. Because something is better than nothing. And I need to preach the

Gospel of them. Because when they die, there's judgment.

By the way, down the street, if the Roman Catholics are saying all that about me because that's what they believe, at least they preach what they believe.

At least they preach what they believe. Well, I have bad news and good news. The bad news is we only got one encouragement today.

I don't know if it felt like an encouragement or not. The sovereign God has said, you're here in Worcester, maybe for a month, maybe for a week, maybe for ten years.

And do you think the sovereign God who places you here doesn't also prepare good works for you to walk into?

How about that? They're just waiting for you to walk into. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8, 9, and 10.

He's prepared these good works and you just walk in. Sometimes I walk to the store and I go to the store and I think, I need to get things.

I need to get things like, I don't know, some Diet Coke, some kind of Cheetos, and some 9mm ammo.

I've got to figure out where my priorities are. And then you meet someone and you think, wait a second, like Jesus, the end isn't the goal for me.

Just get the stuff. I meet people. I talk with people. I used to make people say, well, you know, what do you do for a living?

I'd make them drag it out of me. Then I'd just say, I'm a Bible teaching pastor. Oh, that cuts them down a size right there.

I don't mean cut them, but that cuts the conversation down a size. How about you say this, when MacArthur's on the plane, he's got a lot to do, and either people are interested or they aren't.

Oh, are you studying the Bible? Are you a pastor or something? Yes. I go all around the world and tell people how they can have full forgiveness in sins, no matter what they've done in their life, full forgiveness in Christ Jesus, the risen

King. Are you interested? And if the answer's no, back to study. But if the answer's yes, forget your study and preach the gospel.

Let me tell you the glories of Christ Jesus. Who else would you want to talk about? Remember when I first started dating

Kim and then I asked her to marry me. If you would bump into me in the middle of the night, I would start saying, you've got to see this girl.

You've got to meet this girl. That's all I would want to talk about. I'm sure it bordered on idolatry. I'm sure it was, but I was focused.

I mean, you were meant to worship. So why don't you just begin to talk about the one who you love?

It's one thing to talk about doctrine. It's another thing to talk about election. It's another thing to talk about some kind of infralapsarianism and all that stuff.

It's another to say, I know Jesus because he has made himself known to me. And let me tell you, you can have forgiveness.

The risen Savior died for sinners just like you. And if he died for sinners in Corinth, remember Paul said, and some of some were like you.

So I am glad I'm here in Worcester. And I'm glad the worst thing that can happen when you preach the gospel to a friend is that they kill you and you go to heaven.

Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we acknowledge that just like with Corinth, you have placed us here in West Boylston.

Lord, I pray that you'd encourage us. For some are here for work and there's no family, I pray that you would give them a greater sense that this church is their family.

Lord, for all of us, I pray that you'd help us to be bolder. Help us to make sure we preach the gospel in season and out of season, that we would be better salt and light.

Lord, without your Spirit, we can't do it. And then Lord, for those who are here today, maybe visitors, maybe regular attenders who are offended, who maybe are

Roman Catholic, I pray, Lord, that they would be so mad they'd have to get their Bibles open and study on their own to see if these things were true.

Lord, I pray that you'd grant them eyes to see the truth. And Lord, we finally acknowledge that in and of ourselves, we are worthless, we are weak, we aren't better than anyone, but we are the recipients of divine grace and mercy.