Gospel = Engine; Liberties = Caboose - [1 Corinthians 9:1-14]

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How many commandments are there? What would you say if I answered eleven?
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There's a story about Archbishop Usher and Samuel Rutherford. Archbishop was passing through Galloway, Scotland, and Archbishop Usher went to Samuel Rutherford's house and the story goes he was kind of disguised.
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Both were fairly well -known men. And so Samuel Rutherford would have people over all the time and then after dinner they would go through the catechism and ask questions and look at the
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Westminster Confession. A question was asked to the stranger, how many commandments are there? The Archbishop said eleven.
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Rutherford said no, there'd be ten. But Usher persisted, no, eleven.
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Because Jesus gave a new commandment, John 13, 34, a new commandment
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I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
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Interesting. I want you to turn your Bibles to John chapter 13 and I want to talk about that for a minute before we get into 1
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Corinthians chapter 9. I have a desire here at Bethlehem Bible Church and that is to educate you as Christians to see the gospel and it's important for your lives as Christians.
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The gospel is not just for people who need to be saved. The good news about Christ's life, death, substitutionary atonement, perfect redemption, resurrection, etc.,
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that's not just for Christians, excuse me, for unbelievers, it's also for Christians. And so I'm trying lately before we just dive down into 1
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Corinthians 8, chapter 9, chapter 10, where there's lots of commands for Christians, I'm trying to in a creative way instill in your mind that before we go to the commands of Scripture, which are surely there, believe, keep on believing, praise, give thanks, be contented, show love while you're exercising liberties, that it stems from a life that flows out of the gospel.
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And so in the gospel of John and in 1 John, you see this mixture. What God has done, how we respond.
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Let me just teach you a paradigm right now that I've taught you before, but I'll remind you of this. Revelation, God revealing
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Himself in Scripture, demands a response. Revelation, response.
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That's just a paradigm. And if you look closely, you'll see it even in a worship service. Call to worship, revelation, a response.
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You might ask yourself the question, why do we sing a hymn at the end of the service? Because we've heard from God's Word, He's revealed
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His Word to us, and then we respond with a song. It's revelation, response. When you look at the sun and the moon and the stars, you should say, wow.
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When you see a baby being born, you go, that's incredible. There's a revelation of God shown generally, and we respond with praise.
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And then there's specific revelation, God unveiling Himself, uncovering
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His mind, as it were, that we see, and then we go, oh, that's pretty amazing. So it's this revelation, response paradigm.
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So what I want to make sure to do is, today, when I encourage you and exhort you to love other
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Christians by thinking about your liberties, by saying maybe no to your liberties, that I first step back and remind you what the gospel is, and you go, you know, it's gospel, gospel, gospel around here.
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I'll never forget what D .A. Carson said. He said, if you ask some of my students at Trinity Evangelical Seminary, what are some things that I've taught them?
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He said, here's what they'll remember, because they won't remember everything. Can you imagine that, Sunday school teachers? I hate to tell you, but IBS teachers, your students don't remember everything you taught them.
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Actually, your teachers don't remember everything that they've learned either, and I'm noticing that the older I get, the less
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I remember. But here's what people do remember, things that you repeat all the time and things you're excited about.
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If the teacher is excited about something, so will the students be, and what a teacher repeats often and regularly, you'll remember.
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And so I think our generation of evangelicalism has kind of forgotten the gospel because it's for Christians.
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It's how to get in. It's not for Christians. It's over here for brand new
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Christians, but later, you know, we've already moved past that. But the Scriptures won't let us get away from the fact that we should be both excited and excited about the gospel, and it's everywhere.
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So let me just show you, before we get to 1 Corinthians 9, go to John 13, and let's just walk through,
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I don't know, several passages, so you just get this paradigm. You get the paradigm that here's who
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God is, and therefore, in light of who He is, here's what I should do. Or to make it more bluntly, in John chapter 13 and following, and in 1
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John, God loved us. What do you think our response should be then? We should love too.
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Not only love Him, but love other people. Since God loved us, we love other people. That's the paradigm.
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John 13, 34, a new commandment. This is a fresh commandment.
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I give to you that you love one another. What do you mean new? I thought Leviticus talks about love your neighbor as yourself.
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Yeah, but this is new because this is not just neighbor love. This is family love. You are to love one another. That's the imperative.
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That's the command, but it stems from the indicative. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
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By this, all people will know or recognize that you are my disciples, John 13, 35, if you have love for one another.
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You have been loved, therefore love. That's exactly what we're going to learn about in 1 Corinthians 9.
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Since we've been loved, since we've been saved, justified, since we are being sanctified, since we will be glorified, let's love other people.
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Go to John 15, if you would. Just a little survey here, again, trying to remind us all.
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Since God has saved us, then our obedience isn't to be saved.
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Our obedience is in light of our salvation. When you know how great your sins are and how much
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God loves you, then it's a lot easier to obey. It's a lot easier to be motivated,
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John 15, 12. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
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Isn't that neat? It's not just love, love, love. He can say love, but hear both of those, just like in John 13.
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Since I have loved you, you love other people. I say this all the time, but I have to preach it to myself, so I'll repeat it again.
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I want to be excited about it as I repeat it. This is the way you motivate people, long -term.
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This is the way you motivate anyone, even short -term. Since God has lavished his love on you, then respond with obedience.
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And my default is do, don't, stop, start, get going, up and at them.
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I ask you the question that I have to ask myself all the time. When I hear these imperatives come out of my mouth to my kids, it's okay to give imperatives.
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Stop it, start it, up and at them. Whatever I tell my kids, it's fine for me to say, after all,
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I'm the king of the castle. It's okay. But if God parents, as it were, if the paradigm of the world is, here's who you are in Christ, therefore live outflow of that, then how do
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I parent? And left to myself, without special revelation, I parent by saying, don't, stop, start, get going.
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I wonder if that's how you parent. And if you do, the gospel liberates you to say, you know,
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I love you, the apple of my eye, I pray for you, just, you know,
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I couldn't be more thankful that God has given me you as a son and three daughters. And in light of who you are, what do you think you ought to do?
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Start, stop, get going, go. But that's the way it goes. That's how you motivate people in a local church.
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If you're a boss, that's how you motivate your employees. This is the way it works. It's not just love other people because Mormons teach that.
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Name me a religion that doesn't say you shouldn't love. Hindus, Buddhists, they all get the commandment, the golden kind of the key commandment.
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Love others as you want to be loved. But since God in Christ Jesus has loved you, then you love one another.
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That's a liberating, liberating thought. John 15, 13, greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
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Let's go to 1 John chapter 3. I just want to read you a few verses so you can see it. I want you to see it everywhere.
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When my wife was pregnant for the first time with our first daughter, I won't mention her name because I don't feel like paying her a dollar this morning because all my kids get a dollar if I mention their names.
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Oh, I feel generous. Haley, Luke, Maddy, Gracie. What do I care? I walked around and I thought everybody's pregnant.
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At least all the ladies. I mean, there, I'm thinking, look at that, everywhere you go.
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I couldn't believe how many pregnant people there were. But I was noticing it because my wife was pregnant.
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I'm thinking, wow, she's pregnant. This is an amazing thing. It's the same thing. You start seeing that God's sovereign over weather, over skin color, over circumstances, over who goes to heaven, over who goes to hell.
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God is sovereign. And you get that in your brain and what begins to happen? It's everywhere.
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You just turn the Bible page after page. And it's like all of a sudden you have these new glasses to see. It's everywhere you go.
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And I want you to see that the sovereignty of God in scriptures. And I also want you to get put in.
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It's not always indicative than imperative. Sometimes it's imperative than indicative. It's everywhere you go because that's the way
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God does things. Here's what I've done for you. In light of that, respond. Husbands, love your wives.
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That's just moralism if you stop there. Anybody could tell you that. Husbands, love your wives like Christ loved the church.
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And 1 John, it does the same thing. It's great. It's just all mixed up because there they are.
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See chapter 3 verse 1 of 1 John. What kind of love the Father has given to us?
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That we should be called the children of God and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know
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Him. Verse 10. By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.
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Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
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Verse 11. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
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Verse 14. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.
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Verse 16. By this we know, love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
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You see it? There it is again. He loved us. We love other people. How about verse 7 of the next chapter?
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1 John 4, 7. Makes me want to preach 1 John. Beloved 1
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John 4, 7. Let us one love another. For love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows
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God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. 1
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John 4, 9. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent
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His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Verse 10.
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In this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
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And then in light of what God has done, beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another.
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Verse 19. We love because He first loved us. So two thoughts from John and 1
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John. God loves us. We respond with love. And secondly, let's turn to 1
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Corinthians 9 because that's the whole passage, how to love other Christians, even though you have your own rights to do your own things when it comes to Christian liberty.
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Let's go to 1 Corinthians 9. We're working through 1 Corinthians. And instead of just recapping chapter 1 every single week, here's what
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God has done. Let's therefore live in light of it. I'm just taking a few tangents before we jump into the passage on a regular basis so you know who you are in Christ.
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So then it's easier to respond. You're more thankful. You have a deeper sense of gratitude and you're responding.
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And it's just not me up here giving you how -tos, get going, hurry up. It's, you know what, if God so loved me like that, how should
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I respond? If somebody loves me that much, what's the response? 1
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Corinthians chapter 9. Well, 1
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Corinthians chapter 8, 9, and 10 are a big section, aren't they? And they're a big section that talks about this.
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As a Christian, you have certain liberties to do certain things that don't affect salvation, that aren't clearly talked about in the
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Bible as sin or not sin. How do we exercise our liberties? And do we exercise them in love?
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And here's Paul's big point, that the gospel takes the priority over our liberties.
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We have liberties to do things, but don't forget that the gospel takes priority. And I'll show you one verse that sets everything up so you'll know where we're going.
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Verse 12. This is the verse that unlocks chapter 9. If you don't know this verse, you don't know its key, it doesn't unlock anything.
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Paul is going to talk about things today that you're going to go, what does this have to do with anything? But 12 unlocks it.
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This is why he's talking about what he's talking about here. If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?
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Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than to put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
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Paul in chapter 9 says this, I'm going to spend half the chapter telling you why
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I have the right to have you pay me. And then the rest of the chapter, verse 15 and following in chapter 9,
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I'm going to tell you why I refuse your money. It's weird. 14 verses, you ought to,
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I could demand that you pay me as an apostle. Verses 15 and following, I'm not going to take any of your money.
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Why? Because it's a gospel priority. So you've put everything together and you're thinking big picture.
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Gospel priority in Christian liberties. Do you have Christian liberties? Yes. Are the liberties that we have in this congregation different?
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We differ on certain debatable things. Yes, but it's always as my sermon, the sign out there,
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I'm not really good on sermon signs or titles necessarily, but it's gospel is the engine and liberties are the caboose.
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Always that way. It's not the other way around. I have my liberties and it's gospel down here, but we exercise our liberties in light of the gospel.
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How does my liberty to do X, Y, and Z affect the gospel? And that's what Paul is talking about.
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So let's look at chapter 9. I think I can get through the first 14 verses. What do you want to, you want to, Chris Cloyd just shook his head.
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I think we can do it because what Paul is going to do, it's very, very interesting. Paul is going to say,
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I want you to practice what I preach. Now, of course, the ultimate sacrifice and where his eyes will eventually put us is on Christ Jesus and his gospel, but he uses himself as an illustration.
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And he's going to try to say this. You Corinthians are exercising liberties that are hurting the gospel.
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I, on the other hand, am not going to exercise liberties that hurt the gospel. So look at my example. What would
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Paul do? Look what I'm doing. I'm an apostle. I was sent here. If it wasn't for me, God using me, there would be no church here.
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There'd be no salvation here. Look what I do. And as you look what I do, that's what you should be doing. And it doesn't even seem like it fits in.
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Paul's talking about why he's an apostle, why he can be an apostle, why he could have them pay money.
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It doesn't seem to fit, but it does fit. Chapter 8, we have liberties in Christ Jesus.
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Chapter 9 says, you know what? Paul, the apostle declares, I'm not going to exercise my liberties, even though I.
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So what are we going to do for an outline today? It's kind of a, it's a hard outline because it's not telling you to do anything.
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There's nothing really here. Here's what it's telling you to do. Look at Paul. Look at Paul. So maybe that's the outline.
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And you know, the other weird thing about this passage in chapter 19, how many questions do you think are in chapter 19 in the
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English? 5, 10, 15, 19 questions in chapter 9.
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19 questions. And this is oratory at its finest. Rhetorical questions at their pinnacle.
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He is asking questions and he's getting them kind of back on their heels because the Corinthians are like, hey, who are you?
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You can almost feel their chins getting stuck out saying, you know, give me a hit right here because we are saved by Christ and his grace.
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And therefore we can live in light of that. We have liberties to do whatever we want. And Paul dismantles their thinking by using 19 questions.
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Maybe we could call the sermon today 19, 2 and 1. 19 questions, 2 points.
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Driving for driving home one issue. 19 questions. Here are the 2 points. I can get paid.
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Point 1, point 2. I won't take your money. Like, wait a second. I've had a bad week.
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How's this supposed to help me get through another week? I've got a tough Monday going on. Well, when you're involved in a text like this,
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I haven't even thought about Monday yet. I'm not even dealing with those issues. And God wants us to know this. You need to know about apostles.
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You need to know about their rights. You need to know what's going on. And this is just the next segment. If this wasn't in the scripture,
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I wouldn't preach it. And as I studied it, I thought I'd love to preach this. Who can I preach this to?
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19 questions, 2 points and one major issue. Here's the issue. The gospel takes priority over everything in my life.
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I guess I could just front load it now for just a second. Let's just think about your life for just a moment.
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How does the gospel priority show up, show itself up in your lives? Work, school, home, away.
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Wherever you are, whatever you do, you think the gospel takes priority over everything I do.
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That's why I exist. By the way, if you're married, your marriage exists for one reason.
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And it's not one reason of getting along, vacation, companionship.
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Those are all fine and dandy. You live for one reason, and that is so the gospel is proclaimed.
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And the sooner you get that through your head, our marriage exists to highlight the gospel, the better off your marriage is going to be.
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Because, just to use the vernacular, if the focus is on the family, the family is crushed.
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Because that's the wrong focus. The focus is, if I were ever going to start a radio show, I'd probably call it not the focus on the family.
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I'd say the focus on the gospel priority of the family. Why we exist.
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So let's look at Paul surrendering his rights after he makes sure they know he has the rights.
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And you're going to really resonate with this because how many people here think you should get paid for working? What? You should get...
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I mean, can you imagine going to work and never getting paid? You'd be calling the union steward,
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S, flight attendant, whatever they're called. I should get paid. I'm working.
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And Paul is going to say, you know what? That's not the case. For the gospel sake?
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No. Very, very interesting. And he's going to call them, and I call you to follow his example.
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And that is, gospel takes priority over my Christian liberties. That's the message in a nutshell.
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Gospel -centered liberties. Maybe we should call it that. Restricting our freedom for the sake of the gospel.
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New Christians, they figure out they have liberty in Christ. And whether it's alcohol or tobacco or anything else, it's flaunt liberties.
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And Paul would look at flaunting liberty people, and he'd just say, grow up. He'd say, you know what he'd say?
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He'd say, follow my example. I don't do that. I don't flaunt liberties at the sake of the gospel, because the gospel drives everything
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I do. So let's see Paul's status. Because Paul, in the first two verses, talks about his rights.
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And let the questioning begin. I wanted there to be 20 questions. There are 19.
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17 in the first 14 verses. They're everywhere. Verse 1, 1
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Corinthians 9. Am I not free? These first four all require yes answers, by the way.
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He knows the Corinthians already know this. Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen
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Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the
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Lord? If to others I'm not an apostle, at least I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the
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Lord. It's an established fact. He says, I'm an apostle. And what did you have to be to be an apostle back in those days?
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In any day, you had to see Jesus. And notice he doesn't say to see Christ, that I saw
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Christ, that I saw the Messiah, that I saw the Lord, that I saw God. He says, I saw Jesus because Jesus is the human name.
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I saw the resurrected Jesus. Yes, in an untimely fashion. But on the Damascus Road, I saw
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Jesus. I am an apostle. The historical Jesus of Nazareth, raised from the dead,
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I saw him. And therefore, God has made me an apostle. And he's trying to say,
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I have the authority and the position to have you pay me for my work. But I'm not going to exercise it because of the gospel.
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You are not my workmanship. Are you not my workmanship in the Lord? He asked the question. And the answer is yes.
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But don't you like Paul who says it just rightly? He doesn't say, I made you born again.
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I created you. I gave you spiritual gifts. No, you're my workmanship in the
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Lord. It's what God has done through me. Always making sure that the work of God is for the work of God.
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You're the seal of my apostleship. Somebody says, well, you know what? How can you tell us what to do now?
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Remember what's going on. There's probably some of these other fake apostles, super apostles, false teachers.
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Don't listen to Paul. And Paul says, you know what? You want to know my credentials? You want to know my papers? Show me the papers.
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I'll show you the papers. You, you're my papers. He talks about this in other books as well.
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The seal of my apostleship. He says, I'm the ring and you're the wax.
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The wax seal. The legal attestation. You are. You want to know if I have authority?
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Well, what God has done in me authenticates you. You are my letter of recommendation.
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And then Paul goes on in verses 13 and following to show about his right for support that people who give the gospel and who are gospel ministers can get paid.
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And again, Paul says, Corinthians, look to Paul. Paul's going to say, you know what? Gospel first, liberty second.
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Let me just say this before we go on. The better you were at speaking, the more authority that you came across with, the more you could get paid if you were a speaker or a teacher.
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If you're a philosophical teacher and you got paid one dollar a day and you weren't a very good teacher, it's almost like today.
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How much money can people command if they go in the public speaking circuit? And so you can imagine the false teachers are saying about Paul, since Paul gives, receives nothing from people, therefore, his ministry teaching must be what?
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Of no value. But Paul's going to say, no, I have a right, but I'm just going to say no to my right.
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Who does this? Fourteen verses. I have a right to get paid the next set of verses to the end of the chapter, but I'm not going to get paid.
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Verse three, he's not in a real court, but it's courtroom language. This is my defense to those who would legally examine me.
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This is my defense to those who would put me in a court judicially. This is my apology is the
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Greek word for those that would put me before a judge. That word examined is when Jesus was put before Pilate and Pilate examined him.
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So Paul uses just a figure of speech. He's not in a real tribunal, but the Corinthians are acting like it.
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And what does he say in verse six, verse three, rather? This is my defense. Now, this could mean what's in verse one and two.
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These are, this is, this is my defense about my rights are, this is my refusal for charge.
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And I think this goes with the following verses. So it could go with the previous verses. These are, this is my defense about why
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I have rights or it could go with the following. And the majority of good scholars think it goes with the end.
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So three goes with four and following. This is my defense on why
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I don't charge people. It's my defense for those who examine me. I'm going to explain why
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I do ministry for no payment, even though I could get paid.
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Just listen to 2 Corinthians for a moment. Same thing came up there. Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached
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God's gospel to you free of charge? I didn't command any amount of money.
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That doesn't make me a bad teacher. I could command it. But don't listen to these false teachers that are saying you don't get any money.
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Therefore, you're bad. So Paul says, no, that's not the case. Verse four, he says in 1
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Corinthians chapter nine. By the way, verse four has the word the right in ESV.
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Verse five has the word the right. Verse six has the word right. I wonder what this is about. This should be easy for us because we live in a day and age with animal rights, workers rights, children's rights, gay rights, property rights, moral rights, inalienable rights to life.
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And Paul is an apostle, has a right. Then he's not going to use it. Do we not have the right to eat and drink?
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Remember, that's what we were talking about in chapter eight. Food offered to idols. Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and brothers of the
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Lord and Cephas or Peter? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?
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Paul says, I have the right to have you give me money for support. By the way, this has nothing to do with opulent living.
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When I turn on TBN and see the opulent lifestyles of some of these crazy people, this has nothing to do with any of that.
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Corinthians, you keep saying, I've got the right. I've got the right. I've got the right to exercise my liberties.
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And Paul says, I've got the rights too, but I'm going to just say no to him. So learn from me. Learning from the apostle
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Paul to say no to liberties for the sake of the gospel, since you've been saved by the gospel.
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They were questioning Paul. Now I ask you the question, who's on trial now? I love it that he switched it all around.
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I've got full apostolic rights. And now, Corinthians, let's go out to the woodshed a little bit.
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I've got some questions for you. Now in here, there's some cool little truths like Cephas.
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If you just read this, wouldn't you think just plainly? Verse five, I've got a right to take along a believing wife as the apostles and the brothers of the
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Lord and Cephas. Wouldn't you automatically think when people say the pope can't be married and the pope has to be celibate?
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Don't you think they'd probably be blowing a gasket about right now? When you look at this, I didn't know
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Peter was married. I didn't know the first pope was married. The whole idea of celibacy of clergy is a lie.
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It's a good way to make sure that the property and the money of a person doesn't go to the kids and get split up.
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Instead, it goes back to the coffers of the church. That's a good thing there if you're trying to swindle.
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But a clear reading of Scripture, I can not only get money from you for my gospel ministry, not just for me, but for my wife.
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I remember the letter one time Kim got and they were trying to blast Kim. I guess I wouldn't owe you a dollar for this one,
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Kim. Blast Kim because Kim was leeching off the church here because she didn't work.
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I got paid enough though so Kim couldn't work. So she was leeching off the church. I just thought, wow, that's why sometimes pastors sing blessed subtraction.
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I'm just kidding. You know what Paul would say when it comes to apostles?
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And of course, it applies to pastors in first Timothy chapter five. Paul would say, do you know what?
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I've given my life to you to serve and to teach. And it's not wrong.
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Actually, it's biblical if you support me and my wife and my kids. That's what Paul's saying. The other apostles do it.
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The brothers of the Lord do it. And Cephas does it. And so when you hear this whole nonsense about, you know,
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Popes can't get married. Popes can't be with a woman.
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That's just a big old fat lie. Listen to what
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John Calvin said. The apostles did not shrink from marriage like the papal clergy who detest it so much because it does not befit the sanctity of their order.
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At last, it went so far that Pope Sirius, right around 384
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AD, had no hesitation about calling marriage, quote, an uncleanness of the flesh in which no one can please
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God, end quote. Pope Sirius. Calvin goes on to say, what then will happen to the unfortunate apostles who persisted in this impurity until their deaths?
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But here the papists evade the issue by a fine piece of cunning reasoning, of their own devising.
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For they say that the apostles refrained from intimacy, but took their wives about with them so that they might get the fruits of the gospel.
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So you bring your wife along, but it's kind of like I love Lucy. Each have separate beds.
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I think it's like that. How ridiculous. Ambrose's explanation of this was that the reference is to other men's wives.
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So you go, I can't just take it as face value. Peter was married. I think actually Mark 1 talks about Peter's mother -in -law was what?
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Sick. You go, okay, well, he's got the mother -in -law. What's going on there? And you go, I can't take that at face value because it's church versus Bible.
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So I have to switch everything around. And so now I'll make it that the wives show up, but the wives are just kind of friends or other people's wives go hang out.
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They're just kind of groupies. And they just go follow along. Friends, it's very clear. You just look at it.
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And Paul says this. Corinthians, you want to exercise your liberties to eat and drink food and wine offered to idols.
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I'm telling you, there's no such thing as an idol. So you can do whatever you want. Alcohol is not the problem.
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Food offered idols is not the problem. It's the heart. But here's how the heart needs to be aligned. Gospel first, liberty second.
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I mean, when you just read the Bible, there it is. And Cephas. And Paul says, you know, it's not just for Barnabas.
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Here's another thing that was going on there that I think will help you culturally. If you did manual labor back in those days in the
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Greek culture, you were despised. You're on the low level of the ladder.
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If you were in India and you were in the lowest caste system, you would be looked upon with disdain.
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Oh, you're the caste that climbs into the sewers and cleans things. You're not really a real person.
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So, Paul, you're not charging for the gospel. That's one thing. If you had any success, you would charge for the gospel and you're not.
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And two, you do menial labor. You make tents. And then
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Paul just starts piling on the proof. If you've been in the military, you'll get this next one.
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If you've been a farmer, you'll get this next one. If you've been a shepherd, you'll get the next one. Look at how he teaches, just so wonderfully, verse 7.
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Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? I know there's some military guys here.
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Did you buy your own canteens? Did you buy your own water? Did you buy your own rations? Did you buy your own meals ready to eat?
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Did you buy your own weapons? Did you buy your own ammo? Answer, no.
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Nobody does that. So Paul is trying to teach through these three common examples.
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How about who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Can you imagine? You have to plant the apple orchard, plant the trees, and then you have to take care of it.
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But you can never go over there and pick up one of those nice apples, shine it on your tunic, take a look at it and go, can you imagine biting that apple?
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You take that bite and some of that juice just kind of flies out when you first bite it, and it even zooms over to splatter on one of the apostle's sisters over there.
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It's good. You take a bite and then the boss comes along, you can't eat that fruit. No, because when you work around thousands of apples, it's okay to eat a few apples.
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He gives another illustration too. Who tends a flock and does not drink from the milk? Shepherd's thirsty, milking a bunch of goats, milking a bunch of sheep, and once in a while has a little goat milk.
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I have my own illustration and I'll just give it to you because I think you'll be able to identify it. At least the husbands here can.
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I kind of torque it a little bit for my own reasons, but that's all right. Now, when you're making cookies, there's all just a bunch of dough and this butter saturated cookie dough.
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I should not have to look over my shoulder to see if Kim's there. This is part of the process.
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Should not a man who makes cookies be able to eat from the fruit of his labors?
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Come on. Now, if she's making cookies and I come over for a little, oh,
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Kim, do you see there's another crack in the ceiling? She looks up and I have to do the little switch, a little switcheroo with the snickerdoodle.
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Upkeep for your own service. So you work and you get paid under that. And so Paul is saying as an apostle, then
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I get paid for what I do. But I'm not going to take it from you. But I could if I wanted. What we should do is what
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Paul often does is give scriptural backing for these privileges. Verses eight and nine.
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This is just general terminology. But if you ever want to prove a point, you go to the Bible. And he did it back in those days. And his
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Bible in those days was the Old Testament. More questions from Paul. Verse eight.
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Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the law say the same? Hey, it's taught in the
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Old Testament. For it is not written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.
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Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Now, it's true that God is concerned about animals.
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It's true in Proverbs 12 that a righteous man regards the life of his beast. But if you had to rank human beings with an eternal soul and animals with no soul, how would you rank them if you didn't belong to Peta?
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You would rank them, people here, oxen down here. That's Paul's point.
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And it's the lesser to the greater argument. If we give food for the oxen, when they're crushing the grain and getting the chaff off by smashing it down or using their hooves, and they stop for a minute and eat a little bit, you're not supposed to...
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Mosaic law, Deuteronomy 25. You're not supposed to whip that thing and get it going. You're supposed to just let it eat a little bit.
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The horse is doing work. You let the horse get a little fruit of its own labor. Paul's point is not to say we don't love animals or that animals are the top of the food chain or don't be humane to animals or not.
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He's talking to humans, as Luther said. Obviously, this verse was written for humans, since oxen can't read.
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He's addressing men, not oxen. The Oxen Revised Standard Version.
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The principle. Worker shares in the fruit of his labor.
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Apostles can share in the fruit of their labor. Paul's point, you're flaunting your liberties. Watch me.
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I'm going to say no to my liberties, even though I have the right. He says in verse 10, does
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He not certainly speak for our sake, instead of the oxen, for the apostles instead?
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It was written for our sake. Because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in a hope of sharing in the crop.
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It's just a natural law. Now he turns it to supernatural, to spiritual rather.
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Verse 11, If we have sown spiritual things among you, I am the farmer, the gospel is the seed.
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Have I sown spiritual things among you? Is it too much if we reap material things from you? I know when
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I was first saved and my two pastors, Raul Reese and John MacArthur, I know, by the way, this is going to probably sound dumb because you're going to think
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I want something from you. I don't. But God had used them to teach me the scriptures.
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There was nothing I wouldn't do for them. It was in my power to do. And I certainly wasn't concerned that the church gave them a salary so they could be free from doing other work so they could study the scriptures.
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Now that's true for a pastor. How much more the apostle? Spiritual workers in God's church can have material blessings from the church.
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In this particular case, Paul, the apostle. If you want to see if it applies to pastors, you can read 1 Timothy 5 another day.
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The gospel workers are the farmer. The gospel is the seed. It says in verse 12,
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If others share this rightful claim on you, you're actually paying other Bible teachers. You don't know who they are.
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Do we not even more? Nevertheless, we have not made a claim on you. God made use of this right. That's the difference between the two.
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By the way, we don't know to this day why Paul didn't do it. We can conjecture. Besides giving them an illustration.
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That's the only reason he did it. We don't know all the other details surrounding it. But it says we did not make use of this right. But we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ Jesus.
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That word obstacle means a barrier, a military barrier. It's a military term.
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If there's going to be a lot of, to use our modern language, a lot of tanks coming from a certain direction and the enemies coming in, you put all kinds of barriers there and anti -vehicle fortifications and ditches and all kinds of other things.
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And so it's a barrier. It's something that's an obstacle. It literally means to cut into.
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So in those days, you'd cut into the ground so the chariots and other things couldn't get over it. False teachers want money.
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We endure things for the gospel. That's Paul's point. Biggest point,
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Paul says the gospel trumps everything, including my liberty. And for whatever reason,
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Paul knows that if he takes the money, it's going to impede the gospel in the light of the Corinthian church. So he says no.
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Hey, you're familiar with this pattern. He says verse 13 and 14. Chris Cloyd, these two verses are for you, directly and indirectly.
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We made it 14 verses. This is a jet tour through 1 Corinthians. Say it again for repetition.
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Paul's got a big point. Here's the big point. You Corinthians are pushing your liberties. We have liberties.
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I have liberty. I'm not going to use liberty for the gospel sake. And you're good. Here's a pattern that they would be familiar with.
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How about the Old Testament temple? How about Levites?
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I wonder if they got things, even though they didn't work for it. Their work was the temple.
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Verse 13. Do you not know? That sounds familiar. Chapter 3, do you not know?
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Chapter 5, do you not know? Chapter 6, do you not know? Chapter 9, do you not know? Of course you know. That those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple.
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You can read Leviticus 6, Leviticus 7 for that and other passages. And those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings in the same way.
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Just like those temple priests. That's common. They got their livelihood from what was sacrificed.
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In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
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Now, some people think this was the heathens do it. I don't think Paul is going to use what the heathens do to make the example here.
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It's just better to take it straightforwardly. This is Old Testament preach. Priests were supported by ties of crops, ties of animals, part of the sacrifice that wasn't burnt up, etc.
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In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. And then next week, we'll learn
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Paul just says, but I'm not going to do it. I've got the rights, but I'm not going to do it. And so that's your response.
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If you say, how do I work through liberties? I think I now have the liberty to do this, this, this, and this. And by the way, if you're like me,
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I came out of a very licentious lifestyle, licentious thinking, loose thinking.
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And so then when I get saved, if I'm at five o 'clock now and an unsaved person, the hour hand is on five, and I get saved, salvation is at six o 'clock, then
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I probably overreact as a new Christian, as a maturing Christian, immature Christian who wants to mature at seven o 'clock.
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And I'm probably a little too legalistic. And everything's no, I associate something bad with something that I could do, but I don't understand yet.
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And my conscience is still convicting me. And then over time, it'll slowly as I grow, come back to six.
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I think a lot of people here are like that. Licentious living, you get saved and you become too legalistic.
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Some people, I guess our kids will struggle with growing up in a Bible church and a
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Bible family, strict. They have to do the externals. Then when they get saved, they might go too far this way.
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But Paul's point is this, when there are weak Christians, the point is not,
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I get to do what I want, even around weak Christians. The point is I can say no to my own rights for the sake of other people.
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And doesn't that sound like what God did? What Paul did? God loved us.
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We respond with love. Since I've been loved by God, I should just love other people, even though I could eat meat offered to idols.
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I want people to benefit spiritually from what I do or don't do. That's the point.
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Paul says I've got apostolic authority, so I deny it. We have authority to eat and drink and do all kinds of other things, but we make sure that for the sake of others and for the sake of the gospel, we work through those issues.
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Living life for the gospel. My favorite story probably is
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Ironside, Dr. Harry Ironside. Remember Lewis Brown always told me on an elevator one time,
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Harry Ironside put his hand on his shoulder. And that's why
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Lewis Brown said he was a dispensationalist ever since then. I don't know about that. Harry Ironside.
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Illustrating, I could say yes, but I'll say no for the sake of the kingdom and the sake of you. Love the
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Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. He was preaching in a gospel hall in Detroit and a former
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Muslim from India showed up who was a head of a tea business in India.
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He'd gotten saved and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ironside had a meeting on Sunday, had his outing.
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They went to a beautiful spot together for a picnic. He was chatting with him and his name happened to be
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Muhammad Ali. This was not Cassius Clay. Lady came by with some sandwiches.
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Would you like a sandwich? Ironside said, thank you. What kind have you got?
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Well, several different kinds. Ironside said, well, I'll help myself to several of them.
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She turned to Mr. Ali. Will you have one? Well, what kind are they?
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Well, there's fresh pork. There's ham. Do you have any beef? No, I do not. Do you have any lamb?
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No. Fish? No. Thank you, my dear young lady, but I won't take any. Why, Mr.
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Ali, said the lady, you surprise me. Are you so under the law you can't eat pork?
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Don't you know that a Christian is at liberty to eat any kind of meat? And now listen.
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Mr. Ali replied, I am at liberty, my dear young lady, to eat it. But I am also at liberty to let it alone.
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You know I was brought up as a strict Muslim. Every three years I go back to India to render an account of the business to my father.
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He's really the head of the business and I have to visit with folks at home. Always when I get home,
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I know how I will be greeted. When I and the friends will all be sitting around inside the house, my father will come to the door, my servant announces that he's there, and he'll say,
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Muhammad, have those infidels taught you to eat the filthy hog meat yet? No, father,
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I will say. Pork has never passed my lips. Then Mr. Ali said, then I can go in and have an opportunity to preach
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Christ to them. If I took one of your sandwiches, I couldn't preach Christ to my father the next time
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I go home. Gospel priority.
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Know to self. Yes to the gospel. Let's pray. Our father, you are holy, exalted, high and lifted up, transcendent, and yet because of your great condescending love, you sent
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Jesus to be close to us, to cloak himself with humanity, to humble himself, becoming a servant, servant that he would even die a death on the cross for us.
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Thank you for being close to us as well. And in light of that great gospel, that we have forgiveness of sins because of Christ's life, death, burial and resurrection, help us to live in light of that.
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Father, I pray for the folks at Bethlehem Bible Church, the beloved members here, that even tomorrow at work, father, would you just press home and enable the folks that go to work tomorrow that their main mission in life is the gospel priority.
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Promotions, money, salary, pecking order, politics at job, it all matters about the gospel.
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That's the only thing that matters. That's why we're here. That's why you've given these men and women jobs. Father, for the moms that wake up at work tomorrow,
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I pray that you'd give them a reminder about the gospel priority as they teach their kids about Christ Jesus and free grace.
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I pray for the students here that it wouldn't be all about grades, the gospel priority of being a student with access to all kinds of unbelievers.
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And father, the list goes on. Father, may we be a church with priorities, not what we disagree on, how we exercise our liberties, but the gospel priority for Bethlehem Bible Church.
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West Boylston and Boylston, central Massachusetts, need the gospel. Lord, would you help us to be the people to proclaim that very truth?
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The news of the risen savior who would stoop to die on behalf of sinners like us. To God be the glory.