1 Corinthians 06-28-10

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

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

The Inferno of Sin and the Limits of Human Self-Help

Kim and I were on our way to go skiing this week, up to Wachusett Mountain, skiing for me and snowboarding for her. We pulled out of the driveway and we saw some smoke and it looked like a house in our neighborhood was burning.

So we slowed down before we pulled away and we saw it wasn't a house that it was burning, it was someone's car, our neighbor's car. I don't know what it was, some kind of little black Miata or something convertible.

And the fire was flowing out of that thing. You could just see it almost kind of rolling out. And so we backed up quickly because our neighbor was standing there with a little kitchen fire extinguisher spraying the car.

And I said, I'll change your name, Jill, get away from that car. It's going to explode. Did you call 911? Yes. So we backed away from the car and you could see now it's getting more intense. It's hotter and hotter and higher.

And here's this little inferno. The fire truck pulled up. The policeman pulled up. I happened to know this particular officer, Officer Ramos. I said, what happens when that gas tank blows? He said, well, it could have shrapnel fly out.

He said, are there people still in the house? And he was positioning himself behind the fire truck so he would have protection from the car if it exploded. Nobody got hurt and we drove away and we just yelled out of the window, be warm, be filled.

No, just kidding. Everybody was safe. Everybody was fine. And we took off. And now as our family has thought about that the last couple of days, many good gospel pictures should come to our mind and now your mind.

I thought about this inferno with a woman standing there with a little dinky fire extinguisher and I thought, you know what? That's exactly how every unbeliever deals with sin. That's how you deal, dealt with sin.

If you're a Christian now and you look back and you say, before God opened my eyes, I just thought I would put a little band-aid on a gaping wound in my carotid artery and everything would be fine. That I would just go ahead and apply some little thing here to take care of this huge problem.

One man said the most damning thing in all the world for an unbeliever is virtue, morality, I'm good, I'm fine, I do good things. And it's like putting band-aid upon this inferno and it doesn't deal with the problem because the problem is on the inside.

The problem is a heart problem, a sin problem. And it wasn't until that fire truck came along and had enough fire retardant material, there was no hydrant close by, to douse that fire. And I thought, that's another good picture.

Man can't stop the fire, women can't stop the fire, no one can stop the fire, the fire has to be put out by the work of someone else. And I thought, what a great picture. Here the fire truck is putting the fire out, that person can't put it out, can't put the fire out by itself.

And here I am standing there next to the officer, I thought it'd be smart if Officer Ramos is standing here, I should stand here too. With the covering of that fire engine, so if the thing did explode, we're going to be covered.

And my wife said, you know, there's another picture to this, and can you imagine the heat and the flames and the fire cascading over and over and over, seemingly not going to be put out, that for every unbeliever, including that lady who had the fire extinguisher, she would love to be in that burning car on earth, for one second, compared to the eternal lake of fire, that unless God intervenes, she will be in.

And after 100 ,000 years of hell, you'd look back compared to eternity and say, it was just a moment, it was the blink of an eye. And here people run around and they want to try to put virtue, morality, goodness, good deeds, baptism, I grew up in the church, my dad's a pastor, I went on a mission trip, I used to do those right things, thinking that they're going to see God.

When, truth be told, for one sin against a thrice holy God, you ought to be hung up naked on a tree and tortured slowly forever. And that's exactly what happened to Jesus Christ. He was hung naked on a tree and tortured slowly.

As God the Father compressed eternal damnation of hell into three hours, and beginning at noon at Calvary, He dumped that cup of wrath on the Son until three o 'clock. Tortured, naked, slowly on a tree.

Sin is that bad. Yet, can you imagine God and His great love? And you think of Ephesians 2, and with His great love He loved us, instead of torturing us, He tortured His Son in our place. John Wesley said, Christians sing.

Why do Christians sing? Because they know they deserve to be on that tree. And God the Father saved them from that and punished His Son. You want to measure the cost of something? Then you measure the cost of what it cost the one who gave the gift.

My mother was friends with Warren Buffett. I don't know how many billions he has. But you can just imagine in your own mind, if you say this. If Warren Buffett would have said to one of his kids at ten years old, By the way, son, I've got a story to tell you.

You're not our birth child. Your mom and I adopted you when you were six weeks old and we gave you the last name. And by the way, you want to know why we're poor today and we don't have any money at all and we live in a ramshackled 500 square foot house?

It's because I took my ten billion dollars and I spent it on your adoption. The cost of the love is commensurate with the cost of what that love gave. People spend $30 ,000 on adoptions today and I'm glad for that.

And it shows how much they love these children. Wonderful. You want to show how much someone loves someone when it comes to adoption? The idea of the gospel is this. The Father, Son, and the Spirit. One God.

In eternity past, did you hear about it today in Revelation chapter 14? The eternal gospel. God had a plan and that plan was this. Sinners are going to sin and they must be rescued. And they can't rescue themselves.

It will be like taking a fire hydrant to an empire state building ablaze. So I will send my Son. I am just, yes. I am holy, yes. But I love my people and love sacrifices and love pays. If you turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, I want to talk today about this God whose name is Jesus Christ.

He's the Lord. He's the King. And how can this great Lord and King be honored in salvation? How can people who for one moment say, I think I'll throw the band-aid of virtue onto the fire. Because I want to do something.

I want to contribute. Individualism. Then abandon that, turn their back on it and run to the gospel and say, I thought that was dumb before. Jesus dying a slow death on a cross, naked, tortured slowly.

The Father punishing the Son in my place. It used to be dumb. It used to be costly. It used to impinge on my rights too much. I don't want that. Now the people say, I love that. I'll give my life for it.

I'll follow that King if it costs me my life. What happens? How do you explain a person like Paul, who one day was going to kill Christians and the next day he's preaching the eternal gospel? The answer is not found in the person of Paul.

If you're a Christian today, the answer of why you're a Christian is not found in you. That is a doctrine that eclipses the grace of God. And Paul comes to the church of Corinth and he says, the Lord Jesus saved you.

He made you different. He's made you a new creation in Christ. And by the way, the reason you are who you are, Corinth, is because of God himself. I looked at the bulletin today and I thought, you know, these kind of hallmark holidays always just kind of get in my way.

And I looked and I thought, huh, Sunday school, heaven, hell, and everything in between. Morning message, king of kings, lord of lords, evening service, attributes of God, the distinguishing love of God, Romans 9.

And I thought, that's exactly right. The church gets together to worship God. What a novel concept. I thought we wanted to talk about some kind of, you know, maybe we wanted some kind of romantic message today.

I wanted a message today on the song of Solomon and all that. Well, that's why you're here, because God knew you needed a message on God. To consider God and his greatness, his holiness, his love, the gospel.

If you're a Christian, you'll be praising God forever for the eternal gospel. So we'll praise him now. You say, it kind of makes me uncomfortable. Well, it does. It's very uncomfortable. I think about the gospel, it falls through, but in my mind I just was thinking about it.

You ever seen a helicopter come rescue people? And so you can think of Vietnam or Saigon or something, and the final helicopters are showing up, and when the people run to the helicopter, they don't run out like this, on their tiptoes to the helicopter for rescue.

What do they do? They bow. They bow. I don't care if you're five foot zero, you're bowing. And here's this savior, this bird that will rescue you, but you're bowing. And you're bowing as you're going to the savior.

And that's exactly what preaching about God does. You run to him, you run to your father's arm, but he's not just a father, he's a holy father, and there's an aspect of bowing as you run to your father.

That's what Corinthians needed. They needed a message not about them, they needed a message about the eternal God. So if you'd like to summarize my sermon today, I have a one-word summary for the sermon.

God. And God is the reason anyone is saved. If you've got an unloved one who's not saved, you need God to save them. And you say, this is easy, isn't this preschool theology? Yes, but our culture has so twisted things that somehow we give man, we give women, the ultimate kingship on whether they'll be saved or whether they won't be.

Friends, if it's not for God, they never will be. So God comes as a rescuer and saves. And Paul has basically been saying in 1 Corinthians 1, 2, 3, and 4, there's divisions in the church. How do you get the church to be unified?

And the answer is, remember who God is. Because if everybody's thinking about the right Savior, the right way, they'll line up. It'll just be like the military, you'll just get in line. You'll fall into formation as you see God for who He is.

We're born followers, and so let's have the right one to follow, Jesus Christ. If you follow men's wisdom, worldly wisdom, you're going to be scattered. Easy pickings. And if you pick up with me in 1 Corinthians 22, remember the last few weeks, we've been showing that when God intervenes, there's nothing but hope for people.

If He doesn't intervene, they'll think the cross is stupid, foolish, repugnant, and a stumbling block. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 22. For indeed, Jews ask for signs. Show us something spectacular. The Greeks search for wisdom.

Oh, we like to think about it. We like to consider kind of a way to be right with God. Paul says that's what they want, and instead of giving them what they want, I am an ambassador from God, I am an apostle, and I give them God's message.

But we preach Christ crucified. The text shows in the tense for crucified. He's continually to be seen as the crucified one. Raised from the dead, yes, but tortured slowly on a tree. Not for his own sins, of course, but for ours.

We preach Christ crucified. To the Jews who wanted a political messiah to take over this Roman occupation, they think the person who dies on the tree and can't save himself is a person who couldn't even save himself, is going to save us?

No. To the Jews, a stumbling block. People are cursed for hanging on a tree, according to Mosaic law in Deuteronomy. And to the Jews, what do they think? Jolly good show. No, they think it is foolish.

And left there, they'd always think that. But here comes God to the rescue, and don't miss the two words found in verse 24. That's our launching point for today as well. 1 Corinthians 1 .24. How does anyone believe the gospel if everyone, because of sin, thinks it's either a stumbling block or foolish?

But to those who are the what? The called. The called. Every time in the epistles in the New Testament, called by God with a power that overwhelms invincibly. But those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, remember the Jews and Greeks who used to think the Jews, there's no power in that messiah, now they think it's the power of God.

The Greeks think, oh, that's just stupid. That's not wise. That doesn't seem to work. That's actually grotesque. Now those Greeks say it is wisdom. So what's the text say? Both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

And then he gives this kind of paradoxical hyperbole, verse 25, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. How do you delight in something you used to hate?

Answer, God works in you. There's more than just rejection to this story. Look into verse 25 a little bit more before we get into the outline, because the foolishness of God, literally, the foolish thing is wiser than men.

It's a different translation than he's used before. He doesn't use the word foolishness like he did in verse 18, 21, and 23. He doesn't say foolishness there in the Greek. He doesn't say moria. He says moron, the foolish thing.

What is the foolish thing? The foolish thing is the cross. Because the cross is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. It seems initially like it's not very strong, but it is strong.

It seems weak, but it really is strong. It seems like it's kind of wimpy, yet it is the most fierce demonstration of power the world has known, the cross and the resurrection. It's all a matter of perspective.

The unbeliever looks at the very same thing. The one thief on the cross looks at Jesus and says, save yourself, you can't even save yourself, who are you? And the other thief, who said that just moments before, now looks at the cross and says, he's my wisdom, he's my strength, he's my righteousness, he's my redemption, and I will be with him in paradise because he just told me.

The thief on the cross. How did you become a believer? Was it something in you? Was it something that you did? Did you have some kind of fire extinguisher and put out all the sins of your life and then somehow come up with your own righteousness?

What explains it? So the rest of the sermon today, I want to give you several reasons why you should marvel at God's effectual call. The called. In theology we call it the effectual call. And I want to now just paint this picture and put it before your eyes so you look at this picture and say, that is marvelous, that is wonderful, that is awe-inspiring, that is about the gospel, that is about God, and where am I to be found?

I'm to be found nowhere except as a recipient passively receiving this because of the work of another. Pastor Steve and I did a couple shows this week on No Compromise Radio, and I think Steve had a good point.

Why did the prophets of old in the Old Testament continue to bark out, don't serve dead gods, don't serve dead idols. They have mouths, they don't speak, they have hands, they can't do anything with their hands, they have feet, they can't run, ears, they can't hear.

And how many times do you see that in the Old Testament? Don't serve these old dead gods. Well, why do you think they needed to be told that? Because they kept running to these dead gods and trying to serve them.

They needed that message. Now, I don't think our church necessarily needs the message. You will be encouraged by it. But the culture needs this message. God saves. God calls. God regenerates. God makes born again.

And man only receives. Man doesn't say, Okay, God, I know you're King of kings and Lord of lords, but you can't do anything to me unless I let you. If you said that to Paul, I wonder what he would do.

I want to have you be jealous for the glory of God. And so if I say to you, could you please give me your testimony that you use words that have God as the actor and you as the recipient. When you give your testimony and you say, Well, I noticed that I was a sinner.

And then I noticed that what this person told me was true about the cross. And then I repented and I believed. And I accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord. And then I did this. And then I read my Bible. That all may be true.

But that's not how God saved you. That's what you did after God saved you to read the Bible and study and reflect upon His lordship. I want somebody that says, When I give a testimony, I'm going to testify of the Lord and His grace.

My contribution to my testimony is this. If you were Andrew Bonar, I contributed sin. And God did the rest. If you walk away with one thing today, I hope you marvel at God's great salvation. And then when you testify to someone else that you're a Christian, I hope you talk about God, not you.

Because where I come from, people who talk about themselves in a testimony don't give testimonies. They give testifonies. Many reasons this morning that you should marvel at God because of His effectual call.

God's Effectual Call and the Human Heart

Number one. Why should you stare at God? Marvel at God? Even though you say, My life is hurting. Things are falling apart everywhere else. Number one. You should marvel at God because God's effectual call teaches that God controls the human heart.

You should marvel at God because God's effectual call teaches that God controls the human heart. Now, let's work generally and then go specifically. You can tell when pastors do the general to specific what they're after.

And here's what they're after. The specific is such a throat grabber that I've got to lead you up to it. Let's start generally and work specifically. Generally, you would agree with me that God can do whatever He desires as often as He desires.

True. God can do whatever He chooses because by definition He is God. And if that is true, He can do whatever He wants. Then He cannot be thwarted by anyone else. Listen to what Pink said. Man, I just love this.

I just want somebody to give me a high view of God. I was telling the new members class today, we default to this Sinclair Ferguson, kind of, where's Waldo, kind of Bible study. Where is, you know, that picture that's got all those characters and you try to find a little Waldo character?

So we open up the Bible and we say to ourselves, where am I in this verse? Where am I in this chapter? Where am I here in 2 Corinthians? Where am I in all these places? Sometimes you're not anywhere. You're not even born yet.

This was 2 ,000 years ago. We can see, where is God in this text? We need a good dose of God. I know some people here who have loved ones in the hospital, been to the hospital, are going to the hospital, people that will have to bury people soon.

What do you need? You don't need a little forehead pat and say, everything's going to be fine and I want you to feel good today. I want you to see this God who does whatever He wants and He's kind and He's loving and He's sovereign and He's your God.

Pink said He is subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely independent. God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, and always as He pleases. Isaiah says about God, God speaking, my counsel will stand.

I will do all my good pleasure. Did you know God's divine purpose is always accomplished? He has supreme power. I won't tell you the references, I'll just read you the verses and just sit back and listen to these verses about God in control.

Our God is in heaven. He does whatever He pleases. Whatever the Lord pleases, He does in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all the deep places. Indeed, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass.

I have purposed it. I will also do it. One man said of God, you can do everything and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the habitants of earth.

No one can restrain His hand. Now there's a problem. Theology affects the way you think. And there's a relationship here, relationship between God's utter sovereignty and who we are. And here's a relationship.

There's an implication, since God is sovereign, that you are not. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of.

Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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