1 Corinthians 1 preached!

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.

Doctrinal Unity in 1 Corinthians 1

Take a look at appeal number three. First appeal that I want to give to you, you're family, so make sure you keep unity front and center. You're all slaves of Christ Jesus the Lord, so let's keep his unity front and center.

And number three, the third appeal, you ought to remember that the best way to keep unity is to have the same doctrine. Doctrine brings unity. The first thing that goes through your mind, we've got this slogan in our minds, this mantra in our life.

Doctrine what? Say it out loud. Divides. Friends, in one hand, that's a lie from Satan. On the other hand, it's true. Let's close in prayer. No, I'm not trying to be postmodern. Doctrine divides truth from error.

It does divide. But here, Paul doesn't do what the world would do. You guys have too much doctrine. You're just going to have too many different splits in the church, too many factions. Paul says, you have the same doctrine.

The elders believe the same doctrine. You speak the same thing about doctrine. You will be unified because we all agree in the essentials. Take a look at the passage. Verse 10. I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree.

That be no divisions among you, that you may be made complete in the same mind and same judgment. Doctrinal unity is essential. What is Paul saying? You all need to think the same way about those politicians around Corinth.

You all need to vote for the same ones. You all need to have the same favorite team when it comes to the second to the Olympic Games, the Isthmian Games, where they would go right there to Corinth. And when there's a match, you need to all root for that same guy.

You need to all eat the same kind of food. And when it comes to Corinthian falafel or whatever they eat, I don't know what it is. Some kind of Athens hummus. I don't know. But you all have to eat the same thing.

Paul's not saying that. Like people like to be around themselves. You see that in wars and in institutions. See all these people, you know, all the whites like to be together, all the blacks like to be together, all the browns like to be together, all this country likes to be together.

And we just are naturally just drawn to people who are like ourselves. So now I'll use that against you. Forget what you look like. Forget what you like to eat. Forget about your political backgrounds.

Forget about your education. You have all been redeemed. If you're a Christian, you have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. And we're all family. We all need to think the same way about that.

Can you imagine the chaos this church would be? I mean, you take a look at us. I don't think our church represents West Boylston. What do I mean by that? Well, I just think God has drawn people who love Christ Jesus and love his word.

And we look differently. We act differently. How can you get a group of people? How many do we have here today? I don't know. 300 people? To all think about the same things. He's not saying every single thought you need to do and think in your mind, it has to be exactly the same.

How can we do it? We can't. When God redeems out of every tribe and tongue and nation, what unites us? What unites the Chinese and the Koreans and the Americans and the Indians? Thinking the same thing about the scriptures and what are in the scriptures.

You want to disagree about sports? You want to root against teams? I hope the Lakers crush the Celtics this year. Wow. I root for the Celtics, but not when they're going to beat the Lakers. Social issues, maybe we disagree on some of those.

Parts of the country we like, maybe we disagree on some of those. Proper use of the English language, maybe we disagree on some of those. The word agree has a connotation that there was a political group that had no factions in it.

So here now we have a spiritual group and there are no factions. It's not because we're different. We are different. So what unites us? We speak the same thing and we speak the same thing about scripture.

It is inspired. It is inerrant. It is infallible. It is sufficient. It is authoritative. It is eternal. And we speak the same things, especially in leadership, but then on down we go, we speak the same things about the essentials of the Christian faith.

That's what Paul's after. That's the only thing he could be saying. There must be doctrinal unity. One man said, this is quite different from agreeing on everything. If we are exhorted to speak the same thing so as to practice and promote unity, then we must speak about those truths which all Christians share.

What do we all share that we could all say we all say the same things about? It has to be doctrine. It has to be doctrinal unity. How can Pradeep and I speak the same thing? Today I was talking to Erikson and I said during, you know, greet one another and I went up to Erikson and I said, you know, greet one another with a holy kiss and I was getting ready to kiss his wife and then the next thing you know, Erikson kisses me on the cheek.

I'm thinking I've got some Filipino guy kissing me on the cheek. There's got to be some kind of something's going on here. You know, the wonderful thing about it is there's nothing wrong with it. Everything's right about it.

Because while I don't know how to deal with this culture or what goes on back at home when he was visiting his sick grandma and all these other things, I know everything I need to know about Erikson and his wife because they love the same Lord.

They love the same doctrines. They have the same view of the scripture and that keeps us all what? United. That's exactly what he's talking about here. Same mind, same judgment. And so what does Paul say to Corinth before I talk about our own application?

You see in verse 10 there towards the end that you be made complete. Be made complete means this. Something was broken and you put it back together again. The church of Corinth was taught the scriptures.

Think of a bone. And the bone is healthy. Just make it very practical and very clear and very biblical because it has to do with the broken bone in the original language. You've got a femur right here.

And the femur is nice and perfect and good and it's the way it should be. And Paul has preached the word to the body there and there's a nice healthy femur. Paul leaves and he's been gone and he gets a report back.

You know Chloe's household is saying that there's a bunch of divisions. And there's a fracture in the femur. And Paul says now I want you to be made what? Complete. That is the word. I want you to take the bone that's been broken and put it back together.

Putting back together something that was broken, fractured or fissured. It could also be used of a dislocated joint. So you have an arm and the arm seems to work fine. Paul preached the word and God grew the church and now there's an arm and all of a sudden Paul's out of town and that arm is dislocated.

Repair. Restore. Think the same things. Has to be. You've got to be unified in the doctrine that I've taught you for 18 months Paul says to the church of Corinth. On a side note I think it's very important to say when elders have an elder meeting and whether Lewis was here before he moved to Washington D .C. and there was five or whether there are four now and we want to make a decision.

It has to be three to one before we move on. It's four to nothing or five to nothing. Why? Because we know the mind of the Lord isn't fractured or fissured or dislocated. So we need to try to find that.

We have to be unified in our thinking regarding this or we don't move on. That's the way the church should think about it as well. After all the church is a body. After all Psalm 133 don't you love the verse.

How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. Paul says I want to get this problem solved. I appeal to you as a father once and for all kind of language. Let's get it taken care of.

It's like when he prayed in Romans chapter 15. Would this be a good prayer for Corinth? Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the idea. Doctrinal unity. Let me give you some things that you should believe with the elders here to make sure you're on the same page as we are. That's the language of Paul. You're on the same page.

I think the background of that language was if you've got some music you want to make sure you're singing on page 7 when the person up here is singing on page 7. You want to be on the same page. If I'm singing on page 8 and this person is singing on page 7 there's going to be some kind of discordant resonance.

So how can you get on the same page? Let me just give you what the reformers would call the five solas. We could pick anything. We could talk about the deity of Christ. We could talk about the Trinity.

We could talk about all kinds of things. Let me just give you five that you should say I affirm. And if you don't affirm them you should say well but I trust the leadership and I need to study to make sure I affirm these kind of things.

These are just five general things that the churches throughout the centuries have affirmed and the elder board here affirms them. There's no crack. There's no well you know Pastor Steve is just kind of off on this one so we have to kind of go around him a little bit.

He doesn't quite get this one down. No we all affirm these. There's no crack on the elder board and you ought to say I'm under the teaching here of the church. I should affirm these five as well. These are the five solas, S-O-L-A-S.

The five onlys, the five alones of the reformation in response to the message today. You should say yeah do I affirm these or not? Let's just talk about these and I want you to agree with these. I appealed to you as a brother that you should agree with these even though you can't say the five solas.

You don't know Latin but you say yes that's true and if you think this way it will help our unity at this church. Sola number one, sola scriptura. If you think this way, I mean I don't have time to go through our doctrinal statement.

You should affirm that and you say well yeah but there's a couple of things I disagree on. We don't necessarily agree on every minor issue but so these aren't minor, these are major. You better agree on the major ones.

So let's talk about these. Number one, sola scriptura. Scripture alone is the standard for our lives. Scripture you must believe is the final and ultimate authority for your Christian life and the church.

Do you believe that? Remember with Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521, unless I am overcome with testimonies from scripture or with evident reasons for I believe neither the Pope nor the councils since they have often erred and contradicted one another.

I am overcome by the scripture text which I have adduced and my conscience is bound by God's word. That's sola scriptura. It's not the Bible plus Ellen G. White's writings, it's not the Bible plus tradition, the Bible plus Trent, the Bible plus the magisterium, the Bible plus your own mysticism.

It's the Bible alone and if we think that way we will keep our unity. Psalm 138, thou hast magnified thy word according to or above all thy name. Belgic Confession says we believe that the holy scriptures fully contain the will of God.

If you believe that, we will be unified. Neither the confession goes on to say may we consider any writings of men, however holy these men may have been, of equal value of those divine scriptures nor ought we to consider custom or the great multitude or antiquity or successions of times and persons and councils and decrees as of equal value with the truth of God.

We believe that all scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction, training and righteousness. Number two, I think if you'd agree with me on this, we will guarantee our unity at this church.

I'm just picking five things out that's A, interesting, not in any order, B, historical, C, biblical but also important for our church. Number two, sola fide. Sola fide means faith alone. By the way, when we were singing the song Confident, I just looked at that word confident.

What's confident mean? Con means with, F-I-D means faithful. With faith. I have confidence this is going to happen. I have with faith I'm singing it. So not just sola scriptura but number two, sola fide, justification by faith alone.

God declares us righteous like a judge in a court and he puts the gavel down, not guilty. When the church all says the Bible's the only authority, we all have to submit to that. The Bible has the authority and Mike had that funny dream last night because he was hanging out with Erickson and Pradeep and then he has this dream and we are bound.

God told me. What a tragic way to cause division in the church because if I'm in a church where the pastor says God told me something, I say to myself chapter and verse pal or I'm not doing it and I don't buy it and then some other poor immature person is sitting over there and they're going I do buy it.

They say I buy it. I say I don't buy it. There's a problem in the church. We're divided. We're not thinking the same things. But when we say there's one valid interpretation of every text and it's our responsibility and privilege to find out that meaning by the Spirit's illuminating power and that's the highest authority.

It's not Mike because he's been here for 13 years and he's the preacher, it is the Word of God and we are all under it. That will make a church come together, won't it? I'll never forget as long as I live, I just looked over at Charlie.

We're going to elder rule here at this church. And Charlie said I know all the things, to paraphrase Charlie, I know about how absolute power corrupts absolutely and all these other things, bad illustrations of elders.

But the Bible teaches elder rule and with a tear in his eyes he said I vote for elder rule. We think the same way when we're under the Bible that way. That's what a mature person does. Secondly, faith alone.

Faith rests on and receives Christ in his righteousness according to the Westminster Confession. Galatians 3, Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Many of the works of the law are under a curse for it is written, curse it is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them.

Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident for the righteous man shall live by faith. Here's what this principle says that we ought to rally around. Say I don't remember sola fide, I don't remember justification by faith alone.

Then remember this. There is no merit, there is no work, there are no works, there are no things that someone can do to combine those things with faith in order that God might receive us and declare us righteous.

Faith and good works do not yield justification. Christ's work alone, his life and death confirmed by his resurrection will declare us righteous and we receive Christ's righteousness even though it's different than ours.

It's foreign, it's alien. It's not tainted by sin like we are and God says I declare you righteous based on your denial of your own thoughts, of your own goodness, of your own works and merits and you're not trusting yourself and you place your faith and trust wholly in the work of Christ Jesus.

It's not justification by imputed righteousness or justification by faith and sacrament of baptism, no. Faith alone. Number three, the third sola of this church and the reformation, grace alone. Sola gratia.

So the Bible alone, faith alone, grace alone. Salvation by grace alone. Roman Catholic Church teaches quote, mass is a sacrifice which is truly propitious. God grants us grace and the gift of penance remits our faults and even our enormous sins.

That is not sola gratia. That is self-merit taught by Rome and we believe in the opposite. That's what they taught so the reformers said no, we believe in grace alone. It's not grace plus merit because grace plus anything turns that grace into works.

Romans chapter 11 verse six. Listen to what one confession says, the 1689 Christ by his obedience and death did fully discharge the debt of all those who are justified and did by the sacrifice of himself in the blood of his cross undergo in their stead the penalty due unto them.

He makes a proper real and full satisfaction to God's justice in their behalf. Ephesians one says it better in him. We have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us.

We believe in monergistic regeneration. That is to say, God alone works. We don't go arm in arm with God. We don't, you know, say God, it's you and I who've saved me. No, we don't cooperate. We receive.

Time is fleeting. Number four. Solus Christus, our solo Christo, depending on if you want to say Christ alone or through Christ alone. We are saved by Christ's work alone. This is what BBC ought to agree with.

We say we're under scripture. It's faith alone through grace alone. Now, number four, it's what? Christ alone. Christ alone stepped in and bore God's wrath. No one else. No other mediator. No other person.

No one except Jesus. Heidelberg Catechism says, do such then believe in Jesus, the only Savior, who seek their salvation and happiness and saints in themselves or anywhere else? They do not. If Jesus alone saves us, then why do we put any of our affection, our Latria, our due loss or anything else towards anyone?

It is Jesus alone, the mediator. He delivered us from the domain of darkness. Titus. Colossians. One mediator also between God and men. No other mediators. You don't say, well, this church is not unified by saying, you know, there's someone who always can turn Jesus around and who could ever say no to their mother?

We don't say that. If we did, we'd be split up. And lastly, solely deo gloria, to God alone be the glory. All glory for God. Since he alone saves us, since he alone grants faith, since he alone has his son die on the cross, he alone should receive the praise and glory and exaltation.

Who wants to exalt humans after those four? Who wants to praise humans after that? What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.

Doctrine doesn't divide a church. Doctrine is meant to unify a church. We affirm these things. We bow to these things because they're in Scripture. Doctrine unifies. And Paul says, church, you've got different backgrounds.

You look differently. You act differently. You smell differently. You do things differently. You're from different backgrounds. But you are one in Christ. So he says, I appeal to you to think the same things.

Well, how about you? Say, oh, I don't really want to study doctrine. We had Bob Andrzejczyk and Josh go out the other day and ask people at the Barlow Girl concert, what is doctrine? If I were to take that microphone now with the tape recording going, getting ready to play a little snippet of you on no-compromise radio and I put the microphone to you and said, what is doctrine?

Would you give the right answer or would you be my next laugh track? What is doctrine? Doctrine is a statement of truth about God. And it should be your highest pleasure to learn about God. You say, well, I'm kind of bored with the Bible.

Friends, bored with the Bible? You say, well, I might be bored with the Red Sox. I might be bored with gourmet food. I might be bored with such and such. But God, by definition, by nature, by essence, is anything but boring.

It's like that cosmonaut who said there's no God and I can prove it. I said, yeah, I bet you can prove it. Just get out of your space capsule for five minutes without your space suit. One man said, you know, there'll be a God there.

How can God be boring? Isaiah knew God well and he never got to the point where he said, I've been studying for a long time and I'm the top dog around here in these parts of Judea. And when I see God, it's just, there's kind of God.

I mean, God, I saw a God over here. I kind of take him out every time I need him. When Isaiah saw God, what did he do? He's bored, changed the channel. Church is boring. As John MacArthur says, if you find church boring and the word is preached, that is a commentary on your own heart, not the service.

And frankly, now I move from appeal to exhortation. We don't put the worship service together for your liking anyway, right? How can God be glorified? Let's read the word. Let's pray the word. Let's preach the word.

Let's pick songs that glorify the God of the word. And if you say, well, I don't like those things, then I think you should say, God, make me like him. God, I don't like him. Help my unlike. And we ought to agree that the local church gets together to praise Jesus Christ and to hear his word.

And if you have that idea in your mind, you will never be bored. Oh, tired. Oh, distracted. Oh, suffering. Oh, other things. But you will never be bored. And if you had your Bible open today, I have the privilege of preaching to a congregation that I don't think was bored for the last 55 minutes.

Because you want the word of God, and that is what unifies Bethlehem Bible Church. The God of the word, Jesus Christ, and his word unifies us all. Let's pray. Lord, it is good to be here to sing your praises.

And I praise you for Bethlehem Bible Church. I praise you that we're so far away from Corinth. Yet, Lord, I think of Ephesus and how they did the right thing, and then you had your son rebuke Ephesus for being lukewarm.

So would you, through the red word today in Psalm 143, revive us? Would you take these words and help us to think the same thing? Would you help us to speak the same way? Would you give the hearts of the people here an increased desire for doctrine, for scripture, for sound teaching?

And, Father, I do thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me a church that wants your word, that proclaims the truth, that you've assembled people from a different background. We don't look like Wes Boylston.

I, for that, Father, rejoice. I thank you. And I pray for our church that you'd help us to agree and that there would be no divisions among us. Because this is your church, and your son has earned this church, and we want to honor him.

In Jesus' name, amen.

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