Christian Liberty (Part 3)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendrop. 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.

Christian Liberty and Loving Weaker Brothers

As a pastor, it's my delight to teach people like you the Bible, people who want to know and who have a desire to obey. To obey is better than sacrifice, the Bible says. Two weeks ago when I preached last, we were in the context of 1 Corinthians 8 as we marched through verse by verse, chapter by chapter in the book of 1 Corinthians.

Wes came up to me, Wes Blackstone, and he said, you know, Stephanie and I, in light of what you've just taught, we've got a question. We have a harvest festival here at the church in late October, and there's all kinds of kids games, and sometimes the kids dress up as, I don't know, astronauts or football players or something like that, or ballerinas.

And some people last year didn't want to go because they didn't believe you should dress up around Halloween time. So we thought this year, we just wouldn't have anybody dress up, and then everybody could feel comfortable to come, and we want to do what the message says in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, and that is love other people.

And so no matter who's weaker or stronger in this particular issue, we want to just make sure that we love others. And so let's just not have any dress up for the Halloween, excuse me, the harvest fest.

And so you know what I thought? How good is that? How right is that? And if you're saying, you know what, but we've already got our costume, and we've already got everything ready, and we want to go, and there's nothing intrinsically wrong or inherently wrong or spiritually wrong with putting some cat whiskers on your face and some bunny ears on your head and hopping around, well then my advice to you is, in light of love, why don't you just say, you know what, I can do it, but really should I?

That's 1 Corinthians chapter 8. So I was very, very encouraged by the Blackstones who want to obey what God has said in light of who he is, what he's done for us. How big of a deal really is that? Sorry kids, you know, you can't dress up today and go to the church.

Dress up another time. You can do whatever you'd like, but I was very, very encouraged. 1 Corinthians chapter 8, 9, and 10 is all about this very issue. And the issue is, there are new Christians that get added to the church.

God saves wonderfully. They get baptized, and their theology isn't perfect. Christians come along, and they're new Christians, and some grow like weeds, as my father would say, sprout up quickly, and others take a while, and how should we, those who have been around the block, those who have been here for a long time, how should we treat them?

And Paul uses a very specific illustration here in 1 Corinthians 8, 9, and 10, and that is, food offered to idols. For us, we're really not working through that very much, although there could be some Easter people here who still think, you know, I used to eat food offered to idols because I thought that that was significant, but now I don't do that, and still though, it bugs me when I see food offered to idols.

The Love of God in Hosea 11

But before we look at 1 Corinthians chapter 8 today, I'd like you to turn to Hosea chapter 11. Hosea chapter 11, I almost said it, I said Hosea, didn't I? I said it. I've been struggling against this kind of language for 14 years.

Turn to Hosea chapter 11, and here's where we're going to go. The context in 1 Corinthians 8 is very simple. Since we've been loved, therefore we love. But since we're parachuting into chapter 8, it's only talking about love others.

So I want to remind you in Hosea chapter 11, how God loves people, and we'll talk about through the lens of the cross as well. So then you say to yourself, in light of who I am, that is, a person loved by God, if you're a Christian, God has sent his son to die for you.

He not only loves you as a creator, he loves you specifically as a God who's chosen you, the father who's arranged a wedding, as it were, saying, you are part of the bride for my son. And so since God has loved us, how do we respond?

Because that's the paradigm for Christian living. Since you are loved, love, right? That's the Christian paradigm. And so let's look at Hosea chapter 11. You've had time now to look in the table of contents.

Look it up. And we're going to see the love of God, because you know what the love of God does? It cuts through any kind of culture. What binds us together? I look out, and we are not as monochromatic, is that the right word, monochrome-like as our city is.

You know, churches aren't good because they have different colors and backgrounds there. But what's good is the gospel cuts through everything so that what binds us together is not what we eat, what we look like, who our family is, what our language is, but it's the gospel that cuts through, and that's what the love of God does.

And so we're going to see God loving Israel, we'll talk about how he loves us, and then we'll say, well, of course, if God has loved me that much, why do I say to myself, I've got to exercise my liberty at the expense of another Christian?

So Hosea chapter 11, we'll look at the love of God, and it is an amazing love. It's unquenchable. It's got things in it that if you read, and we will read in a minute, you're going to go, I want to make an excuse for that.

I don't think really God's like that. That's too anthropomorphic. That's too much like describing a man. I don't think we should talk about God like that. Because his love for disobedient Israel is so much like a father's love for his rebellious son.

He's gracious. He could exact justice, but he gives grace. Who's a God like that? Hosea chapter 11, verse 1, just to give you a little context. When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt, I called my son.

The main thing I want you to hear in this particular passage is the relationship of father and son, a familiar relationship, a paternal relationship. This is not king language here. This is not sovereign language here.

This is not justice language here. This is family discussion. And look at the tragedy of the sin of Israel, verse 2. The more they were called, the more they went away. They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.

Yet, it was I, God said, who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. You ever teach a kid how to walk, and they're so close, and you want your kid to walk at nine months because everybody else is taking them 12 months, and you want to brag to their dads, and so you're helping them, and you're pushing them, and you pull the table back a little bit, and the kid takes a couple steps.

You can imagine holding those two hands. Kid's not able to walk yet, and so you're kind of holding lighter and lighter, letting them fall. And God's saying with this language, that's how Israel was. They were stumbling around and bumbling around, and I was helping them walk, and yet still it's going to be, I don't care what you say, God.

The more they were called, the more they went away. The more you said, good, come on, this way, this is the right way to righteousness, and justice, and holiness, the more they said, no, we'll go the other way of unrighteousness, and unholiness, and ungodliness.

And there's going to be a disaster, there's going to be a disaster. Even though, verse four, I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws.

I bent down to them and fed them, all father language, I'm getting down low, I'm meeting them at their own level, I'm feeding them. Sadly, verse five, they shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me.

The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them, verse six says, because of their own counsels. God has a holy law, and when you break it, there's going to be justice, there's going to be judgment.

My people are bent on turning away from me. That's just their propensity, that's Luther-like. Sinners are curved in on themselves, they're fallen. And though they call out to the Most High, He shall not raise them up at all.

You're going to want to have deliverance from Egypt? Not going to happen, yet, but look at this. This is the one that I want you to study this week, 11th chapter of Hosea, verse eight. Who talks like this, except a father who loves his son?

How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admath? How can I treat you like Zeboim? My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. God is almost asking Himself the questions.

You deserve judgment, Israel, but how can I do it? He's torn. You deserve this, but I'm not a God who is just full of justice, I have tender compassions and mercy. And this is basically language to tell you that the covenant love that God has for Israel is deep, it's intense.

Four questions, I know what I should do, but I can't get myself to do it. I know what you've deserved, the wages of sin is death, and here God, like a father who loves his wayward son, full of all kinds of emotions of love.

As Boyce said, portrays himself as inwardly divided. He's inwardly divided. I know what I should do, but I'm having a hard time doing it. Son, you've disobeyed and disobeyed and disobeyed, I'm at my wit's end, but I still can't give you that justice.

One commentator said, still we should not be over hasty to correct the image that the Bible transcends our metaphors and that theological doctrines about the impassibility and foreknowledge of God should never be jettisoned.

Texts such as this should be allowed to speak to us in the power of their raw emotion. It is precisely in texts such as this that the love of God becomes a vivid reality and not a barren abstraction. Remember Sodom?

Remember Gomorrah? Did they get what was coming to them? You bet they did. There are two other cities that he uses here in verse 8. Two other cities, Zeboiim and Adma. They represented the depravity of God too.

And so, you know what, you deserve Sodom and Gomorrah treatment, but I just can't get myself to do it because I love you. And here's what's happening. You have a conflict between the love of God and the justice of God.

At least in our minds, it seems like a conflict. Theologians have called it the Mysterium Tremendum, the awful mystery of grace and mercy, grace and mercy and justice. How do they fit together? How can God be holy and be gracious at the same time?

I should give them up, I should give them over, I should hand them over there, but I can't because I love them. And then look back at the text in verse 8. My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows.

The Hebrew word is just one word, but we have to translate it in ESV, warm and tender. It could be translated hot, just a hot burning desire of fatherly love. As a mom would so love a baby, you think a mom's love for a baby, wanting the best for the baby, wanting what was right for the baby, that love for a mother.

If a baby's in harm's way, you could just almost see the love of a mother for a child. Hot, compassion, warmth, tenderness, all put together. Let me read you a passage and you see if you can figure out where that word is used for this feeling of tenderness and compassion for someone.

The two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. The one woman said, Oh Lord, this woman and I live in the same house and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth and we were alone.

There was no one else left with us in the house. Only we two were in the house. And this woman's son died in the night because she lay on him. She rose at midnight and took my son from beside me while your servant slept and laid him at her breast and laid her dead son at my breast.

When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning, behold, he was not the child that I had born. But the other woman said, No, the living child is mine and the dead child is yours.

The first said, No, the dead child is yours and the living child is mine. Thus they spoke before the king. Then the king said, The one says this is my son that is alive and your son is dead. And the other says, No, but your son is dead and my son is the living one.

And the king said, Bring me a sword. So a sword was brought before the king and the king said, Divide the living child in two, give half to the one and half to the other. Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king because her heart yearned.

Full of tender compassion, hot comer in the Hebrew. Because her heart yearned, can you imagine? There's the king, the king's law, cut the kid in half. Her heart yearned. Oh, my Lord, give her the living child and by no means put him to death.

But the other said, He shall neither be mine nor yours. Divide him. Then the king answered and said, Give the living child to the first woman and by no means put him to death. She is his mother. And all Israel heard the judgment that the king had rendered.

And they stood in awe of the king, King Solomon, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. When Joseph first saw Benjamin, after all those years he's in Egypt, they finally come down, go get Benjamin, bring him back.

And he saw Benjamin. What did Benjamin's presence do to Joseph's heart? Answer, he burned with this hot love, compassion, tenderness. And you could just see back in verse 8, so how can I give you up? I should but I can't.

The same love, that's the exact same word. Tenderness, compassion. How can God be merciful and holy at the same time? So I have a question for you. Here's God's love for Israel. To what degree do you think he loves his people?

If Jesus has died for you, to what degree does that show the love of God? If Jesus has died for other people in the local church, to what degree does that show that warm, tender, compassionate love of God?

Listen to the predecessor of Martin Lloyd-Jones, G. Campbell Morgan. And when I read this, I just thought, this is the best. But God does not have the Bible end in Hosea. The name Hosea means salvation.

I don't know who named him, the father or mother or both, in all probability. But they called that boy Hosea. A sob and a sigh and a song merging in a name. There came one in the fullness of time whose name was both Yahweh and Hosea.

Jesus. So in the fullness of time, the gleams and glints of glory broke out into full manifestation. And we find out at last in Jesus how God can be the just and the justifier of the sinning soul. In other words, how can mercy and justice come together?

We find out at the cross. G. Campbell Morgan. The way of accomplishment Hosea did not see. In communion with God, he had learned facts about the divine nature, which seemed to be conflicting. And he delivered his message and uttered the words, but at last he came, who is the brightness of the father's glory and expressed image of his person.

And in him I see how righteousness and peace meet together. How God can be the just and justifier. Because of Jesus, God says of you and me, how can I give you up? I will not. I will not. I will not. Through Christ he has made a way by which sinning souls can be conformed to his image, his likeness, his will.

The gospel is gleaming in Hosea. It is shining in the full radiance of Christ. Friends, we have received the love of God. We have received the love of God, so how do we treat other Christians? It reminds me of that story.

Justification and the Righteousness of Christ

Who has heard the Rolls-Royce story? I think S. Lewis Johnson told it. If you are not listening to S. Lewis Johnson on the weekdays, you are missing out. A guy bought a Rolls-Royce because he said, you know what the advertisements say, it never breaks down.

He bought a Rolls-Royce. He is driving in Germany. The thing breaks down. He calls back to England. My Rolls-Royce is broken down. Two guys get on a plane and then a helicopter fix the Rolls-Royce and go back.

The guy takes off. He is a wealthy man. He bought the Rolls-Royce. But he knows in the back, in the rearview mirror of his accountant mind, you know what, I still have not got the bill and I want to make sure I take care of the bill.

I have not got the bill, so he called up Rolls-Royce. Hi, this is so and so. You fixed my car on such and such a day. What do I owe you? Where is the bill? Sir, we have no record of your car ever breaking down.

Nobody is on such and such a day, such and such a day, such and such a day. Sir, we have no record of your car ever breaking down. Yeah, but, sir, we have no record of your car ever breaking down. Have a good day.

Do you know what? That is one half of justification. Because of Christ, because of the eternal love of God, when God looks at your life, think about how many sins you have committed in a week. Think about in the last year.

Think about in your lifetime. And when God looks at you through the lens of Christ, I have no record of Mike Ebendroth ever sinning. How good is that? That is only half. I have no record of Mike ever sinning.

And by the way, because of Christ's righteousness, his obedience, his life, fully obeying the law of God, fully loving God, fully loving his neighbor, fully doing everything so that the Father would say, this is my beloved son in whom I am what?

Well, please, because of what Christ has done, I don't only hear this on the other side of the proverbial phone. I have no record of Mike Ebendroth ever sinning. The only record I have of Mike Ebendroth is perfect obedience.

For those of you that know me, you're going, wow, that is a big deal. Can you imagine? Perfect obedience. That's the only record I have, perfect obedience. And you think, what did it cost God to do that?

As there were some unexplainable, it wasn't a rift in the Trinity, it wasn't a break, but certainly the Father turns his back on the Son. And for the only time ever in the Bible, the Son says to the Father, not Father, but my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And he was forsaken, the Son was, so that we might not be forsaken. And then I say to myself, you know what? If that cost me a stake or two, what do I care? That cost me, well, you know what? I already got my outfits for my kids and they want to be, you know, Jolly Green Giant and I don't know, a sousaphone player.

I don't know what we dress up as. See, we forget how God has loved us. And when we forget that, then we forget how we're to treat other people. But if we remember how God has loved us, then we say, you know what?

Nothing is too big of a deal. Of course I love these people. You say, well, yeah, but these people we're supposed to love are weak. They're scruffy. Sheep sometimes bite. Well, I wonder how God loved us.

So let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 8, because I think that was important to be reminded just how much God loves us, because the whole passage is about in light of God's love, how do we treat other Christians who are weaker, who are scruffy, who bite?

It's hard to kick them because they're God's sheep, and so you have to just love them. 1 Corinthians chapter 8, that was all my introduction, but I loved it. Not because it's my introduction, because it's the love of God.

Christian Liberty in Gray Areas

1 Corinthians chapter 8, dealing with the exercise of liberty. Can I do it? Wrong question. Should I do it? A few watchwords in review. Watchword one, when it comes to gray areas in Christian liberty, and we can apply this to schooling and how to feed babies and Halloween and Christmas trees or wherever else the church has difference of opinion.

Number one, found in verse one, when it comes to Christian liberty, as we saw two weeks ago, be humble, not proud. Verse one, now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge.

Number two, build up instead of puff up, found in the second part of verse one. This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Christians who love others will be humble. They want to try to build up other people instead of just learn for no reason.

You learn to serve other people. Number three, we saw in review, remember that none of you have arrived. Verse two of 1 Corinthians 8, if anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.

There's plenty for us to learn. By the way, if this anecdote will help, I don't know if it will or not, but I've changed my views in the last 14 years, not so much theologically, but on liberty issues, because when you first learn something, you think I have the freedom to do it, and then later you think, you know what, but maybe I just shouldn't.

We all can learn. Number four, remind yourself that what you are, you are by divine grace alone. Verse three, if anyone loves God, he's known by God. That is to say, God knows you first, and then you respond.

Fifth watchword for gray areas, you can study the Bible to remove unneeded offenses. That is to say, if your conscience doesn't match with the Bible, then study the Bible so your conscience and the Bible are the same.

And he does this here for those who are caught up with the whole idol thing, verse four through six. Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no God but one.

And then Paul gives a little Bible study here. For although there may be many so-called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there's one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist.

And one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

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 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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