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No Compromise Radio. Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Evendroff. 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.
In my life, I'm only 50, but in my life as I've been around the country and around the world, I've never met anyone who wishes they were more foolish. I've met anyone in my life, sinful or redeemed, who said, I wish I was a little more stupid than I am.
I wish I didn't know as much. I wish I had a lower IQ. Everybody that I've ever met wishes they were wiser, smarter, more intellectual, had more understanding, and I think you as well sitting here listening today.
If you're really honest with yourself, and I ask you this question, what would you say? Do I have the desire to be more wise? I think the answer is going to be yes. I want to be more wise. My follow-up question is this.
How do you become more wise? Biblically, theologically, not just wisdom of the world, some kind of a collection, a pooling of knowledge, and then you try to live it out. Or you might have wisdom that your grandfather taught you, or your grandmother, or mother, or father, or other people at work, kind of applied knowledge.
That's good too. But what about real wisdom? Wouldn't you like to be wise in God's eyes? Wouldn't you like to have an increased biblical reservoir from which you could analyze life and to say, this is right, this is wrong, this is why people do things.
This is how I should see the world. I think the answer is, if you're here today, you probably want that. How do you get more wisdom? Where is it found? Wouldn't you travel the world to find more wisdom?
If it was just as easy as going to the middle of the universe, to going to the Middle East, and if there were just some kind of fountain there and we could just guzzle some wisdom down, I think you'd save up to go get that wisdom.
I would. I just want to be wiser, more spiritually clever. So if you today would like to be more wise, there's only one way that you can get wisdom. One primary source for wisdom. And what you do with this source will determine how much wisdom you have.
If you've been around here for very long, you'll know there is one place to get wisdom. And that wisdom is not found in your own person, your own spiritual aptitude, gathering knowledge from Harvard and Yale and other universities.
There's one place for real wisdom, and that is through the Scriptures, the Holy Bible, where God's wisdom is revealed. Proverbs 16. How much better to get wisdom than gold? What's gold at now? $1 ,263?
Proverbs 3. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding. Show me many other teachers across the country and they'll say, you know what the real blessing is?
It's riches. You know what the real blessing is? Some kind of success, fame and fortune and prosperity. Solomon says at the end of the day, you know what you need? You need wisdom. So let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 2 and see what Paul the Apostle says about gaining wisdom.
I want everyone here to be wiser. Even if you're the most wise and you're a teacher, you can still increase in wisdom. If you're not a Christian and you're sitting here today, well the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and you ought to say, first of all, before I have a way to think about life, you ought to think about death because one day you'll die.
Stand before God. And intellect, wisdom, IQ and degrees will not solve your problem of sin. Christ Jesus alone, the sin bearer, is the only one you can look to for refuge, this risen Savior who's alive today.
For Christians, Paul is talking to this church, a church in Corinth, which is close to Athens. The rebels still exist today. And he's going to talk to them about wisdom. Let me give you six reasons from 1 Corinthians 2, 6 through 13.
So we're in 1 Corinthians 2, 6 to 13. Six reasons you ought to completely saturate yourself with the Word of God. God's wisdom revealed in the Scripture from the Holy Spirit through the Apostles. I want you to just get the Word of God and super saturate yourself with this book.
Now most of you here like to read the Bible and are an encouragement to me. So I want to try to make sure I tell you as I would say to the church at Thessalonica through Paul's words. Excel still what?
More. I think I can be a better Bible student. I think I can study more. I think I can learn the Scriptures in a better fashion. And if I can, I know you can as well. So if you're a rabid Bible studier now, great.
Here's some kerosene with the sermon today. And if you're kind of wandering around thinking, you know, I just can't dissect life. I don't know what way to go and yeah, yeah, the Bible and all that. I get around to that and I read my daily bread in the morning and I'm good to go.
I want to try to influence you through the Spirit of God today that you get your Bibles open. This is the way to grow. This is God's ordained means of growth for wisdom, for godliness and sanctification is through the Word of God.
By the way, that's why we put a premium on preaching. Of course, we love to sing about the Lord Jesus, don't we? We love to pray through the Lord Jesus' work to the God, the Father, don't we? But we like to preach about Christ Jesus and His wisdom.
Six reasons you ought to saturate yourself with God's Word. This is going to be helpful because the media wants to saturate your mind with its worldview. You've got pre-modernism, modernism, post-modernism.
You can wrap them all up and they want to influence you. The system of the world will try to make you think its way. It will brainwash you. Matter of fact, I've been brainwashed by the world system and I think you have been too.
So now I want to motivate you through the Spirit's power to re-brainwash yourself with the Bible. You've heard it here first. I'm going to try to brainwash you with the Bible today. How's that? People say, yeah, that's that cult down on Route 110.
Well, not a very opulent looking cult, I might say, on the outside. Remember, I used to drive an old car when I first got here. And in the morning, it wouldn't really start well. And I have to put the windshield scraper in the winter.
Push down against the seat onto the accelerator to just kind of keep it going when it was warming up. And I thought I left corporate America for this. I called it secretly the pastor's humble mobile. And I would drive around in my pinto-like car.
You'd think I'd get a little more opulence if I was a cult leader brainwashing people. But I want your mind to be saturated with the Word of God. That you would be literally enthralled with the Scripture.
Spellbound with the Scripture. To use an old term, mesmerized. And before we look at these reasons found in chapter 2, 6 through verse 13, I want to just think big picture and then we'll work our way back down to the text.
Almost every problem theologically can be solved if you know the context. And so I don't want to create more problems by just dropping into these verses. What's the big picture in the book of 1 Corinthians?
As I try to increase your desire to read your Bible so that you might get God's wisdom. Paul is saying there are some problems and I want to address those problems. And the problem in chapter 1, 2, 3, and 4 is disunity.
There's a church with lots of people, lots of personalities. Some stronger, some weaker. And there's a fracture, there's a split. And Paul's going to try to correct that. And Paul says there's really two reasons in the first four chapters for this split.
One is they don't have the right view of wisdom. The other is they don't have the right view of ministry. Well chapter 1, 2, and 3, not the right view of wisdom. If you're off chasing the wisdom of Foucault, the wisdom of Plato, the wisdom of Socrates.
Well there's three different groups in the church. Foucault followers, Plato followers, Socrates followers. They could even be men that seem to be good. It could be Paul followers, Apollos followers. And Paul is going to say this.
Why don't you get real wisdom from above. Divine wisdom, God's wisdom. And all focus upon that and it will bring the church together. It is a true statement. That if you show me a church that's splitting apart.
I'll show you a church that contrary to the external view. That it seems to be really a Bible teaching church. There's a large component of people in that church who do not have biblical wisdom. Because if they did, the church wouldn't be fracturing.
The people who have biblical wisdom would say. This is how you deal with sin in the church. If it must be dealt with, let's do it according to Matthew 18. The wise would say, well they're immature people in the church.
So let's just treat them as immature. Come alongside and encourage. But show me people who have their minds set on three different things. You'll have a church going three different ways. And so Paul says, wisdom is the order of the day.
Now he's been blasting wisdom in chapter 1. He says, you know what real wisdom is? Jesus on a cross. Chapter 1 verse 18. That's kind of foolishness. That's moronic that a man who can't save himself can save other people.
He can't physically save himself, but he's going to save us spiritually. That is kind of a foolish what. And then Paul says, well you want foolishness? Let me give you a little more foolishness. The people that God saves, they're foolish.
I mean, look to your neighbor and say you're foolish. No, just kidding. You ever go to churches like that? Look to the person to your left and say, you know, you're special in God's eyes. And God's lucky for you to worship.
Now you look at your person and you go, you're really weak and you're not really noble. You're not really wise. That's chapter 1 verses 26 through 31. That God to show his glory, his greatness, he uses cracked, frail vessels.
That doesn't seem like worldly wisdom. The world says numbers, strategy, some kind of marketing scheme. Paul says, by the way, in chapter 2 verses 1 to 5, when I was there at Corinth, when I came to preach to you, I practiced what I preached.
I didn't come with all kinds of persuasive words and wrapping things up really wonderfully so people would go, I didn't even really believe the gospel. But he's sure convincing. And I think I'll go along with what he says because he's a good wordsmith.
He's a craftsman when it comes to verbs and nouns and persuasion. Paul says, no, I came and I came and I wanted to demonstrate to you that my ministry was a ministry that showed the Spirit's power. It was a court demonstration.
First bit of evidence. I demonstrate to you that all the people that follow Christ Jesus were not because I tricked them into it. I cunningly talked them into it. No, they were sinners saved by the grace of God, regenerated by the Spirit of God, and they're a trophy of the Spirit of God's grace.
And now Paul in chapter 2 verses 6 and following says, speaking of the Holy Spirit, let's talk more about the Holy Spirit. Sometime look through chapter 2 verses 6 through 13 and ask yourself the question, how many times is the Holy Spirit referred to?
This is a chapter all about the Holy Spirit. We believe that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, three persons, one God. We are monotheists, but we believe in the triune God. And here we see the flood of the Spirit's ministry as proper wisdom is discussed.
You might, if you're not thinking properly, might say, Paul, you've bashed wisdom in chapter 1 verse 18 all the way through chapter 2 verse 5, and you don't care about wisdom. I guess we're supposed to be just kind of spiritually stupid, Paul.
Paul says, I'm talking about wisdom that's of the world, therefore I reject it. But there's a good wisdom, and now in chapter 2 verses 6 and following, he says, let me tell you about the great wisdom, divine wisdom, revealed wisdom, wisdom that is incredible.
Churches that are committed to do what the Bible says, how the Bible says it, are churches that you're going to see unity. Churches that begin to explode from the inside out, I'll show you a church that is not wise.
Oh, there may be some wise people there who are desiring to do the right thing, but those that rise up and do the unbiblical thing and leave and other things not according to Scripture, they reveal their inner lack of biblical wisdom.
Wisdom's good. Worldly wisdom's bad, but divine wisdom is good, and that's what we're after today. So let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 6 and 13, the first reason you ought to completely saturate yourself with God's word, divine wisdom, is because God's wisdom is always relevant, verse 6, because God's wisdom is always relevant.
Therefore, you ought to saturate yourself with this book. Fads come and go, but when you think of the Scriptures, they are transchronological. When I prepare a sermon and I go to South Africa or to Pune, India, I preach the same sermon.
Oh, I might say cricket instead of baseball, but when it comes to the text, these are relevant in every society, all societies, a thousand years ago, 3 ,000 years in the future if the Lord tarries. This is a relevant book, and so when it comes to the Scriptures, maybe I could say it this way, they are not like spiritual flares.
You know jeans, flares, flare jeans? Maybe flares now are marking pens, I don't know. Does anybody know where the flare pants are? Okay, I guess you know. Look at what the text says in verse 6. Fads may come and go, but the Bible, God's wisdom, is always relevant.
After all, God is relevant, so therefore what he says and thinks has to be relevant. Verse 6, yet among the mature we do impart wisdom. See, we're not against all wisdom. We're just against this kind of wisdom.
He says, although it is not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away. The gospel that saves sinners through a risen Savior is a good wisdom. It's eternal. It's relevant.
Other wisdoms come and go. You see, every generation has its own philosophers and people who spout wisdom. And where are they now? Well, people come along after those philosophers have died, and maybe they improve, cut pace, prove false.
Paul says, but I've got a wisdom. Literally, in the Greek, it's wisdom we speak. If you're writing in the Greek back 2 ,000 years ago, you put whatever word at the beginning of the sentence to make it emphatic.
Wisdom we speak. Now, how many people know Where's Waldo? Those little books. Lots. Here's a Sinclair Ferguson. Where's Waldo minute. When you read this text, yet among the mature we, who do you think of is the we?
Do you know who I think of the we is? Us. Christians who have, you know, come along through the ages. Oh, this is Corinth, and therefore, me. We have to not look at the Bible and say, where can I find myself in there?
But we have to say, what was Paul meaning when he wrote we? Paul says, we have a wisdom. Who is the we? Who are the we? Cheryl Hill. Who are these people? The Church of Corinth. Paul, along with the Church of Corinth, is really giving the right kind of wisdom.
No, he's chasing in them for their wrong kind of wisdom. Paul is going to say, we, mark this, apostles. If you don't get this down, you're not going to get any of this. You're going to be kind of reading the Bible with, where's Waldo, and think, there we are.
We, Paul and I. Paul and the Church of Corinth. Paul and the Church of Corinth and BBC. We. No, this is Paul the apostle. Yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom. Emphatically. Now, I can't go any further yet, so let me just give you briefly a pastoral reminder about apostles.
Apostles do not exist today. I probably should have backed up. Do apostles exist today? Have you ever met? Now, easy for you to say. What if you drive a church and it says, apostolic church? I've met people that have called themselves apostles.
We need to know who apostles are, because if apostles give divine wisdom, then I want to make sure I've got an apostle to teach me divine wisdom. If there are apostles today, you need to go meet them.
You need to leave BBC and go to a church where an apostle could speak. You get me. This is a little sidebar, but a valuable one. Let me give you five requirements of an apostle. New Testament apostle.
You can just put this on a little sidebar. It helps. We're trying to figure out who the we is. It's important for 1 Corinthians chapter 2. If you think we can get through all 13 verses, all 6 to 13, we're not going to do it.
But we're going to go faster than we normally do. How's that? Actually, I met a guy the other day, and he said he likes to take No Compromise radio and speed up the tape a little bit so he can listen to the shows faster, because they're 24 minutes and 30 seconds.
So if you do like 1 .2 times as fast, it doesn't really sound like my voice changes, and he can listen to them more. Five requirements of an apostle. Number one, they were eyewitnesses to the resurrection.
That gets rid of all the apostles today. Eyewitnesses to the resurrected Christ. Either to the resurrection itself or to the resurrected Christ. Acts 1 is therefore necessary that the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John until the day that he was taken up from us, one of these should become a witness with us of his resurrection.
Judas is dead. We've got to pick a new guy. How do we pick the new guy? He has to see the resurrected Christ. There are no apostles today because none of them have seen some Jesus. Secondly, apostles were able to perform undeniable miracles, and I don't mean leg lengthenings and bad backs.
I mean organic miracles. I mean if you go to UMass Hospital and you go to the pediatric ICU, you could walk through and heal every one of those kids instantly, organically, permanently. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 12.
The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles. Paul says if you want to see an apostle, they've seen the resurrected Jesus, like I did on the road to Damascus, and they can perform miracles.
If the sign of a real apostle that Paul tells the church of Corinth in 2 Corinthians is somebody that does miracles, supernatural miracles, if supernatural miracles were done by everybody all the time, then how would that prove that they were an apostle?
Paul says no, they were unique to the apostles and those in that circle. They authenticated the apostle. They authenticated what the apostle said. Three, eyewitnesses, undeniable miracles. Number three, they were around at the foundation of the church.
They were around at the foundation of the church. Ephesians 2 .20, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself, the cornerstone. I'm not a good builder, but I do understand this.
Once you lay the foundation down, you don't return. Up and building and building and building, the apostles laid the foundation, Christ Jesus' apostles, at 30 A .D., 50 A .D. Here the apostles, as the New Testament is being written, and the church has been growing and growing and growing and growing, we no longer need to go back to the foundation.
Number four, they were personally chosen by Jesus Christ. Personally chosen by Jesus Christ. And you can look at Matthew chapter 10, for the 12, like I said, Paul on the Dabascus Road. And then lastly, this is a big one, apostles received divine wisdom from God.
Special revelation. They saw Jesus, they could perform miracles, picked by Jesus at the foundation of the church, when the church was first starting, that's where they were. We're up now at least to the roof, not the chimney.
And they received special revelation. Flip with me, if you would, over to John chapter 14. This is another one of those verses that help us when we try to think of authorial intent instead of, where am I in this verse?
I have to tell you, when you're flipping over there to John chapter 14, you're not anywhere in this chapter. I'm not anywhere in this chapter. Sometimes we read just about God and we're not to be found in the chapter.
This is different than an epistle. John chapter 14, verse 26, this is huge. And it ties into what we're doing in 1 Corinthians. Ron Farrar was reading from John 14 earlier. And now we go down to John chapter 14, verse 26.
He's promising the Spirit of God to these apostles. And he says in verse 26, you might want to underline this verse. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
The Holy Spirit will help these apostles put together the New Testament. This is not, well, I don't know how to evangelize, and I've been door-to-door evangelizing, and I've knocked on people's door and I've thought to myself, what am I going to say?
I have no idea what to say. This is not a promise for me. Oh, I'm so thankful because he's going to teach me all things and he'll bring to remembrance what he said. There might be a good application to this verse, and the Spirit of God can bring up into my heart verses that I've studied, but this is particularly, specifically, Jesus saying to the apostles, I'm going to go, but don't worry.
One just like me, my essence, my nature, Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, he's going to be with you, and he's going to recall, he's going to bring to your mind all the things you need to know.
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 bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE in staff or management.