Priority of Love (Part 1)

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.

It was probably 150 years ago, Wells Fargo stagecoach came up with a bunch of rules for riding their stagecoach.

One, abstinence from liquor is requested, but if you must drink, share the bottle. To do otherwise makes you appear selfish and unneighborly.

Two, buffalo robes are provided for your comfort for cold weather. Hogging robes will not be tolerated, and the offender will be made to ride with the driver.

Three, don't snore loudly while sleeping, or use your fellow passenger's shoulder for a pillow he or she might not understand.

This is a very insightful one. Forbidden topics of discussion are stagecoach robberies and Indian uprisings.

If ladies are present, gentlemen are urged to forgo smoking cigars, as the odor of same is repugnant to the gentle sex.

And lastly, chewing tobacco is permitted, but spit with the wind, not against it.

And speaking of spitting into the wind, our evangelical culture does that very thing when it comes to exercising

Christian liberties. All too often, love is forgotten, and the gospel is forgotten, and what's highlighted is,

I'm in Christ, I'm just as justified as I'll ever be, I'm free to do whatever I'd like.

So let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 9, to look again through the eyes of Holy Scripture, how do we act in a culture, how do we act in the church, how do we act so that we don't make our other brothers, our sisters stumble, and that God is glorified.

So here's what Paul is doing as he writes to the Corinthians. He's trying to tell them you're free in Christ, but your freedom stops at the door of love for others and the gospel.

You're free to love others, in other words, and you're free to have the gospel as a high priority, the top priority.

You might ask yourself the question, what are my top priorities? In my life, what do

I live for? Grades, money, power, friendship, accumulation, material blessings, why do

I live the way I live? Everybody has priorities, what are your priorities? And for Paul, he's a great example, and this is what he's trying to show the

Corinthians. He's trying to say, look at my example as an apostle, that my number one priority isn't money, isn't ministry, it isn't fame, wealth, power, success, accumulation, good grades, scholarships, my number one priority is the gospel.

And his gospel priority affects the way he has his Christian liberties and how he uses them.

This is almost chapter nine, like basic training for a military person, boot camp, back down boiled to the essence of why do we do what we do?

It's almost irrelevant that it's in the context of Christian liberty, because this idea could be transplanted to any other spot.

Why do we do what we do? The gospel has priorities. Why do you live the way you live? The gospel should have priority, and so when we look at this section, it's really good to just kind of go back to the basics.

It feels almost like a New Year's Day sermon. Why do I do what

I do? What do I live for? And as Christians, we are so blessed in Christ Jesus, united to Christ Jesus, justified by the work of Christ Jesus, his life, his death, his burial, his resurrection.

We are blessed people. We are now people of God adopted into his family, and so everything we do should be through that lens.

Listen to what G .C. Burkauer said, grace is the essence of theology, and gratitude is the essence of ethics.

So since we've been graced, therefore then we want to live a life of gratitude. Sinclair Ferguson said, the determining factor of my existence is no longer my past.

It is Christ's past. Isn't that good? You look back in the skeletons in the closet of your life, and you think, what determines my life?

It's not my past, it's Christ's past. And so in light of that, because of that,

Paul tells these Christians how to live, and they were kind of a gnarly bunch, weren't they?

Can you imagine the Corinthians? They just needed help, and what they needed help with was the priority of the gospel has to reign supreme.

So Paul in this book brings up issues, and he answers questions, and so we're coming actually to the second question.

If you look at chapter 8, verse 1, this is the second question.

After questions about being married, and sexual issues, and widow issues, and all that, he comes to the second question in chapter 8, verse 1, now concerning, and those are two words that should flag in your mind,

Paul's going to a new section. He's answering another question. Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge.

This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Paul's going to answer this question in the context of the

Corinthians, can they eat food offered to idols, we are free in Christ, then

Paul in chapter 9 says, and I'll show you just how free I am in Christ by not doing what

I can do. Chapter 9 almost seems placed in the book out of context.

Why would Paul have a chapter here about surrendering his rights? Answer, Paul says you surrender your rights when it comes to eating food offered to idols.

You can do it, but you don't have to, and I'll show you an example of surrendering my rights for the love of other people, and for the gospel, and so that's kind of what chapter 9 is about.

The first 14 verses, I have rights, chapter 9 verse 15 to 27, but I won't use any of them.

Paul's top priority is the gospel of Christ Jesus, and by inference, your number one priority for your family is the gospel.

Why do you live? What do you do? The focus of your family is the gospel, that's why you are together, and everything you do in light of your family should be so that the gospel reigns supreme.

I'm going to probably forget this, so I should just put it in now. As I think about my life in general, the gospel has a priority.

It affects lots of things, like here's one. I don't put signs up in my front yard, vote

Republican, vote Democrat, go green, vote libertarian.

Why? Because I'm an unregistered voter. No, just kidding. Because that isn't my priority.

I'm not going to put something, especially if I am a Republican, a Republican sign up and make 90 % of my neighbors bugged at me for something that is irrelevant because, well, compared to the gospel, it's irrelevant.

It doesn't matter if you're a Republican, you can still go to hell when you die. The gospel is a priority. When we bought the house that we're at now on Beach Point Road eight years ago,

I said to myself, we picked the house, we put the money down, we did this and that, but God yet chose it because our neighborhood needs to hear what?

Lower taxes. Our neighborhood needs the gospel. Handpicked by God.

Can you imagine? Plucked up and put over here for the gospel. Now that's

Paul's kind of thinking. Everything has to do with the gospel. You say, you know what? I got fired from a job.

Well, maybe because you were a bad worker, but maybe because God didn't want you there and he wanted you to go someplace else because there are unregenerate elect people at the new job.

And the list goes on and on. So today in chapter nine, verses 15 through 18, we're just going to dive into this section and you're going to see

Paul is all about the gospel. I live for the gospel. My priority is the gospel.

Everything is the gospel. And by the way, if you live like this by the grace of God, you'll live well and you'll die well.

If you live for things, I've watched a lot of people die in my life and you can clutch hold of things on your deathbed, including loved ones, and you can't take anything with you.

But if your life is for the gospel, your life is for the proclamation of the free grace of Christ Jesus, you live well and you die well.

Let me read verses 15 through 18 of first Corinthians nine, and I want you to watch for the word gospel.

I want you to see how many times you see the word gospel there, because that is the priority. Gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel.

First Corinthians nine 15, as Paul is going to tell them, I have rights, but now I'm not going to use my rights.

For what reason? He answers it here. But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am

I writing these things to secure any such provision, for I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.

For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting for necessity is laid upon me.

Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel, for if I do this of my own will,

I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship.

What then is my reward? That in my preaching, I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

You have liberties in Christ to make sure you show love towards other people and have the gospel as the top priority.

Well, what is the gospel? What are we talking about the gospel? Let me tell you some things that the gospel isn't, then what the gospel is, and then we'll get back on the passage.

I think it's fair to ask in our day and age, what is the gospel? Let me tell you some things that the gospel isn't.

If you want to email me, I'll send you these. You are not going to have time to write them down, and they're not Bible verses anyway because it's what the gospel isn't, so don't waste your time.

You can have purpose in your life, it's not the gospel. You can have meaning to your life, that's not the gospel.

You can have a personal relationship with Jesus, that's not the gospel. 82 % of Americans believe this is the gospel,

Benjamin Franklin said, God helps those who help themselves, that's not the gospel.

Become a better person, it's not the gospel. Be more moral, it's not the gospel.

Jesus came to be your best friend, it's not the gospel. Get baptized, get confirmed, it's not the gospel.

Jesus is an example of how to live in order to be right with God, it's not the gospel.

Okay, maybe a little toe -stepping here. When I dance, I step on my wife's toes, and so here we go.

God has a wonderful plan for your life, it's not the gospel. God loves the sinner but hates the sin.

Say a sinner's prayer, and if you really mean it, you'll be saved. You must be baptized in the

Holy Spirit. You must speak in tongues. You can perform miracles.

Those aren't the gospels. Let Jesus into your heart, not the gospel.

And certainly, this one's not the gospel, expect a miracle. Put Jesus on the throne of your life.

Let go and let God. Draw nigh unto God. Decide for Jesus.

Make Jesus Lord of your life. Have personal fulfillment.

Have a better marriage. Advice for better living. The gospel is not any of those things.

Joyful, joyful, we adore thee. All who live in love are thine. It's not the gospel. The gospel is not it's good to be good and it's nice to be nice.

How about this? Let's push a little bit more for those of you who are looking at me inquisitively. The gospel is not love your neighbor as yourself.

The gospel is not love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Do you want me to push it a little bit? I know you do. The gospel is not repent of your sins and believe the

Lord Jesus Christ. That's not the gospel. Now, before you kick me out, that might be, the last one might be, translation, pastoral translation, is a response to the gospel, but it isn't the gospel.

Nothing that you do or should be or can do or must do is good news.

That's not the gospel. Those may be responses to the gospel, but they're not the gospel. The gospel makes certain that it's

Jesus' time on stage and not ours. It's talking about what Jesus has done, not what we must do or what we must become.

Let's turn our Bibles over to 1 Corinthians 15 to remind ourselves what the gospel is. I've told you what it isn't.

But what does Paul say the gospel is? Now, for us, when we read 1 Corinthians, this is like Sermon 79, and we're up in Chapter 9.

I'm going faster. I've proven that I've gone faster, Chris Cloyd, and I will continue to go faster.

But we're not to 15 yet. It's going to be a while. When the Corinthians first got this letter, they read through the whole thing, and they could realize in Chapter 1, verses 1 to 8, who they are in Christ, called by God.

But they also would realize what the gospel is later in Chapter 15 because they would read the whole thing. Here, the longest book in the

New Testament for epistles does tell us what the gospel is, and it's amazing that it has nothing to do with us.

It's outside of us. The gospel is the gospel whether you're alive or dead. The gospel is the gospel whether you respond to it or not.

The gospel is the gospel, Christian or no Christian. So what is the gospel? When Paul says,

I live for the gospel, I think it's fair to say, well, what are we supposed to live for? And Paul in 1

Corinthians 15 talks about the gospel, and as one writer said, Chapter 15 should strike you like the shock of an electric eel.

That's what it does because it tells you what the gospel is, and you'll easily see what the gospel is not.

By the way, if you got a test today, I should have done this, should have given everybody a piece of paper and said, please write down what the gospel is.

I wonder what you have said. Maybe some of you, and I've done this with younger people before, they've said

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The gospel according to Matthew.

Some might say good news, but really theologically, we should know out of any church.

We've had systematic teaching in Sunday school and VBS and Awana. What is the gospel?

But it's almost so close to us, I think some of us might fail the test. Here's the good news. Paul didn't fail the test, and we can easily see from 1

Corinthians 15 what the gospel is, and then we'll jump back into 9. One, the gospel is good news.

Let me give you a few descriptions of the gospel. Description one, it's good news. Great news.

1 Corinthians 15, 1. Now, Paul said, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel

I preached to you which you received in which you stand. Paul says,

I've talked to you for a long time about worship. Remember chapter 12, 13, 14, spiritual gifts.

We've discussed worship for a long time. Now we're coming to a new subject. Remember, I was there for 18 months teaching you the gospel.

I gave you the gospel. He's using language like a baton, handing a baton from one runner to the next runner, a formal, officially designated handing off.

I was there. I discharged my duty. I handed you the gospel baton. That's the kind of language he's using here.

And then he says in verse 2, and by which the gospel, that's what he means by which, and by which, and by the gospel, you are being saved if you hold fast to the word

I preached to you unless you believed in vain. Paul qualifies it.

Here is the good news, and you are Christians, yet many times in Hebrews and other books there's the exhortation to hold fast.

And then he says in verse 3, for I delivered to you as of first importance what

I also received. What Paul received from Jesus directly, not taught by anyone else,

I'm going to tell you, and with more language of official baton handing, this is the gospel, and it's of what importance?

First importance. True or false? Everything in the Bible is important, including Leviticus. True.

Everyone who laughed is convicted. You stand convicted. No, everything in the

Bible is important. It's all God breathed. It's all profitable. True or false?

But some things in the Bible are more important than other things. And this is that thing of first importance.

A lot of important things in my life, but this is at the top. Paul knew that.

Everything is important in the Bible. All truths about God are important. But standing in first importance is the gospel.

Now, the gospel in English is from a word, Godspell, meaning good news, glad tidings.

The Greek word euangelion means you, good, and angelion sounds like angel, and that's right, because angel means messenger.

It's a messenger of good news. It's a good news message. Good news Bible clubs, you guys remember those?

We ever have one here? That's the problem. Latinized evangelium are evangelical in English, and it has military overtones.

It is an announcement. So there's a battle over here. There's a battle over here in Bull Run, Manassas, and a courier comes running back.

A person, a runner comes running back from the battlefield and tells the commanding officer something, and here's what he tells them.

We won. Good news. We won. It's the language of victory.

It's the language of announcement, good news in content, good news in delivery form. We won, and he proclaims, he heralds, he shouts, we won.

It's a victory report. Lorraine Bettner, who happens to be a man, who was a man, says the gospel is the good news about the great salvation purchased by Jesus Christ, by which he reconciled sinful men to a holy

God. There are, in reality, only two types of religious thought, the religion of faith and the religion of works.

Evangelical Dictionary of Theology defines the gospel this way. The gospel is the joyous proclamation of God's redemptive activity in Christ Jesus on behalf of man enslaved to sin.

One, the gospel is good news. Two, the gospel is about God and God alone.

Look at verse 3, 4, 5 and following. Who's the subject of all those verbs?

Short of two relative clauses, the subject of all the verbs here is

Christ. The gospel's about God. It's good news about God. It's good news about Jesus Christ.

So much so that when we get to verse 4 about buried, Paul makes sure that the text isn't they buried him, but it's put in such a way that he was buried, so Jesus is the subject of all the verbs.

Jesus died, Jesus was buried, Jesus was raised from the dead, and Jesus appeared.

Didn't say they saw him, because then you would have people as the subject of the verbs.

Here we have Christ appeared. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, verse 3, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scripture, and that he appeared.

God is the savior. God is the focus of the gospel. That's why it's of first importance.

Friends, let me say this nicely, and we're all in the same boat together. We are not the gospel.

We're not the gospel. We can't live the gospel. We can't be the gospel.

We can't do the gospel, because that's a category error. The gospel is proclaim news about God.

It has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with us. Now, do we believe the gospel?

Do we receive the gospel? Do we repent of our sins and turn to Christ, respond to the gospel?

The answer is absolutely yes, but that's not the gospel. That's the response to the gospel. The victorious courier comes running in.

We won. Now, you can do one of two things. I take you at your word or I don't. Jesus atoned for sins on Calvary.

He was raised from the dead. He's the son of God. I either believe it or I don't, but my believing or my repenting or my lack thereof isn't the gospel.

We are not the gospel. We are not the good news. And by the way, aren't you glad for that? Can you imagine with this lot, you're the good news.

We have a message to change the world, us. And of course,

I say that as your fearless leader. You say, well, we need to have the gospel so we have to look inside of ourselves to get it.

No, it's outside of us. The gospel's the gospel, whether you live, whether you died, whether you never were born, whether you believed it, whether you accepted it, the gospel's still the gospel.

It's good news about God. Michael Horton said, your inner life is not the news.

Although such a day is not unimaginable at our present pace, it would still be unlikely that major news organizations could survive if they reported their inner longings and hunches about the news.

The gospel's about God. It's not about us. And therefore, the gospel's about God. It's not about what you do.

Be better parents, be better spouses, be better friends, be better evangelist. As Horton goes on to say, the heart of most religions is good advice, good techniques, good programs, good ideas, good support systems.

Other religions, it's do, make, achieve, do better, work harder, be nicer, as none of that has to do with the gospel.

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. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.