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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.
Would you take your Bibles please and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 as we work through the book of 1 Corinthians. Today we're going to continue this theme that's basically talking about righteous living.
How to live righteously, especially when somebody has done something against you. As you're turning there, I'd like to say that we live in a nation full of rights. Know your rights. And we're going to learn today in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 that you as a Christian never have a right to act unrighteously.
You never have the right to act in an ungodly fashion. You've been bought with a price, a very high price, you've been purchased by the blood of Christ, and in light of that, you already respond biblically and correctly, and you never ever have the right to act unrighteously.
You may have other inalienable rights in America, you may have the right for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but you never have the right to act unrighteously. And we're going to learn today that if you do, you should probably ask yourself the question, am I really a Christian?
Can I really do this and be so focused on myself, what I get, what I want? How can I be saved? I did a little research. This society that we live in today is so self-centered, and we've even got a new vocabulary for it.
Self-seeking, self-love, self-importance, self-satisfaction, self-esteem, self-help, self-conscious, self-assured, self-realization, self-reliant, self-expression. We've got a whole culture of self, self, self, and of course the Bible says we have to deny self, be selfless, die to self, and so we're going to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 today, and I'm going to ask you the question, do you ever have the right to act unrighteously?
Paul has dealt with a lot of subjects, and now he comes to suing other people, suing other Christians. And he says, with lots of questions in chapter 6, when one of you has a grievance against one another, chapter 6 verse 1, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?
He says, would you dare do that? The answer should be, we shouldn't do it, but it was going on at Corinth. And he says in the next two verses, basically, you're competent to judge, aren't you? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?
He goes from the greater argument to the lesser, and if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Lots of questions, lots of do you not knows, because he knows they know, he was there for 18 months.
Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life? And he keeps the pressure on, and he asks this next set of questions, would you settle for second best when it comes to life, physicians, lawyers?
No, he says, verse 4, so if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church, have no real wisdom? And he keeps going, he says, it's shameful to air dirty laundry.
Verse 5, I say this to your shame, can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers? But brother goes law against brother, and that before unbelievers? I thought you Corinthians were super wise, chapter 1.
And then he says, in chapter 6, verse 7 and 8, are you going to sue your own family? Wouldn't you just rather be preferring something bad, wouldn't you rather be wronged? To have lawsuits at all with one another, the second you go to court against an unbeliever, you've already lost.
It's already a defeat for you, why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves emphatically wrong and defraud even your own brothers. So you can imagine what's happening, we looked at this two weeks ago, you've got a situation that's going on there at Corinth, and probably if you take it to the elder board of the church, you're going to lose.
So you say, well, you know what, if I take it to the elder board, I'll lose, so I'll go to the unbelieving people, and the lawyer's there, and I've got extra money, and back in those days, you grease the palm, you get what you want, and if you've got power, you're going to win.
And Paul says, don't do that. Paul says, this is not acting Christianly. What's going to happen in the lawsuit? You can see how it would happen, ad hominem attacks, slander. How many chapters were written on unity to start with?
Chapter 1, 2, 3, and 4, this is going to bring the church together? Can you imagine if we had Eric Johanson was suing Bruce Bolivar? And all this stuff, and you can imagine what would go on, this is why I'm right, this is why, you know, prayer emails, excuse me, gossip emails, I've got things going on, and you know, we're working through this, it would create a problem.
Although I know those two men well, and I don't think they would ever do it. Paul says, it's the body, we're one body, it's like the foot suing the arm. Just be treated unjustly. It's not that big a deal.
Is there more to life than this earth? Everything you've been given has been given to you by God, so just be cheated, it's not that big a deal. Turn with me, if you would, to 1 Peter 2, just for a moment, keep your finger on 1 Corinthians, 1 Peter chapter 2, let's look at our Lord's response to injustice, if Jesus the suffering servant suffered, shouldn't he have servants like you, who also suffer?
This is not some kind of new concept, when you learn about Christ, you learn about the suffering servant, and 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 21 and following, give us a little snapshot of the attitude Paul wants for everyone, and even though we don't have lawsuits going on in our church today, it's just good biblical thinking, 1 Peter 2, verse 21, for to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return, when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, by his wounds you have been healed, for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.
Jesus is the one who says, I will entrust myself to the father, even though I'm being treated wrongly, and how much more are we to do the same thing, Jesus the sinless one, we are sinners, yet we still say, I'm just going to trust God in the midst of this, it is never right to sue another Christian.
Turn with me if you would to Matthew chapter 5, for harmony in the body, for witness before the world, and for following the words of Jesus, Matthew chapter 5, it's just so weird now to turn to Matthew chapter 5, because 8 days ago I stood on the Mount of Beatitudes and preached the Beatitudes, someday you've got to go by the way to Israel, if this is Israel and Jerusalem is right here, and you're up here in Nazareth and the text says that Jesus went up to Jerusalem, how often do you go up to Connecticut, you just go, I don't get it, but if you take Israel the map and turn it like this and realize that Jerusalem is on a mountain, you realize how you can be in the north and go up to Jerusalem because you go up to the mountain, it's great.
And here in this sermon, the sermon on the Mount, listen to what Jesus says, is there a teacher like this? When Pradeep was reading Mark 7, I just thought, there's nobody like Jesus, and to think that he's our shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd.
Matthew 5, 38 gives us some insight into the way we should think when people have disagreements, when somebody's after you, I'm not saying you never can sue someone, but I'm saying you can never sue a Christian, I'm not saying you can't have criminal charges against a Christian, this is civil here, but look at Matthew 5, 38, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you, Jesus says, how about this, do not resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also.
My favorite things of all time is to teach Bible verses the right way, especially when they've been taken out of context for so long, this is one of the most misinterpreted passages in all the Bible. Now if somebody's going to come to you with their fist, and they hit you, do you let them hit you again?
Well that's the question, Nikita Khrushchev said, we communists have many things in common with the teachings of Jesus. My sole difference with Christ is that when someone hits me on the right cheek, I hit him so hard on the left that his head falls off.
So if somebody's going to punch you, do you duck, do you let them hit you, what do you do? I mean, everybody throws this verse out of context in the world, they just throw it out, you know, turn the other cheek, just turn the other cheek, kind of like this, this kind of weak, sissified kind of Christianity.
But look at the text closer. When someone slaps you on your right cheek, the word is strike, a sharp slap, turn the other also. Now how many people here are right-handed, raise your hand. Okay, the rest of you are left-handed.
Most people in the world are right-handed, you have to work with me, I don't get much sleep these days, I'm upside down on the sleep. Right cheek, right fist, open fist, right hand, right cheek. Alright, I'm going to be the one receiving the blow, now I'm going to be the one giving the blow.
This is the right cheek right here, here's my right hand. How do you take your right hand and hit somebody's right cheek? With a powerful kung fu punch like that? Of course not. You think about culture and you say, what's the most heinous thing to do and embarrassing thing to do to someone?
Well, you could pick up a sandal, throw it at them, you could spit on their face, or you could say, you know what, your face doesn't even deserve my fist, I'm going to take the back of my hand and insult you by hitting you on your face.
This is an insult, you don't even deserve my fist. Jesus is not saying if somebody punches you with force to try to give you a bloody nose and knock you out, that you just keep letting them do it. Like I tell Luke all the time, it's sometimes right to hit people.
If somebody's hitting you or your mom, you hit them until they stop hitting back and pummel them until they're on the ground. Luke's smiling right now. But if someone insults you, not even with words, but even with the back of a hand, I don't even, you don't even deserve my fist, and they hit you, what is Jesus saying?
Then here's my other cheek. This is not some kind of assault, this is an insult. Verse 40, you can see the same kind of, it's just antithetical thinking, it's just anti-world thinking rather. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hire Alan Dershowitz.
What's he say? Let him have your coat also. That doesn't mean you can never file a lawsuit, but Jesus' whole concept here is, suffering a loss because you're in the kingdom of God, it's okay, you should have a willingness to do that.
If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, you sue them first. You counter-sue. It doesn't say any of that. I'll just part with these things gladly. Verse 41, same thing here, you have no rights.
Whoever forces you to go one mile, by the way, the Roman soldiers could say, could you please carry my luggage one mile, and they could just walk up to you in the Middle East and commandeer you, especially if you're a Jew.
You go one mile and carry my suitcase, okay? I'll go farther. Go with him too. Verse 42, give to him who asks of you. Do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. The mind of a Christian who says, somebody's trying to take something of mine, or someone has taken something and I need to get it back, is completely different than those who are in the world.
Let me give you some valuable life lessons for conflict resolution in the next 10 or 15 minutes before we progress into chapter 6, verses 9 to 11. Some life lessons for conflict resolution, because here's where the issue is.
There's a conflict in the church. How do you resolve the conflict? So let me give you some conflict resolution helpers. I have 11 of them, so you know it'll be a four-part series. I'm going to go pretty fast.
If you've got problems with somebody else in the church or at home, what do you do? Let me just give you these life lessons, because that's really the problem. The real problem is, something's going on in the church, there's a rub, and so why take it to court when you can just solve the problem?
True or false, we have everything we need in the Bible to teach us how to live a godly life. You think there's conflict resolution in the Bible, or what to do, how to think about it? We don't have to go outside.
We can solve conflicts, and so these will be good for the church. These will be good for your marriage at work. Just helpful lessons about trouble and conflict. Number one, assume that you and everybody else are in good standing until you hear differently.
Assume that you're in good standing with everyone here, that nobody's got a problem with you until you hear from them. So what's this do? This means if you've got a problem with somebody else, they can't read your mind, and you need to go what?
Option one, cover. Love covers how many sins, 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 8, multitude of sins, so you either cover their sins, unless you have the spiritual gift of confrontation, which some people do. You cover the sins, but if you can't cover the sins, then you need to go to that person and say, you said this, you did that, I took it such and such a way, could we please solve this?
We're in one body together. Christ has redeemed us. We're going to spend all eternity together. Let's work on this. This helps the local body, because if you're bugged at someone, they don't know you're bugged.
It's your responsibility to go to them. That's just Matthew 18. That's just common sense. Well, a pastor walked by the other day in the hallway, he didn't even look at me, and then your mind just goes and goes and goes.
Well, if that's you, you need to grow up, and we have a nursery bottle for you over there. But in general, I always wanted to have a bottle just sitting on my desk, kind of with some formula if somebody came in, and I'm not the center of the church.
So you know what? What does love do? Love believes all things, love hopes all things, love bears all things. You know, people are sick, and people are tired, and I am not the center of the universe in the church.
And they looked at me, or they didn't say something, or they didn't comment, or they didn't act a certain way I did, but you know what? I'm a worse center than they are, and I'm just going to cover it, and we're good.
But if you can't get over it, then you need to go to the person, and you need to say, you know, you did something, and I just can't get over it, I'm weak, I know, probably, but my mind just runs over, and over, and over, and you said this, and it hurt, and you did this, and it was sin, and could we please reconcile?
And then you reconcile, right? So if you've got problems with anybody here at this church, today after the service, forget the greeting time, forget the socializing, you need to go right to them, because today is the day that you go tell someone else, this is the problem, could we resolve it?
Why? For the glory of Christ Jesus, because it's the right thing. Same thing in a marriage, somebody's super mad at their spouse, and I can't believe they did this, that, or the other, but the spouse, they don't even know they did it, they're just oblivious, you need to recover, or you need to go.
That's number one. We'll look at some verses here soon. Number two, don't be surprised that there are conflicts in the church, in marriage. Don't be surprised. Some people, I think, want every conflict solved, and every conflict done, and no conflicts going on.
Guess what? We're fallen people, and there are going to be conflicts, and now that the Lord is bringing new people to the church, we're just having more conflict makers. And so you think, you know what?
Conflicts will cease in heaven. Conflict is always going to be around. But number three, be joyful, because conflicts can help. Conflicts can cause maturity. Conflicts can cause you to read your Bible more.
Conflicts can cause iron to sharpen iron, so one man sharpens another. Conflicts cause communication to increase. Conflicts make you depend on the Lord in prayer. Conflicts make you say, I've got to seek out scripture to make sure I know what I'm doing.
So be joyful. If there's a conflict, you should say, this is going to be a time where Jesus Christ and His greatness can shine, because when I was an unbeliever, there was conflicts, chaos. Now it's going to be the Lord and His greatness.
Number four, trust that God has sovereignly ordained the conflict. Trust in the Lord that He has sovereignly ordained the conflict. It's the most wise thing that could ever happen. God is sovereign and He uses trials to shape us.
Number five, never drudge up conflicts that have already been dealt with biblically. If we did these things by the grace of God, there are going to be no lawsuits, that's for sure. Never drudge up conflicts that have been dealt with biblically.
Proverbs 17 .9, he who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends. Ephesians chapter four, first Corinthians, excuse me, Psalm chapter 103, so far as the east is from the west, so far he has removed our transgressions from us.
If there's been a conflict and you've resolved it and you've said these words, honey, could you please forgive me? I'm sinful and I said the wrong things, I did the wrong things, and then you say, I forgive you.
You may never, ever, ever bring those things up again, ever. Because you're to forgive, Ephesians 4, like God forgives, and once God forgives you, aren't you glad it's just gone forever? I've done so many things with my mind and in my heart that I am so thankful that God will never see those because the blood of Christ has cleansed me from those sins.
We saw lots of replicas of the Ark of the Covenant and the men with the poles who are carrying the Ark, and you can see there's the box, the Ark of the Covenant, and then inside the Ark we had the Ten Commandments, Aaron's rod, right, and a piece of manna, and then you had the slab on the top with the seraphim coming up and over.
They would put the blood all over the top of what we call the mercy seat, where the place of propitiation, there'd be blood all over there, signifying what? Signifying that when God, the omniscient God, with his holy, all-seeing eyes, looks down upon the law that you have surely broken, he can't see it because the blood covers it.
There's already been death, no more death, and if God has forgiven us our sins, we're going to somehow hold onto that to manipulate people and to use it later and to say, see what you did back then. Never dredge up conflicts that have already been dealt with biblically.
Number six, don't solve conflicts sinfully. Don't use sinful behavior or speech to fan the flames of conflict, like name-calling. I don't know if you're having a conflict in the church, but you should not call the other person an idiot, slob, dumb, none of those things.
You should also not exaggerate. You always do that. You never do that, unless it's true, which I doubt it would be. Sarcasm, ridicule, insults, no, he who returns evil for good, evil will not depart from his house.
Seven, we've got to move, seven, regularly act like Jesus and think of Calvary. Regularly act like Jesus and think of Calvary. True or false, it's a glory to cover a transgression. It's a glory. If you could sum up the mission of Christ, you think about forgiveness of sins and you say, well, you know what, I can either forgive you when someone says, could you please forgive me for what you've done?
Let's see, I'm going to think exactly the way not to act like Jesus. I'm going to use this, I'll leverage it. I don't want to say yes. If I say yes, I'll get taken advantage of. I'll just do it again.
They didn't really mean it. I'm not sure what they're thinking. Why don't you just say, you know, I used to act exactly the opposite of Jesus and now I'll say, do you know what? The epitome of Christ's work on Calvary is he's pleased the Father and he's forgiven me of sins.
I'll gladly forgive you. I've sinned more than you. Eight, initiate reconciliation. You be the peacemaker. Romans 12, if possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. If there's conflict in the church, if Eric and Bruce are going to make up after the service, we're going to see them meet right here in the middle because Eric's going to take initiative, Bruce is going to take initiative, and there you meet.
You should be the one. You should say, you know what? When I've got conflicts, I want to be the first one who goes. I want to be the one that says, we're going to set this right for the glory of Christ, for the good of our marriage, for the greatness of his church, his local body.
Let's go ahead and take care of this now. R .T. Archibald said, peacemakers carry about with them an atmosphere in which quarrels die a natural death. Number nine, keep your emotions subservient to the Word of God.
Keep your emotions subservient to the Word of God when you are solving conflicts.
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.
The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.