Fundamental NoCo: Christian Liberty (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.

Christian Liberty as a Question of “Can I” or “Should I?”

Christian liberty. The real issue is not, can I do something, but should I? We are free in Christ to do many things. The scriptures are not explicit on other, many decisions that we have to make. And so we have questions.

When the Bible's silent about something, what do we do? When there's a debate in Christianity about what's right and what's wrong, what do we do? We all have convictions about personal obedience, about things that aren't really sin issues but they're gray issues.

Decision making when it comes to amoral issues. And the question today is, not can I do this, but should I do it? That's exactly what Paul is trying to say to the church of Corinth. Not can I, because you can, but should you?

It's kind of like when you're a kid and you go to school and you say to the teacher, can I use the restroom please? Yes, you can, but there's a different question that you should ask. What's the question?

May I? Can I? May I? And here, Paul, when it comes to liberty, whether it's Romans 14 and 15 or 1 Corinthians 8, 9, and 10, it's not can I, but should I? That's the real issue. And we talked about many things last week, but when it comes to churches and the differences that we have, can I or should I is the right remedy for things not explicitly clear in Scripture?

Indicative and Imperative in the Christian Life

Let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 1. Don't go to chapter 8 yet, but let's go to chapter 1. If you look at the New Testament, how a book is set up, it's typically like this. Colossians 1 and 2, doctrine.

Colossians 3 and 4, what? Duty, how we're to live in light of the doctrine. Ephesians chapter 1, 2, and 3, creed. Ephesians 4, 5, and 6, conduct. Romans 1 to 11, credenda, what we believe. Romans 12 through 16, agenda, how we act.

The New Testament sets books up like that very often. Hebrews 1 to 10a, who we are in Christ Jesus, how do we live that out, 11b through 13. But weirdly, and rightly, 1 Corinthians isn't set up that way, why?

Because Paul's answering these letters and they're wondering about immorality, wondering about sin in the church, wondering about suing each other, and then they have questions about marriage and divorce and all kinds of other things.

So it's not set up that way, but you know what on second thought? It is set up that way. It's just not chapter 1 and 2, or chapter 1 through 8. It's just chapter 1 verses 1 to 9. Chapter 1 verses 1 to 9 tells us who Jesus is, and then we can live in light of Jesus in chapter 1 verse 10 and following.

So it's the same thing. It's indicative who Jesus is, statement of fact, and then imperatives to follow. And by the way, that is the way you live your Christian life. It is a very, very important truth that you get that, I think my father would say this, if you get that into your noggin, if you can just get that into your cranial structure there, this is my life.

Now let's think about it just quickly before we look at the text. It's true in evangelism too. How do you evangelize? You have to evangelize with both indicatives and imperatives. That's just Christianity.

Jesus is God, virgin birth, deity of Christ, son of man, son of God, substitutionary atonement, raised from the dead. All these facts about Jesus. He's the only way of salvation. I haven't told the people to do anything yet.

I'm describing who Jesus is. This is the good news. And in light of the good news, then we give the imperatives. What are some of the imperatives? Repent, believe, trust, follow, forsake. So the gospel, even in evangelism, is this is the good news.

Good news isn't repent and believe. The good news is we have a savior who offers forgiveness full and free to anybody who will believe, Jews and Gentiles too. Then in light of that, in light of the only God of the universe sending his only son to die on behalf of sinners like you, then we respond with trust and assent and a commitment.

That's the gospel. But it's the same thing when it comes to Christianity. Here's who you are in Christ Jesus. This is what God has done for you out of full, free, lavishing grace. And then in light of what he's done for you, respond accordingly.

You don't earn it. It's already been given to you. But it's out of gratitude and it's out of Holy Spirit enablement. This is what's going on in Christianity today. We are fighting now because the seeker-sensitive movement has pushed everything over to do this.

Be a better husband. Be a better churchman. Be a better neighbor. Be a better husband. Did I already say that? Husbands need it twice. Be a better wife. It's all this do, do, do. And by the way, I like the commands, but in light of the gospel.

By the way, parents, the day that this dawned on me, I thought, why didn't I learn this 20 years ago? How do you parent your kids? Using the indicative imperative model, how do you parent? Say, well, I know God instructs and in parents indicative imperative, but I'm an imperative driven guy.

And you know, left to myself, that's exactly what I turn out to be. Don't do that. Do that. Stop that. Pick that up. Jump over there. Go over there. Why'd you do that? All this stuff. For those are fine to do.

Elbows on the table. Stop it. I wasn't allowed to put my elbows on the table, but I let my kids, but if they spread them too far out like that, then they have to go back in within dad's 12 inch restriction.

That's how we parent because we forget how God teaches his children. God teaches children, look at who you are in Christ Jesus. I've adopted you in my family. You're my son. You're my daughter. You're co-heir with me.

I've given you everything I have. I've held nothing back. I've given you my son. I loved you in eternity past. I loved you at Calvary. I love you now. I can't stop loving you. This is what I've done for you.

I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'll be there till the very end. I'll give you a faith that will last through your deathbed into eternity. I give you the hope of heaven. I've given you the word.

I've given you the spirit of God. I've given you teachers. I've given you fellowship. This is what I've done for you. And when you hear that, what does that make you want to do? It motivates you to want to obey.

You don't say you're a hard task master God, but somehow in parenting, we forget this part. Son, daughter, I love you. I pray for you. You're the apple of my eye. I want to just give you everything that's good and healthy.

Matter of fact, I have. I've given you a place to sleep, a place to stay. I've given you fun, encouragement, all these other things. This is what I've done for you. And in light of what I've done for you, what do you think you should do?

Now Luke's big for this now, but if he was eight years old. So in light of who I am and who Kim is, what do you think you should do when it comes to hitting your sister? By the way, if you're a boss, how do you act as a boss?

Especially if you're a Christian boss. It's do this, don't do this, do this, don't do that. It's all imperative driven. No, the Bible, just get it into your mind. This is how God works. Once I figure that out, my life is a lot easier.

There's a few things about God you've got to get down right away. Blood, that's God's economy. That's just the way it works. It's not because of anything but his own wisdom. If there's sin, there's got to be blood.

Mark it down. Back in Genesis, they sin, Adam and Eve, and there has to be a blood sacrifice. God kills the animal, cloaks Adam and Eve. Day of atonement, blood. You want to be forgiven, there's got to be blood.

And then we can easily think about Christ, Jesus, and blood. When I get blood down, this is what God does. This is how he operates. I settle in. And also remember, God operates this way. Who you are in Christ Jesus, indicative.

I don't care if you remember the word indicative or not. And in light of who God is, imperative. Got it? You'll see it everywhere. Now, once in a while, it might be flipped around like this. Husbands, love your wives.

Which one is that? Like Christ, what? Love the church. Isn't that good? Even in evangelism, repent. For the kingdom of God is at hand. This is the way God operates. So here's why I brought it up. When we're studying a book like 1 Corinthians that has 16 chapters, in my mind, this is what I always do.

As many chapters there are, that's how many years were in the book. So then it just settles it early for me. Blood, indicative, imperative, one chapter per year. It's just the way God works. No, but I've got 16 chapters.

So what do we do when now we're in chapter eight, when chapter one verses one to nine is way back there? If we're not careful when we do verse by verse sequential preaching, which I'm all for, there's no other way to preach.

But if I do that and then forget about the indicatives of chapter one, one to nine, then I'm just telling you do, do, do, do, do, do, do. It's especially important when it comes to Christian liberty. It's most especially important to understand who you are in Christ, because if you don't, you've got liberty wrong.

And as I analyze behavior, show me someone who doesn't understand a gray area issue. Show me a legalist, show me a libertine, show me someone who says, you know what, I can or can't do this with convictions that are outside the Bible, and I'll show you someone that's misunderstood who they are in Christ.

So looking now to chapter one, verses one to nine, let me just remind you how great God is, what he's done on your behalf. And in light of all this, it helps clear up what's going on in chapter eight.

Don't count out loud, but see how many times you can find the word, God, Christ, Jesus, Lord, our Him. You're going to be blown away. The gospel is about God, how about that? Isn't that good? It has nothing to do with us primarily, the gospel is about the glory of God, and thankfully, we get kind of a bit part.

Aren't you glad? What was going on before you were born? The glory of God and the Trinity, but somehow missing out because God had a mic-shaped vacuum in his heart, and he just wasn't quite full. No, the glory of God, intrinsically.

But then, of course, he displays it extrinsically as he saves people like us. The gospel is all about God. Paul, 1 Corinthians chapter one, verse one, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother, Sosthenes, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those in every place who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.

Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful by whom you are called in the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The gospel is about God. Aren't you glad? I'm super happy. And Paul stresses that. And if you look down at verse four, give thanks, how does Paul do this?

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus. Paul said, I thank you God that you graced these people. You freely, fully, divinely gave them salvation.

You did it all. It was your gift. They received it because you were gracious. These pagan people, these carnal people, these immoral people, it was all about God and his work. And this is related. Don't say to yourself, this is kind of the intro.

This is kind of this throwaway stuff at the beginning. No, this is related, who you are in Christ Jesus. Corinth, don't you forget it. They had forgotten and now he can say later, then do this and don't do that.

It's all about God. What explains the church of Corinth? If you go back 2000 years ago, I was there in the rubble 11 months ago. But what explains the church that was there 2000 years ago when Paul was writing to it?

What explains it? It's just the grace of God. And you know, I thought about that today too. What explains Bethlehem Bible Church? Cool website, lines on the floor here in the sanctuary, deluxe parking lot.

The list could go on and on. It's the same thing that explains Corinth, explains us. The grace of God, it's his doing. Then when you see the grace of God and his doing, then when he says later, and we're gonna get there, I know you're antsy, we're gonna get there.

When he says, you know what, by the way, you could do it if you want, but you shouldn't do it because you should love other people instead. Because you're reflecting what God has done as he has loved his people.

Then don't you wanna love the same people? If God loves other people, how do you love those same people? Jesus dies for certain people and then you go, you know what, it's just logical, indicative, imperative, that in every way, verse five, you were enriched in him in all speech and in all knowledge.

He gave the son, he gave everything. Every spiritual treasure God has, he gives because he gave his son. He even confirmed the message in verse seven, so that you are not lacking in any gift. No, let me read verse six.

Even as a testimony about Christ was confirmed among you with signs of the apostle, miracles of the apostle, wonders of the apostle, it was confirmed. And you know what, in an unfaithful age, in an unfaithful Corinth, what do we need?

If I do a word association, Corinth, what should you say? A moral, but you should say, if you're thinking about this verse and you are a mind reader of my mind, you should say unfaithful. Everything about Corinth is unfaithful.

Their lack of unity, their lack of dealing with immorality, their pride, hey, we're the church. Here's how Corinth advertise themselves around there. You know what, come to Corinth, where we're happy where someone's currently committing incest in our church.

We have so much grace, we've got a person committing incense. I wish it was incense. Incest in the church, that's crazy. Corinth unfaithful. What do we need to remind ourselves in these days of unfaithfulness and lack of fidelity?

Who God is. God is faithful. Don't we need that? You say to me, well, you know, there's some people at our church here, Bethlehem Bible Church, and you know, they kind of did these things and they're kind of unfaithful and they kind of do this and they kind of do that.

They're just not where they should be. And I think, you know what? Welcome. A, B, let me give you a little cosmetics mirror, maybe 5X with a big bright light on there so you can see yourself. But you know what?

God is faithful. I'm not here because I think you're all so faithful. By the way, many of you have seen the indicatives of God and then have responded with faithfulness. The last two days, people running around here like faithful little busy bees going, God is so great, I'm gonna serve.

But we're all unfaithful at times, but God is faithful. And that's what Paul says here. Look it, God is faithful. Literal translation, faithful is God. Emphasis, faithful is God. By whom you were sovereignly called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, the Lord.

God effectually, effectively called you by his irresistible grace, a grace that is faithful, a grace that is irresistible, a grace that goes all the way back to the eternal purpose of God. And do you know what friends?

God can't lose a Christian. Can I lose my salvation? Wrong question. Can God the Father lose a Christian? Thomas Watson said, when God calls a sinner, he does not repent of it. God does not as many friends do love one day and hate another, or as princes who makes their subjects favorites and afterwards throws them into prison.

This is the blessedness of the saint. His condition admits of no altercation. God's call is founded upon his decree and his decree is immutable. Acts of grace cannot be reversed. God blots out his people's sins.

Listen to Thomas Watson, but not their names. When you understand who you are in Christ Jesus, even though you were a sinner, Romans 5 says, even though you were an enemy, Romans 5 says, even though you were helpless, Romans 5 says, even though you were ungodly, Romans 5 said, God sent his son to die for those kinds of people like you and like me.

And if that's the case of free and full and divinely initiated love, when it comes to anything else, don't we wanna respond with, yes, father, no father, gladly. And if you are a God who loves other people, I don't want by the spirit's grace to have the apple fall too far from the tree.

And when it comes to weaker Christians, instead of pummeling them, I'm gonna love them. The gospel is related to Christian liberty. So now as we set the stage, let's go to chapter eight. Chapter eight.

The Gospel for Christians Too

Long gone are the days, even if you were here the last couple days for the conference, long gone are the days where Jesus and the gospel are for your first little bit of salvation. And then once you're in, you never have to go back to it again.

I'm gonna steal a line from Haddon Robinson, but to change it a little bit, I'm gonna call that star-spangled banner preaching. Star-spangled banner preaching. In the third quarter for the pagans out here today that watch any football games, in the third quarter, I bet you three minutes to go or the two minute warning in the fourth quarter, the star-spangled banner is not played.

Why? Because you just start that at the beginning to get everything going and you never return to it again. I want Christians, Paul wants Christians. Remember, he wrote first Corinthians chapter one to 16.

So you would read at how many settings? One setting. How about that? At one setting. So when you were reading chapter eight, you already had chapter one done in there. The gospel is for Christians too.

I like to think about the immense sound and kind of the scariness of it. Have you ever seen a train car, a box car full and another box car full, the engines backing up the one box car, there's another one here that's not attached and they've got those couplings there, they wanna couple the one with the other, one's male, one's female and then bang that sound.

I always think what if I had my finger in there? That's what I always think about. What I want is the gospel coupled with your life. In chapter eight, nine and 10, Paul is dealing with something that was more seemed like more relevant to the people of Corinth about food offered to idols.

But it's good for us because A, there are people in the East that deal with idols all the time. And B, I think we can get some good principles from it. And he's just come out of chapter five, six and seven, pretty much saying, flee immorality.

And now we're moving into chapter eight, nine and 10 and he's saying flee idolatry. And flee not loving your fellow Christian. Leon Morris, a wonderful scholar said, the church was never meant to be a cozy club of like-minded people of one race.

Our social position, our intellectual caliber, the rich and the poor, the powerful, those from every stratum of society, the old and the young, adults and children, conservatives and radicals, variety.

And then he said the right thing. But this variety puts strains on us all. We're different, so how do we act in the body? So chapter eight, nine and 10, basically chapter eight, Paul is going to address food offered to idols and he's going to say, you don't have to say I can, you can say I should.

Chapter nine, Paul's gonna say, my apostolic ministry, I can say you should pay my bills, but I am not going to do it. And then back into idolatry in chapter 10. I gave some watchwords last week. Let's just have some review for watchwords when it comes to gray areas in the Christian life.

And we'll pull these right from 1 Corinthians chapter eight. How far does Christian freedom go in behavior that's not specifically forbidden in scripture? Watchword one in review, be humble, be humble.

Found right there in chapter eight, verse one. Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge. This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. When it comes to Christian liberty, can I get a tattoo?

Can't I? Can I smoke? Can't I? Can I drink? Can't I? All kinds of other things too. Those are just some. We just wanna be humble. Listen to what Luther said. God made the cosmos out of nothing and he will not make anything out of you until you realize you're nothing.

That's worse than a seeker-sensitive service, isn't it? The nothing service. People would get the animal back then. They'd sacrifice it. One portion burned up. One portion given to the priest. The other portion given to the offerer.

Dedicated to the idol. The priest could say, nah, I don't really wanna eat it. I'll go sell it at the market. Now you have Christians going to the market. New Christians, Gentile Christians. Jews already know there's only one God, but Gentile Christians, I wonder if this piece of meat has something on it.

They were not only polytheistic, they were polydemonistic. Polydemons. Lots of demons. All kinds of demons. And what if a demon attaches itself to some of that meat and then you buy it in the butcher shop and then what goes up must go down.

Go in. I got some demon on the inside. I got some kind of gizzard demon. What am I gonna do? God in my meat. I don't want that. And the Church of Corinth, in parentheses, you can see it in 1 Corinthians 8, verse one.

Well, we have knowledge. We've got the inside dope, and the dope is there's no such thing as an idol.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth 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 bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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