We do because of who He is (Part 2)

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.

Rights, Pay, and Ministry Support in 1 Corinthians 9

Let me just say this before we go on. The better you were at speaking, the more authority that you came across with, the more you could get paid if you were a speaker or a teacher. If you were a philosophical teacher and you got paid one dollar a day, then you weren't a very good teacher.

It's almost like today, how much money can people command if they go on the public speaking circuit? And so you can imagine the false teachers are saying about Paul, since Paul receives nothing from people, therefore his ministry teaching must be what?

Of no value. But Paul's going to say, no, I have a right, but I'm just going to say no to my right. Who does this? Fourteen verses, I have a right to get paid. The next set of verses to the end of the chapter, but I'm not going to get paid.

Verse three, he's not in a real court, but it's courtroom language. This is my defense to those who would legally examine me. This is my defense to those who would put me in a court judicially. This is my apology, is the Greek word for those that would put me before a judge.

That word examine is when Jesus was put before Pilate and Pilate examined him. So Paul uses just a figure of speech. He's not in a real tribunal, but the Corinthians are acting like it. What does he say in verse six, verse three, rather?

This is my defense. Now this could mean what's in verse one and two. This is my defense about my rights, or this is my refusal for charge, and I think this goes with the following verses. So it could go with the previous verses.

This is my defense about why I have rights, or it could go with the following, and the majority of good scholars think it goes with the end. So three goes with four and following. This is my defense on why I don't charge people.

It's my defense for those who examine me. I'm going to explain why I do ministry for no payment, even though I could get paid. Just listen to 2 Corinthians for a moment, chapter 11. Same thing came up there.

Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge? I didn't command any amount of money. That doesn't make me a bad teacher. I could command it, but don't listen to these false teachers that are saying you don't get any money, therefore you're bad.

So Paul says, no, that's not the case. Verse four, he says in 1 Corinthians chapter nine. By the way, verse four has the word the right in ESV. Verse five has the word the right. Verse six has the word right.

I wonder what this is about. This should be easy for us because we live in a day and age with animal rights, workers' rights, children's rights, gay rights, property rights, moral rights, inalienable rights to life and Paul as an apostle has a right, but then he's not going to use it.

Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Remember, that's what we were talking about in chapter eight, food offered to idols. Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife as do the other apostles and brothers of the Lord in Cephas or Peter?

Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Paul says, I have the right to have you give me money for support. By the way, this has nothing to do with opulent living.

When I turn on TBN and see the opulent lifestyles of some of these crazy people, this has nothing to do with any of that. Corinthians, you keep saying, I've got the right, I've got the right, I've got the right to exercise my liberties and Paul says, I've got the rights too, but I'm going to just say no to them, so learn from me.

Learning from the apostle Paul to say no to liberties for the sake of the gospel since you've been saved by the gospel. They were questioning Paul, now I ask you the question, who's on trial now? I love it that he switched it all around.

I've got full apostolic rights and now, Corinthians, let's go out to the woodshed a little bit. I've got some questions for you. Now in here, there's some cool little truths like Cephas. If you just read this, wouldn't you think just plainly, verse 5, I've got a right to take along a believing wife as the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas.

Wouldn't you automatically think when people say the Pope can't be married and the Pope has to be celibate, don't you think they'd probably be blowing a gasket about right now? When you look at this, I didn't know Peter was married, I didn't know the first Pope was married.

The whole idea of celibacy of clergy is a lie. It's a good way to make sure that the property and the money of a person doesn't go to the kids and get split up. Instead, it goes back to the coffers of the church.

That's a good thing there if you're trying to swindle, but a clear reading of scripture. I can not only get money from you for my gospel ministry, not just for me, but for my wife. I remember the letter one time Kim got and they were trying to blast Kim.

I guess I'm going to owe you a dollar for this one, Kim. Blast Kim because Kim was leeching off the church here because she didn't work. I got paid enough though so Kim couldn't work, so she was leeching off the church.

I just thought, wow. That's why sometimes pastors sing blessed subtraction. Just kidding. You know what Paul would say when it comes to apostles? Of course, it applies to pastors in 1 Timothy chapter 5.

Paul would say, do you know what? I've given my life to you to serve and to teach. It's not wrong. Actually, it's biblical if you support me and my wife and my kids. That's what Paul's saying. The other apostles do it.

The brothers of the Lord do it and Cephas does it. And so when you hear this whole nonsense about, you know, popes can't get married, popes can't be with a woman, that's just a big old fat lie. Listen to what John Calvin said.

The apostles did not shrink from marriage like the papal clergy who detest it so much because it does not befit the sanctity of their order. At last, it went so far that Pope Sirius, right around 384 AD, had no hesitation about calling marriage, quote, an uncleanness of the flesh in which no one can please God, end quote.

Pope Sirius. Calvin goes on to say, what then will happen to the unfortunate apostles who persisted in this impurity until their deaths? But here the papists evade the issue by a fine piece of cunning reasoning of their own devising.

For they say that the apostles refrained from intimacy, but took their wives about with them so that they might get the fruits of the gospel. So you bring your wife along, but it's kind of like I love Lucy, each have separate beds.

I think it's like that. How ridiculous. Ambrose's explanation of this was that the reference is to other men's wives. So you go, I can't just take it as face value. Peter was married. I think actually Mark 1 talks about Peter's mother-in-law was what?

Sick. You go, okay, well, he's got the mother-in-law. What's going on there? And you go, I can't take that at face value because it's church versus Bible. So I have to switch everything around. And so now I'll make it that the wives show up, but the wives are just kind of friends, or other people's wives go hang out.

They're just kind of groupies, and they just go follow along. Friends, it's very clear. You just look at it, and Paul says this. Corinthians, you want to exercise your liberties to eat and drink food and wine offered to idols?

I'm telling you, there's no such thing as an idol, so you can do whatever you want. Alcohol is not the problem. Food offered to idols is not the problem. It's the heart. But here's how the heart needs to be aligned.

Gospel first, liberty second. I mean, when you just read the Bible, there it is. And Cephas. And Paul says, you know, it's not just for Barnabas. Here's another thing that was going on there that I think will help you culturally.

If you did manual labor back in those days in the Greek culture, you were despised. You're on the low level of the ladder. If you were in India and you were in the lowest caste system, you would be looked upon with disdain.

Oh, you're the caste that climbs into the sewers and cleans things. You're not really a real person. So, Paul, you're not charging for the gospel. That's one thing. If you had any success, you would charge for the gospel, and you're not.

And two, you do menial labor. You make tents. And then Paul just starts piling on the proof. If you've been in the military, you'll get this next one. If you've been a farmer, you'll get this next one.

If you've been a shepherd, you'll get the next one. Look at how he teaches, just so wonderfully, verse 7. Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? I know there's some military guys here. Did you buy your own canteens?

Did you buy your own water? Did you buy your own rations? Did you buy your own meals ready to eat? Did you buy your own weapons? Did you buy your own ammo? Answer? No. Nobody does that. So Paul is trying to teach through these three common examples.

How about who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Can you imagine you have to plant the apple orchard, plant the trees, and then you have to take care of it, but you can never go over there and pick up one of those nice apples, shine it on your tunic, take a look at it, and go, oh.

Can you imagine biting that apple? You take that bite, and some of that juice just kind of flies out when you first bite it, and it even zooms over to splatter on one of the apostle's sisters over there.

And it's good, and you take a bite, and then the boss comes along. You can't eat that fruit. No, because when you work around thousands of apples, it's okay to eat a few apples. He gives another illustration, too.

Who tends a flock and does not drink from the milk? Shepherd's thirsty, milking a bunch of goats, milking a bunch of sheep, and once in a while has a little goat milk. I have my own illustration, and I'll just give it to you because I think you'll be able to identify it.

At least the husbands here can. I kind of torque it a little bit for my own reasons, but that's all right. Now, when you're making cookies, there's all just a bunch of dough and this butter-saturated cookie dough.

I should not have to look over my shoulder to see if Kim's there. This is part of the process. Should not a man who makes cookies be able to eat from the fruit of his labors? Come on! Now, if she's making cookies and I come over for a little, Oh, Kim, do you see there's another crack in the ceiling?

She looks up, and I have to do the little switcheroo with the snickerdoodle. Upkeep for your own service. So you work, and you get paid under that. And so Paul is saying, as an apostle, then I get paid for what I do.

But I'm not going to take it from you, but I could if I wanted. What we should do is what Paul often does is give scriptural backing for these privileges, verses 8 and 9. This is just general terminology, but if you ever want to prove a point, you go to the Bible, and he did it back in those days, and his Bible in those days was the Old Testament.

More questions from Paul. Verse 8. Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the law say the same? Hey, it's taught in the Old Testament. For is it not written in the law of Moses, You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain?

Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Now, it's true that God is concerned about animals. It's true in Proverbs 12 that a righteous man regards the life of his beast. But if you had to rank human beings with an eternal soul and animals with no soul, how would you rank them if you didn't belong to Peta?

You would rank them, people here, oxen down here. That's Paul's point. And it's the lesser to the greater argument. If we give food for the oxen, when they're crushing the grain and getting the chaff off by smashing it down or using their hooves, and they stop for a minute and eat a little bit, you're not supposed to, Mosaic law, Deuteronomy 25, you're not supposed to whip that thing and get it going, you're supposed to just let it eat a little bit.

The horse is doing work, you let the horse get a little fruit of its own labor. Paul's point is not to say we don't love animals or that animals are the top of the food chain or don't be humane to animals or not.

He's talking to humans, as Luther said. Obviously, this verse was written for humans since oxen can't read. He's addressing men, not oxen. The Oxen Revised Standard Version. The principle, worker shares in the fruit of his labor.

Apostles can share in the fruit of their labor. Paul's point, you're flaunting your liberties, watch me, I'm going to say no to my liberties even though I have the right. He says in verse 10, does he not certainly speak for our sake, instead of the oxen, for the apostles instead?

He said it was written for our sake. Because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. It's just a natural law. Now he turns it to supernatural, to spiritual rather.

Verse 11, if we have sown spiritual things among you, I am the farmer, the gospel is the seed. Have I sown spiritual things among you? Is it too much if we reap material things from you? I know when I was first saved, and my two pastors, Raul Reese and John MacArthur, I know, by the way, this is going to probably sound dumb because you're going to think I want something from you.

I don't. But God had used them to teach me the scriptures. There was nothing I wouldn't do for them. It was in my power to do. And I certainly wasn't concerned that the church gave them a salary so they could be free from doing other work so they could study the scriptures.

Now that's true for a pastor. How much more the apostle? Spiritual workers in God's church can have material blessings from the church. In this particular case, Paul the apostle. If you want to see if it applies to pastors, you can read 1 Timothy 5 another day.

The gospel workers are the farmer. The gospel is the seed. It says in verse 12, if others share this rightful claim on you, you're actually paying other Bible teachers. You don't know who they are. Do we not even more?

Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right. That's the difference between the two. By the way, we don't know to this day why Paul didn't do it. We can conjecture besides giving them an illustration.

That's the only reason he did it. We don't know all the other details surrounding it, but it says we did not make use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ Jesus.

That word obstacle means a barrier, a military barrier. It's a military term. If there's going to be a lot of, to use our modern language, a lot of tanks coming from a certain direction and the enemies coming in, you put all kinds of barriers there and anti-vehicle fortifications and ditches and all kinds of other things.

It's a barrier. It's something that's an obstacle. It literally means to cut into. In those days, you'd cut into the ground. So the chariots and other things couldn't get over it. False teachers want money.

We endure things for the gospel. That's Paul's point. Biggest point, Paul says the gospel trumps everything, including my liberty. And for whatever reason, Paul knows that if he takes the money, it's going to impede the gospel in the light of the Corinthian church.

So he says no. Hey, you're familiar with this pattern, he says. Verse 13 and 14. Chris Cloyd, these two verses are for you, directly and indirectly. We made it, 14 verses. This is a jet tour through 1 Corinthians.

Say it again for repetition. Paul's got a big point. Here's the big point. You Corinthians are pushing your liberties. We have liberties. I have liberty. I'm not going to use liberty for the gospel's sake and your good.

Here's a pattern that they would be familiar with. How about the Old Testament temple? How about Levites? I wonder if they got things, even though they didn't work for it. Their work was the temple. Verse 13.

Do you not know? That sounds familiar. Chapter 3, do you not know? Chapter 5, do you not know? Chapter 6, do you not know? Chapter 9, do you not know? Of course you know. That those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple.

You can read Leviticus 6, Leviticus 7 for that and other passages. And those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings. In the same way, just like those temple priests. That's common. They got their livelihood from what was sacrificed.

In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. Now, some people think this was the heathens do it. I don't think Paul is going to use what the heathens do to make the example here.

It's just better to take it straightforwardly. This is Old Testament preach. Priests were supported by ties of crops, ties of animals, part of the sacrifice that wasn't burnt up, etc. In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

And then, next week we'll learn Paul just says, but I'm not going to do it. I've got the rights, but I'm not going to do it. And so that's your response. If you say, how do I work through liberties? I think I now have the liberty to do this, this, this, and this.

And by the way, if you're like me, I came out of a very licentious lifestyle, licentious thinking, loose thinking. And so then when I get saved, if I'm at 5 o 'clock now at an unsaved person, the hour hand is on 5, and I get saved, salvation is at 6 o 'clock, then I probably overreact as a new Christian, as a maturing Christian, immature Christian who wants to mature at 7 o 'clock, and I'm probably a little too legalistic.

And everything's no. I associate something bad with something that I could do, but I don't understand yet, and my conscience is still convicting me. And then over time, it'll slowly as I grow come back to 6.

I think a lot of people here are like that. Licentious living, you get saved and you become too legalistic. Some people, I guess our kids will struggle with, growing up in a Bible church, in a Bible family, strict.

They have to do the externals. Then when they get saved, they might go too far this way. But Paul's point is this. When there are weak Christians, the point is not, I get to do what I want even around weak Christians.

The point is, I can say no to my own rights for the sake of other people. And doesn't that sound like what God did, what Paul did? God loved us. We respond with love. Since I've been loved by God, I should just love other people, even though I could eat meat offered to idols.

I want people to benefit spiritually from what I do or don't do. That's the point. Paul says, I've got apostolic authority, so I deny it. We have authority to eat and drink and do all kinds of other things, but we make sure that for the sake of others and for the sake of the gospel, we work through those issues.

Gospel Priority and Saying No to Liberty

Living life for the gospel. My favorite story probably is Ironside, Dr. Harry Ironside. Remember, Lewis Brown always told me on an elevator one time, Harry Ironside put his hand on his shoulder. And that's why Lewis Brown said he was a dispensationalist ever since then, but I don't know about that.

Harry Ironside. Illustrating, I could say yes, but I'll say no for the sake of the kingdom and the sake of you. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.

He was preaching in a gospel hall in Detroit, and a former Muslim from India showed up who was a head of a tea business in India. He'd gotten saved and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ironside had a meeting on Sunday, had his outing.

They went to a beautiful spot together for a picnic. He was chatting with them, and his name happened to be Muhammad Ali. This was not Cassius Clay. A lady came by with some sandwiches. Would you like a sandwich?

Ironside said, thank you. What kind have you got? Well, several different kinds. Ironside said, well, I'll help myself to several of them. She turned to Mr. Ali. Will you have one? Well, what kind are they?

Well, there's fresh pork, there's ham. Do you have any beef? No, I do not. Do you have any lamb? No. Fish? No. Thank you, my dear young lady, but I won't take any. Why, Mr. Ali, said the lady, you surprise me.

Are you so under the law you can't eat pork? Don't you know that a Christian is at liberty to eat any kind of meat? Now listen. Mr. Ali replied, I am at liberty, my dear young lady, to eat it. But I am also at liberty to let it alone.

You know I was brought up as a strict Muslim. Every three years I go back to India to render an account of the business to my father. He's really the head of the business, and I have to visit with folks at home.

Always when I get home, I know how I will be greeted. When I and the friends will all be sitting around inside the house, my father will come to the door. My servant announces that he's there, and he'll say, Muhammad, have those infidels taught you to eat the filthy hog meat yet?

No, father, I will say. Pork has never passed my lips. Then Mr. Ali said, then I can go in and have an opportunity to preach Christ to them. If I took one of your sandwiches, I couldn't preach Christ to my father the next time I go home.

Gospel priority.

Know to self. Yes to 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 bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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