1 Corinthians 1. 04-19-10

No Compromise Radio. Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendroff. 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.

The Foolishness of the Cross and the Problem with Clever Rhetoric

Paul's going to go on to say in verses 18 and following, if you preach the real cross, people will deride you and hate you and they'll think it's foolish. So how can you get up and talk about the foolish cross and everybody goes, you're wonderful?

Can't do it. The Greco-Roman people prized the speaker's ability. And those speakers wanted to be admired. They wanted to be famous. Garland said, clever rhetoric is superficial. It shortcuts the transformation of listeners by simply gaining their assent.

It appeals to emotions without touching the spiritual depths. It may reap numerous baptisms, but not many true conversions. You say, well, I don't preach. How about Sunday school? How about Bible study?

Do you do it for applause? Is that the main reason you work and study and pour out your heart? No, you do it because you say, I've got a great Savior. And you're a great sinner, but there's a greater Savior.

Dressing the Gospel in Armani and Cashmere

Let me give you another set of clothes that I think people put on the gospel to make it void. The first one is kind of the Armani gospel, wanting it to look good. Secondly, I call this dressing the gospel with clothes of ease or comfort.

Maybe I'll call this the cashmere gospel. My mother gave me a cashmere sweater. The good news is it was a man's sweater that she bought for herself. But to this day, I've kept that cashmere sweater. And the kids, if I ever put it on, they just like to come up and just feel it.

My mom used to say it's a feeling good kind of material. Well, that's all fine and dandy until you preach the cross in an environment where your goal is to make people feel good. Have you ever heard of a felt needs message?

They don't call it sermons. They call them talks. Little message-ettes for Christian-ettes, kind of a sharing time. By the way, if you ever want to offend me, tell me that was a nice talk or I liked what you shared today because this is the herald's position to proclaim the truth.

And you go to churches today and it's basically life management 101. Oh, would they deny the literal resurrection, substitutionary atonement, sin? No, but they preach that cross in this light of, you know, I know you're lonely.

Let me give you some steps for feeling better. I know you've got kind of a rough life. Let me give you seven copers to get through the next week. Best life now kind of things. Jesus fulfilling your felt needs.

And basically, it becomes a Christianized Oprah, a Christianized Dr. Laura, or a Christianized Dr. Phil, where the God that is worshiped is not the triune God of the universe, it's the person in the pulpit.

Well, that could be too, a person in the pew is what I meant to say. Here's the gospel and it's meant to make you feel wonderful, warm, fulfilled. As they say in the old Disney movie, making a dollar a minute, managing relationships, fulfillment, coping with stress.

And basically, you know what that kind of gospel is? It's a you are special gospel and God is so lucky to have you made God's day. Mark this and mark this well, people can have excellent marriages, excel at work, and have good health without the gospel.

And so, if you go around saying, you know what? I know, you know, you've got trouble in life and you're in trouble with this, that, or the other, and let me now give you the gospel. What do you do when you meet a person who has no trouble in life and they feel good, they look good, they act well, and everything is high and fine, and they've got a great marriage, they love their wife, they're faithful, and now what do you have to offer them?

Nothing. But if the greatest need is this, forgiveness of your sins, an assuaged conscience, a God who is no longer at war with you but loves you and is your friend, and a God who calls Jesus your brother because of the cross.

Then, you say, compared to a good marriage, I have forgiveness. Be careful when you have the word of God couched in this kind of language of felt needs. Every unbeliever needs to deal with sin. Every unbeliever needs to deal with hell.

We can't preach the gospel so we act like God is lacking if you don't accept him. We preach for the glory of God, not the felt needs or the perceived needs of the congregation. Last time I looked, 1 Peter 2, verse 8 says that Jesus and his cross are called the stone of stumbling and a rock of what?

A fence. You just stub your toe hard enough on a rock one day down at the beach and have it split open and you'll know that's the scandal of the cross. For they stumble because they're disobedient to the word and to this doom they were also appointed.

I hate to say this, but if you preach the cross to an unbeliever and you don't offend them with the gospel, I don't mean offensiveness, I don't mean you don't put on your deodorant and you're just obnoxious, and you're saying to the unbeliever, you're going the wrong way.

Your life is counted for less than zero. It's demerited work that you have and you need a savior. Not too many people I know go, oh, thank you. May I have another one of those kind of lovely comments?

You say, God hates sinners like you and you better run to the cross. God has a gun. You're out in the middle of a field and there's no trees, there's no nothing, and God's got a shot in that gun and he's going to get you and he never misses.

And there's one tree in the center and it's a tree of calvary and you better run behind that tree, that's your only hope. People go, well, you know, I'm not mad at God. Well, he's mad at you with a vengeful, holy wrath.

You go, well, if I said that to my friends, then forget Thanksgiving, there wouldn't be Christmas time with them. Well, you're probably right, but I think Tozer was right when he says, the new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him.

It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive, this new cross says, come and assert yourselves for Christ. To the egotist, it says, come and do your boasting in the Lord.

To the thrill seeker, it says, come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship. Tozer says this insightfully, the Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.

That's a way to preach the gospel that would make it void. One man said, Jesus couldn't even give a marriage seminar without opposition. Same man said, men fearing preachers treat the gospel so lightly, touch it so gingerly, speak of it so generally, plead it so weakly, believe it so loosely that the truth is neutralized down to nothing worth getting excited about.

The day that you sit there, and have you done this? I've done it. You sit there, and it's in the middle of the night, you wake up, and you think, I was running headlong into perdition, and God stopped me.

And more than that, his son died in my place. More than that, before time began, he chose me. Based on his own free will, he chose me. That will keep you up at night with what? Joy. If you've got the gospel that says, well, God looked down the corridors of time, and sees all this and that, and therefore chooses you, that doesn't do anything except make you fall back asleep.

It's like counting sheep. But if you say, God chose me, that's worth getting excited about. Wow, that God did that. It goes without saying that the gospel is about God, not about us. I'm glad it includes us.

We need to preach the gospel so people understand the great salvation. Say, well, I just loosely talk about sin, because people know they're a sinner. Why don't you talk about the depths of sin, and preach Romans chapter 3, verse 19, where people are finally shut up with the law.

Shut up, they can't say anything anymore, because they go, based on what you say, if that's true, I'm not going to heaven. And then you give them the Savior. And so instead of rescuing them out of some one foot deep shallow baby pool, you rescue them from 20 ,000 leagues under the sea of depravity.

And they go, wow, fresh air. If you preach the gospel in such a way where you say, I don't really want to step on anybody's toes, I don't want to offend them, I don't want to say something that might get me in trouble at work.

After all, it's lunchtime, and I know I can say what I want, but this is going to cause me trouble. Then friends, you are tending towards the voiding of the cross, because you want to dress it up in Armani, or you want to dress it up in Kashmir.

Faithful Preaching Versus Avoiding Offense

Let's look at it from this angle. When we look back in church history, who are the preachers you respect? Who are the missionaries you respect? Who are the lay people that you respect? The ones that said, with all humility, with all candor, with all lack of deserving grace, this is the only gospel.

And I will tell it to you whether you kill me or promote me. Aren't those the people we look back and say, Susanna Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Mary Slessor, William Carey. How about John the Baptist? How about Ezekiel?

How about Jeremiah? Dressing it up, going, number one rule of all churches, don't step on anyone's toes. That's avoiding the cross, and voiding the cross. Let me tell you another way you could dress the cross up in a way to avoid it.

Dressing the Cross for Success

And I call this dressing the cross for success, dressing for success. Now, when I first tried to get a job in corporate America, I was told to have successful appearance, cut your hair, wear black wingtips, this is early 80s, wear a navy suit, maybe a little pinstripe, and then a nice red power tie with a white button-down shirt.

That was how you show yourself successful, dressing for success. How do some people dress the gospel for success? They so want success that they cut the corners, or they deliver it in such a way that they will get their numbers, they will get the baptisms, they will get the attendance.

And they take their eyes off the only person that matters when you evangelize, teach Sunday school, or preach from the pulpit, and that is God. You preach for God. It's not success, it's faithfulness.

I hope you like the sermon today, but I'm preaching for God. Is that the way you say, I've got a friend at work, and I hope they like this message, I hope they respond and repent and believe, but I'm preaching for God today.

I'm not out for success, because success in the Bible often is graduation unto glory by death, like Paul. We can't forget our audience. That's why this kind of nonsense from this saddleback pastor who says, we want to loosen up the tense muscles of the uptight visitors.

When your body's relaxed, your attitude is less defensive. We must be willing to adjust our worship services when unbelievers are present. God tells us to be sensitive to the hang-ups of unbelievers in our services.

We're in Second Assumptions 12. I mean, I don't know where that is found. If you're an unbeliever here today, we probably have cookies for you. I love you. Hope people were nice to you. Come back, you know, another day, we'd love to have you.

But you ought to consider your end, your latter end. I want you to think not about somebody else and, oh, I'm caught up in Tiger Woods transgressions. I'm caught up in this, that, and the other. Consider your latter end.

And if you hate me, or you hate me in person, you'll think I'm kind of nice. But I still, when you look at me, I want you to think, that guy thinks I need to get saved. That's exactly right. The customer isn't right in the local church.

And I'm not after trying to make your muscles relaxed. Frankly, I hope they're tightened up a big ball and you can't sleep at night until you do business with God. That's the best thing I could do for you.

God is a spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and with unrelaxed muscles. Relaxed muscles, whatever. I read of things rather in Titus chapter 1, holding fast the faithful word. Everywhere I go in the pastoral epistles, I hear this military language, this farming language, this soldiering language, this athletic language, where you say, it's time to stand up and to proclaim the truth.

Not to try to make you feel good. Not to try to say, I wonder if this will work. We had an elders meeting two Tuesday nights ago. What would you think if we met for five hours like we did? It's a longer meeting.

We met for five hours and we figured out a strategy to figure out, how are we going to get the church to work? And how we want it to grow? In five years, we want the church to be 10 ,000 people and having all kinds of land.

That's what we want. Friends, if that's the way you do things and that's your number one goal, then you will figure out a methodology and a preacher and a board and a congregation to get there. But it won't be God's way to get there, I'll tell you that.

Usually when the Bible, when people preached, there weren't that many people following. Well, you know, how many people at your church? What's your attendance? How much money do you have in the bank? I don't think it's like that at all.

When George Barna said, Jesus Christ was a communication specialist, he communicated his message in diverse ways with results that would be a credit to modern advertising and marketing agencies. Notice the Lord's approach.

He identified his target audience, determined their need, and delivered his message directly to them. By addressing the crowds in the mountainsides or Jews in the temple, he promoted his product in the most efficient way possible by communicating with the hot prospects.

I think if you look at the text, you will say there should be an analogy for Christianity and it's not retail, it's farming. I think you'd agree with me. It's not product, price, place, and promotion.

Last time I looked, the church was a her, not an it. And if you say this is the real gospel, but you try to promote it in a way that's like retail, friends, you are voiding the word of the cross. Some kind of market-driven consumerism.

I'll tell you what consumers want, fast, humorous entertainment. And Spurgeon was right when he said, pastors, you better make up your mind. Do you feed the sheep or do you entertain the goats? Make your choice.

And by the way, I'm not that good of an entertainer. And if you want entertainment, the Wang Theater is certainly better than what I can provide. The Tweeter Center is certainly better than what we can provide.

But there's one thing those other places, one thing they can't provide, and that is this, the gospel's free. Free sovereign grace to offer to all those who would look away from themselves and look to Christ Jesus.

It doesn't matter what sins you've committed or how many you've committed and against whom you have committed them. It is free for you to believe and to trust. Repent of your sins and believe the gospel.

It's free. I plead for you to come to Christ. I beg of you to come to Christ. One day, you'll hearken back. If you turn on my words, you'll say on judgment day as Jesus pushes you down to bow to him as it were.

She said, there was the offer. There was the free offer. And I must repent. God, I don't believe, but help my unbelief. Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. When you study the life of Christ, I don't think you'll find a marketer.

I don't think you'll find a pragmatist. I don't think you'll find someone who says, I'm really concerned about consumerism. Here's what you'll find. Oh, you're having problems? Then I'll give you a bigger problem.

Jesus Confronts the Crowd in John 6

You say, well, what's that all about? Turn with me to John chapter 6. We need to finish here, but I think it's going to rain and then get cold tonight. And who knows if it's going to storm. A year ago, we had the big storm.

So I think we're going to be canceling service. And so here's my Sunday night sermon right here. If you need to go, you can go. If not, let's take a look at the words of Christ. John chapter 6. Now, remember, early in chapter 6, the feeding of the 5 ,000 men, there are probably 20 ,000 total people.

The women aren't counted in the 5 ,000. The children aren't counted. That's a lot of people to feed. You know how much food we need to feed a crowd of 300 here? Here's 5 ,000, nay, 25 ,000. And so, you know, it's kind of nice.

They perceive Jesus as a walking Costco. Remember when I got back from India and from South Africa, I'd walk into the supermarkets and I'd go, there are 9 ,000 kinds of potato chips in America. And so, you just think of just how much there is, how little that they had back in those days.

And so they, hey, we want a king and we want this king to feed us. Verse 12, and when they were filled, he said to his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost. And so they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets and fragments from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten.

I mean, they ate as much as they wanted. Then, therefore, the people saw the sign which he had performed and said, this is of a truth, the prophet who is to come into the world. This is that mosaic prophet, Deuteronomy chapter 18, except it's not necessarily about forgiveness, it's about food.

This guy feeds us. This is an amazing prophet. We need to keep this guy around. Say, how do you get that? Verse 15, Jesus, therefore, perceiving that they were intended to come and take him by force to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone.

He knew they wanted to cuff him, put a straitjacket on him and say, by the way, you just stay over here until it's dinnertime and then we'll use you again. Now, when evening came, verse 16, his disciples went down to the sea and after getting into the boat, they started to cross the Sea of Capernaum.

It had already become dark and Jesus had not yet come to them. Watch this miracle. And the sea began to be stirred up because of the strong wind was blowing. Therefore, they had rowed about three or four miles.

They beheld Jesus walking on the sea, drawing near the boat and they were terrified. He said to them, in his eye, do not be afraid. They were willing, therefore, to receive him into the boat. Here's another miracle.

And immediately, the boat was at the land to which they were going. He walks on the water, gets in the boat, now the boat is at land. Next day, the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there except one.

And Jesus had not entered with his disciples into the boat. His disciples had gone away alone. There came other small boats from Tiberias near the place where they had ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

It's going to get hot. Watch Jesus, the marketing specialist. When the multitude, therefore, saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples, they got themselves into the small boat and came to Capernaum seeking some lunch, seeking Jesus.

And when they found him on the other side, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you get here? Now, Jesus knows the heart. Jesus knows they're not interested in spiritual matters at all. Jesus answered them and said, truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs but because you ate loaves and were filled.

You are superficial followers and you say, Jesus, where did you go? We want to follow you. Yes, because you want to feed your bellies. That's why. Now, that's a good way to have some people leave your ministry, don't you think?

They're seeking. And Jesus says, no, you're seeking fleshly things. You're not interested in spiritual things at all. You just want a lot of bread. You see me as some kind of home buffet Jesus. You just eat all you want whenever you want.

Verse 27, do I dare read it? Are you sure you love Jesus? Jesus, do not work for the food which perishes but for the food which endures to eternal life which the son of man shall give to you. For on him, the father, even God has sent his seal.

Therefore, they said to him, what should we do that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. You say, they're getting it.

They're going to get it here. We've got it. Verse 30, they said therefore to him, what then do you do for a sign that we may see and believe you? Like walk on water, like have the boat go over there, like feed 20 ,000 people.

Sign seeking always wants more sign seeking. Jews seek signs. Verse 31, you know what? You're nothing, Jesus, compared to Moses. You're small time. Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness. How many years, by the way?

40 years. And you fed us lunch. If I was dramatic, I'd take my finger and put it in my mouth and go pop. Big deal, Jesus. That's nothing. He gave them bread out of heaven to eat. I did a calculation. That's 14 ,600 days of food God provided to the Israelites.

And they say 14 ,600 to one. Actually it's 14 ,600 to one third because we only got lunch. Maybe one half in those days, he only ate twice. Outdo Moses or we won't believe you. And Jesus says, well, thank you for seeking.

Let me kind of loosen up the muscles in your neck and you'll be in good shape. I mean, I just love Jesus. I love it when he's tender and compassionate and he takes care of the prostitutes and the ladies and those that need healing.

And he's just a compassionate savior. But when people come with their own agenda and say, you do this for us, Jesus, he just acts differently. Jesus therefore said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you bread out of heaven, but it is my father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.

The bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world. Lord, evermore give us this bread. I am the bread of life. You're gonna try to cross-examine me? You're not satisfied with my answers?

I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Your fathers ate the man in the wilderness and they died.

This is the bread which comes down out of heaven so that no one may eat it and live. And then Jesus goes on to talk about his sacrificial death and then slide down to verse 66. We need to wrap up. As a result of this, many of his disciples withdrew and they were not walking with him anymore.

The Offense of the Cross, Romans 1, and Faithfulness Over Consumerism

Friends, you ought to mark this down in your theological mind. There are some offenses that are unavoidable. And that is the offense of the cross. It is unavoidable. And when you preach the cross, you're not trying to be offensive.

But you will preach the real cross with love and compassion. And it is an unavoidable offense. And you can try to wrap the gospel up in Armani, in cashmere, in some kind of dress for success. But Paul says there's a temptation to do that, but you just take the gospel that's powerful and you make it worth nothing.

Because the gospel has its power. And therefore, Paul says in Romans chapter 1, therefore I'm not ashamed of the gospel. For what? It's the power. Not marketing, not consumerism, not the way I say it, not the four Ps of product, place, price, and promotion.

It's the gospel. So know your gospel, preach it to the people, and watch the world explode for the glory of God, and then watch God bless you. There are priorities in ministry, and it's the gospel. But let's keep the gospel away from all the entanglements that the world says are good.

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.

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