We do because of who He is (Part 1)

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

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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.

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Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures verse by verse with No Compromise.

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Well I'm encouraged today already after watching the baptisms. I kept thinking to myself,

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I remember the day driving down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles where there was a group of us, we were coming home from church and I said to the carload of folks,

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I'm a Christian, I'm born again. And a guy looked over at me in the front seat and he said, you?

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You're a Christian? Because he knew my lifestyle, he knew what I did, he knew all about me.

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And I'm not really a fighter, but I wanted to hit him. And God used that like God used

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Pastor Steve in Eric's life. Ask and answer the question, am

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I really born again? And you know, I wish, I was just telling this to Bill Canton, I said,

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I wish I knew that guy's name. I wish I had his phone number. I mean, he'll know in glory, but I would love to be able to call him up and say, you know,

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God used that in my life. And shortly after that, God saved me. And by the grace of God, that guy sitting in the car, me,

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I'm a pastor. I get to preach about the free grace of Christ Jesus every single week and the

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Lord is blessing the preaching and the ministry and look at what one person can do when

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God uses that person. It's like the preacher when Spurgeon walked in as a young man and he heard the preacher, the guy couldn't even preach.

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So he just kept saying the words over and over, look, you know, look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And anyway, what a great

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God we have. How many, how many commandments are there? How many commandments are there?

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What would you say if I answered 11 is a story about Archbishop Usher and Samuel Rutherford.

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Archbishop was passing through Galloway, Scotland. And he went to Samuel Rutherford's house.

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What do you do for a living? Oh, I talk. I enunciate Samuel Rutherford.

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If I was in New England, I could use Samuel Rutherford and make it easy. Where are you going Chelmsford? My life would be easier.

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Maybe that's what happened. And Archbishop Usher went to Samuel Rutherford's house and the story goes, he was kind of disguised.

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Both were fairly well -known men. And so Samuel Rutherford would have people over all the time and then after dinner they would go through the catechism and ask questions and look at the

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Westminster Confession. A question was asked to the stranger, how many commandments are there? The Archbishop said 11.

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Rutherford said, no, there'd be 10. But Usher persisted, no, 11.

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Because Jesus gave a new commandment, John 13, 34, a new commandment

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I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another.

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Interesting. I want you to turn your Bibles to John chapter 13 and I want to talk about that for a minute before we get into 1

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Corinthians chapter 9. I have a desire here at Bethlehem Bible Church and that is to educate you as Christians to see the

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Gospel and it's important for your lives as Christians. The Gospel is not just for people who need to be saved.

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The good news about Christ's life, death, substitutionary atonement, perfect redemption, resurrection, etc.

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That's not just for Christians, excuse me, for unbelievers, it's also for Christians. So I'm trying lately before we just dive down into 1

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Corinthians 8, chapter 9, chapter 10 where there's lots of commands for Christians, I'm trying to, in a creative way, instill in your mind that before we go to the commands of Scripture, which are surely there, believe, keep on believing, praise, give thanks, be contented, show liberty, show love while you're exercising liberties, that it stems from a life that flows out of the

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Gospel. And so in the Gospel of John, and in 1 John, you see this mixture, what God has done, how we respond.

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And let me just teach you a paradigm right now that I've taught you before, but I'll remind you of this. Revelation, God revealing himself in Scripture, demands a response.

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Revelation, response. That's just a paradigm. And if you look closely, you'll see it, even in a worship service, call to worship, revelation, our response.

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You might ask yourself the question, why do we sing a hymn at the end of the service? Because we've heard from God's word, he's revealed his word to us, and then we respond with a song.

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It's revelation response. When you look at the sun and the moon and the stars, you should say, wow.

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When you see a baby being born, you go, that's incredible. There's a revelation of God shown generally, and we respond with praise.

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And then there's specific revelation, God unveiling himself, uncovering his mind, as it were, that we see, and then we go, oh, that's pretty amazing.

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So it's this revelation response paradigm. So what I want to make sure to do is, today when

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I encourage you and exhort you to love other Christians by thinking about your liberties, by saying maybe no to your liberties, that I first step back and remind you what the gospel is, and you go, you know, it's gospel, gospel, gospel around here.

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I'll never forget what D .A. Carson said. He said, if you ask some of my students at Trinity Evangelical Seminary, what are some things that I've taught them?

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He said, here's what they'll remember, because they won't remember everything. Can you imagine that, Sunday school teachers? I hate to tell you, but IBS teachers, your students don't remember everything you taught them.

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Actually, your teachers don't remember everything that they've learned either, and I'm noticing that the older I get, the less

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I remember. But here's what people do remember, things that you repeat all the time and things you're excited about.

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If the teacher's excited about something, so will the students be, and what a teacher repeats often and regularly, you'll remember.

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And so I think our generation of evangelicalism has kind of forgotten the gospel, because it's for Christians.

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It's how to get in. It's not for Christians. It's over here for brand new

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Christians, but later, you know, we've already moved past that. But the scriptures won't let us get away from the fact that we should be both excited about the gospel, and it's everywhere.

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So let me just show you, before we get to 1 Corinthians 9, go to John 13, and let's just walk through,

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I don't know, several passages, so you just get this paradigm. You get the paradigm that here's who

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God is, and therefore, in light of who He is, here's what I should do. Or to make it more bluntly, in John chapter 13 and following, and in 1

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John, God loved us. What do you think our response should be then? We should love too.

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Not only love Him, but love other people. Since God loved us, we love other people. That's the paradigm.

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John 13, 34. A new commandment. This is a fresh commandment.

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I give to you that you love one another. What do you mean new? I thought Leviticus talks about love your neighbor as yourself.

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Yeah, but this is new because this is not just neighbor love. This is family love. You are to love one another. That's the imperative.

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That's the command. But it stems from the indicative. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

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By this all people will know or recognize that you are my disciples, John 13, 35, if you have love for one another.

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You have been loved, therefore love. That's exactly what we're going to learn about in 1 Corinthians 9.

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Since we've been loved, since we've been saved, justified, since we are being sanctified, since we will be glorified, let's love other people.

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Go to John 15 if you would. Just a little survey here. Again, trying to remind us all. Well, since God has saved us, then our obedience isn't to be saved.

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Our obedience is in light of our salvation. And when you know how great your sins are and how much

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God loves you, then it's a lot easier to obey. It's a lot easier to be motivated.

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John 15, 12, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

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Isn't that neat? It's not just love, love, love. He can say love, but hear both of those, just like in John chapter 13.

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Since I've loved you, you love other people. I say this all the time, but I have to preach it to myself, so I'll repeat it again.

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I want to be excited about it as I repeat it. This is the way you motivate people long term.

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This is the way you motivate anyone, even short term. Since God has lavished his love on you, then respond with obedience.

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And my default is do, don't, stop, start, get going, up and at them.

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I ask you the question that I have to ask myself all the time when I hear these imperatives come out of my mouth to my kids.

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It's okay to give imperatives, stop it, start it, up and at them.

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Whatever I tell my kids, it's fine for me to say, after all, I'm the king of the castle. It's okay.

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But if God parents, as it were, if the paradigm of the world is, here's who you are in Christ, therefore live an outflow of that, then how do

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I parent? And left to myself, without special revelation, I parent by saying, don't, stop, start, get going.

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I wonder if that's how you parent. And if you do, the gospel liberates you to say, I love you, apple of my eye,

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I pray for you. I couldn't be more thankful that God has given me you as a son and three daughters.

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And in light of who you are, what do you think you ought to do? Start, stop, get going, go.

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But that's the way it goes. That's how you motivate people in a local church. If you're a boss, that's how you motivate your employees.

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This is the way it works. It's not just love other people, because Mormons teach that.

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Name me a religion that doesn't say you shouldn't love, Hindus, Buddhists. They all get the commandment, the golden, kind of the key commandment, love others as you want to be loved.

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But since God in Christ Jesus has loved you, then you love one another. There's a liberating, liberating thought.

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John 15, 13, greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

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Let's go to 1 John chapter 3, just want to read you a few verses so you can see it. I want you to see it everywhere.

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When my wife was pregnant for the first time with our first daughter, I won't mention her name, because I don't feel like paying her a dollar this morning, because all my kids get a dollar if I mention their names.

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Oh, I feel generous, Haley, Luke, Maddie, Gracie. What do I care? I walked around and I thought, everybody's pregnant, at least all the ladies.

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I mean, there, I'm thinking, look at that, everywhere you go, I couldn't believe how many pregnant people there were.

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But I was noticing it because my wife was pregnant. I'm thinking, wow, she's pregnant. This is an amazing thing.

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It's the same thing. You start seeing that God's sovereign over weather, over skin color, over circumstances, over who goes to heaven, over who goes to hell.

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God is sovereign. And you get that in your brain, and what begins to happen? It's everywhere.

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You just turn the Bible page after page, and it's like all of a sudden you have these new glasses to see. It's everywhere you go.

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And I want you to see that, the sovereignty of God in scriptures. And I also want you to get, put in, it's not always indicative, then imperative.

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Sometimes it's imperative, then indicative. It's everywhere you go, because that's the way God does things. Here's what

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I've done for you in light of that, respond. Husbands love your wives.

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That's just moralism if you stop there. Anybody could tell you that. Husbands love your wives like Christ loved the church.

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And 1 John, it does the same thing. It's great. It's just all mixed up, because there they are.

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See chapter 3, verse 1 of 1 John, what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called the children of God, and so we are.

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The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Verse 10, by this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.

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Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

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Verse 11, for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

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Verse 14, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

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Verse 16, by this we know, love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

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You see it? There it is again. He loved us. We love other people. How about verse 7 of the next chapter, 1

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John 4, 7? Makes me want to preach 1 John. Beloved, 1

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John 4, 7, let us one love another. For love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows

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God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. 1

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John 4, 9, in this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent

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His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Verse 10, in this is love, not that we have loved

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God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And then in light of what

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God has done, beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another.

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Verse 19, we love because He first loved us. So two thoughts from John and 1

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John. God loves us. We respond with love. And secondly, let's turn to 1

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Corinthians chapter 9 because that's the whole passage. How to love other Christians, even though you have your own rights to do your own things when it comes to Christian liberty.

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Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. We're working through 1 Corinthians. And instead of just recapping chapter 1 every single week, here's what

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God has done. Let's therefore live in light of it. Just taking a few tangents before we jump into the passage on a regular basis so you know who you are in Christ.

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So then it's easier to respond. You're more thankful. You have a deeper sense of gratitude and you're responding and it's just not me up here giving you how -to's, get going, hurry up.

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It's, you know what, if God so loved me like that, how should I respond? If somebody loves me that much, what's the response?

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1 Corinthians chapter 9. Well, 1

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Corinthians chapter 8, 9, and 10 are a big section, aren't they? And they're a big section that talks about this.

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As a Christian, you have certain liberties to do certain things that don't affect salvation, that aren't clearly talked about in the

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Bible as sin or not sin. How do we exercise our liberties and do we exercise them in love?

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And here's Paul's big point, that the gospel takes the priority over our liberties.

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We have liberties to do things, but don't forget that the gospel takes priority. And I'll show you one verse that sets everything up so you'll know where we're going.

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Verse 12. This is the verse that unlocks chapter 9. If you don't know this verse, you don't know its key, it doesn't unlock anything.

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Paul is going to talk about things today that you're going to go, what does this have to do with anything? But 12 unlocks it.

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This is why he's talking about what he's talking about here. If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?

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Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than to put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

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Paul in chapter 9 says this. I'm going to spend half the chapter telling you why

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I have the right to have you pay me. And then the rest of the chapter, verse 15 and following in chapter 9,

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I'm going to tell you why I refuse your money. It's weird. Fourteen verses. You ought to,

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I could demand that you pay me as an apostle. Verses 15 and following, I'm not going to take any of your money.

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Why? Because it's a gospel priority. So you've put everything together and you're thinking big picture.

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Gospel priority and Christian liberties. Do you have Christian liberties? Yes. Are the liberties that we have in this congregation different?

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We differ on certain debatable things. Yes. But it's always as my sermon, the sign out there,

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I'm not really good on sermon signs or titles necessarily, but it's gospel is the engine and liberties are the caboose.

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Always that way. It's not the other way around. I have my liberties and it's gospel down here, but we exercise our liberties in light of the gospel.

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How does my liberty to do X, Y, and Z affect the gospel? That's what Paul is talking about.

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So let's look at chapter nine. I think I can get through the first 14 verses. What do you want to, Chris Cloyd just shook his head.

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I think we can do it because what Paul is going to do, it's very, very interesting. Paul is going to say,

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I want you to practice what I preach. Now of course the ultimate sacrifice and where his eyes will eventually put us is on Christ Jesus and his gospel, but he uses himself as an illustration.

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And he's going to try to say this, you Corinthians are exercising liberties that are hurting the gospel.

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I, on the other hand, am not going to exercise liberties that hurt the gospel. So look at my example. What would

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Paul do? Look what I'm doing. I'm an apostle. I was sent here. If it wasn't for me, God using me, there would be no church here.

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There'd be no salvation here. Look what I do. And as you look what I do, that's what you should be doing. And it doesn't even seem like it fits in.

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Paul's talking about why he's an apostle, why he can be an apostle, why he could have them pay money.

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It doesn't seem to fit, but it does fit. Chapter eight, we have liberties in Christ Jesus.

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Chapter nine says, you know what, Paul, the apostle declares, I'm not going to exercise my liberties, even though I.

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So what are we going to do for an outline today? It's kind of a, it's a hard outline because it's not telling you to do anything.

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There's nothing really here. Here's what it's telling you to do. Look at Paul. Look at Paul. So maybe that's the outline.

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And you know, the other weird thing about this passage in chapter 19, how many questions do you think are in chapter 19 in the

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English? Five, 10, 15, 19 questions in chapter nine, 19 questions.

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And this is oratory at its finest, rhetorical questions at their pinnacle.

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He is asking questions and he's getting them kind of back on their heels because the Corinthians are like, hey, who are you?

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You can almost feel their chins getting stuck out saying, you know, give me a hit right here because we are saved by Christ and his grace, and therefore we can live in light of that.

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We have liberties to do whatever we want. And Paul dismantles their thinking by using 19 questions.

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Maybe we could call the sermon today 19, two and one. Nineteen questions, two points, driving home one issue.

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Nineteen questions. Here are the two points. I can get paid, point one, point two,

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I won't take your money. You're like, wait a second, I've had a bad week.

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How's this supposed to help me get through another week? I've got a tough Monday going on. Well, when you're involved in a text like this,

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I haven't even thought about Monday yet. I'm not even dealing with those issues. And God wants us to know this. You need to know about apostles, you need to know about their rights, you need to know what's going on.

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And this is just the next segment. If this wasn't in the scripture, I wouldn't preach it. And as I studied it, I thought

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I'd love to preach this. Who can I preach this to? Nineteen questions, two points, and one major issue.

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Here's the issue. The gospel takes priority over everything in my life. I guess

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I could just front load it now for just a second. Let's just think about your life for just a moment. How does the gospel priority show up, show itself up in your lives?

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Work, school, home, away, wherever you are, whatever you do, you think that gospel takes priority over everything

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I do. That's why I exist. By the way, if you're married, your marriage exists for one reason, and it's not one reason of getting along, vacation, companionship, those are all fine and dandy.

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You live for one reason, and that is so the gospel is proclaimed. And the sooner you get that through your head, our marriage exists to highlight the gospel, the better off your marriage is going to be.

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Because just to use the vernacular, if the focus is on the family, the family is crushed because that's the wrong focus.

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The focus is, if I were ever going to start a radio show, I'd probably call it not the focus on the family. I'd say the focus on the gospel priority of the family, why we exist.

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So let's look at Paul surrendering his rights after he makes sure they know he has the rights.

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And you're going to really resonate with this because how many people here think you should get paid for working?

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I mean, can you imagine going to work and never getting paid? You'd be calling the union steward,

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S, flight attendant, whatever they're called. I should get paid, I'm working.

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And Paul is going to say, you know what? That's not the case. For the gospel sake, no.

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Very, very interesting. And he's going to call them, and I call you to follow his example.

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And that is, gospel takes priority over my Christian liberties. That's the message in a nutshell.

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Gospel -centered liberties, maybe we should call it that. Restricting our freedom for the sake of the gospel.

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New Christians, they figure out they have liberty in Christ and whether it's alcohol or tobacco or anything else, it's flaunt liberties.

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And Paul would look at flaunting liberty people and he'd just say, grow up. He'd say, you know what he'd say?

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He'd say, follow my example. I don't do that. I don't flaunt liberties at the sake of the gospel because the gospel drives everything

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I do. So let's see Paul's status because Paul, in the first two verses, talks about his rights.

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And let the questioning begin. I wanted there to be 20 questions. There are 19.

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17 in the first 14 verses. They're everywhere. Verse 1, 1 Corinthians 9.

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Am I not free? These first four all require yes answers, by the way. He knows the

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Corinthians already know this. Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen

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Jesus our Lord? No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 830 and 11 AM and Sunday evenings at 6

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PM. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org

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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.