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Mike preaches a "Jet Tour" through 1 Corinthians! You have never read a book like this book. Buckle your seatbelts!
No Compromise Radio. Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroff. 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.
And Paul says in verse 21 of chapter 4, what do you desire? When I come back and talk to you, if I'm able to do that, shall I come to you with a rod or with love and a spirit of gentleness? Do you want me to come back and paddle you with a rod?
Is that what you need or is it time to grow up? It's time for you to act like men, if you're a man, and grown women, if you're women. Paul says, speaking of rods, you don't use rods in your own church.
I should give you one because you don't use any in your own church. We come to the second problem, not just divisions, but lack of discipline. Show me a church without discipline and I'll show you a church that's not a church.
It's not, you don't discipline your child because you hate them, you discipline your child because you love them. Chapter 5, there was immorality in the church and they just let it go. They didn't really care about it.
Look at chapter 5, verse 1. I think we need a good dose of this in evangelicalism. Chapter 5, verse 1, it is actually reported. It is actually reported. I can't believe it, but it's actually reported.
Who would ever think of this? This is like some kind of heinous sin is in the church. This is Jerry Springer, but not in the studio, but in the church. Paul says, I just can't get over it. You're supposed to be saints, holy, set apart, God's called out one, and you're letting this immorality in the church.
There's immorality among you. This is sexual immorality. You want to know to what degree there's sexual morality? And immorality of a kind that does not even exist among the Gentiles. This is not what Jerry Springer people do.
This is not, this is worse than that, that someone has his father's wife, someone's sleeping with his mother-in-law. And instead of getting the rod out, instead of saying this sin has to be dealt with or these people need to be excommunicated, what do they do?
They say, we can take it. We can deal with this. We're arrogant. We're prideful. Verse 2, you have become arrogant and have not mourned. You should be crying for that person and crying for the bride of Christ sullied so the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
There are reasons for church discipline. One is to restore the person. But there's also a reason to say there's leaven in the church, expel it. Show me a church that says, I won't do church discipline because it's unloving, because we'll get sued, because we'll do all these things.
I'll show you a Corinthian carnal church. You say, I don't like that. Well, I never thought you would. I don't like it either, but truth is truth. Paul says in verse 3, so discipline him. Though absent in body, but present in spirit.
Have already judged him. If I would have been there, I would have done it because I've done it here. I'm just not there. Verse 4, in the name of our Lord Jesus, Lord, Master, Sovereign, someone that you're supposed to obey.
When you are assembled and I with you in spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus, you've got the power to do it. If you're weak, here's the power of Christ Jesus. Here's what Paul did. I've decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Paul said this, if I was there, we would have kicked that person out. And when you church discipline someone, here's what you say, according to the Bible, we will hand him over or her over to Satan and Satan might ravage that person's body and health.
But what we're after is that God would save his spirit before the destruction is over. There are Christian, Christians fall into sin and church discipline. We're still after the right thing. Can you imagine how important is church purity?
It's so important that when the church kicks someone out, according to Matthew 18 and Titus chapter three and other passages that we looked at even last week, the church says you are handed over to Satan.
By the way, that's not a good way to keep a lot of people at your church. If you're looking for just numbers, but if you're looking for purity and if you want godly wisdom and if you want godly growth, would you be willing to do it?
That's the issue. Like I said, when you look at this book, who talks this way? Who preaches this way? What would you do if you got a letter like this? If I got a letter like this from John MacArthur, I would keel over and there's only John MacArthur.
How about Paul the apostle? Here's the apostle Paul and here's MacArthur. You know, there are, there's leagues in between them, but how about the apostle, the sent one of Jesus Christ? It's not Paul giving this letter to the church.
It is Jesus Christ. If you tolerate sin in your church, you're going to become contaminated. To use the language of apple picking, one bad apple, what? Spoils the whole bunch. So Paul said, don't tolerate it.
Cleanse the church. And he talks about that in verse 7, clean out the old leaven. You say, well, what else did they do? Chapter 6, they would sue each other. They would sue each other. Chloe's people wrote to Paul and said, you know what?
They're suing each other here. What do we do? Chapter 6 verses 1 to 8, just listen to the language. Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?
You mean you're going to say, well, we won't deal with it in a house with people who are qualified spiritually. We'll go to the pagan unbeliever as a judge. Maybe he's a good judge. Maybe he's a nice judge.
Maybe he's a family judge. But he's still not the one to judge the church because Jesus has given judgment to the church to the leaders of the church. He says, don't do that. It makes you look bad. You say, I want to get my revenge.
I want to get what's mine. And Paul says, that's false wisdom. That's man's wisdom. Don't think that way. What would be better? Just let it go. What you have, just let it go. It's all from God anyway.
So just let it go. It's not that big of a deal. You're so prideful. You're so occupied with who you are and what you have and your social status. Just let it go. You're going to judge angels one day, he says.
And then he says, there's another problem, a lack of purity. Chapter 6, verse 9 to 20. Some people are having division. Some people are having impurity regarding immorality, and they won't judge. Others are saying, you know what?
We'll just sue people. And now, look at this. Some of the most amazing verses in all the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9, are, do you not know? Paul says, you should know. Everybody should know this, that the unrighteous, those that aren't righteous like God, will not inherit the kingdom of God.
And if you're not careful, you're going to be tricked. Do not be deceived. Why did he write that? Because you can be deceived. You can say, I've got a friend who's a fornicator. It's my sister who's the adulterer.
It's my father who's the homosexual. There's all kinds of family relationship things. And you could say, I better think like the world does. I better not cast pearls, I mean, I better not cast my judgment.
Paul says, think biblically. Neither fornicators, this is lifestyle stuff, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will what?
Inherit the kingdom of God. When these people act like that, they show they're not Christians. And Paul says, you ought to think that way, Church of Corinth. The great liberating news is verse 11. Such were some of you, you used to be that way.
And when God's Spirit got a hold of you, you're different. I mean, think about it this way. When the all-powerful God of the universe, the Holy Spirit, makes you born again, quickens you, seals you, illumines your mind, regenerates you, you mean to tell me that you won't be different in any way, shape, or form, and you'll live your lives like you always live your lives?
No way. You were washed, verse 11, you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord. Why does he say Lord all the time? Because they're not acting like he's Lord, and in the Spirit of our God.
Paul says, you're going to try to say this. Well, God, you made us and you gave us hormones, and those hormones want to work. And so, when I'm hungry, I eat. When I have a sexual desire, I want to engage in that.
Paul says that's the wrong kind of thinking. They even had slogans for it. Remember the slogan? What does chapter 6 say about that slogan? Here's their slogan, chapter 6, verse 13. Food is for the stomach, and the stomach for food.
Hey, I get hungry, I got to eat. I want to fornicate, have adultery, or be an idolater, or homosexual. I just have to do it. I have those desires. I have those urges. Paul said, that's not the way you think.
That's abusing this kind of language, and it's not even profitable, verse 14 and following. It doesn't do any good. By the way, verse 20, you've been bought with a price. Your body has been brought with a price.
Therefore, glorify God in your body, assuming that fornication, homosexuality, all the rest, doesn't glorify God in your body. Paul says, don't do that. You can't do that. Paul gives an introduction. Paul says, there's some issues I address, and then now he comes to reply to their questions, and now is the time we have to speed up even faster.
I knew this was going to happen, but that's okay. If you don't get through everything, you'll just have to come in three years to make sure you hear me talk on these verses. At Grace Church, where I grew up, we wouldn't say, how long have you been at Grace Church?
We would say like this. We'd say something like this. What was John preaching when you got here? I'd say, oh, I got here in 1 Thessalonians 3. Oh, I got here in Matthew 7, and then some of the old timers would go, I was here when he was preaching through John.
Okay, okay. If you're new, you say, I got here when we were going through 1 Corinthians five years ago. There's divisions in the church. Paul addresses it. Lack of discipline. People are suing each other.
There's no purity. Now, Paul makes a transition, verse 1 of chapter 7. Now, concerning the things about which you wrote, remember, there's an easy outline, intro, conclusion. He deals with the four issues from Chloe's household, and now he answers the six questions.
That is 1 Corinthians. When you know the outline, then you can go to a passage, and you can figure it out a little easier. And the first question was, is celibacy legitimate? He talks about marriage and divorce and other things.
Now, what you don't know is this, or maybe you do know, Corinth was pagan. Corinth was so bad, people would go to the temple and to commune with the gods. If you were a man, you'd sleep with the prostitute, and that would be the highlight of communion.
That would be the way that there would be the actual communion with the gods. And all of a sudden, if you were doing that, and then you got saved out of it, what do you think might be your temptation?
I know for me, when I was in drugs and alcohol before I got saved, when I got saved, I said, alcohol's from the devil. And I went farther than what the scriptures talk about, alcohol. Alcohol can be abused, drunkenness is always sin, but alcohol isn't from the devil.
Read Psalm 104 sometime. Read what God did when he judged Israel, like, not give them wine, et cetera. But we go too far, is my point. You know, you say, well, I used to like rock music. I get saved, and then you think, I can't listen to rock music at all, even though some rock music is probably fine and dandy to listen to.
Pagan, idolatry, worship, sex, and all of a sudden, you get saved, and you go, when I think about that topic, it's all fleshly, carnal, no. And it's even worse, because for a woman, let's say, she gets saved and her husband's still involved in all that, and he's a pagan.
The woman says, do I sleep with a pagan unbeliever who goes to the prostitute temple house? What do I do? So they ask Paul, and Paul responds, verse 1. Now, concerning the things about what she wrote, it's good for a man not to touch a woman.
This is cloaked language for sexual touch. Because of immoralities, but because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. And so Paul says, it's fine.
He says in chapter 7, verse 3, the husband must fulfill his duty to the wife, physically, intimately, likewise also the wife to her husband. Don't get saved out of some sex cult and then say, husband and wife can't be together.
Paul says, that's not the way you do it at all. Verse 5, there were some people depriving their spouse because of this carnality. Stop depriving one another, physically, sexually. Why? Because you're going to let Satan right into your house if you do that.
If you're able to, and you deprive, there's a problem. And then he says, but this, next verse, I say by way of concession, not of command. I wish that all men were even as myself. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and one in that manner.
If God has given you the gift of singleness, then fine. Then serve the Lord. If God has not given you the gift of singleness, then it's okay to be married. It's okay to be with your spouse. It's okay to stay married.
And so, Paul talks about this issue. He talks about celibacy, he talks about immorality, he talks about not abandoning the duties of a spouse has to their husband or their wife. And he says, by the way, let's make it further.
What if you're the wife who's married to the pagan, you're the Christian, besides the issue of intimacy, you say this, I got to get divorced. Forget just that issue of intimacy, I've got to divorce the person.
And Paul will say in this chapter, if he, the pagan, wants to live with you, you may not get divorced. You must stay with this person because of what God might do. He says in verse 10, look with me. To the married, I give instructions, not I, but the Lord.
He's quoting, this is what Jesus said in essence. If Paul said, it's me, it's the same import. But he said, this was Jesus' teaching. Remember when Jesus was on earth? That the wife should not leave her husband.
If she does leave, she better remain unmarried. Is it okay to be married to an unbelieving spouse? Of course, verse 12, but to the rest, I say, not the Lord. Jesus didn't address this, but I, the apostle, with full Holy Spirit authority, say that if any brother has a wife who's an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her.
Only two ways out of a marriage and only two ways. There is immorality based on one of the partners. That could still be forgiven. And if the unbelieving spouse wants to leave because you're a Christian, you let them go.
Anything else is not biblical. You say, well, but what if I was in this sin? I've been married 14 times, and I went to these 14 cold houses, and then I got saved, and then I'm married to this lady, and this lady's been divorced 13 times, and she was a temple prostitute.
And now we get together, can I marry that person, and what could I do? I am married, and now it's too late to back up. What do I do? And Paul has a theme in the rest of chapter seven. What's that theme word?
Remain. You can't unscrew the inscrutable. You can't kind of take the egg that's been already whipped up. The way you are, the way God saved you, you just said I live an ungodly lifestyle. I act like an unbeliever.
I'm now a Christian, and now I'll stay a Christian with the woman that you have given me. Second question, speaking of temples, what about eating meat that had been offered to idols? I find it interesting when I go to a Chinese restaurant, and we walk in, and there's a little temple up there, and there's a little cat god.
I'm just thinking, there's that kind of smiley little, I don't know what they're called, that's a nice little cat god up there. And I go, I know all the food here has been dedicated to this cat god. I don't know what cat gods eat.
There's usually some kind of little orange up there or something. Can you imagine, here's the orange up there, and they go, you know what? They need a little more stuff on their plate, and we've got to find that orange for that orange chicken.
We can't find it. They take that orange from the orange chicken, make it, and give it to you. Do you eat it? You go, where's this guy coming from? I have no idea, but it's that kind of thing. It's cheaper to get meat that's offered to idols than just go down and pay full price.
Is it okay for a Christian to eat? And Paul answers the question, and we don't have time to go through this right now, but here's what he says, as you increase in your knowledge of false gods, which aren't gods at all, and you eat, the increase of knowledge that you have regarding that should also see in your life an increase of love for people that don't have that knowledge.
With the increase of knowledge, chapter 8, 9, and 10, should come the increase of love. And if you're around a person who's a new Christian, and they don't want to eat that because they think there's a demon in there, and they think if they eat some of that demon food, somehow the demon's going to get them, or they're not thinking properly, you go, it's okay, I won't eat any food.
Because as my increased knowledge goes up, I mean, as my knowledge is increased, sure, then I won't eat any meat. I'll be a vegan, I'll be a vegetarian, it's no big deal. Because I want to love you. Increased knowledge, increased love.
They're not really idols anyway, but we'll make sure we're showing love and humility. And so Paul says in chapter 9, let me show you my love and humility. Let me show you how I could demand money from you as an apostle, and I just, with humility and love, worked.
I just worked. You didn't even have to support me. You want to see what it's like when it comes to humility and love and a lack of pride for weak Christians who don't think they can eat food offered to a fake idol?
Let me just show you from my own life, chapter 9. I want to work with humility and love. He appeals to what he did. He didn't have to, but he did. And we move to the next question, and we're going to now even get close to wrapping it up.
How am I going to do this? I have no idea how I'm going to do this. Let's just keep going, see what happens. Question three, should women have their head covered in a public worship service? There were problems, and so they wrote about it.
And here's what was happening. According to chapter 11, that wives, to show that they have someone over them, they have head covered. So they would walk around Corinth, outside the house, and they'd have their head covered.
And so everyone would know, oh, that person has a husband, they have their head covered. Now when they would go into the temple of a false god, they would say this, I have no husband over me, only God is over me, Diana.
Off goes the veil. Somebody says, well, is this right, Paul? So Paul said, listen, even though you're equal in essence, even though the father and the son are equal in essence, chapter two says, there is a functional subordination, although equal in nature.
So too, the women who show themselves to have a head, and that is their husband, need to make sure when they go to corporate worship services, that they just don't go, God is over me, not my husband, and throw the thing off.
So Paul addresses that, and I know you're all thinking now, does that mean it's for today? I'll see you in two years. We'll talk about that. I will say this, no matter what we preach, we will not have doilies at the door, and you will be required to have a doily on your head if you're a married woman, or else you won't be allowed in.
We won't do that. How's that? You're relieved? People say, well, yeah, we don't do that in our city. Paul says in chapter 11, verse 16, we do it in every city. Question four, what about the Lord's Supper?
Here's what happens in the Lord's Supper, chapter 11, verse 23, and we're just gonna wrap things up quickly. Here's what happens. I'm rich. I don't have to work because people work for me. I go to the Lord's Supper early at noon, and I get tons of food, and I get a drink all day long.
And by the time slave, servant, gets done working at 8 o 'clock, they show up to the love feast, and all the best stuff is gone, and all the alcohol's gone, and I didn't save anything. Paul says, you know what?
This is the Lord's Supper. This is communion. We are all leveled because of the Lord's table. Don't go early and eat all this food and get drunk at the expense of the other poor guy, our gal who has nothing to eat.
Fifth question found in chapters 12, 13, and 14. Are tongues the end all and be all of spiritual gifts? And Paul says, not even close. You, Corinth, say gifts of the tongues are at the top. And Paul says, you don't even know what's at the top.
You don't understand spirituality at all. You do it without love. And then Paul in chapters 12, 13, and 14 says, let me put tongues in their place. And for sure, their place is not at the top, Corinth.
Well, I don't know if, is Jesus gonna be raised from the dead? Is resurrection important? When I die, will I go to heaven? Chapter 15, last question, how important is the resurrection? Just how important is the resurrection?
And Paul says, it's very, very important. Some people would say, you know, Corinth people die, and there's no afterlife. Paul says, ideas have consequences. If you deny the resurrection of these people, you're gonna deny resurrection in general.
You'll deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's not what you want to do. Paul says, I'll prove from the scriptures, Jesus was raised from the dead, chapter 15, verse 3. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, he was really dead, and that he was raised on the third day.
You want more proof of the resurrection? Eyewitnesses, chapter 15, verse 5 and 6. And if you deny it, you're in trouble. Then Jesus isn't, he hasn't been raised from the dead. Your faith is in vain. You suffer now for no good reason later.
Paul answers the question, is the resurrection important? Absolutely. People say, yeah, but how can the resurrected body be the same? It can't be earthly. There's the body on earth and the body for heaven.
That seems like it's weird, one body, two bodies. And Paul says, there's different kinds of flesh. Seeds are sown, but grain appears. And then Paul says, the resurrection body is going to be incorruptible, glorious, powerful, spiritual, and like Jesus' body.
There's a real resurrection. Paul gives a conclusion. He talks about chapter 16, verse 1 and 4, about guidelines for giving on a regular basis. Why do we give on Sundays? This is just a guideline, maybe not prescribed, but a good description.
Paul talks about his visit in verses 5 through 9, and then we close with this, verse 13 and 14 of chapter 16. If the church were to do these things, their problems would be solved. How do you stop from being a church of Corinth?
Here are five commands that, of course, are driven by the spirit of God and his power, but these are the commands. They are pithy, they are pointed, they are particular. Be on the alert. They weren't.
They weren't having their eyes wide open to these issues. They were just going along to get along. Stand firm in the faith. They were standing firm in wisdom of man. Act like men. Knowing what we do now about the whole book, they weren't acting like men.
They were acting like babies. Act like men, Corinth. Be strong. It takes courage. It takes loyalty. It takes strength to obey the gospel of our king. And then wrap it all up with love. Let all that you do be done in love.
It wasn't loving to have divisions in the church. It wasn't loving to sue other people in the church. It wasn't loving to somehow not kick people out of the church. It wasn't loving to say tongues is the end all.
It's not loving to say I'm going to eat this meat even though it's going to make you stumble. So do everything with love. First Corinthians is the book that God wants us to study, I'm convinced. First Corinthians will show us the errors of others so that we run from those and run to the cross.
First Corinthians will change our church and it will change you.
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 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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