1 Corinthians 03-08-10

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No Compromise Radio Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author,

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Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the

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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 don't know about you, but Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. One of the reasons why it's my favorite is because I get to put on whatever

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I want onto my plate and no one's offended. Typically every day in my life we have to have veggies and I have to eat them as the good dad and have the squash and the carrots.

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But on Thanksgiving, I pretty much will only put these things on my plate, dressing, turkey and cranberry sauce, that's it.

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All the other stuff might be fine, but I personally get to choose what goes on my plate. I choose not those things,

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I choose this thing. I also like it because I get to put as much on my plate as I want to.

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I've been to other cultures before overseas and as a guest speaker, as a conference speaker, there are literally people three feet away from me with bowls and spoons at the ready, at the starting gate as it were, that if there's one inch of space open on my plate, they're rushing in like an owl swooping down on a mouse to make sure that thing is filled up.

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Whether it's South Africa or India or Germany, it's just the guest speakers here, we have to keep their food there.

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I'm typically on some kind of low -carb diet at the time, so the rice just keeps coming on and on and on,

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I'm thinking, on Thanksgiving, I get to choose what goes on that plate.

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Interestingly, there are people, mostly not from our church I know, but there are people in this world that have the same view of the

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Bible as I do of Thanksgiving, and we call those people cafeteria

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Christians. I like all the parts about God's patience,

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I like all the parts about God's love. When it comes to doctrines that we're not too comfortable with, we resort to,

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I don't want to talk about it, I don't want to hear about it. It's like the person that will not face truth and they just put their fingers in their ears and they just go, la, la, la, la, la,

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I'm not going to talk about it. But today I want to talk about a subject that if you grasp properly and rightly, it will help you understand who

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God is and what He thinks about church unity. And I'm going to talk to you this morning, in a lengthy introduction to 1

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Corinthians, about God's, are you ready? Hatred. Now, most of us, we wouldn't say, give me a double portion of the hatred of God.

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I really want to study and memorize those verses about what God literally loathes.

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When it comes to God's abhorrence, and God thinking about things and people as odious,

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I don't really want to talk about those things. But friends, if you understand the Bible, you will understand that God is not just a

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God who's a God of love, but He's a holy God. And what would you think of someone who didn't hate sin?

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What would you think of someone who just was a judge, who just let everything go? There's something even built into the warp and woof of our fabric that says, justice must be done.

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And for the church at Corinth, the church at Corinth, they couldn't remember. They would force themselves actually to forget what

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God thought of unity in the Old Testament. And Paul had taught them the Old Testament for 18 months.

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So my question today is, if you had to put a list together of what God hated, based on the

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Bible, how long would your list be? What would be on your list? And by the way, if God says

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He hates something, should we love those things? Shouldn't it be our desire to say,

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I want to be just like Christ, and what He hated, God, make me hate. And what

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He loved, I want to love. That's a sign of a maturing Christian. So turn with me, if you would, to the book of Leviticus, way back in your

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Old Testament. We're going to look at some of the Mosaic law, some of the prophetic writings, and some of the history of Israel that shows you a theme.

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And the theme is this, what God hates. Because I want you to A, know it, B, hate it as well, and it will actually help our church unity.

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Because we're going to see at the apex something very odd and something very strange. You'll be surprised by what

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God hates the most, in other words. Turn to Leviticus chapter 18.

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Now remember, as we look at these things in the Old Testament, don't be one of those people that says basically this, that's the

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Old Testament, it's a different God, there's all kinds of manuscript problems, we can't trust the

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Old Testament. When Jesus appeared on earth and took His human flesh,

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He could have said, the Old Testament stuff that's about love and joy and peace, that's all really from the

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Bible. All that other stuff about God's holiness, righteousness, justice, wrath, hatred, that's a different God.

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That came from paganism, that's some kind of pagan view of God, get that out of the

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Bible. But what did Jesus do from Genesis through Malachi in our Old Testament? He what?

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He affirmed them. If you call yourself a Christian and you want to follow Christ, you will have the same view of the

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Old Testament as the one who is your self -professed King, as you should.

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And so what we're going to do is we're going to take a little quick jaunt through the Old Testament to see what

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God hates and I want you to A, be educated, B, ask yourself the question, do I hate those same things?

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And then I think you'll be surprised at the very end of this lengthy introduction, a surprise thing that God hates that I think is actually quite shocking.

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Leviticus 18 .22. Things that God finds an abomination, things that he finds detestable or he loathes or as one translation calls it, things of horror.

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And they're sprinkled out throughout the Old Testament. We'll just look at one to start and then we'll continue on.

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Leviticus 18 .22. You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is an what?

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An abomination. It is loathsome to God. Homosexuality, most

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Christians today know that that is a perversion and is repugnant to God. You say, well, that's no surprise.

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Let's go to another book, Deuteronomy. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Something else that God hates, not just homosexuality, but God hates idolatry.

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We're going to do a little survey and you say, well, I don't believe any of these things. You don't understand. You're not politically correct.

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You don't understand the culture. I'm trying to just show you what the Bible teaches about these things. This is what

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Jesus had for his Bible. Deuteronomy 7 .25.

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What else does God hate? What does he abhor? Well, Deuteronomy 7 .25

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says, the graven images of their gods you are to burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the

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Lord your God. Homosexuality is an abomination to God, the text says, and also idolatry.

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How about Deuteronomy 22? This might strike you as odd, especially in our day,

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Deuteronomy 22 .5. By the way, my list is not all inclusive. I'm just picking some random things so you get an idea that I'm not off my rocker when it comes to something that God might hate.

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Friends, we've got to take all the Old Testament and the New as God's Word, don't we? Or we end up being like Thomas Jefferson.

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Thomas Jefferson said, I have the New Testament, but instead of having the New Testament like this, he had the

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New Testament like that because he cut out everything that was supernatural. When it comes to a miracle,

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Jesus walking on water, or Israel just a sandbar, and that kind of thing, literally, so that you get them out of the

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Bible. And this Jefferson attitude basically says this, I'm over the Bible, I'll tell you what

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God says, I'm not under the Bible. And we want to just go through systematically and say, what does the

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Bible say? We're under the Bible. How about this, Deuteronomy 22 .5. Did you know God hates this?

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A woman, at least for Israel it was certainly true, wasn't it? A woman shall not wear man's clothing, nor shall a man put on woman's clothing for whoever does these things in abomination to the

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Lord, your God. The blurring of the sexes. Well, say,

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I don't know about that one, but let's go to Deuteronomy 12 .31. You'll certainly agree with this, that when it comes to sacrificing babies in fire for a false

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God, don't you think God would hate that? I think you hate that, I hate that. Deuteronomy 12 .31.

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You shall not behave thus toward the Lord your God for every abominable act which the

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Lord hates they have done for their gods. For they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

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God hates that. You see, here's this false God, Molech. We want to be blessed with our agricultural produce, so we'll take our firstborn baby and put that baby in the fire to the

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God of Molech and the God of Israel says, I hate that. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 18.

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Just a few more. Deuteronomy chapter 18. Something that God hates is the occult.

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The occult. Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy 18 verse 9.

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When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable or abominable things of those nations.

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There shall not be among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass to the fire. That was referred to just a little bit earlier in Deuteronomy 12.

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One who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer.

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Verse 11. Or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

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For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable things the

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Lord your God will drive them out before you. On the other hand, verse 13. You shall be blameless before the

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Lord your God. Turn with me to Malachi chapter 2.

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Malachi chapter 2. What else does God hate? We're going to look at Malachi and then Proverbs, and then we'll be back to 1

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Corinthians. My purpose this morning, in this long introduction, is to show you that the Bible that Paul taught the

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Corinthians was full of these things that God hated, so that you might hate them too, and that you might be thinking the way

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God thinks. By the way, if you haven't read the Bible through the Old Testament, can you imagine?

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Seventy percent of the Bible is the Old Testament. And although I love the little New Testament handouts that we give and put on people's doors and all that, don't just say, well, we're

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New Covenant people. We're post -cross. There's nothing I can learn about God or how He deals with sinful people and how

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He makes sinful people His friends in the Old Testament. We'll just leave that till later. You are missing out if you don't read the

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Old Testament. When I begin to read the Old Testament, I think, I can't believe what I'm reading. The drama, the interesting things about God.

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And so what else does God hate? This is more indirect language. Turn to chapter 2, verse 7.

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There are certain things priests or pastors should do, specifically back in the days of Israel.

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You had the priests as mediators. And what do priests do? What should they do?

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Verse 7 of chapter 2. For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge.

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Don't you think that would be good? Instead of losing it, forgetting it, not teaching it to the people. And men should seek instruction from his mouth.

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You should want to hear this priest who preaches the word. For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.

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But as for you, you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by the instruction.

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In other words, priests, when you become apostate, and you say, I won't teach all the Bible, there are people who are under you that do the same thing.

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And you turn them away from God. What do you think of a priest who doesn't minister according to the word of God?

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Let's put it in modern day terms. What do you think of pastors who won't preach the word of God? Say, I love them because they smooth my heart.

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What do you do? How do you think of someone who stands up and says, I represent God, and by the way, there's more than one way to heaven.

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Jesus just only died as a good example. God just loves you no matter what you do, and everything's fine.

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You only have to get baptized, and then you go straight to heaven. Things that aren't in the Bible. What do you think of that? Well, it's interesting.

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What you think about it and what I think about it maybe doesn't matter too much, does it? In comparison to what God thinks about it.

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I'm going to read you a passage now from Malachi 2, and you're going to think that I've lost my rocker.

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Is that what you do? You lose a rocker or you're off your rocker? Well, for me, I lose my rocker. What I'm going to read now, we shouldn't read in public places with sophisticated people.

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It's not right, typically, to talk this way, but interestingly, God does.

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Go back to Malachi 2, just before this, in verse 7.

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Malachi is saying things to these priests. Oh, I am in verse 7, sorry. Back in chapter 2, verse 1.

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And now this commandment is for you, O priest. These are the priests that need to be disciplined. These are the pastors that don't preach the word.

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These are the priests that don't mediate, that don't instruct, that don't sacrifice properly. What does God think of a man of God who doesn't represent

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God? And I'll tell you what he thinks of them, and you're going to always remember this. And you're going to think, this is too polite to talk about.

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This is public. We ought not to say these things. But God does. And now this commandment is for you,

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O priest. If you do not listen and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the

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Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you. And I will curse your blessings. And indeed,

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I have cursed them already because you are not taking it to heart. Hold on to your seatbelts, congregation.

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You want to know if God hates priests who don't do godly things? Verse 3, it's shocking.

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Behold, I'm going to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts, and you will be taken away with it.

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Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may continue with Levi, says the

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Lord of hosts. Priests were given animals by a sinful person, and the priests were to slay the animals.

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Some of that slain animal would be offered in a sacrifice to God, and it would be burnt. Some would be given to the priests since they didn't work, and they would eat off the remains.

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And there were other things that you would put outside the camp. It was the awful things, the entrails, things that were in the entrails.

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And you'd want to get those things away because of the odor, because of what they were, because of what they represented.

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And that stuff you'd get far away from you, and you can imagine if there was a rubber glove back in those days, you would put those rubber gloves on because you wouldn't want to touch it.

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And God said, when it comes for priests who should be proclaiming the truth, instructing, preserving the truth, doing the right thing,

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God doesn't say, well, be warm to be filled. God doesn't say, well, that's okay, everything's fine, kind of like a grandfather, kind of a

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George Burns, oh, God, oh, it's okay, like the story I always tell when my grandmother always said, I'm going to spank you with that yardstick.

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And I took this yardstick and broke it over my knee and handed it to her, and she still didn't spank me. This kind of language should make you think,

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I haven't heard anything like this in my life. I don't think God is very pleased with that. But out of all these things that we've looked at, if you had to kind of arrange a hierarchy of what

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God doesn't like, let me show you what's at the top of the list. Proverbs 6, last passage before 1

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Corinthians. What's at the top of the list? I was shocked when I read it.

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I was shocked when I read it the second time. Oh, it's easy for me to say

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God hates homosexuality, God hates abortion, God hates molex sacrifices, God hates priests who will not do priestly things, but this one,

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Proverbs 6, verse 16. Proverbs 6, verse 16. It really is an amazing thing.

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It's an amazing thing, and the church of Corinth needed to know it. We need to be reminded of it. Proverbs 6, verse 16, found right in the middle of your

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Bible. There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, even seven, which are an abomination to Him.

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By the way, I was listening to a radio show on the way home from the Cape a couple days ago, and this guy said on Christian radio,

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God doesn't hate anybody. Oh, that's interesting. I was just studying Proverbs 6.

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God doesn't even hate Satan. I can all hear the kids in the back look at me like,

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Dad, are you going to correct that guy? We live in a culture that says this,

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God hates the sin, but He loves the sinner.

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I don't think you're going to find anything like that in the Bible. I don't think you can say, well, this is my sin over here, this kind of amorphous, kind of ethereal thing, and I'm here, but this is my sin, and we've got some kind of neoplatonic dualism, some kind of the body is good, but the soul is bad, some kind of reverse thing.

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I see the Scripture talking about we are who we are, and what we do shows who we are.

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And so what does the text say? If you had to put a list of things that are abomination to God, I can guarantee you at the top of the list, things like homosexuality and abortion would be up there.

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But what's at the top of God's list? There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, even seven.

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What kind of language is this, by the way? This is X plus X plus one kind of language for you

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WPI students. There are six things He hates, yes, even seven, because when you talk this way in poetry,

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Hebrew poetry, the emphasis falls on number what? Seven. Instead of saying

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God hates seven things, you say He hates these six, but the one that He hates the most at the top is the last one.

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What does God hate? He hates the one at the end the most. This is just a wonderful way to do poetry.

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By the way, people say, well, I hate God. This isn't people's hatred for God. It's the other way around.

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Six things which the Lord hates, yes, even seven, which are an abomination to Him. Say, why this long introduction? You're going to get that long introduction right now.

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The point to it, at least. Verse 17. You have to be saying, I wonder what those things are.

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It just draws you in. I want to read a little bit more. What are these seven things, and what's the last one that's the top?

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Haughty eyes. A lying tongue. Hands that shed innocent blood, number three.

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Number four, a heart that devises wicked plans. Whatever the number is.

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Feet that run rapidly to evil. A false witness who utter lies. And at the top of God's pyramid of hatred, you won't find homosexuality.

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You won't find adultery. You won't find cross -dressing. You won't find anything else, but what do you see here?

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What do you see, and how does it tie into 1 Corinthians? And one who spreads strife among brothers.

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Who, in some kind of test of the Old Testament, has a list, what are the seven things

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God hates? Would put at the top of the list, factiousness, divisiveness, quarreling, and a person that spreads strife in a church.

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Who would do that? I wouldn't do it. But that's exactly what God does.

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He hates it. He hates factiousness. There's an emotional reaction, as it were, to that very thing.

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Matthew Henry called this, a thing that in a special manner is odious to God.

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Matthew Henry said, God hates sin. He hates every sin. He can never be reconciled to it. He hates nothing but sin.

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But there are some sins which he does in a special manner hate. So, back to my first question.

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Do you hate what God hates? And if God hates factiousness and one who spreads strife,

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I wonder what he must love. One who does what? Promotes unity. Turn with me to Psalm chapter 133.

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I was going to wait until next week for this, but I have to read it now because it's just an excellent passage.

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God hates strife among the brethren, factiousness, splits, schisms, fractures.

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But what does he love? He loves unity. It's God's church. It's God's bride.

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He wants unity there. And if he hates one thing, he loves the opposite. And so, what do we have here in Psalm 133?

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Oh, it's a wonderful passage. It's a passage that makes you think, I want to strive towards this very thing.

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I don't want to gossip. I don't want to be a whisperer. I don't want to be a quarrelsome man. By the way,

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Proverbs 18 says when somebody gossips, we like to hear it. It calls it a dainty morsel.

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I remember we had some kind of lemon cream pie for Thanksgiving, and there's only one piece left, and I wanted that last piece so bad.

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I could taste it, but I had in polite company to go around and ask everybody else if they really wanted it.

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But I just thought, that's just a dainty morsel. I just can't wait to taste it. I can have my mouth kind of pucker up with that lemon that's in there, just this condensed lemon.

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It's just, oh, I could just taste it. When people begin to gossip, the response of an immature, sinful person who's not walking in the

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Spirit is what? That's exactly right. The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, and they go down into the innermost parts of the body.

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We're just built that way because of our sin inherited from Adam and our own responsibility to that.

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But you say, I don't want to be that kind of person, especially in the local church. I want to have unity. So what does

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Psalm 133 say? If God hates factiousness, He delights in unity and conquered.

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Concord. Behold, Psalm 133, how good and how pleasant it is to memorize

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Scripture. Well, that would be true, but that's not what the verse says. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.

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That's the opposite. If God hates disunity, He loves this. It's like a precious oil upon the head coming down upon the beard, even

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Aaron's beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes. You can just imagine taking some kind of anointing oil and putting it on the head of a guy who had a bunch of hair and had a big, huge beard, and that oil would get first down on the head and then it would begin to permeate down to the skull and then down the skull to the face to the beard and just the oil, and it would be good oil.

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It would be fabulous oil. We would want to just quick wipe that oil off and be thinking about complexion and all that.

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They would hear this mark of blessing. It's like the best blessing you could think of. It's like...

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I don't know why I'm referring back to pie all the time at Thanksgiving. It's like some pumpkin pie. It's just good.

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So what was good for them back there? It was this oil, this anointing oil, poured on the head, down Aaron, just the blessings of God.

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It's like the dew, verse 3, of Hermon, coming down upon the mountains of Zion. For there the

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Lord commanded the blessing, life forever. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth 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 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.