1 Corinthians 03-08-10

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

Cafeteria Christianity and the Need to Study What God Hates

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 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.

But on Thanksgiving I pretty much will only put these things on my plate. Dressing, turkey and cranberry sauce. That's it. All the other stuff might be fine but I personally get to choose what goes on my plate.

I choose not those things, I choose this thing. I also like it because I get to put as much on my plate as I want to. 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. Whether it's South Africa or India or Germany it's just the guest speakers here we have to keep their food there.

I'm typically on some kind of low-carb diet at the time so the rice just keeps coming on and on and on and I'm thinking on Thanksgiving I get to choose what goes on that plate. 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 Bible as I do of Thanksgiving and we call those people cafeteria Christians.

I like all the parts about God's patience. I like all the parts about God's love when it comes to doctrines that we're not too comfortable with we resort to 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 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 God is and what he thinks about church unity and I'm gonna talk to you this morning in a lengthy introduction to First Corinthians about God's, are you ready, hatred.

The Old Testament Witness to Abominations God Hates

Now most of us we wouldn't say give me a double portion of the hatred of God. I really want to study and memorize those verses about what God literally loathes. When it comes to God's abhorrence and God thinking about things and people as odious 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 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.

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 and for the church at Corinth the church at Corinth they couldn't remember they were forced themselves actually to forget what God thought of unity in the Old Testament and Paul had taught them the Old Testament for 18 months.

So my question today is if you had to put a list together of what God hated based on the Bible how long would your list be? What would be on your list? And by the way if God says he hates something should we love those things?

Shouldn't it be our desire to say I want to be just like Christ and what he hated God make me hate and what 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 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 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 because we're going to see at the apex something very odd something very strange. You'll be surprised by what God hates the most.

In other words turn to Leviticus chapter 18. 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 Old Testament. It's a different God.

There's all kinds of manuscript problems. We can't trust the Old Testament when Jesus appeared on earth and took his human flesh he could have said the Old Testament stuff that's about love and joy and peace.

That's all really from the Bible. All that other stuff about God's holiness righteousness justice wrath hatred. That's a different God that came from paganism. That's some kind of pagan view of God. Get that out of the Bible.

But what did Jesus do from Genesis through Malachi in our Old Testament. He what? He affirmed them. If you call yourself a Christian and you want to follow Christ you will have the same view of the Old Testament as the one who is your self-professed King as you should.

And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a little quick jaunt to the Old Testament to see what God hates. And I want you to. A. be educated. B. ask yourself the question do I hate those same things.

And then I think you'll be surprised at the very end to this lengthy introduction. A surprise thing that God hates that I think is actually quite shocking. Leviticus 18 22. Things that God finds an abomination.

Things that he finds detestable. Are he loathes. Or as one translation calls it things of horror. And they're sprinkled out throughout the Old Testament. We'll just look at one to start and then we'll continue on Leviticus 18 22.

You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is an what? an abomination. It is loathsome to God homosexuality. Most Christians today know that that is a perversion and is repugnant to God.

Say well that's no surprise. Let's go to another book. Deuteronomy Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy. Something else that God hates not just homosexuality but God hates idolatry. 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. You don't understand the culture. I'm trying to just show you what the Bible teaches about these things. This is what Jesus had for his Bible. Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 25.

What else does God hate. What does he abhor. Well Deuteronomy 7 .25 rather 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 an abomination to the Lord your God. Homosexuality is an abomination to God the and also idolatry. How about Deuteronomy 22. This might strike you as odd especially in our day. 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 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. Thomas Jefferson said I have the New Testament. But instead of having the New Testament like this he had the New Testament like that because he cut out everything that was supernatural.

When it comes to a miracle Jesus walking on water always really just a sandbar you know. And that kind of thing literally. So they get him out of the Bible. And this Jefferson attitude basically says this.

I'm over the Bible. I'll tell you what God says. I'm not under the Bible. And we want to just go through systematically and say what does the Bible say. We're under the Bible. How about this. Deuteronomy 22 5.

Did you know God hates this. A woman at least for Israel 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 an abomination to the Lord your God.

The blurring of the sexes. Well say I don't know about that one. But let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 12 verse 31. You'll certainly agree with this that when it comes to sacrificing babies in fire for a false God don't you think God would hate that.

I think you hate that. I hate that. Deuteronomy chapter 12 verse 31. You shall not behave thus toward the Lord your God for every abominable act which the Lord hates they have done for their gods. For they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

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 God of Molech. And God the God of Israel says.

I hate that to turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 18. Just a few more. Deuteronomy chapter 18. Something that God hates is the occult. The occult Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy 18 verse 9. 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.

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. One who uses divination one who practices witchcraft or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer verse 11.

Or one who casts a spell or a medium or a spiritist or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord. And because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you.

The other hand verse 13. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. Turn with me to Malachi chapter 2. Malachi chapter 2. What else does God hate. We're gonna look at Malachi and then Proverbs. And then we'll be back to first Corinthians.

My purpose this morning in this long introduction is to show you that the Bible that Paul taught the Corinthians was full of these things that God hated. So that you might hate them too. And that you might be thinking the way God thinks.

By the way if you haven't read the Bible through the Old Testament can you imagine 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 New Covenant people.

We're post cross. There's nothing I can learn about God or how he deals with sinful people and how 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 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. And so what else does God hate. This is more indirect language. Turn to chapter 2.

Verse 7. There are certain things priests or pastors should do. Specifically back in the days of Israel you had the priests as mediators. And what do priests do. What should they do. Verse 7 of chapter 2.

For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge. 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.

You should want to hear this priest who preaches the word for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But as for you you have turned aside from the way you have caused many to stumble by the instruction.

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

Let's put it modern-day terms. What do you think of pastors who won't preach the Word of God. Say I love them because they they smooth my heart. What do you do. How do you think if someone who stands up and says I represent God.

And by the way there's more than one way to heaven. Jesus just only died as a good example. God you know just loves you no matter what you do. And everything's fine. Only have to get baptized. Then you go straight to heaven.

Things that aren't in the Bible. What do you think of that. Well it's interesting what you think about it. What I think about it maybe doesn't matter too much does it in comparison to what God thinks about it.

I'm gonna read you a passage now from Malachi 2. And you're going to think that I've lost my rocker. So 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. It's not right typically to talk this way. But interestingly God does go back to Malachi chapter 2 just before this. In verse 7 Malachi is saying things to these priests.

Oh I am in verse 7. Sorry. Back in chapter 2 verse 1 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. 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 God. And I'll tell you what he thinks of them. And you're going to always remember this. You're gonna think this is too polite to talk about it.

This is public. We ought not to say these things. But God does. And now this commandment is for you. O priest if you do not listen and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to my name says the Lord of hosts then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings.

And indeed I have cursed them already because you are not taking it to heart. Hold on your seatbelts. Congregation you wanna know if God hates priests who don't do godly things verse 3. It's shocking.

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. Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you that my covenant may continue with Levi says the Lord of hosts.

Priests were given animals by a sinful person and the priests were to slay the animals. Some of that slain animal would be offered in a sacrifice to God and it would be burnt. Some would be given to the priest since they didn't work and they would eat off the remains.

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 and you'd want to get those things away because of the odor because of what they were because of what the what they represented and that stuff you 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 and God said when it comes for priests who should be proclaiming the truth instructing preserving the truth doing the right thing.

God doesn't say well be warm to be filled. God doesn't say well that's okay everything's fine kind of like you know a grandfather kind of a George Burns oh God oh it's okay like the story I always tell when my grandmother always said I'm gonna spank you with that yardstick 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 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 we've looked at if you had to kind of arrange a hierarchy of what God doesn't like let me show you what's at the top of the list.

The Seven Things the Lord Hates and the Sin of Divisiveness

Proverbs chapter 6 last passage before first Corinthians. What's at the top of the list? I was shocked when I read it. I was shocked when I read it the second time. Oh it's easy for me to say God hates homosexuality.

God hates abortion. God hates molex sacrifices. God hates priests who will not do priestly things but this one Proverbs chapter 6 verse 16. Proverbs 6 verse 16. It really is an amazing thing 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 Bible. There are six things which the Lord hates yes even seven which are an abomination to him. 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 God doesn't hate anybody.

Well that's interesting. I was just studying Proverbs 6 God doesn't even hate Satan. I can all hear the kids in the back look at me like dad are you gonna correct that guy. We live in a culture that says this God hates the sin but he loves the sinner.

I don't think you're gonna 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's bad. Some kind of reverse thing. I see I see the scripture talk about we are who we are and what we do shows who we are. And so what does the text say. If you had to put a list of things that are abomination to God I guarantee you at the top of the list things like homosexuality and abortion would be up there.

But what's at the top of God's list. There are six things which the Lord hates. Yes even seven. What kind of language is this. By the way this is X plus X plus. One kind of language for you WPI students this is there are six things he hates.

Yes even seven. Because when you talk this way in poetry Hebrew poetry the emphasis falls on number. What seven. Instead of saying 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.

What does God hate. He hates the one at the end the most. This is just a wonderful way to do poetry. By the way people say well I hate God. This isn't people's hatred for God. It's the other way around 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. The point to it at least verse 17 you have to be saying I wonder what those things are.

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

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

You won't find adultery. You won't find cross-dressing. You won't find anything else. But what do you see here. What do you see. And how does it tie into first Corinthians. And one who spread strife among brothers who in some kind of test of the Old Testament has a list.

What are the seven things God hates would put at the top of the list. Factiousness divisiveness quarreling. And a person that spread strife in a church who would do that. I wouldn't do it. That's exactly what God does.

He hates it. He hates factiousness. There's an emotional reaction as it were to that very thing. Matthew Henry called this a thing that has a special manner is odious to God. Matthew Henry said God hates sin.

He hates every sin. He can never be reconciled to it. He hates nothing but sin. But there are some sins which he does in a special manner hate. So back to my first question. Do you hate what God hates.

And if God hates factiousness and one who spread strife I wonder what he must love. One who does what promotes unity. Turn with me to Psalm chapter 133. I was gonna wait till next week for this but I have to read it now because it's just it's just an excellent passage.

God hates strife among the brethren. Factiousness splits schisms fractures. But what does he love. He loves unity. It's God's church. It's God's bride. He wants unity there. And if he hates one thing he loves the opposite.

And so what do we have here in Psalm 133. Oh it's a wonderful passage. It's a passage that makes you think I want to strive towards this very thing. I don't wanna gossip. I don't wanna be a whisper. I don't wanna be a quarrelsome man.

By the way Proverbs 18 says when somebody gossips we like to hear it calls it a dainty morsel. I remember we had some kind of lemon cream pie for Thanksgiving and there's only one piece one piece left.

And I wanted that last piece so bad I could taste it. But I had in polite company to go around and ask everybody else if they really wanted it. But I just thought this is a dainty morsel. I just can't wait to taste it.

I can have my mouth kinda pucker up with that that lemon. That's in there just this condensed lemon. 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 spirit is what.

That's exactly right. The words of a whisperer like dainty morsels. And they go down into the innermost parts of the body. We're just built that way because of our sin inherited from Adam and our own responsible responsibility to that.

But you say I don't wanna be that kind of person. Especially in the local church. I wanna have unity. So what does Psalm 133 say. If God hates factiousness he delights in unity and conquered concord. Behold Psalm 133 how good and how pleasant it is to memorize 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. That's the opposite of God hates disunity. He loves this. It's like a precious oil upon the head coming down upon the beard.

Even Aaron's beard coming down upon the edge of his robes. You 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 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. It would be fabulous oil. We would want to just quick wipe that oil off. You know be thinking about complexion and all that they would think here this mark of blessing. It's like the best blessing you could think of.

It's like 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. 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. It's like the dew. Verse 3 of Herman coming down upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing.

Life forever. No compromise radio with pastor Mike Avendroth 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 bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 835 3400.

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