The Cross is Moronic to Unbelievers

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you."

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Ebendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is

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Mike Ebendroth, and I think it's about time to change that background music from the English beat maybe to something else.

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Mirror in the Bathroom is a song, I like that song, I like ska, I like reggae,

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I like those kind of things. I've kind of reverted back to the 70s and 80s from when I was growing up, that's my musical style.

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I always find that it's easier to listen to secular music than it is to most Christian music, because Christian music usually gets me mad because the lyrics and the theology are wrong, and so I find myself saying, that's not true, that's not true, that's not true.

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It's a song about some guy, or a song about Jesus, but it could have been some guy or it could have been about some girl, and I just kind of get tired of that.

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That's kind of for girly men, I think, and I don't even think it's for godly ladies, and it's just this inane kind of whining.

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I could turn on a Christian radio station, and most of the time within moments I say, that's a Christian song. Why? Because really bad lyrics about a

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God who's only the God of love and a bunch of whining, and so we don't want any whining.

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This is the no, is there a no whining zone someplace? Some radio show, some TV show has a no whining zone.

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I'm not exactly sure. Today I'd like to talk about 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and the offense of the cross.

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Why is it that when we evangelize and when we share our faith,

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I think you should proclaim your faith, and you can share your slippers with your kids in the house if they lose their slippers, but when it comes to the gospel, we have to be proclaiming it, and when we proclaim it, why are we shocked that people don't like it?

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Why are we shocked when it comes across as offensive, it comes across as exclusive, unloving because it's not a way to heaven, it's the way to heaven.

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Why are we shocked when they stumble on that stumbling stone, Christ Jesus, the only

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Messiah? Why is it when we talk to people about this Jew, 30 ,000

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Jews crucified during Jesus's time in the Middle East, why are we surprised when we say they've got to look at this one

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Jew and believe in him for their eternal salvation, and they say, no, you're a freak.

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Why are we surprised? So Paul writes 1 Corinthians, lots of problems at Corinth. He may have, he wrote other letters, but we have two letters that were

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God -breathed, and so you have 13 chapters in 2 Corinthians, 16 chapters in 1

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Corinthians, 29 chapters to tell the church of Corinth how to think properly, proper thinking about the gospel and who they are in Christ and how they're called and how they're saints, how they're sanctified, etc.

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And then in light of that, what are some of the problems that need to be addressed and some of the questions that they had that need to be answered.

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So today I hope it'll help you with evangelism. I hope it will give you insight on how the world looks at you, the

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Christian, and we're always crying as Christians. Look at the movies. They paint

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Christians really poorly. They paint those who believe in God really poorly.

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Often the movie companies and Paramount and the rest, they really dog, let's say they'll dog

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Roman Catholics and their faith. I have theological problems with Roman Catholics, but I think they, the producers, the movie producers are so theologically naive and uneducated that they think

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Christians and Catholics are the same. They don't understand the Reformation. They don't understand Protestants, Catholics.

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The difference is how Catholic doctrine teaches that if you're not in Rome then you're not going anywhere, to heaven at least, and how

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Protestants believe that Rome is off and if you're off by one degree you are not going to make it home and they need to repent and believe in the true gospel.

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Well, I divert and I digress, but here on No Compromise Radio I want you to know that of course

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Harvard, Yale, Brown, Smith, et al.,

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of course they don't believe in Christianity and of course they're going to be saying that we're completely stupid, that we are needing a crutch and we need something to get us through the night, some opiate for the masses.

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If you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, I want to give you insight this afternoon into how they think, how the unbeliever thinks, so that you can be a better evangelist, so you know what's going to hit you.

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If you're going to go walk into the ring and you're going to have to fight Andre the Giant, you might as well watch a few of his videos or get into his mind to figure out how he fights because he's going to whack you and then you don't want to stand up and go,

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I didn't know he hit so hard, I didn't know they thought that. You may have friends, you may have a spouse that you love dearly, but when you talk to them about the gospel there's just this glaze that goes over their eyes and deep down in their hearts, even though they might say, well, that's good for you honey, that's good for you.

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They hate it. They hate the gospel because they love themselves and they love their own self -righteousness.

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So today on No Compromise Radio Ministry, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and if you skip down to verse 18, you see

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Paul clearly saying a very popular and well -known verse, For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

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The word of the cross, the theological truth that teaches substitutionary atonement, vicarious redemption,

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Jesus dying on our behalf, in our place, in our stead, on our account, he takes the punishment due us.

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He gives us his perfect righteousness. It's credited to our account. Our sins credited to his account.

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We receive a righteousness that's not of our own. We receive the righteousness of God and from God.

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We receive a righteousness that's alien righteousness. It's not innate to us. It's not what we have done.

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It's not by our own works, our merit, our thoughts, our deeds, or anything else. We receive righteousness from Christ that is

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God's righteousness. God himself, Christ Jesus, gives us by imputation, by declaration, forensically, not by imputation, not by pouring in, but by forensic alien justification.

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We are now declared righteous because Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead.

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If he would have stayed in the grave, then this transaction would not have worked. If Jesus would have stayed in the grave, the theological deduction would have been this.

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Jesus sinned. He said he didn't sin, but he did sin, and so God the Father punished him for his own sins.

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There's no righteousness to be given, and even though he's God and he could have an infinite amount, a divine amount of righteousness to bestow to all those who would believe over thousands of years, those before the cross like Abraham and Moses, and those after the cross like Peter and Stephen, and those after the cross like Jim Elliot or Mary Slessor, but Jesus stayed in the cross, so there's no justification because Jesus died for his own sins.

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This word of the cross that Paul talks about to the Church of Corinth, it's not just the word cross.

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Cross? No, because you can wear that around your neck, and people aren't offended by the cross unless it's a cross in the courthouse or in the town common or in a nativity scene, although they don't usually put crosses in nativity scenes.

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Even there, they, the world, understand that the cross is a symbolism for something more than just a piece of wood, and so when

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Paul says, for the word of the cross, substitutionary atonement, this cross is folly.

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The literal Greek word is moriae. It is moronic. The cross, substitutionary atonement, is stupid.

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It's nonsensical to see God's wisdom, and Paul's talking to them about their wisdom versus God's wisdom.

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God's wisdom is his son hanging on a tree. That is stupid.

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That is very, very stupid. And Paul says that's what the unbelievers think.

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We on the other hand think it's the power of God, but unbelievers think it's stupid.

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So I want you to know today on No Compromise Radio Ministry, by the way you can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com,

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I want you to know that when you begin to preach the gospel to people, if they are understanding what you're saying and they don't think you're stupid and it's stupid and Jesus is stupid, then they're probably being drawn by the

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Spirit of God, drawn by the Father. I guess the other illustration would be, or the other side of the coin would be, if they are liking the message but aren't being drawn by the

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Father, you're not giving them the real message. You're not giving them the real message of the cross. Maybe you're just telling them to be good, and this is a good

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Savior, and he's a wonderful gentleman of Jesus, but you want to give them the real gospel.

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The real gospel that killed Peter, the real gospel that killed Stephen. The gospel didn't kill them, of course, but what

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I mean by those figures of speech is they got killed for preaching that gospel, for preaching Christ Jesus, his death, burial, resurrection, his life and his death, his ascension, his exaltation.

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If you preach that for real, you might get killed, and in this country it doesn't happen very often, but overseas it happens all the time.

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Why do unbelievers think the cross is foolish? Let me give you a few reasons why I think unbelievers think the cross is foolish, and this will help you again in understanding, not your enemy because unbelievers aren't the enemy, but understanding where the unbeliever is coming from so you can be a better evangelist.

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We could call this Better Evangelism 101 today. Make sure you realize people think the cross is stupid.

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One of the reasons why they think it's stupid is because the cross, by design, was a device to kill, to murder—no, let's not say murder—to kill or execute slaves and lowlifes, and as Barnes says, miscreants.

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This is something that is for people who deserve shameful deaths, slaves that won't obey and that run away, rebels who are trying to have some revolt against the

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Roman state itself. This is not very good. This is cruel and shameful.

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This was such a horrible way to kill people that, did you know, it wasn't even mentionable?

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It was not to be brought up in polite, sophisticated, erudite company.

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You just didn't bring it up. It was shameful. It was like a four -letter word.

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Cross is a five -letter word, but it was like a swear word. You would never bring that up at a dinner party. There are some things you just don't bring up.

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You never say these kind of things. Cicero talked about crucifixion, and he was talking about a crucifixion of a

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Roman citizen, and he said, the very word cross should be far removed, not only from the person of a

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Roman citizen, but from his thoughts, his eyes, and his ears."

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After all, who wants to think about a criminal, a condemned man, usually, dying a slow death, a suffocating death, a naked death, not just pierced all the times between the hands and feet, but sometimes in unmentionable places.

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This was demeaning. This was horrible. This is for people who committed treason.

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So you mean to tell me that there's a Messiah, the Savior, and he's going to be treated like some slave?

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And so that's one of the reasons why people think it's moronic. Let me give you another reason why people think the cross is moronic.

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Number two, because Jesus couldn't even save himself. Isn't that some kind of irony?

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Is there a parody to this, a satire to this? Is this funny? As Morrissey says, this joke isn't funny anymore.

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Why? If you're going to try to save other people from the human perspective, but can't save yourself, you've got a problem.

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I'm going to be the Savior of the world, and I can't save myself? That doesn't seem to strike very well.

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That doesn't ring true in our minds. When you look at Jesus on the cross, what do you see?

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Victory? No. You see defeat. You see something very un -noble.

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Some un -motivating thoughts go through your mind. It was woeful.

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One man said, Stansbury, the message of the cross, is, quote, hardly a message for the ambitious, end quote.

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This is not for the yuppies. This is not for the upwardly mobile. This is not for the Gen X people.

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This is the metaphysics of a hangman, as Nietzsche would say. Unbelievers think the cross is foolish because Jesus, the

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Savior, can't save himself? Number three. Why do the people that you know who are unbelievers think the cross, deep down, if they understand it, the message of substantial atonement, the high priest who also was the sacrifice?

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Why is this repugnant? Number three. Do you mean to tell me?

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This is an unbeliever speaking. Do you mean to tell me that my eternal destiny, where I go for eternity, eternal heaven, eternal bliss, or eternal hell, eternal torment, is determined by my view, my belief, my adoration of, my honoring of a man, one man, a single man, a

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Jewish man, 2 ,000 years ago, that I never met, that I've never seen, that I can't prove as true, died in the desert, died outside the city, and I have to believe in him to be saved?

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Doesn't that kind of sound stupid? Well, it's wonderful for the

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Christian. It's the power of God to those being saved. But to the unbeliever, to those who are perishing in the state of perishing right now, as MacArthur says, that one man could die on a piece of wood on a nondescript hill in a nondescript part of the world and thereby determine the destiny of every person who has ever lived seems stupid, end quote.

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Hengel said some backwater Jew, some empire someplace behind the scenes, he said it to an educated man, it's madness and presumptuousness.

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Well, we think it's wise, we think it's wonderful, we think it's marvelous, we think it's precious, along with Peter and Paul, John the

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Baptist, we think it's wonderful, but to unbelievers, I'm telling you, they think the cross is foolishness.

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If you really preach it, if you say, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, God's a God of love, if you've got some

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Rob Bell mumbo -jumbo, God wins everything at the end, he's only love. They're not going to think that's dumb, they're not going to think it's foolish, they're going to think that's the

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MO for Christians, some guy with an Afro wig on with rainbow colors with a

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John 316 sign behind a field goal post, I think he got arrested and thrown in jail last I checked, but maybe he's out by now.

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Unbelievers think the cross is foolish for another reason. Fourthly, this symbol of a religion is nothing like the symbols of religion back in those days, or for that matter, these days.

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Back in the Bible days, the symbols for religions were things like grain stalks, a bunch of fruit, things that are symbols of fertility, that's what they were, not symbols of death.

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And even today, the wheel of Dharma for Buddhism, the pentagram for the Wiccans, Gnostics have a sun cross,

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Wiccans have a flower lily, Baha 'i nine -pointed star, swastika for the

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Hindus, a star and crescent for Islam, star of David for Judaism or the menorah, yin and yang for Taoism.

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Those aren't really so offensive, but to have an electric chair, to have a syringe full of poison that's going to kill you, to have some other kind of torturous capital punishment deal, that doesn't seem right.

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The cross isn't like that at all. Number five, unbelievers think the cross is foolish because if they really know what you're saying and they really know this

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Jesus by intellectual means because you have told them, they will quickly realize this simple fact of addition, that the cross means the cross not only for Jesus, but it also means the cross for the followers of Jesus, like Peter, like Stephen, like James, like everybody, that if God calls you to give up your life to follow

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Christ, you've got to be willing to do that. Jesus was slandered, his followers get slandered.

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Jesus was mocked, his followers get mocked. Pick up your cross and follow Jesus. That is not a message that people like to hear, especially when they love themselves, they love power, they love sex, and they love money.

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Who wants to hear that? So it becomes offensive to people because they realize what the cross means.

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Persecution because you pick up your cross and follow Jesus. Death to self, sick of self, tired of self, self kill.

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This is spiritual suicide in other words. It is an end to your old self.

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Well, why do the unbelievers think the cross is foolish? Remember now on No Compromise Radio, we're talking about the foolish cross because that's what the unbelievers think it is.

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They think the word of the cross is moronic and stupid. And we think it's wonderful and powerful. I'll probably have to do a show on that too.

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But they think it's really stupid because I don't want you to be shocked. I want you to teach the real gospel and let

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God save through the means of preaching the gospel, Romans chapter 10. I don't want you to cut corners.

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I don't want you to make the cross look good to them because that's not right.

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Your job is not to change anything. Your job is to faithfully deliver the goods. And if you're a waitress or a waiter, your job is not to add things and subtract things.

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The chef got the order, the chef gives you the plate of food and you are to deliver it.

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That's your job as a waitress or waiter. That's your job as a herald, a preacher, evangelist.

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You have the message. It's good news. And this good news might not come across as good news.

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And so I don't want you to be shocked. Number six, the death penalty can't even be stomached by most people.

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Capital punishment. How could people think that there's a whole religion based on capital punishment when they can't even stomach capital punishment anymore?

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They don't like a lethal injection. There are five different methods of execution in America still.

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Lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, firing squad, and hanging. From my research, those are all still on the books, although fairly rare to do.

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Can you mean, you mean to tell me that I have to think about capital punishment and that's the hub of religion?

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That's the hub of this Christianity? That's like saying, you know, the hub of your

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Christian religion is a tire with some kerosene or gas on it jammed over the person and you give them the rubber tire necklace like they do in South Africa, set them on fire, and just turns into this melted tire goo mess of a person.

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Or when people are hanged, drawn, and quartered. You mean that's your symbol of religion?

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The guillotine? How about the guillotine? That's your symbol of religion? That doesn't seem right.

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What if your symbol of religion was probably one of the worst ways to kill people? The brazen bull.

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It's also called the Sicilian bull and it was a Grecian idea and they would make a hollow bull out of brass and they'd have a door on the side of it and they would put the person alive inside the bull, heat up the bull from the bottom.

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I don't mean bowl, I mean bull, B -U -L -L, and then they would heat the metal and the victim on the inside would roast to death and when the person was on the inside screaming for their life, the way the bull was designed is the screams would come out of the bull, out of the bull's face and nose and nostrils, and it would sound musical.

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So they had a little device there that would change the screaming into music for the enjoyment of the people and the enjoyment of the executioner.

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What if that was a symbol for your religion? Wouldn't you find that odd, strange, horrible?

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Of course you would. But here it's the wisdom of God. I think the big reason why unbelievers do not like the cross, if they understand the word of the cross, they like the cross of course, it's good jewelry and nice tattoo, but the word of the cross, the theological shorthand for substitutionary vicarious atonement, justification, forgiveness based on propitiation,

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God's wrath assuaged. Who wants a God who's wrathful and angry with the wicked every day? They want a

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God who loves the sinner but hates the sin. You're going to see that God hates the sinner as well if you just easily read

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Psalm 5 -5 or you see the inference in Psalm 7 -11. Of course God loves,

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Romans 5 -8, of course God loves John 3 -16, but the reason why people don't like this if they're unbelievers is it implies that they're sinful.

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It implies that they're sinful. If Jesus died a martyr's death, people would clap. They'd clap.

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They'd say bravo. They'd put their phones up to light or their BICs, their lighters, but when

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Jesus is dying because he's dying on behalf of sinners and that means you're a sinner, the clapping, the admiration goes away.

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The reason Jesus died, of course, is in the eternal counsel of God, but a particular reason is because he's dying as a sin bearer.

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Other people sin. Unbelievers hate this because they don't want to be called a sinner. They don't want to be called what they really are.

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They don't want to see this bifurcating effect of the cross. These here believe and go to heaven. These here don't believe and go to hell, just like with the serpents in Israel.

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They were bitten and all the people who were bitten by the serpents were going to die, but if they looked to the quote -unquote cross, they would live.

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If they looked away and did not want to do what God said to take him in his word, they were killed.

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I don't have a problem with the cross because I love the cross, but even now in Christianity you have

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Bill Hybels interviewed by Peter Jennings. You don't think it was even important, Peter Jennings said, to have even one cross?

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Hybels, we're very serious about what Christ did on the cross, but to capture the essence of Christianity in a single symbol is a little dangerous, we feel.

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Well, the world would agree with that, but I wouldn't, and I think the word of the cross is wonderful.

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So when you're evangelizing, don't be shocked, and don't water down your evangelistic endeavors. Don't make the cross offensive lust.

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You want to be having no offense, no guile, compassionate, loving, preaching the gospel, but when they think you're stupid because the cross is stupid, don't worry.

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God bless you. 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 1015 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.