The End Times is about Jesus

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Revelation 1 is the paradigm for all thinking about End Times.  

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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 Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, my name is
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Mike Abendroth. And it is Friday, the 11th of June.
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Kim and I just celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary. That's exciting.
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I am thrilled that 32 years ago she said yes.
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Actually, it was 32 years ago and one month ago that she said yes. It was a short engagement.
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But that's another topic for another day. You can write me, Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com.
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If you have questions about the show, it's info at NoCompromiseRadio .com.
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We have 11 Patreon supporters. I hear some people have like 20, 30, 80. That's pretty amazing.
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So I don't think I've ever asked for a dime, except for millionaires. So I'm still waiting for one millionaire to regularly support
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Patreon. I think I've taken care of all my responsibilities at Patreon.
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If you sign up for certain levels, you get certain books. If you are a Patreon supporter and I didn't send you what
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I was supposed to, would you let me know? Because I want to make sure I make that right. In front of me,
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I have actually the St. Joseph Sunday Missal, M -I -S -S -A -L,
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M -I -S -S -I -S -S -I -P -P -I. There's all kinds of stuff here about Pentecost and the
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Feast of the King. And the one that I always open to, it just goes here automatically, is page 464,
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The God Whom Earth and Sea and Sky. That's the name of this hymn, The God Whom Earth and Sea and Sky.
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I don't really get that, except maybe it's just the first few words, right? So let's just see what it says.
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I've never read this hymn before, ever, with my own eyes, with my own lips. I've never repeated it, nor have
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I ever said it on the radio. So here we go. Buckle up on no -compromise radio ministry.
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The God Whom Earth and Sea and Sky adore and laud and magnify, whose might they own, whose praise they tell, in Mary's body designed to dwell.
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Say, what? Can you imagine that? Dog! Did you even write that?
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Did you even think that? Verse 2, it's this in 4 -4 time, by the way. O mother blessed, the chosen shrine, remember the
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Shriners? Wherein the architect divine, whose hand contains the earth and sky, vouchsafed in hidden guys to lie.
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Stanza 3, I thought the message was bad. Blessed in the message
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Gabriel brought, blessed by the work the Spirit wrought, most blessed to bring to human birth, the long destred of all the earth,
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D -E -S -T -R -E -D. I don't know, what's a destred? And finally, the song goes in 4 -4 time,
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O Lord, the Virgin born, to Thee eternal praise and glory be, whom with the Father we adore, and the
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Holy Ghost forevermore. Dog. I do wonder, with all this
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Trinity talk, with all the discussion about the Trinity, lots of books about the
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Trinity, I'm reading lots of books about the Trinity, I'm pretty embarrassed either by my seminary education, or that I didn't pay attention in seminary about the
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Trinity. I mean, I guess back in the day it was like Grudem and Ware, they knew what was going on.
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And of course, I know better now, I mean, Eternal Generation, maybe they affirm it now, but back in the day,
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I mean, you've got Eternal Generation of the Son, denied by Feinberg, that was one of our teachers,
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Millard Erickson, that was our systematic theology, Grudem, Ware, does
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Frame, what about John Frame? Well, he wasn't one of our teachers. But anyway, there's a lot of talk about the
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Trinity, which I'm glad for. I'm understanding the unbegotten nature, that God is, the
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Father is unbegotten, the Son is begotten, not made, and that the
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Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. I'm understanding these things better now,
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I'm understanding what the ESV has done with the word monogonase, or only begotten, and they've changed all five times that it's used in John's writings.
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First John, let's see if memory serves, chapter one, verse 14, chapter one, verse 18, chapter three, verse 16, chapter three, verse 18, and first John chapter four, verse nine, it just says only
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God, or something like that, it doesn't say only begotten. There's a lot of talk about the Trinity, Matthew Barrett's book,
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Simply Trinity, I read it, I really enjoyed it, it's an important read. I have a couple of the books on the
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Trinity that I'm reading, I just got Augustine's book on the Trinity, lots of talk about Trinity, understanding eternal begotten nature of the
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Son, and what does that mean, and what about the creeds, I get all that.
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But what I am a little concerned about is, since the doctrine of God, and particularly the
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Trinity that we believe and teach, is also mirrored in Aquinas, and some
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Roman Catholic writers, I think there are people that say, well, you know what, these days, if you get the
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Trinity right, then we give you a platform. If you get the Trinity right, then let's just have you on, let's just talk about whatever.
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If you get the Trinity right, then we're not going to warn you about issues of justification, and soteriological issues.
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That is to say, I am concerned that this wonderful, newly acquired, driven -by -the -controversy -in -2016 about eternal, functional subordination, which
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I believed sinfully and taught, and I repent, can't blame it on anybody else that I didn't know better, anything like that, using a kind of social
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Trinitarian model, so I could understand wives submitting to husbands.
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I'm a complementarian, but I don't need a heresy to do that, to keep that.
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Anyway, it was good, because it forced us all to deal with the issues. But I'm just wondering,
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I'm just wondering now, when people are like, well, the Trinity, people who get the
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Trinity right, we give them platforms, and we promote all their stuff. Not knowing that some of those people that get the
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Trinity right are people that don't get salvation right, and who are federal visionists, and who are functionally the equivalent of NT rights.
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I'm concerned about that. And I pretty much was tipped off by this from my friend, Daniel Lee, L -I, and he made mention of that, and I thought, you know what, he's right.
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Well, anyway, on No Compromise Radio today, we do want you to study the Trinity, and if you get the Scott Swain book on the
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Trinity, that'd be good, Delighting in the Trinity by Chester, I have that, I haven't read that recently,
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I just got De Trinitatis by Augustine, but the, you know, read the
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Athanasius Creed, we just put that above the urinal here in the men's room at the church, and above the other urinal is the
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Nicene Creed, so people can just see, begotten not made, because the first thing you do when you hear the word begotten is you're thinking somehow that Jesus was not eternal, or something like that.
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Anyway, I am happy for Trinity talk, eminent Trinity, economic
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Trinity, ad intra, ad extra, I'm glad for all that stuff. I'm just a little worried about the next generation of young people that dive into this, and they don't understand soteriology like they should.
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So maybe you start off with justification and get that down first, so read Buchanan on justification, and Fesco, and Calvin, and then you should be set.
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So if you're one of my students, you read those three, then dive into the Trinity. Second Peter chapter three, we've been talking about that on the radio show, but it's really always, it's just been kind of a ruse.
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I've been trying to teach verses 14 through 18 for the last two shows, but they just turned into don't scold people with law only, and make sure you talk about Jesus.
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But that's the world I'm living in, because the people that I know these days are doing things like that.
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You know, it's like, okay, how do you find a church? Where do you go to find a church these days? That's a hard task.
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Many of you are like, hey, I gotta find a church. Where am I gonna go to find a church? Where do
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I go to find a church that's not woke? Where do I go to find a church that believes in inerrancy, that's not pluralistic, exclusivity of Jesus, a high view of preaching, women's and men's roles figured out biblically, that has church discipline, knows the importance of the
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Lord's Supper and baptism? There's all kinds of issues, and how do you pick a church? But now, like, to add one more on there, that's all we need,
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Mike, is to add on other things to make it a good church. And so if it's a law only church, if it's 50 minutes every week of all the stuff that you need to do without the motivating person of the
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Lord Jesus, grace incarnate, how can you go there? I mean, it's just week in and week out.
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It's week sauce. Week sauce, week in and week out. Get ready for another scolding this
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Sunday. Be warmed, be filled. Hmm.
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Peter wasn't like that, though. Peter wanted to talk about Jesus. He denied Jesus short term enough that we don't see any other time in church history or in Acts 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.,
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1 Peter, 2 Peter, that he ever denied Jesus again. As my dad would say, he got that out of the system, and then he repented.
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And therefore, of course, we give people law. We want to guide them. Do sons need guidance?
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Do daughters need guidance from their dad? Yes. But they need more than that. The motivation to obey is what the dad has done for them, what the mom has done for them, what the honor of the name of their parents have, etc.
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Anyway, God, the Spirit, helped Peter, assisted
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Peter, moved Peter by his divine will to write these things, and then he gives these four concluding exhortations at the end of the book.
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But I have to just make sure I tell you, they're just not naked law. There's a context and a reason, and it's based on the grace and mercy of the gentle shepherd, the good shepherd, the great shepherd, the chief shepherd, the
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Lord Jesus. The new earth and new heavens are going to be made, right?
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The fire's going to wipe them out, and it's going to be a redo, as it were. And since we're waiting for these things to happen, since we're waiting for the new heavens and the new earth, since we're longing for the righteousness of God to be on full display, since we're saying no to people who reject the second coming of Christ Jesus, what do we do?
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How do we wait? Well, some people whistle while they work, and other people whistle while they wait. How do we wait as Christians?
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And there are things to do. It's not a passive waiting. It's an active waiting. We're waiting, we're hoping, we're believing, we're trusting.
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But then there's four exhortations at the end of this book. The first one is to be diligent.
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Second Peter 3 verse 14, therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, back up in verse 13, these new heavens and these new earths, new earth, earths.
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What's all this talk these days about all the UFOs and planets, life elsewhere and everything else?
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You think there's life on other planets? Somebody asked you, dear Christian, is there intelligent life on another planet?
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What would you say? Would you say, I don't know? Hmm, that's a good show.
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Tonight we're having theological Q &A at my house around a fire pit, and maybe somebody will ask me that question.
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If they do, I'll answer it. But right now, I'm not going to answer it, because I'd have to sing you a song from the
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Sunday Missal. That's the only thing that I didn't do with that song earlier is to sing it. The God whom earth and sky and...
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Don't I have an end times chart here somewhere that I could pull up? Come on, what's going on?
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Be diligent. That's the first command. Be diligent to be found in him without spot or blemish and at peace.
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Here's something that's kind of like a commanding officer telling the troops, be diligent.
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Peter has given other commands like this, where he talks about making effort or be all the more eager to make your election calling sure.
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I don't say Greek words that often anymore because I want to get away from lexical word studies all the time.
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This word is used 14 times in the original language. This is a hot box.
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This is this, that, and the other. Okay. Once in a while, we'll do it. So today, I'm going to indulge.
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I like this word, and it'll be hopefully memorable, spudadzo.
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This is not spumoni. This is spudadzo. And it kind of sounds like it, you know,
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I don't know what it is, but you're to make every effort. You're to be diligent, spudadzo. Be diligent.
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It's not lay back and let God. It's not coasting. It's not, hey, whatever, come see, come saw.
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Be diligent. You want to be diligent to be found by him. And that word found is where we get to your word eureka.
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We found something, right? We found gold. And there's a judicial courtroom element here to be found, you know, on that day.
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And you want to be found on that day spotless and blameless. Jesus is coming back.
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That helps us as we think about him and as we focus on him, we become purified.
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That's 1 John 3 kind of idea. And we want to be without spot and we want to be blameless.
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Now, a couple of things about that. Positionally, we are, so let's live up to who we are practically, and this is the practical aspect of holy living.
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Jesus was described this way, without blemish and without spot, and we would like to honor the
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Lord and glorify him as we're conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus. And this language, additionally, spotless and blameless, when you put those words together, that's sacrifice language.
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What kind of sacrifice do you want to give to the Lord back in Leviticus? Spotless and blameless.
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And therefore, when you put these words together, you should be thinking sacrifices. We don't have a three -legged lamb to sacrifice.
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We want to have a good sacrifice, and you can reflect a little bit and ponder
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Romans chapter 12 about living sacrifices that you are. And Jesus, the lamb without spot and without blemish, he comes back.
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And we want to live that life. It's not saying we can't live it. It's not saying we can be perfectionists, that we're
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Keswick people, no, no. The holy life of the
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Christian, waiting for Jesus' return, requires effort, and it's going to be the exact opposite of what the false teachers are saying.
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The false teachers are saying, don't do any of that, and God's saying, yes, do it, spudadzo. Colossians 1, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.
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Ephesians 5, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless.
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First Thessalonians 5, now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our
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Lord Jesus. Jesus bought you,
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Jesus redeemed you, Jesus is going to come back, so act like Christ.
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Don't act like the antichrists, without blemish, without spot, purity, precious blood of Jesus.
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That's what you were bought with, like of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but it was made manifest in these last times for your sake.
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Therefore, live a holy life. The unbelievers, they're going to be found on that day, and so are you.
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You're not going to be found and judged and damned into hell and condemned, but you're going to be found, and therefore, we want to live a life that honors the
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Lord, right? And you're like, well, okay, so far so good.
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What's the whole in peace thing there at the end in English? In peace, so I have peace with God already,
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I thought. Yes, you do. That's Romans 5, peace, no more enmity with God, you have peace, ceasefire.
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Well, is it like a subjective feeling? I have a peaceful, easy feeling. I subjectively have this peace, knowing that Jesus could come back at any time, so I'm just at peace.
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Yeah, that's true. I think that's obviously true. You have peace with God. You have peace of God.
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That's true. But also, I think O 'Brien's smart when he said, given that the type of issues mentioned in this book could disturb the community, right, you've got the false teachers saying things, and that the references to scoffers and false teachers could leave them hunting for such people and thus damaging the solidarity of the community.
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One suspects that this add -on phrase is a reference to being at peace in the community, which is a significant
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Christian virtue. In that case, peace is not taken to be with or in him, but a separate thought added to the sentence.
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I mean, I think he's saying this, but it's certainly a true point, that in these end days, we're to be at peace with other
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Christian brothers and not going on heresy hunts all the time to figure out how many scoffers we have at the church.
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When they're there, let's expose them, obviously. But the text says, in peace.
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What about you? That's always a good question, is it not? The second command, the second law found here that guides us as Christians, that norms our life, is we count it patience.
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Counting the patience of the Lord as salvation. Verse 15, and count the patience of our
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Lord as salvation. Just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.
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There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures.
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Remember back in verse 9 of the same chapter, hey, false teachers, hey, he's not coming back.
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His patience, he's slack, slacking off, slacker. God's a slacker.
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The Son's a slacker. What do we count this delay as?
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The patience of the Lord, waiting for the unregenerate elect to believe. Waiting, I mean, he's involved to do that, but from our perspective.
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It's salvation. People are getting saved. That's how we regard that. That's how we count that.
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The longsuffering of God, we count mentally. We're like, you know what?
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Unlike the false teachers who are hitting their watch with their index finger, where is he?
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We're going to evaluate things properly. God's patient. His time frame's not the same. We learned that earlier in the chapter.
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And he's being patient, longsuffering, because he's a savior. And he's saving all these people at his good time.
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Jesus, the Lord. By the way, make sure you understand that. When you call
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Jesus the Lord, you're calling him God. And the deity of Christ, his divinity, is clearly seen in 1
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Peter and 2 Peter. You don't count the patience of the Lord as, hey, now
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I get to live the way I want. Loose living, antinomianism, license, paganism, following the false teachers and scoffers.
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No, you count the patience of the Lord as salvation. He's patient toward you, not wishing any should perish, that all should reach repentance.
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That's why he is patient. And by the way, this kind of thing that Peter writes about,
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Paul did too. Paul, our beloved Paul, our dear Paul, our brother Paul, he didn't make this up.
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It was, what's the text say, wisdom given to him. He did the same thing. He talked about the same thing.
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This is not just a one -off. There are other witnesses to this, and it's Paul as well. And Paul was given by God, the
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Holy Spirit. Nothing in him, not of his own mind, although he had a keen mind.
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God helped him understand. God gave him the wisdom to understand this exact thing. And Paul wrote.
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Which letters did Paul write? Well, he wrote Pauline epistles. Which one are we talking about here?
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It could be just general, or maybe there was one or two that particularly made it to these folks. It doesn't matter. But we're still, live godly lives.
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And Paul did the same thing. He said, live a godly life. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry.
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You can write me, Mike at info. No, Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com.
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If you've got show ideas, please let me know. 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 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.