Preach Christ (Part 2)

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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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J .I. Packer said the evangelical preacher will relate the specific content of all his messages to Christ, his mediation, his cross, his resurrection, and his gift of new life to those who trust in him.

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And we do this whether the society likes it or they don't. You say, yeah, but where's the resurrection here?

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What about preaching the resurrection? We'll get to the resurrection in about four years, it's chapter 15, a whole chapter on the resurrection.

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The resurrection is important. If you don't preach

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Christ, that vacuum, as I said a few weeks ago, has to be filled and it'll be filled with all kinds of things.

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I've got a prophecy from the Lord, some ecstatic utterance, some kind of drama and worship and all kinds of other things.

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There's nothing wrong with worship. But in my mind, by the resoluteness, by the grace of God, you'll never find the

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Abendroths when we're out of town looking for a church to go to. And if I see on the sign, church like you've never seen it before,

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I'm not going. Be casual as you want, I'm not going.

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Because this intimacy called, we'll just come casually. By the way, if you want to come in shorts, come in shorts.

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I'm just glad you're here. There's no dress code here. But if you're sitting in shorts and a t -shirt,

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I'm going to tell you that Jesus Christ is your only savior. And you have to love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and that you're a sinner and you need desperate forgiveness from him and from him alone.

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Church like you've never seen it, I think maybe this is church like I've never seen it and don't want to see it.

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You say, yeah, but if you keep preaching this bloody Jesus who was tortured on the cross for three hours, sensible people won't come.

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We're growing out of this building, we better not go too far towards Cambridge and Harvard because those kind of people don't like this kind of talk, all this blood stuff.

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I don't know what else to do. One man wrote a book on how to build morale in your church and it never talked about Jesus.

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One man said, if you ever want to find a new pastor, look for these seven things. Never talked about preaching

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Jesus. What's the theme in these sermons that have been preached in America?

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How can I have a happier marriage? How can I handle my money? How can I like my job? This one

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I couldn't make up if I tried, so I better not even read it. How can I be a better parent? How can I get more time for myself?

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How can I feel better about myself? These are real titles and here's a real title as well. What would Jesus say to Madonna?

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The theme is, where's Jesus? It's kind of like this, the church that has, where's Waldo? Well, I know he's around here somewhere, but we don't know where he is.

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Whoever finds him gets a prize. If you're going to put your kids in Iwana, I want our people to teach who

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Jesus is. And I want them to assume every single week, if you're an Iwana leader, this is what you do, or this is, it's time to give your resignation.

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I'm going to teach them about Jesus is the only savior. He died a vicious substitutionary death in Calvary.

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He was raised from the dead. There's no other way to heaven. And you can have good manners and still go straight to hell.

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You can obey your parents and be a good person and still go to hell, because no one's good and you need Jesus and you teach them week in and week out.

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I praise God for our Iwana workers. And one has even recently said, you know, I got to stop telling my people, the little children there, you know, it's not good to be a

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David. It's not good to be a Daniel. Don't dare to be a Daniel because we're all going to fall short. Jesus is the one.

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People say, well, limit your preaching to 20 minutes. It'll be better. I'm quite confident that Jesus likes to hear him being talked about for more than 20 minutes.

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As one pastor said, when told by a congregant, you know, I just don't feel fed at the church.

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If they're preaching Jesus, I'd suggest bringing a bigger plate, because if you bring a thimble, this particular pastor,

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I would never say this, but this particular pastor said, I can fill a thimble up pretty quickly. We're here to worship

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Jesus. By the way, what would you be doing in heaven? Worthy is the lamb who is slain.

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He will be the object. You will not care, literally, even though this is hard to take, you will not care literally about your mother, your brother, your sister, your husband, your wife, or your kids for probably a billion years.

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I think you'll probably just know that they're there. But if you had to think sequentially, you would not go. I wonder if my mother's here.

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My mother died five years ago. I miss my mother. And I would love to be able to, I mean, as long as I live,

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I remember sitting, it was right over there when the sanctuaries flipped around. We're singing victory in Jesus, just both crying as her body's racked full of cancer.

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And I want to be in heaven. Victory in Jesus is a pretty good song. It maybe has a torque here or there, kind of Gaither -like or something.

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But I still love the song, and I want to sing it in heaven with my mother. But when I see Jesus Christ in heaven,

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I'm not going to be going, this just isn't in heaven until I can find my mother. Because we're going to think properly.

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We're going to think biblically. I think I'll know my mother's there. And I think after a million years, I might go find

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Paul and say, Paul, what did you mean by baptism of the dead? In 1 Corinthians 15, there's 42 different ways to interpret it, and help me.

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We'll know all that. Lloyd -Jones says, in many ways, it is the departure of the church from preaching that is responsible in a large measure for the state of modern society.

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The church has been trying to preach morality and ethics without the gospel as a basis. It has been preaching morality without godliness, and it simply does not work.

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It never has, and it never will. And the result is that the church, having abandoned her real task, has left humanity more or less to its own devices.

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If you teach junior church, preach Christ Jesus. Why? A, it's biblical.

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B, it follows Paul's example. C, it's the only way people get saved. Faith comes by hearing a message about Christ. D, it discusses sin.

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There's a reason why Jesus is on the cross, and it wasn't his own sin, it's our sin. Sin needs to be addressed.

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Preach the gospel because the gospel of Jesus on the cross addresses not just the love of God, God does love us so much he sent his son, but addresses the wrath of God as well.

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I thought it very fascinating when I was reading D .A. Carson a while ago, and he basically said, people are more frightened of volcanoes and war and famine than they are of eternal hell.

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And the cross is a wonderful display, a just and holy display of Nahum 1, the

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Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. Jesus was guiltless, but he suffered for the guilty.

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There is something going on more in Britain than here, but it's here now too, that the death of Christ on a cross is cosmic divine child abuse.

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So we want Jesus now, he's just a good example. Show me people who say, we want Jesus as a good example, he's a good teacher.

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Liberals like that, don't they? Muslims, you could say to a Muslim, was Jesus a good teacher? Who can read the

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Beatitudes and not say he was an excellent teacher? Everybody believes that. But when our sin was so bad that the father had to pour out his wrath on the son, now, that makes people a little uncomfortable.

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Well, what's the third word? Let's go to the third word that we find here. I'm going to talk a little bit about 2

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Timothy 4 later. The third word in our outline, disregard, number one, determination to preach

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Christ, number two. Now, number three, deference, deference, D -E -F -E -R -E -N -C -E, deference.

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You must, with humble deference, obey God and preach Christ Jesus.

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This is marching orders kind of language. Let's take a look at verse three. Let's take a look at verse three.

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And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. Kind of doesn't really look like deference to me and humility.

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It looks like the guy was scared. Well, first of all, he says, I'm in weakness. I know my own powers can't save people.

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I know the power is the gospel. I don't want to be the dominant one. But then he says, fear and trembling.

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I was with you in weakness. He seems to describe that in chapter one and chapter two so far. No problem. And in fear and in much trembling.

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If you were asked a question, what does fear and trembling mean? What would you say? Well, I found all kinds of different answers according to commentators.

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One was, Paul was a fear of, he had a fear of failure. He flopped in Athens and so he thought he was going to fail here.

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That's not right. He didn't flop in Athens. Some people think this is stage fright. Paul doesn't like to get up and he's kind of got jitters.

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Ever get up in front of people and have some kind of stage fright, nervous, shaky? Philip's translation says, I was feeling far from strong.

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I was nervous and rather shaky. I don't think it has anything to do with that. How about panic from a task that's over your head?

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Well, that's true. We're insufficient as preachers. What about anxiety over personal safety?

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Well, that could be true. This chapter goes on in chapter 18 of Acts, goes on to say, do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent for I'm with you and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.

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But if you take a look at this fear and trembling and put it together and look in the Old Testament Greek and look in the

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New Testament, you see that it's clumped together and it talks about being under the authority of one who's superior.

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It's not fear, I'm afraid and trembling. It's put together.

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It means I know there's a commander over me and I do what he says. That is to say, it is humbly deferring to those who are above you.

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There are officers in the Roman guard who would have fear and trembling. They're not afraid of their captain, but they say

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I defer to his authority and obey him. So Paul is basically saying there's another purchaser of the church,

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Christ. I do what he says. I'm a sent one. There's a higher one in a rank, there's a higher rank than me.

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Let me just read you these two and see if you can pick up those words in the context. Just listen, Ephesians 6.

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Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ.

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There's one over me with fear and trembling. How about this one, Mark 5? But the woman, fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.

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She was afraid, biting her fingernails. No, she realized that there was one over her, and she would submit to that one over her.

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Does this verse make more sense now, Philippians 2, 12, and 13? So then, my beloved brethren, just as you have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation, say it out loud, with fear and trembling.

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You walk around kind of crouching, I'm scared. I gotta work out my salvation kind of crouchingly.

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No, I'm gonna work out my salvation, my sanctification, knowing that God is over me and it is my duty, it is my privilege to do that.

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This is perfect because the Corinthians, if you described them negatively with one word, you could probably say prideful.

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Here they are so prideful, we're in charge, we do this, we tell everybody else what to do, we're a number one chief kind of hefe.

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Paul says, you know what, you Corinthians, you're under the gospel, you're under Jesus, and so you need to obey him.

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Turn with me, if you would, to 2 Timothy chapter 4, and I wanna show you the same kind of language given to elders.

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The gospel is not for us to make up or to say, well, we'll kind of cut and paste a little bit. We'll give people only love and no wrath, and we'll just talk about his resurrection.

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We better not talk about his crucifixion. This kind of higher ranking is used with different language here in 2

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Timothy chapter 4 verse 1, a great chapter that talks about preaching. Humbly deferring to the king.

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When we evangelize, that's what we do. Don't make things up and do the things we want our way.

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2 Timothy 4 .1, listen to the same kind of fear and trembling language of deference. I charge you,

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Paul says, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, then what?

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Preach the word. I charge you, that's take an oath. Put your hand up and say, I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me

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God, oath. I'm under God. He's the judge of the living and the dead.

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Look at verse 3. You better settle this in your mind that you're under God's authority, because society will try to tell you to do the opposite.

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For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.

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And will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. So set it in your mind now where you say,

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I've got one message, Jesus. I'm weak and I know that. And I need to preach Jesus in such a way that it will honor him who's above me.

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What does the text say in verse 4? They will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. When I see

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Jehovah's Witnesses at the door and they knock on the door and say, would you like to go to hell and your family too, and wanna talk to me?

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I used to feel super sorry for them. And in a sense, I really do, because I'm not any better than they are.

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I've been graced and they're hardened. But one of the reasons why they're in that religion is they wanna be.

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And they heap up teachers after their own desires. And they want a works righteousness system. And so they find people to teach works righteousness.

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And in a day when people do that, Paul says, when I came to you Corinth, there's somebody over me.

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Don't shoot the messenger. And the last word found in 1

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Corinthians chapter 2 verse 4 and 5. Let's wrap it up here, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 4 and 5.

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The final word that describes what Paul is saying. Seems hot in here, is it hot? I think it's hot.

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I see more sleepers out there today than I've seen for months. The final word is demonstration.

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Disregard, determination, deference, and now demonstration. You want your preaching, you want my preaching, you want your evangelism to show

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God's power, not your own. And so he says, in my speech, in my message, verse 4, we're not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power.

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There were results to his preaching, but they weren't prefab. They weren't made up by him.

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The word of God was blessed by the spirit of God, but it wasn't

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Paul's made up thing. He didn't manipulate people. He says, basically, I'm gonna try to take off the clothes of self -reliance and preach the gospel.

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Prayerfully. By the way, that word demonstration there in your text, it comes from a word where we would get a legal proof, the court of law kind of authenticity.

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It's a proof. Now, maybe the proof was signs and wonders that Paul the apostle could do.

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Maybe the proof was conversions. But either way, there was proof that the spirit of God was working.

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If it was conversion, there were changed lives. Corinth, you had a changed life. And what such were some of you, 1

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Corinthians chapter 6. John Hutton used to tell a story, a man who had been a reprobate in a drunkard was captured by Christ.

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His workmates used to try to shake him and say, surely a sensible man like you cannot believe in the miracles that the

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Bible tells you about. You cannot, for instance, believe that this Jesus of yours turned water into wine.

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And then when the all time classic responses that I've ever heard in my life. You can't, for instance, believe that this

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Jesus of yours turns water into wine. The man said, whether he turned water into wine or not,

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I do not know. But in my house, I have seen him turn beer into furniture. You guys are a little slow on the uptake there.

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Changed his life. Paul says, I've come to you preaching. Remember when

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I was there for 18 months and now I have to send you a letter? You were changed by the power of God. Through the word of God, preaching to Christ who's been raised from the dead.

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Paul says, I don't want your faith to rest in me. So for us at Bethlehem Bible Church, I think the same principles can apply.

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You see, I have a disregard of human manipulation. I will be determined to preach

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Christ Jesus, whether it's the nursery or the rest home ministry. I went under marching orders from God.

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And if he's happy and nobody else is, I'll sleep well. And I want my ministry to be a demonstration of God's power, because who would want to try to steal

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God's glory? And it's all revolving the cross. You ought to go buy a book by Stott called

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The Cross of Christ. So you say to yourself, I'm gonna study it from every angle, so that is my message.

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You need to study the cross more than you ever needed to study all the ins and outs of what kind of eschatology you might have.

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The eschatology that you need is Jesus, the one who was raised from a cross, is coming back soon, live a holy life.

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People can know all about all these kind of ologies and they've forgotten Christology. Paul says,

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I brought to you theology of Christology, don't forget it. But we recoil because it's bloody, it's gross, it's obscene to the world.

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And we, after all, I do at least, maybe you don't. But I want to be liked, I want to be respected, and I want to be called sir in the community of intellectuals at Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, and Yale.

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I want that, that's what a sinful heart wants. I know it's not right, so how do

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I defend myself against that? First repentance, acknowledging that, and then saying, so I am determined to give the people what my master says, and that's the gospel.

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So if you like the gospel, you'll love this church. If you don't like the gospel, I don't know what to tell you.

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Because guess what we're going to talk about next week? The gospel, guess what we're going to sing about next week? The gospel, guess what one example typifies the wrath of God, the love of God, the holiness of God, and the grace of God?

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It's the God of good. You're like, we'll say anything, just wrap this up. We get it, we understand.

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Thing is, we're so prone to forget, aren't we? We forget what we're supposed to remember, and we remember what we're supposed to forget.

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It's one of my all -time joys to watch a liberal seminary go conservative.

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From moralistic social agenda to Jesus is the savior, the one and only.

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I love that. And one of my tragedies that I watch in life is when seminaries go from conservative to liberal.

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Union Seminary, New York, used to be a reformed seminary.

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Presbyterian USA now, one of 11 seminaries in that denomination. Used to be a great seminary.

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They just had a lecturer, Margaret Miles, talk about her article called God's Love, Mother's Milk.

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And she said basically, not basically, I quote, although theologians may have claimed that crucifixion scenes exhibited the extremity of God's love for humans, it was scenes of the child at the breast that spoke to people on the basis of their earliest experience.

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And she goes on to say that the cross is inappropriate as a symbol for Christianity because, quote, it presents a violent act as salvific.

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Sometimes the only way for peace is through war. Violence for peace, and that's exactly what happened at Calvary.

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She said this equation of love with heroic violence and suffering is typically a male -centered perspective.

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She said in societies in which violence is rampant on the street and in the media, the nursing virgin can perhaps communicate

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God's love to people in a way that a violent image, the image of one more sacrificial victim, cannot.

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We live in our own little bubble. That's what the world says. And if you dare to call yourself a

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Christian, your mantra ought to be, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, even him crucified.

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So help me God. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we are thankful today that your son could not save himself because he was so obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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Thank you that he fulfilled his mission to go rescue every person that you gave him.

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And Father, we're thankful in time. Some of us just in the last year, some of us 40 years ago, your spirit applied that salvation and made us born again, caused us to believe.

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And then Lord, we accepted you, we believed in you, we received you as who you are and what you've done.

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I pray for Bethlehem Bible Church. Father, I pray for the weak ones who are here, that you would strengthen them with the gospel.

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I pray that they would find their all in Christ Jesus, the Lord. Father, for the mature ones here, the maturing ones,

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I pray that they would not just study the cross and get over it, move on to the next point of theology.

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But Father, you would have the spirit of God continually remind them of propitiation, reconciliation, redemption, forgiveness, justification.

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All the different words that show the beauty of the gospel, Christ Jesus, the

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Messiah on a cross. And Father, we know you have the power to do whatever you'd like, and you've even given us a resurrection power based on Christ's resurrection.

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So Father, help us to affect and infect this community around Worcester, not with our conversion stories, not with archeological data, not with science, not with anti -evolution things, but with the gospel of Christ Jesus.

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Give us that determination. Lord, we're weak, we're prideful, we're sinful. We wanna see you on display by your power and your authority through your spirit for your glory and all about Christ.

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Amen. 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.