Hard Preaching

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Hell fire and brimstone preaching. Is it good? Is there a proper way to do it?

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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
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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Mike Abendroth here. It is in no -code time, who knows what day, but in real time, it is
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September 21st, 2022. And one year ago today, things weren�t looking too good in the hospital for me.
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COVID lung, but everything that has breath, let it praise the Lord, and so I want to do that.
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The Lord has been faithful in my life. It�s been a hard year, but a good year. The last 12 months, went to the lung doctor, said
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I still probably have some room for improvement. So who knows?
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They�re 80%, 85%. I�m able to ride the bike. I�m able to surf. I�m able to walk.
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I�m able to get some work done around the house. I�m able to breathe deeply.
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Not myself yet, but what are you going to do? So many people have it worse. It was,
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I�m certain, good for me to sit there in the hospital and contemplate eternity.
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And it�s all of us, for all of us, it�s important to do. Anyway, thanks for your prayers. Thanks for your love.
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And I know many of you prayed thanks for that.
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My book, Gospel Assurance, I compiled a bunch of authors, Thomas Brooks, Thomas Watson, Horatius Bonar, Vitsias, something from Westminster Confessions, something from Canons of Dort, all on the topic of assurance, 31 -day guide to assurance.
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You can get it at Amazon, $14 .99, a couple hundred pages. And I saw a book the other day, it had about,
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I don�t know, 60 small little pages. They wanted $11 .99 for it. I�m going, what is that about? Anyway, if you want 10 or more, email me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com,
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and I�ll send you a cheaper version. I have an author�s discount that I can get if you want to order bulk.
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So hopefully that�ll be encouraging to you. I�ve already heard people using it for a study or reading to their children. It starts off easy, but it�s going to get harder.
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I�m telling you, it�s going to get harder. Today in front of me, I have something called
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Hellfire and Brimstone Preaching, an article, I think it�s written by Richard Nichols, or this is the guy that printed it,
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I don�t know. It�s on freepublic .com, and it looks like it�s quite old, 20 years old.
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And someone at the church gave it to me. And I know this person at the church, and here�s what I think they want.
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I think they want more Hellfire and Brimstone Preaching from me. I think that�s what they�re after.
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Now, I don�t know, because I don�t read motives, and I just, this was given to me, it was put in my box, or sent by email or something.
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So I�m not exactly sure. I think there should be some preaching about Hellfire and Brimstone.
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When I was in Massachusetts, sorry, in California, I thought to myself, all right,
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I�m going back to Massachusetts, and what do I need to talk about before I get back into Ecclesiastes, the book that I�m going through verse by verse?
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I thought, oh, you know what, I need to preach 1 Corinthians 6, 9 -20. Whatever kind of sin it is, heterosexual, homosexual, tied in there to idolatry, or whatever, you were such people, such were some of you, the text reads.
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But you�ve been washed, sanctified, justified. Right? And because of that, don�t be deceived, flee immorality, glorify
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God with your body. There�s a response for Christians as they want to honor the
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Lord and obey. I wanted to do that, because the culture is selling things in that regard.
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Secondly, I wanted to talk about abortion, because we need to think rightly about that, and that�s why
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I preach Psalm 139. It�s not a psalm written about abortion, but you see God working, of course, in the womb.
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And I wanted to try to make a case that while forgivable, it�s sin.
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Then I also wanted to talk about hell. So therefore,
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I preached a sermon looking at the words of our Lord Jesus. I think one man called him the theologian of hell.
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He talked more about hell than heaven. And then it was kind of textual, it was through the
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Gospel of Matthew, selected passages to talk about hell and how hell is a place where you�re in the presence of a holy
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God and you have no mediator. Hell is eternal, hell is real, all that.
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So, I mean, I could ask you the question, when�s the last time you heard a sermon about hell? Right?
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If you were at BBC or listening to NOCO, you�ve heard one recently because I preached that. So, I�m all for preaching the truth about hell.
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I mean, I�m not saying I�m the only one that preaches about it, but it�s rare to hear a sermon on hell these days.
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I think sometimes in passing we mention it. If I�m doing a funeral or a wedding or Sunday morning,
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I often say, �If you�re here today and you�re not a Christian, these promises are not for you.�
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Like SOS Johnson would say, �You ought not to have any rest or sleep until you rest in Christ Jesus by faith alone.�
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Trusting in the risen Savior who�s a substitute for sinners, including someone like you.
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Well, so, in those contexts, you know, we talk about it. It�s not like we deny it, but do we?
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When�s the last time you read a book about it? Right? The one that I read 25 years ago was very impactful.
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John Blanchard, you think of him as the ultimate questions guy, and he�s got a good commentary on James.
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You say, �You used to think it was good. Who knows now, right ?� It�s like watching a movie. You think, �Oh, that was good.�
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Then you watch it again, and you go, �Oh.� He wrote a book called, �What Happened to Hell ?� And I�m all for teaching the whole truth of God.
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I hold back nothing. But this article, I think, is off base, in my opinion.
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The article is off base because it doesn�t differentiate between preaching to self -righteous religious people who hunker down, slash evangelistic preaching, slash edifying sermons to feed the sheep.
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There�s a reason why we�re not to snuff out wicks and we�re not to break bruised reeds. There�s a reason why we�re to reprove, rebuke, exhort, slash encourage with great patience and instruction.
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Yes, we call out sin from the pulpit, even among Christians, and then we give them the balm of the gospel,
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Christ for pardon, Christ for power. Christians, I want you to know that Jesus died for the sins, your sins too.
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Not just when you were an unbeliever, but as a Christian. And therefore, I think we need to think through this.
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Any good parent knows. Remember, even parents, all parents are sinful. Parents know when you correct a child, you then love them after.
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I mean, some don�t, shame on them. But you give correction, it could be verbal or otherwise, and then afterwards,
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I love you. And they ask for forgiveness, of course I forgive you. And there�s this reconciliation and this wonderful bonding and love expressed, really, by both parties.
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Well, so you�re going to just get up and preach to the congregation? By the way, ecclesiology tells me that this is a gathering of saints, and that I�m to preach to the saints and to feed them and to edify them.
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Hold nothing back, that�s true. Even preach about hell to Christians, that�s true.
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But how do I do it? And how do I go about it? And what�s hard preaching? I mean, so the article says, it�s not written very well, maybe the guy�s, you know, this is his second language,
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English. I don�t talk very well and it�s my first language. Years ago, after a service, people would get up off the benches and come out the old meeting house doors, telling to each other who they enjoyed,
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I don�t know what that even means, that hellfire and brimstone sermon. I think they came out saying they enjoyed hellfire brimstone sermon.
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Nowadays, maybe it should be nowadays, the people politely arise from their padded pews, step lightly over the carpet, exchange some pleasantries with their friends and as they pass out the doors of their lovely place of worship, they compliment the preacher for the beautiful uplifting lesson that he so eloquently delivered.
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Back a few years ago, when Christians knew their Bible, the preacher preached hard against sin. There were a few who didn�t like it, but the majority of truly converted children of God appreciated it.
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Where is the hard preaching? It�s on YouTube by some very famous preachers.
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And then they give, this guy gives a list of some hard preaching. Jesus, except you eat the flesh of the
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Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Many therefore of his disciples when they had heard this said, that is a hard saying, who can hear it?
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When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, does this offend you?
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John chapter six. John the Baptist saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism and said of them,
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O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance.
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Matthew three. He says to Herod, it's not lawful for you to have her.
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Peter said that in Acts chapter, Matthew chapter,
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Matthew 14 is where John saw Herod. And then Peter on Pentecost, him ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
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And then Stephen's hard preaching, ye stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the
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Holy Spirit as your fathers did, so do you. Acts chapter seven. Okay, so what about hard preaching?
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Is there a time to say, serpents, vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?
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Matthew chapter 23, hypocrites, hypocrites, hypocrites. Obviously, there's a time and place.
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But my question for you is, is that time and place on Sunday morning, Lord's day, where the saints are gathered to hear the word of God preached and to receive the sacraments slash ordinances?
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I'm not against hard preaching, if that means saying to people, sin is sin and it will be judged.
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I'm not against hard preaching if it's, there's no pluralism out there. It's Jesus as exclusively the way, the truth, and the life.
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A literal resurrection that you must believe in. A real Jesus on earth, historical, the
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God man. If that's hard preaching, I'm not against it. If hard preaching is you're preaching through the verses of the
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Bible and you come upon anything and you talk about it as God would have you, my passage this week is
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Ecclesiastes four, and here's essentially Ecclesiastes four. When you look at the world, you realistically see the effects of the fall and you see men as oppressors, envious, lonely, and corrupt when it comes to government.
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Is that hard preaching? Okay, well, what am I going to also do? I'm going to turn that into a, it's not just an old
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Testament book, it's a Christian book, Ecclesiastes. And so my working title right now is four grim realities of a fallen world that should make you praise
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Jesus, that he's a risen savior, your risen savior. Okay, so there's a way to preach the truth to people because I give them both law and gospel.
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I give them both Christ for pardon and for power. I don't want to disassociate Christ benefits, i .e.,
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forgiveness, union, justification, sanctification, adoption from Jesus himself.
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And what I do when I preach, I'll say if you're not a Christian, of course, but then to the
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Christians, what do you do? What do you do with the weak people and the suffering people and the people that are not at the top of their game as we all ebb and flow in the
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Christian life? What do we do with them? That's really the question here on No Compromise Radio. I think it's insightful when this writer says about the apostle of love,
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John, he used severe words, it says. 1 John 2 .4, he that saith
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I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. Now, the writer said the language could not be clearer from the example of Jesus, Stephen, John, and many others.
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Hard preaching is not wrong. The key to hard preaching is speaking the truth in love. Okay, well, at least he's got that Ephesians 4 reference and to do it in love.
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I'll give them that. But this 1 John passage, that just should set your mind to, hmm, warning, warning, warning.
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When people quote 1 John like that, just baldly, and may I say, out of context, you want to say to yourself, something's wrong here.
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Something's wrong when people do that. Now, have I done it?
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I'm sure I have. I don't want to do it. I'm sorry that I've done it. 1
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John has a context, does it not? Well, we could get into pre -Gnosticism, etc.,
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but I think it's enough for us to say, it's written so that the apostles' joy might be complete.
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Maybe if you want to look at chapter 1, verse 4, so it's your joy may be complete. Fine, we could argue about that if we'd like.
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1 John 5, verse 13, these things I write to you, who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
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And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
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If you say to yourself, hmm, 1 John 4, beloved, beloved, beloved, see what kind of love the
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Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, 1 John 3, 1.
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1 John 2, 18, children. 1 John 2, verse 1, my little children.
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I'm writing these things so that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the
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Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation of our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world,
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Jews and Gentiles. He knows that we sin. Verse 8 of chapter 1, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
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If we confess our sins, He's faithful to forgive us, faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. Okay, so let's think about that. Okay, if I say
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I don't sin, God's a liar, because God says you're a sinner. Okay, now if I do sin,
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I don't want to sin, He forgives, and I've got an advocate. It has been said that a mediator stands between us and God, and an advocate stands with us before God.
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We have an advocate. We have a defense lawyer, the Lord Jesus, and He's the righteous one.
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We're not righteous, but Jesus Christ, the God -man, He's righteous, and He's the propitiation for our sins.
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He's assuaged God's wrath for our sins, because He bore that penalty in His body on the tree. So if you just take 1
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John 2, 4, if you say you know Him and you don't keep His commandments, you're a liar. Okay, that's hard preaching.
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If it's direct, if it's talking about sin and not illness and disease and syndromes, if it's one way or else, if it's
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God's way or else, okay, that's hard preaching. But I don't think that's what this person means. Of course, I could be wrong, and I'm wrong very often.
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Let's just pose it to this man who wrote the letter. Do you sin, author of this letter of hard preaching?
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Do you sin? Do you say you know God? I assume you do, you wrote an article about Him.
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You say you know God and you don't keep His commandments. Do you keep all His commandments? Which commandments don't you keep?
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New Testament commands? Moral law? Any of the Old Testament commands?
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Conscience will tell you certain things? I know you, you don't keep all
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His commandments. But here's this verse that's supposed to be about hard preaching. I know Him and I don't keep
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His commandments. The truth is not in Him. So if you want to stand before God, the ground before God and His holiness is perfect, entire, exact, perpetual obedience.
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Okay, well, we can't do that. That's why we need an advocate. That's why we need the propitiation.
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When you read 1 John and you pull out anything, mainly the ones they pull out of verse 3 and 4, here's verse 3, and by this we know that we have come to know
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Him if we keep His commandments. Hard preaching.
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If you preach in such a way that believers end the service by thinking,
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I don't know if I'm a Christian, that's awful. There's a full counsel here.
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What is God trying to do? Is He trying to motivate you to obey by questioning your relationship to Him?
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Now, if your relationship to Him is wrong, there's going to be a bunch of corrupt fruit, and I think you're going to see a correlation.
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But what kind of dad would I be if I say to my children, I'm going to keep you in suspense.
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We'll see if you're really an Abendroth, and you need to toe the line, and maybe a little bit later
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I'll let you know. I mean, for instance, Romans chapter 8, we already know what the verdict is going to be on judgment day.
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No condemnation. The future verdict is pushed into the present, and we know now, simply because of the
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Lord Jesus, our trust in Him, our knowledge of, assent to, and trust in.
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We're fine. We're good. And because of that, now we don't want to sin. Now we want to obey. Now we want to live a holy life, and a godly life, in filial fear, because God is so great, and majestic, and wonderful, that we would like to live a life, like I said,
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Ephesians 4, 1, commensurate with our calling. And then we want to pray, and evangelize, and seek
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His face, and read His word, and attend worship services, and serve the other Christians.
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Do the one another's. Hard preaching. I think hard preaching, number one, it forgets the audience, and if you're preaching to self -righteous people, like Jesus did, you blister them, like Jesus did, like John did, the
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Baptist, like Peter did, Pentecost. I mean, they just killed Jesus wrongly.
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What kind of words do you think they should have? Hard words. That's true. Always true words, preaching the
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Bible. But then when you're preaching to Christians, the relationship to God is different. So, here's how we put this all in summary.
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Remember, dear Christian, God is immutable, and God is holy, and God's holiness doesn't change, and the law is not abstract.
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It is a reflection of God's nature, and it is a reflection of God's nature all the time.
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And that means God's law doesn't change. Don't commit adultery, never changes. It's a reflection of who
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God is on the positive side, love your wife, etc. Well, the relationship to the lawgiver is different.
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There's a believer and an unbeliever, and the believer's relationship to the law is guide. And yes, chastening is going to happen when we don't obey, but if we don't obey, it doesn't change our relationship, because that relationship is solid.
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We're adopted because of the work of the triune God. And then, the law to unbelievers, that's,
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I think, where this guy wants to go. Hard preaching. Here's how
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I'd say it so I could agree with it. Where is the hard preaching to give the law to show people's sin and misery to unbelievers?
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Instead of cajoling them, instead of soothing them, and giving them some kind of balm, the law is meant to expose sin and misery so the people, by faith, can run to the
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Savior. That's the problem these days, and I would agree with the author.
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Where's the hard preaching when you're calling sin, sin? When you address unbelievers, and you tell them about the
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Creator and the Judge, who also is a Savior, where's that kind of language? It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living
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God. Where's that language? Hell is eternal. Hell is real. Hell is taught by Jesus.
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Gnashing of teeth, everlasting punishment, worm dieth not, unquenchable fire.
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If that's hard preaching, great, but then I give the solution. I give law to the unbeliever, and then the good news.
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Where's the good news? Then, to the believer, I give law, and then I give the good news of who the lawgiver is, so you can respond out of gratitude, and who the lawgiver is, and He's given us the
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Holy Spirit to dwell in us so that we have the power to be able to say no to sin and yes to righteousness, and give us the desire to live a holy life.
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That's the problem. I think this goes back to, again, where everything goes back to a no -compromise radio, and that's the law gospel distinction.
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Preach the Word, yes, in season and out of season. Reprove, yes, rebuke, yes, and exhort with all long -suffering or patience in doctrine or teaching.
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Yes, of course, people are not going to want to have their lusts exposed and their sins exposed, and they're not going to endure sound doctrine, and they're going to turn away, but what do we do?
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I mean, what's hard preaching? How did Jesus deal with those that knew they were sinners?
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That's a good question. If we're going to use Jesus as the model—remember, we have apostolic truth as well from Jesus sent them to say these very things—if
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Jesus' model is, okay, self -righteous, it's law -heavy, and those that know they aren't righteous and need to be reminded of Christ's righteousness, it's gospel -heavy, is that the way you want to do it?
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Well, one thing's for certain. Just preach the whole counsel of God, and preach it in such a way that you're not self -righteous.
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Preach it in such a way that you tell the truth. Preach it in such a way that the unbelievers will see their sin and misery because of the law and then run to the good news of a
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Savior who justifies the ungodly. Preach to Christians in the Sunday morning sermon especially, especially, especially so that people are encouraged and that people feel the conviction of God's law as guide, and they become uncomfortable, and they ask
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God for forgiveness, and they repent, and then they gratefully say, thank you for being gracious and merciful, that even
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I, a Christian, would sin against you. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Grant me repentance. I don't want to do it again.
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Is hard preaching wrong? That's the question. What is hard preaching, and what's the role of the law?
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I think that's really the issue here. So on No Compromise Radio, my name is Mike Abendroth. Thanks for listening.
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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.