Can A Christian Have Joy Knowing That Death Is Certain? (Part 1)

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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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So that�s good. A couple of announcements. February 21st, next year of 2023, we�re going to Israel, Pat and I, Pat Ebenroth and I are going.

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If you want to sign up, you can go, you can email me, I�ll send you the links. We are leaving

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Boston, Newark to Tel Aviv, and on the way back, Tel Aviv, Boston, nonstop.

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So if you are living farther away, you could probably meet us in Tel Aviv, or you can meet us in Newark, or you can meet us in Boston, however it works.

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Pat�s got his own deal. He�s got 24 slots, I�ve got 24 slots. I mean, if we get 50 each, okay, we�ve got two buses.

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But anyway, that�s that assurance book, Gospel Assurance 31 -Day Guide, to help you with assurance.

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Should be out really soon. Working on the cover and some editing and the formatting, and that is getting close.

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31 different chapters from Puritans, devotional, didactic, educational, all about Jesus and how to have assurance, and if you already have it, how to keep it.

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Is that enough? So, there we go, that�s enough. Today on the show, on No Compromise Radio, I want to talk about something that is not really fun to talk about, but it�s in the

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Bible, and it�s important, because it�s something we all have to deal with sooner or later, our own or someone else�s, and that is mortality, death.

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I want to talk about how Christians should see death today and tomorrow, maybe even the next week, and I was reading some about this, and of course you remember

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D .L. Moody, the evangelist, Dwight Moody, and he said, you know what, on his deathbed, he said to the author of this hymn, �Softly and Tenderly ,� he said, �I wish

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I would have written, �Softly and Tenderly ,� Jesus� calling, than anything I have been able to do in my whole life.�

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Amazing. These are the stanzas. Words of music by Will L.

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Thompson. Maybe you love that song, maybe you aren�t familiar with it, maybe you think it�s,

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I don�t know what you think, but I skipped a stanza. I skipped stanza three, and lots of people don�t sing stanza three.

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Here�s why. Stanza three, �Softly and Tenderly ,� Jesus is calling. �Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing, passing from you and from me.

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Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming, coming for you and for me.�

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It�s hard to talk about. Probably hard to sing. When was the last time you sang that? Death is hard for us to talk about, but it�s even more hard for our society to talk about.

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They can�t even really say �dead.� I mean, it�s too final in their eyes. So we have all kinds of, I mean, I have a thousand different slang terms for death.

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I mean, the easy ones, of course, are �passed away� or �expired.�

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Biblically, you might say something like, �They�ve gone to Abraham�s bosom.� There are sometimes more humorous ones, maybe trying to just take the sting off of some of this, you know, going to Davy Jones� locker or going to the happy hunting ground,

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God�s resting place, some call it, to meet one�s maker, they�ve met their maker, one�s last account.

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I actually hit the mute button there for my cough, that�s a new one for NOCO Radio. Death is so ugly.

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It is so awful. I think it�s repugnant, repulsive.

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Death is an intruder. Death is a foe. Death is an enemy. And short of the

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Lord�s return, it�s inevitable. It is inevitable.

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I just got back from the hospital visiting a dear saint. Two months ago, they were given two months to live, if they do some medicine, maybe up to a year.

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Probably the last time I�ll ever see this person. It�s difficult. How do we think about death?

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Do we just ignore it? I mean, that�s what most people do. We�re going to ignore it.

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Hopefully we don�t have to deal with it. Maybe it was Woody Allen who said something like, �I�m not afraid of death,

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I just don�t want to be there when it happens ,� type of thing. That�s the world. The question really today, though, is can you as a

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Christian have any joy in life knowing what�s coming, that deathbeds are coming, coming for you and for me?

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Can there be any joy in this life knowing that we will die, our family will die, some of our family have already died?

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How can we have any joy, happiness, knowing that death is certain? I think we can learn from Solomon as we explore this very topic in the book of Ecclesiastes.

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In Ecclesiastes, you�re going to read it one of two ways. As a depressing book, as a hopeless book, or you can read it with an eye toward the glory of God, fearing

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Him and enjoying life when you can, all because of the resurrection of the

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Lord Jesus. There are two ways to look at it. It�s almost like you look at it as an unbelieving perspective, a believer�s perspective, or you look at it from a believer�s perspective.

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This is in fact a Christian book in the Christian canon, one of the 66 Christian books that we have.

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And what I like about Ecclesiastes, he doesn�t just deal with peripheral issues.

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He goes for the jugular, death. How do we live in this life where everything�s fleeting, everything�s vain?

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Remember that word �vanity� here in Ecclesiastes. It could mean vain, frustrating, vexing, puzzling, but it also could mean temporary, fleeting, transient.

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Remember in chapter 31 of Proverbs, just across the page from Ecclesiastes 1 where it says �vanity, vanity�, it talks about beauty as vain.

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Is beauty frustrating? Is it vexing? Is it puzzling? No, no, it�s fleeting.

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Beauty is fleeting. It doesn�t last. That�s the point. So, depending on the context, we look at the word �vanity� and we translate it accordingly.

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That�s what we want to do there. There�s a biblical worldview that Solomon wants you to have. Is your biblical worldview through the fear of God, the triune

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God, knowing that God is sovereign, knowing that God has plans for men and women under the sun, even though it�s a fallen world, even though Adam sinned as our federal head and it affected everything, us included, creation included, and that makes life very hard.

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That makes life very difficult. And can we enjoy anything? Is there anything more than just drudgery?

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I mean, life�s so short. What do we do? And, of course, the first two chapters, essentially, Solomon tried everything without God, and then he tried a few things with God, and he was happy to understand that he could enjoy gifts from God�s hand, because you can have enjoyment in your toil.

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You can eat and drink and have some joy knowing that it�s with him. You can have enjoyment.

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So, no matter how hard things get, there is a joy to be had, and we understand there are many, many other books of the

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Bible written later, and then we see, �Oh, yes, this is who God is. This is what we can do, and even the

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Westminster Shorter Catechism, chief end of man, to enjoy God and glorify him forever. Yes, in fact, we can do that.�

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Instead of, �I deserve, I�m supposed to get this. No, no, we�re sinful creatures. We know what we deserve, and yet we have any good pleasure, any good enjoyment, anything to eat and drink, and any family.�

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We look at this through the lens of Jesus, because the Father loves sinners. He sends his

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Son, who loves sinners, and that Son lives a representative life and a substitutionary death that he dies, is raised from the dead, and the

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Spirit of God, he loves sinners and he applies to sinners the great work of Christ, who was sent by the

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Father. Not only that, chapter 3, the first 15 verses, it�s a poem, a poetic delivery of the sovereignty of God.

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There�s a time for everything, and the sovereignty of God, of course, comforts people. Does it comfort you?

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No matter the worst, you�re in the worst trial, adverse circumstances, what if God wasn�t sovereign?

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What if God is sovereign? Well, he is sovereign, and we walk by faith in the sin -cursed world, because we know it�s ruled by the

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King. We see things rightly, and then we can enjoy God, and then we can fear him.

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That�s what he wants us to do in verse 14, to fear him, not with a slavish fear, but a fear of awe and respect as a son would a father who is such a great father.

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Not fear of torture, but fear of dishonoring his father, because his father is so great.

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Fear God and keep his commandments, that�s the end of the matter, after all has been heard, Ecclesiastes 12, 14, for this is the duty of man.

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Then you think to yourself, yeah, but there�s a lot of bad things going on, I�m trying to enjoy some of the things in life from God�s good hand,

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I�m trying to embrace the sovereignty of God, but there�s a lot of people getting away with a lot of stuff on this earth, and it frustrates me.

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And therefore, Solomon talks about verses 16 and 17 of chapter 3, that you can expect

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God to judge. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, right? Hey, if your enemy�s hungry, feed him, if he�s thirsty, give him something to drink, because by so doing, you will heap burning coals on their head.

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Don�t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. There�s going to be a judgment day, so you don�t have to run around and be sad that people will get off the hook and never have to pay.

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You can be sad that there�s corruption in the world, but you know justice will be done one day.

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In the family, we say to ourselves as children in the family of God, we can trust our

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Father. He�s just, He�s righteous, He�s holy, and therefore He�s going to take care of all that. God will judge the righteous.

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So, that�s what�s happening so far in the book of Ecclesiastes.

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So, we come to chapter 3, verse 18 and following, and now we talk about some of these hard questions.

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Difficult questions. That was all my intro. How do you like the intro? Mike Abenroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry.

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Just as a side note before we get into the topic at hand, I filmed five episodes for American Gospel Television a few days ago,

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Ben Mercedes filmed, and we sent those to Brandon Kimber at American Gospel, and five episodes on the doctrine of sanctification.

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Five episodes. I did Law Gospel, five episodes, sanctification. Probably in the fall,

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I�ll do some episodes on the doctrine of assurance. Maybe it�ll work out well if the book comes out at the same time.

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Back to Ecclesiastes. The good news is, there�s answers in this book.

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Sometimes he doesn�t give every answer in Ecclesiastes, but in this book, what I mean by this book is the

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Bible book, there�s answers. And since there are some questions in this section,

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I�m going to use that question format that�s found in the text as my outline.

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So, I�ll try to have my outline reflect the text, and the text has some questions, of course, in the section of 18 through 22.

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Two. Is that the section? 18 to 22? Yes. Chapter 3, verse 21, who knows, chapter 3, verse 22, who can bring�

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I mean, probably the reason why we�re getting to 318, and it�s talking about death here, is, you know what, there�s a lot of injustice in the world, and I know

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God�s going to judge one day. Well, if God�s going to judge one day, well, we�ve got to die before the judgment, again, and short of the second coming, there�s going to be a judgment, what happens before the judgment?

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Well, we die, right? So, he�s thinking about that. So, I�ve got a series of questions to help us, to help you, think through death better.

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Okay? And they start like this. Question one. Is man any better than an animal?

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Is man any better than an animal? Verse 18, �I said my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts.

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For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same. As one dies, so dies the other.

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They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place, all are from the dust, and to dust all return.�

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That�s Ecclesiastes 3, 18, 19, and 20. Are there any differences between animals and humans?

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I mean, both made out of the dust, that�s true. Both affected by Adam�s sin in the fall.

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Both die, we see that in this section. So, we�re just the same? Is that what the writer�s trying to tell us?

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Are there any differences? I could put it that way. Well, of course, God breathed into humans, and so we have souls, and those souls are eternal.

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There�s no souls for dogs or cats, certainly. They don�t have souls.

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So what happens? Well, they don�t go to heaven or hell, they just stop existing. But for us,

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God breathed into us, given us a soul, that�s a spiritual component. You want to call it a soul? Fine, a spirit?

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Fine. I don�t really think it�s body, soul, and spirit. I think it�s body, soul, body, spirit, body, soul, slash, spirit.

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We have physical, we have an immaterial part, and we are different than the angels, even.

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We are different than the animals, because we�ve been made in the image and likeness of God, right?

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We think, we have emotions, we have a will, we have language, we�re self -aware, we�re made in the image of God, we�re responsible to God, to obey

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His commands, right? And we understand that.

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We know souls aren�t going to, aren�t put into pets. Genesis 2, 7, �Then the

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Lord formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and man became a living creature.�

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Genesis 1, 26 and 27, here�s the real issue, right? Here�s the real difference between animals and humans.

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God said, �Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.�

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So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created them. Male and female,

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He created them. Listen to Genesis 2, 19, �Now out of the ground the

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Lord formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was his name.�

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So form from the ground, form from the ground, but only men and women are made in the image of God.

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I think of Psalm 8, �Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

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You have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You put all things under his feet.�

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Okay, is man any better than an animal? Well, we are eternal, our souls are.

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And so question number two, has mankind passed the test?

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By the way, we are better than animals in terms of we're image bearers. It was

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John Gershner, I think, who said, Gershner was Sproul's mentor, that sometimes rats are better than humans because humans were made to worship the triune

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God and they don't do it. Rats were made to act like rats and they do it perfectly. He said that,

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I didn't see it. Verse 18, there's a test, �Has mankind passed the test?

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I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them ,� Ecclesiastes 3, 18, �that they may see that they themselves are but beasts.�

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Okay, God is judging in the future, yes, but he's testing now.

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That's interesting. Yes, there's going to be a future judgment. We're expecting that earlier in chapter three, but he's testing man now.

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The Hebrew word is sifting, winnowing. Let's see what he's like.

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What's the test? To see that they themselves are but beasts? You don't have faith in the triune

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God. You don't think there's anything above the sun. And you know what?

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You become like an animal. You just look at the world today. It is eat or be eaten.

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It is beat or be beaten. That's exactly right. I think that's an Iggy Pop. We act like animals to each other.

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Benjamin Shaw wrote in Ecclesiastes commentary, he said, �I do not think Solomon has in mind here the manner in which animals treat their own kind, but rather the manner in which they treat other animals.

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The lion shows no sympathy to the zebra. The fox shows no sympathy to the hare. The cat shows no sympathy to the mouse.

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Thus men treat one another. We act like animals.�

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This is totally a side note, not really related. I can't figure out how to jam it in, but put some netting around the blueberries so the birds don't come in and eat all our blueberries because finally after a few years we're getting some fruit.

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And so I put the netting there and sometimes the netting goes all the way to the ground and snakes get caught in there all the time.

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Garter snakes, gardener snakes. And so one was stuck in there, it was a couple of feet long and I thought, they just die in there and I can't extract it because I have to cut 40, they're through 40 hoops of the mesh.

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Anyway, so I got my scissors out. I have some scissors that I used to have when I would be in labor and delivery.

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And so they're the scissors that you use to cut the umbilical cord. You just autoclave them, you sterilize them and they're good for around the house.

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It's almost like cutting out snakes out of the netting. And so I'm trying to hold its head, right?

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Because it wants to bite me. I'm thinking, isn't this supposed to be like the mouse and the thorn in the paw of the lion and you're supposed to just let me?

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I'm trying to help you. I'm either going to do this for you or you're going to die. And it took me, I don't know, cutting, cutting, cutting, trying to be careful not to cut into the snake.

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And finally I got it. And it was wrapping its body up around my hand and, you know, trying to squeeze, squeeze it while I was trying to cut it out.

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I kind of felt like Dr. Doolittle, except Dr. Doolittle would be able to talk to it and say, stop trying to bite me.

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I need an extra hand. I have to pinch your neck. I have to get the netting. I have to cut.

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And there's only one of me. I only have two hands. What am I doing? Back to the passage.

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If there's no looking above the sun and there's only striving after wind below the sun, not recognizing

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God exists, I mean, why be accountable to nobody? So let's treat everybody like we can get things from them and just act like animals.

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Lots of people without Jesus act that way, don't they? You say, well, God's testing them because he needs to figure out information.

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No, no, he already knows. And probably it's written for us.

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So we say, yep, without the Lord, that's where I would have been. That's me. The test for all humans is simply

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Romans 2 .13, for it is not for the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

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You just have to obey perfectly. That's the test. Well, time's gone, so we're going to do part two here next time on No Compromise Radio.

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You can write Spencer if you want, info at nocompromiseradio .com. Maybe we're working on a new website and a few other things.

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Don't forget Israel, February 21st, 2023. Mike Abendroth, Pat Abendroth, NOCO, Pactum, Bethlehem Bible Church, Omaha Bible Church.

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See you there. 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.