WWUTT 1337 Abhor What is Evil, Love What is Good (Romans 12:9b)

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We looked at Romans 12, 9 yesterday, let love be genuine. We continue the verse today, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.

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And we do all of this in light of Christ, when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text, studying

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God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Find all our videos online at www .wutt

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.com, as well as links to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Here's your teacher,

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We're back in Romans 12, which we've been reading this week, the short section that we've been studying.

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And I will start by once again, reading verses nine through 13. The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome.

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Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.

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Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

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Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the

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Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation.

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Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

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Yesterday, we focused on just those first four words of verse nine, let love be genuine.

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And this is not just some standalone commandment. I could open up a podcast and I could say to you, hey, let love be genuine.

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Love one another genuinely. Don't be fake. Genuinely love other people. Amen. Let us pray.

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And all I would be doing there is imposing law upon you. I would be giving you a commandment you actually are not capable of fulfilling.

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Nor can you do so in such a way that is honoring to the Lord. We must be changed from the inside out in order to have a genuine love for other people.

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We need a new heart, one that loves God and loves the people of God. And so it's in pointing to Christ that we see what genuine love looks like.

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And it's by faith in Jesus receiving his righteousness that we can have hearts that love other people.

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In such a way that we consider other's needs ahead of our own and we do so in honor to the

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Lord who loved us genuinely. We look at Jesus and we see his genuine love for us.

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And then we can show that same humble love for one another. Jesus who left his throne in heaven, took on flesh and dwelt among us.

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We celebrate that every Christmas season. I mean, we celebrate that all the time, but of course we remember the incarnation of Christ more prominently at Christmas.

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Probably in our church services and sermons and things like that, more so than any other time of the year.

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As Jesus has done this for us, lived for us, suffered for us, died for us, rose again from the grave, ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God where he enters seeds for us.

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When we see this love that Jesus has for us, so we may love one another that same way, in a genuine way, with a new heart and a new mind in light of Christ, we can genuinely love one another and doing so without hypocrisy.

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Like we don't just do this to be seen by other people. Look at how wonderful I can be.

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Look at how charitable I am, how much money I've given, all these other things. Okay, we're not loving to be seen by other people.

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It's not just something that appears on the outside. It's genuine from the inside out. You see it on the outside because that's who we've become on the inside, a new person who has the mind of Christ and desires to love as Christ has loved us genuinely, not just on the outside, but with a real affection for one another.

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Let love be genuine. And of course you have in verse 10, kind of going right along with that, love one another with brotherly affection.

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But before we get there, we've got this second part of verse nine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.

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Now I was curious about this word abhor, and I expected to look it up and find out that it was some derivative of hate.

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Hate what is evil, love what is good. And this word would appear in other places in the New Testament.

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In fact, this is a unique Greek word that only appears here. It's not used anywhere else in the

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New Testament. It is the Greek word apostogeho, and it literally means to abhor.

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Now that's still synonymous with hate, but it's not like it's a word similar to hate that's therefore used in other places in the

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New Testament. So it's only right here. And it means to detest, that you would hate those things that are evil with such disgust, that you wanna have nothing to do with that.

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So hate those things that are evil, don't do them. It's not about looking at other people's wrongs and pointing them out.

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Oh, I hate that thing that you did. Oh, that attitude, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. That's not the context here. The context is that you would have such a disgust for those things that are not of God, that you wanna have nothing to do with them in your life.

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You're not a participant with those evil things. You hold fast to what is good.

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That's the contrast there. So abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.

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How do we know what's evil? And how do we know what's good? It's written for us in the word of God.

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Those things that God hates, we must also hate. Those things that please God, we must desire to do.

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Those are the things that God calls good according to his word. There is no fellowship with evil.

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We're not to have anything to do with those things that are otherwise satanic or of the world or of our flesh.

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We are to bond ourselves with Christ and seek those things which are holy and righteous and good and grow us in godliness and Christ -likeness.

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Paul talks about this in multiple places, not just Paul, the Holy Spirit, throughout the scriptures, in fact.

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But let me start by reading what Paul puts here in 2 Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 14.

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Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?

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Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial?

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Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?

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And remember in 1 Corinthians 6, I'm reading here from 2 Corinthians 6, in the previous letter, chapter 6, he says, you are a temple of the

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Holy Spirit. So what agreement has the temple of God with idols?

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For we are the temple of the living God. He repeats that in his next letter as well.

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As God said, I'm going on here in verse 16, 2 Corinthians 6, 16.

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That right? Okay. Making sure I'm, in case you're keeping notes, I'm making sure I'm getting all my references right.

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By the way, my wife does this. So she'll listen to the podcast and she will take notes. And she's frustrated when

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I sometimes assume that you know the reference instead of giving the reference clearly.

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So she helps me to keep that in check that I'm giving my references clearly here in case you're writing those things down.

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Okay, continuing on. I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their

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God and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, those who do evil, and be separate from them, says the

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Lord. Touch no unclean thing and then I will welcome you. I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the

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Lord God, the Almighty. In 1 John 1, so we've gone from the apostle

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Paul now to the apostle John. He says, beginning in verse five, this is the message that we heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

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If we say we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

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But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.

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I go to yet another teacher. This is Jude, only one chapter in Jude, verse 23.

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Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

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That's abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Hate those things that would otherwise be a blemish upon ourselves.

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Sins, passions of the flesh, worldly temptations, don't have anything to do with any of that stuff.

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Pursue Christ, hate even the garment that is stained by the flesh.

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We go back to Paul. This is Ephesians chapter five. He says, let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

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Verse seven, therefore do not become partners with them for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the

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Lord. Walk as children of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.

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And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

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Let me pause there for just a moment. So that's Ephesians 5, 12. I'll read that again. It is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

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When I did my program this past Friday, and I talked about some of the hatred that I was receiving from those who identify as LGBTQ, there was kind of a movement there online among them for a little while to be hurling such incredibly blasphemous insults at me and throwing pornographic images at me, even giving me and my family death threats.

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But as I described those things, there was still a lot that I left out. And I was very discreet and careful with some of the things that I described.

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Why? Because it's shameful to even speak of the things that they do in secret.

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I gave you just enough to know what it was that I was hearing and receiving, the stuff that they were saying, that we may have nothing to do with those fruitless works of darkness, but instead to expose them.

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At the same time, it's shameful even for me to repeat some of the blasphemous statements that they were making and to use that kind of a language.

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If you listen to the briefing with Albert Moeller, he will sometimes read some of those articles that will appear in print in the

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New York Times and will say it would be improper for me to go on reading this article, saying to you some of the language that gets used here, even in the

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New York Times. So sometimes Dr. Moeller in reading about these more sensitive issues will have to stop reading at some point and say it's not proper for me to even continue to repeat these things.

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So we as Christians need to understand that there is a level of darkness we cannot even tiptoe into in repeating some of the shameful things that they do.

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When I was reading on Friday from 1 Corinthians 6, 9, we read there that, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

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Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral. And as Paul goes on to describe some of these sins that those who will not inherit the kingdom of God are immersed in, the first one he says is sexual immorality.

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And that's kind of a blanket encompassing of all kinds of sex that is outside of the confines of marriage.

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That's what God created sex for, was to be enjoyed between a man and his wife.

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So instead of giving the specifics on all of that, he says sexual immorality.

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Anyone who is pursuing sex outside of marriage, and that's what they live in, they don't repent of it, they continue in it, they will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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Idolaters, adulterers, men who practice homosexuality. So then he mentions some specific sex sins, though not all of them, because sexual immorality encompasses all of them, but you have idolatry.

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So sex that's done in the temples to the sex gods, adulterers, those who are having sex outside of marriage with another man's spouse, men who practice homosexuality, even the abominable unnatural practice of men having sex with men, you could throw in there in the language that's used there, also women having sex with women.

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It's not just limited to men. We have in Romans chapter one, women even mentioned who exchange natural relations for those that are unnatural.

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So these are, and I'm probably even being a little too descriptive here without giving some sort of a disclaimer, like I did on Friday, saying we're gonna talk about some more mature subjects today.

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So once again, the point being, Paul is mentioning some serious sins there, enough that it's gonna make you go, oh man, do we have to mention that out loud?

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You are disgusted by that because you desire what is good and right and pure.

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And so when the sinful stains start even being mentioned, we as Christians should be revulsed by that so that we would have nothing to do with it.

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We're not entertaining it with our minds. We're not going near it. We don't tolerate it in our church.

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We abhor what is evil, holding fast to what is good. Hating those things that are done even in secret so much that we don't talk about them.

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We don't joke about them. They're not part of our common conversation. It is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

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So I'm going on now, Ephesians five, verse 13. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible.

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For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, awake, O sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.

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Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

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Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And how do we know what the will of the

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Lord is? We read it in the Bible. Knowing what is evil and what is good, it is said for us in the pages of scripture, what

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God calls right and what he calls wrong. We understand the mind of God when we read his word.

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And of course, these are instructions that are being given to an entire church. So just as we have it said in first Corinthians, second

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Corinthians, in Ephesians and back here in Romans, these are churches who are being addressed.

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So when Paul says, let love be genuine, he's telling a whole church, love one another genuinely, abhor evil.

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You as a church abhor what is evil. Yes, as individuals, we need to hate evil things so that we would desire to do righteousness instead of unrighteousness.

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As Paul said previously in Romans, submit your members no longer as slaves to sin, but as slaves to righteousness, to obey righteousness.

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And this in light of Christ having died for us. We are no longer slaves to the passions of our flesh, but we are to be slaves of Christ, the one who bought us, who purchased us by his own blood.

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So Paul addressing a whole church here says that we all together abhor what is evil. No, nothing in the church should be welcoming of those things that God has said will keep a person from the kingdom of God.

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We are to desire the righteousness and holiness, holding fast to that which is good.

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Let me go to a few other passages here. In 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 20, or verse 21, rather, it sounds a lot like what we read in Romans 12.

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Test everything, hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil.

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And we have this not only in the New Testament, I said, we also have it in the Old Testament.

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Consider what we read in Psalm 97, verse 10. Oh, you who love the

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Lord, hate evil. He preserves the lives of his saints.

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He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart.

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Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name.

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Here's Psalm 101, and I'll read the whole thing. Verse one, I will sing of steadfast love and justice.

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To you, O Lord, I will make music. I will ponder the way that is blameless.

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Oh, when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house.

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I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away.

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It shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall be far from me.

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I will know nothing of evil. Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly,

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I will destroy. Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart, I will not endure.

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I will look with favor on the faithful in the land that they may dwell with me.

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He who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me. No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house.

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No one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes. Morning by morning,

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I will destroy all the wicked in the land, cutting off all the evildoers from the city of the

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Lord. Consider also these words from Amos chapter five, beginning in verse 14.

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Seek good and not evil that you may live. And so the Lord, the

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God of hosts, will be with you. As you have said, hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate.

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It may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

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You know, it's interesting there how close that is to what we read in Romans 12. I wonder if Paul was directly quoting

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Amos chapter five. We don't know for sure. Most translations is not gonna note that as an

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Old Testament quote, but we most definitely have it in the Old Testament as well as in the New. Seek good and not evil, hate evil and love good.

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These are the instructions of God. These are the desires of Christ for his church, that we abhor what is evil, desiring nothing of those things that would cause us temptation in our flesh or divert our eyes away from Jesus that would even cause us to desire things that are worldly and will perish in judgment.

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Don't even look in that direction. Fix your eyes on Christ, hold fast to what is good, and there is no good greater than he, right?

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So just like when we were looking yesterday at let love be genuine, that's a commandment that comes in light of Christ.

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When we look at Jesus, we understand what that love is supposed to look like and therefore we share the love of Christ with one another, right?

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So in the same way, we understand the next half of that verse, the next portion of that commandment in light of Christ, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.

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Christ is the ultimate good, hold fast to Christ. Heavenly Father, thank you for this good word today.

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And I pray that you forgive us our sins, where we've done wickedly, even today, where we've complained or argued or bickered, where we've been frustrated with our circumstances, where we've been tempted by our flesh, where our eyes or our thoughts have gone toward worldly things instead of holy things.

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Forgive us of this, God. Cleanse our mind and our heart today that we may seek what is holy and right and true, holding fast to what is good.

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Never let it slip from our grasp that we may grow in the holiness and righteousness that has been imputed to us by faith in Jesus.

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It's in his name that we pray, amen. This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

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Find a good gospel teaching Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend and join us again tomorrow as we continue our