Maranatha - [1 Corinthians 16:15-24]

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Well, it's a sad day. We have to say goodbye to an old friend. Please turn your Bibles to 1
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Corinthians chapter 16. After a three -year pilgrimage in 1 Corinthians, verse by verse, phrase by phrase, we'll finish today the book of 1
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Corinthians found in the New Testament. If you're new to the church and you need a Bible, grab that blue Bible in front of you, go to the
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Table of Contents, 1 Corinthians. It'll give you the page number. My home church back in Los Angeles, we would identify with one another by saying things like this, well, how long have you been at the church?
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Well, I got at the church when they started 1 Thessalonians. Oh, I was at the church when
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Pastor John began Ephesians. And so some of you got here when I started 1 Corinthians, and when
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I start Romans in a couple weeks, you'll probably say, oh, yeah, I got there right about the times when
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Romans started. And so today we have a feast and a banquet in these last few exhortations, final instructions from Paul.
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Paul had been writing to this church. He loves people that Christ redeemed, even though they had problems.
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And so he writes to them answering questions that they had about all kinds of things.
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So we don't have their letter with questions, but we do have Paul's answer, and it's 1
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Corinthians. So lots of Q &A, what about this? What about that? What about the other? So today, in light of that, let me give you, for an outline, six questions that I'll give you designed for you to help you understand
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Paul's final exhortations and final grave sayings.
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The sermon will start off fairly light this morning, and then it'll go to some heavy issues found in the passage that probably will push your finer sensibilities as we see these verses.
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But what we do at this church is whatever the text says, that's what we preach, and we want to preach to you the full counsel of God.
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So let me give you the six questions designed to help you respond to the gospel of Christ Jesus with Holy Spirit -driven obedience.
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Question one, are you addicted to ministry? Are you addicted to ministry?
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Let's look at verses 15 and 16, and we'll see that that's exactly what's happening here.
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It's hard to give you these commands by Paul. He didn't say, are you addicted to ministry?
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But in these final exhortations, I at least want to preach it this way. Look at verse 15 and 16. Now, I urge you, brothers, see how he's got a kind, gentle heart here at the end.
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He's urging these Corinthians who have a bad track record in many things. You know that the household of Stavonis, this is the family that was baptized in chapter 1, were the first converts, our first fruits.
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They were the best, the cream of the crop, the initial converts. And the first converts in Achaia, and that they devoted themselves to the servants of the saints.
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Be subject to such as these and to every fellow worker and laborer. When you take a look at that word devoted, it means, well, the
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Greek is taso, and it means addicted. These people were addicted to ministry. Now, most of the time, we think addiction is something bad, and there's a bad side of addiction.
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But these people, in light of the cross and in light of God's sacrificial gift of the cross, determined in eternity past to send the
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Son to die for sinners like these people, like you people, like me. What's the response to a redeemed life?
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Service, serving all the time, and that's exactly what these people were doing. And that's why
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Paul commends them. They've devoted themselves to the service of the saints. And since Jesus isn't there to be served physically, he's physically in heaven, then let's serve the body of Christ.
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Let's serve Christians. And that's exactly what they did, day in, day out, perpetually serving.
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I think of addiction, and I think negatively. It could be strong habits, compulsion to do something.
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One man said, I'm sure that had these people tried to take it easy and relax for any length of time, they would have had severe withdrawal symptoms.
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Service, because if it's guilt that we're rescued from by the grace of God found in the person and work of the
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Son, then our response is gratitude, right? If you've been saved, then you will serve, especially when the model servant is the
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Lord Jesus Christ. We are Christians, we are like Christ, and we serve. And Jesus was a servant.
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You can think of John 13, when Jesus kneels down and serves the men and washes their feet.
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The old adage goes, only one life, it will soon be passed. Only what is done for Christ will last.
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For the risen Savior to serve, and Paul commends these people as... Here's a good example.
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There are a lot of bad examples at Corinth, but boy, these people are good examples. All for the risen
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Savior. And the Greek word there is to toil, to sweat, kapiao, to just serve so much, you're tired at night.
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But it was all for the King. It was all for the risen Savior. One man said, many work, but few toil.
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How about you? That's one of the ways you should have great assurance that you're a Christian, is because you realize you're not saved by service, you're not saved by ministry, you're not saved by any of those things, but it shows that you are saved when you want to pour out and be poured out for the gospel and for the people of God.
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Question two, have you found examples of Christ -like service to follow here at Bethlehem Bible Church?
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I could put it this way, do you recognize there are servant leaders here and do you follow them? Take a look at verses 16 and 17.
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I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus. I like Fortunatus as a name, it means fortune, it means blessed.
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It also could mean what? Lucky. Of course, we don't believe in luck.
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And Achaicus, because they made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours.
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Give recognition to these people. These people made up for your absence.
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Paul says, I love you, warts and all Corinth, but you're not around. But these people came to me and they made up for your absence.
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I just as soon would have had you there with me, but these saints, they came, they served. And he says, recognize these kind of people who refresh.
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By the way, show me Christians that respond to the gospel of grace with service, and they are refreshing to be around, aren't they?
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Show me people that gripe and complain and the church doesn't do this, the leaders don't do that, and meanwhile, they don't do anything.
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We will lovingly deal with those people and be around them, but I'm telling you, it's not refreshing.
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It's not like taking a big glass of iced tea, drinking it down, going, ah, 95 -degree day, that just is cool and refreshing.
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But being around people that serve, even though they might not have a lot of gifts, they don't have a lot of talent, our talents, but they just serve because they know they've been purchased with the price.
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Therefore, glorify God with your body. Those kind of people, don't they refresh you?
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The same word is used in our Lord's words, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you what?
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Rest, refreshment. So find someone who's a servant, who serves at Bethlehem Bible Church, and watch them, and follow them as they follow
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Christ. Number three, found in verse 19, don't you love how the
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Holy Spirit knits hearts of Christians together, no matter what their ethnic background might be?
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Verse 19, now, the text doesn't say this, but how do you exposit a greeting?
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But this is a true application of the text. The text says in verse 19, the churches of Asia send you greetings,
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Aquila, Priscilla. They make all kinds of cameo appearances in the New Testament, traveled a lot serving together with the church in their house.
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That's where they met in those days. Send you hearty greetings in the Lord. Forget that some live in Europe, some live in Asia.
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Forget that some are Corinthians, some are Asians. Is there just something about it?
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And again, this is the application, this isn't the text. You can go anywhere and find other
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Christians who are bought by the blood of Christ Jesus, and don't you feel that kindred spirit? Don't you feel that camaraderie?
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Etched in my mind is standing in Pune, India, in a YMCA, and it's dusty in there, and kind of dirty, and it was super hot.
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And I'm with all these Indian people, just a couple of white people around, and all these Indians, and we're singing, great is thy faithfulness together.
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I'll never forget it as long as I live. These people didn't know me from anyone, but once they realized that God had saved me,
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God had saved them, the hearts are just knit together. And what knits us together?
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Here's our church, Bethlehem Bible Church. We're starting to look more different.
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The homogeneity of Bethlehem Bible Church is changing. Are you glad? Are you sad? It's the Lord's church.
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I think he redeems Gentiles and white Anglo -Protestant, white
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Anglo -Saxon Protestants. Oh, we are Protestants. That doesn't work, I guess. It doesn't matter what color you are, what gender you are.
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Slave or free, there's something about it when God redeems you and you're around another person who's been redeemed, you just love them.
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It's one of the signs of being a Christian. Number four, and again, these are just questions
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I'm asking you to try to just let you think through the text in a pastoral way. One more before we get to the main point of the passage.
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Question four, do you show proper affection to other Christians? Oh, this is going to be fun.
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Verse 20, all the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
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Now, I have to tell you, after I got done preaching this message for first service, several people kissed me in between services.
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What does this mean? The kissing ministry. Some people are saying, yeah,
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I'd like to serve and I don't have a service. Christians, you just got done saying serve and so now
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I'm ready to serve and maybe I'll start the kissing ministry at Bethlehem Bible Church. Well, I just have a couple things to say.
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One, get it authorized by the elders. But let's just figure out what's happening here, especially with our culture.
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Now, think this way. Think Eastern because we're Western. Think 2 ,000 years ago because that's when the
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Bible was written. And Middle Eastern people now, Europeans as well and Asian people, they kiss a lot more than we do.
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They're a kissing culture. Some of our own people right here at the church, they're kissing people. If you don't preach verse by verse, you'd never talk about this.
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They never said in seminary, wait till you get to that kissing message. Now, the cultures back in those days kissed one another as a sign of friendship.
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We shake our hands, maybe give a hug or something. Back then, they kissed.
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And it's usually a kiss, kind of an air kiss, maybe with your lips on the cheek on this side and then on that side, maybe more, repeated a few times, one, two, three, or just two.
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There's a kiss kind of on the cheek with the air kiss, lips maybe touching, same thing on the other side. But pagans did that.
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So why now is Paul saying, greet one another with the holy kiss? There's nothing sensual about this or wrong or anything like that.
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But here's what it means. When Christians get together, they greet one another in a special way, in a close way, in an intimate way, in a way that says,
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I'm forgiven, you're forgiven, we're all restored. We have one fellowship here.
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We're unified together. It's a pledge of unity. Justin Martyr writes this shortly after the
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New Testament was written, that for communion services, they'd get together and they would have some intercessory prayers.
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They would have a time of kissing and then they would have the Lord's Supper.
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That's kind of hard to kiss people that you're mad at, that you're angry with. Think what was going on in the
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New Testament, slaves kissing free, rich kissing poor.
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It wasn't kissing that's inappropriate that's reserved for a married couple. Sadly, the pagans in the 2nd century and 3rd century started saying all kinds of slanderous things about Christians kissing.
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So the church pretty much stopped kissing. Garland writes, this kiss is more than an extension of social custom since it is identified as holy.
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It was a distinctive practice that served as a sign of mutual fellowship among people of mixed social background, nationality, race, and gender who are joined together as a new family in Christ Jesus.
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So what do we do here? Well, I'll tell you what I've done over the years and maybe you'll see where I'm coming from now.
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When I first got to New England, 16 years ago now, almost 16 years,
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I'd greet people at the door. There's nothing in the Bible that says, greet people at the door or anything like that. But I just thought, you know, that'd be good and I'll greet people at the door.
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And by the way, if you're a pastor that preaches pretty firmly and pretty straight -edged -like and you're fairly tough from the pulpit many times and your style is more preaching, then there'd probably be some other times where you should show some kind affection, don't you think?
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Because otherwise, they're going to think that's you here and there and everywhere else. Now, I know
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I'm very loving and kind and sweet and it's a perpetual Mother's Day as I give the messages that are warm and you feel so filled.
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And I know that's how I do it. But for those of you that don't...
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But seriously, if the preaching is forceful and didactic and proclamation and the way it should be,
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I have a message from God to tell you. Then outside the pulpit too, shouldn't there be this kindness and this warmness?
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And so what I do is I just hug people. I don't hug ladies in private, but here in the church, at the door, if I know you well enough,
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I'll probably hug you unless you kind of... you have that mental stiff -arm look. I'm just like, okay.
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But there's a proper way, there's a holy way to show affection. So that's what
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I try to do. And I think you should do the same thing. I have a professor that said, don't hug any ladies even in a church setting.
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I still don't know where that's coming from, so I haven't done it. And so when I first got here, even with the guys, I mainly started with the guys.
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Guys are like, don't touch me. This is New England. You're some California hippie. Stay away. But you know what?
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I would give a guy a hug, and what's he to do? Because I work out, and a lot of the guys around here, they don't or they just submit to me because I'm the pastor.
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And to give a guy a big old bear hug, it's a good thing to do. Just the idea here is there's the way that pagans interact with one another, and when
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Christians get together, they just love each other. Now, nobody has to start the kissing ministry on the lips or anything like that.
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MacArthur said in Russia, they take this literally, and when you preach at a pastor's conference, he said, even after the 50th kiss on the lips by another man, you still don't get used to it.
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So I'm not asking for that. Unless you're one of the guys around here that when I give you a big bear hug, you try to pull away because you're too cool, then
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I'm going to kiss you. Then you're getting kissed. One modern commentary said, a counterpart is needed today that offers an effective sign in the public domain that accords with these aims.
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In other words, Christian people just should have friendly affection towards one another.
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If it's a handshake and a smile, if it's a note, if it's a hug, if it's a kiss.
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Interestingly, Peter calls it a kiss of love, but with Paul, the other three times that it's mentioned, kind of things are going on in the church.
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Trouble was going on in the church. Issues were going on in the church. So could it be that Paul said, especially in light of all these things, should be a very familial, naturally affectionate group of people?
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Question five, and the laughing now needs to stop. Do you have some love for the
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Lord Jesus Christ? That's the real point today. Do you have some love for the Lord Jesus Christ?
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Now, here's the issue, or here's what would happen. Paul would not write the entire book of 1
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Corinthians. He would dictate it. He would have some stenographer, some secretary, and they would write this out as he would dictate it.
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Yes, given by the Spirit of God through Paul, but usually at the very end,
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Paul would pick up his pen and he would take that pen read and then sign something for lots of reasons.
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One reason would be, everything that's been written, I agree with. Part of it is, this is just social custom.
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My eyes are probably bad and I'm just going to sign it so you know it's from me. Part of it is, everything that's been written,
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I agree with, and you can be certain that it's the Apostle Paul's. Sometimes a secretary will write a letter and then the pastor signs it or the executive signs it.
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So Paul is going to pick up his pen now and write something and it should tell you, whatever he says has grave importance, weighty, significant.
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Everything else has been left to a scribe, to an amanuensis, to a person receiving dictation from Paul.
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Tertius wrote the letter of Romans and then Paul signed his name.
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So Paul is going to pick up the pen, listen up, this is going to be important. Paul finally says, now
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I'm going to write something to you in my own hand, pay attention. What does
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Paul write? What is so important? Verse 21, I, Paul, write this greeting, this verse and the next few verses to the end of the chapter, with my own hand.
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The New American Standard says, the greeting is in my own hand, Paul. Silvanus, as an amanuensis, wrote 1
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Peter. Now here we don't know who's writing this, but Paul with solemnity now and with gravity, so you feel the enormity and the importance and the magnitude of it, says something.
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And what does he say? Verse 22, if anyone has no love for the
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Lord, let him be accursed. New American Standard says, if anyone does not love the
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Lord, he's talking about Jesus, he is to be accursed. It's important.
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Charles Hodge said, these are words which need no explanation. They carry with them their awful import to every heart.
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I'm wondering about you. Do you love the Lord? Manifesting God's love in your life with your response of love?
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Now, interestingly, take a look at the Bible here. What does the verse say? No love.
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Well, you should be saying as a student of the Bible, what kind of love is this? Agape, phileo, supreme love, secondary love, a love of supreme self -sacrifice, a love of natural affection?
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You'd think it would be agape, but it's not. It's phileo.
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Those that have a tender affection should go on to have supreme self -sacrificial love for the
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Lord Jesus Christ. But if you don't have the little love, the smaller love, the least significant love of phileo, a tender affection, then you don't have the greater.
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If you don't have a love for Jesus at the tender affection kind, then you certainly don't have a love that's greater.
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And unless you repent, you're going to be damned. You can hear
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Peter and Jesus, the conversation when Jesus finally says after, do you agape me?
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Finally, Peter's answer to, do you phileo me? I do have some initial love for you, some tender affection.
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Lenski said, Paul's spirit and his hand almost involuntarily react to all the perversions and all the abuses which he is attempting to correct in Corinth by the means of this letter.
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And he records his apostolic verdict regarding all those who may dare to remain obdurant and to continue in their evil course.
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He's writing to all these Corinthians, they've got problems with unity and problems with sexual sin and problems with suing each other and problems with spiritual gifts and problems at the
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Lord's Supper. And even though God is long -suffering, even though God is patient, even though God is calling even those who are here today who aren't
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Christians to repent, at the end of the day, Paul says, if you won't repent, if you finally won't bow your knee to the
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Lord Jesus Christ by faith alone and the risen Savior, then you are going straight to hell and you are going to be damned and cursed.
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It doesn't mean Paul doesn't love the people. It doesn't mean anything like that. It means at the end of the day, there's going to be judgment.
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And for these people at Corinth who are causing divisions and issues and problems and doctrinal sins and moral sins,
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Paul wants them to do what God graced him to do on Damascus Road, to bow to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. But there is a day, and that day might be today for you or someday when you stand before the
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Lord God and then what? You need someone else's righteousness. You need forgiveness.
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Here Paul says, you need to at least have a little bit of liking and affection and a personal attachment to the
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Lord. Of course, move on past that to supreme agape love, but you've got to have at least a little bit of the lowest kind of love.
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If you are going to persist in your sin, then you are going to be damned. That's the point.
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Paul picks up his pen for this moment and everyone here, man or woman, boy or girl,
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Eastern, Western, old or young, has to hear, are you in or are you out?
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By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Paul's not mad.
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Paul's not flying off the hook. Paul's repeating pretty much what
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Psalm 2 talks about. Here's the advice for the enemy of Jesus, kiss the son or he will be angry and you and your ways will be destroyed for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
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Blessed are all who take refuge in him. For those who are in the church and purposely undermine and deliberately attack, if there's no repentance, a curse, anathema.
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Now, this language here, if you take a look at your text, this accursed or anathema language that you see in verse 22, if you read your
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Old Testament, I hope you do, this is ban language, B -A -N. This is the kind of language that harem is the word where go take over a city and take some of this stuff that you've got and devote it to the ban.
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God's going to destroy that. Don't you take that. Set it aside for God's special wrath. That's the language here.
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Of course, Paul wants unbelievers to get saved. Didn't he use the same word in Romans chapter 9? I'd be anathema for the sake of my kinsmen, the
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Israelites. But there's a day, just like in the
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Old Testament, after 120 years, God's long suffering no more. There's another ferocious anathema found in Galatians 1, but if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed.
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As we have said before, so I now say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
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And now it's, if people here, if you're here and you don't have any kind of love for Jesus, repent because cursing is following.
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Now, Paul ends letters like this more often than you might imagine. Second Thessalonians, if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, note them, do not associate with them in order that they be put to shame.
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Titus, after first and second admonition, shun a factious person because you know that such a person perverts and sins being self -condemned.
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Second Corinthians, examine yourselves, this is at the end of the book, whether ye be in the faith.
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Could anything then be more important than you to respond to the gospel of Christ Jesus, the risen
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Savior? With anything less than a love, a faith, and a faith of love?
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For those of us who are Christians, the best way to keep your love for the Lord Jesus is stay in the
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Word so you can understand with frequent readings and meditations on God's fervent love for sinners.
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Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my
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Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, do many mighty works in your name?
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And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
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Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. He knew who they were, but he didn't know them intimately.
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Peter, do you love me? Congregation, do you love Jesus? Question six, and finally, are you willing to accept
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Paul's attitude concerning the callously unrepentant? Are you willing to accept
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Paul's attitude regarding this? I know it's hard, and we have family members, and we don't want anybody to be damned, that's all right and good and godly.
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But at the end of the day, there's a reckoning. What is at the end of verse 22 that I didn't read earlier that isn't just there for no reason?
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Maranatha, Lord come, who wants the Lord to come? Well, I do. Who likes Maranatha music?
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I used to, right? Maybe I still do, I don't know. Big in the 60s and 70s, Maranatha music, and you think it means
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Lord come, and you go, yeah, that's right, Lord come. Who doesn't want the Lord to come? Issues in life and all these other things, and it's like,
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I can't wait till the Lord comes back, that'd be so good, come and get me. That's all true, and that's right from Revelation chapter 22, but that's not from here, because here, the context is, and you can see it with your own eyes, it's written immediately after this.
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If there are people who will not repent, who insist on doctrinal error, divisiveness, problems in the
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Corinthian church, or will not bow their knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, come back and execute them.
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That's the context. Now, the word
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Maranatha, it's an Aramaic word. The New Testament is written in Greek. But, you know, you shouldn't be surprised that some other language words fit in, or slip into the
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New Testament, Abba, Hosanna, hallelujah, amen.
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Some Hebrew words slip into the Greek New Testament, and so do some Aramaic words, specifically this word,
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Mar, which means Lord in Aramaic. Ana, Aran, means our, so our
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Lord, and then Atha means come. You could translate it one of three ways.
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It's interesting. First way is, the Lord has come. The Lord has come, the incarnation,
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Christmas, the Lord has come, the eternal God of the universe has cloaked Himself with humanity to rescue sinners.
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The Lord has come. It could mean, the Lord has now come,
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He is present. The Lord is with us. In the middle of all these issues, the Lord is with us. Isn't it nice to know, lo,
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I'll be with you always, even to the end of the age. That's true too. But the passage here is, the imperative,
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O Lord, our Lord, come. I want a real reformation day,
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Paul says, and reform, and to straighten out, redress all the wrongs, and to make everything right.
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You look at the world out there, and it is full of corruption and sin, and there are false teachers and the corruption everywhere, and you say,
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Lord, only You can make things right. And here, the focus isn't on the world, it's for people that hang around the church, who will never love the
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Lord Jesus Christ. When you look at God as He passed by Moses in the cleft of the rock,
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He showed Himself as forgiving, long -suffering, gracious, slow to anger.
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Don't let anybody tell you that God is just flying off the hook here in some kind of rage. He's not, but there is a time, a day of reckoning, there's that day of judgment, and so get ready, your only refuge from Him is in His Son.
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This is curse formula language. Lord, if there are people here at the church, this is what
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Paul is praying, if there are people here at the church who will never, ever bow their knee, and they cause all this trouble, come and kill them, and damn them, execute them.
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Son said, Lord, come and put an end to all strife, and to all activity of hostile forces in the church.
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If you're a believer, can you imagine you don't have to pay for one sin? You don't have to pay for one of your sins, because Jesus has paid it all.
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But if you're not a Christian here today, you need to repent, because the Damocles sword is over you, and it'll either fall today or on that day.
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John the Baptist said to people that he could say through Paul to these sinful people at Corinth, the unbelievers at Corinth, who warned you to flee from the wrath.
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Jude talked about these kind of people, and how Jesus makes everything right at the second coming. Behold, the
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Lord comes with 10 ,000 of His holy ones to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of their deeds of ungodliness, which they have committed in such an ungodly way.
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And of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against Him, John the
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Beloved said, then the kings of the earth, and the great ones, and the generals, and the rich, and the powerful, and everyone slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and the rocks.
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Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the...
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Before Paul gives the benediction, he gives the malediction. God right all wrongs.
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It's hard to read, it's hard to imagine, it's hard to accept, but it's true.
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This is an evidence of righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering.
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Since indeed, God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us.
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When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know
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God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the
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Lord and from the glory of His might. For Christians, it's going to be different though.
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And when He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed.
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Friends, if you're not a Christian, today's the day to repent and to believe in the
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Lord Jesus Christ, the God -man who died for sinners just like you and was raised from the dead to prove it.
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So, I'll get in on my baptism, I'll get in on my parents' faith, I'll get in because I come to this church. You know, the only thing you'll get by believing in that alone is an anathema.
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Execution language is not very pleasant. And yet, we as Christians celebrate every single day and there's a cross right up there to prove it, the execution symbol of the cross.
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Either He pays for your sins or you do. Then I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse.
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And the one sitting on it is called Faithful and True. And in righteousness, He judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire and on His head are many diadems.
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And He has a name written that no one knows but Himself. He's clothed in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which
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He is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven are reigned in fine linen, white and pure.
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We're following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and He will rule them with a rod of iron.
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He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh,
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He has a name written, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Maranatha.
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You might be familiar with something called imprecatory psalms, Psalm 69, Psalm 109.
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Psalms that, you know, after a while God's long suffering is pushed and God's patience is pushed and people with high -handed lovelessness toward God receive curses called down by psalmists because God is allergic to sin and will not tolerate sin.
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That's kind of what this is. And by the way, for those who love
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God, who have some love, do you have a little bit of God, a love for God today? Then the blessings and the good news for those who have some love for God are just the exact opposite.
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As bad as the bad was, the good is just as good. Steve read it today, 2
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Timothy. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all those who have loved
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His appearing. And we know that for those who love
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God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose. As bad it is for the bad, it's good for the good.
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God's working all these things together for your good. What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined what
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God has prepared for those who love Him, these things God has revealed to us through the
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Spirit, the Word for those who love Him. John Owen said, the greatest sorrow and burden you can lay upon the
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Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to Him is to not believe that He loves you.
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See, because those who are in Christ Jesus are loved by the Father, the greatest gift the Son has given, so everything else is given.
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Ephesians chapter 6, grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.
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Those who don't love Jesus get wrath, they get justice, they get righteousness. But those who love the
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Lord Jesus, who've been granted saving faith, what do they get? They get grace. Amazing.
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Well, then Paul gives the benediction, and it's supported very much so by love.
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And as it was harsh and tough early, now it's kind and gentle at the end.
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He almost makes it balance out. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you, that's what he wants.
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Christians need grace too. He wants their well -being, covenant blessings, and then he says something that I don't think he says anywhere else in all the
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Bible, my love be with you all. Tenderly, affectionately telling the
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Corinthians, I love you, I want that to be with you all. And then
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I think, not by coincidence, Paul wants them to think of the last word as he says it before amen, what do you leave a church, what's the last word you want the church to hear?
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Jesus. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Father, if it wasn't for your gracious patience toward us, we would have been accursed.
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But you're long -suffering, and you're waiting for all your elect to come to faith.
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We are glad we are part of that number. If people today are struggling with are they saved or are they not, or are they an elect person or are they not,
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I pray that you would draw them to Calvary's tree with Jesus Christ, the Substitutory Sin Bearer as their focus, that they would receive by faith all the riches that you have granted people in Christ Jesus.
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Father, for our church, we pray that you'd protect us in years to come from any Corinthian moments.
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And Father, left to ourselves, I'm sure that's what we'd become. So we would ask for what
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Paul wanted the Corinthians to know about. Father, would you give us the grace of the Lord Jesus to be with us?
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Would you guide us and protect us and equip us? And Father, we are thankful that we are loved in Christ Jesus.
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For those that aren't saved again today, Father, I pray that you would give them no rest or sleep until they rest in your
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Son by faith alone. Great is thy faithfulness,