Boasting (Part 4)

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How to Remain a Spiritual Pygmy (Part 5)

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No Compromise Radio Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author,
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Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the
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Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.
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Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse with no compromise.
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It was about eight years ago I was walking down the street close to my house by Mossy Pond over in Lancaster Clinton area and I saw a bunch of commotion on the water, on the lake and I was just going for an exercise kind of walk.
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I saw it looked like two men were drowning and I saw a guy come over in a pontoon boat frantically trying to rescue these two people and they were kind of going up for a breath and kind of going down.
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You could see the capsized canoe over there and I thought, okay, I'm a swimmer, I was a lifeguard,
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I know what to do but there could be some help that's needed and so I thought I'll call first before I just set my stuff down and swim out.
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It wasn't that far, it was a hundred yards out. And so I got on the phone and I called and I called 911 on my cell phone and they transferred me to the
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Boston Harbor. When I said, you know, they said, where are you? I'm in Lancaster Clinton, Mossy Pond on the causeway.
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And they answered, this is Boston Harbor. So I'm on the phone, I'm trying to figure out what to do, trying to go through all the details and everything.
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Do I go? Do I help? The guy's over there pulling the guy out. Is he going to pull him in? You know, sometimes when people are drowning, they'll try to kill you as you go.
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What do I end up doing? I'm on the phone. We need some help. Send an ambulance, send some police out. I don't know. What do you, who do you send?
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But help. So one thing led to another and as I'm on hold thinking, do I go? Don't I go? I wasn't afraid to go but what do
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I end up doing? Finally, the guy pulled out the last guy and brought him up on the pontoon and I hollered out, is that the last guy?
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Yes, we got him. I didn't see anything in the paper, I made sure everything was fine. So I called the paper and said, you gotta hear a great story, there's so much bad news in the world.
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Here's a great story. This guy who was a fireman, he was off -duty, he saw, he went over there and risked his own life and saved those two guys.
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Neither of them could swim and it was a windy day and they're in the canoe. Well, let's have a few drinks and go for a canoe ride.
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I mean, that's not part of the story. And so they printed the story in the local paper and I was so mad they didn't say a bunch of good things about me.
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Brave Pastor Abendroth with all his life skills, life -saving skills, frantically yet persistently called 911 until they answered.
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Picture of me sitting there. Who got the praise and rightfully so? The guy who rescued.
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I didn't get the praise nor should I have. The guys being rescued, good job for being drunk and going on a canoe ride.
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They were that close from eternal hell. The one who rescued gets the praise.
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The contribution for those two guys who were swimming was stupidity, sinfulness and drunkenness.
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And so what are we going to do? Good job. You kind of put your arm up, he put his arm down, together we can, all for one, one for all.
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It doesn't sound stupid when you look at a context like that. But then when it comes to salvation, it should even be more stupid.
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But we're so close to it, we sometimes forget that we contribute nothing to our salvation. And so why do we praise?
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Why do we boast in ourselves? So Paul now turns from the negative. Here's who he chooses, the nothings.
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And now he focuses here in verse 30 and 31 on the one who does the choosing and he is the one to receive all the praise.
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And all our boasting should be done to God. We should be singing from verse 30 and 31, praise him, praise him,
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Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. Paul says, you Church of Corinth, and if it applies to BBC, quit singing, praise me, praise me,
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I am my blessed Redeemer. Verse 30, but by his doing, by his doing, there's a contrast there as well, but by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus.
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Some might want a glory in the flesh, verse 29, but by his doing, you are a
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Christian. By his agency, by his power, if anybody here is a
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Christian, it's not, you're not a Christian because of your power. If you're a Christian, it's not because of your wisdom.
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If you're a Christian, it's not because of your money. If you're a Christian, it's not because you're smarter. If you're a Christian, it's not because you're baptized.
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If you're a Christian, it's not because you've taken the sacraments. If you're a Christian, it's not because you're a member of the church.
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That's why this whole kind of idea of you're saved by faith plus sacraments results in the robbing of God's glory and we don't boast in him.
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If it is God's grace plus the sacrament of baptism, then the knob on the dial of volume for praise goes down.
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People say, well, you know, you're just bashing Catholics and other people because they believe that it's baptism plus faith.
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Friends, A, truth isn't bashing. B, love tells the truth.
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But more importantly, at the top of the list, I don't like it when people steal from God and his glory.
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I hope that's a righteous indignation where here is the praise and the honor and the glory due to God and then people go, no, but you know,
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I contributed. It's God plus when you turn from Christ plus to Christ, your boasting goes out the window properly.
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There's a whole book of the Bible, Colossians, written on how it's Christ and Christ alone. I know people who study
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Colossians and memorize Colossians. They can't stop talking about Christ because they realize how great he is, has nothing to do with us.
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It's of him, not our philosophy, not our statement of faith, not our parents. It's of him.
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Now, let's turn to Ephesians chapter two for a moment. I want to show you the same Greek language, but set in the negative.
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It says here in 1 Corinthians chapter one that by his doing, you are in Christ. In Ephesians chapter two, the exact opposite language is used, but the same kind of Greek construction.
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It's of him we're saved, from him we're saved, not of us we're saved, not from us we're saved.
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In Ephesians chapter two, it's one of the most popular verses of all time, rightfully so. It's got this language, and you'll see that if you are a
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Christian, there's one reason you're a Christian, and it's for God's glory, not you.
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We don't contribute one atom to our salvation. Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, you know the verse, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not, they're the words, from you, this not of you.
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In 1 Corinthians chapter one, verse 30, but by his doing, we're in Christ Jesus, and here it's not by you, it's not of you, it's not from you, it's not of your doing, it's a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
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If you're a Christian, you are a Christian to eternally display the favor and grace of God, and you look at how even
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Ephesians chapter two, I can't just switch back to 1 Corinthians yet, I might as well just take a look at this. Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, by grace, to put it at the front of the sentence for emphasis, he could say, you're saved by grace, no, no, no, the word order's important, by grace, to push it to the front so everybody goes, it's
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God's sure grace, sheer grace. One man called it grace, God's utter generosity, the same man called grace
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God's recklessly prodigal generosity. Grace is something that princes give to their people in their kingdom, and Paul hammers on grace all the time.
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Why? I can't be certain, but one of the reasons could be he lived in such a law -keeping, pharisaical kind of system, when he got a whiff of grace, it changed his life.
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That's why you read so often, Pastor Steve preached on this a few Sunday nights ago, Paul just all of a sudden starts writing some kind of thing about the law, and then he's like, all right, time out, 20 second time out,
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I just need to praise God, to him immortal, invisible, God only wise, Jesus my only savior, amen, all right, back where I was.
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You see, those interjections where Paul goes, I used to be burdened by the law, and now grace has captivated me, and he goes, it's an amazing thing, grace, because I knew what
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I deserved, and I know what I get, and the difference is boasting. Take a look at Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, for by grace, you have been saved, and even that language, have been saved.
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The construction is passive, it's something done to you, I hit the ball, the ball was hit by me, second one is passive, the first one's active, here's passive, we have been saved by God, he entirely did it, 100%, from start to finish, there's no nook or cranny available for people to go,
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I've contributed, I can praise myself, for you've been saved by grace through faith, yeah, yeah,
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I know God saved me, but I came up with my faith, so everything else I didn't do, but I came up with my faith, and after I came up with my faith,
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God said, because of your faith, now I'll save you, true or false? If that's true, the boasting meter's coming down a notch, why does it say through faith here and not because of faith?
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You wanna know why you're saved? You can go back up to verse four, but God being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, the why he saved us is verse four, his love, but this is how, and it's through the instrument, the non -meritorious instrument of faith, if Ephesians 2 .8
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says, you've been saved by grace because of faith, it's not Christianity, it's not grace, and therefore it's not worth boasting, faith is the result, faith is the instrument, it's the means, it's not the cause, the cause is grace, love, mercy,
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Acts chapter 18, he helped greatly those who had believed through faith, faith is not some kind of meritorious work, 2
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Peter chapter 1, those who have received a faith, and that's exactly what 2 .8
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goes on to say, save through faith, and that not of yourself, not the faith, not the grace, not the salvation process, none of this is of you, it is the gift of God, this grace through salvation, all of God, I like what
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Spurgeon said, at every point of the process of salvation, this word is appropriate, not of yourselves, from the first desire after it to the full reception of it by faith, it is forevermore of the
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Lord alone, and not of ourselves, the man believes, but that belief is only one result among many of the implantation of divine life within the man's soul by God himself, mark this, in the day of cooperation, self -help, salvation is done only by God, and even the faith that we have exercised, certainly
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God doesn't believe for us, but the faith that we have is even a gift of God, it's a gift, it's not of you, you didn't earn it, not a result of works, verse 9, not a result of works,
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R. Ken Hughes has an interesting illustration of how people try to mess around kind of self -salvation, he talks about a frog that fell into a large milk can, and the frog paddled around so much with its webbed feet and everything, it did so much work in the milk can that it churned itself a little pad of butter and then jumped out of the butter, nothing we do contributes to our salvation, so no one should boast, back to 1
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Corinthians chapter 1, back to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, if we don't save ourselves, if no one ever saves themselves, then why would we want to follow
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Corinth, Paul, why would we want to follow Barnabas, they didn't save themselves, they're an object, they're a trophy of the grace of God, so as they point to Christ, you follow them, but you don't follow them, you follow
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Christ, that's the problem in 1 Corinthians 1, 2, 3, and 4, 1
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Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30, but by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus, all new life comes from Christ Jesus, the cause, this word in the
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Greek expresses cause and source, you're in Christ because of his doing, it's not of your will,
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James chapter 1 verse 18, it's by his will, his doing, his cause, his action, his call, as we've seen in 1
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Corinthians chapter 1 over and over and over, efficient cause of salvation, God, if you're a
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Christian, you're a Christian because God made you one, you say we get it, saying it over and over and over, well it's true
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I'm saying it over and over, but for some maybe they haven't heard it, it's not ourselves causing ourselves to be
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Christians or some cooperation, no because God is jealous for our praise, and 1
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Peter chapter 1 says God caused you to be born again, John 1 verse 12,
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I don't know why people don't read verse 13, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, comma, who were born not of blood, nor of the will, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, you notice the text here in 1
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Corinthians 1 verse 30, let me read it this way, but by your own doing and Adam's doing, you used to be in Adam, but by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus, he loves to talk about Christ, and the second he talks about Christ, he says, who became, verse 30, to us wisdom from God, you want
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Socrates, you want Plato, you want one of the other 200 kinds of philosophy and wisdom that you so love and long for in chapter 1, the
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Greeks want what? Wisdom, you want all this wisdom, I'll show you wisdom, the personification of Christ Jesus, he's wisdom, who became to us wisdom from God, you want wisdom,
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Paul finally says, I'll give you wisdom, and he says in verse 19 of the same chapter,
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I'll destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever, I'll set aside, and here's how he does it, salvation is all of God and he is wisdom,
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Christ Jesus, God made him to become wisdom, and then he gives these metaphors, three metaphors of what wisdom is, the way to improperly read this text is, who are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, all four things, there's a four part kind of description of God, the better way,
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NIV does it, ESV does it, God, the son becomes to us wisdom, that is, and then he gives three metaphors of salvation, three metaphors that describe this salvation, and they're not going to be cleverness, brains and a lot of money, it's not going to be, you want wisdom, wisdom back in those days were, you know, intelligence, cleverness, clout, here when it comes to the wisdom of God and the wisdom from God, it's not foolish from God's perspective, the three metaphors for every person's salvation here even, not just Corinth but for you too, number one, righteousness,
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God's wisdom gives you Christ's righteousness, you have a legal standing before God, not guilty based on the work of another confirmed by the resurrection, this is forensic, this is a legal standing before the judge, the holy judge and we have been declared by the wisdom of God through wisdom personified, not guilty and we are in the state of being justified, we've broken the law, we have guilt, we're sinful but Jesus has paid for that and even though he never sinned, he paid for our sins and now we stand with the righteous robe of Christ Jesus, all that he's ever done, keeping the law with the right motives and the right actions and the right attitudes, we have kept the law in Christ Jesus and we're covered with the righteousness of Christ.
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You want to see wisdom? Then you say real wisdom,
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Christ's wisdom, we are declared righteous. He gives another metaphor, sanctification, the second metaphor for your salvation is sanctification, now that word can kind of have different meanings, sanctification can be glorification, sanctification can be growing in Christ, our sanctification can mean this, which it means here, we used to be filthy, now we're clean, we used to be sinners, now we're saints, we used to be defiled and now we are, because of Christ's work, holy, he became for us sanctification, we belong to the sphere of being holy, state of holiness as the spirit of holiness dwells in us.
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He gives another metaphor too of our salvation, redemption and of course the Jew would be thinking about exodus and the weight of that word, rich history of that word as they're delivered from the bondage of Egypt and here slave trader, a while ago, we didn't get very far but we rented the movie, miniseries,
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Roots, I hadn't seen it for a long time, we let the kids watch a little bit and it didn't seem like it was done that well in terms of modern day production but you could get a healthy feeling of what it was like to have someone who was ripped from family and placed in the slave market and here for us, slaves to sin, in bondage to sin and instead of our own cleverness trying to figure out a way out, would only drive us deeper, we have
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Christ our wisdom who became for us redemption, we're redeemed, delivered from evil, ransom with a price,
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Christ Jesus' body, eternal redemption, Hebrews talks about. Greek philosophy would give you cleverness, being influential and high status,
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Christ Jesus gives righteousness, sanctification and redemption. So then who will you boast in?
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We're leading up to verse 31, hey I knew we could finish the chapter, 1 Corinthians 1 verse 31, so that, it's a purpose statement, now let me read you what it would sound like in the original language, so that, just as it is written, the boasting one in the
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Lord, boast, command. The boasting one in the
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Lord, boast. This is taken right out of Jeremiah chapter 9, right from Jeremiah chapter 9, don't self assert anymore, don't desire for recognition anymore, boast in God.
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Don't boast in your affluence or wisdom or where you went to school, you boast in God.
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If you would turn to Jeremiah chapter 9, sometimes you can see in your Bible that it's in capitals in 1
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Corinthians chapter 1 verse 31 and that just means that it's coming from the Old Testament. So Jeremiah, you can just listen to me if you can't find it, here we have this weeping prophet and Jeremiah was sad because the
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Babylonians were going to invade and he was sadder because the people were acting foolishly.
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We're okay, we're strong, we're not going to get attacked, if we do our affluence and our power can hold off the hordes, we have safety manufactured by ourselves.
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And Jeremiah was sad because he knows there's safety in one and one alone. And here you get an idea, if this boasting that Jeremiah talks about is boasting that is in the context of Babylonian scourge, then how about the awful day of reckoning that people would have before a holy
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God without holiness, righteousness and redemption. Jeremiah chapter 9 verse 23, you can see the context if you go back up to verse 11,
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I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabitant.
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Verse 12, who is the wise man that may understand this and who is he whom the mouth of the
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Lord has spoken that he may declare it. Verse 23, thus says
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Yahweh the covenant keeping God of Israel, our God as well. Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom and let not the mighty man boast of his might.
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Let not a rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the
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Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice and righteousness on earth for I what?
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Delight in these things. Side note,
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Jeremiah chapter 9 is speaking about God the Father as Lord.
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First Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30 and 31 is speaking about Christ Jesus the
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Lord, the deity of Christ Jesus. Boasting in someone who's created being would be not apropos at all theologically.
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The Lord Yahweh is God the Father, the Son and the Spirit. So we want to be boasting people.
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If I could just turn the dial up just a hair and we'll close. When you boast, would you boast in the
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Lord Jesus Christ? And would you try not to say the generic God when you talk about God or the generic
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Lord? Especially in our society today. What do you think they would have done if he would have said, and I just want to thank
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God, big guy upstairs without whom I'm nothing. What do you think they would have done to Michael Chang?
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They might have gone, you know, as the typical Kurt Warner's got to do, you know, I want to just thank Jesus kind of thing, or fine.
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I don't know if Kurt Warner says that. Maybe that's a bad illustration. But how about let's say the words that come so hard for some people,
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Jesus Christ. It's kind of like you meet somebody, you know, I believe in Jesus Christ. You know, you can tell and you can even see why
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Paul would say, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. There's something about it that makes us ashamed because we know the world is going to go, you're stupid, you're an idiot, you're not influential, you're all these things.
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And it's kind of like the nice pat on the forehead that the culture gives us because we're talking about Christ Jesus. So my charge to you is if you're going to boast, boast in Jesus Christ.
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And I plead with you to say the word Jesus Christ. Next time somebody says, well, what religion are you?
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You can say, well, I'm a Protestant. I'm a, I'm a Christian. Why don't you just say,
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I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ without whom I'm nothing. I think you'll get a different reaction.
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I think the reaction might be that of a dog. I didn't say they're dogs. Although if they teach circumcision, um, for salvation,
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Paul would call them dogs. But you know, when you do say something to a dog and it doesn't know what you're saying, what are the dogs? What are the dogs do? You're doing it.
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Look at the person to your left and go, I deserve this.
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I get this because of one person, Christ Jesus in perfect unity with another person, the father and another person, the spirit one
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God three in one. It's because of them. You're going to have eternal bliss in the presence of Christ Jesus forever and ever.
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And why don't we do on earth what we will do in heaven worthy is the lamb that was slain, swirling around the throne, praising
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Christ Jesus. What religion are you?
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Oh, I'm a Catholic. Well, that's interesting. I'm a believer and follower in Christ Jesus, the
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Lord with whom I'm without whom I'm nothing. Let him who boasts boast that he knows the
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Lord. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.
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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.
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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE in staff or management.