Schismatic Charismatics (part 2) - [1 Corinthians 1:10-17]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Well, I don't know about you, but Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. One of the reasons why it's my favorite is because I get to put on whatever

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I want onto my plate and no one's offended. Typically, every day in my life, we have to have veggies and I have to eat them as the good dad and have the squash and the carrots.

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But on Thanksgiving, I pretty much will only put these things on my plate, dressing, turkey and cranberry sauce, that's it.

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All the other stuff might be fine, but I personally get to choose what goes on my plate. I choose not those things,

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I choose this thing. I also like it because I get to put as much on my plate as I want to.

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I've been to other cultures before overseas and as a guest speaker, as a conference speaker, there are literally people three feet away from me with bowls and spoons at the ready, at the starting gate, as it were, that if there's one inch of space open on my plate, they're rushing in like an owl swooping down on a mouse to make sure that thing is filled up, whether it's

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South Africa or India or Germany, it's just the guest speakers here, we have to keep their food there. I'm typically on some kind of low -carb diet at the time, so the rice just keeps coming on and on and on.

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I'm thinking, on Thanksgiving, I get to choose what goes on that plate.

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Interestingly, there are people, mostly not from our church, I know, but there are people in this world that have the same view of the

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Bible as I do of Thanksgiving, and we call those people cafeteria

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Christians. I like all the parts about God's patience,

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I like all the parts about God's love, give me an extra heap of that part about God's an extra kind, forgiving

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God. I think I like seconds on God's forbearance and mercy, but when it comes,

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I don't know if I want to make this analogy, but here it goes. When it comes to doctors,

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Charlie, is that like, it's unbiblical, they cut me off, and so things like squash and carrots and other things like that,

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I just don't want to have anything to do with them. So when it comes to the powerful wrath of God, I'm just going to keep talking,

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Andrew just went like this, he said, I didn't have anything to do with it. When it comes to doctrines that we're not too comfortable with, we resort to,

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I don't want to talk about it, I don't want to hear about it. It's like the person that will not face truth and they just put their fingers in their ears and they just go la la la la la,

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I'm not going to talk about it. But today I want to talk about a subject that if you grasp properly and rightly, it will help you understand who

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God is and what He thinks about church unity. And I'm going to talk to you this morning in a lengthy introduction to 1

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Corinthians about God's, are you ready? Hatred. Now most of us, we wouldn't say, give me a double portion of the hatred of God.

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I really want to study and memorize those verses about what God literally loathes.

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When it comes to God's abhorrence and God thinking about things and people as odious,

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I don't really want to talk about those things. But friends, if you understand the Bible, you will understand that God is not just a

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God who's a God of love, but He's a holy God. And what would you think of someone who didn't hate sin?

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What would you think of someone who just was a judge who just let everything go? There's something even built into the warp and woof of our fabric that says, justice must be done.

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And for the church at Corinth, the church at Corinth, they couldn't remember. They would force themselves actually to forget what

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God thought of unity in the Old Testament. And Paul had taught them the Old Testament for 18 months.

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So my question today is, if you had to put a list together of what God hated based on the

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Bible, how long would your list be? What would be on your list? And by the way, if God says

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He hates something, should we love those things? Shouldn't it be our desire to say,

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I want to be just like Christ and what He hated, God make me hate. And what

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He loved, I want to love. That's a sign of a maturing Christian. So turn with me, if you would, to the book of Leviticus, way back in your

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Old Testament. We're going to look at some of the Mosaic law, some of the prophetic writings, and some of the history of Israel that shows you a theme.

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And the theme is this, what God hates. Because I want you to A, know it, B, hate it as well.

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And it will actually help our church unity because we're going to see at the apex something very odd and something very strange.

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You'll be surprised by what God hates the most, in other words. Turn to Leviticus 18.

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Now, remember, as we look at these things in the Old Testament, don't be one of those people that says basically this, that's the

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Old Testament, it's a different God, there's all kinds of manuscript problems, we can't trust the

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Old Testament. When Jesus appeared on earth and took His human flesh,

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He could have said, the Old Testament stuff that's about love and joy and peace, that's all really from the

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Bible. All that other stuff about God's holiness, righteousness, justice, wrath, hatred, that's a different God.

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That came from paganism. That's some kind of pagan view of God, get that out of the

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Bible. But what did Jesus do from Genesis through Malachi in our Old Testaments? He what?

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He affirmed them. If you call yourself a Christian and you want to follow Christ, you will have the same view of the

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Old Testament as the one who is your self -professed king, as you should.

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And so what we're going to do is we're going to take a little quick jaunt through the Old Testament to see what

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God hates, and I want you to A, be educated, B, ask yourself the question, do I hate those same things?

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And then I think you'll be surprised at the very end of this lengthy introduction, a surprise thing that God hates that I think is actually quite shocking.

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Leviticus 18 .22, things that God finds an abomination, things that He finds detestable, or He loathes, as one translation calls it, things of horror, and they're sprinkled out throughout the

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Old Testament. We'll just look at one to start, and then we'll continue on. Leviticus 18 .22,

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you shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is an what? An abomination.

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It is loathsome to God. Homosexuality, most

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Christians today know that that is a perversion and is repugnant to God.

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You say, well, that's no surprise. Let's go to another book, Deuteronomy. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, something else that God hates, not just homosexuality, but God hates idolatry.

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We're going to do a little survey, and you say, well, I don't believe any of these things. You don't understand. You're not politically correct.

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You don't understand the culture. I'm trying to just show you what the Bible teaches about these things. This is what

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Jesus had for His Bible. Deuteronomy 7, verse 25, what else does

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God hate? What does He abhor? Well, Deuteronomy 7 .25

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rather says, the graven images of their gods, you are to burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the

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Lord your God. Homosexuality is an abomination to God, the text says, and also idolatry.

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How about Deuteronomy 22? This might strike you as odd, especially in our day,

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Deuteronomy 22 .5. By the way, my list is not all inclusive. I'm just picking some random things so you get an idea that I'm not off my rocker when it comes to something that God might hate.

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Friends, we've got to take all the Old Testament and the New as God's Word, don't we? Or we end up being like Thomas Jefferson.

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Thomas Jefferson said, I have the New Testament, but instead of having the New Testament like this, he had the

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New Testament like that because he cut out everything that was supernatural. When it comes to a miracle,

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Jesus walking on water, oh, it was really just a sandbar, you know, and that kind of thing, literally. So you get them out of the

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Bible, and this Jefferson attitude basically says this, I'm over the Bible, I'll tell you what

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God says, I'm not under the Bible. And we want to just go through systematically and say, what does the

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Bible say? We're under the Bible. How about this, Deuteronomy 22 .5, did you know God hates this?

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A woman, at least for Israel, it was certainly true, wasn't it? A woman shall not wear man's clothing, nor shall a man put on woman's clothing for whoever does these things, an abomination to the

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Lord, your God. The blurring of the sexes. Well, say,

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I don't know about that one, but let's go to Deuteronomy 12 .31. You'll certainly agree with this, that when it comes to sacrificing babies in fire for a false

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God, don't you think God would hate that? I think you hate that, I hate that. Deuteronomy 12 .31,

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you shall not behave thus toward the Lord your God for every abominable act which the

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Lord hates, they have done for their gods. For they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

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God hates that. You say, here's this false God, Molech, we want to be blessed with our agricultural produce, so we'll take our firstborn baby and put that baby in the fire to the

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God of Molech. And the God of Israel says, I hate that. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 18.

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Just a few more, Deuteronomy chapter 18. Something that God hates is the occult.

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The occult, Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy 18 verse 9, when you enter the land which the

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Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable or abominable things of those nations.

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There shall not be among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire. That was referred to just a little bit earlier in Deuteronomy 12.

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One who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer.

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Verse 11, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

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For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord. And because of these detestable things, the

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Lord your God will drive them out before you. On the other hand, verse 13, you shall be blameless before the

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Lord your God. Turn with me to Malachi chapter 2.

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Malachi chapter 2, what else does God hate? We're going to look at Malachi and then Proverbs, and then we'll be back to 1

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Corinthians. My purpose this morning in this long introduction is to show you that the Bible that Paul taught the

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Corinthians was full of these things that God hated so that you might hate them too, and that you might be thinking the way

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God thinks. By the way, if you haven't read the Bible through the Old Testament, can you imagine?

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Seventy percent of the Bible is the Old Testament. And although I love the little New Testament handouts that we give and put on people's doors and all that, don't just say, well, we're new covenant people.

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We're post -cross. There's nothing I can learn about God or how he deals with sinful people and how he makes sinful people his friends in the

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Old Testament. We'll just leave that till later. You are missing out if you don't read the Old Testament.

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When I begin to read the Old Testament, I think, I can't believe what I'm reading, the drama, the interesting things about God.

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And so what else does God hate? This is more indirect language. Turn to chapter 2, verse 7.

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There are certain things priests or pastors should do. Specifically, back in the days of Israel, you had the priests as mediators.

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And what do priests do? What should they do? Verse 7 of chapter 2, for the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge.

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Don't you think that would be good instead of losing it, forgetting it, not teaching it to the people? And men should seek instruction from his mouth.

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You should want to hear this priest who preaches the word for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.

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But as for you, you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by the instruction.

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In other words, priests, when you become apostate and you say, I won't teach all the Bible, there are people who are under you that do the same thing and you turn them away from God.

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What do you think of a priest who doesn't minister according to the word of God? Let's put it in modern -day terms.

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What do you think of pastors who won't preach the word of God? Say, I love them because they smooth my heart.

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What do you do? How do you think of someone who stands up and says, I represent God, and by the way, there's more than one way to heaven.

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Jesus just only died as a good example. God, you know, just loves you no matter what you do and everything's fine.

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You only have to get baptized and then you go straight to heaven and things that aren't in the Bible. What do you think of that?

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Well, it's interesting. What you think about it and what I think about it maybe doesn't matter too much, does it, in comparison to what

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God thinks about it? I'm going to read you a passage now from Malachi 2, and you're going to think that I've lost my rocker.

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Is that what you do? You lose a rocker or you're off your rocker? Well, for me, I lose my rocker. What I'm going to read now, we shouldn't read in public places with sophisticated people.

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It's not right typically to talk this way, but interestingly, God does.

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Go back to Malachi 2 just before this in verse 7.

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Malachi is saying things to these priests. Oh, I am in verse 7, sorry, back in chapter 2, verse 1.

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And now this commandment is for you, O priest. These are the priests that need to be disciplined. These are the pastors that don't preach the word.

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These are the priests that don't mediate, that don't instruct, that don't sacrifice properly. What does God think of a man of God who doesn't represent

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God? And I'll tell you what he thinks of them, and you're going to always remember this, and you're going to think, this is too polite to talk about it.

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This is public. We ought not to say these things, but God does. And now this commandment is for you,

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O priest. If you do not listen and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the

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Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. And indeed,

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I have cursed them already because you are not taking it to heart. Hold on to your seatbelts, congregation.

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You want to know if God hates priests who don't do godly things? Verse 3, it's shocking.

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Behold, I'm going to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts, and you will be taken away with it.

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Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may continue with Levi, says the

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Lord of hosts. Priests were given animals by a sinful person, and the priests were to slay the animals.

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Some of that slain animal would be offered in a sacrifice to God, and it would be burnt. Some would be given to the priests since they didn't work, and they would eat off the remains.

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And there were other things that you would put outside the camp. It was the awful things. The entrails, things that were in the entrails.

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And you'd want to get those things away because of the odor, because of what they were, because of what they represented.

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And that stuff, you'd get far away from you. And you can imagine if there was a rubber glove back in those days, you would put those rubber gloves on because you wouldn't want to touch it.

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And God said, when it comes for priests who should be proclaiming the truth, instructing, preserving the truth, doing the right thing,

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God doesn't say, well, be warm to be filled. God doesn't say, well, that's okay, everything's fine.

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Kind of like, you know, a grandfather, kind of a George Burns, oh God, oh, it's okay. Like the story

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I always tell when my grandmother always said, I'm going to spank you with that yardstick. And I took this yardstick and broke it over my knee and handed it to her, and she still didn't spank me.

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This kind of language should make you think, I haven't heard anything like this in my life. I don't think God is very pleased with that.

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But out of all these things that we've looked at, if you had to kind of arrange a hierarchy of what

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God doesn't like, let me show you what's at the top of the list. Proverbs 6, last passage before 1

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Corinthians. What's at the top of the list? I was shocked when I read it.

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I was shocked when I read it the second time. Oh, it's easy for me to say

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God hates homosexuality, God hates abortion, God hates molex sacrifices, God hates priests who will not do priestly things.

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But this one, Proverbs 6, verse 16.

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Proverbs 6, verse 16. It really is an amazing thing. It's an amazing thing, and the

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Church of Corinth needed to know it. We need to be reminded of it. Proverbs 6, verse 16, found right in the middle of your

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Bible. There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, even seven, which are an abomination to Him.

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By the way, I was listening to a radio show on the way home from the Cape a couple of days ago, and this guy said on Christian radio,

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God doesn't hate anybody. Oh, that's interesting. I was just studying Proverbs 6.

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God doesn't even hate Satan. I can all hear the kids in the back look at me like,

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Dad, are you going to correct that guy? We live in a culture that says this,

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God hates the sin, but He loves the sin.

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I don't think you're going to find anything like that in the Bible. I don't think you can say, well, this is my sin over here, this kind of amorphous, kind of ethereal thing, and I'm here, but this is my sin, and we've got some kind of neoplatonic dualism, some kind of the body is good, but the soul's bad, some kind of reverse thing.

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I see the Scripture talking about we are who we are, and what we do shows who we are.

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And so what does the text say? If you had to put a list of things that are abomination to God, I can guarantee you at the top of the list, things like homosexuality and abortion would be up there.

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But what's at the top of God's list? There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, even seven.

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What kind of language is this, by the way? This is X plus X plus one kind of language for you

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WPI students. This is there are six things He hates, yes, even seven, because when you talk this way in poetry,

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Hebrew poetry, the emphasis falls on number what? Seven. Instead of saying

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God hates seven things, you say He hates these six, but the one that He hates the most at the top is the last one.

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What does God hate? He hates the one at the end the most. This is just a wonderful way to do poetry.

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By the way, people say, well, I hate God. This isn't people's hatred for God. It's the other way around.

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Six things which the Lord hates, yes, even seven, which are abomination to Him. Say, why this long introduction?

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You're going to get that long introduction right now. The point to it, at least.

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Verse 17, you have to be saying, I wonder what those things are. It just draws you in.

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I want to read a little bit more. What are these seven things, and what's the last one that's the top? Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, number three.

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Number four, a heart that devises wicked plans. Whatever the number is, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utter lies, and at the top of God's pyramid of hatred, you won't find homosexuality.

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You won't find adultery. You won't find cross -dressing. You won't find anything else. But what do you see here?

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What do you see, and how does it tie into 1 Corinthians? And one who spreads strife among brothers.

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Who, in some kind of test of the Old Testament, has a list, what are the seven things

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God hates, would put at the top of the list, factiousness, divisiveness, quarreling, and a person that spreads strife in a church?

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Who would do that? I wouldn't do it, but that's exactly what God does.

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He hates it. He hates factiousness. There's an emotional reaction, as it were, to that very thing.

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Matthew Henry called this a thing that in a special manner is odious to God.

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Matthew Henry said, God hates sin. He hates every sin. He can never be reconciled to it. He hates nothing but sin.

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But there are some sins which he does in a special manner hate. So, back to my first question.

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Do you hate what God hates? And if God hates factiousness and one who spreads strife,

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I wonder what he must love. One who does what? Promotes unity. Turn with me to Psalm chapter 133.

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I was going to wait till next week for this, but I have to read it now because it's just an excellent passage.

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God hates strife among the brethren, factiousness, splits, schisms, fractures.

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But what does he love? He loves unity. It's God's church. It's God's bride.

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He wants unity there. And if he hates one thing, he loves the opposite. And so, what do we have here in Psalm 133?

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Oh, it's a wonderful passage. It's a passage that makes you think, I want to strive towards this very thing.

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I don't want to gossip. I don't want to be a whisper. I don't want to be a quarrelsome man. By the way,

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Proverbs 18 says, when somebody gossips, we like to hear it. It calls it a dainty morsel.

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You're like, I remember we had some kind of lemon cream pie for Thanksgiving, and there's only one piece left, and I wanted that last piece so bad.

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I could taste it, but I had in polite company to go around and ask everybody else if they really wanted it.

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But I just thought, that's this dainty morsel. I just can't wait to taste it. I can have my mouth kind of pucker up with that lemon that's in there, just this condensed lemon.

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It's just, oh, I could just taste it. When people begin to gossip, the response of an immature, sinful person who's not walking in the spirit is what?

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That's exactly right. The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, and they go down into the innermost parts of the body.

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We just are built that way because of our sin inherited from Adam and our own responsibility to that.

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You say, I don't want to be that kind of person, especially in the local church. I want to have unity. So what does

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Psalm 133 say? This is so good. If God hates factiousness,

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He delights in unity and conquered. Concord. Behold, Psalm 133, how good and how pleasant it is to memorize

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Scripture. Well, that would be true, but that's not what the verse says. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.

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That's the opposite. If God hates disunity, He loves this. It's like a precious oil upon the head coming down upon the beard, even

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Aaron's beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes. You can just imagine taking some kind of anointing oil and putting it on the head of a guy who had a bunch of hair and had a big, huge beard, and that oil would get first down on the head, and then it would begin to permeate down to the skull, and then down the skull to the face, to the beard, and just the oil.

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And it would be good oil. It would be fabulous oil. We would want to just quick wipe that oil off, you know, and be thinking about complexion and all that.

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They would think, hear this mark of blessing. It's like the best blessing you could think of. It's like,

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I don't know why I'm referring back to pie all the time at Thanksgiving. It's like some pumpkin pie. It's just good.

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So what was good for them back there? It was this oil, this anointing oil poured on the head, down Aaron, just the blessings of God.

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It's like the dew, verse 3, of Hermon, coming down upon the mountains of Zion. For there, the

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Lord commanded the blessing. Life 4. If you're like me, you say,

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I hate these other things because God hates them. But it rarely comes into my radar to say,

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I want to hate disunity and factiousness because God hates it. When was the last time you said that to yourself?

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Oh, I hate that. So let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I told you it was a long introduction.

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1 Corinthians chapter 1, 2, 3, and 4 have to do with unity in the local church.

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How would you react to a report of divisions in a local church? I got here 13 years ago, and just imagine,

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I was here for two years, Bob Bowman gets a report. Abendroth's now at the church, and there's factiousness going on.

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There's divisiveness. What do you think Bob Bowman would do as he, the pastor before me, or two pastors before me, who loves the people who've been there, and he writes a letter?

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Would you rebuke? Would you scold? Would you spank? How would you react if you were

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Bob Bowman? Well, Paul was here for 18 months. He preached the gospel to these people. And now he writes back in such a way that's very odd to me.

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He appeals. He comes alongside and uses family language. Last week, we looked at appeals to keep the church here unified.

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We don't have a problem of division in the church, but we want to make sure we don't. And so, look at chapter 1, verse 10.

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This is the language of Paul when he hears the report. It's a language of affection. Now, I exhort you, brethren.

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That's why the first appeal to unity we saw last week was, you should agree that we're all one family.

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And if you do, unity must be essential. It's essential in a family with a husband and wife. It's got to be essential in a local church.

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Appeal to unity number two, we saw that we're all slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see it in verse 10?

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Now, I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says, don't forget who you are, who owns you, who's purchased you, who's died on the cross for you, who's been raised in resurrected victory for you.

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And if you're not your own, don't run around trying to treat the church like it's yours.

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Appeal to unity number three, we ought to have unity here because we have the same doctrine.

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You see it later in verse 10, that you all agree there'd be no divisions among you, but that you'd be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.

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You speak the same things about God and his word. You have the same agreement. You don't want to have people running around saying, well, this is my own idea.

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This is my own interpretation. Well, to me, these verses mean such and such. Paul says, you speak the same thing

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I've taught you. I've taught you about doctrine. I've taught you about who God is, what sin is, who

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Jesus the Savior is, who the Holy Spirit is. You may disagree on certain things in life, but the essential truths of the

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Christian faith, you agree upon those things. And that's important because we're different people, different background, male, female, black, white, everything in between.

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17th century writer, Rupert Meldenes says this, in necessary things, unity.

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In non -essential things, mutual toleration. And in all things, love.

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And now we move to number four. Appeal to unity number four. Recognize that divisions in Christ's bride are sinful.

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What was implicitly stated before, I'll make explicit. Take a look at verse 10, that there be no divisions, schismata, tears or cracks.

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I think of the Andreas fault line is what I'm thinking, living in California for such a long time.

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I don't want a rip or a tear in the church. John 7 .43

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uses the language here, there arose a division in the multitudes because of Jesus.

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Now, it's one thing to have believers and unbelievers divided on who Jesus is.

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It's another thing to have a church who would say they're all Christians to be divided on who

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Jesus is. We're to speak the same things even though we don't agree on every little iota.

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True or false, the elders are required to help keep the unity of the local church here.

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True or false, you are required as a member to keep the local unity here at the church.

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So, that's just the elder's job. I do what I want, I'm looking for dainty morsels anytime I can get them and it's their job.

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They'll clean up the mess. Turn with me if you would to Romans chapter 16 and I want to encourage you.

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I'm not here to scold anyone. I'm not here to try to somehow preach a message differently than Paul would.

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Paul appealed. Paul tried to preach in such a way that he came alongside of them and exhorted.

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It wasn't a scolding kind of letter. Romans chapter 16 has similar language,

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Romans chapter 16. And I love the book of Romans. I know you love the book of Romans.

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Same author, 1 Corinthians, same author, Romans. And here's this great book of Romans talking about the righteousness of God and how chapter 1, 2, and 3, we need

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God's righteousness but we don't have it. Chapter 3, 4, and 5, how God declares us righteous before God based on the work of Christ's life and by Christ's death and by his resurrection.

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Chapter 6 and 7, how do you live a Christian life? Are you going to make it to the end? Chapter 8, security.

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How about the sovereignty of God with Israel and humans? Chapter 9, 10, and 11, how do I function in church?

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Chapter 12 to 15. And then in chapter 16, he has some greetings. I think he greets 26 people.

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Eight ladies he greets, he greets a bunch of men. And you think he's going to end the book.

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There's an ending. Look at verse 16 of chapter 16. 16, 16, greet so -and -so, greet so -and -so, greet so -and -so, greet so -and -so.

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This is kind of nice. He's going to wrap it all up, Romans. It's really wonderful. Verse 16, greet one another with a holy kiss.

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All the churches of Christ greet you. Wouldn't that be a nice way to end the book? So nice, so polite, so uplifting.

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Oh, there went my watch. I just broke my watch. Can you believe that? Sorry. Wow, it must be a cheap watch.

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I wanted to make an exclamation because that's what 17 is. It's a watch -breaking verse.

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If I've ever seen one. This is a watch -breaker. It's unexpected. It's so sharp, some commentators say, this isn't

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Paul. Add it later. This is Paul. This is Paul probably saying,

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I'm dictating the letter to my scribe, and now scribe, you put that pen down. I'm going to pick up that pen.

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Even though I don't see well, I will write this with my own hands. It's that kind of language. Unexpected.

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The unexpected thing is the warning. Greet one another, love one another, kiss one another.

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Now I urge you. By the way, the exact same Greek word from 1

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Corinthians 1, verse 10. I appeal to you. I urge you. Exact same word.

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Perikalo, from where we get the Holy Spirit who comes alongside. I appeal to you, the ESV says.

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I appeal to you. Brethren, doesn't it sound like 1 Corinthians to you? I appeal to you, brethren.

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That's exactly from 1 Corinthians. Same kind of language. The same apostle who says, greet, and love, and kiss, and go for unity, now says,

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I've got to warn you about something. And he says, keep your eye, number one, on those who cause divisions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned.

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Is this a pastoral epistle? Only written to the elders? Who is he talking to? The church people at Rome.

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Everyone. You all watch him. Here's a Greek word for you. Scope. You scope them out.

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It's a word from telescope, microscope, laparoscopic surgery. There's the word scope in there.

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And scope means what? When I was a kid, we'd spy on adults. You've got to kind of scope them out.

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And scoping isn't just a quick look. Scope is a look that kind of wants to see through someone. And I look at someone.

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And I'm looking at Prue right now. And I just kind of look through him. And I look at him for so much, he has to put his eyes down.

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Because he says, OK, now he's resolved. He's resolute. He's not going to do that. You're looking at them.

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And you have to be watching. You just go and go, well, you know, they'll never be here.

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The elders will watch out. And good doctrine keeps them out. This is the kind of thing where you go, eyes out, up, watch out.

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You keep your eyes open, wide open. Mark them. Observe attentively.

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And he doesn't say, you watch these people. And by the way, you go kiss them. Kill them with kindness.

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Love them. Greet them. Here it means I want you to examine someone with careful scrutiny.

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And you watch out for people, what does the text say? Who cause divisions. They have parties. They're factious.

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They cause scandals, scandalon, traps. They love to set a little trap in a church.

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It's like a bear trap. You can't quite see it until it's too late. And these people know what to do. They know how to ask a question to an unsuspecting person in such a way that it seems like they're godly.

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But really, they plant that seed of doubt in the other person. And now that person doubts the integrity of the elders, doubts the integrity of other people, doubts different things.

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And Paul says, you've got to watch out for these folks. Why? Because God loves unity. And what does he say?

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First, scope them out. Second of all, dialogue with them. Is that what the text says?

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And dialogue with them. Have a conversation. Have them come over to your house.

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Get your pipes and smoke by the fire and just talk about these things in an academic atmosphere and kind of a nice debate.

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We want to love and dialogue. That's exactly what they want, by the way. They want, as Schreiner said, friendly dialogue.

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Let's just get together and talk about these things. And Paul says, you scope them out. And then what do you do?

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Give them a wide berth. Present imperative, keep on avoiding them. Do not follow them.

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Do not regard them. Barnes said, this would be an admirable rule if always followed.

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Let those who seek to promote alienations and contentions be avoided.

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Someone that's always speaking down, always trying to cause factions. You just see him in the hallway, you see him in the donut room, and you're just like, whoop.

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It's exactly the kind of language here. MacArthur said, such people are not to be debated, but denounced.

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What's the big deal? Verse 18. Here's the reason to turn.

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Who writes like this? Who says things like this? Who preaches this way?

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I'm so glad I get to preach to you because most of you will be back next week. This is your first time here, you're thinking, wow.

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I do hope you say this, though, if it's your first time. I hope you say, those people want to know the Bible.

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Those people here want the Bible. Those people want to love what God loves and hate what God hates. For such men, the divisive ones, the factious ones, are slaves.

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But they're not slaves of Jesus. Look what the text says. Not of our Lord Christ, but of their own, as the

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King James says, what? Bellies. Their own lusts.

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And look at how Paul talks. Kiss, greet, kind, and then he says with some kind of, almost a disdain, such people, those kind of people over there, folks of that ilk, such people, they serve their own lusts, their own bellies, their own appetites, their own private interests.

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They want people following them, not the Lord. Show me a slave of Jesus Christ and I'll show you someone who says,

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I am nothing, I boast in nothing but the cross of Christ, I am a sinner saved by grace, and can it be that I should gain an interest in my

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Savior's love? Don't look at me, don't worship me, don't follow me, look to the Savior.

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Won't a person do that? And if everybody was doing that in a local church, there would be great unity. These other people though, they love dominion, self -focused, probably for financial gain, probably for power.

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Jude calls them clouds without water, doubly dead. And what do they do? They're smart.

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They can act nice, they can dress nicely, they talk well with what? Smooth words.

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Oh, they're sincere. Oh, they love orthodoxy on the outside. Oh, they're so humble and fair speeches, eulogy.

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Oh, they flatter, give you a special attention. Well, the elders don't pay much attention to me, but this other person, they really do.

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Fine words, they speak well, probably have verses memorized. But what do they do?

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Look at the text. They deceive the hearts of the mature. No, because the mature can spot those kind of people a mile off.

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They deceive the hearts of the simple, are unsuspecting, are those without guile.

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They trick them. Paul says, don't buy into that.

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I don't think you'll soon forget this quote from Adam Clark. The church of God has ever been troubled with such pretend pastors, men who feed themselves, not the flock.

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Men who are too proud to beg and too lazy to work, who have neither a grace nor gifts to plant the standard of the cross on the devil's territories.

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And by the power of Christ, make inroads upon his kingdom. On the contrary, by sowing the seeds of dissension, by means of doubtful disputations and propagation of scandals, by glaring and insinuating speeches, they affect elegance and good breeding.

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They rend Christian congregations, form a party for themselves, and thus live on the spoils of the church of God.

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See, that's not very loving. Friends, you can love the Lord and still stand up for the unity that he loves?

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Yes. Paul says in Philippians, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.

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So now I turn the tables and ask you, before God, are you known as a uniter at Bethlehem Bible Church?

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Or maybe you're visiting your home church? Or are you known as a person who is always desiring, as Pastor Dave says, to just walk out of step with the leadership?

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You ever watch people in a band? I used to be in a marching band and I played the sousaphone. So I had an excuse for not walking in step because I couldn't see my steps.

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Here's this big, huge thing. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just playing this instrument and walking around in marching band. I was glad when

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I finally made the football team and didn't have to do marching band stuff anymore. I'm sure it's a fine thing to do.

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It just wasn't up my alley. I'm walking around and I was always out of step because like I can't dance,

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I can't march either. Are you a person that says,

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I don't agree with everything, but submission doesn't mean agree with everything. It means going along even if I disagree.

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That's what husbands want their wives to do. Why don't those same husbands then want to do that in the leadership?

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I would say for the most part, we have a church who says, here's the way the leadership is marching.

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Let's march along with. You know how you kind of ever have to march with somebody and for a second, I'm gonna hate to do this in front of everybody, but I just broke my watch.

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So what do I care? You're kind of walking and you can't quite get in step. So you have to do one of those things to kind of get right where the people are.

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Well, maybe you haven't done it. Do they march here in New England in the snow? Here's what the

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Lord wants. He wants you to love what he loves. And if he loves the bride and had his son lay down his life for the bride, the local church, then we ought to do everything we can to promote the unity of the bride because that all focuses the attention to the

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Lord. And so you ask yourself the question, I ask you, are you one of the kind of people that just says,

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I wanna do my best to promote what God loves, that is unity. And I'll just get in line and I'll just go.

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But there are some people who say, whatever way the elders are marching, I think it's just kind of in my nature and I gotta keep them honest.

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I gotta make sure I'm the one who doesn't just, absolute power corrupts absolutely. And I'm just gonna go the opposite way.

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So I'm gonna, if it's left foot forward, then right foot, I'm gonna do right foot. I just look at these passages and say,

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Paul gets word. He gets a whiff of what was going on in Corinth and it breaks his heart.

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It breaks his proverbial heart to think there are people that he has taught, that he has trained, that he has taught the

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Old Testament to and says, you wanna know what God loves? He loves unity. And you've got these rents, these tares, these factions, and you want to be put back together again because you believe the same thing.

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This is not some kind of, well, there's some Arminians and there's some Calvinists. There's some Pelagians and some

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Augustinians. They've been taught the same thing. They've all been taught by Paul. They're all been taught the same thing.

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They believe the same thing, but for power, they split up. One day when

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I'm older, I look forward to the time where I'm not preaching. I mean,

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I really want to preach my whole life, but when I'm a member of a church just doing pulpit supply in the area and there's some young pastor who's 30, 35 years old who stands in the pulpit and the sheep are like, well, he's not like my last pastor and he doesn't do all these things that I kind of want him to do, but he's faithful to preach the word.

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I can't wait to be the guy on the front row who says I'm going to back that guy to the nth degree.

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I'm going to stand behind him. Oh, if he's disqualified because of sin, I'll be the first to try to kick him out, but it's funny what people laugh at when that was not meant to be funny, but short of that,

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I want to be there behind the leadership, not because I'll probably even agree with everything he thinks or does, but because it's for a higher purpose.

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The church is not about us. The church is not about you. The church is not about me. This is the

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Lord's church and he wants unity. He loves it. So I can't wait to sit in the front row and say until this guy, unless this guy disqualifies himself,

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I am here till death do me part for God is my witness to support the local leadership.

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Now, I have to say this. I think we have this church support. I think the support can always get better.

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This is not one of those, I'm going to get him with these verses. Remember what I said the last six weeks in a row? We aren't

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Corinth and I don't want to treat you like you've got the problems that Corinth does. Corinth has had.

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I want to say though, lest anything come in here and spoil, we're going to preach the truth about unity so we can be armed and ready, preventative maintenance, yes?

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How many people here have ever gone through a church split in their life? Raise your hand. You would be the first to say,

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I hate that. I hate the fractures. I hate the division. I hate the quarreling. I hate the

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I am of Paul and I am of Paulus. I hate that. I want unity. I'm going to do everything I can because Jesus is my

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Lord to focus on unity. You say, what are you doing?

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I'm letting silence be my clothes. No, I'm not doing that. I had one other passage I wanted to talk about, but I think we better wait.

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I urge you, brethren, I appeal by the name of the

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Lord, that there be no factiousness, there be no divisions, but that you be united for not my sake, not the elder's sake, but for the king's sake.

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Let's pray. Our Father, how good it is for brothers to dwell in unity.

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And I praise you today that this is a unified church, unified from the top to the bottom, unified from elders, unified to nursery workers.

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But Lord, we all struggle. We all sin. We all think about things we ought not to. And sometimes we gossip and sometimes we slander.

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Sometimes we speak down upon the brethren and we would ask that you would forgive us. We would ask that by your

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Spirit's enablement, we might be a more unified church, that we might excel even more. And Lord, when

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I think about your son, he was always after unity as well. Never gossip, never complain, never accuse leadership, even though he was perfect and the leadership, even in the synagogue growing up, was far from that.

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So we're thankful that we're covered by Christ's perfect righteousness. We're thankful that we're forgiven and now help us to live like forgiven people, like Jesus is our

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Lord. Empower us by your Spirit, that we, when we hear about reports of division in other churches, we might be kind and loving and put our arms around them.

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But may it never be said of Bethlehem Bible Church, again, until you send your son back to get us that there's divisions in this church.