Sexual Infidelity (Part 2)

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Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendrop.

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Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the 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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I don't know how far I should push this, but I guess I can say this. When worship centers become brothels, something's wrong.

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And back in those days, the religion of the day was, let's get together for a pot providence and then let's go to the back of the building to the tent where the brothel is to continue the worship service.

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It's a madhouse. For Israel, it was a breach of the covenant that God had made with Israel.

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And now we're going to see God dealing with sin promptly and mercifully, promptly and mercifully, mercifully because if God doesn't excise this cancer, it's going to be bad.

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If only we would deal with sin in our own life and in the church like this, figuratively.

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Verse four, and Yahweh, the personal covenant -keeping name of God, Lord, said to Moses, let's have a discussion, let's have a dialogue, let's bring in some of the leaders of this side and some of the leaders of this side and we'll sit down at the table and we'll talk about it a little bit, discuss it, we'll converse.

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Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the Lord, that the fierce anger of the

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Lord may turn away from Israel. And Moses said to the judges of Israel, each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.

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Hang them in the sun before God. Oh, it will help if they're hung before the people because they'll say, sin cost,

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I better run from it. But this is before God. Hang them in the sun, execute them publicly, hang them high.

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The reflex action of God, when the reflex hammer hits his knee, as it were, it kicks out with, put him on a gibbet, why?

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Because atonement must be made. Atonement needs to be made, otherwise it's going to spread to everyone.

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Somebody satisfy God's holy nature by atonement. He's holy. One of the shocking things in my life was when

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I was taught this truth, that God is jealous. The second shocking thing that was taught in my life is, you ought to be jealous for God's glory.

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You ought to be jealous with God's jealousy. You ought to say, everyone in scripture who is jealous with God's jealousy,

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God commended. Our society says, oh, forget about it, you got to be known for what you're for, not what you're against.

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This is all this kind of nice and love and it'll all work out. Jealous for God's jealousy. Covenant agreement has been broken.

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And so in the broad daylight, kill them, used here in Hebrew as a judicial execution.

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Verse six, and behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a

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Midianite woman in his family, to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting.

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People are dying because of a plague, because of this immorality. People are being put up on gibbets.

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Some godly people are mourning and they're sad that God has not done this to the people, but that the people have done this and deserve this from God and they're weeping.

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And behold, one of these people of Israel. Now this is going to be, by the way, really bad if it was a

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Midianite man and a Midianite woman. It would be really bad if it was a Moabite man and a Moabite woman.

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But this is a man from Israel and a Midianite woman. It's not going to take much imagination to figure out what they're doing.

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One commentator said, this is the most, quote, outrageous action of apostate behavior known anywhere in the

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Torah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Now what tent and where, there is some debate, but it's blatant, it's unspeakable.

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While this is going on, most likely at the front of the tent of meeting, here comes an

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Israelite man with a Midianite woman and they're going to take this tent that it's supposed to be for worship and then do in that what they would do at the brothel, other places.

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Talk about in your face, talk about, you know what, let's just take this woman in and engage in worship right there in front of everybody.

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People are out here weeping because God's judging, people are dying, people are being given it and now we're going to have this.

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And the text says the Midianites with a definite article, that is to say most likely it's a person that was of prominence.

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Maybe she was the high priest, but she was known, the Midianites, you wouldn't have to even say her name, the

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Midianites. Very conservative commentary said, quote, women priests were so very closely tied to the sexual outrages of Baal and Asheroth worship that the very notion of a woman priest conjured up images of sexual worship.

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Perhaps this is the principal reason that Israel had no women priests. Verse 7, here's a couple in the act, defiling, shaming, perverting.

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Will someone do something? Standing up for God and His character, if I had another son, this is what

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I would name him. Except his nickname would be Finney and then that would conjure up other information.

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When Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation.

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Priests don't have spears, he must have grabbed one from some soldier and took a spear in his hand. What's going on?

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Here's a couple committing fornication right there, everybody else is shocked, they don't know what's going on, they're speechless, what do we do, how do we take care of this?

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They're horrified, they're playing the whore, what do we do?

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Phineas is going to do something. Now look at the language in chapter 25 verse 8, he's got the spear in his hand and he went after the man of Israel.

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See this whole covenant relationship, God's covenant people Israel, and he went into the chamber and pierced both of them through the back, out the stomach, in the stomach, out the back.

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He pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman, through her belly, through the lower region.

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You're going to have some kind of sexual sin, the punishment is going to fit the crime. Phineas knew

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God's law, Phineas knew God's jealousy, thus the plague of the people of Israel was stopped.

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Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were 24 ,000. First Corinthians says 23, 24, if you get bogged down to 23 or 24, which one rounded up, which one rounded down, which one was killed, 23 ,000 on the first day, a thousand more who died the day later, or however you reconcile them, you've missed the whole point of everything.

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I have a question, what would the media's take on this be?

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What would the New York Times say about Phineas? The son of Eleazar, the grandson of Aaron, Phineas means dark skinned, the lexicon says

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Negro, dark, plague is checked by piercing them through.

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What would the media say? What would God say? What's the aftermath? Let's find out, chapter 25, verse 10, and the

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Lord said to Moses, kill Phineas, is that what he said? And the

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Lord said to Moses, I'm a God of love, Sinclair Ferguson is one of my favorite theologians, and I like what he says in his

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Scottish way. When people say to you, we have great worship at our church, by the way, they usually mean we have great music, it's like rock and roll, coffee house,

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Code Orange, you know, all this kind of stuff. We have great worship at our church, and we know that worship is preaching and singing and giving, and everything's worship, just not the singing.

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But when people say to Sinclair Ferguson, come to our church because we have great worship, Sinclair Ferguson always says,

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I think I'll let God be the judge of that. We have great worship.

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The Lord said to Moses, and by the way, if I could sing, here's what

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I would do. If I could throw my voice, here's what I would do. I would read the next two verses, and simultaneously, I would go dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.

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This is language of pomp, circumstance, this is language of celebration, this is language of applause.

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For what Phineas did, we get out, this is like getting with words the medal of valor pinned on you.

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This is the ceremony of commendation, the language of applause.

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And by the way, if you're standing there and you're the dad of Phineas, or you're the grandfather, or you're related, you ever have somebody that you know and goes and graduates the

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Naval Academy and you think, you know, I'm a relative? Just kind of want to stand up straight, don't you, and think, you know what?

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If Luke went to West Point and graduated with honors, you can just imagine me standing there going, I'm the dad.

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That's the language here. Jealous for God's jealousy. They're going to do that in the face of God.

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Phineas, the son of Eleazar, dun, dun, dun, dun. This is it, I'm telling you.

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I'm sure that's not a song, I'm just making it up, but it's good. The son of Aaron, the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, and that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy.

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Therefore, say, behold, I give him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood.

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Get ready to have your world rocked, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.

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It's not shocking that he did this in God's eyes. It was commendable, commendable that he would put a stop to that with a javelin through the both of them.

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It's interesting. He made atonement. Now, in Israel's economy, if you sinned, you'd have to die, and often you would have a sacrifice.

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You would have something in place of, and you would kill an animal instead, except the animals weren't needed here because it was so flagrant.

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So instead of an animal sacrifice for atonement, it was the two people. They made atonement by their own lives.

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Just a side note. What God says is right and wrong, it's a lot different than what our society says is right and wrong.

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Isn't that true? Society says abortion is mother's choice. It's part of her body, and what does

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God say? It's a living being, and the list goes on and on. As long as you love each other, et cetera,

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God says, here's the realm of sexual engagement, the marriage bed.

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Listen to number three. This shouldn't shock us about Phineas. The Lord said to Moses, saying, bring the tribe of Levi near and set them before Aaron the priest.

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They shall keep guard over him and over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting. As they minister at the tabernacle, they shall guard all the furnishes of the tent of meeting and keep guard over the people of Israel as they minister at the tabernacle, and you shall give the

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Levites to Aaron and his son. They are wholly given to him from among the people of Israel. You Levites, you guard the temple of the tent of meeting.

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Guard the people. Two people go in there and do that. Phineas knew exactly what to do.

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Sacrifice the two human offenders. That word, by the way, atonement there in your text, in Numbers 25, means to atone by offering a sacrifice.

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Somebody has to die. It's not going to be an animal. It's going to be them. No animal needed. When I think of false doctrine, when you think of false doctrine, of course we want to teach sound doctrine, but we also have to refuse false doctrine.

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I want to be jealous for God's jealousy. Don't you? If someone says something denigrating about the

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Lord Jesus Christ, is there anything in you that wants to say, for the fame of the glory of Christ Jesus?

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That's not true. I will stand up against that. I will impale false doctrine.

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People say, well, I don't want you to, you know, enough of this kind of after false doctrine. I want to impale it by running it through with a javelin.

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Not the people, but the doctrine. I want to stand up and people say, well, you know what? It's our will and Christ's death that saves.

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I want to just take a javelin and impale that because it is the will of God Almighty who saves and God alone.

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I'm jealous for God's jealousy. He made atonement for the people and people celebrated.

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Now, go with me if you would to Psalm 106 and this is put in the form of a song and this is even going to blow your mind further because of what is said.

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Made atonement, my jealousy, it even gets wilder. Psalm 106.

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What does the psalmist have to say in a fascinating way about this account? Psalm 106 and then we'll go back to numbers and then finish it up.

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Psalm 106 verse 28. The psalmist recounts this and you're going to kind of, you'll hear the same language.

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You'll get it, but there's some new stuff here. Then they yoked themselves to the bale of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to the dead.

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Psalm 106 verse 29, they provoke the Lord to anger with their deeds and a plague broke out among them and Phinehas stood up.

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By the way, that means to stand up as a mediator. He's going to be the mediator.

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He's going to stand in between the wrath of God and the people. This is not just like I'm standing up now.

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This is to stand up as mediator. The high priest, the mediator, and he stood up and intervened and the plague was stopped and now get ready for your, for the head gasket to blow.

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And that was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever. It was counted to him as righteousness.

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He made atonement by offering not the animals, but the people. And what Phinehas did was counted to him, reckoned to him as righteousness.

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I know we're not supposed to have heroes in the old Testament. No hero except God. Don't dare to be a

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Daniel, but I'm going to break my own rule. Be Phinehas today. He made atonement and it was credited to him as righteousness to all generations forever.

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Check the plague. He interceded. He was the representative. He was the mediator. He was acting as the priest.

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He was in the line of Aaron as a priest and he did the right thing. And God said, you know what? I'm going to reckon that to you as righteousness.

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Sounds like with Abraham reckoned to him as righteousness. Let's go back to number chapter 25.

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We need to wrap this up or I'm going to not keep my word about 23 verses. Numbers chapter 25.

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Numbers 25, after the celebration and the commendation of Phinehas, after everything is made sure to be given to them as honor, him as honor and the family, now we find out what these other people's names were.

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We've gone from family honor to family shame. From family glory to the name of the slain man of Israel.

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Remember, he wasn't just a Moabite, a Midianite who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri. His name means my remembrance.

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His name means don't ever forget his name. Ever met a man named

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Zimri? I doubt it. The son of Seleu, boy, what a dishonor that would be to be the father standing next to him.

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Chief of a father's house belonging to the Simunites. And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was, could have been

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Jezebel, but next to Jezebel in infamy was a lady named Cosby and her name means liar, my lie, deceiver.

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The daughter of Zur, who was a tribal head of the father's house in Midian. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, harass the

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Midianites and strike them down. Strike them down.

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What does the rest of the text say?

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I should finish this off so we get the 23 verses. For they have harassed you with their wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of Peor and in the matter of Cosby, the daughter of the chief of Midian, their sister who was killed on the day of the plague on the account of Peor.

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Okay, big picture. A, is anybody here sleeping? No? I saw one guy kind of do that about 15 minutes ago.

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I'm not kidding. Paul writes to the

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Corinthians and he says, you like to go do some idolatry, you say it's okay to do, you slip into some immorality, you say it's an okay thing to do.

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And Paul says, like in numbers, God judges sexual sins. It is without question that America today is under the judgment of God.

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If we keep doing all this stuff, God's going to judge us. Friends, Romans 1 is explicit. Judgment of God comes to countries like us because what we have done and we are feeling that because God has given us over,

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God has given us over, God has given us over. Not just with venereal disease, but with mental illness.

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You want to know what happens when a man and a woman are together and it's not in the marriage bed?

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I'll just show you the backwash of the whole thing by looking at America. And Paul says, and he includes himself in 1

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Corinthians, we must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did. John, the apostle, says in Revelation 2, but I have a few things against you,

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Pergamum. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before Israel so that they might eat of the food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immoral things.

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I just want to say one last thing, 1 John chapter 2, if you'll turn there. If you're sexually pure now, by the grace of God, I want to commend you for living a life in commensuration with who you are in Christ.

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And if you're sexually sinning now, calling yourself a Christian, whether it's pornography or anything else, today is the day of repentance, of forsaking.

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And I want to show you how great Christ Jesus is when it comes to forgiving. And since you're still alive,

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I assume He has not killed you, and now you have an opportunity to repent. What a gracious God, what a merciful

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God. We need atonement. They needed atonement, and Phineas provided it.

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They needed to have righteousness credited to them. God did it. And look at how great God's forgiveness is through Christ Jesus for every sexual sinner here.

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Here's the good thing. Would you like to wear white in God's eyes, married or not married?

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How would you like to have God see you and see you as a virgin if you're not married?

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How would you like to have God take a look at you and say, you know what, I no longer see you huddled over a computer screen in your basement at night when your wife's upstairs?

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Wouldn't you like to be seen by God? Not looking at another woman with lust or another man with lust, but seen by God as pure, holy, righteous.

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Seen by God as someone not defiled or defiling, but standing up for God's jealousy. How could that be done?

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Even if every one of us today could live perfectly for the rest of our lives with perfect sexual purity, we still would need an atonement.

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And look at how great Christ is for all sexual sinners here today. Look at how

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John writes, 1 John 2 .1. My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

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But if anyone does sin, and that's including sexual sin, we have an advocate.

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Christians always have an advocate. They forever have an advocate, someone to stand up in our place.

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Not someone like Phineas, who's a human, but someone who has divine righteousness because he's not just human, but he's divine.

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We have an advocate with the person we need to have an advocate with. That is the Father, who gets red hot in the nose with anger for sexual sin.

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How can we appease Him or satisfy Him? Oh, the Son sure can. We have an advocate with the

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Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, perfectly righteous

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Son of God. And do you know how much He atones for sins, verse 2? He is the propitiation.

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He makes satisfaction for the wrath of God. He drinks the cup all the way down for all your sexual sins.

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He's the propitiation for our sins, and not just for ours only, not just for the

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Jews, not just for the in crowd, but also for the sins of the whole world. How great is that?

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If you're a sexual sinner here today, you are seen by God based on the Son's work as clean and pure and white as a driven snow.

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That's good news for sinners. And since that's happened to us, why would we want to return back to the vomit of sexual sin ever again?

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He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only ours, but also the sins of the whole world. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth 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 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m.

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We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org

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or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.