Soli Deo Gloria (Part 2)

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

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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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Well, turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 this morning. We are going to cover 12 verses at breakneck speed this morning.

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Last week, 9 verses. This week, 12 verses. When I return from California, 15 verses.

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I can feel the momentum. We're working through the book of 1 Corinthians, just taking section by section, chapter by chapter.

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Verse 27, if one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner, you're disposed to go. You don't have to go.

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Sometimes unbelievers invite me over to dinner, and I want to go, and I say yes. Sometimes I don't want to go, I say no. Mainly, I don't get invited.

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Eat whatever is set before you. That'd be a good take, good verse to take out of context to make your kids eat the peas.

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Eat whatever's set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

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They face this all the time. If you went to a Jewish person's house, you wouldn't have to raise a question, but now the scene is no longer the temple, but a dining room, and it's probably of a

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Gentile. You probably know what they did. Don't ask.

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Just be quiet. Jews didn't think this way. I'm telling you, Rabbi Shimeon ben

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Eliezer said Israelites outside the land worship idols in purity. How? If a non -Jew prepared a wedding feast for his son and sent out to invite all

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Jews in his town, even if they have food and drink of their own and have their own servant waiting for them, they worship idols.

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If a Gentile asks you to eat, don't go. Paul is now saying, go.

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It's food. If you want to go, go. But there's an interesting twist here. More details come up.

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Verse 28. But if someone says to you, a believer who's at this meal says to you, they're a weak

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Christian, this has been offered up, then do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you, for the sake of conscience.

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I don't mean your conscience, but his, the weak Christian who said, I think this is offered to idols. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience?

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We know the answer because we want to love them. So somebody invites you over for dinner.

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You don't ask anything about it. Is it offered to Diana or not? You just are eating. The guy nudges you when the host stands up,

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I think this is offered to Diana, then don't eat it. And it'd be better for you to offend the host than offend a fellow brother.

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Because if the host is offended, he'll be less offended by you offending him than you offending somebody in your own family, the

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Christian family. So Paul is working through these issues. But the big picture is, as he's anticipating the objections, other people's welfare is more important than your freedom.

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Paul says in verse 30, if I partake with thankfulness. My friend has just said to me, it's offered to idols.

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I eat anyway. And I'm thanking God, 24th chapter of Psalms, verse one,

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God, you're great. You're the creator. Why am I denounced? Because of what? Because of that for which

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I give thanks. How am I going to say, God, thank you for this food simultaneously hurting the conscience of this brother?

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It's hard to pray that prayer. And so Paul's working through this issue with Christian liberty, and he's saying, it's for other people.

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It's not for you. Second law, second law of Christian liberty, not just limiting your liberty to seek the good of others, but number two, your liberty must be limited by the glory of God.

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In other words, seek God's glory more than your own liberties. I mentioned this earlier in my introduction, and here we get to the bigger point.

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We've had the horizontal issue. Now we come to the vertical issue. So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

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How many people memorize that verse? It's a great verse to memorize, but where is it? It's right here in the middle of Christian liberties.

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So here's how sometimes people will preach it. Well, even in mundane things in life that you have to do on a regular basis, how often do you have to eat a day?

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How often do you have to drink a day? In regular routine, mundane things, you should be giving glory to God. Is that a true statement?

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That's a true statement, but it has nothing to do with this passage. It's a theological verity, but the passage here is whether you eat or whether you drink regarding Christian liberty, things that's offered to pagan sacrifices are things that you even do now, limited by the glory of God.

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One man said, God, get this, God becomes the hermeneutical litmus test for gauging whether things are right or wrong.

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This is not mundane activity. The point is related to food and drink, overriding concern should be

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God's glory. Does this glorify God? So I could ask you, if you think alcohol, you're able to drink alcohol with Christian liberty, you say, is this for God's glory?

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The answer could be yes, the answer could be no. Smoking tobacco, going to movies.

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I don't know what they're things, shooting guns. I don't know what people struggle with these days. Does this give

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God glory? Number three, the third law of liberty, oh, this is so good.

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You must have a, I'm going to give you another big word, a soteriological attitude. When thinking about liberty, you must have a soteriological attitude.

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In other words, you must think about evangelism. Soter means savior, soteriological regarding salvation.

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What you do should be determined, should be influenced by, I want other people to get saved.

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Look at what Paul says, watch this. Give no offense to Jews, or to Greeks, or to the church of God.

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Just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

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Newsflash, my goal in life is not to get you to become a Republican. My goal is not get you to become a libertarian.

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A Democrat. I don't see you as black, this is,

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I'm deadly serious now. I don't see people as white, black, Jew, Gentile, male, female, free, old, young,

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I don't see you that way. When I look at people in the world, here's how I see them.

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You're either saved, or you're lost. That's how I see everybody. You're lost, or you're saved.

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I don't care if you're rich or poor, that's not my deal. My deal is, if God puts you into my life, I'm thinking.

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I can't determine by looking at someone whether they're saved or lost. I wish

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I could. But I look at them thinking, are they a Christian? And these days, most people you meet are, or are not.

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They are not Christians. If you just assume that every person you meet's not a Christian, that's a pretty good assumption.

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Maybe we shouldn't do that in the church, but if you want to, in love. I meet people, and I think to myself, if they don't repent and follow

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Christ Jesus, if they don't grasp that Christ is sufficient, and they are insufficient to save themselves, to use a slogan, the proverbial phrase, they will bust hell wide open forever and ever and ever.

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People are either sheeps or goats. And so when Paul thinks about liberty, I can do this.

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Remember in chapter nine, I could ask you guys to pay me. I'm working by preaching, but I'm not thinking about that right now.

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I'll just work. I'll just make my own tents, because I can sacrifice for the good of others.

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I don't want them to think, you know what, I'm in this for the money. So Paul says, I'm doing this for a reason. Of course, to build up people.

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Of course, to give God glory. And I see everybody as either saved or lost. When I see the butcher at Hannaford, I think, saved or lost.

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I think when I see the mail person, saved or lost. And I've got a little agenda, and my agenda is not immediately give them everything

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I know about Jesus. Although sometimes I do. Well, I don't give them everything, but a full, complete, rounded deal.

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But Paul said, I am after people getting saved. So I'm wondering, the people you live next door to,

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I don't want you to think, oh, they're either loud, or they're a good neighbor. They watch my house, or they don't rake up their leaves and it comes over in my yard.

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They put a bunch of Ron Paul signs on their yard. There's a bunch of Deval Patrick signs on their yard, and all this stuff.

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To me, that means nothing. Republicans, Democrats, boys and girls, white and black, they all go to hell if they're not born again.

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Paul sees people, that's the only way he sees them. Forget this whole white, black thing, brown,

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Puerto Rican, whatever we are. Forget all that. It means nothing when Jesus, not the

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Jew, but Jesus, the man. 1 Timothy chapter 2, the mediator, the

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God -man, is the only way of salvation. So Paul doesn't want to try to be offensive.

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He's trying to not put up a big, huge hurdle, because he's got a bigger issue to talk about.

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Why would I want to offend these people unnecessarily? As a matter of fact, we're going to go from preaching to meddling.

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Those of you here at the church that like politics, that like to vote, that all these kind of things, fine, it's good.

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But if that's what you do, and that's how you're identified in your neighborhood, and with people at work, stop it.

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Stop trying to convert people to a political system that's going to rust. That's not the issue.

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How about just stop talking about republicanism in a workplace full of Democrats, so you're not isolated for something stupid?

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How about be isolated because you're the person who stands up for the fame, and the glory, and the honor of Christ Jesus?

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And by the way, if you look at the passage there, so that they may be saved, just a nuance, but a beautiful nuance, passive voice.

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Not that so that they save themselves, but that God alone can save them, so that they're saved by God.

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Jesus is the active agent. Paul said, this is my pattern.

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This is what I do, verse 33, just as I try to please everyone. It's what I do. This has an echo of chapter 9, verse 22.

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I have become all things to all people, so that by all possible means I might save some.

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We have liberty in Christ, but it's a clipped liberty. It's restricted liberty.

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By the good of others, it's restricted. By God's glory, it's restricted. By our salvation agenda, it's restricted.

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And now number four, the fourth law of Christian liberty. Your liberty must be like, must be in the footsteps of Christ himself.

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In other words, you're to imitate Christ. Jesus had all kinds of liberty, and he restricted it for the good of others.

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See it in verse 11, chapter 1. Sometimes Paul just says imitate me, but here we see the full bore application.

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Be imitators of me, Paul's saying the context here. Christian liberty, I'm out for God's glory. I'm out for other people's good.

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I'm out for salvation agenda. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

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The unselfish, sacrificial approach to the Christian life.

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The word there, imitate, is where we get our word mimic, or mime. It's the same word.

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Was there anybody like Jesus who so relinquished his rights for the sake of others?

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Commentator Garland said, as Christ did not please himself, but emptied himself. Taking the form of a slave, even to the point of dying on the cross to save others.

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As Christ was rich, yet made himself poor for our sakes, so that by his poverty we might become rich.

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As Christ loved us and gave himself up as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. As Christ suffered on behalf of others.

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As Christ did not please himself so that he might benefit others. So Paul does not please himself.

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First Corinthians, excuse me, Romans chapter 15, for even Christ pleased not himself. Friends, we live in a day and age where people are lovers of themselves.

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Maybe the most selfish age in all the world. And we're called to be the exact opposite.

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Turn with me, if you would, to Mark chapter 14. Let me just give you a little peek into Christ's selfless, sacrificial life.

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Here we're going to look at the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus is praying. And you're going to see, and here's what

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I'm trying to show you, that Jesus Christ is the model for Paul and then is the model for Corinth.

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And now is our model when it comes to sacrificial, looking out for the best of others, following Christ's example.

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Sometimes it's bad to say, what would Jesus do? Sometimes it's good, and this is one of those good cases.

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Mark chapter 14, verse 32, and they came to a place named Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, sit here until I have prayed.

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So this garden is named Olive Press, that's what Gethsemane means. And we walked in Gethsemane just a year ago, all kinds of olive trees, shady, close to Jerusalem.

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And verse 33 says, and he took with him Peter and James and John, those inner three, and began to be very distressed and troubled.

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Very distressed, that word distressed means something that's going to be shocking.

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The kind of news that you get when I get the phone call from my mother and she says, your dad has died,

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I'll never forget that phone call. That's this kind of distress, but it's even more strong than your father's dead.

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This is kind of a shuddering awe, something bad is on its way, conscious of something big that's going to happen.

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And he's not only distressed, he's very distressed, and he's not just distressed and very distressed, he's troubled.

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It means to be agitated, almost to the point of disorientation. And when you are distressed, the easy caboose to the engine of being that distressed is trouble.

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Why was Jesus so terrified? He knew he'd raise himself from the dead. Why was he shocked, as it were?

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Well, you know the answer, because he knew he would soon be the sin bearer and bear the curse and have our sins credited to him.

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He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

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But even more, Jesus was going to have to bear sin as the sinless one.

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One man said, a violin slightly out of tune inflicts no discomfort on a man with a dull and unmusical ear.

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It is sheer torment to a man whose ear is fine and sensitive. The purer the soul, the keener its sense of the awfulness of sin.

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It is not the sinner who feels the horror and shame of sin most keenly, but the saint. And now

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Jesus knows I'm going to be the sin bearer, but I'm the sinless one who will bear sins.

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But maybe what's worst of all is he's going to have to bear sin alone. He will bear sin alone.

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And Jesus could not pray on Calvary because of the heinousness of sin. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

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I fear no evil for thou art with me. The poem goes, joy is a partnership, grief weeps alone.

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Many guests had Cana, Gethsemane, but one. The tsunami of God's wrath is imminent.

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He knows he has to bear it alone, and he's distressed. To what degree, how bad was it?

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And he said, verse 34, to them, my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch.

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Went a little beyond them and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass him by.

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And he was saying, Abba, Father, all things are possible for thee. Remove this cup from me, yet not what

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I will, but what thou wilt. Remove this cup if it's possible, but I'll submit to you.

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To bear the wrath of God, the pure one, when he didn't deserve it, but it was for others, is a perfect illustration of looking out for other people, seeking their own good and not your own.

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That's Philippians 2, isn't it? Take this cup from me.

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How could it either be thought of as the traditional way? If there's a way that it could bypass me,

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I'd like that cuz I know how bad sin is. Or maybe it could be after I've drank the cup of your wrath on Calvary.

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Please raise me from the dead. Remove it after I've drank the cup.

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And so I say to you, congregation, Jesus, in the days of his flesh, he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one able to save him from death.

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And he was heard because of his piety. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.

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And having been made perfect, he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation.

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Being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Why would he do this?

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John 15, greater love has none than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. Imitate Christ.

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I've been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives within me. And the life which I now live in the flesh,

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I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered himself up for me. We're to imitate

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Christ, not by dying on some cross, but by dying to ourself as we minister to other people regarding our liberties.

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This is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

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One man said, love is God eternally sharing himself and giving himself.

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For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son, that those believing in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

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Sing about songs as we sang, or as Anitra sung this morning. I love that stanza, but there's another stanza when

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I think about the God who gives, I think of this line, these lines.

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Could it be with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made?

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Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade?

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To write the love of God above would drain the oceans dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.

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He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?

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So when it comes to your liberty, you have liberty to do all kinds of things if you're a Christian. But those liberties are hemmed in by the good of others.

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They're hemmed in by, I want God to get glory from this. They're hemmed in by,

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I want this person saved. I mean, think about it. Would you say, and I'll preach to myself.

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Mike, would you say no to a ultra rare tenderloin and chubby hubby for the sake of someone's eternal soul?

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Nah, I mean, it's just inconceivable that people would think that way. And then you look at me, forget me, look past to Paul.

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You see Paul and forget Paul. And then you think Jesus had everything, and then he condescended and humbled himself for other people.

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You say, why is theology important? Why is the gospel important? Just give us five things to do.

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No, I'll give you four things to do. And then I'll tell you the gospel that allows you to do it, that gives you strength to do it, that gives you the ability to do it, that gives you a reason to do it.

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You look to Christ Jesus. People say, well, you know what, I have a hard time with Christian liberty. I have some answers for you.

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Get the Cross of Christ by Stott and read that book. Get the Apostolic Preaching of the

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Cross by Morris and read that book. Because as you see Christ on the cross, you'll learn how to live your life.

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Husbands love your wives like Christ loved the church. The doctrine of the cross is central to your life.

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That's why we will never retreat from the doctrine of the cross. And the elders here have determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him what?

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Crucified. Jesus, the eternal son, laid down everything.

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And that's why I can't take any credit, nor can you for your salvation. And that's why soli deo gloria is all about God.

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Oh, the depths and the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how unscrutable his ways, inscrutable.

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For who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been his counselor? Or who has given to him a gift that he might be repaid?

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For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever.

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Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we would ask that a

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Bethlehem Bible church that you would receive all the glory through your son, Christ Jesus, our advocate, friend, redeemer, mediator.

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I pray for those who are listening today who are Christians. I pray that you would help them to walk in the feet of Christ Jesus.

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That is to say, is by following his example of love, giving, being generous, not with their own liberties, but with an attitude of loving other people.

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And I pray for those who are here today. Surely there must be some who are not born again. And I pray that you would grant them repentance and belief.

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That you would give them no sleep, no rest, no slumber for as long as it takes.

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No rest in their souls until they find rest in you. And I ask these things in Jesus name, amen.

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No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 AM and Sunday evenings at 6

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