Goodbye Corinth (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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But there's a proper way, there's a holy way to show affection. So that's what

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I try to do. And I think you should do the same thing. I have a professor that said, don't hug any ladies, even in a church setting.

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I just don't know where that's coming from, so I haven't done it. And so when I first got here, even with the guys,

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I mainly started with the guys. Guys are like, don't touch me, this is New England, you're some California hippie. Stay away. But you know what?

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I would give a guy a hug, and what's he to do, because I work out, and a lot of the guys around here, they don't, or they just submit to me because I'm the pastor.

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And to give a guy a big old bear hug, it's a good thing to do. Just the idea here is, there's the way that pagans interact with one another.

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And when Christians get together, they just love each other. One modern commentary said, a counterpart is needed today that offers an effective sign in the public domain that accords with these aims.

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In other words, Christian people just should have friendly affection towards one another.

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If it's a handshake and a smile, if it's a note, if it's a hug, if it's a kiss.

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Interestingly, Peter calls it a kiss of love, but with Paul, the other three times that it's mentioned, kind of things are going on in the church.

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Trouble was going on in the church. Issues were going on in the church. So could it be that Paul said, especially in light of all these things, should be a very familial, naturally affectionate group of people.

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Question five, and the laughing now needs to stop. Do you have some love for the

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Lord Jesus Christ? That's the real point today. Do you have some love for the Lord Jesus Christ?

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Now, here's the issue, or here's what would happen. Paul would not write the entire book of 1

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Corinthians. He would dictate it. He would have some stenographer, some secretary, and they would write this out as he would dictate it.

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Yes, given by the Spirit of God through Paul, but usually at the very end,

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Paul would pick up his pen and he would take that pen read and then sign something for lots of reasons.

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One reason would be, everything that's been written, I agree with. Part of it is, this is just social custom.

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My eyes are probably bad and I'm just going to sign it so you know it's from me. Part of it is, everything that's been written,

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I agree with, and you can be certain that it's the Apostle Paul's. Sometimes a secretary will write a letter and then the pastor signs it or the executive signs it.

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So Paul is going to pick up his pen now and write something, and it should tell you, whatever he says has grave importance, weighty, significant.

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Everything else has been left to a scribe, to an amanuensis, to a person receiving dictation from Paul.

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Tertius wrote the letter of Romans and then Paul signed his name.

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So Paul's going to pick up the pen, listen up, this is going to be important. Paul finally says, now

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I'm going to write something to you in my own hand, pay attention, what does

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Paul write, what is so important? Verse 21, I, Paul, write this greeting, this verse and the next few verses to the end of the chapter, with my own hand.

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The New American Standard says the greeting is in my own hand, Paul. Silvanus, as an amanuensis, wrote 1

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Peter. Now here we don't know who's writing this, but Paul, with solemnity now and with gravity, so you feel the enormity and the importance and the magnitude of it, says something.

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And what does he say, verse 22? If anyone has no love for the

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Lord, let him be accursed. New American Standard says, if anyone does not love the

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Lord, he's talking about Jesus, he is to be accursed, it's important.

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Charles Hodge said, these are words which need no explanation, they carry with them their awful import to every heart.

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I'm wondering about you, do you love the Lord? Manifesting God's love in your life with your response of love.

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Now interestingly, take a look at the Bible here, what does the verse say? No love, well you should be saying as a student of the

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Bible, what kind of love is this? Agape, phileo, supreme love, secondary love, a love of supreme self -sacrifice, a love of natural affection?

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You'd think it would be agape, but it's not, it's phileo.

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Those that have a tender affection should go on to have supreme self -sacrificial love for the

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Lord Jesus Christ. But if you don't have the little love, the smaller love, the least significant love of phileo, a tender affection, then you don't have the greater.

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If you don't have a love for Jesus at the tender affection kind, then you certainly don't have a love that's greater.

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And unless you repent, you're going to be damned. You can hear

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Peter and Jesus, the conversation when Jesus finally says after, do you agape me?

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Finally, Peter's answer to, do you phileo me? I do have some initial love for you, some tender affection.

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Lenski said, Paul's spirit and his hand almost involuntarily react to all the perversions and all the abuses which he is attempting to correct in Corinth by the means of this letter.

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And he records his apostolic verdict regarding all those who may dare to remain obdurant and to continue in their evil course.

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He's writing to all these Corinthians. They've got problems with unity, and problems with sexual sin, and problems with suing each other, and problems with spiritual gifts, and problems at the

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Lord's Supper. And even though God is long -suffering, even though God is patient, even though God is calling even those who are here today who aren't

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Christians to repent, at the end of the day, Paul says, if you won't repent, if you finally won't bow your knee to the

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Lord Jesus Christ by faith alone in the risen Savior, then you are going straight to hell, and you are going to be damned and cursed.

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It doesn't mean Paul doesn't love the people. It doesn't mean anything like that. It means at the end of the day, there's going to be judgment.

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And for these people at Corinth who are causing divisions, and issues, and problems, and doctrinal sins, and moral sins,

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Paul wants them to do what God graced him to do on Damascus Road, to bow to the

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Lord Jesus Christ. But there is a day, and that day might be today for you or someday when you stand before the

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Lord God, and then what? You need someone else's righteousness. You need forgiveness.

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Here, Paul says, you need to at least have a little bit of liking, and affection, and a personal attachment to the

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Lord. Of course, move on past that to supreme agape love, but you've got to have at least a little bit of the lowest kind of love.

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If you are going to persist in your sin, then you are going to be damned. That's the point.

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Paul picks up his pen for this moment, and everyone here, man or woman, boy or girl,

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Eastern, Western, old or young, has to hear, are you in?

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Are you out? By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Paul's not mad.

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Paul's not flying off the hook. Paul's repeating pretty much what

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Psalm 2 talks about. Here's the advice for the enemy of Jesus, kiss the son, or he will be angry, and you and your ways will be destroyed, for his wrath can flare up in a moment.

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Blessed are all who take refuge in him. For those who are in the church and purposely undermine and deliberately attack, if there's no repentance, a curse, anathema.

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Now, this language here, if you take a look at your text, this accursed or anathema language that you see in verse 22, if you read your

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Old Testament, and I hope you do, this is ban language, B -A -N. This is the kind of language that haram is the word, where go take over a city and take some of this stuff that you've got and devote it to the ban.

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God's going to destroy that. Don't you take that. Set it aside for God's special wrath. That's the language here.

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Of course, Paul wants unbelievers to get saved. Didn't he use the same word in Romans chapter 9? I'd be anathema for the sake of my kinsmen, the

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Israelites. But there's a day, just like in the

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Old Testament, after 120 years, God's long -suffering no more. There's another ferocious anathema found in Galatians 1, but if we are an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed.

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As we have said before, so I now say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you receive, let him be accursed.

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And now it's, if people here, if you're here and you don't have any kind of love for Jesus, repent because cursing is following.

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Now, Paul ends letters like this more often than you might imagine. Second Thessalonians, if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, note them, do not associate with them in order that they be put to shame.

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Titus, after first and second admonition, shun a factious person because you know that such a person perverts and sins being self -condemned.

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Second Corinthians, examine yourselves. This is at the end of the book, whether ye be in the faith.

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Could anything then be more important than you to respond to the gospel of Christ Jesus, the risen

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Savior, with anything less than a love, a faith, and a faith of love?

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For those of us who are Christians, the best way to keep your love for the Lord Jesus is stay in the word so you can understand with frequent readings and meditations on God's fervent love for sinners.

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Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, we'll enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my

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Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, do many mighty works in your name?

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And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.

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Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. He knew who they were, but he didn't know them intimately.

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Peter, do you love me? Congregation, do you love Jesus? Question six, and finally, are you willing to accept

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Paul's attitude concerning the callously unrepentant? Are you willing to accept

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Paul's attitude regarding this? I know it's hard, and we have family members, and we don't want anybody to be damned.

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That's all right, and good, and godly. But at the end of the day, there's a reckoning. What is at the end of verse 22 that I didn't read earlier that isn't just there for no reason?

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Maranatha, Lord come, who wants the Lord to come? Well, I do. Who likes Maranatha music?

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I used to, right? Maybe I still do, I don't know. Big in the 60s and 70s, Maranatha music, and you think it means

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Lord come, and you go, yeah, that's right, Lord come. Who doesn't want the Lord to come issues in life and all these other things?

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It's like, I can't wait till the Lord comes back, that'd be so good. Come and get me. That's all true, and that's right from Revelation chapter 22, but that's not from here.

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Because here, the context is, and you can see it with your own eyes, it's written immediately after this.

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If there are people who will not repent, who insist on doctrinal error, divisiveness, problems in the

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Corinthian church, or will not bow their knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, come back and execute them.

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That's the context. Now, the word Maranatha, it's an

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Aramaic word. The New Testament is written in Greek. But, you know, shouldn't be surprised that some other language words fit in or slip into the

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New Testament, Abba, Hosanna, Hallelujah, Amen.

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Some Hebrew words slip into the Greek New Testament, and so do some Aramaic words, specifically this word

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Mar, which means Lord in Aramaic. Ana, our an, means our, so our

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Lord, and then atha means come. You could translate it one of three ways.

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It's interesting. First way is, the Lord has come. The Lord has come, the incarnation,

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Christmas. The Lord has come, the eternal God of the universe has cloaked himself with humanity to rescue sinners.

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The Lord has come. It could mean, the Lord is now come, he is present.

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The Lord is with us. And in the middle of all these issues, the Lord is with us. Isn't it nice to know, lo, I'll be with you always, even to the end of the age?

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That's true too. But the passage here is the imperative, O Lord, our, our

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Lord, come. I want a real Reformation day, Paul says, and reform, and to straighten out, redress all the wrongs, and to make everything right.

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You look at the world out there, and it is full of corruption, and sin, and there are false teachers, and the corruption everywhere.

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And you say, Lord, only you can make things right. And here, the focus isn't on the world, it's for people that hang around the church who will never love the

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Lord Jesus Christ. When you look at God as he passed by Moses in the cleft of the rock, he showed himself as forgiving, long -suffering, gracious, slow to anger.

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Don't let anybody tell you that God's just flying off the hook here in some kind of rage. He's not, but there is a time, a day of reckoning.

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There's that day of judgment, and so get ready. Your only refuge from him is in his son.

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This is curse formula language. Lord, if there are people here at the church, this is what

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Paul's praying. If there are people here at the church who will never, ever bow their knee, and they cause all this trouble, come and kill them, and damn them, execute them.

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Son said, Lord, come and put an end to all strife, and to all activity of hostile forces in the church.

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If you're a believer, can you imagine you don't have to pay for one sin? You don't have to pay for one of your sins because Jesus has paid it all.

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But if you're not a Christian here today, you need to repent because the Damocles sword is over you, and it'll either fall today or on that day.

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John the Baptist said to people that he could say through Paul to these sinful people at Corinth, the unbelievers at Corinth, who warned you to flee from the wrath.

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Jude talked about these kind of people and how Jesus makes everything right at the second coming. Behold, the

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Lord comes with 10 ,000 of his holy ones to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of their deeds of ungodliness, which they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

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John the Beloved said, then the kings of the earth, and the great ones, and the generals, and the rich, and the powerful, and everyone slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us, and to hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the...

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Before Paul gives the benediction, he gives the malediction. God, right all.

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It's hard to read, it's hard to imagine, it's hard to accept, but it's true.

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This is an evidence of righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering.

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Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the

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Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know

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God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the

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Lord and from the glory of his might. For Christians, it's going to be different though, and when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed.

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Friends, if you're not a Christian, today's the day to repent and to believe in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, the God -man who died for sinners just like you and was raised from the dead to prove it.

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So I'll get in on my baptism, I'll get in on my parents' faith, I'll get in because I come to this church. You know, the only thing you'll get by believing in that alone is an anathema.

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Execution language is not very pleasant, and yet we as Christians celebrate every single day and there's a cross right up there to prove it, the execution symbol.

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Either he pays for your sins or you do. Then I saw heaven opened and behold, the white horse.

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And the one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness, he judges and makes war.

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His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

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He's clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God. And the armies of heaven are reigned in fine linen, white and pure.

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We're following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

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He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written,

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King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Maranatha. You might be familiar with something called imprecatory psalms,

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Psalm 69, Psalm 109, psalms that, you know, after a while,

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God's long suffering is pushed, and God's patience is pushed, and people with high -handed lovelessness toward God receive curses called down by psalmists as God is allergic to sin and will not tolerate sin.

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That's kind of what this is. And by the way, for those who love God, who have some love, do you have a little bit of God, a love for God today?

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Then the blessings and the good news for those who have some love for God are just the exact opposite.

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As bad as the bad was, the good is just as good. Steve read it today, 2

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Timothy. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all those who have loved his appearing.

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And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

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As bad it is for the bad, it's good for the good. God's working all these things together for your good.

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What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him, these things

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God has revealed to us through the spirit, the word for those who love him.

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John Owen said, the greatest sorrow and burden you can lay upon the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him is to not believe that he loves you.

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See, because those who are in Christ Jesus are loved by the Father. The greatest gift the Son has given, so everything else is given.

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Ephesians chapter 6, grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

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Those who don't love Jesus get wrath, they get justice, they get righteousness. But those who love the

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Lord Jesus, who've been granted saving faith, what do they get? They get grace. Amazing.

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Well, then Paul gives the benediction. And it's very supported by, it's supported very much so by love.

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And as it was harsh and tough early, now it's kind and gentle at the end.

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He almost makes it balance out. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

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That's what he wants. Christians need grace too. He wants their well -being, covenant blessings.

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And then he says something that I don't think he says anywhere else in all the Bible. My love be with you all.

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Tenderly, affectionately telling the Corinthians, I love you. I want that to be with you all.

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And then I think, not by coincidence, Paul wants them to think of the last word as he says it before amen.

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What do you leave a church? What's the last word you want the church to hear? Jesus.

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My love be with you all in Christ. Jesus. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

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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 located 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.