Avoiding Spiritual Drift (Part 2)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. I�m not really exasperated today.

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It�s a little hot in this studio because you can�t have the air conditioner on and then talk.

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I guess you could, but there�d be this white noise in the background. I don�t know about you, but I have to sleep with white noise.

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I think of Ecclesiastes 12 and my old age and waking up in the night.

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One day, one day, the resurrected body, I look forward to that very thing.

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Reformation 2017, Mike Gendron and I will be leading some folks to some of the hot spots of the

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Reformation, some Bible teaching there, fellowship. Mike and Jane, great couple.

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When I grow up, I�d like to be like Mike, be like Mike. The Lord has given me a friendship with Mike, and I appreciate him, and I like to watch he and his wife together as they minister, and that�s the way it�s supposed to be, isn�t it?

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You can write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com. I still get, by the way, the letters. Speaking of Mike Gendron, I get the letters from,

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I think, Lois, and she writes these letters about Catholicism.

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I think they�re supposed to be to Mike Gendron. I think he gets a copy too, but she just says, �Dear Mike ,� then

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I get them too. I am very glad she sends them. She�s concerned about my soul, at least

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I hope she is. But today, I went out to the post office, the post box there, and I just couldn�t read another one.

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So, sorry, Lois, save your stamps, I�m not letting the secretary hand me the letters any longer.

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We�ve been talking a little bit about spiritual drift and just drifting away.

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I can think of a song right now, drifting away, that lots of people have sung.

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I won�t sing that for you right now, but did you know Bruce Springsteen covered that song?

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Rolling Stones covered that song. Many people, but one particular man made it famous. My associate,

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Pastor Steve Tuesday Guy, said, �When you bring that reference up, nobody really knows.� Well, I only want the insiders to know.

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I only want the people to know who know. The Gnostic knowers, Gnosis, Gnoid, Gnoledge, you, if you have a

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Bible, should turn to Hebrews chapter 2 or listen to me talk about Hebrews 2, drifting away.

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And the rub with some of these passages in Hebrews, the warning passages, most scholars think the five warning passages, you might differ on numbers here or there, but good scholars, five warning passages, they seem so tough.

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How can a group of Christians be addressed like that?

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Can you lose your salvation? Is your security secure? This is what happens when you're tired.

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What's this in front of me? A pure protein shake, frosty chocolate, 35 grams. That's my second favorite.

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My all -time favorite drink outside of coffee is those

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TNTs. Get those at the gym. I think there's 900 milligrams of caffeine.

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You just take a sip, you do 20 reps, 20 sets. In the book of Hebrews itself, if you examine it carefully, you'll see he's addressing two different kinds of people.

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He realizes, just like every pastor when he preaches, realizes, he or she preaches.

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When the PCA study committee says we would like to study the issue of women's deacons and women's roles in ministries, it's just over.

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If I was in the PCA, I'd be thinking, hmm, whose wife's on that study committee again or proposed to be on the study committee?

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I don't know what the General Assembly ended up saying on the issue if they'll have a study committee, but eventually they will.

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We just need to restudy those issues. I'd be thinking, does the OPC take people?

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That's what I'd be thinking. All right. Well, I live in the Presbyterian world, even though I'm a

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Baptist, and I especially like it when my Presbyterian friends recognize that they would baptize adults, but they'd just be pagan adults who've never heard of Jesus, never got baptized as an infant, and then now they need to be sprinkled.

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But actually, I told somebody the other day, a dear friend, and I said to him, he's a

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Baptist, and he said, I need to be in the hospital and a lady wants to be baptized.

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What do you think about sprinkling since she can't get disconnected from her machines?

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And I said, I think that'd be very sweet for you, the pastor, to go and baptize her. I said, I would sprinkle water three times, the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Anyway, I'm digressing. When you preach, you realize as a pastor, there are believers and unbelievers, and the writer of Hebrews knows the very thing.

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The author's not dumb. He knows some of the people believe in the real Jesus, the

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Christ, and he knows some have an affinity to Judaism or maybe other kind of isms.

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It's probably Judaism, of course, they're in Hebrews, but they haven't taken the existential leap of faith into the dark,

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Kierkegaardian, kidding, I'm just kidding. They haven't totally believed in the

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Lord Jesus. It might just be knowledge of, it might just be assent to, but to use the Reformation categories, they're not trusting in, it's not a real belief.

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And the writer of Hebrews knows that, and he's using these warning passages to spur on the believers because you'll think, okay,

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I don't want those things to happen to me. I'm going to keep believing, but he also spurs on or puts his spurs into the unbeliever when they realize the ultimate condemnation is not to be trifled with.

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So he says, how do you avoid drift? Well, you pay attention to Jesus, that's chapter two, verse one, and then you realize what the latter end is, chapter two, verse two and three

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A, and that's where we find ourselves today. If you study in the book of Hebrews, you'll see he's got the two, like the narrow and the broad way found in Matthew seven, same thing here.

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What kind of people are in the wilderness? Some left Egypt, right?

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And some left with rebellious hearts, chapter three, verses 16.

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Some people, in Hebrews four, the message they heard benefited them because it was united by faith, and others, they did not have that faith when it comes to the message, so it didn't benefit them.

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There are people, two different kinds of people, two different kinds of responses, two different kinds of soil, even in the book of Hebrews, chapter six, for land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated receives a blessing from God, but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

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You've got soil, and you've got effects of rain and what happens to them, and there's two different responses.

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You've got hearts that are unbelieving evil hearts in Hebrews three, and you've got hearts sprinkled clean from evil consciences in Hebrews ten.

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He sees the bifurcation, he knows there are believers and unbelievers. There are different kinds of people.

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Righteous people live by faith, chapter 10, verse 38, and others, they shrink back and are destroyed, same chapter.

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This is common in the New Testament. You have people who say they believe.

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Simon Magus believed the news of the gospel and was baptized, but we know he was far away.

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You have people who went out from us because they didn't really belong to us, because otherwise they would have remained, 1

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John 2, verse 19. When you look at the book of Hebrews, and the warnings in particular, instead of saying it's just hypothetical, it's just kind of a theory, or what they're really going to lose, the

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Christians are going to lose rewards, maybe they'll be physically punished, a type of purgatory somehow, or they can really lose their salvation.

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It's much better to say the writer of Hebrews is spurring people on to believe, to keep on believing, to hold firmly to the confidence they have with knowledge, assent, and trust.

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Be careful. That's what any pastor would want. Keep on believing.

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When I meet young people and they say they're believers in the Lord Jesus, I tell them, good, keep on believing, amen.

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I don't just tell them, okay, let's write down the time, and if you ever struggle in the future with doubt or unbelief, let's go back to this particular moment.

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I'll just say keep on believing. I want you to understand, though, that this warning passage is not trying to do so many deeds and so many works to keep yourself in.

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Do the works to keep yourself in. The issue is the object of their faith.

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The issue is faith. For believers, when you think of warning passages, Heidelberg Catechism, question 52.

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What comfort is it to you that Christ shall come to judge the living and the dead? I don't know.

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Is there any comfort? Answer, that in all my sorrows and persecutions with uplifted head,

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I look for the self -same one who before offered himself for me to the judgment of God and removed all curse from me, to come as judge from heaven, who shall cast all his and my enemies into everlasting condemnation, but shall take me with all his chosen ones to himself into heavenly joy and glory.

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Believers, real believers, are forgiven. They're justified. No condemnation.

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All their debts paid in full. Christ's righteousness completely imputed to their account, righteousness.

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They are counted as righteous, and we don't dread the judgment day and say, well, do we just have enough works?

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No. Do we have the right Jesus, and are we believing in Him? The Belgic Confession says, these works proceeding from the good root of faith are good and acceptable to God, since they are all sanctified by His grace.

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Yet they do not count toward our justification, for by faith in Christ we are justified, even before we do good works, otherwise they could not be good any more than the fruit of a tree could be good if the tree is not good in the first place.

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We're not saying to ourselves, I've got to do these works because I'm going to base my salvation on them.

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He's saying to these people, you believe, and of course if you do believe, there will be good works that come.

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He is warning of the danger of unbelief. He does the same thing in chapter 4, for indeed we have had good news preached unto us, even as they also, but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with those who heard it.

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And that is a danger. It's a danger for them, and it's a danger for us. It's a danger for you. You believe, or you don't believe, and in the context you'll see the warning passages.

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There are other things besides the warning passages that talk about assurance, and confidence, and gospel promises, and Jesus Christ, and what

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He's done for all who have truly believed in Him. If you stop doing something, you're now acceptable to God.

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If you start doing something, you're now acceptable to God. It has nothing to do with that at all. It has to do with God accepts

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His Son, and are you in His Son by faith? Are you by faith trusting in Jesus?

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Spurgeon said, That is to say, because Jesus is so great, because the truths which

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He came to reveal are so infinitely important, therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

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We don't want to forget. We don't want to float by. That is the issue.

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So when we come to Hebrews 2, and you ask yourself the question, these seem very, very hard.

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Don't forget for the Christian, these aren't going to undo their salvation. These are for the unbeliever, for them to recognize they need to believe, and it's for the believer to say, you know what,

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I'm glad I'm trusting in Jesus because if I wasn't, I do things that do show that I drift.

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I do things that don't match up to my position in Christ, but I have the

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Savior. I have a high priest. I have a high priest.

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For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

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Back in the old days, if someone disobeyed Mosaic law that was delivered by the angels, there was swift retribution, just retribution, and of course, eventually, yes, if they died without believing in Yahweh, there was going to be eternal punishment, but the focus really in the

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Old Testament is the physical punishment, death. They died in the wilderness.

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They neglected the promises of God. They neglected the commandments of God. They neglected the commandments of God delivered by angels.

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They neglected the commandments of God delivered by angels that was, it was reliable, and they then transgressed, and then they disobeyed.

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They didn't heed the law. They violated. They infringed. They overstepped, and they just didn't want to hear,

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I'm not going to listen to you anymore. I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm going to give you stiff arm.

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It's called the stiff arming of God, and there was going to be punishment. It was going to be just.

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It was going to be proper, and now you see the comparison. Angels deliver

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Mosaic law. You break Mosaic law, you don't enter in. There's a punishment.

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It was right to do. Now you have a greater revealer of truth, Jesus, with a greater message, and now you disobey that.

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You don't believe that. You're not going to enter in. Forget Israel, promised land.

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We're talking about heaven here, and that's the comparison. Sun is greater than angels, and if you're going to say to yourself, what the angels did is no big deal.

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No, that mediated law by the angels showed that, in fact, there was going to be punishment.

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So believe. So keep on believing. If that law that was violated, there was consequences, that valid, binding, legally obligated person, that'll work, had to obey because it was through the angel.

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How about through the son that's revealed? Remember chapter one? In these last days, God has revealed himself in the person of his son, in a son, quality of son, in son -ness,

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S -O -N. God treats sin lightly? No.

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God treats sin justly, and that's why you need to be looking to the sin bearer because the sin bearer, if he's bore your sins,

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God's so just he's not going to punish him and punish you. Deuteronomy 28, verse 15 and following.

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Does God deal with sin? But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your

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God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.

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Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your knitting bowl.

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Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.

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Cursed shall be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds because you have forsaken me.

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The Lord will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

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The Lord will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat and with draught and with blight and with mildew.

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They shall pursue you until you perish and the heavens over your head shall be bronze and the earth under you shall be iron.

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The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

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The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them.

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And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth and your dead body shall be food for all the birds of the air and for the beast of the earth and there shall be no one to frighten them away.

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The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and scabs and itch of which you cannot be healed.

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The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind and you shall grope at noonday as the blind grope in the darkness and you shall not prosper in your ways.

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And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually and there shall be no one to help you.

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You shall betroth a wife but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house but you shall not dwell in it.

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You shall plant a vineyard but you shall not enjoy its fruit. Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes but you shall not eat any of it.

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Your donkey shall be seized before your face but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies but there shall be no one to help you.

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Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long but you shall be helpless.

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A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and all your labors and you shall be oppressed and crushed continually so that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see.

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The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils, grievous boils of which you cannot be healed from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

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The Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone and you shall become a horror and a proverb and a byword among all the peoples where the

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Lord will lead you away. You shall carry much seed in the field and shall gather in little, for the locusts shall consume it.

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You shall plant vineyards and dress them but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes for the worms shall eat them.

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You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil for your olives shall drop off.

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You shall father sons and daughters but they shall not be yours for they shall go into captivity. The cricket shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground.

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The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you and you shall come down lower and lower.

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He shall lend to you and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head and you shall be the tail.

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All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed because you did not obey the voice of the

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Lord your God to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.

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Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart because of the abundance of all things therefore you shall serve your enemies.

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Deuteronomy would make you say, hmm, angels deliver mosaic law and when mosaic law was broken there was a payday.

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But did you notice? This is all temporal stuff. This is temporal. This is on earth.

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This is when you see salvation in the Old Testament. It's usually talking about, of course it's setting you up for, but it's talking about getting rescued from Egypt, right?

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But it will be leading us to the great spiritual emancipation. Here the punishment is temporal.

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Of course these people if they died without believing in Yahweh they were going to go to hell. But the focus is angels not greater than Jesus.

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Angels, what they said regarding physical things came true when the law was broken. Now readers, now listeners of No Compromise Radio, if you don't believe the

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Lord Jesus Christ do you think you're going to get off scot -free? God said he was going to judge.

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It was going to be just retribution and it will be the same thing. It'll be the exact same thing.

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You can read 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and you will go, hmm, God is holy. He's thrice holy.

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God doesn't trifle with sin. God doesn't compromise when it comes of sin. If you hate

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Jesus Christ, if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, there is going to be an awful punishment for you.

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So I want you to believe. I want you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter what you've done in your life. It doesn't matter to whom you've done it.

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As often as you've done it, Jesus is the great sin bearer and he's the one where you can find rest and he's the one you turn to.

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If I call you to repent, you might respond with belief. If I call you to believe, you might respond with repentance.

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That's the way it's shown in the Bible on occasion. If I say to you, repent and believe, that would be fine too.

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But the focus here in Hebrews is real faith. It's not unbelief. It's belief and it's in the right object.

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In chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 of Hebrews says he's the high priest.

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The one who's fully God, he can mediate with God then. The one who's fully man, he can be a representative for man, right?

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The sin bearer who then was raised from the dead. Jesus our representative, Jesus our substitute, Jesus our risen

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King. Do you believe? Keep on believing.

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My name is Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio. Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com 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 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.