Increase Contentment (Part 2)

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No Compromise Radio Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author,

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Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the

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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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Why do you have the family that you do, the co -workers that you do, why do you have the neighbors that you have, why?

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Why didn't God just take Daniel and Eric straight to heaven after I baptized them? There's a mission to be done.

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There's work to be done. What work is there to be done? Now we give

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Him glory in all sorts of ways, but one of the main ways we give Him glory is how? What do we do?

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What's the church's top priority? Why do you have that person sitting in that cubicle next to you?

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Why do you have the mom that you have? God makes you a Christian and then what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to evangelize them.

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The number one issue and priority for the church is evangelism, the proclamation of the glories of Christ to unbelievers.

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Not political. If you say to yourself, the world, America, the western world is going to hell in the handbasket.

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What can we do to stop it? You're going to be discontent because you can't stop it. It's not going to be stopped.

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But what you can do is to say, the world might go to hell in the handbasket, but God is sovereign. He saves people through the preaching of His word and I'm going to preach the word and I'm going to do everything

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I can do and so when I go home and lay my head down on the pillow, I don't have to have world peace as a mission.

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We have a soteriological agenda in the church. In other words,

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I really don't care if you're Republican or Democrat and the day I see voter registration guides over here is the day

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I want to find out who put them there because I don't care. Do I vote? Yes. Does it matter?

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No. Just kidding. It doesn't. Vote all you want. Run. But Democrats and Republicans go to hell unless they're born again.

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Do you know pro -life people who work at pregnancy centers? If they're not born again, where do they go?

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Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of death shall not prevail against it.

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We are concerned about not social revolution, but spiritual regeneration. That is our top priority.

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That's why Paul is saying just stay where you are. Can you imagine? You say, why do I work with that guy that I work with?

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Well, you're there because God placed you there. He saved you at the exact right time. He coordinates everything perfectly and you're there for that guy.

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When I moved here from my one house in Sterling to Lancaster eight years ago, I said to myself, these neighbors were given to us by God because lots of them don't know the gospel.

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And then now, by the way, they hate it that the evangelical pastor's moving into town and here's the pastor moving in to their cul -de -sac.

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But I'm thinking these people need the gospel. These people, they don't need to say, well, you know what?

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My goal is I'm going to make everybody Republican. That's my goal. I'm going to make everybody in this neighborhood

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Republican and we're going to fix the world. We're going to have a moral majority in our cul -de -sac and I'm going to be the president.

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This is nothing new. Paul says, I lay down this rule in all the churches. It's not a novelty. It's not new.

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Vote as you want, but you think I'm going to put a vote Republican sign in front of my yard to make 80 % of my neighbors mad at me?

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You've got another thing coming. By the way, did you know Democrats can go to heaven? That might be a shock for some of you people here in West Boylston.

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And everyone who's laughing, you're convicted by it. The only way you have relief is by laughing.

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The primary purpose is God saves us. We're to remain there because the inference is here and we have many other texts from Matthew 28 and following that we're to give the gospel.

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We're to 1 Peter chapter 2, 9, proclaim the excellencies of Christ Jesus. Yeah, I've got that new guy at work and he sure is adult.

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I don't want to be bothered with him. He's an unsaved adult. That might be true, he's adult, but he needs the gospel.

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Why is he in front of you? And then if I want to really hit home, if God saved you and you're complaining that now he saved you while you've got an unsaved spouse.

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I wonder why God would save you in a relationship when your spouse is not a

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Christian. Could it be? Isn't it obvious to everyone else why

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God saved you when he did when your spouse is an unbeliever? What should you do? Well, I've got to get away from this person.

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He wants to be married to me. She wants to be married to me. I've got to get away from them because I don't like unbelievers. God is saying through Paul, here's the issue, remain.

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Why? Because maybe the reason you were born, maybe the only reason you were born is to preach the gospel to this unbelieving spouse.

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That is a worthy calling. That is the highest calling. I lay down this rule in all the churches.

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It's all about the worship of Christ Jesus. Listen to these words by Jesus. This is Jesus' own life as well.

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My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, he said to Pilate, don't you love it?

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Then my servants would be fighting that I might not be delivered up to the Jews.

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But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm. You want to have the church compromise, then do what

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I call the social gospel cuddle. Just cuddle up to the social gospel people and it is over.

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Jesus Christ's mission, Luke 19, to seek and to save that which was

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Democrat. I mean, doesn't that just sound stupid? It sounds stupid to me. To seek and save the lost, that's why you live.

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That's why to remain where you are. Of course, if you're single, you can get married.

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It's not the issue. You say, well, yeah, but Jesus had it pretty good during the first century.

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And he didn't really have a lot of people who were taxing people exorbitantly. He didn't have a lot of issues going on with cruel despots like Herod.

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Herod was a good old boy. He was a Republican. Why am I on this today? This is on none of my notes,

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Republican -Democrat stuff. Jesus is not a social reformer. Jesus is not a political deliverer.

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He has the gospel to be preached. I'll even push it farther. When there was a lot of sick people over here, the number one priority of Jesus was not even healing sick people.

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Was that a good thing to do? Is that kind and loving of our Savior to heal sick people? But he said in Mark chapter 1,

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I know sick people are going to be at the door here, but there's something more important than healing people's bodies, and that is healing their souls.

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You can be perfectly physically healthy and still not go to heaven. This is my rule in all the churches.

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Remain. Remain. Why? Because you're to be focused on evangelism.

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I love the Reformation for lots of reasons. One of the reasons is it took a huge halogen spotlight and focused in on the reason we live is the gospel.

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That's the church's reason to exist. And if you say to yourself,

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I've got to make America Republican, it's not going to happen anytime soon, and you're going to be discontent.

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If you say, I'm going to do everything I can to live underneath the light of the sovereign God, I can't save my neighbor,

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I can't save my loved one, I can't save my spouse, but I'm going to be a good witness and I'm going to preach the gospel to them,

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I think you can be very, very content. Someone asked me a couple weeks ago, either at the door or on the radio station, they said, does it kind of bother you that you can't save people?

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Isn't that a lot of pressure on you that you've got a lot of people to save? I said, you know what? I have no pressure.

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How much pressure do I have to save anyone here? Pastor sitting in the audience. If we say to ourselves,

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I have to save people, I would not be very content. John Seale said, a politicized faith not only blurs our priorities, but weakens our loyalties.

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Our primary citizenship is not on earth, but in heaven. Though few evangelicals would deny this truth and theory, the language of our spiritual citizenship frequently gets wrapped in red, white, and blue.

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Rather than acting as resident aliens of a heavenly kingdom, too often we sound like resident apologists for a

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Christian America. Unless we reject the false reliance on the illusion of Christian America, evangelicalism will continue to distort the gospel.

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American evangelicalism is now covered by layers and layers of historically shaped attitudes that obscure our biblical core.

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You have a mission. Number three, the third contentment booster, grip

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God's sovereign call. Number two is an inference, retain proper priorities. Three, it's not an inference at all.

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Obey the Lord right where you are. Keep the commandments of God where you are.

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Verses 18 and 19, two questions and two commands. If you thought chapter seven was wild earlier on, buckle up.

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I'd never talk about this in a million years unless it's here, so here it is. Why don't we just skip these verses?

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Verse 20, no way, we're going to preach it all. You're going to see this refrain here, who you are socially, now religiously, ethnically, it's not going to matter.

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You can worship God if you're a Christian, no matter what your job is, no matter who your wife is or isn't.

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You can worship the Lord, full spirituality as you are, because you remain where you're called. Verse 18, was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised?

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The effectual call of salvation, when God saved you, were you circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision.

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Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? When God saved you, were you uncircumcised?

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Let him not seek circumcision. And now here's the reason, for neither circumcision counts for anything, that's a shock, nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.

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Keeping the commandments of God. How are these all related? Circumcision, uncircumcision, slavery, freedom, divorce, marriage, celibacy, singleness.

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None of your social standing, ethnic standing, religious standing is going to be a barrier for you to worshiping

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God. That's the point. Serve God where you are. Well, you know, I'm going to try to figure out all this stuff and how this came to be.

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No, just serve now, right where you are. Now let's dissect this a little bit and see what happens and what's going on here.

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Interestingly, people back in the first century didn't like circumcision.

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They were Jewish. They, of course, liked it because it was really the commandment.

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But you can just imagine, and I've been overseas before, and I've been in Corinth, and they have bath areas, and it was very easy to see if a man was circumcised or not either at the gym or in the baths.

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And it was not a badge of honor to a Gentile. And so now here we have a

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Gentile area, and, of course, there are some Jews there, but many Gentiles. And if you were circumcised, it wasn't a badge of honor if you're a

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Gentile. Matter of fact, it was a sign of contempt, and it also, just like in Nazi Germany, could get you into a lot of persecution.

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Back in those days, biblical days, they would try to undo circumcision.

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Now if you're a Jew, now you're around a bunch of Gentiles, and now you're circumcised and you're at the public baths, they're public, and you're at the gym, they would see it because both of those were done nakedly.

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Then you'd say, well, I need to fit in, and maybe I need to worship God in a certain way, and these people don't like it that I'm circumcised.

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Let me try to become uncircumcised. Josephus talks about that very thing. Some Jewish people, men who were circumcised, wanted to become uncircumcised by surgery.

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By surgery. Celsus, even in the first century AD, talked about the surgical procedure of de -circumcision, uncircumcision.

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People do it today. People did it in Nazi Germany time. And Paul says this, it doesn't matter if you're circumcised or not, you're not going to be able to worship

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God better if you are or if you're not. If you were saved when you were already circumcised, you could perfectly worship the

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Lord Jesus Christ. If you're not circumcised and you say to yourself, I'd like to become circumcised so God will accept me more, so I can worship

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Him more, Paul says, no, don't do that. You don't need some kind of operation to have these things restored.

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Even if people ridicule you, it doesn't matter. This is not a Bible verse, but it's in the

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Apographa, the historical writings. They covered over the mark of their circumcision, 1st

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Maccabees 115, and abandoned the holy covenant. They allied themselves with the

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Gentiles and sold themselves into wrongdoing. So you don't have to do that.

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Can you imagine, God will love me more if I become de -circumcised? You say, well, that's kind of stupid around here.

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I guess I wish you would have skipped to verse 20, Mike. And look at that remarkable statement in verse 19 again.

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Could there be a more amazing statement, especially if you've got a Jewish background? Circumcision counts for any, it doesn't count for anything, for neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but keeping of God's commandments.

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Let me just read to you Genesis 17, a portion of it. God said to Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.

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This is my covenant that you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised.

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He shall be circumcised in the flesh of the foreskin and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

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He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house, et cetera, will be circumcised.

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Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people.

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He has broken my covenant. And now Paul says, it doesn't matter. That's radical.

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It'd be one thing if Paul said, it doesn't really matter that much. Paul says, it doesn't matter at all.

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And here, don't forget the point, Paul is really talking to people, married people, single people, celibate people.

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Should I get married? Should I get divorced? What should I do? He's saying, if this doesn't matter, then your marriage state doesn't matter either.

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That's the digression. That's what he's talking about. But keeping the commandments of God. Let's talk about that for a minute.

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What's the commandment of God? If the commandments of God are the Mosaic law, the Mosaic law says, get circumcised.

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Well, it doesn't matter what you are, what you've done, what's happened to you. Just keep the commandments.

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I'm uncircumcised. Keep commandments means get circumcised. I don't think it can mean that.

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Jump ahead with me, if you would, to 1 Corinthians 14. I think the answer is easy. We don't have to split the

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Mosaic law into moral, civil, ceremonial, or anything like that. Sometimes when Paul writes, he says the commandments, and it means the

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Mosaic law. Other times he writes, like in this illustration in 1 Corinthians 14, verse 37, his own writings are the commandments of God.

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Commandments don't always mean Mosaic law, because why would he say uncircumcision doesn't matter, and then he says keep the commandments, then you'd have to get circumcised.

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And then you get circumcised, and then he would read again, and it'd say, then become uncircumcised. If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, 1

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Corinthians 14, 37, are spiritual, he should acknowledge the things that I am writing to you are a command of the

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Lord, a command of the Lord. The commandments are what

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Paul is saying. If you look to chapter 9 as well, please look with me to chapter 9, verse 20 and 21, to the

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Jews I became a Jew in order to win the Jews, to those under the law I became as one under the law, though not myself being under the law, that I might win those under the law.

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To those outside the law I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ.

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I'm not under the law, but I'm now under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law. So the long story short, you can study it more if you want, here's the issue.

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It doesn't matter where you have been saved and what cultural marriage situation you've been saved.

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What matters is you keep the word of God. Hear through the apostolic messenger, Paul. Back to chapter 7, verse 20, each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.

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He repeats it. Don't be busy pining away how to get out of things. Open up your

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Bible and say, in light of the grace of God found at Calvary and how he saved me, I better get busy doing what

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I know I should do. Let's look at one other verse,

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Deuteronomy 29, 29. I think you know this passage well, but we have a thing that we do here in the

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West, and what we do in the West is we read half a verse. I think that would make a good radio show.

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Half a verse, like half salvation, like half sanctification.

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Deuteronomy 29, 29, the context is different, but I think it's helpful to look at.

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The secret things belong to the Lord our God. How many times have you heard that? God is sovereign, man is responsible, the secret things belong to the mind of God.

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You can't unscrew the inscrutable mind of God, can't figure it out.

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Sovereignty and responsibility, it's like two ropes, but the pulley's up in heaven, and you can't see the pulley, but the two ropes come down.

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If you jump on the sovereignty rope, down you go. If you jump down on the responsibility rope, down you go.

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But if you hold both firmly and tightly, you'll be fine. Secret things belong to the Lord. Why are some saved?

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Why aren't others saved? Did Adam have a belly button? I mean, people, try being a radio host for a while, see what the emails you get.

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Well, how did this happen? How did this happen? I'm thinking, you need a job, A, and B, you're trying to do all this stuff.

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We are to be content with what God has revealed. There's plenty here that we know exactly what

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He says to do. And here, look at Deuteronomy 29, 29, the secret things belong to the

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Lord our God. There are some things we'll never figure out. We're finite. He's infinite. We're sinful.

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He's holy. We're creatures. He's a creator. We can't figure out some of those things. But the things that are revealed, the things that we do know, belong to us here, to Israel, and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

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You say, Pastor, I'm going crazy because I can't figure out if I'm infralapsarian, superlapsarian, if I'm any of these other kind of things.

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And I'm thinking, you have a wife right here, and every night you try to figure out your spiritual navel with these things.

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Why don't you just start loving your wife instead? And all the time you're reading all these people trying to figure out things that I'm not sure you could ever figure out.

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I'm not saying we can't ever study these issues. But when they become paralyzing and they say, you know, I just can't figure these out because I say to yourself,

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I say to you, just find what the Bible does teach and do it.

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Say, well, you really don't know what it's like to live with an unbeliever. You don't know how hard it is.

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You don't know how difficult it is. And the answer is, I know. I don't know.

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I know your pain, but I don't know what it's like to live there. Tomorrow, 22 years ago,

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I got married to Wonder Woman, to Kim, and that was a day of all days.

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D -day. That's when we got married. It's been great. I don't know what it's like to live with an unbeliever.

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I don't know what it's like to live with someone who doesn't say, you know, our marriage needs to revolve around, we're here to serve the

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Lord. That's what we do. That's why we exist. That's why our kids exist. That's why we are doing whatever we do.

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I don't understand it, but we're going to learn next week that Paul's going to say, you can be a slave and still worship the

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Lord right where you are. I know some of the ladies here and some of the men who don't have believing spouses.

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It's difficult, but you're not a slave. We're going to learn next week that everyone's a slave and even slaves can serve where they are.

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Absolute freedom from circumstances that are tough does not bring contentment.

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So how are you doing with your contentment factor? The sovereignty of God? Why do

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I exist in evangelism and then saying to myself, I don't have to undo anything.

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I'll just serve. I'll ask you the question, do you have a ministry here at this church?

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If you're new, of course you don't have a ministry. We didn't give you one. We wouldn't let you have one until we remember and all that stuff.

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But if you're here even as a new person, you should say, I want to serve my fellow believers. I'd like to have a ministry.

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When I watch people and they have no ministries, you know what I see many times? Grumblers, complainers, back biters.

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They don't like the church. They take pot shots at the elders. When I watch other people and they have ministries, you know what

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I see? Well, I'll use them as an illustration because they're here. I see the built -ins. Our life from Doug Down, of course

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I know his parents and all that, but Doug says, our life is to serve the Lord here at this local church in Iwana.

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We are the Iwana family. He didn't say that. But I'm saying that of him. What do you see?

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Contentment, blessing. I know more problems at this church than anybody here, probably next to Steve Cooley.

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I'm here to serve. I want to serve you all. I don't want to have grumbling and lack of contentment consume me and it would be so easy.

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But I'm the chief of sinners here. And if I can sin and still serve other sinners, then we all can.

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So you say, I really struggle with the lack of contentment, then you need to find yourself a ministry and to pour yourself out in that ministry and lay down your head on that pillow exhausted saying,

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I serve the Lord. I serve these other sinners. Because when I look at some of you, I don't know if I really want to serve you.

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You probably say, I don't want to be served by you. But I want to see Jesus. Because if you do it for one of the least of these, you've done it for Christ Jesus.

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This is the body of Christ. And so I say to myself, self, and then when I say to myself, then you know,

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I'm going to get you as well. I say to you, congregation, if you want contentment, Paul says, keep the commandments, obey, serve, evangelize.

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Why? To increase your standing before God? No, because you have a great standing before God and in light of his grace, then you serve.

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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 1015 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.