Maranatha

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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 divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her
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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.
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Mike Abendroth here is your host. You can call me Mike Abendroth if you want. If you want to send me junk mail, that would be
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Mike Hafferhorf. That was my favorite one, Mike. Mike Hafferhorf. What do we have up on tap today at No Compromise Radio?
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Am I allowed to say that on tap? Maybe that would be root beer. How about that? Or maybe some non -alcoholic beer or something like that.
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I was in Germany, and I'm telling you, they love to drink beer in Germany. They love to drink beer,
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I guess, everywhere in the world, but there's so much beer in Germany and so many kinds. But here's the interesting thing for me.
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I don't know when was the last time I had a beer, but the interesting thing is they have regular beer.
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They have high -powered beer, a kind of malt licorice where it's a higher alcohol content.
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They have beer that's mixed with a lemonade, 7 -Up -y kind of thing,
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Kinder, Berliner Kinder, it's called. And so if you were in Europe and you'd say, all right,
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I'd like to have a little juice and a little sparkling water and mix it together at the table, two containers, two decanters, whatever they're called.
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And then the same thing with beer. So if you want to have a little beer, but you could water it down with some lemonade or something like that.
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You could dilute it. That's what I'm looking for, dilution. And so if there's kids around, they want to have something to drink, they have a little half beer, half lemonade, but you can buy it that way, bottled as well,
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Berliner Kindle. And they have all kinds of Berliner Kindle with different things that would dilute it. And it's not as strong, but it still has alcohol content, 3 -0 or something,
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I don't know. And then they have a variety of non -alcoholics, non -alcoholic beer.
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See, once you start talking about beer on the radio, you are so sunk. And so anyway,
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I just thought it was fascinating because you've got Beck's non -alcoholic, St. Pauli Girl non -alcoholic.
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I think when I grew up, it was near beer. That's all you had. And I think we used near beer for Ipecac in case we needed it.
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Actually, I grew up in such a poor house. My grandparents were so poor, rather, that when I was over there, my mom worked at Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom.
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She worked for Mutual of Omaha Insurance. My father was working for the telephone company, Northwestern Bell.
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So I would go to grandma's house one day, then the other grandparents' house the next. Grandma and Grandpa Ebendroth and Grandma and Grandpa Up the
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Hill, that's what we called them. They lived in a ditch. No, they lived on a hill. So anyway,
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Grandma Ebendroth, she had all kinds of home recipes.
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She came over from Germany and a lot of people didn't like Germans and they would take her lunch when she was a child.
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She'd walk to the schoolhouse and they would throw the lunch down the outhouse and do all kinds of bad things because she was the
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Nazi in their mind. And so they didn't have much money. And so if you had a stye in your eye,
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I remember Grandma, to this day, the smell of a piece of bread soaked in warm milk and then put in a compress form and put that against your eye and you just have to lay there and smell the soppy, milky, yucky, milk bread sop warm on your eye.
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That couldn't be good for your eye. Maybe that's why I have to wear glasses now. When I'm reading or doing no -co, the first three years of No Compromise Radio, no glasses needed for the show.
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Now I have them on perpetually. And so the other thing they gave us for if you ate something that you weren't supposed to eat and you needed to throw up, for us, it was an epicac.
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It was Grandma Ebendroth's special recipe. See when you tune into No Compromise Radio, you might go, you know,
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John Dawson, he might give you some PatioDaddy .com stuff and he might try to do that.
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But he doesn't have recipes like this on his Patio Daddy. We need a conference in Idaho is what we need.
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And then he can supply the food and I'll preach. How's that? Come on, John. Make it happen. Oh, speaking of that,
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I will be in California, Pine Grove, California, Church at the Cross Biblical Discernment Conference, February 1st through 3rd, 2013.
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You can go to the website there. I hope you can register. Maybe you can, maybe you can't. Churchatthecrosspg .com.
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I don't know what the PG is for. Maybe Pine Grove. What do you guess? PG Tips? T? So back to the story.
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The story is for Epicac at our house, it was warm milk.
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See there's the theme. Everything's warm milk. You just warm up the milk and you mix into the milk.
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You should see my hand now. I'm doing a mixing motion. Some bad mustard, really cheap mustard, like French's mustard, yellow mustard.
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I think that's what it's called. French's or something like that. Cheap mustard. This is not some Dijon mustard,
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Dijon. This is the cheap kind, 39 cents.
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And that yellow mustard and that warm milk, you stir it up and then Grandma says, she didn't say guzzle.
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But she meant that to some degree. To just drink that down and talking about the gag reflex, woo doggy.
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So today on No Compromise Radio, actually if you do a search on vomit in the Bible, you will find a few different things, won't you?
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Dog returns. Well, okay, how can I break this up? Trying to get things off my desk.
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It's towards the end of the year in real time, December 29th -ish I think, 28th -ish.
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In no -co time, it's probably mid -January by the time this airs. There's real time and then there's no -co time.
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So here I have my message Bible in front of me because I did want to talk about this. I know Steve's not here.
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We have no music. I know some of you probably say, don't people complain about everything.
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You know, I don't like it when he does the no -co thing. But see, here's the thing. It's my show and I like it.
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And I'm sick enough today with my smokers, hacking cough, I'm pretty much going to just do what
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I want. So this is show two today on the Saturday. And then I'm going to tape one more, record one more, and then probably go home.
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I think we're going to go home and take the kids skiing tonight or something like that. Because if you're going to hack, you might as well hack on the mountain. Hack attack.
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So, First Corinthians, I've been preaching through First Corinthians for three years. So I go there often to the message to make sure
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I understand the authorial intent. As much as I like Carl Truman, for some reason,
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I think he doesn't listen to no -co regularly. But maybe, maybe he secretly does. You know, these Presbyterians, I think we have some secret
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Presbyterians who listen, even at high levels. So I think
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Carl Truman doesn't even know about this special insight here from the message Bible, small b.
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Here's the very end. And by the way, this is in all sincerity and honesty, Paul uses someone to write his letters for him regularly for whatever reason.
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Probably some eye problem. Paul has an amanuensis, and that person writes for Paul.
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You can look at Romans chapter 16 for an illustration of that. And so the same thing happened for First Corinthians.
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Now he picks up the pen, and he's going to write something. So for Paul, it's something like this.
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You know, this other information is, of course, God -breathed, and it's inspired. Spirit of God working through Paul, Second Corinthians, 2
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Peter 1, verse 20, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17.
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But now Paul picks up the pen because he has something important to write. So there's a sense of gravity, heaviness, importance, weight when
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Paul picks up the pen. So what's he going to write? If Paul has used—it doesn't mean it's more inspired, but you can just get the sense of the gravity of what
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Paul's going to write. And so if Paul's dictating the whole thing and then says, now, by the way, give me that pen,
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I want to write something to the church of Corinth, it is going to be significant, isn't it? No compromise, listeners?
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And so here in the Message Bible, small b, it says, and I, Paul, in my own handwriting send you my regards.
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And so that isn't a torrible, terrible, horrible, it's torrible. It is a torrible, etc.
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In my own handwriting, send you my regards. And so if I look at the
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ESV, it says, I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.
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NAS is a little different, but the same idea. So Paul picks up the pen and he writes,
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I write this greeting with my own hand. So now what is Paul going to say? What's the significant thing that he says?
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Well, the Message Bible, it says, if anyone won't love the master, throw him out.
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It doesn't say throw up, it says throw him out. Make room for the master. Then it says, our master
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Jesus has his arms wide open for you. And I love all of you in the
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Messiah, in Jesus. Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye.
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If anyone won't love the master, throw him out. Well, the text says in the
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ESV, if anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. So this is ban language, to use the
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Old Testament terminology. I don't mean we're banning the language used in the message, but in the original and in the
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ESV, you get this sense of accursed, because that's what Paul means. You're to be accursed.
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And so when it says throw him out, well, I don't know, maybe if you're trying to describe this to some kid in an application form, but accursed means accursed.
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But my biggest problem isn't with that language there in the Message Bible. You know, things have context.
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Things are written for a reason. Things are where they are in the Bible for a reason. And so Paul picks up his pen, and he says, if anyone has no love for the
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Lord, let him be accursed. Now, certainly there are people at Corinth who are real Christians. Remember in chapter 6, he says regarding people that were caught up in unrighteous behavior and who were willfully sinning, heterosexual sins, homosexual sins, all kinds of sins, and they were washed and sanctified, justified.
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Remember? Such were some of you. So there are people at Corinth who are truly born again.
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They are redeemed. They are reconciled with God. They are experiencing eternal life and will one day be glorified and then experience eternal life in heaven.
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So you get my point. So Paul says at the end of the letter, if you're not going to have any love for Jesus, no love for the
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Lord, then you're to be accursed. You know, of course
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Paul wants the unbeliever to repent. It is obvious that Paul's missionary heart, he understands what it's like to be a sinful person and then receive sovereign, distinguishing grace from the
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Lord Jesus Christ. He wants that for others. He wants it for Jews, and he specifically is given the mandate, see
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Ephesians 3, to go give that truth to the Gentiles. But at the end of the day, if you're not going to repent, then there's going to be judgment.
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Anathema is what it's going to be. So my problem here with the Message Bible is what happens after that.
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He says, make room for the Master. That's still part of the other idea there. And then he says, our
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Master has his arms wide open for you. Now, is it true that for repentant sinners,
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God has his arms open? There's a general call where if you come to the
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Lord Jesus Christ, you confess in your heart that you're sinful and Jesus is Lord.
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Well, of course, there is the open arms of God waiting for repentant sinners.
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I mean, he doesn't just wait, of course, he's initiating things. We have the sovereign initiating grace of our triune
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God, specifically, predominantly, in the person of the Holy Spirit. So, could you say
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God's arms are open for sinners waiting to repent? You could say it, but there's more to be said, of course, because God has to quicken the sinner and God draws the sinner.
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But God is a God who receives sinners, and everyone listening today can be very glad for that.
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If you're a Christian, that God would receive a sinner like you. God received me, the sinner,
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I'm very, very thankful for that. And I want to pour out my life in a life of ministry, of gratitude for what
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God has done. Sometimes out of duty, sometimes out of love, sometimes out of praise, but often out of gratitude.
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I'm just thankful that God saved me, and so I do what he wants me to do. And so, for me,
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I want to pour my life out in ministry, whether that's paid ministry or not paid ministry, that's irrelevant. It's, I want to minister for the
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Lord, I want to serve him. That's what word ministry means. So, at the end of the letter, of course, there are saints at Corinth, there are those who are caught up in sin, there are also people who are reprobates and who are not going to believe, and so Paul says, if you're not going to love the
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Lord, you know, there's lots of people saying, Lord, Lord, on that day, right, on that day they're going to say all kinds of things.
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This is language reminiscent of Jesus, our Lord, in the Sermon on the Mount, in chapter 7, verses 13, 14, and you work all your way down through 24 and following, 21 to 23 that I just referred to.
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And so then what happens? Well, when you look at the text, the real text, he says, he uses an
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Aramaic word, you know the word, Maranatha. Now, you could translate that a variety of different ways.
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The Lord has come, chrysostomim, did that, I believe. I don't have my notes in front of me right now. This show is without notes today.
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How about that? You say, I can tell. I have the ESV in front of me and the
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Message Bible in front of me and some olive oil from Galilee. That's all I really have. Let me put a little dab here.
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A little dab will do you on this microphone. So, Maranatha is what comes after that, and the
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ESV does translate it, our Lord come. It could be just a statement like a confession, chrysostomim says.
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It's like the incarnation, the Lord has come. Can you imagine the Lord has come? But it's best translated as an imperative, and the
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ESV gets it right here, O Lord, come. Language reminiscent of Revelation 22, come, right, speaking of the
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Lord Jesus. So, why is that there? By the way,
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Aramaic words do pop up in Scripture occasionally, the ones that I can think of off the top of my head. Abba, for Father.
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Hosanna, that is an Aramaic term. Here, Maranatha. You can probably remember
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Maranatha music, Lord come music. And, of course, my Calvary Chapel days,
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I remember that. I have a lot of those songs. I actually remember my Calvary Chapel days. They didn't have hymnals at Calvary Chapel West Covina with Pastor Raul Reis there.
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And so, what would we do? I would bring my little recorder. You know those little things that you would business people have and other secretaries, and you just talk into it.
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It's a little microcassette, follow -up things you give to your secretary. Then, you know, could you please get these things done for me?
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So, now you just use your iPhone and talk into that little microphone app. But anyway,
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I would set that to record when I would go to the church because everybody would know how to sing the songs,
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Great is the Lord and worthy of glory. Great is the Lord and worthy of praise. I didn't know them, but I wanted to learn them because I wanted to sing.
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Show me a real Christian. I'll show you somebody who likes to sing with the body of Christ. See, you thought
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I was charismatic singing some whirling dervishes. Have you ever been to a church where they have whirling dervishes, dervish whirlings?
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So, anyway, I would record those things, Maranatha music. I didn't think you could probably buy a
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CD, but anyway, that was a good way to learn them. And it is very true that we as Christians, we want the
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Lord to return, don't we? To think of the imminent return of Christ Jesus, it's true. One day our life will end on the earth and we'll die, but wouldn't it be better to be like Enoch walking with God, and then one day you weren't because God took you?
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I don't know, Elijah, an experience where up to heaven you go without dying? That's 1
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Corinthians chapter 15 language. What happens to a person's body who doesn't die, but the
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Lord returns? So, no compromise radio today, we're talking about 1 Corinthians chapter 16.
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So, here's the scoop, the veritable scoop. Why would
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Paul use this term, O Lord, come, right after this context?
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He's not saying, I'm just happy that the Lord Jesus is going to come back. That's not what he's saying.
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That is a true statement. That is a biblical statement, but that's not the context here. I used to think about the funny
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S. Lewis Johnson story. It's still funny that Lehman Strauss, I believe, was at a
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Bible conference and teaching some folks. It was an end times conference. And so, he was talking about Maranatha, and just to use biblical language.
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Instead of saying goodbye, you could say grace be with you, instead of a contracted thing. And so, let's just think about the
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Lord's return more. Remember, Luther said, there's two days on my calendar, today and that day.
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And so, he was trying to help the people to think biblically, and of course, I like that. Maranatha, Lord come,
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Revelation 22. My chai tea is cold. So, the ladies, they were a little older, and they forgot really what he said.
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They thought they knew what he said. It was in the early 60s, probably. And so, that morning, the next morning, after he had this conversation about Maranatha, let's just say that to one another regularly as a greeting.
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Lord, come, you know, the speedy return of Christ Jesus. He was walking from the cafeteria to the chapel area for the meeting.
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And so, the ladies saw him and greeted him, good morning, Dr. Strauss. And then, they wanted to do what the pastor exhorted them to do the day before, and to say
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Maranatha, Lord come. And so, one of the ladies looked at Leman Strauss and said, marijuana. It must have been the 60s.
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And you've heard me tell that story before, but it's so funny. And I have to tell it again, because when
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I think of that Aramaic word, that's what I think of. But I want to supplant that now with this new meaning, because it's pretty shocking.
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It's got a lot of gravity. It says, if anyone has no love for the
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Lord, let him be accursed. And in the same verse, in the next sentence, our
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Lord, come. Why? Why is it there?
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Answer? Well, it's obvious why it's there. Lord, come back to judge them.
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If these people will not repent, if these people still are stiff -necked and bristle against your sovereign grace and the person and work of Jesus Christ, the
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Lord. Lord, come back and get them. Make every wrong right.
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Force every knee to bow. Come back and take care of your children.
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Amazing. That is amazing. There's wrath to come.
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I think of 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 10. If you're listening today and you have not believed on the
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Lord Jesus Christ, you're not a Christian. You don't have peace with God through Christ's life, death, confirmed by the resurrection.
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You don't believe. Then I want you to believe. Because there'll be finally a day that if you still stiffen your neck, that the
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Lord's going to judge you. Lord, come. I don't want that for you.
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I don't want you to experience the wrath of God. I want you to have a substitute who bore wrath in place of sinners like you, who assuaged what you deserved, who assuaged the wrath you deserved.
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I want you to have a substitute. You need a substitute. You want to be forgiven, don't you? There's only one way.
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By taking God's word for it. By taking God at His word. By faith in the work of another
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Christ Jesus, the Lamb, the substitutionary Lamb, the God -man.
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And so, when I think of what happens in ministry,
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I want people to believe. I want the worst sinners to believe. But one day,
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Jesus is going to come back. And Paul says at the end of his letter, I want you to have a love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
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If you don't, you're accursed. Lord, come back and execute judgment. That's the context for Maranatha.
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2 Thessalonians 1 says, Since indeed
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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 in flaming 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. See, I don't want you to experience that.
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But if you're going to be stiff -necked to the very end, Maranatha, 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 when He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.
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Repent. Believe. Turn. Look to the one who has accomplished salvation, started in eternity past with God, the
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Father's election, accomplished at Calvary, Jesus Christ, made redemption.
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It was not made possible, but He did it all. He was raised from the dead, and then the
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Spirit of God draws, convicts, quickens, seals.
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It's a work of God, and then you say, I won't believe in myself anymore. Lord, grant me the faith to believe in this, because you must have love for the
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Lord Jesus Christ, or you are accursed. Lord, come. So today on No Compromise Radio, we've been talking about 1
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Corinthians chapter 16. Maranatha, more than a music company, more than just the hope of Christians, it is what
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God will do one day to make every wrong right. What's the answer to terror in this world?
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The answer is many fold, but one of the answers is God will take care of it. 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.