Everlasting Righteousness (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. Michael E. Ebendroth here. Somebody called me, Jill called me the ADHD pastor the other day because I think I was sitting in this very chair, this broken chair, Joey broke it, and Eric and I were talking and I looked outside and there was a, there were a, there ain't a, there's a bunch of turkeys out there, turkey.

I saw one hit by the, by, there was one by the road hit by a car. I've never seen a turkey hit by a car. Maybe it's hit by a truck. Maybe a bicyclist hit the turkey. You can write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

You can tell your friends about us. You can tell your enemies. Not that many emails these days. I don't know what's going on. I guess if you don't send in emails, then we're going to have to start asking for money.

No, the policy is we don't ask for money. I guess if there were some crisis, one of my kids got sick or something, I might ask and say if you could spare some change. But I think the new policy is if you're a millionaire or billionaire or trillionaire, there's a little donate button on the side of nocompromiseradio .com.

But some others do give and I'm thankful for that. That's very kind of them. Obviously radio and some of the equipment and everything else. I don't, I don't take a salary. Although probably, you know, a dollar per download, that would work out pretty well.

I was listening the other day. Kim and I were in Portland at Hillcrest Chapel and Trinity Bible, great group of people there. I mean, it was just strikingly obvious to me that the people loved the Lord and wanted to study His Word.

But we were listening to Air One. I was in the car driving around and I thought it was interesting. Those people can beg like no other. Oh, to get the gospel out and playing the semi-Pelagian heartstrings of who's going to hear without Air One.

Frankly, I was embarrassed for them. Here's our telethon. Here's our beg-a-thon. It was awful. I thought it was a Saturday Night Live skit, but then I realized it wasn't. And I thought there's no possible way that I would give one thin dime to people, A, who shamelessly begged, and B, they don't even know what they're talking about theologically, so how would I give my money there?

Friends, everything you own, God gave you. It's technically God's. You're a steward. And the realm, the emphasis, the priority of giving is to the Lord through the church that you're a part of. That's the way it works, and if you have some extra and you'd like to send to a radio show or a missionary, I'm not putting radio shows and missionaries on the same level.

I'm not doing that. But if you have extra money and you have discretionary income that you'd like to spend, that would be great. I don't want people going in debt, sending money to no-compromise radio.

Well, I'll try to give every month and then feel bad on the months that I don't give. Friends, don't do that. If you'd like to give some money to the radio show, for years we had no donate button. I liked it when people would call and say, how do we give?

You have to be persistent in learning how. But anyway, shame on everyone. We need to have like a Saturday show. I tried to get Cooley Tuesday guy on Saturday to do shows. I don't think he did. I think he's backslid all the way back to Lancaster, California.

There's a Lancaster, Pennsylvania. There's a Lancaster, Massachusetts. There's a Lancaster, California, and everything in between. I will air this show after Branson, but I'm going next week in real time to Branson for Worldview Weekend Family Conference.

It's a great conference. I think Abner Chow will only be there via video, but I'd like to hang out with Abner Chow and pick his brain a little bit and, you know, school him a little bit on a few things.

And Jesse Johnson will be there. My friend Mike Jendron, not like Jesse isn't a friend, but Mike Jendron will be there. So Brandon's got the lineup. I think it's an alphabetical lineup this year. I got the book Everlasting Righteousness, read it, half of it on the way to Portland, Oregon, and half on the way back.

By the way, I went to Tasty and Adler in downtown Portland, and the barbecued Korean kimchi chicken, yikes. I just thought, you know, I'm not the big barbecued chicken guy, but if it's served up with some kimchi, and I think there's a little rice or something else.

Man, that was tasty. That was yummy. They have, I think, Blue Dot Donuts there. Do you know Blue Dot? Is that Blue Star? Blue Star. Blue Star Donuts. Those were good. And I had some salty thing, salty ice cream place.

It wasn't as good as Penny Ice Cream in Santa Cruz, and the portions were too big, but I had pear blue cheese ice cream. If I eat blue cheese that is authentic enough, raw enough, Maytag blue from Iowa enough, I will have allergic reaction.

That's how I know it's good blue cheese. Anyway, it tasted blue cheesy, but no reaction. And I was given a whole bag of hazelnuts as a gift. Oregon is very well known for its filberts, its hazelnuts, hazelnuts, and they did not know I was allergic to them.

That was like the parting gift. That's the parting gift here. Oh, anyway, Everlasting Righteousness. It is a great book, and last time we talked a little bit about no compromise, how law and love at the cross, described by Horatius Bonar in his book, there's no compromise there.

Law and love, no compromise. We're going to talk a little bit more about that right now after I've kind of just waxed uneloquently. Ineloquently? How does that work? Okay, here is what I want to talk about today.

I just looked at my phone, my wife and kids are in New York City, and I just got a picture of them, and she's there interviewing Hillary Clinton and all that. No, she's not. God does the work, we looked at last time, it is finished.

Man's response is consent, as Horatius would talk about. He'd also discuss faith. But what kind of faith is it? Is it enough faith? Is it a perfect faith? Is it a sinless faith? Is our faith weak, too weak for God?

Now he describes something that has really resonated. It's hit home. It's struck a chord. In the Passover blood, the idea was chiefly that of protection from peril. The Lamb stood sentinel at the door of each family.

Boy, talk about well-versed writing. The Lamb stood sentinel at the door of each family. The blood was their shield and buckler. There might be trembling hearts within, wondering perhaps how a little blood could be so efficacious, and make their dwelling so impregnable, disquieted, too, because they could not see the blood.

Right? It's dark. But were obliged to be content with knowing that God saw it, Exodus 12, 13. Did we put enough blood there? Does God see it? We can't see it. As long as God can see the blood, they were going to be fine.

They just had to do what God asked them to do, and trust him to keep his word. That was the point. I'm turning here to Exodus chapter 12, verse 13. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.

And when I see the blood, when I see the blood, God says, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Daddy, is there enough blood on there? We can't see the blood.

Knowing that God saw it, that's what they were to be content with. And the writer, Horatius, goes on, quote, yet no amount of fearfulness could alter the potency of that sprinkled blood, and no weakness of faith could make that God-given shield less efficacious against the enemy and the avenger.

The blood, the symbol of substitution, was on the lentil, and that was enough. They did not see it nor feel it, but they knew it was there, and that sufficed. God saw it, and that was better than their seeing it.

They were safe, and they knew that they were so. They could feast upon the lamb in peace and eat their bitter herbs with thankful joy. They could sing by anticipation the church's song, if God be for us, who can be against us?

And this is Everlasting Righteousness, Horatius Bonar, page 23. It's not the perfection of our faith that saves. It's the object of our faith. That's why Christians who struggle with sin, that's all Christians.

That's why weak Christians, all Christians struggle with weakness. That's why Christians who are stuck in sin, Galatians 6, they all can say to themselves, the object of my faith, that's who my Savior is.

Not faith itself. You could feel fear, but you didn't need to because of what the Lamb did. God's free love to the sinner, God's righteous way of making that free love available to the sinner, that is all found in the work of Jesus Christ at Calvary.

We have the substitute, and we take God's word for it. Was it enough? God said it is. Can God transfer our guilt to Jesus, the representative? We take God at his word, faith. That's why when you use theological shorthand, you know, don't ever think to yourself, faith is the Savior.

I know the just shall live by faith. I know we walk by faith and not by sight. But our faith isn't the Savior. Horatius said, with a weak faith and a fearful heart, many a sinner stands before the altar.

But it is not the strength of his faith, but the perfection of the sacrifice that saves. And no feebleness of faith, nor dimness of eye, nor trembling of hand, can change the efficacy of our burnt offering.

The vigor of our faith can add nothing to it, nor can the poverty of it take anything from it. Faith in all its degrees still reads the inscription, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

And if at times the eye is so dim that it cannot read these words, through blinding tears or bewildering mist, faith rests itself on the certain knowledge of the fact that the inscription is still there, or at least that the blood itself of which these words remind us remains, in all its power and suitableness upon the altar unchanged and uneffaced.

God says that the believing man is justified. Who are we, then, that we should say, we believe but we do not know whether we are justified? What God has joined together let no man put asunder. Don't you find that fascinating?

Don't you find that convicting? Don't you find that comforting? When God says the believing man is justified, why do we say we believe but we don't know if we're justified? Maybe my favorite part of the book is on page 26.

What should we have said to the Israelite who on bringing his lamb to the tabernacle should puzzle himself with questions as to the right mode of laying his hands on the head of the victim, and who should refuse to take any comfort from the sacrifice because he was not sure whether he had laid them aright on the proper place in the right direction with adequate pressure or in the best attitude?

Should we have not told him that his own actings concerning the lamb were not the lamb, and yet that he was speaking as if they were? Should we have not told him that the lamb was everything, his touch nothing, as to the virtue or merit or recommendation?

Should we have not told him to be of good cheer, not because he had laid his hand on the victim in the most approved fashion, but because they had touched that victim, however lightly and imperfectly, and thereby said, let this lamb stand for me, answer for me, die for me?

The touching had no virtue in itself, and therefore the excellency of the act was no question to come up at all. It simply intimated the man's desire that this sacrifice should be taken instead of himself.

It's God's appointed way of pardon. It was simply the indication of his consent to God's way of saving him by the substitution of another. The point for him to settle was not, was my touch right or wrong, light or heavy, but was it the touch of the right lamb?

Excuse me, the lamb appointed by God for the taking away of sin. The quality or quantity of faith is not the main question for the sinner. That which he needs to know is that Jesus died, and was buried, and rose again according to the scriptures.

This knowledge is life everlasting. I need the cough button. Now at the radio studio I have a cough button. Here I just have Pete's Coffee. By the way, in Portland, Starbucks is kind of like Walmart-ish, and Pete's Coffee is a close second.

Somebody told me that Pete's bought stump something. Stumple bump. That's what I heard. That's what I heard. Stump back. Camelback. Stump. Something stump. You can type it into Google. I don't have Google access here.

Well, I do, but I don't feel like looking it up. I'm doing radio. This is high-tech radio right here. When we struggle, and we will as Christians, we do as Christians, let's make sure we go back to the one who's outside of us.

That is to say, we don't think about ourselves and become so introspective, so subjective in our analysis of our own faith. Is it enough faith? Is it a repentant faith? Is it a believing repentance? How much trust do I really have?

Do I have more trust than I had yesterday? What about my sins? What about my weaknesses? What about my frailties? What about my corruption? What we need to make sure to do is go outside of ourselves and get our focus back on the author and finisher of our faith, and fix our eyes, as Hebrew says, on him.

To go back to our illustration today in Exodus 12, the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood. Now, let's think about this passage for a second, Exodus 12, 13.

Let's change it a little bit for the industrial evangelical. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see your strong faith, I will pass over you. When I see your non-intermittent faith, I will pass over you.

When I see you strong and bold, you've already completed all your devotions, done your Bible memory work, read your books, prayed long enough, I will pass over you. And when I see your Robert Murray McShane-like devotion, I will pass over you.

And when I see that you've done Jonathan Edwards' resolutions that he did when he was 21 years old or something, I will pass over you. And when I see you've memorized Psalm 119, then I will pass over you.

And when I see a faith that is much greater than other people's faith, I will pass over you. See where I'm going with this? Do you notice? The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

Now, we know the concept of Passover when Christ is our Passover lamb, 1 Corinthians 5. When I see Christ in your place, I pass over you. Why? Because I've assuaged my wrath. Jesus has assuaged my wrath.

I think for a long time I've lived my life as a subjective Christian, and there is, of course, a place for Bible study, Bible memory, Bible reading, saying no to sin, saying yes to righteousness. There is progressive sanctification, there is, you can argue if you want, monergistic sanctification, synergistic sanctification, how that all works out.

I know we have responsibility, and there is work and sweat and toil as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. I know it's all there. But as we do that, we're setting our eyes on not ourselves and how much are we doing, but we're setting our eyes on the blood, because when God sees the blood, he'll pass over.

I think that's the critical part that we're lacking sometimes in evangelicalism. The old running joke around here is when I first got to the Church in 1997, I was pretty appalled by their lack of detail to recording the sermons and posting them properly, and some they didn't even post, some they've lost.

I mean, this is Mike Abendroth's preaching, this is, you know, you can go back and hear John MacArthur's messages from 1969. These are eternally relevant messages of mine. No, I didn't think it to that degree, but to some degree.

These things need to be recorded and put up online. I mean, every sermon, especially back in those days, 20 hours, 25 hours, 30 hours worth of work, but a lot of them weren't posted. And then now my only response to many of those sermons that were not posted, praise God.

I'm so happy. Moralistic deism. R. Scott Clark, please do not listen. Law, law, law. You know, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. That's the issue. So with the No Compromise shows, I think there's about 1 ,800 shows that I've done.

I hope, you know, I still think it's fine to give exhortations, and you can still give law. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength. Love your neighbors yourself. I am not a hyper-graced person at all.

I want to have the right biblical balance, and as you preach through the Bible verse by verse, you, in fact, will get that. When you read the Bible, just sequentially, you'll get that. You'll see how it's put together.

Sometimes law, sometimes grace, sometimes grace, then law. I'm the Lord of God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Therefore, it's all there. But I'm glad that we grow as Christians.

But even then, the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. When I see your growth as a Christian, I'll pass over you. When I see enough growth, I'll pass over you. When I see more growth than other people, I'll pass over you.

When I see your growth when you study the original languages long enough, I'll pass over you. That's why the object of your faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, is so important. Moms, dads, children, young, old, in between.

We are affected by Adam's sin, immediate imputation. Consequently, we have a sinful nature, right? Everybody thinks we have a sinful nature, but there's an antecedent cause, Christ's life and death, and thinking about his symmetrical work will help you as you think about Adam's sin and its immediate imputation.

You can read John Murray about that too. But the focus is on the blood that God sees. That's the focus. So weak Christian, strong Christian, backsliding Christian, if there's such a thing, struggling and sin Christian, there's such a thing as that.

Tired Christian, worn-out Christian, burnout Christian, phased-out Christian, Jesus the Passover Lamb. As I think about Exodus 12, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. That's why trusting in the right Savior is everything.

Horatius knew that. Horatius knew that when it comes to the faith. Faith doesn't save. I mean, I guess that's theological shorthand. But faith doesn't live a perfect life. Faith wasn't incarnate. Faith didn't die on a cross.

Faith wasn't raised from the dead. Faith didn't go into heaven. Faith isn't going to come back. Faith is nothing except an intellectual, an assent that includes trust, right? You've got fiducia, you've got assensus, and you've got notitia.

You've got a belief that assents and trusts. That's the key. And it trusts, assents in, and believes the right Savior, who's the one who's the sin bearer, who made propitiation. He's the one. So we Christian, of course, I could tell you to pull up your bootstraps and get to work and begin to read your Bible more.

Read your Bible is an excellent thing to do, because as you read your Bible, guess who you'll think about? When I see the blood, I will pass over you. When I see the blood, I'll pass over you. NoCompromiseRadio .com.