Warning Passages in Hebrews (Part 2)

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

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

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Program Updates, Travel Plans, and Ministry News

Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and it is a Friday, October 6, 2017, at 1440. It�s 2 .40pm today. And we are working on warning passages, but before we continue to do that, let�s see what�s in this cup that had coffee in it this morning, and some kind of weird monster thing in the afternoon, and it�s got a combined taste, yuck.

If you want to talk to me about prostate cancer, email me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com. I�d love to be able to help you in any way I can, spiritually and with medical advice. I�m not a doctor, not an M .D. at least, although I do have a doctorate of ministry, and I�m thankful to teach at the Master�s Seminary Doctorate of Ministry as a mentor.

And I haven�t taught at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary lately. I think the last time I taught a preaching class there was a few years ago. I still would be willing. I don�t know if they�re willing, but I would be willing.

And I�m a preaching professor at the European Bible Training Center in Deutschland, Berlin. And soon I think I�m going to launch an online kind of sermon helper critique for those who can�t get to seminary to brush things up, brush up pastors who need to have their sermons critiqued and Skyped, and there�s more to that, more of that in the future.

Okay, what else? Israel, if you�d like to go to Israel with us, 23 slots, first come, first serve. I don�t know how many we have. I know Pat�s side of the bus, Omaha Bible Church, their side of the bus is full.

And so, what else? October 24th, I�ll be at the Master�s Seminary doing the chapel there. And lastly, late October, I believe it�s like the 27th through the 29th, there is a sola conference in New Zealand, and my friend Pastor Donald Stevenson is the host.

Fenton Park Bible Church, FPBC, I believe it�s free. And it�s in Rotorua, I don�t know how to pronounce it, it�s in the north part of the island, and I will do the five solas. I think I have a breakout or two with sexual fidelity and Jesus Christ, the Prince of Preachers.

They�re all books, breakout sessions that I�ve done, that is to talk about those books. And Adam Tyson, I believe, is the speaker for the youth on Friday night, maybe some breakout sessions. My wife is going with me, and she is going to do a testimony Q &A type of thing.

In the old days, she would speak, but she would rather just do the testimony Q &A thing. I know, I�ve said that I�m going to get her a no-compromise radio, and one of these days, I hope to do that. My son Luke just called me, and he�s working on a message for the high school group at Grace Community Church, and he was asked to teach about angels, who they are and what they do.

And so he wanted to run that by me first. It reminds me, when my mother was dying, we were just talking about the Lord and the Bible, and in previous months and years, she would always run her Exposition of John messages that she was giving to the ladies at Omaha Bible Church.

She would call me and make sure she was teaching the right thing, if she had questions about theology or the Lord or anything else. I remember when she died, and I was just holding her hand, she didn�t need my suggestions about theology anymore after she died.

She knew. She was a better theologian than I was. I sat and cried and thought, she�s a better theologian than I am. Wonderful. I�m happy for her. So, Fenton Park Bible Church, if you want to go to that Solar Conference.

I don�t know if there�s any no-compromise listeners in New Zealand. I know there are in Australia, so I don�t know what you�re doing in New Zealand. And if you are around the campus for the chapel at Master Seminary, I don�t know if you�re allowed to go or not, but you can always try.

I�m bringing one guest, and that is my son, Luke Abendroth. Warning passages in the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews is a sermon about Jesus. And you�ll see imperatives, of course, in this great gospel-oriented, Jesus-oriented book, talking about this great high priest.

We have, the point of this is we have such a high priest, Hebrews 8 .1. How do we look at Hebrews warning passages? I would think that in the past I might have looked at the warning passages that you need to have certain works to do, to hold on.

You have to hold on yourself. You have to do a lot of these things yourself. And I�m not saying we don�t have human responsibility, but I am saying that you better, as Charles Barkley, no, as Roger Daltrey would say, you better, you better, you bet.

We have to throw in pop references once in a while. I got a letter the other day, and Andrew was his name? I read it, the letter, and he likes some of the pop references because it reminds him of what his dad would say, do, or listen to.

So, this is the next generation. Although our demographic on No Compromise video channel on YouTube, it�s 73 men, 27 women. Maybe there�s genderless, you know, gender neutral people are going to start to listen, but I doubt that.

So, highly dominated by men, and between 40 and 60, that�s the demographic of who watches. I don�t know, how do we get the youth? I try to have the skull on my desk. I try to wear, you know, cool glasses and hipster shirts and don�t shave for a couple days.

My, oh, my, we just cannot get the 25-year-olds. I don�t know why. Maybe we need to pass on this ministry to Luke. It�s so lucrative. Why is he at college? He could just be doing this. Nepotism Bible Church, may I help you?

I got a call last week from some lady, and she said she was from the Word Faith Movement. Oh, no, here�s what happened. She had questions about her salvation. That�s all I happen to be in, so the secretary patched this lady through.

And she said she lives in the area, and I said, �Well, have you talked to your pastor about this Because that�s what I typically say, �Have you talked to your pastor Well, no. A lot of times then they say they don�t have a pastor, and I say, �Well, no wonder you�re in such a problem.

You have a problem without a local church. That�s worse than having a problem, and you�re in a local church. At least you have support and help and encouragement and prayer, et cetera. And she was worried that she committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and she wouldn�t be forgiven.

And I told her, you know, I would help her and that she should go to church on Sunday and go wherever you want. But it seems to me you�re asking me for advice, so maybe you should come here and listen to a sermon about Jesus.

That�s what you need. So I preached the gospel to her, and I tried to get her eyes focused on Jesus. This book, the book of Hebrews, she never showed. This book, the book of Hebrews, you need to make sure you see these warning passages in light of the context of the book, which is an exposition about the supreme Jesus.

This is not these moralistic interpretations because there are moral exhortations and commands. Must be seen in light of this book. And especially, especially, Bofus would understand. Now, Hebrews 3, 7 says, �Therefore he�s just got done talking about Jesus, the one who makes us holy brothers and has given us, you know, a high calling, heavenly calling, and He�s the Apostle.

He�s the High Priest. He�s better than Moses. He�s the Builder. He�s the Son, et cetera. �Therefore those things are important because the real sin of the people in the desert, Israel in the desert, was unbelief.

And there�s trouble in the Christian life. And these particular people needed to go back to Judaism, so they thought. And the writer is trying to convince them, don�t. Hold fast. Look to Jesus. I began to talk last time about when you�re in a trial and you�re tempted to do a variety of different things, you should be asking yourself, �Am I trusting in Jesus now?

Am I believing? Am I walking by faith in Jesus? Right? We don�t walk by sight. We walk by faith. Life I now live, I live it by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me, Galatians 2.

You�re anxious in a trial, but you�re trusting. You�re weak in a trial, you�re trusting. You sinned, but you�re trusting. Right now, trusting. I didn�t say, well, when you�re in a trial, remember that time you walked the aisle?

Remember that time you used to be such and such, now your life has changed? Remember the time you raised your hand, the pastor saw you? Remember that subjective experience you had and you felt forgiven?

Remember that time you really were so upset about your sins you cried, and then you just turned your back on Jesus? No, no. Friends, think carefully. Don�t think you�re holding. You�re actually holding fast, if indeed we hold fast.

Saves. Friends, Jesus alone saves. What you�re doing is you�re holding fast, you�re keeping your eyes focused on who is your hope, our confidence and our boasting in our hope. That�s the point. You don�t keep yourself saved.

Jesus saves. Of course, if you do keep believing or holding fast your confidence and your boasting and your hope, it will prove you are truly born again. But it doesn�t save you. When you come to these warning passages, I warn you, be careful of bad interpretations as well as turning back.

If you turn your back on Jesus, like the children of Israel turned their backs on God, you don�t have anything going for you. You might as well be back in slavery to your sin because, in effect, you are.

There�s one person who can save. It�s not Moses. It�s not the temple. It�s not the place that can save you. So don�t harden your hearts. The writer is not saying if you�ve ever sinned, you�re smoked, you�ve lost your salvation.

Is salvation dependent on works besides Jesus� works? If it is, just how many works do you have to do? How sincere do those works have to be? The writer is not saying there are conditions to salvation.

He�s not saying believe and do something as a condition. The evidence of salvation, yes, is keep on believing and persevere. Yes, I understand that. But grounded evidence is different. Do not fall into the trap of the arch heretic Charles Finney.

Does a Christian cease to be a Christian when he or she sins? What would you say? When you sin, you cease to be a Christian. What did Finney say? Whenever he sins, this is Finney, he must for the time being cease to be holy.

This is self-evident. Whenever he sins, he must be condemned. He must incur the penalty of the law of God. If it be said that the precept is still binding upon him, but that with respect to the Christian, the penalty is forever set aside or abrogated, I reply that to abrogate the penalty is to repeal the precept, for a precept without penalty is no law.

It is only counsel or advice. The Christian, therefore, is justified no longer than he obeys and must be condemned when he disobeys or antinomianism is true. In these respects, then, the sinning Christian and the unconverted sinner are precisely on the same ground.

Be warmed, be filled. How is that for comfort? How is that for assurance? For anyone? For any Christian? Now, Finney knew God had a demand for perfect righteousness. So, what does he do? Instead of driving his readers and his listeners, instead of Finney saying, then go to Jesus, he's the only one with perfect righteousness, he says something like this.

He doesn't say something like this, he says this, Full present obedience is a condition of justification. But again, to the question, can man be justified while sin remains in him? Surely he cannot, either upon legal or gospel principles, unless the law be repealed.

But can he be pardoned and accepted and justified in the gospel sense while any degree of sin remains in him? Certainly not. How you doing? How about that? See, if the ground of your salvation is you, well, that part's right, there's no hope.

Finney hated the Reformation formula, simultaneously justified and sinful. Simul justus et peccator. Finney said, this error has slain more souls, I fear, than all the universalism that ever cursed the world.

For whenever a Christian sins, he comes under condemnation and must repent and do his first works or be lost. So when you come to Hebrews, to the warning passages, don't think Finneyism. That would be bad.

That would be wrong. That would be awful. If you look at Hebrews chapter 4, it says in verse 1,. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear, lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

Uh-oh. I better obey or else. Godliness better increase or else I'm not going to make the promised land of heaven. But if you keep reading, For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

I sin, but I'm believing. For we who have believed enter that rest. Receive the promises of God and the message of God and your troubles need to still be seen in light of the faithfulness of God and you need to keep believing.

There is a danger of unbelief. The danger is unbelief. And of course, as you read it, the danger could also be, I'm trying to keep myself saved. How's that working out for you? Need to do a little bit more?

The Danger of Unbelief in Hebrews 3 and 4

Mike Ebenroth here, No Compromise Radio. We are talking today about warning passages and I'm trying to warn you that I don't want you to slip into the Finney-like error saying the ground of, since the ground of salvation must be perfection, we'll move away from the perfection of Christ Jesus and move into our sphere.

Then once we sin, what do we do? Justified, unjustified. Justified, unjustified. Justified, unjustified. Justified. And how many more times does it happen when we sin and we don't even really recognize it?

Right? We're so, we're not even thinking, oh, this is what God requires, and I just sin so much. I didn't even really, you know, I did sin, of course, with cognition, with, you know, validation, with volition.

That's the word I wanted. Where's my editor? I heard Scott Clark does all his own editing. Not of his sermons, but of the thing. His show, Heidelcast. I like Heidelcast. It's fun to listen to. You ought to listen to it.

I often get asked. People want to know, what kind of soda do I like to drink? No, I often get asked. Or I often like to talk or ask other people even. What do you listen to on your iPhone, your iTunes?

Remember we used to have to have a little iPod? Had like a little gold one, a little silver one, platinum. What's on your iTunes? What do you listen to? Now, the last 45 minutes of a long bicycle ride, sometimes I switch it to Pandora and listen to some music with some beat.

But today, if I go on a bicycle ride, I'll probably listen to sometimes Sinclair Ferguson, sometimes S. Lewis Johnson. Podcasts, though, stuff you should know, I listen to that if it's something I like.

Criminal, I listen to that. Revisionist History, kind of all those NPR deals. The Forward, Heidelcast, Theocast. What else do I listen to? Theocast to the latest to see where booze is going to orbit out to.

Oh, it's funny. You know, these people I listen to, I listen to 1 .5 speed, I don't even know how they regularly talk anymore. The warning passage in Hebrews is, don't stop believing. There's a danger, unbelief, danger.

Moses' example, or Israel's example, better put, in the wilderness from Psalm 95, that was a bad deal. Don't do it. Don't do it. Warning. You might say you have faith, and maybe you don't. Well, let's prove it.

Are you believing right now? And if you go back to Judaism, back to religion, back to self-righteousness, back to whatever, you're going to prove you didn't. So in chapter 3, verse 7 through 11, Psalm 95 is quoted, and then there's comments and a little exposition in verses 12 and following.

And you notice, 12, take care, brothers, lest there be an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. And then the other little bookend, in verse 19, to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

That's verse 18. Verse 19, so we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. And you can see your little inclusio right there. Inclusio. Israel's example is a bad example, similar to the exhortation in 1 Corinthians 10.

Don't do these things. When you read about them, there's lots to learn in Exodus. Here's something. Don't do that. Hold fast. Israel didn't hold fast. Believe. Israel didn't believe. They never made it to the rest.

And see, there's something more important involved. There's the physical rest from the promised land. They never got. They never made it to it. Now there's a spiritual rest, salvation of your soul rest.

Israel doesn't make it. You must keep believing. They disobeyed, which showed they didn't believe. There are consequences to unbelief. There are consequences for turning your back. So this is everything involving Psalm 95 and Exodus chapter 17.

And you can go back. You can hear me put my iPad away. You shouldn't be doing that if you were me. You go to a warning passage, chapter 2, chapter 3, and the rest. I do not want you to throw out what you think about the book.

And here's who Jesus is, the mediator, lives to make intercession, purged all our sins, and then somehow now we've got to keep ourselves saved? Really? No way. You know, there's a difference when you think of sola scriptura and solo scriptura.

And maybe if you have a better view of sola scriptura, it will help you when it comes to thinking properly. Sola scriptura and solo scriptura. Solo scriptura says I can't have any tradition. I read a Bible verse and it says, hey, hold fast, and if you, you know, must mean you have to hold fast by yourself.

And if it says that, I have to believe it. If Hebrew 6 says lose your salvation, I can lose my salvation. That's solo scriptura only. Sola scriptura is, yes, the Bible alone is clear, sufficient, authoritative, God's Word, everything you need pertaining to life and godliness, Bible.

Nothing else over it, nothing else on par with it. And certainly not tradition 2. Think of Roman numeral 2. Roman Catholic stuff, purgatory, assumption of Mary, etc. Stuff that's not even in the Bible.

We ignore that. Sola scriptura says, nope, can't do it. I am tradition 1. The Pope said, nope. Sola ecclesia, nope. But sola scriptura believes in tradition Roman numeral 1. And tradition Roman numeral 1 is not equal to, not over, not on par with, but helping the church understand doctrine is tradition that comes from the Bible.

Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, Athanasius' Creed, you move into Belgian Confession, Heidelberg Catechism, 1689, Westminster Confession of Faith. Those things help us. They're not equal to. If you make those equal to Scripture, shame on you.

If you make them over Scripture, shame on you. If you make them a close second, shame on you. But as they reflect biblical truth, and certainly they do, you know, you've got an exception here or there.

I get that. That helps you. So when you come to these passages, you don't automatically think, wait a second now, where do good works fall into place, and are good works the evidence of our foundation for or ground for?

Those things have been worked out, and tradition, good tradition, helps us. If you read the Bible without any kind of analogy of faith, or you read the Bible without any kind of Scripture interpreting Scripture, if you read the Bible without any help from systematic theologians that God has given the church, then you ought to reconsider your stance.

Solo scriptura or solo scriptura?

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. 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.

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

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