The Plan of Salvation

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.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio. Today is day two. Oh, no, it�s not day. It�s Tuesday.

I thought you were going to say, �It�s day seven of my all -jello fast ,� or something like that. Well, when

I got food poisoning in Branson, Steve, I was on some kind of fast, that�s for sure.

And I� Things were moving fast. I understand you were singing Elvira the whole time. You know, there are a lot of buffets there in Branson, and so when

MacArthur did his Q &A live Skype at the Oak Ridge Boys Theater for Brannon House�s Worldview Weekend Conference, John said, �Well, you know,

I just can�t come to Branson anymore because there are too many buffets.� I said something like that.

Did he mean too many Buffetts? And I thought to myself, �Well, most people come to Branson and they gain two pounds.�

For me, it was the opposite. Yeah, it�s the old Branson diet. Steve, I ask you regularly how your life is doing, how your grandkids are, that kind of thing.

They�re pretty amazing. I mean, they�re on my mind quite a bit. It�s just funny to listen to the things they do.

I don�t know how much you want to hear about that, but I mean, they�re just funny little kids. I mean, you know. Well, I do it, Steve, because most people, you know, love you.

A few think you�re ornery. And so the ornery one, you know, the perceived people, they perceive you as ornery.

Those people, I want them to be killed with your kindness, your grandfatherliness. It�s just funny to me how they are.

Or like January, she was banned from our house last week. She wasn�t able to come over on typical

Wednesday. She�s the oldest one. She had some meltdowns the week before, so she wasn�t able to come over.

But she wanted to make sure that grandpa was going to pick her up for Awana, was going to take her to Awana, because that just makes the world right if, you know,

Devaney and January and grandpa all go to Awana together. And so she wanted that. But here�s a funny thing that�s come up here recently.

January has turned into an early morning burglar. Her mom tells us that she gets up before everybody else, she sneaks into the kitchen, and she�ll just eat something and like, and then throw away the evidence, and I�m going, she�s pretty good.

I mean, you know. Wow. What was that old hamburglar? Yeah. January, the hamburglar, but she�s, you know, she�s pretty smart, she�s getting stuff like, you know, chocolate, or she gets the baby

Jude�s, she gets his little snacks or whatever, and she�ll eat them and then throw away the container so that mom�s none the wiser.

Well, you guys need to set up one of those video cameras. I watched one someplace, some link, someone sent me, and a dog pushed over, pushed a chair over to the counter, jumped up on the chair to jump up on the counter to get some snacks.

And I thought, see? What kind of dog was that? Probably like a shepherd or something like that. I think it was a golden retriever.

Uh -huh. I could figure it out. I knew it wouldn�t be a dachshund because they�re just not that smart. They�re greedy, but they�re not that smart, so.

Steve, I have in front of me and you have in front of you something from the Kruger blog, and it is one of the best and most overlooked explanations of the plan of salvation, and then

Kruger talks about B .B. Warfield�s The Plan of Salvation, Simpson Publishing, 1989.

Tell me. So this wouldn�t be like those coffee mugs, The Plan of Salvation? Tell our listeners about that.

Because I think it had some pretty good stuff in there, but it said, you know, essential to your, I don�t even remember now, were there five steps?

You know, you had to do these five things, and the fifth one was be baptized, you know? In order to be saved, you have to be baptized.

What happened was at our home Bible study back in North Hollywood, that�s where I first met Steve, and he started attending, and there was a guy named

Denny, and Denny had enough money to have a home, but he didn�t really want a larger home. He wanted to live in his truck, and he lived in his truck, and he was a mechanic, and when he did get married eventually, he moved into an apartment, it was too big for him, he moved back into the truck.

So Denny went to these secondhand stores to buy things and get them on sale, so he would pick up pencils for the

Bible study, they just were a little off and worked out perfectly, we had extra pencils. And he gave me for my seminary graduation a ring that he had crafted himself.

I was thankful for that. And then he said, �Well, I got a bunch of mugs for people because we had great fellowship afterwards, you know, we talked for hours.�

Edwin would be at the house till like 4 a .m. Yes, he would. And so anyway, he got these brown mugs, and it was the plan of salvation, just as Pastor Steve just said.

And it would be step one, you know, it was like the ABCs, �admit you�re a sinner, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, confess

Him as Lord, believe He was raised from the dead. And then the last one, and I always had scripture verses,

Mark 16, 15, or 16, 16, whichever it was, �believe and be baptized.� So those were our baptismal regeneration mugs.

Really awesome. And they were like, you know, when I get into the pastor, I was like, �I don�t think

I can have this mug around, people might take it seriously, you know.� Speaking of the plan of salvation, Steve, why do we even need

Warfield�s plan of salvation if we just need to be baptized when we�re seven, eight days old and we�ll have the waters of baptism clean us right up?

Because it�s already done, right? I mean, that, it is, it�s insidious because it really does inoculate people from the truth claims.

They�re confident that they�re heaven -bound because they got baptized as a child, and I just think it�s, frankly, evil.

Paul writes in the book of Galatians chapter 6, �Far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our

Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world, for neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision.�

And so, Steve, let�s talk a little bit about this baptismal regeneration issue first, and then we�ll deal with B .B.

Warfield�s plan of salvation. Roman Catholic Church, you go to one of the funerals of one of her members, and what�s the first thing you hear and what�s your thoughts?

Steve Well, they tell you why the person�s in heaven, and they, you know, the first thing they use to explain that is their baptism as a child, and I really,

I seem probably callous sometimes to some people.

I don�t know that I could ever go to another Roman Catholic funeral because I, it makes me angry, and you know me, you know,

I don�t conceal things well, and when I just think of lying to people at a funeral of all places about how you get to heaven and it�s simply by being baptized and then by doing some good works along the way, you know, like belonging to a knitting circle or, you know, doing the gardening at the church or whatever, and now you�re in heaven,

I can�t sit there and listen to that. Richard Steve, one of the things that I want most in a doctor when times are tough,

I want him to just tell me the truth. What I like it to be told to me in a nice manner, maybe, you know, alone in one of those special family meeting rooms, maybe with his head bowed a little bit, and a countenance with a voice delivering like, you know, yeah, but I just want him to tell me the truth.

Your mom�s going to die, and she probably only has a couple days left, so make him count.

I�ve done what I can, you know, you seem to be a person of faith, and we just have to leave it in your God�s hands.

Something like that, I mean, that�s what I have to do, and so for us, if that�s true for a doctor, if lawyers have to tell the truth, if judges have to tell the truth, administrators have to tell the truth, well,

I want somebody to get up in that pulpit on the day especially we have to bury a loved one and tell me the truth.

Yeah, I mean, it might be comforting to people to think, oh, the departed person, the dead person is in heaven, but what about the living?

How do you minister to the living? And if it�s all about, you know, all these bromides, you know, these little trite sayings and these vague promises of how people get to heaven, well, that�s just rubbish.

And I think there is a nice way, I mean, I try to be nice when I�m doing funerals. You want to present the truth in love, you want people to listen to you and to not be offended by you at the funeral of all places, but they need to hear that there�s only one way to heaven.

They need to hear the truth. Why? Because that may be the only time that year or in the five years or before they die even that they ever hear the gospel, and wouldn�t you want to be on judgment day?

Wouldn�t you want to stand before God and say, listen, this was the only time they were going to hear the truth and I told the truth, rather than saying, well,

I didn�t want to say anything mean at the funeral? Steve, we�re stewards and we are called to be faithful.

We�re not supposed to change the message, and I know we�re getting off track here just for a second, but we�re not saying at a funeral that you have to get up and tell people that are alive, the person behind you in a casket is in hell,

I mean, because you don�t know that. Right? There are a few people that I know that are in hell. I mean, I know lots of people who

I think are in hell, but I am not the judge. I do not know. Jesus said of Judas, you know, woe to you, it�s better if you hadn�t been born.

Judas is in hell. I know many are called, few are chosen, strived in a narrow gate.

For many, I tell you, I know all those verses. And you did a great job the other day at a funeral, and you got up, and you can say nice things about the person who died.

It�s a speak well time, a eulogy, and let�s move straight into, here�s

Psalm 23, the great shepherd. Did you know the good shepherd, his name is Jesus, here�s John 10. You connect the dots and say, here�s how you receive eternal life, by faith alone.

And so, what we don�t want to do is get up and say, because of baptism, when you were a kid, you�re in heaven, and you just live like hell for the rest of your life,

I cannot stand that. That�s not part of the plan of salvation, baptism and regeneration. Steve, I was in Branson and met lots of folks, and I said to some,

I think in one of my main sessions, that I grew up as a Lutheran. And I believed in the Trinity. I believed in the deity of Christ.

I believe in, he died on the cross for sinners. He died for me. He was raised from the dead. He�s coming back.

Yet, I believed I would receive all those benefits through baptism, water baptism.

And so, that brings you so close, but then you�re a mile away. You�re a hells away. Pete Yeah, I mean, there's no such thing as, oh, so close to heaven.

You�re either in there or you�re not. Pete Isn�t that bunion where there�s this kind of trap door, a porthole to hell at the gates of heaven?

You think you�re going. Steve Well, and I mean, I think that goes right back to Matthew 7, right? There are a lot of people who think, you know, it�s a broad road that leads to destruction.

Everybody thinks they�re going to heaven. They, you know, it�s like MacArthur says, look, there are no flashing lights over the broad way that says this way to hell.

Everybody thinks they�re going to heaven. They�re all heaven bound. Just ask them. Pete Yeah, heaven this way. Get your programs. You got to have a program.

Well, Steve, I listen to folks and they�ll say, well, we�re Missouri Synod Lutherans.

We�re a Wisconsin Synod. We�re not ELCA. We�re not liberal. And so do

I think there are Missouri Synod, Wisconsin Synod Lutherans who are Christians? The answer is yes, but they�re the ones that don�t believe and who don�t trust in baptismal works.

And so here�s what I would do if I had to remain in a Missouri Synod Lutheran Church. Oh, hi.

My name is Mike Abendroth. Yes. Tell me about yourself. And when they ask about me, what church do you go to? I would say something like this.

And I�ve never heard a Missouri Synod person say this that I can remember. I attend a

Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, but the pastor preaches verse by verse. We teach justification by faith alone, and I do not believe in baptismal regeneration.

But they don�t say that. Mike So I just don�t get it. Steve No. Mike All right.

So here Warfield is summarized by Michael Kruger on his blog. And on the second page there,

Steve, he�s got an outline of the decision tree of B. B. Warfield, the great Princetonian theologian.

You can pick up maybe even online for free The Plan of Salvation by B. B. Warfield, and it talks about auto -sotirism and other things.

But we�re just going to work through this little decision tree that goes from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4.

So those are the ones we�re going to try to get through on the show today, Steve. One, two, three, four. Steve Super fast.

Four steps. Mike All right. All right. Number one, Kruger summarizing Warfield, deism versus theism.

Is God personally involved in our lives, theism, or does he stand back from the universe and allow it to take its course, deism?

So tell me why it�s biblical and which one Warfield picked. Steve Well, he picked theism because deism is the idea that, you know,

God is the cosmic watchmaker, he�s an observer, he�s not intimately involved.

But we know from the Bible, when it talks about salvation in 1

Peter 1, Ephesians 2, and John 3, in each case,

God is the moving agent. The person is passive and cannot do anything, but God, John 3 says the

Holy Spirit, but one member of the Godhead brings that person to life, causes them to be born again, regenerates them is the technical term.

Mike Excellent, Steve. Going back to funerals and times to die, you want a theism, theistic view of God or a deistic view of God?

I mean, you want the right view, of course, but how can deism help you on your deathbed? Steve Deism can't because I mean, who could even, who could even cry out, imagine, you know, the, we'd have to alter the thief on the cross because he would have to say,

Lord, I know you're going to your kingdom and hey, see you later.

You know, and I mean, he would have no, he couldn't even plea. If Jesus, God in the flesh, didn't care, then, you know, what could he say?

What would Jesus' response be? Well, yeah, remember when you come in your kingdom, who are you, pal?

Take a hike, you know? Steve, I regularly say to Kim, my wife, till death do us part, and I just, you know, remind her, okay, we're in this to the very end, and I'm not going to leave you, and the wonderful words in the book of Hebrews, I, speaking of God, will never leave you, the believer, nor forsake you.

I mean, what, could there be a better promise? I will never leave you nor forsake you. You might have a body that's eroding away, you might have no money, no friends, no anything, but I will never leave you.

And then to die on your deathbed, thinking, you know what, God's with me, as I cross this river of death, he's going to be with me.

I'm not going to stumble. He's there to hold my hand, as David said in the Psalms, but for the deist, sorry, can't get too close.

Pete And I'm really watching a few Christian couples I know walk through this right now, my sister -in -law just watching this picture, seeing this picture on Facebook the other day of her holding, she can't really hold anything, holding her newest grandchild and just watching my brother -in -law, just the difficulties since she's had these strokes and if it were not for his faith, for her faith,

I don't know how they could handle it. I mean, it's hard enough for us watching from the outside, but you know, the never leaving or forsaking, knowing who

Jesus is, trusting him completely, that is our hope. That's what we have to fix our hope upon, is upon his person and his work.

Pete And to think about the ultimate expression of theism and God personally involved in your life, if you're a

Christian, that manifestation or that incarnation is, his name is

Jesus Christ. I'm not saying he's a manifestation of the Trinity, but I'm saying he is manifest in the flesh to use first Timothy language.

He is personally involved in your life. He will never leave you or forsake you. And then also Matthew 28, and lo,

I'm with you always. Steve Even to the end of the age. Pete Okay, Warfield, number two, we move from theism to then something a little more of a subset, supernaturalism versus naturalism.

Steve, when you think of the two, since theism is correct, do you work your way to God naturally or does

God have to supernaturally intend and step into the picture and save?

Steve Well, he has to supernaturally save, of course. I mean, if it, again, if it were not a supernatural act of God, as Ephesians 2 says, but God being rich in mercy, if it wasn't for God, no one who was dead in their sins and trespasses would ever be saved.

Naturally, a dead person could not choose God. Pete Isn't it interesting, you go from theism,

God's personally involved, and how personally is he involved? Well, he doesn't just say, okay, work out your salvation, that is to say, positional sanctification, regeneration, justification.

You figure that out on your own, because as Pastor Steve just said, you can't do it. So he supernaturally is involved.

He's over history, and of course we know he's in history, and he does these miraculous things. Yes, it's great to turn water into wine, but it's more interesting, more fantastic, more praiseworthy to take a heart of stone and turn it into a living, pounding heart of flesh that worships the

God that the person used to hate. Who could do that? I mean, if you could do it yourself, then the death of Christ would be basically superfluous.

It would be not needed. If you could save yourself, or if you could make the determination to save yourself, we would see a lot of different wording in the

Bible, certainly. Looking at Kenneth Otter, Michael Kruger's blog, as he just condenses

B .B. Warfield's plan of salvation, what we like to do here on the radio show is to give you some good resources, and so instead of the secondary source,

Kruger, although he's wonderful to read, go to the primary source, pick up B .B. Warfield's plan of salvation, or I guess you could read the book of Romans for the ultimate source.

Yeah, it's an excellent source. So we go from theism, God's involved personally in our lives.

How personally? Well, in a supernaturalistic way, as he saves us and he interrupts us in our sin, as Pastor Dave Jeffries used to say, and then we move into the next tree that splits.

Are you an evangelical or are you a sacerdotalist? Steve, you want to define those?

You want me to? How do you want to go about it? I just like seeing the word sacerdotal. Because it's kind of sassy. Well, again, you know, sacerdotalism has to do with the sacraments and the idea that there's effective or effectual grace imparted to us through the sacraments.

And that's just a wrong idea. I mean, sorry. No, that's okay.

I like it what Kruger does with Warfield and he says, does God save men through an instrument he has appointed like sacraments, or does he act on people's souls directly and immediately evangelicalism?

And so, what's the instrument? What's the manner through which God saves?

Pete Well, I mean, in 1 Peter, when it says he has caused us, you know, to be, how does it exactly say?

To be born again to a living hope, right? It should say something like, caused us to be born again through the sacraments.

Pete Through one of the seven. Steve Yeah. Pete Seven is a perfect number. Steve Or through all of them, right? Should give us a list.

I mean, there is nothing like the list of seven sacraments that Rome has, there's nothing presented like that anywhere in scripture.

It never talks about marriage being necessary for heaven or, you know, which kind of makes you think what happens to the priest, but that's a whole other matter.

But yeah, this idea that, because then again, you get back to a works -based salvation.

Why are you saved? Has something to do with the grace of God. Maybe he initiates it, but then you have to do

X, Y, and Z. The Bible never talks like that. Pete I think maybe, Steve, it's in the

Old Testament and in the New, a couple places that just shall live by sacraments. Steve By faith.

Pete Number four, B .B. Warfield, we are theists, God's personally involved in our lives.

We are supernaturalists because God is the mover in salvation. He acts upon us and saves us.

We are evangelical because we receive these benefits, not through sacraments, but directly and immediately through faith, the non -meritorious instrument of faith.

And then the final thing that is represented by Kruger showing forth B .B. Warfield's biblical articulation, universalism versus particularism.

And so are we universalists or are we particular? Does God save particular people?

Is just everybody saved or are there only particular individuals? In other words, does

God apply the salvation that he has personally been involved with, theism, supernaturally he's the origin of this, and then in a way that is evangelical through faith alone, does he apply it to everybody or some people?

Pete Well, he applies it to only some people because again, I mean, the Bible is replete with examples of this and I'll just go to John 3 .16.

People like to say, well, you know, that just shows it's available for all. Well, you have to look at the whole context there.

Even earlier on in John 3 when he's talking to Nicodemus, what does he say? He says, you must be born again and he talks about how that happens.

Well, it's by the work of the Spirit. The Spirit goes where he wills, right? It's not the person who wills, it's the

Holy Spirit who wills. This is the consistent testimony of scripture is that God is the mover in salvation and that he only moves on some people, not on everyone.

And that when he moves, it actually is effective. I mean, many are called, but few are chosen. You know, go on and on and on about the number of places where it talks about the particular choice of God to save some people.

Pete So, as Kruger says, this is a real salvation. This isn't potential salvation, a possible salvation.

He does, to use John Murray's book, Redemption Accomplished. Well, and again, if you look at it this way, is

God a God who watches what happens? Is he the deist or is he the theist?

You know, is he the one who actually gets involved? And the answer is, he's the theist. He is the mover in salvation.

Jared So, we hate to do this to you, shrug shrug, but if you follow this logic, biblical logic, there's nothing wrong with logic as long as it's from the

Bible and it's, you know, it's true. You are a theist, you say yes. You are a supernaturalist, you say yes.

You are an evangelical, you say yes. You are a particularist, you say yes. And Warfield says, then you're a Calvinist.

Pete Uh -oh. Pete Uh -oh. Pete So, it's just a summary for saying theism, supernaturalism, evangelicalism, and particularism.

Pete I guess another way to say it would be the sovereignty of God and salvation, right? Pete That's right. Ephesians chapter 1, how's that?

Pete It's pretty sovereign and it's pretty much salvation and it's all of God. Mike Avendroth, Steve Cooley, thanks for listening to No Compromise Radio.

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

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