Repentance & Faith

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.

Rainy-Day Banter and Show Introduction

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. This is show two today on this rainy afternoon.

It�s kind of a dog-eared day. It is.

It is. Actually, when it�s like this outside, though, then you think, well, there�s, you know, I don�t need to do any outside work of the house or, you know, don�t have to sunbathe.

Up on the roof or anything like that. I just look at it and go, oh, wow, great, snow�s coming.

But I think I would rather have snow than the cold rain. For instance, that Sunday, two days ago, when New England was playing somebody here in Fox, I was going to say Foxwoods, in Foxborough, how would you like to sit outside in pouring rain where it�s a cold New England day to watch a football team and your son�s not playing?

Well, if I was going to worship, you know, on Sunday outside, I guess, hmm. I know. The gods must be appeased.

Propitiation must be made. Did you see that thing the other day? I�m not a big baseball fan, but there was some dude in the stands, center field or something. The guy hits a home run and he�s holding, the man is holding two Bud Lights.

I did see it. Well, when I went to the Celtics game with Gracie a while ago, there was a couple that sat next to us and they were nice and we just had to get up in these small seats and they had to move, you know, back and forth because they were ordering so many beers and then have to use the restroom and everything else.

And so he kept coming back with two beers every time. I said, how much are those beers? As we just were talking, you know, and I think he said $14 each. I totally believe it. Okay. $28 times. They each probably had four.

And I just thought, man, wow, that is expensive for, you know, Bud Light or whatever it is. Anyway, the guy didn�t drop his Bud Lights. He let the ball hit him in the lower abdomen and then fell down at his feet.

He quick reached for it and he kept the beers and got the baseball. And Budweiser said, or an ad exec said Budweiser got about $7 million in extra exposure because of that very thing.

Well, and I just thought, okay, there's a guy who is counting his pennies, right? He's like, I can't. Really, I want that baseball, but I'm not losing one of these beers.

It is so true. Therefore, we at No Compromise Radio are going to start sponsoring certain things. This show brought to you by Bud Light. Well, you know, we won't do that, but we want to give you fans or something in the stadiums out there, something to hold on to that, you know, you'd say I'd rather have my NoCo than hold to the baseball.

Oh, so like we're going to go into like what Bud Light or no, NoCo coffee.

So there you go. Some kind of with our little koozie or something, and then if they put a Bud Light in it, that's on them. We're just trying to keep the Mountain Dews cold, but they're using it for salacious reasons or for salacious things.

Can't control that.

I know. Can you imagine if he was holding two, you know, two NoCo containers there, all the extra.

Exposure with Heno cup? We have a young man in our church. He has, he's very soft-spoken and he's only been coming for a short time and he said, can I talk to you, pastor? This was two days ago. I said, sure.

So I had to get up kind of close to him because I'm almost mirroring how he's talking. Can I talk to you, pastor? Yes, you can. He said, what is Heno? I said, okay, there you go. Yeah. Okay. So tell me what's going on at Sunday school.

I know our listeners can go to bbcchurch .org to listen to some of the Sunday school classes. You started a new series.

It's probably spicy. Well, I've been talking about repentance and, you know, partly because I think I've, I may have said this, but I think people don't understand repentance right. In fact, I was talking to somebody even today who said that the way they see repentance done is, you know, the person kind of realizing they've done something wrong and just come up to you and go, sorry about what I just said.

You know, and just waiting for an effusive plea. You know, oh, I accept, you know, I forgive you, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And I'm like, I think maybe the ask for forgiveness needs to be a little bit more intentional and heartfelt than, yeah, sorry about that.

Sorry, Bubba.

Repentance in the Reformed Confessions

Well, Steve, you and I have been trying to make sure we understand what the classic Reformed creeds and confessions teach, because I don't think I was an expert in them early on in my Christian life. And so, I want to make sure I understand what they taught and then, of course, what's scriptural.

They're not the Bible.

Right? I had them all memorized at one point, but I gave that up for Lent. Oh, that's good.

Yeah. That's good. Well, one of the creeds that we don't talk about as often, but probably should more, it's called the Savoy, S-A-V-O-Y Declaration. And I probably could be corrected by some of the capital R Reform people out there, no coland, but I think John Owen had a hand in trying to rewrite some of the Westminster Confession of Faith with his congregational slant versus the Presbyterian slant.

So, it's kind of like, in my mind, and I know I'm just a neophyte when it comes to this, as the Baptist, London Baptist is to the Westminster Confession, because it's Baptist to the Presbyterian, so too is the Savoy Congregational to the Westminster Confession Presbyterian.

Does that make sense? Yes, I'll buy that. All right. Okay. Here's what it says. Of repentance unto life and salvation. You, Steve, will probably have to use this on Sunday, because it's so cool. Okay.

All right. Ready? I'll just show it when I read it. Such of the elect, as are converted at riper years.

Yeah, this is just like the London Baptist so far.

Having some time lived in the state of nature, and therein serve diverse lusts and pleasures, God in their effectual calling giveth them repentance unto life. That's almost exactly what the Is it? So, it must be both, both of them must be taken from the Westminster Confession.

You know, there are websites that compare the two, and three, and all that, so that's kind of fun. Number two, whereas there is none that doth good, and sinneth not, and the best of men may through the power and deceitfulness of their corruptions dwelling in them, with the prevalency of temptation, fall into great sins and provocations.

God hath in the covenant of grace mercifully provided that believers so sinning and falling be renewed through repentance unto salvation. Right.

Anyway, this is Well, now, that's an interesting phrase, though, even that last one, be renewed, what does it say? Okay.

Renewed through repentance unto salvation. Right. So, what does that mean?

That they lost their salvation? See, that's an interesting statement there, isn't it? I know. I see where you're going. I don't think I want to take the bait. And see, and here's what I would say, it's similar to, it's like, restore unto me the joy of my salvation, right?

In other words, I've had that estrangement because of my sin, right? And so, I want to be restored to the joy, to that right relationship, because that's been interrupted by my sin.

Repentance as an Evangelical Grace

Three, this saving repentance is an evangelical grace, whereby a person, being by the Holy Spirit made sensible of the manifold evils of his sin, doth by faith in Christ humble himself for it with godly sorrow, detestation of it, and self-abhorrence, praying for pardon and strength of grace with a purpose and endeavor by supplies of the Spirit to walk before God unto all well-pleasing in all things.

That's amazing, Steve, where it says right there, praying for pardon and strength of grace. We seem to move from the self-abhorrence when we think about sin, and then we, there's almost kind of an implication that this penitence is a believing penitence, because who would you go to for pardon, right?

In the middle of repenting, you're looking to God for pardon. Absolutely.

Well, it's, you know, against the and the only, I mean, against, you know, God, have I sinned? And so, yeah, I mean, that makes sense. Do you think Christians should repent? I think Christians should repent, yes.

I mean, here's the thing. We were talking about this earlier. I think there are two basic, in my mind, there are two basic understandings of repentance. The one is the initial repenting about who Jesus Christ is and who I am, right?

When I get converted, my thoughts about Christ, my thoughts about myself are changed. I no longer think of him as a good teacher or whatever I thought of him as before, and I no longer trust myself as I once did for salvation.

But I think there's also that as a Christian, the times when I recognize that I've sinned and my repentance then is a turning away from that sin, you know, and asking for forgiveness and confessing it to God and those things.

Steve, when I was younger, and it was in the middle of the lordship debate in the 80s, and then, of course, kept going, and there's a lot of ramifications to that. There was the Dallas crowd, and there seemed to be the Grace Church Master Seminary John MacArthur crowd.

The people in the Dallas crowds would say things like, the gospel that is the one driving you to believe the most, these things are written so that you might believe gospel, the gospel of John. It never says repent.

And that was interesting to me. Additionally, there are some evangelicals in the lordship camp that say, if I give a call to salvation, like tonight when I go to the funeral and I'll call people to believe, if I don't say repent, see, he's not saying repent.

Talk to us a little bit about kind of both of those problems when I'm thinking of the Sinclair Ferguson book on the Merrill Controversy and the whole Christ, saying one, meaning the two, etc.

Well, I mean, I think if you just look at John's gospel and you say, well, it doesn't use the word repent, okay.

I don't think it uses the word trinity either, but that's just me.

And I'm like, are the concepts there, you know? And I think they clearly, I think they clearly are. And I think part of the problem there is this idea of that you talk about quite a bit, this biblicism thing.

You know, if I don't see the word repent in the gospel of John, therefore it's really not that important. Is that right? No, because we have the other gospels. We have other places where it talks about repentance and the fact that that particular word there is not used doesn't excuse me from the requirement, right?

And ultimately, when we preach the gospel to somebody, we're not asking them to add Jesus onto their life, right? We're asking them to change their life, which is repentance.

Well, when I think, Steve, of my preaching, sometimes I just say believe. And I think it's Sinclair Ferguson's Repentance and Faith video you can probably pull up online when he talks about hendiatus and the one meaning the two.

And if you say repent, well, you think differently about your sin and then believe, think rightly upon this subject, the Lord Jesus. And you really have to do both. And if I said repent, I'm also meaning believe.

If you have to think differently about your sin, I'm making, I'm meaning you're thinking differently about Jesus too, and instead of trusting in yourself, you should be trusting in Jesus. I sometimes say repent and believe just so people in the congregation don't think I'm avoiding the word repentance.

Right. But really deep down, I could say to people, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

Because you're going to repent. I mean, that's a, it's a necessary, I mean, we were talking about it before. They're two sides of the same coin. You can't repent without believing, you can't believe without repenting.

It's impossible.

Repentance, Faith, and the New Birth

Now you said changing your life. Do you have to, if you say, if you think repentance is a change of life, do you have to change your life in order to come to faith? What'd you mean by that?

I just mean your life is going to change, right? I mean, instead of, uh, well, I mean, like we, we, we can, we can even see this in miniature or writ large. I don't know how you want to look at it with Kanye West.

You know, this is not the same brash person that was out there before. I mean, all the things he said, I mean, I'm, I can almost imagine he's embarrassed if you're listening to, you know, some, uh, one of these online radio channels and they play music from his new album.

And then the next song is one of his old ones that's filled with, you know, things that aren't so godly and holy and God honoring. And I think what I mean by changing your life is Jesus will change your life.

The Holy Spirit will change your life. I had somebody today tell me about a Christian who told them that they could not change exact words. I cannot change. Okay. Well, then if a Christian says that to me, that means this, that they're saying they don't have the Holy Spirit in them.

And in other words, they're confessing to me that they're not a Christian because the Holy Spirit says, or the Bible says that he who began a good work in you, namely the Holy Spirit caused you to be born again, will complete it.

So if he's not causing you to change, if there is no change in your life and you say, I cannot change. Well, if you say, well, I myself cannot change. Okay. But if you're saying I cannot change period, you're saying the Holy Spirit cannot change you, which is rubbish.

The Bible makes it very plain. The Holy Spirit is a lot more powerful than you are.

But only if you, by your own free will, allow him to do it.

This free will you talk about, I'm not really familiar with it. We have a will.

The question is free. I was riding a bicycle the other day and I was thinking about the island of righteousness that people have called the will and how, you know, semi-Pelagians have to have that in order to go along with or respond to or cooperate with the grace of God.

And so therefore God is not some, you know, great master of the sky and we're just robots. But whenever I think of the island of righteousness, I just think of it's Gilligan's Isle of Righteousness. I have a new theological show, Gilligan's Isle of Righteousness.

I named mine Tahiti.

I didn't want it to be, you know, some nasty place.

Why was that such a captivating show when we were kids?

Because it was on every day, you know, in reruns.

So it was made up. I mean, when I got home from school, first thing we did, probably mom made us wash our hands, wash them. Then we got snacks, right? We got some Ritz crackers and cheese, probably a Ritz crackers and peanut butter, right?

If you weren't, if you weren't rich and we weren't rich, but then you had the kind of off-brand, what were they called? Not high lows. What was the knockoff brand? Hydrox was the knockoff Oreo brand.

Only the rich people got the Oreos. We got Hydrox, I think. Yeah. I can't remember. And then we watched the match game and Tarzan and Gilligan's Island and stuff like that. Yeah. Rubbish TV.

Yeah. I mean, my, my brother and I were basically latchkey kids and I don't know if we have the snacks or not, but yeah, we used to watch a bunch of trash on TV, so game shows and my brother loved Westerns.

Oh, Wild Wild West, you know, that would be on. Loved it. Yeah.

Particular Repentance and Preaching Law and Gospel

Number four, Savoy declaration, as repentance is to be continued through the whole course of our lives upon the account of the body of death and the motions thereof. So it is every man's duty to repent of his particularly known sins, particular known sins particularly.

Now that is a great way of phrasing it. Your particular sins in a particular fashion. Therefore when you pray, we shouldn't pray, dear Lord, another day's done. Thank you for today. Please forgive me for all my sins.

In Jesus name. Amen. I'm not saying I don't like that prayer here. They're saying, make it particular, Lord, I looked at somebody longer than I should have and had thoughts of lust and I don't want to do that anymore.

Would you help me to stop that? I mean, and, and that's a particular thing.

And why would you say that's helpful?

Well you, you give me that sidewise look there and I'm just thinking, Hmm, I, when people ask questions, it seemed easy.

Maybe they're not so easy. Well, no, it's not that so much as I just think, you know, maybe it'll help the listener because I'm sure there are a lot of people listening who are just thinking, well, I do that.

I just go, Lord, forgive me my sins. You know, I know I'm a bad, bad Christian. I'm a bad example. I'm Mr. Bad example. Whatever. Right.

Well, let's think of one. Uh, pornography. If people say at the end of the day or after they've watched pornography, Lord, please forgive me for this. Please forgive me for all my sins. Well, I think what the Savoy is trying to get us to do is talk about particular sins and particularly repenting from those sins and acknowledging that I think I don't struggle with pornography, but if I did, I'd be thinking about, well, what are the commands of God?

And if he positively negatively commands, thou shall not commit adultery, the positive command should be, we could say from Ephesians five, love your wives or be a one man, one woman, man. I've got to get these things down correctly.

Uh, processing through why it's dishonorable, why, uh, if, if I tried to apply such a sin to the Lord Jesus, why I would be appalled because he never would do that. And thinking through the ramifications and then the results and what if my kids see, what about my testimony, uh, thinking through, and I think that's probably where you're going.

And that's probably what the Lord is wanting us to do because when we think it is harder.

For us to then do it the next time, it's consequential thinking. It's all those things, really recognizing the depth of our sin and, you know, to use the vernacular, owning it.

Yeah. I did this. I think in second Timothy chapter four, verse two, where that very popular call to preach the word from Paul to Timothy and all others that would stand in the pulpit, preach the word in season and out of season.

Right. So it's always in season. Um, preach the word in season and out of season, reprove. And if I remember rightly, that is a word that means this is sin. Pornography sin, reprove, rebuke you viewer of pornography.

It's not just sin. You're doing the sin. And then exhort would be where we get the word for the comforter, the Holy Spirit coming alongside of with more than encouragement. I think maybe encouraged might be better way to translate it than exhort.

And therefore you have both that. This is sin. You're doing the sin. Now let's come alongside and comfort with, with forgiveness found in Christ. Does that make sense? Yeah. Do you think some preachers are only reproving, rebuking and not really encouraging?

I don't think that I know that. Steve, you can be my shrink for a second. Why does that bother me so much? And I know because I've got daddy wounds, but I think, I think I was the guy who did that for too many years.

Well, you know, it's kind of like here, here's what my shrink, my 25 cents a Lucy thing, you know, I would say you were riding the pendulum one way and now that you realize your error, you're riding it the other way.

You know? And the question is, can you stop in the middle somewhere? I mean, that's the ultimate question. I mean, it's, it's kind of like repentance writ large, right? That you want to, you want to atone for the things that you did by not doing them.

And so, you know,.

Law and Gospel in Christian Preaching

Well, the only thing that I, I've got going for me, well, it's not the only thing, but I'm just hoping verse by verse teaching will keep me at 6pm. In other words, if I overdid it at 7pm, people could underdo a Bible preaching and not talking about any imperatives or anything and might underdo it at five.

I'm just hoping verse by verse keeps me at six. Find that balance. I know. But I would, I would say if you asked the average evangelical, would you rather have law preaching or gospel preaching? I think deep down, if it was a secret vote and they weren't really, you know, if they had a truth be told, I think they'd rather get whacked.

Law would win in a landslide, a total landslide. As we say here, law win in a wipeout, you know, would get 435 electoral votes or whatever it was, 400 and whatever the top is.

Okay, Steve, here's why I think that is. At the baseline, we're wired for that. So Adam in the garden, obey, do this and live. Don't eat that. Be fruitful, multiply.

We are creatures. The creator says, do something. We want to obey. We have a list of things to do, right? Every day, you know, we are driven by our own laws, even if it's not by God's law. Right.

Then when we sin, and Adam sinned, we sinned in Adam, then everything's just torqued because our desire for obedience then becomes, you know, I'm going to have my acceptance based on my half-hearted obedience.

But I think maybe the people like law the most now because they think they can check it off and do it. Right? I actually did it. Everything's fine. And like condign merit, congruent merit, you know, with the Roman Catholics, a little bit of my trying, a little bit of sincerity, God fills in the rest.

Hey, five ways to control the tongue. I did four of them. I'm 80 there.

But the problem is, you know, we talk about this all the time. All right, let's just say your pastor only gives you more law. So all week you've broken all kinds of laws of God, right? Love God and love your neighbor.

You've broken those two main ones. Then you give five more things that you have to do. I just have five more additional laws that I'm probably going to break.

Well, you know, if you keep four of them, that's pretty good, right? I'm 80 of the way to heaven. It's just, it doesn't work like that, folks.

I think if you just think law, gospel, teach both, you know, here's who you are. How about the wonderful intro to the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20? I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Here's what God has done. What a great God. What a great sovereign, suzerain king. Therefore, here comes the Ten Commandments. They're both there. I know I love law more because I like to give law more when I'm parenting without thinking.

Well, and you know what? Which one's easier to preach? I know. Law by a mile. And by the way, there are a lot of other law. I mean, how many laws in the Bible? If we look at the Old Testament, 613 according to rabbis.

So at least you could have a spicy variety, a diverse palette to preach from, right? But if it's just gospel, there's only one gospel.

Well, here, how about, hey, there's a good idea for a series. Do all the laws of the scripture and then do the one week on the gospel.

Yeah, but at least there'd be variety with the law. The gospel is just the gospel.

It'd be like 650 weeks of law, one week of gospel.

Oh, listen, I don't know if you're like me, but often I just say, Mike, you're so stupid. Mike, I mean, I hope you don't say that. Although some of you do on Facebook, I have to block you. I've had to block like four people on Facebook in the last six months.

And I just think they just want to just be mean for no reason. And I'm not going to argue on Facebook about this stuff. You can call me. You can email me, Mike at bbcchurch .org. I'll take your email if you're just nice about it.

And you can totally disagree. I don't care. Piece of cake. I know. Some kind of, you know, let's talk on social media about all your... All your foibles. Yeah, I think they blasted me last time for my friendships and associations with people from Bakersfield.

Oh, really? I'm not even from Bakersfield.

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 bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.