The Lie of Self Righteousness (Part 2)

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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

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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and we,

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Fred, are recording another show. Pretty soon people start writing in and calling in and making comments and stuff, and I usually say to myself,

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Twitter debates we don�t do, NOCO don�t do no Twitter debates, Facebook don�t do that, maybe we�ll type in once in a while a clarification question, but that�s about it.

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Sometimes we have to, you know, just people that are rude, we have to click delete on their comments, and on the

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YouTube channel, the NOCO YouTube channel, sometimes people say some things that I guess if they say it�s dumb,

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I just leave them on because then we all see their, we all see the argument as fallacious, but when people are mean, we just have to take them off, but somehow,

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I read emails still, and then Fred emails me things like, you know, what�s up with the new shows and all that, and then somehow

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I�m drugged into talking about them, dragged, drug, dragged, into talking about this whole thing.

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I think I�m going to have, Fred, by the way, give me an email, we�ll get you back on the show, and I want to confront you on national, international, yay, verily, international radio, so we can work this out once and for all, and we will continue the beatings until the morale improves, and we, you know,

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I�m tempted just to put all these, you get charged for the new shows, you know, where is that line where when you�re starting and no one knows you, of course you can�t charge for shows because then no one will listen, but eventually, you know, you become a big shot, somebody, you know, famous, and you can charge for whatever you want to charge for.

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So, when�s the switch flipped? When do you know? If you flip the switch too soon and start charging for shows, nobody listens at all.

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And if you never charge, then how can you make a buck on the back of sheep?

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How does that work? How can you do that? Well, for the time being, no -compromise radio will be, especially since I�m a pastor and I have a real job, a day job.

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This is just an afterthought. Pretty much it is. And you say, yeah, we know that.

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But whatever I�m studying for the church, whatever I�m involved in, I don�t pull up a bunch of stuff and have to study all day.

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In the old days, study a lot for the radio show, and now it�s just sit down and begin to talk. And you say to yourself, if you�d spend more time researching and studying, then it might be worth a download or two.

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Someone was mad at me and they said that I spend too much time on no -co.

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I said, well, I record between an hour and a half and an hour and 50 minutes a week.

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That�s what�s taken out of my life for the recording time of no -compromise radio. And so I don�t really study anymore or anything.

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I just sit down and do the shows and talk and it�s our own little entity. And I guess

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I could start doing it at nine o�clock at night at home. That would make you feel better. I studied home though, as well.

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And they said, I wanted them to say, oh, I didn�t know that. That�s hardly any time.

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If you work 70 hours a week, it�s hardly any time to take an hour and a half, two hours to record a couple, a couple, three shows.

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What is that by the way, Nebraska? A couple, three, a couple few shows, a double few, quadruple.

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But they said, yeah, we can tell your shows aren�t prepared like they used to be.

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Well, 1 ,500 shows ago, I guess maybe

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I was more prepared. I don�t know. I don�t know. This is our own little deal here.

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It�s like we just sit and talk and talk theological shop and then we have a point or two and then we move on with the terms of endearment.

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I�ve been talking a little bit about lies we believe. And last week, I believe last

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Thursday, I was talking about the lie that we don�t need as much righteousness as those wicked people over there.

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There are certain parts of town here in Boston. Those people, they need a lot more righteousness than our parts of town.

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So let�s see, how could I work this? The people in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and Concord, and Lexington, they don�t need near no so much righteousness as those people in Dorchester.

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Is Brockton a city? Downtown Boston. I don�t know. I�m just trying to think of cities.

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I don�t hardly go to any of those cities. And in Romans 1, we see the pagans and their unrighteousness, and it�s on full display.

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It�s turned up all the way. God has pushed them down the hill. And if you want to act like there�s no God, and we�re going to go crazy and insane, then

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I�m going to give you insanity turned all the way up. Think Nebuchadnezzar. And when you see people like that, what�s your response?

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Well, if you�re an unbeliever, you see people like that. You think, you know, I pay my taxes.

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Don�t cheat too much. I help people. I haven�t divorced my spouse yet.

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Yesterday, I went to the chiropractor, and we were talking. He knows I�m a pastor. And he said, you know, I can�t hardly believe it.

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I would say he�s 40. And he said, you know, all of our friends, I think my wife and I, he said, are the only ones who are still married.

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Everybody else is divorced. You know, they�ve got kids, and they�re all divorced. And I said, and I�m the weird one.

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I said to my chiropractor, I�ve been married 26 years to my wife. I think she�s a wonderful lady, and I can�t think of being with anybody else.

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I don�t want to be. She thrills my soul. She mesmerizes me.

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I�m infatuated with her. I can�t take my eyes off of her. And I�m the weird one. Right?

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I�m the weird one. So, self -righteousness is really deadly because in the minds of people, it doesn�t seem like it�s really unrighteousness.

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And until self -righteousness is seen as unrighteousness, you�ll have no desire, see no need for the 100 % righteousness of another.

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God�s perfect righteousness found in His Son, Jesus Christ. As long as you think,

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I can get righteousness through baptisms, through washings, through education, through catechisms, through cataclysmic convulsions.

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You can tell I didn�t prepare for this show. I�m just looking out the window, and I see the sun fade away.

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It�s a metaphor from how I feel today. I�m sick. Can�t say you�re sick before you preach.

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If your pastor gets up and says, �I�m sick today ,� and then preaches, that�s a bad move. Bad move, human pastor.

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You say, �Why ?� Well, because he�s basically telling you if this sermon bombs, it�s, �I�m blaming my sickness.�

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�It�s the woman you gave me, God.� It�s that kind of thing. If your pastor is sick, everybody�s going to know it.

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And they�ll even know he can�t deliver like he normally can, because he�s ill, and he sounds stuffy.

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And then you�ll know that he�s sick. �Hi, everybody. By the way, I just want to let you know today that I�m sick.�

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Duh! That is so lame. And you know, here�s the lamest part. I want to tell people, when

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I�m preaching, I want to say, �Man, I�m sick. I slept three hours last night.� This is terrible.

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It�s awful. But I�ve been trained not to. Now, on NoCo Radio, though,

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I can say whatever I want. Sunday mornings, I don�t usually say Calvinism or Tulip. I can grind that thing into the pulverization it needs to be driven into here on No Compromise Radio.

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And then you can write to me and say, �You Calvinist.� People that hate Calvinism, they never can spell it.

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If you can�t spell Calvinism, you can�t touch me. You can�t talk to me.

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Just kidding. It�s kind of like the Calvinists when they first get saved. You don�t know any of these words, and you say they�re

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Armenians. Now, I�ve actually met some Armenian Armenians.

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But in my old Bible study in North Hollywood, California, we had Calvinistic Armenians. You dig?

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Spurgeon. The plea of self -righteousness is self -contradictory upon another ground.

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For all that a self -righteous man pleads for is comparative righteousness. So when we look at Romans 2, verse 1, �Therefore you have no excuse,

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O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself.�

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He goes down to verse 3 and says, �Do you suppose, O man, you who judge those who practice such things, and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?

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Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God�s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

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But because of your heart, an impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God�s righteous judgment will be revealed.�

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Certainly, this Jewish moralizer, who�s an unbeliever, needs to be face -to -face confronted with his own or her own lack of righteousness.

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But it�s helpful for the Christians as well because we fall into the same trap. We have a little of our own righteousness.

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We are not depending on 100 % righteousness of Jesus Christ. If we remember grace, sovereign grace, and how we receive that from God as a gift, we�ll realize we aren�t better and that when we see people that we want to turn against and look down our noses with disdain and with trying to think of big words, what�s the approbation mean?

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I don�t know. I was thinking of a Gershwin word. It�s me biting on this little spit screen.

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What do they call these things? It says on the back, somewhere on here, S -H -U -R -E.

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This says it�s a popper stopper. That�s what that is.

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That�s all rehearsed. Spurgeon goes on to say, �I�m no worse than my neighbors.

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In fact, I�m a great deal better. I do not drink or swear. I do not commit fornication or adultery. I�m no thief.

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The laws of my country do not accuse, much less condemn me. I�m better than most men.� Spurgeon, just so.

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But then all that you claim is that you are righteous as compared with others. Do you not see that this is a very vain and fatal plea?

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Because you do, in fact, admit that you are not perfectly righteous, that there is some sin in you, only you claim there�s not so much in you as in another.

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Friends, true or false, the soul that sins will die. Yes, you need, therefore, righteousness.

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So quit looking at other people and think about the bar of God. God�s bar is

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His justice, complete justice, complete righteousness. It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

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You get into heaven by doing all the law, or you get into heaven by Jesus doing all the law, paying for your law -breaking.

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That�s appropriated to us through faith. Can you imagine, you go to a judge, and you have broken the law, and you�ve committed murder, and you say, �Well, yeah, but that man murdered two people.

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I only murdered one.� You�ve got one unwashed sin, murder our hatred in your heart, our lust in your heart.

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You don�t go to heaven. You need someone else�s righteousness. You say, �But

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I�m the judge. I�m condemning other people.

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That�s my job here.� Wait a second. No, no, no. You judge. You�re condemning other people tells me that you realize what�s going on, and now you play the hypocrite.

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When you look out there, and whoever you think is the worst sinner out there, maybe you think it�s an abortion doctor.

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Maybe you think it�s a homosexual. Maybe you think it�s somebody that cheats on their spouse.

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I don�t know. And then you get that in your heart.

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They�re worse than I am. I am superior. They are repugnant, and I am, in my mind, righteous.

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Their wickedness so overarches anything that I would do. The spotlight is on them.

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But on Judgment Day, on that day, Luther said there�s two days in his calendar, today and that day, that day of judgment.

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You�re not going to be able to plead relative morality. There will be inflexible righteousness needed 100%.

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And you are a lawbreaker. Of course I�m a lawbreaker, along with everyone in Romans chapter 1, those disobedient to parents, and sexually deviant, and the sexual sinners.

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Yes, but you know, these Gentiles, they�re sinful, and wicked, and debased, and depraved, and ad hocimos.

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But I, I�m religious. Okay, and that means what?

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Self -indulgent sin of Romans chapter 1, or self -righteousness, both damn.

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They�re both damning. Spurgeon, I�ve said it many times on this show. The greatest enemy to human souls is a self -righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation.

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I don�t need Jesus�s righteousness. I go my own way. I go off -road.

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That road over there that leads around Niagara Falls, I don�t need that. I go right over the falls.

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I do what I want. I�m my own man. I got my own strength. You don�t know who

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I am. I mean, it�s not like we say to ourselves,

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I don�t sin. We know we sin. But other people sin more.

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That�s the issue. Other people have rebelled more. We have to say to ourselves,

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I need Christ�s righteousness. I have not completely obeyed the law. I need an advocate.

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1 John 2, my little children, I�m writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the

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Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins and not only ours or not for ours only, to go with ESV, but also for the sins of the whole world.

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But I�ve got more righteousness than you. Sproul said, �Like

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Muslims, we assume that God will judge us on balance. If our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds, we will arrive safely in heaven.

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But alas, if our evil deeds outweigh our good ones, we will suffer wrath of God in hell.

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We may be marred by sin, but in no wise devastated by it, we still have the ability to balance our sins with our own righteousness.�

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This is the most monstrous lie of all. I think it was

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Byron who was telling me the story that if you have a service and you have the prostitute and the 15 -year -old homeschool kid both baptized, who gets the applause?

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Well, you think relative righteousness and you say, well, boy, that prostitute, she, drug addict, lived on the streets, whore, she needed like 95 % righteousness.

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And you know, the homeschool kid, she needed about 10%. After all, her skirts covered her knee.

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After all, she said, �Pastor Apendroth, and yes sir, and no sir.� After all, she was a good child.

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Friends, she needs 100 % righteousness and the prostitute needs 100 % righteousness.

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And therefore, we rejoice whether the person is a moralist, the person was a deist, the person was a non -Trinitarian, the person was an

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ISIS bomber. They need Christ's righteousness and they came to find out that they were unrighteous and even their self -righteousness was unrighteous and they needed the righteousness found in Christ Jesus.

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And it is revealed from faith to faith, only through faith. That's the point, all about faith. What about people that Jesus blasted?

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Let's think about it that way. Who did Jesus blast? The unrighteous or the self -righteous?

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See, now we've gone from preaching to meddling. The way we as Christians need to think about other people is they probably aren't as bad as I am, but I'm thankful I have been redeemed.

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I've been given righteousness of another and I need to look upon them with pity and compassion and love and mercy.

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I'll tell you what, I came out of seminary as a fire -breathing self -righteous.

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I don't even know what to say. I think I was saved. I think there was a little bit of compassion in there somewhere.

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I had a desire to proclaim the truth. There were some things in there that you could tell

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God had been working. There's no way they should have hired me as a pastor here in 1997 at 35 years old and I had been a

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Christian for six years. I mean, I guess you're supposed to speak kindly of the people at your church, but they had no idea what they're doing.

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I had no idea what

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I was doing either, so it was a perfect match made in West Boylston by the reservoir down by the causeway.

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Now, the Lord is good, patient, long -suffering. You have to learn the hard way as a kid from Nebraska to come out here, but I know myself, and while I've learned a few things theologically in the past few years that have revolutionized my view of the world, like federal representation,

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Romans 5, thanks to the teachings of S. Lewis Johnson, I think the thing that I'm most convicted by, most ashamed of, and most determined now to try to think rightly about is that you can just think of the most wicked person you know.

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They need 100 % righteousness of Christ. Unbelievers act like unbelievers, and I too today, even as a

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Christian, I'm resting on the work done by another. I have to be cognizant of the fact that I have a need for 100 % righteousness.

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And I don't need to earn that back or anything like that. I could never do that. It was freely granted to me and given through the non -meritorious instrument of faith.

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I know that. I get that. You dig? But then the way we look at people, if that's the lens, then you look at people like Jesus did, tax collectors and sinners.

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Guys are friends. Jesus is a friend of a glutton. He's going, Jesus. Jesus is going to Zacchaeus' house.

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Crazy. Crazy. The tragedy in life, not the heroin addict, it's the rich young ruler.

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He doesn't think he needs much of the righteousness of God. And even back in the Reformation, yes, we're sinful, but what are we going to do about it?

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What are we going to do about it? Well, we need to either flee to God's perfect righteousness found in his son, or you get that piecemealed through sacraments.

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I know I need Jesus, but you need him more. No wonder

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Luther always preached against self -righteousness. He said, he hardly ever preached a sermon without in vain against it, the righteousness of man.

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Quote, I find that I still cannot preach it down. Still men will boast in what they can do and mistake the path to heaven to be the road paved by their own merits and not a way besprinkled by the blood of the atonement of Christ Jesus.

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It's the doers of the law who are justified before God. How you doing regarding that?

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You loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. You kept the commands of God from your youth up.

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You've earned heaven. Or you say to yourself,

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I'm a fool and I have not been trusting in Christ Jesus who has paved the way for salvation and has taken the punishment.

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And he has earned a perfect robe of righteousness that he grants to me. Spurgeon, a great rock lies in your path to heaven, a mountain insurmountable, a gulf impassable, and by that road, no man shall ever enter into eternal life.

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Yes, but you can hear people get louder and you can hear people get more boisterous about what they've done in their life that's good and how they have their own righteousness.

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And then I hear Spurgeon say the words, whenever I hear an infidel saying hard things of Christ, but I don't need his atonement because I have enough righteousness of my own.

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It reminds me of the men of Moloch who beat the drums that they might not hear the screams of their own children.

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Imputed righteousness, I don't need it. Somebody else to pay for my sins,

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I don't need it. You must be born again, I don't need it.

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Forgiveness, I don't need it. Hope of eternal life,

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I don't need it. All the commandments I've kept from my youth, really?

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You can somehow make your own righteousness. Friends, you're a fool and you believe the lie.

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And the only hope for you is looking to the Lord Jesus Christ that the Father said, this is my beloved son with whom

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I'm well pleased. Jesus has righteousness for you. Why don't you ask him? 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.