Transactional Christianity (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, ìBut we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour ,î 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 isnít for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as weíre called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Hereís our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.

Michael E. Abendroth here. Iíve been putting that pause in, that breath, ever since the lung problems, but I think Iím going to have to take that out. I donít know why I do that now. What do we have going on today in NoCo world?

Some people in their podcasts, they talk about what theyíve had to eat lately. Letís see, what have I had to eat lately? Thatís one thing at NoCo we havenít really ever done, talk about, maybe we talk about coffee and drinking liquids on the air, which I havenít done for quite some time, so here we go.

Mm-hmm. Peach coffee. But we never really talk about food. This is New England, so we donít have a lot of spicy food here. If you like hot salsa for your Mexican food, that would be chopped up tomatoes, maybe with a little onion.

Just kidding. I had some coconut oil-based chocolate the other day with cayenne pepper. We were up in North Conway, New Hampshire, and it was hot. I usually have a hankering for spicy things. I probably, compared to most people, like it spicier.

Not compared to every person, but if somethingís served, I like to have some spice around. I like a little extra salt, and I like, not even to get the flavor, but just the flavor of the food, but I just like salt in general.

I also like maybe some ghost pepper flakes or something to ladle on there if it needs a little bit more kick. But that chocolate. So I got online, they were like five bucks a bar, little squares, and they ship to your house with dry ice even.

I have 12 of those bars. So thereís my little food tidbit. I canít remember the name of the company. If youíre dying to know, let me know. Itís one of the best chocolate bars Iíve ever had in my entire life.

Itís the kind of chocolate bar that you donít want to share with your wife. You want to just take a little piece and, you know, you hide it in that special drawer or sock drawer or something that you want to try to hide it.

Fourteen inches of snow, allegedly, for tomorrow? Crazy. Today I want to talk a little bit more about transactional Christianity. Thereís no Z in transactual. I was listening to Pat Ebenroth the other day on the Pactum, you ought to listen to the Pactum.

I like Heidel cast. I like Pactum. I like, what else do I like? Oh, thereís all kinds of shows on there. I should probably pull up. But anyway, what am I talking about? Oh, transactional. Transactional versus evangelicalish.

Kitch. Kitch. I donít know, Pat. Iím not so sure I like that. Iíll get Pat on here soon. But anyway, transactional Christianity is something that we all need to fight. And that fight is initial salvation.

If I do this, then God can save me. Something antecedent or before faith. If I stop sinning, then God can save me. I canít stop sinning, so then maybe could I never be saved? That kind of false thinking.

I will do this, then God does that. When Heís the one that does the saving, including with Theodore Beza, even creating in us and giving us faith, right? Itís a gift. And for Christians, we struggle with transactional Christianity because we live in a workspace world.

Our conscience is works. Our relationship with people at work is transactional. Business is transactional with exchanges. And sometimes even our marriages or with our children. It just infects and affects everything.

And we see its effects. See what I did there? Aís and Eís are important when it comes to affects and effects. I donít want you to be infected with effects as a verb. Effects, effectual call. Affectual call.

Infectual call. So we talked a little bit about, if I do this, then God does that. And how thatís just wrong. If I have a devotional, quiet time, God loves me more today. Godís more happy with me today.

We forget about union with Christ and how weíre in Christ. And therefore, Godís always happy with us. Certainly, He disciplines us. Iím not saying He does not. But He loves us because He loves His Son.

And weíre in Christ. And so He sees us, not with any sins that are paid for, and with a perfectly earned, meritorious, law-keeping righteousness. Can I make that as covenantal as possible? I think actually Patti Benroth would like that kind of talk.

If I do this, then God does that. I want the transactional to be the other way around. I actually want it to be, God reveals Himself in Scripture. God tells us something about Himself. God reveals Himself to us in time and shows us the beauty of His Son.

God, whatever does His work first, Heís the initiator, and we respond. Thatís the way it should work. We were guilty in Adam in our own sins. God graced us. The triune God graced us. The Father sent the Son.

The unbegotten Father sends the begotten Son. And then the Father and the Son, do I want to say send, or the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and from the Son. Then we respond. And sometimes itís kind of easy to figure out what the response should be.

And thatís what weíre going to talk about today on No Compromise Radio from Ephesians 4. Hereís what Heís going to basically say in the first 16 verses of Ephesians 4. Since God has done what Heís done, chapters 1, 2, and 3, things like giving you every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, chose you before the foundation of the world, redeemed you by the blood of Jesus Christ, you have forgiveness of sins, sealed you to the day of redemption, brought Jews and Gentiles together in the church, one new man, Prince of Peace, revealed to you the mysteries of the ages.

The angels didnít even know. We only know because you, God, have revealed them to us. We understand the depth of your love toward us. And since thatís all happened, well, how do we respond? And I think generally, God, we want to glorify you.

God, we want to have evidence of fruit and thankfulness. Weíd like to obey you and live a holy life. And thatís what Heís saying in Ephesians 4, right? ÌWalk in a manner worthy of your calling .î And He uses that language, calling, called, call, three times there.

So remember, the general call is, hey, belief. The effectual call is the Spirit of God takes those preached words and regenerates a person, etc. Thatís the effectual call. Since God has done that monergistically, alone, Him alone working, whatís your response?

And the response is, hmm, I didnít contribute anything to my salvation except sin. I should be humble. In a world of self-esteem, of self-expression, pride is a virtue. We ought to be humble people.

We ought to be patient people. We ought to be gentle people. We ought to forbear with one another. Thatís Ephesians 2. So thatís the first little response cycle. God has done it all. Well, we should probably put our humble hats on, right?

Secondly, God has unified the church, one faith, one Lord, one baptism. He goes on to talk about all that in verses 4, 5, and 6, all the seven ones there. Whatís our response? Well, if God has unified us, Jesus prayed for that unity, and it came about, well then, shouldnít I strive to be unified with other people?

Isnít that kind of the Godís work, and then I respond? Not transactional, but more of a response. God did all the calling. I should be humble. God is stressing unity and has gone to great lengths to make that unity true.

I should try to promote unity. And then lastly, He, God, here specifically the Son, has given spiritually equipped men, like apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers, and of course others, but theyíre foundationally, Heís given everything that the church needs for growth, unity, maturity.

What do we do if thatís happened? Well, to be thankful, to speak the truth in love, to build up the body, to not be tossed to and fro. Thatís the way this works. Transactional isnít, you do this and Iíll do that.

If you must have the word transactional, God, you have done that, therefore it behooves me, it would be wise of me, not to keep my salvation, not to have my final justification secured, not any of that stuff, but just with the guilt, grace, gratitude paradigm, God has done all this for me, then I should respond.

Yes, generally with gratitude, but specifically if God calls, and then I should be not patting myself on the back, I didnít do anything I received. That should be my attitude. Godís concerned about unity, and therefore I should be concerned about unity.

God is equipping the church, I should, since Iíve been equipped to serve, I should serve and want the same things that God wants when it comes to why would God equip the church? To grow the church, to mature the church, to guard the church from being tossed to and fro, methods and schemes of people, they get caught up in all that stuff, and therefore I should respond with growth, and maybe I should respond with a gross growth, a lot of growth.

So thatís what Iím after here in Ephesians 4, and I just think itís a good template, itís a good model. This is our response to God, the sanctifier. Weíre saying no to sin, yes to righteousness, we are enabled to do that, we are worked upon to do that, and we do respond.

We respond with faith, yes, this is all true and itís happening, and then we add to our faith virtue and moral excellence and perseverance with love, etc., 2 Peter 1. Since God has called you, you should be humble.

Since God put a priority on the unity of the church, you should strive to maintain the unity of the church. Since God equips the church for growth, you should grow. See how that works? It is not, your Christian friend.

If Iím humble, God will call me, God will love me. If Iím gentle, God will call me, God will love me. If I bear with other peopleís burdens, then Heíll do that. If I work on making sure thereís no factions, and that Iím striving for unity in the church, then God will love me.

If I use my spiritual gift, and Iím trying to speak the truth in love, and build one another up, and Iím thankful for what God has given with apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastor-teachers, then God will love me.

Thatís not the transaction. But, dear friend, thatís how you do things left to yourself. And I know it, because thatís how I... I guess we need to get the transactions out of our life when it comes to ìI do this, then God does that .î I mean, if we think about it, what am I able to do anyway in my own strength?

What do I have that I havenít received? So, I guess maybe I could trick myself with, well, if I didnít really want to do something anyway for God, Godís already put that in my heart and enabled me in Ephesians 3 .16 to give me the power to be able to do it in my inner man.

So, then the transaction life doesnít work, because God has already done the work before I want to do the work. So, why would I want to do the work before the work and after the work and then think that if I do the work, God will love me when Heís already done the work in me as Iím working?

Man, thatíll make you rearrange your chair. Peteís coffee. Fourteen inches of snow. Letís just try to get away from this. And letís try to teach our children. Letís try to teach our relationships, even with our spouses.

Itís not the transaction of love, because thatís everything that agape isnít. Three times in this section, I think in chapter 3 and chapter 4, maybe four times, in love, in agape, self-sacrificial love that wants the best for the other person.

Of course, we see how God loves the world and at His own expense sends His own Son for us, because it was glorifying to Him and we will receive good. It will be good for us not to be punished in hell for eternity.

God calls. Weíre humble. Godís unified. Weíre eager to maintain that. God gifts the church for growth. We want to grow. Use our gifts. Thatís the Christian life. And it can be with any particular law.

It can be with any particular exhortation. But we, left to ourselves, somehow flip everything around. I mean, even at the funeral that I did a while ago for my friend Ray Johnson. I canít believe Rayís in glory.

But at the end of the service, because there was a scripture reading read by his nephew and then the gospel preached in a letter from one of the family members in a memory that was the gospel preached.

I preached the gospel during the message time. I said at the very end, before I give you a benediction, I want you to realize that very uniquely you heard today that God had graced this manís life and therefore He wanted to respond with being gracious to other people.

God was good to this man, particularly sending the Lord Jesus to die for him, and therefore He wanted to be good. God is true and faithful and therefore this man wanted to respond with honesty because He was known for being honest and keeping His word.

But what I did not say today at this funeral was, since this man was honest and good and generous, therefore Heís in heaven. Thatís most funerals, right? With an unbeliever or with a sad sack of a so-called pastor who gets up there and just wants to tickle ears.

Thatís not the direction this is going. We need to think about it in a proper focus. Thatís why even Hebrews 12, fixing our eyes on Jesus, because when your eyes are fixed on who God is, then you realize Heís active, Iím passive.

You think of divine passives in 1 Corinthians 6, washed, sanctified, justified. Forget the WSJ for Wall Street Journal. Itís washed, sanctified, justified. Or if youíre from the Midwest, washed. Do you wash your clothes?

No clothes washer. I never figured that out because in the Midwest, Nebraska, we didnít have a New England accent. We didnít have a New York accent. We didnít have an English accent, Scottish accent, Irish accent, not even Welsh.

But we got the R in there because after the A goes the R. Worshen. I donít even think we say that here in New England. Worsh. We say wash. Wash your car, car pack. Hey, schmad pack. Thatís so funny, isnít it?

When I hear people talk like that, I just think, Iím home. 25 years, Iím home. Iíve lived here in New England more than Iíve lived any other place. Crazy. God calls. We respond with humility, lowliness.

Whatís the chief of all graces, Augustine said? Humility, humility, humility. Actually, he wrote, Humilitas, humilitas, humilitas. We want to assert ourselves, exert ourselves, advertise ourselves, esteem ourselves.

No, no. We donít have anything. Weíre not important. Iím replaceable. Thatís right thinking if God did all the calling. Right? Whatís our ambition? Well, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to the Lord.

Nothing about my ministry, my church, my radio show, thriving off of everybody elseís praise. What has God done for me? And I respond. I do like that story of George Washington Carver, and he did all kinds of stuff with what?

The peanut. And he developed a lot of stuff with peanuts. Hereís what the account states about George Washington Carver, quoting himself, ìWhen I was young, I said to God, ìGod, tell me the mystery of the universe.

God answered, not literally, but for the sake of this, ìThat knowledge is reserved for me alone. So I said, ìGod, tell me the mystery of the peanut. Then God said, ìWell, George, thatís more nearly your size.

Philippians 2, do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, let each of you regard one another as more important than himself. Do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others .î 2 Corinthians 10, ìI, Paul, may entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Jesus our Christ, I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away .î I mean, this is the attitude that Jesus had, right?

He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form.

He humbled himself. You realize what God has done and how heís called you out of miry sin and clay and depths of depravity, and you respond with humility. Whatís the next one? Gentleness. Itís not weakness, itís everythingís under control.

Jesus was called gentle, handled with care, going to be gentle around other people. Theyíre not my people. Ministry, self-mastery. We have to be careful. Weíre patient, long-suffering. Verse 2, God has called us, so how do we act?

See, this is the way. This is the way. All right. I will admit it. I love Star Wars in 78 when it first came out, obviously. The first three that were released, I watched. I mean, thereís just nothing like it, right?

Can you imagine Star Wars? I mean, I love Star Trek, but then Star Wars. And I remember the theater I went to and then we just stayed for the second showing because itís just so incredible. Lightspeed and all that stuff.

But Iím not really that impressed with all the other Star Wars. I couldnít even tell you anything. Maybe who would I talk about? Darth Maul or something? I mean, thatís about the only person I remember.

But I watched The Mandalorian and thought, okay. And then I just watched Boba Fett. Whatever the annals of Boba Fett or the lifestyle of Boba Fett or whatever. This is the way. Oh, Iím so sorry to have to admit that.

This is the way. But I watched it on the life cycle where Iím trying to get my lungs back in shape, which doesnít even really get your lungs back in shape. Only time does that. But might as well exercise a little bit.

And actually, after yesterdayís 22 miles on the bicycle, my legs were cramped in the middle of the night like I went on an 80-mile ride. I went on some slow 22-mile ride, which Iím thankful for, but man, Iím old.

Iím ready for a nap today after that bike ride. Who would think after a 22-mile ride? It used to take me just a little over an hour to do that, but not any longer. God calls us. We respond with patience.

Long fuse. Not wanting to fight. You know what? Iím not going to fight. Iím just going to say no to that. Iím going to be long-tempered. Step on my toes if you want. I put up with difficult people. Not to get God to love me.

Thatís just not the point. When 1 Corinthians 13 says, ìLove does not take into account a wrong suffered .î I want to obey God because itís good for me. Itís a guide for me. And it reflects Godís good nature.

And it gives Him glory. I want to be full of thankfulness and gratitude. And the same thing. Bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4. I mean, whatís that old poem? To dwell above with saints we love?

Oh, that will be glory. But to live below with saints we know, well, thatís another story. Bearing with. Thatís putting up with each other in love. ÌHow long shall I put up with you ?î Jesus said in Mark 9, 19.

In love. Itís not merited. Itís not earned. Itís not deserved. Itís over and over and over because love covers what? A multitude of sins. This is the way. I wonder what the Message Bible says regarding this.

Iíve got one minute to fill. And if you never know how to fill that one minute, the Message Small B Bible never lets you down in being bad. Okay. Iím here in Ephesians chapter 4. What do you think it says?

In light of all this, well, thatís not too bad. Hereís what I want you to do. While Iím locked up here, a prisoner for the master, I want you to get out there and walk. Better yet, run. On the road God called you to travel.

Thatís a horrible translation. I donít want any of you sitting around in your hands. I donít want anyone strolling off down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline, not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

That is the worst Iíve ever read. I donít have time to dissect it. But my name is Mike Avendroth.

This is No Compromise Radio. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Avendroth 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 Godís 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. Weíre right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.