The Pactum with Mike Abendroth (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Imputation of Adam’s Sin and Federal Representation

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and today is part two of a show that Pat Abendroth and I recorded here in Massachusetts, but we recorded it for the pactum, and I think you�ll be encouraged as we talk about books, we talk about the Lord, we talk about being brothers in Christ and brothers physically, and what the Lord has taught us over the years.

Enjoy today a recording for the pactum, but played on No Compromise Radio. So the Act of Obedience chapter by our friend Scott Clark is outstanding and super helpful, worth the $800 price tag or whatever it�s going for on Amazon these days.

No, you can get it on Kindle, cheap. I have been taught, especially with that John Murray book on the imputation of Adam�s sin. Is it federal? Is it seminal? Is it this? Is it that? Pelagian? All that other kind of stuff.

And of course, we realize we don�t become sinners because we sin. We sin because we�re sinners. But one of the things that Buchanan helped me with, and so did the Murray book, and I just opened it up and read this quote, �The direct imputation of the guilt of Adam�s first sin to his descendants is not necessarily exclusive of their personal guilt as individuals.

And he goes on and talks about representation and everything else. And that first sin was credited to everyone�s account, and you think of Romans chapter 5, and that helped me. And then I always say, we got credit for Adam�s sin, and consequently, we�re sinners by nature.

So that�s what Buchanan helped me to just, it�s just part of my, it rolls off my tongue now. We get credit for the first sin by God�s sovereign decree, federal representation, and consequently, we are born sinners.

But we�re just talking about kind of immediate imputation versus immediate in Murray. Awesome. How many stars? Five for sure. No brainer. Five for sure. All right. So you�re not going to be able to give us a number of stars for this next book because� In one way, I can, because I know who wrote it and who didn�t write it.

But you�re going to sound prideful and arrogant if you give it five stars. So the next book I have here is called Gospel, A 31 Day� Well, I can�t read underneath it because it says not for resale. So I have a pre-pub edition here in my hands.

A pack of people like that. They do. A special insight, special Gnostic knowledge. So it says Gospel Assurance, A 31 Guide to Assurance, but I couldn�t see the word assurance under gospel because it says not for resale, not for resale, not for resale.

So this is compiled by Mike Avendroff. It's not out yet, even though they have it listed on Amazon, I�ve heard. So talk to us about this book. I know it's obviously your book, but what's it about? Why are you doing it?

When can people get it? Okay. Well, I probably could promote it because it's got 31 days that will help people understand assurance better, written by other people. So I could say You could give it five stars.

But I wrote the 6 ,000-word intro. So that part's copyright. It's tainted. Pat, you, along with I and you, I, you and I We together. We together. Master's monarchs. We little men. A we little man was he.

As we've been maturing theologically, one thing leads to another, and if you get law gospel right, and you start thinking about sanctification, and you think third use of the law, God's not hammering me anymore with the law, he's guiding me with the law, oh, what does that do to the doctrine of assurance?

Oh, yes, subjective only, bad, morbid inspection, bad, oh, look to Christ Jesus first, and then 2 Peter 1 .5, yes, then subjectively look, etc. I thought the doctrine of assurance, Rome stole that, and the Reformation recovered the bondage of the will, it recovered sola fide, it recovered other things, and it recovered assurance of salvation.

Absolutely. I love to talk about assurance. I think I'm going to do a few-part series for American Gospel this fall. Lots of the conference speaking that I do is on assurance. Because you can have assurance at the beginning of your Christian experience.

It's not for later, after you've done enough good works. That might give you a different kind of assurance, but we have assurance at the very, very, very beginning, because how can we do that? Based upon what?

Well, it's interesting, because just as long as you treasure God to the ultimate and love God more than anything else, you get assurance. Don't listen to him, Pactum listeners. He's just toying with you.

Remember when John Piper said that on Twitter, if you don't desire God above everything else, you're not a Christian? I'm like, I kind of wanted to go on that bike ride today. You know, I was thinking bikes were more important today than the Lord, to my shame, but it's crazy-ville.

Well, I also know that we've just been seeing Mary's enclave at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, and she had assurance, Rump said. Paul did 2 Corinthians 12, but we don't get it, because it's a sin to have it.

So why? Because you're going to go crazy and you're not going to work at all. How do you get people to work? Therefore I thought to myself, I speak under the doctrine of assurance, and everyone asks me the question, Mike, what's the best book on assurance?

And I usually tell them, well, Romans, but... You like the Berkhoff book. Berkhoff is excellent. I like the Beeky... What's the name of it? Assurance of Faith, I think. That's excellent, and it's free, too, online.

There's a Packham episode on that you can find. Okay, right. Do you remember the number? I don't. Okay. And I like Beeky's book, Something About Assurance, or Knowing God and Assurance, because it talks about both objective assurance, trusting in Christ's work so there's no condemnation in Christ.

We know that early on. It also has got subjective stuff. Oh, look at the fruits and evidences, and if your assurance isn't perfect in life, it's okay because nothing in our life is perfect in terms of, you know, our holy living.

So our assurance is not based on our perfect assurance. Right. Isn't that good? That's a great line. That's a great line, so full of truth. I wanted then to say, here's some help on assurance. So what I did was, I got probably 20-some different authors, because some chapters are long enough, or articles, I had to split them into two.

But I didn't want to only say assurance, assurance, assurance, read the doctrine, read the doctrine, read the doctrine, because I've stolen Spurgeon's line. If you'd have no assurance, and you only study assurance and want assurance, it's like a dove that flies away, you can't catch it.

But if you study the Lord Jesus, and study His life, and remember Him, the dove of assurance settles down on your shoulder and just sits there. So in the book, there are chapters and days, a 31-day guide to assurance, it's not really devotional, but it's a guide, only about Jesus.

Here's who Jesus is, here's He's a gentle shepherd, He doesn't cast anyone out, He's not going to lose one, He doesn't condemn anybody because they're in Christ, etc., etc. So it's a mixture of articles by Horatius Bonar, Thomas Brooks, different theologians, Thomas Watson, Charles Spurgeon, did I say Spurgeon?

No, no, you didn't. And between articles about Jesus and learning the doctrine of assurance, Horatius Bonar, 31 days, you just read through it, there's a few quotes about assurance at the end of every day, there's some hymns at the back, I've got the introduction, and I thought, I want to teach on assurance, and they say, I'd like to learn more.

Here's a book. I like it. I'll give it five stars because it's my brother, and I need a place to sleep tonight. So five stars, Gospel Assurance, a 31-day guide to assurance. So available, you suppose, along about when?

Early September. I got my draft copy that you see there. I was carrying around in my back pocket in New York, sometimes just trying to read one of the days. Tempting fate. You wanted a pickpocket to take it.

I know. I had my wallet in my front pocket. I did too. I did too. Did you have a knife or anything on you? I cannot affirm nor deny that I may or may not have a knife. A mace? A knife. Hot as a handbag in a can of mace in New York.

In New York. Just got a place in New York. Okay, Bono. Next book we have here. How many have we done so far, I wonder? I think you have to eject one of them. Four, okay. Next one. I'm going to eject this one.

Revival and Revivalism

This is Revival and Revivalism by Ian H. Murray, published by Banner of Truth, subtitled The Making and Marring, Johnny Marring of American Evangelicalism, 1750 to 1858. Okay, you can eject it. Just a quick story.

That's not ejecting. Okay. I know. I know. Somebody, I went to a conference once and somebody said, can you come over to our house for dinner? I'm like, I just want to go home. I just want to relax. I don't want to do all this stuff, but I know what I'm supposed to do.

So I said no to self and I went over there and Ian Murray was also at the house. There was about five of us. And so I just got to sit next to Ian Murray for a couple of hours and talk and I liked that.

Nice. Interesting guy. Okay. Next one. Disciplines of a Godly Man by R. Kent Hughes is the next book for us to talk about. Do you think it's a good idea for men to be disciplined and godly? Yes. Is the answer to that.

It's good to be disciplined. It is very good. You look at all the commands in scripture. You think about athlete stuff. You think about soldier stuff. You think about farming. Think about how much work goes into being an athlete, a farmer, and a soldier.

I just told you today, God likes pictures, just not of his son for us. And therefore you see the Bible full of all kinds of command and work and sweat. There's a Greek word, kapia, it just sounds fun to say.

I mean, it's just work until you sweat. You're out there working in the yard, you sweat. That's the spiritual life, that we respond to God's grace and we want to work, not because we're going to earn our salvation or keep it, but out of the grace gratitude paradigm.

So you're going to give it five stars? So at Master's Seminary, we were required to read this book, along with Reformed Pastor, by the way, along with other books that were actually good. But we were required to read this book.

I think it was in one of those discipleship classes. I didn't think you ever went to a discipleship lab. The ideals. You know what, I think one time I went to one of Lance's or something, and then I opted out of the rest.

I went to one chapel in my life while I was there. Amazing. And that was for my senior testimony. And then I preached at chapel one time there before they pulled the plug on my... I don't think it's posted.

No, no, no. It's not posted. Because you criticized Tom Schreiner and John Piper for having Roman Catholic-ish views of justification. That's kind of weird. What happened was, I was trying to talk about the gospel and how the gospel is important.

And yes, it's all about what the Lord has done. And then once God saves us, you know, we respond and everything. But I was trying to get the ground of salvation and the fruit of salvation. I want to make sure our categories were there.

And I just said, it's easy to make mistakes. And let me give you a few quotes from good people, you know, godly people. I wasn't calling them, they weren't Christians. Let me give you a quote, and you tell me if it's good news or not.

And so then I got the both Moo and Schreiner commentaries on Romans, and something about no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, as long as you do the right thing type of thing. And I said, is that good news?

And the answer is, no, of course it's not good news. Who said it? Tom Schreiner. And I didn't know he was going to come to winter in several weeks. Politically incorrect. And he was going to be then hired to be on the adjunct faculty, which I was at the time of the master seminary.

And I didn't know it. I honestly didn't know it. And I was just trying to say, here's a quote from Baxter. Is it good news? No. Who said it? Richard Baxter. Here's a quote from Piper in the Saving Faith book that he endorsed for Schreiner.

And Schreiner, Moo, and somebody else, Matthew, somebody saved by allegiance alone. And I'm just trying to say, just make sure you don't make those errors. Right. Because they're contrary to justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

The doctrine upon which the church stands are false. Nevermind that. Right. And actually, the doctrine that John MacArthur teaches, right, that says active obedience, et cetera. And I was just trying to do what John would do.

Here's the truth. Here's something contrasting that. Avoid the other. But it didn't fit the narrative of the club. No. Oh, boy. All right. So back to masters. I had the book. Then I had discipleship classes here for the last 25 years with men.

I've regularly used this book by R. Kent Hughes. And there's some chapters in there, the one on marriage and how the man's got a wife and the wife's facial nerve is cut, and therefore the husband moves his lips in a certain way to match the weird kind of lips that now have been made because of the surgery, and he's so sweet, and it's tear-jerking.

There's some truth in the book, certainly, but I assigned it about five years ago. And we started reading it together, and I thought, this is not good. This is spiritual disciplines that are extra, right?

I think of the ordinary means of grace, preaching, sacraments. If you're continental reform, okay, prayer. That's what I think of. But this is all, and I think John Moffat does a good job in some Theocast article that he's got on spiritual disciplines.

This is kind of Roman Catholic stuff. And we've got the fasting, and we've got the, I don't think he's got journaling in here, but journaling. And we've got the special things, and they're all disciplines of a godly man, and I'm thinking, this is too much like Rome.

This is too much moralistic, just do these things, self-righteous promoting, not from the doctrine of guilt, grace, gratitude. So I don't really... So how many stars would you give the book? I just give it one star.

Okay, one star. Now, having said all of that, I think that Arkane Hughes is a godly man, and I really like him a lot. And interestingly enough... Here comes the good part right here. Yeah, here's the good part.

You get the good news. I have to do the bad news. I don't like the book. I wouldn't recommend the book. We used to use it. We used to recommend it. But I do know this about Arkane Hughes, and that is, he told me personally that later in life, having heard people, I think, like Graham Goldsworthy, and some who run in that world, I think they're Australians, biblical theology guys, he had a radical change in his perspective on things.

And I believe I'm correct in saying he said it was almost like getting born again, again, because to see that the Bible has these categories, and it's more redemptive historical, and it's more gospel-centered.

And so we had a wonderful conversation about it and how it changes everything, because now you understand that we do things out of gratitude. We shouldn't assume the gospel, because before you know it, we'll deny the gospel.

And so it made me really happy. So he's like, where did you learn this? Where did you learn redemptive historical? I know you didn't at your seminary where you went. And so we had a wonderful lunch together at Stokes, downtown Omaha, and it's probably sweeter fellowship because of having this in common.

It's so wonderful to hear those stories, because we've seen the Lord do that in our own lives. And then we see it in others. And that's why when you read, for instance, John Owen, and he's got 16 volumes in that Banner of Truth section, okay, when did he write that?

Right? At the end of his life, it was the glory of Christ. Early on, it was a display of Arminianism. The younger guys just critiquing, and at the end, it's the beauty of Christ. And of course, I look at my books and think, oh, what did I write in some of those earlier ones?

Or what did I preach 10 years ago about 1 Corinthians 11 and teaching eternal functional subordination, which I now repent of and say I'd never do, and it's wrong. So I think that happened with Kent Hughes.

One more funny thing about him is he sent me an email response one time, and it said, instead of saying, hello, Pat, it said, hell, Pat. It's so typo. And so I said something kind of snarky back to him and really kind of pushed it.

And he said, literally, he was on the floor laughing his head off. He couldn't believe it. And then he said, I will speak for you anytime, anywhere, no honorarium, nothing, just make sure that you never

Don't show that to anyone. So here we are on the pack, I'm talking about it, but it was all in good fun. Can I say something else before you show me the last book? We at our house did take one of the R. Kent Hughes things and use it sometimes.

Not a whole lot, but he had some Disciplines of a Godly Family type of book, right? And then his wife wrote one, Disciplines of a Godly Woman, maybe. And he had something called Pajama Rides for children.

I know Pajama Rides. We did this very thing. Okay. And so you tuck the kids in bed, they're five, eight, 10, something like that. And you go through the Bible reading and your prayers and tuck them in.

And little do they know, you and your wife know, that you're going to bolt in in about three minutes and scream Pajama Ride. They have to get in the car with their pajamas, they put their little slippers on and you go get an ice cream someplace or something fun.

See that's just a good idea that a family did. It's not a mandate. And I loved it when R. Kent Hughes said, the kids loved it. And then he had to speak at Moody or some big Bible conference and everything else.

And so he went to bed early one night. Now the kids are all 18, 19, they're older, and he has to go to bed early, he has to speak to thousands of people. Five minutes later, the kids burst into the room and say Pajama Ride.

And he went. Fun. I like Kent Hughes. I have become friendly, I don't know if we're best friends, but we go on bike rides and stuff together. The singer Steve Green, Steve Green has sung a lot of songs that I really enjoy.

And then he's got the one, may all who come behind us find us faithful. And of course we could riff on that a little bit. He got up and he introduced a song and I wrote this song and such and such. I just want everybody to know, of course, it's our desire to be faithful, but it's really about faith in the Lord Jesus because he's the faithful one.

And because of him and because of the spirit that he sent to dwell in us, this is what we can strive to be. But, you know, we really want to live our lives so that people will say he was a believer in the Lord Jesus no matter what.

Another great example of where somebody changed theologically, right? I talked to him afterward and I said, I cannot believe that. I love the song that I hated the song. Now I love it that you talk about the song and he's a marrow man.

We talked about marrow theology over and over. I love it. Okay. Last book is this book called Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund. And I know this book is all the rage or all the hate. I've not read the book.

We have the book in our bookstore because, well, I won't get into that, but I'm just going to say that, boy, people love this book or people despise this book. How many stars, first of all, would you give it?

There's none of this well stuff. I'm going to give it five stars. All right. Five stars. Yeah. I'm all ears. Okay. You know how I like to be precise. Remember, sometimes they'd call some theologians precisionists.

I want to be precise and I want to make sure I teach the right thing. I don't like error, and you can find some error in this book, right? I don't believe God is passable. I believe he's impassable. I don't believe he has emotions.

I don't believe if he had emotions, they could change. I mean, there's things like that. You can find some errors in the book. Okay. But it is a refreshing look at the compassion and mercy of a Savior, and how does he deal with a bruised reed?

How is he compassionate on a candle wick that is going to get snuffed out? How does he deal with sinful Christians? And of course, it's based on Thomas Goodwin's book, The Heart of Christ or something like that.

And I just think it's refreshing, sometimes maybe a little too emotional. Some people think, well, you know what? It doesn't give you other attributes of God. And that's kind of their critique. And I go, well, the Holiness of God book doesn't either by R .C. Sproul, right?

It just talks about God's holiness. And I think this is a good reminder for people who sit underneath legal preaching, the tincture of legalism and the tincture of you better obey or else. If you've sat underneath preaching that doesn't understand first use of the law, God's judging you and you better do what he says or else, one strike and you're out.

It's a mirror, the law is. And the difference between third use of the law, this is God's guide for your good and for his glory. And this directs you and norm is your norm. And if you've sat on a preaching that doesn't know the two, that doesn't know law gospel, that doesn't know you should be preaching about Christ in every sermon, that doesn't know duplex gratia, Christ for pardon, Christ for power, that is very Lord shippy.

This is a good book for you to read because you think, oh, you mean God's not mad at me? You mean God loves me? This is the heart of Christ. I mean, here's what I remember the book, not even opening it up.

89 chapters of the gospels, right? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John combine them together, 89 chapters. And there's only one verse that talks about the heart of Jesus. Come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest for I am gentle and lowly at heart.

And it's made me appreciate the Lord's love for me a lot. That doesn't make the book good because somehow it affected me. But Crossway, I've got problems with Crossway. They said, hey, you want a bunch of books?

Yeah, sure. How many can we have? 240. If you come to our visitation room, we give you a free book. And I know, you know, I don't know if Phil's son, Jesse, has pulled the article. I think it went out for a while critiquing the book and then it got pulled.

Maybe it's still out there or not. I'm not sure. There's some people have some problems with it. But I think it's more from the maybe the Wesleyan camp, the Lord shipping camp, pound of flesh kind of preaching.

Yeah. Good. That's great. I will read the book based upon your five star recommendation. Awesome. Now, I did say to myself, after the review that was out and a couple of negative things that were said, I probably should reread it.

And I will say this disclaimer, I have some theological issues with Dane's theology, Dane Ortlund. There's so many Ortlunds, like there's so many Abendrons. I can't keep it straight. That made me think, well, maybe I should read it again with a more discerning eye.

Because if you've got problems elsewhere, maybe you've got problems more here. So I know there's a passability thing in the footnotes or something else, but I thought I'm going to reread it, but I think I'm going to be blessed when I do.

Closing Remarks and Contact Information

Okay. Mike, this has been fun. Thank you so much. I'm thankful for you. I'm thankful for the Lord's work in your life and your ministry. If you want to get in touch with Mike, you can find him easily.

No Compromise Radio is not hard to find. They are on Twitter. You can find their website. You can just do a Google search and you will find him and be able to be in touch with him. Thank you for listening to The Pactum.

You can find us and all the socials, all the places. We're on Twitter. We are on Instagram. You can go to our website also. Thank you for listening and we will see you next time on The Pactum.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's Word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.