Sacrifice Done or Must be Done

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you."

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the

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

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I don't know how many shows we've done, but we've done quite a few.

And I taped three yesterday, which was March 1st, and so now you know what today is. Still looking outside, seeing the beautiful snow.

You might want to type into your ESV application the word snow and just look at all the different references to snow in the

Bible. Quite fascinating, I must admit. Well, enough of Rick Warren building bridges to Muslims, enough with Lenten tattoos.

How about a Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary on franciscan -sfo .org,

Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Bonaventure. Just once in a while I'm just going to read these, because people want to say that the

Roman Catholics don't worship Mary, and so they just pick a different word. It's called venerate. But once in a while we have to, we're just going to read one of these just for fun.

Psalm 51, of course, David had sinned by sleeping with Bathsheba.

He killed Uriah, sinned against Israel, and of course he says, against you and you only,

God, have I sinned and done evil in your sight, created me a clean heart, O God, David says earlier.

With great language, creation word is used only of God, creating out of nothing.

God, could you create in me a clean heart? What a great passage. I wonder what

Bonaventure saw in Psalm 51. Matter of fact, I'm going to read part of Psalm 51 first, so then you can see that I'm making up no lies.

I tell you, no lies. Psalm 51, where's Steve Cooley when I need him?

Steve? If I shout really loudly, maybe he's next door. Oh no, he's in California. Okay, created me a clean heart,

O God, that's actually after. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have

I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

Behold I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in the truth and the inward being, delight in truth and the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than what? Snow. Let me hear joy and gladness, let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Created me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit."

And it does go on to say a few things. So as St. Bonaventure reflected upon that psalm, he thought he would have a psalter that would be for Mary, and so as he reflected upon that psalm, this is what he came up with.

Why dost thou, glory and malice, O malignant serpent and infernal dragon, submit thy head to the woman by whose power thou art plunged into hell?

Crush him, O lady, with the foot of thy power. Arise, and scatter his malice. Extinguish his might, and reduce his strength to ashes.

That living way may exalt thy name, referring to Mary, and with joyful soul we may give praise to thee.

Glory to the Father, etc. Okay, and you think

I can make this up. Well, when you want to see Mary with a Marian hermeneutic,

I guess you see her everywhere, but I just didn't happen to see her in Psalm 51. Maybe you'll have to read the rest of the psalm to see if I'm making it up.

Read verses 14 through 19 and see if you see any references to Mary. I do have in front of me also the

Impossible Mormon Gospel, and so you might want to pull this up online. It's a very interesting page.

It's called, if you go to smithbusters .com, we have the

Impossible Mormon and then quote gospel, end quote.

Let's see what we have here. I'm just going to read some of these. Probably I should have Steve around here since he was the ex -Mormon.

It's got a flow chart on the front, and it's got a lot of stuff that you have to do.

Now, I'm going to read some of these things, and here's what I want you to think if you're no compromise radio listener. There are two religions in the world.

One religion, we'll call it paganism, we'll call it religionanity, we'll call it

Hannity and Combs, we'll call it do something.

And so we have sacrifices that we need to make to God to make him pleased. And so you can think of the old days and maybe some science fiction show, some

Star Trek show, there's a God and he needs things, and you have to appease him. And so sometimes maybe that God might like some apples, maybe he might like some pears or a fruit basket, some oranges, and you set it out there.

The problem is, since that God's fake, since he's not really real, he doesn't have ears to hear or eyes to see, and certainly not a mouth to eat.

He does have a mouth, you could probably jam a grape in there to some degree, but he won't consume them because he's made up.

Although demons, according to 1 Corinthians 10, are energizing the people to do the worship of the vain, idle gods made of sticks and stones and material.

But you try to have to sacrifice for God. You have to do something to make God like you. After all, people know they're sinful, they know they're bad, they know they're wicked, they know they're dysfunctional, they know they're something.

And so they realize there's a consciousness of God, eternity has been set in their heart according to Solomon, the preacher in Ecclesiastes.

And so how do you get the monkey off your back? Well, you do something.

And so, you know, your wife's mad at you, you buy her some flowers or something. That literally wouldn't work for me, because my wife doesn't really like flowers, she likes something tangible.

So I learned a long time ago to buy her M &M's. I'm just kidding. Oh man,

I'm going to have my wife on here, Mrs. No Compromises is going to be coming on soon.

Super great lady. Anyway, back to this whole idea of two religions. And the religion that says you have to do something.

Get baptized, get consecrated, irrigated, fabricated.

You need to do something. And it's just built into our systems. Because of the fall, we think we have to do something to get

God to love us. We are getter done people. We know that we should do something.

Well, because of the fall, and because Adam tried to do something, but he failed, we no longer can do anything to please

God. Because as unbelievers, we have been affected by the fall, and we are then consequently sinners by nature, and then by action, deed, everything else.

And whatever we do, we do with dirty, sinful hands, and we have a dirty, sinful heart that offers these.

And when a holy God requires perfection and righteous deeds, we can't do that.

And so we fall short of God's glory. We sin. We have transgressions.

We have trespasses. We have iniquities. Six words for sin in the Old Testament, six words for sin in the

New Testament. We fall short. We miss the mark. There are all kinds of issues. And so if we can't please

God, then He is the one that has to please

Himself. He is the one that has to make sacrifice. And so we try to make sacrifices, and whatever those are, we give money to God.

We become members. We are in the Oprah Book Club and read a book about religion. Whatever it is, we try to appease

God, because we are works -righteousness based. But sadly, again, like I said, it didn't work out so well with Adam.

It didn't work out so well with Israel. It's not working out so well with us. Jesus was sent by the

Father in the Great Commission, the capital T, Great Commission. And it was determined by the

Trinity, before time began, to send the Son. The Father gladly sent the

Son, the Son gladly went, and the Spirit of God gladly helped the Son as He went. That Son, Christ Jesus, was to die for a certain group of people that the

Father had given Him and that the Spirit of God would one day, and is still is, still regenerating people today, some of those that the

Father has given Him. Eventually, He will regenerate all those. This is all done by God.

Where were you in eternity past? Nowhere. Where were you at Calvary? Nowhere. Where were you when the

Spirit of God regenerated you? Well, you were there, that's for sure, except you weren't worshiping

God, you were blaspheming God. You were running from God. Even though you said you went to church, even though you said you were a

Christian, even though you had been baptized, even though, like me, I was at the Lutheran Church, mission trips, baptism, all these kind of issues.

Two religions of the world. One, we try to please God by what we do, and then what

God has done in eternity past at Calvary, and then His continuing to do now as the

Holy Spirit regenerates people, seals them to the day of redemption.

So if you want to find a false religion, you look at the cross and see what God has done according to their manual, and then you see the things that they require of you.

And so certainly Mormonism is a false cult. It's blasphemous. I mean,

I'm sure you're asking the question, could we elect a Mormon president? That isn't the issue. I don't think he's got a chance, but I'd rather have him president than our current professing

Christian president. But on this impossible gospel of the

Mormons, I'm just going to ask some questions that have some documentation here regarding the

Mormon gospel, and it's got all kinds of green arrows. If you do this, then do that.

Moroni 10 .32, yea, come unto Christ and be perfected in him. Two, if ye shall deny yourself all ungodliness and love

God with all your might, mind, and strength, then his grace is sufficient for you. Question, when does grace apply?

Answer, only after you've met all the requirements. Question, what is ungodliness? Are you denying yourself of all of it?

If you do this, then you get grace. That's the implication here in this Smithbusters deal.

Second Nephi 25 .23, we know that it is by grace we are saved after all we can do.

By the way, I was in a Salt Lake City hotel once, Marriott I believe, and they had the

Book of Mormon there, and I called the front desk and said, could I please have the Book of Mormon, because I needed one just to have, since this is my work, my living, and they said, well, we'll send someone up with one, and I said, no,

I don't really want to do that, but can I just take one? I mean, I could have taken it, what would they have done? And finally they said, all right, we won't send someone up, you can just have it.

So I opened it and started reading it, and I came across this verse that is antithetical to the second chapter of Ephesians, verse 8, we're saved by grace, and here it says, after all we can do.

Hmm. Alma 11 .37, he cannot save them in their sins, no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven.

So the implication is, stop sinning so God can save you, so you can inherit the kingdom of heaven.

How can you stop sinning? It's like when you preach the gospel now and someone says to you, if they're a homosexual, do

I have to stop sinning so that God can save me? What would your answer be? Do I have to stop sinning so that God can save me?

Put myself in a savable position. Well, the answer is you can't stop yourself from sinning. That's why you need a

Savior. That's why you need an advocate. That's why you need Christ Jesus, the redeeming reconciler, who raised himself from the dead.

That's why you need not paganism, what you do to God, and how you sacrifice for Him, and how you stop your sinning for Him.

So then you're savable, but you need someone who can save you in your sins. God demonstrates that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. And so you can't stop sinning. That's why you need a

Savior. You're enslaved to sin. Romans 6, Ephesians chapter 2, 1st

Nephi 3, 7. The Lord giveth no commandment, save he prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing.

Commandments that you can't keep. Well, God gives unbelievers commandments they can't keep on their own.

Let's try a few. Repent, believe, trust, forsake, deny, follow.

Well, how can God give people commands that they can't do? Well, the answer is before the fall, when man was upright, he was able to obey, right?

He was able to obey God, and he was responsible to obey. Whatever God the Creator said the creature to do, he was to do.

Be fruitful, multiply, he was to do that. To garden the garden, he was to do that.

Name the names of the animals, he was to do that. Whatever it was that God asked, he was responsible, and he was able. But then the fall happened.

Adam sinned, and in Adam, all of us sinned. God credited all of our count, Adam's sin.

Adam got credit for it, and we got credit for it as well. Not when Eve sinned, she wasn't the covenant head, but when

Adam sinned. And so when Adam sinned, what happened? He was still responsible to obey.

Oh yeah, sorry God, I can't do it anymore, and what you're telling me to do I don't want to do because I can't.

No, no, no. He was still responsible. He was still a creator, a created being rather, and he was still responsible to the

Creator, but he was unable. He was not able.

And that's why God sent the last Adam. Sometimes called the second Adam, but maybe what if there's a third or fourth, so we need the last

Adam who could obey in our place, who could die in our place.

And so before the fall, responsible and able. After the fall, responsible and not able, therefore

God sends his son. Let's see.

D &C Doctrines and Covenants 131 through 33, for I, the

Lord, cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. Does that seem right?

Well, that is right, but what Spencer Kimball said about the miracle of forgiveness, page 164, to do the best

I can is not strong. We must always do better than we can. Page 354 to 355, repentance which merits forgiveness, a point of no return to sin, the desire or urge to sin has been cleared out of my life.

Well, to do the best I can is not strong. We must always do better than we can. But see, we've got a fallen nature, and it doesn't take you very long to make a resolution on January 1st, and by about the 18th minute into January 1st, it's already gone.

Maybe you'd keep it for a day or a week or whatever. But we try and we fail. We are sinful.

We're weak. We're finite. We're fallible. We cannot obey the law of God.

And by the way, if we could, let's get down, as we say, to brass tacks. No Compromise Radio, info at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

If we could obey, then why send Jesus? Why send

Jesus? Why have Jesus drink the cup? Why have

Jesus absorb the holy and all awful wrath of God?

Why should He have to do that? See, any works righteousness system, any works system, sacrifice for God system, be religious, be religious to God system, so that we are savable, so that He can save us, so we can be in a savable position, those things forget the heinousness of sin and how we are slaves to Satan's will, we're slaves to sin, we're slaves to the world system, and we need help outside of ourselves.

We need somebody to rescue us. We are dead in trespasses and sins. We are spiritually unable, spiritually inable to save ourselves.

We can't save ourselves. That's why we need a Savior. That's why the picture of salvation in the

Red Sea account is so marvelous, because there's no way out. There's the sea, there are the mountains, there's

Pharaoh's army, there's no way out. Stand back and see the salvation of God. Your job be still.

God's job to do the saving. It reminds me of the covenant in Genesis chapter 15, the

Abrahamic covenant, where you were to cut some animals and split them apart, and there'd be dead animals on both sides of you.

You would lock arms and walk down in between the animals, signifying that the covenant you just made with one another, the promise you just had with one another, will be kept by you.

And if you don't keep your promise, what was done to the animals should be done to you. And what did God do in this unconditional covenant with Abraham?

He put Abraham over to sleep by the side and said, Abraham, your job is to sleep.

I promise with no one higher than me, I promise by myself, with myself, that I will make this covenant happen.

So when it comes to doing the best we can, and we must always do better, see there's something inside of people that realize that wasn't really our best.

Have you given God your best today? Have you ever given God your best? No. Frankly, you've never given

God your best. I have never given God my best. Everything's tainted with sin, and even for Christians with the sin hangover, and no.

D &C says, let's see, do I want to say that, every time I say

D &C I think of something else. Times for a little

Johnny Cash here. Joseph Smith, page 148, teachings of the prophet

Joseph Smith, daily transgression and daily repentance is not that which is pleasing in the sight of God.

Oops. Alma 34, 33 to 35, if he had procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his in and the devil hath power over you."

Now I want to tell that to the thief on the cross. Ever procrastinated your repentance?

Gospel Principles, page 93. How repentance helps us.

As a result of repentance, the atonement of Jesus Christ becomes effective in our lives and our sins are forgiven.

See how satanic and deadly that is? You repent so that the atonement is efficacious.

Well, that's not that far from our Arminian friends, but I'm not calling Arminians Mormons.

Maybe there's some Pelagian, semi -Pelagian thought in some of Mormonism, but I think we're comparing kiwis to ugly fruit.

So here's what we'll say. Friends, if you're listening today and you're thinking, who is this guy?

I have no idea who I am either. If you're listening today on No Compromise Radio, here's what

I'd like to ask you. Well, along with John Risinger, I ask you the question, you have an appointment to keep.

You have an appointment and that appointment's fixed. Whitney Houston's had that appointment.

Davy Jones of the Monkees, he's have, is that his name, Davy Jones? He's kept that appointment.

There are other people who are going to die this year. They've got that appointment to keep. We all have to die.

It's appointed for men once to die and then judgment. And what are you going to do on judgment day?

Now, you can spend your whole life trying to sacrifice for God so that he will be pleased with what you've done, but you're gonna have to do pretty good work.

Matter of fact, you're gonna have to be perfect. And if you're perfect, perfect mind, perfect worship, perfect service, perfectly keeping the law, you will be saved.

But we know that Adam has sinned and therefore you have sinned and everyone's a sinner and so you can't keep the law.

Matter of fact, even if you started keeping the law perfectly starting today, you still have a track record to pay for.

And so you can't expect some murderer to go before the judge and say, from now on,

I won't murder anybody. And the judge says, sure, you murdered 10 people, but from now on, you're gonna be a very good boy.

We know better than that. We just mess our minds up by trying to rationalize these issues. So you need not someone to tell you you should sacrifice and be good and do better and repent so that God will save you.

How about this instead? How about some good news? Wouldn't you like some good news? Rotten, awful sinner destined for hell, wouldn't you like some good news?

Is the good news do better, stop it, keep it up, turn over a new leaf, try harder?

No, here's the good news. Jesus paid it all. Jesus did it all. Jesus went and lived a perfect life in our place as a representative.

Jesus died a perfect, substituentary atonement just like the Lamb of God in the Old Testament who would die on behalf of the people.

Here Jesus dies on behalf of all those who would ever believe, raises himself from the dead and has fully assuaged

God's wrath. And now God can, in love, still keep his justice and he redeems sinners.

By his own free will, he grants forgiveness based on what he's done. And your response to that should be thankfulness, joy, gratitude, belief, repentance, and a belief that follows

Christ Jesus. See, you either have to sacrifice for God and you better get busy, but it's never gonna work.

Or you have to trust in, not yourself, but in the work of someone else. And that person is

Christ Jesus. And that trusting is, by faith, knowledge of Christ, assent, yes, that's true for me, he did that for me, and then knowledge, assent, and trust.

Trusting for your eternal life what Christ Jesus, the risen king, did. Don't you think that's good news compared to the bad news of do, do, do, do, do?

Jesus and his religion is done, done, done. 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 six. 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.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.