Romans Six One

No Compromise Radio

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

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

00:08

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

00:16

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.�

00:24

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

00:30

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

00:37

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

00:47

Compromise Radio ministry. Steve, that is the first time I�ve said that since late March. Yes, it�s been quite a while.

00:59

Okay, so here�s a true story. I am on the tour bus in Wittenberg area during the

01:09

Reformation 500 tour, and there�s a couple on the bus, and they were

01:15

No Compromise folks, and their names are Troy and Kathy. Well, Kathy was excited about the show, and she was listening regularly, and so she said to Troy, this was months before the trip, �You have to listen to this show.�

01:27

So they listened to a Tuesday show, and she was all excited because she was going to get her husband liking

01:34

No Compromise Radio, and then Troy was telling me, he said, �And the show is awful.

01:40

You guys talked about nothing.� And I looked at her and said, �This isn�t No Compromise Radio. This is No Content Radio.�

01:47

Welcome to No Content Radio. So we listened to a few other shows, and then he went on the trip.

01:54

Okay. That was a nice song. So I have the microphone in the front of the tour bus, and I would, you know, talk about Staubitz and how he was listening to Luther�s Confessions, etc.,

02:09

and so one time I�m online, 1 .5 speed, and so I told

02:16

Troy, I said, �Go up and sit in the front and give us a little tour.� So he just sat down without even hesitating, said, �Welcome to No Content Radio ,� and off he went.

02:28

So we are back in the studio. We�re recording some live shows. Thank you for your patience the last

02:35

April, May, June, July, August. We just played reruns. At least we had a lot of reruns.

02:41

I apologize for the Bugs Bunny reruns, but� I think our strategy on Tuesday is typically we have fun together, and we have at least one theological point, concept we�d like to address.

02:56

Is that true usually? What we try to get to is three in a poem, but, you know, sometimes it doesn�t always work out that way.

03:02

What is it? Song of Solomon, you know, is unlike regular epistles. Epistles, you know, three points in a poem, and Song of Solomon is a poem in three points.

03:12

Excellent. One of my kids said to me the other day, I was looking up something about Song of Solomon, or they were going through the

03:17

Bible and seeing it, and it said, �The Song of Songs.� Dad, why is it called the Song of Songs? And so I had to give the answer.

03:24

Out of all Solomon songs, this is the song. Number one. With a bullet.

03:32

What have I done that�s up your alley, Steve? I listened to some

03:38

NPR show, and it was about George Jones songs and how sad they were.

03:46

And then I watched some of the George Jones memorial, and Vince Gill couldn�t get through the song that he was singing.

03:53

He was crying. And then another song Alan Jackson sang, a George Jones song.

04:00

And Garth Brooks is over to the side, and he kind of stood up in honor, and you could see George Jones� wife there weeping.

04:06

And I thought, wow, you talk about lamentations. This is it right here. You stopped loving her today.

04:12

That�s right. So what else is happening? Any kind of grandkid update before we get into the show, a very serious show today?

04:21

The grandkids are all good and growing and swimming, and things have been good.

04:28

We went to, Janet and I went to the UK, and we went to Storyland with grandkids, and we had a wonderful time while you were gone.

04:40

I did not know there was a Storyland in the UK, but I guess they�re all around. No, no, no. We went to the one in New Hampshire.

04:46

Well, when I was in Santa Cruz this summer, I did not go on any rides down on the boardwalk. They have this great old -fashioned wooden roller coaster called the

04:56

Giant Dipper, 1923, or Wilt Chamberlain rode on it, et cetera. But it throws me around too much, and now

05:03

I know why Grandpa never went on the rides with me when I was a kid. Too much excitement. I know.

05:09

Well, for like three or four days, I can�t think, you know, I�m just dizzy or something. If I had a bad back,

05:15

I would probably go on it and it might crack my back and throw it back into place. But my back was feeling good.

05:20

I didn�t want it to do the opposite. What�s the motion sickness stuff? I mean, if I�m ever going to go on it� Dramamine. Yeah. Dramamine.

05:26

I�d have to do that. But, you know, like Storyland, it�s still calm enough. Although, I did go on a roller coaster with one of the kids.

05:32

They have one like semi -serious roller coaster there. And I was, you know, she�s going, �Let�s go again,

05:38

Grandpa.� And I go, �I don�t think so.� Let�s go get an ice cream slushie or whatever they are.

05:45

I had a Sonic slushie, kind of a lemon slushie. That was good this summer. Okay.

05:50

Well, that�s all the no content we can afford. Yeah. That�s all the no content. We are going to Israel, November.

05:58

That�d be nice too, February 2018. You can go to No Compromise site or you can go to Pilgrim Tours or if you�re on Twitter, you have a

06:06

Twitter handle, don�t you? I do. It was kind of a� The Tuesday guy. Is it at the Tuesday guy?

06:11

At the Tuesday guy. Okay. Or at No Compromise Radio. I think No Compromise Radio�s Twitter says, you know, �By me are the staff� or something like that.

06:20

So, I have that little addendum on there because if I say anything stupid, I blame the staff.

06:29

Okay. How about theological books? Have you read anything good this summer? Do you like to encourage people to read something this fall that you�ve been diving into?

06:37

Theological books. I mean, I�ve mostly been reading the 1689�what�s the book by�what�s his name?

06:48

Oh, that fellow over there? The Reformed Baptist guy. Sam Waldron.

06:54

Yeah. Yes. I really do like the book you recommended on the Westminster, though, by Dix, is it?

06:59

Van Dixhorn? Yeah. Van Dixhorn. It�s much more� User -friendly.

07:06

Yes. So, you know, I�m like�I mean, sometimes I read what Waldron says and I�m like, �I don�t even understand this.�

07:13

So, you know, not very helpful in some cases. Van Dixhorn, much more plain

07:19

English. And then I even busted out R .C. Sproul the other day because his

07:24

We Confess book, it kind of goes along with the Westminster Confession of Faith. So, those,

07:31

I�ve been doing a lot of that and, you know, but I�ve been reading a biography lately of Ulysses Grant.

07:38

So� All right. Well, tell me a little bit more about the 1689 slash Westminster Confession of Faith.

07:44

That�s a Sunday school class? Why are you doing that? What�s it about? Well, we�re doing that because we changed over to the 1689, that�s our

07:51

Statement of Faith. And, you know, it�s interesting because as you�as we�re going through this book,

07:58

I mean, just things about the Garden of Eden and different things that you wouldn�t, you know, don�t typically come up in your conversation like the

08:06

Tree of Life, you know, and what would have happened if they would have the Tree of Life before they ate of the

08:13

Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and, you know, these kind of things. What would have happened then and, you know, just interesting or, you know, what if they�I mean, the speculation because it�s kind of speculative.

08:24

What would have happened if they would have eaten of the Tree of Life? It�s in Genesis. Before God kicked them out of the

08:31

Garden of Eden, then they would have been fixed in the state of sin, you know, and so anyway, it was interesting.

08:39

I have that little app and it�s the Catechism and Confessions app. If anybody wants to look for it, you can and it is called the

08:49

Christian Creeds and Reformed Confessions, James H. Price, and you can get that for free and I like it,

08:57

Steve, because you can get Westminster Confession of Faith, the Lenin Baptist 1689 Savoy Declaration and the one that I�ve been reading lately is the

09:05

Belgic Confession. I wonder where they wrote that. Probably in Sapporo, Japan.

09:15

Now, that was funny and if you were to ask me, but you haven�t asked me yet, what books

09:23

I have been reading this summer? What books have you been reading this summer? Typically, well, I have read some books, you know, about George Washington, that type of thing, you know, almost like, you know,

09:35

Ulysses S. Grant type of book for you, but I�ve been studying the topic of justification by faith alone.

09:42

I really think that is still a major issue if you wanted to use some of the reformers terms with Calvin and Luther and the hinge in which the church, you know, turns or stands or falls and, you know,

09:53

I�m conflating all these things because they don�t have my notes. Can you believe we do these shows without notes? Steve McLaughlin It�s kind of amazing because they�re so well scripted and, you know, put together, it�s amazing to me that we don�t have notes.

10:05

Mark Bailey Well, when we run this show through the Grammarly audio app, nothing really happens, so we just wasted money on that.

10:15

Anyway, I really can appreciate these scholastic endeavors when it comes to justification by faith alone because as MacArthur said, it�s a razor�s edge between antinomianism and legalism, right?

10:29

But if you are justified by faith alone or through faith alone, what if you add a little evangelical obedience?

10:38

What if you become morally lax? There is a fine line, but I don�t like it when people talk about sanctification in the category of justification.

10:50

If you want to talk about it as something that naturally flows from justification and certainly justified people are sanctified and will progressively be sanctified, those type of things are fine, but there�s a lot of shenanigans going on with Schreiner and Piper and Moo and other folks when it comes to this.

11:08

Steve McLaughlin Well, as an example, I mean, recently I entered into a mini -debate where somebody was saying that, you know, you need to repent in order to be saved.

11:18

You know, I�m like, okay, let�s just think about that now. Well, I thought, you know, that�d probably be a whole show sometime.

11:25

Are there conditions and qualifications for salvation? Do you have to forsake sin in order to be saved?

11:32

It�s all the Merrill controversy stuff, right? And if you say to people, �believe ,� and then the text says they repented or sometimes it�s the other way around, is repentance ground for justification or is it evidence or is it an instrument?

11:48

You know, I like those kind of questions because we�ve got to go back to the ground of justification has to be the perfect work of Christ Jesus and not any of our works, because our works, even sincere ones, are tainted.

12:04

Justification of Sinners, Belgic Confession, Article 23. One of the things

12:11

I�ve noticed about confessions, Steve, is they�re devotional. I mean, not every aspect, but many times they�re written in such a way where I think, �that was good.

12:18

That was encouraging.� To me, the Reformed Confessions are like the Valley of Vision for other people.

12:24

I don�t usually read Valley of Vision. Some great prayers in there. I just don�t know which ones Baxter wrote, and I don�t like Baxter, so I�m afraid.

12:33

I do Valley of Vision on Thanksgiving, you know, when we�re all gathered together. We believe that our blessedness lies in the forgiveness of our sins because of Jesus Christ and that in it, our righteousness before God is contained.

12:55

There it is. Okay. Therefore, we cling to this foundation, which is firm forever, giving all glory to God, humbling ourselves and recognizing ourselves as we are, not claiming a thing for ourselves or our merits, and leaning and resting on the sole obedience of Christ crucified, which is ours when we believe in.

13:20

That�s well said. I mean, you know, what do you add to that, right? I mean, you ought to just read that and then sit down, you know?

13:27

I mean, that�s � There you go. Well, before they did the mic drop, they also wrote, �In fact, if we had to appear before God relying no matter how little on ourselves or some other creature, then alas, we would be swallowed up.�

13:43

Because, you know, our motivations, everything else are not � they�re not what they should be.

13:49

It�s interesting just, you know, going through the Gospel of John, what�s his motivation? You know, it�s always to glorify the

13:56

Father, and it�s always to do the Father�s will, and it�s always, you know, and it�s like, okay, is that how

14:01

I think? Is that how I live? Because that�s the standard, right? Just how sincere must your motives be?

14:09

A hundred percent, you know? If your motives are �n�, they need to be �n� plus one sincere.

14:16

That�s right. Yeah. Well, and here�s the thing. My understanding of, you know, when I said a hundred percent, my understanding of a hundred percent would be inaccurate.

14:26

You know, what I consider a hundred percent, you know, would not be a hundred percent God�s eyes and therefore, you know, fall short.

14:33

As we might say in the theological realm, bell -curvish it might be. Yeah. Steve, what about this idea that justification by faith alone,

14:42

God declares you righteous in His eyes in the tribunal of God because of Christ�s perfect works imputed to the believer�s account, and then, of course, all the sins of the believer imputed to Christ�s account by this divine reckoning, imputation.

15:01

What about the idea that it could lead to moral laxity?

15:07

I think the way I would phrase it, and maybe you can push back on it, that justification by faith alone could lead to moral laxity, but it shouldn�t.

15:18

Well, I mean, we were talking about this the other day. If somebody says, you know, it sounds like what you're saying, you know, from the pulpit or whatever it is, that I can do whatever

15:28

I want, you know, that I can sin, that grace may abound. Well, then they basically, they understood, you know, they got the grace part.

15:38

But they just went a little overboard with it because if we understand what

15:47

Christ has done and we understand that we add nothing to it, then, you know, that's the next question.

15:55

Well, then I guess I can do whatever I want. Well, you won't want to. You won't want to sin. You know, that's, you know, you get those, the changed desires for the first time ever after you're saved, all of a sudden, you want to obey even though you won't fully obey.

16:11

I think you'll understand where I'm going in just a second, Steve. If you simply keep reading your Bibles, after you read

16:19

Romans chapter 3b, 4, and 5 about justification, how it works, who accomplishes it, what's it based on, what are the grounds for it, what are the benefits from it, if you keep reading, then chapter 6, and this is our verse for the day, right?

16:34

We have a lot of no -content radio, but for today, Fred Butler, it is Romans 6 .1. What shall we say then?

16:40

Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it?

16:48

And it goes on in that chapter and just talks about, you know, you're either a slave to sin or a slave to Christ.

16:54

So, you know, when you're set free by Jesus, you are also enslaved by him.

17:02

You know, what does he say over and over again? If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. You know, those who follow me will take up their cross daily.

17:11

Well, what is he talking about? You know, it is a matter of obedience. Those who are saved do obey.

17:17

They don't obey perfectly, but they want to obey. Belgic Confession, the next article after Justification 23, the article is 24.

17:28

That seems perfectly reasonable. I mean, it would be weird if it were 28 or something.

17:33

Sanctification of Sinners. It says, therefore, far from making people cold toward living in a pious and holy way, this justifying faith, quite to the contrary, so works within them that apart from it, they will never do a thing out of love for God, but only out of love for themselves and fear of being condemned.

17:54

It is impossible for this holy faith to be unfruitful in a human being. Well, I mean, when you deal with somebody whose heart is really hard against the things of God, it gives you pause.

18:12

You know, it makes you wonder, you know, somebody's a professing Christian. They've been coming and, you know, now their life is a mess and they look at you and say, well,

18:19

I don't really care about those things. You know, I'm cheating on my wife or I'm, you know,

18:26

I don't want to stop taking drugs or whatever the situation is. You have to look at them and go, okay, was this person ever saved in the first place?

18:36

Because no true believer, no child of God genuinely wants to disobey

18:42

God, genuinely wants to live, I mean, well, let's put it this way, and I've been thinking about saying this from the pulpit or, you know,

18:51

Sunday school or whatever, maybe I have said it, but the idea of maybe a rebel Christian, you know, one who rebels against God, that's just, that's a contradiction in terms that is, as I did say from the pulpit and had to explain,

19:10

I said, you know, there are incongruities. There are things that just don't go together. And that rebel

19:15

Christian, no. Jesus was the ultimate rebel.

19:21

Pete No, no, he was not. And, you know, I had a CD of hymns and they had all these different hymns and one was called the

19:30

Rebel Jesus. And I'm like, I hated that song. Well, I just put that right up there with that Pat Boone album where he's got the black leather jacket.

19:38

He's what, 79 and a half years old. He's on a motorcycle. Pete Doing Alice Cooper covers. Uh -huh.

19:44

Sermonators and stuff like that. I watched an Alice Cooper video the other day and he was explaining his

19:50

Christian faith and how he grew up and what he does. And I think he opens up his house to the youth group at the church there in Phoenix now, like Bryn told me.

20:02

Bryn I saw a video that he did just talking about Glen Campbell and, you know, about how they -

20:07

Pete Oh, that's right. I saw that one too. Bryn And I thought, well, I, you know, I don't know Alice Cooper, but, you know, it was interesting just how he's talking about his faith, you know, kind of, so who knows?

20:20

Peter Steve, when it comes to Romans 8, it says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

20:28

Full stop, verse ends. And you want to add things and many commentators do. I mean, after all, justification, my faith alone, flip side of justification, there's no condemnation.

20:39

Same language, except one's positive, one's seen in the negative light. If there's no condemnation, then could

20:45

I live a morally lax life? And the answer is, if you ask the question, as Steve said, and as Martyn Lloyd -Jones has said, if people ask the question, at least they understand the free, sovereign grace of God and how it's lavished on sinners.

21:01

Well, I was reading the other day, Steve, Romans 8, verse 1 in the King James version, right, the authorized version.

21:10

Yeah, I did authorize it. And maybe the listeners know the answer to this question.

21:17

I haven't studied it yet, but I will ask the question. Why did they add, in the later manuscripts, in the

21:24

Byzantine manuscripts, Texas Receptus type of vein, it says this, there is therefore now no condemnation to those which are in Christ Jesus, comma, now we got the little

21:40

Mu ad, the little Shriner ad, who walk not after the flesh, but after the

21:46

Spirit. So there's no condemnation for you as long as you're walking after the Spirit. Legalism.

21:54

I know. So I want to know why that was added in there. It's almost as if you've got a scribe and he's writing this down and he realizes, wait, if I just say there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, you know, the

22:08

Bill Gothards of the world aren't going to have a leg to stand on. People are going to be running crazy.

22:14

Yeah, I know. And I think I asked you the question earlier, the answer to my own question, can people, you know, could people take this as, you know, antinomian,

22:24

I get to live a morally lax life? The answer is yes, but you shouldn't. If you really understand who

22:30

God is, what He requires, what justification is and what it does, you shouldn't want to.

22:37

Well, if I could say it this way, what the gospel should do for you as you think about it, as you contemplate what

22:44

Christ has done for you, it ought to humble you and make you think every day just how blessed you are.

22:50

And if that's your mindset, you won't be thinking, what can I get away with? You'll be thinking, how can

22:56

I get to know Jesus better? How can I follow Him better? You know, it's going to lead to sanctification.

23:05

It's when people think that almost of the gospel as a one -time act in their minds, you know, it's that one -time belief, just a scent, and then that, you know, and then they're done with it.

23:19

Well, Christianity isn't about a one -time decision. It's about a life -changing decision.

23:27

In other words, with ongoing consequences. We could put it in the perfect tense, right? God does a one -time act in you, causing you to be born again, and then

23:37

He transforms you into the image of His Son. And when you're talking about tenses now,

23:43

I'm thinking about the present tense. Are you believing? Right? Are you a Christian? You know, have you believed?

23:49

I guess that's a fine question. That's how we talk. That's parlance of the evangelical speak.

23:55

But are you believing? Right? Are you believing right now? And can't we say to people who are struggling, who are tempted, who have fallen into sin, are you believing that Jesus Christ is your

24:05

Lord and Savior right now? Are you trusting in His work? Because if you are a sinner, you're a child of God, and God has not kicked you out of the family because you've sinned, boy, that would be bad.

24:18

That would be really bad. Oops. Well, I mean, and again, what do you get into then?

24:23

Perfectionism. You know, if I displease God. And we've talked about Romans quite a bit.

24:30

If you look at Romans 8, after following 28, you know, what does he say? Nothing will separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

24:38

Nothing created, you know, nothing… Pete Yeah, but I thought I could jump out of his hand. Pete No. Pete No, I guess

24:43

I'm created. Sorry. Pete Yeah, nothing, nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

24:50

And that includes your sin. Pete Well, you've been listening to No Content Radio today with Mike and Steve.

24:57

If you'd like a book recommendation, you could read 1689, Westminster Confession of Faith, Belgic Confession, or Recovering from the

25:07

Reformed Confessions. No, Recovering the Reformed Confession. I'm Scott Clark.

25:12

That'd be a good place to start. See you next time. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

25:23

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.

25:32

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.

25:39

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

25:47

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