Sovereign Grace (Part 2)

No Compromise Radio Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author,

Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the

Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with no compromise.

Verse 19, it came about as soon as Moses came near the camp and he saw the calf and the dancing,

Moses' anger burned and he threw the tablets from his hand and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.

Now if you go back to 1917, I'll just read it if you don't want to go back. The foot of the mountain's not just, oh, he just threw them at the foot of the mountain.

It's the bottom of the mountain. It's just some kind of indiscriminate place. No, 1917 and 1912 are going to let you know.

This is the official meeting place. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet

God and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. You say, oh, that's kind of like burning the flag, isn't it?

No, it's a lot worse. It's like taking the Constitution of the United States and going over to the Supreme Court building and burning it on the steps of the

Supreme Court on TV. And he took the calf which they had made, it's not a real

God, they made it with their hands. He took the calf which they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it over the surface of the water.

Those are all actions that if you want to try to obliterate something, you can't make matter matter less, but you can try to grind it down to the smallest possible thing.

And this is used in Hebrew language for just trying to get rid of it. But you know what? If you just grind it up, these worse than Canaanite people are going to find it, they're going to remake it.

And so there's one sure way to stop a scavenger hunt. There's one sure way to make sure people don't go panning for proverbial gold.

You make them drink it because then it'll be defiled. Then you'll have to go through human waste to try to get this pulverized

God. So what does the text say? Verse 30. And he made the sons of Israel drink it.

I call this an owning up to sin drink. There's going to be no panning for gold here, friends.

And Aaron, he's still full of excuses. Verses 21 to 27, specifically verse 26.

And Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side? Come to me. All the sons of Levi gathered around him.

He said to them, thus says the Lord God of Israel, put your sword on your side, each of you and go to and fro from the gate to the camp throughout the camp.

And each of you kill his brother and companion and his neighbor. Two million of the people deserve to die.

But here God, even in his mercy, says you either can kill the ones who are continuing in the worship or you kill the ringleaders.

They all deserve it, but just go kill these. So verse 28, the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed.

And about, it should have been two million, except for the mercy and grace of God. They were all guilty.

About 3 ,000 men of the people fell that day, 3 ,000 out of 2 million. I don't know what that number is percentage -wise, but it's not very large, true or false.

He could have justly slain the whole nation, true. And on a side note, you will never understand the sovereign grace of God unless you understand man's guilt, man's depravity.

Chapter 33, verses 1 to 11, basically show us that the journey is resumed and the angel is going to be sent to drive out the people.

Moses has a tent of meeting, chapter 33, verse 7 to 11. And then he prays.

What a wonderful prayer again. Verse 12 of chapter 33, Moses said to the

Lord, See, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.

I need guidance. I need a leader. You've been rightly mad at the people.

Does that mean you won't go with us anymore? You won't lead? I can't lead these people. I need divine guidance.

Yet you have said, I know you by name, and you've also found favor in my sight. Now therefore, verse 13, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.

Consider too that this nation is your people. Verse 14, and he said, My presence shall go with you, and I shall give you rest.

Literally in Hebrew, my presence is my face. I personally will go.

My face will go closely, intimately. I will guide you. I assure you that I will be there to lead the people into the promised land.

And you can hear an echo of this very verse in Matthew chapter 11. Can't you? When our Lord Jesus said,

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

I need guidance. I need leadership. And God said, I'll do it. Now we're almost up to the verse for today.

This has all been introduction. The Lord said, verse 17, to Moses, I will also do this thing of which you have spoken, for you have found favor in my sight.

I've known you by name. And then Moses said, I pray you, show me your glory.

Yes, the please show me your glory. Now think about this for a second. What do you mean, please show me your glory?

Take a look over there. Wasn't he just in the glory cloud? Can't he just see the glory cloud now?

And now Moses prays, I want to see your glory. What is Moses talking about? I want to see your weight.

Septuagint says, show me yourself. I need to know that you're going to lead us or all else is lost.

Now is Moses saying, I want to have some kind of mystical experience? No, he's saying,

I want you to confirm your willingness to take us there. I want to see your glory. I need to know you.

Nothing to do with what you look like, God, but I need to know you. Not how he looks, but how he is.

I need assurance. Now stop right there. What doctrine or doctrines regarding the nature of God give you the most assurance?

Give you the most encouragement? When you're there at the worst trial in your life, and you say,

I just need to know about God, these things come flooding back your mind, what is the doctrine that gives you the most assurance?

I think it's going to be the sovereign grace of God, if you're like most people. And Moses wants to know that God is there to lead.

Now, we're not Israel. We're not back here at this time. But certainly, the same truth applies, doesn't it?

That when you say, I'm moving forward in an unknown time, with unknown medical issues, with unknown personal strife,

I'm moving forward, and I need to go with someone, because I can't go on my own.

I need a leader. I need a sovereign leader, a gracious leader. That's why this whole evangelical kind of sappy, you know,

Barney God, I can't use. I love you, and you love me.

We're one happy family. Yes, there is a God who loves, but it's a covenant love.

It's a sovereign love. And if you get this today, this is an evangelical second blessing.

When I first got saved, everybody said, you got to get the second blessing. Thinking, whatever is the blessing, I got to get it.

Sign me up, I want the second blessing. Just tell me where I need to go and how I need to get it, and I'll get that blessing. Well, you know, you got to speak in tongues.

I thought that was a second blessing. Nobody ever told me speaking in tongues according to the

Bible was a language that was a real language that you didn't even have to learn and that God gave you at salvation.

And I was just sitting there just saying, Chickamauga Hilo and shaman, a shaman, a pop, pop, pop. That's what they said to my wife.

All right, you're a Christian now, you need to speak in tongues. And you need to say over and over and over, shaman, a shaman, a pop, pop, pop.

I don't know what that is, it sounds... I don't know what language that is. Jack MacArthur was grabbed by a charismatic pastor.

He said, I'm going to teach you how to speak in tongues. So he grabbed his arm. Jack MacArthur, John's dad, grabbed

Jack's arm and said, now repeat after me, Chickamauga Hilo. Jack MacArthur said, number one, don't touch me.

When you first get saved, you think, my sin is great, but my Savior's greater. He died in my place, he was raised from the dead.

I believe in his word. The second blessing, I think, is when you understand really the character and nature of God, and who is going to lead you, and who is going to guide you, and who does all his pleasure all the time with his great, sovereign, gracious hand.

Moses needed it, and you need it as well. Problem is, it's going to get very, very sticky because what we love in ourselves, we're not too sure about in God.

We want to be sovereign. Don't you tell me that that means God's sovereign, and whatever he determines will always happen.

He purposes, he ordains, he determines, he elects, he selects, he condemns, he saves at his own good pleasure.

We don't like that in God, if we're not thinking properly, but we love it in ourselves.

Why is that? The answer is because we're made in God's likeness and image, and God is a sovereign

God, and we are made in his likeness and image, and so we are little sovereigns too, but sadly affected by the fall.

When I was a kid, we didn't have Wii, we didn't have any kind of other games like that. You know what we had? We had a 2x8 with another 2x8 with another 2x8 with another 2x8, and in the center, a big pile of sand, and I had army guys, and they were some

Yankees, and they were some Confederates. Now, I have to be careful and remember where I am when

I use the illustration, because when I just was in Virginia, I said to the church, a guy at church,

I said, oh, I just had a tour of, you know, Gettysburg, and it was really great, and this guy said to me, well, if you ever want a personalized tour,

I'll show you where the Yankees and the Americans fought. He didn't laugh, and we did not request for the hymn sing, battle hymn of the republic either, and I would be in that sandbox, and it was the

Yankees, and it was the Confederates, and there was the war of all wars, people getting killed.

This guy would get killed, and then one of the good guys would get killed, and then at the very end, there would be about 19

Confederates left, and there would be one Yankee left, and that one Yankee, with great skill, with great intrigue, killed those 19

Confederates, killed them all to the very last one, and there was one

Yankee that stood victorious on Mount Sand. And who was that Yankee?

It was me, of course, because I'm the little sovereign, and this is my universe, and I determine who lives and who dies, and may

I suggest to you that I'm acting just like God, because I'm made like you are in the image and likeness of God, but what we love in ourselves, we get to vote, we get to determine, we determine who we get to marry, et cetera, et cetera.

What we love in ourselves, because the fall has corrupted our mind, sometimes we don't love in God, but you ought to love this doctrine of God, because if you haven't buried anyone lately, you will.

Eight o 'clock, I pick up the cell phone, Luke and I were surfing, I hear the answering machine on my cell phone,

Mike, I'm sorry to tell you this on the phone, but Tom Frank is dead. Get home.

Luke and I quick scrambled to get our wetsuits off, get the boards on, we're driving down the street, and Luke said, I think I left my sweatshirt at the beach, and then he goes, but it doesn't matter, does it?

We get there, there's the coroner, paramedics just left, the police, Kim said,

Mary's upset, I don't think you should go in there. I said,

I have to go in there. Somebody has to be there, besides the coroner and the police, and so I walked in,

I just saw Tom the night before, and there lays Tom with a blanket from here to here, dead, blood, and Mary comes running over, and since I represent

God as the pastor, she comes running over and not trying to hurt me, but just striking me, saying, why?

Why did God do this? Now, I don't want to be flippant, but some little contrived, hokey, made up, jingoistic speaking in tongues is not going to help me one little bit.

What can help me? Police don't have the answers, coroner doesn't have the answers, the nine -year -old has no answer, the 11 -year -old has no answer, the wife has no answer, and just like in Psalm chapter 42 and Psalm chapter 43, when the question is asked, why

God, the answer has to contain who God is, and that God can be trusted, and that God is faithful, and that God is sovereign, and I didn't just run over and say, here,

Romans 8, 28, let me pat you on the back, I just grabbed her and said, I love you.

There'll be a time to preach, and there was a time, but for now, it's just, I love you, and I'm thinking,

God, help me. But as I'm thinking God, I'm thinking, this is the sovereign

God that can lead the two main people, this is the sovereign God that can take a baptismal testimony, and somebody wants to be in Wicca, and then they get saved and born again by the grace of Christ Jesus.

This is a God who's not just sovereign, but he's graciously sovereign. What's the difference between Islam and Christianity?

There's lots of things different, but Islam is a fatalistic religion. Christianity is not fatalistic, even though God is so sovereign, why?

Because God is a personal God, even by nature, Father, Son, and the

Spirit interacting, this personal nature of God, that is what you need, and like I said before, if you haven't buried anybody lately, you're going to, and you're going to need somebody to guide you, you're going to need a

God who's going to be there. It could be burying people, could be finances, could be health, and Moses says,

God, I want to know you, and I want to know that you're going to lead me.

Who are you? Verse 19, if you could take the essence and nature of God and boil it down, what would kind of protrude?

Verse 19, Exodus 33, and he said, I myself, if you ever see that in the

Old or New Testament, that's emphatic, he could say, I will make, but if you ever see I myself or he himself, it's very emphatic,

I myself, no one else, will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the

Lord before you. Two thoughts. God has no badness, so why does he say,

I'm going to let my goodness pass by you? This is just a term for who

God is. I'm going to show you who I am. It's just summarized by goodness, but in the text, it's,

I'm going to show you everything that I am, and will proclaim, number two, the name of the

Lord before you. The name is not, well, my first name's Mike, my last name's

Abendroth. It is the character of the person. I'm going to show you my character. What do you need,

Moses, to guide you in the future? Let me show you my nature and essence, and here it is.

And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show compassion on whom

I will show compassion. God said, I'm going to show you myself, and it's not going to be an angel who's going to show you.

It's not going to be some kind of intermediary. I'm going to show you, and if you boil down all my nature and attribute, here's what you get,

Moses. I'm a sovereign God who's graciously sovereign. I will be gracious to whom

I'll be gracious, and show compassion on whom I show compassion. You see the text there?

I will, I will, I will. God said,

I'm going to convince you that I can lead you, and what will convince you is by showing you that I'm graciously sovereign.

The distinguishing sovereign love of God. Basically, he says,

I'll show you who I am as I lead you, and here's who I am. I do what I want to do, when

I want to do it, as often as I want to do it, with grace and mercy. Now, the context is 3 ,000 people he gave grace and mercy to, right?

Did they deserve it? I want to ask you a question. Is it wrong for God to give mercy? Is mercy deserved?

Is grace deserved? I'll tell you what, I know we're not going to get into it today, so we're going to have to pick it up next week, but society today, evangelical churches in New England think that grace is deserved.

The first thing when you start talking about unconditional election, you feel this pushback, this kind of revolting thought, because in their heart of hearts, they're thinking like a works righteousness person who thinks that grace is deserved.

I want you to know, by nature, God is a God who gives grace to some, and the others get justice.

They all deserve justice, but he can give grace to some. Is that wrong for God to do? Jesus says in Matthew 20, verse 15, is it not lawful for me to do what

I will with my own? God's free to act as he pleases, the triune

God, the Father, Son, and the Spirit, all in agreement, but all doing what they want, when they want, how they want.

Thankfully for us, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are graciously sovereign.

32, 28, sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and about that day, 3 ,000 men of the people fell.

Only 3 ,000 died, because he was gracious to the other people, merciful to the other people.

And you know what this is? This is the sovereign free will of God. I need you to lead me in the future,

Moses says, and God said, I will lead you, and I'm a God who is sovereignly gracious.

Could Satan really tell God what to do, and then God has to do it? Can an angel really tell

God what to do, and God has to do it? Can you tell

God what to do, and God has to do it? We know the answer.

God answers to no one. He doesn't consult.

He doesn't take a vote, and hallelujah, praise be his name, he is not under Robert's rules of order.

I first got here, and people said to me, well, you know, here's what Robert's rules of order said, and I just thought, I know

Titus, I know 1 Timothy, I know 2 Timothy. I'd like to know them better, but I know them now. Maybe they forgot to teach me something in seminary.

And then the other guy said to me, yeah, I second that. No, just kidding. Fast forward to your salvation.

If you're a Christian today, you're a Christian for one reason and one reason only.

You deserved hell, but God, by his grace, gave you heaven.

And he punished Jesus on your behalf and then raised him from the dead.

If you know that, you can sing Amazing Grace. If you don't know that, we'll learn more about it next week.

If your job's horrible, your health is horrible, your finances are horrible, everything in your life is horrible, but you have been saved by God, you ought to be the most joyful person

I've ever met in my life. And I'll tell you, when you bury people, it kind of cuts to the chase, doesn't it?

And I don't like it in my own life, and I'm not here to scold Bethlehem Bible Church, but if the shoe fits, then

I want you to wear it. Joyless Christians, after all you've been taught, after all you have experienced, ought to be very, very ashamed of themselves.

I want to be the kind of person that begins to talk about the riches of Christ Jesus, even when

I'm hurting. I don't want to be the type of person that I'm sure I have been in the past, and you have been as well, where the first thing when we talk to you, it is this big litany of all your woes and all your problems.

Now, if you have problems, we want to help and serve. This is the body, right? But why don't you just pepper that with a little bit of, the joy of the

Lord is my strength. God has loved me with an everlasting love, and even though He might kill me,

I'm still going to praise Him. And I get better than what I deserve, and I have a

God who's sovereignly, graciously going to lead me in the future, even though I don't know what tomorrow brings.