Reading James Rightly (Part 3)

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

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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

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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.

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

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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

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

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My name is Mike Abendroth. I'm going to do one more NoCo live today via Facebook, and I'm talking about the book of James.

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We here at the show, I, Royal We, try to talk about who

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Jesus is, who we are, and then how

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Calvin started off his Institutes. Pretty much, right? Right view of God, right view of man.

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By the way, if you ever want to know what false teachers do wrongly, they've got the wrong view of God and the wrong view of man.

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That's it. All the rest is who knows what. What else is going on here?

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If you order Sexual Fidelity, you get a free copy of Things That Go Bump in the Church. Somebody said the other day they just ordered

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Evangelical White Lies off of Amazon, and I guess we still sell that book to Amazon does.

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They could probably make a quarter off that book. That's why I don't write anymore. It wasn't—didn't make any money.

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Oh, I've done so many stupid things in my life, you know. The kids are in the house still, and I'm writing books.

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That's smart. And then when the kids get older and leave the house, and I don't write books, that's not smart.

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We're talking about the book of James. I'm starting to—oh, Stephen! Stephen is

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Facebook Live. He's online now watching, and he's a student at the

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Reformation Bible College. Is that what it is? Ligonier, right?

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Down there in Samford. Stephen, you need to find out where R .C.

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Sproul would go to lunch, because I bet you it was pretty fancy. I think it was

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R .C. Sproul that would go out to lunch when he was with Baptists, and he would say to the

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Baptist before lunch, would you mind if I had a beer while I had lunch?

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I don't want to offend anybody. And if they would say, we do mind, then the waitress would come over, and then

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R .C. would say, I'd like a scotch. I guess he could get away with it.

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Maybe that's just lore. Maybe Stephen can figure that out, if it's true or not.

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Anyway, Stephen said prayers appreciated. Think about Stephen, and he's probably got to work and go to classes as well.

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And I don't know what you're there for, in terms of what kind of degree, but it probably has something to do with the

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Bible, so long time, no chat. We're talking about the book of James, and so Stephen said he'd look into it.

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Talking about the book of James, and we were talking about different uses of the law. And if you look at all the law that's in James, and you forget about the lawgiver, the

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Lord Jesus, you're going to be in big trouble. If you look at the laws in James and say, you know what,

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God requires these for my entrance into heaven, then you're smoked.

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If you look at the book of James and say to yourself, you know, I need to be doing all these tests of genuine saving faith, or I'm going to question my faith, you've looked at James wrongly.

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That's not what we do. It's not a book of tests of saving faith. Here is the law from the

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Father, who knows what's best for us, and more importantly, what glorifies

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Him the most. And these dispersed Jews, who most likely were suffering, needed to know how to live out their

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Christian life. The Lord Jesus had been born. He did His miracles and His teaching in the public ministry that He had.

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He, as the last Adam, died as our representative, and we received

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His act of obedience, His perfect obedience to the law by imputation. We also had all of our sins credited to His account, and He paid for them at Calvary by imputation.

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That was confirmed by the resurrection from the dead, and now we receive a multitude of benefits, from forgiveness to reconciliation to propitiation to satisfaction to redemption to know that, in fact,

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God, the triune God, loves us. And then there's been no book written to teach

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Christians how to live, and so we need to have direction, and so He writes these 108 verses, does

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James, by the Spirit of God, with 54 imperatives, so we know how to live a life of gratitude.

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If you say to yourself, I'm not very good at counting all joy, how could

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I be a Christian? I would say, well, do you want to? Are these words true in light of your profession of faith in Jesus?

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Do you see how He, James, could tell you, you know what, you should count it all joy?

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Do you realize how Jesus could take the worst thing ever, sin, bearing at Calvary and turn it into something good, the exaltation of the

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Father, who exalts the Son then, and who then sends the Holy Spirit, and then now we are rescued?

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Who can take sin and turn it into something good? Well, the Lord can, so you could count it all joy.

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Here, Jesus, the sovereign Savior, who, when Pilate is going to run His mouth, and Caiaphas, and all these others, they could only do what the

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Lord Jesus, the eternal judge, decreed, and allowed, and permitted. And therefore, you can look at the book of James, and if you say to yourself, well,

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I don't always do what's in the book. I know it's true. I want to do it. When I do do it,

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I give thanks to the Lord. I have the Spirit of God, so I'm able to do it. I'd like to respond, not because I need to to be saved or to stay saved, but just to show my gratitude.

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And therefore, I learn slowly. I don't do things that well, but I want to honor the

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Lord. Do you really mean to tell me that if a person talked that way, you would say, these are tests of genuine saving faith, and you're not measuring up?

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I'd like to have that person directing your soul care, to use terminology

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I saw online today. Guy was bragging. He's like, I'm involved with soul care.

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I thought, no, you're not. You're involved with a bunch of, you think you're better than you are. I'm involved in soul care.

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I thought, who are these people? I'm getting too old for this. What does walking by faith in Jesus, the

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Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, what's it look like? James has the answer.

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Matter of fact, if I pull this up, where would

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I pull this up? I'm going to pull it up right now, something that I think is going to be encouraging to you.

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Let's see. There.

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Okay, found it. I know this is not good radio when you have to do it that. All right. Listen to Heidelberg Catechism 114.

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There's different questions. Actually, there are how many questions? 129 questions.

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Here's question 114. Can those who are converted to God keep these commandments perfectly?

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Let's talk about the 10 commandments. Let's just talk about any command of God. Can you keep them perfectly? I guess if you could, then these would be good tests of saving faith.

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But I'm not going to conflate the third use of the law and turn it back into the covenant of works.

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I'm not going to do that. So what's the answer? Heidelberg Catechism 114.

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Can those who are converted to God keep these commandments perfectly? Answer, no.

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But even the holiest men while in this life have only a small beginning of disobedience, yet so that with earnest purpose they begin to live not only according to some, but according to all the commands of God.

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The most holy men, in other words, they start off with little baby steps of obedience.

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They really want to obey, right? That's why if somebody says, you don't count it all with joy all the time, how can you be a

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Christian? If you say, would you like to? Do you know this is right? Do you want to purpose this?

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So the next time you're in a trial, you think, okay, Lord, remind me right away that you're sovereign and that I can trust in you.

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And knowing the promises of God are in Christ, yes and amen. I understand that.

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I'd like to live by some. I'm getting older. I'm trying to live according to all the commandments now.

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They're dominating my life because I want to show gratitude to you and glorify you. Well, my name is

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Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. Steven said he's working toward a master's. Can you imagine?

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You can master theology. I have a master's of divinity.

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I've mastered divinity. How much did I learn in seminary versus now?

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Well, we just keep learning and learning, but I don't think I'm a master's of divinity.

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I never call myself a doctor. I usually let other people call myself a doctor.

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But once in a while, I'm trying to figure out some kind of instructions.

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Like Kim and I, last night, she was making an Instapot recipe, and it was something with basil and I don't know, some other things.

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I thought, I have a doctorate and I can't figure this thing out. I have to go to YouTube.

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It should be simple, right? But once the whole pressure cooker idea comes in, you think if you do the wrong thing, it's going to hand grenade in your kitchen.

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Faith in Jesus fleshes itself out with a desire to obey.

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These are the laws from God. This is the third use of the law, the moral use, the norming use, the normative use.

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This is not the first use. If you don't do this, you're dead. If you slip up one time, you're dead. Cursed is everyone who does not do everything according to the law of God and to do them.

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That's my paraphrase of Deuteronomy and Galatians 3. No, no. Here's the father telling the children, here's how you live.

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This is how you get along well in the world. But more importantly, this is how you honor me.

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So, the first thing he says is, count it all joy. Now, this is going to be needed for all of us because life is hard.

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There are tribulations. There are difficulties. Paul said he's troubled on every side.

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Doesn't that seem like 2020 to you? You've got – the more connections you have, the more troubles you have.

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The more family members, the more contacts at work, school, government, church.

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This is just the way it goes. Trials are part of life. They're unavoidable. But we'd like to respond as Christians.

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We don't want to respond like we used to. Angst, alcohol, trying to think of something else that starts with an

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A, albumin. No, we don't want to respond in a way that would make it seem like we weren't walking by faith.

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How does a person who's walking by faith respond to trials? Well, here he tells us it's a command.

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It's fine to command your kids. The command is not do this or you're out. He says, you know what?

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I want you to count it all joy. Trials are going to come.

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Here's how you're going to think through those trials. And, of course, James had several trials.

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It's interesting. Josephus said of James – there's Vicki. Welcome, Vicki, to No Compromise Facebook.

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She just wrote anger. Oh, that's a way to handle a trial, just angry.

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That's right. I just thought that was just like your handle, anger. Josephus, quote, he was the

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Jewish historian. James was brought to a trial at the instigation of the high priest Annas during a time when there was no

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Roman governor. He was charged for breaking the law and was stoned to death. Ecclesiastical history,

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Eusebius said that the Jews tried to talk James into not believing in Christ. And when he refused to deny Christ, they sent him to the pinnacle of the temple, threw him down, and stowed him while he prayed for their forgiveness.

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He was finally killed when someone hit him on the head with a club, and he was buried beside the temple.

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Before he dies, James pens this letter. Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

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For you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

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James, he gives the intro. And then it's like it's time to get up.

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My mom would come into my room when I was younger, and she'd try to wake me up. And first, you know, it's time to get up.

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It's time to get up. It's time to get up in the morning. And then she'd try all kinds of other ways to wake me up.

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I think she used to do something called the water treatment. She'd just get a bowl of water and dip her hand in there and, like, sprinkle on the face.

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I can't believe she let me do that. It was like, you get your behind up. That's how you do it.

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I'm not asking you. I'm telling you. He starts off with this kind of assault. It's not the water treatment, because now you think, you know, water treatment with all kinds of, you know, torture things.

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It's not that. But he just starts right away with this command.

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Count it all joy. And, of course, when we first are disciplined by the

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Lord, if we're in some kind of trial, it doesn't seem pleasant at the time. Later on, it's going to produce what?

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A harvest of righteousness and peace as we become trained by it.

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What is he doing? He's saying, you know what? Here's how you live your Christian life. You need to use your mind.

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You need to have a mental evaluation. You need to say to yourself, self, the next time these things go on,

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I've got to make up my mind ahead of time so I'm ready that I don't react on my emotions, that I don't react with peer pressure.

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I've got to make sure that when these uncertainties and trials come up, when

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I least expect them, when I'm minding my own business, when I'm trying to, you know, read my Bible every morning,

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I've got to be careful. It's a fallen world. It's a sin, sick world.

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Things just break. I don't know why my car doesn't, like, fix itself. That would seem like evolution would be true if my car would just kind of fix itself.

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It says check hood because the engine light is on because it says my hood's open, but my hood's shut.

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I have to drive around with this, like, red thing. Your hood's open. Shouldn't it get better?

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Shouldn't it just figure it out? Maybe I've got a few more million years to go, and then the car would figure it out?

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I'm not exactly sure. When you've fallen in the midst of trials, what's James saying?

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These unplanned, inadvertent, like with the parable of the

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Good Samaritan, fell into the hands of robbers. There's no real way out. It's just all of a sudden, like,

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I'm in this trial. How did I get here? You need to count it all joy.

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You need to make sure you're thinking through these things properly. And with the third use of the law.

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This is just the normative directing law from God, and God's doing something.

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Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. He's testing it. He's helping you.

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You'd like to know if an anchor is any good, and if you've got the right size anchor for your boat?

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Well, you throw your anchor over and see if it works.

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I don't think so. You want to know if your anchor works? You go out in a storm, throw your anchor overboard.

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Let's see if it holds then, right? That's the idea. And God is doing something.

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He's working behind the scenes. He's working in the scenes. He's causing things to work together for good, for those who love

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God and who are called according to His purpose. They, in and of themselves, trials, might not be good, but they produce something good.

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So, again, this is not, you know, like, always about my cancer kind of thing or whatever. I've gotten good news lately.

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I don't have to go back every six months. I don't have to go back every year. The cancer's not good.

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You know, marriage problems aren't good. Financial issues, you know, negative ones aren't good.

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But the Lord can turn them into something good. He can make good come out of them. That's the thing.

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Okay, how can I look at this from God's perspective? That's the idea. Here's how I look at things from my perspective.

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Help. Ouch. No. I don't have the money.

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The car's broken. I can't solve this problem. So, this is almost like you just want to, like, turn around and go, huh,

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I've got the telescope, and I'm going to flip it around. I've been looking at the big lens, and the only thing

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I can see in the big lens is my own eyelash. So, I need to flip it around and go, how does God see this perspective?

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Okay, so whatever trial you're in, we're all in trials all the time. God's forgotten.

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God's not on the throne. God's not in charge. This is going to prevent you from going to heaven.

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You know, you just start preaching to yourself. You just start talking to yourself. God is in charge.

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God is doing something good in this. God is chipping away my self -confidence.

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God is refining me so I'm not so self -reliant. God is helping me trust in Him more.

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He's developing our testing, our working, our everything, and it's going to produce endurance.

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He's helping me endure. Now, I know this isn't exactly right, but I'll just use this anyway.

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You first get married, and you're like, well, okay, I've got to figure out how to be married. I'm still figuring it out.

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Then all of a sudden you go, well, we have a kid. Then it's like, okay, wife, kid. And then you start to figure that out a little bit.

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Then you go wife, kid, kid. Then wife, kid, kid, kid. Then wife, kid, kid, kid, kid. Dog. Job.

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Ministry. It's almost like, you know, those things are helping you learn how to deal with more things, harder things.

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That's true. And similarly here. The testing of your faith produces endurance.

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Do you really believe? Now, one thing that I didn't do when

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I've had my worst trials in my life, from deaths of family members to health prognosis, etc.

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And I've done a lot of dumb things. I did a lot of things I shouldn't have. But I never said,

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Jesus, you're not true. I don't believe you died for me. I think this is all a scam.

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It's a farce. It's a placebo. It's just, you know, some kind of heroin for the masses to just get by.

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I never said that. And I'm thankful I didn't say that. It would have been wrong and sinful.

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I did say help. I did say I'm anxious. I did say I'm hurting. I did say all kinds of other things.

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But I never rejected the faith. You know, you get sometimes in these situations where you go, oh, is my kid going to make it?

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We just drove home from the hospital. You're supposed to drive home with a baby, and the baby's in the NICU. And so, now what?

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We cried. We were sad. I'm sure there was some sinful worry in there and anxiousness.

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But neither my wife nor did I say, you're not good, Lord. We can't trust you.

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It can make me kind of cry thinking about it. Even in those particular situations, you watch what's going on.

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Difficult circumstances. Difficult trying circumstances. I can't really take it.

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Plus, I just thought I got done dealing with the trouble, and now I'm in another trial now.

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I can still trust the Lord. And that's a good thing. Solidifying trust in the eternal

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God versus ephemeral issues and people. And you just kind of have to let this happen, right?

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Verse 4, and let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing.

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I just as soon graduated in one night. Steven wants to go to school. He takes one class, graduates. He's a master in theology.

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It takes time. Perseverance needs to finish. Let endurance.

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There's this continuing thing. I just, the only way is maturation through difficulty, right?

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That's why when you pray, Lord, I'd like to be more humble. I mean, that's always a catch -22 for me.

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Would I like to be more humble? Yes. Should I pray,

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Lord, could you make me more humble? Yes. Am I afraid to pray?

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Yes. I'm so afraid. I think I told you the story.

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There's that Thomas Watson book, a little Puritan paperback from Banner of Truth. And a good introduction to Thomas Watson, a really easy

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Puritan to read. Lots of good word pictures. All things for good. And it was a whole book about Romans 8 .28.

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And I picked it up. It was probably 1989. I was a newlywed, 1990. And I thought, you know what?

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I need to read that. And I looked at it and I go, yeah, but if I read it,

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I'll have to learn it. So I don't want to have anything bad happen. So I put it back. Six months later,

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I got convicted and I thought, I'm going to read it anyway. So I just better learn this and I'll just take my lumps.

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So I read it. Got laid off the next day. It might have been within a week.

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I don't know, but I did get laid off. I'm like, okay, here we go. James 1, Romans 8.

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Anyway, my name is Mike Cavendroth, No Compromise Radio. Hopefully I could try to be a little bit encouraging to you.

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Main thing to remember, you don't obey these things to get in or to stay in.

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But because you're in, because God loves you and God loves, Puritan a lot easier than John preposition run on sentences,

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Owen. Oh, well, you'll get better at Owen. I got my eight pages of Owen today to keep my

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Richard Baxter's away. God bless you all. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Avendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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.

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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.

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