Reasons for Praise (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromised Radio Ministry. Mike Abendroth here, Michael Lee Abendroth, Michael Lee Abendroth. One time junk mail, I got Mike Hafferhorff. So, Pastor Hafferhorff here talking about Jesus for pardon, Jesus for power.

I have to start off the show sometimes with a special request. And, you know, I think oftentimes people at No Compromised Radio Land think that we aren't really practical. We're not relevant. There's no K-love stuff.

And so occasionally we have to affirm you. And so I want to affirm you today in many ways.

I declare that you will live victoriously. You were created in the image of God. You have the DNA of a winner. You are wearing a crown of favor. Royal blood flows through your veins.

Okay. That's all I've got. If I played any more, you never know, I might get sued. It's so dumb. Oh, what do we do with such a thing? The Joel cube is still alive. Do you know, I've only had to charge it one time in the last two years since I was given this.

And so it's got a little charger there. And I just want you to know only one time have I charged it. So I want you to know that it lasts a long time if you never play it. Today on No Compromise Radio, we're going to talk about praise in spite of how you can praise the Lord in spite of your circumstances.

Don't forget there's the Gospel Assurance Guide on Amazon. That's the $14 one. Then there's a devotional version, much smaller, maybe a third of the size, and that is Gospel Assurance, a daily devotion.

The Lawgiver, Not the Law, as the Key to Christian Obedience

So you can pick those up if you'd like. And I'm trying to help people with the doctrine of assurance. In our circles, it seems like people getting bashed by the law all the time, even as Christians, not as a guide, not as a norming norm, not as helping us with direction in life, but for the motivation.

People having the law preached to motivate them to obey, to stay saved, to get saved so that they're not unsaved. And we remember that the law is not the engine. The law just is a guide. It's like a GPS.

It's a steering wheel, but it's not the engine. So you need the engine to get you places. And so for you to obey, it's going to be more than law. You're going to have to remember this is simple. This little simple thing will help you with the entire Christian life.

Remember who gave you the law. So would you please not disassociate the law from the lawgiver? And if you can just get that, you say, I don't know, gospel, law, gospel, monergistic sanctification, synergistic sanctification, kinds of law, uses of the law, strict speaking of the law, general speaking of the law, what the Hebrew word for the law is.

I don't understand any of that. If you could just get this, you're off and running, literally. Who gives you the law? So if you read in the Bible, don't be bitter in Ephesians chapter four, remember who's giving you that law.

And if you're an unbeliever, the judge has given you the law. And if you don't obey it, you're damned along with all your other sins. But if you're a Christian, you are adopted in the family of God, Galatians chapter four, Romans chapter eight.

You're completely forgiven. You're justified. You're set apart. You'll be glorified one day. You're redeemed. You're reconciled. God has made propitiation for your sins. Your sins are gone from the east to the west.

And the list goes on and on and on. I think it was Lewis Barry Chafer once that said that there are 33 things that the life and death and resurrection of Jesus gave for believers. Okay. You go through that and you say, who's given me the law?

The God who saved me gave me the law. Obviously it's not going to condemn me if I disobey, but as a father would chase in a son, if I disobey, I'm going to be chasing, but I'll never get kicked out of the family.

If you remember one thing in the middle of all this, who gives you the law, the judge or your father that will change everything for you. And by the way, I hope it affects you with your parenting because here's how parents parent, because I'm not an expert at parenting, but I'm an expert of doing the wrong things.

Sit down, listen, no elbows on the table, push your chair in, don't chew with your mouth full. And these are my, to my college age students, when the kids are little, think about all the law. Is there, is it wrong to give the law?

Of course not. Of course I should give other things. Daddy loves you. You're special to me. All the list goes on and on. But my children never thought when I would say to them, any, give them any command.

Oh, daddy is the judge. Daddy's the jury executioner. And if I don't obey dad off to the guillotine, I go off to the electric chair. We, we, we, we, we, we, we must go. No, I'm the father and not, they might not have always thought, well, dad's giving this law in love for my best.

But when they stopped and thought about it or grew up a little bit, that's exactly right. So on No Compromise Radio today, we're back to first Peter chapter one, verses three to nine. But to summarize everything else with law, remember who gives it.

And by the way, that's what's wrong with Joe Osteen and his ilk is, it sounds really pretty, but it's all back to law again. It's all what you have to do and where's the law giver and who gives the power to do it.

It's putting people back under the covenant of works if it were possible. And you think it sounds nice, but back to the law we go. Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to the law we go. Only, the law only as an unbeliever stands before God when we don't want to do that.

All right. I'm going to have to, you know, some people in NoCo, they don't like it if I drink anything on the air. I won't slurp, but somebody, there are some gingerbread Starbucks and I think it's going to be awful.

So here's the taste test. As awful as we think, why would anybody drink this? A, it doesn't taste like coffee and B, it doesn't taste like gingerbread. So how does that work? Renee, you like yours? Nope.

Nope. Nope. Okay. He doesn't like his either. That's a big nope. If you haven't listened to Renee's show, it seemed like an hour ago we did a show, but it was two days ago and he was on No Compromise Radio for the second time in the last couple of years.

And we have to get him back on more regularly because that would get our ratings up because he himself would actually then listen to the show. First Peter chapter one, three to nine, praising God for being triune.

That's what Peter does. And he is, he is imitating what he wants his persecuted readers to do. Praise God for being triune. By the way, did Peter know a little bit about persecution? I think he did. And praising God for having great mercy.

First Peter chapter one, verse three, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy. And now what we're doing here, it's very simple. This is like an intro Bible study.

I'm looking at these verses, verses three to nine and picking out things that we could praise God for. And so if you want to do some diagrammatical analysis and syntax and lexical things and all this modification and which ones are Jaron's participles, you could do all that.

But for today, just pulling concepts out about God that you can praise him for. Super simple and kind of convicting too. Praise God for being triune. When's the last time you did that? Praise God for his mercy.

And now he has caused us to be born again. And I think that's praise inducing. Now, if you want to look at the grammar, it's because of his great mercy, he's caused us to be born again. We understand that.

But just to be born again, he's caused you to be born again. What caused your new birth? Baptism? Catechism? Good works? Morality? Fasting? Someone else? Your priest? Your parents? Could you say that?

My circumcision caused my being born again. And of course, there are some people that believe baptism is effectual. It saves. Baptismal regeneration. I caused my own birth. My baptism caused my birth.

There's also something called decisional regeneration, where if you pray the prayer, God has to save you. Now, of course, have people gotten saved and responded with a prayer of, I admit I'm a sinner, I confess, I believe, ABCs, or in that case, ACB.

Sounds like a counseling movement. I need a little trombone on that. There is a trombone here someplace. There's applause. There, we have the applause button. Okay, fine. What causes you to be born again?

Not even decisional regeneration, right? God is not obligated if you say a canned prayer that he has to do something. I think it's going to be the other way around where God is working and you're going to respond with a prayer.

What's the cause of your salvation? Your prayer, your faith, your works, your desire to believe? No. Even your faith is not meritorious. The cause of your salvation is the triune God. So, Peter says to be born again is worthy of praise.

Later in the same chapter, did you know he uses the same language of passive being born again? You have been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable. That is through the living and abiding word of God.

I didn't know this until I studied this last week, that in secular Greek literature, right? So, we have classical Greek, that's before the New Testament, New Testament Greek, which was common Greek language that Alexander the Great brings in, koine, common Greek.

And then we have modern Greek. And there's some similarities, but there's some differences. But classical Greek, I didn't know this, that the Greek word for being born again was used with flowers and plants and botanical things, trees and how they come to life in the spring, right?

So, if you look outside today here in West Boylston, Massachusetts, you see snow, you see no leaves on the tree, you see houses and some of the fields look like, sticks are being grown because those are just leafless trees.

And then what will happen in the spring? And so, in secular Greek literature, this being born again, the plants, the trees, the flowers, they all come to life in the spring. Well, here, if we wanted to try to push it, we're all dried up, shriveled up, dead.

We're not just waiting for spring, but we're waiting for any kind of life and then God gives us life. And that is being born again. You can look at Titus chapter three, John chapter three, we need new us's.

That's a really poor way to put it, but I need a new me, you need a new you, we need new us's. That's the new phrase here, no compromise radio. But you understand what I'm saying. And how can we do that?

Because those who are in the flesh, what? Cannot please God. So, how can we please God and become new people unless God does it? And therefore, Jesus said, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can't enter the kingdom of God.

And that is an illusion, a direct illusion that Jesus, the greatest teacher ever, teaches right from Ezekiel 36, where the text reads, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean and I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. That's the language of, you must be born again from the old Testament.

And isn't that wonderful? We think about our hearts, filthy, unclean, and God has to do it. When you think of chapter 36 verses 25 and 26, I will sprinkle, I will cleanse, I will give a new heart, I will put a new spirit within, I will remove the heart, I will give you a heart of flesh.

Five, six times, it's all God's working. If you're a Christian, it's because God made you born again. You didn't bury yourself. Even when you describe your birthday, it's not your being born day. It's not you bury yourself day.

It's, I was born on that day. It happened to me. And that is something that should make you say, thank you for making me born again. I couldn't bear myself. Other people couldn't bear me. My own free will couldn't even bear me, right?

George Whitefield said, man is nothing. He has a free will to go to hell, but none to heaven until God works in him to will and to do his good pleasure. Maybe you don't like Whitefield. Maybe you don't like awakenings.

All right. How about Luther? If any man does ascribe salvation, even to the least, to the very free will of man, he knows nothing of grace and has not learned Jesus Christ or right. You're not saved because of your will.

Your will is involved, but as a response to God's work, right? It doesn't cause anything. We were unable to respond. We have spiritual inability. We believe in total depravity. And if you said, as I said, when I was preaching last week, please come up to the front and tell the whole congregation how you came to Christ on your own, we would laugh.

We would think it would be sad, but we realized it would be false. No one comes to God on his own. You come to God as a response. God doesn't believe for you, but you are born again by grace and to make it redundant, sovereign grace.

Well, he goes on. Let's just go to this passage and say, and you can do this with the Psalms, by the way, you could do this with Ephesians chapter one. You just go there and say, I'm looking for reasons to praise God.

I've got a difficult life. I've got a difficult issue going on, and I'm going to just make sure I think rightly. And that's our problem. We're not loving God with our heart, soul. What did Jesus say? Mind and strength.

Jesus didn't add mind in somehow messing up Deuteronomy chapter six, but what was implied in the word heart in the old Testament mission control center, Jesus makes explicit in the new Testament, heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And so we're to worship God with our minds. Side note, it's kind of a mindless generation. And even in the last two weeks, I've been convicted by just, I mean, my phone. I mean, if I struggle with it, other people must have to struggle with it as well.

And you're thinking, how much do I think about God? And I've got, I don't know how many apps on my phone, but some of them are just simple. I'm glad I have them. It's the JetBlue app. And if I miss my flight, it gets canceled.

I click on it and it gets me a new flight. I think that's a worthy app to have. Some apps are like my Bible app. I listened to that this morning for 20 minutes getting ready for the day. Probably a worthy app, if there was any worthy app.

But then other things, it's like, how many times do I check the sports a day? I'm old enough to remember that the only way you could check sports was stay up until 1020 at night. And at 1015 on the news, they would give you the weather.

And at 1020, they would give you the scores. I guess that would be 1120 on the east and west coast. But in Nebraska, if it was a late game, I love the Lakers. And when I was growing up, it was Jerry West and Gail Goodrich and Wilt Chamberlain and Happy Harrison and all these great Laker players.

Keith Erickson, he played back in those days as well. The news was at 1020 for the sports and the game didn't start until 1130. And I remember my dad would always say, time to go to bed. And I would sit next to the TV, channel six in Omaha, Nebraska, CBS.

And I had to watch the game with the Lakers because they were a good team. So they had them on very often. And if I didn't stay up, I would not know the score of the game unless I listened to the radio or got the morning newspaper.

And some morning newspapers would say, game still under... It was not determined while they were printing the press. Well, now it's citizen free press I get on. And I say, well, Drudge Report is super liberal, but I want to see what the liberals are talking about.

And then what about Fox News? What about ESPN? What about the weather? Oh, I have several weather apps. Better check three or four to make sure I can sync them all together. And then, I mean, the list just goes on and on and on.

And emails and then texting and then now WhatsApp and then Signal. And I'm not saying you can't do any of those things because I really don't like legalism. And I don't like fundamentalism. I am just saying simply, there's a lot of competition out there for your thoughts.

And I stand pretty convicted. I know antinomian as I am. I stand convicted that I'm thinking, how can I have my mind captive to the Word of God like Peter talks about later in this? And I don't know. It's just rough.

Makes me think, you hand your children one of these devices and what are you essentially handing them? But that's just another scene. That's just my little, what do you think of that little tirade there?

Rene's over there looking at his phone. Let's see. I better check my email. Okay. I have no emails. I have no text and I have no notifications on Signal. So I'll see all as well. But now I see the big E there.

I see ESPN. I see health. Is my health okay? I better double check. Ring, is anybody at my door? I used to have this movie one, Flickster, but who goes to see movies anymore? Pete's Coffee. Yeah, it used to be good.

Don't really use that anymore. Dictionary. What's the difference between primer and primer? At least that helps once in a while. Venmo. All right. I need to wrap this with some kind of help here because things are going poorly.

The Living Hope of the Resurrection

How can I get back on track? That is very, very difficult. Number four, why should we praise God? Why should you, dear Christian, praise God? Praise him for a living hope. According to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

And that living hope, technically, if you want to think about the language, it's the resurrection of Jesus. But let's hold that off a little bit. Born again to a living hope. Ever been to a funeral where a loved one dies and they're not a Christian?

I think to myself, sad, hopeless, no hope. Hope only in this life. But for Christians, you get a living hope. Contrast that to a frustrating hope, a deceptive hope, a fleeting hope, a transient hope, an ethereal hope, an ethereal hope.

What's the difference between ethereal and ethereal? I think I'm just making them up as I go along. First Corinthians 15, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

For as by a man came death, by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall be made alive. And therefore we have the hope of the resurrection, a certain, a living.

As God is living, remember all the dead gods, the mute gods, the blind gods, the deaf gods, they're deaf, dumb, and blind, right? Like Tommy, instead of playing a mean pinball, they're deaf, dumb, and blind.

And you can't expect anything out of them. A dead God would give you a dead hope. Well, since God even is described as a living God in the Old Testament, we're expecting something good in the future. That's what hope is.

I'm looking forward to something good in the future. Now for us in America, we could say just generally, I'm hoping I'm going to travel next week to see my children in California. I'm hoping it's going to be good.

I'm looking desiring and future good and probably will happen, but it might not. There could be all kinds of problems that go on. I mean, is Santa Cruz even a city or is it in the middle of the ocean?

Is it an island now by Catalina? Same thing down in Oceanside, Solana Beach. Who knows what's going to float away? Can you imagine? Remember we all used to laugh when they said that someday Vegas will be coastline, it will be beach property in Vegas.

We all laughed when we thought California was supposed to fall into the sea. What's the opposite of hope? Hopeless. Okay. Yeah. How about despair? How about you just think about the world? This is not a show about should you take medicine or not?

You can talk to your doctor about that, but the despair and the depression and the hopelessness and the foggy, cloudy view of life where everything's awful and people want to run and say, I think I could change my sex and it would be better.

I think if I change my gender, it would be better. I think if I had new pronouns, I think if I had Ativan, if I had, I'm trying to think of the other, Renee, what are the other psych drugs that's real popular?

Morphine. Morphine. It's not a psych drug. It starts with a V, not Valium. DMT. Huh? DMT. DMT. Well, okay. Yeah. Ketamine, whatever it might be, but I want you to know you have a hope. You have a future with great expectation that that's really true.

This is not fake. This is not made up. This is not pie in the sky. And you think, okay, no wonder Paul calls it this in 1 Thessalonians 5, the hope of salvation. That's your helmet. Okay. Think about it.

Do you have a real helmet you're supposed to put on? No. Why is the helmet called the hope of salvation? Because a helmet protects your mind. Well, technically speaking, a helmet protects your brain and your mind's in your brain.

So it's protecting what you think because our mind left to ourselves, we chase things down these rabbit holes. And we need somebody to just kind of give us an elbow in the ribs to say, quit going down that rabbit hole.

It's just not going to end well. I know we're not dogs, but like, notice my language, but like my dog that gets fixated on something. And I just take my foot and bump her and tap her. Well, it'd be hard now because she's dead and she's been in the ground for three years.

But if I would tap that dog, they'd go, oh yeah, I'm no longer fixated. Hope is something that is hard to fixate on because we're fixated on everything else. And therefore once in a while, we need to be reminded, oh, I really have a hope because guess what?

If you have a life that's filled with hope and you know, there's a good expectation in the future that's guaranteed based on Jesus's promises and his work, that should affect the way you live today. I mean, I'm preaching to myself.

I need these sermons. How can I have joy? How can I rejoice always? And again, I say rejoice. I mean, I'm getting persecuted. I'm dispersed. I'm in Cappadocia. I'm in Bithynia. I'm on the run. I have no idea what that's like to be on the run.

That's like September 2nd in Poland where you go, it's the first day of school and they say the Germans are coming to town, but I'd hate to have my kindergartener miss the first day of school. And you put them in school anyway, and here comes the Nazis.

And you're like, okay, now what? So we have to be very, very careful to watch out our minds because we are to have the spiritual accoutrement to guard our thinking. And that's the scripture because we have a living hope.

And no matter what your circumstances, Christian, you have the hope of salvation because Jesus has paid it all. And then we can respond with love and joy and all kinds of other things. So, so far in first Peter chapter three, three to nine, by the way, this is ADD radio, because if I just talk about a variety of things, hopefully you'll listen longer.

VanEcks, is that it? VanEcks? Sure. VanEcks. That's what I was looking for. VanEcks. Isn't a big new show about VanEcks and overprescribed and this, that, and the other. All right. We're going to look at some other reasons to praise next time on No Compromise Radio.

Don't forget Escondido Westminster Seminary, Friday the 13th, 5 p .m. free. Open to come listen to John, Justin, Pat, Mike, Scott, and Mike for four podcasts talking about the gospel. At 7 p .m. is the Westminster Seminary Conference.

I think that's $70 or something, and you can pay for that, but this is separate. It's just on campus for these four podcasts. I think we'll play what we said here on the radio show and all the other guys will play it as well for the mega conference.

Anyway, my name is Mike Ebendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. Thanks for listening. I think most podcasts say things like, oh, make sure you give us five stars. Make sure you give us high ratings.

Make sure you send all the Patreon money in. I don't need the money. I just need you to give me five stars. I don't even need that, right? We don't even need that. Thanks for listening. Mike Ebendroth, No Compromise Radio.