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The Deceit of Sin
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.
Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and we have been on the air for quite some time. We all, yes, we�re not technically on the air anymore. We were here locally in Worcester, Massachusetts, Worcester, Worcester, for several years, but I want to say it was about $15 ,000 a year, and donations are about $2 ,000 a year, which I�m glad for.
You know, $1 ,500 a year, I don�t know what the donations are. But anyway, it just is podcast now. So when I talk with people, my flesh, my pride wants to say, �Oh, yeah, we�re on 15 stations, you know, we�re on 20 stations, we�re worldwide.
But when I have to tell them it�s just a podcast, they look at me like I�m the nobody that I really am. So that�s the way life goes. But I know many of you have listened over the years. We had about five months of reruns this year when I had some medical problems, feeling better.
So, if you�d like to order some books I gave last time for the NoCo listeners, if you order �Two Sexual Fidelities�, we send you two things that go bump in the church for free. Just say on your radio, just say on the PayPal account, just say, �NoCo Special.
We�ll send you four books for the price of two. �Sexual Fidelity�, �Things That Go Bump in the Church. If you want to order the other four books, those are on Amazon. Amazon. You know, I think the first two books that I wrote, I think the print is, I think they�re almost out of the run and they�re not going to do another one.
That�s odd. So maybe I�ll pick those up and we�ll do �Create Space� or something like that. Who knows? I have other things to do in my life. We are talking about sin and how it deceives in Hebrews chapter 3.
That�s kind of the spinoff. What was happening back in those days was that these Jewish people left Judaism for Jesus, troubles came, and they were tempted to go back. And the writer says, �Take heed.
He says that unbelief is evil, and he says that sin is going to deceive you. Watch out. Going back is not going to be better. If you�re in the wilderness and you�re Israel I�m turning around here to get this coffee then you say, �Well, slavery in Egypt was better.
That would be bad. That would be awful. It says, according to Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, �The easiest person to deceive is one�s own self. Why is that? It is something that�s true. We are so easily deceived.
Proverbs 14, 12, �There�s a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Sin deceives. P .T. Barnum remember the Barnum and Bailey circus? He had an animal museum in lower Manhattan.
People would stay for hours looking at some of these animals back in the old days. �And over the cage of the tigress and her cubs, he hung a large sign which read, �Tigress. And over the doorway next to the cage, he hung another sign, �To the egress.
They went over to try to see the new thing, and they would just walk out the door. So be careful when it comes to deception. Sin is going to trick you. Now again, the context in Hebrews is turning your back on Jesus.
After you do a few shows, man, it seems like you want to yawn or something. Today is technically Thanksgiving Eve day, and it�s raining outside, but I�m going to go have some Vietnamese Pho here pretty soon.
Hot soup. That would be good, wouldn�t it? Hot soup on a day like this? Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. If you want to write, or by the way, if you want, I just, somebody ordered 20 sexual fidelities not that long ago.
If you want a bunch of them, or a bunch of things to go bump in the church, some kind of giveaway, remember that�d be good for new membership classes. You order 10, 15, 20, somebody once ordered 100 copies of Sexual Fidelity.
Make sure you email me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com, and we�ll hook you up with, not quite half price, but I don�t know, 40 off? Depends how good a salesman you are, but it�s true. It�s true. If you need some help, then just don�t order online.
All right, what I want to do for the rest of the show is talk about deception and how sin deceives. I�ve got a whole list of things here. I�m going to run these by you, and if I like the sound of them, I�m going to use them in the pulpit on Sunday.
The ones that I don�t like the sound of, I�m not going to use. You are the guinea pig. Probably in the past, I�ve done the opposite, probably to my shame, but not today. Today�s a different day. Sin deceives.
How does sin deceive? Well, one of the ways, and this is in the context of unbelievers, sin deceives an unbeliever into thinking he or she has to clean up his act in order to come to Christ. Well, I�ve got to stop these sins.
There�s some antecedent work before I come to Christ. Jesus answered and said to them, Luke 5, �It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Romans 4, 5,. �And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Michael Horton said, �The fact that God justifies sinners is a pretty radical idea.
It just doesn�t make sense to the person on the street. God might justify people who are trying to be good or people who aren�t everything they could be but really want to try. That makes sense. But a God that justifies the wicked is about the most radical thing that you can possibly imagine.
You know, people think, �I have some trouble with my marriage or my kids. I�m not living up to my expectations. Doesn�t everybody have trouble? But do people have this problem with God that needs to be satisfied?
Do people sense that they�re helpless and hopeless apart from God�s rescue? That�s amazing. It�s amazing to think about how God calls people. You could have a group of people, a hundred people, one hundred people, and ninety-nine of those people could be earning, trying to earn their salvation and standing before God.
They help people, they serve at the soup kitchen, they give up their Thanksgiving mornings to go help homeless people, they try to be good, they try to be good neighbors, they try to pay their taxes. Those ninety-nine people.
But you could have one hellion, you could have one awful, awful unrighteous person, and they can hear the message that God saves sinners and they can come to faith. It�s kind of odd, isn�t it? It�s crazy.
So, if you�re listening today and you�re an unbeliever, don�t fall into the trap, the deception trap of thinking, �Do you know what? I�ve got to get myself cleaned up before I can come to Christ. Believe now.
Sin deceives another way. It deceives by delaying repentance. You know what? I�ll just believe later. Augustine had stages with sin before he became a believer. �Lord, make me good, but not yet. That�s stage one.
That�s the unbeliever stage. �Lord, make me good, but not entirely. That�s the unbeliever stage, and maybe some immature believers. �Lord, make me good. 2 Corinthians 6, �Behold, now is the accepted time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation. Well, how else does sin deceive? Not just what we do, but what we don�t do. Not just what we�ve done, but who we are. That�s why Jesus said, �Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
�How can a man be born when he is old Nicodemus said to him. �Can he enter a second time into his mother�s womb and be born Jesus answered, �Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, �You must be born again. What do we see in terms of sin and its deception?
It renames sin. It says it�s a dysfunction, it�s an illness, it�s a sickness. You can see it today. A sexual perversion is what? It�s a different lifestyle. You can say, �Well, you know, there�s no such thing as absolute truth.
That�s what tolerance is. Intolerance is standing for truth. If you say there�s only one way to God, that�s bigotry. You�re not loving and open-minded. But what happens? Proverbs 28, 13, �He who conceals his sin does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
So just admit your guilt. Just say, �God, I know I�m sinful. I stand before you as sin. David said in Psalm 32, 3, �When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me.
My strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, �I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
So when it comes to renaming sin, it doesn�t do you any good. You call it something else. You blame someone else. But then you don�t get forgiveness, right? So you say, �Well, I�m just going to acknowledge it.
God already knows that I�m sinful, and therefore I acknowledge that. What am I going to do? Not blush, as Jeremiah 6 talks about? J .C. Ryle said, �There are very few errors in doctrines, false doctrines, of which the beginning may not be traced up to unsound views about the corruption of human nature.
Wrong views of the disease will always bring with them wrong views of a remedy. Wrong views of the corruption of human nature will always carry with them wrong views of the grand antidote and cure of that corruption.
So we need a clear understanding of man�s condition from God�s perspective in order to understand His plan of redemption. If you confess your sin, God is what? Faithful and just to forgive you. How else does sin deceive?
Sin deceives by making you believe in alternative realities, like evolution. When you deny the first Adam, you�re going to deny the last Adam, and the last Adam�s name is Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15 .22,.
�For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Later in the chapter, �Thus it is written, The first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
So one of the problems if you go along the evolutionary lines, if you get rid of Adam, he�s just some hominoid. There�s 500 ,000 hominoids or 5 ,000 hominoids running around, and then you pick one as Adam.
What does that do when it comes to the last Adam, Jesus? What does it say in Romans 5? �But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man�s trespass, much more by the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
And the free gift is not like the result of that one man�s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following trespasses, many trespasses, brought justification.
For if because of one man�s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
See that? One man. One man. �Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man�s disobedience, the one hominoid�s disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by one man�s obedience, the many will be made righteous.
So when it comes to seeing the two Adams, what's going to happen? What's going to happen when it comes to, we get rid of the first Adam, but we want to keep the second one? Aren't they both historical figures?
And the answer is, yes, they are. So don't fall into that deception. There's another deception, and that is intellectual faith saves. John 2 says, �Many believed in his name, but Jesus did not commit himself to them.
John 12, �Many believed on him, but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him. Luke 8,. �These have no root, which for a while believe. There's a superficial faith. There's a fake faith.
There's a counterfeit faith. Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 14 of Saving Faith,. �The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word, by which also, and by the administration of the sacraments and prayer, it is increased and strengthened.
By this faith, a Christian believer believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word, for authority of God himself speaking therein, and acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof containeth.
I have no idea what this means. �Yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life and that which is to come. But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of the covenant of grace.
This faith is different in degrees, weak or strong, may be often in many ways assailed and weakened, but gets the victory, growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance through Christ, who is both the author and finisher of our faith.
I think maybe the way it's manifested today in terms of this intellectual faith only or emotional faith only is, you know what, I'm going to take Jesus as my Savior and not Lord. �Yet, Acts 2 .36, therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
We just can't take part of someone. Romans 14 .9,. �For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Luke 2 .11,. �For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
You can't divide these things. You can't fall prey to the deception that says, you know what, I think I'll take God the Son as hell insurance. That's what I'm after. A. A. Hodge said, �You cannot take Christ for justification unless you take him for sanctification.
Think of the sinner coming to Christ and saying, �I do not want to be holy. I do not want to be saved from sin. I would like to be saved in my sins. Do not sanctify me now, but justify me now. Well, what would be the answer?
Could he be accepted by God? If there has ever one who attempted to receive Christ with justification and not sanctification, he missed it. Thank God, he was no more justified than he was sanctified. Well, see, here's our problem.
Our problem is we have loved ones, people we know. Our problem is we understand the realities and verities of hell. Our problem is we're starting to reconcile those two truths, and we might have to change things around a little bit.
But that's a deception. That's a deception. We can't fall prey to that. All the grace contained in this book is owing to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. And unless we consent to him as our Lord, we cannot expect any benefit by him as our Savior, Matthew Henry.
Titus chapter 2 verse 11,. �For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. And when it does, what happens? Verse 12, �Instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and live sensibly, right justly, and godly in the present age.
Spurgeon used to tell his students at the preaching college. �If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord's will but does not mean to attend it, you are not to pamper his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved.
J. Packer, �If ten years ago you had told me that I would live to see literate evangelicals, some with docrits and a seminary teaching record, arguing for the reality of an eternal salvation divinely guaranteed, that may have in it no repentance, no discipleship, no behavioral change, no practical acknowledgment of Christ as Lord of one's life, and no perseverance in faith, I would have told you that you were out of your mind, stark, staring bonkers is the British phrase I would have used, J. Packer.
The Reformers, of course, would talk about knowledge, assent, and trust. Those are the components of saving faith. James would say in chapter 2, verse 14, �What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?
Can such faith save him That's dead faith. That can't save. James 2, 19,. �You believe that God is one? You do well. The demons also believe and shudder. That is inoperative, not saving faith. One writer said, �We are saved by faith, yet faith is one, with life like daylight and the sun.
Unless they flower in our deeds, dead, empty husks are all our creeds. To call Christ Lord but strive not to obey belies the homage with the words I pay. Now, that's a poem, so how would I articulate that theologically?
There's no works that can form the ground of your salvation, your justification. But when you're justified, sanctification begins. Separate things, I know, but both stemming from the work of Christ. Was it not Calvin who said, �We preach Christ so poorly that the non-elect do not have reason to reject the offer.
So watered down just to get friends in. Crazy. Well, what about you? Do you say you're a believer? Are you believing in Jesus? Is it a false faith? Is it a true faith? What kind of faith is it? Knowledge, knowledge only.
Knowledge and assent, knowledge and assent only, or knowledge, assent, and trust. The only ground of salvation is Christ's perfect work. But when God regenerates you, you will be different. You are a new creation in Christ Jesus.
I think about how sin deceives. One of the ways sin deceives is there's no judgment day. There's no resurrection of the body for judgment. First Corinthians 15 .32, �If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me?
If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. What's the issue here? People that deny the resurrection. Yeah, yeah, you got a friend that's a drug addict.
You might become, you know, influenced by them, yes. But here, bad company corrupts good morals. It's the bad company of people who say, �Eat and drink for tomorrow we die. Those are the kind of people that you've got to watch out for, that you can be influenced by.
Then he says in verse 34 of chapter 15, �Become sober-minded as you ought and stop sinning, for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. It's a sin to deny the resurrection of the dead because that's going to deny Jesus' resurrection from the dead.
And so, he calls them to stop that. Pagans, what do they do? They just live for today. No, no, you don't do that. That would be deceit. That's deceiving. That's wrong. So, instead, �He who walks with wise men will be wise Proverbs 13, 20, �but the companions of fools will suffer harm.
All right, well, today has been an interesting show because I'm trying to do two things at once. Did you notice? Yeah, that's one of your best shows, Mike. Not. Hey, you get what you pay for, free. This is free no-co.
Free no-co. What if there was doubt? Remember back in the days where you had to pay per download? I don't mean no-compromise radio, but, you know, you'd hear a sermon, you'd have to pay for it, and now everything's just been opened.
The sluice gates have been opened. And I criticize John Piper all the time, but I think it was John Piper was the first major celebrity Christian preacher that said, �All this stuff is for free. So, hey, I'll commend him for that.
How's that? What else? If you are not a reader, you should be, and I would suggest you pick up Berkhoff's Systematic Theology and read the section on justification. That would help you. Or maybe you don't really want to dive into that deeply yet, maybe you want to just pick up a book, Here I Stand, by Martin Luther.
That would also be helpful. My name is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio.