Solus Christus (Part 2)

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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

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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.

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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

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

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth and we are essentially live again since we are alive again.

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And I was thinking to myself, as the hurricane in Florida is approaching, what that must be doing to people there, as I got up today and I thought,

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I feel tired and I don�t know if it�s radiation stuff or what it is, but I thought, what if I was, you know, on the side of the freeway without gas, letting my kids play in the little median because I didn�t know what else to do,

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I�ll just let them play. So I�m thankful that I�m up here in New England and not stuck down in Jupiter, Florida at the moment.

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I�m also thankful that my life does not consist of, and joy in my life is not dependent upon Congress, the

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President, legislative branch of government, Paul Ryan, Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi.

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I mean, I�m interested in that, but what if your life was revolved around that? Wow. What about kneeling?

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You know, what if I was kneeling here during the National Anthem? Why don�t we play the National Anthem on No Compromise Radio? Who�s in charge of that?

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We can�t even get like music for the beginning of the show, let alone. Well, pretty much everything now with the brachytherapy and stuff, this is on, you know, everything�s on life support, including me, right?

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I�m joking about that because they got it early enough and should be fine. I�ll probably die of something else, like a bike wreck or something.

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But anyway, right now we just do the bare bones. I did promise some people we�re going to start some new shows up.

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I am tempted, thoroughly tempted, to just do one show a week. After five days a week.

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We�re not on the local radio station now, so this is just all gratis. Why am I doing this?

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I�m doing this for who? Fred? Our incredibly shrinking audience?

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Well, at least if you listen at 1 .5 speed, 24 and a half minutes of talk time, that�s not too bad.

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That�s 18 minutes and, you know, you�ll probably get one little tidbit of information. I would try to destroy my friend

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Troy in SoCal because he heard this the first time and called it no content radio.

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I�ll blame that on Steve. By the way, Harry, Harriton, one of our elders.

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He�s from, any guesses, Greece. And I hate Harry when he can just open up his

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Greek Bible and just read it perfectly. I want to correct his pronunciation, but then I bite my lip.

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Well, my professor at TMS pronounced it this way. He writes the

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NoCo blog. You�ll find some really good articles there, the NoCo blog. And if you would like to be on our mailing list, it�s not for money, but it will inform you what blogs were put out, what videos were put out, what shows were put out that week.

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And Spencer sends that if you want to get put on that list. We won�t ask you for money. We�ll just privately pine away that you do.

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That�s the other thing, right? I�ve never asked for money on no -compromise radio, but you�re thinking, hmm, these headphones

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I�ve got, making my ears with all these black speckles, like I should do some show about the black cows and the white cows and the skinny ones and the other ones.

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So you can�t say fat on the radio. We�ve talked last time about Solus Christus, through Christ alone, one of the five solas that we think of during the

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Reformation. And it is September 2017. We�re thinking about 500 -year anniversary, October 31st, 1517,

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Martin Luther. And so we�ve been talking a lot about Peter, the first pope.

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I did not tell you the story of when

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Kim and I and my kids went to Europe for two months this year. So I knew

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I was having the brachytherapy. It wasn�t technically surgery, although they put me out like it was surgery. I remember when they were about ready to do the operation, the procedure, the brachytherapy where you put the seeds in the prostate and it just radiates it.

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I remember we might not get to Solus Christus today. Yeah, we will, hopefully.

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The day before, two days before I had to go to New York City and I had to get all the tests, you know, can you withstand general anesthesia, as we say here in New England, and a seizure.

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You don�t want to have a seizure when anesthesia is given to you. Oh, I read a review of No Compromise Radio the other day and they didn�t like it that I laugh at my own jokes.

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Forget you. I mean, I don�t know what else to tell you. You�re going to sit here all day every day and deprived of food and drinking too much of Pete�s coffee.

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Anyway, the day before then you can�t eat anything. It�s kind of like the colonoscopy kind of deal and you have to drink all the

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Golightly and everything else. My wife and kids were there or at least some of the kids who were, let�s see, my three daughters were.

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Luke was in Alaska on a barge and then a fishing boat. He brought us, by the way, this huge salmon, frozen.

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We just had salmon tacos, salmon bakes, salmon fillets. We had a lot of salmon, salmon.

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There was a young lady and she was kind of a nitpicky young lady.

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We invited her to church. She�s 18 years old. She thought she knew everything.

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We had a girl from Sweden also in the car. We invited to church and I was preaching in California and she said something and we were telling her about the salmon.

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She said, �Oh, I love salmon ,� the Swedish girl said and this other pipsqueak of a girl who is the

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Ms. Know -it -all, she said, �Salmon? What do you mean salmon? You call it salmon ?�

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And the Swedish girl said, �No, we call it lox.� It was the best ever.

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That rates right up there when my son

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Luke brought his friend

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Tony, this Lebanese kid down the street. This was 10 years ago. We were bringing them to a skate park and we drove past a church.

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I think it's a Calvary Chapel church now and it said A -G -A -P -E Fellowship.

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Luke has been trained because he's in the car with me all the time. Any church we drive past, if it says Unitarian, what's that mean?

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Uni? What's the opposite? Tri? They're Unitarians.

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They don't believe in the Trinity. They don't believe Jesus is God. What about Universalism? Everybody goes to heaven.

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Congregational, they all vote. Luke looked at the sign and he goes, �Look at that Agape Fellowship.�

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His friend who thinks he knows it all too, don't we all? He said, �That's

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Agape, you idiot.� He said that to Luke.

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I turned around and I looked at Tony and I said, �That's Agape, you idiot.�

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Oh, man. So I was doing the whole thing the day before the procedure.

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And then that morning we got up that Wednesday, June 14th. Not that I remember the date or anything like that.

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And we went to the hospital and we checked in and I was reading Matthew 8.

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And Jesus heals the leper. The leper knows Jesus can, but he's not sure if Jesus will.

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Remember the passage? Great passage. Can you? I know that.

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You've got the power. But will you? Is it your sovereign will as king to heal me?

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So I read that, prayed with my wife, and it was simply, �God, I know you could heal me through this procedure or just right now for that matter, but you could heal me.

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Will you? Will you please just have this procedure take away the cancer? Fewer side effects, the better.

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With brachytherapy, that's right up there for a few side effects, using the positive in terms of describing the negative.

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And then we prayed. There was a lady in there. It said, �Don't eat because you haven't been able to eat for a day.�

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And she was sneaking little granola bar bites. And I wanted to get mad at her, but I thought.

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And, you know, if she was eating in there, it wouldn't even have bothered me. But there was a sign that said at Memorial Sloan Kettering that you shouldn't be eating there.

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Well, that made me mad. And I thought, �Oh, it does really matter.� So I prayed with my wife, said goodbye, walked down the hall.

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You know, I've got my gown on and stuff and went into the OR. And I hadn't been in an OR for a long time.

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I used to work in operating rooms. And just saw all the stuff. I'm just trying to see any kind of new things.

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You know, this is not like open -heart surgery where you have to have the heart bypass machine and everything else.

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But there were so many sterile packs and machines and everything else. CT arm was there because they placed the seeds in with the

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CT. Oh, man, this is for real, for reals. So, well, once I get the

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Versed, once I get the good stuff in the anesthesia to kind of relax you, then we'll be fine.

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I'm going to wake up and I mean, I have no, you know, there's nothing I could do about it. So I laid down and they put the things around my legs, you know, squeeze your legs and keep the blood flow going because you're going to have to have your legs up for the procedure.

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And they have this kind of warm blanket. It was cold in there and everybody's being nice and talking. And there's,

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I always look at the operating room lights above. And I was thinking, you know,

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I'm going to wake up to see some lights in the post -op recovery room or I'm going to see the light.

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I don't mean embrace the light, but I mean, the light of the glory of the transcendence of God where you, the kind of light where you don't need any sun to see a la

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Ezekiel. The Lord, I'm in your hands, here we go. And so I'm laying there, everybody's doing all, you know, they're being nice and ask me questions.

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And I was telling them, I just got back from Europe, et cetera. So then I'm thinking, okay, come on, give me the, give me the stuff.

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Let me at least enjoy that for a while. And so the anesthesiologist, she said, I'm going to give you a little something to relax you.

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And I thought, okay, good. You know, this is like the pre, the preamble. I probably lasted,

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I usually try to count or I usually try to say, I'm not going to fall asleep. Keep my eyes propped open, you know, with like toothpicks.

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Anyway, the next thing you know, I woke up, I was in recovery. Saw the lights getting, you know, blurry.

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And then it was over in about six seconds. That was no fun at all. So anyway, the other interesting thing that happened in the middle of all this is we had great opportunities to minister to and to be ministered to by some of the staff at the

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Sheraton in the New York Times, 53rd and 7th, between 7th and 8th, 53rd.

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Anyway, just sweet people at the front desk and free movies and free, we got to the room, there's like a wine and cheese and a meat plate.

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And, you know, sorry, you know, for the surgery, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, because the lady up front knew.

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And here's some sodas and some special lunches. And it was just amazing to see that whole thing.

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I've been evangelizing and witnessing to my friend Muhammad there, who works up on the lounge or something.

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And he was fasting, it was Ramadan. He said, I've been praying for you. Well, I mean,

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I don't know what to say to that. To whom might you be praying? But anyway, I gave him one of my books and it was just talking about the

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Lord. And anyway, the one, it was kind of a hokey way to do it, but I didn't really know how to go about it.

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So I just went for it. So they were taking my blood Monday before the procedure. And I said to the lady,

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I thought, how am I going to get into a spiritual conversation? So I said, do you ever have police bring in criminals and you have to take their blood?

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You know, they're handcuffed and stuff. Oh yeah, she said, I've had to do that. I said, like murderers?

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She said, oh, I don't know what they did, but you know, they're all handcuffed up and police guards and everything. I said, well, and she's drawing my blood.

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I said, well, I think you're drawing blood from a murderer now. I said, I've sadly murdered people.

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I think I had probably, you know, hurly shorts on and some rip curl shirt or something.

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It didn't look like I was a murderer and I didn't have a suit on either. Anyway, I just said, well, the

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Bible teaches if you've hated anybody in your heart, it's like murder. I'm thankful to be forgiven because I should be judged as a murderer.

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But Jesus has forgiven me. That was my dopey evangelism.

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But I was wanting to, I was trying. And then she said she was a believer. And you know, when you talk like that, then they all say they're believers because they just want you to be quiet.

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Oh man. So anyway, some blood tests, maybe a biopsy in a couple of years.

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Who knows? I don't want to think that long ahead with all this North Korea stuff. You never know what's going to happen.

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Back to No Compromise Radio and the Solus Christus. I mean, if we had to do shows for ratings, here's what

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Luther said. See how different Christ is from his successors, although they all would wish to be his vicars.

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I fear that most of them have been too literally his vicars. A man is a vicar only when his superior is absent.

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If the Pope rules while Christ is absent and does not dwell in his heart, what else is he but a vicar of Christ?

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What is the church under such a vicar but a mass of people without Christ? Indeed, what is such a vicar but an antichrist and an idol?

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How much more properly did the apostles call themselves servants of the present Christ and not vicars of an absent

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Christ? We were talking about the topic of Solus Christus, through Christ alone.

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And when you say, yes, I affirm Christ alone, that means you deny other mediators, other vicars, other substitutes, other advocates, others when it comes to salvation.

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When the Pope is called the supreme pontiff, remember Pontifus? If you go to Florence, Italy, you will see

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David, right? Michelangelo's David. And there's a special bridge there called the

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Pontivecchio, Ponta. Pontifus Maximus. Well, Caesar might have been called that.

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But now we sneak it over to the Bishop of Rome, the

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Pope. He's the bridge, the bridge builder. Who is he building the bridge between or for or unto?

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Between God and man, heaven and earth. When you think about Pontifus Maximus, you should be thinking mediator, false mediator, but it would not be

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Christ alone. It'd be Christ plus the Pope. Christ plus Papa.

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That's what Pope means, Father. Holy Father. And if I ever met the Pope, I would shake his hand and say hello.

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But I'm not going to call him Pontifus Maximus, and I'm not going to call him Papa or Father. When Jesus said to his disciples, do not call anyone on earth your father.

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One is your father, he who is in heaven, Matthew 23, verse 9. Of course, he's not talking about, you know, father, sons at home.

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He's talking about the spiritual father. Zwingli was right. Christ is the only eternal high priest.

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Wherefrom is follows that those who have called themselves high priest have opposed the honor and power of Christ.

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Yea, cast it out. When you say yes to Jesus alone is the mediator and advocate, 1

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John 2, 1 and 2. 1 Timothy 2, verses 5 and 6.

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Then you're into the Christ realm, not Christ alone realm. Pope is the real antichrist who has raised himself over and set himself against Christ.

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The Pope will not permit people to be saved except by his own power, which amounts to nothing since it is neither established nor commanded by God.

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This is actually what St. Paul calls exalting oneself over against God, Martin Luther.

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But not only the Pope in the Roman Catholic system, and remember, when it comes to the Reformation, you've got the

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Roman Catholic Church and the Reformers wanting it to be reformed, to go back to the Bible.

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But then there's the counter -Reformation as well, and you've got the Council of Trent, you know, all those sessions and over all those years, and the document that still today is not rescinded.

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You've got this battle back and forth. And if you think, oh, the Reformers are just after the

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Catholics, well, the Catholics are after the Reformers as well, and I think it helps us because you have to go back to the Bible. If you need a mediator, who do you turn to?

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Someone who is a perfect man, a perfect God. He's a perfect man, so he can be your representative.

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When God says, do this and live, he did. And who is God, and so he can die on the cross for our sins and have enough righteousness as the infinite

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God to bestow an infinite amount of righteousness on a select group of people.

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Yes? Yes. So that means Mary is an immediator. So Catholics are thinking

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Mary is the authority. She is the one who, and then they have to start doing all kinds of crazy things that she's preserved from original sin.

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Right? She doesn't die before she goes to heaven. She's interceding for the church.

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Gifts of the eternal salvation, that's what she brings as advocate, helper, benefactress, and mediatrix.

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That's from the Catholic Catechism, 969. I mean, when's the last you hear of Mary?

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I think it's in Acts 1. Then she's gonzo when it comes to the pages of Scripture. She's not there anymore.

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She calls God her savior. She, a wonderful woman, is not a co -redeemer.

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She's not a mediatrix. There's nothing to mediate. You don't want a sinful mediator.

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Even if that person is Jesus' mother, you want somebody perfect, and his name is

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Jesus. You don't need anyone else. If Christ's mediatorial role is sufficient, that's what

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Solus Christus is after, then you don't need anyone else. If it's deficient, then you need

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Mary. You need a co -redeemer. And then, if you want more mediatorial aspects in a different sort of way, you can look at the

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Mass. Because it says, according to Catholic Catechism, quote, the sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the

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Eucharist are one single sacrifice. In this divine sacrifice, which is celebrated in the

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Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner.

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Catholic Catechism 13 .67. The priest commands the bread and wine to be turned into the body and blood of Jesus.

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But the Bible teaches once for all sacrifice. Jesus sacrificed enough, so it's not

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Christ's sacrifice, plus it's Christ's sacrifice alone.

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And furthermore, what do the Roman Catholics do when it comes to Christ plus? Christ plus Pope, Christ plus Mary, Christ plus Mass, Christ plus saints.

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Saints earn merit, hence the term treasury of merit. And if you don't have enough grace on your own, or enough merit of your own rather, then you can ask for some of the extra.

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So if somebody earned a lot, not just for themselves, but for other people, then they've got a little surplus.

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And maybe you can just pray to them or pray to somebody else and you'll get some of that merit that the saints have.

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But I think you want Christ's righteousness imputed to you, not some other saint's righteousness.

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Because just how sincere are those acts? Are there any acts done by any true saint or any false saint that aren't tinged with, laced with, having a tincture of sin?

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I don't think you could find such a thing. So if you want righteousness, if you want treasury of merit, well then you have to go to Christ alone, solus

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Christus, through Christ alone. And next time we're gonna see on No Compromise Radio, a great illustration in the

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Gospel of John about this mediatorial work of Christ Jesus. When it comes to evangelism, people are saved through Christ alone.

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So talk to them about Jesus, about his life and his death, what he's going to do when he returns.

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Tell them about the one in whom they're to believe. And when it comes to your own salvation, friends, what if you had to say, 90 % of my praise is to Jesus and 10 % is for the treasury of merit, 8 % is to Mary, 16 % is for the

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Pope. Doesn't work that way. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

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We are talking about the treasury of nobody's merit. Nobody merits anything because you're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in or through Christ alone.

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Why send Jesus? Why pour out your wrath on Jesus if you're the

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Father when other ways will do it? Where other ways can do it.

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Christ will though, in fact. Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, as Paul said in 2

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Corinthians 2. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. Off to Israel with us. You want to sign up.

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Seats are limited. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth 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 10 .15 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.

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