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How can God accept a Christian’s works if they are not perfect? What if we serve and love others with less than perfect motives? Is obedience important?
Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Ebendroth, and it is time to move on from the Hebrews summer and Hebrews reruns. And we are back in Massachusetts, beautiful downtown Burbank. What's a good Burbank street?
I forgot. Buena Vista. A good view street. Thanks for listening. You can always write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com. I think I've got some allergies because I feel pretty stuffy. But that's okay.
We're still up and running. I got back from California just a few days ago and was glad to be home to preach to the dear folks at Bethlehem Bible Church. Bethlehem is redeemed, I think, in two ways because I don't really care for the name.
Although it's been Bethlehem since I got here. It was first Bethlehem Baptist. We were a Baptist general conference church, and then we moved to Bible. And I guess we're a Bible church now. You know, typically Bible churches are Dallas Seminary, Verse by Verse, Elders, Four Point.
We have some of those. We don't have all those. Anyway, Bethlehem Chapel is in Prague, and that's where Jan Hus was. So that's kind of good. Or Bethlehem House of Bread, L 'Chem. And that is Hebrew. By the way, I am on Duolingo.
I think, I mean, Steve Cooley, Tuesday guy, I think he's up to like 1 ,200 days in a row. And I'm only like 280 or something, so I'm trying to do... I started off with Latin, La-en, and then I switched to modern Hebrew because modern Hebrew is different than Bible Hebrew.
There are no, like, vowel points in modern Hebrew that you'll typically read. And I was heading to Israel, so I wanted to just, in my mind, know how to read again. And then I picked up Greek as well, classical Greek, just because I thought...
I mean, classical Greek and modern Greek. Three main kind of Greeks, classical Greek, Bible Greek, which is koine, common, and then modern. So I was learning a little modern Greek. So I switched from Latin to Hebrew to Greek.
And my wife is doing Italian. I probably should have done German, but I don't go to Germany that much anymore, so... Anyway, I had a great summer. I hope you did as well. Luke Abendroth, my son, he got married July 29th to a wonderful young lady named Hannah.
And that makes Haley, my oldest daughter, married to Marty, and they have a little son named Amos. And I got to play with Amos a lot over the summer. That was fun. I'm glad that he knows me for more than just being grandpa who's in a box, i .e. in a phone FaceTime.
Although that's better than nothing, certainly. And Luke now is married. And so Luke and Hannah live down in the San Diego area, and we had a wedding there at Hannah's parents' house. And it was really a wonderful time.
And I mean, I was a little stressed because I had to officiate the wedding. I wish I could have just sat there. But nonetheless, regardless, irregardless, I say a lot of dumb things. I don't really say irregardless that often.
So I'm trying to make sure that's true. Luke is starting Westminster Seminary in Escondido probably in just a couple of weeks. So that should be fun. And we'll see what happens. We'll see if Luke makes it out alive.
He makes it out as a Pato Baptist, a Credo Baptist. Should I shun him if he becomes a Pato Baptist? Anyway, what else happened this summer? I only preached a couple churches. Santa Cruz Baptist is where we go typically on Sundays.
And if you're in the Santa Cruz area, Pastor Drew will be faithful to the word there. And we love the saints. It's kind of different because, you know, I like Christians. And I like the Christians here at Bethlehem Bible Church.
And I like the Christians there at Santa Cruz Baptist. Except one, I feel the pressure of leading. And the other, I feel the joy of just lay people, layperson's ministry. Anyway. And then I preached down in San Diego for a friend of mine.
And that church is called Pacific Hope. So if you're in San Diego, Pacific Hope, you are going to get Bible teaching there as well. All that to say, it was a good summer. Took some time off. I never had really experienced burnout before.
But I don't know, my health as I get older and all the COVID stuff and MBL and prostate, blah, blah, blah. I don't know. I just was extra tired. It wasn't necessarily burnout, but extra tired. So I'm back, excited, ready to start NOCO as well.
You're going to hear the next two days, an interview with my friend Roddick. Very, very fascinating man and ministry and place where he has his ministry. All right, for today, let's do something fun. Let me read a few quotes from Calvin and that will send us on our way.
This is in the Institutes of Christian Religion. And I'm rereading, by the way, the Institutes. But this time, the French version in 1541. And you're like, I thought you did Duolingo in Greek, Hebrew and Latin.
Well, I don't read French and don't speak French. Only a few words. But this is translated from the French version in 1541 into English. And hopefully there'll be a little review on the Heidel blog sometime soon.
If they, believers, begin to judge their salvation by good works, nothing will be more uncertain or more feeble. For indeed, if works be judged of themselves by their imperfection, they will no less declare God's wrath than by their incomplete purity, they testify to his benevolence.
End quote. Do you see what he's after there? I mean, even our works as Christians. Do you want to judge your salvation based on your works? How many works? How good your works are? I will be in Omaha speaking on the topic of the myth of final justification for the Pactum Conference coming up in October.
And I need to get a free admission, a free entry from Pat so I can give it away here on the show. And anyway, God accepts our less than perfect works because what do we do that's ever perfect? He accepts those imperfect works because he accepts us, because we are in Christ, and of course the Father accepts the Son.
Let's talk about this more with another quote from Calvin. For nothing so moves us to repose our assurance and certainty of mind in the Lord as distressed of ourselves and the anxiety occasioned by the awareness of our ruin.
So that's the flip side of this. What I'm after here is, dear Christian, don't think that your justification is based on your holy living. You're thinking, oh, today I stand before God accepted because I'm doing Christian disciplines.
I stand today before God accepted because I'm saying no to sin and yes to righteousness. I stand before God as accepted today because I had my quiet time and I prayed for the lost. I stand before God today as accepted because I'm saying no to certain sins that are besetting.
I stand before God as not accepted because I did certain sins. I stand before God not accepted because I've fallen into that trap again of selfishness and self-righteousness. I stand before God today not accepted because I'm not living up to my name, Christian.
See how bad that is? Of course, say no to sin and yes to righteousness. Of course, obey God out of gratitude. Of course, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Of course, have we ever said anything that's opposite to that?
The answer is no. But don't base your standing before God, your acceptance based on what you do because remember, God is perfect. He's holy. He's holy, holy, holy. And Matthew 5 .48 and other passages will teach us if you want to be in God's presence, His perfect presence, His holy presence, then you better be holy.
How holy? Holy, holy, holy. Our W-H-O-L-L-Y space, H-O-L-Y. You better be holy because God is perfect and He's not going to somehow lower His standards to get people in. That's why the way to get to heaven is do this and live, to perfectly obey.
And of course, that's what the Lord Jesus did. He was not tainted by Adam's sin as our federal head. He, Jesus, the last Adam, our federal head as Christians, perfectly obeyed and then also was punished for not His sins but our sins.
And we see that all confirmed by the resurrection. You won't hear me talk about active obedience and passive obedience without talking about the resurrection. Well, you know, there's a law and the law says positively keep it and if you don't keep it, there's a penalty.
And therefore, when we stand before God as Christians, you are accepted always because you're in the Beloved. Think of Ephesians 1, in the Beloved, in the Beloved. And therefore, while you should desire to live a holy life, that is, you're bent as new creatures in Christ and you have the Spirit of God, so you're not able to do that.
That's not what your salvation is based upon. Your acceptance before God, forensic alien righteousness, has been credited to your account and you stand before God as perfect in the Beloved. Then, out of gratitude, showing fruits and evidence of your salvation, you have fruit.
You have attitude fruit, you have action fruit. You're sorry when you sin, you want to repent, et cetera. Calvin, quote three from the Institutes. For faith totters if it pays attention to works, since no one, even of the most holy, will find there anything on which to rely, end quote.
Again, we're dealing with this idea that, yes, for Christians, you believe and you're in and then judgment day will show if you're really in based on the final justification. I mean, what's that going to do to assurance?
We know the answer. How's that going to make you live? Pretty precarious living, I'd say, and you're going to default to one of two things. Default number one, you'll be honest with yourself and your works and you'll get really depressed because you realize how paltry they are, how minimal they are, how sin tainted they are, how sometimes serving other people, even with selfish motives, or if you're like me, you'll lie to yourself and you'll say, I actually am doing these things, right?
Husbands love your wives like Christ loved the church, as Christ loved the church. And then I would say to myself, oh yes, I'm doing that because I'm faithful to Kim. I haven't cheated on her. I don't look at pornography.
I work and provide. And while those things are true, praise the Lord, there are other things about sacrificial love and putting her first and wanting her best and loving her like I would love myself, et cetera.
He who loves his wife loves his own body. Christian, focus on Christ's works. I know what's going to happen because we're all built as legal people. You're going to think about works one way or the other.
So primarily, why don't you think of Jesus's works and you stand before God in the beloved, accepted, right? How would God not accept you if you're in Christ? And then because of that, because of that strong foundation and the immovable rock of the Lord Jesus, then you are free to go and serve the Lord, even if our motives aren't perfect, which they never will be.
Even though we might have a kind of a double-minded way of wanting to serve, and maybe we want to look good so we serve other people or we're trying to win a girl so we're serving other folks in the youth ministry because we want that girl to see how we serve other people.
I don't mean me. I'm already married, but I'm just trying to think of different ways that people might serve that don't necessarily have perfect intentions. Of course, we never can have perfect intentions.
How do you get people to be faithful? That's the question behind this whole idea. How do you get people to be faithful? And if the answer is like Rome, well, you're standing before God. Justification is based on your holy living.
Then you get people going. Then the gerbils on the wheel, around and around you go, the treadmill, chutes and ladders, the game, you know, you're going up a ladder and then you hit the chute and then down you go.
You can get people to obey that way, but I don't think that's, A, correct biblically, and B, it's not sustainable. And what a way to live a life. I lived that way too many years when I didn't know the categories of justification and God's sanctification as both means of, as both gracious acts of God.
When I say grace, I almost say means of grace. You know what I'm thinking. Of course, should you love God and love neighbor? Yes, but that's not your standing before God, how much you love God and love neighbor.
Jesus loved the father and loved his neighbor and therefore you stand in his good stead. Remember Horatius Bonar, God's way of holiness. I'm quite convinced that when you're a new Christian, besides reading the Bible, I want to put in your hand, Jerry Bridges, the gospel for daily living and say, read this book.
Then after we have, it's settled on how you're accepted with God and the work of Christ. Then I want you to read a book about holy living. And that book is God's way of holiness. I need to actually to come up with a curriculum for the first book, Bridges, and the second book, Horatius Bonar, so we can just walk people through it.
You're a new Christian. Here's what you should do. Let's read this book and then let's read that book. And off we go. Here's what Horatius Bonar said, which perfectly applies to the assurance of salvation we're talking about when we're looking to God's, God, the son's work and not our works.
The secret of a believer's holy walk is, okay, what's the secret? When everybody talks like that, I'm like, okay, here's the inside secret. I feel like it's a German pietist or something. These are the secrets.
This is Keswick. These are the inside secrets. The secret of a believer's holy walk is his continual recurrence to the blood of the capital S, surety Jesus and his daily communion with a crucified and risen Lord.
All divine life and all precious fruits of it, pardon, peace, and holiness spring from the cross. Here's a real zinger. All fancied sanctification, which does not arise holy, W-H, from the blood of the cross is nothing better than Phariseeism.
If we would be holy, we must get to the cross and dwell there. Else, notwithstanding, all our labor, diligence, fasting, praying, and good works, we shall be yet void of real sanctification, destitute of those humble, gracious tempers which accompany a clear view of the cross.
Fascinating. How do you motivate a congregation? Well, I guess you could manipulate them by telling them, we're going to conflate justification and sanctification, legal preaching, or you could tell them about the Lord Jesus and what he's done and how great he is, so they respond out of gratitude.
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. It's just this natural response. When I survey the cross, Isaac Watt says, love so amazing, so divine, what? It demands my soul, my life, my all. What's antinomian about that?
I'm just after a different motivation for obedience. And again, I think last time I did Motivations for Obedience in a podcast, I think somebody called me antinomian, not very much before or after that.
Okay, motivations for obedience. Okay, does that sound like antinomian to you? I mean, let's just think big picture here because the Reformation was real. I don't want you to think like a Roman Catholic.
I don't want you to preach like a Roman Catholic. I want you to focus on who the Lord is, and in light of that, then there's holy living. There are three chapters in Ephesians, the first three that essentially talk about in Christ.
I think there's one imperative, 2 .11, 2 .13, something like that, 2 .11. And then chapter four, five, and six, walk in a manner worthy of your calling. I mean, I think most people in our circles understand that part, Romans 1 to 11, and then 12 to 16, Colossians 1 to 3 .5, and then Colossians 3 .6 and following.
I think they get that. But it's almost like sermons just become Roman Catholic. And I think T. David Gordon in his book, Why Johnny Can't Preach, I mean, you need to read that. That's my favorite book on preaching, I think.
He says basically, what did Luther hear when he heard sermons in the Roman Catholic Church? Do this, don't do that. Stop it, start it, et cetera. What about the awesome Jesus who rescues us? T. David Gordon said, Luther would still think he was in Rome if he went to most churches today that call themselves evangelical.
Perhaps somewhere in the sermon is some mention of Christ. Perhaps at the end is an obligatory comment. And of course we couldn't do this apart from the grace of God and Christ. This next line is so classic.
But such a lame comment cannot rescue an essentially moralistic sermon and make it redemptive. One cannot expend 38 minutes describing the difference between right and wrong, moralism, and then rescue the sermon in the final two minutes.
Ouch, I wish I could go back and change some of my sermons. Some, you say? Yeah, most. Okay, we'll keep the ones in the last maybe 5 to 10 years. How's that sound? My name's Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry.
And I know I sound like I'm underwater. What are you going to do? You just keep powering through. And I also don't really have the volume today in my voice, my lungs. I'm not sure what that's all about.
I just sent to Kindle, Amazon, Kindle Press, Amazon's arm that prints books. I sent Discovering Colossians, S. Lewis Johnson, adapted by me, not much adaptation, but adapted by me. And I'm getting my copy, my preview copy, and I'll go through it, make any adjustments.
So hopefully within about a month, hopefully at the end of September, that book will be released, Discovering Colossians. And then I'm also trying to work on updating Sexual Fidelity to make it a little more law gospel and a little more gospel-centered.
It wasn't gospel-less, gospel, you know, no gospel. But I want to just change a few things. I wish I could go through all my books and change. By the way, very, very important point that I'd like to make.
When someone gives you a quote by, let's say, a Puritan or Jay Packer or someone, and they've written a lot of stuff, and they're trying to prove a point with a quote, ask yourself the question, at what point in the ministry did that person quote that, write that, rather?
In other words, if you're looking at John Owen and you think, oh, his critique of Arminianism, his first book, I think that's his first one, or Death of Death was one of his first ones, you'll see a more mature writer, theologically, later on, 20 years later, right?
You see, oh, Jay Packer said early on this, and then later on he said that. Abendroth, I mean, I'm not putting myself in Owen and Packer's category. I'm just using myself as an example. If you read what I wrote 15 years ago, it's going to be probably more moralistic or pietistic or lordshipy or whatever you want to say, and so there's growth for all of us, I hope, right?
I think it's to Timothy or to Titus, Paul said, make your progress evident to all. Therefore, when you're reading people, don't forget to ask the question, when did they write this? Early on in their theological, for lack of a better word, career or later.
That will really help you when it comes to navigating things. People will send me a John Owen quote because they know I like to read Owen, and they'll say, well, see, you're trying to say justification by faith alone and these categories and everything else and what's saving faith, and you're criticizing Baxter.
Well, he said this. Here's a John Owen quote. Well, give me the page and give me the volume so I can look at it because it's going to be different later on, and so if you had to trust my writings earlier or later, I hope it would be, unless I've gone off the deep end heretical, I hope it'd be later.
And so some of you maybe think, I don't think many people listen to me anymore if they don't agree with the tenor and tone of the ministry. Well, anyway, my name is Mike Gabendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry.
Still tempted to reboot this whole thing and turn it to duplex gratia. People are on me about it. I don't know if I can do it or not, but we'll see.