Electing Grace (Part 2)

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, ministry. Mike Abendroth here.

The bridge, the helm. Someone said to me the other day, while I listened to one of your shows, I thought the content was good, but you seemed tired.

Well, maybe I am tired. Maybe I need to start drinking aspartame again. I think it's been since February 20th, no aspartame.

How about that? But I've replaced it all with Splenda. No, not necessarily, but once in a while I'll drink a

Diet Coke with Splenda. You just have to have it. But it's hard to find around here. I wish it had

Stevia in it, but that's all right. So today on No Compromise Radio, ministry, just to set everything up in case you're one of the people that have never listened to the show.

We've been on WVNE for, I don't know, two and a third years.

That sounds funny, doesn't it? Two and one third years. 2 .333333333

with a line over the three, the last three years. And we are on from Monday to Friday.

Here's the situation. Here's the format. Here's the theme. Monday is usually a sermon that I preached at Bethlehem Bible Church.

Kind of get a day off that way. Tuesdays, Pastor Steve and I talk about issues.

Wednesdays, I try to interview people. Thursdays, I try to talk about something positive.

It's my positive K love Thursday. And Friday, it's woodshed Friday. Take people to the woodshed.

So anyway, that's kind of the theme. And I just like to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, what he's done. The theme is always biblical, always provocative, always in that order.

And we try to accomplish this by talking about Jesus who's never boring.

And we talk about him because he never compromised. That's why we call the show what we do.

The way we approach life is we don't wanna compromise, but of course we do, sadly.

We wish we wouldn't have, but we have and we will. But we look to the one who never ever compromised.

So today we're following up on last time's show, which was for me about five minutes ago.

Election, unconditional election. Some people hate this topic.

Some people are scared of this topic. Speaking of being scared, before I get into the message today, what if we have a

Bible character? We dress up as Bible characters. Next year, you can go trick or treating or have your harvest festival.

And then what if you dressed up as a Bible character, but you walked in as a witch?

And then you said, I'm the witch of Endor. How do you think people would react? The witch of Endor.

Okay, this is a topic election that some people hate. And you know, the other thing about this topic is some people love it.

Some people love this topic. And I happen to be in the latter camp. I love the doctrine of election.

I love it for lots of reasons, but I love everything that's in the

Bible. Some things are harder for me to stomach, but I realized, you know what, it's all good medicine. My grandmother, when

I used to have a cough, Hedwig Clausen Erna Ebendroth, she would give me a teaspoon of sugar drenched in bad whiskey.

And that was supposed to calm you and warm you. So home remedies for 500.

I love the doctrine of election because it magnifies sovereign distinguishing grace.

Now it is a redundancy to call grace sovereign, and it is a double redundancy to call it sovereign distinguishing grace.

But grace has become so vacuous in our society, so void of any biblical definition that we have to add words to it.

I know when I heard Jonathan Gershner say, who was R .C. Sproul's mentor, I don't know if he smoked or not, but he sure sounded like it.

Just kind of a gruff, gravelly voice. And he said, grace, sovereign grace, it's a redundancy, but it is a blessed redundancy nonetheless.

That's Jonathan Gershner. And so it is a redundancy, but it is a blessed redundancy.

And I love this topic. And have we done shows about it before? Yeah. But I think you probably would be glad to hear about the grace of God again.

You know what reminds me of the grace of God? When you go to a tourist spot, maybe it's in the summer by the beach, and a plane will fly over, and it'll be a small little airplane, a little biplane, and it'll have a banner trailing it.

And it will say, V8 juice. I don't know why I'm thinking of V8, except that's what

I'm living on now. Little bit of oatmeal in the morning, a little protein shake in the morning, some coffee, and then

V8 juice until dinnertime. Blech. Woo. I try to juice too, but when

I'm lazy, it's the V8 juice. So today is low -sodium V8 juice. Guzzle, just guzzle that thing.

You have to just keep checking your lips though, because if you don't shave for a few days, that tomato paste can get on you quite quickly.

I did not know in V8, can you name the V8, how many vegetables there are in V8? Well, that's pretty easy.

Eight. But I think if you list them all out, you would not know that watercress is in there.

You wouldn't know that. Where do you find that? Who buys that? So, on No Compromised Radio today, the doctrine of election.

And it is like a banner in the sky behind a biplane.

Election, God's gracious election. Because you couldn't get saved without it. God wants you to know about it.

We learned that last time. God wants you to believe in it, because it's obviously in the scripture. This doctrine that means

God chooses from, picks out of, gathers from, the sovereign act of God choosing some individuals for salvation.

And God declares in His scripture that without election, no one would be saved.

Let's put it this way today on No Compromised Radio. If you struggle with election, God choosing, graciously choosing, sovereignly choosing, distinguishingly choosing.

If you struggle with that, then you need to back up a little bit and you need to learn about depravity. The depravity of man.

Corruption of man. Man's inability to save himself, change himself, have his sins forgiven.

And if you can get that down in Ephesians chapter two about being dead and trespasses and sins.

If you can get down the Bible verity that Ethiopians can't change their skin color and leopards can't change their spots and people who are accustomed to sin can't change themselves into doing righteous things.

If you can get total depravity down, total corruption, radical corruption, then you've got unconditional election figured out.

Because if you believe God conditionally chooses people based on foreseen faith, based on foreseen works, based on something in and of themselves, then you realize, huh, if God looks down the quarters of time and sees me doing something good, that means

I'm able to do something good. That means I have an ability. I don't have a total depravity. I'm kind of depraved, but not really total inability.

And total depravity doesn't mean we all do the worst that we can do, but we are unable, spiritually unable.

We have no ability to save ourselves and to deliver ourselves. We need a savior from outside of us.

So, a no -compromise radio ministry today, if I can get this through your noggin, you will be helped.

That is, when you struggle with election, consider how sinful men and women are.

Or let's do it this way. Consider the fall. When Adam sinned as a federal head, what happened?

Well, Eve sinned first. Nothing happened. To the race, something happened to Eve, I'm sure.

But nothing happened to the race. Nothing was imputed to every, nothing would be imputed to everyone else.

Adam didn't have sin imputed to his account because of what Eve did, because Adam was the federal head. And so, when

Adam sinned, though, we are going to be credited and were credited with the sin of Adam.

It goes back to the fall. And Adam couldn't save himself. Adam couldn't do anything.

His command, basically, from God was do this and live. Obey me and live. And then

Adam had fallen and he needed forgiveness. He needed righteousness.

And so, think about how forgiveness was granted by God. The animal skins came from animals.

God killed the animals and gave the skins to Adam and Eve so that they could cover themselves.

They tried applying the fig leaves to cover themselves. And that's pretty much what every religion is besides Christianity, a religion of works, a fig leaf religion, which has some biblical connotations.

It quotes some Bible verses, but it cannot deal with sin. It cannot deal with Adam's sin.

It cannot deal with forgiveness. We need

God to provide the sacrifice. And of course, then if you think of the Old Testament knew how God, even then in the garden,

God killing an animal in the place of Adam and Eve and then covering him with that skin of the animal.

Later in Exodus chapter 12 with Passover, the lamb that was slain in the place of, instead of.

Then you move to Yom Kippur in Leviticus 16, killed in the place of, instead of.

Then you move to John the Baptist in the New Testament, behold, the lamb of God in the place of, instead of.

Oh, I forgot of Isaiah chapter 53, in our place, instead of.

Penal substitution, penalty substitution. We deserve the penalty, God substitutes his son.

And that's where we finally end. The just Jesus for the unjust, us. This great

God who dies in our place, on our behalf, in our stead, vicariously, substitution.

Of course he was an example of love. Of course he stomped the demons at Calvary. Of course he did those things.

But if you miss a substitutionary atonement, you miss it all. And in the context of election, when you don't get depravity right, you get election wrong.

You get it wrongly? You get it wrong? Well, you don't understand it properly. I'll tell you that.

Bum, bum, bum, bum. I need some more sound effects here. Josh, give me some sound effects. Oh, Josh isn't here.

I'm here alone. Me, myself, and I. So election is helped when you realize man is depraved.

And if you look down the corridor of time and you look at people, if you were able to do that, you would see nothing but death, nothing but spiritual enslavement, nothing but total corruption and spiritual inability.

That means God has to do something. And what does God do, this God who's outside of time? He chooses.

And then he comes into time when he, the son, of course, cloaks himself with humanity regarding the incarnation.

If you struggle with the doctrine of unconditional election, would you please study depravity, total depravity, total inability?

Now, let me ask you this question. Why does God save some and not others? Well, God could save no one.

We learned that last time. That would be just. The wages of sin is death. And God could just give everyone justice. God would display his justice that way, his holiness, his righteousness.

God could save everyone. Christ's atonement is powerful enough to save millions and billions of people on millions and billions of worlds.

Christ's death is of an infinite value because he was

God, he is God. And so you have an infinite amount of righteousness to bestow to everyone who believe.

And God could save some, but he didn't save some because we realize that's taught

A in scripture with general statements. And we know people like Judas are not in heaven.

There are some people who aren't in heaven. Would have been better for him if he would not have been what? Born. So why does

God choose some and not others? The answer is the ground of the election of God to salvation is, the answer is found in the good pleasure of God alone.

The good pleasure of God. Ephesians 1 .5, he predestined us to adoption, adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intention of his will.

Why does God choose some and not everyone? The answer is found in the eternal counsel of God.

We don't know. It pleased him to do it. He was happy to do that. Of his own free choice, of his own free will,

God chose some and not others. It says six verses later in 1 .11

Ephesians, also we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose, according to his purpose who works all things after the counsel of his will.

And so you ask yourself the question, why does God save some and not others? It's the same reason why

God does everything else. Because he wants to, because he's pleased to, because it's his plan to, because he is

God and we are not. And one of the things about God and his saving,

I just think to myself, do you know what? We're so concerned about who God doesn't choose. We ought to get our focus on that God would choose anyone.

That's the amazing thing. So if you get all bound up in, well, God didn't choose some people. Well, that's true.

Think about all the people groups in the world who were never visited by a missionary until much later, until the 1700s and 1800s.

And for a thousand, 2000, 3000 years, these natives living on some island,

I almost said planet, on some island never hearing the Christian gospel. God did not please to have those people go to heaven.

It did not please them. They got what they wanted and they didn't want God. They got what they deserved. And so we have to think properly.

You can't think emotionally. You can't say, well, you know what? I'm going to let my feelings go and dominate what the scriptures say.

We are subservient to scripture and we have to put ourselves under scripture. God doesn't answer to us.

If you want to have God answer to you, then you need to read Job 38 through 42.

And you'll find out quickly that when you want to ask God questions, like you're a lawyer, a prosecuting lawyer, and God's a witness,

God is on trial, you're going to find out very quickly that the best advice for you, when you have that notion, that gumption to ask

God questions, the best advice for you would be, as we would say at my elementary school, you need to zip your lip.

You just need to be quiet. You're a created being who's fallen.

So Isaiah comes at it from a different perspective. Now, we regularly go to Isaiah chapter eight.

I'll read you these verses and you'll find very quickly, oh yeah, those are popular verses, but we forget to keep reading. One of the best things you can do when you study the

Bible is to keep reading. So when someone asks me a question, what does this Bible verse mean?

I just say, keep reading, because I need to understand what it goes on to say before I open my mouth and interpret it.

So it says in verse six, seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon.

Four, my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, declares the

Lord. For as heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways.

And my thoughts, then your thoughts, for as the rain and the snow came down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.

It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which

I sent it. Now here's the great news. When you do

Bible interpretation, you go before and after the passage. And so here's the thing. God is a

God who abundantly pardons. Four, my thoughts are not your thoughts.

If you were God, or if you're just gonna think about God in general, if you think about how pagans thought about their gods, they did not serve gods who abundantly pardon.

Can you imagine that? I can't think of any other gods unless they're somehow made up in people's minds. There's one

God, and he's a God who by nature abundantly pardons, above and over, over the top pardon, above and beyond.

That is amazing to think. When you start thinking about abundant pardoning, then you think about the Lord Jesus Christ and how he set his face towards Jerusalem and he was the sacrificial lamb.

He was not only the priest, but also the sacrifice on our behalf, on behalf of sinners.

And God raised him from the dead. He ascended into heaven and he's gonna come back again to judge, as we used to say at church, the quick and the dead.

So when you think about the abundant, I'm so tired today, the abundant pardoning of Christ, then you say to yourself,

God doesn't think the way I do. That's amazing. God doesn't think the way I do.

I think differently. And that's exactly right. God thinks differently and he abundantly pardons.

And so this abundant pardoning, even though God didn't have to pardon anyone, based on his great character, his great essence, his great self, he decides to pardon.

And so when you say to yourself, why does God save? First of all, why doesn't

God save everyone? That's the wrong question. Why does God save anybody? And we're thankful that we serve a pardoning

God. It's a good pleasure of God to save. That's just who he is. He's by nature a

God who freely, graciously, sovereignly, distinguishingly saves sinners like you.

Isn't that good to know? Isn't that good to know as you listen today on No Compromise Radio? Our God saves sovereignly and we are the recipients of that sovereign grace.

And that should give us joy. That should give us happiness. Listen to Isaiah 55, verse 12 and following.

For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace. The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn shall come up on the cypress, instead of the briar shall come up on the myrtle and it shall make a name for the

Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. We've got a

God whose thoughts aren't like our thoughts. His ways aren't like our ways. Our ways are revenge, bitterness, anxiety, angst, grudgingly holding things against people.

How'd you like I rescued that one? And God is a God who pardons, forgives.

Oh, not unrighteously. It's based on righteous laws being upheld.

But God, the Son, our advocate, our propitiatory sacrifice standing in our place, on our behalf, in our stead.

So election is helped when you understand that God does whatever he wants. Also, you could ask yourself the question, well,

I have so many points here, I don't know what to do. So let's just go to the next one. Let's have a cup of coffee. What do you think?

Peach coffee today? I could say my formerly nicotine stained hands, but I didn't really smoke a lot of cigarettes in my life, but smoked a lot of marijuana.

So I could say my former THC laden hands.

I praise God for that. I praise God as I look back in time, God rescued me from my own sin, from his wrath, and from my own self, how stupid

I was. I remember getting high from marijuana. Oh, 27, 28 years old.

And I used to say to myself, I'm gonna be getting high when I'm 50 years old. I can't stop it.

I wanna stop it. I know it's not good. I know it makes you stupid. I didn't think to myself it was sin at the time because I wasn't thinking in those categories.

But I thought, you know what? I'm gonna have to have a drug dealer at 28. I'm at 28 years old now.

Where do you find a drug dealer if you're 50 years old? What do you do? I'm so thankful I'm saved from all that nonsense, from all that silliness, from all that foolishness, from all that sin.

Praise the Lord. He is a glorious and a forgiving God. He abundantly pardons from all the alcohol, from all the cocaine, from all the marijuana, from all those kinds of things, an abundantly pardoning

God. And when you think about time, God decided that he would save me and eternity passed.

That's when that decision was made. And he did know that I would commit all those sins. He did know what

I would do and wouldn't do. He did know how I wasn't going to love him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and how

I wasn't going to love my neighbor as myself. 2 Timothy 1 .9 says, "'He saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.'"

Isn't that wonderful? Revelation 13 .8, "'And all who dwell on earth will worship him. Everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the

Lamb who has been slain.'" Everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation, whose name has not been written.

Revelation 17, "'The beast that you saw was and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction.

And those who dwell on the earth will wonder whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they see the beast that he was and is not and will come.'"

We are No Compromise Radio Ministry. We serve a great God who chooses. Believe today in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will know you are elect.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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

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