Foundations for Living in Shaky Times

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2 Peter is simply the “go to” book for living in troubled times, including times of persecution. 

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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 gospel would remain with you.
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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 divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her
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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.
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It is a Saturday today. I'm looking outside. It snowed a few inches yesterday. Parking lot's kind of plowed a little bit, pseudo -plowed.
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And I think I'm going into the 11th year, maybe the 12th year of No Compromise Radio ministry, and we have been blessed here at the radio station.
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Let's be fair. There's no radio station. It's just a desk. And I have a power strip, a line mixer.
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That's where you plug everything in so I can have Pastor Steve or somebody call in or something like that. I have a digital recorder,
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PMD 620. I have a brick link that I don't need anymore since Friel doesn't have me on.
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And I have a Innkeeper 1X digital hybrid, some kind of call in so I can have people call in.
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That's it. That's all I have. There's a Netgear thing over there. That was also for Richard. No more.
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I toast you today with my premium protein, 30 grams, which includes one cup of caffeine, the equivalent.
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I turn 61 here pretty soon. And I don't, I mean, mentally,
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I don't think I'm that forgetful. I like to do activities and sports and workout.
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I'm probably slower. Probably rebound time is longer.
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But I feel like when I talk to young people, 20s and my kids from 28 to 19,
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I feel like I can do things with them. And my wife probably disagrees. She likes to be on the go and I like to sit and read sometimes.
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I think it was Martyn Lloyd -Jones. He and his wife had a deal after he retired. And he said they would travel or do something.
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If she would let him read in the morning, mornings are for reading, he'd go wherever she wanted to in terms of tourist sites or shopping or something like that.
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I think that works out pretty well. I've got the message Bible here in front of me and I'm going to start kind of a new series here on No Compromise Radio Ministry.
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I have not forgotten about the Beza briefing. I've done some other just regular shows, kind of old school No Compromise shows.
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And then today I need to work on my sermon a little bit and just listen to see how it goes.
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And so, like I say, you're the guinea pig. Let me read you something. This is from the new book that I'm starting and let's see if we can figure it out.
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Simon Peter. Oh, it says, I, Simon Peter, am a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
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I write this to you whose experience with God is as life -changing as ours.
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All due to our God's straight dealing and the intervention of our
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God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus our master.
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Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know personally and intimately the one who invited us to God.
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The best invitation we ever received. We are also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you.
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Your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust.
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Boy, that's bad. That's bad play house. That's bad theater.
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That's as bad as this little Jesus icon I have here that looks more like the Virgin Mary.
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It does say strength on the front of it. So I don't do the, I don't do social media anymore, so I don't do my live little cameos.
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So if you want some kind of video, you're going to have to go to No Compromise Radio's YouTube channel.
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I think we've got about 160 some videos there. Somebody emailed me the other day and they were talking about Matthew 18 and you can't critique anybody unless you go to them first.
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I'm like, where does that, if I say something publicly here on No Compromise Radio and you disagree with it, you can, you can have a show on it.
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You can do a TV show, you radio show, podcast, blog cast, write an article, send me a letter.
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You can do whatever you want. You don't owe me a private conversation first. You could if you want, but you don't owe me that.
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Why? Because Matthew 18 is for personal sin in a local church and it's not for, you know what,
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I'm running my mouth on social media and I'm doing a radio show and whatever I say you can't say anything bad about until you talk to me first.
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That's not what Matthew 18 is talking about. And anyway, I watched an old Matthew 18 video that I had previously recorded and it was a lot skinnier.
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And you know, the problem is if you have a New England winter, which we do here,
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I guess if you live in Dallas, you have a New England winter too. You're already kind of behind and your body wants to bulk up a little bit cause it's so cold out and then you can't ride a bicycle outside.
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It makes things kind of difficult. All right. So today on No Compromise Radio, I want to make the announcement too that we're having the
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February, I think 23rd through March 3rd or something like that in 2022. That's one year from now.
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Almost to the day we, Lord willing, will be going to Israel and you can go with me or you can go with my brother
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Pat and I. By the way, Pat's got a new podcast called The Pactum, P A C T U M. And I think my friend
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Matthew Johnston is going to have a podcast called The Pactum as well, but I guess my brother beat him to the punch.
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Pactum from the gospel, the good news of the covenant of redemption, the
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Pactum Salutis, as they call it in Latin, the Pactum Salutis.
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And so today on No Compromise Radio, we're going to talk a little bit about the book of 2
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Peter. You probably have figured that out because I read the message description. I can't call it a translation now, can
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I? And by the way, there's a new translation coming out, the Legacy Bible, John MacArthur and some of the master seminary professors have,
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I don't know what degree, to what degree they've changed things. I know they've probably done the doulos to slave and they've probably done all caps,
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Lord in the Old Testament to Yahweh. And I don't know what else they've done. There must be more than that.
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I'm not exactly sure. And they were going to hand one out at the shepherds conference, at least the
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New Testament Psalms and Proverbs, but my own personal opinion, obviously they can do whatever they want.
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We've got enough English Bible translations. I don't need another one. I won't buy one.
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We won't switch in the church to one. I think it's like the NAS updated kind of thing or something like that.
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So we've got the NAS, the 1978 NAS, right? Then we've got the 95 NAS and then we've got the,
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I don't know, what are the other NASs? So that's just my own two cents.
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I'm sure I'll get sent a bunch of them free by grace to you. When the shepherds conference canceled,
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I called up Phil Johnson because I wanted the scoop to see if I should still show up, right?
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They could cancel it and then have behind the scenes things. That would have been fun, right? Some kind of underground deal or something.
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And I mainly go there to see my friends, but anyway, I'm digressing. We're talking today in 2
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Peter about there are false teachers everywhere and how are we going to make it through?
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That's essentially the driving force behind 2 Peter, right? 2 Peter and Jude go together and 2
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Peter, written by, of course, Peter, an apostle sent by the Lord Jesus. He's trying to lay a foundation early on so the people that received the letter were not really told where they are.
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I'm assuming many of them are Gentiles, as in 1 Peter, scattered around because of persecution.
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He wants to lay a foundation. And so if you have your Bibles and you look at 2 Peter, it's fascinating to me because when
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I say to someone, 2 Peter chapter 1, what goes through your mind?
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What comes to your mind? What do you think about when you go to 2 Peter chapter 1? And most everybody talks about assurance.
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And for that, they'd be right. I mean, we've got the transfiguration that happens at 16 and following, and 12 to 15, we have basically
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Peter's equivalent of what Paul said in 2 Timothy. This is my last letter.
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This is my swan song. I'm going to die soon. But when they talk about assurance, they always, in 2
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Peter chapter 1, verses 5 through, well, let's just say 11, they are always talking about assurance, but it's the subjective side of assurance.
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Now there's nothing wrong with the subjective side of assurance as long as it follows the objective side.
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So what we have is evangelicals, I could ask you the question. Are you saved?
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How do you know that you're a Christian? What are the tests of saving faith? How do you measure up to what the
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Bible says Christians do? And again, I don't think that's wrong unless that's the only thing said.
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That's the terminal spot, this introspection, this self -examination, this looking inwardly, this pietistic,
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I'm looking at myself. If it's just chapter 1, verses 5 through 7, I obviously believe the verses, and I obviously believe that holy living, as the
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Spirit of God works in us, we then have a subjective feeling, if you will, that in fact we're saved.
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And if you look at chapter 1, verse 5 and following, you make effort to supplement your faith with virtue and knowledge and self -control and steadfastness, with godliness and brotherly affection and love, and if those are yours and increasing, there's something that's happening there in your life, and you realize, okay, yes, in fact, the
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Lord is doing this in me, and while I'm not perfect, I see a direction in my life, I see quicker repentance,
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I see more of a struggle, I have more of a conscience issue when I sin, there are lots of things there.
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But my point today on No Compromise Radio is, when you go to 2 Peter, you cannot go immediately to the subjective assurance in verses 5, 6, and 7, and then ending in verse 11, no, because there's a foundation of objective assurance in chapter 1, verses 1, 2, 3, and 4.
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So today on No Compromise Radio, while I read the message on 2 Peter 1, verses 1 -4,
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I want to talk more about the foundation and objective assurance that comes with it, because I think our default is, oh, if ever
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I talk about assurance, being objective, and look to the Lord first, and for every time you look at yourself, look to the
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Lord ten times, and when I look to myself, I don't know how I could be saved, and when I look to the Lord, I don't know how I could be lost, i .e.,
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Luther. We just need to make sure, when it comes to assurance, that we don't do what we've done for many, many years, or at least what
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I've done, tests of saving faith, how do you measure up the book of James? No! Stop that.
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We're going to look at 2 Peter, and those first four verses are the objective assurance. And by the way, if you've got a book, like 2
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Peter, that was written against false teachers who are saying, Jesus isn't going to come back, and since that's true, live crazy lives, licentious lives, sinful lives.
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Well, the opposite is true. Jesus is coming back, so live a holy life, walk in a manner worthy of your calling.
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But how am I going to do this? I'm weak. The powerful of false teachers are strong.
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They have been energized by hell and Satan himself. How am
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I going to make it out alive? How am I going to get through this world, with this world system, with invisible forces, with hypocritical liespeakers, and false teachers, false prophets?
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What am I going to do? Well, would He start off by saying, well, look to your life, and this is what
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God calls you to be, and are you doing those things? Well, I guess
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He could, but for us, most of us, we've got two options if that happens.
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We lie to ourselves, or we get really depressed. I'm the one that more lies to myself, in that it is a self -righteousness where I say, okay, what does the
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Bible say, what do Christians do, and then I say, well, yeah, I do it, because compared to what I used to do as an unbeliever, there's an obvious change.
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But I kind of make the law light, and say, well, you know, I don't do it perfectly or sincerely all the time, and I'm not really, you know, sometimes that motivated, and it's just external, and it's not an internal love for God, and love for neighbor, it's kind of like just duty.
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Well, that's the self -deception, that's the lying part. The other kind of folks, and maybe some of you are this type, you read the scriptures about loving your wife, if you're a man, or submitting to your husband, if you're a lady, a spouse, a wife, and you realize, you know what,
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I don't do that at all, I have a bad attitude, I fall short, and it can really lead to despair.
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So when you look to yourself, one of two things is going to happen generally, and that is self -righteousness or despair.
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That's why Peter starts off with, here's who Jesus is. When you look at 2
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Peter, if you just type in Jesus in your concordance online, or your search bar of your computer program for your
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Bible, for your legacy Bible, you're going to find Jesus, Jesus Christ, the
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Lord Jesus, God and Savior Jesus Christ, over and over and over. This is a book about Jesus.
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While Peter denied Jesus three times before the cross, after the resurrection,
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Peter's not going to deny Jesus anymore, he's going to keep preaching Him all the time. Acts 2, Acts 3, Acts 4,
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Acts 5, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, those are about Jesus. And therefore, when we look at this passage, it sets the tone for everything else in the book.
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I'd go so far to say that you can't understand chapters 1, 2, or 3, that is the entire book, if you don't have this foundation, if you don't have this baseline, if you don't start off with the objective work of God.
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So, those first four verses aren't about us, aren't about what we do, are not about our merit, not about our duty, not about our, they're not law.
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This is what God has done in Christ Jesus, and they form and they construct a strong foundation.
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I did some research, and there are about 20 ,000 earthquakes per year in all of the world, according to the
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National Earthquake Information Center. And about 16 of them are pretty big. And I lived in California for quite some time, and of course they had the big one in San Fran, and then they had the big one in Los Angeles when
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I was there. And the problem with San Fran, not all the buildings there are that safe.
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I mean, they tried to make them safer, but even the Millennial Tower, Millennium Tower, according to one report in the
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New York Times, it sunk 17 inches and tilted 14 inches since it was completed in 2008.
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And it's fascinating to me as I study this, skyscrapers, at least 40 of them that were built between 1960 and 1994, used a steel frame that can easily be fractured when you have a bunch of earthquake shaking.
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The technique, according to the Times, is known as the welded steel moment frame.
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And it fuses columns and beams versus having the bolts and rivets of the old school.
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Anyway, probably something's going to happen. So, you know, if you don't have the right foundation, if you don't have the right reinforcement, it's going to be big trouble in the future.
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And therefore, what Peter does, similar to a foundation in a building, he lays the spiritual foundation down so all of us can say, while I may be weak, while I may struggle with sin, while I don't do what
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I want to do, and Romans 7 type of thing, here's what God has done and I can trust him, right?
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While Peter may deny Jesus, Jesus never denied Peter. That'd be another good way to look at it.
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Well, my name is Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio Ministry, and we're going to see what this premier protein tastes like.
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Mmm, protein and caffeine, cafe latte, naturally and artificially flavored.
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And it has all kinds of vitamins, from zinc to copper to chromium to pathetic acid.
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I misquoted it on purpose. I hope you're a reader, I hope you pick up some books on 2
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Peter and begin to read. I hope you want to study the Doctrine of Assurance, the best book out there for assurance is
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Galatians. But after that, I think the Joel Beeky assurance book is the one you ought to get if you're struggling with assurance, which many people do.
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That's a, I don't really like to say balanced treatment, but it's a balanced treatment.
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It doesn't say objective only, it doesn't say subjective driving, it talks about objective and subjective ways of assurance, and so, therefore,
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I recommend that book to you. We need a sure foundation and stability that's found in another, not our own, because otherwise we're not just going to tilt 14 inches and sink 17 inches, we're going to just be liquefied as some of these buildings may in fact be if a big one strikes.
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Many of these new buildings were made to withstand big earthquakes and 90 % sure that they would make it.
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I don't know if that's good. When you see this foundation at the very beginning, you'll think, okay,
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I can make it. What's good about this book, obviously with all the Bible, it's so relevant for today.
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Let's say you disagree with the new leadership of the White House. Let's say you think to yourself, are
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Christians going to be able to make it and all the persecution and everything else? What do you do?
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Is the hope found in politics? Is the hope found in you? Is the hope found in evangelical celebrities?
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Where's the hope going to be found? How are you going to make it? Are you going to lose your salvation? Are you going to lose your hope? Are you going to lose this?
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Are you going to lose that? Where do we go? And so 2 Peter, those first four verses, you want to just read and read and reread those verses and don't fall for this trick where we just go right to chapter one, verse five.
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Let's get rid of all the grace to you and peace stuff and just get to the action. What am I supposed to do?
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That is that legal tincture that's in all of us, that legality. I talked to somebody the other day, and they came from a
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Roman Catholic background. He had a lunch with this young man, and he was just saying, you know, I'm believing in the
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Lord Jesus, but I just feel like I should be doing something, right? I think I should do something.
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And he didn't say this, but this is what he meant. He wasn't saying he should do something now that he's a
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Christian, good works that flow as fruit and evidence of a
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Christian's life by the Spirit of God's sanctifying work. But he meant, is it just that easy to just believe, to trust, to rest, to rely on?
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I mean, don't I have to do something? And that's that legal mentality that we all struggle with.
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And I think we struggle with it for two reasons, one good, one bad. The bad is we just want to contribute somehow, right?
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That's just our contribution. And that's what the fall does.
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It just makes us do that. On the positive side, though, there is something to be said. Maybe we could flesh this out at a future show.
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There's something to be said for, well, I have a desire to obey. I have a desire to do something because we're creatures, and we are under the law, and we're supposed to keep the law.
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And therefore, we please God by obedience, right? To obey is better than sacrifice.
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And therefore, we just want to obey. And so, we want to contribute somehow. But now, of course, we can't do that because of the fall and what
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Adam did as our federal head and consequently our own sinful nature. And so, to do things
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I don't think is wrong. To do things and add them to Christ -finished work, obviously, well, that's the error of all errors, is it not?
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See, Galatians, therefore, when we go through troubled times, the best thing to do is not to look inwardly.
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It's not to look aroundwardly, backwardly.
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Do you say backward, backwards, or backwardly? Well, it just depends, adjective or adverb, and whether you're in the
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United States or whether you're in the UK, right? So, we don't say towards. That's British.
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We say toward. We don't say backwards. That's British. We say backward. And maybe you just think to yourself, well,
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Americans like shortcuts, and so that's the shorter one, backward and toward. Those are the two examples that I could think of.
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Anyway, Mikey Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
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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 1015 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.