Inspired Logic - Romans 8:32

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

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

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. I�m going to be on the radio show today. My lungs feel pretty good.

I went to the lung doctor the other day, and he said that my lung volume, compared to other people my age, both male and female, is 90%.

He said that�s pretty good. The way my body, my lungs, like, take the oxygen and put it in my bloodstream, there�s certain words for all this, he said it�s more like 70 % of the normal person.

But hopefully over the next few months, that�ll get a little bit higher. I did go on a bike ride the other day, a bicycle ride in the hospital.

I could only go 22 steps walking, so I did 22 miles on the bicycle. It took me a long time.

In the old days, that would just take me a little over an hour. It took me a lot over an hour this time.

But glad to be alive. If this is my life the rest of the life, with these lungs, that would be acceptable.

What would be my other option, though? Lord, that�s not acceptable. Right? You�re not sovereign over COVID pneumonia?

Crazy. Anyway, it�s appointed for man once to die, then judgment. My name is written in a book.

I can�t go any farther than what it�s been written. My daughter Haley is pregnant, so I hope that it�s�

I hope I get to see the first grandkid. And every grandkid. I have four children and only one�s married, so we�ll see.

But things can happen fast, right? As we always say to the young people at church who think, �Oh, there�s nobody here at the church.�

My age that I�m interested in to get married� I mean, they�re people, but I�m just� for whatever reason, I�m not interested in those that are there.

And maybe I�ll go to a worse church, maybe I�ll go to a church that�s watered down in its theology, but they have a big youth� they have a big young adult�s singles ministry.

We always say, my wife and I, it only takes one to walk through those doors. And it regularly happens. People are thinking they�re going to be single for a long time.

Somebody comes in, they meet them, and off they go. I think I�m� there are three couples here that will soon be married at the church.

Two here, one elsewhere. Today I�m sitting there thinking, what am I going to do for no -compromise radio ministry?

Maybe today I can try to encourage you to read.

If somebody, and somebody did say to me, �Mike, who�s your favorite uninspired theologian ?�

And what I had to do was think about it a little bit, and I couldn�t just give one answer.

So I thought, in the 1500s, who are my favorite? Who�s my favorite theologian? I just had to say

Luther Calvin Tye. Luther�s so fun to read. Calvin�s edifying. I mean, Luther�s too, but Luther would have been great on Twitter, right?

He�s living in a Twitter world with just Twitter scuds everywhere. Blunt, you know, right word, what he says and means.

He means what he says and says what he means. Kind of a New England persona, almost. And then the 1600s.

Who would I like to read in the 1600s? John Owen. And you can start with The Glory of Christ, Volume 1.

Everybody starts with Mortification of Sin, because they start with self first before looking up and out.

1700s, I think it would be John Colquhoun.

It looks like Colquhoun, but it�s Colquhoun is how it�s pronounced. Great stuff on covenants. Great stuff on the law of the gospel.

1800s, I�ll tell you who it is in a second. 1900s, J. Gresham Machen.

2000s, I don�t know, I love Sinclair Ferguson. I love

Jerry Bridges, so I�ll give you one live Sinclair, one dead Jerry Bridges. And now we come back to the 1800s.

There was a man named Horatius Bonar, H -O -R -A -T -I -U -S B -O -N -A -R.

And you can get some of his works, and he�d write kind of little devotional things, and you can go actually to Chapel Library, www .mountzion

.org. It's a ministry of Mount Zion Bible Church. They have all kinds of tracts there. And you could just say, you know, here�s 20 bucks, can you send me a variety of tracts?

Or you could say, send me God�s way of holiness for a couple bucks by Horatius Bonar. We are using that in our men�s discipleship group, and I think what�s happening at the church is somebody new comes, here�s what we would say to them if they�d like to get the full effect.

They can do whatever they want, but here�s our suggestion. Start attending.

If you�re interested, take the four -week membership class. You don�t have to be a member, but you should take the class.

Take the three -week class, The Gospel for Daily Living by Jerry Bridges. Understand who

Jesus is in a fuller, well -rounded way. It�s one thing to say,

Jesus died for my sins, that�s wonderful to say. And then it�s another thing to understand the wonderful nature of that salvation with words like reconciliation, redemption, forgiveness, justification, sanctification, initial sanctification, propitiation.

There�s all kinds of things that we can learn. And then the next book is by Horatius Bonar.

It�s about God�s sanctifying work in our response of holy living, God�s way of holiness.

And I just got like 30 or 40 of those from Chapel Library and give them out to people here at the church.

And so that would be the class format. So today I�m going to read a little tract by Horatius Bonar called

Inspired Logic. And here�s what he�s after, and I think you�re going to like the idea.

And this is very important for all of you to grasp this verse that he�s going to talk about.

Romans 8 .32. Is there logic in this? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

So before I read it, what�s the logic? Well, if God gives the greatest gift, he�ll be stingy giving other smaller gifts.

If God gives the most wonderful thing, the most wonderful person, his son, his beloved son, his beloved son in whom he is well pleased.

If he gives his son for us, costly, sacrificially, will he give us not other things?

That�s inspired logic. And I like Horatius Bonar because he�s very Christ -centered. Of course he wants to talk about obedience and faithfulness and holy living, but he knows who�s on first.

First, as Thomas Wilcox would say, of course strive hard to live a holy life, but don�t make your holy life a savior.

Your holy life�s not the savior. The savior is the savior. And of course, in light of his work, we would like to respond with faithfulness, obedience, holy living, proper conduct, walking in a manner worthy of our calling.

Horatius Bonar. By the way, I think it�s his brother, Andrew, is not as good, but I think

Andrew did the biography of Robert Murray McShane.

This is inspired logic, yet it is most simple and natural reasoning. It goes straight down to understanding the heart and conscience.

It is irresistible. It contains moreover the whole gospel of the grace of God. It announces to us that perfect love which casts out fear and shows us the gracious character of God as interpreted and illustrated by the gift of his

Son. It says, �Herein is love, and what will that love not do for you?

Here is the measure of that love, and does not that measure take in all you need ?�

That�s how he starts. And as I�m thinking about love, there�s a very popular preacher that was asked,

I don�t know how long ago it was recorded, but what would you do to kind of awaken souls and consciences or whatever, as much as a preacher could do, obviously the

Holy Spirit does it. And this particular guy said, and you know who this person is, they said that they would never preach

John 3 .16 to such a group. And I�m thinking, I didn�t get that at all.

If you would like to awaken sinners who you would never use John 3 .16,

well, all right, you want to argue about are these red letters or not?

Jesus talked to Nicodemus who needed to be shaken out of his religion and self -righteousness, the teacher of Israel.

And what does Jesus do to the teacher of Israel? He says, well, remember, he didn�t say this, but this is in effect.

Remember Numbers 21 in the Bible and how snakes sent by God to kill people for their disobedience and complaining arrived on the scene.

And Moses made a snake and put it up on a pole, unclean thing, a snake, and he fashioned a snake and put it up on a pole.

And if a fiery serpent bit you, you simply had to do what? Get some aloe vera juice, have a ritual, say some

Hebrew stuff, think about what maybe Latin language would be like in the future and say a few things, grab your mom and say, would you take care of it, you know, bite the venom spot and suck out the poison if you could.

It says, look, you simply have to look. And that�s exactly right. What do you tell the legalist like Nicodemus?

Look. What do you tell the antinomian? Look. What�s the solution to both problems?

And the antinomian wants to make the solution, you know what, the antinomian says, you know, here�s what

I believe, so the neonomian said, let�s add some stuff. And the neonomian said, this is what I believe, and the antinomian said, let�s subtract some stuff.

For both, it�s to look. Look. Why anyone would say that they�re not going to preach

John 3 .16 to unbelievers who need to have their consciences awakened.

Does kindness lead people to repentance? Did Paul say that? Horacious. Let us put the statement in this way.

The one gift and the many gifts are the one great gift and the many lesser gifts flowing out of it and pledged to us by the love of God which gave it.

The one gift, it is the unspeakable gift of which it is said, God so loved the world that he gave his son.

Our text thus expresses it. He spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all.

It is then of his son, his own son, his only begotten son, his beloved son, that the passage speaks.

And regarding him it says that he spared him not. He might have spared him. He did not need to do otherwise.

It was an infinite sacrifice. Yet he spared him not that he might spare us.

It was not want of love to him but it was love to us that led him not to spare.

How shall I give thee up? He said to rebellious Israel. How much more to his obedient holy son?

How shall I deliver thee up? How shall I nail thee to the cross and lay thee in thy grave?

My heart is turned within me. My repentance is kindled together. This one great gift he freely gave.

He spared not his son but delivered him up for us all. To lowliness, to shame, to weariness, to banishment, to sorrow, to hunger and thirst, to agony and death, he delivered him up.

He spared not him that he might spare us. He delivered him up that he might deliver, not deliver up us.

The gift is one but it is infinite. There is none like it, none, nor can be.

It is the great gift, the gift of gifts. My name is Mike Ebendroth. I'm reading

Horatius Bonar's Inspired Logic, a little pamphlet from Chapel Library.

I'm doing this for lots of reasons. I did the Matthew Mead, Almost Christian Discovered.

Are you an altogether Christian or an almost Christian? I did that because I wanted to critique it and make sure you understood what an assurance killer that is.

I almost said something worse than that. Not swearing, but now I'm reading something on the positive

Caleb side to get you to read somebody in the 1800s, of course.

But the delivering up is that which so greatly enhances the giving and the gift. He was delivered up not to honor but to dishonor, not to joy but to sorrow, not to blessing but to the curse, nay, was made a curse for us, was made sin for us, not to angels to worship but to devils to tempt, not to a throne but to a cross, not to life but to death.

How immense then the gift. Though but one, it transcends myriads, nay, all other gifts gathered together.

It was a test of love such as nothing else could have been. How real, how true, how vast must that love have been?

Here is its sincerity demonstrated. Here are its dimensions measured.

What is its height? The answer is, he spared not his son. What is its depth?

He spared not his son. What is its length? He spared not his son.

What is its breadth? He spared not his son. Nay, he delivered him up.

Nay, he laid our sins upon him. He made him a curse for us. The more that we meditate on this one gift, the more does its greatness display itself.

It passes all measurement and all understanding. Such a gift for such creatures.

Such a gift for sinners, for those whose portion was wrath and condemnation. These are the all things of which the apostle speaks.

His argument is, he who has given you his son, will he deny you anything?

We cannot possibly need or ask anything half so precious as that which he has already given.

And therefore we need not fear obtaining anything. He who has given a whole ocean, will he refuse a drop?

He who has given all earth and heaven, will he refuse an inch of land? His willingness to give, and to give to any extent whatever, has been so manifested in the gift of his son that we cannot doubt.

That one great gift was given freely. Will he not give all other things as freely?

That one gift was given unasked. Will he not give all others for the asking?

That one gift cost him much. These others cost him nothing but the delight of giving.

That one gift was sent to us when we were turning away from him. Will he not bestow these lesser gifts on those who are turning toward him?

That one gift came when there was no intercessor. What then may we not expect when there is such an intercessor as he who is himself both gift and intercessor?

When the great gift was sent, there was no blood, no righteousness, no sacrifice.

What may we not count upon as to the lesser gifts now that blood, sacrifice, and righteousness has come?

We are thus thrown upon the character of God as interpreted by his great gift. And we are taught how to reason from that gift, how to draw our confidence toward God from that gift, respecting all things.

Among these all things, let us note the following. 1. Forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness, complete and free and unchangeable for the chief of sinners, regarding which we reason, as did the apostle, he spared not his own son.

Will he not forgive my sins? Will he not give me peace of conscience and the sense of acceptance and deliverance from condemnation?

2. Light and love. These are what he delights to give, and they have been purchased for the sinner.

There is now no hindrance to his giving these. For the darkest mind, there is light. For the coldest heart, there is love.

He that spared not his own son, will he refuse us these? 3. Renewal in the whole man.

He who spared not his own son, will he not renew us in the spirit of our mind?

Will he not take out of us the stony heart and give us the heart of flesh for the

Holy Ghost? He that gave his son, will he refuse his spirit? It cost him much to give his son, but it cost him nothing to give his spirit.

Will he not give him when we ask? He that spared not his son, will he not give us all things?

Will he not quicken and comfort and heal and bless and cheer and save?

Inspired logic. Hey, listener, isn't that great?

I mean, as I read it, I was moved. As I read it, I was thinking to myself, this is amazing, right?

You start thinking of even Charles Wesley songs popping into my head. Amazing love, how can it be? I mean, just take one of these facts.

The gift was given, we had no intercessor. Now we have an intercessor. The first gift is given.

This is what really, really made me stop and say Selah. The first gift's given, we didn't even ask for it, right?

Actually, we didn't want it. We would say no. We would spit. We would say no. We would cross our arms and say, no, we don't want this gift.

We're not even asking for it. We love our sin. We love darkness. We love to be Satan's pawns.

And the list goes on, Ephesians 2, 1 to 3, Ephesians 4, 17 through 19. It's just there, and it's gross, and it's ugly.

And we never asked, because we were dead in trespasses and sins. And we never asked, and yet we receive.

So now we receive that greatest gift, the Lord Jesus himself, and now we ask for something?

Lord, I'm in a trial. Would you help? God, I need wisdom. Could I have some?

God, I have a friend who needs to be saved. I mean, the list can go on and on and on, right?

This is inspired logic. I love this. Romans 8, 32.

Sounds like it should be the noco verse, right? In the pactum verse in the noco verse.

What is this in front of me here? Because of certain things, I've given up gluten and dairy, and then it makes the coffee not as good.

I'm using an almond milk type of thing. Silk, S -I -L -K, do you know that one? But this, this is from some

Keurig. It's awful. Oh, man, this is gross. I'm sitting here talking about forgiveness and light and love and renewal of the whole man and the

Holy Ghost, and then I get this. Oh, man,

I didn't have eggs today. I thought, well, what if I just go, you know, what if I just go like animal free?

What would that be? Only short term. I went out to dinner last night with some friends.

Kim and I went, and this guy's a pastor in New Hampshire, and we met halfway. And so he was telling me about all his problems, health problems solved by no animals.

And he's not against killing of animals for any theological reason. He just needs to have his blood pressure lowered or whatever.

So I thought, okay, well, we'll see what happens. Going down the dark side.

I went, I went, I took Kim out. It was Monday. I went out a lot this week. But I went out

Monday. It was my day off. And a lot of Mondays, Kim will go ski or something like that with the mountains closed.

And I'll ride a bike. And it was windy and cold. And so we went out to this kind of bougie.

Why does everybody say it now? The bougie. It was this expensive breakfast place. Somebody had given us a gift certificate.

Thanks, Dave and Sharon. But we went there. And I said, since my stomach,

I can't have gluten or dairy, at least for three months. And so I'm like, what do you get? What do you get for breakfast?

And you're like, oh, brother. You know, I like cheese. What am I going to do? Well, so guess what

I ended up getting? It was fancy. It's like farm to table kind of place, right? Which are harder to find around here where I live out in the middle of nowhere.

But probably where you live in some big city, you can find them anytime you want. Or if you live in Medford, Oregon. And I got some pancakes.

Well, I have to be careful on what kind of pancakes I get. Maple syrup is fine, right? That's legit.

I can do that. And okay, well, what about butter? I mean, it doesn't have that much lactose.

But I probably shouldn't have any butter. What has the world come to when you can't have butter? And so I got pancakes, but they were made out of chickpea.

And then they had some kind of topping, which it was almost instead of butter, it was some kind of apple cinnamon stuff.

It almost looked like an apple sauce. It was a little runnier, so it seemed like it served the purpose of butter.

And then I could put on maple syrup on the top and some strawberries. Strawberry, strawberry.

That's my life now. I mean, what happened to the life of two -inch cut tenderloins, barely cooked, and like ribs?

Dear Christian, God has given you the greatest gift, has he not? Aren't you thankful for that?

Oh, to be forgiven. I know an unbeliever that once said, if I could,

I'd give anything just to be forgiven. And we are forgiven people. And we have the

Spirit of God dwelling in us, and we have the Word of God that teaches us about the love of God.

God loves you, Christian. And you can rejoice in that. And that's not going to go make you run off and do some sins and, hey,

I'm going to take advantage of that. That shouldn't happen at all. But the free, sovereign, supernatural, giving love of God, the

Father, because he loves sinners like you. And the Son's love for you because he obeyed the Father for you, for your sake.

The Holy Spirit loves you because he not only assisted Jesus in his earthly ministry, but he took

Christ's righteousness that he, Jesus, merited and gave it to you, to your account, freely.

And now he, because he loves you, the Holy Spirit, dwells in you. And he's not only made you alive and sealed you to the day of redemption, but he renews you and enables you to say no to sin and yes to righteousness.

You get the greatest gift, you get the lesser gifts, and they're all gifts by God himself, from God.

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 6. 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.