A Remarkable, Unmarked Passage

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. I'm still liking my new intro here. You are listening to a podcast based out of Boston, although it's not really Boston. I'm 50 miles outside of Boston proper.

It takes 58 minutes to get to Logan Airport if it's 3 a .m. If it's not, it takes a long time. When I first moved here, I thought, no one wants to drive to Logan Airport. I mean, I need the airport a lot, flitting around everywhere.

And at the time, the big dig wasn't finished, so it was even harder. But now with construction and everything else, it's like, okay, do you want to come and visit? Great. Well, I'll pick you up at the flyaway so I don't get stuck in the heart of, down in the heart of Texas.

My name is Mike Abendroth, pastor of Bethlehem Bible Church, just finished, I believe, my 26th year here. Thankful, the people that I have the opportunity to preach to every week, wonderful people, learning, growing, understanding law, gospel, Christ-centered preaching.

I think most would probably say we see the theme here, and that's Him We Proclaim, that's on the front of our bulletin. And maybe that's about all they understand, maybe they're new. And those that have been around longer will understand, okay, we don't have to put believers back under a covenant of works to be right with God.

That is to say, your sanctification does not affect your justification, your holy living. I mean, God's a sanctifier and we respond, of course, with by faith alone and grace alone, we respond with no to sin and yes to righteousness, mortification and vivification.

But we don't say to ourselves, you know what, I didn't do well this week in my walk, and therefore I might not be a Christian. Most people here would think that is a means of grace and the Lord's Supper as well, because we're not trying to tell people you can't take the Lord's Supper if you've sinned this week or anything like that.

No, we're reminding people in the Lord's Supper that you stand before God based on the work of another, externally done, and you receive that by faith alone. And so, we are reminded every time we have the Lord's Supper of that great fact.

Well, what are we going to do today? We are going to ask a series of questions, and those questions will help you understand a section of scripture that you might not really find that markable. I didn't say remarkable, I said markable.

I mean, like a marking pen, like a yellow marker. If you take your Bible that you've been using for some time, and if you're a person that likes to write in your Bible or mark your Bible, I always think it's wrong to use a pen or a yellow marker or any colored marker to write in the Bible.

Years ago, I switched because I read something about pencils and what pencils mean, not in and of themselves. Did you know after Y2K, we won't even be able to make a pencil? Remember that? In 1999, people were saying that.

We had a guy here at the church, and he said, I'm a seminary student, and I'd like to teach some classes. And I got to kind of know him a little bit. And I said, okay, what would you like to teach? It's November.

What would you like to fill in for Sunday school? And what would you like to teach the congregation here in Bethlehem? At the time, maybe Baptist church, maybe Bible. He said, I'd like to talk about prepping for Y2K.

I said, no. He left the church. I mean, it was more complex than that, right? It took more time. I'm just cutting to the chase. But I didn't really want that. If the message was going to be, if Y2K really happens, I mean, the problem, the fallout of Y2K, possible problems, and they all happen, why we can still trust the Lord, that would have been a good message, right?

If we say to ourselves, oh, yeah, Habakkuk 3, though the fig tree should not blossom nor fruit beyond the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there'll be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, Yahweh.

I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deer's. He makes me tread on my high places to the choir master with stringed instruments. If that's the message, no matter what happens, even if the conspiracy theory doomsday sayers and soothsayers say it's all coming to an end, we can still trust the Lord.

That would have been a great message, but not save up on pencils and the only currency is going to be antibiotics and ammunition and something else that starts with A, aluminum. I like it how people from the UK pronounce aluminum, but that's another show.

A series of questions today at No Compromise Radio to help you understand a passage that you probably haven't marked up in your Bible. And it is the section that follows Mary's praise, Mary's magnification of the Lord.

In Latin, the magnificat. She hears the words from God through the messenger of God, Gabriel, and she is going to praise God, right? She is so excited because the birth of Jesus has been foretold. And this little 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 year old young lady is going to be the one that the Holy Spirit overshadows.

And there is going to be a virgin conception and it's going to be the God man. And she magnifies the Lord. Then right after that, there's going to be Zachariah who's filled with the Holy Spirit and he prophesies and says his song of praise.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant, David. And he goes on and on and on through verses, through verse 79 for that very purpose of he hears from God and God gives the son and he praises God.

But in between those two songs, Luke called the gospel of songs by some, there's this little narrative and it's called the birth of John the Baptist. And you think, I don't know. Is there anything in there that's really markable?

Is there anything in there that's remarkable? And I don't really have it underlined in my Bible, but I probably should think to myself that all scriptures God breathed and everything's good and right.

And it's there for a reason. Luke, after all, is writing things from the beginning so that we might have certainty about who Jesus is and then a certainty of our salvation, certainty of the one that we proclaim to unbelievers, certainty of the one we'd like to honor with our lives, with holiness and godliness and walking uprightly, not to get our salvation, but because we're saved, we need to know about this passage.

And so, the dilemma of the preacher who just picks and chooses his own, you know, picks and chooses the passage at his own whim, you know, here a verse, there a verse, kind of these eight-week series that people come up with topically, there's nothing wrong with a topical sermon here or there.

But the benefit that I have is, you know, 90 of the time we're working through books of the Bible and I have to preach everything and everything has to be yellow marked. It has to be remarkable, because it is remarkable.

And at first blush, you don't really see that. And then you think, oh, do you know what? This is really good. This is deep. There are things that I can learn. And I'm not just going to learn, oh, the verb tenses, although verb tenses are important and I have to look at those, but I'm going to learn other things.

And so, I'm going to have a series of questions today to look at at No Compromise Radio. So, you can get to know this passage better and say, hmm, I probably should mark this and it probably is very remarkable.

So, question one, is God faithful? Now, when you're preaching to people, you have to do more than just explain the passage. It's just not that simple. I'm just going to explain this passage. Here's what it says.

Here's what it means. That's a good class, but it's called Greek exegesis class. It's called exposition, Greek exegesis class of Luke. That's what that's called. But there are people that we're preaching to.

And if you're teaching a Sunday school class, teaching your children, teaching your spouse, you're the dad sitting there or you're at the rest home teaching or home Bible study or preaching from the pulpit, you're going to quickly realize that you've got your notes and you've got the text, but then there are people sitting there listening to you and it should affect you.

You don't exegete the people first, but after your exegesis, you realize I'm preaching to God's people and I'm preaching to people sometimes that aren't even Christians. See last show. And therefore, if you want more like evidence, go to the rest home with your message after you've studied the commentaries and you walk up and you see the people drooling, slunched, eyes closed, many in wheelchairs.

You can tell they're older men. Some of them may be younger, but they've been in an accident and you realize lots of things. Here's what you realize. One, I've got to make this simpler. This can't be some Greek exegesis class about prophetic tenses.

Two, I'm going to have to talk louder. Three, I should probably walk back and forth to keep them more awake. If you don't do any of those three, well, start. Let me give you some law. Start. When people go to the rest home to preach, I would say, well, you just, you can have a three by five card.

That's all you need because you just need to make this simple. Maybe there are some people there that really have their minds and just their bodies are decaying. That's okay. They'll still be glad to hear the good news.

And they'll be glad it's told in such a way that other people can understand it. So you can never go wrong that way. We come to the Bible and we say, oh, there are people here. And so when I look at this passage, I don't just say, I'm just going to tell you the details about what's going on.

I'm going to ask a series of questions to help you think through the lens of Luke one, one to four about beginning certainty so that, you know, all this is true. And so then you can learn about God in the meantime.

So question one is God faithful. That's a good question to ask and to answer. We know the answer. Yes. Verse 57. Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth and she bore a son. Is God faithful? Well, remember Elizabeth is she's past childbearing age.

And if she's past childbearing age, well, then Zachariah certainly must be as well. But Luke one 13 through 15 says, but the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zachariah, for your prayer has been heard and your wife, Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John.

And now what does one 57 say? She bore a son. Hey, we should be reminded in the midst of an unfaithful world where we're unfaithful. Other people are unfaithful. Unfaithfulness could be this, you know, one of the sins of the day, not keeping their word, not keeping my word, not keeping our word.

And God keeps his promise. The angel Gabriel predicted John's birth and God kept his promise. Wow. I like Isaac Watts refrain, happy the man whose hopes rely on Israel's God. He made the sky and earth and seas with all their train, his truth forever stand secure.

He saves the oppressed. He feeds the poor and none shall find his promises vain. How about you? Even the name Zachariah, God has remembered. He, he keeps his promise and whatever that promise is, however small you might be.

I mean, here's Elizabeth and of course the promise then to Mary. God keeps his promise because God is unchanging. That means God keeps his promise to you because he's faithful. Has God ever been unfaithful to you?

Has God ever been unfaithful to you? We know the answer to that question. We sing great is thy what? Faithfulness. Ralph Davis has a great little commentary on Luke. Maybe not like other commentaries, but it's shorter, more succinct, but still with rich things.

And he gives the story of a person in Manhattan in 1874 and a blind woman there in this flat opens the door because someone was knocking at it. Somebody puts in her hand a folded piece of paper and walked out.

It turned out to be money, $10 and she didn't have money to pay the rent. And so she prayed for the Lord to supply her need. And there was the rent later that very day, famous songwriter, blind songwriter, Fannie Crosby writes all the way my savior leads me.

What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt his tender mercy? Who through life has been my guide? For I know whatever befall me, Jesus does all things well. Can't you say that Christian? Of course you can say it.

I mean, maybe with a tear in your eye, maybe through a difficult trial, but you can say that. God, thank you for being faithful to me. Thank you for not one of the good promises, which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed all came to pass Joshua 21.

Not one word failed of all his good promise. First Kings eight. And of course we understand Hebrews chapter 10. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful.

That's why we can respond with holding on. He's faithful. Therefore his promises are always going to come to pass. Like Calvin said, God's always like himself. And so he's always faithful, faithful, faithful, faithful.

Has God ever been unfaithful? Has God ever sinned? Has God ever told a lie? God can't lie. If you look in the future, you'll see a faithful God. You should see by faith. At least if you think about today, God's faithful.

If you think about yesterday, God is faithful. And that's important for people that are less than faithful. Is it not? When you think about Jesus, was Jesus faithful, faithful to love God, faithful to love neighbor?

Of course. Faithful son, faithful savior, great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. God has been faithful. And by the way, he'll be faithful to bring you all the way to glory, dear Christian, because of Jesus.

Is God faithful? See how we read this now? This is not, oh yeah, she bore a son, but we're thinking about why was this written? Why was this written? Well, that's one of the reasons why as we work through this, it was announced and it happened.

God's word is true. Question number two, as we work through a remarkable unmarked passage, maybe that's what I should call it. A remarkable unmarked passage. Question two, what is the response to God's faithfulness?

Question one, what is God's response to faithfulness? What's the response to faithfulness? And I have been saying many times over the years at No Compromise Radio and the pulpit of Bethlehem Bible Church, there's a paradigm, revelation, and then response.

Revelation, response. We sing. We hear the scripture read and we sing a song. We hear more songs sung. Sorry, we have Old Testament reading, response. New Testament reading, response. Preaching, we have to sing a song after the preaching.

I know some people want to have silence after the preaching and you just walk out mulling over the sermon. You can do whatever you want, of course, but I think that revelation response paradigm is important.

Therefore, we sing a hymn after the preaching so we can let out some joy. And then there's the benediction. I guess you could have preaching and a good word called a benediction and that would fit the pattern, but there's revelation and response and God keeps his word.

And what's our response? And the response is found in verse 58 of chapter one in this remarkable unmarked passage. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her and they rejoiced with her.

So, she's rejoicing. They're rejoicing. God magnifies for great mercy toward her. That's really the best way to translate it. The Lord had shown great mercy. That's true. But here it's, he magnified his great mercy, praising God for his faithfulness.

Luke 1, 13 to 15, but the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son. You shall call his name John and you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth.

Neighbors, relatives, they knew how God had been merciful, how he had been kind, how he had magnified his mercy toward her. You even see that later in Luke 1, 50, the same kind of language and his mercy is for those who fear him earlier in Luke 1, 50, from generation to generation.

He was helped to serve in Israel in remembrance of his mercy. And then later, this is what I meant to say later, in Luke 1, 72, to show the mercy promised to our father's entry member, his holy covenant.

And verse 78 of Luke 1, because of the tender mercy of our God. Oh, we're so happy, so thankful. I mean, prayers answered. What's the response to God's faithfulness? Praise. When you know God has done great things for you, then you should have a mouth filled with praise.

And as Psalm 126 says, joyful shouting. Our mouth is filled with laughter. God merciful. She's a mother of this child. The Lord showed great mercy upon her. That's a great way to say it, isn't it? Loving kindness, mercy leads to rejoicing.

And if you think about God's mercy in your life, can't you rejoice as well? Can't you say, God has been so good to me that I want to respond by expressing my praise and my congratulations and my pleasure for what God has done?

The answer is yes. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. Today, we're asking questions of a remarkable unmarked passage in Luke chapter one, verses 56 through 66. Probably one of the things I want to say is don't read your Bible too fast because then you'll miss some of these things.

And don't take any passage for granted. If you teach the Bible, you'll realize, oh, I didn't know if I really wanted to preach that section. I mean, I'd rather do the praise in chapter one, verse 68 and following, but this is wonderful.

God's faithful. What's the response to God's faithfulness? Praise. Question three, is obedience important? Here we go. Here we go in No Compromise Radio. I thought No Compromise Radio talked about assurance so much, the love of God so much, Christ for pardon, Christ for power so much, duplex gratia so much, the covenant of grace, covenant of works, covenant of redemption so much.

I thought then that means with the first use, third use of the law, differentiations, that there's going to be a bunch of antinomian stuff coming out. And that was even in the Twitter thing the other day.

If you keep law and gospel separate, you're an antinomian. Well, I don't even think really people know what antinomian means, but I do know this. The solution for antinomianism is not neonomism, nor is it legalism, nor is it putting people back under the covenant of works if it were possible to do.

That's not the solution. That's not the solution to get people to do good works. There are motivations to do good works. One of them that we consistently talk about here is gratitude. Oh, other people's good.

Yes, that's true. Glory of God. Yes, that's true. But it comes from a motive of gratitude, does it not? Is obedience important? The answer is yes, yes, yes, and yes. Obedience is important for the Christian.

The unbeliever can't obey enough to get into heaven. He has to trust the Lord Christ's obedience. And therefore, obedience to the law is very important. And even Jesus knew that. He wasn't under the law so that he might earn himself something.

He's inherently righteous. He's born of a woman, born under law, Galatians 4, so that he might redeem us. It's for us. Everything he does is to honor the Father, and it's for us. Loving God, loving neighbor, right?

So, is obedience important? The answer has to be yes. Disobedience is sin. Godly living is good. Righteously walking before the Lord is good. Walking with the Lord is good. I'd never say it wasn't. But sometimes people think No Compromise Radio is antinomian because I'm not going to let people, at least under my watch, put the people back underneath, do this and live for their standing before God.

No, that's just not it. Your standing before God is good news. It's union with Christ. It's what God accomplished. And when you look to the Lord Jesus Christ with faith, of course, we know that faith has been granted to us, etc.

God doesn't for us. Yes, I know that. But even the believing isn't meritorious. It's a non-meritorious instrument of receiving the benefits of God, and we respond with faith. And the evidence and fruit of that will be works.

Haven't we said this over and over and over and over again? But when people say, well, you know, you sinned a lot. How can you call yourself a Christian? And you didn't make Jesus Lord of every area of your life.

And therefore, how can you call yourself a Christian? And the list goes on and on and on and on. I think it was Luther who coined antinomianism. And that's when people thought the moral law of God was inapplicable.

The moral law of God is unchanging. It's important. I would never say it's not. And therefore, you ought to fear the Lord as a son or daughter, which motivates you to godly living, Philippians chapter 2.

And just because we say justification, sanctification, and glorification are monergistic, that does not mean there's not a response for each and every Christian out of gratitude to do the things. And even Heidelberg 114, Heidelberg Confession.

I listened to somebody talk about the Heidelberg the other day, and I thought, and they don't even know what they're talking about because they call it a Heidelberg Confession, and now I do it. Oh, it's easy to see the sins of others, is it not?

Scott Clark, please forgive me. The Heidelberg Catechism. I just always write down in my notes, HC. I don't have notes in front of me now to talk about this part. I have other notes. HC. Oh, please, I need to go to the confessional booth.

I think I told you when I was in Rome, I saw the confessional booth, and there's either a red light in there or a green light. If it's green, you can go in and confess. If it's red, somebody's already in there, but it won't take long.

Just give me a few Hail Marys and a few Potter Nosters, and you're okay. Well, my name's Mike Abenroth. This is No Compromise Radio. Is obedience important? Yes, and I never even got to verse 56 and following of Luke chapter one, the remarkable unmarked passage.

You can write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com. Thanks for listening today.