Solus Christus (Part 3)

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 and we are recording shows live again.

We had April, May, June, July, August, how many is that? So April, May, I was in Europe, June, July, August, recovering from prostate brachytherapy radiation, palladium, ouch, that�s a boo -boo, and so now we�re recording shows.

This is my tenth show that I�ve recorded in the last week, trying to get a little ahead.

We may have to start reverting back to Fridays as a rerun, but you�ve had so many reruns and I�m sure you�re dying just to hear what

I think about life and ministry and the Bible, I can�t live without it. I�m sure we�ve lost tons of followers already.

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I think we�re going into our eighth year, then you can let me know, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

If you don�t want it to go on that way, you want it to stop, you�ve probably already stopped listening so you don�t have to email me, but maybe if you have a different idea for a format, where once a week

I talk for, I don�t know, an hour or just whatever. I�ve always stuck to the 24 and a half minutes because we used to be in a local radio station, and actually it�s interesting.

It could have nothing to do with it, but while we were on locally, attendance at the church was up.

And I think what happens is if you listen to Christian Radio and you listen to Alistair Baig and you think, �Wow,

I love that Bible teaching� or John MacArthur or whoever�s on, R .C. Sproul, and you think, �Wow, that�s great, but they�re far away.�

But then there�s somebody else on who�s not as good, but they teach from the same Bible, and you think, �You know what?

I didn�t know they were in town, so maybe we�ll try to go there.� So the problem is if it�s 15 grand a year to be on locally, that�s a lot of money.

So if we get 1 ,000 in per year or 2 ,000 in typically, between 1 ,000 and 2 ,000 in terms of your gifts that come in, then we�re a little short.

So you can give me any ideas. I�m open to any idea at all.

We�ve been talking a lot about Solus Christus. Before we get into that, two quick things, three quick things.

Quick thing number one, we are going to Israel in February, Lord willing, 2018.

Who knows with North Korea and with hurricanes and everything else, but that�s the plan if you�d like to go, Pilgrim Tours, Bethlehem Bible Church, Nowco Radio.

Even if you don�t want to fly out of Boston or Newark, I think we�ll probably go to Newark then to Tel Aviv, you can just catch another flight up to Newark and you�ll meet us all there.

This is probably go every other year, but great time. We know the drivers and the guides and unlike other tours that I�ve hosted,

Israel, we go wherever we want, when we want, and have a lot of fun doing it. My brother will be along with us on the

Bible Church. Second quick thing, I will be in the North Island in New Zealand, end of this

October, and if you�re a New Zealand listener, I�d love to hear from you, Mike at NoCompromisedRadio .com

and would love to see you at the conference. The conference is free, five solos of the Reformation.

And then the third thing is social media, there�s a No Compromise Facebook site and we try to post things there through Hootsuite, just so I don�t have to manage that all day long.

Whatever I post there also goes to Twitter, at NoCoRadio. And then, what else,

No Compromise Radio YouTubes, we�re going to try to put some new ones out here sometime soon, but if you go to YouTube, there�s a bunch of YouTubes there if you�re interested.

Okay, Solus Christus, we are looking for the third time about this doctrine, this solo of the

Reformation, Solus Christus, through Christ alone, that�s the

Latin for through Christ alone. And generally speaking, and specifically here as well, if you say you�re for something,

I�m for Christ alone, that means you�re against any other intruders, interlopers, additions.

You can�t be for something if you�re not against what�s against it.

Maybe you want to minimize the against part, maybe you don�t want to turn yourself into a discernment ministry, discernment, discernment ministry.

What is a discernment ministry anyway? I don�t know what a discernment ministry is, but it�s got a negative connotation, discernment blogs.

Boy, say anything, but don�t call yourself a discernment blog or radio show. By the way, as I�ve said many times on this show, and I think we�re pretty positive on the show these days,

Positive Encouraging Caleb Thursdays, if you only know No Compromise Radio, you probably don�t really know the ministry here.

You probably get to know me because it�s unvarnished and unedited. But Sundays we�re preaching through Hebrews verse by verse, the exalted

Christ, the great high priest, the prophet, priest, and king, Jesus Christ, the eternal

Son. And we do other things, discipleship class. We are now going through Berkhoff, and we have some men that meet, and we�re doing the discipleship class.

We have preaching discipleship classes. This is not all we talk about.

And we talk about a lot of things at the church, and it�s just not No Compromise Radio. But occasionally on NOCO we have to go after some

Tim Keller deal or something like that. That�s the way it goes. And specifically today when it comes to the

Reformation, they were trying to reform the Roman Catholic Church, and the foil is the

Roman Catholic Church. You can�t say in the Reformation, �Solus Christus� without trying to say, you know what?

They believed in other mediators. It was Christ, yes, certainly, but it was

Christ plus the Pope, Pontifus Maximus, Papa, Father, Father Pope, Holy Father.

It was Christ, yes, but not Christ alone because it was Mary, the benefactress.

It sounds like that�s a manufacturing place where you make mattresses or something, or benefit dog food.

I heard that�s bad for your dogs, so I stopped giving that. I give my dogs, I love dogs, but I give the dogs the cheap stuff.

I give them the low -cal stuff because I don�t really like overweight dogs. And I also don�t want to kill the dog though, so I don�t do

Benefil. If you work for Benefil, there�s a true story.

So this last Sunday I�m preaching, I�m talking about bread. Jesus is the bread of life in this metaphor of nourishment and sustenance, playing against manna.

Manna, although given 14 ,600 days, Jesus, he is the ultimate spiritual nourishment, and if you partake of him, if you eat him, then you�ll never have to eat again.

If you believe on him, you will be saved. When you drink this water, John chapter 4, you�ll never thirst again.

We�re not talking about real water or real bread. We are bread. We are persons.

On Sunday, I was talking about Wonder Bread, and I don�t know how I got on the subject of Wonder Bread, but I remember

Bert Evans, current economic issues, 307, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, stinking

Lincoln. He said that Wonder Bread was devoid of any spiritual,

I mean, any sustenance. And he said they had a little chemical that they put in to make it smell fresh.

So I almost said, I hope I�m not offending anybody here that might work at Wonder Bread. I thought it,

I didn�t say it. At the door, we were, I was greeting people, and, you know, it�s a small church here, so I stand at the door, and I don�t stand there for you to say that was a great sermon.

I just stand to greet, and that�s what I�ve always done, and it just seems the right thing to do.

Once in a while, if I have to catch a plane or something, I don�t feel good. I don�t. Or if we have a missionary in town,

I have them stand there. So I don�t do it every single time, but pretty often, some slip by quickly.

The visitors, they run. They don�t know about the back door. They put their head down, and I always interrupt them, intercept them, rather.

I interrupt the person I�m talking to and then intercept them. Oh, we�re good to have you today. And this guy said to me,

I don�t work for Wonder Bread anymore, but I used to. See what happens? That�s exactly what happened.

When it comes to Christ alone, it means not just Jesus. Oh, I believe in Jesus, but I don�t believe in Jesus plus the

Pope, Jesus plus Mary, Jesus plus the benefits of the unbloody sacrifice of the mass, nor do

I believe that it�s Jesus plus the treasury of merit that the saints of the Roman Catholic Church have earned beyond what they need, and now they have a little extra surplus to give to anybody else.

It is Christ alone as mediator. Hebrews 4 .15, 1 John 2, 1 and 2.

You need a mediator. You need an arbiter between God and you. Job knew that that was necessary.

We understand what it�s like to stand in front of a judge and to be our own lawyer. I think pretty much that�s nutso case when you want to be your own lawyer.

I think some place I just watched the other day that some guy was forced to take psychiatric medicine because he was going to be his own defense lawyer, needed to have a right mind.

This is a wacky world we live in, that�s for certain. Okay, John 1 .29,

as I said last time, when it comes to solus Christus, last time it seemed like about 20 minutes ago, there�s a great illustration in John about Jesus as the only mediator.

Now, of course, we could go through the seven I am statements. What are the seven? See if I can remember them. This is not written down.

I am the bread of life, chapter 6. I am the light of the world, chapter 8. I�m the door of the sheep, yeah,

I�m the door, yeah, I�m the door, John 10.

I�m the good shepherd, John 10. I�m the resurrection and the life, John 11. I am the way, the truth, and the life,

John 14. And I am the vine, John 15. That would show how

Jesus alone, solus Christus, is in fact true. But there�s another one, although there could be other ones too, but what

I want to look at today is in John chapter 1, and this is fascinating to say the least.

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, �Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world ,�

John 1 .29. As you know, all the sacrifices of the

Old Testament could never ultimately, finally take care of sin.

We might call them provisional. And here we have the Lamb. We have the

Lamb that John the Baptist sees, and of course we see the Lamb in Revelation chapter 5.

�This is he of whom I said, �After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.

I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.�

And John bore witness, �I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.

I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, �He on whom you see the

Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the

Holy Spirit.� And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God. The next day, again,

John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, �Behold the Lamb of God.�

The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, �What are you seeking ?�

They said to him, �Rabbi ,� which means teacher, �where are you staying ?� He said to them, �Come and you will see.�

So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard

John speak and follow Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother,

Simon, and said to him, �We have found the Messiah ,� which means Christ. He brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, �You are Simon, the son of John. You should be called Cephas ,� which means

Peter. So that's the lead -in to our discussion now about Solus Christus and about Jesus being the advocate, the mediator, the go -between, the arbiter, the official, the umpire, between God and man.

The next day, John 1 .43, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found

Philip and said to him, �Follow me.� I have to stop there for a second, even though this is not part of the main point.

The compelling force of this man, Jesus, of course he was more than man, but he was a man, that's for certain, to go up to Philip and say, �Follow me.�

Where's he going to go? How long will he have to go? What's entailed in this going?

Follow me. It's like Abraham. Go. You know, follow.

As S .O .S. Johnson calls this, these are sealed orders. And in one sense, for us, it's the same thing.

When you become believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, it's like, okay, I have no idea where this is going to lead me, but I know he'll be with me.

Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael, maybe that's

Bartholomew, and said to him, �We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote,

Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.� Here, we found

Jesus. We've got our Bible, the First Testament, we call it the Old Testament, and it's pointing to this

Messiah. It goes way back to Genesis 3, verse 15 in the first gospel, and we see this is the one, the law, yes.

Prophets, yes. Nathanael said to him, �Can anything good come out of Nazareth ?� Philip said to him, �Come and see.�

I mean, that little hick town, Galileans, Jesus, the

Nazarene, this is a term of abasement when you see that regularly. It's like Rahab, the prostitute.

I'm writing that down, just thought of that. John 7, 52, they answered him, �You are not also from Galilee, are you?

Search and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.� We won't say anything about Jonah at the moment, but Crete has got a bad reputation.

Nazareth has a bad reputation. Even if you go there today, it's not the coolest city.

The Messiah is going to come from a bad place. So if you think, okay, where's a rough neighborhood in Boston?

Where's the Messiah going to come from? Well, the rough neighborhood. Jesus saw

Nathanael coming to him and said of him, �Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile.�

Here comes someone who's not going to say, ah, he's from Nazareth, he's a

Galilean, he's such and such. He doesn't have those kind of motives. There's no deceit in this guy.

He's not saying he's perfect, but he's saying he's on the up and up. Now, if you're an

Israelite, you come from Jacob, and as S. Lewis Johnson says, it's as if he were saying, �Behold an

Israelite in whom there is no Jacob.� You know, Jacob's the deceiver. Jacob's got guile.

Jacob's got hypocrisy. Jacob's got fraud. But here's one who was sincere and upright.

Nathanael said to him, �How do you know me ?� Jesus answered and said to him, �Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree,

I saw you.� Hey, what you said of me is true.

You called me out, and how do you know me? What Jesus said about him must have been true, and here

Nathanael recognizes that. Hey, I'm under the fig tree, and you couldn't see me, but you saw me.

Now, what did you do under fig trees? Most likely, if you study rabbinic sources, you will find out that you would study and meditate under fig trees.

I don't know about the fig newtons, but fig trees. And you would often study biblical things and meditate under fig trees.

Shady. You can pray there. You can think. You have your little devotions.

Where do you have your devotions? Under the fig trees. Wonder what he was reading.

Well, Jesus knows what he was reading. Jesus not only knew what his name was, where he was from, that he had no guile, that he was under a fig tree, he was studying the

Bible, but he knew what he was studying. Sometimes if I see people at Starbucks or Pete's or something like that, you know, it's a

Sunday or something, I go, oh, they've kind of, it doesn't happen here in New England, believe me. It does, but I don't see it.

But in California, I regularly see people, especially at the Scotts Valley Pete's right there. I'll see people with their

Bibles open. But I can't see what they're reading. I can see the Bible and think, okay, it's three quarters of the way open.

That must be Zephaniah. Jesus, without using his eyes, he can see this man under a fig tree studying the

Bible. That's, that's, it has to be what's happening. Say, how do you know that?

Because of what Jesus is going to say. Jesus is going to talk about a specific incident to Nathanael that will tie in more than just that you have no guile, you're under a fig tree.

They're greater things than, hey, under the fig tree. And he was studying

Genesis 28. And here's what Genesis 28 says.

Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. That's 28 .10. It's a long journey, 400, 500 miles.

You come to sleep. Maybe you've gone 50 miles, second day, and you're laying there.

You're a mama's boy. Maybe you're thinking about how you've just deceived your dad. Came to a certain place, a providential place, perfect place.

Stayed there that night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he had put it under his head and laid down in that place to sleep.

Chapter 28, verse 19 says it's Bethel, by the way. He spends the night there. Stone pillow, right?

A stone pillow. There's lots of rocks there. Somebody said it'd be hard to sleep, put your head down in a place where there wasn't a stone.

And he dreamed and behold, and there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

And behold, that's the third behold there. And behold, the Lord Yahweh stood above it and said,

I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham, your father, the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie, I will give to you and your offspring.

There's a ladder set up. That was a translation of the King James. It's stairway. It means, you know, like a temple tower, ziggurat kind of stairway ramp that goes up a flight of steps.

It's hard to see angels. Not many people see angels. And he, Jacob, sees a great host of angels.

That's amazing. Is God with me? I have to go do all these things.

Here, God says, I am Yahweh and I am going to be with you.

Well, we can study more about ladders and the symbolic meanings that that has.

Here, God is talking above the ladder and it says the stairway, I'm the Lord and I'm going to give you this land to you and your descendants.

And they're going to be like the dust of the earth spread out all over. Jacob deceived his father to get the blessing and then now gives him,

God gives him the real blessing. So, Jacob wakes, says the

Lord's in this place. And he calls it the gate of heaven where there's

God and man access. Now, back to John chapter 1. How do you know me?

Jesus answered and said to him before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

Rabbi, you're the son of God. You are the king of Israel. You're my king.

I'm an Israelite. You're my king. You're God. And here, what happens?

Jesus answered and said to him verse 50, because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe you shall see greater things than this?

You've been meditating on the ladder that goes between earth and heaven in Genesis chapter 28.

Guess what? I'm the ladder. Not the latter, but the ladder.

I'm the door. Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see the heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man.

Who's in the middle? It's not some ladder anymore in Jacob's dream. The access between God and man is the son of man,

Jesus. Communication between heaven and earth, Jesus. Link between heaven and earth,

Jesus. No one has gone into heaven except one who's come from heaven, son of man.

So what about mediators? What about Christ plus other people? Christ is the only one.

He's the only one that has the mediatorial role, because he's not only God, but he's also man.

So my name is Mike Ebendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. We have Solus Christus, parts one, two, and now today, part three.

If you'd like some notes on this or something to study more about it, you can certainly write me,

Mike at No Compromise Radio, and I will help you in any way I can. Maybe you've got somebody struggling with cancer or prostate cancer.

If you're over 50, by the way, you should get a PSA test if you're male. Anyway, I could help you. God bless you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth 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.

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